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Retirement Row: High Court Grants Interim Protection of Services to DU Professor

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A month after Professor Meera Sood’s enforced retirement by the Principal of Vivekananda College, the High Court (HC) has granted her interim protection of services.

Dr (Professor) Meera Sood, an Assistant Professor of Physical Education at Vivekananda College, received an order by the college Principal stating her retirement age to be 62 years; the stipulated retirement age for professors being 65 years. As reported by DU Beat earlier last month, the order derived its authority from rejecting Sood’s position as a Teaching Assistant Professor, and instead, classifying her as Director of Physical Education.

However, as clarified by Sood herself, a resolution passed in 1991, which determined that physical education teachers should be placed on the faculty roster, allowed redesignation of Directors of Physical Education as Professors.

Sood also mentioned that since the resolution’s implementation, Professors of Directorate Education have retired only after reaching the stipulated age of retirement, i.e., 65.

A Division Bench of the Delhi HC, comprising of Justices Sistani and Jyoti Singh, after a comprehensive hour-long hearing, granted interim protection to Dr Meera Sood. Sood had challenged the alleged illegal and “unreasonable” action of the college Principal.

Sunil Mathews and Sabah Iqbal Siddiqui, Sood’s Legal Counselors argued before the HC that the University Grants Commission (UGC) had stated in Right to Information (RTI) replies and clarifications issued that the retirement age of Associate Professors of Physical education was 65 years, and not 62. The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) also released a statement in this regard, “It was also contended on her behalf that the University of Delhi (DU) had in the case of several other colleges, taken the position that the retirement age of such associate professors of Physical Education was 65 years.”

DUTA’s month-long dharna and relay hunger strike on the issue came to fruition in the form of HC’s judgement. The judgement has been hailed by teachers across the varsity and DUTA.

DUTA President, Rajib Ray said, “DUTA condemns the dishonest and negative role played by the counsels for DU and UGC, and demands their removal, as well that of the Officiating Principal of Vivekanand College, Dr Hina Nandrajog.”

Interestingly, the Division Bench also considered the fact that the Governing Body of Vivekananda College had itself taken the position that the retirement age of Dr Sood was 65 years. Despite this, the Principal of the said college issued a letter that Dr Sood’s tenure as a college teacher would come to an end on May 31, 2019; clearly establishing a case of discriminatory authority.

“Her plea was strongly opposed by Legal Counsel appearing for Vivekananda College, as well as the counsels appearing for DU and UGC,” said the DUTA statement. It also added, “Dr Sood had not obtained any interim protection of her service from the learned Single Bench and therefore was constrained to approach the Division Bench. The Division Bench while granting protection of service till the next date also recorded an undertaking that Dr Sood would return salaries paid if she was unsuccessful in her case and the retirement age was to be held at 62.”

Unfortunately, Dr Sood refused to comment on the issue.

 

Feature Image Credits: The Print

 

Kartik Chauhan

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Change: Arbitrariness and Acceptance

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Change is an unsettling idea. It means a certain shift from the comforts. Not everyone can adjust to this shift as easily.
It is almost confusing- how change is an arbitrary event and yet so time-consuming. We await change, seeing it as an upheaval of sorts; and when it does not come, we are dismayed. Change cannot be awaited, because it is highly arbitrary. You can change your ways and behaviors, but even in that, the upheaval you seek will take time to ripe, and then happen all at once. The play of the arbitrary has always been an object of amusement for us all. It is this ambiguity that poses problems when the time is ripe to deal with the change.
A lot of situations will put your patience and tolerance to a brutal test. Anticipation of change to sail you through this turbulence is only natural. But more importantly, change cannot be seen as an escape. It is an act that is triggered by the process of learning. Living through the bad times, and then living through the phase of change is informative as well as satisfying, after a fashion. From a position of privilege, change can also be to a position of troubles. Unsurprisingly it works both ways- the good and the bad. But it is the nature of change to always teach us important
things. And it is this process of learning that matters.
The arbitrary nature of change is highly problematic. The change can be anything- your feelings towards someone, or the other way around, your career choices, your ideas. But it helps to remember that in this transitional phase, it is most important to maintain your calm. Transition is scary, and uplifting in equal parts. But even when it turns sour, you have to participate. It takes a lot more than just courage to hold your head high in a challenging time. Give it some time.
When you mix water and sand  thoroughly, the sand will always settle at the bottom. It may sound cliched, but in some instances of extreme frictional changes that happen in our lives, (and at that, arbitrarily happening changes) the most helpful thing to do is to wait.Acceptance is never arbitrary or random or easy. We always need our time to wrap our headspace around the change. That is exactly what we lack these days, which makes adjusting to change difficult for us. It would only help to recall every once in a while, that acceptance is a naturally challenging process that takes time. The arbitrary change follows a well-thought acceptance. Taking your time with the change is all that is essential.
Feature Image Credits:Duluth News Tribune
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Letter to My Outgoing Best-friend

