Navigation
Other Issues
Latest Issue
- Front page
- News
- Sports
- Opinions
- Intermission
- Dining Guide
- Night Life Guide
- Careers
- Features
- Classifieds
Buy
SMS
RSS feedsAuthor: Navin Sivanandam
Opinions Columnist
Articles by this author:
SENIOR RETROSPECTIVE: Navin Sivanandam
OPINIONS|
It's the time of year for speeches.
Sketch: We are all Americans now
OPINIONS|
I have a confession to make. I love America.
Sketch: Go Pass, Go
OPINIONS|
There are two reasons that I closely follow the activities of the GO Pass Action Group. First, I’m incredibly selfish. Secondly, and much more importantly, I have a crush on one of the GO Pass Action Groupies.
Sketch: Freudenschade, The Return
OPINIONS|
Now, it’s not that I want my peers to fail; I just don’t want them to do well. Every time I hear of others’ triumphs, a little part of me shrivels and dies. Especially when it comes to my friends.
Where you hang your hat
OPINIONS|
It turns out finding a new home demands a price: you lose your old one.
Sketch: It’s all your fault
OPINIONS|
Yes, I am normally filled with self-loathing, but today I prefer to blame other people for everything bad in the world.
Sketch: Google is an evil cult
OPINIONS|
Google is an evil cult staffed by crazy people. Well, maybe not evil. And now that I think about it, the people aren’t really crazy. But it is a cult, and it may well be bent on world domination.
Sketch: Dazed and Confused
OPINIONS|
It's hard not to be in awe of the business school, its parties and its denizens. Not because they're smart. Or because they're successful. Or even because they're wealthy. No, the thing that's most impressive is just how good-looking they are.
Sketch: You, me and them
OPINIONS|
This is the thing that you and I have in common: misery. It unifies us. It brings us closer together. It makes us one.
Sketch: Good-bye, cruel world
OPINIONS|
I’ve been fired.
Sketch: I wish I were in college
OPINIONS|
Over the summer, I had the opportunity to see to the delightful musical “Avenue Q” (for those of you who haven’t, check it out on YouTube), a song and dance routine based on the trials and tribulations of post-college life.
Sketch: Putting Out
OPINIONS|
Sketch: Addiction
OPINIONS|
Sketch: Babycakes
OPINIONS|
In principle, this is not a particularly interesting task.
Sketch: Piano tuners and other questions
OPINIONS|
There are many deep ideas in Physics — from explaining the birth of the universe to answering questions about dripping taps.
Sketch: Narrow mind, broad waist
OPINIONS|
Middle age is much written about and, more importantly, much aphorized about.
Sketch: Puberty 2.0
OPINIONS|
I think I’m developing a pot belly.
Sketch: Understanding
OPINIONS|
It has been frequently pointed out to me that how I choose to spend my life is a waste of time.
Sketch: The last man to know everything
OPINIONS|
Everything is a big word.
Sketch: Knowledge, Ignorance and Me
OPINIONS|
One of the first lessons one learns when beginning a serious study of something is ignorance. Your lack of knowledge is vast. You are without purchase in a treacherous, inhospitable and endless landscape.
Sketch: You are an idiot
OPINIONS|
Sketch: Sophomoric
OPINIONS|
Sketch: Farm 2.0
OPINIONS|
Sketch: 20 percent is the new 15
OPINIONS|
Choose Your Own Adventure: Nav
OPINIONS|
Sketch: Identity
OPINIONS|
Sketch: Puff, puff; cough, cough
OPINIONS|
Sketch: All day breakfast
OPINIONS|
I go to bed late and I wake up early, very early.
Sketch: iArticle
OPINIONS|
I hate Apple.
Sketch: TV Nation
OPINIONS|
Sketch: Almost, almost cool
OPINIONS|
It’s futile to try and be cool.
Sketch: Mistletoe and wine
OPINIONS|
I was going to write a column about my Big Game weekend.
Sketch: I am perfect in every possible way
OPINIONS|
First things first.
Sketch: Meta-Column
OPINIONS|
Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if it lived up to the reputation that I occasionally pretend my column gives me.
Sketch: When I was younger
OPINIONS|
Sketch: BOOOOO!!!!
OPINIONS|
So, today is the scariest day of the year.
Sketch: Mattress dancing
OPINIONS|
“Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” This favoured question of unimaginative interviewers and second rate speakers is much more fun when you look back on it.
Sketch: This article is sarcastic
OPINIONS|
I appear to be misunderstood.
Sketch: Spoiled brats
OPINIONS|
Prejudice is a killer.
No Nobel
OPINIONS|
The winner(s) of the Nobel Prize in physics will be announced this morning.
Stanford is Lame
OPINIONS|
About a year ago I wrote an article lamenting the cancerous growths of a cappella sign-up tables and the chalk scribbling that decorate campus at the start of each year.
