Seven audience members stepped onstage during last Friday’s Diwali-Eid show to flaunt their Indian accents for the Accent Contest, and by the end of the night, the winner received a Bollywood Grill gift certificate. This, along with dancing, music, a fashion show and Indian food drew in a huge turnout for the event, organized by Indo-Pak. The menu, a combination of home-cooked food and Bollywood grill donations, consisted of rice, naan, aloo, samosa, chicken tikka masala and gulab jamun. Although the quality of the food was excellent, it sold out within 15 minutes. Each plate cost $5, and proceeds will go a charity that is yet to be decided. Many people were left without food, and some students ran to Ryley Room for dinner. Siobhan Alexander ’08 said, “I was so disappointed! I had been craving Indian food for a week, and it looked really good.” Kemper Auditorium was opened up for the Diwali-Eid show after dinner. Although most of the planning happened outside of club meetings, many members of Indo-Pak collaborated to put the show together. Co-head of Indo-Pak Rajit Malhotra ’08 said, “The show could not have taken place without the efforts and contributions of all of the club members. Each act practiced quite often. The dress rehearsal for the show was over three hours long, and we addressed a lot of the issues then.” Faiyad Ahmad ’10, Aditya Mithal ’10 and Arun Saigal ’09 were the show’s emcees this year. The trio kept the atmosphere entertaining, often poking fun at themselves and each other about their lack of dancing and singing skills. Chase Ebert ’09 said, “I think the show was a great success, even better than past experiences. I feel like there was great chemistry between this year’s emcees. They were relaxed and having a good time and, because of that, the audience was too.” Although unplanned, many of the show’s acts had a common thread: the merging of American and Indian culture. The dance group Indofusion danced in a myriad of traditional Indian and American contemporary styles to Indian music mixed with Usher, Jay-Z and Soulja Boy. Malhotra said, “The unifying thread was definitely spontaneous. We didn’t really come up with the idea, it just seemed to manifest itself on its own…I feel like students in charge of each act decided on these things because in general, a combination between the two cultures seems to have a larger impact since students can relate to the performance more. Without Soulja Boy or a Bhangra ‘Yeah’ remix, the audience would be completely lost.” The show featured seven acts including several dance numbers, several music numbers, an accent contest, the fashion show and a movie. Alexa Rahman ’08 began the show with an explanation of Eid, a Muslim holiday which marks the end of Ramadan. Rohini Swamy ’08 followed up with an explanation of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. After some classical Indian music and the performance by dance group, Indofusion, Saigal, Ahmad and Mithal introduced a movie made with the help of Andover Moviemakers’ Society about assimilation. The movie followed Krishan Chandra ’10 on his quest to fit in. After experiencing everything from rock musicians to preppy girls, Chandra finally found out what “going brown” could do for him. More than 15 groups of Phillips Academy students modeled in the fashion show before the evening closed with comments from Malhotra and Farah Dahya ’08, co-heads of Indo-Pak. Tiffany Li ’09 said, “I absolutely loved the Diwali-Eid show! It was such an entertaining mix of Indian and modern Indian-American culture. It was refreshing to see that they were willing to poke fun at themselves, with the video about assimilation and the traditional Indian Accent Contest. It was also a great chance to see displays of talent…that you would never see otherwise.” Malhotra said, “The dinner and show were very successful, both on their own and comparatively to other years. The dinner was completely sold out and the show was packed with people. There were no more seats available and people had to stand up or sit on the floor in order to watch the show.”
