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Ishita Sharma

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It’s that time of the year when stress is at its peak and panic mode sets in. Well exam time is indeed a testing period in the lives of all students. With the DU kids getting set for the end-semester exams, here’s a list of a few things that you can do to let go off that stress and give in your best for your prep.

1. Daydream:

Take two minutes to fantasize about all of your summer plans. Take a break to think about the probable things you could do once the exams are over and done.

2. Let  it out:

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Take out 5 minutes to just scream or laugh like a maniac. Scientific studies show that this releases the stress inside and helps you maintain your cool. Just make sure you don’t try this in a library or reference section.

3. Step outside:

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Step out in the fresh air and just take a walk with your earphones on. Listen to your exam playlist and relax for a while.

4. Try new things:

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Give yourself a break by trying out something new. Be it a new dish or a new place to wander. Give yourself the required ‘me’ time.

5. Phone a buddy:

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Give your mom, BFF, or whoever else can make you laugh a quick phone call. It’s a simple and pleasant distraction — just don’t chat for too long!

6. Catch up on web articles:

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If nothing works, web (and we) can always help. Catch up on the interesting web articles (or DU Beat articles) you witness fleeting on your timeline which you probably missed in the year. That’ll surely pep you up.

 Picture credits: Tumblr

Ishita Sharma

[email protected]

 

 

New year is here. This annual last call on the year is an over-hyped, played out, and absurdly expensive formality disguised as a good time. It’ll likely end in tears, a shattered iPhone screen, and a haymaker to the face, yet still millions celebrate New Year as a new beginning. The highly overrated festivity has enough reasons to become quieter. Here are a few:

  1. It’s a costly celebration at a time, burning a hole in your pockets:
    With more champagne bubbles coursing through your veins than white blood cells, you’ll likely bottom out your checking account. That kind of YOLO notions can have serious consequences, particularly when it’s done the night before your rent is due.

2.     You’re setting yourself up for disappointment:
Scientific studies reveal when you make plans for a night and set standards for it, it doesn’t turn out how you                want it to and you end up dissatisfied for no reason. You expect things to happen that realistically will not.                    Bottom line, nights are better off unplanned. Rule of thumb: Set the standard low, chances are your night will              exceed your expectations.

3.     It’s just a 10-second countdown:
No holiday requires as much planning and hoopla as New Year’s Eve, but it’s all for a 10 second countdown and           a stupid ball drop. For other holidays, you get presents, a feast, or tons of sweets and candy. But, New Year’s Eve         is just a costly, sloppy mishmash of d-bags and vomit-soaked toilet seats.

New Year is highly overrated with the resolutions and promises. But does one have it hype so much? Food for thought? But hey, Happy New Year 2016.

 

Featured Image Credits: blog.ticketbud.com

Ishita Sharma
[email protected]

It’s the third year of college, with the last few days left. It’s the time when you are flooded with questions like, “So what are you doing after college” or “Placements ho gayi”?  Days fly by and you still can’t seem to find  an answer to such questions.


This is how college life goes. You enter first year, with ideas afresh and goals set. Second year comes with rejections, low marks and assignment deadlines. By third year, all you care about is getting your favourite spot in the canteen or in deciding how to maximize your enjoyment constraint to the attendance limits.


College, college, college. Where did these three years go? Did it go in practicing in ECA for the upcoming college fests? Did it go in deciding how to study ‘smartly’ for the exam? Did it go in waiting for magi in the Nescafe rush? Did it go in waiting for maggi to come back? Did it go in helping a friend get over a bad break-up? Did it go in the DUSU election buzz? Did it go in planning late night parties in Hauz Khas or did it go in deciding where to buy booze from? Did it go in copying assignments or running behind teachers for attendance woes? College happened and all of this happened too.


It’s strange how everything seems to have ended so fast. It still feels like 2013 when all of us were busy checking cut-offs, rushing to Delhi, standing in those long queues for submitting the fees. It still feels like yesterday when adjusting in a new city and environment seemed like the toughest task ever. It still feels like the time when managing your own budget made you seem like an adult.


