India Post News Service Los Angeles: The Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex at the CSU campus in LA was buzzing with energy on the eve of February 5. The Indian SubContinental Club of UC Irvine were having their fifth Annual National Intercollegiate event aptly called "Garba with Attitude". The blend between the traditional Indian dance form with the creative excellence of western life was brilliantly seamless in nature. So, we saw themes as "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Toy Story"…merge into Achko Machko Karelu etc, signifying their respect for the past and yet made it part of their present life. The style and panache with which these acts were carried out were simply superb! The hardwork behind the fabulous production of arts and culture was extremely commendable. The teens could give the so called experienced event organizers a run for their money. The lack of an emcee was actually a boon. The organizers very wisely spared the audience the ordeals of an on stage announcer -great time saving and time managing tip! The replacement to this age old style was a piece of brilliant creativity…a film clip of a flop whacky Bollywood hero called Deepak Haathiwala being interviewed in a class packed with three students. This clip kept resurfacing with newer nuances. Another filler item was that of Dan Nainan - a Mallu - Japanese comedian, who had the audience in splits with his Mallu-Jap jokes. Daniel is an artist from the Comedian Institute from Steven Rosenfield - New York. He has an impressive biodata ranging from television shows as Saturday Night Live to Feature Films as "The Hoax" with Richard Gere to a host of stage performances as Hollywood Improv to Apollo Theater in NYC. A sure winner for a fusion desi crowd. Garba with Attitude has come a long way in the last five years. The Vice Chancellor of UC Irvine Manuel Gonzalez made a short and sweet speech in which he quoted an incident out of Mahatma Gandhi's life wherein when asked what Gandhi thought about the British Civilization, the Mahatma promptly replied "A good idea". There were ten finalists at the show and the show stealers were the team from UC Berkeley which walked away with the first prize, followed by University of Illinois and rounded off to a close third were North Western University. However, every team that performed was a winner and in events as these there are no losers. Each participating team was brilliant in presenting unique backdrops, themes and a classy blend of the traditional garba/raas with the modern forms of dance. The judges surely had the toughest job, but, with capable professionals as Nakul Dev Mahajan of NDM, Mansi Shah, Nikita Mehta, Hemi Shah and Shweta of Karma Dance, the stars among all the winners were announced. Last, but not the least, supporters of the show, Hamilton Brewart, Frontier Heritage, Phoenix Relief, Kaplan etc, got great value at the show.There were tote bags with a t-shirt of Frontier Heritage. During the interval and between items, there were video ads of Frontier Heritage that got played. Great style and value for the sponsors. The only slip up in the show was the conspicuous absence of the Indian National Anthem. If we could do such a great job with the dance form of our country, then we do need to be proud of it and have the Indian National Anthem as a mark of respect. Other than that, kudos to Kundini Shah and team for the brilliant show!

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