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Delhi University opens post graduation applications, introduces reservation for DU students in select courses

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Delhi University recently released admission forms for its post graduation programmes. In addition, according to some new rules – marks which were only considered an important chore for the undergraduate courses in Delhi University, have suddenly gained importance.

A notification dated 31st January states, “All faculties and departments except the Faculties/Departments offering Inter-disciplinary or professional courses are to earmark 50% of the total intake to be filled by direct admission of the students of the Delhi University”. This new development which is effective from the academic session 2014-2015 brings a new bonus for the students completing their graduation from Delhi University as 50% of the seats are now reserved for them on the basis of marks scored in their BA course.

For students coming from other universities, that is, the rest of the 50%, there is to be conducted an entrance exam and/or interview. However, that does not mean that students of Delhi University who fail to fit the marks criteria won’t get admission, they can still give the entrance exam as before, so long as their marks in their B.A. course fill the required criteria.

Other details for the admission process in the notification are that all registrations are to be done online for which a common web portal has been created by the University starting from 10th March 2014 to 18th April 2014 (postponed according to a new notification dated 28th February) and the dates for entrance tests for the concerned courses would be held in between 1st June 2014 to 30th June 2014, the details of which will be available department wise.

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The limitation to this new and sudden decision by the University is that this direct admission is subject to availability of seats which would be given to the first lot with the best marks. Now, students passing out this year and aiming for M.A. who until now did not take their B.A. marks quite seriously are finding themselves in a tight spot.

Courses that are offering this reservation are – Economics, Geography, History, Political Science and Sociology while others like Social Work, Japanese, East Asian Studies and Life Long Learning and Extension will be conducting their entrance examinations. Details of these examinations will be posted on the DU website (ww.du.ac.in) when decided by the departments.

The links to the notifications are http://goo.gl/s8thoV and http://goo.gl/yc3WG2

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Hindu College

Series of talks take students of Hindu College on a Journey of Delhi Through The Ages

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A brief talk on Delhi and the various characteristics of Delhi through the ages is what dominated the annual seminar organized by the History Department of Hindu College on Wednesday, 5th March 2014.

The seminar began with the teacher head of the Department Mr. Ahmad Hassan giving a brief introduction about the topic ‘Delhi Through the Ages’ and informed that the seminar was going to take place in a preceding order because of time differences. The eminent speakers invited by the college took the stage soon after and began the talk. The first speaker for the day was Prof. Amar Farooqui – a Delhi University graduate, Professor at Hans Raj College. He currently works with the Department of History and has many papers and books to his credit like ‘The Early Social Formations’- an important textbook for History students all around Delhi University. Prof. Farooqui, who talked about Modern Delhi, apologized to the audience because traditionally the seminar should have been Medieval Delhi moving to Modern Delhi and not the opposite but due to differences in the time schedule it had to be held in a preceding order, however, he said this would give a new and different perspective to the topic. Prof. Farooqui focused on the time period from 19th century to the eve of the First World War and talked about the changes in the layout of the city giving various examples about places in Delhi that the students could connect to.

Dr. Shama Mitra Chenoy, a teacher of History at Shivaji College and a graduate from Hindu College, walked next to the stage to talk about Medieval Delhi. Dr. Chenoy gave the talk through a PowerPoint presentation so that the students could easily understand and follow the talk. She focused on the physical space of Shahjahanabad, that is, Old Delhi around the 12th century. Her main aim was to give the students a general talk on Medieval Delhi to “familiarize them with the attractions that it had and continues to have”. With the help of pictures Dr. Chenoy tried to describe the “striking visual beauty of the city” and also provided an aerial view of the city with proper maps. Ending the talk and the seminar for the day she described Shahjahanabad as a “city like many others but still unlike the others”.

A gathering of almost 65-70 students attended the seminar and tried to understand the intricacies of Delhi through the ages. “The seminar was interesting especially because it was about Delhi and included places that we have visited or can visit”, said a student on his experiences about attending the same.

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Arts & Culture

Food Review: Dig in at Diggin!

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The new eating joint, Diggin, right opposite Gargi College at AnandLok shopping centre has caught quite a few eyes ever since its opening around the annual fest of Gargi college this year.

The ambience of the place will definitely seem inviting as you step inside with a brightly lit dine-in area and painted walls. The book shelfright next to the entrance sets the feel of the place from the start. Diggin also has an outdoorset up for those good weather days when you can use a great ambience and food. The staff is friendly and will make you feel at ease and even volunteer to click your photos.

