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Akash Pattanayak

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  In other colleges students have been given a few options to choose from but this disparity is not just limited to colleges but also to different courses in colleges. At the Shri Ram College of Commerce, students of B. Com were directly allotted Economics as their allied course while students of Economics were given an option to choose between Mathematics and Political Science. St. Stephen’s college has provided students with options for the allied course as well but these options haven’t been extended to students of all courses. Other colleges are still in the dark when it comes to the allied course and are expecting news by Monday. There seems to be no directive from the University to ensure that colleges follow a uniform policy on the issue. Information on the Delhi University Website is limited to the allied course papers of different subjects. The students continue to remain uncertain about the exact details of their course structure and are hoping for some clarity soon.]]>

After long hours on the pitch of training and hard work, the Delhi University team managed to etch their names in history this year. With a string of great performances they managed to achieve something that has constantly evaded Delhi University in the past. The 3rd place finish in the All India Inter-University Championships held in Kerala is something that both the players and the coaches will remember for years to come. The team lost in the semi finals to Mahatma Gandhi University. Calicut University went on to win the competition. Apoorv Kakkar, a player on the team, said that “Next year we will aim to do even better in all competitions.” Before this extraordinary feat at the All India competition, the team kept the DU flag on top with a third place finish in the North Zone competition held in Patiala. Shashank Mamgain was adjudged best striker of the tournament. The fact that it was a young squad only added to the glory and pride. When we asked the players about the experience, they told us that it was a great opportunity and the exposure really benefited them. In terms of support from the University, the response was not as enthusiastic as there were problems in terms of daily allowance and financial assistance that players had to face. The selection process for the University team was one that the players thought was fair and one that ensured that the best players got selected.  All in all it was a year to remember for the team and the players are looking forward to bettering their performance in the years to come.

The 9th Shri Ram Debating Festival (SRDF) came to a close on the 24th of March after four days of non-stop debating action. The festival organized by the SRCC Debating Society comprised of four events. The tournament was a semi-closed event and hence allowed for participation from both undergraduate and postgraduate institutions, however no institutional crosses were allowed. The highlight of course was the Parliamentary Debate called Crossfire that had a total of 28 participating teams.

The Shri Ram Memorial Conventional debate was closely contested over two rounds of debating that saw each team speak both for and against the motion. Eventually, NLIU Bhopal emerged as victors and Jindal Global Law School was the runner up team. The best speaker was Parnil from NLIU Bhopal and Rahul Seth from NLU Delhi won the prize for best interjector.

Renegade, that was the turncoat debate, saw many debaters come and contradict themselves as they spoke both for and against the motion in a span of four minutes. Yash and Aparna from NLIU Bhopal took the 1st and 2nd prize respectively followed by Rahul Seth from NLU Delhi who came third.

Synergy, the group discussion, had a preliminary round followed by semi finals and finals. The finals saw a tie between Sanchith from NUJS and Rahul Seth from NLU Delhi. Third place went to Phalguni from KMC.

Crossfire followed 3 vs 3 Asian’s parliamentary Debating format. The tournament followed the system of quarters break that saw 8 teams progress past the prelims. The adjudication core at SRDF comprised of Aashay Sahay, Eashan Ghosh, Siddhartha Thyagarajan, Aditya Verma and Noopur Sen as internal adj core.

The finals were contested between Law Faculty (Saad, Shobhit, Vibhor) and St. Stephen’s College (Jagat, Avani, Nidhaanjit). On a 4-3 split in the finals, St. Stephen’s College emerged as victors. The prize for best adjudicator went to Rahul Seth from NLU Delhi.

After enjoying a night of Bollywood with Shaan it was time for Delhi University to get a taste of PLUR- Peace Love Unity Respect. VH1 Supersonic that took the world by storm with the festival in Goa last year did not disappoint when they brought their unique brand of EDM music to Crossroads 2014 at SRCC. The lineup was one that made sure the students (and the old guys) had their hands in the air as the danced to the music. With renowned artists like Audiogramme, Dualist Inquiry and of course Nikhil Chinapa, it was truly a night SRCC and Delhi University will remember for a long time.

