th and 17th of October, 2015 respectively. Conducted by the faculty of ‘Eptitude’, the events took place from 12 am onwards in the Seminar Hall of Maitreyi College and saw participation by more than 100 students from all different courses on both days.
On day 1, the workshop was introduced by Mr. Abhishek Anand, the head Director of Eptitude, who, in the light of his own personal experiences of educational preferences at Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, shared his perspective on the strategies for making right decisions while choosing subject courses in universities. He further stressed the importance of ‘a correct framework’ before applying to professional jobs which, according to him, “must include a work experience of at least two years in the field of career one wants to pursue, along with tons of good internships in start-up business industries”.
The event was preceded by a clear understanding of case studies and their essentiality in the employability space, which was done by Mr. Anand, an engineer by profession who studied Electrical Engineering from IIM as well. To help them gain a more realistic idea on case-based approaches, sheets of paper with a sample case study of growing television productions, were distributed among all students, who were then required to play the role of a marketer and decipher the solutions to all the problem statements of the case given to them. Through this process, they were not only able to garner a fresh outlook towards case discussions in professional meetings but also an assessment of each and every component of an industry set-up. Along with this, they were also given a brief recognition of key components such as business communication, etiquettes and dressing, the power of negotiations and resume holding in an office space.
“Here at Eptitude,” spoke Mr. Abhishek Anand, “we not only focus on helping CAT or GMAT aspirants crack their entrance examinations, but also enlighten them with sufficient knowledge on cracking case studies during recruitment procedures. We strive to create a personality development in every student by building confidence levels and sharpening their analytical skills, for them to ace internships and job interviews at best management and banking industries.”
Day 2 was followed by a case study contest, in which all the participants of Maitreyi College were divided in teams of two. Keeping in mind the techniques taught the other day, each team was then given a case study which was required to be solved within the time limit of one hour. Out of the participation of 50 teams and their submissions, the selected teams were now required to prepare a presentation of their cases in the centre of Eptitude along with the shortlisted team winners of other participating colleges of Delhi University, very soon.
The Case Study winners of Maitreyi College are as follows:-
Mohini Jindal and Aakansha Jain from First Year, and
Shrutika Gupta and Megha Baid from Second Year
Shagun Marwah[email protected]Image Credits: Aditi and Latika Sehgal]]>
START-O-NOMICS 2K15, an event by the Economics Department of Dyal Singh College (Morning), Delhi University was held on 16th October. This event had everything which a budding entrepreneur’s mind craves – from the inspiring start-up stories to investment strategies, from the myth of glamorous life of start-up busted to getting an exclusive peek into the airline scene, from learning the perfect pitching to marketing strategies. And yes, a talk with a best-selling author!
This event was kick-started with an inspiring session with The CFO & co-founder Ms. Supriya Paul. She talked about the indisputable influence of others on career choices and urged the youth to break free from the shackles of societal norms to carve their niche in life. Further, she talked about the evolution of Josh Talks to its aim of making, “Inspiration accessible to youth”.
Next in line was Nikita Burma, Founder of The Blue Beans, a marketing firm for restaurants based out of Gurgaon. They are a rapidly growing marketing startup in the food industry. Nikita and her colleague, Shiva talked about the restaurant and food business marketing strategies. They went on to say that, “Marketing is not about stuff that you make but, stories you tell. Brands have stories and all successful marketing does is to make stories out of them.”
After deciphering the marketing myths, Varun Malhotra, CEO and founder of EIFS, talked about smart investments and stock market. According to him, “Sensex and NIFTY is not a barometer for stock market but, for economy of India”. He urged the youth to start early as investors to live a financially secured life and gave a lot of advices regarding smart investments.
Finally, after a riveting session on investments came the time to meet India’s best-selling author, Preeti Shenoy. She started her interactive session with telling about her journey of becoming a ‘best-selling author’. Further, she emphasized on the importance of ‘reading a lot’ and ‘writing a lot’ in order to expand one’s views to become a good writer and storyteller. When asked about the must have qualities to become a successful author, she said that, “Only four qualities are there – persistence, fearlessness, accept being different and make peace with your personality, and lastly, have thick skin to face the criticism.” Her session ended with book signing.
