Awaaz unites campus in celebration of culture

Twenty five years ago, a small group of students gathered in a tent pitched outside the International House to celebrate Diwali, the Indian festival of lights.

As the founding members of the organization now known as Diya, the students commemorated the holiday with traditional cuisine cooked by friends. Over the next few years, the members decided to host a public Diwali celebration and hosted their first production in the Giles Dormitory common room.

Today, the Diwali function—whose name was changed to Awaaz in 1999— is the University’s largest student-run production, involving more than 400 students from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

“Awaaz is a great example of how a vibrant, diverse community should be,” said senior Sandeep Prasanna, Diya co-president of internal affairs, who also writes a column for The Chronicle. “We draw so many non-South Asian students to the show... in the performance, in the production and in the audience.”

This year, Awaaz was presented both Friday and Saturday night to sold-out crowds at Page Auditorium, which seats 1,232. Prasanna noted that the show has run out of tickets every year he has been at Duke.

Prasanna said the event, which featured a mixture of South Asian and other types of dancing, was designed to showcase the interplay of culture and religion on campus. The final and perhaps most anticipated act—the Senior Bhangra— involved more than 250 participants dancing to the popular D.J. Khaled song titled “All We Do Is Win.”

“Saturday night’s Senior Bhangra was the single largest act that has ever been performed on Page’s stage,” Prasanna said. “And the great thing about that is... 50 percent of those people are not South Asian, and it brings people together from all over campus.... It’s a great senior bonding thing.”

Juniors Nitish Basandra and Shreyas Srinivas developed the show’s theme, “Hari and Kumar go to Sitar,” and starred in the lead roles. The production’s storyline detailed their travels to the Durham Indian eatery Sitar in order to win over Sonia, a fictitious, beautiful Indian woman.

“[The three dances] are always separate and we’d never seen anything that was a fusion of all three,” Saxena said. “We’re not a dance team... but everyone had fun—that’s the thing.”

Sophomores Gargi Bansal and Komal Patel, co-chairs of the production council, and about 20 other students helped to organize the event’s programming. The group supervised the event’s decorations, publicity, dining, music and ticketing.

“It’s a lot of work to coordinate,” Bansal said. “We have a very good support system inside of Diya and outside of Diya. Without that support system we would not have been able to put on that show.”

Because Awaaz fell directly on Diwali this year and many parents come annually to view the show, Prasanna said Awaaz presented families with a unique opportunity to celebrate the holiday together.

The event also made a philanthropic impact, as all of Awaaz’s proceeds were donated to the American Refuge Committee’s efforts to alleviate the impact of the recent Pakistan floods. Prasanna said Diya’s choice of charity was intended to tie into a greater effort to expand the club’s scope beyond India and reach out to Diya’s non-Indian students.

From the music and dancing to the catering and set design, Prasanna said the event was hugely successful in bringing together the many cultures on campus.

“Awaaz weekend is the best weekend of the year,” he said. “We’ve heard incredibly positive feedback... and people were really happy with the variety of performances.”