Volume V, Issue 6 The ST. Xavier’S College NewSleTTer Feb & march, 2013

Before they graduate! Read about the most exciting TYs on campus here and on page 513 Class of 2013 Seniors to Meet

The XaVIer’s Press

A Life Sciences and Biochemistry major with among the highest GPAs in college, Joshua has had it anything

but easy. To pay his way through junior college, he spent 8 hours after college every day waitering at Delhi Darbar’s wedding parties. A resident of Borivali, he had to sleep on Marine Drive and odd stations the days he missed the last train back home because he couldn’t afford a cab. Things have been easier for him since, thanks to the yearly scholarships awarded by college. He also received a full scholarship to spend one semester at the University of Oxford reading Genetics and the Human Sciences.Joshua is now exploring the integrated PhD programme at the National University of Singapore.

Joshua MirandaAnyone who moves around in the sports circuit of college will know Niddhi Mehta as the Sociology and Anthropology major

who is captain of the college’s women’s basketball team and equally ballsy about a few other sports. Her interest in athletics dates back to her school days where she represented JB Vachha at handball tournaments in Europe. After an intense two-month training camp in 2007, Niddhi was selected to play for the Indian handball team in the Commonwealth Cup which was to be held in Zambia (it was cancelled because of unrest in the region).Outside of college, Niddhi trains in capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, for which she has even travelled to Israel. In 2014, she will apply for a Masters in Sports Management.

Niddhi MehtaWhile most students approach SIP with no small amount of dread, Soham, an Economics major, took up the

challenge heart and hands on, forming his own NGO in Palghar. His true passion, however, is real estate development — a subject on which he attended a 4-day programme at Harvard Business School. His internships at CB Richard Ellis, Credit Suisse, HDFC, and Windsor Realty, led to him authoring a soon-to-be-published book titled The Pioneers who Reshaped Mumbai’s Skyline.First in his Economics class, Soham has attended summer school at Brown University and the Swiss Finance School of Business. He has also been accepted into LSE’s Masters programme in Real Estate Economics and Finance.

Soham Narang

A lobbyist for the Socio-Lit major, Antara jokingly describes herself as “a foot shorter than the rest”.

Standing at just about 5 feet, Antara is also literally a foot shorter. One of the defining moments of her life was in FY, when she lost a part of her right leg in an accident and had to get a prosthetic foot. She attended Malhar, as OG Raga, on a wheelchair and has been unstoppable since. She was OC Raga in Malhar 2013 and creatives head and director in Ithaka this year.After college, she is set to work as a product manager with a start up called Laugh Out Loud Ventures where she has been working for a while.

Antara TelangStanding at 6’4”, Kartik, a BSc Statistics major, is hard to miss. A basketball, table tennis, chess (and

flute!) player, he has also been acting as General Secretary of the Statistics Society.In addition to sports teams, Kartik is also a part of the group that held the Guinness World Record in 2012 for the most number of people solving the Rubik’s Cube at the same time.His best memory of college is when he got the Bain job bucking the BA Eco/BMS trend. Having previously interned at IITB and IGIDR, Kartik has been accepted into the Applied Statistics Masters course at ETH Zurich.

Kartik VermaYou may know her as the General Secretary who reinvigorated the Student Council or as one of the few Eco-Lit

majors but there’s more.She is part of the core teams of Mumbai Globalist and the XPC and has travelled to Harvard University and Tunisia as part of leadership programmes. Despite these laurels, she recalls being selected as Texx OG in FY as one of her most memorable moments in college.For those who have a passion for development, Lizann is the senior to meet. She is set for a 3-month internship with Dalberg and hopes to pursue her master’s in public administration from either Princeton or Harvard University.

Lizann Fernandez

Editors’ Block2

This is The XPress’ version of the Malhar closing speech, where the departing editors reflect back on the year, column inches, writers, and indispensables that were.

