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What do edgy teens look for while dating?

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Having unconventional taste and general dislike for norms might make it tad bit difficult for edgy teens to find someone who understands and respects their choices and here is what they are looking for when it comes to dating.

With unconventional tastes, anxious personality and general exasperation with the societal structure, edgy teens have become more impatient when it comes to dating. We have no time for simpering and cliché romantic plot-line straight out of a Bollywood movie playing out in real life.

Edgy personality is result of looking at our society and acknowledging its structural flaws. We develop our own unconventional taste whether it is love for gothic fiction, classic movies, death metal, piercings, tattoos, etc. We are the risk-takers who want to challenge the established status quo and this reflects in our taste which could easily offend or drive a lot of people away.

It becomes imperative for us that the partner that we decide to date understands our personality and is in consonance with our weird frequency that might be unappealing to lot of people. Nothing is more of a turn off when your partner constantly nags you and tries to “tame” you into acting in a particular acceptable way.

We understand diversity. We respect diverse views, culture, personality, etc. We don’t want a carbon copy of ourselves whose interest matches ours completely. Similar view point is great but difference is what adds spice to any long-term relationship. The yang to my yin, the light to my dark or to put it more stylistically calm to my edgy.
Personally, I find the person who understands me quite attractive. The one who will listen with no judgements and even encourage me in my demented gothic writing, watch me jam around to ‘I hate everything about you’ by Three Days Grace and most importantly laugh at my dark sense of humour which crops up at most unfortunate times.

Everyone is edgy in their unique way, but everyone of them is highly opinionated. We don’t like to undermine our opinions just because ‘the sole love of our life’ decided that their taste is superior than ours. If you are going to come into our life with your opinions which are meant to belittle ours, we won’t think twice before dumping you. The rule is simple, respect begets respect.

As my one edgy friend from Kamala Nehru college has rightly put, “So, I’m very opinionated, whatever my likes or dislikes are, they are very strong. I have now learnt I need to look for people who are okay with my choices and my likes and dislikes while having their own as well. I don’t want my significant other to shy away from their opinion or demean mine because otherwise you get into arguments and shitty relationships”
We hear you and trust me this is also the most attractive thing about you that you don’t let anyone undermine your opinions just for the sake of love and acceptance.

Then comes space. Another factor that will decide whether we will last long or not. I love my personal space with no disturbance, no constant nagging to go out to socialize every weekend and no obligations to do normal couple stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I crave affection and adorkable actions as well but in a certain limit, beyond that I might want out.

Another friend of mine elaborates, “Space for me is necessary, I cannot do dates every other day or the charm in the relationship runs out for me. I also prefer dating casually, this prevents attachments in long run and also gives me mental and emotional space to take things slowly rather than head-long rushing into toxic, clingy relationships.”

In the end, it is all about compatibility, respect and mutual understanding for any relationship to survive. However, your partner needs to be in tandem with things that make you tick as much as with things that they adore and when such inevitable click happens your search for ‘the one’ ends.

Featured image credits: Tumblr

Antariksha Pathania
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Campus Central

Fest Season Ends, Gloominess Resides

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As the fest season concludes, the alarm of upcoming semester examinations starts beeping.

Even semesters are filled with zest and euphoria. They bring with themselves numerous events and fests which keep the students across the colleges on their toes. Unlike the odd semesters, the lectures are less, bringing in more fun. Colleges are a sight to behold during the months of February and March as they gear up to present their extravaganza of talent. For societies, this is the most crucial time as they put their yearlong hard work on the stage and compete rigorously with other colleges. From attending numerous fests, struggling for passes, witnessing celebrity performances, and meeting new people, fest season fills the students with energy and exhilaration.

With fest season and the mid-semester break coming to an end, the same monotonous life of college awaits the students. The fear of upcoming semester examinations fills all of us with gloom and tremendous amount of pressure. The farewell and entrance examinations further accentuates the sadness as the third-year students start preparing themselves to bid adieu to the institution which shaped their last three years and gave them a head start for their future. The reality that there won’t be any more events to attend, competitions to take part in and academics will take the front row is a bit hard to sink in.

If you think this semester was only fun and games, then it would be utterly disappointing to learn that continuous strikes and numerous fests have left us with only few days to cover that huge chunk of syllabus lying unattended catching dust. Coming out of the zone of fun and party isn’t an easy task too. But well, not all is bad after all. There’s still over a month left for those dreaded days of exams to begin.

