Come to the East Campus Backyard (the quad behind GA) on Monday, September 6 at 6:15PM. Delicious chaat, ice cream, and kulfi will be provided. Catch up with friends and meet freshmen!

This is also the kickoff for the Big Sib/Little Sib program! To apply, contact sahil.prasada@duke.edu or check your latest Diyamail for the application.

Following the social, join Diya, HSA, and MSA for a joint Iftar (breaking of fast for Ramadan) in the Upper East Side (above the Marketplace). Come join us for a delicious vegetarian and halal dinner and learn about Ramadan.

FRESHMEN: We’re excited to meet you!! Make sure you come out to this event and meet Diya/HSA/MSA members. You’ll also learn about all of our dance teams!

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A little bit about the Big Sib/Little Sib program:

Big Sib/Little Sib is a program dedicated to fostering friendships between older and younger Diya members. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors who elect to participate as “Big Sibs” are assigned randomly to incoming freshmen, the “Little Sibs.” Big Sibs and Little Sibs get to know each other through a variety of individual and group activities organized by Big Sibs as well as Diya. Big Sibs provide advice and organize activities for their Little Sibs and keep in touch and hang out throughout the year. Friendships fostered through the Big Sib/Little Sib program last throughout one’s time at Duke.

Awaaz is the biggest event of the fall semester at Duke. To continue the trend, we’d like this year’s show to be even better than the last. Come out and learn about auditions, Production Council, and getting involved with the largest student-run production o…n campus.

Food will be served!

When: Tuesday 9/7 at 7:00pm
Where: Soc/Psych 130
Who: Anyone interested in Awaaz

So what does Diya do?

Well, we put on Awaaz, the LARGEST student-run production on Duke’s campus! It sells out our biggest auditorium two nights in a row and involves hundreds of students.

But that’s not all we do! Diya also:
-promotes awareness through political forums
-teaches about culture
-throws parties
-works with religious life
-supports academic initiatives
-publishes Sanscript, a leisure magazine
-founded the Duke Undergraduate Journal of South Asian Studies, the first of its kind in the country
-works with Duke’s South Asian dance teams: Dhamaka (bhangra), DBS Raas (garba/raas), Lasya (classical Indian dance), and Dhoom (Bollywood)

Diya can be whatever you make it. And you DON’T have to be South Asian to get involved!

See you at Diya events this year!

P.S. What is South Asia, you ask? Also known as the Indian subcontinent, South Asia is a historically and culturally related set of regions now identified with the modern nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan, and Bhutan.

Stay tuned for updates.

You should know that the very reason we do this is so that you will write to us and say hello to us if you see us around campus and feel comfortable approaching us with your ideas, thoughts, and concerns.  So please do!

Co-President of Internal Affairs:  Sandeep Prasanna

• Year:  2011
• Major:  Program II:  The Development of Language:  Phylogeny, Ontogeny, and History
• Favorite movie:  Speed Racer, hands down.  3 Idiots is a close second.
• Favorite book:  In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson
• Favorite food:  My mom’s tamarind rice with a lot of peanuts, mmm.
• You can usually find me:  drinking tea and reading on the Plaza.  Come find me sometime!
• Something really unexpected about me is:  I worked on an environmental project in the jungles of South India for two months with two crazy friends, one of whom is my awesome Co-President, Karan. I also sing.
• My favorite thing about Diya:  is being able to share all parts of South Asian life with the Duke community — the culture, the social aspects, and the academics.

Co-President of External Affairs:  Karan Chhabra

• Year:  2011
• Major:  English
• Favorite movie:  The Big Green
• Favorite book:  Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
• Favorite food:  Bhel puri – immediately after it’s prepared, while it’s still crispy
• You can usually find me:  reading masterworks of world literature on the porch of my swank off-campus residence.  Or up in a tree somewhere.
• Something really unexpected about me is:  despite my more mainstream intellectual and professional pursuits, my true life goal is to have my own show on Food Network.  Kooking with Karan?  Eh?
• My favorite thing about Diya is:  being able to make a fool of myself in front of thousands of people in Awaaz lottery dances.  And, of course, watching people with actual talent on stage as well.

Community Outreach Chair: Tara Iyengar

• Year: 2013
• Major: Psychology and Biology
• Favorite movie: TROY- best movie ever.
• Favorite book: My Sister’s Keeper, The Truth About Forever
• Favorite food: Mexican food, Mad Hatter’s– I love to eat!
• You can usually find me: with Komal, acting silly
• Something really unexpected about me is: I love watching reality television shows.  The Real Housewives series is one of my favorites.
• My favorite thing about Diya: The AMAZING tight-knit community.  The people I met at the freshmen ice cream social are some of my closest friends and I love that I can do all kinds of Diya events with them!

