Cornell Bhangra to unite community with ‘intoxicating joy’
By Caitlin Hayes, Cornell Chronicle
When Amulya Puttaraju ’24 came to Cornell in 2020, she needed to restore her sense of hope.
Her senior year of high school had moved mostly online due to COVID, and a debut classical dance performance she had worked towards for years was cancelled.
She rediscovered her drive, and her joy, in Cornell Bhangra, a long-standing campus group that practices a modern take on a traditional Punjabi folk dance.
“The whole basis of Bhangra is to bring community together, to celebrate things like the harvest and to have fun, together. Bhangra literally means ‘intoxicated with joy,’” said Puttaraju, a student in the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration, part of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, who serves as one of two team captains.
“It’s pushed me so much in terms of my personal growth,” Puttaraju said. “Having Bhangra and being able to apply myself in a different context has shown me that I’m capable of so much.”