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CWG 2014: Let the game begin

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The twentieth edition of the international multi-sport event involving the  53 Commonwealth nations, the CWG, has finally begun. The grand game shall witness around 6,500 athletes participating in  261 events in as many as 17 distinct sports. The Commonwealth games were founded by Melville Robinson, who organised this fourth largest sporting mega event for the first time in 1930 as the ‘British Empire Games’ in Canada.

Since then its structure and organisation has undergone some significant changes. The games are organised by the Commonwealth Games Federation, which also selects the host city. This time the capital city of Scotland, Glasgow is hosting the event. The other cities involved in the bid for hosting the event were Abuja, the Nigerian capital and Halifax in Canada. Halifax however, later withdrew its bid in 2007.

The Commonwealth nations send their 71 teams to participate in the games, as the dependent territories compete under their own flag at the event. Though this year ‘The Gambia’ will not participate in the games, reducing the number to 70 teams.

‘People, Place, Passion’ is the motto, whereas Clyde is the official mascot of the 2014 Games.

clyde
Clyde, a thistle named after a river of Glasgow, is the official mascot of Commonwealth Games 2014. Image Credits: www.bbc.co.

 

This year the opening ceremony of CWG  featured the only Commonwealth-wide fundraiser for children, in collaboration with the UNICEF. The grand event at the Celtic Park showcased some memorable glimpses of Susan Boyle and Rod Stewart’s performance, the ceremony was directed by David Zolkwer.

The ceremony was attended by England Prime Minister David Cameron, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Imran, and many other dignitaries. Sachin Tendulkar represented UNICEF at the ceremony. Alex Salmond led a minute’s silence for the victims of the MH17 disaster, which claimed 298 lives.

At last the baton was carried on by the young girl form UNICEF to six time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy, and eventually it reached to the Queen. The Queen read her message and then declared the 20th Commonwealth Games open.

 

Image source: The Guardian

Rishabh Sharma

[email protected]

 

 

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Miranda House

The Dutch Connection: The Annual Indo-Dutch Collaborative Program

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Being a student of Miranda House for the past two years now; I was always taught to apply my acquired knowledge in real world scenarios. With the concept of ‘globalisation within boundaries’ looming at large, we struggled to recreate a true version of how our peer groups on the other side of the continent study and compete with the growing standards of modern-day excellence and achievement. In order to instil the very same in its students; Miranda House, Shri Ram College of Commerce and the Utrecht Business School, Netherlands have been participating in the much coveted Annual Indo-Dutch Collaborative Program, since 2008.

Recently, I had the honour of being hosted by the Utrecht Business School alongside 7 other students from Miranda House, and 10 from SRCC. With our backgrounds ranging from Philosophy, Political Science, Economics, Geography and so on, we were selected to represent our college to take part in an exercise testing our patience and ability to adapt and acclimatise.  The selection process was a fairly simple one, which included the filling of an online form, and then a personal interview.

The delegation for the program from Miranda House, Delhi University

 

The primary purpose of this program, which took place in June and July this year, was to provide us with an opportunity for an inter-cultural interaction on an academic platform, and this exchange program was definitely our quest to build and work in a home away from home. The atmosphere was one completely different from what we witness in our country in various ways; where their outgoing practicality in the field of academics was balanced out by our deeply enrooted theoretical one.

The program was mainly an interdisciplinary management-based and application-based procedure; commonly known as the ‘LINKS Strategic Marketing Simulation’. An internationally adopted real-to-life marketing simulation, the program encompassed product development, manufacturing, service, forecasting, and information technology, plus associated marketing research study resource options.  The participants were students from the mentioned partner colleges and also, the Szechenyi Istvan Egyetem University Gyor, Hungary.

