Hans Raj Annual Cultural Event 2014 Archives - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

After the first day at the Hans Raj Annual Cultural Event focused on dance and drama, the second day turned out to be a musical one.

The event was attended by few guests and dignitaries. Dr. V.K Khwatra – principal of the college, Mrs. Sonal Gupta – ECA Convenor, Mr. M.P Sharma – Dramatics Head and Sports Faculty, Dr. Mahasweta Saika and other faculty members of the college were present.

Swaranjali – the music society of college had the present as well as alumni bands performing. The function also witnessed some solo performances by members of the society.

Jasleen Kaur – member of Swaranjali started the event with her solo performance. She sang two songs for the audience which were both punjabi folk tracks. Aisian Nighwan originally sung by Richa Sharma for Coke Studio was her first song and is about the joyful feeling one experiences in love. Charkha by Wadali Brothers, on the contrary is about separation and pain in love which she sung next. Jasleen is a well known classical and sufi singer and she has featured on various channels like Zee Punjabi, Fateh TV, PTC Punjabi and more. She was the only one from the university to perform a solo at Mood Indigo, IIT – Bombay’s classical concert where she opened for famous Pandit Ronu Majhumdar and secured the third position.

Raagleela – last year’s Indian Band of the college performed its five original productions. The band has opened for Salim-Sulaiman at Mood Indigo 2012 and was also shortlisted in top 100 bands of country to compete for a slot at MTV Coke Studio.

Freewill was also an alumni band that performed for the event. It was a western band of the college for the year 2012-13. The members reunited after a year to perform in the college. They performed one original production and two cover productions.

Sagar Chawla, who is the keyboard player for both Freewill and Raagleela said, “I feel really nostalgic to come back to the place from where it all started. But at the same time we all miss the presence of Rachna Ma’am. This all couldn’t have been possible without them.” Members also dedicated a song to Late. Rachna Sharma, who was the ECA Convener of the college.

Nirupan Sinha, a western vocalist of the college band and also part of Freewill also gave a solo performance. Nirupan performed two songs which were Dreaming and Make you feel my love. He had bagged the first position for western solo singing at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Kamala Nehru College, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce and ISBF. At Mood Indigo, he was adjudged the second best singer.

Last for the day was the current band of the college – Hansraj Projekt. The band performed it’s four original productions namely Batiyaan, Dil Se, Tarapa & In and Out. The home crowd at Hans Raj cheered for their band and the guests also enjoyed the performance.

Hansraj Projekt with it’s four productions this year has bagged various prizes at different competition like other societies of the college. They won the battle of bands at IIT Bombay where they also opened for Mohit Chauhan. The band was awarded an recording contract with T-SERIES there. It also recorded the track Kaisa Hota for the album Sounds of Freedom’14. The band participated in the band competitions all over the country and were awarded first positions at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, IIT Delhi, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies and ISBF.

Sajal Sharma, the president of Swaranjali and also a member of Hansraj Projekt and Freewill told DU Beat, “This was a mission for us and it was accomplished. It was great to have the alumni members coming in and taking part in this small celebration of music.”

Image Credit: Udit Chauhan

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The Fine Arts Society and Dramatics Society of Hans Raj College organised Annual Cultural Event on 12-13th March. The event aims to bring all the cultural societies of the college together to perform for the home crowd.

Chief Guest for the event was Dr. Suchitra Gupta – Deputy Dean, Culture and Youth Affairs, University of Delhi. She said, “I appreciate the effort of college authorities for organising this cultural event in the cultural week alloted by the University.” The event was also attended by the college principal, Dr. VK Khwatra; ECA Convenor, Mrs. Sonal Gupta; Hindi Dramatics Head, Mr. M.P Sharma and other teachers of various departments.

The first day began with the Rangoli Making in front of the auditorium with participation from both students and teachers. This was followed by Swaranjali – the music society of college performing it’s Indian choir composition called Pratham Gajavadana Dhyaye Sada. After the spiritual Ganesh Vandana, the lamp lighting ceremony took place. All the guests for the day lit the holy lamp.

Dr. V.K. Khwatra while addressing the audience said, “Cultural activities are the essence of one’s college life. Irrespective of what your future plans are, each student should go through the process of joining a society in college and doing something productive along with studies.”

The performances started with Terpsichoreon – the choreography society of college performing their annual dance production. A 10-minute dance act on the theme, “personality fear” talked about how we should accept and acknowledge this fear because one can by no means overcome this personality fear.

B (247) (1) — Siddhi Jain with her Bharat Natyam Performance

Siddhi Jain, the ECA entry for dance performed Bharatanatyam for the audience. The act performed was a ‘Pushpanjali’ – which means an offering of flowers. Siddhi is a disciple of Guru Jayalakshmi Eshwar and has been learning Bharata Natyam since the age of five years. She has also performed in Japan under the cultural programme JNESYS.

Oorja – the western dance society performed thereafter. The western dance was performed on a medley of various hindi and punjabi songs. Tanushree Pande, the president of the society said, “Oorja is the only society to have bagged a chance to perform with world’s best Latin dancers at IFL 2013. We consider this as a great achievement.”

Santosh – a Sanskrit honours student of the college was handling fillers in the event. He was entertaining the audience with his Hindi shayari.

A Kathak dance was performed by a Srihari Madhav, a trained Kathak Dancer. He is also an ECA entrant into the college for dance and is part of Terpsichoreon. He started with a ganesh vandana by Late Guru Pandit Durga Lal which was followed by conventional kathak performance on Panjitji’s compositions in teentaal. Srihari who is trained Kathak dancer from Kathak Kendra, the national academy of Kathak dance says, “During my childhood, a teacher used to come to train my sister. I just joined in then. Not many male dancwers go out to learn this dance form but a form like this stays with you for life.” Srihari is a proud performer for CWG 2010 Youth Festival and Didacta Education Fair in Hanover Germnay.

Day one ended with a performance by Hansraj Dramatics Society who presented their much acclaimed production ‘Holi’. The play has won the first position at SGTB Khalsa, Daulat Ram College and Jesus and Mary College. Holi, a story about a bunch of hostel friends showcases the different levels of temperament of today’s youth. A play that projects the events happening in a single day talks about the realistic lifestyle of a college hostel and how the timeline changes from day to night. The production has also won awards at Dyal Singh College, Hindu College and St. Stephens College. Purusharth Budhiraja and Nirmal Kothari, actors for the production have also bagged the best actor awards. Mrs. Gupta, the chief guest who is also an eminent theatre personality gave members of Holi a small feedback and expressed her desire to have one common theatre production for the whole university.

Mrs. Sonal Gupta, the ECA Convenor said, “It is great to see how all the societies of the college excel in various competitions all over the country. It is a matter of great pride for the college.”

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