The 74th Golden Globe Awards could have easily become just another humdrum routine on TV—men and women sashaying in expensive designer attire on a red carpet. Instead, it has ended up becoming a far more significant, almost a historical awards night, meant to be remembered and looked back upon in the years to come. Priyanka Chopra’s dazzling gown could not divert from the centrality of the issue of diversity. The acceptance speech for Zootopia, an animated film, included its makers emphasizing on this very topic. Within a period spanning over just a few hours, Meryl Streep went from being a Lifetime Achievement Award winner to an “overrated actress” and a “Hillary flunky”, all thanks to Donald Trump and his remorseless wisdom on Twitter. In the rarest of occasions in awards night history, Trump, politics and xenophobia gained precedence over fashion and hairstyles.
The highlights of the show, aside from La La Land which went on to receive an award in every category, were Jimmy Fallon (the host) and Streep herself. The former hardly attempted to make the celebrities in attendance the butt of his jokes, contrary to clichéd expectations from an awards show host, especially when he happens to host a talk show. Instead, he took jibes at the newly elected President. Streep took to the reverse side of the coin. Where Fallon was comic, she turned the attention to serious issues of discrimination and the fears of a common migrant. One got to hear the words “Hollywood”, “foreign” and “press” several times throughout the ceremony. But she declared, “[If] you kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.” Be it a Ryan Gosling or a Viola Davis or a Dev Patel; for once, Streep united all actors under a larger umbrella issue—there is no difference between these actors and the thousands of migrants who make up the labour force of America. Neither Hollywood nor America can do without its diversity.
However, some amount of backlash did follow. It is true that Fallon never confronted Trump about racial discrimination, his views on gender or physical appearance. He did not attempt to do so even when Trump was a guest on his show. This is the primary foundation of the backlash. But this could be equally true for a talk show host like Jimmy Kimmel, who has invited Trump on his show before. Kimmel was not caustic either. Caustic humour and jibes, though all in good fun, do have a time and place to adhere to. Fallon’s humour is much like Kimmel’s, not confrontational in nature during the Globes or in the talk show and if he failed to hit the nail on the coffin somewhere in this attempt, Meryl Streep’s speech more than compensated for it.
Overall, the 2017 Golden Globes proved much more to be a comment on contemporary politics, the national hysteria surrounding Trump’s election and the pressing need for diversity rather than clichéd awards night trivialities.
There are some who delight in conversations or movies, while there are some who find peace only in pages embellished with printed words. But when this only resort to peace doesn’t arouse happiness like it always does; that is the beginning of a deep gloomy Reading Slump for every bibliophile!
Reading Slumps can be a very irksome period for some, while not so annoying for the others, but they definitely irritate the poor reader with unfamiliar predicaments like not finding the right book, or not “feeling like” reading. The Slump gets worse when the favourite part of the day annoys the book lover beyond measure and none of the books in the reading shelf attracts the eye, instead makes one cringe at the sight of it. Every Reader goes through this phase at least once during their “reading life”. Maybe it’s a signal to take a break away from the routine for a little while and maybe switch over from the genre, or switch over to some other pastime altogether, temporarily though. Seeing how common Reading Slumps are, we have found some super easy ways to help you step out from this dreadful phase; while all you have to do is not cling on to your books or favourite genres for some time and pick one of the ways mentioned below.
Pick up Magazines/ Journals; because a slight shift from Literature to issues that are currently being dealt with in the society can work wonders! This can help you find another genre to venture into or pull you back to your all-time favourite one; making you happy, or normal again.
Watching Web Series or Movies can be also a great way out from the slump. Movies or Web series that circle around your areas of interest can help you rebuild your interest in tales, which you think to have lost interest in; due to the Slump. Shifting to this pastime for some time would freshen up your mind, give you a little break and pull you back to your unattended book shelf again.
