Letters to the Editor
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Self congratulatory NRI malarkey
Dear Sandeep Roy: Did you write this tripe under deadline pressure? Or is this the true depth of your blather? Are you actually saying that every time an Indian tries his hand at something, he better be the best ... or his mummy will scold him? This "We-Indians-are-actually-a-great-people-and-we-discovered-the-zero" naive need for validation from the west is getting a little long in the tooth. And who annointed you as the "model minority" again? Was it Clinton or Bush? I cannot remember. And it is heartening to know that Indians as an ethnic group in the US earn more money than, say, Brits and the Germans. Yes, we study hard, we learn how to pass difficult exams. become poster children of senior middle management mediocrity and we go and buy a Lexus. Some of us win western orientated prizes, simply for being exotic in the English language. There are no more of "us" that make it to the top than many other minority groups. Your piece was not about Kaavya, it was about you. You stole her ignominy to aggrandise yourself, to tell your readers what a clever little boy you always were. Yes, Sandeep, ironically you plagiarised from Kaavya. Cut it out this intellectual dishonesty and go research some real pieces. Or I will tell your mummy.
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Felix
<<Maybe they won all the spelling bees because they were up against you as an opponent?>>
Yow. ZING! The cat's out of the bag. I can't spell for shit. Boy, is my face red.
Why should Roy be given a pass for writing something that a writer of another race would be completely demonized for? I understand your arguement, but this article was not writen for other "insiders." Why am I expected to ignore double standards and put everyone who is different in this society on a pedastal because I tend to lean politically to the left? This is not only completely ridiculous, it is counter to our common goal of equal treatment for everyone.
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Pass go, collect $200?
You must be kidding. Her plagiarism was just uncovered, her contract just cancelled, and she's already your folk hero?
At least let her lawyer make a public statement, let her personally apologize to the authors she copied, let her flounder for a few years, re-group, be mediocre in something, join the peace corps, go to grad school, go to therapy, find her *real* voice, write something complete and honest for the first time. And, most of all, avoid self-serving, smug "supporters" like Roy. Then, if she returns weary and triumphant, okay, nominate her for hero then.
I hope she'll turn you down.
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Well, you even fail at playing the race card
And I guess you're going to survive. Celebrate mediocrity!
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Racial superiority in the Hindu Indian community
Sandip Roy's article smacks of smug racial elitism and superiority typical of the succesful Indian diaspora in the U.S. It seems like an article more geared to show off Indian-Americans' great achievements than an indictment of a pseudo-ingenue cheater and plagiarist.
Yes, Indians in America are by and large a successful ethnic group, but only because of the "brain drain" from India in the '60s and '70s when the engineers, doctors, scientists, and professional businessmen were let through the doors here. We didn't let in the unwashed uneducated toiling masses. So their success here is more reflective of U.S. immigration policy than any inherent racial superiority.
Also, this whole racial chauvinism reflects a disturbing ultra-national trend emerging from India where they're re-writing history to make Hindu India the central cradle of civilization from which all good things and ideas came. Eerily reminiscent of German romanticism before the Nazi era, or English manifest destiny. This nationalist-chauvinist trend can also be witnessed in China, Japan, Russia, and Iran.
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What the heck
Peggy writes:
"So, I can imagine that some of the intense metaphors from earlier books she had read were engraved in her brain as pictures, and when she wanted to describe a similar situation the words just came out too close for comfort."
I have no sympathy at all for the writer or the publishing house, or especially Peggy for buying the crap excuse in this case. I have been a published writer for 30 years and it is IMPOSSIBLE, ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE to ACCIDENTLY, SUBCONSCIOUSLY, BECAUSE OF AMAZING RECALL AND RETENTION or IN A DRUG STUPOR, to have mutiple long passages with identical, or almost identical wording WITHOUT COPYING. IMPOSSIBLE.
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what a laugh
Don't give me that "she's just a kid, didn't know what plagiarism was" crap - I and every other kid in my elementary school knew what was plagiarism, and what wasn't. Hell, we even knew at age 9 that 'rearranging/slightly rewording' the writing from the freaking encyclopedia for a 'personally written' report was cheating...let alone 'borrowing' words/phrases/material from an individual writer. Cheating of the type Vishwanathan did was DISHONORABLE and SHAMEFUL even in grade school.
What the hell are we teaching kids, if a seventeen year old 'doesn't know what plagiarism is'? What happened to honor and integrity about doing your own work, thinking your own thoughts, doing your best? It was the norm when I was in school, not an exception.
We have got to quit giving passes for everything based on the boohooness of someone's background, or the 'terrible pressure' of society. What bullshit.
People make their own choices in life...if we cannot fully allow them their errors, how can we praise their achievements as individuals? You can't have it both ways. A 17 or 18 year old who doesn't know what plagiarizing is has no business being in college.
If you 'absorb' someone's style that fully, you don't have much of your own.
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superhuman indians, oh my!
i'm white, and it is unclear to me how this girl's experience is different from my own, or different from many other white american families i know. i was pushed, hard, to academically succeed. great things were expected of me. my grades and accomplishments were quantified to compare with my other family members', as well as the neighbor's children, and theirs to mine. i also learned to spell, despite not being indian.
so what was the purpose of this write-up?? if roy wanted to compare an indian-american's experience with a white american's experience, then he has failed. if there was some hip irony or "edginess" to his article that i'm missing, he's failed. this is simply a poorly written commentary with nothing of substance to glean from it, and that's irrespective of the fact the author is indian.
hope i spelled all that right; not being from the indian sub-continent has left me without a photographic memory.
sheesh.