The India Student Association

Could you all introduce yourselves and what you do in ISA?

EH: Hi, I’m Ethan Haque. In ISA, I’m the Co-Cultural Secretary, and my role is to make cultural events throughout the year in between our major events

AK: My name is Aniketh Koneru I’m the Publicity Chair for ISA, so I deal with social media and branding for the organization.

MM: My name is Marzook Mansoor, and I’m the President of ISA.

And could you introduce ISA, as well? What are some of the goals of your organization?

AK: ISA stands for the Indian Student Association. We are one of the oldest student organizations on campus, over 60 years old We bring together the Indian community at the University of Oklahoma, and we host events that celebrate our holidays, traditions, and culture.

How long have you all been involved in ISA?

EH: I’ve only been an Exec this year, but this is my fourth year in ISA, believe it or not. When I was a freshman, I went to ISA’s Holi event, and I had a hell of a time I’ve always been interacting with ISA here and there, but I got more involved last year because all of the Execs were already my friends. Naturally, I saw how a lot of things worked and helped out whenever I could. This year, we had a midseason call and a spot opened, so I picked it up “Why not?” So, I’m here now

AK: I volunteered last year as a part of our organization’s Sub-C group. I helped with setting up events and checking in people. In addition to that, I helped with ISA’s Desi Prom As a result, I became friends with some of the Exec members last year This year, I joined the Exec team because I just wanted to contribute new ideas to the organization and help with the branding, bringing in my background as a PR major.

MM: For me, it was the end of Freshman year Everything was like, “Damn, I could have done more ”

They had India Night at the end of that semester, so I was like “I should go and volunteer” like Aniket did. The next semester, I applied for ISA as Cultural Secretary After that, I was going to quit because it was a lot of work, but my parents told me, “Hey, you’re in college, you know, you never get to have that chance again.” And so, I went for the Presidency.

It seems that you have developed a strong connection to ISA. How have you found a home within this organization?

EH: What’s special about ISA in particular, personally, is the hospitality When you go to an ISA event, you’ll be greeted by all the Execs. It’s hard to get that kind of hospitality elsewhere. I could sit there, and they’ll do all work - they’ll want to come to talk to me and you. There’s no prereqs to be in ISA. You don’t need to be Indian, you don’t need to know anybody. You will just be greeted with laughter and joy, and we’re gonna have a hell of a time. That’s what’s beautiful about ISA.

AK: I feel like all the Exec members in our organization are so open-minded, and we all come from different backgrounds. The Indian diaspora in itself is so diverse, especially here at the University of Oklahoma. We have grad students from India, as well as Indian American students who grew up here in the US I feel like everyone brings something unique to the table with different perspectives, to where we have that cultural representation since each of us are from different states or religions. And with that open-mindedness, we’re welcoming to all types of individuals in our organization

MM: Before I start, I want to say something about myself I was born in India, and I was there for 10 years Then, I came to America, so another 10 years that I’m here in America. Half my life, I’ve been here. So with ISA being full of international students and Indian American students, it was a perfect place for me. But more than that, the people here are amazing. They bring that culture, that optimism, so I love my Exec and my members

And with this passion, how does ISA seek to provide a “home away from home” for its members?

AK: A lot of our members are far away from home, like hundreds or thousands of miles away. They don’t have their family or their friends that they have back home So, we come together as a community because we are at a PWI institution. Every day, we interact with individuals who don’t look like us, who aren’t the same as us. When we host these events, we come together and we celebrate our culture. We eat food that we would normally eat at home with our family or friends We would celebrate with our dances We’d sing songs together. We’d wear our traditional clothes. When we get to do all these things, I think it brings our community together and makes a sense of belonging for each student.

Could you talk about some of the events that ISA hosts?

MM: The biggest event that we do, where we collaborate with SASA, is called Garba Night it’s a traditional Gujarati holiday

AK: It celebrates the deity of fertility. Typically, people dance in circular formations, because it’s praise of the deity. It’s a special way of celebrating not just in Hindu culture, but it’s celebrated widely across India as well We’re able to make that experience for the Gujarati students or just Indian students who want to celebrate with their friends. There would be no Garba Night, if not for ISA and SASA.

We also held Diwali Night, which is the festival of lights. It celebrates the overcoming of good over evil, of knowledge over ignorance. Usually, people celebrate with fireworks, but we can’t really do that here because it’s a fire hazard. What we do are performances like dancing, singing, and a fashion show, followed by a three-course buffet of Indian food. It’s not every day that you’re going to be able to see a bunch of Indian dance teams perform, or Hindi songs being sung in Meacham Auditorium, or traditional Indian kurtas and sarees. You don’t typically see those on campus, but we get to bring that out for Diwali Night.

