Twelve-year-old Soham Apte could not stop smiling as he put down his instrument and walked off the stage at Saturday's "Experience India," an event hosted by the South Asian Student Alliance. Apte played the Indian tabla for the audience gathered in the Pier.
This was not the first performance for the boy from Glen Allen, Va. "There's a Hindu center that I have performed at several times," Apte said. "I started taking lessons from my dad when I was about nine and have been playing ever since."
Students, professors and other community members attended and performed at the two-hour event. "It's a real blessing to teach at a place where, from time to time, we can stop to celebrate civilizations like India," said Monti Datta, professor of political science. Although Datta said he grew up in California watching American cartoons, his father's side of the family was from Bangladesh. He attended Experience India to celebrate his own cultural heritage.
"My South Asian side has been dormant lately," he said.
Sophomore Shiksha Mahtani, the current community chairwoman for SASA, works alongside other SASA members, such as Prachi Mehta and Narottam Parwani, to spread South Asian culture at the university.
"I was born in Santiago, Chile, but grew up in Nashville, Tenn.," Mahtani said. "Although I lived in the United States, I grew up in a very traditional Indian household. My parents brought me up with Indian morals, traditions and ways of being, and for that I will be forever grateful."
Members of the community, as well as campus dance groups like the "Bollywood Jhatkas" provided musical entertainment for the night. Traditional Indian food was served buffet-style in the back of the room, next to the Henna station run by freshman Gwen Setterberger.
Mehta, who was born in New York to Indian immigrants, grew up "trying to find the right balance between the two worlds" and is now eager to educate other students on her heritage.
"I guess it made life interesting," Mehta said. "I'd have cross-country races in the mornings and Indian festivals at night."
Contact reporter Michele Martin at michele.martin@richmond.edu
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