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Spending a day in Delhi: Majnu ka Tila

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Majnu ka Tila, or MKT as it is fondly called, is a Tibetan colony located near Vidhan Sabha Metro station.

A rickshaw ride to Majnu ka Tila is the most feasible and hastle free. A beautiful overhead walking bridge welcomes you with colourful flags, building the expectation of a ‘miny Tibet’ within Delhi. Don’t let the narrow austere alley confuse you. One must be patient and soldier through this lane because the most exciting network of rich alleys awaits!

Majnu ka Tila is a remedy from the often exhausting energy of Delhi and replaces it with the monastic spirit of Tibet. Here are some of my favourite things about MKT, now yours to explore:

1. Laphing, the prettier sibling of momos: It is about time that we stop feeling so patriotic about the momos at North Campus. The beautifully made and spiced Tibetan Laphing is a very strong competitor of our beloved staple food. This is probably the main reason why I shun every plan and head towards my favourite Laphing point opposite Rigo House at Majnu ka Tila instead! It’s very hard to go back to the plain old momos once you’ve had a taste of this beauty.

2. Shopping for all that’s ‘in’: If you’re in awe of the collection of clothes at Kamla Nagar, say hello to your new paradise. Even on your 57th visit to Majnu ka Tila, you will still be as excited as you were the first time.

From shoe stores, to souvenir shops everything is dangerous for your pocket money, because at Majnu ka Tila, you will just want to add everything to your wardrobe.

3. Restaurants galore: If you are looking for an alternative to Hudson Lane and Kamla Nagar, Majnu ka Tila is the answer. If you are not looking for an alternative, you must definitely bless your delusional heart with a visit.

Majnu

The comfortably beautiful Ama’s Cafe and Restaurant, The Asian Kitchen House, and Dolma House, to name a few are places to fulfill your “food-porn” goals. Tibetan cuisine is undoubtedly one of the best that I have ever had.

(Do not forget to try the Mud Cake at Ama’s cafe, especially after the Laphing.)

4. The colony and the people: I have always felt safe and at peace in Majnu ka Tila. After a year of experience, I think I can explain why. Since the place is resided in by Tibetans of all ages, the place feels like a big family. You can’t help but feel at home here. It feels wonderful to greet the elders and have a playful conversation with the kids.

I am not a Tibetan, and their culture is not very similar to mine, but I feel a sense of attachment and belonging to this place. It seems like a home away from home for some reason. If you are fed up with the fast paced and monotonous life too, give yourself an opportunity to refill your drained spirits with the simplicity and warmth of this place.

Image credits: Haidam Zeme and budgettraveller.org

Tooba Towfiq
[email protected]

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Biblio

Book Review: Hurry Om Hari by Parul Tyagi

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Hurry Om Hari

If someone asks you today to choose between a love and an arranged marriage- which one would you prefer? Those who say that they prefer the latter, they’d be lying to themselves if they admit to never having secretly wished for love to enter their life. There’s a difference between what one ‘wishes’ for and what one ‘wants’. Therefore, while some may simply wish for a love marriage, they may also consider ‘wanting’ an arranged marriage in the future or vice versa.

Arranged marriages garner much apprehension in today’s times. Parul Tyagi steps in and breaks new ground by showcasing an evolving process of a modern arranged marriage through her second novel- Hurry Om Hari.

The story revolves around two extremely likeable and endearing characters- Om, (the groom-to-be) a charming, good looking lawyer and Hari, (the bride-to-be), an effortless beauty-with-brains hockey player. The two of them are betrothed by a perfect chattis guna match of astrological calculations.

More than a love story, it’s a journey of how these two people, who are brought together by their families and bound by societal expectations, develop a strong connection, unbreakable by norms and inseparable by hearts even while they stay apart. So much so, that they postpone their wedding until they accomplish their personal ambitions, irrespective of how long it takes. The novel chronicles their journey of self-development and the further strengthening of their bond. Topped with the occasional saas-bahu gossip, it’s a perfect blend.

The author through her exceptional storytelling has kept the story true to the real world with aspects of Indian families and traditions infused in the story perfectly. There is a unique sense of charm in every chapter, compelling you to stay glued to the book all the way till the end, and without you feeling disconnected with the bigger plot.

