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Kartikeya Bhatotia

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Baatein: Bridging gaps between thoughts and expression

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“You were walking past a garden and your heart wandered to the swings as your childhood stories revisited you.
The first time you fell down but learned to rise again; the time when you made a new friend as you got drenched in the rain; the moment when you learnt to paddle with your father holding back his tears.” 
Baatein is a blog on Instagram and Facebook that displays snippets and small poetry about everything from childhood, to emotions, to dreams, to passion, to love and joy. Founded by Chhaya Dabas, a Political Science Student of Indraprastha College along with Kaustubh Sharma, an Engineering pursuant and Ishita Parashar, a literature student of Hindu College who together embarked upon this journey as they created Baatein.
“Baatein is a stage of conversations and creativity. Inspired from life and the roller coaster it is; emotions, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, it is a place your thoughts meet their echo” Chhaya said upon asking the reason why she started the blog. The blog has gathered multiple accolades and awards, with Ambedkar University’s wall adorned with one of their creations.
Ambedkar University's Wall adorned by Baatein's quotes.
Ambedkar University’s Wall adorned by Baatein’s quotes.
The blog was also declared the winner among the English category of a Twitter based competition hosted by Delhi, I Love you, a cultural movement across the city following the footsteps of Paris, Rio and many other cities across the globe.
As a part of their constant efforts to reach out to more writers and to converse with more souls, Baatein decided to enter the DU Fest season, with stalls at various colleges. The first stall was installed at IP College during their Diwali Mela. The stall was a success and even sold customised products like Dreamcatchers, lamps, diaries etc. The second edition was at Hansraj college on the 5th of Feb, during their Literary Festival. The third stall will be put up at Hindu College on the 25th of February.
For more, visit Baatein’s Facebook page. 
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QWERTY

Qwerty: How to stop running out of memory in your Android

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One of the major disadvantages of owning an Android phone is that it more often than not, runs out of space. Well mostly, it’s app related, and it leads to major lags for the phone and the inability to update apps. Here are a few tips you can follow to free up space (that do not involve clearing cache).

Clear your browser data

Entirely clear your browser data. Browsers generally have multiple tabs open at the same time occupying a lot of space (Chrome generally occupies around 200 MB data), besides they occupy most of the cache share in your phone. Clearing the browser data has only few disadvantages; you losing all of your remembered passwords on your phone is one of them.

Contact storage problems (older Android versions):

In the older Android versions, contacts storage occupies as much as 300 MB in some phones. To solve this issue, un-sync all your Gmail accounts, export contacts to external SD card and clear the contact storage. After that, import the contacts back to your phone memory and re-sync!

Uninstall Facebook app:

The Facebook app also occupies more than 100 MBs of storage generally, so uninstall it and use Facebook on browser instead. You won’t get notifications anymore, but it will be much easier on your phone

Clear WhatsApp conversations:

Not all conversations are worth saving nor are all spam groups worth being a part of. Clear your conversations, and leave and delete groups. If your conversations are important, you have an option to email them.

Image credits: wonderhowto.com

Kartikeya Bhatotia

[email protected]

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DU Annual Fest Season

Tempest’16 at Miranda House: Highlights and Events

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Miranda House hosted its Annual Cultural Fest, Tempest‘16 from 18th to 20th February, 2016. Apart from numerous cultural events, the highlights of the event were the EDM Night on day one with DJ Rahul and Kunal; Karachi based band RAETH on day two and renowned Bollywood singer Neeti Mohan along with sister Mukti Mohan, both Miranda House alumni.

Day One: Battle of Bands and DJ Night

The day started off damp and dull after a brief spell of rain but it was eventually revived.  The Indian classical solo competition was won by Ashutosh from Hindu College followed by Shivangi Barman (Daulat Ram College) and M. Rudresh (Sri Venkateswara College) as first and second runner ups. The second event, semi-classical solo competition saw Saptak Chatterjee (Hansraj College) taking the first position. The second position was tied between Namrata Natrajan (Hindu College) and Rambhajan Bedi (Zakir Hussain College). Dhruv (IIT-D) stood third.

