Janhavi Gosavi

We made it e hoa mā! You survived multiple variants of Covid-19, a mountain of assignments, a change in Vice Chancellor, shitty hall food, a local body election, a cost of living crisis, the death of a monarch, and mouldy housing. Survival warrants a…

Students are being set up to fail starve. Last week, Salient reported on how unaffordable campus food had become (to the point where Krisha’s famous $6 plates are devastatingly no longer $6). Consistently buying food is not an economical option, so…

I am as unathletic as they come, but in honour of this week’s Sports Issue, I present to you some of the many ways I’ve attempted to engage with sports over the years. Watch cricket “for the culture”To be Indian is to love cricket. I’ve watched every…

Year in, year out, I hear students complain about how “VUWSA doesn't do anything and sucks at engaging with students”. But students also suck at engaging with VUWSA. It takes two to tango, and our indifference towards VUWSA is spinning the…

Content warning: Discussions of Irregular Eating Habits, Eating Disorders My relationship with food is great. My relationship with eating sucks. I am liable to abandon my food in favour of anything that offers me more mental stimulation. A morsel of…

Is being in love off-limits for the non-committal? Like me, a lot of you may have grown up watching romantic comedies centred around metropolitan yo-pros who considered themselves too smart and practical to fall in love. These characters harp on…

He isn't ancient, which is a welcome change from the norm. Nic attended university in the late 80s and early 90s, which meant his undergraduate degree was partially paid for by the government. When I asked how this would have benefited him, he said…

The saying “I’m too poor to buy cheap shoes” is probably what drove me to buy my first pair of New Balances at the age of 16. Up until then, all of my shoes had been from The Warehouse and Number One Shoes - cheap but breakable. I needed a shoe to…

Content warning: mention of non-consensual kissing When Stephenie Meyer released Midnight Sun in May 2020 as a pick-me-up for Twi-hards in lockdown, she triggered a full blown internet revival of the series. The Twilight Renaissance has been thriving…

Dr. Siouxsie Wiles is a microbiologist and head of the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland. She’s been the media’s go-to doctor to consult about new diseases for many years, but the pandemic made her a household name. Known…

Content warning: discussions of sexual harrassment and assault I started at Salient in 2019, a first-year student with stars in her eyes and a hunger for storytelling. I came to university to be someone, and I was excited to explore writing as a…

It's a humid night in New York City. I’m strolling Broadway with my classmates when I get yanked into a merchandise store dedicated to the musical Hamilton. All around me, fans squeal with excitement. I stand there awkward and indifferent. As a…

I’m proud to say this issue has been written solely by writers from immigrant and refugee backgrounds. It is the first issue of its kind, not just for Salient, but for all of the student media magazines in Aotearoa. An immigrant is defined as a…

I’m parked up by Starbucks, chocolate frap in hand, when my phone lights up. “I just had the best sex of my life,” reads a text from my mate. I let out an ungodly shriek, spilling my drink down my shirt, and furiously start typing back, demanding…

Everyone has their local: a bar, restaurant or café they swear by. I’ve noticed that our locals can become a part of our personality, a place others know they can find us at. Visit often enough, and your identity and that establishment become…

For the past month, I’ve been attending investing classes. They’re hosted by a family friend, and my parents coerced me into going, telling me I should learn to be smarter with my money now that I’ve finished my degree. Shock horror, I am the…

Between the ages of 12 and 15, I was a misogynist. I’ve tried phrasing that in a more digestible way, but there’s no sugar-coating the truth. It started in intermediate, when gender roles and puberty onset created new differences between boys and…

My phone tells me how many hours I spent on social media at the end of every week, and it scares me. When I flop on my bed after a hard day’s work and doomscroll for an hour, it's instinctive. When I flick through reels as I wait for the bus to…

Despite being from Wellington, I forced myself to fork out a huge amount of money to live closer to the CBD while studying. “It's part of the student experience,” I chattered through my teeth as I shivered in my flat. It was great fun for a while; I…

Kia ora koutou e hoa mā! Happy start of Trimester One to you all. Whether you’re amped for the start of a new chapter or dreading classes before they’ve begun, there’s no doubt 2022 will be a hell of a year. A big welcome back to all of our returning…