A Taste of India....

Event : Swaad 2005

Organized by : AID-TAMU

Venue : Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

Date : November 3, 2005

Attendees : 600

AID-TAMU pulled it off in a grand spectacular fashion their biggest fundraiser yesterday - the annual Indian food festival at Texas A&M University with a set of around 30 dedicated, enthusiastic and motivated volunteers. The theme of this year's Swaad was "Festival of Lights" to coincide with Diwali. Organizing the event was a nightmare for the organizers themselves for cooking an assorted variety of exotic Indian dishes for 600 people was no mean achievement. The author was fortunate to have been a part of the volunteer team and was also responsible for the ambience/decoration of the hall.

AID-TAMU strived to bring about a taste of the magnificently rich and diverse Indian cultural heritage to the people of Bryan/ College Station community. The hall was decorated with a lot of lights of all possible kinds, with the prime objective, of lighting up the entire place. Handicrafts for sale, Mehendi tattoos for a reasonable price, Art exhibition consisting of collages and photographs, Rangoli, etc. were part of the learning tools about India provided by us for the attendees. Soft instrumental music (mostly Indian classical) was playing in the background. Further, there was a video show "Transcendental Emotions" that depicted the universal emotions of love, yearning, frustration, pathos, joy, bliss, etc. through the medium of songs from Indian Cinema (right from the 1950's to present).

The event was a grand success. The author was fortunate to have interacted with two American ladies, aged definitely 70 and above. They told him that they were fortunate to have been there and how much they had enjoyed everything that we had offered. People outside India need to have the right image of our own exotic India and the onus lies on us - the Indians - both the resident and the non-resident ones. Sadly, I have encountered people ( read some Indians ) who do nothing but criticize and comment on the problems of the country. What they fail to realise is that criticism without action is not the solution. It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

I am sure, that this event, would have been a great learning experience for one and all of the volunteers. Nevertheless, there are a few issues that need to be addressed and improved upon for the future Swaad's.