The XPress did something new this year: it pulled the numbers in. We published six issues in the 2012-13 academic year, more than any in the five years of our existence. We revealed the secret lives of the most outstanding ex- and current students. We recommended time-wasting and saving websites. Wrote a story in parts so that you would suffer the way your mothers do while watching 1000-episode serials. And introduced a report-writing competition testing your reaction to Psy, Internet Explorer, and dinosaurs.

But through this all, we enjoyed missing deadlines, cursing Adobe InDesign, and meeting with each other and our fourteen writers (all virtually; the entire XPress team has never met in real life) each month to

decide what would occupy our next two weeks. Our writers were indispensable -- they were the stone walls against

which we threw the most impossible deadlines and the spies hired to infiltrate impenetrable fortresses of gossip.

So were the editors, two of whom will leave for good, one for a year, and two not for some time. We (the writers of this piece) will pursue post-graduate courses in foreign groves of

Abisha Fernandes

Nayantara Ghosh and Sadia Zafar bid goodbyeAll Good Things Come to an End

academe: Nayantara in Finance at LSE and Sadia in Social Policy at Oxford. We might, while there, bump into Ashwin Chandrashekhar, who will be an exchange student at Comillas, Spain. Keeping The XPress in print will be Prthvir Solanki who has a penchant for paper (he enjoys both writing on it and eating it) and Kadambari Shah who, we hope, retains her title of being the thinnest person in her batch.

We’re almost but not nearly done. Without Dr Radha Kumar and Fr Frazer’s excellent guidance, Bipin Sir’s ability to print in the shortest of time frames and give the largest of discounts, and IL&FS’ Mr Ninad Vengurlekar’s generous sponsorship, we wouldn’t have had a lot to write about in this piece.

And thank you! For reading The XPress when it was thrust into your hands (and occasionally, when you asked for it). Watch out for next year’s team as they bring you more news from around the college that you never wanted to know.

Writers’ Block

Alaric Moras

Fawzia Khan

Ishita Chaudhary

Gayle Sequeira

Jai Subramanian

Raadhika Vishvesh

Madhurima Rajwade

Jinal Sanghavi

Sanjana Kumbhani

Prakriti Bhatt

Vaishnevi Paatil

Rhea Gandhi

Shreya Mathur

You? Apply!

Page Three 3

We all know him as the lovable, slightly fidgety and understanding Anna, but we sent in our best and brightest (Raadhika Vishvesh and Vaishnevi Paatil) to get to the man behind the dazed smile and ferret out the secrets of feeding a tired, screaming mass with enthusiasm.

Anna, the man behind the counter, the affable giver of free food (on credit) and the companion of long stay-back evenings in the college, was known by another name once upon a time: Uday S. Shetty. Working in the college since 1990 (at which time, incidentally, none of the XPress members had been born), Anna hails from Udipi (a place known for its good food as if we needed any more

convincing).

We were surprised when we realised that Anna does not live in or around the college, h a v i n g seen him leave even after our l a t e - n i g h t sessions, but

comes everyday from Ghatkopar. He talks proudly about his older daughter, who finished her BMS and is now working at ITC. His younger daughter is in the 11th grade, studying commerce.

Anna gets animated as he talks about

work. “Usually, it’s the cook who thinks up new recipes. But students give and should give suggestions too.” The most popular dishes amongst Xavierites, he says, are the Cheese Garlic Toast and the Mauritian omelette (totally Indian).

Anna likes working at Xavier’s. It’s his home as much as anywhere he’s ever lived. And Anna is as permanent and essential a feature of Xavier’s as any other tradition. Why else would grown up, successful alumni, who could be eating at the Taj or the Royale, come back to sit on those rickety chairs and enjoy the over-sweetened chai and the thick aloo parathas every possible chance they get?

spotted @

the f

arew

ell

Alisha Dias (above right) and Nikita Sonavane (below right) were caught wearing the same dress and consequently studiously avoiding getting too close to each other.

OOPS!

