Students were greeted by the sound of Bollywood music, the smell of fine Indian cuisine and vibrant Indian décor when they arrived at the Indo-Pak charity dinner at Davis Hall on Abbot Campus. Waiters and waitresses were uniformly clad in black and were draped in fancy scarves called chunni. To further add to the exotic ambiance, twin elephant statues were displayed underneath the elegantly hung Indian and Pakistani flags. The flags were further accentuated by the beautiful arrangement of saris, or long, multicolored strips of unstitched cloth. This sharing of culture was quite an accomplishment, and it was clear that a lot of time and effort had been put in toward planning the eighth annual Indo-Pak Charity Dinner. This event, which is hosted by Indo-Pak every year, was a three-course traditional Indian dinner, in which dishes such as chicken tikka masala, pankoras and mutter paneer were served. Students were also presented with an assortment of traditional Indian entertainment. All the proceeds of the evening were donated to a charitable cause in India. Arun Saigal ’09 said, “Indo-Pak’s goal is to spread cultural awareness of South Asian countries and host fun events for all. And of course, we want to help those in need. This certainly helped Indo-Pak spread culture, and at the same time, it allowed us to help those in need. One-hundred percent of the profits from the dinner go to charity every year. This year, we raised over $1600, which may be the most we have ever raised.” One of the co-heads of Indo-Pak, Rajit Malhotra ’08, said, “As far as the dinner itself went, it was a big change for Indo-Pak and a bit of an experiment. We had never had the charity dinner on Abbot campus and were unsure how the turnout would be considering some students may not like to walk all the way up to Abbot in the cold weather. However, it was a full house and we had over 120 people attend, including faculty, students and some day student parents.” However, the location was not the only experimental aspect of the annual event. This year was the very first time that Indo-Pak had decided to provide live entertainment throughout the evening for its guests. In between courses, student members of Indo-Pak performed two traditional Indian pieces. The first performance consisted of Faiyad Ahmad ’10 on the sarod (an ancient stringed instrument), Rajit Malhotra ’08 and Rohan Malhotra ’11 on the tabla (a popular Indian percussion instrument) and Arun Saigal ’09 on the mridangam (a South Indian double-headed drum). They played a seven-minute piece with various solos by each instrument. This act was followed by another between the serving of the main course and the dessert, in which Gauri Thaker ’10, Ramya Prathuri ’10, Shefali Lohia ’10 and Kiran Gill ’11 performed an intricate Bollywood dance. “I enjoyed the dancing by Ramya, Shefali, Gauri and Kiran the most. They were amazing, and after cleanup, they taught the rest of the club how do to parts of it,” said Sophia Jia ’10. Overall, the excellent blend of rich Southeast Asian culture, gourmet Indian dining and tasteful furnishings and ambiance made the evening a huge success.
