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Lady Shri Ram College for Women

The Legend Lives On- the Retirement of Meenakshi Gopinath

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The final word has been said and the stage’s been set for her farewell. As Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath officially retires as the principal of Lady Shri Ram College for Women, we take a look at her extremely dynamic career.  From her initial years as a student at LSR to the principal of the same prestigious college in the country, her journey has been long, but it’s a path lit up with achievements and laurels. Over the years, she has truly lived up to the title of the “phenomenal woman”.

She started out on her enriching voyage by graduating from her Alma Mater, LSR, in Political Science. She went on to get her masters degree from the University of Massachusetts, USA and her doctorate from the University of Delhi. Her post doctoral work, as a Fulbright scholar was at Georgetown University, USA, but she clearly yearned for more. Having acquired so much knowledge and gathered a resourceful mind, she went on to conquer the world.

After having joined her college once again, as a teacher this time, she became the principal of LSR in 1988. And since then there’s been no looking back for this symbol of grace and intellect.  She is the Founder and Honorary Director of WISCOMP (Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace) a start-up which she founded in 1999, which  promotes the leadership of South Asian women in the areas of international politics, peace, security and diplomacy.

Dr. Gopinath has piloted and fostered confidence building measures through regular workshops and collaborative projects among intellectuals of the SAARC region and especially between Pakistani and Indian young students. She has authored Pakistan in Transition (1975) and co-authored Conflict Resolution – Trends and Prospects (2003) and Transcending Conflict: A Resource book on Conflict Transformation (2004) and Dialogic Engagement (2005). Her list of credentials continues to form a long list.

PHEW! This woman can blow your mind with her persona and her personality. To hear her speak is mesmerizing. She utters words with panache and confidence. Everything about her drips of excellence. That is why she has received various awards including the Padma Shri Award, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi Award, the Rajiv Gandhi Award for Excellence in Education, the Mahila Shiromani Award, the Delhi Citizen Forum Award and Qimpro Platinum Standard Award for Education and Celebrating Womanhood South Asian Recognition Award for Social Harmony.

She’s been an inspiration, a teacher, a guiding force and in short, an enigmatic person. No wonder as she retires on 28th August, 2014, the entire college will skip a beat, because MG bids adieu to her home.

Concluding, I would just like to quote lines from Maya Angelou’s famous poem, (slightly altered) which truly sum up the magic of LSR and its association with MG.

“It’s in the click of her heels,
The bend of her hair,
The palm of her hand,
The need of her care,

‘Cause she’s a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s her.”

Image source: Headlines Today

Ishita Sharma

([email protected])

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Word On The Street

Why Rent Regulation has been a hot topic this election season

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In 1958 was passed a law we know as Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958. In 1995, a revised bill was passed and received presidential assent, but the government, under pressure from traders’ bodies, could never notify it. Later, in the year 1997, an amendment also did not get passed in the Rajya Sabha.

In simple words, properties in Delhi are still governed by a law that was made 56 years ago. While most agree that the 1958 law favours tenants, one section of the tenant community pleads that the defunct state of the law allows landlords to exploit them.

This section is that of outstation students studying at colleges in Delhi. It’s safe to say that these students, miles away from home, are the most defenceless lot of tenants and do not possess any choice but to heed to the demands of their landlords.

There are an estimated 2 lakh students enrolled in Delhi University, including UG and PG students, whereas the number of hostel seats available is a mere 6000. DU, being a central and not a state university (as was recently stressed upon when a 90% quota for Delhiites was demanded), should expect students from all 36 states and union territories. However, to accommodate all these students, the University has no means. Students are also known to have not taken admission in certain colleges solely because of lack of a hostel.

This lack of hostel accommodation more than often leads students to the doors of ‘rent mafias’ who have sprouted around practically every college of DU. These mafias, apart from charging exorbitant rates for rooms, are known for committing felonies. In many rentals, landlords do not provide a formal Rent Agreement which is supposed to act as the student’s address proof. While disclosing rental income to municipal corporations and the Income Tax Department, the rent originally charged is seldom ever disclosed, thereby making the additional money acquired ‘black’. Some landlords also ask for advance payment for the entire semester or year. The 1958 law, however, rules that collecting an advance of more than one month’s stay is a crime.

