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Siddhi Goel

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My problem with NaMo’s speech in Hindi on ‘Guru Utsav’

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As we all know, September 5th is celebrated as Teacher’s Day (now also refered to as the Guru Utsav) in India, which marks the birth anniversary of the second president of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.

There are two things I shall be primarily discussing in this article. First, the notion of soft power, and second, the imposition of the state’s ideology over the public mind.

While development and related topics might be the propaganda tool of leaders today, power does not merely operate at the level of hard, tangible power. It also brings along with itself a set of discourse that plays a significant role in shaping the mindset of the civil society at large. Power structures are not restricted to legislation and administration, but are also key shapers of the ideologies of the people subjected to the rule.

Through his speeches (and I would say ‘only’ speeches and not work, because 100 days is too less a time to assess) Modi has managed to make the population visualize an Indian utopia where the youth is not unemployed, where India doesn’t beg for loans from the World Bank, where our cities are world class and a thousand and one other such things. Interestingly, this India is devoid of any class/religious/gender conflicts, and the center of the mission remains the highly glamorized word ‘development’.

The question is, ‘Who’s development?’ Of the richest creamy layer of the society or probably the one’s in power? Whether its Manmohan Singh or Modi, the rikshaw wala will still take Rs.20 to take you from Visvavidyala metro station to Arts faculty. How is he developing? The unequal distribution of resources is so deeply entrenched in us that we’ve almost started taking it for granted. Modi has not risen above the religious/class conflicts, he has chosen to ignore them, in order to satisfy the capitalist model.

It is his soft power that derives it strength from his overwhelming hard power. The right wing politics has assumed new strengths in his rule and are permeating the civil society through modes like the speeches. While the idea of speech is not my problem, it is the fact that it’s in Hindi and that it’s being called Guru Utsav is what I have a problem with.

Going ahead with the belief that India was and continues to be a land of  ‘hindus’ and everyone else is hence an ‘outsider’ and apparently needs to be subsumed within the dominant Hindu discourse is a big problem. BJP was founded on the idea that India is a Hindu nation, Hindi is our national language, and the Hindu aspects of history constitute as national heritage while our aspect of Indian history is just history of the invaders is highly erroneous.

It is only an extension of this ideology that everything pristine has to accommodate itself in the larger Sanskrit linguistic (hence, Guru Utsav) and the way to create an imagined sense of togetherness among people is to unite them with the language of the dominant class- Hindi.

Though officially we maintain that English and Hindi are our official languages and we have no national languages, Hindi continues to operate at the level of the soft power, and conversations in English invite the criticism of rightists who believe we’re belittling our own culture.

I understand that English also at one level has been the language of the colonizer, but at the level of communicating to a nation which speaks multiple languages; English becomes a comparatively less biased language. The over emphasis towards learning Hindi, points towards our obsession with formation of a national culture that is largely secluding in nature and seeks to establish the rule of the dominant class and therefore needs to be subjected to critical analysis.

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DU Dhaba

Food review: Indus Flavour

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Amidst the variety of cuisines Hudson Lane has to offer to students and by-passers, a new restaurant, Indus Flavour has opened that is offering dishes along the lines of authentic North Indian Cuisine, also introducing some new recipes that belong to the Indus Valley region i.e. dishes from North West Frontier, Punjab and Rajasthan, and also Far East Cuisines.

The Restaurant has two menus, one is Indian and the other is Chinese. While the Chinese Menu offers the regular food items and also Special Student Combos, the Indian Menu introduces a variety of dishes such as Peshawri Paneer Tikka Masala and Dahi Ke Sholay.

Kebab Platter

The food is tasty and experimental, thereby offering a getaway for foodies looking to explore new food joints. The restaurant is a quiet, peaceful place with minimal noise even though it’s located in the heart of Hudson lane. The large red cushion sofas instantly make you comfortable and relaxed.

An all day dining restaurant,  they were the first restaurant in North Delhi to introduce Ipad menus, with Loyalty Programme, wherein the guests add points and can redeem these points on their subsequent visits.