With the month of March coming to an end, it’s high time we gear ourselves up for the next two months and put our heart and mind in studies for the upcoming semester examinations. We need to fix our focus back to academics which we had been conveniently ignoring for the past three months.

Fest season this year was a totally enthralling time to be in and its end is sure to bring some gloom. But, let’s look beyond the gloom, cherish the memorable moments and get into action mode for the coming two months.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

Shreya Agrawal

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Cultural Festivals

A Fantastic Finale: Mecca 2019 Day 3

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The final day at Mecca was a spectacular display of glamour and celebrations. Vishal-Shekhar duo had the massive crowd crooning and dancing to their beats; a brilliant end to Mecca.

The third and last day at Mecca 2019 witnessed a multitude of events being organised throughout the college. From the first two days dedicated to dance and bands, the third day was all about music and theatre.

Karwan-E-Shaqafat, a gathering to celebrate the multicultural identity of Hindu College was organised in the Zoology Lawns by the Parliament. The event saw the participants performing classical dance forms and various other cultural performances.

Mecca also hosted massive participation on day three – in terms of the crowd. The huge sports complex was brimming with Hinduites and Non-Hinduites likewise. However, given the special space reserved for Hinduites, and also, the college IDs being checked by faculty members multiple times before the entry into the concert ensured minimum foolery. “The huge crowd was managed well. There have been instances where concerts have been unsafe spaces for women.” said a third-year student from Hindu College.

Champrange, the A Capella event was organized by Aria, the Western Music Society of Hindu College which saw the participation of several teams from various colleges. The first position was bagged by Euphony of Gargi College followed by Cresendo of Sri Ventakeswara College at the second position and Echo of Jesus and Mary College at the third position.

The third and final day of Mecca continued in high spirits. The day kick-started with arpeggio ’19 by Aria: the western music society of Hindu college followed by the western music solo competition.
Chudamani Iyer Akshara from Lady Shri ram college for women secured the first place, Raphroyia Kayina from Gargi College secured the second place and Khushi Pallavu from Jesus and Mary College secured the third place.

Alankaar, the Indian music organised Harmony ’19 for their search for Mecca Idol. The event was followed by Raagmala, a group singing competition. Daulat Ram College’s Ahaalya stood first along with Alaap of Sri Venkateswara College. The second position was shared between Miranda House’s Swaranjali and Hansraj College’s Geetanjali. The third position was shared between SGTB Khalsa College’s Swarang and Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies’ Dhwani.

At the historical Ibtida lawns, street theatre found life once again as many societies delivered their last performances for the season. The street theatre competition by Mecca in collaboration with Ibtida, the dramatics society of Hindu college saw participation of over 15 teams. The event ended with ibtida’s street production ‘outvoted’. The first position was secured by Et cetra- the dramatics society of GTBIT for their production “Don’t kill my vibe”. Kahkasha, the Hindi dramatics society of Jesus and Mary College secured the second position and the SRCC dramatics society secured the third position.

Alankaar, the Indian Music Society of Hindu College organized a solo singing competition named Mecca Idol which was judged by Pavitra Chari. The room echoed with canorous music when eleven contestants from various colleges gave their euphonic performances to win the title of “Mecca Idol”. Sakshi Taneja of Lady Shri Ram College bagged the first position while Sukriti Poddar of Gargi College came second and Dakshraj Sharma of Maharaja Agrasen College got the third position.

The Parliament of Hindu College in collaboration with Nakshatra, the Fashion Society organized a competition to crown Mr. and Ms. Mecca. The event was conducted in three rounds. The first was an online round followed by an introductory round and a question and answer round with the esteemed panel of judges which included Mamta Sharma Das, who is a Creative Stylist and the founder of Viva la Vida and Pooja Chopra, who was crowned as Health Queen India, 2018 and is the founder of PNA Origine. The highlight of the event was a ramp walk by the judges themselves. The title of Mr. Mecca was bagged by Yaduvansh whereas Suhani was given the title of Ms. Mecca.

Ibtida: The Dramatics Society also presented their powerful annual production titled ‘Outvoted’ at the Street Play event. A satire on the Indian politics, this performance was Ibtida’s outgoing batch’s last performance. The crowd cheered and connected with the emotional Ibtida team and celebrated along.

