Watching Mock Mehendi as a freshman, senior Nikhil Kadava said he had never seen anything like it before. This year, he’s participating as the groom in the event.
“It’s like a full circle moment, being an underclassman and going, and now finally going back and being the groom myself. It’s really cool,” Kadava said.
He said when watching Mock Mehendi for the first time, he hadn’t realized there were fun extracurricular events that were inclusive to a lot of people. Kadava said it was inspiring to see the people he looked up to having fun.
Mock Mehendi is a representation of one of the festivities leading up to a South Asian wedding. Senior and president of BVSW SASA (South Asian student association), Srihansika Penugonda said she’s the leader behind Mock Mehndi because Southwest is hosting the event.
“This event represents our community, and it brings a lot of people in, which makes me really happy,” Penugonda said. “As a kid, I didn’t have a lot of South Asian representation in my school. Having this event as a place where everyone can come and be a community together, no matter your school or what district you go to. It’s just a big, fun party for everyone.”
Penugonda said that Blue Valley Northwest, Blue Valley High, Blue Valley West, Olathe North and Barstow SASA’s help put the event together, but anyone is welcome to participate. She said there’s food, a henna stand and a rangoli stand, which is drawing patterns with chalk.
Kadava said people voted for a bride and groom who get hyped up, brought on stage, then pretend to get married. He also said there’s cake, music and dancing.
“It’s to bring together a bunch of South Asian culture and show it off,” Kadava said.
Senior Tanvi Sri Kare said she had lived and danced in India for 10 years before moving to the United States. She has been participating in Mock Mehendi since her sophomore year.
“I get to learn more about my culture and how it works, since I’m not in India, it makes me feel like I’m more involved in getting connected with my culture, even though I’m in the States,” Kare said.
Kadava said he previously struggled to be proud of his culture.
“I think being a brown person in America, there’s going to be times when you feel like I don’t fit in because of my culture,” Kadava said. “But now I feel through these events, you really learn to be proud of your culture.”
Through Mock Mehendi, he said he was able to grow an appreciation for his culture.
“I think for the upperclassmen who know a little bit more about their culture, they get to really demonstrate and show off their culture and be proud of it,” Kadava said. “And then the underclassmen get a sense [that] it’s not shameful, or it’s not weird to be proud of my culture. And we instill that sense of pride in them.”
One underclassman, sophomore Sahavi Bethi, said she originally joined because it seemed like a cool way to connect to her culture, despite not being very good at dancing.
“I was nervous the first time to perform, because I thought I would mess up,” Bethi said.
This year, Kare is one of the people in charge of choreographing and teaching the dances, which she said has caused her to gain more leadership skills, such as communication. She said she spends around five hours on the weekends at practices.
Kare said teaching has been rewarding and caused her to get better at taking leadership, which is one of her biggest accomplishments.
Bethi described the seniors as being good role models and patient. She also said she was able to meet a lot of people from different grades and schools she previously didn’t have the chance to talk to.
“I think it brings a lot of kids closer together who never really had the chance to express their culture, and with people that are their age,” Bethi said.
In college, Kadava said he plans to continue participating in Mock Mehendi.
“I’m excited that the culture goes past high school, it’s in college, and then obviously beyond college,” Kadava said.
Bethi said she hopes more people will go to Mock Mehendi this year.
“It’s really fun, and if you’re interested in exploring Indian culture, then you should come,” Bethi said.
Mock Mehendi was rescheduled due to weather, and will now be on Jan. 31 at BVSW. Tickets can be bought on Bound at this link. According to Penugonda, the money from the tickets will go towards a charity called Eye of an Immigrant, which supports immigrants and immigrant-run businesses.
“There’s been a lot of things happening with immigration and immigrants getting deported. As a 2nd generation immigrant and as someone who has dealt with firsthand how hard it is having to deal with the judgment people have against immigrants, I personally took this one to heart with supporting immigrants,” Penugonda said. “I know a lot of people that are coming are also immigrants, we thought it’d be really powerful to choose that charity to support.”
