UMass Student Has International Goals

(Shailee Shah, courtesy of Facebook)
On a normal day in Hadley, Mass, 18-year-old University of Massachusetts Amherst student, Shailee Shah walked into Taco Bell and did not expect to meet two people that knew of her family all the way from India.

Shah’s parents hail from Bombay, India and moved to the United States in 1983, right after they were married. Although Shah was born in the U.S. and lives in the small town of Reading, Mass, she has a very strong connection to the country of India that most people cannot relate to. Most of her family still lives there and she tries to visit the country at least once a year.

On that typical day in Taco Bell, Shah met an Indain couple that was from Ahemdabad, Gujrat which is the area of India that her family is from. Shah asked them if they had ever heard of her grandfather, Taarak Mehta, who writes one of the most famous television shows in India. The couple immediately recognized the name and said they were just about to drive home and watch his show.

Shah’s grandfather, Taarak Mehta’s greatest achievement is writing the hit show “Taarak Metha Ka Ooltah Chashmah.” The title translates literally into “Flipped Glasses” which is interpreted by Shah as “looking at the world in a different, and more comical perspective.” The show was named the most watched TV series in India in August 2010, and it is, by far, the longest running daily comedy show on Indian television.

One Indian television review website describes watching the show as “The moment you enter it, your head goes into a spin deciding who is funnier than whom."

Shah is following in her family’s footsteps and pursuing a theater degree at UMass. Because Shah has such strong connections to people in the entertainment business and Bollywood, India’s more theatrical and exaggerated version of Hollywood, she is confident that her degree will take her far.

Unlike many of her classmates, Shah does not plan on making it big on Broadway, or staring in the future blockbusters of the century. She says “Because of the connections I have within my family, I feel like I would have a better chance in India.” She is making plans early because just last year, she was given a dual overseas citizenship to both India and the United States. “I plan on living there for at least a year, if not more, after graduation,” she says.

She also says that she is more interested in Bollywood than Hollywood because the productions are much different. The typical Bollywood production includes a large amount of dancing as well as acting and large musical numbers that are usually drawn out and contain many spectacular costumes and props. These types of musical numbers would be considered too over-the-top for even some of Broadway’s most gaudy musicals.

Shah has been dancing for all of her life, but she is not trained in the typical styles of ballet or tap. She has been trained in classical Indian dancing and still continues it in College through Dadak, which is an Indian fusion dance team on the UMass campus.

Shah recently flew to India for yet another visit, but this time it was for work and not play. She secured a role of the main character’s daughter named Shreya, in the film “Saptapadi”. It is a part-time role because her character is a student who is studying abroad and just coming home for a short visit.

Shah stayed for a week of filming, while making the sacrifice of missing classes here in the U.S. She explained “There were so many camera men, and people were doing my hair and makeup for me. It didn’t feel real!”

The main actress in this movie is a family friend who lives in India, and she suggested that Shah would be perfect for the role. Shah says that she hopes to build up her resume of productions, and this will certainly help.

But because Shah is working towards a degree in theater, there are always many critics. Because the theater and acting industry is such a difficult business to get started in, and even stay in, there are many people that question her goals in life. Shah says “’I’m going to go for it and always think of a backup because it’s never guaranteed.”

When asked what she said to people who question her goals Shah said “I say that it’s something I really want to do, and I feel that it’s in the realm of possibility for me.”

The Pawn Shop - Fox Proprietors by Chelsea Cote

The Hampden Gallery at The University of Massachusetts Amherst offers students a touch of culture and creative thinking in an area of campus one might not usually expect to find it - the Southwest residential area.

Currently at the gallery there is a showing of “The Pawn Shop - Fox Proprietors” by the Provincetown-based artists Tim Winn and Zehra Khan. The interactive exhibit will be displayed at the gallery from now and until Oct. 6.

As you walk into the gallery it is clear that the artists have created their own small world. The main focus point is a pawn shop constructed from paper and paint that visitors can walk through and interact with. Every piece is life-size and even available for purchase.

They have created a space where children can feel just as comfortable as adults, but there is also some creative and critical thinking that needs to be done when one views this seemingly lighthearted take on a pawn shop managed by foxes. “It can reveal a lot more than what one can just see with their eyes,” said Anne LaPrade, the gallery's director, “It would be wrong to look at the work as just casual or playful.”

The story behind the pawn shop is that a visitor walks in and notices that the proprietors, the foxes, are not there. Anything can happen inside the store, LaPrade explained, and the artists are trying to ask “when nobody is around, do your values change?”

But this exhibit is not just about social and moral values. “I would say that it is a fitting exhibit for the time… because people are looking at their pocket books. It is useful for people to look at an exhibit like this and exercise their thoughts about the situation” LaPrade said, adding that the work of art also hints towards the current economic situation.

“Visitors to pawn shops are often not wealthy people,” LaPrade said, A pawn shop "is a place that you go when things are pretty hard. There is an element of desperation.”

In contrast to this element of desperation, there is a video playing in a two minute loop in the back of the gallery showing the artists dressed in colorful body paint acting as the fox proprietors making it clear that they are not experiencing any monetary hardship at all. In fact, there is also a “Secret Tunnel” that visitors can walk through to gain entrance to a secret vault that contains piles of “Fox Money.”

The two artists drew all the items that are in the shop with a kind of makeshift feel to them. They were all hand painted as small pictures then copied and enlarged to make them life-sized. Also, everything comes with a price tag. Visitors have the option of buying any copy of the art.

Artists Winn and Khan both hold MFA’s from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and they say that they would like to take their work as far as they can go.

Thom Konan who works for the gallery says “I really appreciate folk art. I look forward to seeing more from these artists… it’s got an interesting sort of edge to it.”

Journalism major, and one of the gallery visitors Patrick Strohecker, said of the exhibit that “It can relate to the college kids because we are always strapped for cash… and it’s different because it’s not just pretty paintings.”

A limited, digital copy of the artists’ book about their exhibit can be found at http://www.blurb.com/books/2437713