The South Asian Business Association at the Harvard Business School held its annual cultural show Ekta 2012 at the Burden Auditorium on Nov. 7, 2012. The cultural show showcased the artistic side of the MBA students who otherwise are usually seen excelling the realm of finance, consulting, management and other fields. 

The program Emcees Disha Patel and Nishant Lalwani kept the audience entertained with a humorous narration that was styled along the lines of filmfare awards.   The first year students at Harvard business school, referred to as RCs opened the night with a Bollywood number choreographed by Pratik Agarwal, Tanivi Goel and Rachel Raymond.  This was followed by a fashion show set to favorite tunes from yester-years where, as per the program “the costumes sparkled, actors were evergreen and Bollywood was larger than life”.  Ishna Berry, Tess Dearing and Bindi Dharia choreographed this number. The next item titled “Anarkali Disco Chali”  was a beautiful blend of traditional and modern mujra style. Shruti Dube and Rupakshi Goel choreographed it.

From the razzle-dazzle of Bollywood, the show moved into the realm of classical dance.  Aashna Kircher, Vani Nambudri, Remya Naraynakutty, Amrita Saigal and Sri Lekha Tummalapalli presented Amrita Saigal’s choreography of Patnam Subrmania Iyer’s Kamas Thillana in Bharatanatyam style. 

The second year students who are referred to as ECs, presented EC Sharara which combined South Asian classical and folk styles with Western hip hop and modern movements. This piece was choreographed by Aashna Kircher. 

Nirupama Jagannathan, Divya Jain, Varun Mehta, Akshay Navaladi, Mohit Rajani and Vishnu Shivaji who are members of the HBS band Rock On! presented a rock blend of popular Hindi numbers.  This followed by Beyond Dance, choreography by Aashna Kricher. 

In the traditional Ekta style the grand finale was a Bhangara dance-off between the RCs and the ECs. The RC Bhangara was choreographed by Smiriti Jayaraman, while the EC presentation was choreographed by Shereen Khanuja. The judgement  was delivered based on the cheering from the audience and it was wonderful  to see Dean Nitin Nohria actively cheering for his favorite. 

Kudos to the organizing team members Aashna Kircher, Rupakshi Goel, Abhishek Shrivastav, Taania Sheikh, Nishant Lalwani, Amir Malayery and Disha Patel and all the performers for creating this fabulous cultural evening despite their very demanding schedules at HBS.