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Udaan, a performing arts festival organized by the Manchatantra Creations, powered by Manchatantra, the dramatics society of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce that kicked off on February 1 concluded on February 2 with the prize distribution ceremony.

The festival started off with ‘People’- the Street Play competition. The competition saw participation by the street play teams of Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa College, Hindu College, SRCC, Jesus and Mary College, Indraprastha College for Women, ARSD College, LSR College, Shivaji College, CBS, Daulat Ram College, PGDAV College, and Hansraj College. The plays centered around relevant issues such as  the Indian judicial system (performed by Shivaji College’s dramatics society Vayam), the concept and relevance of religion in the contemporary world (brought forth by the annual production ‘Dharma’ by Khalsa), the phenomenon of ‘Whistle-Blowing’ (staged by Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies’ street play society Verve), the inevitable human tendency of constantly wanting something or the other (brought to light by Hansraj through the play titled ‘Laalsa’),the faulty application of the virtues of the Indian constitution based on our own assumptions of it (enacted by the dramatics society of Hindu College) and many more. The competition was won by the Daulat Ram College while SGTB Khalsa College took away the second prize for its play ‘Dharma’.

The street play competition was followed by ‘Soul’ the Choreography competition which too saw participation by a number of teams from campus. The choreo team of Sri Venkateswara College won the competition.

To involve the audience in the fest, along with these two main events, a number of mini events were also held on day 1. The most challenging one of these was ‘Tongue Twister’ in which participants had to take out a chit from a bowl on which was written a tongue twister which they were supposed to repeat 10 times. The winners were given Snap Deal and Worlds of Wonder vouchers.

‘Voice Crack’ was another such event in which two participants competed against each other and the task was to stretch the given word as much as they could. The ‘Cinema Quiz’, again meant for the audience was a big hit as the participants put to test their knowledge of Bollywood.

‘Click’, the photography competition, was held across the first two days of the fest. The theme of the competition was ‘Moments of the fest’. Participants were supposed to submit 5 best clicks of the fest. Nishant Verma won the first prize while Tushar Sareen from Shivaji College took away the second prize.

Day 2 saw some enigmatic performances during ‘Razzmatazz’-the Western Dance competition which was followed by ‘Street Fight’- the street dance competition. The western dance team of SGGSCC won the Razzmatazz while the girls of Maitreyi College, dressed in sparkling blue outfits won the hearts of the audience by putting up a scintillating performance on numbers like ‘Naadan Parinde’ and also took away the second prize.

Street Fight was won by Bhartiya Vidyapeeth while SBIT stood second in the same.

Manchatantra Creations is the brainchild of Aniket Jaiswal, an alumna of the dramatics society of Hansraj College. After passing out of the college he worked extensively with the dramatics society of Gargi College and for the past three years he has been working with Manchatantra, the dramatics society of SGGSCC. He has given theatre workshops to children in the Nizzamuddin basti and made a theatre production for them on Sanitation. Talking about the festival he said, “Organizing this event was like a dream. We’ve been practicing here in Dilli Haat for three years and holding ‘Udaan’ here has made the festival more special.” The festival concluded successfully on February 3. “Ab toh iss TV Tower ki aadat ho gai hai”, he joked.

Shweta Arora
[email protected]

Mannat Sandhu
[email protected] 

