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January 20, 2015

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I have a guy in my life who is my best friend. We both have feelings for each other and we both know it too but we don’t like any kind of “relationship thing”. Should we get in a relationship or not?

Ahhh, young love! Sounds as sweet as my banana cake! How we used to fall for the ones closest to us. But Amma also remembers the drama over splitting our idly batter later, gaah! Nostalgia aside, my love struck macchis, you both need to talk it out with each other and decide upon a way to share your uttapam! Relationships do come with commitment, but it also makes you exclusive for each other.

On the contrary there are other ways too, like being open to different chutneys around you and still sharing the same uttapam. Confused? Well, Amma is simply referring to an open relationship (happens to be Amma’s favourite) or a ‘friends with benefits’ for the more ‘spicy’ kind. You could also ‘taste’ the waters by trying dating without putting a label on it and see if it works out.

In the end, it’s between the two of you and you need to talk to one another and find the right mix of flavors! If you both make a conscious decision to try out dating without letting it affect your friendship, then you can consider it. If you’d rather not risk it, then stick as best friends!

 

Do you have a question you’d like Amma to answer? Ask her anonymously!

The 72 Hour Project, an initiative by Old Cheese is a residential three day conference which aims at providing a one-on-one interaction and some meaningful workshops for those who tend to think out-of-the-box and have done well in their respective fields.

It will be held from 24th to 26th of January at the Lemon Tree Premier, Leisure Valley, located in the City Center of Gurgaon (Sector 29, HUDA). The event consists of Speaker Sessions by various veterans of multiple arenas like Avijit Dutt (Indian Cinema), Dia Mirza (Indian Cinema), Garima Avtar (F1 Racer), K. Mohan (Agnee Band), Pramod Bhasin (Genpact), Rajiv Makhni (NDTV), Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (Indian Cinema), Suhel Seth (Counselage India) and Utsav Mitra (Indian Government).

The three day event includes Module Training Sessions which will be taught via a case study method in partnership with global brands and organizations by eminent faculties like Management Practices-MDI Gurgaon, Marketing Management- Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi, Public Policy- Jindal Global University and Financial Education- Bombay Stock Exchange.

The Time Capsule Sessions, a combination of Speaker Sessions, Workshops and Modules, will have philosophy sessions by Siddharth Sharma of Success Monks, Power of Media by Anshul Tewari of Youth Ki Awaaz fame and Travel Journalism by Ankita Sinha, a Travel Blogger.

The third venture in the 72 hour cycle will be the workshops which will be widely-spread out to cover almost all interesting activities and provide skills and fun, namely, Visual Communications (Akshar Pathak), Film Making (The Free Spirit Project), Performing Arts (Soul to Sole Dance Academy), Leadership and Group Dynamics (Rhea D’Souza).

Additionally, the  Adidas’ 10km The Adi Pro Run in Gurgaon will be held on the morning of 25th January. Last but not the least, will be The Originals Evening and Adidas Originals will be there on 25th January 2015 to end the event on a lighter and more vibrant note.

Talking about the idea behind the event, Shoury Gupta and Pranav Obhrai, founders of the 72 hour project and Old Cheese Media said, “We all are trying to decide what we want to do in life. But many times we simply follow the head without knowing what we are headed for. To help discover one’s true interests, to try out different art forms and engage with wonderful co-delegates and personalities, is the rationale behind the 72 Hour Project.”

 

Ayesha Sareen

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dfffffffr Check out your datesheet here: Erstwhile FYUP batch, click here. Regular 3 year batch (Class of 2012 and 2014), click, here. Also, the date for the EVS exam for the students admitted in the batch of 2014-15 is scheduled to be conducted on May 22nd, 2015. This date sheet is meant for those students  who could not appear in Semester-I Exams November- December-2014 for this paper in particular.]]>

th semester too faces the one year long unfortunate wait to attain their degree. While Delhi University provides 2 opportunities to students of first and second year to clear their backlog (odd semester back in the forthcoming odd semesters and even semester ones in the future even semesters), that is not the case with final year students who have to wait for 6 more months (in case of 5th semester) and one more year (for 6th semester) after completion of their three years in college. This issue, although unnoticed yet, has now become the subject of a petition to the University Vice Chancellor  Dinesh Singh. The petition has been filed by two students from Mata Sundri College, both fifth semester students with backlogs. They have demanded supplementary exams to be conducted within the successive semester for 5th semester students and within a month itself for 6th semester.

“We had included the issues of revaluation, special chance and supplementary exams in our agenda during the DUSU elections 2014-15 itself,  out of which work has begun on the matter of revaluation.  Although the other two demands were earlier refused by the university, we plan to organize a number of protests to achieve a green signal for the same in case of a negative verdict or lack of response to our letters. We assure the students our full support for the cause”, said Saket Bahuguna State Secretary, ABVP, Delhi and Navdeep Choudhary State Joint Secretary, ABVP, Delhi.
According to Shradha Chawla, Mr. Prashant Nagar, Assistant  Controller of Exams has refused to make any changes in the existing system. The reaction of the Vice Chancellor on the issue is still awaited. The petition can be found on the internet and is being signed by thousands of students to support the cause. “Studying in a premier institution such as Delhi University brings upon a lot of pride for students to pursue further studies abroad or in various other renowned institutions. However, a backlog in even one subject not only wastes a year but also puts an end to or delays the scope of such future prospects that can channel their lives for a better tomorrow. Thereby I strongly speak for the petition to allow supplementary exams and rid the final year students of such adverse circumstances”, said Aanchal Jain from 6th semester, Motilal Nehru College.  ]]>

The Jaipur Literature Festival is not only Asia’s largest literary festival but also one of the most favoured destinations for college excursions, especially among students of Humanities. Apart from boasting of a fantastic entourage of scholars and writers from across the world, the festival also has in its store musical nights that see performances by artists from Coke Studio drawing huge student fan base.

