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Play Review: A Woman Alone

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Heartbreaking and touching, A Woman Alone by Shilpi Marwaha is a bold description of marital rape and female subjugation.

If you are a feminist who enjoys impactful theatre, then Sukhmanch Theatre Group’s production A Woman Alone is the performance for you. An adaptation of an Italian play by the same name, the act is written by political activists and theatre-makers Dario Fo and Franca Rame.

The play starts with a woman dancing freely and lasciviously to peppy Bollywood songs. Initially, it looks like the protagonist is a happy, confident woman, but soon things become dark. The plot has no sequence of events as such; the story is basically a narration of the oppressed domestic life of a woman. Stuck between a toddler, an abusive husband, a perverted brother-in-law, a stalker, and a blackmailing boyfriend, Sharon (played by Shilpi Marwaha) is in the simplest of terms an oppressed woman. She describes the various facets of her trauma in the form of gossip, storytelling, and comedy.

There are many scenes that vividly document the ugly reality of issues like marital rape and domestic abuse. While these scenes can be triggering and heart wrenching, there are a few reassuring moments where Sharon displays admirable grit and strength.

Watching A Woman Alone is a rollercoaster ride that is both emotionally draining and exhilarating because of the range of emotions it incites within the viewer. The audience is left more clueless, confused, and shocked than they were at the beginning. A Woman Alone is not a play that will provide you with answers; there will be no happy ending, there will be no closure. Sharon’s struggles of being groped, humiliated, harassed, hurt, of having her agency and free will ripped away from her, of blackmail and pain will make you question the kind of world that you live in where women continue to be viewed as properties, conquests, and pieces of flesh. Shilpi Marwaha at the climax of the play is trapped between ropes laden with household objects – bottles, shirts, brooms, clothhes hangers, jugs, and containers. It is a representation of how women today are trapped in what is assumed to be their responsibility towards their households and families.

It is the tale of a woman who was crushed and defeated by society’s hatred for women, hatred of their choices, their sexuality, their desire to grow, their desire to be recognised as people and not as someone’s partner, mother, and daughter.

Shilpi Marwaha has outdone herself in this piece of art that is nothing short of a masterpiece. Her voice, her persona, and her fearless personality all make the play an iconic tale of a woman crushed by the things and people she thought loved her.

Talking to DU Beat after her performance, Marwaha said, “It is a 90-page-long script and for one hour and 10 minutes I have to continuously speak, which is very taxing, not just physically but also mentally.” However, it is evident that this hard work pays off.
Follow Sukhmanch Theatre Group on Facebook for the details of more of their stunning upcoming performances.

 

Image Credits: DU Beat

Kinjal Pandey
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Niharika Dabral
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Events

The Finance and Investment Cell, Hans Raj College organises Finance Platter

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The DU-famed Finance and Investment Cell of Hansraj College organised its flagship event ‘Finance Platter’ in association with Innolabz on October 27, 2017. The triad of scintillating events conducted this year was appreciated by everyone alike.

The event began with the lighting of the lamp ceremony conducted by Mr.Saurabh Chaturvedi, founder and CEO of Innolabz along with the society’s core team members. This was followed by the mock stock competition- ‘The Stockfather’, the prelims of which witnessed a crowd of over 300 participants speculating on various securities as per the news and rumours. The outcry round was a frenzy filled trading in the American, Chinese and Indian stocks. The auditorium resonated with sounds of deals and negotiations, some that closed and some that failed.

‘Prisonbreak-Narcos on Death Row’ was another event set in the sinister world of crime, drugs, and money-making. The selected teams were required to strategise their way to escape custody. One member of the team donned the role of a bureaucrat while the other became a terrorist, and the two together had to manage resources amongst their groups to terrorise various locations of the national capital.

The B-plan competition, ‘Power2Idea- Think. Plan. Execute’ had an illustrious judging panel which constituted Mr. Saurabh Chaturvedi, founder and CEO of Innolabz, and Mr. Rajesh Parekh, a Chartered Accountant having an experience of over 25 years in the finance industry. The most innovative 18 abstracts were shortlisted and those who made it to the final round then delivered a presentation of 7 minutes each, explaining their concept in detail. The judges were impressed with the quality and level of participation they witnessed in the event.” We were amazed and astonished by ideas presented before us. Thinking that bricks can be created out of cigarette butts or incense sticks that don’t emit smoke are any day out of the box. These ideas are worth incubating”, said Mr. Saurabh after the conclusion of the event.