So go ahead and read it! I guarantee you’ll fall in love with it, and just like me, feel the impact of the changed views of all kinds of love for everyone around us in this world as well.

Hurry Om Hari has been published by Half Baked Beans.

Shagun Marwah

[email protected]

 

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Bazinga

Bazinga: DU introduces compulsory sex education courses in line with Indian sanskaars

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In one of its most revolutionary reforms till date, Delhi University has decided to introduce a compulsory sex education course from next year. In order to not upset parents and politicians with the “s” word and to respect Indian culture, the course will be called Hindi Sanskaars 101 and the curriculum will include texts on how to stay away from temptation and how to find the perfect heterosexual mate from your caste. Supplementary chapters on Chinese food and its effect on rape culture and the ill effects of live-in relationships for women in particular will be included. Though the entire course has not been disclosed yet, extensive beating about the bush, pun intended, is to be expectedwith diagrammatic discussion on the reproductive systems of plants.

Whether it will be in the form of a qualifying, allied or credit course is yet to be decided by the administration but it has been declared that there will be a 75 mark theoretical paper and 25 marks worth of internal assessment. “Delhi University has always been a very liberal and progressive university. It is time to accept that youngsters of today are very modern and it is important for us tomake them aware of and prepared for the consequences of wearing shorts”, said an abstaining member of the administration, Pyaare Hilaake.

Contrary to the implementation of the FYUP or the CBCS, the initial response from student and teacher bodies has by and large been positive. A member of a student body, who has previously participated in the outrage against the Kiss of Love movement welcomed the new course and said, “Students need to be made to realise that sex is impure and only married couples can partake in this sin without compromising on our values. Personal liberty and consent have no place in our culture.”

Disclaimer: Bazinga is DU Beat’s weekly column of almost believable fake news. We firmly believe sex education should be made mandatory for youngsters, not Hindi Sanskaars 101, but the kind that talks about contraception and safety.

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Bazinga

Bazinga: Candidate’s biceps grow 6 inches from shaking too many hands

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It is well known that elections in the Delhi University leave deep environmental impact in colleges. In a bizarre turn of events, we’ve been introduced to a different impact as well this time. Mast Dola, a candidate for the post of a Central Councillor from an off-campus college, realised his biceps have beefed up when he finally went to the gym after losing the elections that involved a lot of handshakes.

“I love shaking,” he said. “Sometimes they would tell me they don’t want to shake my hand but I would shake their hand anyway. I thought that’s what wins you elections”. Dola said he did feel a little stiff but didn’t realise the extent of the impact until he measured it. “I biceps grew by 6 inches. My parents were shocked. My gym trainers have introduced a special package in the gym now – they call it the ‘DUSU package’. It’s only available for DU students,” he said.

Dola has now moved on in life from the loss in the elections. “I may have lost the elections but I won at life,” he said. He is doing public speaking sessions these days and is also known to be finishing his autobiography called ‘6 inches’.

Disclaimer: Believe Bazinga only at your own risk!

Image Credits: niticentral.com

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Jesus and Mary College

Team from St. Stephen’s and Ramjas wins big at Comquest 2015 at Jesus and Mary College

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The Commerce department of Jesus and Mary College (JMC) and Curiosus, the English Quiz Society of JMC in collaboration with Jagganath Institute of Management Studies, Kalkaji (JIMS) organised the Annual Business Management Quiz – Comquest 2015 on the 23rd of September. With Quiz Craft Global as their knowledge partners, the event had Mr. Adittya Nath Mubayi as the Quiz Master.

Comquest 2015 JMC

 

Participation in teams of one or two, from both Graduate and Post Graduate students was allowed. The quiz was attended by 300 teams. Among the eminent faculty, Chairperson, Director General and Director of JIMS were present, along with the Quiz Coordinators of both the colleges. The event began with the Welcome address by the principal, Sr. Marina John. A keynote address by the Chairperson, Dr. Amit Gupta followed.