Here is a list of pocket friendly essentials that will make the festival more accessible to students:

 1. Getting to Jaipur

  • Alternative One – By Bus

The Bikaner House at India Gate and the ISBT have buses at regular intervals commuting between Delhi and Jaipur. While the AC buses will charge around INR 600, the non AC bus will charge approximately INR 300-400. The most preferred journey is overnight bus travel.

  • Alternative Two – By Road

The Delhi-Jaipur National Highway 8 is a well maintained route and a very favored route among routine travelers. The journey takes about 5-6 hours.

The ‘by road’ map of Delhi – Jaipur travel, estimated time, alternative routes and toll barriers. Courtesy: Google Maps

  • Alternative Three- By Train

The easiest and cheapest mode of commutation is the double-decker train, charging INR 500. The train leaves Delhi in the evening and takes about 5-6 hours to reach, and leaves Jaipur early morning to reach Delhi by 9 usually. Apart from that, numerous long route trains to mumbai have Jaipur as their halt station.

 

2. Weather in Jaipur

The weather of Jaipur is largely like that of New Delhi’s. However, following is the forecast by Weather Channel for the 4 days the Literature Festival is going on.

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3. Staying at Jaipur

Jaipur is a city where you can find hotel rooms ranging from INR 600-2000.

  •  Alternative One -Hotel Aditya

Slightly on the expensive side, this hotel is a well reputed and safe place to stay and offers good accommodation. An average room costs about INR 3000 for 2 persons

  • Alternative Two – Government guest houses

There are several guesthouses in Jaipur that are well within the pocket and offer comfortable stays. They are quite popular with students as they are easy on the budget and are reliable too.

 

To everyone visiting/planning to visit Jaipur Literature Festival 2015, all the best, enjoy, hope the essentials come handy for you!

 

 

The oldest parliamentary debate in the country kick-started the debating season this weekend as St. Stephen’s College hosted the 67th edition of the Mukarji Memorial Parliamentary Debate from the 8th to the 11th January 2015. The tournament played host to over 50 teams from institutions such as Delhi University, NUJS and NLU Delhi.

Despite the fact that MukMem has been around for 67 years, the organisers have never been afraid to experiment with the format of the tournament. This edition saw a change in speaker timings from the previous edition. The tournament followed a modified- APDA format and was a closed tournament hence only institutional teams were eligible. The competition progressed through five preliminary rounds that determined the sixteen breaking teams. These sixteen teams then contested the post-break knockout rounds.

Mukarji Memorial Debate has always been incomplete without the famous break-night dinner that this year had some of the best kebabs and biryani from the city. The breaks were announced at the dinner where the team from NLU Delhi finished top of tabs.

The adjudication core comprised of Viraj Parikh (Ex-NLS), AmbarBhushan (Ex-NLUD), JagatSohail (Ex- St. Stephen’s College) and Soutik Banerjee (Ex- St. Stephen’s College). The core this year truly challenged the debating trend of having gender specific round and instead devised a novel method to address the issue of gender inequality. They took upon themselves the challenge to have a gender-based motion in each round so that debaters discussed the issue in a variety of contexts like crime, choice and imperialism.

The finals were contested between the team from the Faculty of Law and the Sri Venkateshwara College. The former team comprising of Akshay Raghupathy and Karandeep Azaan Khanna emerged victorious in a unanimous decision by the seven-member panel. Akash Pattanayak from Shri Ram College of Commerce received the award for Best Adjudicator of the tournament.

The finals motion was – This house believes that India as Mathrubhumi needs to make way for India as Pitribhumi.

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His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, United Nations’ Secretary General delivered a lecture on ‘India and the United Nations in a Changing World’ at the Indian Council of World Affairs last week. The Secretary General spoke about India’s accomplishment in peacekeeping and the potential the country holds in this sector.

Coming to New Delhi after a long time, Mr. Moon was nostalgic about his association with the country. He said, “What I am here started from here, whenever I come back to Delhi I become a full man.”

Mr. Moon emphasised on the potential of India as a driver for peace. “As the world’s largest democracy, India has a lot to teach the world”, he said. He mentioned how there are about 8000 Indian peacekeepers serving in the United Nations where two out of every three of them serve in an ongoing conflict.

Stating how South Asia faces the threat of nuclear weapons, he also called on India to renew its leadership in disarmament. He emphasized on how the world is looking for a secured visional environment which requires an engagement between India and Pakistan through growing bilateral agreements.

Mr. Moon also stated that we all together have to ‘make it green in India’. “By respecting the environment, we can grow economically”, he said.

Image Credits: www.flickr.com

Niharika Singh
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