Panache, the fashion show competition organised by Nakshatra, the fashion society of Hindu College was adjudged by Mr. Viren Barman, Mr. India 2017, Ms. Mamta Sharma Das, creative stylist and founder Vive La Vida and Ms. Aishwarya Sharma, fashion and lifestyle blogger. The event saw participation from 9 teams which showcased their annual productions on themes ranging from Nature vs Technology to Depression. Debonair, fashion society of Daulat Ram College bagged the first position while Glitz from Kamala Nehru College came second.

To deliver the perfect finale, the crowd could not have asked for anyone better than the superb duo of Vishal and Shekhar. Performing some of their best tracks from Bollywood and their Coke Studio project, the duo had the crowd enraptured. The performance shortly also moved to a patriotic avenue as the band accompanying the duo performed ‘Saare Jahan Se Accha’. Both of the singers declared their gratitude towards an aazing crowd.

Kartik Chauhan 

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Sakshi Arora

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Priya Chauhan

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Jaishree Kumar
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Hans Raj College

Anurag Kashyap Opens Day-1 of Confluence’19

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Confluence’19 kickstarted with a plethora of events across different venues around the campus.

On Saturday, 9th March 2019, the auditorium of Hansraj College saw back-to-back dance competitions organised by the dance societies of the host institute.

Choreo’19- the choreography competition organised by Terpsi Chorean saw participation from five teams. The competition, adjudged by Mr. Batra, Artistic Director and Co-founder “Right Moves Academy of Dance”, saw mesmerising and meaningful performances by each team. LSR Dancesoc’s annual production- Trans bagged the first position while, Srijya’s Valiant from Hindu College came second. Sparx from Gargi College was given a special mention.

Oorja, the western dance society of Hansraj College organised Groove, a western dance competition. The event clashed with SRCC’s western dance competition hence saw slotting issues, where performances happened according to their designated slots at SRCC. The competition saw 10 teams perform with great gusto and zeal. The event was adjudged by Mr. Ravi Verma, founder of United Grooves.

Crunk from Aurobindo College came first while Spardha from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College came second. The crowd cheered in excitement for the winners.

After all the performances, Anurag Kashyap, Director and Producer came to light the inaugural diya, and had a brief interaction with the audience.

Con Qurso 2019, the annual two-day quiz competition was organized by Illuminati, the quizzing society of the college. On the first day of the fest, the students were quizzed on their knowledge of the topics- ‘India’ and ‘Sports’. This competition was met with much fervour and participation as over 100 students took part in the quiz and put their knowledge on the test. In the ‘India’ quiz, Nayan Kashyap from Kirorimal College and Pragati Nautiyal from Miranda House bagged the first position, while Ashish Singh from Ramjas College and Kanika Yadav from Miranda were given the second position. Trailing a little behind, Basab Ranjan Dahal and Amlan Sarkar from Ramjas College got the third position. Gokul S from Delhi School of Economics won the first prize in the ‘Sports’ quiz. Ravtej Singh from IIM-B and Harshit Sachdeva from Hansraj College bagged the second position, while Kartikay Chadha and Arunesh Gupta from Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology grabbed the third position.

The annual event of the college’s NSS, Utsav ’19 splashed vibrancy and colours of Bollywood all around. The LP of the college reverberated with enthusiasm as students actively took part in various fun games organized by the NSS team adhering to their theme, ‘Bollywood’. On spot dance competition ‘Let’s Nacho’, C.D. painting competition, treasure hunt among others kept the students hooked. NSS, through it’s display board and various stalls highlighted the sundry humanitarian projects which they have undertaken over the years. These included the likes of Project Jugnu Stall, project Aahar and others.

Taal Tarang, folk dance competition organised by Kavyaakriti saw glorious performances by 11 teams from across different colleges. The first position was bagged by Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, while the second position was shared by Shri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College and Nrityakriti from Maitreyi College.

Jashn-e-Hansraj came to an end with a soulful performance by popular Sufi music artiste group- Nizami Brothers. The group sang famous qawwalis like Sufi Rashq-e-kamar, Khwaja mere khwaja, Bhar do jholi meri, among others. Their playful recitation of shayaris (poetic lines) in between the songs added a flavour of humourous connection for the audience. The night closed on the raga of enthusiasm and joy with their enthralling music.

