Well, for those who are always interested in something new coming their way; department fests are just tailor made for them. With a totally new area of a different department, many new things can come your way and you might also find yourself interested in many of those. But what makes department fests that interesting? That when you hear about one in your neighboring college, you always compel your friends to visit and attend the same?
The reasons are fairly simple to point out. Department fests cater to the surprise appraisal in you. More if you are coming from a totally different subject. A student from economics background might find political science’s department fest quite attractive, simply because of the reason that politics and economics go hand in hand in the contemporary world. An English honors student might similarly be interested in another language’s department fest.
Other than bringing a factor of novelty, department fests also bring with them certain subject adhering fun activities. From treasure finding games to quizzes, they serve to both the intellectual and adventure side of you. It becomes a totally different experience when teachers are also involved in the games and add their experience.
And now the best reason to go to a department fest! Yes, you can also win huge amounts of cash prizes since departments in campus colleges of Delhi University are amply funded by the college as well as the university. A marketing department fest of Shri Ram College of Commerce raises around ten lakh bucks each year. Certain other departments raise even more than that. So well, the season has come and department fests would soon be starting, some within the college fest as it sees more footfall; while certain other more popular departments separate their fests from the college one. Our advice is to take some time out and do visit some of the department fests this year.
The Advertising association of Delhi College of Arts & Commerce (DCAC) held its annual advertising festival ‘Parivartan’ on Tuesday, April 1st, 2014. The one day festival began with a panel discussion on the topic – ‘Communicating brand values to the Facebook Generation‘ followed by an array of events like Ad-Mad competition, Minute to win it & Scavenger Hunt, all idealized on the theme of festival ‘advertising’.
The panel discussion highlighted the role of two way social media and its rapid advancement into the advertising sector. The distinguished panel of speakers consisted of Mr. Sandeep Bannerjee (VP,Hammer Communication, Ex GM, McCanne Healthcare), Ms. Shweta Baxi Tyagi (VP, Digiqom) and social media expert Mr. Anshuman Gandhi.
Beginning with Mr. Bannerjee’s pointing out of the rather diverse variety of products that has bombarded the consumer with infinite choices today, the discussion unfolded with social media’s advantages as well as misuse in case of manipulations and overstatements. On being questioned upon, how social media could wrongly impact the brand image of product if a single customer states his dissatisfaction on a public discussion forum, Mr. Anshuman called such a scenario as an ‘opportunity’. “Someone who is annoyed with our product/service isn’t a liability, but an opportunity. He wishes to widen his outlook, is seeking attention and is ready for change. The organization should satisfy him, treat him wonderfully, make him the brand ambassador”, Mr. Anshuman added.
On the same lines, Ms. Shweta cited real life instances like the American Express & Jet Airways to explain as to how negative response from a customer could be successfully churned into a positive opportunity.
On being questioned upon the role of social media in establishing political brand names, the panelists took the example of the Kejriwal wave that swayed all people and simultaneously set a benchmark as to the best use of online media. “The live updates by political big-shots on Facebook and Twitter keep the public informed and impressed. Numerous social media sites like Social Samosa carry out daily percentages of people supporting different parties/candidates.” said Ms. Shveta Tyagi.
Countering the attacks like online marketing being one sided, or over hyped or out of time, Mr. Sandeep Bannerjee said, “So long as we entertain the audiences, not merely engage them, social media would continue to be an eminent source of delivering brand values.”
Think Out of the Box : the Ad -Mad Competition.
The Solo Dance Competition.
A team of two girls showcasing creativity at the Poster Making Competition.
Apart from the Panel Discussion, there were events like Scavenger hunt, Ad-Mad, Minute to win it, kite flying competition, Poster making, solo & group dance competitions conducted in the festival. The vigor and brain of the festival, Ma’am Neeru Kapoor expressed her happiness and contentment saying, “All the competitions attracted significant participation and the panel discussion engaged the students very well. We’ve got appreciation from everyone alike, the goal of organizing Parivartan for us, stands fulfilled.”
The History Department of Hans Raj College organised Samvat – their annual department festival on 27th March. The festival that began at 12’o clock in the afternoon witnessed a history debate, history quiz and a keynote lecture along with other recreational activities and competitions.
