The Student Activities Center, or SAC, was once again alive with color and music as the SBU Hindu Students Council, or HSC, and the Sikh Student Association, or SSA, hosted a collaborative Diwali 2011 celebration in the SAC ballroom this past weekend. The sold-out event included 224 students and families from a variety of cultural backgrounds coming together to celebrate the same holiday in their own unique ways.
Diwali is celebrated all over India for different cultural reasons. For Hindus, the “festival of lights” is a five-day celebration; oil lamps are lit to signify the triumph of good over evil, and families come together to participate in traditional activities and tell stories. For Sikhs, Diwali is a celebration of the freedom of the Sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind Ji, and 52 princes from imprisonment on October 1619. The celebration includes fireworks, lighting oil lamps and celebrating with family.
“We wanted to create a unity between the campus [and] South Asian communities,” said Manvir Singh, sophomore and president of SSA. “We felt that if we combined [HSC and SSA] efforts together in one event, it would help us learn about each other.”
Although slightly more sedated than HSC’s Garba festival, Diwali 2011 offered a unique cultural experience in which educating the audience was the primary goal. Both the HSC and SSA provided short video presentations on their own meanings of Diwali, emphasizing both cultural differences and similarities. Refreshments and tradition food were served later on in the evening, catered by Diya Lounge. Students in jeans and T-shirts joined the sparkling saris and costumes on a kaleidoscopic dance floor, laughing and clapping loudly.
Clad in a traditional dance costume, Kirti Parmar, a junior and member of HSC, performed Bharata Natyam, a classical Indian dance that she dedicated to the goddess Laxshmi, to open the festivities. The purpose of the dance was to bless those present with good health, wealth, prosperity, knowledge, wisdom, strength and power.
The newly formed musical group Yuva continued the celebration with an Indian a cappella arrangement. Senior and President of Yuva, Pirtya Chugh, says the 14-member group became official this semester. Chugh said members do not need a strong musical background and that “we do it for fun.” Yuva sang at an event for Operation Smile as well as Diwali 2011, with future appearances already being scheduled.
Thillana, the 12-member South Asian fusion dance troupe, danced to a mix of classical Indian music and bhangra, delighting the audience with a dash of the familiar Super Mario and Harry Potter themes. For seven years, the dance troop has been performing, combining hip-hop, contemporary dance, Bhangra, and Bharata Natyam. vice president, junior and three-year member of Thillana, Maria Nomani said that the group tries to be different and incorporate meaningful concepts into their performances.
Stony Brook’s premier Indian a cappella group, DeTaali, also gave the crowd a taste of “Hindi music — with a touch of everything else.”
Created by senior and president, Shruti Tarigoppula in Spring 2010, DeTaali “represents diversity, promotes uniqueness, and strives to spread Southeast Asian culture through self-created musical arrangements.” The 17-member group performed several songs with a special arrangement created by the newest members.
Diwali 2011 required the close and constant cooperation and organization of both HSC and SSA. Vishnu Rajan, senior and president of HSC, said the event took two months of planning with combined meetings between the clubs.
“The fact that we worked so well together opens up more [chances] to put other events together, not just [Diwali] but bigger events,” Rajan said.