The quiz consisted of two rounds, 300 teams took part in the elimination round, consisting of 25 business oriented questions. Out of 300, only 6 teams that managed to correctly recognise the most number of logos and brands correctly and answer the MCQs were selected for the final quiz round. The final round was divided into 6 levels that included clue based points system. The winning team consisted of Apratim Chandra Singh from St. Stephens College and Tushar Anand from Ramjas College. Sreshth Shah and Abhimanyu Bhadauria from Amity University  came second whereas the third prize went to Mukul Marodia from Ashoka University and Viraj Morabia from Mithibai College, Mumbai.

The other three qualifying teams consisted of Samridh Kudesia from Ashoka University and Pranshu Agarwal from Acharya Narendra Dev College, Ashhad Qasmi from Keshav Mahavidyalaya and Shiv Shanker Gaurav from Amity University, Anurag Gupta from Indian School of Business and Finance and Tanmay Garg from Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce.

The winning teams received a cash prize of Rs 20,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively. The prize was presented by Dr Satish Seth, Director General and JK Batra, Director of JIMS Kalkaji. Comquest 2015 ended with a vote of thanks by Dr. Preeti Singh of JIMS.

The results of all the events are:

Sudoku
1 Sachin Sharma STGS
2 Neha Garg – Daulat Ram College

Red letter Quiz
1 Chirag, Sajal and Yogi – Sri Aurobindo College
2 Abhishek (Hansraj) Rohini(JMC)
3 Naman Varun and Shubham- KMV

Faking the Research
1 Saksham dewan- SSCBS Vaibhav gupta-SGGSCC
2 Priyanka and Ayushi – SVC

Mictionary
1 Prashant, Abhijeet and Pankaj- ARSD
2 shared by
Mukund, Devika and Akhil – SSCBS
Bhavana, Giselle and Apoorva – JMC

Decoding
1 Bhavya, Avni, Ishpreet and Aarti – JMC
2 Abhishek(Hansraj) Rohini (JMC)
3 Sheetij, Harshit and Giriraj – KMV

 

Photography credits: Preeti Sridhar from JMC

Lovleen Kaur

[email protected]

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Campus Central

India Vision 2020- Are we there yet?

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Markandey Katju speaking at Kirori Mal College Markandey Katju speaking at Kirori Mal College[/caption] Katju was of the view that every nation makes a transition from feudal agricultural society to a modern industrial society, but in case of India, we are stuck somewhere in the middle of these two phases. He not only commented on the sad state of affairs of the parliament and bureaucracy by calling politicians ‘a bunch of rogues and rascals’, but he also presented the unfortunate state of the Indian media that is more interested in covering Sheena Bora Murder, Radhe Maa and Bollywood, rather than bringing forth the plight of farmers who are committing suicides. Interestingly, he pointed out the pitiable condition of Police investigations in India, stating that the ‘Darogas’ must see and learn from Sherlock Holmes. For him, India would soon face a social revolution and things will become terrible and turbulent by 2020. However, our national aim should be to make India a modern, scientific and industrial state, for which a revolution is increasingly necessary. After Mr. Katju’s words of wisdom, academician- Dr. Indira Bhardwaj spoke about her vision of India. A faculty member at Delhi School of Business, she highlighted the ever pervasive problem of employability, explaining it as the art of doing routine things in a better way. She criticised how Indians lack innovation and how we make an imagined hierarchal difference between jobs by bifurcating them into either menial or sophisticated jobs. She stressed on learning and respecting ‘dignity of labour’, by treating all job platforms with equal respect. After former Justice Katju and Dr. Indira, the final speaker that enthralled the audience was politician, Subramanian Swamy. According to the former Cabinet minister, a DNA study claims that, ‘all people of India are originally Hindus or their descendants had a Hindu identity.’ Taking his genetic research adventure forward, he stated how he got the DNA structure of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray matched with a person from Uttar Pradesh, claiming that Thackeray, who mocks North Indians himself has ancestors from UP. By virtue of these anecdotes, he aimed to highlight that every person in India is an Indian first, a north or south Indian next. [caption id="attachment_34918" align="aligncenter" width="269"]Subramanian Swamy speaking at Kirori Mal College Subramanian Swamy speaking at Kirori Mal College[/caption] Sharing his teaching experience at Harvard University, he said, “ Whenever I used to ask students what kind of a job they would vouch for after the completion of their degree, 99% of Indian students in my class would say they’ll go for a secure job”, hence throwing light on the never ending search for stability by Indians. Stating about the problem of corruption and bringing back our money from ‘foreign lands’, he said, “It is not that difficult to bring black money back to our country, but for that, I should be made Finance Minister.” He mockingly argued that India is in a questionable state because of the idealism of Jawahar Lal Nehru, who didn’t listen to anybody, but listened occasionally to Lady Mountbatten, Swamy claimed. He made an effort to project a hopeful picture of India as a developed country if we get our act together. All in all, the conference, though meant to discuss about the future prospects of the Indian Subcontinent, majorly dwelled on the present, but it did establish a connect with the students and teachers as was apparent with the loud roar of applause at the end of the session. Image Credits- Chirag Sharma for DU Beat Riya Chhibber [email protected]]]>