Cultural Chair:  Gargi Bansal

• Year:  2013
• Major:  Undeclared (possibly Economics)
• Favorite movie:  A Walk to Remember, Lagaan, 21, and Slumdog Millionaire
• Favorite book:  Kite Rider, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Namesake
• Favorite food:  Pani puri, pao bhaji
• You can usually find me:  Walking around campus dancing to my favorite new beat.
• Something really unexpected about me is:  I went to boarding school in India for three years and I absolutely loved it
• My favorite thing about Diya:  Celebrating South Asian festivals, AWAAAAZ, and the wonderful relationships I have made through this organization.

Political Chair:  Ashvin Kapur

• Year:  2013
• Major:  Public Policy with Economics Minor
• Favorite movie:  The Hangover
• Favorite book:  To Kill a Mockingbird
• Favorite food:  Paneer makhani and chicken curry
• You can usually find me:  in line for a Duke basketball game or doing bhangra down the main quad (I’m weird, I know). I spent most of Freshman year waiting in line to see the National Champs beat everyone.
• Something really unexpected about me is:  I spend a week every summer working as a counselor for the Muscular Dystrophy Association Summer Camp in southern Maryland.
• My favorite thing about Diya:  is being able to spend a lot of time with my best friends on Duke’s campus while having a blast learning about all aspects of South Asian culture and participating in social events.

Social Chair:  Komal Patel

• Year:  2013
• Major:  Public Policy
• Favorite movie:  The Patriot
• Favorite book:  The Kite Runner
• Favorite food:  My mom’s enchiladas
• You can usually find me:  dancing in Wilson
• Something really unexpected about me is:  growing up, I used to say that wanted to be a boy because I wanted to be just like my older brothers, and now I’ve learned to be careful what you wish for, because I ended up dancing as boy more than as a girl for Raas!
• My favorite thing about Diya:  the people! from Awaaz to the roundtable discussions I’ve gotten the opportunity to see the diverse talents and hear the unique perspectives of our student body, and have developed strong friendships along the way!

Publicity Chair:  Sonya Kothadia

• Year:  2012
• Major:  Biology
• Favorite movie:  Notting Hill
• Favorite book:  The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
• Favorite food:  Ice Cream
• You can usually find me:  in Alpine Bagel
• Something really unexpected about me is:  I’m extremely shy even though I come off as being chatty.
• My favorite thing about Diya:  is that it is such a multifaceted organization. There is a branch of Diya that anyone could relate to and get involved with including writing, politics, dance, and community service. Many people don’t realize this.

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Treasurer:  Dyuti Mahendru

• Year:  2012
• Major:  BME / Economics
• Favorite movie:  The Dark Knight / 3 Idiots / DDLJ
• Favorite book:  The Kite Runner
• Favorite food:  Kashmiri food and rajma
• You can usually find me:  dancing
• Something really unexpected about me is:  I never had formal dance training.
• My favorite thing about Diya:  teaching traditions and sharing culture while having fun with friends!

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Webmaster:  Arjun Khanna

• Year:  2012
• Major:  Chemistry (Pharmacology concentration), Economics minor
• Favorite movie:  tough.  I would have to go with Ocean’s Eleven.
• Favorite book:  Lolita
• Favorite food:  Mom’s curry chicken
• You can usually find me:  in my room, door open, music blasting, getting distracted.
• Something really unexpected about me is:  One of my goals in life is to screenwrite.
• My favorite thing about Diya:  Meeting new people!

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To email any of us, for now just use our first name . last name @ duke . eduadding info

The South Asian community in this region is growing, as is the interest in South Asian trends, culture, religion, politics, and economics. It is truly an exciting time to be developing strong South Asian studies curricula here at Duke, the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University. Through DUJSAS, we aim to share exceptional academic work being conducted by undergraduate and graduate students at our universities, as well as all over the nation at institutions like yours, in the field of South Asian Studies.

We’re proud to include here an electronic copy of the latest issue of Sanscript, which includes several pieces written by Duke undergraduates on topics related to South Asia. You will read about female feticide, the complex views on surrogacy in Islam, and the animal-human boundary in Hinduism. This issue is only the beginning — the spark of an idea. The journal to come will comprise exclusively academic content from the humanities and social sciences.

We invite you to nominate exceptional undergraduate and graduate written pieces on South Asia-related topics to be published in our magazine. The inaugural issue of DUJSAS will be published in August, and will be made up of works written during this spring semester. We hope you will be able to share copies of the journal with your students at the beginning of the next semester. Papers will be blind-reviewed by an editorial board made up of undergraduates and faculty. Please see the attached cover letter and guidelines for more information.

Please feel free to email dujsas@gmail.com for any questions.

Note that the deadline for submissions is 11:59 EST on June 1, 2010.

See attachments:

Guidelines

Cover Letter Form

Faculty Support Form

For the Spring 2010 semester, this break will be held on Saturday, May 1 at 6:00 pm in the CIEMAS Lobby.

THERE WILL BE FOOD.

The event will be on Wednesday, April 21 at 8:30 pm in McClendon 5.  There will be some light refreshments.

The event will be held on Sunday, April 18 in the Multicultural Center at 5:00 pm and is co-hosted by CRR, HSA, and MSA.  The discussion will be moderated by Abdullah Antepli.  If you needed any more convincing, dinner will be provided!