MIT South Asian American Students hosted the Seventh Bhangra Blast at the Boston Symphony Hall on October 29, 2004.  With more than 2500 people in attendance, it was what is promised to be. With eight teams from Siena College, Tufts University, University of British Columbia (UBC), Harvard University, Cornell University, Northeastern University, University of California Riverside and MIT competing in this year’s competition, it kept every member of the audience on its toes.

Bhangra is a high tempo dance and it requires a high degree of skill and athleticism, both are which are reflected in the complexity, precision and style of the dancers.  Each team danced with grace and enthusiasm, but in the end just like ice skating, the ones which made no mistakes, took home the trophies. The only all girls team from UBC came in first and took home a grand prize of $3,000 and the title of Bhangra Blast Champions. Even though there were supposed to be 12 members (M. Patrola, K. Mander, M. Garcha, H. Bassra, C. Khaira, A. Toor, S. Panesar, B, Mandar, K. Hans and S. Jassal) in the team, only eight could make it do to an accident that the team encountered earlier in the week. They were very energetic, sang live on stage and had complex stunt movements. Tufts University came in second. The team consisted of S. Bains, J. Forman, S. Puri, V. Subramanian, A. Verma, M. Bolourchi, A. Chahal, D. Darrell, S. Deshmukh, D. Grant, J. Lopez, N. Nathan, A. Prasad, R. Punjabi and A. Shah. They had excellent formations and superb coordination. Northeastern University with B. Sethi, S. Randev, D. Cadet, C. Patel, V. Sharma, I. Singh, M. Sethi, P. Desai, T. Dala, S. Ajmera, A. Randhawa, S. Mirza, V. Sharma and A. Patel placed third. The group danced to live dhols and was full of energy and expressions.

The other teams form Siena College (A. Pudusseri , R . Paul, A. Ahmed, J. Avila, M. Ferrante, A. Mastroianni, S. Langer, P. Patel, A. Mathew, J. Jose, R. George, H. Baxi, S. Mirza and P. Farley), Harvard University (S. Komatireddy, A. Balakrishnan, M. Soni, P. Thiara, A. Gupta, N. Aggrawal, S. Karamchandani, V. Goela, R. Bibao-Bastida, D. Anderson, C. Ding, A. Deb, D. Malik, G. Datar and L. Sidhu) and MIT (P. Mishra, R. Dhanani, P. Agrawal, S. Browarek, K. Dilwali, P. Dilwali, N. Deo, T. Eng, R. Ganguly, H. Gill, R. Gupta, S. Kendale, P. Mishra, B. Mitchell, S. Patel, P. Shah and S. Sinha) kept the audience on its toes. Finally the other two teams from out of state Cornell University (M. Gupta, A. Bapat, N. Shanbhag, P. Panda, P. Selvam, P. Giri, A. Koul. R. Gupta, S. Singh, S. Malkana, P. Das, S. Sabharwal, G. Prasad, S. Balakian, G. Singh, A. Newhouse, H. Nyalakonda and S. Stainton) with live dhol and UC Riverside (A. Singh, A. Bhatti, A. Singh, S. Gill, N. Gupta, G. Sethi, B. Goindi, P. Arora, P. Bhangu, M. Gordillo and A. Lal) with great opening scene would have given the winners a run for their money had it not been for the minor falls.

Biram Singh, from New York City, sang a few great Punjabi songs and kept the audience dancing. The emcees for the program were Shilpa Joshi and Eric. Leena Shastri talked about the non-profit organization Samuha and its mission to help children with locomotive disabilities in India. Amit Gupta and Mayur Desai, Bhangra Blast 2004 coordinated the entire team of volunteers and the MIT SAAS Board, and brought an unforgettable night to Boston.

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