Rohit Chopra, Where are you?
FM has been trying all semester to snag former Undergraduate Council (UC) President Rohit Chopra '04 for a little Q and A. We envisioned something like: “Rohit: What’s he been up to?” But our efforts were to no avail. Even though he’s no longer fighting the good fight on behalf of the student body, Chopra is keeping himself busy, and it seemed he just couldn’t make time for FM. I was crushed until I realized that, like Dorothy’s red slippers, Chopra's semester had been in my grasp all along. In lieu of the actual interview, I took it upon myself to compile my own list of “Rohit sightings” during his time post-UC.
1. Once I was workin’ out at the MAC and who should hop on the elliptical next to me but Chopra, sporting a classic shorts and T-shirt combo, toting an iPod and a wonderfully trashy magazine. Sweat dripping and arms pumping, we exchanged pleasantries.
2. That very eve, I logged on to thefacebook.com and saw words that thrilled me to my very marrow: “You have been poked by Rohit Chopra.” My excitement soon faded. I learned from friends that one of the many things Chopra does with his time is poke lots and lots of people. Nonetheless, I asked him to be my friend. He accepted.
3. According to the grapevine, Chopra has been organizing a large low-stakes poker tournament. These days, instead of gambling with his political capital, he’s gambling with paltry amounts of money. And instead of calling the bluffs of the keenest administrative minds in the United States, he’s calling the bluffs of some dudes in Mather house.
4. One random Saturday a few weeks ago, former FM Exectuive Amelia E. Lester ’05 and I cc’d Chopra to invite him to a private viewing of the recent feminist, anti-imperialist adaptation of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park—which we both had to watch for class. Depsite Chopra’s response of “I promise I’ll be there” (he loves those feminist adaptations), he did not show up. Neither did we.
5. That same night, several friends and I were in the pimpin’ Lowell suite of a friend who is very generous with his high-quality alcohol. On our third gin and tonic, the cellphone of Simon W. Vozick Levinson ’06, the very FM writer assigned to interview Chopra, started blowin’ up like crazy, yo. On the other end was the tardy Chopra, asking whether we had started the movie. We told him we forwent Jane A to party, and he was all about to join us getting down when he realized that our host was his estranged freshman roommate. “I can’t do that,” he said, and abruptly hung up.
6. I was sitting in the sunshine in front of Memorial Church when I espied Chopra striding across the green Tercentenary Theater grass. We exchanged an exuberant high-five and a "yo," he cautioned me about overexposure to the harsh sun’s rays, and then he sauntered off into the horizon—or to class.
The most amazing thing about my spate of encounters with Chopra is that many people have been having the same experience! A friend once saw him licking an ice cream cone outside of Adams House. Another gossiped with him in the computer lab in the Science Center. And get this: even though he’s no longer on the UC, he still went to Busta Rhymes. And even though he’s never been in the Seneca, he went to the Red Party—way to get down with your student body, Rohit Chopra! Isn’t it amazing when you realize that celebrities are just like us?