S. Asian leaders gather at U. conference

Discussions of secret food and idolizing Bobby Brady were just a few of the anecdotes shared by guest speaker Bobby Jindal at this weekend's South Asian Political Awareness Conference. Jindal, the assistant secretary for planning and evaluation for the Department of Health and Human Services on President George W. Bush's cabinet, came to Penn Saturday night and spoke to a group of enthralled students and community members. He is the highest-ranking South Asian official in the United States. After PennMasala, a campus a cappella group, engaged the audience with a variety of ethnic melodies -- as well as Seal's "A Kiss from a Rose" -- Jindal proceeded to discuss the eccentricities of being an Indian American and the similarities shared by the South Pacific Asian community. "The American Indian community is very diverse, but there are some special things that connect us," Jindal said. Through a variety of amusing stories and personal experiences, Jindal spent some time discussing the bonds that unify the Pacific South Asian community. He emphasized an important point and the lesson with which he wanted the students to leave -- "Don't be afraid to take a chance." Jindal elaborated on this point, "A lesson I took to college was that I was going to take chances," he said. And Jindal said he knows this lesson all too well -- he waited too long to ask out the first girl he had a crush on, and the next day, she moved away. "I'll never know if she would have gone out with me," he said, and now he has learned to always take the chance and ask for what he wants. The conference also included a variety of other speakers from the South Pacific Asian community, including Natwar Gandhi, chief financial officer of Washington D.C., and Kapil Sharma, vice president of Madison Government Affairs. "It's great to see the South Asian political leaders come together," Wharton sophomore Anita Butani said, adding,"It was very inspiring -- South Asians need to get involved in politics." Over the past four years, the "conferences have become continually successful," Wharton senior and conference co-founder Gaurav Kapadia said. "Bobby Jindal's presence is a real treat... and speaks of how our organization has grown in popularity." Despite the growth, however, College senior Naeema Ginwala said the conference has not lost sight of its mission -- to "generate interest in South Asian issues... and get the community involved." This year's theme was "Leading the Way: South Asians Breaking the Mold."