Reread your favourite book or your favourite parts of some book you like. Because recollecting those good old memories can always bring you back to your reading routine or at least your favourite genre/ author.
Set the right ambiance and reorganise your reading area. Cleaning up or making yourself comfortable in your reading space can probably be the best way to bring you back from straying away from your reading routine. This works with utmost ease for you can get right back on track without making the effort of trying out some different genre or pastime; and can quickly dive into the world of books again.
So try one of these to bounce back and find solace in your favourite company again, because nothing beats books for the bibliophile usually lost in the world of tales!
Filled to the brim with gossip, scandal, and confessions, “Koffee With Karan” recently made a comeback. Our correspondent tells you why we’re all so drawn to the iconic show.
The year 2016 marked the return of Karan Johar’s very popular “Koffee with Karan”, a show that occupies the holy hour on the family television screen every Sunday evening. As a rational nineteen-year-old, I believe I am above all the pettiness, gossip and drama that is synonymous with Bollywood. The sad part, however, is that even I am prey to Karan’s wiliness, and every Sunday from 9pm-10pm, I am racked with guilt, yet blissfully unaware of my surroundings, rooting for my favourite star and eagerly awaiting the results of the rapid fire.
The one question that evades me is – How does he do it? How does he manage to rope in individuals from all age groups? How does he manage to capture our attention for an entire hour? Inspiration struck when I saw my friend watching a particular episode for the third time. Karan Johar uses the same tactic that most international talk shows do, he packs all the drama and pettiness under a cover of “flair and air”, substituting the local cutting chai for the suave cup of coffee. The average Indian cannot resist the daily charcha, especially if it comes with glamorous actors and high-profile drama. On this, Johar delivers to the T.
Essentially, the programme focuses on digging dirt and bringing the personal lives of celebrities into the limelight. Karan does all of this unabashedly and shamelessly – a quality that ironically attracts Indian audiences instead of repelling them. A show containing all the gossip, awkwardness and insane drama that we need in our everyday, mundane lives, “Koffee with Karan” ticks all the right boxes, even for rational folks like me!
From sudden infrastructural changes to administrative departments running around and looking all dazed and cold feet, whether we choose to agree or disagree, but the preparation for NAAC inspection sent almost every college in a frenzy last year. And with the NAAC Peer Team coming, preparations caught up in full swing, involving an uncanny resemblance to a household situation where an unforeseen wedding had suddenly come up. With all the white-washing, denting-painting, revamping, reckless spending of money, running around, fake smiling, boastful talks about one’s college in the air during ‘NAAC days’, our belief in the aforementioned analogy only gets stronger.
With a panel touted as a meticulously chosen handful of very experienced academicians and people who understand the ‘education system very well’ coming and assessing colleges under NAAC, the question arises, does a grading matter after all?
What is NAAC?
The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is an autonomous body established by the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India to assess and accredit institutions of higher education in the country. An outcome of the recommendations of the National Policy in Education (1986) which laid special emphasis on upholding the quality of higher education in India, the NAAC was established in 1994 with its headquarters at Bangalore.
Upon requests by individual colleges and universities, the primary accreditation agency of the country conducts assessments and grades institutions. The agency’s cumulative gradation of institutions is based on parameters like curriculum, faculty, research, infrastructure, learning resources, organisation, governance and student services.
The process: How does it accredit colleges
Assessment and Accreditation are broadly used for understanding the “Quality Status” of an institution. In the context of Higher Education, the accreditation status indicates that the particular Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) – a College, a University, or any other recognised Unit therein, meets the standards of quality as set by the Accreditation Agency, in terms of its performance, related to the educational processes and outcomes, covering the curriculum, teaching-learning, evaluation, faculty, research, infrastructure, learning resources, organisation, governance, financial well-being and student services.