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Dear Best Friend,

As I write to you today, after delaying for so long, I am searching for the million words I had in my mind; words and thoughts I had to share with you. I am searching for the emotions and the ideas; the same emotions and ideas that wanted me to write to you because I failed to express them. As I falter in an ocean of feelings, relying on my capsizing emotions, I am given to perplexity and heartbreak. I could say a thousand words, and yet I wouldn’t. Partly because of my fear that having said these words to you would leave me wordless in this turbulence, and everything that reminds me of this finality; of this end.

Somehow, from a very remote idea of formality and airy pretensions, we blended into this solidarity. All about the senior-junior dynamics- the courtesy of conduct and the sense of staunch ‘devotion’- we were, all as juniors are, fed with these ideas of behaving with seniors. Notwithstanding all these regulations, the edict of our relationship has seen us becoming entirely friendly and in that, immensely devoted to each other, informedly and out of concern more than courtesy. Can I possibly thank you for being so annoyingly understanding, frustratingly mature, and hopelessly loving? Having established my incapacity at gratitude, how can I ever possibly say anything in mere words? I am flustered today, because there is so much to say, but there is not enough time.

Characteristically varying and settled in the spectrums of extremisms, we came to find a part of us in each other. Home away from home, a safe place, humanising the objects of oppression and love, you have been an absolutely delightful friend. An uncanny familiarity has it been that inspired such confidence in each other. How this loss of a home renders me bereft of the warmth and the comfort and the joy of a haven. All this time, I am sure has been for always. Knowing that this would last forever is no consolation at all, because I know better that that.

To an endless flow of gossips, radical discussions on literature and life, and the countless conspiracy theories and crises, there must be an end. And so it comes to an end, this endless joy. This joy, the acknowledgement of which was only ever multiplied by the constant sorrows that we lived through. I could say this and much more in a thousand words, but what’s more than saying that I would do it all over again with you? But I guess this is all the time we had; simply because we are all too familiar with broken promises made in faith. I wish you everything best in the world that awaits you. And I want you to know, that great things await you.

It would pain me to lose you to time. In fact, I might be losing you even now. Strangely, I knew you would go away, but I never feared I would lose you, and that kept me going. Fading away is only natural, but maybe we will not fade away so easily. Maybe in this parting, there is something more becoming. This reminds of a quote from Frodo Baggins at the end of The Return of The King, “How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand… there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend.”

Even if time draws people apart, it truly is something I expect will not affect us.

I think we will be fine, after all, so long as we are a ‘we’.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat archives

Kartik Chauhan

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Am I Imposing Myself on You?

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Can your impositions trigger questions on your existentialism? How do you draw the line between relationships and impositions?

Remember when Professor Trelawney said in Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, “I do not wish to press my company on those who do not value it.”

To impose something (on/upon somebody) is to make someone accept the same opinions, wishes et cetera as your own; any dictionary would define this word as so. But in practice, the idea of imposing yourself on others has been normalised to mean a lot more than this definition. It has been used to refer to the behavior that just makes us question our intentions and thoughts that shape our conversations and actions in the social space. “Sometimes when you stay too long with the same people, you might feel that they are getting tired of your company,” says a first year student from Maitreyi College. Indeed, it derives from our introversions. When you try to open up to people, it becomes a challenge because you simply cannot decide whether the person desires your company or not. And maybe you can never know the answer to this social/emotional riddle.

“In my first year of college, being an introverted observer through and through, I felt uninvited in most spaces. Optimistically reaching out but not really toward a reciprocative reception was surely a challenge. But it got over with time, I think.” Bakhtawar Iqbal, an outgoing student of Hindu College believes that imposing yourself on others can be easily felt by you first. The air of discomfort, the eye-contact exchanges, airy conversations that do not register you; you get the hints. “But my idea of imposing myself on others is not problematic so long as I am not manipulative; so long as I am not forcing an opinion on others. As for imposing my company on others, I have not shied away from taking the out. It feels embarrassing but its really liberating. If you do not feel you belong, you take the walk out.” says Bakhtawar.