In recent days, ahead of DUSU elections, political student bodies have taken up the issue of inadequate hostel facilities and rent regulation by means of rallies and signature campaigns. In actuality, a repeal of this archaic law was initiated by the UPA government in 2013 and a new law is expected to take shape in the next 2-3 years. Harsh as it may sound, it is just short of impossible for Delhi University to provide for even nearly all outstation students. Moreover, how much of a say DUSU or student bodies have in these matters is also up for speculation.

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Interviews

Interview with KMC’s RoboPhysicists Society

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The Robo Physicists Society of Kirori Mal College won two extremely prestigious accolades in May-June this year. From being the only international team whose paper on ‘Enabling Long Duration Missions Through Holistic Habitat Design’ got selected for a presentation at NASA, to securing13th position in the Mars Society’s Rover Challenge, the society has indeed made Delhi University and India proud.

While in a conversation with the team, they revealed some experiences of their journey. Here are some excerpts from the interview-

Question – From being regular undergraduate students of Delhi University to competing against people pursuing their PhDs and Masters internationally, what has your journey comprised of?

Team RoboPhysicists – The journey has been a wonderful learning experience till now. We met people who were more learned than us but that just encouraged us to do even better. We made great friends with the participants and even with the judges from NASA and learned a lot from them. As for the competition, we strived to do our best everywhere. More importantly, we were fuelled by our wish to make India stand at par with other international teams. As a result, we stood out at both the competitions and did better than quite a few other international colleges, competing with students who were more learned and more experienced than us.

Question – The challenges you faced in both the competitions were highly technical and the competition had engineers from international institutions. How did you go about these challenges?

Team RoboPhysicists – There’s no doubt about the fact that the challenges were highly technical. But here at DU, we pursue Physics and all that we did was to apply the concepts we learned to the real world. We didn’t need an “engineering” tag to take on to the challenges there. Our zeal and passion guided us and we strove more each day. The result was that our rover this
time was much more advanced than the last year.

Question – How did your society start out on international ventures like NASA and the Rover Challenge?

Team RoboPhysicists – Well the person who deserves the credit for this is our Faculty Advisor, Dr. Sumitra Mohanty. She is an Associate Professor in Physics at Kirori Mal College. She has been a voracious speaker disseminating her ideas and knowledge in various seminars and conferences around the globe. Under her dynamic advisor ship, the college has participated twice each in NASA’S Great Moonbuggy Challenge and NASA’s Lunabotics Mining Competition and in NASA’s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems
Concepts and Academic Linkage and in Mars Society’s University Rover Challenge.

Question – You must have interacted with fellow students, seniors and professors from all over the world. What were the common and different factors in their knowledge and education in comparison with us?

Team RoboPhysicists– There isn’t much difference. But one very noticeable difference was that in US, students aren’t bound by limits of the stream they are pursuing. It’s no surprise to find a mechanical guy taking up electronics in future, whereas that’s not the case in India’s education system. It’s good in a way that the students are open to options. Also their courses are designed in a way that they can understand where they can contribute the best. Education wise too, students there are more technologically “handy”.

Question – How was that moment when KMC’s RoboPhysicists Society became the only international team whose paper got selected for the presentation at NASA?

Team RoboPhysicists -The moment was unexplainable. It took us through all emotions in just a few moments. We did our best and submitted the paper. We were glad to realize that our work stood out and got selected. Even at the forum we received great appreciation; not just because we were the only international team but also because we were the only team without any aerospace
engineering student.

Question – How was the reception back in the college on your return after the tremendous victory?

Team RoboPhysicists– It was great. We got a lot of appreciation and encouragement at our college and even at the University. All our teachers were proud of us. We also got special appreciation from the Former Chief Minister, Smt. Sheila Dixit.

Question – Lastly, any message you would like to share with our readers, especially to those pursuing physics?

Team RoboPhysicists– Pursuing Physics is no child’s play. Take pride in what you are doing and go all out to explore and apply your classroom knowledge. We at KMC RoboPhysicists have tried to do our best and have proved ourselves time and again, competing not just with the best engineering institutes of India but also internationally. And we did it because we wished and
believed that we could do it.

