For Who? For You!

For Who? For You!

I have come to learn that this year's Mela (Stanford's spring South Asian cultural show) featured no videos. As in: none.

I wanted to say that I find this disgusting.

I'm sure it was a fun show that lots of people put a ton of work into it. To them I say, "Thank you for making sure the tradition of Mela continued for another year. Thank you for providing a venue at which and an audience to which one may present some form of cultural expression that is in all likelihood amusing, enjoyable, or both."

To the talented video makers still on campus, I say, "I went to this cah-llege for 4 years and made a video FOR WHO!? FOR YOU!!".* You probably had video cameras sitting under your beds, powerful computers sitting on your desks and, most importantly, highly entertaining ideas sitting in your collective heads. And rather than be presented on a silver screen, they continue to sit, wasting away. You lazy bums. What was your grad in maths?

Because of you, hundreds of people witnessed a breach in a century-spanning tradition; a tradition that makes Mela unique among cultural shows.

... Bhangra, man, Bhangra **

• • • A reference to possibly the funniest Mela video ever. If anybody has a copy of the "For who, for you" video or if you have a copy of the 1999 or 2000 Mela Shows, I hope to hear from you :-)
• ** - some line that I unwittingly said in a video; it amused a handful of people.