Bhavya Banerjee, Author at DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

Homesickness is a serious problem every outstation fresher experiences when they move into their PG or Hostel. Decorating your room is more than just making it look pretty; it’s about creating your own personal space that you’re comfortable in, and it’s about creating a home away from home.

The initial year of college can be scary, exciting and overwhelming. Hence, these DIY’s are aimed at maximizing your comfort in your PG or hostel and creating a stress-free environment:

DIY PHOTO FRAMES USING DECORATIVE TAPE

All outstation students experience home sickness and one of the best ways to deal with that problem is to put up pictures of your family, friends, and hometown on your wall! Heavy duty frames are a major inconvenience and difficult to travel with and a quick and easy solution to make your pictures and posters look presentable on your wall is to use decorative/colourful tape to create customised frames around the pictures pasted on your wall! This DIY gives you the creative freedom to craft cool patterns aroud your pictures. The tapes are available in local stationary shops and online shopping websites. It is hassle free as you don’t have to worry about hanging your photo frame with a nail and hammer, and it is easily removable too.

Materials Required:

Decorative tape rolls
1 scissor
Pictures/Posters

DIY WALL TAPESTRY USING BEDSHEETS

The look of your room can become boring after a few months because of the unexciting monotonous paint that every room has in your PG/Hostel. To get a more homely feel, you can use this simple DIY to bring colour and contrast into your room! Using an old bedsheet from home, you can hang it behind your bed to create a wall tapestry. This project will allow you to personalise your room and enable you to change up your room once every few months using different bedsheets.

Materials Required:

1 Bedsheet
Nails and a hammer

DIY THROW PILLOWS

It is very important to feel comfortable in your room and having a lot of throw pillows on your bed makes it feel very cozy. Using soft acrylic paint or fabric paint, you can paint on patterns on your pillows to jazz them up. You can even use tape to create stencils if you’re not good at free-handing patterns. The paints are easily available at local stationary shops.

Materials Required:

Paint brushes
Blank pillow cover
Soft Acrylic or fabric paints

DIY PHOTO COLLAGE USING FAIRY LIGHTS

The ambiance of your PG/Hostel room is very different from the ambiance of your own room back home. To improve the same and add a personal touch to this DIY at the same time, you can hang up fairy lights on the wall to brighten up your room and add polaroids or pictures of you and your loved ones using paperclips to the lights to create a photo collage on your wall.

Materials Required:

Fairy Lights
Nails/Tape
Scissor
Photos and polaroids

DIY PLANT POTS USING COFFEE CUPS

Plants can help bring about a calming and fresh energy into your room. Petite succulent plants are easy to manage as they are meant to be kept indoors and do not require much maintainance. You can use cute coffee cups as an alternate method of storing your succulents and even add patterns to the same using permanent markers.

Materials Required:

Permanent Markers
Coffee Cups
Sand
A small succulent

DIY MESSAGE BOARD USING A WHITE BOARD

You can often miss out on important information regarding organisational changes of your PG or hostel because you weren’t physically present during the time that message was conveyed. You can hang a small A-4 size whiteboard on your cupboard or the back of your door so that it acts as a message board in your absence. These whiteboards are available in stationary shops and online shopping websites.

Materials Required:

A-4 size whiteboard
Whiteboard Marker
Nails and a hammer

DIY MASON JARS FOR STORAGE

Storage of stationary or washroom supplies can become extremely messy. Mason jars are very convenient for storing pens, rulers, paints, brushes, toothbrushes, tissues, etc. You can personalise you mason jars and paint them with acrylic paints, or stick stickers on them to add a little pop. Mason jars are available in departmental stores or online shopping websites.

Materials Required:

Mason Jars
Paint
Paint brushes
Stickers
Ribbons
Scissor

Feature Image Credits: Pinterest

Bhavya Banerjee

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Marilyn Monroe Can’t Rest in Peace: Hugh Hefner Dies at 91, Buried Next to Monroe

By Bhavya Banerjee October 5, 2017

Hugh Hefner, the founder of the Playboy Magazine, died late last month at the age of 91. While many paid tribute to the “legend”, others were keen to highlight how women and feminism have suffered because of his actions.

