Arindam Goswami, Author at DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

SAHAS – The women empowerment cell of Kirori Mal College, part of the National Service Scheme organised Pahal 2016, an inter college athletic meet. Registrations went on for three days on the 26^th, 27^thand 28^th of this month. The athletic meet was organised on 29^th and 30^th.

Nearly 300 students from different colleges registered their names and over 220 participated on both days. On spot registrations accounted for 50 to 60 participants. Most of the students participated in more than one event.

Being the first of its kind, PAHAL began last year out of an idea to organise an athletic meet through the Women Empowerment Cell. Although in 2015, the competition was limited to within KMC, this year they decided to make it an inter college event. Students from various colleges such as Miranda House, Daulat Ram, Satyawati, Bharati, HansRaj, Institute of Home Economics (IHE) and Ramjas college participated in PAHAL’16. Bharati college saw the maximum number of participants and bagged most of the medals.

PAHAL DAY ONE:

The events on the first day were 100m race, Shot-put, Lemon Spoon Race, Broad Jump and Relay Race. Anju from Miranda House bagged the first position in relay race with Lalita and Paridhi from Bharati college in the second and third position respectively.

In Shot-put, Richa of IHE came first winning by 0.34m. Janvi (8.02m) and Paridhi (7.84m) of Bharati College came in the second and third position respectively.

The Lemon Spoon race was won by the home team with Ridhi and Shivangi of KMC in the first and second position while Shilpa of Satyawati college placing third. In the Broad Jump category, Pooja and Usha of IHE bagged the first and third position while R.V.M. Roy of Miranda House came second. Bharati college dominated the Relay Race by occupying the first and second positions while IHE placed third.

PAHAL DAY TWO:

Events on the second day comprised of 200m race, Discuss Throw, Three Legged race and Tug of War. In the 200m sprint, Kritika from Bharati college won the first position. Anju from Miranda and Sapna from Ramjas college placed second and third respectively.

Winners for the Discuss Throw were Dimple from Miranda House (1^st), Jyoti (2^nd) and Chanchal (3^rd) from Bharati college.

Shruti and Shivangi from KMC won the first position in the Three Legged race. Pratibha and Aashinsa from Bharati college came second while Usha and Pooja from IHE placed third.

The Tug of War competition was also won by Bharati college. Sack race was cancelled due to lack of participation.

The Faculty member who helped supervise the event were NSS Programming officer, Mr. Arun Kumar Tripathi along with Mr. Khusro Moin from the Geography department, Mr. Samir Singh from Economics and Mr. Ramananda Mayanglambam, Proctorial Committee Convenor from the Chemistry department.

As Nikhil Kumar, Head of SAHAS put it,” Organising such an event within a short span is a feat in itself and we hope SAHAS’17 will be even better”.

Arindam Goswami

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Spo(r)tlight

A Foundation of Endless Possibilities – Indian Blind Women’s Cricket Team

By Arindam Goswami September 25, 2016

Recognising the success that the blind men’s cricket team had, Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI) launched a 41 member women’s cricket team. Launched in 2011, the Indian men’s cricket team had won the T20 World Cup in 2012 where India defeated Pakistan by 29 runs. The men’s team has also won the ODI World Cup and the T20 Asia Cup.

On the 18^th of September, Shantha Rangaswamy, chairman of the women’s selection team and the former captain of the Indian women’s team launched the team in Bengaluru. They are going to be trained by their male counterparts.

India’s blind women’s team is a contribution to creating history, a history first created by Nepal when it founded the first visually impaired women’s cricket team. According to John David, General Secretary of CABI, the demand for a women’s team had been in for a long time and there was interest from a lot of women to play at the national and international level.

This has implications far beyond than just succeeding in sports. Using sports to affirm their self empowerment, this will take their self esteem to greater heights. Shekhar Naik, ex-captain of the Blind Men’s cricket team says, “I am sure that this team will definitely show its talent and will participate at the national and international level. We need more support to recognize this kind of cricket.”

It is heartwarming to see cricket associations taking such progressive steps even under dearth of funds and recognition. The BCCI has not yet officially recognised Blind Cricket. Even after having so much potential, the Indian players were stuck without jobs. The Blind Cricket Association has been managing with the limited funds they have. This brings to light how national entities refuse swift recognition of talent. So far the Men’s team has won three world cups and yet the Board has not deemed any official recognition.

The possibilities of support and recognition has been shown by the UK’s Visually Impaired women’s team, when they went to play their first international match against Nepal. After their groundbreaking South Asian tour, their lives acquired a newfound happiness and freedom. As a team member quoted upon return, “Just back from an absolutely amazing and life changing trip to Nepal! Never gonna see the world in the same way again!”

