ISA ANALYSIS: THE CHARLATAN WHO CALLED HIMSELF THE LEADER

By Rohit (May 21st, 2004)

So how could we define a leader? Perhaps someone who is willing to put himself before all the others in responsibility and command. I think all of us at ISA have experienced this. At the beginning of this year, Arpan decided to form the Indian Students' Association in hopes to gather the Indian community at school and hope to discuss current events, misconceptions about the Indian culture, etc. I used to come to the meetings almost every Tuesday (or Thursday mornings). But then I realized that we just kept bringing up the same topics over and over again and it really wasn't worth my time (besides, I had plenty of homework that I scrambled to do in the mornings).

Time went by in this way, while the ISA 'audience' eroded. Only people like Neha P. went everyday (for reasons beyond just discussion of Indian culture). My first complaint was that we should make a South Asian Students' Association, so we could include people from Pakistan and Sri Lanka, but that didn't fare too well with Mr. Arpan. The time now came for organizing a show. Arpan wanted a show to be meaningful and I couldn't have agreed more. So weeks went by with him just yacketing about plans to do a show. The problem was that all he wanted in his show were a couple dances and the rest speeches and videos. He wanted to have his message hit the audiences right at home. Also, he never really elaborated on his topic nor did he tell anyone exactly what he had planned for the show. He said this was a group effort and that everyone should contribute. That's nice of him but whenever a lot of people agreed on an idea, Arpan would just disagree and have his own plans. What does that sound like to you? Exactly, he is an authoritarian ruler who thinks he's favoring the people.

Well in any case, with a few date changes, the ISA show was given an all clear, but there were only 3 weeks left. Currently, there were 2 dances, 4 speeches and 2 videos planned for this. I was wondering if Arpan was going to do something for this show and make it better. We were given a chance to prove ourselves before the actual show and that was to present in front of freshmen for 50 minutes. The show was comprised of a 3 videos, 1 dance, and 4 speeches. After the show, I heard from everyone that the speeches were boring (although the people that gave them were very energetic and they spoke well), the videos were ok, but the dance was what impressed people the most. From then on, we decided that we should do 2 more dances, despite Arpan's protests that we were taking away from the meaning (the truth was people didn't really get the meaning).

From the time we declared we would do some more dances till the time for the ISA show, Arpan did NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. Everyone attended practices at least twice a week (and it turns out we did 3 more dances, not just 2). Arpan showed up to 1 out of 10 practices and that was always at the end. There was no motivation from him and he was as good as gone from ISA. The leaders were myself and Anubhav. We set up everything, we even made the 4 total videos that were showed (well, Anubhav made them, but I was there for support). We even announced the show, put up flyers, told everyone, dressed up, rehearsed more and more, talked to Ron (the pain-in-the-ass stage director), and organized the whole introduction. And at the last minute, when we had 1 day for the show (and AP tests were around the corner), he asked Dev and Anubhav if they could make a 10 minute video. At one practice, I stood up for them, and hot-headedly argued. I asked him why he waited this long to make the video and why he couldn't do it himself. He had no response, but a few murmurs.

Click here to read about the show.

The last thing that completely put me head on against Arpan was that he wanted to offer free food to everyone. I knew from the beginning that this asshole was not going to help with the food. The responsibility for making food was going to fall on parents. And that is exactly what happened. My mother, Arpan's mother, Anubhav's mother, and other aunties helped make loads of food for the 200-300 people that showed up. It was successful in the end, but why the pain in the ass? Why was it that we couldn't charge people for the food. And even if he did want to have free food, why didn't he organize this properly so that parents wouldn't be scrambling to make food with 1 day remaining for the show! Well what is past is past, but we need to learn from our mistakes. The show next year (if there is one), should be better. I made plenty of mistakes (I never said I didn't make mistakes), and I have learned from them if in case I have to do this kind of thing again in the future.

All in all, things are looking better now and everyone's happy. But Arpan must change. He should learn that if he wants something done, he should be involved in it as well.

Read Arpan's famous quotes in our quotes sections.