Grad school: Where fun goes to die
OPINIONS|
Are you a freshman?
Being Frank
OPINIONS|
All jobs are the same
OPINIONS|
There are few more boring things in the world than watching someone else align bullet points.
Small Gods
OPINIONS|
Life is Fair
INTERMISSION|
Discriminate
OPINIONS|
Welcome to Camp
OPINIONS|
As hinted at last week, I am spending the summer traveling the world in search of physics.
A New York Minute
OPINIONS|
Earlier this year, I decided that in keeping with my international playboy image, I should spend the summer traveling.
Further Tales of the City
OPINIONS|
Somewhat disturbingly, it seems as if I’m about to be evicted.
Football’s not coming home
OPINIONS|
Could it be magic?
OPINIONS|
As a dedicated geek I read a lot of fantasy stories. You know, dragons, swords, fairies, demons and above all magic. Why magic?
Hugging
OPINIONS|
I’m ashamed of myself. I did something earlier this week that I feel very guilty about — I got roped into helping make the world a better place.
Roxy Sass is evil
OPINIONS|
Amongst the scads of things that annoy me in life, I hold in particular contempt that brand of journalist who dishes out advice on the seedier side of life.
Billy No Mates
OPINIONS|
While, in general, I loath to point out the utter misery and dejection that passes for existence in these times, I thought I’d make an exception this week.
Posh
OPINIONS|
The visit last month of your esteemed and revered leader caused somewhat of a stir amongst the graduate student community (by which I mean, of course, a couple of my friends).
The seven habits of highly successful grad students
OPINIONS|
When you first arrive in graduate school, it’s all about the work. The dream of scholastic glory is still alive, so you’re ready to focus on your studies and finally become the expert on the sexual fantasies of 17th century Russian peasants that you’ve always wanted to be.
Freudenschade
OPINIONS|
For those of you who don’t know, Kaavya Viswanathan is one of those precocious young things who decided personal essays are passe and so instead wrote a novel to get into Harvard.
How fast they grow
OPINIONS|
It’s time for me to finally admit the truth: My name is Nav and I am an educator.
Yes, that’s right. I’ve been openly shaping young minds each quarter since arriving at Stanford — though what I’ve shaped them into would probably be a point of some debate.
Making a difference
OPINIONS|
Today is a very important day. A day steeped in history. A day when the sins of the past are finally put to rest and a glorious vista of the future is revealed.
Spring Break
OPINIONS|
I don’t like the rain. I moved 6000 miles to get away from the rain. It really upsets me. In fact, it’s not just rain that I don’t like, it’s being wet.
Solemn Column
OPINIONS|
So Charlie got fan mail. I never get fan mail. Well, actually that’s not exactly true, but nobody’s emailed about a column for months.
Charlie likes tea
OPINIONS|
After the excitement of last week’s Prom (which, incidentally, was a riot) I’m feeling a little apathetic, so I’m not writing a column this week.
It's prom night
OPINIONS|
Oh yes. Every high-schooler’s dream. The climax of American youth. The prom.
Of course I’m a little old for the actual prom.
There are no fish in the sea
OPINIONS|
The problem with the mundane repetitiveness of a cliche is often not that it is obvious, but rather that it is rarely true.
Du Vin: a taste of France
OPINIONS|
So, I have Doogie Howser as a prof. Well, not actually as a prof, but as a teacher. He’s in charge of my current favorite class: French Viticulture.
The weekend's fluffer
OPINIONS|
It’s a Thursday evening. Thursday is an odd day. Out in the real world, there was even a brief moment when Thursday appeared to be on the verge of a breakthrough when people proclaimed it as “the new Friday.
This is not an advertising feature
OPINIONS|
Every now and again I miss life on campus. Then I recall that life on campus is a heady mix of dreadful dullness, punctuated by moments of excruciating boredom.
More tales from the city
OPINIONS|
Some time ago, as I was perched at the bar of The 750, struggling to create my weekly masterpiece for The Daily, a friend suggested checking out the apparently hilarious Web site “Overheard in New York” for inspiration.
Hug an Engineer
NEWS|
I have a confession to make. It’s a secret, so don’t tell anyone. Engineers are people, too. Yes, I realize that may be shocking to some of you, but it’s true.
Brand Me, Baby
NEWS|
When aliens land on campus, they’re going to be a little confused. Not only because they’ll be wondering why they chose Stanford as the place to make first contact, but also because they’ll be a little surprised at the school’s resemblance to an interstellar penal colony.
My Name is Nav and I am a Teetotaler
NEWS|
Alcohol is a wonderful thing. Sublime and lubricating, it stands alone among the panoply of drugs. As alluring as happiness and as ubiquitous as misery, nothing can caress and cajole the mediocrity of everyday life into something more with quite such effect.