Such support for the visually impaired is gathering momentum and it is time that our national boards give a chance to the the differently abled because they will be achieving so much more than just sports. They will be achieving a new found sense of self dignity. At last, this will hopefully encourage people with disabilities to take up sports as a means of self-expression.

With Inputs from: sportskeeda.com and thechangefoundation.com

Image credits: sportskeeda.com

Feature image contains a picture of the Blind Men’s Cricket team.

Arindam Goswami

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Spo(r)tlight

Delhi University student wins double gold at World University Championships

By Arindam Goswami September 25, 2016

The sixth International University Sports Federation’s (FISU) World University Shooting Championships was held at Bydgoszcz, Poland from the 14^th and went on till the 18^th of September. Thirty four Indian shooters went to compete in the Championships and they shone. Rifle specialist Akhil Sheoran bagged two medals in the Men’s Air Rifle events.

He competed in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle event and won a gold against Poland’s Tomasz Bartnik by 2 points and scoring a total of 207.0 points. Along with Ekambir Singh and Milanpreet Singh, the trio secured another gold in the 10m Air Rifle team event.

Akhil completed his graduation from Delhi University and went on to pursue MBA from Jamia Milia Islamia University. The champion shooter had aspired to qualify for the Rio Olympics earlier this year but missed the mark by a hair’s breadth when he qualified fourth in the Asia Shooting qualifiers.

However this is not his first medal in shooting. The star athlete had won a bronze in the 10m Air Rifle team event, in the 2015 World University Championships held in Gwangju, South Korea. He says he biggest disappointment was not qualifying for the Rio Games and this win helped to numb the pain a little. Other than Sheoran, Chandigarh’s Vinita Bharadwaj also bagged a gold against China’s Olympic Bronze winner Yi Siling, scoring 206.0 and defeating her by two-tenths of a point.

With inputs from sportskeeda.com

Image credits: olympicgoldquest.in

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Faculty of Law

Mass Failure in Law Faculty – Students Protest in Agitation

By Arindam Goswami September 20, 2016

The students of the Law Faculty, Delhi University sat on a hunger strike from 2 pm, 14^th of September. The strike was against the mass failures of students that had occurred for the second year in a row. Alleging some problems with the results, they went on an indefinite hunger strike, urging the authorities to look into their grievances.

HOW IT BEGAN –

Following the declaration of the results, the students began discussions with the teachers and faculty as to how the matter can be addressed and proper steps for re-evaluation of the papers. Almost half of the students had flunked and scored much less than they expected. After coming to a dead end the students decided to sit on an indefinite hunger strike from 2pm on the 14^th of September in front of the office of the Dean, Faculty of Law, Campus Law Center building. Brajesh Singh, Mithilesh Jaisal, Nishant and Mohit Gupta were the student representatives leading the strike.

MASS FAILURES –

They alleged that some students were even marked after they had appeared for the exams after a thorough revision of the scores was carried out. The Faculty of Law has three centres – Law Center I (LC I), Law Center II (LC II) and Campus Law Center (CLC). CLC admits the highest scorers of the entrance exam. According to one report, almost 882 out of 1, 944 students have failed in at least one subject. Students who had scored first division last year have also scored less this time. Around 350 students face year back due to failure in one or more papers.

WHAT FOLLOWED –

On the fourth day of the strike, Saturday, the Dean, Ved Kumari, being unable to appeal to the students to call off the strike, sat down in protest against them herself. She was recovering from Chikungunya and her health was very weak. Two other teachers, Kamla Shankaran and Kiran Gupta joined the Dean in an attempt to have a dialogue with the students. Since the Dean could not make any promises herself, the students demanded that the Vice Chancellor or his representative come down and negotiate with them. They refused to call off the strike till any such action was taken.

DEMANDS –

The students demanded instant redressal of their demands. Their primary demands according to their written intimation were:

Relaxation in promotion
Restoration of supplementary exams in the first year and second year (third years already have it)
Free revaluation for this semester and for introducing a full fledged revaluation scheme.
Modification of the currently existing improvement system with best of two.

These demands were addressed to the Vice Chancellor, Proctor, Dean, Faculty of Law, Dean, Students welfare, University of Delhi in addition to the S.H.O. Maurice Nagar police Station.

DEVELOPMENTS –

After almost 70 hours of strike and no response from the authorities, the student took the strike a step further and on the 17^th of September proceeded to burn the effigy of Professor S.C. Raina, whom they claimed responsible for the mass failures. They marched from the office of the Dean, Faculty of Law till the office of the Vice Chancellor.