There’s a lot of nostalgia but you are forced to look forward. To decide what to do,  where and why to go.  Take a step back before you get a panic attack. Everything will be fine like it always was. You’ve got to decide your future but you don’t have to lose your mind. Didn’t your favourite actor AKA SRK once say, “Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost.”  You are still left to do wonders which you will. You just have to be a little more organized.  And hey, in these last few days, enjoy a little more. Laugh a little harder because soon this would be history.
Ishita Sharma

[email protected]

The Women’s Development Cell, LSR hosted celebrated feminist Kamla Bhasin on 13th of October in the college campus. She addressed the students, elaborating on her work and lacing personal experiences with unabashed humour. The aim of the event was to broaden our perspectives on women’s rights by emphasising that human rights are an important parallel concept to the idea of the same.

Kamla Bhasin is a noted feminist who’s worked with organisations like the UN. She has been working for Sangat, a South Asian women’s rights group, for the past 13 years.
She explained how gender is at its core, a societal construct. It is formulated by social perceptions and is why boys are expected to wear blue and girls must don pink. Since, societal perceptions are made, they can also be unmade. Sex is what differentiates us biologically from men. The need of the hour is hence, gender equality and not sex equality.  She brought to the floor a very important point that gender inequality is an equally pertinent male issue. Patriarchy dictates iron clad gender roles. Men cannot be expected to shun certain manly traits or else be subjected to ridicule. They must come forward and join the protest against gender inequality.

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She also mentioned two forms of patriarchy. The traditional one, kept alive by regressive customs of karvachauth and kanyadaan. A new form of patriarchy is that of the capitalist form, comprising of the avaricious and monetary motives of male domination like child pornography and the cosmetics industry.

As a part of her work with Sangat, she has tried to spread the message of gender equality, using the medium of popular folk songs. She played one of these for the audience, which spoke of the concept of decent gentlemanly behaviour in humorous tones. This was followed by a short question answer session where she clarified  doubts the students had about their notions of feminism.

The talk ended with the WDC Coordinators gifting Ms. Bhasin, a small token of appreciation. A vote of thanks was given and the students dispersed with fresh ideas to mull over, about feminism in the societal construct.

Image credits: Aditi Priya

Ishita Sharma

[email protected]

 

The Women’s Development Cell of Lady Shri Ram College for Women(LSR) organized an event, in line with the social campaign #AbortheStigma, on 29th September in collaboration with CREA and Youth Ki Awaz on the topic of abortion and the issues related to it. It dealt with the issue as faced at the grassroots level, targeting sexual and reproductive rights of women.

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The interactive session began with the speaker, Surbhi from CREA, questioning the audience on what struck them when they heard the word ‘abortion’, followed by a survey, in the form of a video, which asked various people about their views on abortion. It was astonishing to know how people lacked basic knowledge about whether abortion is legal in India or not. It invoked a feeling of restlessness and concern in the audience who found the answers to be absurd. It created a forum for the students to raise questions about how a woman’s womb is being objectified and how loose moral judgments are passed for someone who goes through an abortion. The entire debate then shifted towards the lack of knowledge amongst the general society on the difference between sex-selective abortion and other cases of abortion. Due to such differences in mindset amongst people, this campaign took birth to address such issues, sensitize people through online articles, web-comics, podcast etc. The session also discussed certain misconceptions associated with abortion and spoke about how the word ‘choice’ could have different shades to it.

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Overall, the session saw various perspectives being put forward with respect to abortion and invoked in everyone’s mind a debate on the pro-life/pro-choice activism. It was an enlightening lecture which gave space to the students to raise their questions.

Ishita Sharma
ishitas@dubeat com

Image credits: Aditi Priya for DU Beat

“If a child doesn’t understand the way we teach, perhaps we should teach them the way they learn.”

This clearly emphasises on our need to focus on child education through which every student is nurtured. Hence, we need to pull our attention to the need of the hour which is concentrating on educating the children who aren’t economically and socially in an advantageous situation.

It is from this notion that the concept of Chehel, an NGO which was started with an initiative of providing quality education to the children who cannot access such resources, germinated. Along with quality education, Chehel aims to provide overall development to the students through teaching. Since its inception in 2010 to the present, Chehel has seen many upheavals which have only strengthened its roots in providing the best to children and working more passionately towards the society.

Chehel is proudly imparting education to over sixty students presently and with the amount of hardwork and passion shown by both volunteers and the students, they aim to touch greater heights in coming days. Chehel believes, “If you don’t stand for child education, you don’t stand for much.” Enriching children with constructive knowledge, artistic skills and morals lays the first stone towards breaking the cycle of poverty and helping the children from the less-privileged section to lead empowered lives.