When asked about the reason behind the successful turnout, Shubham Suri, President of the society said,” We have always tried to beat our own standards and innovate new events. This keeps the team focused on its objectives. We hope to witness the same level of enthusiasm and appreciation in our next fest as well.”

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News

Jamia Milia Islamia students protest for conducting student elections in the varsity

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Around 10 students have been on this strike since October 25, in a bid to demand student union elections in the varsity.
The protesting students say that the university was founded as part of the ‘fight for democracy’ against the British, which demanded that Indians be allowed to choose their own representatives to govern them. Protesting students told The Quint that they will celebrate Founder’s Day only after they are granted the rights their predecessors enjoyed.
Students quoted Jamia Vice-Chancellor, Talat Ahmed, as saying that the elections could not be held because the matter is sub-judice and thus any move made by the University will be seen as ‘contempt of court’ on their part.
But the real story looks a little different.
The last student union in place in the university was dissolved in the year 2006 claiming that the student body was hindering the academic progress of the institution. In fact, JMI is the only prominent central university in Delhi which doesn’t have a students’ union. The other prominent ones – JNU and DU – have a robust union and elections. The struggle to resurrect the body has been on for the past 11 years with the students claiming that the administration has left no stones unturned to thwart all their efforts.
Students have alleged the university has taken no steps withdraw its position from the court, a move that could re-open talks about the elections between the students and the administration.
Polls were banned in 2006 over allegations by Jamia that student representatives had started interfering in administrative work. In 2011, three former students moved the Delhi HC demanding a students’ union, reported The Indian Express.
It is indeed quite shocking and absurd that a central university, which is associated with the anti-imperialist movement, is apolitical.
Protesters also have a list of other student-centric demands which they claim can only be fulfilled once a democratically elected union is set up. Some of these demands are: setting up of a 24-hour library, a working anti-sexual harassment cell, and so on.
“The Jamia administration treats the university as their personal jaeger (fiefdom). They are completely anti-students and routinely issue diktats without even consulting anyone. Constant fee hikes, delay in declaration of results, regular paper leaks – you name it, the bureaucracy here is completely inefficient and corrupt. We want to ensure these things don’t happen,” says Ihtesam, a student of BA programme to ScoopWhoop.
In 2012, a group led by then-student Hamidur Rahman, filed a writ (Petition No 917/2012 titled ‘Hamidur Rahman vs JMI’), stating that they didn’t want Jamia authorities to hold direct elections for a student council.
In an official release, the university said: “ A group of nine students have intervened in the Writ Petition and filed an application dated February 2012 praying to present their case in the larger academic interest of Jamia. In paragraph 9 of the said application, these students have opposed any direction system of elections in the Jamia Millia Islamia. This application was admitted on record by the High Court of Delhi”.
“The writ for the case that the VC keeps mentioning, was filed in 2012. The student who had filed the case is currently not a student at this University anymore. More importantly, there were nine students who were forced by the administration to go to the court and file a case that they didn’t want any direct system of elections” said Amber Fatmi, President of AISA (Delhi Unit) told The Quint.
For now, the students have the blazing passion of not discontinuing the strike as long as the authorities give in to their demands and allow them to hold elections for a representative student body.

Image Credits: Scoopwhoop

Ankita Dhar Karmakar
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Maitreyi College

In the Corridors of North-East India

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Walking through the lanes of the photography exhibition about ‘Cultures of Sikkim’, the Department of Sociology of Maitreyi College released it’s fifth issue of its bi-annual newsletter ‘Sociologue – Aao Baat Karein’.

The attempt behind this is to create a sociological dialogue on the issues raised through the newsletter. It specifically focused at not so known- artforms, music, cinema, literature and sports of North East. The Chief Speaker for the day was Dr. Nitoo Das acclaimed Poet and Faculty at Department of English, Indraprastha College, DU. Her poems have appeared in national and international publications at various times.

The event witnessed cultural programme bringing to limelight, the traditional dances of North East States and showcase of antique ornaments from the lap of seven sisters. There were various students from different colleges of Delhi University to witness the event. The Chief Speaker, emphasised on the diverse tribes that constitutes North East and the challenges to counter the dominant narrative of the region by bringing it to mainstream.

As music is the food for thought, the event came to an end, with the tunes of A&R band.