The next session was with Mr. M.S. Balakrishnan, Air India Director Finance (Retd.). He spoke on the present airline crisis and gave a detailed story behind the terrible failure of Kingfisher Airlines. Next up was an entrepreneurial talk session by Ranjeet Passi, a seasoned digital marketing professional and founder of SnapCape. He defined ‘the journey of a middle-class entrepreneur’.
Last two sessions were with Rishav Kumar, CEO and founder of University Express, and Sahil Baghla, CEO and founder of Bluegape. In their respective session’s they both took questions from the audience. Therefore, START-O-NOMICS 2K15 was a one of a kind event which gave the aspiring entrepreneurs a chance to have one-on-one interactions with the young successful entrepreneurs from different fields of – airlines, food, media, graphics, investment, app-development and an author!
Image Credits: Strobe (Photography society of Economics Department, DSC)
‘EFFULGENCE’- The Film and Photography Society of Sri Venkateswara College organized a Photography Workshop on Thursday 1st October. Renowned photographer and senior faculty member of Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, Professor, Mr. Ashwani Juneja conducted the workshop.
All aspiring Photographers, beginners and photography societies of colleges were invited in the workshop.
In a session of two hours, Prof. Ashwani in his presentation discussed topics such as what is photography? Principle of photography, depth of field, light controlling device and exposure triangle among others.
More than 50 photography enthusiasts attended this workshop. An interaction session was followed by the presentation where the students asked their queries and doubts.
A photo walk has been scheduled for next week where the students can practically apply the tips and information acquired during the workshop.
A fever clinic or a dispensary is a government-run project that aims at decreasing the load of bigger hospitals like LNJP, GB PANT, etc., which were flooded with patients due to dengue fever. Most of the patients who are admitted in hospitals need much more attention than others, which is why the dispensary acts as a filter to get the urgent ones treated first. As these clinics got filled up, students from Maulana Azad Medical College were called in to help and their experiences are what we share here. Dengue is not a fatal disease if proper precautions are taken and a timely intervention is done. The story comes to the same conclusion of not letting the mosquitoes breed and preventing any fresh water stagnation. People are expected to use mosquito repellant creams and use mosquito nets, butknowing the experiences of budding doctors in their words is an interesting thing.
By the end of the first day, it had dawned upon us that it was not just the pathology of the patient that required immediate attention. The panic-struck patient had to be reassured and counselled well. This was many-a-time not possible during a patient load of 150-200 per day. We had realised that only a prescription could not treat the patient entirely. Therefore, we sat there, being good listeners and counselors- both to the patient and his attendants. We heard their doubts, history, the problems they faced and mostly how scared they were owing to the panic all around. After telling their tales, the patients walked out feeling more confident and better already- thanks to a strengthened doctor-patient relationship.
We distinctly remember how nervous and excited we were as we entered the dispensary. With butterflies running riot in our stomachs, we knocked on the ‘Doctor’s Room’, a windowless room with a drab beige paint. Patients shuffled in and out of the room. A symphony of aunties lamenting their illness whirred around us. Even after we had settled down, we could feel adrenaline coursing through our vessels. Muzzled with feelings of ineptitude, with a mere 1.5 month experience of clinics, we started with our work. Honestly, the work load was pretty hectic. Amongst the patients we dealt with, there seemed to be a profusion of diarrhea, tuberculosis and dengue, of course! As the days went on, we had moments of panic and disorientation, but also satisfaction at our micro achievements such as successfully taking blood from a wriggling and screaming 10 year old.
The moment we used to pass the string of patients seated outside, and ask “kya main aapki kuch madad kar sakta hun?”, their brightened faces would look at us with respect, that we were hitherto unaware of! Ironically, in this age of consumer-provider relationship, we were quite oblivious to the romance and social privilege once given to the doctor!
True, we did miss the comfort of our air conditioned LTs but the generous offerings of CAMPA, bread pakora and CHAI to the “Doctor Saahab” made up for it.
