Alumni Help USC Team Win Hindi A Cappella Competition

This story recently appeared in the winter 2012 edition of Harker Quarterly.

A pair of alumni helped bring home the top prize at Anahat, an a cappella competition at the University of California, Berkeley, in mid-November. The University of Southern California’s Asli Baat team, which includes Amar Shukla ’09 and Alex Underwood ’08, won the competition this year. This year there were teams from Case Western and Rutgers, in addition to the University of California, San Diego, University of California, Los Angeles and others, said Carol Underwood, Alex’s mother. “They sing in both Hindi and English, as well as doing some blended songs,” she added. “The event brings together national South Asian a cappella teams from different universities for a great event which is also the week of Diwali, so all the more exciting!” Underwood said that last year, her son did a solo in Hindi and “I’m told it sounded very good,” going on to note, “My culturally confused kids (born in Canada, Hong Kong and China) never look in the mirror and see a tall blond kid but (rather) think they are Indian and Chinese!”

Congrats to both Shukla and Underwood for their group’s accomplishment!