THE HIPSTERS

Aaron Decouto (left) brought old school hipster back with his debonair look.Desi girl Radhika Agrawal (right) made the bold decision to wear a saree, managing to carry off her drape better than many awkward dress-wearers. The XPress also spotted two other girls in the nine yards.

Barkha Singh (above left) was the most glamorously dressed and very hard to miss. Equally hard to miss were brothers-in-arm Sikandar Singh Soin (glasses) and Nandan Krishnaswamy (hair) who have been, since JC, two peas in a different pod, whether it is their radical choice to be more involved in the Lit dept than the Eco dept (blasphemy) or their casual attire for the Farewell.

HARD TO M

ISS

This is The XPress’ first venture into the more daring, more shallow world of page three reporting. Let us know if you enjoyed it (we sure did) so that we may include such features in our coming issues.

And while we’re on the topic of farewell and enjoyment, a big kudos to the Student Council for all the giant leaps it has made this year. The bar has been raised high for the future councils.

In Conversation with Anna

College News4

St. Xavier’s College hosted the inaugural Invitational Football Tournament for the visually challenged between 31st January and 3rd February, where teams from Mumbai, Delhi and Goa competed to be crowned the first ever champions. This was the first time such a tournament was being held in the western region of the country, the West comprising Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Goa.

Over the course of three days, the four teams (St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai; Wilson’s College, Mumbai; The Blind Welfare Association, Goa; and Hostel for College Going Blind Boys, Delhi) battled it out in a round robin, where eventually Delhi and St. Xavier’s emerged as the finalists. But in a disappointingly one-sided affair, the boys from Delhi hammered the hosts by 8 goals to nothing.

A tradition as old as any, IMG’s flagship event Janfest is one of the highlights of the typical Xavier’s extracurricular year. However, if there is one thing that Janfest was not this year, it was typical. Present were the ever-glowing stalwarts of the Indian classical music scene like Ustad Rashid Khan and Vidushi Girija Devi, as well as the dynamic duo of Ganesh-Kumaresh. However, the show-stealer was the Peshkar, a confluence of Hindustani and Carnatic music that resounded throughout the hallowed halls and enthralled audience and workforce alike.

From the eclectic line-up, to the breath-taking backdrops, from the professionalism inherent in every volunteer to the minor frenzy as rumours of Swedish House Mafia and Vidya Balan coming in swept the workforce, Janfest 2013, like its predecessors, was a life experience in itself.

The stage was set. Chairs were arranged. The red carpet was rolled out. Xavier’s wore a festive air on the afternoon of January 23 as it played host to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the renowned Tibetan spiritual leader. He was welcomed by Fr. Frazer and Malhar Vice Chairperson (Conclave), Nikita Kohli ’14 who escorted him to the hall as hundreds of students cheered and applauded from the galleries.

The Dalai Lama addressed several important issues in his direct, yet endearing and gentle way. The chief aspects of his speech were the need for honesty, compassion and the power of faith. He spoke of the importance of religion and the role it plays in creating global peace and harmony. He also addressed the need of education. Most importantly, he talked about the pursuit of happiness Raadhika Vishvesh

Football for the Visually Challenged

On Morality, Religion, and Happinessand the need for tolerance. “Most of the problems we face today are of our own creation. Why? Because we focus on the secondary differences between us — race, nationality or faith and within them whether we are rich or poor, educated or uneducated. At the

same time we neglect the fact that we are all members of one human family. We bully, cheat and exploit each other. When this is what goes on, how can we be happy?”

Hosting such an dignitary was a dream come true. And this

dream was made possible due to the sustained and sincere efforts of the Malhar Conclave 2012. Says Nikita,” We were incredibly lucky to have had him here. He made life look so easy and happiness so achievable. In those two hours, everything felt so peaceful and safe.”

