replaced Amit Trivedi for the star night.
Advaita, a Delhi based rock and fusion band took on the stage at 7:45 PM. The band was a team of seven members and they performed eight songs from their own albums. The band was welcomed by team Moksha with bursting fireworks up in the sky. Advaita fused in Indian classical with western rock music. Their songs were accompanied by beats of the tabla and notes of a sarangi, along with the usual acoustic guitar and keyboard. The Hindustani vocals with variation in the notes created euphony for the listeners.
[caption id="attachment_21531" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image Credit: Ishaan Gambhir for DU Beat[/caption]
The highlight songs by them for the evening were Miliha which means ‘extremely beautiful’ and Durga. Another song that left the audience almost silent was WHY which questiones the happenings in the world on account of time and age. The lead western vocalist engaged the crowd well by saying out the lyrics slowly for them and then asking the audience to sing and join him. During one hour of their performance, all hands were seen up in the air, dancing or waving to the band.
[caption id="attachment_21530" align="aligncenter" width="640"] DJ Lloyd with the dancing crowd. | Image Credit: Iresh Gupta for DU Beat[/caption]
Five minutes after Advaita’s exit, Bollywood’s DJ Lloyd started with his dance numbers changing the Sufi mood of band’s last two songs into the party mode. People were seen up on the chairs and some on shoulders. DJ Lloyd who came all over from Mumbai to play at NSIT, mixed up the tracks according to the changing environment within the dancing groups.
“Baby Doll and Party All Night were the craziest numbers for the evening. DJ made up well for Amit’s absence”, said Kartik Rishi who was there to attend the musical evening.
The last day of Moksha also witnessed Oorja, the western dance competition. Team from Sri Venkateshwara College, Verve was declared the winner. Jesus and Mary College’s Mudra and Indraprastha College for Women’s Afroza bagged the second and third positions respectively.
Featured Image Credit: Ishaan Gambhir for DU Beat]]>
The little warmth that the air has started to bear, clear skies and the aroma of fresh flowers blooming around have all announced the breakthrough of spring and signaled towards the approaching summer. However, yet another thing that the ongoing weather signifies is the ringing death knell for the ‘DU Fest’ season. Here’s what you can do to get done with the DU fests hangover and come out of the Disneyland that shall now cease to exist.
1. Go through the photos of all the fests you’ve been to
Once go through all the pictures that you’ve clicked/ got clicked in the numerous fests. Yeah those selfies with weird expressions and superficial smiles too. Remember how your feet started to ache with the continuous dancing, how your throat went soar due to the loud cheer and how your cheeks began to pain due to continuous posing with elongated smiles.
Maybe that’ll establish in your mind the fact that those days aren’t coming back in near future.
2. Stalk the celebs!
What we miss the most about the fest season is the electrifying performances that we’ve enjoyed in the star nights of various colleges. So, follow the performers on social networking sites, go through their previous work, download their songs, skim through their discographies and enjoy. Bolt your room’s door from within, turn on the music, turn out the lights and dance like nobody cares. Unleash the performer within you and try duplicating the star nights at home.
3. Socialize with long lost friends from other colleges for the next fest season!
No matter how badly you wanted to witness Amit Trivedi’s lips embrace the lyrics of ‘Zinda’ live, SRCCauthorities kept the entries restricted to the show of passes. You had a friend there you always avoided and didn’t talk to due to her nagging and now you couldn’t ask for her help to get you in? Sad. Work on your socializing skills for next fest season. See everyone with a ‘shining smile’, and be good to all. Some person, some fest next year might be of utmost utility.
4. Fake excitement for studying!
It is just 50 days before the semester exams commence and most colleges shall have internals and practical tests scheduled in coming weeks. Try distracting yourself from the fest season by opening those books. Also, be careful, this experiment might backfire if anywhere you lose control and think about the fests again, making you feel rather more miserable about what your life has suddenly come to.