The highlight competition of the day however was the Battle of Bands, organised by Orpheus, the Western Music society of Miranda House with 8 bands from the University participating. Hindu College Collective emerged as the winners with their composition ‘Black Sheep’ with Playtime (Hansraj College) and Musoc (Kirorimal College) as first and second runner ups.

#Live: Hindu College’s band, Hindu College Collective were declared the winners of ‘Battle of Bands’ at #MirandaHouse’s Annual Cultural Fest, #Tempest2016. Image Credits: Shubham Kaushik for DU Beat

Posted by DU Beat on Thursday, February 18, 2016

 

The day was brought to a close with an EDM set by DJs Raghav and Kunal, who enthralled the crowd by playing around with popular tracks like Seven Nation Army and Hey Mama.

DJ Kunal and Raghav enthrall the crowd on day one of Miranda House's Tempest'16
DJ Kunal and Raghav enthrall the crowd on day one of Miranda House’s Tempest’16

 

Day Two: Acapella and performance by RAETH band

The day started with the solo Indian dance event with Ananya (Daulat Ram College) emerging as winner. This was followed by the group folk dance competition where the team from Maitreyi College emerging as winners with Sri Venkateswara College as runner up.

Sri Venkateswara's folk dance team were the runner ups of Folk Dance competition at Tempest'16
Sri Venkateswara’s folk dance team were the runner ups of Folk Dance competition at Tempest’16

Another highlight of the day was the Acapella competition saw 8 teams performing after which Zephyr (Kamala Nehru College) were declared the winners for their rendition of the Harry Potter theme song. The second position was tied between Aria (Hindu College) and Crescendo (Sri Venkateswara College). The third position was bagged by the Western Music Society of Lady Sri Ram College. The solo singing event which took place after the Acapella saw Isha Chakrabarty (Gargi College) taking the first position, followed by Shivash Chagti (Hansraj College)

The day closed with a performance by the band RAETH who were greeted with cheers. They performed popular numbers like Baag DK Bose, 7 Din, and their original song Bhula Do, Bhula Do.

 

Day 2 at Miranda House’s annual cultural fest #Tempest’16 ended with Karachi based band RAETH performing numbers like ‘…

Posted by DU Beat on Friday, February 19, 2016

 

Day 3: Miranda House alumnae Neeti and Shakti Mohan and Western Dance

Day 3 began with Indian choir competition which was won by the choir from Swaranjali (Hansraj College). They were followed by Alankar (Hindu College) and Alahyaa (Daulat Ram College). One of most well-attended and energized events of the day was Halla Bol, the nukkad natak event organised by Anukriti, the street play society of Miranda House. Gargi College’s ‘Holy Shit’ and Lady Shri Ram College’s ‘Sun, Tu Rehn De’ were praised by many.

 

Burlesque, the Western Dance event by Tanz, the Western Dance society, attracted quite a crowd with Misba, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, winning the first position and Verve, Sri Venkateswara College won the second position.

 

 

 

Tempest 2016 ended on a high as Neeti Mohan and Shakti Mohan, alumnae of Miranda House, performed to a huge crowd in the college grounds. While Neeti Mohan enthralled with her powerful voice, belting out crowd pleasers like Jiye Re, Jiya Re and Paani Da,  Shakti Mohan danced to foot-tapping tunes like Chiitiyan Kalaiyan. In their enthusiam, the crowd broke the barricades twice. The sisters proclaimed themselves to be proud Mirandians as Tempest was brought to an emotional and fitting end.

 

 

Tempest’16 in an overview –

 

Read highlights of individual days:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

 

Check out DU Beat’s entire album of Tempest’16 here.