The main events taking place on Feb 2 are War of the Bands (for the frenzied music lovers), Choreography (for the majestic dancers), Street Play (for the talented dramsoc squads),Last Man Standing (a competition inviting participation of those who ‘have guts to survive hell’), Ad Mad, Iskon rock band (for the head bangers) and, to top it all off, the fun-filled DJ night. To keep the crowds adrenaline levels high, the second day (Feb 3) is scheduled to have the Western dance competition and a performance by distinguished singer Javed Ali and Padamjeet Sehrawat.  Another performance to add to this days delight will be a classical one by Bharti Bandhu  (it happens to be a group of coveted artists such as Vipul Roy, Shree Dutt Jee Maharaj, Sameer Ahmed and Medha Sharma). The third and final day (Feb 4) is definitely going to attract a crowd from all over Delhi University because it is the official ‘RDB night’. With Hindu expecting a crowd of thousands, the RDB performance is expected to be a show stopper. Also, the crowning of Mr. and Mrs. Mecca happens on the same day, accompanied by a fashion show. There will be a Red FM RJ interaction to supplement this exciting list of events too. With promised cash prizes of up to one lakh (for the winner of Last Man Standing) and ten lakhs worth of prizes, Mecca is sure to attract participation of mind boggling and a list cracking number of students from various colleges and universities. In all, it’s planned to stand true to its name by providing ‘a Harmonical fusion of music, fun & frolic’. Mannat Sandhu [email protected]]]>

Mecca, the Hindu college fest commences tomorrow and promises to be bigger and better than all the previous ones Hindu has played host to. With sponsors like Airtel, DU blog, Cocoberry, LTC Travels, Nikon, Ping My Mobile, Red FM 93.5, Buzz in Town, Reebok, Snapdeal and Lotus Infra; Hindu is all set to showcase a three day extravaganza.

The main events taking place on Feb 2 are War of the Bands (for the frenzied music lovers), Choreography (for the majestic dancers), Street Play (for the talented dramsoc squads),Last Man Standing (a competition inviting participation of those who ‘have guts to survive hell’), Ad Mad, Iskon rock band (for the head bangers) and, to top it all off, the fun-filled DJ night.

To keep the crowds adrenaline levels high, the second day (Feb 3) is scheduled to have the Western dance competition and a performance by distinguished singer Javed Ali and Padamjeet Sehrawat.  Another performance to add to this days delight will be a classical one by Bharti Bandhu  (it happens to be a group of coveted artists such as Vipul Roy, Shree Dutt Jee Maharaj, Sameer Ahmed and Medha Sharma).

The third and final day (Feb 4) is definitely going to attract a crowd from all over Delhi University because it is the official ‘RDB night’. With Hindu expecting a crowd of thousands, the RDB performance is expected to be a show stopper. Also, the crowning of Mr. and Mrs. Mecca happens on the same day, accompanied by a fashion show. There will be a Red FM RJ interaction to supplement this exciting list of events too.

With promised cash prizes of up to one lakh (for the winner of Last Man Standing) and ten lakhs worth of prizes, Mecca is sure to attract participation of mind boggling and a list cracking number of students from various colleges and universities. In all, it’s planned to stand true to its name by providing ‘a Harmonical fusion of music, fun & frolic’.

Mannat Sandhu
[email protected]

DAY 1 (16th January, 2011)

The Dramatics Society of Shri Ram College of Commerce with their sweatshirts reading ‘100 percent cut off, 200 percent dramebazi’, began the first day of their annual fest ‘Histronica’ by singing their official ‘Oha!’ song. Though the event got delayed as a consequence of campus placements going on in the college, as well as the Indo-US meet, the fervour and energy was soon on display as they filled the air with calls of ‘aao aao..natak dekho…srcc ka..natak dekho’ in tandem with their dafli beats.

The main event of the day , ‘The Street Play Festival’ began soon after. With a stupendous footfall of hundreds of people, the street play festival was filled with scintillating performances by CBS,Hindu,IP (for women), Hansraj, SRCC, DRC, Khalsa and GGS. The street plays through their songs, squeals, screams, calls and subtle satire, spoke of a wide array of themes such as whistle blowing, child abuse, right to education to name a few. The event was judged by Ms.Tejaswini (LSR passout currently practising street theatre in Law Faculty) ,Soumyajeet (Indian representative for Lok Theatre Group) and Mr.Shirish (works with National School of Drama).

