Thirteen Indian graduate students will celebrate their interest in music and raise funds for the Association for India's Development (AID) during a benefit concert Saturday night at State College Area High School, 653 Westerly Parkway.

The Indus Elementz performance of popular Indian tunes follows a recent Indian food festival and a dance program last year as a featured fundraising event organized by the Penn State chapter of AID.

"We are constantly looking for ways we can raise money," said AID volunteer Vibha Ravindran (graduate-electrical engineering).

Ravindran said proceeds from the concert will fund earthquake rehabilitation, women and lower-class empowerment, and food supply development projects in India.

Bassist Chandrashekar Ramaswamy (graduate-industrial engineering) said the group formed because Indian students at Penn State did not have a representative music scene.

"We started out as a bunch of guys who were all just interested in music," Ramaswamy said.

While none of the band members are actually AID members, Ramaswamy said their friends in AID have helped Indus Elementz find practice space on campus and offered to organize the band's first official show as an AID fundraiser.

Ramaswamy said the concert will allow the band to continue gaining musical and performance skills while playing a wide range of contemporary Indian songs for a good cause.

"Our goal is just to learn a lot, branch out and explore," Ramaswamy said. "We just concentrate on Indian music because that's who we are."

Vishal Mody (graduate-electrical engineering) came to Penn State in 2001, the same year as Ramaswamy, with an interest in playing music but no organization to play for. Mody, who plays keyboards, said the band has been practicing during weekends for the past seven months for the opportunity to present an organized concert.

"Most Indian students have been here for years without hearing Indian music," Mody said. "This is a chance for them to hear what they had in India."

Vocalist Sameer Sawant (graduate-electrical engineering) said while the concert was organized to raise funds, celebrate Indian music and educate those unfamiliar with Indian culture, he is looking forward to simply playing music. "The main idea is to have fun," Sawant said.

Aravindhan Venkateswaran (graduate-computer science and engineering), who plays keyboards and drums, also emphasized the universal aspect of having a good time.

"There's no Indian chemistry or Indian physics," he said. "Music is just music."