A boy was found mysteriously murdered in the Hansraj College hostel. The boy was recognized to be 22 year old, Mukesh Kumar of B.A. Hindi Hons. The victim was visually impaired and was found hanging from the ceiling fan.

Around 7:30 in the evening on 8th February, Mukesh Kumar’s friend came to his room for dinner, and receiving no reply from within he alerted the warden who then proceeded to call in the police.

Police suspect it to be a murder case since the victim’s hands were tied behind his back and suicide seems improbable. “We have lodged a murder case. We believe this to be the job of an insider who knew exactly where Mukesh stayed in the hostel,” said DCP (North) Sagarpreet Hooda.

Hooda said Mukesh came from a poor family in UP. “It is too early to arrive at a conclusion about the case. A crime team has been sent to the spot to investigate. We are questioning his hostel mates. His parents have been informed and they are on their way to Delhi,” the DCP said.

The incident is significant considering that security at the Hansraj College hostel is regarded as the strictest in north campus.

Karnal Singh, Joint Commissioner, Northern Range stated to us that murder was a distinct possibility. “We have sent the body for post-mortem. But we can confirm that there has been an attempt to pass off a murder as a suicide. Both the hands of the deceased were tied indicating foul play. We are yet to retrieve any suicide note. Moreover, a stool was found inches below Mukesh’s legs. If he had indeed hanged himself, he would have kicked the stool away,” said Singh.

In the interim, an investigating officer said that the rope used for the hanging was much longer than needed. “The aim probably was to use the rope to pull the body up. His white shirt and black trousers were unscathed. All these make the suicide theory very implausible,” said the officer.

The incident has caused a lot of panic in the College hostel. A hostel resident, upon being questioned, said that blind students are allotted single rooms which are close to the main gate, are well lit and are easily visible from outside. Moreover the area where the room is located is the most accessible area of the hostel as the residents often stroll by it at night while taking study breaks.

When asked about the possibilities of the case being one of bullying a classmate of the victim regarded it as improbable, stating that Mukesh was, “a simple guy of cheerful demeanour. He was good at studies and kept to himself. He had a few friends and no problems with anyone at the hostel whatsoever.”

With just a few months to go before the intended implementation of the semester system, various departments of the University continue to express their inhibitions and doubts about the pragmatic success of such a system in such a vast varsity like DU. The English Department , in its last general body meeting held on 16th December , 09 again rejected the semester system. However, on Dec 18 , the empowered committee constituted by the vice chancellor for working out modalities for implementation of the semester system at the undergraduate level , put up a proposal of their detailed deliberations and changes to the existing plan on the university website i.e . www.du.ac.in.. Though no general body meeting has been held by the varsity teachers of the English department , a recent development has been the rejection of the system and the proposed changes by the professors of Delhi School Of Economics ,post December 18th . Additionally individual concerns have been voiced and questions raised by numerous

A broad outline of the changes and the probable implications and consequences they entail:

Curriculum:
Change :
MINORS- Students may do 6 papers in one subject and get a ‘Minor’ in his degree.The other choice would be that they can do 2 -3 subjects in a package laid down by the Dept. All Honours courses will have 16 papers. Environment will be learnt from a CD, Internet and periodicals. without teacher or classes
Only one language will be compulsory. The specifications for Eng and Hindi honours student aren’t made available yet and nor is there any mention of whether there will be a choice in this regard.
Implications : It seems the level will now be ‘non-Honours’ i.e. BA / BSc. As present concurrent disciplines are set to be replaced by 6 Pass course papers.
If Hindi is not introduced as a compulsory language , some colleges may want to do away with the option entirely. This in turn would lead to problematic questions regarding what one would do with the existing staff. Moreover , questions can be raise about the validity of a system which does not even make one paper in the local language compulsory.
Examination and Corrections
Changes :
There will be no house examinations conducted in January.

Exams will be marked centrally, by teams of 3-4 teachers each taking one or two questions only throughout the pile of scripts.

Fictitious Roll Numbers will not be used, thus the anonymity of the examinee will not be maintained.

Students shall not be given a right to re-evaluation of their answer scripts

Further, if students fail their first semester , they will not be given an opportunity to sit for their second semester examination.

Implications: Doing away of the fictitious roll number system to speed up the process of corrections may not seem to be the best solution , in fact it seems more faulty and impractical than the existing set up.

Things that might cause concern to students would be the manner of marking the exam without secrecy, which might lead to bias in the markers as they could tell the roll numbers of the students, be aware of their colleges etc, and worse, a student who found out the examiner could attempt to bribe him or her to ‘fix’ his paper. While we are not doubting the integrity of the examiners , disclosing the identity of the students is ironic for an examination system that does not trust its professors enough when it comes to internal assessment marks ,which are repeatedly moderated by concerned university authorities.

