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Vineeta Rana, Editor 2017-18 writes her farewell note, bidding goodbye to DU Beat.

I first came across DU Beat during my college research post my Grade 12 examinations and recognised instantly that it was a platform like none other. It had the perfect blend of credible University of Delhi (DU) news that I required and light-hearted college-oriented content that I couldn’t wait to consume as a student studying in the varsity. In one of my first weeks in college, I watched with awe as one of my seniors who worked at DUB distributed a print issue. I wanted so desperately to be involved with the organisation, but when she told me I should apply at the end of my first year, I was doubtful. I wasn’t sure I was good enough for such an esteemed platform and I didn’t want to face the possible rejection. But I went ahead and applied anyway, and I can confidently say that it was the best decision of my college life.

I was recruited as a correspondent but started copyediting only a few months into my tenure, and had the opportunity to realise my passion for print publications by working with DUB’s print core. From getting to cover BITS Pilani’s Oasis with no senior member in the team in my third semester to heading LSR’s Tarang in my fourth, fest season became my favourite time of the year. I couldn’t get over the media privileges and interviews that a press ID card granted me, but more importantly, I couldn’t get over how much fun I had during it all with some of my best friends by my side. Before I knew it, my passion for writing had seamlessly expanded into my passion for the organisation and its members.

By virtue of its dynamism, DUB offers a steep learning curve that is rarely seen in other establishments. My tenure as Editor has been the single greatest learning experience and has taught me through practice what I would not have had the opportunity to learn anywhere else. The 2017-18 team accomplished certain unprecedented feats for the platform – daily videos, regular graphic series, and our first-ever on-ground event, Mushaira, to name a few. All of these projects allowed me to drastically hone my journalistic, interpersonal, and leadership skills. But the extraordinary feature of DUB lies beyond these professional accomplishments.

To an outsider (and even to me when I first joined), DUB is a credible platform for university-related news and a media publication that churns out impressive content on a daily basis. However, being part of this team, and having the privilege of leading it for the past year, has opened my eyes to what this organisation actually is – a team in the truest sense of the word. DUB is made up of the most talented and hardworking individuals in the University of Delhi who come together to fulfil a shared vision of responsible journalism and student-based issues. We pitch in for each other when it is required and take on responsibilities we technically have no obligations to fulfil. I have been lucky enough to work with a team of department heads who have now become my closest confidantes, and even more fortunate to work with an immeasurably skilled team of copyeditors who have played a crucial role in the growth of our newspaper. Moving ahead, I am immensely proud to pass the baton to Kinjal Pandey as Editor and Vijeata Balani and Bhavya Banerjee as Associate Editors for web and print. I am confident that with their leadership, the next year holds great things in store for the platform.

Being a part of DU Beat for the last two years has been the experience of a lifetime and I am beyond grateful to everyone who made the journey as fruitful as it has been. To DUB and all the DUBsters I have ever had the honour of working with, thank you for everything.

Vineeta Rana
[email protected]

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Three Years at DU Beat: A Purpose, A Family, A Constant – Shubham Kaushik, Editor (2016-17)

By Shubham Kaushik April 29, 2017

Writing has never been difficult for me. I am better with words on paper than I am with words in speech. That was the idiosyncrasy that led me to DU Beat as a disillusioned first year student undergoing an identity crisis. However, as I sat down to write this Farewell note at the end of my time with this platform, I found myself at a loss for words. It’s clearly not easy saying goodbye to something that has been an integral part of my identity for the past three years.

DU Beat has continued to grow by leaps and bounds since its inception ten years ago, and it was an absolute honour to have had the chance to influence this growth during a period that saw great tumult and radical changes in the world, especially in the student community. We were at the forefront of covering important issues around the University throughout the year, including the DUSU elections and the events at Ramjas College earlier this year, and proudly stuck to our motto of ‘Freedom of Expression’.

What makes DU Beat great, apart from the fact that we are the one of the biggest campus publications in the country, is the amount and diversity of the opportunities it has to offer. Some apply looking for an internship experience, others do it for the want of a platform that gives space to their talent which their academic life has no scope for, and yet others – like yours truly – do it in search of a purpose to keep themselves engaged and energised during the course of their otherwise drab college lives. Everyone gets what they are looking for, and more. Working at DU Beat isn’t just writing articles, meeting deadlines and covering events. It is also finding yourself in unexpected situations and learning to adapt in order to come out at the top. It is on-ground, real-world experience that’s hard to come by for 20-year-old students so early in their career. It is finding kaleidoscopic minds coming together for riveting conversations who become teammates to work with and friends to depend on and meet outside of work. It is gruelling, challenging yet rewarding work, and laughter, appreciation and unwinding with a team that starts feeling like family. It was all of that for me for the past three years – a purpose, a family, a constant. By the end of your time here, you don’t realise most of the voids you came with because this place finds a way to fill them.

Out of all the things we achieved this year – from the increases in our readership to experimenting successfully with live platforms – I am the most proud of the team we’ve managed to put together. It is with a heavy heart but immense confidence that I leave this team we built in the capable leadership of Vineeta Rana, as the Editor for the year 2017-18, and Srivedant Kar, as the Associate Editor. With the satisfaction of having seen everyone in the team grow not only as journalists but also as people, I sign off from my duties as the Editor for 2016-17.

Shubham Kaushik

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From the Editor’s desk: New slate, blank page, and similar

By Shubham Kaushik August 6, 2016

I’ve always loved beginnings. New years, new days, new notebooks – everything. In the constancy of life and living the same old, beginnings offer a chance for a change. If you think about it and want to give yourself an existential crisis, nothing really changes from one year to another, or one day to another. Time is a man-made concept, and is really just a bit of the old wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. However, the good thing is that we are men (women, non-binary humans, whatever you prefer) so we do get to believe in all man-made concepts. Even if nothing really changes from one year to another and you aren’t the kind to make new year resolutions, there will still be things you’ll do differently because of it; maybe just cutting out or writing over the last digit of the year while writing the date in the first few months. That is exciting for me. It’s like the universe is trying to point out that you’ve been inertial for a while and say, “Hey, look, something has changed! Do you want to do something about it?”

So the question is – do you want to do something about it? You don’t get offered do-overs in life but beginnings are almost as good. You can’t go back and correct things but beginnings offer you a chance to make peace with things that have happened and sort of draw a fresh starting line to have another go at it with whatever changes you want to make. That is also the reason why every beginning is better than the last – you are more conscious about where you went wrong and can correct yourself if you feel that you’re slipping into the same old pattern again.

Not only do I love beginnings, I also believe that they are important. The start of something new may not colour the entire narrative but a good start sure doesn’t hurt. That’s reason enough to be excited about beginnings. If you weren’t happy with how school life turned out, you get to turn over a new leaf and leave a considerable bit of that behind. I know I did. If last year didn’t work out for you in college, you get to change things – leave societies, join societies, talk to the people you want, get new notebooks which offer the promise of blank pages which you can fill however you want, even if you just doodle all over them. But, doodle better – that’s the point.

The point is also that another man-made idea of a beginning is upon us right now – a new college year. It’s as good a beginning as any other. Whether you want to do something about it or not is entirely your choice. But what a great time for starting something! The US might get a woman President, Pokemon fans are everywhere, and Delhi rains are not a sad excuse for a monsoon. So, there are, indeed, exciting times ahead!

Shubham Kaushik
[email protected]

Image Credits: www.8womendream.com

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