The associated theme for the festival was ‘Time, Space, People and Culture.’ A photography exhibition was set up near the registration area for the visitors and participants who evaluated each photo on display. The exhibition showcased various pictures related to the above mentioned theme clicked by members of Pixels, the photography society of the college. Kartik Gupta was declared the winner for the exhibition with maximum number of visitor comments.
Dr. David Zou
Dr. David Zou, a professor at Department of History, Delhi University gave a lecture on ‘What is History’ in the conference room of the college. With Dr. Zou, Ms. Sharmila Srivastava, head of the history department of college led the session. He shared his personal experiences with famous personalities and also talked about print culture and literary culture. Shrishti Singh, a 3rd year history student who attended the lecture says, “The lecture was very informative and interactive. He talked about censorship of books which was the most interesting topic.”
Kite Flying
A history quiz was also conducted as part of the festival. The quiz revolved around both modern and ancient history and the questions covered historical events of various ages and timelines from all over the world. Conducted by members of the quiz society, the history quiz saw participation by 15 teams. The competition saw participants from the host college and cross college teams also took part. After the preliminary round, six teams moved on into the finals. Pratik Panda and Bishal Kumar from Hans Raj College and Kirori Mal College were declared the winners.
A history debate on the topic ‘This house will exempt all books and works of art from government bans’ was conducted. Debating societies from the university circuit participated in the competition. Ananya and Navjeet from the debating society of Miranda House were adjudged the winners for the debate. Ananya, depicting here views on the topic says, “The motion today was one which, no matter how many times it’s debated, can never lose it’s relevance, considering as historical precedents suggest that attempts at curtailing free expression are a recurring phenomenon.”
Apart from the main events at the workshop filler activities also attracted students. Pottery workshop was held in the college where students were seen making earthen wares with their own hands. Kite flying was also organised. Principal of the college, Dr. VK Khwatra exuberantly challenged other kite flyers and himself handled the manja well.
Spektrum, the two-day long commerce & management festival of Delhi College of Arts & Commerce was organized on the 24th and 25th of March, 2014. The festival, organised by the Commerce Association of DCAC was an amalgam of guest lectures, competitive events and the presence of Pulkit Samrat & Bilal Amrohi, the male leads of the upcoming Bollywood movie ‘O Teri’.
Guest Lecture Sessions
As the tagline of Spektrum’14 was, ‘Amaze. Inspire. Achieve.’, the festival opened with inspirational guest lecture by Mr. Maheshwar Peri, Founder, Outlook on the topic ‘Right Place, Right Time’. This was followed by another lecture by Mr. Anubhav Khiwani, Founder, Denetim and alumni of DCAC from the class of 2005. Apart from sharing his college memories and experience, the address had an inspirational angle to it too. “The killer instinct is always to prove yourself, so, never give up”, Mr. Khiwani said during his address.
A warm welcome to the Guests of Honor on behalf of entire DCAC family.
Igniting of the lamp & opening of the festival on March 24th, 2014.
Mr. Anubhav Khiwani (Founder, Denetim Services) addressing the crowd at his alma mater.
Mr. Maheshwar Peri (Founder, Outlook Magazine), delivering a lecture on ‘Right Place, Right Time’
The Array of Events
1. Polemic Foe: The Commercial Covert
The event was designed to test the knowledge, speaking skills and confidence of the selected six finalists on topics given extempore. However, this came with a twist, as each round had a covert, who was equipped with helping aid, in form of pointers related to given topic. Hence, along with the said, it also tested the presence of mind, balancing streak and ability to accurately guess and eliminate the covert.
Winner – Anshul Gupta ( Delhi College of Arts & Commerce)
Polemic Foe : The Commercial Covert.
2. Kaizen : The Inventory Management Competition
The event focused on the importance of inventory management in the cost profit relations of an organization.
Winners – Siddharth Jain & Utkarsh Srivastava (Delhi College of Arts & Commerce)
Runners Up – Vaishnavi Pathania & Monica (Motilal Nehru College)
The budding inventory managers at work in the preliminary round to four hour long event ‘Kaizen’
The Kaizen evaluation team at work.