Marilyn Monroe was and still continues to be one of the most sensational and influential pop culture icons of her time. She defied the society’s ideas of a perfect body while oozing glamour and confidence in her illustrious white dress. The beginning of her journey, however, was not so smooth.

When she was still a struggling actress, she was paid $50 to smile and pose nude for a calendar. She signed the release hesitantly, under a pseudonym, as she was desperate for the money. She wanted to forget about the images when her career started to shoot up, but they came back to haunt her when the “gentlemen’s magazine” founder – Hugh Hefner – released them as the centerfold of the first edition of Playboy Magazine, without her knowledge or consent. The images captioned “First time in any magazine, FULL COLOR, the famous Marilyn Monroe NUDE.”, were released when she became a household name. She never received any money for the numerous amounts of copies that were sold; never received any notification that her photos were going to be published and never met Hugh Hefner in real life.

Now, Hefner’s death is proving to be as controversial as his life. He has had a mammoth amount of achievements to back himself, and this is not to discredit any of it. However, back in 1992, Hefner reportedly bought the burial vault next to Marilyn Monroe’s in the Westwood Village Memorial Park, Los Angeles, so he could lie next to the actress forever. When asked in an interview about why he did so, he simply brushed it off by saying he couldn’t miss the opportunity to be “eternal bed-mates” with the woman whom he credits for his first magazine’s success.

This is not about believing in the after-life or saying that Marilyn Monroe will be disturbed by Hugh Hefner’s dead ‘intrusive’ presence. This is about respecting her legacy and making it known that her personal narrative has been usurped. The message this sends out to influential men and women everywhere seems inappropriate at best. To permit Hugh Hefner the right to snug up to the woman he took advantage of is not only an insult to her memory, but sends a troubling message to women everywhere, that the society will not respect your aspirations to be separate from the men who have wronged you.

On the contrary, many might also argue that this debate is pointless since life ends when a heart stops beating in a body. However, now is not the time to push Marilyn’s story into the vacuum of silence. Condemning what ought to be condemned is the need of the hour.

Feature Image Credits: Rolling Stone

Bhavya Banerjee

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Feminism v/s Feminazism: Understand the Difference

By Bhavya Banerjee October 3, 2017

In today’s world of social media, complex concepts like feminism are taken way out of context and projected as something they are not. Alternate facts and news spread like wildfire and become viral, which contributes to the formation of wrong opinions.

Being a feminist by basic denotation means standing for equal rights of both men and women, not just women, in a social, economical, educational, or a political arrangement. The term “feminism” resembles “feminine” because of the high prevalence of a patriarchal, male dominated society. Feminism as a concept can be looked at in a simple manner, in terms of affirmative action. It seeks to provide and empower women with rights they previously lacked. Social rights may include right to education which many girls are deprived of in third world countries, right to housing, right to adequate standard of living, right to health, and right to culture. Economical rights may include bridging the pay gap between men and women. All these basic rights can only be achieved if both men and women have equal participation. The words “superiority” or “dominance” are contradictory to the concept of feminism. Feminism understands the privilege and patriarchy that governs us in the status quo. It is about seeing the lesser rights of those without privilege and spreading awareness for equality of opportunity. It is for those women all around the world whose voices cannot be heard.

A lot of people’s idea of the word “feminist” comes from the extremes that are shown largely throughout the community via social media and stereotypes. The “feminazis” that people associate with the word “feminism” are not at all what the word stands for. Today’s feminism has sadly been widely mistaken with feminazism. If it were actually about equality and not about dominance over men, then more women and men alike would identify with it. The word feminazi is used by the powerful against the weak to silence them. Words that exploit visceral associations to the Nazis and Stalinists slander feminists as the enemy because they dispute the patriarchal status quo.