Well post those 7 days something has changed for sure; all that cramming, late night studies as a medical student is worth it, doing the job of your dreams, learning something every day. Indeed, it was surreal, almost like being transported into Dr.House’s shoes but without a script! Although when we first learnt about the week long posting in which we were required to serve at the various dispensaries across Delhi, we were a bit apprehensive and reluctant. But eventually we realised that the worry was all in vain! A day or two later, we were a lot more confident than before. Though the hours were long, and the work too tedious, it all seemed worth it when we were able to rightly counsel the patient, and they heaved a sigh of relief. After all, dengue is just another infectious disease, and not a calamity. Working together, the local community and the medical fraternity can fight the disease and keep it at bay. Once the patients understood the fact that the disease was not utmost fatal, especially if the diagnosis had been done timely. And well, at the end of the day, all we worked hard for was to see a smile on their faces- the very assurance that our efforts, howsoever small and insignificant it may seem to many, have had a profound impact on the patient’s life.
Contributed by students of Maulana Azad Medical College.
Remember the time when we used to obsess over Dragon Ball Z and have serious discussions on it? And the time when we would get back home and start watching Animax? Much thanks to the existence of Japanese comic creators for inventing Manga and Anime. Anime is not just a name given to Japanese animation series, but it’s taking animation to a whole new level. It’s more to do with passion and inspiration, than entertainment. Here are the top three anime to watch:
Naruto
A beautiful and intense story of the ninja world, Naruto has succeeded in gaining popularity with its coming-of-age plot pertaining to Naruto Uzumaki and his peers. The scenes of action are intense and the fights last for more than three or four episodes. But don’t worry girls as there are a lot of appealing Sensei(s) to obsess over too, especially Kakashi Hatake. The anime is divided into two sections- Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. The latter shows Naruto as a grown up adult, trying to get acquainted with his powes.
Deathnote
A shonen anime once again, Deathnote is inspired by the concept of Doctor Faustus selling his soul to Satan. The protagonist of the story is Light Yagami who gets a notebook from Shinigami, the God of Death. Light loses his sense of judgment after acquiring this kind of power and aspires to replace God. But the centre of attraction is L who’s an eccentric detective with peculiar ways of eating, talking, sitting, etc. The story is jaw-dropping because of the intensity and L keeps you glued to the seat.
Dragon Ball Z
DBZ will remain to be everyone’s favourite, because of the most respected and adored anime character Goku. The continuation series of Dragon Ball shows Goku as a grown up adult, constantly trying to defend the Earth with his powers. The DBZ Universes consists of all kinds of intergalactic spaceships and powers and Goku tries hard to save everyone against these forces. But if you wish to watch DBZ, you ought to have patience for the length of the anime crosses more than 300 episodes.
While there are other anime worth-watching like One Piece, Bleach, Fairytale and others, the above three made it to the list for their popularity and constant addition of interesting elements in the plot. If you have never tried anime, try the mentioned ones and see how you become an Otaku in no time.
‘Chaos In The Capital’ is a Delhi-based Alternative rock band, constantly trying to revive the trend of alternative rock music in India and creating simple music with a lot of feel. DU Beat recently got an opportunity to interview the band.
Q. Tell us about how this band came into existence and how you ended up with the name ‘Chaos In The Capital’.
A. Yuvraj and Ananya knew each other in school and used to meet occasionally at parties and gigs. They started an individual music project of their own. And Kshitij started another project with Sagar. Basically, each of us except Abhijeet knew each other through some or the other connection and had many musical projects in the pipeline. And eventually, we planned on combining it into a band and the idea snowballed into ‘Chaos In The Capital’ coming into existence. Also, we were in need of a bass player when our previous bass player departed in July after playing his last show with us at St. Stephen’s College. We found Abhijeet through Facebook. He is the newest member of our band.
Deciding the name was a fun task and we thought of some really cheesy and funny names like ‘The Cheeseburgers Vanish’ and ‘The Floating Kegs’. One fine day, surprisingly, Ananya had a dream that our band should be called ‘Chaos In The Capital.’ That’s how we ended up with CITC. Bizarre, isn’t it?