 

Kartikeya Bhatotia

[email protected]

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DUB Speak

Why I’ll never approve of the ‘coaching classes’ culture

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I distinctly remember when I entered grade 8 of school, coaching institutes were wooing their potential candidates, lecturing children as young as 12 and 13 on ‘success’ and how one achieves success by cracking an ABC entrance exam after which they gets a nice ‘package’ and settle in life. It was all aversive to me, how people would pay so much to sit in a cramped classroom where mock tests decided your self worth.

What I saw was very obvious to me, but it wasn’t to my fellow schoolmates who did decide to sign up for coaching. My parents’ anxiety loomed each day as I continued to refuse coaching classes. I get where my parents’ anxiety comes from. It is indeed very hard to get a respectable, good earning job in this country without stomping on thousands of others, including your peers. ‘Cutthroat competition’ although a buzzword today, quite effectively describes the situation.

This anxiety is omnipresent and coaching institutes, vicious enough in their business strategies decide to tap these anxieties to squeeze out money from the masses. A lot of those include people from poor backgrounds, without means to access proper education who only seek a better life after investing hard earned life savings.

Coaching institutes which boast of guiding students to gain the top ranks in exams seek to reduce the individuals to their most marketable essence. The totality of their existence is judged by the decimal digits that follow 99 and they are confined to their passport sized photos on a large banner along with their All India Ranking (Much to everyone’s suspicion, all the toppers seem to be associated with all the coaching institutes)

Coaching culture is so widespread and accepted that most of actually consider it a basic necessity in getting an education. That explains the sorry state out higher education system is in, where school and college teachers wouldn’t ever give a damn about a student’s further studies.

When I learnt that earning money is not just the end motive but the soul motive of coaching centres, I refused to acknowledge their credibility. Why do I hear about people who crack Civil Service exams, only to quit their jobs after a few months to teach a class where they earn in lakhs? Why do IIT graduates, instead of giving back to the government that invests so much in them, vow to make you the next IITian?  

Education in India is not a transmission of knowledge but actually a very strategic trade. Coaching institutes are seemingly the throne bearers of this trade.

 

Kartikeya Bhatotia

[email protected]

 

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Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies

Spectral Hues at TEDxSSCBS

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“We live in a world of clichés. More often than not, we settle into the comfortable lives provided to us by the virtue of heredity and seldom care about thinking and doing something outside the circle of self-profit. Only some exhibit the propensity to see a change and work towards it.”
The theme for this TEDxSSCBS was Spectral Hues.

Aditya Bal
Aditya Bal


The literal meaning of Spectral Hues pertains to the various colours one sees when white light passes through a prism. Metaphorically, this phrase symbolises renewal, rejuvenation and optimism. The white light represents the prevalent obsoleteness of ideas and thoughts in any sector of life; which can be eliminated only by the endeavours of those people who can think differently yet positively, who can work calmly yet intensely, who can be self-motivated yet achieve goals in a team, who bear the ability of being the risk-takers and change-makers and hence turn the world from black-and-white to a spectral hued one.

Smriti Nagpal
Smriti Nagpal

 

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “Ideas worth Spreading”. It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community. Keeping in mind the vision of such an event, students of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, University of Delhi organised their very first TEDx conference, TEDxSSCBS, on 8th February, 2016 at the India International Centre, New Delhi. The theme for the event was ‘Spectral Hues’. This theme was initiated with the aim of sharing ideas, philosophies and stories of the people who were able to see a beam of light in the dark, who had the courage and pluck to fight the odds of the society and contribute in their own unique way.

Naved Khan
Naved Khan

 

TEDxSSCBS had 10 speakers from almost all walks of life. The speaker lineup consisted of:

  1. Aditya Bal (celebrity chef)
    2. Ayaz Memon (sports journalist)
    3. Chiragh Dewan (COO, AiroCorp)
    4. Geet (entertainer)
    5. Naved Khan (radio jockey)
    6. Sai Prasanth, (mountaineer, entrepreneur)
    7. Smriti Nagpal, (Founder, Atulyakala)
    8. Vasu Primlani (green comedian)
    9. Vikramjit Singh (comedian, writer)
    10. Tom Thomas (CEO, Praxis India)

The event started with the distribution of the gift bags and complementary cupcakes from the team, followed by the host Bhavita Singh (former Miss India runner-up) introducing the theme and the concept of TED and TEDx to the attendees.