 

Feature Image Credits: Namrata Randhawa

Sakshi Arora
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Anushree Joshi
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Shreya Agarwal

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Stephen Mathew
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Campus Central

Highlights of Reverie 2019 Organised by Gargi College

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The opening day of Reverie 2019 commenced with the lighting of the lamp by the chief guest and actor, Sushma Seth, followed by her speech. Performances by Professor Ruchika Sharma, Euphony – Western Music Society, and Enliven – Western Group Dance Society ensured of the fun that is to follow at Gargi College’s Annual Cultural Fest, Reverie. The theme of the fest: “A brave new world; an ode to Diversity” works on the basis of 3 C’s- Choice, Consent, and Conservation. These cover broad topics like LGBTQ empowerment, sexual harassment, female empowerment, equality, wildlife preservation, and protection.

 


 

Dhanak, India Group Folk dance competition organized by Nazakat saw a participation by 11 teams who had cleared their online prelims. The event was judged by Mrs. Swagata Sen Pillai, who gave the third position to Delhi Technical University, 2nd position to the Bhangra Society Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, and Annhad, Daulat Ram College came 1st .

 

 

The day came to a magnificent close with The Local Train’s performance, which swept the crowd off its feet. With songs like Choo Lo, Dil Mere, Aaoge Tum Kabhi the band ensured that the crowd didn’t lose their energy.

 

Day two of Reverie 2019, the annual cultural festival had an enthralling start. Aabhas, the street play competition was organised by Khistij, the street play society of Gargi College. The event witnessed 11 teams delivering power-packed performances. Kunal Arora and Pallav Kumar judged the event.

 


 

The second day at Reverie 2019 ended with an enthralling and euphoric showcase by DJ Zaeden. Students from across SU, DTU, and IIT came to enjoy the DJ night and were seen dancing to the tunes of DJ’s famous remixes of  Magic, Animals, Don’t Wanna Know, and Love Yourself. It was a glorious close to an eventful day full of soaring talents and dreams.

 


 

The day three of Reverie’19 witnessed eight western dance societies which cleared the prelims on 24th January performed with great enthusiasm and set the stage on fire at Zenith, the western dance competition organised by Enliven, the western dance society of Gargi College. Adjudged by Mr Anand Singh the event saw powerpack performances in which Crunk from Sri Aurobindo College was awarded the first position. Vdefyne of IIT Delhi came second, while Electra of Motilal Nehru College came third.

 


 

The last day of Reverie 2019 came to an end with a melodic and beautiful performance by Prateek Kuhad. The over-enthusiastic crowd went silent and enjoyed his soulful love ballads. He sang some of his famous songs like Tum Jab Paas, Tune Kaha, and 100 Words and ended his enthralling performance with his most loved song ‘cold/mess’.

 

 

Stay tuned for the fest season has just begun, DU Beat will go on to cover the largest fests of Delhi University.

 

Feature Image Credits: Adithya Khanna for DU Beat

Anoushka Sharma

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Avnika Chhikara

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Maumil Mehraj

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Sakshi Arora

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Haris Khan

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Campus Central

A Detailed Account of Hindu College’s V-Tree Pooja Row

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Hailstones and rain weren’t enough to dent the spirits of the protestors and the supporters of the ‘Virgin Tree Pooja’ in their respective efforts to advocate their causes.

The Hindu College’s ‘ritual’ or ‘tradition’ of worshipping the Virgin Tree aka V-tree every Valentine’s Day in hopes of losing one’s virginity was met with huge protests this year. Women’s Development Cells and gender forums of colleges across Delhi University stood in solidarity against the tradition, which is widely held as being sexist. This year there were slight modifications to the ceremony – instead of posters of one male and one female celebrity, a poster of a married couple of Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma was put up, along with a poster that read ‘love has no gender’.

The hostel union modified the ceremony by using new posters.
The hostel union modified the ceremony by using new posters.

On the eve of Valentine’s Day, Pinjra Tod protested against the ceremony, demanding its cancellation this year. Protesters from various student organisations and Pinjra Tod gathered at and tried entering from gate number four of the college. The group was met with resistance and counter-sloganeering from the Hindu College boys’ hostel. Both parties claimed to have received threats from each other.

Around midnight, the residents of the girls’ hostel managed to break the curfew and joined the protest against the tradition. According to a Facebook post by Pinjra Tod, Dr Anju Srivastava, the Principal of the college, attempted to enter the college premises around 3 a.m.; she later congratulated the residents of the boys’ hostel for ‘keeping the tradition alive’ while threatening the residents of the women’s hostel for breaking the curfew.  Police present at the time of the incident tried controlling the situation.