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The food at Diggin has its good, okay, bad and amazing moments. The usual delights of the place are its pasta especially Penne Arrabiata, Mint-Oreo shake, Gelato and Rocher ice cream, however, you can also enjoy their pizzas which would not disappoint you when it comes to their size. What probably won’t live up to the expectations is the blueberry cheesecake ice cream (you might enjoy it too, you never know!) and crème brulee.

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Despite the good enough food, the one thing that’ll keep you from coming back again is crunch it puts on your wallet. The restaurant is not price friendly despite being opposite a Delhi University college and that is its major shortcoming. An interaction with a Gargi student who has visited the place a couple of times revealed that “The food is good but it is hideously expensive, the prices are not at all compatible with a DU student’s budget”.

We all know how important money is in college life and how frequently we end up splurging our monthly pocket money in a day or two, however, if you are in a mood to splurge and don’t know where and how to spend it we would recommend you to go and try out Diggin and hopefully the burn in your pocket won’t hurt much after a good and heavy meal.

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Hindu College

Kurtosis 2014: I.P.L auctions, mock trading and more numbers

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Kurtosis 2014, the annual fest of Statistics department, Hindu College took place on the 25th and 26th of February 2014. The fest began with the inauguration on 25th morning, followed by a talk on “Risk Management” by Mr. Prem Nath, Associate Director, Nova Scotia Bank. He talked to the students about how to identify and prioritize risks or any unfortunate events and to minimize it and control it to the best of your abilities; the inspirational talk gave the right tone to the rest of the day as the fest saw many competitions like Sudoku, Photography, I.P.L Auction Action, Tambola, Mock Trading and Treasure Hunt. Abhishek Chaudhry from Ramjas won the Sudoku competition while Ramesh and Divyshry from Hindu came in second and third respectively. The photography competition was won by Raman from Hindu college.

The second day began with another talk by the chief guest Dr. N.K Chadha from the psychology department. who gave the students tips on how to manage stress. Student life can get pretty stressful at times and it is important for us to know how to manage it or it could take a toll on us, Dr. Chadha gave the students advice on how they can manage the stress with just a little bit of discipline in their life. This was followed by competitions like Ad-Mad, Brain Teaser, Scavanger Hunt and Dog in the Bone. The winning team for Ad-Mad was Pankaj and team from Hindu while for the Scavanger Hunt a team comprising of Dhruv Mittal from Kirori Mal College, Lehar Raj, Deepak Sharma and Tarun Sudan from Hindu were awarded the first position. For the Brain Teaser, the winner was Manan, Shikha Goel came in second and Tulika and Gaurav came in third.

Six-sigma – the Quiz was held in the afternoon and the winners for the same were Balasubramanyam and Darshan Kalathil from Hansraj College. Dr. Yash Pal, another chief guest who attended the fest and also the former chairman of the UGC came in for an interactive session with the students and left many pearls of wisdom like “Being merely competitive is not enough, creativity is important to achieve something.”

The fest was brought to an end with a street dance competition which was won by the team of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce.

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Hindu College

JMC’s Mudra wins Western Dance Competition at Mecca 2014

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The western dance competition at Mecca 2014 began with Hindu College’s western dance society Aarambh performing on the latest bollywood numbers and building up the energy in the crowd. Hindu’s performance was followed by Jesus and Mary College’s dance act – one that garnered lots of hoots from the crowd as they danced on songs like ‘Pyaar tenu karde gabru’, ‘Tunal tunak tun’ and ‘Saat samundar paar’.

Indraprastha College for Women kept the girl’s college swag going with their performance right after JMC. Hansraj College was the first to break this monopoly with their performance which stood out with their patriotic twist as they built the tiranga with pan covers and a cycle tyre. In fact, this moment turned out to be the best moment for Mr. Sunil Chopra, Director of Indian Fiesta Latina and the judge of the show as he told DU Beat, “I absolutely loved the way Hansraj brought together the tricolours of our flag, it was a very deep and emotional moment for me and my partner Shalu”. Sri Venkateswara College came in next after Hansraj and displayed their dancing talents to the enthusiastic audience. Other colleges that performed were Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Daulat Ram College, North Indian Engineering College, Kamala Nehru and Satyawati. After all the performances Hindu performed again which was a non-competitive performance and brought the Western Dance competition to an end.

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Mr. Sunil Chopra and Shalu Chopra, the judges for the event took the stage after that to share their opinion on the dance performances and to talk about the upcoming Indian Fiesta Latina which is going to be held from 11-13 April at The Leela, Ambience, Gurgaon and show the audience a 176 seconds clip on what IFL really is.