Speaking to captain and goalkeeper Mahesh Mhabdi ’14 about the loss, he says “Reaching the final was a big

thing for us. Delhi were very aggressive on the field. They were targeting me, continuously kicking the ball at me until I went into the goal myself!” Tilakprasad Joshi ’13, a member of the

ishita Chaudhary

St. Xavier’s team, said “Wilson’s and Goa were of the same level as we were, but the Delhi team has played in many international tournaments so it was tough to compete. Strategically, they were unbeatable.”

The success of the tournament resulted in many angry phone calls to director of the XRCVC, and head of the sociology department Dr. Sam Taraporevala. “We’ve had teams calling us and enquiring why they weren’t included to play. They felt that they should have been competing as well. But since this was the first time we were doing this, logistically we had to draw the line and limit ourselves to four teams. Other colleges are now requesting me to keep them in mind the next time we hold the tournament.”

Prthvir Solanki

13 Seniors 5A Naval officer’s daughter, Barkha (BMM — Advertising) has had a long modelling career during which she

worked with most of the big brands (national and international), shoots for which took her across Europe, Asia, and most parts of India. In addition to ads, Barkha has acted in movies and serials. Most recently, she has been experimenting with pageantry; she was Miss Vizag Andhra Pradesh 2012 which catapulted her to the semi-finals of Miss India.Despite hectic work schedules, Barkha has managed to strike the work-school balance. She was second on the HSC merit list and has consistently been in the top 3 of her class. She interned in the US last summer and is now headed back to the States after TY for the University of California Berkeley’s summer school, entirely paid for by her own earnings.

Barkha SinghRare is the person who hasn’t met Shakeel, rarer still one who hasn’t heard of him.

Given that he is a former President of the National Student Union of India and was selected into the Youth Parliament to observe the proceedings of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, one wouldn’t peg Shakeel as an Ancient Indian Culture major.He has also been selected for the NYU Stern leadership programme for which he received a full scholarship from the CM of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot. When Shakeel wrote on the CM’s facebook page requesting for financial assistance, his post was spotted by the page admins who then invited him to Rajasthan to meet the CM, following which he was granted the scholarship. Following this quick jaunt to the US, Shakeel will head to Delhi to work with Members of Parliament as a LAMP fellow.

Aadi Vaidya Shakeel Ahemed

Abhay has been part of every economics-related activity possible: from chairperson of Econundrum

to Editor of Arthniti to teaching Applied Economics to SY and FYBA students. He is also famous for his academic papers that he bases on primary research and has presented at national level seminars.Having gained admission to the 2+2 MBA programme at the Indian School of Business, Abhay will now be joining McKinsey & Company as a Business Analyst.

In his three years of college, Yash, a Political Science student, has managed to organise or contribute to

events for almost all the extra-curricular organisations on campus except the IMG. A theatre buff, he was an amateur film critic at the MAMI film festival. After that initiation, Yash will now be shooting a film about Mumbai under the legendary screenwriter and director Amole Gupte.His most significant achievement, however, is the selection of his paper at an international conference, The Geography of Change, where he was the only student among international researchers and field experts. After graduation, Yash intends to study International Relations at the South Asian University in Delhi.

Rishi, a BMM (Advertising) student, has the unique distinction of possibly being the only Rishi

Bradoo on the planet. He is also known in BMM as one of the founders of Zeitgeist.

If you’re ever passing by an ongoing activity in college, you can be sure that Tasneem Kakal, an Economics and Sociology

student, is a part of it in one way or another. OG Sales and Marketing for two consecutive Malhars, an active advocate of the SSL, and co-founder of Jal Jyoti, Tasneem has a finger in almost every pie.She is known as much for her social initiatives as she is for her trips around the world, having been part of leadership programmes to NYU Stern, Brazil, and Estonia. Her globe trotting will continue for a while yet. She has already received offers from SOAS (UK) and Sciences-Po (France) for her post-grad and plans to pursue governance and development in an international context.

