Princeton Weekly Bulletin March 22, 1999
Desis of Our Lives
Group writes, presents "ethnic comedy" about issues "familiar to all South Asian-American students"
By Caroline Moseley
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The cast of Desis of Our Lives: Meenakshi
Dutta '01 (back l), Michael Scanlon '01, Serina Deen '02,
Kunal Sarkar '00, Sachin Shah '01, Alia Poonawala '02 and
Garani Nadaraja '02; Kiran Kakarala '01 (front l),
Kushanava Choudhury '00, Manan Shah '01, Karthick
Ramakrishnan, Graduate School; Adithya Raghunathan '00
and Ram Krishnamoorthi '99 (Aleem Remtula '01 and Avik
Mukhopadhyay '02 are missing from the photo)
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"Desi is a Hindi slang word that refers to someone of South Asian origin," explains Karthick Ramakrishnan, a graduate student in politics. Used more frequently in this country than in India, the term means "someone from the homeland," he says.
According to Sachin Shah '01, Desis of Our Lives deals humorously with "issues of assimilation familiar to all South Asian-American students: the pressures of traditional values and parental expectation vs. the pressure to become Americanized."
Ramakrishnan and Shah are both coauthors and codirectors of the play, which concerns two South Asian families living in New Jersey.
One upper-class, one not
"One family is upper-class," says Ramakrishnan, "and the other is not. Both have children -- one a boy, one a girl -- at Princeton. The students like each other but don't want their parents to know. They're supposed to be pursuing their education, not having fun."
To complicate matters, the girl has a brother also at Princeton -- "a hyper-assimilationist who wants a job on Wall Street," says Shah. "And he definitely doesn't want his sister dating a desi."
The plot comes to a boil on Freshman Parents Day -- but not until the play has satirized (among other aspects of South Asian-Americana) Hindi pop films and music, Prospect Street eating clubs, and, of course, intergenerational dynamics.
In one scene, says Ramakrishnan, "When the son comes home, his father tells him he got into Princeton. 'How do you know?' the son asks. 'Was it a thick envelope?' 'Oh, nothing like that,' says the father. 'I just opened your letter.'"
While the play focuses on "situations all South Asian-American students will recognize," says Shah, "there's a lot any student -- or parent -- could relate to."
The play will be presented at 8:00 p.m. on March 26 and 27 in Forbes College Theater. For ticket information, phone 258-CALL, PSAT.