Police was present even at the night of Valentine's Day eve, when the first round of protests began.
Police was present even at the night of Valentine’s Day eve, when the first round of protests began.

The first round of the ritual was conducted at 6 a.m. on 14th of February fearing backlash and protests later. As the hours passed and the weather turned worse, Hindu College saw dissenters and supporters gathering around the Virgin Tree. The Hindu College Progressive Front (HCPF) got in a heated argument with members from the boys hostel. Students from Pinjra Tod and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) also turned up in protest. Clashing slogans of ‘azadi’, ‘puja ho ke rahegi!’, ‘nahi sahenge’ echoed through the college.

The views of the crowds were split. On one hand there were clear advocates of the pooja, while on the other there were fierce protestors. Even among those who were opposed  to the pooja, some didn’t appreciate the involvement of non-Hinduite protestors, while others objected to the manner in which the protests turned out to be.

Student bodies like Pinjra Tod and SFI were a part of the protest.
Student bodies like Pinjra Tod and SFI were a part of the protest.

The aarti was performed in a hurry while some men encircled the tree, preventing any protesters from barging in as the Mr. Fresher of the hostel, Shaurya Pratap Singh  performed the rituals. “This V-Tree pooja became the grandest in the history of Hindu College”, said Shaurya Pratap Singh, the boys’ hostel Mr Fresher who did the pooja. “We decided to modify the pooja, but despite us cooperating, Pinjra Tod came last night and started sloganeering,” he said. Singh alleged that some students from the boys’ hostel who were defending the pooja were “beaten up” and “harassed”. Allegations of intimidation and confrontation were mutual between the opposing parties. Instances of fist fights were also seen during the ritual.

The situation turned dangerous when some students tried grappling for one of the posters.
The situation turned dangerous when some students tried grappling for one of the posters.

Ananya Bhardwaj, who led the HCPF during the college parliamentary elections and was on the forefront of the day’s protest, said, “Today is a victory because just the symbolic act of men leaving a public space and going back to their private space is a victory today we reclaimed the public space”. Asked about what was the objective they wanted to achieve, she said, “We just had to create a fear in these men that you cannot lay claim to our bodies and lay claim to spaces which also belong to us, which we did.” Diya, a student representing Pinjra Tod told us about similar objectives, saying that the idea was to not let the pooja go unchallenged and uninterrupted. The Prime Minister of the college Parliament, Shreyash Mishra, commented that the original intention of the pooja was to break the taboo towards condoms, which he appreciated, along with the modifications brought in to the ceremony this time by the hostel union.

Moral victories were claimed by both sides. Both ended up celebrating by dancing to dhols and shouting slogans of their preference. The police stood on standby as students celebrated.

As the dust settled and normalcy is restored, a few questions still hang in the air. Does merely adding a rainbow heart to a sexist ritual make it acceptable? Do Hindu College boys’ hostel union claim to be truly progressive only because they include a “Love Guru” in addition to “Damdami Mata”, but stay absent when the girls’ hostel in their own college fights against curfew? Should a decade’s old unique ritual, that adds vibrancy and character to a place, be completely removed instead of being reformed? What modifications are needed and should be accepted? What can be the correct ways of protesting and initiating dialoge? Who decides what’s correct?

Image Credits:  Pinjra Tod, unknown sources, and Prateek Pankaj for DU Beat

Feature Image Credits: Prateek Pankaj for DU Beat

Jaishree Kumar
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Prateek Pankaj

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Campus Central

Societies’ Posters Vandalised at Miranda House

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Several incidents of the posters of various societies being tampered with have come up at Miranda House. Catching the offender(s) is difficult.

On Monday, 11th February 2019, the North East Society of Miranda House put up a notice on their society board, stating “vandalism won’t be tolerated.” This came following the putting up of posters of Delhi Technological University (DTU) on their society board, which were then taken down by the General Secretary of the society, Kholneikim Cindy Haokip as they were “not where they are supposed to be.”

The notice by the North East Society of Miranda House came following the latest incident of tampering of society posters in the college. Image Credits: The North East Cell, Miranda House
The notice by the North East Society of Miranda House came following the latest incident of tampering of society posters in the college.
Image Credits: The North East Cell, Miranda House

The issue, however, is reflective of a larger problem of vandalism in the college, which has affected the posters and charts of various societies.This is the third time the posters put up by the North East Society have been damaged or interfered with in some way. The first incident occurred last year when the notices regarding some information were taken down. The second time it happened was in the last week of January when society posters were stripped off and those from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College and Jaypee Institute of Information Technology put up on the society board.