Plays titled ‘Tu maar de seeti’ (cbs), ‘zaruarurat kyat hi ‘(hindu),’albert pinto ko gussa kyun aata hai’ (ip for women), ‘dharm’(khalsa), ‘laalsa’(hansraj), ’prathmik’(srcc), ’ugte suraj ka sapna’(ggs), ’mehfooz’(drc) kept the crowd gripped and staring on in awe at the sheer brilliance of it all.

Students devoured on food at the various stalls which included Kolkata Biryani House, Dominos, Brown Sugar and Kwality Walls. After the street play exhibition, the side events commenced. The main filler events were –Shutter (photography event), Twister (game) and Poem Writing. With a staggering participation of 100 students in shutters, 150 students in twister and 35 students in poem writing, the competition was palpable at the fest.

Later as the evening progressed, it started to rain. The judges sat with the teams for comments and suggestions till 9 pm and in their 3 hours dialogue they expressed how they loved the creativity exhibited in the performances. In a well decorated college with ‘angeethis’ to warm the students in the evening, an intellectually stimulating talk with the judges was the perfect way to call it a day.
Navika Chaudhary, member of the SRCC dramsoc, went on to say, “drama is more than just a passion, it’s a way of life, and the dedication and commitment with which the teams performed today proved exactly that.”

With the sounds of “o baake chunar…munariya hoye…o baake ammi boli hoye…o beta…jeet ke aana..’ still in their hearts, everyone went home a winner.

DAY 2 (17th January, 2011)

The second day of the SRCC dramsoc fest ‘Histronica’ was as thrilling and eventful as the first. With more people coming in, despite the chilly winds and extremely cold weather; it was the day for stage plays. The entrance to the college was elaborately decorated with painted matkas and masquerade masks.

The list of people judging these plays is worth a separate mention. The first being Geeta Sudan who herself happens to be an SRCC alumnus and is presently a director at Paradine. She has also acted in accomplished films such as ‘No One Killed Jessica’ and ‘Udaan’. The second being Deepak Dhamija who is currently an entrepreneur, as well as the founder of Shoelace Production. He has also directed 10 plays. The third being Amrita Laalji, who teaches theatre at Shri Ram School and National Open School. She also happens to teach a practical course in ‘drama in exploration’ in Delhi University.

After a warm welcome to the judges, the four plays commenced in the auditorium. The acting was par brilliance and so were the themes and scripts. The sets only added to the sheer brilliance of it all. SRCC performed ‘The Untitled,kyunki kuch cheezon ka zikr nahi kiya jaa sakta’ centred around the electra complex. The second was a brilliant adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel ‘A Mousetrap’ and was titled ‘The Three Blind Mice’. The third play titled ‘Mr.Kolpert’ was a dark comedy and was presented by Ramjas. The last play was based on schizophrenia, was titled ‘Uss Paar’ and was acted out by the team of Hindu College.

Once the plays ended, the judges as well as the audience lauded the efforts of the teams and the judges went on thave a discussion with them. In the dialogue that followed they said that the script of ‘The Untitled’ was commendable because the concept of electra complex is difficult to portray, therefore writing a script on it was a brave move. Also Hindu and Ramjas were appreciated for their remarkable acting. And the adaptation of script of the ‘Three Blind Mice’ was exalted as well.

This was followed by a musical rendition by Harpreet Singh as well as a magictricks performance by Karan Singh. The filler event which happened later was ‘Ad Mad’ and it was won by Akshay and Mariam from Hindu College. They won Rs.1000 and special mugs sponsored by Worlds of Wonder.

It was yet another brilliant day hosted by SRCC’s dramsoc. And in Ayusha Kaul’s (who is a part of SRCC dramsoc) words ,”drama is life,you must live it well,enough said.” This was definitely another ‘well lived’ day.

Mannat Sandhu
[email protected] 

After the big shots McKinsey and Bain, came the much awaited Deutsche Bank in the placement scene. It has always been pristine in every sense, as far as the job and pay package goes. Contrary to the jaw dropping odds which come to the front whenever Deutsche Bank comes for campus placements (of only one or two odd applicants being selected from a huge pool of hundreds and he/she being offered a whooping figure of 49 lakhs p.a.) this year they adopted a different strategy by employing more number of people and offering a lower package than what they usually offer.