5. See the ‘rosier’ side of it
If this all fails to manoeuvre you out of the pangs of nostalgia and hangover, try seeing the rosier side of it. Think that all good things come to an end, or perhaps, for it all to begin again, it has to end once. Start with something new, Game of Thrones season 5 starts in 10 days. Prepare a list of celebrities you’d like to see next year and so on. There is more to life than the fest of course.
6. DU Beat – Comrade in thy nostalgia!
We at DU Beat, have had a great time at the fests too, viewing the enthusiastic crowd from the other side of our stall, recruiting, recording the everyday happenings at the colleges and reporting them to our avid audiences. We are suddenly workless too! So we can together swim across this. Go through the DU Beat Facebook photo archives, videos, Instagram posts, tweets and stories of various fests.
7. Look eye in eye in the mirror and say it!
Are you a final year student? Go face a mirror, look eye in eye with it. Muster your thoughts, put together your words, and say out loud, “It’s all over. It is all over.” Let the lump pass your throat, and see if you feel any better. (Though you probably won’t!)
Featured Image Credit: Mehr Gill for DU Beat | Gif courtesy: tumblr.com
Moksha, the cultural festival of Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, recently hosted the international Romanian dance pop act Akcent, whose dance tracks brought an exciting end to the second day of the festival. The evening, which started off as a presumable No-show, culminated in what was probably one of the biggest ‘selfies’ of 2014.
With clusters of people flocking in and around the main arena, many Akcent fans were soon disappointed to hear the news of the Romanian singer’s late arrival. The evening however did not seem to wait on him, and soon burst into energy as another DJ took to the impatiently waiting crowd. Courtesy of DJ Monty, along with his collection of Bollywood and Bhangra numbers, Akcent suddenly did not seem to matter that much. However, the above statement could probably also be termed as a misjudgement. The hoots and whistles with which Akcent was later greeted on, definitely took the event to a whole another level.
The non-stop hoots, cheers, and roars were well received as the international DJ played to the requests of the students. The concert was also kept engaging and interactive as the Romanian sensation would often urge the crowd to complete the chorus for him. For some of his better known international hits such as That’s My Name, Stay With me, Kylie, the crowd would occasionally sing along with the DJ. The 1 hour riveting performance finally ended with what Akcent termed as ‘Delhi’s biggest selfie performance ever’.
After the first day featuring a range of dance competitions along with the Bollywood night, the second and final day at Crescendo – the Annual cultural fest of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (SSCBS) ended with a bang. On the 11th of March, the day started with Octaves – the music competition comprising five categories and culminated with Sunburn.
The results for Octaves were as follows:
Battle of The Bands – The Hansraj Projekt (1st position), SSCBS’ Dhwani (2nd position) and Conundrum – (P.G.D.A.V based alternative rock band) (3rd position)
Western Music (Group) – Lady Shri Ram College for Women’s Western Music Society (1st position), Kamala Nehru College’s Zephyr (2nd), SSCBS’ Dhwani and Sri Venkateshwara College’s Crescendo (3rd position)
Western Music (Solo) – Shreya Adhikari from Sri Venkateshwara College (1st position), Chong Norbu Sherpa from Aurobindo College(2nd position) and Abhilasha Sinha from Lady Shri Ram College for Women and Nirupan Sihna from Hans Raj College (3rd position)
Indian Music (Group) – Daulat Ram College’s Ahalya and Sri Venkateswara College tied on the first position followed by Kamala Nehru College’s Sangeetika placed at the second.
Indian Music (Solo) – Shreya Adhikari from Sri Venkateswara College was adjudged the best singer.
The day progressed with various informal events like Rangoli making and the English Sitcom Quiz. To add to the cheer and put a befitting end to the high-energy fest, Sunburn performed for the rest of the evening. Post a few security glitches of the previous day, the security was tightened and entry was strictly regulated to prevent the situation from getting out of control. Inside the main stadium, Sunburn put up it’s set up, complete with LCDs, LEDs and spotlights to give the entire fest the feel of an authentic concert. The concert started on schedule and witnessed sunburn’s signature electric music. The invigorated reception it received sealed it as a success.