The initiative to bring the change was taken by Vrinda Loiwal, an LSR graduate, in 2010. Seeing children begging on streets left her feeling helpless and agitated.

She started teaching with 3 kids which gradually increased to 60 by May 2015. She was assisted by her juniors and friends, and after she graduated and moved out of Delhi, Chehel was sustained by her juniors. Year after year, senior Chehel volunteers graduate and their vacancies are filled by new faces.

Just like the word suggests, Chehel stands for movement, change and vibrancy. With such a noble endeavour, we wish Chehel all the very best!

Ishita Sharma

[email protected]

Summer’s here. With the lazy mornings and the scorching heat, all you want to do is get some respite. But hey! There’s more to summers then just aimlessly wandering around in those loose PJs. Here are a few ways you could utilize your summer and make it productive.

1. Learn a new language online

Learning a new language is always fun. It gives you a chance to know about other cultures and surely gives you an edge over others. Instead of going and sweating it out in the sultry weather, you could easily learn a language in your room. Online courses on Edx, Coursera etc. provide a good opportunity to people to increase their knowledge.

2. Read

Believe me when I say that reading is paradise. This is a great time to inculcate this habit and it’ll benefit you in the long run for sure.

3. Start something new

From launching your business to making something innovative, summer is the time to explore your talents. There are so many opportunities brimming around and there’s no greater feeling than making/starting something on your own. You could use your impeccable sense of fashion to start your own clothing line or become a fashion consultant. Anything and everything sells!

4. Retrospection time

How often do you complain about getting no ‘me-time’ during college days? How often do you want to sit down and comprehend as to where you are going? Well, this is your time! Think, analyse and make decisions. Make a rough plan about what you want to do ahead and ways in which you can achieve them.

5. Travel alone

Travelling alone can be liberating and can be a time to learn independence. Backpacking In the hills or going surfing on the beach can be a good way to meet new people.

Image credits: http://www.gossettmktg.com

Ishita Sharma
[email protected]

One of the biggest bafflement a commerce student faces, during admission time, is whether to pursue B.Com. or Economics. To begin with, you are spoilt for choice since you’ve got the option of choosing between two of the most prestigious subjects that DU offers.

A lot of people decide between the two courses based on their interest/marks in class 12th in Accounts and Economics. Just to make things very clear, there is a lot of difference between what you study in college and what you studied in school. Speak to college students, teachers and the Internet.

The popular notion of B.Com. and Economics having similar topics is false; there is vast difference in the courses. B.Com. is a generalised course which combines accountancy, economics and business studies. Economics, on the other hand, is a specialised course which deals with rational behavior and making the best choice with limited resources.

B.Com. opens up avenues for the field of Chartered Accountancy, Finance, Business Entrepreneurship, Company Secretaryship and Law. It also gives you a boast to look into management, IT and academics. Economics is a builder for jobs in the policy making, corporate sector, developmental sector and key specialized areas. It also allows you to take up IES services after post-graduation in the subject.
Economics requires a lot of usage of maths and statistics. So if you are not big fans of these subjects, three years of graduation can be very tough with them. Commerce, on the other hand, is 60% theoretical, give or take.

Commerce comprises of trading commodities of economic value such as goods, services, information or money between two or more entities. Commerce works as the mechanism which drives capitalism and certain other economic systems. Economics is the branch of social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

Do your homework before deciding because this shall affect your future. Chalk out a list of your interests and compare it with the subjects offered by the two courses. Get hold of the Under-Graduation syllabus to get a better view.

Important Links

Commerce

Course content: http://goo.gl/8aygAA

Unconventional further study options: https://dubeat.com/?p=26724

Economics

Course content: http://goo.gl/arDd4e

Unconventional further study options: https://dubeat.com/?p=27081

 

All the best for the admission season!

Ishita Sharma

[email protected]

The NCWEB is well established institution under Delhi University which seeks to provide education to women with special coaching but without attending regular classes. It was started in 1944 and due to its increasing popularity and logistical issues, it has established centers in colleges like Bharati College, Janki Devi Memorial College, Jesus & Mary College, Kalindi College, Lakshmi Bai College,Mata Sundri College, Maitreyi College, PGDAV College, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee College, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Hans Raj College, Maharaja Agrasen College and Vivekananda College. It only conducts weekend classes – on the remaining days of the week, students are free to pursue an occupation or another educational course.