It is very important to define the lines in relationships. Even in the most comfortable of relationships, you need to know when you overstep the boundaries into someone’s private space. Maybe it can even be helpful to ask people, “Am I imposing myself on you?” or “Do you need some space?”. You cannot withhold your emotional expression lest it be considered imposing. You cannot keep the emotions pent up. Yet even in this intrusion, even as it slides in- your fear of being imposing or ‘unwanted’- you should always be ready to know when you need to exit. For the sake of expression, you cannot enforce repentance on your own. This is not, in anyway, escapist I think. If you do not feel like burdening someone with your ‘emotional baggage’, it is absolutely fine. It is in fact for the good of both the listener and speaker,” a student from Shri Ram College of Commerce articulates the importance of expression in the wake of the fear of imposition.

“But never imposing and then occasionally enjoying someone’s hospitality is a balance I can never get right,” he says further.

“There is a certain point of time wherein you feel low, and at this moment, nothing outside of your own singular calm pleases you,” Debopriya Bhattacharya, a literature major from Hindu College states. “It has always been so for me, at least,” she adds. College days are sometimes entire days of frustration smattered with laughs here and there. In your moment of dullness, people close to you are easy to catch you unaware; searching for the causes of your dullness. Simple questions like the following become confrontations: “You seem a little off today, is everything okay?”

She adds, “We tend to hurt people closest to us the most in our moments of mental rifts. It is because these people do not abandon you outrightly. These people will many a time assume that they have an unintended part in adding to your dullness. They will apologise or even compensate for something they did not even do. And that, somehow translates into becoming an imposition for you instead.” A lot of us do not address certain issues simply because we feel that the emotional baggage is ours to bear alone. Sharing your dilemma means imposing your issues on others because no matter what, the issues will affect the other person’s sense of decision. As much as staying silent about things is your choice, you cannot make the choice or decision on the listener’s part to listen.

“Recently, when one of my friends started seeing someone, I felt entirely abandoned despite her attempts to spend her time with me. And in that, I felt that every minute she spent with me, was a minute that she would rather spend with someone else. But then I circled back to the idea of her practising her will in this regard. I do not wish to impose my company on her. But then, whatever changes, it is her choice to maintain a balance or withdraw. I cannot make that selfsame choice for her.” shares a third year student from Ramjas College. Despite our anxieties about being imposing, what really is our choice is to live in the moment. So in that moment, if you must be extra or imposing, then that is just how it is. It is the other person’s reactions and their priorities that establish the truth of your imaginative insecurities. So whether you are being imposing or enforcing your company on others, that is for others to decide, not you.

Feature Image Credits: Medium

Kartik Chauhan

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In Defense of Doing Nothing

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In an age where hyper-productivity is a modern cult, how do we deal with doing nothing? How do we define our potential when the only thing that defines it is overwork?

“Your worth is not measured by your productivity,” reads an illustration by France Corbel. Probably it is easier said than done/applied. The idea of a college education has always been highly glamorised. It is a space where you must materialise all your capabilities to translate them into becoming your achievements. It has always been given the agency of being a place that allows you to explore opportunities.

Being driven by societies, lectures, meetings, internships, interviews, and all the while maintaining healthy social connections with people around, we seem to have lost the element of joy within us. In college, as you balance all these things and many others, what hangs in the balance is your own curiosity and your own interests. Simply because a day has only 24 hours. And given the scope of ambition in the pursuits of excellence and productivity, these 24 hours are too few.

When you are doing a lot of things, trying to juggle various jobs and responsibilities, there are some things that you are must give up. And it is in the moment of extreme business that you realise how many things you are missing out on. We are too many things, and yet never enough. Too many things, but yet feeling like doing nothing at all.

Lauren Bravo in an article discussing the importance of doing nothing writes, “I’m embarrassed by the books I have not read, the films I have not seen, the 3,000-word articles I’ve had to have juiced down by Twitter because I couldn’t be arsed to keep scrolling. “I’m really very lazy,” I say to people, just in case they’re already thinking it.”

In our age when even vacations are dedicated to working, most creative outlets have been obstructed because they have been put to use, not for the sake of aesthetic gratification but monetised for gain. We have booked our passage onto the road that leads nowhere but burnout. There is so much to do, and so less time.

Many of us have turned our hobbies into ‘side-hustles’; attempts at making our brand to head out confidently into a corporate world. When was the last time you did something for pure fun? The highly competitive and compelling nature of things around us has ingrained in us: Time spent on fun is wasted time. The power of being relaxed and happy has been invisibilised by the strict conduct of always being radically engaged in one thing or the other.

Often when we take a day off, it ends up in a pile of guilt. “I could have finished my assignment today.” Captured in the could-haves and ought-tos, we are never truly able to enjoy the moments.