The top and the bottom: How did DU perform
While most colleges applied for the NAAC accreditation long back, the visits majorly took place last year and the scores were released soon after. In the initial phase, IPCW secured a CGPA of 3.33 (Grade A) and ANDC secured the second spot by getting a CGPA of 3.31 (Grade A).These were followed by Gargi College (3.30), St. Stephen’s College (3.21), Jesus and Mary College (3.26), Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (3.16), Ramanujan College (3.06), Shivaji College (3.26), Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce (3.02), Keshav Mahavidyalaya (3.01), Bharati College (2.85), PGDAV (2.74), Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (2.63), and Motilal Nehru College (2.60).
Later in the year, SRCC and LSR emerged at the top with a whooping score of 3.65 and 3.61 respectively. Take a look at the top 10 scorers in the table here.
Top 10 scorers
Image credits: HT Media
These scores are valid for five years after which the colleges will again have to apply for accreditation. It was in 2012 that UGC made accreditation compulsory for higher educational institutions and DU executive council adopted the decision in 2014.
Does the grade even matter?
As far as we remember, such a panel as meticulously chalked out as NAAC didn’t exist many years back. While grading brings in a state of competitive spirit (as if the previous branding and rep-bias that exists in the university wasn’t enough already) the question arises, does the same grade then not end up shining the pride of the already well established and some popular DU colleges and create biases against some others who might actually be needing a lift from the loom of being less sought after and meagerly funded?
Whether the committee gives out grades on the hastily dip-dyed infrastructure especially revamped for their visit or the actual system in place is still a question for many to ponder upon.
The accreditation process got a thumbs up from some colleges, however, many raised objections over the assessment criteria too from time to time. Speaking to a popular national daily, Babli Saraf, principal of Indraprastha College for Women, said there shouldn’t be a “one-size-fits-all” criteria for colleges. “The criteria shouldn’t be the same for a liberal arts college like ours, where we do not have the provisions for a laboratory and are not involved in research publications,” she said.
In most cases, colleges started a laborious and hasty revamp revolution, to save their grace in front of the NAAC peer team and not to raise their quality standard in general altogether. When your transformation drive is initiated to fulfil a set of stipulatedideas by a panel that is not even remotely looking at how you provide for the students, the timely assessment of whether the students and teachers are happy with the administration of the college, whether the college has some unique traits that may not figure in its already set parameters, if the college is lacking in research, what should it do, then that grading doesn’t stand much ground. The NAAC website says that they provide a ‘qualitative part of the outcome as a Peer Team Report (PTR)’ which is an objective report prepared by the Team highlighting its evaluative judgements, mostly using precise keywords instead of long sentences about the college under consideration, but I doubt these objective answers bring any real on-ground changes.
Does a low grading not mar the reputation of a college that might be in dire need of those funds, facilities and attention that it rightfully deserves in order to raise itself to a better education imparting platform? What good is a grade for colleges that are already popular among students and parents and get truckloads of funds? Should a grade not help encourage a college to become a more holistic space than label it as an ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ type college for years to come. Finally, does a grade mean anything more than a fancy wall hanging of a newspaper clipping on the college walls for many many years, or does it actually ignites change? This is for time to tell and for us to ponder.
If you are interested in reading about NAAC and the process, log on to http://www.naac.gov.in/ for detailed information.
Kick off the first month by commemorating some unusual-yet-relatable Days approved by and throughout the world with this guide!
We’ve all heard and celebrated the multitude of highlight festivals and National Days of this country; from absorbing the patriotism on Independence and Republic Day to revel in the happiness of your birthday, we’ve all been there and done that. Keeping up with infusing degrees of ‘new’ in this New Year, start off the opening month of 2017 with ‘Days’ which are on the verge of sounding made-up but have been stamped authentic by the calendar!
3rd January- Festival of Sleep Day
Commencing the New Year with an activity desired and treasured by all, The Festival of Sleep Day seeks to grant 24 hours devoted to catching up on sleep after the merriment and sometimes daunting activities of the December holidays. This unusual yet enticing holiday sets out to celebrate in the Sweet Land of Sleep!