They are the highest rated Vegetarian Restaurant in the whole of Delhi/NCR on Zomato.

Cheese with Gravy or Paneer

The restaurant offers a good variety of kebabs and starters; however the main course is tasty with a lot of variety. Apart from Mint Chutney, they also serve Mango Chutney and Apply Chutney, which are delicious!

They also have a wide array of Mocktails such as Rose Cranberry Martini and Mango Margarita .

Last but not the least, for Students, they have BOGO Offer between 1 to 7 PM, and on Wednesdays,  you get flat 25 % off on your bill if you win the toss! On Thursays, for only girls’ table, you get a starter or main course dish, complimentary from the restaurant!

Not to Miss: Honey Chilly Potato, Dahi ke Sholay, Rose Cranberry Martini, Dal Makhni, Paneer Gravies.

Where: Hudson Lane, Opposite to Old Laxmi Dairy.

Nearest Metro station: G.T.B. Nagar on the yellow line (Exit from Gate No. 4)

Meal for two: Rs 500(plus Taxes)

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DUB Speak

For Germany did not rape Brazil nor was this worse than the holocaust

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Since the time we recognized non consensual sex as a crime, rape has been seen a class apart from any other kind of crime. Deep rooted in classist, racist, sexist perceptions, the society sees rape as the only crime that takes away a person’s “honor”.

Honor. Another controversial term. What is honor? My breasts? My genitalia? For you see, THAT is the extent of trivialization of a term that could be (should be) associated with far more productive things, such as intellectual property or artistic creations or human happiness. But no, of all the things that honor could have been associated with, we chose to associate it with gender, religion, caste, nationality and many such arbitrarily defined concepts that have till now done little to encourage liberal thinking and a questioning attitude. From raping the women of a particular community to shame the community, to consolidating in female figures the burden of protecting “traditional values” by valorizing roles of the mother and the wife and imposing a moral code of conduct upon them seldom applied on men in the same degree; we’ve come a long way in perpetuating and further aggravating misogynist attitudes.

Simply put, rape is the sexual violation of a person/animal without their consent. Any other connotation surrounding this term originates only from stereotypical communal(in the sense of community, not religion) attitudes that seek to “dishonor” some one/thing by making a situation analogous to a rape.

Dishonoring women has been a favorite job of the past, present, and unfortunately by the looks of it, also the future. Assuming women as the inferior sex and extending that logic forward, any kind of domination or victory over another automatically becomes analogous to rape; the sexual domination over a socially weaker being, resulting in a crushing, humiliating defeat. What we’re doing with this analogy is extremely disturbing. We’re describing rape as a category of crime that puts the onus of preservation of “honor” not on the perpetrator, but the victim. It becomes prey to the capitalist construction of competition where there is literally a fight TO WIN. Rape then becomes not a crime per say, but a win/lose situation that culminates with onse side gaining complete mastery over another by virtue of its strength. Unlike murder or theft, which are comparatively less socially misconstrued, rape with all its deep set misogynist ideals, becomes an ideal and befitting example to draw analogies of win/lose, humiliation-subordination and communal victory.

Comments on the rape of Brazil by Germany are just another small drop in the huge wave of misogyny that seems to be spilling all over. It is descriptive of the spectacle like nature of rape, in the sense that it is a social event put up for jeering and leering by the society (against the victim). The weakness of the victim, combined with discriminating perceptions highlight more of the victim than the perpetrator that leads to sensitive event being reduced to a public ridicule. Let us not trivialize life altering events such as rape into a mass spectacle that seek to ridicule the defeated at a public platform and keep the spirit of sport intact. It is high time we try to remove connotations of sexism away from judgments we make in public events

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DUB Speak

I’m a final year student and I’m slow, a good slow

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The much dreaded moment is finally here. It’s the third year. Since the beginning of my college life I have always been afraid of the third year. It is the last year, just like Class 12th was the last grade. I’ll speak for myself and won’t generalize, that I’m always afraid of thresholds, the point of the horizon beyond which your sight can’t travel.

