The two big stories in America today seem to be the miss-steps and misfortunes of two college students: Kaavya V and Reggie Bush.
Kaavya’s stealing have been well chronicled, lampooned and now, she has even inspired a plagiarism competition.
Churumuri reports a statement by that wise sage who goes by the name of William Dalrymple. He apparently characterized Kaavya as a ‘ruthless Asian babe’. Who are his other examples? Faria Alam, a staffer in the British Football Association, who had affairs with all the senior functionaries of FA, including England’s coach, Sven Goran Erikson and Jyoti De-Laurey, who worked for Goldman Sachs and is accused of stealing over four million pounds. As my friends here would say: what’s he smoking? Well, having witnessed his other drunken performances on Indian television, nothing he says surprises me, actually. Still his list of ruthless Asian women does him no credit nor does Kaavya V, for all her faults, belong in such company.
Dalrymple is a writer that some of us admire but we also expect more dignified and considered comments from a writer of his stature.
In the meanwhile, let this poor girl take a class or two and actually write a term paper, before she either writes the next masterpiece or responds to all the plagiarism charges or becomes known by her first name all over the world. Friends who have read her class papers vouch for all the learning she has to do and we might let her do that in some peace. Let her get a burger with friends and grow up, without being viciously hit by Internet pundits and Nytimes every day, well for the next week or two.
Reggie Bush is a familiar story. The USC running back and the most exciting college footbacll player that I have seen in the last ten years has his own mis-steps to account for. Well, the consensus 1st pick in today’s NFL draft, he has already lost that spot when Houston decided his demands and off-field troubles weren’t worth the trouble. Now it turns out that his parents had benefited from agents and others, like all the families of elite college athletes do. Details of unpaid rent, loans and what not are slowly coming out. In American collegiate sports, this isn’t anything new and so doesn’t have the cache of the Kaavya V story. But needless to say, problems of collegiate sports represents a bigger sickness in our universities and yeah, in our society as well.
What do we value as achievement? What are the acceptable paths to get there?
What are the stories of our times? As we dissect Kaavya V’s plagiarism, I wonder: why aren’t we talking about Soyinka’s memoirs? Much of America will spend this weekend, debating the NFL draft (well, I am draft-nik too) and finding excuses for the behavior of Reggie Bush and his fellow star athletes.
I write this sitting in a conference on the ‘Fate of Disciplines‘ on a saturday morning. That’s actually another story for our times and I will post my rantings on the conference itself sometime today.
One Comment
Hey Prithvi,
I read the book last week (procrastination on a thesis paper is bliss) and agree with your comments. Though I haven’t read the other works from which she supposedly plagarized , I hear that the “plagarism” is being overblown. There’s a fine line between getting inspiriation from some books and copying from them and I hope that some people start to recognize that admist all the speculation and innuendo going around.
As for college football, it’s unfair that Reggie Bush gets criticized for accepting gifts when college football steals so much from their players (even the right to leave for the draft early). Though Bush should be accountable for his actions, I can’t help but sympathize with his plight - member of a low income family that desperately needs a house and money.
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