Although it had a 45-minute delayed start on Sunday night, more than 100 people attended India Day, which was sponsored by the Ball State University Indian Student Association.
India Day celebrated a combination of festivals and holidays: The Lodi festival on Jan. 14 and Republic Day on Thursday.
Lodi, which is also known as Sankranti and Pongal, is celebrated in honor of harvest and planting. Republic Day recognizes the official independence of India from England in 1950.
"The purpose of the organization is to have cultural exchange between Americans and Indians through these events," Dheeraj Sharma, instructor of marketing, said. "We want to explore the differences and similarities between the two cultures and enhance respect and solidarity between the communities."
Activities included presentations, a fashion show, dancing, Mehendi henna tattoos and Rangoli sand art.
"India is full of celebrations all the time," ISA Vice President Chiranjeevi Rathnaala said. "Dance is something rooted in Indian culture. Every state in India has a particular dance, particular music, particular language."
Approximately half the attendees were not from an Indian background. Many, like senior Adrienne Campbell, came out of curiosity.
"For one of my classes I had to attend some sort of cultural events, and I'm particularly interested in India," Campbell said.
She said she became interested after listening to the "Share the Well" CD by Caedmon's Call and is now considering studying abroad in India. She didn't know what to expect, but said she was nervous about the dancing.
Asian American Student Association Vice President Emily Sandoval also came to the event. She heard about it from friends and the mass e-mail ISA sent out to the Ball State community.
"We get to support each other and I get to learn more about India and that's cool," Sandoval said.
Although he only began teaching at Ball State this semester, Sharma said he planned to become involved with the ISA and to help them with future events.
"It's education," Sharma said. "When you are living 8,000 miles away, the knowledge you get about people is purely from the media. When you have occasions like this you get a face to face dialog when you get right information."
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