4th January- Trivia Day
Succeeding the hype of the popular culture game, Trivial Pursuit, January 4th pursues the likes of curious minds who are fascinated with the nitty-gritty of general knowledge. The festival can be played with friends and family alike; endeavouring to bring to light little-known facts about anything and everything all around the world!
7th January- Old Rock Day
Following the second connotative meaning of the word ‘rock’ here, Old Rock Day is a celebration for Geologists and rock enthusiasts who want to delve deep into this field of Geology. From fossilised articles to stones, everything ‘rocky’ becomes their object of fascination. It is widely speculated that the origin of this day is centred around the actions of The Flintstones family!
8th January- Secret Pal Day
A derivative of Friendship’s Day perhaps, Secret Pal Day aims to celebrate friendship and its many shades. One can embrace the day with reaching out to long lost friends, spending the day with ones you treasure, and feel the warmth of a beautiful friendship!
11th January- Make Your Dreams Come True Day
We live to dream and dream to live. Every day our hearts are invigorated with a genuine desire to work towards something we aspire to, thus forming a pivotal crust of ourselves. This day pushes you to go that extra mile for transcending your vision into reality; from talking to someone who inspired you to getting started with a project, this is vast territory!
15th January- Hat Day
This one will be a personal favourite of the Mad Hatter. From internalising a sense of power to complementing the range of your dress and providing protection from the extreme weather; hats are a wonder accessory to spring your personality to life, so pick out and wear a hat this day which screams you!
16th January- National Nothing Day
A day of sitting idle intellectually is one of the dreams, and the Americans seem to have carved a National Nothing Day to provide them with the liberty to officially disregard honouring or celebrating any event. Ironically, Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on the third Monday of January which means that one-in-seven January 16th’s will fall on the same day as National Do Nothing Day!
19th January- Popcorn Day
Bread is incomplete without butter, and movie days are left unsatisfied without popcorn! A day celebrated to salute the white balls of addiction; January 19th is marked as the National Popcorn Day, while the National Popcorn Month falls in October. Curious, isn’t it?
20th January- National Cheese Lover’s Day
Cheesy fries, cheesy popcorns, cheese shining in its glory; sounds all degrees of appetising! January 20th officially celebrates the love we harbour for cheese, so put on the extra comfortable pants to indulge in everything cheesy. Fun fact: there are more than 1400 varieties of cheese!
23rd January- National Handwriting Day
A throwback to times of school when your handwriting seemed to serve various purposes. With the National Handwriting Day, people are implored to resort back to the good old days to explore the purity and dynamics of the manner and disposition of writing!
31st January- Backwards Day
As the name resonates, the last day of the month has been reserved for the art of including rearward aspects in our life. From wearing the back of the shirt in the front to trying and writing backwards, all activities canvassing the period of this day should defy from going straight!
As the country collectively boils over Bangalore’s New Year Mass molestation case, the girls’ colleges of Delhi University have collectively undertaken the decision to ban all singers and rappers with sexist and misogynist lyrics in their songs.
“We have never considered these mainstream Punjabi singers to perform in our fests. A big reason behind that are their highly sexist and offensive lyrics. Miranda House as an institution stands for feminism and to endorse these singers means going against something we stand for.” said Shalu Chattha, President of Student Union, Miranda House.
“I don’t agree with this ban on Punjabi singers in girls’ colleges. But they may have a different perspective and our college has a different perspective on calling these artists,” said Kuldeep Agnihotri, Join Secretary of Student Union, Aurobindo College, DU.
Recently, Sona Mohapatra had slammed IIT- Bombay in a Facebook post for being sexist as organisers refused to let her perform without a male co-artist in their annual cultural festival, Mood Indigo.