Bah, Humbug
OPINIONS|
In an astounding feat of generosity the University has decided to give all off-campus graduate students a Christmas present: freedom.
Let’s go Card
OPINIONS|
Post-Thanksgiving and possessed of newly-rounded, turkey-filled bellies, I’m sure that for many of you Big Game weekend is a distant memory.
Ivory Towers
NEWS|
I heard an interesting anecdote from an unnamed source (let’s call him “Deep Throat”) the other day. Deep Throat’s department has a renowned and brilliant professor who is an object of desire for grad students (no, not like that; God you people have filthy minds).
The lobster was looking straight at me, and I burst into tears
NEWS|
I have a low opinion of vegetarianism as a religion. It’s not just the mindless worship that generally accompanies the R-word that’s bothersome — it’s also the fact that to deprive yourself of dead animals is to shut out a whole world of pleasure.
From the grad student ghetto
OPINIONS|
The Daily is a very helpful paper. As well as telling you how to vote, providing a forum for endless debates on the Middle East and keeping you informed on the various road-widening projects around campus, it also tells you what day it is.
California needs to chill out
NEWS|
You people are really uptight. In fact I cannot think of a single place that I’ve visited that comes close. Even Cambridge (where you have to wear a gown to dinner) is chill in comparison.
The crowd is as tasty as the food
OPINIONS|
Every week I dine at least once in each of campus’s hottest locations: the Business School and the Law School.
Why are these spots such desirable lunching venues?
Welcome to my world
OPINIONS|
I’ve long been an admirer of Tom Wolfe. This is not a result of his writing (excellent), his social commentary (simplified, but witty and poignant) or his incredible ability to recycle the same plot and characters in three separate novels (though I suppose a triple 500-page-plus variation on a theme is an achievement of sorts).
Throw a killer dinner party—how-to-be-social, part I
NEWS|
Ah, the fools. They’ve given me more space in The Daily. And not only that, I get to write about my ninth (the other eight will certainly come up in the near future) favorite subject — the art of eating.
Tales of the City
NEWS|
Occasionally, when I write these columns, people actually read them. And even more infrequently they send me e-mails.
Last week’s masterpiece elicited two responses.
Reality drifts away with the a cappella
OPINIONS|
To call Stanford a bubble would be unfair to surface tension — the disconnect from reality on the Farm is an impressive thing.
A warning from experience: Graduate student version
OPINIONS|
You’re new here; I can tell. You’ve not developed the hardened look of bitterness that comes after the first few months of graduate school are over and the last vestiges of hope die.
A warning from experience
OPINIONS|
You’re new here. I can tell. You have about you that iridescent aura of innocence. I envy you, ready to finish off your teenage years with a flourish.
Why wake up?
OPINIONS|
Now, promise not to tell my adviser, but I haven’t actually done very much work over the last couple of weeks. There are several reasons (nee excuses) for this.
Crash
OPINIONS|
I’m tapping out this week’s masterpiece with some difficulty. Sadly my laptop took a beating last Thursday.
Said beating was not the result of having been laid about by a gang of burly thugs, but rather was a consequence of my driving abilities.
Analyze that
OPINIONS|
The main reason for last week’s title was so that I could follow up this week with another pop culture reference. Of course now that I’ve done that I suppose I need to back it up with some content.
Advise this
OPINIONS|
I’ve been plotting for a while the penning of a column on the perils and pleasures, the peaks and pitfalls of the most important relationships we have: the one with our advisers.
Procrastination vacation
OPINIONS|
I grow increasingly convinced that the major reason faculty seem so damn smart is because when they were graduate students there was no Internet.
Un-f*cking-believable
OPINIONS|
God hates me, which is pretty unreasonable of him or her, since (a) other than the odd coveting of my neighbor’s ass, I’m really not much of a sinner (despite my best efforts) and (b) I don’t even believe in him / her / it / whatever.
The Death of Friendship
OPINIONS|
One of the more unpleasant aspects of growing older is watching opportunities disappear. Sometimes it’s merely temporary; much that seems lost in life comes back eventually.
I hate students
OPINIONS|
Now that I’ve got that out of the way I suppose you’re all going to want some kind of justification. That will follow presently, but first, a brief aside.
Maybe she’s into you...
OPINIONS|
Or maybe she’s not. Perhaps she was into you and now she’s changed her mind. Possibly she’ll rediscover her enthusiasm next Tuesday, though it’s equally likely that she’ll decide it was your roommate she actually wanted.
Just one word . . . plastics
OPINIONS|
It’s the end of the quarter, the end of the academic year (well, sort of anyway) and, for several of you, the end of Stanford.