Gift yourself a day of doing nothing. Go off social media, if that helps. Sit back in a comfortable chair in the park, and listen to the world around. The soft songs of the dusky union of birds, the troubled cries of a wayward sparrow- everything that surrounds us and more. Bask in the joy of being relaxed, doing nothing. Gift yourself, a little of you.

 

Feature Image Credits: Wikimedia

Kartik Chauhan
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Uncategorized

Choosing Between Active Listening and Problem Solving

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There is a fine line of difference between listening and hearing. And listening comes with the burden of responding. Or does it?
It often happens that someone discusses something important with us, taking us in that confidence, and trusting us to keep the faith entrusted. In our daily exchanges, we vocalise a lot of our crises, concerns, issues, and emotions. We share our stories and experiences with each other. And it is universally known that not all stories and experiences are studies in fortune. “It is really the inexplicable nature of the crisis that gives those wings to it,” some might say. The question then becomes, how do we select between listening and hearing. And secondly, if we
choose the former, how essential is a response to someone’s confiding in us.
We are not all unfamiliar with rants. As Anoushka Sharma, a student from DSJ points out, “I believe it is very important to rant once in a while. It relieves stress and baggage in one’s head(at least in my case).” Ranting has become a healthy trend increasingly. However, the certain claim of it being a healthy practice is only validated through the understanding and listening capabilities of your confidant. One of the important elements in the ‘college starter pack’ today is the ability to rant. When a person vents out their transgression, sometimes all that person seeks is just another person who listens, not a philosopher who serves active advice on dealing with
the subject triggering the rant. Positivity cannot be breathed in that easy sometimes. Being an active listener definitely requires your own emotional availability, as well.
Many of us must have made the mistake of offering pieces of advice to people about situations that we might have never experienced. Though experience is not truly the most deciding factor in your emotional growth, it is one of the important factors. We should realise that not having anything to say to someone after listening to their problems is absolutely normal. “It is always recommended to analyse the situation – that you are not a part of in the first place – as objectively as can be spared before you decide to comment on the issue,” says Debopriya Bhattacharya, a student of literature at Hindu College.
For every actively listened account, there is not an obligation to harvest an instant solution to the problem. Sometimes listening to the issue is all the solution that is needed. Although, in no way does it mean that you choose to remain ignorant of people’s cries for help. Simply put, you cannot enforce your advice on others for the sake of ‘helping them out’. You have to make a well-informed overview of the issue, rather than offering half-baked guidelines. You cannot live other people’s lives for them, because you have your own to sustain. So the next time you are party to someone’s expression of emotions, do not be too eager to comment or solve the emotional riddle harboured in the waves of crisis. In stead, listen intently. Not just to respond, neither to sympathize, but just to listen.

Feature Image Credits: Strikemag

Kartik Chauhan
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Arts & Culture

How Friendships Form Organically in College

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I am sure many of you would question the idea of an ‘organic relationship’ in a world like ours – burdened by the pretences and disbeliefs of our age. Contrary to this thought, it is interesting to witness the becoming of organic relationships in college.

The word organic would immediately paint a healthy, natural, and enriching image. The term ‘organic relationship’ would then simply translate to a fulfiling relationship. It is a bond that creeps in your correspondence gradually, like moss growing against a damp abandoned wall.

But how do we identify an organic relationship? Meghan Ambers in an article on organic relationships writes, “Relationships with the right people will open your eyes to new heights of life, they will make you appreciate the wonders of the universe and you always walk away knowing more than you started with in the beginning.” When you are in the right company you simply, at the risk of sounding idealistic, “vibe” and start a dialogue. During the dialogue, there can be conflict and that ’s when you know what the relationship is. Such a conflict would drive you to a decision – to forsake the budding friendship or to give it some time.

To err is human. Sometimes we develop a sense of insecurity when our relationships are not what we expect or imagine them to be. Behaviours vary, so logically our responses should vary too. An organic connection that you felt goes a long way to determine our reactions. For example, in a moment of test, your heart would want you to give the other person another chance.

It is interesting then, this gamble of emotional connectivity. Is it not? Before getting in any relationship, we make our own ideas about a person. It is then a challenge for the other person too, to change your ideas and his/her own. So allow the exploration. And when it delves into a realm of its own making, something beautiful will come to be. If you are lucky, you’ll develop a sense of familiarity. Something that says that you know all about them and yet would love to know more. Something that will enable you to look beyond their flaws and failures, to look through their perspective, to question as they would, and everything in between!

