Swing Fling

There has been a lot going on at Trinity these past two weeks. I will tell you briefly about events that I participated in.

• Distinguished Lecture by Thomas Friedman at Laurie Auditorium on February 16.

I had read "The World is Flat" and "Hot, Flat & Crowded" by Friedman which is why I didn't want to miss his lecture. I like his ideas in general even though the same cannot be said about his political biasness. He delivered a very provocative lecture pointing out the need for a Green Revolution in the field of Energy Technology, E.T. Read more on this in the Trinitonian (student run weekly newspaper).

• Mardi Gras by Latino Exchange on Feb 16.

This was one of my favorite events of the week because Latino Exchange had invited a Brazilian dance group who performed a traditional Brazilian dance called Capoeira which was a mix of dance and martial arts (See image below). There was also a performance by Trinity Jazz Band.

Brazilian artists performing Capoeira; Photo by: Abhishek Chhetri

Trinity Jazz Band playing during Mardi Gras; Photo by: Abhishek Chhetri

• Performance by Comedian Maz Jobrani in Laurie Auditorium on Feb 18.

I had an evening class till 7:30 pm but immediately after the class I rushed towards Laurie to see a hilarious performance by Maz Jobrani, an Iranian comedian. I made just in time. He made several jokes, mostly cultural. He did not spare any country in his jokes. The diversity among Trinity's audience surprised him since every time he made fun of some country or race, there would be someone representative of it in the audience. My appreciation to Trinity Diversity Connection (TDC) for bringing such a talented artist to Trinity.

• Student Government Conference of Private Universities, Feb 20.

Since I am in the Student Government, I had a chance to attend this. It was a pretty good experience since I learnt that other student governments too had similar concerns as ours. I also got to meet student representatives from several institutions across Texas and other states. I was surprised however, to see how religious other students were. I was saddened to hear one of the keynote speakers associate Mahatma Gandhi with Jesus Christ and proclaim that Mahatma Gandhi derived his inspiration from Christ. Since everyone at the conference was a Christian, probably he thought it would please the audience. A miscalculation.

• Lunar New Year Celebration, Feb 25.

Immediately after finishing my Mass & Energy Balances Exam, I rushed towards Laurie to see the celebration. I missed more than an hour of it but I was just in time to witness dragon dance,a traditional performances by Oriental artists. I also saw a performance by Vietnamese Student Association (See Picture Below).

Dragon Dance; Photo by Pasa

• Swing Fling, Feb 27.

I know you would rather see me solve Second Order Linear Differential Equations than dance. But, this year I have attempted to break out of comfort zone and oscillate a little in synchrony with another human being. This has not been easy since we engineers analyze dynamics of external bodies but never attempt to apply it to our own, earning popular names like geek and nerd. During this Swing Fling however, I shed my "geekiness" to actually dance in a three dimensional real time and space. People whom I danced with would not stop praising  how good a dancer I was.

Pasa dancing with Claire; Photo by Digital Subway

Jazz Band performed and it was very melodious.