Stan-jiggle, Ford-jiggle
OPINIONS|
One of the things I like about the Stanford summer is that when the sun comes out, the clothes tend to stay home. The excess of throbbing flesh makes a stroll through campus considerably more entertaining -- nothing quite like a little wobble to put a spring in one's step.
Geek chic
OPINIONS|
First off, isn't that a great title for a column?
Home sweet home
OPINIONS|
So there was an election last week. An important one. A medium-sized cog in the machinery of the “free world” went through the motions of democracy and re-elected its government.
The pursuit of ignorance
OPINIONS|
First of all, I have an apology to make. A couple of weeks ago I wrote something that, on reflection, was terribly offensive to a minority group that is, understandably, a little sensitive.
But some of my best friends are graduate students
OPINIONS|
I was amused to glance at The Daily editorial that rested above my column last week: “Sketchy TAs still a problem.” The juxtaposition of my rant on the (extremely) rare mating habits of graduate students and the editorial board’s rant on the floods of grad sketchiness enveloping campus was quite delightful.
Welcome to the Champagne Room
OPINIONS|
There’s no sex in graduate school . . . none. Oh, there’s schooling in graduate school. But you don’t want schooling, you want sex.
A column about nothing in particular
OPINIONS|
I had some trouble thinking about a topic for this week’s rant (I mean, this week’s intellectual probe into the plummeting depths of the human condition at grad school circa 2005).
Living on the breadline
OPINIONS|
I had guests last week. Prospective students were here to visit the Physics department and see if they liked the look of it.
Drink, damn it
OPINIONS|
The only thing worse than sitting alone in the dark, sipping hard liquor while contemplating the fleeting misery that passes for existence in these parts, is doing the same with water.
Depreciation defense
OPINIONS|
Saw the movie “Hitch” last weekend. It was a revelation. I hadn’t realized that all I needed to score hot women was scripted dialogue, expensive actors and a trashy plot.
The best years of your life?
OPINIONS|
I’ve been listening to a lot of Avril Lavigne of late. Lovely girl. A little young of course, but she illustrates a point: The undying appeal of (teenage) angst.
Grad School: Where Parties Go to Die (ver. 2.0)
OPINIONS|
Today is Valentine’s Day. Well actually that’s a lie. In fact, it’s the Friday before Valentine’s Day. However, you’re reading this on Valentine’s Day and the fact that I have to write it in advance means that the strictures of journalistic integrity are being compromised.
Checking her box
OPINIONS|
Speed dating is an interesting phenomenon. Essentially it's a mechanism for ordinary folks like you and me to find True Love.
It's a Friendly Prison
OPINIONS|
Okay, so I lied. Last week wasn't my last column. And this may not be either. (I’m applying to be one for Vol. 227.) Still, at least I have some statistics as a result of my request.
Beauty is out there
OPINIONS|
My younger colleagues at The Daily have being commenting lately on the ugliness (or otherwise) of Stanford students (see “Stanford kids are ugly,” Jan.
New Years Resolutions: Shiny things, shiny bodies
OPINIONS|
It’s resolution time: Those few weeks immediately following the start of the year where we all pretend that our New Year’s vows are not just idle speculation.
It’s called a sidewalk
OPINIONS|
We live in a fast-paced world. I know this because I’ve seen it on TV. And read about it in magazines.
Most of us have schedules so packed, they would make an investment banker quake.
Wanted: Rich American Bride
OPINIONS|
Can offer English accent and extensive (well actually not that extensive) knowledge of obscure branches of theoretical physics.
’Tis the season to be jolly
OPINIONS|
As the quarter stumbles gently to a close — or rushes headlong to a spectacular climax, depending on your point of view — I find it’s time to turn one’s mind to things other than school.
Mmm... free donuts
OPINIONS|
Food, glorious food. There’s nothing quite like it. Except free glorious food. Or for that matter just ordinary food, so long as it’s free.
Youth: How I came to be a grumpy old man
OPINIONS|
I t was my birthday yesterday. I’m 25. Which is a quarter of a century. And definitely grown up.
Of course by any reasonable measure, 25 isn’t old at all.
Always looking on the bright side
OPINIONS|
Let me tell you about a happy, special place. Where thoughts are unfettered and bountiful. Where ideas, not petty scores, are currency.
Let’s talk about politics, baby;
OPINIONS|
Voting is like sex. . . but with fewer naked people and less fun. Apparently there’s an election today. I know this because while surfing for porn last week I stumbled across a delightful web site by the name of http://www.
Grad school: Where parties go to die
OPINIONS|
I can always tell that a new year has started when my inbox is clogged with invitations to events designed to herd reluctant graduate students into sociability.
Eight simple rules for dating a grad student
OPINIONS|
It has come to my attention that despite our towering intellects, foraging skills and incredible resilience, grad students are not being asked out in droves by our younger counterparts.