 

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Campus Central

DU Professor wins Global South Award at World Congress 2014

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“Changing Landscape of Electoral Democracy and Political Demography: A study of 2014 General Elections in India’ on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014. Dr. Sunil Kumar is a political scientist and professor and has a variety of achievements under his belt. Not only does he hold an outstanding academic record, he is also a Gold Medalist from University of Delhi (1990), a post doctoral fellow from Tel Aviv University, Israel (2002-03) and a Commonwealth fellow at the Oxford University, UK (2011). Also, Dr Sunil has penned down contemporary issues like communalism, secularism, party systems, democracy, governance, human rights, Diaspora and corruption extensively. Not only has his views been figured on various referred national and international journals but have also been published as peer-reviewed books. [caption id="attachment_25544" align="aligncenter" width="401"]sunil Dr. Sunil Kumar, Associate Professor of Political Science at Shyam Lal College (Evening), University of Delhi.[/caption] An expert, examiner and editor Dr Sunil Kumar has been associated with various premier institutions like commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology, Indian Council of Social Science Research, Indian Institute of Public Administration, Annamalai University, Vimala International Research Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences besides University of Delhi. Dr. Sunil Kumar was awarded US 1000$ as the prize for his winning paper along with the ‘Global South Award’. For more information about the winning candidate, research and award visit here.   Amitoj Singh for DU Beat.]]>

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Campus Central

Delhi University issues list of scholarships for undergraduate courses

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nd August, 2014, came out with miscellaneous scholarships for DU students. From Economics to Music, the University authorities have tried to amalgamate all the myriad courses it offers in an attempt to acknowledge student welfare and equal opportunity to all. DU Beat brings to you a glimpse of the scholarships open for the Under-graduate students.

  1. Dr. V.K.R.V. Rao Endowment Book-Grant: Eligibility- A student from any college belonging to the family of a Class IV or Class III employee of the university, presently in the First Year of a Three-year degree course.
Amount- Rs. 100/- per month The scholarship is awarded for a year, though renewable if the performance of the scholar is satisfactory.
  1. Vijay Kumar Memorial Chadha Book-Grant: Eligibilty- Any student of CLC (Campus Law Centre) in the First Year of LL.B, whose parents’ income (including his own income) is less than the minimum taxable income. Amount- Rs. 100/- per month The scholarship is awarded for two years, renewable on a yearly basis.
 
  1. Shri Motilal Kaul Atma Memorial Book-Grant: Eligibility- The scholarship shall be awarded to blind students from any college who join the First Year of B.A. (Hons.)/ B.Com. (Hons.)/ B.Sc. (Hons.) of Delhi University. Amount- Rs. 150/- per month The scholarship is tenable for three years, renewable on a yearly basis if the performance of the recipient is satisfactory.
 
  1. Dr. (Mrs.) Shobhana Nayar & Prof. D.P. Nayar Scholarship in Music: Eligibility- The scholarship will be awarded to a candidate coming from an economically backward background, who secures the highest marks in his/her Class 12th examinations and joins B.A. (Hons.) Music course of DU. Amount- Rs. 3500/- per annum The scholarship is renewable on a yearly basis for the 2nd and 3rd year.
 
  1. Tamae Kami Memorial Merit Scholarship: Eligibility- The scholarship shall be awarded to a student of One Year Intensive Advanced Diploma in Japanese Language (Full-Time) Amount- Rs. 200/- per month The scholarship shall be awarded every year and tenable for nine months only from 1st August of an academic year to 30th April of the same. All scholarships shall be awarded by the Academic Council of Delhi University upon the recommendations of various Selection Committees. The last date to register for any of these scholarships is October 31, 2014.
For other relevant details and more scholarships, click here Arushi Pathak [email protected]]]>

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Campus Central

Subversion of Statutes and Ordinances by the VC demanded at DUTA's annual GBM

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th of August 2014, the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) held its Annual General Body Meeting (GBM) outside the Faculty of Arts. The GBM was organized to bring out and discuss the secretary’s report, treasurer’s report and the audited report for the academic year 2014-15.DUTA The meeting started with Nandita Narain, President of DUTA taking the stage. She began with a reference to the weather and said that “It is a good day today, it’s getting better, not just the weather of the day but the black clouds that surrounded us have also started to clear up”, The black clouds being an obvious reference to the Vice- Chancellor of Delhi University and his notoriously famous FYUP.DUTA Meeting 1 Mrs. Narain congratulated all the members on working hard in their respective colleges and departments and bringing victory at last and relief to their students who are without a doubt the most important part of a teacher’s life. Other agendas that were put forward are regular appointments of teachers and a correct implementation of the 200-point reservation roster.Duta 1 Others demands like Subversion of the Act, Statutes and Ordinances by the VC, Appointment and stability of teachers working on ad-hoc basis, Implementation of API made the list with the major issue of Removal of VC and to look into the White Paper issued by DUTA. The GBM was followed by a march to the VC’s office. Picture Credits: Chirag Sharma for DU Beat]]>

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Lady Shri Ram College for Women

LSR holds Mental Health Awareness Week

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Lady Shri Ram College for Women held its annual Mental Health Awareness Week through the past week. The theme for this year was ‘Living with Mental Illness: A closer look’. The Mental Health Awareness Week has been an annual tradition of the Department of Psychology for four years now. The students of the department come together under the aegis of a staff advisor and host a variety of events ranging from panel discussions and talks to film-making and designing competitions.

