The Cultural Heritage Association of India (CHAI) celebrated Deepavali (the festival of lights) on Saturday, Nov. 9 at Stoney Creek Hotel.
CHAI La Crosse is a volunteer-operated nonprofit organization that provides an equal opportunity for Indians and non-Indians to celebrate Indian festivals. These festivals include Deepavali, Holi (the festival of colors) and more.
CHAI was started by five individuals in 2009 who decided to take action to address the gaping need to expose their children and friends to the ways of Indian culture.
Early into the event, the president of CHAI, Kalyana Kolouju, gave a welcoming speech to the audience.
Kolouju said, “Through CHAI, we aim to make everyone feel at home and foster connections and lasting friendships… our theme at CHAI is deeply community focused.”
The event featured a variety of dances and musical performances. The dances included a classical Kuchipudi dance, an Assamese-Bengali contemporary dance, a Bollywood musical group dance, a kids group dance and a Maharashtrian contemporary dance while the performances included a Ramayan musical performance and kids solo performances.
It also featured a full-course menu that offered popular dishes and desserts such as vegetarian samosa, paneer tikka masala, butter chicken, butter naan, Gulab Jamun and more.
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Associate Professor Niti Mishra has been coming to CHAI events for the past eight years.
“Events like this help people from South Asia get together,” said Mishra. “It gives an international stage for others who are not aware about South Asian culture to interact with people and get to know the world outside the United States.”
Mishra mentioned that over the years, CHAI’s Deepavali festival has gotten more organized and increased in participation. He added that in bigger cities, such as Minneapolis and Chicago, this event was celebrated on a much bigger scale with a more generous budget that allowed for the ability to invite professional artists from India.
“Of course, doing this on a smaller scale has its own advantages and I think the biggest one is the community gets together and people experience something different,” said Mishra.
Dipankar Mitra is another UWL professor who came for CHAI’s Deepavali celebration. He described all three years of coming for the event as great.
“I think it’s significant because we have a huge Indian community here… so this event gives us a huge opportunity to celebrate our own culture and also involve people here within our own community,” said Mitra. “It’s also a way to involve our families, especially the kids and give them some kind of exposure to Indian culture.”
David Chai, a student from Penn State University who is in La Crosse for an internship, came with his co-workers to CHAI’s Deepavali. He mentioned that he enjoyed the music and dancing the most as someone with a musical background.
“It’s very interesting to see the different aspects of Indian music compared to other music I listen to,” said Chai. “And being also from Asia…it’s good to see how diverse the events and cultures are within Asia and I’m just really glad I went to this event.”
The event concluded with an open dance floor that featured a variety of Indian music genres.
“It’s a huge celebration. Almost all the Indian families along with folks from outside Indian families can look forward to this event every year,” said Mitra. “It’s a great way to celebrate our culture back home.”