Seeing as the students were not willing to give on the strike, an attempt was made to pacify them with verbal assurances and promises. The Joint registrar (Legal Branch) came and verbally assured them that their demands will be looked into and that they should call off the strike. DCP of North, Madhur Verma came as a representative of the Vice Chancellor and tried to call off the strike. When all attempts failed to sway the students, the Dean, Ved Kumari came the next morning signed a written agreement stating that the authorities will complete their demands as soon as possible. The first demand, ‘Relaxation of Promotion’ will be dealt with first and on a priority basis. The rest will have to be passed through the Academic council and the UGC council for approval. Seeing the authorities give in to their demands, the students called off the strike between 9 and 10 am, on Monday, the 19^th.

According to Brajesh Singh, “ We are grateful to the authorities for listening to our pleas, but we shall not hesitate to go on strike again, if our demands are not met and discussed with proper attention.”

With inputs from The Quint and The Times of India

Arindam Goswami

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DUB Speak

Five Extraordinary Performances in Rio

By Arindam Goswami August 22, 2016

The Rio Olympics 2016 has seen some splendid performances so far. We have listed five extraordinary performances from the events till now.

Dipa Karmakar – Even though she finished fourth after Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland by a narrow margin, her performance at the Women’s Vault finals was extraordinary. Dipa’s average score was 15.066 and at present, she is one of the only five women in the world who can perform the Prudonova vault.
Image Credits- wikipedia

Michael Phelps – The most decorated Olympian of all time, it is needless to say why he is on this list. Holding a record in almost every field, this US athlete ended his career with 28 medals, 23 of them gold. Although he could not outshine his own performance in the Beijing Olympics, his career is legendary enough to rank him undefeated for a long time to come.

Rio de Janeiro - O nadador Michael Phelps, norte-americano recordista de medalhas olímpicas, 22, concede entrevista no Parque Olímpico dos Jogos Rio 2016 (Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil) — Image Credits- wikipedia.org

Joseph Schooling –The Singaporean swimmer earned his country’s first gold after beating Phelps in the 100m butterfly. His performance is a national, Asian and an Olympic record. He finished in a record 51.41 seconds while Phelps finished in 51.60 seconds. Ecstatic, the Olympian went on to get a tattoo, one just like his idol, Phelps.

Image Credits- wikipedia.org

Sakshi Malik – Sakshi Malik’s dramatic victory in the Women’s 58kg freestyle wrestling will remain in our memory for a long time. After losing the Quarterfinal to eventual finalist Koblova Zholobowa, she fought back against Kyrgyzstan’s Aisuluu Tynybekova from 0-5 to seal the deal in 8-5 in her favour. Though she had plenty of luck, the Haryanvi wrestler certainly beat the odds to bag India’s first medal at the Olympics, 2016.

Image Credits- Indianexpress.com

Kidambi Srikanth – The 21 year old from Guntur played to the end in his match with defending champ Lin Dan. The nerve wrecking match which lasted an hour and four minutes saw an exhibition of world class talent on the arena. Initially, the match was lopsided as Srikanth struggled against his opponent. It was only in the second half of the middle game that he started giving Lin a run for his money. Mixing drops and adapting a versatility was his choice to rattle Lin in the game. Although he lost 6-12, 21-11, 18-21, his brilliant performance will be remembered.

Image credits- en.wikipedia.org

Feature Image Credits: dailypost.org

Arindam Goswami
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DUB News

Apart from Olympics, DU set to shine at Paralympics too

By Arindam Goswami August 13, 2016

Delhi University recently earned itself the reputation of being the only university in the country to send the maximum number of participants to the Rio Olympics this year. But it’s not just the Olympics where it is sending students.

The Olympics is the biggest dream of any qualified sportsperson and the ultimate stage where they get a chance to prove themselves. Apurvi Chandela, who has qualified for the women’s 10m air rifle, Lalit Mathur, who has qualified for the men’s 4x400m relay and Manika Batra, who has qualified for the women’s singles at Table Tennis are getting a chance to play in the biggest and the most glamorous competition of their lives. Batra is at the top of the table tennis rankings in India, Apurvi has already won a gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glassgow and Mathur has already made his bollywood debut as Farhan Akhtar’s body double in the movie Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

However, it’s not just the Olympics where DU kids will lock horns with international talent. Sharad Kumar, a graduate from Kirori Mal College is all set to compete in the Rio Paralympics. He was banned in 2012 for allegedly taking steroids during the Malaysian open Para Athletics Championship but proved himself after winning the gold medal at the 2014 Para Asian Games at Incheon. He also broke a 12 year old record in the men’s high jump category. The 22 year old has proved himself worthy of the 2016 Paralympics. But it is disheartening to know that even after winning the gold, he was not given any recognition. Despite every medalist being given tonnes of special facilities by the government, Sharad did not receive any. This reflects the sad state of affairs in India where athletes are expected to give their all for the country but the government still fails to give them their due rewards. An athlete like Sharad should get the recognition he deserves and it is something he has definitely earned again this time.