The common sentiment of shunning offensive lyrics that go on to become a part of pop-culture is echoed among many girls’ colleges across Delhi University. With the rise in cases of molestation, rapes and eve teasing around the nation, it is essential to take actions that will help in limiting and ultimately curbing misogyny in mass culture.
While the step is welcome, it raises other questions. These same colleges use the same songs in other events. Popular songs are also used by dance societies as performance tracks. Events like fresher and farewell parties also include playing such songs.
How far does the step of banning artists go when these same songs are played for other purposes?
While that may be a relevant question, the step can be seen as a beginning of a change and is welcomed by many.
DU Beat also tried getting in touch with LSR- often touted as the poster college for feminism in Delhi University. The Student Union President wasn’t keen on giving any answers. On being asked to give a generic non-political statement on the promise of anonymity, the president was silent and resisted commenting on the same.
Feature Image Credits- Paurush Bhardwaj for DU Beat
Spread the warmth is an initiative undertaken by Sanchie Shroff and Shiv Kumar Bansal, both being students of Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi. The campaign, is a pan-India cloth collection and distribution drive happening across seven cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Patna, Chennai, Kolkata and Siliguri.
The Collection Mechanisms:
1. Collection Centers: Set up collection centers at 75 retail outlets of Big Bazaar across the seven Indian cities.
2. Schools and Colleges: Contact various school and college authorities for implementing this drive
3.Doorstep Collection: Set up volunteer meeting points in Delhi where people from across the city/volunteers from NGOs/ students from schools and colleges voluntarily come together to ensure maximum collection.
Major Highlights of ‘Spread The Warmth’s journey so far:
1. The collection drive across 75 Big Bazaar stores began on the 1st of January, 2017
2. Various Schools and colleges in Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi have initiated the campaign already.
3. Our Siliguri team conducted the Doorstep Collection on 28th and 29th December, 2016. They collected 13.02 Quintals of clothes in just 8.5 hours.
On the 8th of January, 2017 we will be conducting a doorstep collection drive in Rohini Sector 9. We request everyone, to join us for the Doorstep Collection Drive in Rohini. To volunteer, they can follow this link: https://goo.gl/forms/xSn37MJoDnWcsvsV2. We would like to inform all the residents of Rohini Sector 9 to contribute to this cause and keep the clothes ready for contribution on 8th.
With the support of esteemed organisations like the Future Group (Big Bazaar), Safexpress, Goonj, Lions Club, etc., we aim to collect tonnes of clothes and impact thousands of lives across the nation.
As a part of the Centre’s Smart City project, the inner and middle circles of Delhi’s Connaught Place will be made traffic -free for three months beginning from February.
The literal and figurative heart of Delhi built by Edwin Lutyens in 1933; the destination which people fix to meet to plan their subsequent departures; the circular structure reigning on the map; the very famous ‘CP’shall not be the same anymore starting February.
The middle and inner circles of the Delhi arena have been proposed as no-vehicle zones by the Ministry of Urban Development. The move comes as a fragment of the experimental project of Smart City coined to commence next month for a period of three months. A pilot endeavour proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June last year, Smart City’s primary objective revolves around a holistic urban development of cities. As a part of Phase 1, 20 cities have been selected to commence the project.
The proposal for barring traffic from these areas is to introduce and propagate the idea of ‘pedestrianisation,’ a step towards embellishing the heritage structures located in the Delhi areas. The concept seeks to enhance the outlook of the location; canvassing around the potentials of landscaping, the development of water bodies, public plazas, side walk cafes, sound shows and street festivals. A favourable outcome of this initiative is to gain inputs about the traffic condition and assimilate the experiences of shop owners and the customers. Zooming in on the functional aspect of it, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu plans to facilitate the creation of a vehicle-free area through the introduction of ‘park and ride’ services. These will be located at Shivaji Stadium. Baba Kharak Singh Marg, and Palika Parking; constituting a total parking capacity of 3,172 vehicles, a number which is currently under-utilised. The usage of cycles and battery-operated vehicles will be encouraged at the ‘park and ride’ locations to smooth over the inconveniences in terms of transportation to the business district by those who use public as well as personal modes of conveyance.
