400 come to 'U' for IASA conference By Tiffany Maggard Daily Staff Reporter Nine months of intense preparation and anticipation came down to just three short days for members of the Indian American Student Association as they hosted the fourth annual Midwestern Indian American Student Conference, the largest event of its kind in the nation. Over 400 Indian American students from across the nation converged at the University this weekend to engage in a celebration of Indian culture, heritage and history. The event, titled "2000 Reflections: Discovering Your Inspirational Light," differed from MIASC's past symposia because it encompassed the preservation of Indian history and cultural assimilation in society. The group's planning committee traveled to Philadelphia for a retreat last June in hopes of finding inspiration for the symposium's theme after seeing an Indian American history exhibit. "We're on a milestone in our community with the millennium this year," said MIASC External Director Jaspreet Singh, an Engineering senior. "In Philadelphia, we decided that we needed to focus not only on what we're going to do in the future, but what we've done in the past," Singh said. In an effort to make the event more meaningful and intimate for everyone involved, the planning committee organized sets of "cluster groups," consisting of nine participants each. In the groups, students were able to share ideas and become more acquaint ed with the other participants. Engineering senior Neal Cholhski said he was pleased with the fact that this year, more students from different parts of the country were able to contribute to the diversity of each cluster group. "This by far is the best year. It's truly become an out-of-state, Midwestern conference," Cholkshi said, adding that this year's event was the group's first step in broadening the national scope of the conference. Students participated in many events, including a traditional Bhangra dance competition Friday night at the Michigan Theater. After different clusters went to area restaurants, participants were able to choose from a variety of 20 workshops to attend - each reinforcing the symposium's theme by celebrating different topics and issues of the past, present, and future of Indian culture. Manick Sorcar, an engineer and children's book author, hosted a workshop titled "Indian Culture: Will Our Children Know?" Sorcar reminded participants how difficult it can be to preserve rich traditional heritage in the vastly different contemporary American culture. After immigrating to the United States in the 1970s, Sorcar was determined to find a way to teach his children about the philosophy and life in Asia. "One option was to brainwash them," Sorcar said jokingly. "But we decided that instead we should try to attract them in some way." Sorcar captivated his children's attention by using his artistic abilities to create cartoons, fairy tales and songs that celebrate Indian culture. Eventually, all of these elements were combined when Sorcar put them into an animated form and an honor from the International Film Festival. "It was a huge source of information for my kids," Sorcar said. The symposium concluded Saturday with a formal dinner party at the Best Western hotel on Jackson Avenue. All 415 students at the party dressed in formal Indian attire and ate an authentic Indian meal with traditional music playing in the background. Most students attending the conference from other colleges and universities, including the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Notre Dame and the Georgia Institute of Technology, returned to their respective campuses yesterday. "I think it's a great place for Indians to get together and share their culture. They've done a really good job to promote interaction," Georgia Tech student Natasha Joglekar said. "We flew far away for this. We had high expectations," UCLA student Babah Sidhu said. "It was a really good idea." JOANNA PAINE/Daily LSA senior Anuj Vohra and LSA sophomore Ranjit Das discuss minority issues yesterday at the Midwestern Indian American Student Conference. Originally on page 1A in the 1-24-2000 issue of the Daily.