3. The Sensatus Business Challenge
A flagship event of Spektrum’2014, SBC hosted a unique business and idea auction, inviting bids from various investors and arranging for a face off of ideas in front of a distinguished jury.
Winners –Saurabh Jain & Aashika Aggarwal ( Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies)
Runners Up – Akshay Bansal ( Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies)
The auction winners at SBC being felicitated by Dr. Neeru Kapoor.
4. Cricket Fever: The Speculation Game
The event put to test the analytic skills, speculation and calculations of all the seventy participating teams in the game which runs in the blood of all Indians – Cricket.
Winner – Dev Khari & Deepak Kumar (DCAC)
First Runner Up – Arjun & Rakesh Aggarwal (DCAC)
5. Commusic – The Commerce & Music Quiz
A far more interesting quiz than the traditional grilling & tough question-answers, Commusic questioned the participating teams on easy commerce & music related questions, something everyone related to. The concept being new was widely accepted as 70 teams participated in the fun filled event that went on for three rounds.
First Runners Up – Savan Singh & Arunav Chaudhary (Zakir Hussain College/ Ram Lal Anand College)
Second Runners Up – Shenjit Basu & Ridhiman Roy (Delhi College of Arts & Commerce)
6. Portfolio Perfecto : The B-Plan Competition
A platform for presentation, discussion and improvement of innovative business & entrepreneurship ideas and felicitation of the best one.
Winners – Rohan Kapoor & Himanshu Garg ( Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji Institute of Technology)
Runners Up – Vipul Vaid & Shivani Garg ( Delhi Technological University)
Distinguished panel of judges evaluating the presented business ideas.
7. Stock – O- Holic
The event which showcased an artificial simulation of a financial stock exchange with its dynamic streaks of bullish & bearish trends of market. Over 120 teams registered for the event, which went on for more than four hours.
Winners – Adarsh & Salil Arora (Delhi College of Arts & Commerce)
L to R : Bilal Amrohi, Pulkit Samrat & director Atul Agnihotri
Pulkit Samrat writing messages for fans on the promotional ‘O Teri’ T shirts.
Bilal Amrohi & Pulkit Samrat’s short dance performance at Spektrum DCAC.
The closing ceremony of DCAC’s Spektrum was graced up by the presence of actor Pulkit Samrat & Bilal Amrohi, who had come to the college campus for the promotion of their upcoming flick – ‘O Teri’ scheduled to release on March 28th, 2014. The actors were seen interacting with students as well as teachers, distributing CDs , signing T shirts and dancing in their short fifteen minutes appearance to a packed audience desirous of witnessing more of the two leads.
“Mission Mars”, celebrating the launch of India’s Mars Orbiter, Mangalyaan.
Sankalan 2014 saw the participation of 250+ students from 30 colleges across 6 states of the country. The 2-day festival consisted of 16 events, which ranged from those that required specialised computing skills such as Code-a-Thon and Java Juggling to those that did not require programming skills such as Turncoat, the debate event. Further, the events included TexPert, Algoholics, Debug++, Spin-a-web, Sprint, Mind Matters and Techno Speak, the name of each event being a subtle reference to the it’s format.
The department also hosted two gaming events, namely Just a Minute, which comprised of simple one-minute games, and Kill ‘em All, which featured the classic first-person shooter game of Counter Strike 1.6.
Two new introductions this year were MakeAPP and Chakravyuh. MakeAPP was a developer challenge that required participants in teams of 2 to develop an Android application highlighting India’s on-going Mars Mission. The requirements of the app were a display of fun facts about Mars, a quiz, a countdown to the orbiter reaching Mars and even a Mars weight converter. Silent Assassins, the team from Delhi Technological University (DTU) won the 1st prize for their app.
Chakravyuh, on the other hand, was an online treasure hunt in which participants were asked questions as hints and they were required to search and submit the correct answers. Atul Sharma of University School of Information Technology won the 1st prize whereas Aakarshan Chawla from Madras Institute of Technology won the Best Helper Award.
The chief guest of the fest was Prof. V.B Aggarwal, Director of IT at JIMS and Founder Head of Department of Computer Science of University of Delhi itself. The guest of honour was Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CEO of MobiSolv.
