Every year, a new group of rising seniors claims the famed Strip Mod. During housing selection last spring, the guys of 27B stepped up to the challenge of providing much-needed relief from finals and studying for the entire student body.
Kishanraj Praful Bhakta (Kish) is an A&S student from Saugus, MA. He is in SASA, is a captain of Masti, and says that his interests include (aside from eating, sleeping, and occasional homework-doing) “STRAIGHT CHILLIN’ WITH MAH BOYZ from 27B.” He counts Strip Mod as a senior year highlight, in addition to spring break, the general debauchery of weekends, and growing closer with friends as his final college year comes to an end. You can find him in the piano rooms in Lyons, and if you’re looking to embarrass him, be sure to mention how he messed up a dance for 42 straight counts. When asked single or taken, he answered, “Taken…harder than Liam Neeson’s daughter,” so I can only assume his girlfriend not only gets that joke, but also is nice and down-to-earth, like his ideal girl. Advice to freshmen? “GET A MOD.”
Umang Gupta is a CSOM student from Westford, MA and, like Kish, is in SASA and Masti. If you’ve ever been to the ITS HelpDesk, you’ve probably seen him, but if you haven’t been lucky enough to do so, try swinging by the 5th floor of McGuinn and ask him to recount his highlights of senior year, which include ALC Showdown and the Sandy/Nemo ragers (because if you can’t party when there’s a hurricane or blizzard outside, when can you party?). His celebrity crush is Natalie Portman—but his ideal girl is the one he’s already got, and his ideal date is whenever his girlfriend has time for him. A less-than-ideal date would probably be the time he, “walked around Copley, completely lost, convincing my girlfriend we were not. She was not pleased. I also got lost another time on our way to Barnes & Noble… I am bad at directions. I refuse to use GPS.” Advice to freshmen? “If you feel like switching out of CSOM, switch out of CSOM. Definitely should have listened to my own advice.”
Alex Magee is an A&S student from Tuba City, AZ, whose favorite activities include both sitting on the couch and laying on the couch, but only when he isn’t slouching on the couch. He won’t talk about his embarrassing moments (still too mortifying, apparently), but looks back on his Arabic class and the Thrift Shop party fondly. If you run into him in his favorite location of the Mod Lot, don’t insult his rat-tail. It’s a total deal breaker if you do but, in the end, it doesn’t really matter, because his celebrity crush is Kate Beckinsdale. Allow me to elaborate… “Single or taken? Kate Beckinsdale. Have an ideal girl? Kate Beckinsdale. What’s your ideal date? Kate Beckinsdale. Got any funny date stories? Once, I told a girl about Kate Beckinsale for 20 minutes.” I can only hope that when he finally meets Kate Beckinsdale, he isn’t in his favorite Halloween costume of a ‘90s Dad. Advice to freshmen? “Stop complaining about living on Upper/ don’t pretend to be happy on Newton. If you wanna be different, live on Middle.”
Tom Swiderski is an A&S student from Sauquoit, NY (or The Quoit). He’s involved with SASA, in addition to Big Brothers and a Dominican Republic Service and Immersion Trip. He is happiest when hanging out with 3 or 4 close friends, so needless to say, his highlights of senior year have been doing just that in his Mod. His embarrassing moment is that he thinks his entire emcee performance at culture show was pretty bad, so if you’re looking to find him and console him about it, try looking around the miniature Pride Rock in the Quad. He’s single, and his ideal date is pretty elaborate: “I’m not trying to be all girly romantic here. I would like to start with dinner, but if it’s El Pelon or Anna’s, all the better. We can go see a movie but, really, I like exploring. I’d like to just walk around Boston. There’s so much to see that I’ve never seen, and I want to experience it first with the girl I love most by my side. Just strolling around, talking, linked arm-in-arm for the whole night. Then, maybe come back and curl up with some hot chocolate (or, hey, if she wants a beer, it’s fine by me) and watch a sci-fi thriller as we fall asleep in each other’s arms.” Adventurous and willing to cuddle? Alright, sounds good. If you want this picturesque scene to be yours, don’t smoke or start fights. Advice to freshmen? “Don’t take 9AMs. Always try to take the same professors, if you like them, so you can build up a rapport with them and use them for references.”
