Like a kid in a candy store

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Does stuff like this happen in real life? I thought these scenarios only played out in mid-summer B-movie comedies. From the Globe:

To many women, he is simply “the boy.” They know who he is, even if they do not know his name. They know his story, even if they have never spoken to him.
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In the small, all-female world of Wellesley College, Mohammad Usman is famous in this way. He is literally a man among women – about 2,300 women. Usman, 19, is the only man attending Wellesley College this fall.

“A lot of people don’t know his name, really,” said Johanna Peace, a Wellesley junior and the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, the Wellesley News. “They’re aware that there’s a boy on campus. And if they see him, they’ll say, ‘Oh – there’s the boy.’ “

The boy in question has been living in a dormitory on campus since September, showering in his private bathroom, and, perhaps predictably, becoming something of a folk hero among his male friends. [Link]

You got that? He’s becoming a folk hero. Desis have arrived when some of us begin to achieve folk hero status. So what is it about Usman that let the Wellesley administration let this rooster in the hen house? They actually have an exchange program. Some people want to be exchanged to a foreign school. Those people are stupid. Why go abroad to meet a cute Euro/Australian/South American girl for the summer when you could attend an all-girl school (with more favorable odds) right here?

He wanted to come for the educational experience. (And the women.) He was looking forward to living near Boston. (And lots of women.) To him, this was a chance of a lifetime.

“I thought it would be really fascinating to be the only male at an all-women’s college,” said Usman…

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p>”I want to try new things, and the greatest part of a liberal-arts education is experiencing a wide variety of things. It’s important to me to get the most of my 50 Gs…” [Link]

Brother, we all want to try new things and get the most. I admire your educational ambitions. Once more we are the model minority. But…what do your parents think?

Usman, the fourth child of Pakistani immigrants who own a variety store in the Bronx, enrolled at Wellesley for the fall semester like everyone else. His parents, who dropped him off on campus, were surprised to see so many women, mostly because Usman had failed to tell them that Wellesley was a women’s college. [Link]

52 thoughts on “Like a kid in a candy store”

  1. greatest part of a liberal-arts education is experiencing a wide variety of things

    Bloody turkey. Is he getting any action or are all these women just friends.

  2. Wait, so he already goes to another undergrad school, but is participating in an exchange program for this semester?

  7. His parents, who dropped him off on campus, were surprised to see so many women, mostly because Usman had failed to tell them that Wellesley was a women’s college

    Haha, that’s pretty amusing.

  8. It’s clear from the photo that he has been made a mascot, soon he will be making them cocoa and dispensing 2:00 a.m. relationship advice. Or at least this is how I console myself for not being that ingenious when I was his age

  12. Wellesley administartion let this rooster in the hen house?

    Typo. Also, it’s “Boston Globe,” not “Globe.” Surely, Abhi, you can type in six more letters. 😀

    Bloody turkey. Is he getting any action or are all these women just friends.

    melbourne desi, those two are not always mutually exclusive. 😉

  13. Apparently the Boston Globe just got wind of this gasp amazing venture (the general, not Usman specifically). It is my sad duty to inform the Boston Globe that this has been going on for ages– at least since I want to Wellesley umpity-ump years ago (and no, Amit, you don’t get to guess ;->)

  15. Usman looks like a guy who would be friends with any girl without ever trying to get into someone’s pants.

  16. ‘Oh – there’s the boy.’ “

    Or, as they say in hybrid Hindi, Us Man.

  17. That picture has ruined my mental image of what Wellesley looks like. I mean, come on. The Boston Globe couldn’t get a picture that didn’t feature a messy room with girls in spectacularly ugly pajamas?

  19. Hahaha, whoever said that he looks like the sort of dude who’s just “friend material” got it right.

  20. The Boston Globe couldn’t get a picture that didn’t feature a messy room with girls in spectacularly ugly pajamas?

    I have a feeling those are actually their clothes…

  21. That is not an issue for Usman, who said he has no girlfriend. He is very attracted to intelligent women, he said, and has enjoyed the attention he has received from classmates.

    wowza! Likes ‘intelligent women,’ does he? I’m guessing he gets the Nobel Prize just as as soon as ManBearBig did, but with cherries on top instead.

    That lucky sonovabeeyatch! And gutsy too.

    oh buddy, I’d like to believe that as well but my experience with grads/students from traditionally all-female colleges in VA led me to believe that: 1)Only the extremely gullible will assume that you are an Uberlothario just because you ended up at a school where artificial price controls were placed on testosterone 2)Some might assume that the extreme opposite is true, sight every bump on your face and declare it to be an outbreak, and 3)You could end up at a 60%F/40%M school and attempt to put your forehead through the cheaply constructed walls of student housing for four years, while cursing the inadequate grasp of dating probabilities which led you to choose said school of advanced blue ball studies.

