At UCLA Anderson School of Business the South Indian Business Association (SABA) organizes a Diwali celebration hosted by a different Professor every year. The event brings together faculty, MBA’s, FEMBA’s, EMBAs, and Exchange students of South Asian origin. The Diwali event is closely followed by International Beer Bust, an event where SABA members put up an India stall.

This year, over 150 people attended the SABA Diwali, an improvement over previous years as the number of students of South-Asian origin at Anderson has been increasing. “Namashkar!” read the invite for the Diwali festivities on Nov 14 from Professor Uday Karmarkar, Times Mirror Chair in Management & Policy, and his wife Reeta. The gracious host and hostess set the tone for the evening with their traditional Indian silk kurta-pajama and saree attire. The house was decorated in classic style with strings of lights and flower garlands in ochre-and-red. The menu was delectable samosas, chutneys, pakodas, tandoori, and milk-based sweets. Full-time, part-time, executive, and exchange MBA students, faculty, and families attended the mingling and dining event.

  At the international event on Nov 18, SABA featured its “Tikka Station” stall prominently displaying a large Indian flag. The menu of vegetable samosas for veggie aficionados, and chicken tikkas and shami kababs for non-vegetarians, was wildly successful. But what brought the house down was an energetic bhangra performance by a team of 1st and 2nd year MBAs, followed by an on-the-spot bhangra dance lesson organized by SABA President Tania Kapoor, MBA ’05. With an overwhelming response from the non-Indian community joining into the bhangra beats, this first Diwali away from home for many students at Anderson concluded as a warm welcome into their new community.

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