 

The week-long interaction session had in store for both us and our European colleagues, a very colourful and vivid exchange of culture through elements of food, music, dance, academics and of course, camaraderie. With students from almost 10 different countries, like Aruba, Belgium, Germany, Philippines, Netherlands, Hungary and India; it was a mass confluence of various differing traditions and cultures.   From visiting houses, to sharing the occasional beer; our host university left no stone unturned to incorporate us into their usual lifestyle.  Our week was a flurry of fancy dinners, get-togethers, decision making sessions and of course; football tournaments! With the Netherlands team leading the FIFA World Cup roster, we got to witness first-hand – the ‘oranje’ euphoria!  A heartening experience, our Dutch friends were always around to provide us with any sort of assistance required, and to help us feel truly at home!

The program saw its end with the closing note, from where we departed to explore other parts of Europe after visiting the friendliest one! With the Indian leg of the ‘Indo-Dutch Program’ scheduled to be held in Miranda House sometime in the month of October, I will definitely be looking forward to meet my friends from Utrecht again. Till then, good bye and goeiedag!

 

 Akriti Gupta
Miranda House

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DUB Speak

The story of the Israel–Palestine conflict

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The Israel-Palestine issue is one that is frequently being discussed across media platforms these days. The pandemonium going on in this region has affected opinion worldwide but the plot of this tragic play spanning across centuries is comprehensibly understood not by many.

We bring you the backdrop of the whole issue for your better understanding of the conflict and its repercussions on the society in the present scenario.

The Conflict

The problem dates back to the year AD 71, when the Roman Emperor drove the Jews out of Palestine, their homeland. This led to their relocation towards Europe, mostly in the eastern part. Having to face persecution in Russia, Germany (anti-Semitic policy) and France; the situation worsened during the World Wars. Thus, in an attempt to regain lost ground they started to trickle back to Palestine nearly around 1700. Under such hostile circumstances the World Zionist Organization was founded in 1897 in Switzerland. The members believed that the Jews ought to return back to their righteous “Jewish Homeland”. The number of Jews in Palestine by the end of the 19th century alarmed the Arabs there. Conflicts occurred; the USA and the British government intervened, but no agreement could be signed. The Arabs wanted the migration of Jews to end, whereas, the Jews wanted to return back to their land following the horrors of the World Wars.

Finally in November 1947, the UN voted to divide Palestine. One half of the land would become the independent state of Israel and the other half would be with the Palestinian Arabs. In May 1948, Jewish leader Ben Gurion declared the independence of the new state of Israel. This outraged the Arabs and Israel was attacked immediately by Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon.

Israel defeated the Arabs in this war and captured even more of Palestine. They now had half of Jerusalem under their control. The USA and Britain guaranteed Israel’s frontiers. Since then numerous conflicts and wars have continued. The Suez war of 1956, the Six-Day war of 1967 and the Yom Kippur war of 1973 are the most prominent ones. It was during these wars that Israel acquired the much disputed Gaza Strip, West Bank and Jerusalem.

Meanwhile an organization named The Palestine Liberation Organization under Yasser Arafat carried a series of terrorist attacks to draw attention towards the injustice being done to the Arabs of Palestine. The Arabs living in these occupied areas are worst affected by the whole issue. According to the UN report Israel is accused of causing humanitarian catastrophe among the Palestinians: the economy has been destroyed, 65 to 70% of the population is unemployed, the houses and schools have been bulldozed and demolished. They are also accused of disproportionate violence and use of force against the enemies which has led to many civilian deaths.

To ease the conflict a Peace Conference took place in 1993, in Oslo. Here Israel agreed to give away parts of Palestine back which they had acquired during the war of 1967 (Gaza Strip and West Bank). PLO in return agreed to give up terrorism. Everything was going well, however in 1996 four suicide bombing incidents carried out by Palestinian militia group Hamas killed 63 people; another incident happened in the northern Israel where Hezbollah shelled villagers. Any possibility of peace was lost and hard-liner Binyamin Netanyahu managed to exploit the situation to become the Prime Minister of Israel. In 1994 Israel granted the right of self-governance to Gaza through the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas continued its strikes and in retaliation Israel assassinated a leader of PLO and surrounded Arafat’s headquarters in 2002. Temporary ceasefire lasted for four weeks and the Palestinians started their attack again. Israel this time sent 150 tanks and 20,000 soldiers into West bank and Gaza Strip, what followed was an unfortunate massacre by the Israelis. Kofi Annan condemned the offense and accused Israel of “illegal occupation”.