The common misconception about the term feminism is a danger to the progress the movement has made thus far. The need of the hour is to create awareness, rather than to act passively about it. Many people stray away from controversial concepts like feminism, which in the long run contributes positively towards inequality and injustice.

Feature Image Credits: The New Matilda

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Is the Judiciary Really Independent in India?

By Bhavya Banerjee October 3, 2017

What is the difference between the Judiciary envisioned by India’s constitution-makers, and the functioning one in our country today?

The policy makers of the constitutional assembly held the view that the three pillars of our democracy, the executive, the legislative and the judiciary should be independent to ensure accountability. The judiciary would hold the power to interpret the constitution and limit the powers of some branches of government. The citizens of India would have the option to go to the court and present themselves if their rights had been violated.

The harsh reality, however, is that the judiciary is not free from political influence. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is appointed by the President of the Indian State, and governments in power use this to appoint judges who share similar ideologies. Usually the top three senior-most judges are considered for the post, however, there are examples when the Congress government overlooked this practice and appointed A.K Sinha, in 1973.

The very recent landmark judgments regarding Triple Talaq and the Right to Privacy are considered to be an imperative step taken by the judiciary. These judgments created awareness regarding the human rights violations that were taking place, and even initiated a discussion about the decriminalization of homosexuality in India. Although these judgments are important, are they substantial? The legislative body (Lok Sabha) has already indicated that no law will be made against Triple Talaq, or in favour of Right to Privacy. Even if the judiciary does provide a significant judgment in cases like these, it cannot be backed by any legal principle.

The need of the hour is to impose absolute freedom of the judiciary in India. That is the only way to ensure responsibility by the government towards its citizens. This separation of the legislative and the judiciary is necessary since that is what democracy is about. Rights of the citizens cannot be implemented properly until the courts have the liberty to openly criticise the prevailing government without facing consequences.

Feature Image Credits: Hindustan Times

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Why The Anti-Dissent Law Should Never Be Implemented In Gujarat

By Bhavya Banerjee September 30, 2017

The government of Gujarat has been no stranger to controversy. They recently came under heat again when they indicated that they are trying to re-invite the anti-dissent law within the state assembly, despite their previous years of failed attempts.

The role of the judiciary is to hold the government accountable, make sure it is functioning in accordance with the constitution and to interpret the constitution which allows it to limit the powers of some branches of the government. The judiciary is considered to be an independent body. These positive connotations invoke a sense of security and ensure the implementation of rights amongst the citizens of a country. The supreme court protects the fundamental rights of the people. The anti dissent law that the state of Gujarat has been trying to bring about since early 2000’s goes against just that.

If we look at the current political scenario in India, we have two very starkly different ideologies prevalent in terms of electoral representation. The situation in Gujarat, however, has always been quite different than the wider national interest.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has retained control over Gujarat since 2001, under the leadership of Narendra Modi as Chief Minister. In 2002 the state legislative assembly tried to introduce an anti-dissent law, which to provide context, proposes to allow the police to arrest anybody on mere suspicion, who they seem to be a threat to the state’s internal security. However, it was rejected by the then President, APJ Abdul Kalam. It was again passed in the state assembly when Pratibha Patil held office. Both the presidents rejected the bill as they felt it was unconstitutional and violated basic human rights.

Every citizen in India has the right to representation before a court of law of h/she has been accused of a crime. The anti dissent law gives the state full discretion to arrest anybody on suspicion without trial. The only time when mass arrests have taken place in democratic India on ‘suspicion’ without legal backing have been during the emergency period in 1975. If this law becomes legitimate, it will only facilitate exploitation of the citizens by the state.

The Gujarat government has time and again given a very vague reasoning for bringing about such a draconian law, saying that this is increased efficiency in the state’s internal security. The law also proposes to grant immunity from prosecution to the police and the administration for doing so. This move by the government of Gujarat has been widely criticised by human rights activists, saying that they fail to understand why this extra step needs to be taken when laws and provisions like Preventive Detention already exist and have been successfully implemented in India.

