Pop quiz: What do these people have in common: Larry David, Mike Judge, Natalie Portman, Bill Gates, Snoop Dog, John McCain, Ashley Judd, Marilyn Manson, and Jhumpa Lahiri? Each appeared on an epsiode of mtvU's Stand-In, which punks college classes by replacing their professor with a celebrity instructor for the day. Dude!
Lahiri appeared as a special guest for a fiction writing class at Pace University in 2005, in an episode that was a collaboration between the short-lived MTV Desi, a channel aimed at South Asians in the U.S., and mtvU, a channel available on college campuses. She reads from her story "The Third and Final Continent" (though mtvU only has the attention span to show part of that) and answers students' questions.
Professor Lahiri will, of course, be appearing at The New School on Wednesday night, as a finalist for The Story Prize.