Like SOL, NCWEB follows the annual examination system. It teaches the following two courses:

  • BA Programme (English, Hindi, Punjabi, History, Political Science, Sanskrit, Economics, Mathematics, OMSP-Office Management & Secretarial Practice)
  • B.Com.

The Non Collegiate Women’s Education Board (NCWEB) has declared its guidelines,  important information along with dates for admissions to undergraduate courses.

  • The forms will be sold from 8th June to 24th June at 4 centres, namely Kalindi College, Maharaja Agarsen College, PGDAV College and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee College.
  • Admission to the NCWEB centers will be decided on the basis of cutoffs.
  • The percentage for B.A. Program will be decided on the basis of 10+2 board results by taking the best of four subjects which should have one language and three best subjects which can include maximum one vocational subject.
  • While for B.Com. the criteria is one language, Business Studies, Accountancy and one more best subject which could be a vocational subject as well. Students from streams other than Commerce will be considered with a deduction of 5% marks in best of four percentage.
  • The first cutoff list will be out on 8Th July and the last on 21st July.

The OMR form needs to be filled with attention. Only black/blue point ink is to be used. No photocopies are to be attached with the form. After filling the form, its photocopy must be stamped and kept as an acknowledgement. Make sure that the boxes in the form are properly filled, otherwise you stand a chance of getting your form rejected.
For more information, check: http://ncweb.du.ac.in/ncweb/sites/default/files/UG%20Information%20Pamphlet%202015-16.pdf
http://ncweb.du.ac.in/ncweb/sites/default/files/UG%20Notice.pdf

Image credits: NCWEB website

Ishita Sharma

[email protected]

Every year, societies from colleges across the campus compete neck to neck and put up spectacular performances during the fest season. This year too, saw certain teams shine a little brighter than the rest. We bring you a series with college societies that put their heart and soul into their respective fields and took home the top prizes at various cultural fests.

The best college society in each category was selected by creating a tally of the top 3 positions at competitive events held during various cultural fests of this season. Whenever a society won the first prize they were awarded 3 points, for the second position they received 2 points and for the third position, 1 point was added to their tally.

For the Choreography category, Sparx (Choreography Society of Gargi College) scored the maximum points in the tally. Gargi College’s 17 points were followed by the dance society of Lady Shri Ram College for Women that scored 11 points. Hans Raj College’s Terpsichoreon bagged third spot scoring 6 points.

 

The Winning Society at a glance

Sparx, Gargi College

The production titled, Spectrum, dealt with the mindset of society. The performance aimed at showcasing a very challenging social theme and tried to portray the mental status of a person suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder and how the society generally acts towards them. The ten minute long performance depicted the stress, frustration, rejection and trauma faced by a person with a mental disorder.

Shreya, the President of Sparx said, “Sparx has always aimed to inculcate a feeling of belongingness and team work This year,we upped our performance level under the guidance of Heemanshu Sharma. We also undertook gymnastics under Kushan Sir, which made our bodies more trained. While we often wounded ourselves in the process, we only got stronger in determination.”

Performing Members: Arushi Malhotra , Ashna Gupta, Ashwarya Shukla, Devakshi Misra, Devika Rajpal, Jyoti Soni, Madhyama Segal, Pankhuri Dewan, Sanjana Baweja, Shreya Gupta , Shreya Juneja , Vani Gupta, Ishani and Savera hota (Non-performing members, handle work backstage)

Winners Tally: Sparx (Gargi College)

11 fests were included in our analysis for this series which were Montage, Nexus, Mecca, Crossroads, Reverie, Ullas, Tarang, Shruti, Manjari and Lashkara and Tempest. Out of the considered fests, 7 had conducted a competitive Choreography event. Here is the list of winning performances by Sparx (Gargi College):

Ist Position: Tarang 2015 (LSR), Nexus 2015 (Sri Venkateshwara College), Ullas 2015 (Kamala Nehru College) and Reverie 2015 (Gargi College), Montage 2015 (Jesus and Mary College).

2nd Position: Crossroads 2015 (Shri Ram College of Commerce)

[Note: Choreography competitions at Confluence – Hans Raj College and Renaissance – Kirori Mal College were not considered for evaluation due to lack of participation at these respective fests].

(Hover on the icons below to know more about their victories)


Ishita Sharma

[email protected]