Flyby Tries: Recreating Dean Khurana’s Harvard-Yale Photos

It’s no secret that Harvard is a world renowned institution. We have Nobel Prize-winning professors, Rhodes Scholars for peers, and students who will go on to cure cancer… or go into finance. But what most of the outside world does not know is that we have another iconic campus celebrity: Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana.

As dean, Khurana is in charge of fostering community among undergraduates and promoting a free exchange of ideas on campus through the Intellectual Vitality Initiative he spearheaded. More importantly, however, he is in charge of every Harvard student’s favorite Instagram page (@deankhurana). Getting a selfie with Khurana is, at this point, the fourth College tradition. So what better way to honor our beloved dean before he steps down later this year than to recreate some of his most iconic Harvard-Yale photos!

No Introduction Needed

Khurana's version By Courtesy of @deankhurana

Flyby's version By Courtesy of Lauren T. Wong

You’ve all seen this photo from last year’s Harvard-Yale game. After all, it’s the fourth most upvoted Sidechat post of all time, and if you’re anything like me, this is the first picture that you envision when you think of Harvard-Yale. It perfectly captures the average student’s zeal for life and for doing ridiculous things “for the plot.”

It’s this mindset that inspired me to write this article, regardless of the embarrassment I knew I would feel in the moment while mimicking Khurana’s pose in the middle of campus. All I could do as I knelt on the grass with my Sasha and Heidi (Yale’s Sasha dupe) substitutes (see: my penguin and elephant stuffed animals) is remind myself that if Khurana could do this pose and feel confident in posting it, I could too. I think this is a mindset that we could all benefit from during the last weeks of 2024. But, hey, no judgment if you choose not to recreate this photo – that’s what you have me for!

Enemies to Lovers

Khurana's version By Courtesy of @deankhurana

Flyby's version By Courtesy of Pavitra Balachundhar

Love knows no bounds – it traverses the 134-mile distance between New Haven and Cambridge. As much as Harvard students love to feed into the Y*le hatred, we make sure to put aside our differences during the Game. It’s only natural that Khurana and Dean of Yale College Pericles Lewis do the same. (Sidenote: it’s important to note that Khurana has 22,600 Instagram followers, whereas Lewis has 4,523… not that I mean to suggest any one school or Dean is better.)

Pictured above is a photo of Khurana and Lewis embracing in their best Yale merch following Yale’s win last year. Although Khurana was roped into repping our rival school because of Harvard’s loss, he did so graciously and with his signature smile. In the face of defeat, Khurana stood as a beacon of light and hope.

These upstanding characteristics are what drew me to the second photo I decided to recreate. Since I do not have Yale merch, nor do any of my friends, for obvious reasons, I quickly improvised by printing out their University logo and taping it onto my bluest of blue sweatshirts. All I needed then was my own Lewis, which I quickly procured by forcing one of my suitemates to pose with me. #community #love #HarvardYaleuniteseveryone

Lewis pt. 2

Khurana's version By Courtesy of @deankhurana

Flyby's version By Ava H. Rem

As my night of costume changes grew longer, my suitemate grew tired and I had to swap her out with my backup Lewis: Son Heung-Min. Ok, that’s kind of clickbait – it’s him but in plushie version (see above). Once I printed out a smaller Yale logo to tape over his soccer jersey number and found a miscellaneous lanyard to hang around his neck to make him seem more lifelike, all I had to do was figure out Khurana’s signature selfie tilt.

Although this sounds easy in theory, Khurana’s photos defy all laws of nature and are tilted at an angle I could not quite figure out, even after many, many failed attempts. I kept tilting my phone too far left or too far right, and too low or too high up. After sifting through 30 photos and hating every single one, I found the one. It’s still not at a perfect angle, but it’s the best that I could do. And hey, it got Heung-Min’s stamp of approval so that’s all that matters.

Undergraduate Joy

Khurana's version By Courtesy of @deankhurana

Flyby's version By Ava H. Rem

Yup, even though I had so much difficulty with perfecting Khurana’s tilt in the previous recreation, I decided to choose yet another slanted selfie. This time, however, my biggest challenge was not tilting my phone at the right angle; it was finding four willing participants to join me in my selfie.

After canvassing my suite and being faced with empty room after empty room, I had to improvise. Luckily, since my common room is full of more pillows and plushies than one could ever need, I was able to substitute the four smiling undergraduates with the five equally smiley members of One Direction. As for the stadium packed with onlookers, my suite’s ever-growing Polaroid wall of guests – pictured in the background – is as much of a substitute as I could manage at the last minute.

Civic Duty = Repping Crimson

Khurana's version By Courtesy of @deankhurana

Flyby's version By Ava H. Rem

Ok, I know this photo of Khurana is not from Harvard-Yale, but it’s too iconic not to include in my recreations. And in a way, this photo’s “vibes” are very Harvard-Yale because of the red and blue of the “I voted” sticker that he is holding. Even in his daily life, Khurana is always proudly repping Crimson.

This photo quickly went viral among the Harvard community and garnered more likes and shares for Khurana than his average posts. The most probable explanation for this is the hilarious juxtaposition between his extremely grim face and his cheery and hopeful caption of “Exercising my rights.”

Whatever the reasoning behind the popularity of the post, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to recreate it with my own “I voted by mail” sticker. With Harvard-Yale coming up, I hope you all exercise your rights and fulfill your civic duty of showing up and showing out at Harvard Stadium to see us beat the Bulldogs. Yuck Fale!

With Khurana’s tenure coming to an end, it’s bittersweet to think about the end of the beloved Khuranagram. Though we may no longer be digitally captured in the trenches of Cabot Library or looking disheveled as we rush to our 9 a.m. classes, it’s important to remember that his photos will forever live on and leave a legacy of their own. So, if you’re ever feeling down, don’t forget that you can always turn to the photo of him kneeling with Sasha and Heidi to make you smile!