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

In their college years, students pay no attention to their physical wellness which has hazardous implications in future. Here’s delving deep into the subject and discussing the changes one needs to bring in their lifestyle to improve their physical health.

College years can be some of the most stressful years for a student- both mentally and physically. You are overburdened with academics, society activities, friends and social life, and so much more.

In such a scenario, students, more often than not, forget taking care of themselves and pay no attention to their physical wellness. Several unhealthy habits ingrained during college years often deteriorate their health which become the root of health issues later in life.

How often do you prefer eating out over cooking for yourself? Do you also spend the most amount of your day sitting in front laptop completing your assignment or well, just binging shows on Netflix?

During college years, students, especially those living in hostels, find themselves involved into unhealthy eating habits like eating junk food very often, binging on unhealthy snacks during midnight study sessions, heavy dependence on caffeine among others. Excessive intake of such unhealthy high-on-calorie food items leads to problems like obesity.

There’s also a considerable reduction in the number of physical activities performed by college students as compared to when they were in school. Lack of any compulsory physical exercise like sports in college gives students numerous reasons to never leave the comfort of their cozy beds and go out in the fresh air. Physical lethargy leads to mental lethargy, robbing students of concentration and an active mind.

In conversation with DU Beat, Sakshi from Kamala Nehru College (KNC) said that she didn’t remember the last time she played any sport during her college years. She also added that regular intake of junk food and soft drinks have become the norm of college life.

This decline in attention towards physical health is worrisome, for it may have several hazardous implications for students.

Thus, it’s quite important for college students to become aware of their daily physical habits and to not ruin it further every day. Small changes are key to bringing about a major change in one’s physical lifestyle.

Prefer cooking at home over regularly binging junk food outside. Try healthier snack options during your late night study sessions. Get up from your bed and chair every hour, take a walk outside in the fresh air, and give your body some physical movement like sports and exercise. Simran from Gargi College said, “I have started exercising daily in my hostel itself due to lack of time to go to the gym. It helps me feel rejuvenated and healthy.”

Engaging in sports brings an individual not only physical benefits but they also leave the person mentally fresh and energised. Dharna Bothra from KNC said, “I feel extremely active and energised not only physically but also mentally after playing sports.”

So, put your phones down, get up from your beds and take a long walk outside. Do your physical health a favor!

Feature Image Credits: Northern Lights College

Shreya Agrawal

DUB Speak

Importance of Breakfast on the Exam Day

Last minute revision and examination stress becomes overwhelming. This often leads to skipping some of the vital things of our daily routine, breakfast being the simplest option. Breakfast is the most important meal and is very essential to get ready to write exams. It can even help you improve your grades by increasing concentration and giving energy for this mental marathon.

We all have been gripped by the exam fever and the last moment preparation is almost inevitable. Getting ready for the exam at 9 A.M, and fretting over the last minute revision, feeding our body would be the last thing that would cross our minds. But you can increase your endurance for this mental marathon and in turn stand a fair chance to improve your grades through a simple way- by not skipping breakfast on the exam day.

Breakfast comes as the meal after the longest interval without food; therefore, breakfast seems to influence metabolism more strongly than lunch or dinner. Failing to break your fast with a meal shortly after rising might strain your body. Hence, the right food and drink can energise your system, improve your alertness, and sustain you through the long exam hours.

According to a research conducted by Harvard Medical School, breakfast is the best time to get complex carbohydrates and fibre. In fact, if you don’t start out right at breakfast, you will find it hard or even impossible to get the fibre you need.

An equally important thing is to stay hydrated to maximise concentration. Dehydration can make you feel drowsy and can reduce your attentiveness in the examination hall. Drink plenty of liquids before appearing for the exam.

Breakfast on exam day becomes pivotal as you need your concentration on your exam and not your hunger. Risking your breakfast just for the two minutes of extra revision can result in fatigue and have adverse consequences.