We wish him all the best for the Paralympics!

Image credits: thesalute.in
Inputs from news18.com

Arindam Goswami

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Events

Bike Around The Bomb – A Message For Peace

By Arindam Goswami August 9, 2016

It was in August of 1945 that the U.S dropped ‘’little boy’’ and ‘’fat man’’ on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It remains till date the only known use of nuclear bombs in warfare. The privilege of being nuclear powers was in the hands of a few back then.

Nowadays, with rapid development, technology and the arms race, nation after nation is bent on becoming nuclear. Some powers have pledged disarmament but still have to deliver on their promises. And since nobody is willing to drop arms first, everybody wants to get enough for deterrence, or at least we hope it is for that. So with new powers and developing or existing (Indo-Pak anyone?) tensions between States, the threat of nuclear warfare becomes more and more imminent.

Cyclists — 12 cyclists from Global Zero, at Raisina Hill.

With this huge doubt looming over us, nations and international organizations have decided to start movements for disarmament. The U.S. based group Global Zero (GZ) is one such organization. Launched in 2008 and with a participation of over 300 world leaders, this group works towards the eradication of nuclear weapons from the world.

Cycling 2 — Global Zero cycling team at India Gate.

On the 71^st anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings thousands of Global Zero activists participated in a global day of action calling for an end to the nuclear threat. Activists took to the streets, riding cycles or walking in Kolkata, Bangalore, and New Delhi, tracing the blast of a “small” nuclear weapon and highlighting the zone of devastation in which most injuries would be fatal, overwhelming any possible humanitarian relief efforts. Including India, grassroots activists were joining hands in 24 cities around the world.

GZ March — The Global Zero team marching outside Akshara theater.

In New Delhi, on the 6^th of August, the Global Zero team began their 3^rd annual “Bike Around The Bomb’’. 12 cyclists started from Patiala House, crossing Raisina Hill, the House of Parliament, Akshara theatre and coming back to Patiala House completing a full circle. This was an effort to create awareness by marking the circumference of the blast radius, should a bomb be dropped at India Gate. After the cyclist completed their route, the group went on to march from Akshara theatre till Bangla Sahib while shouting slogans of “ Eliminate Nukes” and “We demand Zero”. Back at the theatre afterwards, everyone put their hand prints on paper to show support for the cause. A short musical performance by Dhruv Gautam and Kanchana Jaishankar from the Hindu music society lightened the mood after Rashi Jauhri and Akshit Mago from GZ wrapped up the session and spoke about the organization and the day’ event. Snacks and T-shirts were given to all participants.

Team GZ — The Global Zero team at Akshara theater.

It had been raining the entire day on the 6^th but the ground team’s zeal to see the event through was admirable. With 15,000 nuclear warheads out there, organizations like Global Zero which can put pressure on governments are the need of the moment.

The threat may seem distant but it is there, hovering. And it is very real.

Image credits: Vibhana Kanwar and Arindam Goswami for DU Beat.

Arindam Goswami

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DUB Speak

Still fighting to be heard – The Assam flood situation

By Arindam Goswami August 7, 2016

At the outset, here are a few facts about the current Assam flood situation:

• Assam is suffering under heavy floods which have affected at least 22 districts in the state and almost 3,300 villages.
• The Kaziranga National Park, home to more than half the world’s population of one-horned rhino is under 80% of water. Poaching activities now have more than the required advantage.
• These have been the worst floods of Assam since the year of 2004.

In India, floods have also struck states like Gurgaon, Delhi, Bengaluru, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and it has been devastating everywhere. But none of them have been as devastating as the floods in Assam. A World Heritage Site is under water and a great number of protected animals are dying with each passing hour. Villages have disappeared and people are fighting to survive. Even agriculture, which is an occupation of the majority of the people in Assam is under a threat as the silt from the Brahmaputra is washing over the fields. An entire region is barely surviving but the national media deemed it worth of a nominal mention.

Only after gaining widespread attention on social media has the situation of Assam started being covered by every major media house. It’s been barely a week since the ground reality has come to light while floods had begun from late April onwards. Thus, it becomes apparent how much the state has been ignored.