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Audiogramme | Image Credit: Abhinav Arora

The size of the crowd only increased as the time went by and this meant that the parking lot and the front lawns of SRCC were packed to capacity. The crowd cheered and threw their hands in the air as they danced through the night. Dualist Inquiry, the solo act that combines the guitar with electronic music was widely appreciated by the DU audience as he ended the act with Get Lucky by Daft Punk. This was followed up by Nikhil Chinapa who mixed tracks like If I lose myself by One Republic and a unique rendition of Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd.

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Nikhil Chinapa | Image Credit: Abhinav Arora

The arrangements added to the performance with a gigantic screen, flame throwers, pyrotechnics and confetti. Nikhil Chinapa kept the audience involved as he complimented the SRCC crowds, the girls of Delhi, invited everyone to Goa for Supersonic and of course made sure everyone had a good time. As the second day of Crossroads came to an end, students were glad that the event lived up to expectations and that the hype was well and truly justified.

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Sahej Bakshi/Dualist Inquiry | Image Credit: Chirag Sharma

Be sure to come in for the next two days as performances by Jennifer Rene and Sukhwinder Singh bring the hits to Crossroads 2014. Tonight the party went Supersonic, but make sure you’re there for the next two days for the last party before forty.

Featured Image Credit: Abhinav Arora for DU Beat

After Papa CJ, Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan, it was time for Raghu Dixit to entertain SRCC. As part of Livewire at Histrionica 2014, The Raghu Dixit performed for the massive crowd that gathered in the SRCC parking lot. The event was open for non SR-ites as well and this meant that people lined up to watch the performance. Despite the delay, the numbers never dwindled and most people would agree with the fact that it was truly worth the wait.

With songs from their latest album Jag Changa as well as some of their all time favorites like Ambar, Khidki, Hey Bhagwan, No man will ever love you like I do and many more, fans were truly in for a treat as they enjoyed the concert.

Histrionica brought some of the biggest names in the Industry over the course of the festival and the performance by The Raghu Dixit Project definitely had everyone on their feet.

The Sri Ram College of Commerce auditorium was packed to capacity with students lining up to see Papa CJ bring his unique brand of comedy to Delhi University. The performance was the highlight of day two at Histrionica 2014. The International comedy sensation had the audience in splits as Papa CJ didn’t even spare the SRCC principal in his act.

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He didn’t miss out on a single opportunity to roast the students and the faculty of SRCC with digs at the various societies and foundation courses while he not so subtly continued to crack jokes about things like politics and terrorism. In classic Papa CJ style he constantly kept the audience involved as he made them do an exercise to enjoy comedy and mock as many spectators as he possibly could. As he continued to profess his pride to be Indian, he continued to rip American checking at Airports and second generation Indians in Britain a new one.

With all the inside jokes on SRCC about Crossroads, the Dramatics Society, Demeanor and of course the gay boy digs at the Doscos sitting in the audience he made sure that the students did nothing short of falling of their chairs as they laughed through the act.

Want to laugh a little? Here are two cracks from the show!

“The only two types of people who do Yoga are foreigners and first year B.Com students.”

“What the hell is Integrated Mind Body and Heart? In our time we called that Masturbation.”

The 34th Frank Thakur Das Parliamentary Debate saw teams from all over the country fight it out through the intense competition and challenging rounds to claim the title. The four day event between 7th and 10th February was organized by the Kirori Mal College Debating Society. The tournament was open and hence allowed institutional crosses.

The tournament featured some of the strongest institutional and cross teams in the circuit. FTD followed the 3 on 3 Asians’ parliamentary debate format. A total of thirty six teams participated in the debate and eight teams broke to participate in quarters.

The final saw last year’s runners up Backstreet’s back (Rohan Kochar, Rounaq Chandrashekhar and Akshay Raghupati) go up against LSR A (Sasha Bhatnagar, Urmi Tat and Shaily Saluja). The motion for the final round was based on the context that gods were in fact aliens who subjugated mankind and that one individual had discovered this evidence. The motion was that “The house believes that this individual should reveal this information to the world”. The cross team Backstreet’s back emerged victorious. The best adjudicator for the tournament was Eashan Ghosh (popularly known as Ego).

Business Conclave 2014, SRCC’s annual undergraduate management festival kicked off with the Sri Ram Memorial Oration on 5th February. Last year the event was the center of attention with Narendra Modi as the keynote speaker. This edition of Conclave saw Honorable Finance Minister Sri P. Chidambaram deliver the opening address to a packed auditorium at the Sri Ram College of Commerce. Whether it was the introduction of the chief guest in Tamil or the crowds cheering for the Union president Seerat Gupta, the oration kept the audience entertained. The issue that was addressed was that of ‘Accelerating India’s Growth’.

