Oktoberfest..with a difference

This weekend Columbus, Indiana organized their years old tradition of celebrating Oktoberfest aka The Ethnic Expo. In this residents of Columbus belonging to various countries put up stalls to exhibit the food and culture of their country. Its a fun event extending for two days where people from surrounding counties visit Columbus. We used to enjoy it since not only do we get to eat good home made Indian food and food from other countries, but also get to see so many people. Staying in a small town like Columbus, you tend to miss the crowd and enjoy when there are more than 10 people within 4 feet radius of you.

Among all the food stalls put up, the Indian one is the most popular with people actually queueing up to buy the food and is also the stall whose supply gets over the fastest. The recipe and menu is decided by the Indian Asso and work distributed to various volunteers. Stuffs like poori and dosa is made right there on the spot while other food items are made at the volunteers' homes. This time, it seems due to the huge rise of the Indian population in Columbus, most of the desi food was consumed by the desi public themselves leaving very little for the rest of the crowd!

Apart from food stalls, they have stalls that sell curios from different countries. The Indian stall sell Indian clothes and bags and jewelries apart from other stuffs. They even have a 'henna tattoo' thingie. Cultural events are also organised. Normally the host country puts up variety shows but I believe this year other countries participated too. One of my friend with other females put up a dance on 'Dholi Taro' song...and it seems to have been quite a hit!

In last years Ethnic Expo, an interesting thing happened. On Saturday night, after everything got over, people were packing up the stalls. Our Indian people, fun that they are, had put on desi music and guys were generally dancing to the music while packing. Pretty soon some more joined in and the music got louder and the people started spreading out to the road outside the stall. Passers by stopped to look and soon everyone joined in. We had a party going on! The teens specially enjoyed our songs and learnt few of our desi thumka moves. We had a blast. This went on for about 2 hrs and once it got over, they were asking us CDs of our music.

It seems this end-of-session desi party is now going to be a part of the tradition. V told me this year too they did the same thing. Nice way to make desi presence felt..wat say?