Silent Assassins, the team from DTU, won 6 of the 16 events, subsequently being awarded the ‘Team Trophy’, given to the team that wins in maximum events.
To facilitate participants of Sankalan, the department also created, besides a website, an Android app dedicated to the event that displayed the schedule of events, directions to the venue of the festival and contact details of the organisers.]]>
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.
The Entrepreneurship Cell of Sri Venkateswara College held their annual fest known as the ‘Entregenesis’ on the 5th and 6th of March.
Prominent individuals such as Padmaja Ruparel (President of the Indian Angel Network), Sujit Banerjee (director/scientist, Department of Science and Technology), Gautam Puri (Vice Chairman & Co-founder of CL Educate Ltd), Shankar Halder (Ex-Chief technology officer of Bharti Airtel), Harkesh Mittal (Advisor and Head, NSTEDB, DST), Rajat Tandon (Senior Director NASSCOM) and Juhi Rai Farmania (Entrepreneur/ Author) graced the main stage, to share valuable insights and experiences with the eager youths.
Several competitive events such as Ad-Quotient, Idea-logy, Taboo, Multiplex, Maestros , Just a Minute and B-plan (which was by far the largest bait with almost Rs. 30,000 worth prize money) were also held in other venues during the two day event.
Prominent individuals such as Padmaja Ruparel, the President of the Indian Angel Network, Sujit Banerjee, the director/scientist at National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Gautam Puri, the Vice Chairman & Co-founder of CL Educate Ltd, Shankar Halder (Ex-Chief technology officer of Bharti Airtel), Harkesh Mittal (Advisor and Head, NSTEDB, DST), Rajat Tandon (Senior Director NASSCOM) and Juhi Rai Farmania, who is an entrepreneur and author graced the main stage, to share valuable insights and experiences with the eager youths.
Shreyak Mahajan and Yagya Vats from Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology won B- Plan and took away almost Rs. 30,000 as prize money.
A special mention has to be made about the star appearance by Manish Paul. Mr. Paul is an Actor/ Anchor known best for his comic timing. The central stage, which was set up in the middle of the college cricket greens, was packed with eager fans as the TV star took to the stage. To put it briefly – there was a lot of shouting, screaming, laughter and a very lucky young man made away with Manish Paul’s jacket, grinning from ear to ear. All in all, Manish Paul wrapped up the entire event with a neat little bow.
The annual fest of the Mass Media and Mass Communication department of Indraprastha College for Women – ‘Parampara’ was held on 3rd March and went on till the 8th. A national seminar was held on the 3rd comprising of several well known panelists from the media industry. The discussion comprised of two sessions, the topic for the first session was ‘New Challenges before Media in Democracy’. Mr. Anurag Batra, CEO Exchange for Media group was the chairperson as well as the keynote speaker. Amongst others were Sangeeta Malhan, former journalist and author of ‘The TOI Story’ and Anjali Bhardwaj, co-convener people’s RTI campaign. The topic for the second session was ‘Reporting from Conflict Zones’ and Kishalay Bhattacharjee, a former NDTV reporter of the Naxal movement was the chairperson. Preeti Mehra, associate editor of The Hindu and Ajith Pillai, former Correspondent for The Outlook were the speakers.
The second day comprised of the student session which was chaired by the head of the department and Principal Ms. Babli Moitra Saraf. The topic was ‘Attitude of Media towards Nascent Horses in Politics’. Students presented on this topic and the session was enlightening. The topic was mainly interpreted in the AAP context and how media built their image.
In the second half of the day, several competitions were held. VJ Hunt was judged by RJ Abhilash from Fever 104 FM. The 1st prize went to Khyati Sharma and second to Sampada Jagga. Q-Mat, the quiz competition was won my Netijayata Mehendru and Arzoo Bhel.
Apart from these, the photography competition, Frame Politik had two themes Market and Emotions. The 1st prize in the Market category went to Sahil Ali and the 2nd prize was won by Abhishek Gupta. In the Emotion category, the first prize went to Akanksha Chitkara and the second one went to Sakshi Jaiswal.