Why is it so? Why is it that even after so many assurances and promises, people from Assam have to scream and rebel to be heard? It’s only after all the social media portals began to be flooded with angry comments did the national headlines start trickling in. “The devastating floods in Assam have brought the rural and urban life to a standstill. The psychological agony of displacement of an infrastructural loss makes the situation even grimmer. The ‘responsible’ news media have done a great job of reflecting the woes of the people,’’ says Barnika Bhuyan, a student of Ramjas college. Assam floods are therefore, thought of an annual phenomena that does not require ‘repetitive’ coverage by the national media.

If you search ‘Assam flood’ on Google, all results from 2012 till 2016 may appear. Yes, it does occur annually but it also shows how responsible the governments have been to make the flooded state safe for everyone. Another problem is that the national news channels have no offices in that particular region and the national newspapers have a very weak presence in the state. The six or so regional news houses are only present when it comes to reporting grave issues at the ground level. This is another reason why journalism has such a weak scope in the region. The Assam floods have thus, again proven how our media turns a blind eye to the problems of the North-Eastern side of our country.

Inputs from: TimesofIndia.indiatimes.com, NDTV.com
Image credits: huffingtonpost.in

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QWERTY

Three must have apps for freshers of DU

By Arindam Goswami August 1, 2016

There are probably hundreds of apps which appear and disappear on daily basis from the app stores. From this cluster of umpteen apps, we have selected a few; in order of their utility and convenience that will come in very handy for freshers:

Evernote

It is one of the simplest yet most useful apps introduced till date. It helps you to save anything you might find worth remembering in the form of text note, voice reminders, to-do lists or snapshot. Subsequently, you can give your notes tags and titles and browse them whenever you wish to revisit it. Since it can sync all your notes across the devices and apps you use, it provides you with a platform to save all your vital information. One can even search for texts inside a saved image.

Image credits: cbronline.com

Delhi Metro Rail app

This is another user- friendly app. It helps you to search the nearest metro stations, check fare rates, and explore the Metro routes. Besides this, it provides you with all the information about feeder buses, helpline numbers, metro museum, tourist spots near stations, parking places, travel time between stations and so on. For those who travel by bus frequently, the Delhi Transit Bus Info makes for a handy app to check routes and tracking for GPS enabled Orange Line buses.

Image credits: play.google.com

SOS-Stay Safe

This is one of the top safety apps for girls. It can turn out to be quite a life saver in hours of need. This app can help you sends a quick SOS alert to your emergency contact list by merely shaking your cell. You can intensify your alerts by changing shake gesturers per your convenience. Another feature is that when you send in the emergency message, the battery level of the device, your location as well as a one minute audio recording is sent immediately.

Image credits: trak.in

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DUB News

DU students are off to Olympics 2016

By Arindam Goswami July 31, 2016

The Olympics which start from 5^th August, 2016, at Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, will have three Delhi University (DU) students competing in different events. DU is the only university to send three participants to the Olympic Games in the same year.

Lalit Mathur from Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College will be competing in the ‘4×400 metres relay for men’, Manika Batra and Apurvi Chandela from Jesus and Mary College in ‘table tennis’ and ‘shooting’, respectively.

Lalit who claims to have been the body double for Farhan Akhtar in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag quoted in an interview, “It is a big responsibility. It is scary and I am nervous. I just know I have to do my best.” He is not allowing anything to divert him at this point. “Gold lana hain country ke liye, uski poori koshish hain,” says the Delhi athlete.

Paddler Batra, who has won three golds in the South Asian Games plus two silver and two bronze medals in the Commonwealth Games this year, is a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar. Measuring 130^th in world ranking, the Delhi based player is confident she will bag a medal in the Olympics. She had already started working for Indian Oil while being a third year BA programme student at JMC.

Apurvi Chandela has already won a gold medal in the 2014 Commonwealth games at Glasglow. In an interview with DU Beat, she said that she was inspired when Abhinav Bindra won the gold in the 2008 Olympics and that is when she started shooting. Spending a minimum of six hours in training everyday, she likes to spend her free time with her dogs and an occasional book. “Sports is a good field to take up. It helps in all-round development. It keeps you going at all times. It’s important to put in all your effort and do what it takes to reach your goal,” said the youth icon.

DU is proud of such young stars and DU Beat wishes them all the best for the Olympics 2016 and their future endeavours!

Inputs from: Sportskeeda.com, Timesofindia.com

Image credits: newindianexpress.com, Pressreader.com, Konkanworld.com

Arindam Goswami

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