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Hindu College witnessed a celebration of sorts on 28th March 2014. The occasion was the Foundation Stone ceremony for the college’s new academic block and the girls’ hostel.

The Academic Block is a result of the increasing student population in the college. This new block would provide lecture rooms, laboratories for the science students and common rooms for both teachers and students. The girls’ hostel, however, has been on the cards since 2006 but due to approval issues from the municipality and other authorities it took the college 8 years to initiate the construction. The hostel is meant to accommodate 200 girls along with 4-5 female teachers.

Lt. Governor Sh. Najeeb Jung, NCT, Delhi; Prof. Dinesh Singh, Vice Chancellor of Delhi University; Mr. SNP Punj, Chairman of Governing body, Hindu College; Shri Desh Rajgupta, Secretary of Hindu College Education Fund and the Acting Principal of the college Mr. Pradyumn Kumar laid down the foundation stone first for the girls’ hostel and then for the academic block followed by the auspicious ceremony of breaking the coconut on the site to ensure its success. After this, they proceeded to the auditorium of the college where students had already been seated to address the gathering. The programme began to the tune of the national anthem which was followed by a speech given by Mr. SNP Punj where he talked about the culture of the college and the success it has achieved till now.

The stage was then taken by Prof. Dinesh Singh who reminisced his old college days when being a Stephanian he would come to Hindu for its “bun andas” and how he is so glad to see that Hindu is ready to build its own girls’ hostel and provide outstation female students with more opportunities to achieve their dreams. Lt. Governor Sh. Najeeb Jung, another Stephanian also talked about Hindu college with nostalgia as he was almost about to be a part of Hindu.

Finally, the principal of the college took a hold of the mike. He relayed a vote of thanks to the esteemed guests and expressed his happiness over the project undertaken by the college. He then addressed his students in his famous sher-o-shayari style with the following lines –

“Unn rahon pe chalna hai,
jahan girna aur sambhalna hai
Hum hai voh diye auro ke liye,
Jinhe tufanon main jalna hai”

A brief talk on Delhi and the various characteristics of Delhi through the ages is what dominated the annual seminar organized by the History Department of Hindu College on Wednesday, 5th March 2014.

The seminar began with the teacher head of the Department Mr. Ahmad Hassan giving a brief introduction about the topic ‘Delhi Through the Ages’ and informed that the seminar was going to take place in a preceding order because of time differences. The eminent speakers invited by the college took the stage soon after and began the talk. The first speaker for the day was Prof. Amar Farooqui – a Delhi University graduate, Professor at Hans Raj College. He currently works with the Department of History and has many papers and books to his credit like ‘The Early Social Formations’- an important textbook for History students all around Delhi University. Prof. Farooqui, who talked about Modern Delhi, apologized to the audience because traditionally the seminar should have been Medieval Delhi moving to Modern Delhi and not the opposite but due to differences in the time schedule it had to be held in a preceding order, however, he said this would give a new and different perspective to the topic. Prof. Farooqui focused on the time period from 19th century to the eve of the First World War and talked about the changes in the layout of the city giving various examples about places in Delhi that the students could connect to.

Dr. Shama Mitra Chenoy, a teacher of History at Shivaji College and a graduate from Hindu College, walked next to the stage to talk about Medieval Delhi. Dr. Chenoy gave the talk through a PowerPoint presentation so that the students could easily understand and follow the talk. She focused on the physical space of Shahjahanabad, that is, Old Delhi around the 12th century. Her main aim was to give the students a general talk on Medieval Delhi to “familiarize them with the attractions that it had and continues to have”. With the help of pictures Dr. Chenoy tried to describe the “striking visual beauty of the city” and also provided an aerial view of the city with proper maps. Ending the talk and the seminar for the day she described Shahjahanabad as a “city like many others but still unlike the others”.

A gathering of almost 65-70 students attended the seminar and tried to understand the intricacies of Delhi through the ages. “The seminar was interesting especially because it was about Delhi and included places that we have visited or can visit”, said a student on his experiences about attending the same.

Day two at Medina – the annual theatre festival of Hindu College witnessed the street play competition – Itehaad-e-Ibtida on 7th March. After day one of Qissa-e-Ibtida (stage play competition), Dastan goi (Urdu storytelling) and Filmy Chakkar (Bollywood Quiz), day two featured only the nine hour long street play competition.