Feature Image Credits: NDTV

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How To Start a Society In Delhi University

By Bhavya Banerjee September 17, 2017

Life in DU is not only about academics, and it is a place to hone your talents. This can be achieved through participating in the various societies.

The student experience in the University of Delhi has never been restricted just to academics. Delhi University gives equal importance to extracurricular activities, as almost every college has provisions for cultural societies that are fully supported by the various colleges and cater to talents like debate, dance, music, drama, art, music, social service, quizzing etc.

Societies nurture your potential, hone your talents and best of all, and give you immense and adequate exposure and platforms to express yourself. In addition, being a part of any society is a huge boost to your CV. However, being a part of a society does not come easy as they tend to have a rigorous audition process and have a limited intake.

Starting a brand new society in any college can prove to be quite a challenge. The long and strenuous process can sometimes prove to be demotivating. Moreover, there isn’t much clarity on either the university website or the college websites on how to do the same. Every college has a different procedure, but all of it originates from the same basic criteria.

Here is what you need to start a society in DU:

1) FACULTY ADVISOR

When starting a new society, make sure you have the support and backing of a faculty member. You can approach either your department head or any faculty member you are comfortable with and pitch them the idea so that they can disseminate the plan to the higher authorities. A faculty advisor is crucial to start a society as all the funds and the communication with the higher authorities can only be done via a faculty member. Every society has a faculty convenor or a faculty advisor. In case the principal of a college is approached directly and the society is formed, the college administration assigns a faculty member as the convenor of the society.

2) FUNDS

A society in a college of Delhi University, once registered with the college, is entitled to receive certain funds for hosting events and competitions in the college. However, once you start a society you aren’t immediately eligible to obtain access to the funds. The society, once it starts, has to be self-sustainable and prove to the college administration that it can function smoothly. This probation period of sorts determines the type of funds you can avail from college. When starting out, societies mainly have to be dependent on sponsorships for their events.

3) INTERMEDIARY BODY

To start a society, most colleges require a student’s union or an intermediary body of students to see through the functioning of the society and obtain the initial provisions. You can approach the student’s union of your college with an application signed by a faculty member or directly approach the principal to set up the society.

The concept of societies in DU is not a new one; however, with the ever-changing times and the increased creativity of the students, innovative ideas can always be turned into a reality. Societies such as National Service Scheme, Enactus, SpicMacay, Gandhi Study Circle etc are examples of unconventional and relatively new societies in the Delhi University circuit.

Image credits: DU Beat

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NOTA: Third Most Popular Choice of Vote in the DUSU Elections Last Year

By Bhavya Banerjee September 15, 2017

‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) was introduced in DUSU elections last year. Since then, it has gained popularity as represented by the number of voters opting for it. Here is a look at why this is happening.

Three years and four rounds of national assembly elections ago, the ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) option was inducted into the Indian electoral system. It was only in 2016 that the Delhi University Student’s Union (DUSU) election followed this trend. The concept of NOTA is democratic, as it gives the voter an option to reject an electoral candidate. It represents dissent and showcases that the voters are not satisfied with the particular candidates representing a specific manifesto in an election.

However, the question then arises: Is NOTA really influential practically? In our electoral system, NOTA in status quo, has no electoral value. Even if the situation emerges where NOTA gets more votes than any candidate in the elections, the candidate who has secured the highest number of votes after NOTA will still hold office. This expression of rejection through casting your vote guarantees no accountability, since it does not constitute a re-election or change in candidacy. The very fact that NOTA is emblematic is the dreadful reason why it cannot be successful in an illiterate and puerile democracy like ours, where charisma and ascendancy are given more significance than one’s ability to introduce and implement affirmative policies.