Often known as the man behind the Malhar Local, BMS student Aadi Vaidya’s achievements don’t stop at being the

Chairperson of Malhar 2012. His winning streak started with his selection into the HCAP delegation of 2011, following which he was in the core committees of IMG and the Placement Cell. His skills at juggling between extra-curriculars, academics, and attendance are legendary: the above activities come with a GPA of 3.74 and an 80-page research thesis published in the BMS and Statistics journals.He has now been placed with Citibank as a Graduate Management Trainee.

Tasneem Kakal

Yash ThakoorAbhay Mital

Rishi Bradoo But his claim to fame is his band Blek of the Indie persuasion that he started in 2010 with a fellow Xavierite. Having recently released an EP, the band has had gigs around Mumbai and India, including the NH7 festival. They have also received recognition at the 2013 Toto Funds the Arts, and won at the JD Rock Awards.

Features Page6

The Xavierite's Bucket List We realise it might be too late for most of these, but...

Thinking back, Sakina wondered if she had made one of the biggest mistakes of her life. Practicality was something she had always prided herself on. This time, however, she had given in to her heart and no matter how she looked at it, she could not regret her decision. Hearing voices behind her, she turned around and she saw two of the ship’s crew making light conversation. “A few more minutes before we reach Japan’s shore-line,” one of them said, stretching his arms and yawning. “It’s good to be almost home after all these months!” “Yeah,” said his mate, scratching his armpit. “I can’t wait to eat something other than all this tinned garbage they give us onboard.”

Turning around again, she straightened her kimono and felt a

rising elation fluttering away in her stomach. A few hours more and she’d reach Japan, with all its scents, sounds and sights that are peculiar to one’s

homeland and are understood only by its own inhabitants. More importantly, she knew she’d be meeting the person for whom she had forfeited one of the most luxurious lives a woman could have ever asked for, for whom she had left two motherless children behind. She hoped that someday, he’d know just how much she loved him.

As the hours crept by, she noticed a smudge on the horizon that grew as they drew closer. Breathing in, she knew that soon, her eyes would rove the country she hadn’t seen for almost four years. She wondered if he remembered her as she did

him and if he thought of her with the same fervour that she did. The klaxon blazed out twice, signaling that the

crew prepare for docking. Everything was thrown into sharper relief due to the setting sun, and she could just make out the buildings and the dock the ship would come to rest at.

Slowly, the ship slid into the dock and came to a grinding halt. She rushed to her cabin, called the maid Abidin had provided her to carry her belongings behind her, and rushed towards the stairwell. There was chaos on the deck as people shouted all around her, but Sakina looked at the crowd and picked out the one face she had thought of unceasingly all these years. Her heart in her mouth, she saw him waving and she dashed down the little bridge that was rolled out for disembarkation.

She rushed to him and he flew into her arms, crying, “Mama, Mama!” She wept, hugging her little six-year-old in her arms. “I’m here now, Son, hush. This time, I’ve come home to stay.”

where we leave you hanging till the next issue (Part 2)Story in Parts

Alaric Moras

It’s the end of an era. You’ve spent the last three years (or in some cases, half a decade) here and if you’ve figured out your admission process or landed a job, you’re now about to leave. And if you haven’t, well, you still have to leave.

You look forward to new beginnings. Everyone is glad to be graduating – no more 8 am lectures, attendance black lists, or CIAs. But there’s also no more Malhar, chocolate croissants, chilling in the foyer, gossiping on the back benches...in short, no more college fun. To ensure your last day is as memorable as your first, here’s your very own bucket list of things to do before you graduate.

1) If your attendance permits it, bunk. Go for a movie. Explore fun places around college. Or simply while away your time in the foyer. If your attendance doesn’t, our sympathies.

2) Take pictures. However much you might hate coming here at the crack of dawn, you’ve got to admit our college is extraordinarily picturesque. Adorn your Facebook page with glimpses of your college life.

3) Gorge. We have the best canteen in the city. Eat now, weigh yourself later.

