Feeds writer nominated for Pulitzer
Celebrations happened in full swing at the headquarters of Feeds as the weekend brought great news to the writers of the college. Stealth Shiva, a content developer at Feeds, has made it to the final shortlist of the Pulitzer Prize, a prestigious award honouring excellence in journalism and arts. His journey for the Pulitzer began when his colleagues persuaded him to send his investigative articles to the organization. He received emails every week confirming his selection into subsequent rounds. The entire crew awaits the final result which is to be announced shortly.
Stealth Shiva’s multiple award-winning “The Winter Holiday Scam” is the article up for contention against the world’s best journalists. In this ten-thousand worded article, Shiva gives an insight into how a student is deprived of his holidays unbeknownst to him.
“Say, the college decides to give a forty day vacation during the winter. It creates an illusion that a student gets forty days of holidays when he actually doesn’t. It is basic sixth-grade science. Days during winter are shorter than the days during spring. By keeping classes in June and July, they extract more work from us than they are, technically, supposed to. Wake up, fellow students. Wake up to the scam,” urges Stealth Shiva as he shares his concern to a fellow reporter at Feeds.
The impact that the article created was clearly seen when it was initially published on his Facebook handle and sparked an outcry. The post received comments from enraged netizens such as, “My whole life was a lie”, “Woke” and an incoherent “Winter is coming”. The revelation had also led to the creation of an event named “Shouting ‘Extend the Holidays’ in front of LHC” in the NIT Trichy Calendar/ Notice Board and it garnered a decent amount of reactions. However, only one person turned up for the event on the scheduled date.
Mari, a powerful member of the DASA community, the only person who turned up for the protest, exclaims, “More people should be concerned, you know! I had no idea that such a scam is taking place. I was furious when I got to know that I am being robbed of my vacations. These vacations are dear to us as we won’t be going home every other weekend like the people from Chennai or Trichy.”
The article has been nominated under the category of investigative reporting on a matter of international concern. A sum of $15,000, exclusive of all taxes, will be awarded to the winner. Shiva has promised to donate half of his prize money to two organizations that need it the most: the caterers of his mess and the board of Arsenal FC. He is also rumoured to be the next President of the Flat Earth Society – NIT Trichy Chapter.
-A report by Shady K.D.