Now, for students living in PG and hostels, skipping breakfast is prudence, rather than waiting in the line to get it. Some quick fixes in such situation can be to have some brain boosting food which includes food high in protein and whole-grain cereal. Fruit platter, milk, boiled eggs, etc. are easy solutions.

The right food at the right time will prove to be the best tonic to handle anxiety and nervousness. To avoid the last minute hassle, plan your meals beforehand and don’t miss the morning breakfast. The right choices you make and some steps towards healthy lifestyle practices will surely help you perform better and, as a consequence, will improve your grades.

Feature Image Credits: Rishabh Gogoi for DU Beat

Sriya Rane

Arts & Culture

If Instagram was Honest

“Guys, suggest a funny caption for my picture na!” What are some Instagram lies we are all guilty of?

Spontaneously Funny Captions

Yes, you did not send that picture to your three friends and ask for their advice on the caption. You’re just naturally funny.

But, after you sent the best pictures to your friends or sibling, to choose which one to post, the next thing you said was, “Okay, now suggest a caption.” Something funny or self-deprecating (or both at once) is the latest preference in the caption business. “Me looking at food like” or “find yourself someone who looks at you the way I look at food” are some captions we have all used or at least seen being used around us. The seemingly effortless jokes took the combined efforts of many.

Food photography has become a common display trend on Instagram. Image Credits: Damini Mehta

Food Porn

The image of that perfect cheesy pizza, that fancy breakfast at a hotel, that chocolatey heaven of a dessert making others crave is but one part of a carefully orchestrated effort, and is not practically real. What if we posted the pictures of what we actually ate? Imagine that greasy roti, with bharte ki sabzi, moongi ki dal, and achar.

This brings us to the second type of images we see. It has become extremely common to see people at restaurants clicking pictures of each meal. Food bloggers have made a profession and money out of this, cafes and bakeries are now marketing through this, celebrities are being paid for posting such images and unique food items (like the black ice-cream you saw at fests) are also becoming trends because of this. With Huji to help us, we can make any picture look aesthetic!

Stories depicting a beautiful study table are often staged. Image Credits: Shradha Dadhwal

Exam Season Study Table

Beautiful handwritten notes, pens kept diagonally on the notebook, and colourful stationery – the picture showing 3 A.M. is given the perfect touch with a cup of coffee (seconds before we have an emotional breakdown because so many chapters are left).

As exams get closer and sleep schedules worsen each day, we see more of these late-night study table pictures, with colourful pens, sticky notes, ear-plugs among other things. In reality, no one studies that way; majority of the kids are too flustered a night before exams and simply mug everything. Handwritten notes begin and end on the first day of college; the actual notes are shamelessly saved in our photo galleries. The coffee also gets cold by the time you click this picture.

Throwback Picture

When you could not post too many pictures from the one day you got good pictures, your friend suggested, “Yaar, #tbt karke daal dena (Friend, post it using #throwbacktime later.)”

Let us be honest here: it was that one day when you not only wore a great outfit but also your friend was clicking “Insta-worthy” pictures for you. So, you went home and sat down to choose what to post but even after one story, there were two pictures you just could not choose from! You simply let a few days go by, added a throwback (tb) caption like “tb to good hair day” or “tb to when college life was not a mess”, and posted the next one.

Side Profile

Look at you- standing in front of a wall or a bush of bougainvillea looking towards your side (whichever profile is best, of course).

The trend of selfies and smiling straight at the camera is gone and even feels self-centred; the trend of side profile in front of a view is on the rise! Let me paint you a word picture: you looking side-wards or glancing at something perfectly intensely, when your jawline is looking fine, and it seems like you totally did not intend on getting a picture. Other variants include fixing hair, fixing pallu or tie for farewell pictures, couples smiling at each other, etc.

Candid Laughter

No one:

Person in the picture: starts laughing

Things get funnier when people are getting pictures, and their pictures come out with this almost-candid laugh. We see this almost every day, especially in group pictures. The words ‘candid’ and the oxymoronic ‘staged candid’ are now used synonymously with pictures, where people say, “I want a candid there!” This trend is super common and here to stay.

