Sangam Diaspora

By – Dharmi Tailor

I’m a little bitter, to say the least. Only now, after desperate attempts to attract writers for Diaspora, do I realize the extent to which students only engage in those courses and activities that will increase their GPA or build their resume. (This is not to say that I haven’t been guilty of having the aforementioned attitude in the past.)

When we pitched our goals for this newsletter, Anshu and I received responses ranging from, “I don’t need to write, I am a science major,” to sheer laughter. We thought approaching this matter with a lighthearted attitude to emphasize Diaspora’s flexibility and low-time commitment would be the best bet. Considering our zero person turn-out for the first meeting, I guess we were mistaken. Well, for all of you skeptics who did not take us seriously to begin with, who think that sharpening writing skills is not important, and any others who had negative reactions to our awesome speeches, I advise you to think again. As editors, we are serious. Writing is critical to all careers. And Diaspora is going to be great this year.

A few more things should probably be addressed. Including articles that unveil the breadth of issues relating to South Asia today, and UNC’s campus as well, would be ideal. Sangam, our sponsor, is supposedly an organization covering eight countries, which is sometimes masked by the prominent number of Indian members. One of my biggest aims for this publication is to provide a diverse array of articles from an eclectic group of individuals, and by that I mean not only including articles on India by Indian students. With this being the first issue, my apologies extend for certainly not meeting this goal. We’re also keeping the idea of one step at a time in mind, so when the next Diaspora issue rolls around, we expect this problem to diminish.

Bitterness aside, I extend a sincere invitation to all of you, no matter what your ethnic origin, to help bring Diaspora back to the level of hype and renown that it was founded upon several years ago. For those who contributed to this issue, thank you. For everyone else, we would really love to have you.