Rahil Merchant waited nervously for his turn on stage Friday at Wharton Center. Clad in a long, gray tunic and bright scarf, Merchant was about to take part in the fashion-show segment of the Coalition of Indian Undergraduate Students' Satrang 2005.
The event is the coalition's annual cultural show that featured dances and music from across India. The fashion performance showcased traditional and modern clothing.
Merchant said the coalition holds the event each year to share Indian traditions.
"It's to increase awareness about Indian culture," said Merchant, a hospitality business sophomore. "It helps teach us about our own culture as well."
Merchant's family originally came from Mumbai, which used to be known as Bombay, and Satrang has taught him cultural traditions from other parts of the subcontinent.
"When I first came here, I thought there was only one kind of Indian," Merchant said. "There are different subcultures, different languages and different styles of music I was exposed to. Some of the music I had never heard before - it sounded Indian, but not the Indian I was used to."
Satrang helped kick off the annual India Week, which is a festival of events celebrating Indian culture and heritage on campus and in the Lansing area.
This year's Satrang was titled "Taal," which means beat or rhythm. Coalition President Sushma Lohitsa said the theme was important because the rhythm of India is what binds the people to the country.
"It is the heart of India," Lohitsa, an education senior said. "It is in our words, our laughter. It is in the sounds of the housekeepers and wives going about their daily chores, what the fathers sing when putting their children to bed."
She said when you travel in India you can feel the individual rhythm of a town or region.
"You feel it when you're born and will hear it until your last seconds on Earth," Lohitsa said.
The show began with the singing of both the U.S. and Indian national anthems.
After an introduction by the members of the coalition's executive board, the group played a video it made called "The Apprentice: Desi Edition." In the video, board members played the parts of Indians born in America and Indian-born contestants vying for the favor of a billionaire. The skit poked fun at some of the ways each group misunderstands each other.
Dancers then came on stage in a wide variety of brilliant colors and flashing costumes as light glittered off jewels on their foreheads, earrings and necklaces. While dancers twirled to traditional beats, the crowd roared.
Every dance was met with huge rounds of applause from an audience of about 2,000 people who shouted encouragement to the dancers while swaying and clapping in their seats.
After her performance in the "Tribal" dance, prenursing junior Hetal Sharma unwound in the Great Hall's green room. She said the event was exciting, but she was glad to be off stage.
"We worked so hard for this," Sharma said. "It is rewarding to be finally done."
She said her group had been practicing three times per week since February to prepare. The tribal dance originated in the rural regions of India and revealed how dancing is a part of life in every area of the country, Sharma said.
Marketing junior Gavin Main said he came to the show to cheer on his friends. He said events like Satrang allow students to get out of their comfort bubble and experience something new.
"You can get in touch with a lot of different cultures and groups," Main said. "MSU has so much to offer, it's hard to get involved with everything - but you can try."
Josh Jarman can be reached at jarmanjo@msu.edu.
