Sangam Santa Barbara Shines its Light on Diwali

Diwali, the five-day Hindu Festival of Lights, celebrates the victory of light over darkness. On Saturday, November 4, Santa Barbara rang the holiday in early with the Diwali Cultural Show and Dinner. Held at La Colina Junior High School, 450-plus revelers coming from Isla Vista to Los Angeles wore their Diwali best as they enjoyed Indian culture, cuisine, and community. The annual event upholds thousands of years of tradition but is uniquely Santa Barbara.

The evening got started with a traditional lineup of Indian snacks paired with masala chai and mango lassi beverages. As guests conversed while browsing a silent auction, Indian attendees were as excited about sharing holiday joy with others as they were about celebrating it themselves.

Once the crowd moved into the school’s theater, the show began with a spiritual song dedicated to Lord Ganesh, the remover of obstacles in Hindu theology. From there, attendees were treated to 27 performances that mixed classical songs and Bharatanatyam dance routines with both modern and old-is-gold Bollywood numbers, comedic skits, and more. While performers of all ages had strong showings, the kids stole the show. Teenager Anika Joshi delivered a startlingly strong rendition of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” Middle-schooler Jaivik Doshi performed a traditional Gujarati Garba dance … on inline skates. His proud mother mentioned that the performance was “a fusion of our culture and his love of rollerblading. He plays ice hockey.”

The sense of fusion and inclusion was echoed during conversations with the organizers. Headed by President Kishan Khemani, the Santa Barbara Sangam’s seven-member core committee has organized local Diwali celebrations for nearly 20 years. Originally the events were smaller, largely created with Indian students spending Diwali away from home in mind. These days, the annual function has outgrown several venues and is now supported by a community of hundreds of local NRI (non-resident Indian) families and their non-Indian friends. One committee member summed this up well: “We enjoy our culture and sharing the fun parts of it with our friends that we live around. We love the most, dance the hardest, sing the loudest — why not share that with the world?” Indeed they did, with more than one-third of tickets snapped up by non-Indian attendees.

After a standing final ovation, the party moved to the school cafeteria for a key part of any proper Indian function — the food! Guests filled their plates from a large vegetarian buffet of Indian staples from naan and rice to dal and paneer. After topping the meal off with sweet gulab jamun, everyone headed outside to either wind down their night or dance it away in the courtyard.

Rob Peck and his family recently relocated to Goleta after spending 12 years in Chennai, India.