Spotlight

We both became involved with Ghungroo as freshman; Charitha had received classical dance training for several years and performed in the Raas (Gujrati folk dance) and despite his own dancing ‘prowess,’ Deip decided to try his hand at light managing for the show. Ghungroo was such an incredible experience for the both of us that we returned the following year, with Charitha as Assistant Director and Deip as Technical Director. Junior year we were both only able to dance, but we were very excited to return to the helm of the show for our senior year—all of the watching, thinking, and slow musing was going to pay off!

What is your assessment of Harvard’s artistic community and culture?

The Harvard artistic community can be quite open to the student body at large, but it is hard to be introduced to dancing, acting, or singing here unless you’ve done so before. But Ghungroo prides itself on being a show that welcomes performers of all skill levels: we’ve showcased professionally trained dancers and talented musicians as well as those who have never performed on stage before. The only requirement is that you come to all of the practices and shows. It’s so great to see how every year we get more and more roommates, friends, or previous audience members joining our cast.

The first annual Ghungroo was performed in a room backstage of the Agassiz Theater House with a cast of around 40 students; today, we perform on stage in the Theater for four sold-out shows and we boast a cast size of over 100 students, making us one of the largest student-run productions at Harvard. However, Ghungroo would not be this successful or enjoyable for everyone involved if it were not for its willingness to involve everyone.

What inspires you, as busy college students, to continue to participate in an production that requires such intense commitment?

The creation of Ghungroo—from the set to the acts—is an amazing experience for many reasons. For us as directors, working on something so large and molding it into something so beautiful and consistently well received is challenging, yet immensely rewarding. However, it is more than just a performance: it’s the opportunity to meet new people whose path we might never have crossed, make life-long friends, and be a part of a larger community of dancers, actors, tech staff or Ghungroo as a whole.

On another level, we envision Ghungroo to be a celebration of the rich and dynamic cultures alive throughout South Asia and the Diaspora. Through stage design, dance, music and poetry, Ghungroo has sought to celebrate the arts of South Asia (as interpreted by the Harvard students who perform them) as well as educate our audience and the greater Harvard community about South Asia. However, such a representation would be incomplete without a full consideration of the global, political, and social forces at play in South Asia, as well as in the world at large.

It would be naive to state that these peoples, religions, and cultures co-exist peacefully in South Asia. For instance, in the real world, a dance from Kerala is not likely to be performed alongside the Gujrati Raas, and the Ghazal is rarely heard in the same setting as a Hindu devotional song. Government’s tempers flare with nuclear heat and religious fundamentalism is becoming a force in multi-class coalition building. Thus, it is crucial that when we represent South Asia, we do not forget the problems and challenges that persist.

We hope that Ghungroo 2004 is a vision of what South Asia, the world, and people everywhere can create: an inspiring collaborative effort, the result of working together to celebrate difference and to highlight common bonds. We must ensure that the past is enshrined not in a book of grievances, but in a book of lives lived and lessons learned.

Briefly describe your creative process in preparing for a performance.

Ghungroo has a long history of coming up with small hacks for the dance or musical acts. We see them as an opportunity for tech to get some well-deserved stage time, but more often than not, they are unfulfilled pipe dreams of hilarity. The other hallmark of Ghungroo is debriefing at Uno’s at 1 a.m., the nightly watering and feeding ground of our staff. Just picture 15 students, a pitcher of watered-down mango iced tea, peals of laughter and the occasional tech script being written. It’s honestly where we get our best creative work done—that is, outside of the Agassiz.

Characterize yourselves or your tastes in arts projects in five words.

Ghungroo is elegance, dedication, diversity and simple fun.

Where do you imagine yourselves next year, post-graduation, and in ten years?

Next year, both of us plan to attend medical school, and are contemplating medical careers with a public health and advocacy focus. In ten years, we’ll be looking back and reminiscing about the memories of Ghungroo and of college as a whole.

—Vinita M. Alexander