South Asian Culture Celebrated in "Ghungroo"

Lavish scenery, exotic costumes, and giant model elephants took center stage at Ghungroo this week.

The annual cultural celebration, hosted by the South Asian Association (SAA), opened to a packed Agassiz Theatre this Thursday.

The show, five months in the making, drew in audience members from Texas to the Philippines.

The audience was treated to crowd-pleasing shows such as the Bhangra dance. The dance, punctuated with daring stunts such as the “Death Necklace,” drew cheers from the crowd. Performed by Aabed B. Meer ’06 and Armen I. Yerevanian ’08, the act consisted of a male dancer who wrapped his legs around another dancer’s neck and was whipped around the stage in a circle.

The Tabla Ensemble, a group of four drummers, combined spoken word lyrics with pulsating rhythms. Sketches satirizing Indian culture bookended acts like the Raas Gujarati dance, which was performed with sticks.

Tickets for Ghungroo were in high demand.

The Saturday night performance was sold out in less than two days, according to Ghungroo co-producer and SAA co-president Arjun Vasan ’07.

“This was the fastest selling Ghungroo ever,” said Ghungroo House Manager Vikas V. Mouli ’09.

Some students who hadn’t snapped up tickets quickly enough sent out requests on open-lists,

But Mouli and Vasan said that no scalping took place. The SAA had a centralized wait list that allowed interested students to catch the three-hour performance, they said.

Organizers and audience members alike emphasized the show’s inclusiveness, both in the selection of dances and performers.

Thirty to 40 percent of the cast was not South Asian, according to Saikat Chakrabarti ’07, a director of Ghungroo.

“Usually you see a regional bias [in the selection of dances], and [Ghungroo] didn’t have that,” said audience member Nishkam Agarwal, whose daughter performed in the event.

And audience member Caroline Caswell characterized the show as “tremendously joyful.”

“[There was] a great sense of community within, and [a] coming together to share common experiences,” she said.

Ghungroo had its largest cast ever this year with 187 members, according to Vasan.