Continuing the tradition of bringing something new and unique for street theatre artists, Medina is not about the usual annual productions being performed by various teams. All the artists are given different challenges each year – these range from performing the production of other teams participating, to performing a 2 year old production of your own society with a preparation time of few hours. This year all the teams were shuffled, each time having members of 5 other teams divided according to the year of their study and music art portrayed in the performances. Through this process, 10 teams were formed and they were given 3 hours preparation time to make a new play on different social topics given to each team through a chit system. The topics given were related to the topics on which plays in the university have been happening recently.

Mr. Sahil Yadav, alumni of Ibtida and presently in Jawaharlal Nehru University judged the event. He mentioned, “Medina is different because it is not a usual competition. Artists come out of their comfort zone. They perform with people whom they don’t know, brainstorm and form a play in few hours.”

Participating teams included SGTB Khalsa College, Hansraj College, Jesus and Mary College, PGDAV College, Ramanujan College, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Miranda House, Shivaji and Guru Teg Bahadur Institute of Technology.

After 3 hours of preparation, all the teams presented their plays. The results were as follows:

1st position:
Team – final year students of Ramanujan College, second year students of SGTB Khalsa and first year students of GTBIT with musicians from Jesus and Mary College. They performed a play on Gender Inequality.

2nd position:
Team – final year students from College of Business Studies and Hansraj College, second year students from shivaji and PGDAV freshers with musicians from Shri Ram College of Commerce. “Old Age is…” is the play they presented on old age challenges and problems.

Retiring Actor Award: Prabhjot Singh, SGTB Khalsa College

Newcomer Award: Nikita Kumar, Miranda House

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Rohit Kumar of India’s Got Talent fame, made a sand painting depicting various elements of street theatre. This was followed by the feedback session and small celebration organised by Ibtida. The cake cutting was followed by a DJ where students themselves also sang songs from Hindi cinema. All the participants, same as the judge really liked the concept.

A member of dramatics society of Shri Ram College Of Commerce said, “Itehaad-e-Ibtida is the best and the most creative theatre festival of Delhi University. We wait for Medina 2015. Thank you for keeping the true spirit of theatre alive in the circuit.”

With the tagline ‘Sailing through Drama’, Ibtida – the Hindi dramatics society of Hindu College is holding Medina, the 3rd Annual theatre festival on 6th-7th March.

Three events were scheduled for the first day of Medina. These included DastangoiFilmy Chakkar and Qissa-e-Ibtida.

The day started with Dastangoi, the last form of Urdu storytelling event which went for an hour. Dastangoi promotes the lost art of Urdu storytelling. “Kabir ke dohe ko, unki kavitaaon ko, unki zindagi ke baare mein muh zubani btana hi hamara kaam hai”, said Ankit Chadha who was the performer for the event. Ankit is the alumni of Ibtida and Hindu College. Dastangoi was held at the Virgin Tree in the college campus where Mr. Chadha was too subtle to be the lead performer. Sitting on a mattress under the tree, he attracted a lot of spectators.

Dastangoi by ankit
Dastangoi

Filmy Chakkar, the bollywood quiz was also held at the same place as that of Dastangoi right after it. Various teams participated and the quiz was divided into three rounds. Each question had various hints and teams were marked accordingly. The participants had to guess names of bollywood actors and films through these hints. Abhyuday Tiwari and Pranjal from Hindu College won Filmy Chakkar with a cash prize of Rs. 1000 and prizes in kind worth Rs. 4000.

Last in line for the first day at Medina was Qissa-e-Ibtida – the non competitive stage play event. Four top teams were selected for the finals by the Ibtida team through a screening process. This celebration of theatre began with Kirori Mal College performing their production God followed by Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay by SGTB Khalsa College and The Private Ear by Ramjas College. The last play for Qissa-E-Ibtida was by Hans Raj College presenting Holi, their annual production.

filmy chakkar
Filmy Chakkar

Mr. Avtar Sahani – the eminent movie and theatre personality judged the event. Each team was awarded Rs. 4000 and two best actors were adjudged and presented Rs. 1000 each. Sahib Singh from SGTB Khalsa and Priyanka Kumar from KMC got the title for their respective productions.

Mr. Sahani provided feedback to all four teams and said, “Choose less subject matter, but do justice to what is there in the final script. Too many things lead to confusion. Clarity in theatre is very important which can be achieved by not deviating from the main theme of the act.” He appreciated all teams for their effort and expressed happiness that theatre is still alive in the university.

While Ibtida, the Hindi Dramatics society of Hindu College prepared for ‘Medina 2014’, Masque – the English theatre society organised ‘Masquerade 2014’ on the 5th and 6th of March, 2014 at Akshara Theatre, a well known exquisite theatre and arts complex of Delhi. ‘Masquerade’ is the fourth theatre event organised by Masque, however the second year for it being a theatre celebration. The festival in its first two editions was a competitive event where the performing teams used to fight for a title.

“The basic motive behind organising Masquerade 2014 is that theatre, as a paid profession is not appreciated in our society quite well. Hence, we wish to attract theatre enthusiasts from DU to celebrate theatre and its spirit and cater to an audience spread across Delhi. And that is why we thought of changing it to a non-competitive event after the second edition of the festival”, Mrinalini, president of the society said.

The event formerly being merely theatre oriented, witnessed the incorporation of music into the festival for the first time.  “When we organize this festival to celebrate theatre, and then why not include other cultural aspects like music?” said Akanksha, the Vice President of Masque.” In light of the same, Masquerade 2014 had seven theatre performances (out of which, one was by the host team) and four musical performances which include bands as well as the individual acts. Through the prelim process, six stage teams were shortlisted out of total of eighteen teams.

Day One – March 5th, 2014 ( Wednesday)

Numerous colleges like Shivaji College, Hans Raj College and Ramjas College presented their annual productions namely Mission 31, Holi and The Private Ear respectively. Dhruv Visvanath, who had previously performed at the fests like Sri Venkateswara’s Nexus and Hansraj College’s Confluence also performed for the audience. Vidur Hans and The Burnt Alternative, another band that played with harmonic acoustic sounds and is indulged in serious song writing process showed up for the day.

The audience comprised of people from all age groups including the families of performers.The organising society had done arrangements wherein the photos of all teams were put up, with a feedback chart at the counters. Anybody from the audience or other teams could write his/her views about the respective team’s performance. The chart was later presented to the respective teams by the members of Masque.

Day Two – March 6th, 2014 ( Thursday)

Day 2 witnessed similar plays and audiences as Day 1. Another band called ‘L for Vendetta’ famous from its recent win at the ‘Battle of Bands’ in Hans Raj College’s ‘Confluence 2014’ also performed at Masquerade. Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi Technical University, Kirori Mal College and the host team also presented their stage annual productions which are Love and Money, Kya Dilli Kya Lahore, The Chatroom and 5th Symphony respectively.

Neeraja Narayanaswamy, the lead vocalist of the band, Moon Shadow Frequency also performed at the festival. The concluding day for ‘Masquerade’ was the first day of the Hindi Dramatics Fest of Hindu College, Medina – 2014.

The Chemistry Society of Hindu College, Tatva, organised its annual departmental fest Catalysis on the 28th of February and 1st if March, 2014. ‘Substance’, the department magazine was inaugurated on the first day by the Chief Guest Mr. Ajay Poddar, Principal Dr. Pradumn,  the teacher in charge, Dr, Reena Jain and the Convenor Dr. Anju Srivastava. This year, the fest invited speakers to discuss topics that went beyond the subject of Chemistry.

Mr. Ajay Poddar, Managing Director, Synergy Environics Ltd spoke to the audience about the health hazards of mobile radiations on the human body.  The talk was an eye-opener for most students sitting in the audience. He demonstrated the extent to which radiations from cell phones interfered with the human nervous communication system by inviting a volunteer on stage for an activity. Mr. Poddar went on to talk about his research in the invention of an Enviro-chip, an environment friendly chip which deflected these harmful radiations and thus saved the human body from such disastrous effects.

The second day had a plenary lecture by Sh. Girish Bhatia, Founder and Leadership Coach, John Maxwell Team. He spoke about personality development, self-image and goal setting. He also spoke about the importance of creating a life full of happiness, health and success.

Both days saw participation of various students in a lot of activities like poster presentation, Chemical Rangoli, quiz, Chemistry Cricket League, Treasure Hunt, debate, slow cycle race, chemical Tambola, street play and tug of war. There was also a competition to choose Mr. and Miss Catalysis, the winners of which received prizes worth Rs.15,000. Aparna from Chemistry Honors third year and Pradeep from second year won the respective titles.

Kurtosis 2014, the annual fest of Statistics department, Hindu College took place on the 25th and 26th of February 2014. The fest began with the inauguration on 25th morning, followed by a talk on “Risk Management” by Mr. Prem Nath, Associate Director, Nova Scotia Bank. He talked to the students about how to identify and prioritize risks or any unfortunate events and to minimize it and control it to the best of your abilities; the inspirational talk gave the right tone to the rest of the day as the fest saw many competitions like Sudoku, Photography, I.P.L Auction Action, Tambola, Mock Trading and Treasure Hunt. Abhishek Chaudhry from Ramjas won the Sudoku competition while Ramesh and Divyshry from Hindu came in second and third respectively. The photography competition was won by Raman from Hindu college.

The second day began with another talk by the chief guest Dr. N.K Chadha from the psychology department. who gave the students tips on how to manage stress. Student life can get pretty stressful at times and it is important for us to know how to manage it or it could take a toll on us, Dr. Chadha gave the students advice on how they can manage the stress with just a little bit of discipline in their life. This was followed by competitions like Ad-Mad, Brain Teaser, Scavanger Hunt and Dog in the Bone. The winning team for Ad-Mad was Pankaj and team from Hindu while for the Scavanger Hunt a team comprising of Dhruv Mittal from Kirori Mal College, Lehar Raj, Deepak Sharma and Tarun Sudan from Hindu were awarded the first position. For the Brain Teaser, the winner was Manan, Shikha Goel came in second and Tulika and Gaurav came in third.

Six-sigma – the Quiz was held in the afternoon and the winners for the same were Balasubramanyam and Darshan Kalathil from Hansraj College. Dr. Yash Pal, another chief guest who attended the fest and also the former chairman of the UGC came in for an interactive session with the students and left many pearls of wisdom like “Being merely competitive is not enough, creativity is important to achieve something.”

The fest was brought to an end with a street dance competition which was won by the team of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce.

A rock night with Papon and the East India Company, a night full of dance with DJ Nucleya of Sunburn fame and Mohit Chauhan’s voice to wrap-up the three day fest – major events at Mecca 2014 in one line.

Along side elaborate crowds in the evenings, the fest was also rife with food and several informal events.

We list out all of it for you!

A devotional beginning

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Image Credit: Gurman Bhatia for DU Beat

The Annual festival of Hindu College, Mecca started on 20th February. Deputy Commissioner of Police, S.P.S Tyagi, was invited as this year’s chief guest for the opening ceremony. The topic for this year’s festival is “Brilliant Bharat”, celebrating the cultural diversity ever present in Hindu as well as an emphasis on uniting these feelings of brotherhood. Following this formal commencement of Mecca, the cultural show kick-started with a semi-classical dance performance by the Indian Dance Society, Adrita. This was followed by another enthralling performance, with Iskcon mustering heavy support as their Hare Krishna Mahamantra (Search for Happiness) were chanted and danced to by the engaged audiences.

Rock Night with Papon

Angaraag Mahanta who is more famously known to us as Papon performed at Hindu’s Rock Night along with his band East India Company on the first day of Mecca 2014. A large crowd turned up cheering as Papon stepped on the stage and took a hold of his mike. He started the performance with songs like Khumaar (performed by Papon in Coke Studio) which talks about how a guy is passionately in love with a girl but has to spend a difficult day waiting for the night to come when he can see her.

He also sang many of his more famous songs including Dinae DinaeKaun mera from the movie Special 26Kyon from Barfi! And Jiyein kyun from Dum Maaro Dum. However, what really got the crowd going were Papon’s little quirks and jokes as he explained the meaning behind his songs and how in life everything figures out in the end and you find what you are supposed to be, like he did despite being a college dropout.

DJ Night with DJ Nucleya

The second day of Mecca 2014 saw Nucleya take over the stage in collaboration with MTV Indies. Performing for the first time in Delhi University, Nucleya kept the audience on their feet for almost an hour long set. A bass heavy electronic artist from New Delhi, he played all his major hits including Street Boy, Akkad Bakkad, Bangla Bass and also a remix of Bollywood tracks like  Dum Maaro Dum and the Sound Trippin produced Tung Tung, which the audience enjoyed immensely. 

 Star Night with Mohit Chauhan

After the first day that featured Papon and the East India Company, the closing act of Hindu College’s Annual fest Mecca 2014, was all about Mohit Chauhan.

The popular singer of Silk Route fame, came on stage at quarter to six and the crowd went crazy. He started the concert with his Rockstar single, ’jo bhi main kehna chahoon’. Even in the first song, he made sure to interact with the audience making them go ‘ya ya ya’ in order to match the lyrics. Maintaining the romantic mood of the song, he went on to sing ‘Kuch khaas hai’ and then Yeh dooriyan followed by Tum se hi from Jab We Met.

Oodles of food

So many performances and so many activities do definitely leave our stomachs growling a bit. However, the numerous food and beverage stalls at Mecca indicate that the coordinators of the event had already foreseen such hunger. Making it an essential condition to avoid the embarrassment of Mecca 13’s lack of food joints, the Organising Committee seemed to really prep up the event this year around.

food

The cluster of food stalls in and around the Cricket Tree (C-Tree) had been converted into one of the major hangout spots of the festival. From the street favourites, Bhel-puri and chaat, to extensive preparations of Kathi Rolls and Shawarma’s, to elaborate wholesome lunch meals, the food stalls seemed to offer something for everyone. Yes, there was ice cream, a variety of popcorn and ‘Bangs‘ of flavour as well.

Informal Events

Apart from playing host to several major competitions, Mecca also included some informal events to engage the heavy traffic present at the college. These events, such as Face Painting, Paintball and Lazer Maze brought out a lighter side of the festivities.

lazermaze

Lazer Maze, a beat-the-clock gaming concept by the Start-up company Ent-Innova, involved an intricate heist mission, with its simple design creating quite a buzz around the college campus. The organisers were pleased with the response, considering their respective events were held at the same time as the major competitions. Paintball however, did not get the desired response as the Hindi lawns remained relatively deserted throughout the fest.

Winners’ Tally

Western Dance Competition

First Position: Mudra – Jesus and Mary College
Second Position: Verve – Sri Venkateswara College
Third Position: Oorja – Hansraj College

Nukkad Natak

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Gargi College’s Kshitij with their Annual Production Joota. Image Credit: Abhay Makhija for DU Beat

First Position: Gargi College for Joota
Second Position: Hansraj College for ‘Rihaai’ and SGTB Khalsa for ‘We, the people’
Third Position: Lady Shri Ram College for Jaha neelam hai Insaniyat and College of Vocational Studies for Lajja

Battle of the bands

First Position: Andolan
Second Position: Conundrum

Panache – The Fashion Show

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The winning team from Lady Irwin College with the judge.

First Position: Lady Irwin College
Second Position: Pearl Academy of Fashion

By Akhil Goswami, Surbhi Grover, Isheeta Sharma and Mridul Sharma

Presenting a relevant cause using music, the final day of Hindu College’s Mecca 2014 began with a concert against racism. It saw performances by three bands of north-east Indian students.

The songs being mostly in their native languages, aimed to present the array of wide culture north-east India possesses. In an attempt to sensitize the youth towards the ‘different’ Indians and to highlight the gravity of racism they faced, Sh. Pradyot, the King of Tripura delivered an awakening speech towards the end of concert.

“We are more informed about the happenings of the world, than we are about those eight states of India. Hindi is just one language spoken in India, not the only language. We all need to make an attempt to understand and warmly receive the students who leave their hometowns and culture behind for better opportunities, only then we shall be able to see the rich cultural heritage of north east India and  its importance in Indian economy and socio political system.” the King remarked.

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The winner of Mecca Idol. Image Credit: Abhay Makhija

The musical mood continued as the finals of the singing hunt ‘Mecca Idol’ were scheduled for the next slot. Post the prelims, nine participants from colleges like Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Kirori Mal, Maitreyi, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Miranda House and IIT Delhi performed in to a packed  auditorium. The audience hummed along the Sufi tunes of songs like ‘nit khaer manga’, ‘lagan lagi tumse..’, ‘tere liye..hum hai jiye’ and ‘Roza’.

The first prize was won by Sarim Ali from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College whose song ‘Teri Deewani’ had taken the event to new heights. The competion ended with a  musical performance by Aria & Alankar – the music societies of Hindu College.

Featured Image:  Sh. Pradyot, the King of Tripura. Image Credit: Abhay Makhija for DU Beat

One of the lively most events of Hindu College’s  ‘Mecca’ was the ‘Nukkad Natak’ – The street play competition held on the concluding day of the three day long fest. The event saw participation from 12 Delhi University colleges including Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Shaheed Bhagat Singh (morning and evening), SGTB Khalsa, P.G.D.A.V, Daulat Ram College and Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (DCAC).

The competition saw budding college actors exhibit confidently and openly their feelings on serious issues like prostitution, weak judiciary, poverty and corruption.

The four hour-long competition was judged by Sh. Vipul Pachori, an eminent theatre personality from the National School of Drama. Team Kshitij from Gargi college bagged the first position for their play ‘Joota’, followed by a tie at the second position between Hansraj College for ‘Rehaayi’ and SGTB Khalsa for their play ‘We, the people’. Meanwhile, the third position was credited to teams from Lady Shri Ram College for their play Jaha neelam hai Insaniyat and College of Vocational Studies for their production Lajja. Mr. Pachori provided valuable feedback to all the teams so as to improve their future performances.

“The performance at Hindu for us,  was our third one of the day. The crowd was amazing, and results have only multiplied our happiness and boosted the morales” said Gurjot Sidhu, a participant from Hansraj College.