Indian Culture Week

Indian Culture Week this year featured a number of celebrity visitors. Renowned director Alok Ulfat and his Avikal Theatre Company were at the school for three days, presenting two different plays in the evenings and running drama workshops during the day. High-quality theater continued on the Friday evening when Tom Alter '68 presented his acclaimed one-man play, Maulana Azad. The play, which has been previously presented in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, is performed entirely in Urdu. "I was fascinated with Maulana Azad right since childhood," said Tom Alter. "He was one of the very few Muslims who spoke against the partition, and that's a feeling I share. We have not yet recovered from the scars of the partition. My Urdu teacher always said Maulana's Urdu prose was the best in the last century."

Music was equally prominent in the program. First, Asad Khan gave a virtuoso sitar performance to an appreciative audience. Then - a highlight of the week - Shubha Mudgal, renowned singer and performer, brought her band to the school for a spectacular evening of Indian-jazz-blues fusion music which raised the roof of Parker Hall and had a packed audience clapping and cheering for more. This was also the second in the special 150 concert series.