With India winning the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 yesterday, it signified another thing in addition to an attestation of our skilled players. It signified bringing the groups of Indians, spread across all corners of the world, together in celebration. This included the small although-not-that-small Indian students community at Georgia Tech that I'm a proud part of. Thats the magic of cricket! But let me talk about one more equally magical phenomenon that manages a similar feat to a good extent - Indian Culture+Bollywood!!
Which "naujawaan" Indian true to his/her salt does not feel like breaking a leg at our Bollywood dance songs?! Or any hip-hop songs for that matter? Add to it the cultural annual event - Holi - in all its vibrancy of colors and juvenile mischief, and we've got the perfect occasion to make it into a full-blown show! This is exactly what I was lucky to be part of last Spring (2010). Its called the GT Holi Show, coined "Sapne Rangeen" last time, (this year's event is named "Rang De") and is organized by the India Club at Georgia Tech (ICGT). It is a Georgia wide event where Indian dance teams from multiple universities e.g. GT, Georgia State, Emory, UGA and even private academies participate - e.g. Kruti Dance Academy (who were also featured in America's Got Talent!)
You can also catch a glimpse of one of the performances by a group called "Paheli" below:
Me and my friends were team 'Jhankaar'- the sole graduate student group among primarily undergraduate groups, who came VERY close to professional-level perfection! (In my defense, unlike us, they've got all the time in the world to rehearse! :P) After our seniors floating the idea of keeping this tradition live this year, we juniors were on. We decided to perform on some Bollywood masala hits as a variety from the classical - Bharatnatyam, Kathhak and folk dances - Bhangra(USA and no Bhangra? Impossible!) and Garba by the other groups.
Squeezing rehearsals in between tight workloads consisting of project submissions and exams was painful; and with vastly differing schedules among us, co-ordination became the no.1 task above actual dance choreography. But rehearsing in the studios available on campus with those wall-high mirrors used to be an absolute delight! Yes it gave us sore thighs and calves the next morning but heck, the fun was much more. I made some really good friends through our team and got a lot closer to the existing ones; so if the previous sem was academically great, this semester was more kickass in terms of friendships and college participation.
This post is dedicated to all my Jhankaar friends - Anuja, Amruta, Madhura, Shreyas, Chinmay, Kunal, Anushree, Vinesh, Nilesh and Reema - you made that time at Gatech very special \m/
I regret that a maddening workload this semester prohibited me from participating again this Spring since most of our group members graduated and the juniors are too nerdy to bother :P I hope the tradition survives next year and that some grad students are able to take a little time out of work to step up and...shake a leg bro!
P.S. this experience also revived old memories from VJTI days - Annie, Ashwin, Gul, Nik, Rahul, Binu, Pranay... hope u guys miss those days as much as I do :)
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