The jubilant aura of the Festival of Lights shone brightly enough to attract the Hindu goddess, Lakshmi, to the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes on Sunday night.The Indian Student Association organized Utsav, meaning “festival” in Hindi, to celebrate Indian culture. The ISA held the festival in observance of the five-day Indian holiday Diwali, which includes the Hindu New Year.Similar to Christmas and Independence Day, Indians pop firecrackers, and children traditionally light small clay lamps in hopes Lakshmi will bring good luck and presents to their homes.”Utsav is the biggest event ISA does for the fall semester,” said Dhaval Shah, environmental engineering graduate student and ISA president.The purpose of the festival is to celebrate the birth of the Hindu gods and welcome them into our Indian homes, said Nigam Patel, festival attendee. Patel said Utsav is an opportunity for Indian students to celebrate a native holiday at the University. Guests, many dressed in traditional Indian clothing, attended the festival, which began with the focal performance by classical Indian singer Sri. Bharat Narayana, who is touring the U.S for the first time.”The aim of coming here to LSU is the unity of minds and the unity of hearts,” Narayana said. “I feel it is a privilege to participate in this student function, and it is a great pleasure to be in the great land of America.”Narayana’s visit was sponsored by the Iyengar Medical Foundation. S.S. Iyengar, professor and Department of Computer Science chairman, said it is critical to expose people to Narayana’s type of music, which blends western and eastern classical sounds, because he has the ability to captivate a diverse audience.The festival featured dinner and singing, dancing and skit performances by students and children in the Hindu community. Shah said the Hindi song performed by American University student Andrea Allen was the “performance to look forward to.”Though Shah said the audition process for performers was strict for most adults, he was lenient with the children performers, who were as young as five.”It’s less about the dancing and more about the cuteness,” he said.The ISA used about $4,000 to organize the festival, which included paying for authentic Indian cuisine catered by India’s Restaurant on Essen Lane. Dinner was held at the 4-H Mini Farm next to the John M. Parker Agricultural Center.The International Cultural Center provided a pickup service for students without vehicles living off-campus.—-Contact Margy Looney at [email protected]