Like a medieval age person, I have begun to think that where the sea ends, is a deep waterfall that engulfs you and you fall if you sail further. But I’d like to be the renaissance woman and believe that the horizon is but another milestone in a never ending journey we like to romantically call ‘life’.

So, a quick overview of the things this article will not tell you to do –

  •    How to prepare for GRE/TOEFL/IELTS/GMAT/SAT.
  • Publish a research paper.
  •  How to obtain good letters of recommendation.
  • How to write a good statement of purpose.
  • How to be more “focused” towards academics and placements.

I’m not saying that the above mentioned things are not important for a student, but they are not important in the context of my writing, simply put. People, newspapers, V channels and counselors will tell you to buck up, be more focused towards your future and start planning. No harm. Nothing wrong. Wait, did I say nothing wrong?

I recently watched a TED talk (the midnight before I was supposed to submit the article) and had I not seen that talk, the article would have pretty much been about the list mentioned above. It was by this person Carl (I’m aversive to caste, I can’t remember last names. Strangely enough, even of foreigners) who’d written a book about the need to detach from the blind rush of life and slow down. Be slow, be a good slow. Savor life.

We’re always conditioned to create a timeline for our lives. Graduate by 21, job by 23, settled by 25, married by 28, kids by 30. Even if there is no direct pressure, most of us pretty much go that way, for the sheer convenience and logic we see in how our life has been laid out in front of us. We’re so consumed by the idea of finishing things “in time” that we have unconsciously created a timeline for ourselves already, to ‘finish off’ and ‘settle down‘ in ‘good time’.

Time then becomes a finite resource which is depleting by the second and we need to tap it. Not knowing that time also replenishes itself, time also stops in the breathlessness of a sunset, in the vastness of the sky, in the swinging of a boat in water and in the rediscovering of a life not bound by time, yet beautifully strung around it.

Therefore a personal suggestion from this writer would be, to fall in love. No, not like Kajol and SRK did in DDLJ after finishing college (although if you want, go ahead by all means. I’m not judging), but with yourself, with your subject, with your environment.

Read more books, travel a little, write a little into catharsis, take a deep breath, and relax. There is no hurry.

Exist in a timeless space that allows you to discover your subject in an entirely new light, and you’ll suddenly find yourself automatically studying without your mother’s slippers on your head. You’ll automatically find yourself writing better assignments, being more productive, having better attention levels and initiating conversations with teachers outside classrooms, and trust me those are priceless.

But, even if all this doesn’t happen, it’s okay. It will sooner or later. We’re humans, we take time.  But of all the things we could ever learn from life, we learn that time and tide wait for none. So don’t let this one year fly by ordinarily, feel every moment instead, savor the taste of it all. Do new things, meet new people, for as I said, horizon is but another milestone in a never ending journey we like to romantically call life.

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DUB Speak

Why rankings don’t matter but quality education does: A closer look at DU’s 81st spot

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Quacquarelli Symonds Rankings or better known as simply QS Rankings released Asian Universities Ranking List on May 13, 2014. While the sciences fared better by getting impressive spots (IIT Delhi-38th , IIT Bombay- 41st), the traditional universities such as University of Delhi, Benares Hindu University, University of Calcutta scored satisfactorily.

While rankings in general seldom matter in the overall assessment of an institution, the quality of education offered by an institute is surely a matter of concern. Once, a renowned magazine published a list of colleges in India that are at at the top for a particular course and later it was found that the college on #1 did not even offer that course! While this is not to cause ill repute to  the nature of rankings and deter anyone from looking at rankings for making their personal decisions, but shift the focus from the numerical value of a rank to the qualitative assessment of an institution on the basis of certain parameters that WE deem important for OUR personal growth, not dictated by the parameters preferential to the authorities distributing ranks.

