It was a night of colorful costumes, tuneful songs, exhilarating dances, thoughtful poems and satirical plays - all presented at a consistently high quality level. It was Ghungroo, a south Asian variety cultural show by Harvard students. The event took place during the weekend of Feb 27- mar 1. Four sold-out shows were held at Agassiz Theater at Harvard. Over 150 students took part in this program.

The program I attended was the Saturday matinee show. After a brief introduction by the organizers of the show, it got off to a good start with a classical solo dance program. This was followed by a tabla Jughalbandhi, which got the audience cheering and applauding the interplay between the two tabla players. A variety of folk dance numbers followed, representing various faces of India.

There was a Bhangra dance, of course. Bhangra, it appears, has become the quintessential symbol of South Asian culture – sort of South Asian disco dance and seems to connect with the audience, especially the youth and the youthful, with its infectious beats and high-energy athletic dance movements. The Bhangra dance at Ghungroo was right on target and delivered in style. In addition, there was a Dhandia Raas, with boys and girls performing with sticks. It combined traditional steps with modern choreography. There was a bollywood style dance, which asks the eternal question – does the boy get the girl and vice versa. There was an Indo-western fusion dance number featuring old and new Hindi songs as well as western pop numbers. There was a striking Telugu folk dance combining classical and folk styles, celebrating rainfall. In all these cases, the costumes were excellent, the choreography was imaginative and the presentation was of high quality. Unbeatable combination indeed!

The classical dance numbers were done with style and grace. Different regions of India were represented – polished solo performers performed Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Tarana style.
There was poetry reading. What would Harvard be without some poetry reading? There were excellent poetry recitals in Tamil, Hindi and Bengali.

There was plenty of music to be enjoyed – from the presentation of the old Hindi song `Reshmi salwaar Kurta’ in fusion style to a rousing Qawaali ‘ Mera Piya Ghar Aaya’ sung by approximately thirty students that had the audience in frenzy and on their feet clapping.
To me, one of the highlights of these college programs is the way in which our sons and daughters who attend these colleges tell us what they REALLY think of us the parents and our values – in the form of skits and comedy routines. Ghungroo came through in style, in this regard. There were a number of brief humorous skits that had me laughing uproariously. One routine had two middle-aged Indian gentlemen after a meal in a restaurant; get into a game of `typical’ one-upmanship on who is going to pay the bill. They end up wrestling with each other on the floor! There was a routine in which the Indian mother phones her reluctant son in the college dorm repeatedly and asking him the same questions over and over about food, clothes and studies and not really paying attention to any of his replies, which get increasingly bizarre over time! There was a hilarious take off on `Joe Millionaire’- except that this one was set in India and the eligible bachelor was not a fake millionaire, but a fake doctor! (He reveals his true identity to the chosen the girl at the end `I am not even a dentist’). In one of the skits, I also found out what M. Night Syamalan really wanted to be! He wanted to fulfill his life long dream to be a Doctor, but his dad forced him to get into a `respectable’ profession like movie making!

There was an outstanding solo monologue about dealing with cultural stereotypes in the professional world, in this case, in Hollywood.

The piece de resistance was a lengthy play `Baseball Yogis’. It was about Boston Red Sox baseball team hiring four Indian Yogis to beat New York Yankees in a play-off game! The inevitable culture clash that follows was predicable and was fun to watch. Imagine four Indian yogis wearing dhotis playing baseball with a cricket bat! The yogis turn out to be savvier than expected and eventually, they pick up on the nuances of American pop culture and before you know it, one of the yogis is a stand up comedian in a nightclub! Although the play was a bit long, it delivered many laughs and kept the audience engaged.

In conclusion, the show was an unqualified success. It was truly south Asian – representing various aspects of the complex region and its culture, from the sublime to the ridiculous. It was good to see a number of students, not of South Asian origin, participate in various dance routines and in plays. As much as anything else, that alone signified the success of the program. My congratulations to the organizers of the show and the participants.

Finally, if this is how our sons and daughters think of India and its culture, I believe Indian culture is in good hands.

M. Ramakrishnan resides in Northboro, MA and contributes occasionally to Lokvani. His daughter Jyothi, a freshman at Harvard, played the role of the pestering Indian mother in one of the skits and took part in the Qawaali song.

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