An elated and tired Saumya Shoor, one of the crescendo organisers had the following to say, “The kind of response we have gotten is truly is heartening. We had some high expectations to match this time. And with the amount of work we put in, we are glad that the event was received so well.”
As expected, SRCC’s ‘Crossroads’ came, it amused, conquered hearts and the ‘last party before forty‘ culminated leaving people with amazing fun filled memories of four interesting days. Apart from the exhilarating star appearances, the fest was also garnered with numerous formal and informal events,games, variety of stalls and great footfall.
Here’s what all happened in the most sought after cultural festival of DU, take a look!
The festival kick started its first day with the ‘shaan’dar performance of the singer cum stage performer Shantanu Mukherjee, commonly known as ‘Shaan’ at Encore. Shaan took a heroic entry singing the famous lines ‘mujhko pehchaan lo, mai hu kaun?’ This was followed by a number of his soft romantic melodies including ‘Tune mujhe pehchana nahi’, ‘Chand Sifarish’ and ‘Jabse tere naina’. Acknowledging the new talent in industry, Shaan sang the chart buster Arijit Singh song ‘Tum hi ho’ from the movie ‘Aashiqui 2′ on public demand and referred it to be one of his favourite songs too. Not only did he entertain audiences with his melodious voice, but with frequent jokes, digs and audience interactions. The event concluded with announcement of Bewakoofiyan star cast – Sonam Kapoor & Aayushman Khurrana coming to SRCC on fourth and final day of Crossroads.
Crossroads brought together Slovenian rock/folk artist Vlado Kreslin and Hindustani classical musician Sharat Chandra Srivastava as part of Random Collisions on 7th March,2014.The duo was also accompanied by Gyan Singh, an accomplished Tabla player.The event began quite promptly and created a mellow atmosphere all at once, quite different from the rest of musical nights taking place in DU fests. As the violin and tabla notes worked magic, it was certainly music to all ears.
After enjoying soft romantic numbers with Shaan and blend of western and classical music at Random Collisions, Crossroads brought the audiences to savour the taste of PLUR i.e. Peace Love Unity Respect with VH1 Supersonic bringing their unique EDM music to Crossroads,SRCC. With renowned artists like Audiogramme, Dualist Inquiry and Nikhil Chinapa performing, the crowd was seen throwing hands in air, feeling completely content and enjoying. The gigantic screen, flame throwers, pyrotechnics and confetti, all added to the night,making it the most happening and memorable one for SRCC as well as DU.
Day Three : Crossroads welcomes international DJ Jennifer Rene
The third day at Crossroads saw Jennifer Rene, a DJ star of international fame mixing EDM tracks. The night began with the song ‘Wake me in’ and what followed were numerous numbers from her own discography. The performer soon got into grooves with her famous tunes and people, specially patrons of this genre of music cheered for Rene and had a great time.
Image Credit: Mugdha for DU Beat
Day Four : ‘Bewakoofiyan‘ star cast Sonam Kapoor & Ayushman Khurrana at SRCC
B’wood celebs Ayushmann Khurrana and Sonam Kapoor, picked Crossroads 2014 as a platform for the promotion of their upcoming movie ‘Bewakoofiyan’, scheduled to release on 14th of March. The duo entertained the crowd with their presence for about 20 minutes. Ayushman Khurrana sang four songs including, “Paani Da Rang” and “O Heeriye”, whereas Sonam took to the traditional ‘Battle of the Sex’s ‘ path. They distributed limited goodies of their upcoming film to the massive crowd and signed off leaving a smile on the audience’s faces.
Catch a short glance of Sonam Kapoor & Ayushman Khurrana, in this recording by DU Beat –
SRCC’s Crossroads’ ‘Last party,before forty‘ came to a befitting end with the internationally acclaimed singer Sukhwinder Singh and his troop performing for about two hours, setting the stage on fire with his zeal, enthusiasm and energetic songs like Chaiyya Chaiyya, Haule Haule , Bidi Jalaile , Dard – e – Disco, Dhan Te Nan, Marjani Marjani, Saki Saki, Lagan Lagi, Chak De India, Ramta Jogi and a few more. The night began with Sukhwinder singing ‘Jai Ho‘ the Grammy award winning song from Slumdog Millionaire and ended with the same song completing the circle and leaving the crowd with refreshed memories of the night.