By restricting the parking zones in Connaught Place, space made available will be used to facilitate the implementation of an integrated and a wholesome hub for the visitors.The Union Minister cites the idea of a “congestion-free, accident-free, and crime-free experience to visitors” as the driving motive behind the ban on vehicles in the region.
Nadaan is a youth led initiative that strives to form a liberal society which is socially, economically and politically aware. Started by four Delhi University students, the aim of Nadaan is to create prudent individuals with regard to prevailing circumstances, so as to enable them to build their own perspective about it and express their opinions. It focuses on the underprivileged section of the society. They plan to target common issues which people face in their day to day lives and to add quality to the lives of the “unaware” (Nadaan) by making them aware of the social, economical and political affairs of the nation.
The organisation was started in September 2016 with an objective to mobilize the youth, one of the strongest mediums of change to make well informed decisions, thus contributing significantly to a progressive India. The organization conducts open discussions as to make children aware about the events taking place outside the confines of their homes. Their motive is to make people self reliant by enabling them to form an unbiased view about life and the world.
Presently, the organization has given a chance to the youth from all around Delhi, to make an influential change with the help of their keen observation and their orating skills. Interns working under Nadaan’s winter internship program are helping kids by conducting interactive discussions with them on topics like stereotypes, gender inequality, emotions ka funda, child and adult abuse etc. The organisation has also taken up the initiative to establish libraries in the orphanages to impart the culture of reading within kids to enable them to seek knowledge from the books and inculcate this habit as a part of their daily routines.
The founders of this initiative- two 3rd year Political Science students from Gargi College, Mansi Malhotra and Himani Sharma, a History graduate from Gargi College, Navya Varshney and a 3rd year commerce student Rumaani Udgata from Kamala Nehru College, believe in approaching the target group differently by focusing on the practical aspects of the theoretical knowledge imparted by the usual educational sources.
While an ambitious project in itself, the digitisation scheme of the current government is too far-fetched to be completed by 2019, without getting the basics of a fast and efficient cross-country wifi network in place first.
2016 truly gave India a chance to revamp the global lexicon. We came up with our own brand early on—‘Digital India’—and followed it up in the same breath with the inclusion of hefty words such as ‘demonetisation’ and ‘digitisation’. It is all tied to global stardom for the country, a power from above assures us. All this while we fret over our obsolete smartphones and try to find a way out of the maze of payment-related apps being launched every day. The whole of it (constantly amplified by news channels as a fiasco) takes place against the backdrop of Reliance’s Jio confidently announcing the rollback of its free wifi services post March, 2017. India is well and truly on the global platform now. It just has a slight limp.
The premise of digitisation rests singularly on our access to fast and affordable wifi connectivity. While Eastern Europe and countries like Lithuania boast of some of the highest broadband speeds, South Korea passed the hundred per cent wifi penetration mark way back in 2012. These are significant red blinkers for India. It still considers any modest speed above 512 kbps to be ‘broadband’. In other countries, this speed is as high as 10 to 50 mbps. However, an increase in speed and connectivity cannot be achieved overnight. It will involve a complete renovation of the cross-country network of expensive optic fibre pipes which haul the bits and in turn provide the speed. The demand is not just for ‘free’ wifi but efficient wifi.
CP has turned out to be the prime example of things going awry for a scheme which aspires to connect over 2,00,000 villages by 2019. The ground reality is mired in municipality disputes. Despite floating tenders multiple times, the authorities have not heard from respondents for a project which would have made the high-end hangout hub a fully wifi-enabled zone. For now, it’s back to expensive data packs for those of us who can splurge two hundred bucks a month for basic speed. For others, at the moment, even the thought of shelling out a four figure sum for a mobile phone sounds like a nightmare.