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“42,800 people admit to an income of Rs 1 crore in India. I think I can find 42.900 people with Rs 1 crore in South Delhi alone.” – P. Chidambaram at SRCC. Image Credit: Mehr Gill for DU Beat

He talked about the challenges and opportunities that India faces as a nation. Through the course of his speech he addressed all the problems that plague our country and at the same time illustrated how we have a chance to capitalize on what we have. The idea that he emphasized was that we are the biggest obstacle in our path and that we do not need to look across the border to find the cause behind our failure. The obstacles he addressed were rising inequality, the ‘not in my backyard syndrome’, middle class stagnation and unwillingness to work for the greater good of society. He further talked about competition and how we must all now comply with the global standard.

The 7th Annual Shanti Narayan Memorial Parliamentary Debate played host to some of the strongest institutional and cross teams of the circuit. The annual debate organized by the Hansraj College Debating Society was an open tournament and hence allowed any three individuals to form a team and allowed for independent adjudicators as well. A total of 40 teams participated in the four day event held between 18th and 21st January 2014.

This year Shanti followed the 3 on 3 Asians’ parliamentary debate format. The tournament also had a strict policy of finishing all rounds on team. The tabs team worked efficiently to ensure that there was no delay. Another plus was the free pizza for all participating teams and adjudicators courtesy Rossa.

The chief adjudicator of the tournament was Aashay Sahay. Reputed alumni of the Hans Raj Debating Society such as Anirudh Raghavan, Vibhor Jain and Abeer Sharma formed the organizing committee of the tournament. The tournament introduced new ideas like the ‘Chaimpiyan’ speaker and the compulsory point of information called ‘sosaje’.

The final was a duel between Kirori Mal College and the cross team Cold on the motion “This house rejects homework .” The winning team was Cold comprising of Karandeep Aazaan Khanna, Karthik Sivaram and Prasun Bhaiya. The best adjudicator of the tournament was Ankit (Ex-Ramjas).

After the conclusion of the debate, Shaurya Upadhyay of the Hansraj College Debating Society had the following to say-

“There was intense competition with the adjudication pool comprising veterans from the Indian Debating Circuit. It was overall a very successfully run tournament, with high level of competition, stellar adjudicators, and efficiently functioning organising committee.”

The Mukarji Memorial attracts people from all corners and the 66th edition had not only the finest domestic talent but also three international teams. Trinity College Dublin, Lahore School of Economics and University College Lahore added immensely to the quality of debate at MukMem. A total of 48 teams participated in the four day event held between 10th – 13th January, 2014. It ended with the final between NLU Delhi and Trinity College Dublin.

Despite the fact that MukMem has been around for 66 years, the organisers have never been afraid to experiment with the format of the tournament. This time the core decided to implement the APDA format that they tested out at MukMem ProAm. Also to ensure a level playing field the tournament was closed this year. They further put a restriction in terms of a three-time participation limit for speakers at MukMem.

The adjudication core comprised of Akshay Ragupathy, Aditya Sarin, Dhruva Desai and Badrinarayan Seetharaman. The deputy CAs for the tournament was the Stephen’s team that the debating circuit has become used to seeing- Jagat Sohail, Soutik Banerjee and Apoorv Avram.

The final was a closely contested duel between NLU Delhi and Trinity College Dublin on the motion “The house will criminalize failure to provide reasonable assistance to individuals in distress situations.” The team of Ambar Bhushan and Rahul Seth from NLU Delhi emerged as victors on a 6-1 split in the finals. The best adjudicator for the tournament was Parnil Urdhwareshe.

After the conclusion of the debate, Soutik Banerjee, the Director of MukMem 66 had the following to say:

Mukmem 66 was a dream project, and to see it materialise gave me a sense of unparalleled joy. Mukmem 66 not only gifted a new format to the Indian debating circuit, it also brought together young minds from across the country as well as from Pakistan and Ireland. In the end, it really does not matter who wins the trophy because Mukmem 66 was all about winning hearts. But take nothing away from the debating. It was intense, stimulating, provocative and decisive. MukMem 66 was the best start one could make to 2014, and if the morning shows the day then we are in for a fantastic year.