Current affairs

Move

Preparations for the move to Durham are in full swing. I've turned in the notice for my apartment. Now I need to buy that digital camera ASAP, take pics of my furniture and try to unload it on some unsuspecting schmuck! Heck of a reason to drop $300 on a cam huh? Of course having a camera during my vacation won't hurt so it's all good. Having never sold stuff online before and living in a city where craigslist isn't as huge as say Boston, Chicago or SF, I'm a little worried about having enough time to sell off all my stuff in the next 15 days. I did consider renting a UHaul and taking everything with me but that just seemed like too much of a hassle and not really economically sensible. I might as well buy some new stuff for the $1100 (plus gas) it'll cost me to rent the UHaul. That still doesn't solve the problem of transporting my motorcycle though. Apparently I can't rent a motorcycle trailer for a one way move. Hmm. I'll just have to get it shipped. There goes another 600 bucks.

Duke

After a couple of emails to the International Office at Duke, I finally sent out all my paperwork for the 'Request for Temporary Visa' to get my I-20. I'm most definitely going to take a loan to fund my education but decided it might be a better idea to show my own funds as part of the paperwork. I didn't want to deal with the uncertainty of the INS trying to figure out if I would be able to support myself or whatever. As for how I got all that serious cash (at least for me), it's nice to have a rich sister :).
That's all the legal paperwork I need to take care of for now. Will have to file for an official COS (Change of Status) once I get back in early July. I am a little concerned about the loan though. The Duke website states that the paperwork for the private loan will be available in May. Hopefully, I'll have enough time to take care of that before I leave.

Vacation

I need to start spending a little more time researching and figuring out what I want to do on my trip. I'm all for being spontaneous and taking things as they come but it would be a shame to miss out on something that I would really want to do while I'm visiting all these beautiful places.
I recieved my flight tickets today and finally got my Schengen visa a couple of days back. Should have my British visa in a couple of days. Looks like the trip is definitely on! While I'm super excited about travelling across Europe, I'm even more psyched about visiting India. It's been 2 years since I've been there. Will be fun to visit some of the old haunts.

On my mind

A few weeks ago, I had blogged about a story I came across about a young Indian-American author who had landed a $500K deal to write a book at the very young age of 17. On Sunday, the Harvard Crimson came out with a story that suggested that certain passages from the now released book: "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" by Kaavya Viswanathan (Update: The book has been withdrawn by the publishers), bore a striking resemblance to passages from the books "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings" by Megan F. McCafferty. There were numerous reactions to this article, most notably on Sepia Mutiny. Surprisingly (or maybe not), this story snowballed into one of the biggest stories in the popular media over the last few days with articles written on literally every major news site and an appearance by the author on the Today Show. There have been several reactions to the story including condemning the author and a passionate call for compassion (considering her age) and suspension of judgement by some. My reaction to the latter can be summed up by the following passage that I posted on SM in response to a post by Anna in which she talks about several things including jealosy.

when the story about her book deal broke, she was universally applauded. i blogged about her as did several others i know. there was no jealosy involved. just pure appreciation for an amazing achievement. i did not stop to ponder on how she landed the deal, whether she got someone else to write for her, whether she had "connections" or any such random thing you can think of.
when the story about the plagarism accusation broke, she was universally condemned by most people that i talked to. this reaction again was not based on jealosy or the need to kick someone when they were down. it was based on the feeling that plagiarism is just plain wrong. it was based on the feeling that we were misled. of course we're basing our judgement on the passages posted in the news story.
the fact that she is 19 is definitely something that you must consider, and sure you feel sorry for her. that does not mean it is wrong to discuss the story and say that what she did was stupid. also, you can be foolish and immature at 19, maybe enough to copy your math assignment due the next day, not enough to plagiarize on a book for which you've been paid $500K. that of course is just my opinion.

However, over the last few hours, after watching Kaavya's interview on the Today Show, I can't help but feel sorry for this young girl.

i still believe that she lifted at least some of those passages verbatim. however, the punishment should always fit the crime. what KV has gone through (and will probably go through for a long time) should be enough to make her realize what a big mistake she made and hopefully learn from it.

at a personal level, if she remains in a state of denial and refuses to take responsibility for her actions, it will only hurt her in the long run and that would be really sad.

i watched the msn clip and she seemed genuinely sorry to me. it's been said that she comes across as arrogant, brash, priviliged etc in other interviews. if that's the way she is, i probably wouldn't be able to stand her if i knew her personally. but all i saw was a young girl in an extremely tough situation who handled herself remarkably well. she seemed genuinely contrite (was her voice quivering?). she did not come out and issue a full blown apology (although it seemed like she inadvertently blurted out "im sorry" before adding "even though it was unintentional"), but to expect that would be a lot from anyone, more so from a 19 year old, especially on national tv. her parents/friends/handlers are probably advising her on what to say right now and if they told her that to accept any wrong doing could ruin her career, you can not expect her to do so of her own accord.

i have forgiven people for much worse than what KV did. KV does not need my forgiveness. she did not wrong me in any way. she did not hurt me. i did not buy her book. i did not read her book. all i did was admire her and blog about her. that is not reason enough to hate her. all i feel for her is sympathy. yes, even if she did plagiarize (and more so if she didn't).

Sure she might end up with a lucrative book deal or a nice movie to tell her story. That would be a shame since I don't condone plagiarism. But I don't feel the need to hate her or keep critisizing her. We'll see how this plays out.