  22. When I went to Smith eons ago, there was also a boy in the house. They called him Fiji because that was where he was from. Don’t think I ever spoke to him personally though perhaps I would now since he was a desi and I am interested in the diaspora. A lot of guys who visit women’s colleges imagine the women are desparate — all those porn movies they’ve been seeing have got to be right. So they come and walk around with a swagger and think they are just so irresistible. I for one found this arrogance repulsive. I still do.

  25. I was in an EMT class with a guy who was in a school the first year it turned co-ed. 1,000+ women, 10 guys. His face still glowed at the memories . . . all men were in high high demand. However, being the only male, he’ll have to walk the balance beam or avoid possibly being blackballed. (The other school that turned co-ed was fairly no-name compared to wellesley)

  29. A lot of guys who visit women’s colleges imagine the women are desparate — all those porn movies they’ve been seeing have got to be right. So they come and walk around with a swagger and think they are just so irresistible. I for one found this arrogance repulsive. I still do.

    Totally. I went to a women’s college (Chatham). When I was there, there was a new physical therapy graduate program on campus that was coed, and the guys would swagger around like they were the kings of the campus. They also harassed lesbians, which didn’t win them any friends on our campus.

    Also, occasionally groups of high school boys would venture onto campus, hoping to catch a peek of a naked lesbian slumber party or whatever it was they thought we were doing. (Silly boys. We always closed the blinds before having naked lesbian slumber parties.)

  31. Also, occasionally groups of high school boys would venture onto campus, hoping to catch a peek of a naked lesbian slumber party or whatever it was they thought we were doing. (Silly boys. We always closed the blinds before having naked lesbian slumber parties.)

    What? Not a single exhibitionist lesbian in your group? Where’s the diversity yaar? 😉

  32. Full credit for effort, but unfortunately this is one of those things that looks a lot better on paper than the reality reflects. He’s going to be victim to the “friend” syndrome by being around too much.

  33. Once he is back to Dartmouth he can claim to be enlightened by the womankind and use the charm to entice women in Dartmouth.. heheh.. I can imagine being red-faced everyday at class.. courageous boy!

  34. Quote:”Why go abroad to meet a cute Euro/Australian/South American girl for the summer when you could attend an all-girl school (with more favorable odds) right here?”

    Haha…No totty here tho!

  36. Full credit for effort, but unfortunately this is one of those things that looks a lot better on paper than the reality reflects. He’s going to be victim to the “friend” syndrome by being around too much.

    How does everyone know what his intentions are?

  37. Puliogre in da USA on December 5, 2007 02:57 PM · Direct link

    Haha...No totty here tho!

    totty?

    Hi, I meant in the photo. Totty….brit slang for an alluring female.

  38. How does everyone know what his intentions are?

    From the article:

    He is very attracted to intelligent women, he said, and has enjoyed the attention he has received from classmates.

  39. I was going to say that, judging by that picture, the candy store is full of black licorice… but then i looked up his fbook and limited it to wellesley friends…i take it back. Play on playa.

  41. I know this kid, but I haven’t talked to him in a year or so. This article makes him look completely different than the Mohammad I know. He was very egocentric and proudly sexist, always yapping about how he could easily have any girl he wanted and about how he bedded this or that girl last week (mostly lies, mind you), not to mention how he was smarter than you. Hopefully he will change for the better because of this experience, or already has…

  42. “not to mention how he was smarter than you.” Then he’s in for a shock. Wellesley girls don’t put up with that kind of thing for very long. Who knows? Maybe everyone will learn something. Anyhoo- Wellesley girls are no fools (as a group- individually, well, ;>) so if he pulls anything, he’ll find himself straightened out pretty fast. If he rolls with it- should be an interesting year.

  44. What? No one wants to know if he rides that particular bus to Cambridge? What’s that bus called? Hmm… I forget.

  45. What? No one wants to know if he rides that particular bus to Cambridge? What’s that bus called? Hmm… I forget.

    Do you mean to say that he’s gay? 😉

  48. The equivalent of this for women is attending GA Tech. =D

    Shalu, what’s the ratio like these days? I went to Stevens Tech in the 90s and it was close to 10 to 1 then but more like 4 to 1 now.

    Full credit for effort, but unfortunately this is one of those things that looks a lot better on paper than the reality reflects. He’s going to be victim to the “friend” syndrome by being around too much.

    Vikram, I fully agree.

  49. Full credit for effort, but unfortunately this is one of those things that looks a lot better on paper than the reality reflects. He’s going to be victim to the “friend” syndrome by being around too much.

    sour grapes.