Mise-en-scene, the movie screening event was inaugurated by the celebrated documentary writer Mr. Anand Patwardhan and his film ‘Jai Bhim Comrade’ was screened on 5th March, followed by an interactive session with him. 2 p.m. on wards, films made by students were screened. The fiction category was won by LV Prasad College and the second Position went to National Insititute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). The Non-Fiction category was won by Jamia Milia Islamia and second prize went to I.P. College. On the Spot film making was won by JIMS, Vasant Kunj.
The event ended with a talk by Mr. Nagesh Kukunoor and the screening of his film ‘Laxmi’ on 8th March. Having faced trouble with the censor board and being forced to delete many scenes and dialogues, he wanted his film seen uncut before it gets released in theatres. So he came to IPCW to get his message across to students. The movie was about a young girl Laxmi who was sold by her father and how she gets over hundred people caught by testifying against them.
Cascade’14, the annual commerce fest of Gargi College took place on Friday, 28th February. The event commenced with the traditional lamp lighting ceremony. The latest issue of Comascent, the bi-annual magazine of commerce department was released by Mr. Amitabh Kant, the Chief Guest. Ms. Shereen Bhan, the Managing Editor of CNBC-TV18, the guest of honour, threw light on the topic of the seminar, “21st Century Marketing- Opportunities & Challenges”.
The keynote speaker of the seminar, Dr. Mithileshwar Jha, Professor of Marketing at IIM Bangalore, delivered the keynote address on the topic. He gave an overview on Marketing in the 21st Century. Mr. Kant, who has been the CEO of Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Ltd, then addressed the audience and talked about his campaigns like ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’, ‘Incredible India’ and ‘God’s Own Country’. He said “Branding isn’t just about marketing your product; it has to do with the improvement in the quality of your product”.
Ms. Smriti Singh Bhatia, VP at TNS Global India, the next speaker of the seminar talked about ‘New ways to market Automotive in the 21st Century’ and the new essentials of the automotive market. Mr. Rahul Gandhi, Regional Manager- North ITC LTD, introduced himself by saying “My name is Rahul Gandhi & I’m not a politician” and laughed. He compared marketing in 21st Century with that used in 20th and 19th century and talked about digital media, social marketing as a concept and some of the fastest growing brands.
Mr. Chander Shekhar, founder CEO of Shade- a Design Enterprise, who has served as a full time Senior Design Consultant for UNICEF, talked about branding and his experiences in the field of design. He said, “I wanted to do things that pleased me and are free from greed. This is how I became my own publisher and started providing services to others without making any profits.” The seminar ended with the announcement of inception of the Marketing Society- Make Your Mark, an initiative taken by Vidushi Bhalla and Navtej Marwaha under the guidance of Ms. Sheela Dubet and Ms. Chitra Rajora.
Winners of the Informal competitions held:
Young Entrepreneur
1st prize: Ashish Kohar, Divyansh Dua & Arushi Bhatia, College of Vocational Studies
2nd prize: Aditya Anand & Anushka Sibal, Ramjas College
3rd prize: Himanshu Garg & Sanchi, Sri Guru Gobind College of Commerce
Dancing brushes
1st prize: Kunal Singh from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College
2nd prize: Satveer from Gargi College
3rd prize: Bhanu Priya Pareek from Gargi College
Wrap it up
1st position: Monisha and Ishu from Gargi College
Second position: Preeti, Richa and Sakshi from Gargi College
After Papa CJ, Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan, it was time for Raghu Dixit to entertain SRCC. As part of Livewire at Histrionica 2014, The Raghu Dixit performed for the massive crowd that gathered in the SRCC parking lot. The event was open for non SR-ites as well and this meant that people lined up to watch the performance. Despite the delay, the numbers never dwindled and most people would agree with the fact that it was truly worth the wait.
With songs from their latest album Jag Changa as well as some of their all time favorites like Ambar, Khidki, Hey Bhagwan, No man will ever love you like I do and many more, fans were truly in for a treat as they enjoyed the concert.
Histrionica brought some of the biggest names in the Industry over the course of the festival and the performance by The Raghu Dixit Project definitely had everyone on their feet.