In 2007, after the Battle of Gaza, Hamas fighters took control of the Gaza Strip and removed Fatah officials after Fatah lost the parliamentary elections of 2006. The battle resulted in the dissolution of the unity government and the de facto division of the Palestinian territories into two entities, the West Bank governed by the Palestinian National Authority, and Gaza governed by Hamas. Since then continuous conflict has occurred between Israel and Hamas.

Current scenario

The world stands spectator as Israel bombs Palestine civilians in Gaza, calling it their fight against the militant group Hamas. Recently two incidents – the killing of three Israeli’s in West Bank and burning of a Palestinian youth in East Jerusalem – have triggered events which may endanger thousands of innocent lives. The air strike carried by Israel has cost more than 193 lives and thousands have been injured. According to the UN 77% of casualties have been civilians. Israel authorities say they are retaliating to the 700 rockets launched by Hamas targeting their cities even though in actuality not  a single rocket has managed to go beyond the Iron Dome of Israel.

This forces us to ponder that whether the retaliation of such scale and nature by Israel is justified? And that should the international community play a more important role to ease down this conflict which is only causing more misery and suffering to the Palestinian Arabs.

Rishabh Sharma

[email protected]

 

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Bazinga

Bazinga: Bollywood all set to make a movie on the famous Delhi University – FYUP controversy

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

Indian movies have been  inspired by the University of Delhi from long time now, be it Anuskha – Ranveer starrer Band Baja Baraat, Ranbir Kapoor’s Rockstar or other low budget movies like Do Dooni Chaar and Fukrey. All of these flicks  have numerous songs and scenes shot at the Delhi University college campuses like Hans Raj , St. Stephen’s  and Miranda House.

However, this time, it isn’t the college campus that has caught the eye of the Bollywood stakeholders, but a DU chapter that has been in headlines for almost a year now. If rumors are to be believed, a leading production house, Pharma Productions, has been inspired by the Delhi University – FYUP controversy and is aiming to en-cash on it, by making a movie on the same theme.

The same production banner has been associated with the rumors of Hindi remake of a famous English movie based on an international best seller novel, earlier this month.

“This movie would be our tribute to the young student’s movement that failed the authorities and made them submit to the call of majority. The story isn’t only true and inspiring but also a message as to how no one dictate the youth of India which is fully aware of their rights.” said Mr. Charan Mohar, the Production Head.

The teams for research have been made and are already in function. The Design and Shooting crew is evaluating places where shooting could be done at, North Campus (DU), Connaught Place, Hauz Khas Village and Satya Niketan being the prime locations.

“The creative team is working on the idea. Of course, we are convinced that the movie would be received well by the audiences, but a lot of home work needs to be done yet.” said Ekta, a creative team member.

The story would be an outstation student’s narrative of the FYUP’s introduction, conduct, fall outs, importance and roll back and the after effects. The movie would be made in a complete Bollywood style, with the garnish of songs, action, romance and comedy.

“This movie would be a celebration of our hardships, turmoil and victory, we are eagerly waiting for it.” said the students representative of the only FYUP batch of 2013-14.

While the major DU officials’ characters shall be played by veteran Bollywood actors, the male and female leads and other side roles shall be played by the DU students.The auditions for selection  shall be held in numerous colleges after the academic session of 2014-15 commences. The interested students could send in their CVs at [email protected]

The movie is scheduled to go on floor in December this year, so that the shooting could go on uninterrupted in the semester break.  If all goes as per the plan, the movie is all set to hit the silver screen in the summer of 2015.