Featured Image Source: Instagram

Shivani Dadhwal

DUB Speak

Should Cellphones Be Allowed in Colleges?

With the use of cellphones at an all-time high, there is an ongoing debate about if they should be allowed in colleges and classrooms, or not. Let’s delve into the matter and understand it better.

Technology has invaded almost every aspect of our lives. Our gadgets have become our new friends without whom life is just impossible to imagine. So much so, that we become totally inseparable with them. We are exceedingly becoming dependent on them to lead our lives. Students, especially, find themselves heavily reliant on their smartphones and even carry it to their colleges.

How right is that and should this act be allowed? This is the question that needs to be discussed.

People supporting the ban of smartphones in colleges term it as a distraction deviating students from their academics. Usage of cellphones in classrooms results in the wastage of time during important class hours. It also fuels their social media addiction since a productive academic atmosphere should be devoid of social networking apps. Another important aspect which Simran from Gargi College brought forward was how smartphones weaken the students’ ability to come to a solution themselves as everything is available just at the press of a button.

But, should we consider banning them from college premises keeping the above propositions in mind? There is another side of the coin that needs to be assessed too.

Smartphones are like handheld computers which can be used as a great tool of learning in innovative ways which are beyond the scope of traditional teaching. It becomes convenient for teachers too, in cases when they need to hand out digital academic materials to their students. Apart from being great learning tools, they also become absolutely essential for students for keeping in touch with their parents and ensuring their safety while they travel to and from college.

Thus, banning the usage altogether doesn’t appear like a wise decision but its shortcomings can’t be brushed under the table too.

There instead, needs to be a strict regulation on the use of smartphones on the campus. Social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook must be inaccessible on college WiFi and strict actions must be taken against the defaulter. Mobiles should be collected before the class and should be handed over only when there is an academic need.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

Shreya Agrawal

Arts & Culture

The ‘Not So Thin’ Line between Reel and Real

Bollywood movies are something that most of us love and Fridays are the days which we look up to. Being excited for every new release to being disappointed by a bad movie has become a part of our lives. Today’s youth follows Bollywood like holy books. This article talks about some of the movies which influenced the youth.

Today, cinema is the one of the most powerful media for mass communication. We go to a movie for three hours of entertainment but there are some movies that cause something more than entertainment. They leave a lasting impact on our minds which may be good or bad. On one hand, some movies are responsible for bringing a revolution whereas on the other hand there are some movies which provoke people in their life. Teenagers and college students are the most easily influenced group in our society.

There are various movies which show unreal and impossible scenes that most people are crazy behind. It makes many people believe that lives can be as perfect as shown in movies and leads to disappointment when it doesn’t turn out to be the actual case.

The perfect college scenes of Karan Johar’s movies increased our expectations and made us all believe that college life is as happening as shown in movies like Student of the Year. The movie that revolves around lavish lives of three privileged kids shows everything apart from studying, and it surely made us believe that college is all about having fun and chilling around. But the reality is something very different from that. College, in real life, is more about studies, assessments, internals and externals, and much less about the glorified chilling around.

Romance is another aspect shown in Bollywood movies in unrealistic ways. Such movies make us believe that our love lives can be as perfect as the love lives of the lead actors. But love in real life is full of ups and downs. Movies like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge make us believe that our Raj will come from continents apart and propose in the mustard fields. But this doesn’t happen in real life (SPOILER ALERT: Love is not everything that you have in real life.). Life has much more to it. Not all girls will give up all they have just for love and no prince charming will come riding a white horse to take you with him.

Movies like Dil Chahta Hai and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara left most of the audience dreaming of a perfect trip with friends. But planning trips is not as easy as shown in the movies. It takes a lot of things to plan such trips. Firstly, you need money. Nobody can go to Spain and live the best of their lives if they do not have finances. A Goa trip is something that we all want to go to at least once in the three years of college. At times, students are denied permission by parents which leads to a negative impact on their minds.

