Cultural Festival

So I promised details on the cultural festival, but then I wasn't going to give them because the event was kind of a flop. However, a good friend and fellow blogger encouraged me to write something about it, so here it goes.

The main downfall of the event was that it was poorly organized. It was designed around many competitions like henna designs, tattoos and hair. However, it took place in an outside auditorium with an audience looking on to a stage. The organizers understood that it would be really boring to watch people from afar apply henna, draw tattoos or do their hair for 20 minutes. In order to side step this problem, they decided to have the competitors work backstage, and provide alternate entertainment for the audience to kill time until the competition could be judged. This entertainment came in the form of round after round of musical chairs with ten people going each time.

Now it's been a long time since I played musical chairs, so I can't say with certainty that students at Kiit campus have more intense rules than we do in the States, but I can be sure that they monitor the rules with more rigor. Three people were policing the event, and people were eliminated for touching chairs and running in the wrong direction. After the fifth round or so, I couldn't take it anymore and didn't stick around for the results of the competition.

To be fair, the event started off decently. The MC, who talked a little bit longer than necessary, called people out from the audience to sing traditional Oriya songs. This was followed up by a dance performance that included several female students. The MC then gave a really nice speech about community and the students who contributed to the cultural night. He then asked for all of the international students - the new members of the community - to come to the stage and share a little bit about their cultural festivals.

At this point, I began looking around to see if the other international students would stand up and get on stage. But then as I scanned the audience, looking from one Indian face to another, I realized they were talking specifically about us.

Lisa and I refused to go up by ourselves, so Deepika and Saryu joined us. A microphone was shoved in my hand, and my mind instantly went blank. What on earth could I say about American culture and the festivals that we have to a group of Indian graduate students? I said my name and where I was from and stammered something about how I didn't know what to say. Then I quickly passed the mic onto Lisa.

At this point, Lisa transformed into a Miss Universe contestant. She talked brightly about how she was from Austria and how the film _The Sound of Music_ was set there and showed her culture (which, by the way, is a film she has never seen). She then kicked off her shoes and announced that she would perform an Austrian dance. And the next thing I knew, she was doing a little Austrian jig to Bollywood music. Unbelievable.