Q. What are some of the Indian and Western bands you guys really admire?
A. Collectively, we completely love Foo Fighters, Switchfoot, Arctic Monkeys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, and Breaking Benjamin. Amongst Indian bands, we are inspired by Advaita, Skrat, The Doppler Effect, and Zero. Fortunately, we also got to open for Advaita at St. Stephen’s College, which will always be one of our most memorable gigs.
Q. What are some of the songs that CITC has released and what’s upcoming?
A. We launched our Facebook page with our first single ‘Through With This’ back in February of 2014 and since then, we’ve released a couple of singles. We’ve released some acoustic singles as well. Some of our notable songs include ‘White Collar Deadbeat’, ’Emma’ and ‘Capital Street’, among others. ‘White Collar Deadbeat’ is one of our favourite tracks. We composed this at a point when all of us were sick of the monotony of our jobs (Although that was temporary. Hello, respective bosses.) The song includes some words that completely describe how troublesome jobs could get. Capital Street is the song that totally defines our sound and the Acoustic version of the song that we released on YouTube recently, is a complete DIY production, right from the audio production to the video production.
We’re planning to come up with an EP sometime next year. We also aspire to play at a lot of music festivals. We’re playing a show as part of the Contemporary Arts Week in Delhi in October. Someday, if things work out right, we wish to play at Wembley. That’s the dream.
Q. What are some challenges you guys face as a band? What do you think about the Delhi University music scene? And what advice would you like to give to all musicians who aspire for something great?
A. The challenge we face routinely is of time constraint. All of us are working and we can only practice on the weekends. Sometimes, even that doesn’t materialize due to social obligations. Many a time, when we get opportunities for gigs, we have to cancel due to unavailability of a specific band member. These are the problems we face as a band and perhaps the inspiration behind ‘White Collar Deadbeat’.
We believe that the Delhi University music scene is nothing short of amazing. It’s a fantastic platform for talented musicians and honestly, that’s where we all started to play for a large audience. One of the best gigs we’ve ever played was at the St. Stephen’s fest. DU has a plethora of commendable musicians and has given opportunities to passionate individuals in the field of music. Some of the bands we admire from Delhi University are RaagLeela and Sold Out.
The most important thing that we’d like to suggest to other musicians (We don’t think we’ve made it big enough to dispense advice,though) is to make sure that people continue playing music even after finishing college. A successful band is all about finding the right people and playing simple music, instead of complicating it.
Q. What makes CITC a different band than others out there? What’s your fondest memory as a band and your most favourite gig?
A. Although we believe that CITC is constantly evolving as a band, there are some things that stand out and separate us from mainstream bands. We are one of the very few bands remaining that are trying to revive Alternative Music in India. Let’s just say, if you’re born in the 90s, you’re definitely going to love our music. Our music is a collective of strong melodies, simple lyrics, lots of vocal play, and groovy bass lines. We think that the toughest thing to do is to create simple music and that’s our sole agenda right now. Just the fact that we try to focus on making simple music makes us a different band. We like to indulge in some crazy shenanigans from time to time, like performing a rendition of the Powerpuff Girls theme which incidentally is requested almost every time we perform.
Normally, bands choose a specific gig as their fondest memory. But our dearest memory is of the time when all of us got together at Sagar’s house in Malviya Nagar for an all-nighter band practice. It’s called the CITC, headquarters by the way. After a whole night of continuous jamming, all of us really understood each other musically and aligned in a way we hadn’t previously, and that reflected in all our gigs thereon. Our favourite gig would definitely be our second gig at TC, Saket. Sharing the stage with Superfuzz and Zero on the finale of The Gig Week 2015 is definitely one for the pages as well.
Catch Chaos in the Capital LIVE at the Contemporary Arts Week at Summerhouse Café on the 7th of October. Contact them at [email protected].
Antariksh has been gaining popularity owing to their experimentation with edgy and modern sounding rock music with mainstream Hindi music. Celebrating two years of the release of their first album, ‘Khoj’ and the release of their new single ‘Intezaar’, DU Beat got an opportunity to interview them.
