BOSTON—Boston University India Club is hosting its first large scale event called India Fest 2017, and bringing some leading speakers, including Kapil Sibal, a Indian National Congress party leader who has served as the Minister of Science & Technology, Minister of Human Resource Development, Minister of Communications & IT, and the Minister of Law & Justice.
Other line-up of speakers includes Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Ajay Jadeja, Rohan Joshi, Nina Davuluri, Ashish Kashyap, Anu Chitrapu and Shaun Jayachandran, said Devika Gholap, one of the organizers of the event president of the Indian organization at BU.
The day-long fest will be held on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017, at Morse Auditorium, located at 602 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston. It will start at 9:00 am and continue through 5:00 pm.
“The BU India Club is a cultural association for Indians on campus. We arrange many cultural shows during the span of two semesters. We organize dance shows, fundraisers, gaming events, amongst many others, which are centric to the Indian culture,” said Gholap. “This is the first time that the BU India Club is organizing this large-scale event, Detour India Fest.”
Detour India Fest 2017 is a first of its kind event that aims to celebrate the immense diversity that India has to offer. The purpose of the event is to get Indian achievers from cultural, social, entertainment and political backdrops under one roof to talk about their respective path-breaking journeys and their take on issues concerning India.
After conceptualizing the event, BU India Club leaders pitched the idea to the university authorities who were rather impressed with the theme and were ready to provide with all the required support.
“From conceptualization of the fest to the next step leading to the final event – so far it has been an emotional roller coaster ride of excitement, eagerness, rejection, confirmation, tension, and sometimes confusion. All in all, we’ve learned some life lessons and are more than proud to have pulled off this event,” said Gholap.
Ritika Sharma, Co-chair of Detour India Fest, added: “Of the other factors that led to the fest, one reason was the ongoing sociopolitical climate of the world where it’s becoming almost a norm to play on people’s insecurities.”
Sharma said recent unfortunate chain of events in the United States against the Indian community is an epitome of ethnic prejudice.
“The fest aims to deliberate on these pre-existing prejudices by bringing together brilliant speakers to talk about their journey of detouring from the conventional path and advocate the importance of the evolving Indian culture,” said Sharma. “This event celebrates the diversity that India has to offer, which goes beyond the preconceived skewed narrative of being Indian.”
For more information, and to register for this event, visit www.detourindiafest.com.
About 300 to 400 people are expected to attend the fest. It is a ticket-based event. The ticket prices vary from $20 for BU students, $40 for non-BU students, and $50 for adults (any non-students).