 

Feature Image Credits: Anahita Sharma

Naimisha

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DUB Speak

Sexism And The Big Screen

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Recently, with the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein being accused of sexual misconduct by various female celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, etc, we are bound to think about the ugly insides of this superficially glamorous industry. All of woman kind, from the subjugated woman working silently in the kitchen to the A-listed women with the commanding personality seen on the bigger screen, everyone at some point has been victim to patriarchy and male chauvinism.

In all of history, the film industry, primarily Hollywood and it’s Indian compeer, Bollywood have been reinforcing sexism. Over sexualizing and objectifying the female characters has always been a marketing strategy. Women in the film industry are often seen as a sum of their sexuality, rather than their talent.

The sexism existing in the film industry is too transparent. In mainstream commercial Bollywood films, the institutionalization of the “item” songs, derogatory lyrics, dialogues like “Marriage se pehle ladkiyan sex object hoti hain aur marriage ke baad they object to sex” – Kambakkht Ishq suggest the blatant sexist nature of the industry, while depicting the idea that the ultimate goal of the woman is to satisfy the male gaze. In this adulterated industry, too often the commodification of women is sugar coated in the form of entertainment.
In an entertainment driven country like India, things seen on screen have a great influence on the larger audience. The over sexualized content, results in the increasing brutality against women. “For most Indian men, social interactions with the opposite sex are severely limited. What they see on screen guides much of their perceptions of women,” opined journalist Ruchika Tulshyan on Forbes. “Portraying women as sex objects has far-reaching ramifications from normalizing eve-teasing and stalking, to glorifying rape and murder.”

Other than being constantly objectified, actresses also encounter other problems in the face of this corporate misogyny like the disparity in the wage gap, where an actor is paid more on the sole basis of the fact that he is a man. The idea of the male breadwinners is outdated but the paychecks do not reflect that, because the pay is not at par. The women in the industry are also verbally and sexually harassed. A little cleavage turns into sensational news, interview questions directed towards knowing which of their co-stars would they rather sleep with, or being propositioned with various decadent conditions for a role.
The position of female actress in the film industry is a strenuous one. She is made an object of scrutiny. Where everything she does bears numerous repercussions. Barring few exceptions, mainstream cinema in India “has a “patriarchal, sexist and misogynistic” character,” says Ranjana Kumari, Director of Centre for Social Research and member of the National Mission for the Empowerment of Women . “Our cinema exploits the Indian psyche and the mindset that has sexist notions about women’s bodies and this is used and exploited by cinema. Barring some films, where women have been in lead roles or acted as protagonists, in most cases, women are used as a representation of good bodies. This is done to titillate,” she adds.

 

Feature Image Credits: Tes Teach

Trishala Dutta
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Events

Exuberant Antaragni’17 Culminates In A Grand Fashion

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IIT Kanpur got completely transformed during these four days, transcending all barriers of enthusiasm. Antaragni hosted a plethora of events blending as series of fine arts, socio-cultural and literary events along with variety of workshops, exhibitions and informal events.

Taking a deeper look into Antaragni revealed its magnificence even better. The exuberant line up of events culminated on the 4th day.
The final round of the Western Dance Competition involved enacting a movie plot without using any dialogues, signature steps or songs of that movie. Teams were given movies like Golmaal 1, Bajirao Mastani, Bhool Bhulaiyaa and Gabar is Back. Desi Hoppers, the judges explained the nuances of the dances which all the teams could improve in. First position was bagged by Sri Venkateshwara College. Gargi College and IIT Kanpur bagged the second and third positions respectively. The judges welcomed the students to take individual feedback and check their individual marks in the marking sheet.

Western dance competition was followed by LED Dance performances. The illuminating lights sparked in the auditorium and the performers used props like hula hoops. After necessary arrangements were made, Duet Dance Competition ensued. Dyal Singh College (Morning) bagged the first position and their dance performance was applauded the most, followed by Shaheed Bhagat Singh College and University Maharani College (Jaipur).
Antaragni Idol witnessed participants from different colleges who entertained the audience with melodious songs of different genres. Shyam from Shri Ram College of Commerce won the special mention award and a cash prize worth Rs. 1000 while the ‘Performer of the Evening’ title was won by Nitika Kundra from Deen Dayal Uppadhaya College who also has been offered a music contract by the judge. Vaibhav Sakhsi from Miranda House won the first prize followed by Vaibhav Sati from Hindu College and Lakshya from Ramanujan College.

