Ego of the Week: Shomik Sarkar

Street: What’s one thing everyone should know about the Nominations and Elections Committee?
Shomik Sarkar: If the Supreme Court and the White House press office had a baby, it would be the NEC.

Street: If you were caught in a political scandal, what would you want it to be?
SS: I want it to be something fun. Like… “too nice to people.”

Street: “Shom caught being too damn nice.”
SS: Has there ever been a fun political scandal? I have no point of reference here.

Street: There have been Penn political scandals.
SS: Yeah, there have been. My whole life revolves around Penn political scandals, so I don’t really want to get into it at this point. Also, I just have to remain neutral, so I don’t have any opinions on any political scandals. I’m the most neutral person on this campus.

Street: “Shom caught being neutral.”
SS: Yeah, that would be my scandal.

Street: If you could pick any person, fictional or nonfictional, to run for president, who would it be?
SS: Well, I want to be Amy Gutmann. If she ran for President, I could take her job. Done.

Street:  Who’s your favorite Supreme Court judge?
SS: William Howard Taft. He was President, Supreme Justice of the Supreme Court and got stuck in a bathtub. Those are three life goals of mine.

Street: There are two kinds of people at Penn…
SS: Those who vote in student elections and those who don’t. And the ones that do vote are the only ones who have a right to complain about things that are going on on campus. And! The right to complain is a very important right. That’s more than two…

Street: What’s your spirit animal?
SS: I was almost a dog. My older brother was seven and all his friends had dogs and little brothers, so he demanded to my parents that he get a dog or a little brother, so my parents made the correct decision in picking a human. So they had me. That would be weird if I was a dog, right?

Street: This interview would be very different. 
SS: I wonder if my parents would’ve named it Shom…

Street: What’s your guilty pleasure?
SS: I’m really into funny baby videos on YouTube. I have one that I really like called “Baby makes compelling argument.” It’s just like a baby babbling incoherently and spinning around in circles. It probably just reminds me of myself as a child. Or maybe now. Maybe at 2 a.m. on a Saturday.

Street: If you could have any condiment squeezed out of your nose, what would it be?
SS: That’s the strangest thing I think anyone has asked me in my life. Blue cheese. No! Blue cheese and buffalo sauce, blue cheese on one side and buffalo sauce on the other.

Street: What’s one thing you wish you knew as a freshman?
SS: I wish I knew all the different things student government had to offer and how important voting in student government elections is.

Street: That was a great plug.
SS: Right? Yeah, that was a shameful and awesome plug. Vote at www.pennstudgov.com by tomorrow at 5 p.m!