Many movies make the youth believe that smoking, drinking, and attending parties makes them look cool and those who focus more on studying are not so cool. This has also become a cause behind youth indulging into drinks and drugs. Movies portray that having a social life is must and those who don’t have a social life are not living their lives in the correct way. All these things tend to create a negative impact on the audience and make people spend lots of money on parties and forces them to show the world what they are doing, where they are, and who they are with. Social media becomes a platform for this. People do everything for that perfect shot to be uploaded on Instagram. Lives start to revolve around the perfect and colourful world of Instagram.

Some movies also show that girls who wear pretty clothes and dress up in a conventionally girly way are more desirable and liked by boys more often. For instance, Anjali in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is not liked by Rahul in her tomboyish look and he goes after Tina who looks wears pretty dresses and looks more ‘girly’. But the same Rahul falls for Anjali and finds her to be desirable when she wears saree and looks more like a conventionally typified girl of his conditioned beliefs.

However, not all movies leave a negative impact on the audience. There are a few movies which impact our minds positively and teaches us some very important life lessons.

Gully Boy is a movie praised vastly by the audience. The movie has done wonders and has left a message that we should not always run after the mainstream professions and we should follow our dreams. It shows that poverty is not something that can stop you from achieving your goals. It is not the end of the world but an obstacle that we all can cross. The movie teaches us that no dream is impossible and we can become what we dream of.

Dear Zindagi teaches us a number of beautiful life lessons. The most important of which is that you should always move on and once we take charge of our lives and start understanding ourselves then other’s opinions don’t matter. Another important lesson is to not let your past ruin your present or a beautiful future and never let the memories of your past haunt you.

Another movie that left people with something that they carried with them outside the theatre is Tamasha. It is a movie with a heart that beats in every frame. The biggest lesson that it teaches us is that we need to stop trying to fit in the world the way it wants us to; rather we should become what we want to be. It also teaches us that it is impossible to run away from who we are as it will keep returning to us in ways we can’t imagine. Tamasha is not just a movie but an emotion and words can never be enough to explain it.

It can be concluded that all the movies have both positive as well as a negative factors, and it depends on our minds on how to interpret it. We should try to take the good lessons and ignore the bad lessons. We need to understand the difference between the reel and real life and we need to know that what’s shown on the reel cannot always be implemented in real life. However, the good thing about Bollywood movies these days is that a lot of movies are now based on social causes which tend to influence the audience in a positive way and are responsible for bringing a change in the mind-set of the audience.

Feature Image Credits: Rishabh Gogoi for DU Beat

Priya Chauhan

Campus Central

When You Are Not in Any Society

Imagine not joining any society in college: would things be different? How would you make friends or create experiences? See college life from the eyes of someone who is not in any society!

The University of Delhi (DU) is prestigious for several things, including its societies and co-curricular activities. Societies are sought after, and the students look forward to joining these. Students in these societies are deeply passionate and spend hours every day practicing before and after college, going to competitions, missing classes. With so much time spent in one place, it is inevitable that you find friends and create experiences there.

But it is unfair to generalise these experiences; for many students, college is simply being able to have the gift of time and freedom. They can invest these wherever they want. They could miss a class or attend all, they could make friends slowly and organically from their own class or simply stick to their school friends, and they could make spontaneous plans after college because there is no practice or spend hours talking in their usual favourite spot in college. College fests are a fun time as they get to attend it with their college friend circles.

A common factor that all students who were not in any society talked about was the commitment that societies demand. The practices during college, missing of classes, hectic schedule, extra work, and drained energy every day were reasons to not join. Although they also struggled with notes and assignments, and not all of them attended every single class or kept 100% attendance, but they simply prioritised academics or a better mental and physical health.

Sumati from Kamala Nehru College comments, “I am pursuing Psychology without having studied psychology in school, so I had a tough first year and I only wanted to invest time here. I agree societies help people live college life to the fullest, but they can also put a huge burden or stress.”