The special week, which was declared open on August 26, has its foundation on the objective of eliminating the stigma attached to mental illness. A survey assessing the knowledge of mental illness amongst LSR students was released at the inaugural event which was followed by the screening of a TED Talk on Schizophrenia. A panel discussion with psychiatrists and lawyers on the panel discussed the laws that the Indian Union has with regard to the issue of mental illness.

The students of the department staged a dance drama on body image and eating disorders along with a street play. The competitive events included Psyched- a game show with and rounds like Pictionary based on psychology related questions, Short Cut- a short film competition and Open and Shutter- a photo-essay competition. Cover designs for Zeitgeist- the journal of the Psychology Department were also invited. The department was also addressed by Pankaj, a student from Hansraj College who suffered from bipolar disorder. He spoke about his therapy sessions and how he got over the disorder and how he was asked to leave the National Defence Academy because of his ‘condition’.

The focus areas were understanding the experience of a mental illness through accounts by people who have been coped well with a mental disorder; challenging myths and tackling the stigma associated with mental illnesses; learning how practicing professionals in India approach treatment and the challenges they face in the process and understanding laws that pertain to mental health and the rights that need to be accorded to persons with mental illness and their families.

Image source: www.lsrpsychology.wordpress.com

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Top Picks

Bowl a strike: Top three places to go bowling in Delhi’

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Pin Bowling has always been a favourite sport among youngsters. It’s a light but engaging game where the ability to cunningly knock over the standing pins at the end of the slippery synthetic lanes, makes you a proud winner. Or you just keep tossing balls on the alley and have a good time laughing at your idiocies. If you haven’t tried it, it’s high time you went out with your friends to enjoy a game of bowling. We have picked up 3 well known places that offer you a perfect bowling experience.

  1. bluO in Ambience Mall, Gurgaon

Apart from sparkling synthetic bowling lanes and fully air-conditioned ambience, it offers its customers with wide ranging cuisines. Chinese, seafood, north Indian, Continental, alcohol beverages, they have it all. It is highly recommended if you are both sporty and a foodie.

 

  1. Essex farms, Aurobindo Marg

This is one of the most famous bowling destinations for Delhi students, mainly because it is light on the pocket. It has a six-lane bowling alley, and of course Essex farms has an additional array of other sporting activities like ice hockey, arcade style fighting, racing and much more.

 

  1. Amoeba, MG Metropolitan Mall, Gurgaon

This again is a very popular bowling alley among students. There is no option for dining or going for other entertainment activities. Students basically hit it for just bowling. So if you are running tight on your budget, and want to focus on bowling and nothing else for leisure, this is the place for you.

 

Image source: Essex Farms Facebook page

Surbhi Sharma

[email protected]

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Your Beat

What being an Asmat volunteer taught me

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It’s rather funny (now) how I look back at the Asmat volunteering program and laugh at how I had cold feet two days before boarding the train to Jaipur, because of numerous reasons whose quantum inhibits their description. So whence we ( Sakshi Bansal and yours truly) arrived in Soda dripping in sweat and found Lavanya and Abhilasha seeming a little delusional (because of the heat ?) my worst expectations seemed to be confirmed.

Possibly because I’m a little scared of children( one of the many reasons for cold feet), the evening  session daunted me. We were introduced to the kids, and a session of Hangman , more like Sparta, took place. What struck me was how clever all of them were and competitive. Sadly, what also struck me was how the girls were subdued by the boys whose energy and numbers seemed to be overwhelming the girls.

