Organizers of the dinner were pleased with the event's attendance since they had been unsure of how responsive Amherst students would be to a dinner fundraiser. "[The Art of Living Club] has previously held such dinner fundraisers at UMass that have been similarly successful, so we decided to see how well it would work at Amherst College," said founder of the Amherst chapter of the Art of Living Club, Debanti Sengupta '06.
ISA members and members of the Amherst and UMass chapters of the Art of Living greeted guests and invited them to eat chole, curried chickpeas and aloo matar paneer, a dish of potatoes, peas and cottage cheese in a curried tomato sauce, which were provided by Paradise of India restaurant.
As part of the dinner event, the Art of Living showed a video about the humanitarian and charitable programs of the IAHV in over 152 countries. The organization conducts several programs in addition to the current disaster relief effort. IAHV also provides educational programs on how to maintain a stress-free mind and disease-free body, non-aggression programs caring for children as well as problems about health, hygiene, homes, human values, harmony and diversity.
Following the video, Akshaye Sikand, the teacher of an art and living course and a graduate student at UMass, gave a presentation that introduced the organization to the College community. Sikand explained that the course uses techniques similar to the ones used by the organization to provide relief to people devastated by natural disasters, such as the Pakistani earthquake. The course teaches a combination of yoga and meditation.
During the dinner, Sengupta thanked all the participants for attending the fundraiser and emphasized the extent of damage the earthquake caused in Pakistan. "This is some number crunching none of us like to do, but 79,000 people have died and more than 3 million are homeless," she said.
Many students enjoyed the innovative initiative to provide more than just material relief. "I like the idea of not just providing material aid, but also emotional relief," said Christopher Terai '08. "The earthquake couldn't come at a worse time, especially because of the tsunami and Katrina, it seems to have been played down."
Cristina Morales '06 echoed Terai's sentiment. "I hadn't heard about the earthquake, but obviously we had heard about the Tsunami and about all the hurricanes," she said.
Despite the good turnout, some students felt that more could have been done to support the relief efforts. "I convinced my friends to come," said Saaqib Zaman '08. "There have been so many disasters one after the other, people are getting tired of helping out. I think donor-weariness is the term for it."
President Anthony Marx acknowledged that people will inevitably have stronger reactions to a disaster close to home, but felt that Amherst students had responded admirably to far away disasters. "People will of course respond differently to different issues, but the point is to be receptive to these responses and to see how we are connected to these tragedies in the world, whether they be in the Gulf or in another country," he said. "I am quite impressed by the array of student efforts on all these fronts."
The Outreach Council Collaboration Fund Committee granted the ISA and the Art of Living Club $250 to support the fundraiser. This was the first award given for the 2005-06 academic year.
Sengupta greatly appreciated the award. "It was very nice to be supported by funding from the Outreach Council, Dean Boykin-East and the President's Office," Sengupta said. "It allowed us to donate all proceeds to IAHV instead of having to cover costs."