The result for the competition were announced soon after with Hansraj taking the third place. Sri Venkateswara came second while Jesus and Mary College grabbed the first place. With the same, Mudra – The Western Dance society of JMC also won a chance to perform at IFL 2014.

“We loved the energy the students put in, in their performances and the way they brought a professional touch with such amazing costumes and of course the way they never stopped smiling and enjoying their performance.” said Mr. Sunil Chopra.

Featured image: Western Dance Society of I.P. College for Women

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Hindu College

Papon’s ‘Khumaar’ grips Hindu College

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Angaraag Mahanta who is more famously known to us as Papon performed at Hindu’s Rock Night along with his band East India Company on the first day of Mecca 2014. A large crowd turned up cheering as Papon stepped on the stage and took a hold of his mike.

He started the performance with songs like Khumaar (performed by Papon in Coke Studio) which talks about how a guy is passionately in love with a girl but has to spend a difficult day waiting for the night to come when he can see her and moved on to an Assamese folk song that joins into a Punjabi folk song explaining how the song was about how India is united despite its diversity and even though our diversity might pose problems once in a while it’s all right because while the rest of the world is black and white, India stands out with all its colours.

He also sang many of his more famous songs including Dinae Dinae, Kaun mera from the movie Special 26, Kyon from Barfi! And Jiyein kyun from Dum Maaro Dum. However, what really got the crowd going were Papon’s little quirks and jokes as he explained the meaning behind his songs and how in life everything figures out in the end and you find what you are supposed to be, like he did despite being a college dropout. He also introduced his band mate Jinti who is professionally an automobile engineer but now runs cars through his guitar followed by a demonstration by Jinti on the same.

Papon ended his performance with “Banao” and a Bihu song for all his Assamese fans.

Right before Papon came on stage another artist performed on the stage of Mecca 2014, Jasleen Kaur Royal. Jasleen who is a Hinduite, has been a participant on India’s Got Talent and is currently working with Parikrama. She sang songs like “Pani da rang”, “Iktara” and “Shaam savere”.

Missed the performance? Here is another glimpse!

Post by DU Beat.
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Hindu College

Insight into the Valentine’s Day rituals at Hindu College’s Virgin tree

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Hindu College known for its special Valentine’s Day celebration attracted a huge crowd this year as well for the Virgin tree puja. The oldest member of Hindu College, the Virgin tree or the V-tree was decorated by the hostellers of the college with balloons and water-filled condoms and donned with posters of Deepika Padukone who was chosen as the Damdami Mata this year. “Deepika has been really famous this year and given several hit movies. It was a unanimous decision by most of the hostel members” says a hostel student of Hindu.

The college sought to cut down on the crowd this valentine’s day by allowing only the college students in for the celebration and even though the rainy weather on 14th did pose a lot of hindrance for the students they still carried on with the “puja” with the same level of enthusiasm as they would have on a sunny day. The role of the pundit for this year was played by Imtiaz, a first year Chemistry (Hons.) student and Hostel Mr. Fresher for 2013 as he was carried from the hostel to the virgin tree on the shoulders of his fellow hostellers in proper pundit attire with dhol playing as their background score.

The puja was held ceremoniously as the students sang the famous Damdami Mata aarti which goes something like this:

“Jai damdami Mata, Maiya jai damdami mata
Tumko dinbhar dekhun -2
Raat bhar so nahi pata
Maiya jai damdami mata…”

As the aarti came to an end, the water filled condoms were thrown so that the “Holy water” could reach everyone. Further, prashad was distributed and even a cake was cut this year so that students, as the legend goes, lose their virginity in the coming six months or at least get into a relationship.

While some might call it an act of desperation and insanity, the hostel students call it tradition. “It is a tradition that has been passed on from generations now and there is nothing wrong with it. We are not objectifying women and the condoms are used for AIDS awareness and not as an act of desperation and vulgarity” says another hostel student as he dances off to the beat of the dhol.

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Arts & Culture

Characters come alive at 4th Annual Indian Comic Con

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The 4th Annual Indian Comic Con kick started on Friday, 7th of February 2014 at Thyagaraj Stadium, Delhi. Four years ago the Comic Con began as an attempt to promote the culture of comic books in India and bring together creators as well as comic book fans all over India. The convention saw a large number of people be it infants, adolescents, adults or the elderly as everyone came together to celebrate this festival of comics.