The foundation year for NOTA in the University of Delhi (DU) saw more than 16,000 votes being cast in its favour. This year, the number skyrocketed to a total of more than 29,000 votes. Even though NOTA is heavily symbolic, the fact that it is gaining traction within the university means that the students are getting tired of the aggressive and “rowdy” behaviour of the supporters of DUSU candidates. The students have finally been given a platform to express their dissent through the same. Across the university, students have often complained about their classes getting disrupted during campaigning, bribes in terms of free movies, trips and meals being offered to students living in Paying-Guest accommodations and so on. Political parties, allegedly, go as far as to distribute alcohol and chocolates to students one day before the elections. Many female students have come up and voiced their opinion about feeling unsafe in the campus during the time of elections, despite the tag of ‘women empowerment’ being included in every party’s manifesto. Repeated promises, no implementation and the ongoing tiff between the two leading parties (ABVP and NSUI) often create chaos in the university. It has affected the peaceful functioning of the University, and these thoughts of the students are very well resonated with the rise in the popularity of NOTA. Despite its shortcomings, NOTA, in theory, is imperative in terms of facilitating and allowing an expression of dissent; however, it still requires severe changes in its actual implementation.

Feature Image Credits: Anagha Rakta for DU Beat

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DUSU Elections 2017

NSUI Objects to Broadcast of PM Modi’s Speech One Day Before DUSU Elections

By Bhavya Banerjee September 9, 2017

The Ministry of Human Resource Development had recently issued a direction to nearly 40,000 higher education institutions to tune into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech, to be delivered on 11 September, in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s famous address at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), which is the student wing of the Indian National Congress, has specifically condemned these actions taken by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to promote and telecast the speech in every Delhi University college just a day before the DUSU elections are scheduled.

In a press release today, the NSUI Media In-Charge, Neeraj Mishra, said, “Forcing this in Delhi University will be a flagrant violation of the moral code on conduct since the elections for the DUSU are scheduled on September 12, day after PM’s address. ABVP, one of the organisations contesting the DUSU elections is closely linked to the ruling party, the BJP.” (sic). Midrash Mathew, Media Department, NSUI, said, “It is well known that the UGC and the government are linked since the UGC works under the government directives. By telecasting the speech of our Prime Minister in all colleges of DU, it will only help further ABVP’s agenda since the speech is on Swami Vivekananda and it will actively reflect and propagate the ideologies followed by ABVP. This will be a clear violation of the moral code of conduct set by the Lyngdoh Committee, and ABVP will greatly benefit from it. Hence, the speech should not be streamed in Delhi University as it is unfair.”

NSUI issued another press release today in which they requested the Chief Election Officer (CEO) of DUSU to extend the campaigning time and election day by four days, while restricting other candidates to campaign during this time. The presidential candidate of NSUI, Rocky Tuseed, received his ballot number yesterday evening after the High Court directed the CEO. The Officer had prohibited Tuseed from campaigning for two days while the other candidates were actively campaigning. Neeraj Mishra pointed out that since the University is closed over the weekend, and the campaigning officially has to stop at 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning, Tuseed will get no time to campaign.

The CEO rejected the request put forth by the NSUI by stating that the office was constrained by the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines which directed the University to conduct the elections within 56 days. On this matter, Midrash Mathew said, “A bigger mandate of the Lyngdoh Committee is to conduct free and fair elections. If the elections are not postponed, our presidential candidate will get no time to go to students and make them aware about his views and campaign. Because of the accusations put on us, we were left in the dark when the ballot number was taken away. However, the High Court’s decision came in our favour. Hence the CEO should take our request into account.”

the-hindu-rocky-tuseed — Rocky Tuseed after being cleared to contest for DUSU elections. *Image Credits:* The Hindu

DU Beat reached out to multiple official representatives of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), but none were available for comment.

Feature Image Credits: The Indian Express

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Features

Tracking the Journey of the New Defence Minister: Nirmala Sitharaman

By Bhavya Banerjee September 9, 2017

Born in Madurai, the temple city of Tamil Nadu, a luminary was raised in a small town, where she discovered her love for books and learned about discipline from her father. She is now heading the world’s third-largest defence force as India’s second female Minister of Defence after Indira Gandhi and the first full-time female Defence Minister.