Sanyukta Golaya of Indraprastha College for Women commented, “When I joined college, I was never quite as interested or inclined towards societies, the way I was towards my course. I was very clear that any time that I had after my classes would be spent making detailed notes and reading up for the lectures, I had the next day. I didn’t care whether not wanting to be involved in society work made me come off as a bore- I freely choose what I wanted to do with my spare time, and till date, I’m very content with my decision. I’ve managed to make friends, I’m happy with the way I’ve turned out in college, and I couldn’t be bothered whether others believed it to be ‘productive’.”

This perfectly brings out the false ideas of productivity that exist today. Contrary to the popular belief, these people are also able to pursue their passion outside of college through dance or music classes, writing for student magazines, going for MUNs, etc. Many of them find a way to hone their skills and follow their passion without investing their energy in any college society.

Being someone in the debating society, I know that a society can grow on you and you cannot imagine a life without it. Upon speaking to several students, I realised how life in its absence is also very special. Very few students said that they found college boring and, finding college life dull or lonely, they now look forward to joining something next year and the experiences it will bring. Others also talked about the perspective that having observed college for a while and settling in, they now felt ready to join something. But all students were happy with the choices they made, the effort they put in academics or outside and with the routine they chose in college.

Featured Image Credits: DU Beat

Shivani Dadhwal

News

Three Delhi University students taken hostage, robbed of car and cash at gunpoint

By DU Beat April 23, 2019

Three first year Delhi University students were taken hostage and robbed off their cash and car on late Saturday night by three robbers near Sector 69 of the city.

(With inputs from Hindustan Times and Times from India)

Three first-year students in the University of Delhi got robbed of their cash and car on gunpoint after being taken hostage by three unknown robbers on Saturday night. They were later dumped into the fields near the Chandu Budhera village from where they somehow managed to reach a roadside dhabha and called their families for help. Following their complaint, an FIR has been registered at the Sector 65 police station, as reported by Times of India

The incident took place at around 10 on a Saturday night, according to the police when Ojus (one of the victims) took his friends, Hriday and Akshay for a ride in his father’s newly bought Honda City. His father is a bank employee who purchased the car just 2 months back, as revealed by him.

The trio was near Sector 69 when the three robbers, all of whom were carrying guns came in front of the car and stopped it on the main road near Hriday’s house. Holding the three friends on gun point, the robbers took away their cash and ATM cards.

“The suspects got into the car with the victims and drove them around for at least two hours. During the journey, the robbers took the victims to an ATM but were unable to withdraw the cash, due to technical faults and insufficient balance in their bank accounts,” Himanshu Garg, DCP, South Delhi, said.

The victims were threatened of stalking if they went to the police. A case against the suspects has been registered under Sections 365 (Kidnapping), 379-A (Snatching) of the IPC and Sections 25-54-59 of the Arms Act at the Sector 65 Police Station.

The victims do not remember the various locations they were taken to. “We are trying to identify the accused with the help of CCTV footage from nearby areas,” said ASI Harkesh, the investigating officer in this case.

Featured Image Credits- Hindustan Times

Shreya Agrawal

DUB Speak

Mental Hysteria through Social Media

By DU Beat March 31, 2019

With use of social media being at an all-time high, our mental health is seeing an all-time low. Here’s how social media is directly hitting hard on our mental health.

Social media has undoubtedly revolutionised our way of living. Gone are the times when we would wait for days for a letter to arrive. Who would have imagined that our distant friends and relatives will be just a click away? But, social media did it! It turned our lives into a never ending loop of “Click, sleep and Repeat”.

But we the millennials, the already sandwiched generation between traditions and modernity are totally stuck in this loop and coming out of it has become a distant dream of many. What has made this gigantic world a dangerous space to be in is its effect on our mental health?

To get the answers of such questions, you need to rewind in your mind your activities on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and answer the following questions for yourself.

Have you “checked in” on Facebook when you last visited Starbucks or any other high end restaurant or even watched a movie?

Have you checked again and again the number of likes and comments on the picture you uploaded on Facebook or Instagram and felt a tinge of sadness when the number of likes didn’t match up to your expectations?