Q. Let’s start by talking about how your band was formed? How did you guys end up with the name ‘Antariksh’?
A. As far as the story goes, the roots of the band were actually laid way before Antariksh was formed. From 2006 to 2008, Varun Rajput and Mridul Ganesh (Former singer of the band) used to play in a local Progressive Rock band called Feedback, and GT used to play for Prestorika around the same time. However, post college days, music took a back seat as we ventured into the corporate world to earn our bread and butter. However, a few years later, stars somehow aligned again, and coincidentally, both Mridul and Varun happened to quit their management consulting jobs around the same time in 2012 to work on more creative projects. At the same time Varun and Gurtej had been having conversations about starting a new project and were longing to get back to music – fans of similar kinds of music, the three of us got together, to jam casually and write a few tunes. It wasn’t long when we realized that we’d written 3 very cool songs (Na Jaane Kyun, Tum, and Dheere Dheere). At this moment, the timing just seemed right – we decided to get onto unfinished business and took the plunge to record and produce an album for Antariksh. This is when we started looking for a drummer and a bass player. A friend connected us to Vipul, who was studying at NSIT at that time and was a great fit into the set-up. We jammed a few times – there was an immediate connection, since there has been no looking back.
As for the name, we thought of several funny and weird names, but stuck with Antariksh as it was the only one, which wasn’t repulsed by anyone. Ha!
Q. Did ‘Dheere Dheere’, your first single, receive the kind of response that you were expecting?
A. To be honest, we were very skeptical before releasing it, for the kind of experimentation, we were up to – fortunately it received a great response. To our surprise, we got around 150 shares on the day of its release and much appreciation. That’s when we realized that we had something going and started taking the project more seriously. The song later on went on to be shortlisted at VIMA India Awards and was nominated for VIMA Asia Awards.
Q. How is Antariksh different from other bands in India? Where do you see yourself in the next few years?
A. For starters, we believe we have a very unique and eclectic sound for Hindi music considering our background and influences. Besides that, we have a lot of talent within the band which helps us treat Antariksh like a startup and manage everything on our own, whether that’s design work, marketing, PR, business development, recording, video editing, etc. Also, we believe, we’re very sincere and disciplined when it comes to doing anything with Antariksh, whether that’s writing new songs, producing, rehearsing or releasing. In the next few years, we wish to see ourselves as the pioneers and the front-runners of Indian rock music.
Q. What is the state of Indian music scene, according to you? What advice would you like to give the musicians who are still trying to find a way in the Indian music scene?
A. We believe it’s a great time to be a professional musician. Indie music has changed as well grown exponentially in the last 4-5 years, and so have the opportunities. However, there’s a catch – although, the total opportunities, gigs, music festivals have gone up, so has the demand for commercial music or let’s say cover songs. Unfortunately, that has led to most musicians give up on their original music and passion to do music and rather, just form cover bands to keep earning their bread and butter. And you can’t blame the bands or the venues entirely, though. That’s how the scene has evolved. So, yes it’s great that the overall Indie music scene is growing; however, it will take a lot more time for the audience, as well as venues to start accepting and appreciating original music than lining up stupid Sufi Nights, where you have shabby musicians getting together to screw up beautiful songs by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the likes, while drunk uncles and aunties dance to them like there’s no tomorrow. What musicians need to realize is that such audience will drink and dance irrespective of who’s playing, so in the long run the musicians are doing themselves more harm than good. I think what has not grown well is the state of radio – we feel radio is a great medium for discovering good music as well as popularizing music. However, it has not picked up Indie music as much it should have. Let’s see what the future holds.
What we’d like to advise our fellow musicians would be to create quality music. Work hard and stick around for long enough to make an impact. And be nice to each other and everyone around.
Q. Can you list down some bands you all look up to?
A. Amongst Indian bands and musicians, we love stuff by Thermal and a Quarter, Amit Trivedi, AR Rahman. Amongst bands outside of India, a few that we all love would be Pain of Salvation, Dream Theater, Iron Maiden, and so many more.
Q. What would be your fondest memory as a band and your best gig? What is the concept of your first album? Have you had moments of struggle, where you felt like it isn’t working out?