AK: Finally, we have Holi, which is the Festival of Colors where we’d throw colored powder at each other That’s a really fun experience Because in India, everyone goes out on the streets and they throw color at their neighbors, their friends, their family. It’s just an awesome time to come together and celebrate with each other.

What would be some events that you would hope to have in the future, if there were available resources?

AK: We used to have Indian Night, so if we had more funding and time, we’d probably bring that back. But now, we have Desi Prom, which kind of replaced India Night.

MM: When I was applying for Presidency, one of the main things that I wanted to do was bring back India Night, but not just with India It would be PSA, SASA, all the South Asians. You would have this one huge celebration at the end of the semester.

AK: One of the limitations that all organizations have is the limitations of the budget that we get from SGA. Whenever we’re booking venues and stuff, it costs money for student organizations to book Meacham Auditorium or the White Forum building. It’s a time thing and it takes a lot of logistics to plan these events, and you have to buy the supplies. There’s a lot of factors that come into play about how many events that we can actually do in a school year

MM: And sometimes you forget that these Execs, they’re students too. They have to go through schoolwork, then they have to come through with all this organizational work It’s really hard to maintain that balance to throw these big events I applaud every Exec and every organization that go through this to support their community. To make sure that their students feel like they belong.

AK: If there were no Execs that helped, then there would be no sense of belonging or community That’s just the reality of things.

I’ve heard that some South Asian American students don’t feel like they fall within the term “Asian American,” as some people don’t see them as such. Have you ever experienced that, either as individuals or as an organization?

AK: Back in high school, I attended TALC [The APIDA Leadership Conference], the first ever one, and I was one of two South Asian students. Everyone else was East Asian or Southeast Asian. At first, I didn’t feel that representation, but throughout the year, especially during AAPI Heritage month, we’ve gotten more equitable representation from Asian organizations

Whenever people use the term “Asian,” they think of East Asia or Southeast Asia, because South Asia is very culturally different compared to its East Asian counterparts. There’s like a different identity when it comes to being South Asian versus East Asian versus Southeast Asian But I think over the years, we’ve collectively gotten more and more representation

How do you hope to see ISA evolve in these next few years?

MM: ISA has a strong foundation, right. We are 61, 62 years old. There have been bricks laid for the house, but I think we have laid down more bricks that make the house stronger Going forward, we want ISA to not just be about India itself. It has to be more about supporting everyone from the community.

EH: I mean, that’s the thing I love about ISA. We’re not just Indians or brown people who’s dancing and making a fool out of ourselves. We’re doing that with the entire community Just seeing how much we’ve grown already, and if we can just keep growing, that would be more than enough. I would love to come back in 10 years and see the same vibe that I got from when I went to that first Holi event.

AK: I want to see more engagement, and I want to grow our organization I would say our Indian population is growing - the number of grad students, the number of Indian American students that we get every year I want people who have Indian heritage to feel a sense of belonging, because everyone does deserve to feel like they belong here. I would love to see more events put on bigger performances. I want to see our auditoriums changing to bigger venues so more people can show up. With ISA, we bring together the Indian community, but I also want people outside of having Indian heritage to come learn about our culture, our heritage, our food, our fashion, our dances, our languages.

Is there anything that we haven’t asked about that you would like to talk about?

EH: I just want to give thanks to ISA and the whole OU community. Just a couple years ago, I was going to transfer, but because of the communities of MSA, ISA, AASA, all the different student organizations, I think I made the right decision to call this place my home I hope for the future, people are able to say the same

AK: You know how people say that Oklahoma has a small-town feel? I feel like we have that at OU for our multicultural organizations. OU ISA has a small-town feel because everyone knows each other in some way, it really feels like a small world. That’s something unique that OU’s multicultural organizations have, in general They’re ran by really awesome people I’d say that our Exec team has gone through trials and tribulations. We’ve put blood, sweat, and tears into our events, and I’m so proud of our Exec team. We’ve put in so much work, and we’ve grown so much as an organization. We’ve changed so much stuff this year alone So if we were to put out a message for everyone to hear on TAPIOKA, I would say that ISA has been here for 60 years and we’ll continue to be here. We’ll continue to create events that bring our Indian community together, and we’ll continue to bring culturally immersive experiences to people at the University of Oklahoma