Moving on, the University of Delhi has been controversy’s favorite child for quite a while. Whether it be the FYUP or the autocratic non-democratic functioning of the Padma Shri VC, it has numerous issues that need to be dealt with. Here is my list of the changes that I would like to see in DU being implemented, which I believe can raise the quality of education, and maybe subsequently the unimportant rankings too-

1)  Inclusion of a Statement of Purpose in the admissions process

Much has been said about how the Board Examination marks are not indicative of a person’s potential, except that of his potential to rote learn and present it on paper. In addition to this, what is important is that even if a student is not passionate about his subjects, he can still score decently in the Boards because of the way in which our evaluation system is structured; we don’t assess the student’s grasp over the concept, but how the concept has been put on paper.

Almost all international universities have the concept of writing a statement of purpose wherein the student is required to explain why he wants to do a particular course. This is not only reflective of the student’s passion for the subject but also helps the examiner gauge how much has the student engaged with the subject, how much has he mulled over the concepts and theories and most importantly, is he actively thinking about the subject? The amount of engagement a person has had with his subject prior to admission is also important as it is a significant marker of the future projects you’ll undertake once admitted to the University and even beyond that.

This becomes crucial in the context of improving the University’s admission of students, the research wing of the University and the larger intellectual ethos.

2) Valuing quality education over mere employability

One of the key arguments put forth by the VC in favor of FYUP was that it will increase the employability of students. While there is nothing wrong with concerns over the employment generation for the larger demographic dividend of the country, the problem arises when you begin to mould the intellect of the students in order to satisfy the larger market ideologies that are seldom governed by thirst for knowledge but rather by a production oriented approach that seeks to garner more money and eye balls through the medium of their undertaken projects. Think tanks are few in India, and for them a drive towards knowledge supersedes any other drive that the university is trying to impose upon us.

It is slowly creating a structure for students that designs them to submit to market oriented strategies rather than giving free way to the cultivation if the imagination of students. Moves such as FYUP are constant reminders of the regressive mentality of “padh likh ke afsar bano” that plagues the Indian mind. Rather, the end of education should be a refinement of one’s own intellect and personality that gives us the potential to negotiate with the world, carve our won way and create our own employments sans the “help” of FYUP.

3) The structure of the course and subsequent evaluation

Our course structure is designed in a way that even if a student has not studied the entire semester, and opens the book 2 days prior to exams, he can still score well, the reason being that the marking scheme is a set of extremely loose ended parameters that seldom negatively reinforce bad arguments and end up distributing marks. The previous Semester, I started studying 2 weeks before the exams and scored the fifth highest in college, not too bad, eh?

I’m not taking any moral stance on how many hours a student needs to put in for study, but what I’m stressing on is that a paper doesn’t evaluate how much has the student engaged with the subject. It involves a routine set of questions with a routine set of answers that can help you score decently well.

Processes such as writing term papers helps the examiner assess how much has the student gone beyond the text and made attempts to come up with his own theories and rhetoric, something absolutely essential in the process of education. There are also provisions for designing your own course in many masters level courses where you can decide what all you want to study, and except for a few compulsory credits you can custom make your course as it helps in writing your thesis in future.

4) Inclusion of radical political philosophies with the dominant ones

This might appear a little out of place but allow me to put it into context. In the 1970’s during the 2nd wave feminist movement in India, the University was an important breeding ground for several front runners of the movement. Also, the University has been the place where radical political philosophies of Communism have taken shape and been accommodated into the larger political scenario.

But now there is an indirect polarization of political philosophies, and binaries are too quick to be created in terms of political affiliations. Also, the amount of freedom students enjoyed earlier to protest against issues has diminished, because of the advent of the autocratic administration of the university.

It is important to locate the socio-political importance of an environment that actively accommodates dissenters. A lot of students who were active in student politics in Delhi University went on to become some of the most important public commentators, social rights activists, intellectuals, and so on. Accommodation of dissent should not looked upon as a threat to establishment but as a way to create citizens who’re more aware of their identity and existence and who dare to carve their own niche in the world that is constantly seeking to kill individuality.

As a secondary thing, it is also a matter of great repute for a University in retrospect to produce people like these, who contribute to making the world a better place and bring the margins to the mainstream.

