WHY KAVYAA DESERVES ANOTHER CHANCE

She is too young to be so severely punished

By Bahu Virupaksha on May 6, 2006 5:28:49 AM from

Bahu Virupa...

Join Date 09/2004

What can you say of a girl of nineteen who took a single false step. That she is young. That she is ambitious. That she took a short cut to fame. Yes, you can say all this about a young Harvard sophomore called Kavyaaa Viswanathan, She is the only child a doctor parents who trained her from childhood to enter the portals of a great institution of higher learning--Harvard. She is by all accounts a bright, well groomed sophomore. Unfortunately for her her book, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got aLife which was published recently by Little Brown and Co has strirred by a hornet's nest of intellectual property right issues. Simply put issues referred to as plagarism.

A few weeks back the Harvard Crimson published a story saying that Kaavyaa had lifted certain passages from another young adult writer Megan McCaffert's novels Sloppy First and Second Helping. A perusal of the two books does suggest similarities in language but there is no passage that is a straioght lift from either book. Kaavyaa has stated that she had read the two books by McCaffert and had "internalised her language". She issued a public apology and her publisher Little Brown and Co withdrew all copies of the book. I managed to get a copy as I live in a different country and even here the distributors are withdrawing all copies of her book. Kaavyaa received an advance of 500,000 US $ and she was forced to return that amont. Personally speaking I feel that this young girl has been punished enough. Her name and reputation in tatters, Kavyaa should now be left to purue her studies.

The alarming part of this entire sequence of events is that Harvard University is seriously considering action against her. We do not know what the Deans and Professors of Harvard have in their minds. But this I know that 19 is too tender an age for ones's life to be irrevocably damaged. I appeal to all those concerned to have mercy on that girl. Punisher her if you will. But dont for God's sake damage her forever.

When I first heard this story my first reaction was she didn't deserve all the negative reactions she was receiving. But after it came out that it just wasn't one author she took from but two, and the fact that she hasn't seem to shown any remorse I reluctantly changed my mind.

Why not just tell the truth when it first came out? I think if she would've came out and told the complete truth of all she done she wouldn't be in the position she finds herself in right now. Despite all that I still feel kinda sorry for her and I do hope she rises above it all, and is not known just for her "mistake". But at the same time I do believe she should be punished, and if Harvard does take action then so be it. I'm sure there are other Ivy League schools that would be happy to have her, and who knows, it might be the best thing for her to a get a new start at a new school.

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BTW ... is post #26 a double post or did you plagiarized yourself from post #25?

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She is 19 years old and was 17 when the book was written.

She was younger when parts of it were written.

She has to pay the money back. I think that's enough.

If the only penalty for being a thief is occasionally having to give back the parts of your ill-gotten gain that can be proved to be stolen, how is than incentive to do anything other than become a better thief?

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If the only penalty for being a thief is occasionally having to give back the parts of your ill-gotten gain that can be proved to be stolen, how is than incentive to do anything other than become a better thief?

BINGO!

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The morning newspapers reported that the parents of Ms Kaavya Vishwanathan--Dr Rajaram and Dr Mary Sundaram-were both killed in an aircrash near Rickebbacker, Ohio. Dr Rajaram, a noted surgeon and a trained pilot was piloting the small plane from Washington DC were both had gone to see thie daughter.

I feel saddened at the loss and I pray that the Kaavya finds the strength to bear this great loss.

The cause of the crash is not known.

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