ISA crosses culture borders

Dancers, singers, comedians and models all came together to perform in one show to… Dancers, singers, comedians and models all came together to perform in one show to celebrate South Asian culture.

The student performers drew about 350 people to Carnegie Music Hall Saturday night for the Indian Sub-Continent Association’s 10th Annual Cultural Show, with this year’s theme of Maya, which means “illusion.”

“We try to show different aspects … of South Asia” by including various acts such as dancing and stand-up comedy in the show, ISA’s business manager, Mal Rajagopalan, said.

The fashion aspect of the show was divided into three different foci, one highlighting traditional South Asian wear, another highlighting formal South Asian wear, and another that fused South Asian fashion with modern American fashion.

Some of the dance performances were also traditional, while others blended in modern hip-hop moves.

Sonia Manocha performed a classical Indian dance called Jathiswaram, which, absent of words or poetry, does not “express any emotion” but instead aims for “pure aesthetic pleasure … through poses and movements in rhythm,” according to the show’s program. Monocha wore a bright yellow and red costume with bells attached to both of her ankles, producing a rhythmic jingling sound as she danced.

Madhura Prasad infused hip-hop aspects to her dance as the audience members clapped along to the beat. As Prasad left the stage, one audience member called out from the back, “Do it again.”

As part of a parody of Saturday Night Live, O’Neal Mistry did a stand-up comedy routine in which he was the host of “Desi Night Live.” Desi is a term used to refer to anyone from South Asia. The performance focused on the culture of South Asians living in America.

Mistry opened his act by defining the slang term FOBS as people “Fresh Off the Boat.” “I have a lot of FOB friends – granted they’re my TAs,” Mistry joked. He went on to joke about “FOB English” and how his parents gave a sex talk not to him but to his friends.

The show was meant to “expose the general public to a different kind of culture,” Rajagopalan said, adding that each year the show “[draws] a pretty good crowd both from Pitt and the surrounding neighborhood.”

The show was dedicated to the memory of the Columbia Shuttle crew, because ISA’s members were all touched by the loss of the people on board, Rajagopalan said, adding, “there was a woman on board who was from the Indian Sub-Continent.”