The next morning, teaching began and was it a tough task for someone who hasn’t taught little kids ever before. Teaching little children, who inherently have the attention span of rabbits who’ve been made to drink Red Bull, really makes you understand incentivising.  Promises of toffees and stars and stickers, invoking their competitive spirit, teaching with blocks and pictures and animal sounds, everything was tried and tested including the teachers themselves. Nothing will ever beat the smile on their faces when they answered questions right and the smile on our faces when we realise they actually grasped what was being taught. What really excited me was passing down what I’d been taught during my schooldays to kids I was meeting for the first time and whose lives were quite different from mine, and yet they felt the same happiness at understanding a mathematical concept or pronouncing a word right that I did too.

It wasn’t solely academics that we wanted to work with them on, we wanted to teach them things that aren’t inculcated in their textbooks. Respect for women to the boys, confidence despite being brought up in a patriarchal society to the girls. A respect for the environment despite the fact that many in India would readily (and justifiably) trade away the grasslands and forests for a good occupation. Teaching them to respect their own village when we, a bunch of outsiders, conducted a cleanliness drive. Teaching them to not be cruel to the animals in their surroundings with the example of our little friend erstwhile Maggi G, (now named Mango and under the care of the Sarpanch.) I could write an essay on the mutual benefits reaped, the way we could see a could change in the kids and the way I could feel a change in my own little city brain.

Working with the village girls was a major chunk of what formed my lessons in Soda. A bunch of quiet, unassuming and clever 15-20 year olds, bonding with them was probably the easiest. We were introduced to them during a session on menstrual education on my first, they were too quiet and we were a little worked up by the one sided interaction. By the end of my eighteen days, their aloofness had been traded for happy banter and warmth and we were literally a part of their group. We discussed many issues with them, the one that remains deeply embedded is a session on career awareness that we had. Many of the girls had resigned themselves to the fact that they possibly couldn’t pursue further studies after school or an undergrad from the nearby big town. But some were resolute, someone had started her own beauty parlour and was also giving the UPSC exams, another was surely becoming a doctor. It’s not going to be easy, possibly improbable, for the former category to get the career they want. But they might be able to get some financial security by learning some skills, for the sole purpose of having this financial independence when they see the others and the planting of the very idea through discussion.

The power of juxtaposition, of understanding the complexities of village life bought about inequalities; simply getting electricity, walking two km a day to get water, not having a profitable market to sell the products you’ve toiled on and patriarchy embedded into the minds of people against ours. Back to the city, it’s kind of horrible here when I miss how long the days in Soda were (why is this a real cliche?) and the simplicity of people and swinging Kuldeep every evening and the long walks around the village. It really won’t be a visit to work in the village from now on, just a trip to meet people we know and carry on the discussions and mutual lessons we began.

Asmat is launching another program which will involve developing the enterprise of the Self Help Groups of the village of soda, who currently face many problems in finding demand for their products.The application deadline ends by 30th August. 
You can find details of the Rural Enterprise Development Program here: http://www.asmatindia.org/spices-of-soda-business-development-program/

 Read more about Asmat: http://www.asmatindia.org/soda/

 


Kavya Saxena

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DUB Speak

3 things to expect during DUSU elections

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The fight for power between the political honchos of Delhi University is about to begin and students affiliated to different political parties all over the campus have already started preparing themselves for the Delhi University Student’s Union elections to be held next month. For a normal DU student though, these elections are just another way a big political party uses to make utopian promises that are never fulfilled. Well, such perceptions are always in transition but there are in fact some things which remain constant during most DUSU elections. Let’s have a look at some of them:

 

The Great Irony (Wasting paper):

One of the many promises made by the political parties during the elections is management of different resources, the irony being they start their campaign by wasting one of the most crucial resources, paper. Every time you step out of the Vishwavidhyala metro station, you’ll find numerous pamphlets lying unattended and several more being distributed, again unattended.

 

Male Domination:

Sounds controversial, doesn’t it? But every time you witness such elections taking place in the university, the male candidature is drastically higher than the female candidature. One expects that when it comes to the national elections though not in those taking place at India’s top ranked university.

 

The Clichéd ‘Bhai’:

You are sitting in your class studying peacefully. Suddenly, the door is banged open and several people start pouring in while your teacher cannot do anything to stop them. Yes, they are called ‘Bhai log’. They come into your class and then address themselves as, well? Bhai Log. Anyway, the address will probably start with the line ‘Hamare Bhai (a person pointing to the candidate) iss election mein khade honge’, and then go on with about the promises they will fulfil and finishing with the trademark dialogue ‘Hamare Bhai ko hi jeetana hai aapne’. So much ‘Bha-ism’!

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