Nirmala Sitharaman’s appointment as the Defence Minister comes as a shock, as the post was rumoured to be given to Nitin Gadkari. This reflects perfectly how patriarchy-driven our society is. The general notion about the army, since its inception, has been that of masculinity, especially in India. The fact that Sitharaman is among the 16 females in the world to be heading the defence sector at a large scale speaks volumes of how male-dominated the field is. Here is a look at the journey of our newly appointed Defence Minister.

Nirmala Sitharaman completed her graduation in Economics from Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Trichy. She went on to study at Jawaharlal National University (JNU) to conclude her postgraduate and M.Phil. in Economics with a particular interest in Indo-European trade. After her marriage to Parakala Prabhakar, the couple settled down in London, where she worked actively for PricewaterhouseCoopers, researching eastern European economies. She served as the Deputy Director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies in Hyderabad after her return to India, and became an active member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) in 2003. Sitharaman grew quickly in the ranks after joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2008 and became the second female spokesperson of the national party after Sushma Swaraj by 2010. After BJP’s infamous win in the national elections in 2014, she was inducted as the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs under the Ministry of Finance and as the Minister for Commerce and Industry with independent charge. Working in the financial sphere, she faced serious challenges to revive India’s exports that had plummeted due to weak external demand. She also successfully communicated with multilateral bodies such as the World Trade Organisation during her tenure.

The post of Defence Minister is extremely crucial and critical in today’s day and age. Some have even questioned the legitimacy of a woman being given this great responsibility and have called this appointment unusual. Considering the fact that both eastern and western fronts are on high alert, a Defence Minister today faces numerous external challenges which entail constant dialogue with the United States of America, China, Russia, and others. Nirmala Sitharaman’s appointment will definitely forward army Chief General Bipin Rawat’s statement to the media in June about the Indian Army being all set to open up combat positions for women from words into actions. The Indian Air Force had inducted three women as fighter pilots last year, which came very timely after the government’s decision to open the fighter stream for women on an experimental basis.

Expectations are high from the new Defence Minister. Even though the position comes with a lot of pressure, Sitharaman is expected to handle tasks fluently because of her exceptional qualifications and understanding of national interests.

Feature Image Credits: La Casa Morett

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News

Rajib Ray of DTF Elected as New DUTA President

By Bhavya Banerjee September 2, 2017

On Thursday, the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) conducted its elections for the post of President and fifteen Executive Committee members. Rajib Ray, a professor of Philosophy from Kirori Mal College and the leftist Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF), was named the President of DUTA on Friday morning by scoring 2636 votes.

The elections were held in Arts Faculty, North Campus. Teachers from colleges across Delhi came to cast their votes from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday evening. This year, the voter turnout was massive as it amassed to an estimate of 7,200 members.

Rajib Ray told The Hindu, “We are looking forward to fighting against the failures of the government and other authorities. Timely disbursement of pension and setting up of a review committee are our top priorities.”

In his manifesto, Ray questioned the prevalent education policies and raised important issues such as those of privatisation and autonomy of DU colleges. He said “Education policy is currently being dictated by the NITI Aayog, whose CEO recently proclaimed that the government should “hand over schools, colleges, jails to the private sector”. Its Draft Action Plan is being pushed through various UGC Regulations. The Draft on Graded Autonomy defines three categories of universities based on NAAC scores and NIRF rank.” He even criticised the DU administration by saying that “The DU administration has been deaf to the denial of promotion to thousands of teachers and forced them to go to the Court. It has surrendered to the Ministry of Human Resources Development directive to appeal against the positive Court order on pensions.”

His main motto is to defend public education. With such a win, a lot is expected from his tenure as the new President of DUTA.

Feature Image Credits: Democratic Teachers’ Front

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