Chirag Zaveri is a CSOM student from Lowell, MA, and in addition to Masti and SASA, he is involved with UGBC and Arrupe. He’s been a housing maverick (living in Medeiros, then CoRo, then Paris), but is happy to have moved in with his friends for this year and feels blessed that things worked out the way they did. His highlights are that he created an environment where people can call SASA and Mod 27B home, the entirety of the SASA show (pre, actual, and post), the Nemo Darty/Snowball fight that was capped off with a movie night, the Notre Dame game (“shoutout to all the alumni!), and running the Welles Crowther 5K with his family (while still drunk from the night before). His most embarrassing moment is #50strong (“I don’t recall any of this. We were at a club. I was angry. I wrote an email to a Harvard SASA leader. It was well intentioned, but not well executed. Rob thinks it’s the greatest thing ever and has a printout on his wall.”) and his favorite Halloween costume is Aladdin. He’s single and his ideal date would be with a funny and humble girl who isn’t afraid to take risks and isn’t glued to her phone or Facebook, doing low-key stuff, like walking around Government Center or looking at the stars. Keeping this in mind, he once went on a date without realizing it (“Awkward…”). Advice to freshmen? “Live the life you love, love the life you live.”
Rob Rossi is a CSOM student from Lexington, MA, and if you’ve ever tried to contact @BCSTRIPMOD, this is who’s responding to you. Not only is he Strip Mod’s connection to the outside world, he’s the Managing Editor Emeritus of Gavel Media. Plus, if you’re ever so pleased with your wrap at late night that you want to write in and tell someone, direct it to him, the “Wrap City Artist at Lower Late Night”. When asked about his senior year highlights, he gave six (to commemorate not only the six 27B-ers, but also all their six-pack abs), all in reverse order of awesomeness: “ 6. Spring break in Punta Cana, specifically ATV-ing through a surprise herd of cows. 5. The first Strip Mod performance (I was Luigi!). 4. Discovering the song “Thrift Shop,” organizing a Gavel field trip to Goodwill in September, throwing the Thrift Shop Rager in October, and having UGBC step up and book Macklemore for Modstock after tweeting at them about it for forever. I don’t know if we had anything to do with it, but either way it’s still awesome. 3. Everything we’ve done at Gavel Media this year. For me personally, the articles I’ve written since the last week of January and the video I put together with the incomparable Emily Akin. 2. Figuring out what I’m going to do with my life – BC Law 2016! 1. Meeting my girlfriend.” He doesn’t have embarrassing moments (“I strip in public, you think I get embarrassed?”), which must make it easy to talk to his ideal girl, “[a] beautiful blonde girl with crazy dancing skills and even more swag than me,” who he happens to already be dating. And she still wants to be his girlfriend after a date that ended in “watching Chappelle’s Show, skipping around to the best sketches.” Advice to freshmen? “Do something memorable every day.”
Rob Rossi was also nice enough to take the time to answer some more in-depth questions.
Did you intend to get Strip Mod, or was it just the only mod left?
Yes, we definitely intended to get it. But the girls next door didn’t, so that’s why there are only six of us, rather than twelve.
How much time do you spend in preparation mode for performance day—whether it is practicing or working out?
Rehearsing and dancing generally starts a few weeks prior, but we’re in the Plex all year to make sure we look good for the show.
Does your inspiration come from Strip Mods past, or is it something all your own? Who does your choreography?
We try to keep a balance of both—yes, we’re inspired, but we also have three guys who are in Masti here, and they come up with all the choreography in-house. The rest of us just try to use our natural dance talent, I guess? We try to make the performance our own.
What’s the craziest thing that has happened thus far in your tenure as the inhabitants of 27B (either at a party, performance, or just daily life)?
Well, last Friday [author’s note: night in question is April 19th, the night that authorities apprehended Boston Marathon bombing suspect, Dzohkhar Tsarnaev] we already had people over, coming in and out celebrating. All of a sudden, people started barging in, uninvited, to run upstairs to the bedrooms and take pictures of what was going on in the quad right outside. We made a few new friends that night…and then we kicked them out.
How excited are you guys for Macklemore at Modstock? Front row status?
Definitely front row—we’re trying to get that pink coat on stage, and we’ve been using Twitter to invite him to both the after-party and Friday’s performance.
Now, for the inside scoop, any hints about this semester’s performance?
All I can say is that it’s gonna be much more than last time!
Any tips for the juniors that you’re passing your torch to, and the subsequent stream of 27B-ers to come?
Just own it—this is the single most awesome place on campus. Strip Mod only happens two times a year, but you’re living here all year, so make it count.
Anything you want to say to the ladies of BC?
Well, I have a girlfriend, but three of us are single. So, if one day you do fall in love with a stripper, good luck, because it’s hard work.