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Campus Central

UGC Sponsored national mathematics seminar organised in JMC

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IMG-20150922-WA0027 A talk on Resume Building followed, where students were given information about having an impressive resume, developing confidence and facing interviews. Then, an interactive Campus to Corporate session by the alumni took place. Lastly, an innovative presentation on ‘Real time application of mathematics’ was displayed to the students. The event will continue tomorrow, with math oriented events like Sudoku, Red letter Quiz, Faking the research, Mathematical tambola, Mathematical pictionary and Decoding the map. Image Credits- Uzma Rehman for DU Beat Lovleen Kaur [email protected]]]>

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Campus Central

Admissions and First Day at Maulana Azad Medical College

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Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), the 2nd best medical college in Delhi after AIIMS doesn’t allow the medical aspirants to easily enter the arena of accomplishment. As rigorous as it sounds, students need to undergo spiral maze to reach this imperial college. To begin with, every student has to give All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT), an annual medical entrance examination. The exam is conducted by the  Central Board of Secondary Education  (CBSE) for admission to  MBBS  course in several medical colleges across the country. Results are declared within a month following which a merit list is prepared for admission against seats under their control. The meritorious students are invited for counselling for the Delhi based medical colleges at the conference center of Delhi University (DU) where their documents are verified after which they are allotted seats for the preferred college according to the ranks. In MAMC 250 students are admitted annually. The distribution of seats is as per Delhi University Norms.

1. 15% of total seats are filled in through the entrance examination conducted by the C.B.S.E. on All India basis.
2. 85% of total seats are filled in through the Delhi University Norms.
3. 6 seats are reserved for Government of India nominees.
After allotment students need to visit MAMC along with the documents received from the DU and final strings of admission procedure are tied up with students receiving their provisional roll numbers and information booklets. The student is now a “Maulanian”.
Drowned in an ocean of inexpressible emotions, the journey which will take them to the title of doctor starts. What goes in the mind of an individual is a mixed nectar of enthusiasm, accomplishment, passion and a deep desire to learn. The first day is always the orientation day. It is a day when the students enter the era of independence, a day when they meet the other companions with whom they will slowly create deep bonds for life, a day when they will meet all the gurus who will shape their careers and probably the last day when they will be attentive during lectures.
 MAMC is obviously a big brand and the first week is probably the time when people are most excited, so much so that a selfie with dissected upper limb, white coat, the M-gate and almost hundreds at each place can be found. Happy faces which include those of proud parents, seniors and juniors alike, also it is time for two events:  hostel night and Goonj (the intra college fest).This journey is sure a long and hard one and pretty soon the week brings its share of grief and tears (obviously the crocodile tears of formalin). This may take some time but the students are also made to prick themselves and the first sight of blood may faint some.
Different kind of dimension can be experienced in the hostel. Every hostel room is a big stage with the an awesome audience which premiers late night movies, endless gossips and selfies, dancing sessions. Those so called PDP’ by seniors, discussion of the crushes, commitments of some and broken hearts of many, It is safe to say that  everyone is lost in the zeal and zest of the new found facet of life.
All in all the first week embarks the most alluring and malleable period capable of metamorphosing a novice sailor to the veteran surfer.
Guest post by MAMC students
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