MIT’s graduate student association Sangam, held its annual Diwali night on Oct. 31, 2010 at the Kresge Auditorium in MIT.  Delightful dinner, Rangoli and Orgami competitions and a wonderful talent show made the evening quite enjoyable.

The talent show was a combination of the classical and contemporary. Undergraduates, graduate students and outside groups were featured in the talent showcase.  The event opened with a Saraswathi Vandana. MIT Natya, MIT’s classical dance group presented a wonderful Todaya Mangalam. The piece was Nritta intensive and was executed precisely by the very well trained dancers.  The creative formations that have been hallmark of college classical dance presentation were a visual delight.

Angelica, a belly dancer presented a solo dance with a sword and a veil. Her innovative presentation was set to Indian Classical music. Her troupe Marjani presented a few bollywood numbers MIT Chamak , MIT’s fusion dance team presented a contemporary number in their hallmark style which combines Jazz, Hiphop and a Bollywood style of Indian classical dance.  Amongst the great variety of dance presentation one also got to see a very traditional high energy Lavani beautifully executed, a fabulous Chinese Ribbon dance to a Bollywood tune and a Bhangara presentation by MIT Bhangara.

The musical segment included several solos including Paheli Zindagani. Atulya, a brilliant pianist accompanied many performances.  MIT Swara the Classical music team at MIT presented Thyagaraja’s Sadhinchane. It was a delight to watch an orchestration version of the piece featuring two Mridangists, a Kanjira player, a violinist and nearly ten singers performing in unison.  The newly formed MIT Ohms, MIT’s fusion Acappella group performed a lovely arrangement of Lady Gaga’s Just Dance combined with Dance Pe Chance and Jay Shan’s Down  combined with Chale Jaise Hawaein.

A wonderful highlight of the evening was the poetry reading of Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s Rashmirathi with a background powerpoint displaying scenes from the Mahabharata.

Deepti Nijhawan , coordinator of MIT India program was the chief guest for the evening who gave out the prizes for the competitions. Ankur Sinha , an MIT Alum gave away three awards of $100, two for the best acts of the evening and for community service. MIT Natya and MIT  Swara won the prizes for being the best acts of the evening and the President of Sangam received the award for community service.

All the team members came together for the rendition of Mile Sur Hamara Tumhara and brought the evening to a close.

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