 

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

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Sex Amma

Sex Amma: She likes to call out her favourite footballer’s name instead of mine!

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Amma, all is good when my girlfriend and I are doing it until she moans her favourite footballer’s name. It’s a major turn off and has made me hate that player even though he’s one of my favourites.
She feels guilty and tries to make up for it by giving head, which she normally does not do. I don’t know what to feel. Should I continue guilt-tripping her or should I be sterner?

Oh! Another FIFA-fevered machhi! Dear little (or not) rava masala dosa of mine, football makes people do crazy stuff. You should be relieved it’s not a cricketer, Amma can never stand cricket or its fans.

However, your girl might be one of those people who watch football, not just for the love of the game, but also because some of the players..oh, they look absolutely delectable! Can’t blame a girl for imagining the naughty with them hotties. You could scream the player’s name too, that’d confuse her and you both might end up having a good time while you’re, well, having a good time. And hey, maybe you could pretend to be a star footballer, while she acts as a die hard fan. What an inspired idea for role play! Amma is a genius!

I’d suggest you let things be as they are. As soon as FIFA is over, she’ll be back to screaming your name. Take it easy, it’s not so bad. And hey, free and willing head! Win-win!

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Admissions 2014

Delhi University Fourth cut off list: South Campus and off campus colleges

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Delhi University releases fourth cut off list. Many colleges have closed admission for the General category. BCom remains open in Gargi College for General category. The list is valid upto July,12 till 1:00pm

Gargi College: Fourth cut off list

Shaheed Bhagat Singh college: Fourth cut off list

Kamala Nehru College: Fourth cut off list

Deshbandhu college: Fourth cut off list

Zakhir Hussain College: Fourth cut off list

College of Vocational studies: Fourth cut off list

P.G.D.A.V college: Fourth cut off list

Off Campus Colleges:

Aditi Mahavidyalaya: Fourth cut off list

Shyam Lal College: Fourth cut off list

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Admissions 2014

Delhi University Fourth cut off list: North campus colleges

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Delhi University has released the fourth cut off list for admission into colleges. SRCC has admissions open only for the General category.  The following colleges are the ones which have released the cut off as of yet:

Shri Ram College of Commerce: Fourth cut off list

Daulat Ram College: Fourth cut off list

Ramjas College: Fourth cut off list

Hindu college: Fourth cut off list

 

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Uncategorized

Humouroscope: July 9th – July 15th, 2014

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Aries: Behold! You are in for a big surprise mid-week. Though over-enthusiastic reactions can turn it into a shock.

Taurus: You are likely to hit the wall. I mean it literally.

Gemini: And you going to be hit on by your crush. Enjoy!

Cancer: You will realise how lucky you are to not be the 2014 batch of  DU when you see the cut off of your course in your college closing at a percentage higher than what it was for you.  As for the new aspirants, long distance travelling is on the cards. Aim for the college farthest from home.

Leo: Rajat Tokas will message you on Facebook. Don’t know who he is?  Go Google him!

Virgo: Next time you travel by bus, you will have an annoying, whiny kid sitting next to you. That is when you will realize you left your earphones at home. Seems like the stars are planning to test your patience.

Libra: If you are on a shopping spree for the new session, you are in for a heart-break. Your most disliked classmate has prettier outfits than you. What can be worse? She has bought an exact same one like yours.

Scorpio: Anything you say this week will be used against you by your mother. Good luck.

Sagittarius: You will lose the pen drive which has all the episodes of your favorite show. It may also contain videos which should not land up with your parents. Be careful as to where you lose it.

Capricorn: Students opting for Economics and Commerce this academic year are likely to suffer from severe mood swings and emotional imbalance. Our condolences are with you!

Aquarius: You have been bestowed with the power to bring rain, It will rain the moment you step out of your house.

Pisces: Your best friend is keeping a secret for you. Take him/her for an ice cream treat and the secret will be revealed.

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