Whether he’s glued to a cricket match or getting you some “responsible” booze as your class president, you’ve probably seen Arijit Sen on campus. He’s also a choreographer, a world-traveler, and special enough to be a WesCeleb…twice.

J: So, you’ve been a WesCeleb before – as a freshman, that’s pretty rare.

A: Yeah, I’m not sure why, I think it was just that one of my friends was in charge of the articles at that point in time…it wasn’t because I had done anything special.

J: Okay, well now you’ve done something special…

A: I assume, since you picked me.

L: Well you’re class president now.

A: I am. I ran in an unopposed election. I got seven percent of the class vote, which I think is a pretty ringing endorsement.

L: How did you get started with the WSA?

A: Freshman year, I just showed up. I wanted to do stuff, so I did WSA freshman and sophomore year, then I got bored, and by bored I mean I lost the election for the WSA, so I quit. Being class president seems more fun, because you basically just buy alcohol for everyone else…responsible drinking though.

J: Of course.

A: I love people, and I get to make a speech at graduation. It seems like a much better job than worrying about food contracts or dining services.

L: I also saw you did a Freeman Research Grant.

A: It was on how the nature of British colonialism in Southeast Asia led to British sports not being as successful there as it was in South Asia. British sports, cricket being the main one, are huge [in South Asia], whereas in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, they’re not that popular. It was mostly an excuse to get $5,000 for the summer and travel…it was a lot of fun. I was in London for a while and made friends with these two old Oxford Professors who shared their weed with me. Very nice, and I had enough money left over for next semester’s expenses.

J: Are you a fan of British sports?

A: I’m a big fan of cricket; I’ve been following it since I was five…I wrote for an online cricket magazine for a while. The magazine shut down, though.

L: So you want to be a writer, is that right?

A: That is the long-term goal. Right now I’m going to be going to grad school in the fall. I’m looking at Indiana right now; I’m still waiting on some others…it will give me three more years of paid vacation, basically.

J: You’re going to grad school for writing?

A: For fiction writing.

J: So what kind of literature are you into, either for reading or writing?

A: The latest thing I’ve gotten into is magic realism, so I’m reading Marquez, Borges, Rushdie.

J: Okay, that’s over my head.

A: Borges, Luis Borges. He writes a lot of short fiction, you should check it out. And Salmon Rushdie; his wife’s really hot, she’s the host of “Top Chef.”

J: Oh yeah. What about writing, do you have a genre you’re interested in?

A: I’m only trying right now, so I don’t know what I’ll be writing five years from now. When you’re not very good as a writer, you end up just writing stuff similar to what you like reading. You see as time goes on what style works. So right now my thesis is just a mishmash of vaguely magic realism. Well, I like to call it magic realism. I’m pretty sure my advisor would just say it’s nonsensical.

L: Now you do Samsara; can you tell us about that?

A: It’s pretty fun; I’ve done it every year. This year three of us seniors choreographed. We get to choreograph the dance with all our friends, so it’s just 20 friends hanging out and putting together a dance, which we put on in the show. I think it’s gone pretty well; we sell out every year.

L: Did you start dancing at home?

A: No, I started dancing here. I was forced into it my freshman year because someone dropped out, and I got yelled at a lot because I can’t dance to save my life. I have no rhythm. I’ve done it for four years though, and this year I got to stand front and center for two dances. I was pretty excited; last year they just stuck me in the back so no one could see me, but over three years my whining paid off.

L: What a success story.

A: It is. Tags to riches.

J: Are you the type of person who sticks with something because you’ve been yelled at before?

A: Oh no, I’m lazy as fuck. I don’t do anything. I just do this because the music’s usually fun, and you generally just hang out with cool people and learn some dance steps. I’m a terrible presence at a dance rehearsal. I’m just difficult and won’t let anyone do their job, so choreographing worked out great because I got to yell at people.

L: So how did you decide to go to Wesleyan?

A: They gave me admission and the most financial aid, so it was a purely mercenary choice; I had no idea what it was like. Someone forgot to send me even a brochure, so I didn’t even know what it looked like. When I showed up here, the first thing I saw was the sun setting over the cemetery on Foss Hill. that was my first few minutes at Wesleyan.

L: So would you say that sums things up?

A: Yeah, the cemetery pretty much sums up my experience.

J: Then you became a WesCeleb.

A: Then I became a WesCeleb, so it was like full-circle.