Berkeley Dil Se

Dil Se is a coed South Asian a cappella group based in the University of California, Berkeley. It ranks as one of the top South Asian a cappella groups in the nation after placing first at Anahat 2008,^[1] Gathe Raho 2009, and Anahat 2011.^[2] It was founded in the Spring of 2004 by students at the university who wished to combine the melody-based raagas of Indian music with the depth and harmony that drive western music. The group is sponsored by the ASUC.^[3][4] In May 2013, Dil Se, for the first time in its history, released a music video which has gone viral in 3 days with 13,000 hits on YouTube (search for Berkeley Dil Se A Cappella - Suno/Trouble). This video combines a Hindi song (Suno by The Bilz & Kashif) and an English song (I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift).

History

Dil Se was founded by UC Berkeley graduate Arjun Ohri in the spring of 2004. He and his co-founders wished to fill the void on UC Berkeley's campus that had already been filled by then at schools like the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford; the lack of an a cappella team that incorporated the popular tunes of South Asia. The group, in its roots, played on the interests of second generation South Asians at Berkeley who wished to find a common ground between their western and eastern cultures through music.

Performances

Dil Se performing at Bollywood Berkeley 2008 in San Francisco

The highlight of Dil Se's fall calendar is the annual Anahat, incidentally hosted by UC Berkeley's Indus. The event is usually held late in the fall.

In recent history, Dil Se has placed first at Anahat 2011, third at Anahat 2012, and third at the ICCA 2012 West Quarterfinal. In the past few years, Dil Se has performed at illustrious venues such as Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business, International House at UC Berkeley, the India Community Center in Milpitas, the Paramount Theater in Oakland, Bovard Auditorium at the University of Southern California, Mills College, Ohlone College, Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, Smithwick Theater, Saratoga High School.

2004: Fall of 2004 marked the very first Anahat competition, where Dil Se, as hosts of the competition, performed as an exhibition act, instead of competing.

2005: This was the first Anahat that Dil Se competed at. The competition took place at the Julian Morgan Theater, and Dil Se placed 2nd.

2006: Dil Se placed 2nd at Anahat

2007: In the 2007 episode of Anahat, including UIUC Chai-Town, Stanford Raagapella, UCI Haath, UCLA Naya Zamaana, Rutgers R.A.A.G., and UIUC Chandni, Dil Se placed second.

2008: Competing against UCLA, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UIUC Chai-town, and UIUC Chandani, Dil Se placed first with a renditions O Re Piya from Aaja Nachle, a song that remains as a popular Dil Se piece to this day.

In the spring of 2008, Dil Se performed as an exhibition act at the Hindi Film Dance competition Bollywood Berkeley, and the Bay Area's only Raas competition, Rangeelo Raas on March 1, 2008. Dil Se also performed at Bombay in the Bay, the largest High School Indian cultural show in the Bay Area, on April 5 at Saratoga High School, Saratoga, California. They closed out the year with performances at the world-famous Zellerbach Hall for the From All Perspectives annual multicultural showcase hosted by UC Berkeley's ASUC and at the Alumni House of UC Berkeley.

2009: In November 2009, Dil Se took third place at Anahat, behind USC's Asli Baat and UIUC's Chai Town. Dil Se took first place at Gathe Raho in February 2009, the annual South Asian a cappella competition hosted by the University of Iowa. That was their only Gathe Raho trip to date. Other notable 2009 performances have included an exhibition at Bollywood Berkeley, performing in concert with Penn Masala, and a performance at the Indian Embassy of San Francisco's annual Republic Day banquet at the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco^[5]

2010: Dil Se placed second at Anahat. They also performed at Bollywood Berkeley.

2011: Dil Se placed first at Anahat. They also performed at Bollywood Berkeley.

2012: Dil Se placed 3rd at Anahat. They also performed at the ICCA 2012 West Quarterfinal, placing third and winning best soloist, a huge accomplishment for them. They also performed at Bollywood Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall and at the ICC Banquet in Milpitas.

2013: Dil Se performed at an array of large-scale venues: USC Bovard Auditorium for Mehfil: A Showcase of South Asian A Cappella, Zellerbach Hall for Indus Culture show and ASUC Perspectives, in a collaboration concert with groups like Tufts Beelzebubs, UC Men's Octet, and the California Golden Overtones, and at the Mondavi Center at UC Davis for Hellacappella, a Northern California A Cappella showcase featuring groups like On The Rocks A Cappella.

Current members

• Aloka Narayanan
• Anahita Vasudevan
• Anand Lakshminarayan
• Adit Kothari
• Jay Reddy
• Megha Ranganathan
• Meghana Bhimarao
• Parthiv Mohan
• Riju Dasgupta
• Siddharth Kusuma
• Serena Gupta
• Shruti Koti
• Suhasini Ravi
• Vinay A. Ramesh
• Vivek Rangaswamy

List of Alumni

Aarti Bhatnagar, Abhaas Shah, Ajay Ohri, Aneesha Desai, Anirudh Srirangam, Ankit Jain, Arjun Panda, Aroon Vijaykar, Arti Doshi, Arun Ramamurthi, Ayush Chakravarty, Bhumi Bhutani, Bhuvan Jain, Brett Goldstein, Chinmayi Bettadapur, Elizabeth Vargis, James Yuan, Jessica Farmer, Jose Hernandez, Krushna Merchant, Lalli Venkat, Mala Neti, Manali Shah, Manisha Eerabathini, Naomi Awakama, Neeraj Kohirkar, Nikhil Gargeya, Nikhil Kaul, Parth Bhatt, Prithvi Guruprasad, Radhika Chandrasekhar, Rahul Thakker, Rochit Gupta, Roshan Panchanathan, Sahana Rajasekar, Sanjay Makhijani, Shalin Shah, Spandan Bandyopadhyay, Sudarshan Bhat, Suhasini Ramakrishna, Sushma Umesh,Tarang Srivastava, Tarini Ullal, Vaibhavi Umesh, Vaishali Bhardwaj, Varun Pai, Vini Mani

References

External links

• Dil Se's Official Website
• Dil Se's performance at Anahat 2008 on YouTube
• Music Video by Berkeley Dil Se A Cappella - Suno/Trouble - The Bilz & Kashif/Taylor Swift

v t e University of California, Berkeley Academics College of Chemistry College of Engineering College of Environmental Design College of Letters and Science College of Natural Resources Goldman School of Public Policy Haas School of Business School of Education School of Information School of Journalism School of Optometry School of Public Health School of Social Welfare School of Law Athletics Golden Bears Baseball Men's Basketball Women's Basketball Football Lightweight Crew Rugby Softball Volleyball Oski The Big Game Stanford Axe "The Play" Memorial Stadium Haas Pavilion Buildings Bancroft Library Botanical Garden Bowles Hall Doe Library Evans Hall Greek Theatre Hearst Memorial Mining Building Sather Gate Campanile Sproul Plaza University House LeConte Hall Wheeler Hall Zellerbach Hall Research Laboratories Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory Life History ASUC Cal Band Daily Californian Housing KALX Dil Se UC Men's Octet California Golden Overtones Bear Transit Alumni Nobel laureates Turing Award laureates Academy Award Pulitzer Prize Emmy Award Wolf Prize National Medal of Science National Medal of Technology Gödel Prize MacArthur Fellowship Academia Arts and media Business and entrepreneurship Politics and government Religion, spirituality, and lifestyle Science and technology Sports Fictional Faculty Faculty and staff