The smack of a bat in a cricket game. The crinkle of a chip bag. A Bollywood tune. These are a few of the sounds you might hear when walking past a South Asian Student Alliance (SASA) meeting.
The club meets in room 284 every other week during X-block, welcoming students of South Asian backgrounds, as well as others who want to learn about and support the culture. Representing a minority group at the high school, SASA aims to create change at school and beyond with their outcome-oriented community.
Senior Amarjot Ranu is one of the presidents of SASA. She joined the club as a sophomore, eager to connect with people of her culture at school. According to Ranu, it is important to have SASA as a space to express and celebrate your identity.
“My whole life, I didn’t really have a huge South Asian community. A lot of my family is abroad, and being in majority-white schools, you just don’t have that place where you can express your culture. So it was really cool to find that here,” Ranu said.
SASA recently had two events for Diwali, one collaborating with APAC, and the other in collaboration with schools around the greater Boston area. Junior Addy Jalan, the Junior President of the club, found the celebrations to be successful.
“A lot of people came to just hang out, or even just talk. A lot of my non-South Asian friends got their henna done,” Jalan said.
According to biology teacher and SASA club adviser Sutikshna Veeravalli, including other schools has impacted students who do not have South Asian affinity groups. Those students can celebrate the holiday at the high school.
“For a high school that doesn’t have a high enough threshold to warrant a SASA there, BHS SASA is kind of like a parent or a doctor,” Veeravalli said.
This was the first year where Diwali was recognized as a Category II holiday. This brought pride to the members of SASA, as it involved collaborating with leadership beyond the high school.
“This is a PSBMA issue, so we had to talk to a lot of committees,” Jalan said. “We had one meeting where we invited so many people, a lot of South Asians, a lot of our parents came too, which was really great support. We worked really hard to get it, and the fact that it worked and we didn’t have homework for those two days—that was really great.”
SASA is also a place for students to simply make friends and connect with their culture. The club is stocked up on all kinds of snacks (plus leftovers from their recent potluck), which club members can enjoy while spending time with each other. Jalan said these are the fondest memories she has from her time in the club.
“We would play games; we would play Guess the Song to Bollywood music. We would watch Bollywood movies,” Jalan said. “So when it was me and the friends that I made through joining that club, those are the best memories that I have.”
According to Ranu, in this past year, the club advanced the experience of South Asian students around Brookline and Boston by working to make them feel represented and embraced.
“When there’s no affinity space for your group or your ethnicity or whatever, it kind of makes you feel like your identity isn’t seen or isn’t important to the school’s culture,” Ranu said. “It is a part of what makes you you, so it’s important to have that recognized in a club.”