 

Following yesterday’s incident, some WhatsApp messages were forwarded in various groups, stating “A few guys from Delhi Technological University (DTU) came and ripped up the North Eastern Society’s board and pinned their posters on it instead”, and requested others to forward the same.

The official message circulated by the society. Image Credits: The North East Cell, Miranda House
The official message circulated by the society.
Image Credits: The North East Cell, Miranda House

However, in an official message, the society council made it clear that they did not have any part in the circulation of that message, while also stating “DTU is not responsible for this as this has been happening for quite some time. This is purely an internal matter and this is to clarify that DTU cannot be blamed for this.”

The North East Society isn’t the only one who has faced this problem. Nityah Wahi, the President of Enactus, the social entrepreneurship cell of the college, told us that their board was damaged during the recruitment season in August last year. “We had recently re-done our board to update it with new information relating to the past year’s activities and achievements and within a few days it was completely removed and thrown in the dustbin”, said Nityah.

“It’s happened a few times”, remarked Anoushka Parija, the President of the Women’s Development Cell (WDC) of the college. She also explained that after a few incidents of charts and pictures being tampered with, the WDC stopped putting them on the board.

Problems of identifying the person(s) behind this also exist. “It’s hard to think of a particular person because there’s no vendetta. But yes, it’s surely someone from college. In fact, it happens every year. So, it’s never the same person”, commented Anoushka. Nityah and Risa told us that since the CCTV didn’t cover the part of the corridor where the society boards are located, it became even more difficult to identify the doer.

The societies are trying to deal with the issue in various ways. “Social media presence against vandalism is being created. We try to encourage online dispersal of information as much as possible”, says Nityah. We learnt from Anoushka that the WDC also seems to be adopting other ways of disseminating information by using printable posters instead of handmade society charts.

Risa held the view that presidents of various societies should approach the Principal of the college to ask for installation of more CCTV cameras in that area. “We have requested the admin to look into this matter”, the official statement of the North East Society read.

 

Prateek Pankaj

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Arts & Culture

Prateek Kuhad Lives Upto the Hype and Closes Reverie’19!

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From niche events like Sanskrit singing contest and crowd favourites like western dance, the last day of Reverie 2019 had something for everyone.

The day three of Reverie’19 witnessed the Sanskrit singing and speech competition Sangchhadhwam conducted by the Sanskrit Department. It was divided into two segments. The singing and speech competition. Sonali from Gargi College bagged the first position in the singing competition followed by Vrishabh and Bharati from Janaki Devi Memorial College. The Speech competition saw Ambrish Gupta from Rajdhani college secure the first prize, followed by Reenu from Gargi College and Sohan Arya from Ramjas College, who got the second prize.

Eight western dance societies which cleared the prelims on 24th January performed with great enthusiasm and set the stage on fire at Zenith, the western dance competition organised by Enliven, the western dance society of Gargi College. Adjudged by Mr Anand Singh the event saw powerpack performances in which Crunk from Sri Aurobindo College was awarded the first position. Vdfyne of IIT Delhi came second, while Electra of Motilal Nehru College came third.

Glass Eye, the film making society of Gargi College, organised a 48-hr film making competition and a Cine Quiz. For the 48-hour film making an event, themes were sent to eight teams across colleges who had to submit their short films within a deadline of two days. Three shortlisted films were screened and were announced winners. The first position was bagged by First Cut, film making society Ramanujan College. Xposure of Dyal Singh College came second and 35mm of Amity University came third. Cine Quiz saw on spot registrations of cross-college teams. Cinephiles came first, Buddies came second, and Go Glass Eye came third.

Rangchunaav, the open theme mix media painting competition, witnessed participation from 17 painters. The event was adjudged by Mr Avinash Gautam.  As many as 40 contestants participated in Reverie’s T-shirt painting competition. Archana Jaideep, a freelance artist, who has put up exhibitions in London, and also serves in the ECA committee of Delhi University was the judge. The contestants were given a plain white T-shirt, which acted as a canvas for their artistic talent.