Apart from the fabulous speakers, the event also had two filler events lined up: a 20-minute-session by Aditi Singhal (mathematician) and beatboxing.

The event supported by EdCamp and media partner DU Beat was appreciated by the attendees and speakers alike. The Steering Committee also plans to organise the second TEDxSSCBS and they promise to be back soon with a grander TEDx experience.

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DU Annual Fest Season

Bigger crowds and RAETH on Day 2 of Tempest 2016

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The second day of Miranda House’s annual cultural fest saw higher attendance and more events, along with a performance by the Karachi-based band Raeth.

The day started with the solo Indian dance event organised under the umbrella of Tarangini by Mridang, the Indian Dance society of Miranda House. The event was judged by Smt. Vidhalal, a graded artist from Delhi Doordarshan, Deya Roy, and Dr. Vijaylakshmi Nanda. Ananya from Daulat Ram College was awarded the first position from amongst the eight students who performed. This was followed by the group folk dance competition where teams from colleges all over Delhi University performed, including Daulat Ram College, IP College for Women and Maitreyi College. The panel of judges for the group event was mostly the same as the one for solo dance, with the addition of Poonam Bhargava instead of Dr. Vijaylakshmi Nanda. Poonam Bhargava is a faculty member of Department of Chemistry, Miranda House and an avid dancer. The crowd was energized and receptive despite the harsh sun, powered on by Aman Kalra, the guest host. After performances that celebrated the rustic charm of the various folk dances of India, the team from Maitreyi College was declared the winner for their colourful number, followed by the team from Sri Venkateswara College for the second position.

tempest22
Zephyr, Kamala Nehru College, winners of Acapella at Tempest 2016

After grabbing the most crowds of all events on Day 1 with the Battle of the Bands, Orpheus, the Western Music Society, returned with two more events for Euphony. The Acapella event, being judged by Worshom Muivah, member of Minutes of Decay, and Nilot Pal Sinha, director of House of Symphony, saw 8 teams performing after which Zephyr from Kamala Nehru College were declared the winners for their excellent rendition of the Harry Potter theme song. The second position was tied between Aria, Hindu College, and Crescendo from Sri Venkateswara College. The third position was bagged by the Western Music Society of Lady Sri Ram College. The solo singing event took place after the Acapella and saw Isha Chakrabarty from Gargi College taking the first position, followed by Shivash Chagti from Hansraj College.

tempest23
Maitreyi College emerged the winners at the Folk Dance competition

 

Enactus Miranda House organised The Women Entrepreneurship Summit which had the PopXo co-founder Priyanka Gill, and the Enactus India programme manager, Niharika Bhatia, launching Enactus India’s new initiave RACK- Random Acts of Kindness.

The day closed with a performance by the band RAETH who were greeted with cheers. They performed popular numbers like Baag DK Bose, 7 Din, and their original song Bhula Do, Bhula Do.

Also read: Day 1 at Tempest 2016

 

Image Credits: Tejaswa Gupta, Alex Arthur and Jasmine Chahal for DU Beat

Sudisha Mishra, Shubham Kaushik and Tooba Towfiq

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

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Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies

Excelsior 2016 at Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies comes to an end

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All good things come to a great end. The same is true for Mark-It, SSCBS’ 2-day annual flagship event- Excelsior 2016. The marketing cum management fest, which gave away prizes worth Rs. 7 Lacs, saw participation from all major colleges across the DU Circuit. The Chief guests were Ms. Vani Bajaj, Chief Mentor at International College of Financial Planning and DR. Poonam Verma, Principal of SSCBS.