Have you ever hated your life when you saw the pictures of swanky and happening lifestyle of your friends?

I hope the readers have got the point. But the ultimate question is “WHY?”
We were wondering the relation between the two, and here we see social media directly aiming and hitting hard at our self esteem which in turns leads to affect our mental health. We often come across the question that why our generation is so unhappy? The answer lies here.

With an advent and never-ending rise of social media, we have become overly dependent on others and those sitting miles away, having absolutely no care of our lives to validate our worth.
Here’s a list of few ways it does hit our mental health:

Validation and approval : This system is based on other people’s validation and approval of our lives. And this has created the biggest impact. Even the person living a happy and peaceful life will start doubting his way of living if social media disapproves it. You all must have seen your Instagram filled with videos and images of concerts. This is people’s way of asking others to judge their lives as “happening”. One can go on thinking thoughts like “Who would like a guy or a girl who spent the weekend at home?”.

Numbers, numbers and numbers : Don’t get confused. This is what our lives revolve around, numbers. From numbers of comments, number of likes to number of views. A single number below our expectations makes us judge if we are even living it right. And what’s the point of living a moment when there aren’t numbers to say “Yeah, you did it right?”. Haven’t we living life with that mentality? Think about it.

Instant glorification : This is another aspect of social media which again has two sides. With Instagram pages and YouTube channels making people superstars in few days, the greed to become popular without many efforts has also risen among youth today. But what don’t meet the eye is several others who bite the dust. Thus, when failures and trolls hit us hard, we find it almost impossible to get back our lost esteem and sanity.

Self doubt: Models with perfect bodies and faces attract everyone on Instagram. This has led to a tremendous increase in guys and girls opting for surgeries and implants to present themselves as “perfect”. Perfection seems like the myth social media created and has now people aiming towards it. Basically, social media presents people full of confidence and glamour while they hide themselves in the gloomy rooms painting their scars.

Featured Image credits: CNBC

Shreya Agrawal
[email protected]

Campus Central

Tips for Successful Exam Preparation

By DU Beat March 30, 2019

With the ongoing examinations, stress and anxiety increase tremendously. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you prepare well for your exams.

It’s that time of the year when the third-year students will bid adieu to their colleges to embark upon a new journey. This is also the time when anxiety regarding the future will be at its peak with the entrance exams approaching. Semester examinations and assignments have only added to the misery. Thus, preparing for entrance examinations is one herculean task.

Here are a few tips and tricks to ease this pressure and help you prepare for your entrance examinations.

Make a plan-Write down how many exams you have and the amount of time left for each of them. Allocate more time to subjects which you think are difficult. Do not leave anything for the last minute. We often end up making a plan which is unrealistic. Keep in mind your strengths and weaknesses while making a plan. This will help you develop better study habits.

Be strict with yourself- Execution of your plan is the most difficult thing. You are bound to get distracted while studying. But it is important to be strict with yourself and follow your plan rigorously. Studies have shown for long-term retention of knowledge, short study breaks are vital.

Prioritize well- With a number of things going on- assignments, semester exams, internal assessments, party plans with friends, make sure you learn the art of prioritizing and decide what is more important for you. This will eliminate the waste of time.

Practice previous year question papers- The best way to know the status of your exam preparation is by solving previous year question papers. A mock test will help you understand the format of the questions. It is also a worthy practice for measuring the time you need for the actual test.

Keep calm and believe in yourself- Anxiety and stress tag along with any exam preparation and hamper your productivity. Thus, it is important to not lose your calm. Practice meditation to release stress. Eat healthy food and stay hydrated. Most importantly, believe in yourself.

All the best!

Feature Image Credits: Institute Skill

Shreya Agrawal

Uncategorized

When the djembe doesn’t ring louder: On street theatre and its growing irrelevance

By DU Beat March 24, 2019

Amidst the cries from monocolored kurtas with daflis of “Aao, aao, natak dekho!” and loud claps, street theatre is slowly losing its relevance around the university campus.