The last day of Reverie 2019 came to an end with a melodic and beautiful performance by Prateek Kuhad. The over-enthusiastic crowd went silent and enjoyed his soulful love ballads. He sang some of his famous songs like Tum Jab Paas, Tune Kaha, and 100 Words and ended his enthralling performance with his most loved song ‘cold/mess’. The student Union followed with a vote of thanks and the crowd dispersed peacefully. Reverie was all the beauty and grace it had promised to be and was a prestigious platform for young and upcoming talent. Stay tuned for the fest season has just begun, DU Beat will go on to cover the largest fests of Delhi University.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

Anoushka Sharma

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Avnika Chhikara

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Maumil Mehraj

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Sakshi Arora

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Hindu College

‘Casual Sexism’ Discussion at Hindu Gives Us Something to Think About

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The nearly two-hour discussion on ‘Casual Sexism’ organised by the Women’s Development Cell (WDC) of Hindu College following some sexist comments made on Facebook by a cabinet member of the college did more than just holding the said person accountable – it raised larger principled questions.

Does a person making casual sexist comments deserve the same platform as the victim to voice their side of the story? Is it right to target the perpetrator in such cases? Who or what should even be targeted – the act or the doer? Is the public complicit, to what extent?

No dirt was swept under the rug when some time back, a student of Hindu College, Sachin Gupta, wrote a sexist post on Facebook, which was then followed by further sexist comments by the PWD Secretary of the College Parliament, Devashish Singh. Social media outrage erupted. DU Beat covered the story and more and more people became aware of the story.

Perhaps when the Hindu College WDC decided to have the discussion, the idea was to focus on these particular incidents, to facilitate dialogue and to hold people accountable. However, in retrospect, it raised some thought-provoking questions.

 

Let’s get some perspective. When senior journalist Seema Mustafa wrote about her reservations against the #MeToo on The Citizen, saying “…these campaigns have become more about social media lynching of those who dare disagree with even one aspect of it, than about the campaign itself”, she wasn’t opposing the movement but pointing to a trend, which she saw as self-harming – the trend of not giving space to dissenting voices, such as hers and perhaps those of the accused.

Of course, Devashish didn’t sexually harass someone. A sexist comment and an incident of sexual harassment aren’t of the same severity, and thus the type or extent of platform given to the respective offenders in either of those incidents can’t be compared either. But, the principle remains the same – who should be given the platform?

This becomes more important considering the existence of a unique situation, wherein, on the one hand, victims are blamed and on the other, dissenting voices are not given enough space for expression on certain platforms.

In this regard, the WDC managed to do a commendable job. Not only was the discussion open to all Hinduites, but the cabinet was also invited, along with Devashish and Sachin (the latter didn’t turn up). Devashish was given a chance to explain his actions and was equally subjected to questions by the audience.

Hence, when Sakshi, the Vice President of the WDC told me that “not giving Devashish an equal opportunity to speak is wrong because…the main motive of this discussion was to make him understand”, or when a student in the audience urged others not to villainise him, the idea was to encourage dialectics over vilification; to tackle the larger issue of the mindset and culture over a particular individual. Else, essentially only echo-chambers are created on either side of the fence, rather than uprooting the fence itself.

Many people got the chances to speak,
Many people got the chances to speak.

However, problems exist. Yes, Devashish apologised – even though it didn’t seem very convincing. So, when asked what his mindset was while writing that comment, his response was essentially that if something was illogical, then why not just ignore it – drawing a rather weak analogy that if someone said something illogical like “two plus two equals five”, then why even bother. Or when Sakshi asked, who according to him could be called a ‘whore’, his answer was dodgy and rhetorical. He answered that while short clothes didn’t make someone a whore, one could just google the meaning of the word. He also said that since he had accepted his mistake, perhaps others should accept his apology too.

Sure, maybe he isn’t the most articulate person around, and clearly, tried dodging questions. But the problem here isn’t one individual. Such responses are also perhaps symptomatic of a tendency to deny the responsibility of your actions simply because you “accepted the mistake”, especially when even that acceptance is often a mere formality.

But the problem also lies in how we approach these issues. Since a mindset like this exists in people around us, cornering them can’t be a wise solution as it simply excludes them, without addressing the root cause of their action. Not only would that leave the larger problem untouched, but also potentially cause more hostility among both sides – creating conditions for the possible repetition of these incidents.

Yes, the burden shouldn’t lie on the victim. But the responsibility does lie on the community as a whole. For the people are complicit both, when they do not actively oppose particular incidents, and also when they fail to address larger issues.

These are complicated questions.