A. The fondest memory of us working together as a band would be the release of our first album, Khoj. ‘Khoj’ is about a search for identity, a quest to understand our own nature. The album touches various themes such as ethics, identity crises, hope, greed, chaos and realization. When we launched the album, we got a great response to the music; however, it took a while for the concerts to pick up. That really was a frustrating period for the band because we thought we’d put in our blood, sweat and tears into this album, and gigs still didn’t pick up for the next two months. Fortunately, everything literally changed overnight exactly 3 months after the release, and suddenly, we were playing all across the country. In hindsight, we think it was just the amount of time that was needed for our music to actually reach out to people – something like a gestation period. Thankfully, since then, the band’s following and concerts have grown exponentially, and we hope to continue growing as musicians as well as a band. Talking about our best gig, it has to be the gig at Carmel Junior College, Jamshedpur – the loudest and most musical audience ever.
Q. Tell us something about your new single. What are some of your upcoming projects? Do you think that Delhi University with its fest season and competitions, serves as a good platform for talented musicians?
A. We recently released Intezaar, a song that has waited for over five years for its release. It was composed in 2010 when we were working on a couple of soundtracks for a movie called The Bet. We’re super excited to see the response to the song, as it’s very different from what we normally compose as Antariksh. Other than that, we’re planning to come up with the 2nd album early next year. Also, October and November is all set for tour to celebrate 3 years of Antariksh.
Talking about Delhi University and its competitions as a platform for young bands, we believe it’s absolutely great. We’ve seen it act as a foundation for musical careers of so many talented musicians. In fact, we were judging a few competitions recently, it was great to see some absolutely amazing bands coming out of DU. Our recent favourite bands from DU would be Hansraj Projekt, and RaagLeela.
Watch the music of their new single, Intezaar byOcean Floor Films here:
The Analytics Club of Department of Business Economics, Datamatics, organized its Annual Analytics Conclave, Vishleshan on 10th September, 2015. The inaugural session began at 9:15 am, with students of the department along with students from various b-schools, professors, sponsors and corporate speakers from various organizations in the audience.
After the lighting of the lamp, Dr. Suresh Aggarwal , the head of the department talked about the department and its niche course structure which creates managers for the analytics industry .The first corporate speak session started at 9:45am with Mr. Ankur Singh, Director-Analysis, dunnhumby, talking about the three different versions of customer analytics that has evolved over time and the role played by the data in the evolution.
Following him, Mr. Rajesh Kumar Shukla, AVP Decision Analytics, EXL Service, talked about analytics of fraud in the credit card industry. Following him, Ms. Debleena Datta, Senior Manager, who is also the department’s alumni, explained the whole credit card industry and its analytics in an easily understandable manner. The following session focused on solving the mystery of unstructured data by Mr. Anurag Srivastava, Manager, Deloitte Consulting.
Post high tea, began stat-wars in which 4 teams were shortlisted out of huge participant pool to give presentations in front of 3 member jury panel, which consisted of corporate from Deloitte Consulting and a fortune 500 credit card company. The winner of Stat-wars was Team JnJ, DBE and the runner-up was Team VinA_IIMRanchi, IIM Ranchi.
After lunch, the second corporate speak session started at 2:30pm with Mr. Krishna Kumar, Head, India Operations, Abzooba, talking about various IOT used currently and which can be used in real life that would help in analytics. Following him, Ms. Susmita Nandi, Practice Manager, Bluestar Infotech, spoke about how customers’ needs have changed over time and the need for customer analysis. This following session focused on innovation in retail industry by Mr. Anshul Goyal, Analytics Head – India, Capillary Technologies.
Post evening high tea, began case study competition in which 4 teams were shortlisted out of huge participant pool based on online prelims round to give a presentation on the case study, which was released 1 day ago in front of 2 member jury panel which consisted of Mr. Vitesh Kalambi, Absolutdata and Mr.Anshul Goyal, Capillary Technologies. The winner of the case study competition was Team Engima, IIM Rohtak and the runner-up was Team StatCats, DBE.
The event came to a successful end by the vote of thanks by Mr. Prakash, Student President of the department, thanking the title sponsor- dunnhumby, the event sponsor – Abzooba, online partners- askme.com & DU Beat and the print media partner – Business Standard.