 

In conclusion, Delhi University till now has produced almost all of the present academia and intelligentsia of India by virtue of its professors and curriculum designed to make a student bloom to his fullest potential. What is important is to incorporate more divergent ideas and lay emphasis on the quality of education than being driven by dominant mainstream approaches.

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DU Dhaba

Knight Bites: Midnight delivery service in Delhi

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Launched in November 2013, “Knight Bites” is a midnight delivery service that works in the wee hours of the night, providing food, beverages and other essential items (cigarettes, chocolates, condoms and so on).

Operating from 10 pm to 4 am, this delivery service boasts of an extensive coverage of Delhi gained within a short period, with its main dealings happening in North, West and South Delhi. They have two offices in Delhi, one in Janakpuri and the other in VasantKunj. Next on their radar is expanding further into the university area in North Campus, as most students on campus survive on “poorly cooked Maggie”and need more variety and nutrition in their meals, says Manvir Singh Anand, one of the Co-founders.

Manvir further tells us the reason behind starting Knight Bites. He recalls a personal experience when he and his friends were threatened by some guys in an inebriated condition who stopped them while driving back and intimidated them with weapons on an early morning visit to a popular twenty four seven operational retail store. It made him realise how unsafe Delhi could be at odd hours of the day. Not just for young girls and women, but also for the society at large. Today, a large chunk of his orders are from working women and college girls, many of whom thank the company for starting something like this, so that now they don’t have to venture out alone at night, in search of food or medicines.

AyushNarang, Abhishek Bharara nd Manvir Singh Anand, the three Co-founders of Knight Bites, all three were working professionals from diverse backgrounds such as Risk Management Consulting, Business Development and Brand Management with a combined work experience of 14 years before this venture.

The best selling food items on their menu are Butter Chicken, Chicken Salami, Chicken Tikka sandwiches, Oreo and Kit Kat shakes and the Indian main course. Apart from these, they serve varieties of pastas, rolls and burgers too.

 

Website- www.knightbites.in

Contact No- +91-8750495049

Meal for two- INR 400

Working hours- 10 pm to 4 am

 

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Hans Raj College

Lit Amantes 2014: Hansraj College hosts its English department fest

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On March 10, 2014, the English department of Hansraj College hosted its annual fest that saw a coming together of informative lectures, seminars, theatre, and a pinch of literary games to add to the fun.

The first session of the day was a session by internationally acclaimed film maker Pankaj Butalia titled: Reading Cinema- The importance of beginnings. The talk discussed the turmoil of the film maker as he/she deals with his/her own set of confusions as to how to project the desired emotion on screen. He also discussed the importance of the beginning scenes and the precedence it sets and how we can read them through processing a range of visual representations and metaphors.

The “Book n bake” sale attracted a large audience and was received well. Prior to the fest, students and teachers were asked to donate books for the sale and an impressive collection was accumulated at the end of it. The books were available at cheap rates were quickly sold out. The sale of cupcakes and other confectioneries right next to the book sale added a sweet tooth to the book shopping.

The second lecture was by Sambudha Sen titled- Domesticity and the making of the female subject: From Dutch interior paintings to Jane Austen. He discussed important painters like Peter de Hooch and Vermeer who were painting in the 1th and 17th centuries that how and from when does the domestic as a sphere for women emerge as an entity. He later discussed at length about Fanny, the protagonist of “Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen in comparison to other texts that dealt with issues of sexual liberation, autonomy and domesticity.

Activities such as general quiz, literary dumb charades, and character dramatization were a fun ride and attracted quite an audience. The concluding event of the day was a stage play called “Room for doubt” by “The Players”, the dramatic society of Kirori Mal College.

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Arts & Culture

Pt Birju Maharaj Parampara hosts a celebration of Kathak-Nrityadhara

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On the 1st of March, 2014, Pt Birju Maharaj Parampara organized an evening of Kathak titled Nritydhara, with choicest of productions of Pt Jai Kishen Maharaj ji being performed.

The event took place at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre and saw an amalgamation of an august gathering, with the presence of acclaimed artists such as Padma Bhushan Rajan- Sajan Mishra ji, Deepak Maharaj ji.

