Arushi Sharma | It's going brown

It was another night of pre-exam procrastination. My hallmate showed me her Facebook party album, a stream of male headshots popping up between photos of her babe brigade. Memories of New Student Orientation flashed through my mind, but something was different about these pictures.

"Oh, my gosh!" I exclaimed. "I've never been to a Penn party with so many black people!" My hallmate wasn't surprised: "Well, it's all about the comfort zone. Like, you probably go to mostly South Asian stuff."

Certainly not. I love being Indian. But ever since I transferred to Penn, I've been places where "God Save the Queen" and "O Canada" are yelled from the rooftops, jokes are made in Russian and prayers are said in Hebrew. To many people, the variety of social interactions I have had here is surprising since I'm an alleged "FOB," (Fresh Off the Boat) and I walk around Penn in a salwar-kameez - a long tunic with a scarf and pants.

When I arrived at Penn, people made all kinds of generalizations - that I watched more Hindi movies than normal television, ate only Indian food and would have an arranged marriage, to name a few. But what really disturbed me were questions like, "Aren't all your friends Indian?" and "Why do you want to try out for Onda, not Penn Naach?"

A recent phone conversation regarding my decision to pass up a Penn Masala performance for a Chord on Blues concert went something like this:

Me: "But I've already heard Masala!" She: "But all SAS (South Asia Society) people are going!" Me: "I can't afford both." She: "But it's MASALA!" Me: "I haven't seen COB!" Click.

I also remember when I told my friends about the evening I spent with some Latin American students who obligingly belted out Mariachi tunes for me. One girl wondered why I knew "so many Spanish people." She then hastily explained that she thought I would socialize mostly with Indians. Our common friend joined the conversation and added, "I don't understand what happens when you South Asians group up. I'm suddenly out of the loop."

It worries me that there is a sticky, cliquey vibe among South Asians on campus - don't start attacking me, all you fellow South Asians. Even if we're all just chummy, perceptions of our behavior are widespread.

Many South Asian students aren't so chirpy about their community-culture vibes either.

Some of my Indian friends who were born in the United States complain that they don't understand a lot of the "Indianized" references and jokes in common conversation. They also can't take non-South Asian friends to "brown" parties because they feel they don't fit in - which is pity because the music is awesome, the girls are hot, and the guys can dance.

Furthermore, many South Asians I know who moved halfway across the globe to study at Penn ended up in a group of friends that watch more Bollywood movies than they did in their home countries.

And they're not happy about it. One of my close friends who lives with other Indians in a community program says he loves his friends, but could've had the exact same sort of company studying at an Indian Institute of Technology.

Rita Bagai, SAS president, said she thinks Penn exposes students to so many cultures that one's own culture becomes the focus of interest, which leads to clique behavior. And "once one's comfort zone has been established, it becomes incredibly hard to expand into a different social group."

But, as Bagai asserts, not only does one need a personal cultural identity, but also a sense of multicultural appreciation. If people stay preoccupied with their own culture to the extent that they are indifferent to everyone else's, then what's the point of going to a school that has 10 minority student groups, rather than three?

South Asia deserves to be celebrated and the enthusiasm of the South Asian community at Penn is well-founded. My only quibble is that this enthusiasm should breed inclusiveness, not exclusiveness.

The best way to do this is on an individual level. By the end of this academic year, my goal is to make sure all my non-South Asian friends try Chicken Tikka and all my South Asian friends try Challah bread. My salsa-dancing friends are going to Phillyfest in January and my Dhamaka-obsessed gal pals will experience African Rhythms in February.

And I know everyone will have a good time.

Arushi Sharma a College junior from Rockville, MD. Her e-mail address is arushi@sas.upenn.edu. For‡a appears on Mondays.

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