As we sit here thinking about you on the first anniversary of you leaving us all, all the appreciation from your quiz bowl friends just touch us so deeply.
https://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28990
2024-2025 Player Appreciation Thread
“I can’t talk about my time in Georgia without also talking about the most passionate, intellectual, kind, driven, and overall amazing person I had the honor of being friends with. Arya Karthik was such an inspiration to me, both in Quiz Bowl and out of it. Every conversation with them was a treat to be a part of. It’s hard, knowing that I won’t get the opportunity to have one more lunch with them. Even now, it still hasn’t fully sunk in. But the memory of them, the impact they left on me and everyone else, that will always be a part of me, etched into my heart. Arya will always be a part of my life, forever and more.”
2023-2024 Player Appreciation Thread
“ … a shout-out to Arya Karthik. It’s been so fun getting to know them better, and I’m very glad they returned to QB because it is insane watching them play. Their knowledge is absolutely ridiculous, their style of play is so unique, and their passions are intense. Every time I meet Arya, I feel like I’m being treated to a lunch date with a brilliant genius in the making. I can’t wait to see how they progress in England, and you can bet that I’ll be reading Ariadne, of Naxos page-to-page once they’re done with it.”
“Among the people in that server, and likely in all of quizbowl, the person I am closest with is by far Arya Karthik. Arya and I began becoming close over the last couple years, and they have inarguably been one of the most important people in my life, in or out of quizbowl, over the past year. As they mentioned, their linear algebra help has been duly noted and will be repaid in due time (never). They’ve been a consistent presence who I’ve been able to turn to about anything, big or small, quizbowl or not, for a good deal of time now, and I really can’t imagine what I’d be like now without having them in my corner and getting the privilege to be in theirs. I’ve now gotten to play ESPN with them (quick shout-out to Iain Carpenter and Jacob Hardin-Bernardt, my other teammates for that tournament who were both a great time), which was a great experience for me as someone who (1) was not that used to very difficult quizbowl and (2) hadn’t had much experience playing with someone who was so above my skill level. Their intelligence is both fascinating and stultifying, and being able to talk to them about any topic is an honor and a privilege. If you have a chance to make their acquaintance, you should take it, and if you don’t, you should get one. I could ramble on about them for many paragraphs but I will refrain from doing so for all of our time.”
“Now: there are two people who I would really, really like to thank, and whose presences have been utterly indispensable to my life as it currently stands (and, presumably, will stand for a long while to come). I cannot be so specific as I’d like but if you are one of these people then you’ll know the depth I’m entailing.
The second of these is Arya Karthik. This is probably impossible to word succinctly, much less on a public forum, so allow me to speak strangely. I want to thank them for:
- Their love of illegal snails.
- Being a strong poet. And a strong editor, at that, but presumably not in the same sense.
- Cocircumpunctuality.
- The endless discussions, about anything, anything at all, because any discussion with them is worthwhile.
- The words “svelte” and “ecdysis.”
- Anything you have ever said on the topic of Lacan, so I don’t have to read Lacan.
- Finnish soapstone merchants.
- Their love of non-illegal snails.
- Everything – from our old readings of Geoffrey Hill and Hart Crane, and our wild, early attempts at writing, to OLP1 and that nightmare, up to those grand worldsweeps of nighttime discourses that will stay emblazoned on my memory for all my life. All of it meant something and all of it is a gift.”
Aadi Arya Karthik 