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Sky Harbor Music performing

Nukkad Natak Finals were conducted in the event grounds and the jury consisted personalities who were the likes of Danish Khan. The street play actors captivated the audience with their myriad themes ranging from oppression of girl, molestation, mental illness and more. JMC and IIT Kanpur jointly won the first prize followed by Sri Venkateswara College, taking the second spot and ITER bagging the third prize. In Junoon – the battle of bands, the participants performed energetic songs which was received enthusiastically with ebullience by the crowd. Common thread of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College won the first prize, 6 in the evening of Hansraj College won the second prize and Tapas of Motilal Nehru College won the third prize.

Later in the night, a concert by Vishal-Shekhar lighted up the entire event. And, with that Antaragni’17 drew its curtain for this year.

 

Feature Image Credits: Akarsh Mathur for DU Beat

Image Credits: Akarsh Mathur for DU Beat

Sandeep Samal
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Prachi Mehra
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Events

Spade, Shivaji College: Session on Freedom and Liberalism

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SPADE, the socio economic society of Shivaji College, University of Delhi, organised a Policy Dialogue session on the topic “Economic Freedom and Liberalism” in association with Centre for Civil Society on 26th October 2017. The seminar covered various aspects of liberalisation and economic freedom and a different perspective was kept forward.

People attending the event
People attending the event

The session started with Mr. Mitra introducing a quiz, an exercise that tests the political inclination of a person. He then explained the concept of economic freedom and brought to notice the events of 1991 where the Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation policy was introduced.

He talked about the global economic freedom levels where India ranks at 95 and how the lack of political stability affects the freedom levels. He drew out different parameters that affect the economic freedom of a country such as the protection of civil rights and political rights, the ease of doing business, world Competitive Index, Global Hunger and Press Freedom. Stating “Democracy is not a majority rule, it is the right to respect and protect those in the minority, it is a process, a negative feedback check” he explained how India has come down from being a full democracy to a flawed democracy.

Talking about liberalism he mentioned about the Right to choose and Right to Property and how it has a deep impact on the global Liberalisation. He emphasized drawing the relationship between the Right to Property and the historic disputes stating “75% of civil court cases are property disputes”. The event marked a great success for the society.

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DUB Speak

Hope: The Scientifically Proven Mental Shield

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In a recent study, it was proved that hope protects our brain from anxiety and expands our understanding.

Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. It has been a stimulator, a motivator, and at times, the only positive force left in us when we are going through our bad times. Just like any other feeling, hope is intangible and unseen, yet it has been ever-present in us. And its presence has finally been identified by science.

In a recent study, Chinese psychologists found out that hope protects our brain from anxiety and expands our understanding of things that are happening as reported by Big Think. Defining hope as an important term in positive psychology, scientists conducted a survey on 231 students and found out that hope trait was related to the brain region that is involved in the reward-related procession, motivation production, and goal-oriented behaviour. “ Overall, this study provides the first evidence for functional brain substrates underlying trait hope and reveals a potential mechanism that trait hope mediates the protective role of spontaneous brain activity against anxiety” the researchers quoted as per the website.

Anxiety has long been the cause of our mental struggles. Anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, hypertension, and so much more, it is anxiety that has aided these diseases. Not necessarily as a disease, but people suffer from anxiety in various situations. In all those times when we were helpless, when we could feel that chill down our spine, when our mind was contemplating scenarios we feared to face, or creating illusions that demoralised us – we hoped. We simply sat there and hoped that things would be fine. We hoped that we would not have to endure the trauma, the stress, the pain, or the anxiety for long. We hoped that someone, somewhere, somehow could save us from all that was happening, or was about to happen.

Turns out, we were “the one” we were looking for, and hope was “the how” that protected our brain. The positive force that we clung on to in anonymity was actually helping us survive our mental battles and shielding us from all the negative forces trying to let us down. Science recognising hope as the protective force justifies all the endurance that we made all this while. This study proves that being hopeful protects our brain from harmful thoughts. It proves that we have a positive force within us that helps us combat all the negativity and gives us the strength to keep going. We should take this research as a benchmark and be ready to face whatever comes our way for all of us know that we have what it takes to wade through deep waters.

