This weekend the Indian Society had organised a Bollywood Club Night, and me being a crazy fanatic about Bollywood ever since I was a kid, it was expected that I was super excited for the event. This has been my favourite event since last year as it always feels like I am at a club from back home. Also as I am part of the Indian Society core committee, and this being our first major event after our fresher’s dinner, the pressure was on.
Planning events is not as easy as it looks as there are so many things to consider from ticket and poster designs, to booking a particular floor for the event and making sure it doesn’t clash with other union events, to coming up with innovative ways to promote the event and etc. Below is a video the Secretary of the committee and I made to promote the event:
During the event, the turn out was great and everyone seemed to be having a good night and the DJ was doing an amazing job with having a mix of old and new Bollywood songs. However I also realised that not only were there people from India and the Indian subcontinent but there were also people from the Philippines, Singapore, UK, Germany and many more. Not only this but we also had people come to the event from St. Andrews and Abertay University.
This made me realise a couple of things that firstly, the aim of the society was being full filled, as we were able to bring the Indian students and the broader South Asian community together under one roof from different parts of the city. This is great as you get to meet so many new people that you wouldn’t get the chance to meet otherwise in your day-to-day life. Secondly, another thing that I was able to understand after the event was the importance of diversity in a university environment and how multicultural societies are able to increase it. Having multicultural societies allows students to experience and get exposed to different cultural aspects of particular countries. This helps in many areas of an individual’s personal development such as it prepares students for work in a global society, makes them more open minded and tolerant. This is one of the reasons that I like the university of Dundee as it encourages students to showcase their culture with other students.