 
Image Credits – Prateek Pankaj and WDC, Hindu College

Prateek Pankaj

[email protected]

 

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Campus Central

Tough Questions Raised Amidst Loud Applause at Stephen’s Dialog 2019

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Comprising of Mrs, Anjana Om Kashyap, Mr. Vikram Chandra, and Mr. Saurabh Dwivedi, the panel discussing ‘Lok Sabha Elections: Mahakumbh of Indian Journalism’ was subjected to some pressing and thought-provoking questions at the Q&A session at St. Stephen’s College on 23rd January.

Moderated by Dr. Amna Mirza, Associate Professor at the University of Delhi (DU), the panel first invited Mrs. Anjana Om Kashyap, Executive Editor at Aaj Tak, to speak about television rating points (TRPs) and political bias in journalism, among other issues. After Mrs. Kashyap’s presentation, Mr. Vikram Chandra-Founder, Editorji Technologies, and Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NDTV– shared his insight on the changing face of journalism and transmission of news, while emphasising a solution through his news app Editorji. Mr. Saurabh Dwivedi, Founding Editor of The Lallantop, was subsequently started on a rather humorous note, and then delved into rural issues which have often been overlooked by mainstream media.

In the Q&A session, students from various colleges raised a plethora of socially and politically charged questions for the panellists. On being questioned by Honey, a Kirori Mal College student, about the intervention and regulation of news broadcasted by mass media channels like Aaj Tak by their top advertisement-providers that were companies like Patanjali, Mrs. Kashyap stated, “Aapka sawaal mujhe out kar gaya (Your question has stumped me).” She maintained that news channels had to work the best from within the system. “News is what someone wants to suppress; rest is all advertisement,” she said. Mr. Chandra and Mr. Dwivedi further added that no advertiser directly called shots on the content of reputed news channels.

The second part of Honey’s question dealt with representation in the newsrooms. To this, Mr. Dwivedi responded by highlighting the lack of representation of journalists, especially from areas like Manipur and Kashmir. In the same breath, he added that journalists tended to overlook caste and socio-economic backgrounds during recruitment, which might be the reason for such disparities in number.

“Kaunsa mudda, kiska mudda, woh koi nahi poochta (Which issue it is, whose issue it is- nobody asks that),”said Shorya, a student from the PWD category, emphasising how national issues do not matter much to common people, for ground-level issues like the absence of ramps in colleges for PWD students are not even covered by mainstream media. His concerns evoked a massive emotional response not only among the panellists but the audience as well. While no one from the panel was able to offer a concrete solution, they all agreed to his concerns, offering to help him run a Twitter campaign for the same.

The next question raised to baffle the panellists was about Kashmir. A student asked the panel about why the stories based on Kashmir began with a metaphorical full-stop. In response to the one-line question, Mrs. Kashyap responded with a one-line answer-“…because Kashmir is an ongoing story”. However, all the panellists agreed, without saying much that the sentiments in Kashmir were often different from the versions presented on TV. Mr. Chandra went on to state that certain sections of media should be ashamed of how they had covered Kashmir.

Another student enquired how anonymity could be a useful tool especially in the present-day society where one was easily labelled as an ‘anti-national’ for speaking up against the government. Mr. Chandra responded by saying that the day one feared to speak in a free country, it would not be free at all. Mrs. Kashyap then encouraged the student to not hide behind anonymity and to stand up for her views.

A student from Ramjas College requested Mrs. Kashyap to comment on the alleged misrepresentation of information reported by an Aaj Tak anchor regarding an ABVP rally during Republic Day last year, asking whether the channel should be held responsible for the same. She responded by saying that due action had been taken against the anchor and that Aaj Tak had employed an exclusive fact-checking team to avoid such incidents in the future.

Evidently dissatisfied, the student further followed up by commenting that the anchor in question had also allegedly misreported about a chip being present in the INR2,000 notes post-demonetisation. At this stage, Mrs Kashyap refused to answer, saying that she couldn’t comment on someone else’s behalf. On the other hand, Mr. Dwivedi said that mistakes often happen, and he himself had misrepresented information at times but believed that journalists should own up to such mistakes.

Despite being difficulty they may present in resolution, the need for asking tough questions was recognised and appreciated by all present at the event. As the guests departed, the students applauded and cheered with their ideas regarding journalism-its challenges, economics, and politics- appearing to be stronger.

Feature Image Credits: Leadership Cell, St. Stephen’s College.

Prateek Pankaj
[email protected]

Sakshi Arora
[email protected]

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