Street theatre in India has gained popularity with groups like Jana Natya Manch (Janam) and IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Association) Street theatre in Delhi University is competitive, with over 60 theatre societies and various teams from institutions not affiliated to Delhi University, street theatre is about picking up social issues and coming up with the best punchlines.

Nearly every play follows the same structure, a loud opening call announcing the society’s arrival, monocolored bodies moving rapidly, members sitting in a circle as the audience stares from a distance, a two second silence and then the echo of a harmonium note. A narrator rises, they make eye contact with everybody and nobody at the same time. A scene starts unfolding in the background about something painful, someone struggling, someone yelling, which progresses to a big conflict, the drumbeats get louder, the xylophone rings louder, the actors become a part of the sound machine, the human body turns into an instrument, props made out of borrowed funds are seen flying around, the silence hits again.

Street theatre has been the platform for dissent in the country for decades. However, the competitive nature of street theatre in the collegiate circuit is fatal. Plays are designed to appease the judges rather than focusing on the masses.

There is almost very little or no experimentation, it is necessary that street theatre voices dissent however, every play tells the same story and some even have problematic depictions.
The dominance of certain societies in the theatre circuit puts forth a new angle of hierarchies within the Delhi collegiate theatre circuit and internal hierarchies within societies.

Street theatre in Delhi University has become repetitive, in attempts to become ‘woke’ and be the harbingers of social justice, plays have followed the repetitive form an some have problematic elements attached to it. Even the songs and the beats are repetitive in their attempts to be catchy. For example: a play on suicide can’t simply end with “don’t kill yourself, there is a lot worth staying alive for” or plays on gendered abuse ending with how the victim finds solidarity in a group or seeks help.

Casual sexism, misogyny and sexist humour are recurring themes in some plays.

Devanshi, the Vice President of Ibtida: the Hindu dramatics society disagrees, “ I think that the street theater that I have witnessed in the past three years has in fact worked intensively on trying to do away with casual sexism or any patriarchal mindset.

Teams have actively taken up topics that cater exactly to such ideologies so that they can be addressed out in the open. The Delhi Collegiate Theatre Circuit is progressing towards a healthier track for sure, as has been evident to me in my three years amongst this crowd. (sic)”

In attempts to make the play funny, sexist and crass humour is used, like in GTBIT’s play “Don’t kill my vibe”, depression is addressed through comedy but casual sexism takes the lead in the play. The play features only two actresses, both in the supporting role.
The involvement of the male gaze and the portrayal of female characters is also problematic, like in Amity School of Engineering and Technology’s play on superstitions and “andh-vishwas”, which depicts a graphic rape scene and various other scenes of abuse, it also victim shames instead of focusing on the bigger picture.

Graphic depictions accompanied with hard-hitting dialogues and somber music can leave a lasting impact on the audience, however it can remind many of their personal traumas. The absence of trigger warnings before plays is alarming and disturbing.

Khushboo Singh, the Vice President of Shunya: The Ramjas Dramatics Society says, “The biggest shocker is when you try to question or even educate them about the problematic things that are there in their street play, the only excuse that I get every time is “We wanted to extract the same reaction. We wanted to make you uncomfortable”
I mean, excuse me? If you are making a play on something as heinous as rape you can’t show just directly show rape in your piece. Street is open to all sorts of audiences and you never know who all are watching and what they’ve been through”
The problematic elements in street plays dealing with graphic depictions makes one question, is it really necessary?
The growing question of privilege, where upper caste folks play the roles of Dalits and the oppressed is also problematic. The exclusion of the common masses from the circuit is what makes the Delhi Collegiate Theatre Circuit an elite and closed space.

There has been a systematic attempt to silence dissent with repeated censorship in the past of street plays dealing with issues of nationalism, the Kashmir conflict etc. however, dissent cannot flourish in the same, old ways of capitalization, commercialisation and appropriation of emotions. Dissent with theatre cannot move forward with exclusion.

Image Credits: Jaishree Kumar for DU Beat

Jaishree Kumar
[email protected]