President Obama became the first president to celebrate Diwali, or festival of lights, an official holiday in India and a festival in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism, last week.
Kalpen Modi, associate director in the Office of Public Engagement, who is better known by his acting name, Kal Penn, blogged about it here.

Modi, who is perhaps best known for his role in the movie “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” was hired by the White House to do outreach to the Asian as well as arts communities. He started work in July. Penn is well suited for building a bridge to those communities; he campaigned for Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign and was a member of his National Arts Policy Committee. And he also taught classes in the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, “Images of Asian Americans in the Media” and “Contemporary American Teen Films.”

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