 

Feature Image Credits: ThinkingWords

Karan Singhania
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Uncategorized

Is The Idea Of Privacy Just An Illusion?

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At a time when everyone is demanding Right to Privacy as a Fundamental Right, it is important to understand how much do we actually follow the concept of privacy in our day to day life.

Ours is a generation that is obsessed with putting all our information on the social media platforms. We find ourselves juggling between Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, or Twitter. Somehow just one platform is not enough for us to keep our thoughts and ideas across. We are a generation that believes in clicking the photo of food on the table first before eating it. We believe in telling the entire world about our personal life by updating our relationship status on Facebook. We are trying to maintain Snapchat streaks alive and keep a check on the exact time when the other person read our Whatsapp message. We do not understand the concept of boundaries. We like to tell the entire world the place we are visiting, the food we are eating, the dress we are wearing, the song we are listening, the emotions we are feeling, and the list goes on.

There is nothing about our life that we really want to keep private. This paranoia does not stop here. We are equally eager about to know the personal details of someone else’s life too. We are not satisfied till we know all the secrets of our favourite celebrities. We stalk them while trying to capture a moment from their private life. We hide behind bushes and resort to sneaky measures in order to photograph them in their personal moments.

Recently, my sister who is a teacher decided to conduct an examination. She was bombarded with messages from her students throughout the night asking her to clarify their doubts. She finally had to switch off her mobile in order to have a peaceful sleep. Another time I was having a conversation regarding some official work on WhatsApp when an old friend of mine messaged me. I did not have the time to engage in a conversation with him at that moment. Hence, I decided not to reply. However, when he saw that I was online and still chose not to text back, he was deeply offended. Thus we as a generation, have lost the understanding of how to respect someone else’s private space. We expect the other person to cater to our needs immediately, refusing to even have a consideration of their circumstances.

Hence, it is important to ask the question whether there is anything remotely private about our life. Consciously or reluctantly we are becoming a part of a culture where the line between public and private is becoming more and more blurred. Even if we try and resist to it, we are able to succeed at it till a certain point only. When I started fighting this battle, I was quite obstinate and stubborn to not let anyone intrude into my personal space and time. However, I find myself constantly facing failure. It is disheartening to see that one cannot help but succumb to this pressure.

 

Feature Image Credits: Kulzy

Anukriti Mishra
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DUB Speak

A Year Since Demonetisation: From the Lens of a College Student

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From the perspective of a college student, the path forward from the landmark verdict of demonetisation was bleak with flickering lights and a hazy future. Here is how students were affected by the remarkable judgment last year.

It has been a year since the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, passed the historic judgment of demonetising INR 500 and INR 1000 notes from circulation. Besides sparking countless memes and attracting criticism from all four corners, the judgment is most infamously known for the disturbance it created in the everyday lives of the Indian denizens. As Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) marks 8th November as the Anti-Black Money Day, we retrospect to determine how demonetisation affected the daily routines of the students of the University of Delhi (DU). The chaos and mayhem it inflicted on the student community can only be suitably answered by the very people who were most affected by it.

Outstation students were adversely hit out of the student lot as they did not have any financial backing like the rest of the day scholars did. Apart from the inconvenience it caused in day-to-day expenses that toppled everyone’s budgets, DU hostellers and PG renters had a harrowing time. Landlords and PG owners demanded rent that time round, and many students were left scaffolding for the newest currency they could get in their hands. Kinjal Pandey, a student of Daulat Ram College, added, “My PG friends and I tried to wake up at 5 a.m. in the morning in the hopes that we would be able to stand ahead in the ATM line. Every day at least 8-9 girls would wake up early and go out at dawn in order to stand in the ATM line.”

Furthermore, since this happened towards the end of the odd semester with end semester exams approaching, many wasted their precious time standing in long queues to no avail. Students were seen standing, studying in lines for hours as the transaction limit was restricted to INR 2,000 per day. That left many to resort to alternative sources like borrowing from home or from unrecognised money lenders. At a time when most transactions were conducted in cash, many students did not have checkbooks and were not as well-equipped to manage one’s finances digitally. Budgets were disrupted and limits were increased manifold to counter the urgency of the situation.

A year since this debacle, the verdict has been mixed. Whether it was a hit or a miss is a completely different lead to follow.

 

Image Credits: DNA India

Image Caption: The demotisation of INR 500 and 1000 notes last year adversely affected outstation DU students.

 

Vijeata Balani

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