Agarwalla Will Poke Fun At Growing Up At Harvard

Pankaj K. Agarwalla ’04 knows what the Roman poet Catullus meant when he wrote, “Amat victoria curam,” or “Victory loves diligence.”

Agarwalla, known on campus as “PK,” earned highest honors from the Classics department and was selected from among ten candidates to deliver the Latin oration today at Harvard’s 353rd Commencement—a testament to his hard work and love of Classical antiquity, according to teachers and friends.

A self-proclaimed Hellenist who studied both ancient Greek and Latin in college, Agarwalla will wax poetic about the social and intellectual development of the average Harvard student in a speech titled “De Hominis Harvardiensis Decursu,” which means “On the Evolution of the Harvard Student.”

Unlike the somber stuff of Cicero, ancient Rome’s most famous orator, Agarwalla says his speech is lighthearted.

“It’s a mockery of hominid evolution,” he says. “I go through each year and make jokes about each type of student.”

Michael B. Sullivan, a resident tutor in the Classics at Dunster House who advised Agarwalla on his grammar and syntax, says the speech is unique because it combines “scientific and humanistic points of view.”

“This is an oration that should appeal to chemists and classicists alike—provided the chemists have a translation, of course,” Sullivan says.

The Latin oration is a hallowed tradition that dates back to the first Commencement ceremony at Harvard in 1642.

In preparation for the 5-minute oration, which will be delivered from memory, Agarwalla has had speech lessons at the American Repertory Theater and can be found on certain afternoons rehearsing at Memorial Church.

“I’m really working on the gestures,” he says. “It’s pretty cool. I feel almost like Cicero. I have a cap. I have a gown. It’s kind of like a toga.”

THE MAN BEHIND THE TOGA

Raised in Washington, D.C., Agarwalla, whose parents are from Northern India, started learning Latin in seventh grade.

He says he first became excited about promoting the Classics while serving as the national vice president of the Junior Classical League (JCL), an organization of junior and senior high school students interested in Latin and Greek.

Agarwalla transferred from Cornell, where he began his study of Greek, after his freshman year.

Even though he has taken six more years of Latin than Greek, he admits, “Greek is my big thing.” For his thesis, “Through the Lens of Epinician,” Agarwalla wrote about foil in victory songs by Pindar and Bacchylides.

Foil, Agarwalla explains, is a literary device “which refers to points in the poem where the poet does not directly praise the victor, but instead uses another topic or theme to create a contrast which then affects the praise.”

“I found that in some sense, foils for extraordinary victors—for tyrants or kings—were really focusing on the power aspect of the tyrant or king,” he says.

On the other hand, Agarwalla found that foils for aristocratic victors focused on the community or group to which the person belonged.

“I sort of showed how often these foils…are chosen based on the position of the victor,” he says.

At Cornell and Harvard, Agarwalla was active with student government. He likens Undergraduate Council meetings to speaking in ancient fora.

“I like the arguments, I love problematic procedure and I like to debate,” he says. “I feel it’s almost like the Classical, Athenian thing, where you go into the Forum.”

In addition to Pindar, Agarwalla names Sophocles and Plato as his favorite Greek authors. His favorite Latin authors are Virgil, Cicero and Catullus.

Agarwalla’s roommate, Michael Alperovich ’04, characterized him as a serious student with “an unrelenting focus on his academics.”

“It drives him; it envelops him; it also defines him,” Alperovich says.

Due to this drive, Agarwalla graduates summa cum laude today.

Another roommate, Austin G. Dever ’04, says Agarwalla also knows how to have a good time.

“Pankaj doesn’t drink but buys every remote acquaintance in the bar multiple rounds of whatever they want,” he says.

During the summer, Dever says Agarwalla volunteers with the Prince George’s County Fire Department in Maryland “because he loves the atmosphere and challenge.”

Recently, the friends went to see the movie Troy, which is based on the Iliad by Homer—another one of Agarwalla’s favorite authors.

“Pankaj got so worked up at the film’s inaccuracies that by the halfway point he was remarking, ‘This is crap,’” Dever says.

Next year, Agarwalla will travel to England where he will continue his study of the Classics, specifically ancient science, at Oxford University.

Eventually, he says, he wants to attend medical school.

“I like science and I like Classics, and I like putting them together,” says Agarwalla, who fulfilled all of the pre-med requirements.

In fact, he says Greek composition and Chemistry 30, his two favorite classes at Harvard, complemented each other well because they required similar skills.

“It’s all about creativity,” he says. “I have a text I want to translate into Greek. I’ve got all these different options to use, and I can create my Greek. And then I’ve got a problem in chemistry. Okay, I need to create this molecule. I’ve got all these different things I can use.”

“Put it together, boom, I’ve got my molecule,” he says, gesticulating gracefully.

“Being pre-med and doing Classics was a phenomenal experience,” Agarwalla says. “That’s the combination that I’ve sort of had throughout my life. That’s where this speech is more like me.”

Charles B. Watson ’03, who gave the speech last year and who is currently studying the Classics at Oxford, says Agarwalla was a “fantastic choice for Latin orator.”

“PK’s poise and enthusiasm will make him an excellent speaker,” Watson says.

Watson and Agarwalla met in high school as national JCL officers and have been “comrades in Latinity” ever since. Watson says he was impressed with Agarwalla’s “sense of drive, ambition and determination.”

“He’s able to encompass so many pursuits: the future doctor, student of ancient Greek poetry, firefighter extraordinaire and unflinching Republican,” Watson says. “There is no segment of his life in which he does not have the drive to excel.”

Watson would agree that Agarwalla’s philosophy on life is summed up best by Catullus: “Amat victoria curam.”

—Staff writer Andrew C. Esensten can be reached at esenst@fas.harvard.edu.