No one told us what we were supposed to wear to this festival, but our residence hall coordinator, Parul, really wanted us all to get dressed up in pretty Indian garb. We haven't been serious clothes shopping yet, especially not for Indian clothes, so all of the girls in the house (eight of us), ended up borrowing Parul's clothes. She magically had outfits that matched each person in terms of color and body type. I'm pretty sure her wardrobe has special powers.
After we got all dressed up, we took the taxis over to the India Habitat Centre, this really nifty complex that houses a bunch of NGOs and other people/things and hosts a lot of cultural and arts events. They had one of the big outdoor spaces decked out with lights and bonfires, with wicker chairs set up facing the stage and big round tables covered in white tablecloths in the back. They had food and drink tents set up along the side, where we helped ourselves to a buffet of Punjabi food (meal tickets courtesy of IES). They had some important people from the Habitat Centre do welcome speeches and whatnot, then a group of girls from Punjab performed on all kinds of crazy musical instruments. After their performance on stage, they came over to one of the bonfires and danced/played around that. It looked something like this:
(Side note: I love my Nikon. It takes wonderful low-light pictures. Perfect for nighttime bonfires. Also, more pictures from Lohri are on Flickr.)
We ate some food, hung out, listened to some more music, and then Parul decided we had to dance. Now, this was not a dance-y sort of event; there was a "dance floor" that the Punjabi girls had used as their performance space, in front of the stage. But Parul took a few of us out on the dancefloor and we started dancing anyway. The Punjabi girls joined us and taught us some bhangra moves. (Reema, one of the other Rochester girls, starting busting out fancy bhangra moves right away. I had no idea she was such a good dancer.) We danced for a bit, then ran away, only to be dragged back out. More of the IES girls came out the second time, and after a while, a bunch of other people came up. By the time the musicians were done, the dance floor was packed. We were dancing with some awkward white guys that looked like they were probably on a business trip, little kids who had better rhythm than the white guys, elderly Indian people, and a smattering of young-ish adults. It was fun.
As we were collecting the group to leave, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and this forty-something Indian guy introduces himself to me, says he saw me dancing and wanted to use me in a film. Turns out he's a talent scout and does stuff for tv, movies, theater, and advertisements. He gave me his card and told me to email him so he could send me clips from movies he's done and talk to me about if I'd like to work with him. (I've never danced bhangra before in my life, though I've wanted to learn since the first time I saw the bhangra group on campus perform.) One of the other girls had the same thing happen to her. Kind of sketchy, but immensely entertaining. Parul told me that it couldn't hurt to email the guy and see what he was to say - one of the girls last semester did some modeling for some local company's advertisements (?!) - but to tell him that from then on, he had to go through my manager (Parul)...she wants to make sure that if (for some strange reason) I decide to be in this guy's movie, I'll get paid a decent amount! I guess the girl who modeled before got paid far less than she should have but was happy just for the publicity. So that was a funny way to end the evening. Parul kept saying that Sydney and I got our tickets to Bollywood. :)
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