The first examination that students will give will be a full scale Delhi University examination in November as there will be no house examination. Interestingly enough ,many students and professors feel that these house examinatons are instrumental in preparing students about the more important University examinations ( in terms of weight age of marks).
This system will be additionally difficult for some students, especially the ones under quota or those general students who get in as late as mid September when quota seats are unfilled . With the university shutting down for the first two weeks of October in the light of the approaching Commonwealth Games, these students are faced with the real first semester exams only after being in college for less than a month. If they fail these , they would have to sit idle till July as they won’t be allowed to attend the second semester either.

INTERNAL ASSESMENT
The pattern of internal assessment will be significantly reworked as the house examinations will be done away with. Out of the 25 percent marks determined by the college ten percent will depend solely on attendance. Out of the remaining 15 percent 10 will depend on assignment ( s) submitted by the students and the remaining 5 on class tests.

SCHEDULES : classes and tutorials

Changes : The time tables will also have to be adjusted accordingly. Lecture classes will go up to 5 in each paper, the 5th period being for student presentations to be heard. Remedial measures for weaker students and late entries are being contemplated.

Implications :
However , tutorials will be reduced to only once a fortnight per student per paper with the tutorial groups being reduced to a minimum of ten students. The disadvantage is that even if the class size is 50 or 60 only 4 groups are allowed.

News at Glance
UK Disputes SRK’s Body scan
Britain’s airport officials have disputed the claim by Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan on a popular television show last week that his naked image taken from body scanners at the Heathrow airport were printed and circulated by staff. Khan claimed on the BBC prime time ‘Friday Night with Jonathan Ross’ show that female security staff at the airport had printed his naked image from the newly-installed body scanner and that he had autographed them.

Citizens’ Groups demonstrate in Delhi to protest arrest of Seema Azad:
A number of human rights, women’s and student’s organizations staged a dharna at Jantar Mantar on February 11th, 2010 to protest against attempt of central and state governments to silencehuman rights organizations through arrest of their activists.In particular, the organizations demanded the immediate dropping of
false charges and unconditional release of Ms. Seema Azad, a
journalist and organising secretary of PUCL, uttarpradesh and Mr.
Piyush Manush, Salem based environmental and social activist, Tamil
Nadu. Seema is also on the editorial board of a regional magazine
“Dastak” and has brought out publications on the Kanpur leather
industry and on the land acquisition Ganga expressway project. Likewise, Mr. Piyush Sethia (Manush) was picked by the police on 26th
of January this year while he attempted to distribute leaflets
informing people of the massacre, rape and loot cordoned by the police
in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh.The speakers, which included Justice (Retd) Rajendra Sachar, Praful Bidwai, Anand Swaroop Verma, , Kavita Srivastava,
and other human rights activists decried the attempts of the police
and government across the country to gag the press and civil liberty of
organisations.

British fashion icon Alexander McQueen commits suicide

British fashion designer Alexander McQueen has been found dead after taking his own life. The 40-year-old committed suicide just three years after his close friend, Isabella Blow – who plucked him from obscurity and helped him become a star – killed herself. A source at McQueen’s office this afternoon confirmed his death, saying: ‘It is a tragic loss. We are not making a comment at this time out of respect for the McQueen family. ’His death comes just days before the start of London Fashion Week and weeks before he was due to unveil his new collection at Paris Fashion Week on March 9.

The 12th edition of the Men’s Hockey World Cup is going to be staged in New Delhi from 28 February to 13 March 2010. 12 teams will be participating in arguably the most important event in men’s hockey, alongside the Olympics. Along with world champions Germany and European powerhouse teams including the Netherlands and Spain, not to forget Australia, the host’s arch-rivals Pakistan have also qualified. The teams have been divided into two teams of 6 each. India’s pool includes Australia, Spain, and interestingly enough, Pakistan. The event starts at 4.30 pm at The Major Dhyanchand National Stadium, which is the sole venue for all matches, with three matches to be held every day during the pool stage. There is then a rest day on the 10th of March before the classification matches start on the 11th. There are three matches each day again to decide the 5th to 12th places with the final on the 13th following the 3rd place playoff match. Tickets for the pool matches and classification matches range from Rs 100 for the general stand to Rs 5000 for the VVIP hospitality stand. Each ticket is valid for all games being played on the day. For the final day, the general stand ticket costs Rs 150 while a VVIP stand ticket costs Rs 7500. Tickets are available at select Cafe Coffee Day outlets, 24×7 Convenience Stores and United Bank of India branches. Tickets for the first day are sure to run out fast with the highlight of the day being India playing Pakistan in the last match of the day.
The stadium was inaugurated, with major renovation work done, on 24th January 2010. The host team has recently begun practicing at the venue with various delays preventing then from using home advantage so far. The renovation cost over 260 crores and the stadium, spread over 32 acres features two synthetic pitches for match play and a third one for practice.
Forget all that. Just follow the words of Virender Sehwag and Priyanka Chopra and be there to support not just the national team, but also some excellent players and teams from around the world.