Long ago, according to the ancient Indian epic poem "Ramayana," Lord Rama, the avatar of the god Vishnu, defeated the demon king Ravana and rescued his wife Sita after 14 years in exile.
Rama's victorious return to his homeland initiates the weeklong celebration of Diwali, the Indian festival of light.
On Nov. 1, the Auburn Indian Student Association had its own Diwali celebraiton in the AUSC Ballroom for the local Indian community, featuring food, music, magic, dancing and an appearance by Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, Mike Hubbard.
"Initially, people used to see this as just a Hindu festivity, but not anymore," said Nakul Kothari, graduate student in mechanical engineering and president of the Indian Student Association. "In the past 250-300 years Diwali has been equally celebrated by everyone, including Christians, Hindus, Catholics, Protestants and Parsis. We all celebrate Diwali together at the same time. The one thing that everyone has in common is the good vibes coming out of it."
Students, families and distinguished friends hailing from all over arrived at the ballroom in traditional but ornate holiday garb native to the region.
Though Diwali is formally known as "the festival of lights," especially in the Northern provinces, where fireworks pepper the sky all week, the ISA made the theme this year based on southern Indian culture, which uses flowers in addition to lights, Kothari said.
Ornate, handcrafted strands of flowers imported directly from India provided the backdrop for the stage in the same way that lanterns are used for culturally northern events.
Chief Guest Mike Hubbard initiated the celebration by symbolically lighting an oil lamp with Suresh Mathews, president of the Indian Cultural Association of East Alabama.
"This is one of the things that's great about Auburn and the Auburn community," Hubbard said in an interview with The Plainsman. "All the diversity and the different cultures you're exposed to, it's just fantastic."
Hubbard, invited a month before Diwali, made no mention of the recent allegations of the indictment he is facing for abuse of power while in office.
During his speech, Hubbard mentioned that he and his campaign team knocked on a couple thousand doors earlier reminding people to vote on Tuesday.
"I have a lot of friends in the Indian community and I actually was able to attend one of these years ago in Foy Union and thoroughly enjoyed it," Hubbard said. "This really didn't have anything to do with the campaign, [but] the biggest thing I'm concerned about is complacency. Anything can happen if people don't show up to vote."
After lighting the oil lamp, Hubbard was awarded with a plaque by Mathews and the ICAEA as a sign of thanks for his continued friendship with the Indian community.
Dinner prepared by a private caterer provided table service for the packed ballroom, featuring an all-vegetarian cuisine native to South India.
"The food we're having you can't find in Auburn, the Indian restaurants here don't do south Indian food," Kothari said.
Partnering with the ICAEA, the Indian Student Association was able to raise a budget of $6,000, Kothari said.
"It's 50 percent theirs, 50 percent ours and they deserve equal praise for everything," Kothari said.
Students, children and friends of the community performed throughout the night, featuring traditional Diwali dances as well as more contemporary Bollywood-style music.
The Indian Music Ensemble, led by professor of music Raj Chaudhury, performed multiple traditional ragas throughout the night.
"Diwali is a festival that is celebrated all over India and one of biggest thing about Diwali music is that it personifies the festival of lights," Chaudhury said. "For instance, one of the pieces is all about light and how the light fills the world and brings joy to our life."
Raga Hamsadhwam, the first song performed, is unique because unlike most Indian music, which varies by region, this piece is played the same in both the north and south and keeping within the Diwali theme of universality and connectedness, Chaudhury said.
"Light has always been an interesting concept to me, especially interacting with music," said Sam Price, junior in interdisciplinary studies and a member of the Indian Music Ensemble. "Sound and light, they shift your perception and way of looking at things, just by understanding the interconnectivity between light and everything that it touches the way that sound does."
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