A new club coming to the US community this year is the South-Asian Platform. The club has aspirations of introducing the US community to the culture of the region of South Asia. However, the South-Asian platform does not just include Indian culture. The club also celebrates the cultures of other countries in the region, such as Pakistan and Bangladesh. The club’s goal is to also provide a platform for discussions on topics important pertinent to the South Asian community. Over the course of the year, the club plans to celebrate multiple holidays. The first scheduled holiday will be Diwali, the Hindu celebration of the new year. Diwali in India generally lasts for 4 days and is celebrated with lots of lights and fireworks commemorating good over evil and light over darkness. The second holiday celebrated will be Holi, a Hindu celebration of happiness and love. Holi is famous for the colorful fue powders that people throw in the streets and bonfires, and it will be held in spring. Another interesting idea the co-heads of the platform have is to host Bollywood movie screenings in conjunction with the Film Society. Bollywood is a genre of film specific to India. It includes lots of singing, dancing, action, drama, and romance.

The University School Cricket Club will work in conjunction with the South Asian Platform. The goal of Cricket Club is to introduce the University School community to a popular sport in South Asia called “cricket”. Cricket is played in over 100 countries worldwide and cricket club co-head Raghav Sahadevan says, “I think the cricket club is a good idea because people in the U.S. do not know how fun cricket is to play.” The club plans to teach its participants how to play. Then have games every twice a month at either the baseball fields, or the auxiliary gym. To give a brief overview of the rules of cricket, each team has 11 players on an oval-shaped field. Each team takes turns bowling, or pitching, and batting. The batters try to protect sticks placed behind them called “wickets.” The bowlers try to throw a ball overhand and knock down the wickets. The batters score runs by hitting the ball with the bat and running back and forth between the pitching mound and the wickets. Co-head of Cricket Club, Ali Gardezi, says, “Cricket is an amazing sport, and I feel like the kids at University School could really enjoy something new to play besides squash and basketball during their free time.”  The South-Asian Platform is a growing club and is welcome to new members at any time. If you would like to learn more information about the South Asian platform or the Cricket Club, email Rohan Krishnamurthi, Sohum Kapadia, Sunay Rastogi, Raghav Sahadevan, Ali Gardezi, or Varun Tamaskar.