The event, which was held on 1st and 2nd February at the VP Chest Institute, consisted of 3 sub-events including Best Manager, Best Marketer and The Strategists. Following are the winners for each of the competitions:

Best Manager

First Position- Jashan Gupta

Second Position- Ankita Sethi

Special Mention- Sarthak Kalra

Best Marketer

First Position- Shreyaa Kapoor

Second Position- Nishant Grover

Special Mention- Bhavna Guliani and Tavishi Agarwal

The Strategists

First Position- Manas Dimri and Ravneet Singh

Second Position- Aditya Kohli and Viraj Gupta

Special Mention- Ananya Chopra and Ananya Agarwal

The highlights of the event were the barter round and bidding quiz which were equally unique and innovative. One of the regular highlights was the Stress Interview round which saw the 5 finalists of Best Manager being grilled by 3 of the most experienced and wise judges.

Guest post by Mark-it team, SSCBS

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DUB Speak

What Rohith Vemula’s death has taught me about casteism

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“The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of stardust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.”

 

This is what Rohith Vemula, PhD scholar in Hyderabad Central University wrote in his last letter after which he took his own life. His fault was that he was Dalit, a Dalit who dared to stand up for himself. Systematically, culturally, economically and socially oppressed since his birth which he refers to as his ‘fatal accident’

Education has been denied to Dalits from as long as time permits us to remember. India’s recovery from colonialism paralleled Dalits, adivasis and backward castes reclaiming their human dignity and social prestige. Decades later, the Brahmin-Savarna forces still plunder and pillage their dignity outrightly and with pride.

When Smriti Irani says the incident is not a matter of lower caste vs upper caste she remarkably forgets to what extent basic human rights are refused to lower caste people, especially Dalits. If it’s not driving a scholar to suicide then it’s banning Dalit unions, beating a lower caste student for going to school, to the point where Dalits are not even allowed entry in religious places, a grim reminder that we have not taken a step towards progress.

 

Why do we continue to vilify and degrade lower caste people whilst believing without moral apprehension that they do not even deserve reservation? Who is to say that caste has been a historical, now removed concept? It is ahistorical, demeaning and a blatant lie to say that caste does not matter anymore, even in the most liberal areas in the country.

If caste does not matter then why is manual scavenging still practiced along the lengths and breadths of the country, overwhelmingly by Dalits? Does it matter when a former Prime Minister is exposed as accomplice in Dalit massacres? Does it matter when nearly all marriages in the country are within the caste? If caste does not matter, then why are we all aware from a young age, what caste and creed we belong to?

From a skewed, near-sighted urban lens, of course caste matters. It matters when a Dalit student scores a few marks lesser than you, and gets into a good institution. However, no one bats an eyelid when Dalit students die asking for their rights. Very obvious and visible oppression is overlooked, seen disguised as victim complexes, “pseudo-secular” wreckage and what not.

How much has India failed its religious and caste minorities? Inspite of the depressing history of caste oppression, our curriculum barely touches upon caste. We are taught the Varna system in past tense, as if the whole country is not still practicing and perpetuating it by choice. We are taught how Ambedkar made our constitution, and how untouchability was made a criminal offence. When were we taught that Ambedkar called for annihilation of caste, and not uniting castes which organizations like RSS wholeheartedly believe in? The same RSS that Rohith refused to align with.

 

“May be I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.”

 

Rest in power, Rohith.

 

Kartikeya Bhatotia

[email protected]

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Campus Central

Inside the college libraries of Delhi University

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Book Collection

Motilal Nehru College and Lady Shri Ram College have one of the largest book collection in colleges in the University with over 1 lakh books in each library. Hindu College, with one of the oldest college libraries of the University (est. 1899) has over one lakh books as well. [caption id="attachment_38259" align="aligncenter" width="295"]The library of Lady Shri Ram College. | Image Credits: Eeshani Kochhar The library of Lady Shri Ram College. | Image Credits: Eeshani Kochhar[/caption] Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies has a library much smaller in size with about 22 thousand books. SGND Khalsa College houses about 70 thousand A lot of colleges however, complain of academic books that are too old and could use some upgradation. Several colleges lack enough books to cater for certain courses. College of Vocational Studies for example, has only one bookshelf for students pursuing English Honours.

