Kadi rolls and Indian flatbread, along with cottage cheese and potatoes, are some of the foods Radhika Dang, president of USF St. Petersburg’s South Asian Association, has in mind for the club’s Indian food night.
The menu “depends on how many people can take spicy food,” Dang said.
“Slumdog Millionaire” was the most requested for a movie night, despite not being a Bollywood film.
SAA is in the recruiting stage, but by the end of the semester, members hope to have many goals accomplished. In addition to hosting food and movie nights, SAA hopes to start a Bollywood dance team, fundraise for an orphanage in India and have a festival on campus.
South Asia is made up of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
“The SAA is an organization dedicated to promoting, analyzing and sharing South Asian tradition, culture and issues. The organization will promote cooperation with other organizations interested in south Asia,” said chemistry professor and SAA faculty advisor Madhu Pandey.
After seeing a group of students dance at Diwali, known as the festival of lights, on campus last November, Pandey encouraged the group to start SAA.
SAA plans to increase their presence on campus through collaborations such as working with Multicultural Affairs to put together Holi, the festival of colors, in March. Members would also like to work with the All-Star Dance Team and to develop a Bollywood dance team that would perform at events other clubs are hosting. Once formed, the dance team would have several practices each week with Dang helping as choreographer.
Dang, along with club members Niharika Yerrapragada, Ananya Rajan and Sarah-Joy Roxborough, has been hard at work to make the club fully functioning. She depends on a planner to keep track of all of her responsibilities.
“Everything in my planner is true,” Dang said.
The group hopes to pick up from the last attempt to make an SAA group started last May.
Get involved: Join the SAA on PeteSync or contact Radhika Dang at rdang@mail.usf.edu.
