From the first bite of spicy Indian food to the twirling and loud clacking of sticks, Ball State University's Indian Students Association welcomed strangers as family for its Diwali and Dandiya Nite on Sunday.
The celebration was in honor of the Diwali and Dandiya festivals and included dinner, music and dancing free of charge. The association invited the community to experience a shortened version of the celebrations people would be experiencing in India.
"We don't want Indian students here to miss that," ISA president Milind Sakaria said.
Srinivas Mantena, a computer science graduate assistant, said back home in Hyderabad in south India, he would dance with friends and family until 5 a.m. every day of the nine-day Diwali festival. He said it is one of the biggest festivals in the country.
The Diwali festival is called the Festival of Lights because people fill their homes with candles and shoot firecrackers all night long.
The event was an opportunity to also reach out to the Ball State community and bring a little Indian culture to it, Mantena said.
"They will know something about us, about our culture," Mantena said. "We have come all the way here and want other people to know what our festivals are."
The night began with a dinner of traditional Indian food.
Sunday night was senior geology major Kristin Pape's first time trying Indian food. She was invited to the event by Srinivas Kondapalli, who works as a graduate assistant in Ball State's Department of Geology.
"I like trying new foods; I'm just now getting into it," Pape said. "I was a little skittish, and now I love them. I definitely recommend trying this."
Kondapalli said the dancing was too complicated to explain, so he decided to just wait until the guests could see it.
"I figured it was better to tell them when they got here," Kondapalli said. "It's something they have to see."
Although there was a line at the serving table for more than an hour, guests said they appreciated the small crowd. Senior architecture majors Chris Peli and Robert Horner said they enjoyed how the guests could talk in small groups.
"It would be good for a lot of students on campus to get out of their routine," Horner said. "They would benefit a lot to see how other cultures spend their time."
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