The classical Bharatnatyam dance is an intricate Hindu dance that begins with worshiping Lord Ganesha. KATIE ROUPE | DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: Jason Hall

Strings of lights illuminated the sidewalk leading into the Michael Schwartz Center Friday night for the Indian Student Organization’s Diwali celebration.

More than 300 people attended the performances of songs and dances from Bollywood movies, Indian pop culture and traditional Indian dances. Diwali is the celebration of Lord Rama, one of the reincarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu, returning home after a victory over the demon Ravana. The holiday was at the end of October.

The first dance of the night, the Bharatnatyam, featured physiology graduate student Praveena Thiagarajan dancing alone. The dance started off by paying respects to the Lord Ganesha, explained Ashish Patel, master of ceremonies and senior business management major.

The dance began as a slow step, which made the bells on Thiagarajan’s ankles ring. Toward the middle, the song became faster, and Thiagarajan posed and moved her hands with the rhythm.

One of the Bollywood dances featured Gauri Dharmadhikari, business administration graduate student, dancing while Patel and junior chemistry major Samit Datta watched her. In one part, Datta stood to dance with Dharmadhikari, but she threw him to the floor. Dharmadhikari then danced with both men. The dance ended with Patel being knocked to the floor and dragged off stage.

Aditya Prahalad, Indian Student Organization president and graduate student in computer science, said they used the Bollywood dances because Indian culture can be shown best through the film industry.

“We wanted to intermingle Bollywood with traditional Indian culture because we wanted to show how diverse India is,” Prahalad said.

Krittika Chatterjee, who both danced and sang in the performance, said a lot of work went into the event, especially in the week before.

“The last week we were up to two or three in the morning everyday practicing,” said Chatterjee, sophomore broadcast journalism major. “It was crazy.”

Junior integrated life sciences major Melissa Huang said she enjoyed the performance.

“It was really entertaining and educational. Their hard work shows off.”

Chatterjee said the size of the audience surprised everyone.

“We didn’t expect 300 people,” Chatterjee said.

The celebration continued with a dinner of punjabi dal makhani, peas pulao, paneer masala, butter chicken, naan, mango pickle and gulab jamun on the second floor of the Student Center. Prahalad said the ISO members put in extra work because of the amount of tickets sold.

“It took almost four or five hours to cook three dishes,” Prahalad said.

The night ended with a dance. Prahalad said this was to reunite the members of the old Indian Student Association, which he said dissolved in 2005, with the members of the new Indian Student Organization.

“It was one day of remembrance, not only for present students, but for students who graduated,” Prahalad said.

Prahalad said the Diwali celebration was a comeback for the Indian Student Organization.

“We wanted to do something big, something to remind people that we do exist,” Prahalad said. “We wanted that prominence to be there, and I think we did that.”

Contact religion reporter April Samuelson at [email protected].