The first performance was Pt Jai Kishen Maharaj Ji’s most recent production titled “Chidiya ki Udaan”, the words to which were lend by acclaimed poet Ashok Chakradhar. The piece describes the journey of a bird from infancy to adulthood, as she faces the difficulties of life. The music is light and melodious, but at the same time does not compromise on the technical aspect of dance. Replete with the sounds of fluttering of feathers and chirping of birds, it shows the complete dominance of doyen Pt Jai Kishen maharaj ji, as far as creative choreography in contemporary times is concerned.

The second item was called “Thumri Maalika” and it was a compilation of old thumris of the lucknow gharana, composed by Pt Bindadin maharaj ji, one of the founders of the ancient Kalka-Bindadin Lucknow Gharana of Kathak.

289 kathak HS 010314

Followed suit was a solo performance by Tribhuwan Maharaj, son of Pt Jai Kishen Maharaj and grandson of Pt Birju Maharaj ji. Accompanying him on padhant were his father himself and the what the audience witnessed was an electrifying combination of padhant and dancing. Tribhuwan was in his full form and performed a carefully selected series of pieces that left the audience wanting for more.

The final performance was titled “swarangtaal”, depicting the union of swar and taal to subsequently form music. The beginning showed 6 girls as swar, dancing to abstract music, followed by 4 boys dancing to the pure beats sans melody. An interaction between a girl and boy brings swar and taal together and in the finale everyone comes together to dance to the music, complete with swar and taal.

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DUB Speak

Of dust, discounts and Delhi- Daryaganj Sunday Book market

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Known to have begun around 1964, the weekly book market at Old Delhi’s Daryaganj is said to be one of the oldest regular book markets of the city. Every Sunday, hundreds of early birds flock to this place to grab their share of the charm of the old dusty page.

In the mile long stretch between Delite cinema and the Jama Masjid bridge sit tens of vendors selling books of all ranges, sizes and prices. The books are all spread on the floor and thus much of the walking space is reduced, which causes congestion and restricts movement. However, it must be borne in mind that the consequences of putting a bibliomaniac in a place that offers books for as low as Rs.10 can be border-line suicidal. Pushing is the most natural instinct of some people and they become an environmental hazard.

Acting in a nonchalant way on finding a book is a good way to obtain a good discount as the book vendors are known to shoot up or bring down the prices on the basis of the reactions they get to their books. Certain book sellers offer books under Rs.50 as part of exchange offers. Apart from this, the market attracts a large number of students who are preparing for various competitive examinations, as competition books are otherwise quite expensive. Second hand books offer the best scope for bargain and depending on your bargaining skills you can avail a high/low discount rate.

The market is surely an interesting avenue for people who not only love to read but who also love to collect books and literary works. Old editions of magazines, newspapers of erstwhile important dates are also found but the looker must be ready for exhausting treasure hunts.

A book lover or no, a reader or no, the place is definitely worth going to atleast once, to go back to the old world charm of purani dilli and to get a little bit of dust, a little bit of discount, and a little bit of Delhi.

Nearest metro station- New Delhi (Note- take the exit from Ajmeri Gate side)

Image Credits: www.enjoyourholiday.com

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Hans Raj College

Corruption enquiry against Hansraj College Hostel Manager

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On the 15th of January, the Hostel Manager of Hansraj College was temporarily suspended owing to charges of mismanagement of the hostel funds. The charges however, have not been proved yet and the enquiry is in process.

While going through the hostel accounts book, the hostel union found certain errors that could not be explained. This led to the suspicion that there is a discrepancy with the written records.  It is reported that a shifting of around Rs. 2 lakhs has happened in this process.

As a result, the students began to protest against the Manager and the protests went on from 3 pm in the afternoon to around 11 pm at night. The students demanded that an enquiry be set up and necessary action be taken against the culprits. It was later decided that the Manager should be suspended till any charges are made against him and the enquiry is complete.

The hostel staff was unavailable to make any comments.

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