Holi – the festival of colors, the herald of spring, and a time to make merry with friends, family, and community. Here at TAGMO, the Holi season has always been one of our favorite times of the year. Each year we collaborate with The Culture Tree and the Seaport to host a joyous celebration where we make space for people to toss colors, eat good food, and learn more about the many traditions of Holi – South Asian or otherwise!
Anu Sehgal, CEO and founder of The Culture Tree, has been one of our most supportive collaborators. Her mission to promote South Asian culture and heritage through educational programs in the diaspora aligns perfectly with our goals at TAGMO and Chef Surbhi is proud to call her a dear friend. We at Team TAGMO sat down with Anu to talk about the future of our partnership and why working together is imperative this Holi.
TW: The following interview contains mentions of sexual assault and gender based violence.
Priyanka R (PR): Anu, thank you for being one of our biggest collaborators and partners. We really appreciate your support and all that you do. Tell me a little bit about The Culture Tree and why your mission to promote South Asian culture in the diaspora is more important than ever today.
Anu Sehgal (AS): The Culture Tree is an organization, a non-profit 501(c)(3). It promotes cultural literacy about South Asia through two key things: language education and cultural programs. Our goal is to create empathy, respect, and understanding towards all different cultures while furthering inclusivity and also addressing questions about identity with heritage cultures. Our mission, our vision is even more important these days because the country is so polarized. The way that things are changing on an everyday basis, I feel that the mission of an organization like The Culture Tree is even more critical, especially with respect to the younger generation.
PR: I definitely agree with you on that – let’s pivot more specifically to Holi, which we’ve celebrated with you guys for a very long time now. Holi at the Seaport is always incredibly fun and apart from the joy of getting to throw colors and eat good food, what do you want people to learn from this event and from The Culture Tree’s participation?
AS: For that event we work with The Seaport and it’s a community based event that’s open to everyone – doesn’t matter if you’re from India or any other country, it’s a very inclusive event. We have a lot of children and families, younger folks in their 20s and 30s, older folks – everyone gets together. This event is the epitome of inclusivity and diversity, I feel, and that’s so impactful because this historical festival from India has become this symbol of everyone getting together and enjoying each other. So it’s really become something of an equalizer in so many respects. Holi itself is a very fun festival and what I always tell people about Holi is that by the end of the day, when you’re playing with all these colors, we all end up looking the same. That it really doesn’t matter what your gender is, what your sexuality is, what your age is, whether you’re old or young, rich or poor, what the color of your skin is – we all, by the end of the day, look the same. That’s what everyone should take from this festival; that’s the real essence of this festival.
Holi at the Seaport is the biggest Holi event in America now. It’s in this beautiful, historic district of Seaport – it’s not just visually stunning but it also has all these historic ties with India as well. We activate the entire Seaport district to celebrate this event – we start at one end and end at the other. It’s a huge event that honors South Asia, our festivals, our customs, our traditions. Everything comes to life when the community gets together, there are all these spectacular small businesses that showcase and share their products and services that people are there to enjoy. The simplest things are the most priceless.
PR: A wonderful answer. When I was reading a little bit more about your mission at the Culture Tree, it said that your mission is driven in part by your move to the US a couple decades ago and your upbringing in South Asia. So, what is your favorite Holi memory from growing up in India and how do you bring that to the Culture Tree’s celebrations?
AS: So growing up in India as a girl, Holi can actually be a very raucous festival. Especially in North India, it can get very physical, very violent towards women – so unfortunately, most of the day on Holi we would be locked up inside our house given that it was my sisters and myself. That’s what our parents preferred, since we became adolescents. However, my father was in the Indian Army and there was a very contained, beautiful, wholesome celebrations of Holi in one of the Army mess areas where the Army families came together to play with colors, eat really delicious food in a safe environment. So that is definitely a special memory that is stuck in my mind. Unfortunately, during my teen years we just stopped playing Holi because it just became very overwhelming because there was a lot of inappropriate touching of girls involved. So we took a break during that time.
My other memories of Holi are connected to the smell of the color powders gullal; it has a very unique, nostalgic smell. There’s also eating the Holi sweets called gujia,and drinking thandaiwhich is that spiced almond milkshake. Holi also is during the spring, so the flowers of India are something that just cannot be replicated – they are so fragrant. It’s the time when the days are warming but there’s still that respite from the heat with that cool breeze – these are the things that are so vivid in my memory.
PR: Sounds like quite the memory! You’ve been one of TAGMO’s greatest supports over the last couple of years , like I mentioned in the beginning, so do you have a favorite memory of one of our joint ventures?
AS: I believe in Chef Surbhi, her talent – our partnership has been very organic, and I still say to my friends, “If I was to call Chef Surbhi at 2 am at night, she will pick up. I could ask her for anything and she’d do it.” That’s the kind of confidence I have in Chef Surbhi and our friendship. She’s a real ally and I think she sees the same in us. We really understand and support what she is doing. I really believe in her brand and her mithai is definitely the most fabulous and the most beautiful. So it’s basically just helping each other – you know there’s a lot of people who will say that they’re a community based organization, that they’re doing a lot for the community but very few will actually step in and help out. I feel that TAGMO and The Culture Tree are completely aligned in our giving back, and the way we think about it. We don’t have ulterior motives – we just do, we want to help people around us. So I think that mentality, that way of thinking is what really makes our partnership so seamless and organic, and so fun. We have so much fun when we work together! It’s a true partnership I would say.
PR: That’s amazing. So, finally, what’s something you’d like to accomplish with us in the future, to really underscore the importance of our common South Asian roots and common mission?
AS: The sky’s the limit, honestly. I can’t name a single project, but I like the different programs and projects we are heading with corporations. Like last year, we worked with the Kennedy Center on a really spectacular Diwali event and I brought Chef Surbhi along – because we have very similar values, and trust. I feel that we can accomplish quite a lot together. What we do complements each other – if I’m hosting a big event, we always need food so Surbhi is the first one I’ll always think about! And vice versa, if Surbhi needs a curator, or someone who can emcee she brings me along. So I think that friendship and trust is not easy to build, it takes so much working together and having those same core values. Not just in our brands, but our personal belief systems.