The Foodie’s Junction at SRCC Crossroads
Much like everything else at SRCC’s Crossroads, the food was in large variety. There was something for every palate and pocket. From Italian to Chinese to Indian Street food, it was hard to find something that was not available.
Chole Bhature: although they are easily available at various events, SRCC had a variety of chole bhature from different corners of Delhi. Even small, and highly exclusive, eating places like Om Corner had put up stalls there.
Cup Cakes: And not the ones that look like they are here because no one bought them off the shelf at the bakery. The ones that wanna make you eat them even when you’re on a diet.
Waffles: When was the last time you ate waffles at any cafe, much less at a fest!
Rico’s: If you’re a DU student who happens to pass by north campus at least once every few months, then you know what I’m talking about. Rico served almost all their specialties at the fest and they tasted like fresh from the oven.
The busy food stall lane bustling with people at Crossroads, SRCC | Image Credit: Abhay Makhija for DU Beat
Banoffe Pie: Yolo 21 served Banoffe pie that’ll make you want buy one more every half hour. And when I told the stall manager that it was as good as the ones they served in posh south Delhi restaurants for five times the price, he happily said that his was better.
Escapades : Adding adventure
With all the stars that rocked the crowds at night, Escapades made sure that the students were entertained through the day. Bringing the spirit of adventure to SRCC through the four days of Crossroads, the Traveler’s Society truly gave students a chance to ‘forget their limits’. The Xerox lawns were packed through the day with students lining up for the adrenaline rush, a chance to experience the thrill of adventure sports, test their ability and most importantly to have some unrestricted fun. The numerous events lined up under Escapades were the Slow Race, Flying Fox, Zorbing, Paintball, Wall Climbing, Trampoline Volleyball, Dodge Ball & Body Zorbing.
Trampoline Volleyball
Carrom Boards placed at Crossroads
Body Zorbing!
The Slow Cycling Race
The Winners’ Tally
Fashion Show [by Demeanor, the Fashion Society of SRCC]
Judged by : Ms. Konica Kant, the Winner of Timeless Beauty and Delhi finalist of the Miss Femina 2014 Contest. First Position : Kamala Nehru College & Lady Irwin College. Second Position : Amity University
Judged By : Dance India Dance fame Amit Kashyap & ABCD movie fame Vicky. First Position : Kamala Nehru College’s ‘Adaigo’ Second Position : Hans Raj College’s Terpsi Chorean and LSR’s Choreography Society.
Kamala Nehru College’s Adiago | Image Credit: Gurman Bhatia for DU Beat
Judged By : Moses Khiagte, a vocal coach and a retired musician and Bhanu Mehendiratta, a well known musician, part of bands like Sold Outand Half Step Down. Winners : Conundrum, an alternative Rock Band from P.G.D.A.V. College.
Judged By : Meher Malik, famous Indian belly dancer, founder of ‘Banjara School of Dance’ Winners (Duet) : Aseng & Somya from Kamala Nehru College. Winners (Group Dance) : ‘We-Defyn’, the Dance Society of IIT – Delhi
Judged By : Jatin & Sanchit, famous names in DU dancing circuit Winners : CVStreets from College of Vocational Studies. Runner Ups :Drift Up from DCAC.
Also featuring…
DU Beat Correspondents in exclusive conversation with the ‘Bewakoofiyan’ star cast – Ayushman Khurrana & Sonam Kapoor after their public appearance at SRCC Crossroads on the final day, March 9th, 2014. We would soon be releasing the same!
DU Beat Correspondent Ishika Gupta in a backstage conversation with Meher Malik, the famous Indian Belly dancer, ex participant of India’s Got Talent & Just Dance, and founder of the ‘Banjara School of Dance’ about her experience at Crossroads, SRCC.
Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (SSCBS) concluded the first day of its annual fest- Crescendo. The event, being held in Talkatora stadium, kick started on 10th March with various cultural events being held simultaneously. The highlights of the day included a photography debate, an entertainment quiz, Snakes and Ladders and the western dance competition. In addition, a knock out debate was conducted. unique themed debate in which the one who lost the debate was eliminated and the winner then debated with a new debater till only one person was left.
Sri Guru Gobind Singh College’s Misbah performing at SSCBS’ Crescendo. | Image Credit: Vishal Soni
The real attention grabber was Encore, the Inter College Dance competition, which saw societies converging from the entire university. The stage was set up in the indoor stadium with audience cheering to the invigorated dances. IIT Delhi’s We Defyn took away the numero uno position and a cash prize of Rs. 8,000. Jesus and Mary College’s Mudra stood second and won Rs. 5,000. Sri Venkateshwara College’s Verve received a special mention for their performance.
Akshay from Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce emerged victorious in ‘How I Quizzed Your Mother’. The second and third positions were occupied by Udit and Umang and Sahil and Nimit. Both the teams were from SSCBS.
Shaurya Upadhyay of Hans Raj College won the one on one knock out debate, adjudged the best debater by Madhav Mittal, a third year debater from Kirori Mal College. Vibhuti from Kirori Mal College and Udayylok Bangbash from Hindu maintained the longest unbeated streak, each defeating four opponents.
The day ended with a Bollywood Night featuring a DJ playing Hindi songs in the indoor court, late into the evening.
Day four of Crossroads 2014 started with Bass Camp, the Rock band Competition organised by the Western Music Society of Shri Ram College Of Commerce. The finals of the Competition started at around 12:30 in the afternoon. The prelims were conducted earlier under the supervision of three eminent judges of the Delhi School of Music. 32 bands had showed up and out of these bands, the best 10 bands were sieved out. The judges for the finals were, Moses Khiagte who is a vocal coach and a retired musician, currently working in three places namely, Bikers Cafe, Punjabi by Nature and 100% rock. He has managed three contemporary rock bands. He is also the ex-music teacher of Delhi Public School, Sonipat. He has also done recording sessions with Parikrama and Black Shades.
The other judge was Bhanu Mehendiratta, a well known musician, who is a part of bands like Sold Out and Half Step Down. This was his second time at judging Bass Camp. He has also won the famous competition 440 yards.
Out of the 10 selected bands, 9 had turned up and they battled it out for the first position. The winning band was to receive Rs. 7000 as the cash prize and a keyboard from Casio. Conundrum, an alternative rock band from P.G.D.A.V College played two of their original compositions and proved their worth. Their music had alternative and progressive rock elements to it that led them to obtaining the winning spot in the competition.
All in all the event provided followers of rock music a wide variety and variation of genres right from Hindi Fusion to Funk to Death Metal and provided the audience a few new independent bands to follow.
The final day of Crossroads 2014 ended with Woodstock. After three days that featured performances by Shaan, Dualist Inquiry and Jennifer Rene, the last day had Sukhwinder Singh performing at the main stage. The popular singer decimated the whole crowd at Shri Ram College of Commerce with his extreme vocal range and melody.
The internationally acclaimed singer performed for around two hours at one of India’s biggest college fests.
He was accompanied by his team of spectacular musicians and dancers to add some flavour to the night. Just before Sukhwinder Singh was about to start, his Microphone Tech and his Female accompanist sang two songs each to get the crowd going.
Sukhwinder Singh finally started his performance at 6 30. His first song was Jai Ho, the Grammy Award winning song from Slumdog Millionaire. His set also included songs like Chaiyya Chaiyya, Haule Haule , Bidi Jalaile , Dard – e – Disco, Dhan Te Nan, Marjani Marjani, Saki Saki, Lagan Lagi, Chak De India, Ramta Jogi and a few more.
