The Hindi Festival this year was an amazing immersion into the Hindi language. Its goal is to celebrate the work of Hindi students at Duke and to connect us further into Indian culture. We also had a lamp lighting, a poem performance by Manju Mishra, and a recitation of the Saraswati Vandana Mantra by Alka Bhatnagar. The festival was virtual this year because of COVID, but Hindi professors Kusum Knapczyk and Satti Khanna still made it very enjoyable.
The Elementary Hindi students all performed skits in Hindi for the festival. These skits were definitely entertaining and showed how much the elementary students have learned in 1 or 2 semesters of Hindi. The names of the skits were: “The Fortune Teller”, “Delhi Ki Safar”, “Paneer Tikka Pyar”, and “Khan Showdown”. In fact, “Khan Showdown” reminded me of my own skit I did for Hindi 203 last semester.
After that, it was time for our Hindi 204 skit: “Shaadi Ka Laddu”. Shirley, Anna, Pranay, and I had been working on this skit for the past two weeks and we were finally ready to perform. The skit is a satire on arranged marriage by reversing the roles of the groom and bride in the matchmaking process. I played Karan (the groom) and he is forced into an arranged marriage that he does not want. Karan is constantly told by his mom and in-laws that he does not need a job because Shreya (the bride) will provide for him. He is also told that he just needs to focus on being handsome for his wife and cooking food for them. At the end of the skit, Karan and Shreya both run away from the wedding.
After this, the Advanced Hindi class gave a presentation on beauty standards for men and women. They discussed how women in India are pressured to have fair skin through products such as Fair & Lovely. The marketing for Fair & Lovely implies that whiter skin is more beautiful than darker skin. Their presentation reminded me of my own podcast on the caste system where I talked about colorism in India. Advanced Hindi students also talked about men's beauty standards, namely how men are bullied for being short and/or too skinny. I thought their presentation was amazing because it talked about an underreported topic in Indian culture: the role of beauty standards in India.
I had so much fun performing this skit with my class.
The audience really enjoyed it as well.
Anna said, "The Hindi festival was lovely. I really enjoyed watching the other skits and seeing people laugh. It was also great to hear native speakers or just people who were really advanced in Hindi."
Shirley said, " I enjoyed doing the skit and being able to take a creative approach to discussing some of the social topics we have touched on in class. I also really enjoyed hearing the advanced class students' thoughts about beauty standards in Indian society and liked learning new vocabulary through hearing their conversation."
While Pranay said, " The Hindi festival was fun and entertaining. I really enjoyed presenting our skit to everyone, and other people's skits were fun to watch as well. The advanced Hindi class spoke very well, I was very impressed."
Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY_YTevpq_8
Overall, the Hindi festival was a terrific celebration of Indian culture and the Hindi language. I’m glad to have been a part of the festival and look forward to the in-person celebration next year.
Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies