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Hans Raj College

Organizing college fest is not the only thing a union does – Hans Raj College President

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Mr. Pranjal Srivastava, the College President 2014-15 of Hans Raj College, believes that college unions must fill in the scope for improvement that each college has in terms of  infrastructure and matters of student welfare. Pranjal who is a final year commerce student at Hans Raj College, wishes to restore the lost brand name of college.

Presenting to you, Pranjal Srivastava in conversation with our correspondent Iresh Gupta.

Iresh: What was your reaction when you got to know the election results? Was it expected?

Pranjal: The victory came as a relief for me. The burden of my entire team rested on my shoulders and I had to justify that. The victory vindicated our decision to contest in these elections after losing for the last two years. Honestly, I expected the decision to be in our favour seeing the work put in by my team in the days leading to the election. So I’d say yes, it was on expected lines.

Iresh: Why do you think you were chosen?

Pranjal: I talked about trust and faith everywhere I went for canvassing. I trusted my fellow students to take the right decision and in return they trusted me. Quid Pro Quo!

Iresh: What are the areas where Hans Raj needs massive improvement according to you?

Pranjal: Hans Raj stands above the rest when it comes to academics. It has to grow in terms of getting a brand name for itself in terms of the events it organizes and the image it has in students’ minds. I, as President aim to initiate this process and hope that future post holders continue on my path.

Iresh: Tell us about your biggest agenda. Is it the annual cultural fest?

Pranjal: Popular perception of a student is that organizing the annual cultural fest is the only thing a union does in a college. As President, I wholly reject this opinion. On the other hand, as a student, I want the biggest fest Hans Raj has ever seen.

Iresh: As a President, what all has been done till now, and tell us the planned activity too.

Pranjal: With Wifi working, one thing can be crossed off students’ list. Basic cleanliness of college campus and renovation of Girls’ Common Room will follow. The preparations for Confluence, the annual college festival will also start simultaneously.

Iresh: Why were you interested in Student Politics? Any plans to go ahead in country’s politics?

Pranjal: Hans Raj Hostel gave me reasons to believe why student politics is necessary in terms of initiating changes at the grass-root level but going ahead in country’s politics requires family backing and sadly I do not enjoy such support.

Iresh: College President often means skipping classes, doing all the work and being specifically responsible. Do you think it’s a big sacrifice in terms of academics?

Pranjal: Honestly, being President is a big burden on one’s academics. That effect is less seen on me since B.Com(H) is not that tough a course to handle. I contested in the elections knowing that this will have an effect on my academics but I also knew that I can manage both with a little extra effort.

Iresh: Lastly, sum up the characteristics that a successful college union should possess?

Pranjal: A successful College Union is one which can raise issues faced by students, a place where students’ voices are heard. College life is a transitional phase and utmost care must be taken to do the same,  successfully. Hans Raj is a really good college but there’s always scope for improvement and that scope exists for Hans Raj too. Union should focus on activities that must trigger all round development of the student and not only academics.

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Top Picks

Diwali 2015: Offbeat gift ideas!

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Come Diwali and the festive fervour reaches its peak. Among other traditional rituals, we have the custom of stopping by each other’s houses and showering love and gifts. The festive gusto, zeal, gaiety goes to a different level altogether when we are in a gathering. And there’s more to it than meets the eye. At the epicentre of this chaos and commotion is the ritual of getting together at and visiting homes of friends and relatives and colleagues. Houses undergo rigorous cleansing and decoration.

The whole idea behind this is to ensure that we catch up with relatives we don’t see the whole year, to exchange wishes and bask in the fun and frolic of the five-day fiesta. It is about the gesture more than anything else, but when the gesture involves braving the mind-numbing traffic for hours to spend a few minutes at someone’s place, it can get extremely agonizing. Of late, one can get pretty bogged down by the materialistic tangent that the ritual of gifting has acquired. Impressing your neighbour with the right kind of gift, appeasing your friend with what he/she had asked for, keeping up with the standards of your relatives, measuring the size and worth of various gifts against each other can take a toll on anyone.

Come to think of it: as pointed out before, it becomes strenuous and even gets on our nerves to hop from one home to another in the meagre 5 days we get to celebrate, and then there’s also the task of mopping and shopping for one’s own house. It does become monotonous.

We realize how monumental it is to meet up and have a ball. But the ritualistic gifting and the groundwork for it drains us of all our vital energy resources. And we also yearn to be different in our gifts every year, and every year we end up wrapping the boxes of sweets or wall paintings or for that matter, companies’ ruthlessly-marketed combo-packs, all of which often end up getting re-used as gifts to others! Not to mention, the hilarious instances of your gift coming back full circle to you.
Why not get quirky with some offbeat gifts that one cannot help but keep safe within the contours of their home? Here’s a list of our suggestions:

1. Candles + Chandelier = Candeliers

It’s Diwali. Synonym: the festival of lights. Who wouldn’t want a handful of candles? But who would like a box of candles as a gift. Well, let’s deploy our creativity. You could use plastic spoons and a bottle to make a hanging aka chandelier. Or encompass the candle with cinnamon sticks: rustic yet elegant. Or bring out the shells you collected at the vacations and us them as candles. or get those bizarre wooden pieces out and embellish them with mirrors, yet again using them as candle holders. Or if you are up for a challenge, go on an art spree and try each of these to make someone’s festival of ‘lights’ offbeat.
A little search on Pinterest and you can learn tricks from a plethora of tutorials to hit the nail!

 

2. Speaking of customs, let’s customise!

Personalized and customized gifts are the way to anyone’s hearts. Apart from making them feel they are special, it shows that you have gone the extra mile to bring cheers to their faces. Get them a customized gift like the usual mugs, T-shirts or go quirky and gift them personalized diyas, accessories, candle holders, et al. while we are at it, how about customised cupcakes and macaroons?

 

3. Gift an experience

Hectic schedules don’t let people heave a relieved breath amid the furore. So, if you have time to spare, arrange for a dinner or a small get-together to ease the burden of the need to be at the multiple places at the same time. No physical gift can ever parallel a division of tasks.

 

4. Happy New Year

Friends would be delighted if you gift them movie tickets, not just because they are movie tickets, but more so because they will need to spend less energy, time and brains on ‘how to dispose of this gift or who to pass this further on to’ for a gift. Instead, they will enjoy finding out how it is New Year in October.

 

5. Technologically quirked up gifts

You think kitchens could never be invaded by smartphones and the likes? Think again! From induction cookers that can play music to Skype connectivity for learning a recipe from family on live chat, you can now connect smartphones or Bluetooth devices to a cooktops, it can play music through its in-built speakers and download an audio cookbook, which the person cooking can listen to and bring out a scrumptious meal in a jiffy.

Sounds good? Get started on your own offbeat gifts!

Featured image credit: www.avotakka.fi

Kritika Narula
[email protected]

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Bazinga

BAZINGA: Lit cracker lands in SRCC staff room, internal marks lost

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DU’s top college of commerce met with ill-fate on Friday as a lit Lakshmi Bomb landed in the staff room of the college and started a fire that was later extinguished. Sources in the college are saying that among the materials destroyed were teachers’ attendance and marks registers. While attendance can be retrieved from the college’s office, the sole copy of internal assessment marks was in the staff room.

Terming the incident as an act of God, the HOD of commerce said it’s a second chance for students. “Students have been given another chance, a fresh new start, and they must not let this opportunity go,” she said, clearly suggesting that exams will be held again, after Diwali.

Most student’s, however, are not receiving the news too well. “I have not seen or heard any cracker go off in our campus. I think my answer scripts are being made into a textbook and sold without my consent. I allege conspiracy,” a student who scored a perfect 20 on 20 on all papers said. Another went on to say that teachers should give her exams since it is their fault to have conveniently kept the registers so exposed. A few frantic students were seen trying to feed almonds to their teachers hoping for them to recall the marks they’d awarded.

Others, who have reportedly not scored well in the internals, are understood to organise a puja for Lord Rama in the coming days and are calling the occurrence ‘victory of good over evil’.

Disclaimer: Bazinga is DU Beat’s weekly column of almost believable fake news!

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Word On The Street

Students of Aryabhatta college celebrate Diwali with a difference

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While most of us were busy criticizing and preparing ourselves for a smoke-filled Diwali, a bunch of students took an initiative to change the scenario. Students from PicWic, the film and photography society of Aryabhatta College, DU collectively prepared a series of images to spread out a message to the pubilc.

The main motive behind the collage is to urge people to change their ways of celebrating the festival. The students thought about all the people who live without a roof over their heads, while their surroundings get suffocated with smoke and cause a number of health hazards to these people.

“Besides the pictures, we also have an idea to buy all the stuff that we need for Diwali from the street-stalls, instead of those big shops, just to make their Diwali a little more happier. The main struggle during the entire execution has been to encourage people to support us”, said Mohit Jassoria, President of PicWic.

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Small Screen

TV Review: How to get away with Murder

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Everything about How to get away with Murder speaks about the presence of an unsettling competition, ticking like a time bomb from a flashback unto the future. Nonetheless, it is one of those shows which are meant to make you cringe with a need to pause, rewind and catch-up because just before you think, you have got everyone figured, BAM! Human nature is unpredictable.

We follow a jolly looking Wes (Dean Thomas of the Harry Potter world) into a crowd of somewhat glamorous-looking class of Criminal Law 100 , helpfully renamed as How to get away with Murder by one of the most attractive characters of this show—Viola Davis as Annalise Keating. But this is not it. We are supposed to get a double treat since we are not only to keep in the past story built from power-lusts and career-fights but we are also helped into the consequences of a terrible future that is much darker and of course, involved with burying up the dead bodies (Literally).

I am indeed tempted to say that the best thing about this show is everything but since that pertains to my fan-part, I intend to leave that. Now firstly, the actors know their jobs pretty well. Cover up by a murderer is one thing. But covering up a murder by methodical diplomacy and tact, on a full- blown-bureaucratical-scale is indeed a treat to watch. For deception is one heck of a thing. Secondly, you can hardly know who is manipulating who. In a world full of lawyers, if manipulation is not used aptly by the writers, I say the show is a waste. So I guess, if you are one for scandalous crimes and the art of deception- A win-win is sure!

But according to that truthful cliché line—‘everything has its setbacks’; I am bound to set out the limitations as well. Accordingly, this show tries too hard sometimes to connect the dots. I mean what kind of a student goes barring in the house of a professor, unannounced?

Perhaps, Lawyers! The answer is always Lawyers.

 

 

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Uncategorized

Five ways to celebrate an animal-friendly Diwali

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This Diwali, make sure that your pet does not pay the price of your festivities. Remember, the fireworks which are a humongous source of delight for us, are a medium of torture for the sensitive ears of our pets who can hear frequencies well beyond the human range of hearing. They are neither acquainted with the religious sentiment behind the festival nor are they aware of how safe or dangerous the crackers are for them. Hence, it is our responsibility to make our pets and other animals feel safe and secure amidst the deafening noises.

Here are five ways to do so-

 

Keep your pet indoors

Your pet might get bewildered by the loud noises, the smoke and the unanticipated excitement if kept outside. Add to this the chance of being injured by crackers. Keeping your pet inside will reduce the trauma and ensure he/she is out of harm’s way. Also, try to distract them with television, loud music and so on.

 

Do not leave them alone

It might seem appealing to visit your loved ones on Diwali but if you are the owner of a beloved animal, kindly refrain from doing so, especially during evening hours. Your pet needs your presence in order to feel safe. To them, you are their world, it is you who will save them from whatever havoc has broken loose causing the distressing noises.

 

Feed them before the fireworks start

The fear and wariness is likely to kill your pet’s appetite. To them the noise is a sign of potential danger. Make sure they are fed before the fireworks start.

 

Use pet-friendly crackers

Celebrate Diwali in the traditional way without compromising with your pet’s comfort. Light up your house vibrantly with oil lamps and coloured lights and use fireworks like phuljhadis and chakris which provide a pleasant sight but no noise pollution. Gift your pet accessories like ear muffs to cut out the noise.

 

Spread Awareness, keep watch

Spread the above points amongst anyone and everyone. Teach children to not trouble pets and strays for mere enjoyment. Be vigilant, stop children and adults alike from harming them. Make sure that there is a special area beyond which firecrackers aren’t allowed, most housing societies follow this, and it is high time all neighbourhoods did so. And since such an area is normally an open space, like a field, make sure that there are no stray animals around.

 

Image source: The Hindu

Ishani Rajkhowa
[email protected]

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Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies

Enactus CBS wins National Championship, all set for World Cup

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We have all heard or seen the name Enactus around campus but how many of us, who are not a part of the campuses, actually know what Enactus is all about? A conversation with Vatsal, the President of Enactus CBS (College of Business Studies) that has won Enactus National Chapionship 2014 and is now representing India in the International World Cup at Beijing, cleared our doubts.

Enactus is an international non-profit students’ organisation spread across 36 countries which involves college students to make self-sustainable employment models for the underprivileged that would continue to exist even after the students move out of the circle.

Every year , a national competition is held in Mumbai where Enactus teams all over India come together to showcase their projects and the winning team goes on to the International World Cup.This year the team of CBS won the National Championship and left for the International World Cup on October 20.

There are three projects that they will be putting forward , the first being a sanitation solution project for women in urban slums where awareness camps are held to discuss menstruation, a woman entrepreneur is chosen who is then linked to the manufacturer companies for sanitary napkins. The appointed woman sells these sanitary napkins in her locality at a cheaper rate while earning a profit. This project has been adopted by the Government of India and is being implemented in 23 districts across India. The second project is called ‘Akshar’ where waste paper is collected and recycled to be bound in eco-friendly note books which would be sold in various colleges, campuses, companies, etc. The third is ‘Gramodhar’ where students have adopted a village called Ghamroj and provide it with income generating activities like poultry farming, beauty parlours and boutiques along with libraries and health camps.

With the final aim of winning and last touch-ups in action, the team is more excited than nervous to be part of such a huge event with various activities and a wide range of speakers.


Isheeta Sharma
[email protected]

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Campus Central

Common Entrance for DU and other central universities probable

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The recent recommendations made by Union Human Resource Development Ministry in a meeting held at the Delhi University, suggest that soon all central universities might have common entrance examinations for both under-graduate and post graduate courses. Alongside, there is also a proposal which suggests common syllabus and central ranking system. The meeting was attended by seven Central University Vice-Chancellors.

According to the directions, probability to facilitate credit transfer and student mobility would be considered in “common national curriculum.” This would allow students to migrate to other universities because of the common syllabus. This could also result in students taking courses and credits in one university while enrolling in another. Hence, the recommendations are still at the consideration stage.

“We are still at the preliminary stage of this recommendation which was proposed by the committee in place constituted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. We are just discovering possibilities and trying to evolve a feasible outcome. No decision has been made yet”, said DU media coordinator, Malay Neerav. A common entrance examination could turn out to be a boon for most students as it could provide a benchmark for students across boards and streams to compete for a seat. An All India Ranking would be a possible option for students to decide their courses and colleges, as currently there is no common ranking system within India as credible and efficient as the QS World University Rankings.

Amitoj Singh [email protected]

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Word On The Street

I will not shut up: Raising voice against sexual abuse

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RAHI (Recovering and Healing from Incest) Foundation, established in 1996, is an organization focused on women survivors of incest and Child Sexual Abuse (CSA). Volunteers at RAHI have made it their mission to spread awareness about the issue of sexual abuse, thereby bringing it to the fore and in the agendas of the social change makers.

The first and only organization in India for women survivors of Incest and Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) since 1996, RAHI has now come up with their ‘I Will Not Shut Up’ campaign. The campaign which is the first of its kind in India was launched in August and is aimed at breaking the silence, both literally and metaphorically. As a part of this campaign, they have recruited campaigners in many colleges of Delhi University, including IP College for Women, Jesus & Mary College, Ramjas College, Daulat Ram College, Janki Devi College, Dyal Singh College, St.Stephens College and Miranda House as agents of change, who will take this message forward.

On being asked how this campaign took birth, Veronica Xavier, Programme Assistant at RAHI, explained, “RAHI has been working closely with the student community since the last 18 years. In our college programmes, we train young students who then go out and spread awareness about CSA to their peers and reach out to survivors amongst them. This year, I Will Not Shut Up is witnessing an expansion of wings and reach, both through on the street activities on campus as well as online campaigning. Thus came the idea of a campaign which was an open dare to anyone who asked us to shut up about CSA and be in denial about it in our families.”

RAHI has come up with a variety of activities to be performed on-campus as well as online activities, placard campaign, movie screenings, poster-making competitions, to name a few. Recently, they held a poster-making competition in Indraprastha College for Women.

In barely two and a half months, they have reached out to over 12,000 students. Swati Varma, Programmes Coordinator at RAHI, is glad with the success of the campaign and the alacrity of the college students. “The response that we have got from the students is overwhelming! Be it a stall at a Diwali Mela, a movie screening or a poster drive, the students from the campus have been very enthusiastic and have, very passionately participated in all our activities in huge numbers.” When asked whether the experience has been easy, she said, “Of course, there were the usual ups and downs. A few times we did find students being apprehensive and uneasy with the issue. But then again, that is what our campaign is aiming to do: breaking the silence and discomfort around CSA in the campus.”

DUB Speak: The unabated existence of child sexual abuse is a horrendous reality. To aggravate the trauma further, Indian society often attaches a stigma to this, deepening the scars that the survivors of child sexual abuse and incest grow up with. To deal with such a sensitive issue, which has hitherto remain untouched and unspoken of, is perhaps the biggest quandary. For long, such matters have been shunned from being discussed, they have been censored from the public discourse, and the victim has been compelled to maintain silence about her suffering. Sexual assault victims suffer not just the pain of abuse, but also the fear of ignominy posed by the society which often terrorizes the victim into silence. All this borders on cowardice, our reluctance to change and on society’s cowardice.

Kritika Narula
[email protected]

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Lady Shri Ram College for Women

LSR Commerce Department holds Comquest 2014

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The Department of Commerce, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, held its annual academic meet- Comquest, on October 16, 17 and 18 and saw a footfall of over 500 students from Delhi University as well as universities from other parts of the country.  While most of the competitive events saw an overwhelming participation, the talk on bitcoins and the panel discussion on FDI also drew quite a few.

The inaugural event, the Bitcoin talk delivered by Amit Bharadwaj, was an engaging one where students and teachers like had their 101 queries about cleared. Mr. Bharadwaj spoke about what bitcoins are and how they work, that they follow the concept of P2P (people to people).

Buillon, the Mock-Stock, also held on the 16th, had participants trading in 50 teams of two. The model to be followed was the traditional one, before technology came into place. The panel discussion, FDI: India and the in-between, saw a heated debate between Dheeraj Mathur from  PWC, Krishan Malhotra from Amarchand, Archana Nigam from the Ministry of Commerce,  P.K. Purvar from MTNL and Kavita Krishnan from AIPWA.

The second event on Day 2, The Evangelist, saw 26 teams of four, use their PR and Marketing skills to bring brands that had recently seen bad days out from their current positions and market them for good. The top positions were taken by CBS and DTU and SRCC.

On Day 3, the Department held Entrepedia- the B-Plan event and Quizinga- the Biz Quiz. This event, too, was won by a CBS team. The final event, Quizinga, hosted by quizmaster, Kunal Savarkar, again saw an overwhelming response in spite of being a niche quiz. The quiz was won by a CBS team with an NSIT team as runners-up.

Picture credits: Department of Commerce, LSR

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