4) Speak up. Ever had the single person on campus you couldn’t stand or secretly liked a lot? Well, now’s

the time to let them know (and not through Xavier’s Confessions and Compliments). In all probability, you’re never going to see them again!

5) Get your own department sweatshirt. They’re cool (figuratively, of course; they’re sweatshirts.)

6) Discover college secrets. Find out Anna’s deceptively simple recipe for garlic toast. Explore every nook and cranny of the campus. Have you been to LR 28 yet? It exists, we assure you!

7) Get your last copy of the XPress for the academic year 2012-13. It’s awesome, you won’t regret it!

Raadhika Vishvesh

7Leisure Page

One website at a time

Haiyya, founded by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government graduate Deepti Doshi, is a citizen action group that trains fellows and community leaders to work on the issues of safety, security, and police reform. Operating on the principle of collective action within neighbourhoods leading to sustainable change, Haiyya identifies, recruits, and trains community leaders and activists to build leadership in communities to sustain change. After researching the issue, learning from experts and fellows citizens alike, the fellows determine the strategy, tactics,

From the winner of the XPress reporting competition, Sooraj Bishnoi ’15

SEOUL: Recent Korean singing sensation Park Jae-sang or ‘Psy,’ known best for his most-viewed YouTube video ‘Gangnam Style’ won the Presidential Election in Seoul yesterday, defeating his rival Cutt Ting-choi by a huge margin of 4,19,84,000 votes to 16,000. Close to 99.6% of the votes went to Psy, who said he felt ‘absolutely Oppa’ about winning the election.

The 35-year-old singer had run a relentless campaign over a remarkably short period of three months, winning every sexy lady over, contributing to his sweeping success in the polls yesterday. In his native district of Gangnam, there was a 100% turnout at the polling booths, and not surprisingly, everyone put in their ballot papers with crossed hands and exited the voting centers dancing to the tune of ‘Gangnam Style’ on their music players.

In his speech after the results, Psy expressed his wish for a change in the South Korean national anthem. “Our national anthem today, consists of antiquated stuff, mainly just going

‘Ching-chong-ching-chong’ all the way through,” he said. “Let’s show the world that South Koreans are not just about chinging some random chong, and what it means to be a true-blooded South Korean,” he said to roaring applause and cheers.

However, to the disappointment of many, he also added that the new national anthem would not, in fact, be Gangnam Style, but something ‘new and unexpectedly fresh.’ This statement punctured the excitement for many across the country, especially in Gangnam District. However, he assured the people that Gangnam Style would always be an immortal and integral part of the South Korean culture.

Psy Wins South Korean Presidential Election Gangnam Style singer pushes for a change in national anthem

XPress Recommends

and action necessary to improve a public situation.

The issue within public safety that has been picked for this year’s campaign is that of reporting crimes to the

police. If you are interested in becoming a community changemaker for

your area, get in touch with the two fellows from St Xavier’s, Sadia Zafar (sadiazafar10@gmail.com) and Jinal Sanghavi (jinals92@gmail.com), to find out how you can contribute!

Website: www.haiyya.in

The new national anthem, said Psy, would be as “revolutionary as Gangnam Style, and would someday even surpass it in views on YouTube.” The sensational music video reached the one billion views mark on the video broadcasting site in late December last year, and currently has around 1.25 billion views, making it the most viewed video ever.

Psy’s only rival, Cutt Ting-choi, appeared extremely upset about Psy’s landslide victory. He released a statement [not printed here], following which he was reportedly flown under cover to the US, allegedly because his secretary received more than three thousand death threats addressed to him. However, Psy, as reports say, has been reassuring Ting-choi’s supporters that they are under no threat whatsoever, and that they just need to relax in the sauna with a large-chested man if they feel uncomfortable.

Concluding his speech, Psy promised a life of ‘absolute brilliance’ in the years to come, before ending with an impish grin, and the words: “Oppa Gangnam Style!”