Deutsche Bank visited SRCC campus on January 2, 2012 and invited candidates from SRCC, St. Stephens and LSR. The speaker of the day was Mr. Amit Bordia. The profile they offered was that of an analyst in the investment banking sector (domestic placement). Fortunately, there was no cut-off stated by the company to decide the eligible applicants. The package was an astounding figure of 10.5 lakhs + 3 lakhs + bonus (yearly). This pay package ranks as the highest so far in the brigade of dream companies with others like Bain offering 8.3 lakhs p.a and McKinsey giving 7.5-9.3 lakhs p.a.

50 students from SRCC were shortlisted for the final round of interviews which took place on January 7, 2012 at the Imperial hotel, Janpath. Out of these 50, 6 applicants (all from SRCC) got through and were offered placement in the Mumbai centre of Deutsche bank. The remarkable league which got through is – Mehak Nanner, Vijendar Aggarwal, Jennifer Sung, Chinmay Golecha, Tanvi Agarwal and Mayur More. With its 100% cut off, and 99% Economics Honours first semester toppers, SRCC surely continues to set newer and higher benchmarks. The dynamic students, who got through, help reiterate the same.

Mannat Sandhu
[email protected] 

Udit Bhatia (President, Students’ Academic Council) communicated to the students saying that this was their speaking space, because according to him, “we always talk about each other, but hardly ever talk to each other”. At first the students were hesitant to begin. Probably they were contemplating the limits to what all they could discuss here, unaware of the fact that this was one place where anything could be discussed, and it is exactly this potency of ‘no limitations at all’ that granted this discussion a power like no other. The issues which were raised in the discussion were extremely thought provoking. Listing them one by one, the first was regarding the method of induction of students into various college societies. What many people wished to convey was that everyone desirous to join a society needs to be included in it. Once they are a part of the society they need to be rigorously trained by their seniors and final induction should be done depending on whoever has progressed most from the training. However this was soon followed by a dissenting rebuttal which opinion-ed that the widespread training programme was not possible and went on to further uphold the ongoing system. The second issue was regarding the criteria for allocation of hostel residence to students. A couple of students felt that the criteria was unfair and too tough on most of them. But it was accompanied by conflicting opinions as well. The issue which caught everyone’s attention and was unanimously applauded, expressed disapproval of the separate lists which come out during college selections. The names of those who are selected through the general category and the names of those who qualify through the reserved category are stated separately. According to them, this defeats the whole purpose of reservation, which is to instil a sense of oneness among the students, while what separate lists actually do, is create a divide in the minds of students, even before they enter college. A divide which makes them aware of ‘whose entered how’ and a divide which takes expression in the form of the occasional remarks in class, for example, ‘mainey tera naam dekha tha list main,tu toh reserved category se aaya hai’ (I saw your name on a separate list, and I’m well aware of the fact that you come from the reserved category). The discussion later on revolved around extraordinary, with a compelling voice talking about the need for Stephanians to stop pretending to be the ‘elitist of them all’ and accepting the fact that most of the time people from other institutions do land up being better than them. And that they shouldn’t restrict their learning by pretending to know it all. Surprisingly this was the one voice which was followed by consentient approval and the classic ‘amen to that’. The subsequent issue was even more stirring. This voice wished to convey that no one is ever completely apolitical. One only pretends to be apolitical in the veil of apathy. And this epidemic can only be sniffed out of the general sensibility by an initiative taken by the students union to create a ‘thinking and speaking’ space for everyone, so that the voices of those who are more vigilant can help change the mindsets of the so-called apolitical category of people. After some heated discourse, the axis of the whole dialogue shifted towards the way the decisions are taken in the college, with a complaint against the name of the college fest being changed from ‘Harmony’ to ‘Winter Fest’ without there being any voting for the same. The seventh issue focussed on gathering support for putting forward a plea to the college management to allow entry to the Andrews Court. The whole discussion was interspersed with lighter talks as well, with a foreign student sharing his experiences in Stephens. There was even a ‘kebab and chicken’ discussion The whole concept of ‘People Tree’ should be propagated in as many colleges as possible and one can only hope it proves as flawless as the inspiration behind it. Mannat Sandhu [email protected]]]>

