SASA Shares Diwali with Parker

This past week, the South Asian Student Alliance brought Diwali to center stage in an informative and exciting Morning Ex and fun nighttime celebration.

Audience members entered the Heller Auditorium to the sounds and sights of several Bollywood clips and music. Next, the screens transitioned to a video SASA created with themselves and their family members explaining what Diwali means to them and why they love it so much. Then SASA Heads and senior Ayan Chawla 27, Sonali Herwick 27 and Raiva Lessing, and junior Sloane Trukenbrod officially opened the Morning Ex and were soon joined by other SASA members to explain more about Diwali with help from the book Diwali A Festival of Lights by Anita Yasuda.

Finally, SASA Advisor and Science teacher George Austin introduced Mandala South Asian Performing Arts Associate Artistic Director Raji Venkat, who treated the group to the Indian classical dance form known as Bharatanatyam. Not only did she perform for the audience, but she also brought SASA and some lucky members of the audience onto the stage to model and learn these dance moves. Mandala Arts was founded by Parker parent emerita Pranita Nayar, whose daughter, Armani Jain, graduated from Parker in 2013.

In addition to this Morning Ex, the South Asian Parents/Guardians Affinity Group, in collaboration with the South Asian Student Association, also hosted a celebration on Thursday night. Parents catered food from Gaylord restaurant and put up festive decorations to transform the cafeteria. They also arranged craft tables for folks to create art and provided bindhi’s, bangles, and incense sticks to include as take home gifts. The SASA Heads served as the MC’s for the evening and Shriya Chaudhari was able to do henna tattoos for those in attendance. SASA Heads also organized a Fashion Show performed by our LS, IS, and MS students. The evening culminated with dance performances by the Meher Dance Company who also taught dance moves to the audience to participate. The performers were: Gopi Engineer, Audrey Hartnett, Brady Neher, and Anisha Mahida.

Parker thanks everyone for organizing such a delightful series of events!

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