Every song that was sung, was accompanied by the dancers who were dressed in vibrant colours. Often, in the middle of songs, he would start a vocal – instrument jugal bandi between himself and his musicians. There were also times with songs like Bidi Jalaile, when he would ask the audience to clap while he sang and the audience would blissfully oblige.
He finally ended with a repetion of the song Jai Ho, bringing the concert to a befitting full circle and then signed off at around 9 15 in the night. Apart from the whole Parking lot, a third of the whole college ground was occupied by students who couldn’t stop dancing. And with that, Crossroads came to an end.
On the third day of Crossroads 2014, Demeanor, the Fashion Society of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) organized the Fashion Show Competition. The event commenced with the performance of Sri Aurobindo College at 4 p.m. on the main stage. The competition was judged by Ms. Konica Kant, who has been the Winner of Timeless Beauty and was the Miss Femina 2014 Delhi finalist. Each team was given 10-12 minutes for its performance. A total of eight teams participated in the event, the performance of Demeanor being the non-competitive one. After the performance of Demeanor, FBB models showed up their Spring-summer collection, followed by the models from Red Chief.
The Fashion Society of Lady Irwin College
Ms. Konica, the judge for the event said “The competition was well organised. Overall, I can use three words for the event – it was good, tough and interesting. I personally liked SRCC’s performance a lot.”
The prize for the best model in male category went to Rohit Pachauri from Amity University and that of female category was bagged by Kriti Kathreen from SRCC. The first position was shared by Kamala Nehru College and Lady Irwin College, while the second position was bagged by Amity University. The winning team got Rs. 25,000 and shoes sponsored by Red Chief, one of the key sponsors of the event.
Verve – the Choreography society of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), organised ‘Choreo’ the choreography competition as a part of the third day of SRCC’s annual fest Crossroads. Amit Kashyap of Dance India Dance fame and Vicky, who featured in the movie ABCD adjudged the event.
Five teams participated with Lady Shri Ram College for Women initiating the programme with their performance. It was followed by Sri Venkateswara College dance titled ‘Noises’.
After an hour long line-up, the result was announced. Kamala Nehru College’s, Adagio was declared as the winner whereas Hans Raj College’s Terpsi Chorean and LSR’s Choreography Society were the joint runners-up. Total prizes of worth Rs. 45,000 were given to the winning teams.
“Delhi has better contemporary dancers than most other cities in India including the entertainment hub, Mumbai”, said judge Amit. When asked about how a choreography society is different from a Dance society he said, “Choreography is not just about dance, its thematic and subjective and any society which focuses on choreography has a lot more to offer than a normal dance society.”
Image Credit: Ishaan Gambhir for DU Beat[/caption]
The highlight songs by them for the evening were Miliha which means ‘extremely beautiful’ and Durga. Another song that left the audience almost silent was WHY which questiones the happenings in the world on account of time and age. The lead western vocalist engaged the crowd well by saying out the lyrics slowly for them and then asking the audience to sing and join him. During one hour of their performance, all hands were seen up in the air, dancing or waving to the band.
[caption id="attachment_21530" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
DJ Lloyd with the dancing crowd. | Image Credit: Iresh Gupta for DU Beat[/caption]
Five minutes after Advaita’s exit, Bollywood’s DJ Lloyd started with his dance numbers changing the Sufi mood of band’s last two songs into the party mode. People were seen up on the chairs and some on shoulders. DJ Lloyd who came all over from Mumbai to play at NSIT, mixed up the tracks according to the changing environment within the dancing groups.
“Baby Doll and Party All Night were the craziest numbers for the evening. DJ made up well for Amit’s absence”, said Kartik Rishi who was there to attend the musical evening.
The last day of Moksha also witnessed Oorja, the western dance competition. Team from Sri Venkateshwara College, Verve was declared the winner. Jesus and Mary College’s Mudra and Indraprastha College for Women’s Afroza bagged the second and third positions respectively.
Featured Image Credit: Ishaan Gambhir for DU Beat]]> 