‘THE PEOPLE TREE, we have no branch’. These were the words written on the piece of paper put up on the dhaba tree right opposite to the Stephens cafeteria on Friday at 1pm. Amidst the clamour of the teachers staff protesting against the principal, the security being tightened as a consequence of the governing body meeting being held on campus and the gentle winds around the cafeteria carrying the aroma of coffee, a group of students from St. Stephens gathered to have what they described as ‘a larger private discussion’. A group of about 40 people assembled under the Dhaba Tree, took turns to stand up on the stone mounting around the tree to give voice to their opinions on a wide array of issues.

Udit Bhatia (President, Students’ Academic Council) communicated to the students saying that this was their speaking space, because according to him, “we always talk about each other, but hardly ever talk to each other”. At first the students were hesitant to begin. Probably they were contemplating the limits to what all they could discuss here, unaware of the fact that this was one place where anything could be discussed, and it is exactly this potency of ‘no limitations at all’ that granted this discussion a power like no other.

The issues which were raised in the discussion were extremely thought provoking. Listing them one by one, the first was regarding the method of induction of students into various college societies. What many people wished to convey was that everyone desirous to join a society needs to be included in it. Once they are a part of the society they need to be rigorously trained by their seniors and final induction should be done depending on whoever has progressed most from the training. However this was soon followed by a dissenting rebuttal which opinion-ed that the widespread training programme was not possible and went on to further uphold the ongoing system.

The second issue was regarding the criteria for allocation of hostel residence to students. A couple of students felt that the criteria was unfair and too tough on most of them. But it was accompanied by conflicting opinions as well.

The issue which caught everyone’s attention and was unanimously applauded, expressed disapproval of the separate lists which come out during college selections. The names of those who are selected through the general category and the names of those who qualify through the reserved category are stated separately. According to them, this defeats the whole purpose of reservation, which is to instil a sense of oneness among the students, while what separate lists actually do, is create a divide in the minds of students, even before they enter college. A divide which makes them aware of ‘whose entered how’ and a divide which takes expression in the form of the occasional remarks in class, for example, ‘mainey tera naam dekha tha list main,tu toh reserved category se aaya hai’ (I saw your name on a separate list, and I’m well aware of the fact that you come from the reserved category).

The discussion later on revolved around extraordinary, with a compelling voice talking about the need for Stephanians to stop pretending to be the ‘elitist of them all’ and accepting the fact that most of the time people from other institutions do land up being better than them. And that they shouldn’t restrict their learning by pretending to know it all. Surprisingly this was the one voice which was followed by consentient approval and the classic ‘amen to that’.

The subsequent issue was even more stirring. This voice wished to convey that no one is ever completely apolitical. One only pretends to be apolitical in the veil of apathy. And this epidemic can only be sniffed out of the general sensibility by an initiative taken by the students union to create a ‘thinking and speaking’ space for everyone, so that the voices of those who are more vigilant can help change the mindsets of the so-called apolitical category of people.

After some heated discourse, the axis of the whole dialogue shifted towards the way the decisions are taken in the college, with a complaint against the name of the college fest being changed from ‘Harmony’ to ‘Winter Fest’ without there being any voting for the same. The seventh issue focussed on gathering support for putting forward a plea to the college management to allow entry to the Andrews Court. The whole discussion was interspersed with lighter talks as well, with a foreign student sharing his experiences in Stephens. There was even a ‘kebab and chicken’ discussion

The whole concept of ‘People Tree’ should be propagated in as many colleges as possible and one can only hope it proves as flawless as the inspiration behind it.

Mannat Sandhu
[email protected]