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The stadium was packed with delhiites as they explored the convention and the new comics being released by various publishers and artists. Campfire Graphic Novels launched a World War One graphic novel, Holy Cow Entertainment launched two issues of their Aghori series and Orange Radius Entertainment launched a collector’s edition of their Parshu series. Comic Con gave all comic fans a worthwhile shopping weekend as well with merchandise varying from t-shirts to collectibles to glow in the dark boxers! Harry Potter fans could find their favourite wands or Harry’s Gryffindor sweatshirt, The LOTR fandom had a replica of the ring engraved with the inscription from the book driving them crazy while the Hunger Games fans could also find lockets and other merchandise to keep them happy. The V for Vendetta mask gained a lot of popularity this year as almost everyone could be seen flaunting it.

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It was no less than a film festival as fans dressed up as their favourite comic or movie characters and showed off their talents in a contest for the best comic-character costume, you could see Jack Sparrow and his drunken antics, Jadis the White Witch of Narnia, Wolverine showing off his fighting skills, Hiccup and Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon, Spiderman, Batman, a desi version of Supergirl in the form of Super Kudi and many more.

Adding to the convention were talks by famous comic book writers – David Lloyd who has illustrated for V for Vendetta, Mark Waid who has worked with DC comics and worked on Flash, Superman and Captain America for Marvel comics, Gabriel B and Fabio Moon twin brothers known for their work in Casanova and The Umbrella Academy and John Layman who has also written for DC and Marvel comics. Their talks inspired budding artists in India who hung onto every word they said.

Image credits: Satchit Basu

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Hindu College

Quarks ’14: Hindu’s first ever Robotics event and much more

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The physics department of Hindu College organized their annual fest Quarks ’14 on 30th and 31st of January.

The first day commenced with an inauguration with Dr. Govind as the Chief Guest from NPL and the release of the Physics department magazine – Quarks ’14. The rest of the day saw gully cricket and treasure hunt as the entertaining events and the finale of the stage play competition which was sponsored by the prestigious Barry John Acting Studio with Mr. Brian Herwood and Ms. Niharika judging the competition. Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies emerged as the best team in the stage play competition. Nirmal Kothari from Hansraj College was judged the best male performer and Gurleen Kaur Sidana from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies as the best female performer. Sidharth Pandey from Hindu College leading a team called Treasure Hunt Specialists emerged victorious in the treasure hunt.

Parallel to this, the department also organized a C++ debugging event as well as Hindu’s first ever robotics event, Droid Wars. Droid Wars which was essentially a workshop was a joint initiative with Tryst ’14 IIT Delhi where the finals for the robotics competition will be held later this year.

The second day began with a paper presentation by a guest lecturer and saw the continuation of Droid Wars. As the day progressed there was a street play as well as western dance competition. The traditional western dance competition saw a bunch of different teams from which Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce (GGSCC) emerged victorious. Winners for the street play competition who were awarded a cash prize of Rs. 15,000 were also GGSCC while Khalsa College came in second and Guru Tegh Bahadur Institue of Technology came in third. The day came to an end with a ceremony of prize distribution to all the winners.

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Ramjas College

Ramjas students protest against Principal, demand transparency of funds

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The students of Ramjas College stood their ground in a strike organised by the Students Union of the college on Tuesday, 28th January 2014. Over 800 students turned up for the strike in a direct attack on the College Principal, Dr. Rajendra Prasad.

The protest demanded a financial enquiry and transparency of college funds. “They get 2 crore rupees and all they make is a staff room, this is not the college’s money, it’s ours!” said a participant of the strike. We weren’t able to confirm the allegation independently.

Bisham Swami, President of Ramjas College says, “They get Rs. 20,000 from the college canteen as rent, yet they don’t provide us any funds for our college fest, where does all this money go? When asked for more information about this money all the principal gives us is a balance sheet which is just not enough.”

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All students crowded the front gate of the college shouting slogans and asking for their demands to be fulfilled. Students were also seen trying to climb the college gate to get inside. All this also effected classes, as most batches suspended classes for the day. However, classes were commenced soon outside the college at tea stalls and Delhi School of Economics for some of the departments.

Demands that the students put up were proper funds for fests, transparency of funds, a financial enquiry into this matter and equal representation to be given to students of the college in all committees being made. After hours of standing outside the college and serious discussions with the college principal the students union emerged successful when the principal succumbed to their demands and accepted them. The President said, “We have broken down a 27 year old tyranny; 29th January will see Ramjas’ first General Body Meeting”.

The college authority remained unavailable for comment on this matter.

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