Disabled-friendly

Rajdhani College boasts of ‘a seperate corner’ for disabled students. Shri Ram College of Commerce has a ‘resource centre’ for visually challenged students while a lot of colleges of the University, including Lady Shri Ram College offer audio visual services. [caption id="attachment_38264" align="aligncenter" width="629"]Ak-A0CKofTKyy7garEufBz66pAjGiVBzSEYDJbHXv2_G The SRCC Library | Image Credits: Tanya Agarwal for DU Beat[/caption] Indraprastha College for Women and SGTB Khalsa College have a lift for disabled students to access the books in the library. Miranda House has no such lift despite having two floors of library. Lady Shri Ram College has a Braille printing machine with all library notices being printed in Braille. [gallery columns="2" link="none" ids="38260,38262"] St. Stephen’s College offers online assistance and JAWS (Job Access With Speech) enabled computers for the visually challenged.  

Online Assistance

St. Stephen’s College is a clear winner among Delhi University Colleges in providing online library facilities. Not only does the college have a seperate section of the website dedicated to library services but they also have a WebOPAC interface which anyone can use to browse through the books available in the library. DU Website also has a WebOPAC interface for its central libraries. Unfortunately, nearly all colleges don’t provide this facility. Some college websites fail to provide even the basic information about their libraries, including Moti Lal Nehru College’s website.

Seating Arrangements and entry

A lot of colleges including SGND Khalsa complained of lacking seating space for students. SSCBS Library only manages to seat not more than 30 students at a time. Colleges like Lady Irwin College which have relatively lesser number of students enrolled still have ample of seating space in their reading hall. [caption id="attachment_38266" align="aligncenter" width="504"]The SSCBS Library only manages to seat about 30 people in the reading room. | Image credits: Kartikeya Bhatotia for DU Beat The SSCBS Library only manages to seat about 30 people in the reading room. | Image credits: Kartikeya Bhatotia for DU Beat[/caption] Entry rules are pretty strict across the University college libraries. A lot of libraries require bags to be kept outside and some colleges like Jesus and Mary College refuse the entry of students if they are carrying any book which does not belong to the library. [gallery columns="2" link="none" ids="38265,38268"]   (The report has been compiled on the inputs provided by students from their respective colleges as well as the college websites) Kartikeya Bhatotia [email protected]]]>

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DUB News

Excelsior’16 by Mark-it SSCBS begins today

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They say life is a game and the chances we take are a gamble. No matter what the situation, we play our moves and try to win. Mark-It, the Marketing Society of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies brings to you the fourth edition of their event Excelsior’16- VOUS DÉMARCHE.

Excelsior is an event incepted in 2011 which will expose you to challenges you never faced before. Be ready to catch your first glimpse of the dynamic world that will ransack your brain a little and test your acumen for creativity, skill and the ability to think different.

It offers the following choices of competitions:

BEST MANAGER: This competition consists of rounds that test your presence of mind, power to take decisions, initiative and guts.

BEST MARKETER:  Best Marketer incorporates fun and imagination coupled with stressful and perplexing situations. These vary from advertisements and marketing strategies to product design and development.

THE STRATEGISTS: Scheme, plot, plan and defend and master the art of strategizing. Two minds always work better than one. Pair of two is necessary.

You can join them on any of the following dates and experience trill, fun and an adrenaline rush like never before

18th January 2016 Delhi Technological College (West)

19th January 2016 Gargi College (South)

20th January 2016 SSCBS (East)

21ST January 2016 College of Vocational Studies (South)

22ND January 2016 Hindu College (North)

 

Stay posted at:

Facebook: http://facebook.com/excelsior.markit

Instgaram: sscbs.markit

 

Register at : Bit.ly/Excelsior16

 

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