In the first week of November, Olin students were greeted with sights of red posters across the hallways with just one line “Wait for Nov. 8”. The optimists among us smiled and walked away, the pessimists’ pictured apocalypse and called up their insurance agents and the realists started to look for clues.
Clue 1: A group of students were seen walking towards Gargoyle every day after classes.
Clue 2: Maintenance staff complained that loud music came from the studio at Gargoyle in a language they did not understand.
Clue 3: The owner of the Indian restaurant Baba’s in anticipation of a large order paid off the mortgage on his 3rd house.
Before we could unearth more clues, the Olin India Club played the spoiler and set up a ticket counter in Flag Hallway with posters of “Diwali Celebrations on Nov 8”.
With the cat out of the bag and no other clues to unearth, all we could do is sit back and watch as the Olin India Club (OIC) members worked tirelessly in an attempt to satisfy four out of the five sense organs.
On the D-Day, OIC wisely decided to satisfy the smell and taste senses first, for it gave everyone the energy to give the evening celebration the ovation it deserved.
The enticing aroma and sight of Butter Chicken, Matter Paneer, Naan and Gulab Jamun, to name a few, caused two sets of emotions, satisfaction in those who purchased tickets, and regret in those who did not.
The well-fed audience proceeded downstairs to May Auditorium for the celebrations. After the ceremonial lighting of “diya” by the Dean, Alison and Brad, the hosts for the evening, took the audience through different flavors of the “Indian culture”.
Vishwas, Abhishek and Aagosh regaled us with the Hindi song, “Aal izz well”. A much needed song considering what’s in store for us next week onwards.
Tony Cerame mesmerized us with his rendition of Beatles and the influence of Indian classical instruments in the music of Beatles.
Abhishek Chakravarty enthralled the audience with his melodious performance of the good, old school song, “Papa Kehte Hain”.
Kaushik tickled our funny bones, with his movie of the transformation of an Indian student Krishna.
Mike Puno, Preston Davis and Joe McDonald energized us with their own version of Black or White.
Since any Indian celebration cannot be considered complete without song and dance from Bollywood, therefore choreographed by Anuja Pol, an exchange student from IIM Ahmedabad, a ravishing and colorful dance was performed by a group comprising mostly of non-Indian students. What is common to all Bollywood movies? A Happy ending! After weeks of effort culminated in the grand Diwali celebrations, Vishwas, Shashank, Kaushik, and everyone mentioned above could pat themselves on the back for a job well done and the audience could pat themselves on the back for $15 well spent.
After the stupendous success of Diwali 2013, we raise the bar (pun intended) to a new level and invite you with your family & friends to get immersed in a joyous evening of dance, drama, music, cultural extravaganza and some awesome collection of Indian food & beer! Looking forward to your presence at Olin Diwali Dhamaka 2014!
