Bharat Ayyar
Bharat Ayyar
Recent Stories
One vote
NEW HAVEN, 4:09 p.m. — Seven months ago, I became a United States citizen. And today, I cast my first ballot. I'll admit it: it wasn't nearly as exciting as I thought it would be. I arrived at my designated polling location — the New Haven Public Library on Elm Street — and got in line. There was no chatter, no fanfare. People mostly kept to themselves; they were reading books, texting on their cellphones and staring into space. Where I envisioned a cascade of high-fives for every person who passed the queue on his way out, there were just glazed over eyes (okay, maybe a smile or two). Where I envisioned a smattering of students, professors and New Haven residents belting out the national anthem, there was just muffled chatter about tomorrow's problem set. No matter. I waited my turn. I gave them my name. I cast my ballot. I was luckier than one gentleman, who was in line in front of me. He had already tried to vote at another polling station, which referred him to the one I was at. But when it was his turn to vote, they referred him back to the polling station he came from. Clearly upset, he left without much of a fight. (I wonder, did he have the patience to go back?) As he walked away, one of the volunteers working at booth said, quite simply: "Damn." I ran into a member of last year's Yale Daily News editorial board, as I was leaving the library. "Hey," she said, expecting, I think, me to stop-and-chat about tonight's newspaper. For whatever reason, I didn't stop walking (sorry, K). Instead, I just pumped my fist and blurted out the first thing that came to my mind: "God bless America."
Around New Haven | Men struck by car outside Anna Liffey’s
The New Haven Independent reported that two men, seen linking arms, were hit by a car driving on Whitney Avenue near Grove Street.
Up Close | Two years later, drinking still a ‘ticking bomb’
It was half-past eleven, but the night was hardly still. Amerigo Fabbri stepped outside on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 27 — almost a year ago — to see roughly four hundred students, dressed in costume and wielding red plastic cups, crowded in the lower and main courtyards of Pierson College. Music blasted from speakers mounted on windows.
Light granted parole
sentence halved for would-be Yale senior
After serving roughly six months of his one-year sentence, David Light, the would-be Yale senior from Woodland Park, Colo., has been released on parole.
Liquor violations up in ’08
The University’s annual report on campus security, released Wednesday, reveals a dramatic uptick in the number of liquor violations on campus and the continued prevalence of burglaries in 2007 compared to previous years.
YPD’s new East Rock unit arrests burglar
A Yale Police Department officer arrested Bristol, Conn. resident Rene Colon, on Tuesday at a parking lot near Whitney and Humphrey streets on charges of burglary, larceny, trespassing and interfering with a police officer, according to a department release.
Narcotics unit revived
Lt. John Velleca stood at the corner of Whalley Avenue and Sherman Parkway Tuesday afternoon, his hair closely cut and his suit crisply pressed. Although he follows in the notorious and sourly remembered footsteps of his predecessor, he appeared unfazed by his reborn narcotics division’s tarnished past.
One dead in post-club shootings
This weekend, the New Haven Police Department responded to two violent incidents near popular downtown night clubs, mere blocks away from central campus. At least one person has died.
Around New Haven: City officer still in critical condition
New Haven Police Department Officer Diane Gonzalez remained in critical condition Thursday evening, city spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said.
Around New Haven: Homicides in city continue to rise over 2007 levels
A spate of shootings in New Haven in the last week resulted in at least three casualties, bringing the total number of New Haven homicides in 2008 to 18 — five more than last year.