Actor Richard Gere once said, “When someone has a strong intuitive connection, Buddhism suggests that it’s because of karma, some past connection.” However, even the most profound relationships can falter with time. The hitherto burning passion-fire can be regulated. It can even seem lost on its characteristic warmth. Such a transition would not be termed as a ‘fallout’ – a problematic term, to say the least. Happiness is found in the most unlikely places. And unlikely, unprecedented, and unexpected are the ways of life. There is a deep joy in unexpected wellness. A relationship with no mechanical formality exists.

But as it goes without saying, there can always be a false sense of security too. More often than not, without realising, we find ourselves in toxic friendships. Too many chances, too much guilt, and too many apologies can be highly taxing. As important as it is to hold on to our bonds, it is extremely important to learn to let go too. To indulge someone in your vulnerabilities and fears, and then losing them to doubts can be traumatising. Meghan Ambers goes on to say, “Still, bad relationships can teach you two things as well. It can teach you what you won’t tolerate, what you don’t deserve, and what you don’t need in your life. And whether it is a relationship with a friend or lover, it will apply to all.” It is not my place to propagate distrust; that would mean the end of all our social connections. Neither do I wish to imply the embodying of withdrawal and indifference.

I simply mean that it is helpful to believe in the idea of relationships forming naturally rather than forcing them to be. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. It is necessary to interact, and then see where the dialogue takes you. There are a million possibilities and infinite emotions. Good or bad, you will learn. And learning is living, don’t you think?
Feature Image Credits: Wanderway
Kartik Chauhan
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Deceptions and Forced Donations: Students Being Robbed and Terrorised

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Read on to find out about the groups of scamsters targeting students of the varsity on a daily basis.

Multiple accounts shared by students living on campus have exposed a vast and expansive circuit of scamsters robbing students of their money. These scamsters have been known to single out pedestrians and then force them into paying some money for causes like building of a temple or organising a puja. As reported by DU Beat earlier, the campus is not unfamiliar with such scamsters as those who rob students in the name of blessing their money, and then deceptively take off with it.

The previously reported green salwar-kameez women caused some alarm in North Campus. However, further probing into such deceptive practices revealed the greater circuit of scamsters lurking for their chance to take away with students’ money. Various accounts were shared by students from across the varsity.

Gargi and Rishita, from Kamala Nehru College shared one such incident. This happened to near North Campus, on 27 February. There were 2-3 sardaar boys. One of them came to me and said “Please make a donation, we are organizing a langar,” I said I don’t have any cash.
He said, “We’ll come to the ATM with you,” I even said I don’t have any card with me right now. He asked for my name and number and said that they will remind me to give them the money through Paytm. I said I don’t have Paytm. So he took ?20 from me and only left after having received the money.”

The same students also mentioned, “As I started walking again towards the metro, another guy came to me. He held my hand and started saying things like you are so pretty, your eyes are very beautiful and what not. I got super scared that time. He refused to leave me alone. And then I had to raise my voice and said I need to leave.
The former account, focusing on this group asking money in the name of langar and then the latter account, an extremely appalling and shameful attempt to make the students uncomfortable are not unheard of in the campus. Such attempts to coerce people have become common, as it seems.

Disturbingly, these scamsters are not limited to the North Campus. As reported ealier, the same green salwar-kameez women were also spotted in Greater Kailash, M-Block. However, adding to this expansive issue is the accessibility and liberty assumed by these scamsters; in that they reach out to students living on campus in PGs and hostels and demand money from them.

Bakhtawar Iqbal, a third year student from Hindu College, shared his account with us. “They came to our flat, wearing police uniforms. They were carrying a huge register and demanded that I enter my name in it. I complied and went ahead writing my name, thinking that these people are just doing some sort of survey or something. After I had entered my name, however, they asked me to pay them money for “maata ka camp”. He asked me to give him ?500-1000 since “everyone had given that much”. My roommate came to my rescue at that moment and the dialogue became slightly heated. We ended up paying ?100 to them to get rid of them, because they refused to go without it. Later we found out that they had visited our friends’ flats as well.”

Various other groups of people visiting students living in Kingsway Camp, Hudson Lane, Kamla Nagar and Vijay Nagar have been shared. Dressed to deceive, these groups force students into submitting to their terror and hence, easily give up their money. In this chaotic farce, the interests of the honestly lacking have been undermined.

Another student from Kamala Nehru College shared, “A couple of middle-aged women came to my PG and asked us to give them banknotes so that they could bless them. My friend gave them a 500 rupee note, and they said that they would return it but they just went away. When we followed them to ask for the money, they told us that we’ll die childless and some other absurd curses were hurled by them. It was really scary as they had surrounded us, so we came back without retrieving the money.”

Talking to DU Beat, SHO Maurice Nagar mentioned that these incidents of the green salwar-kameez women robbing and terrorising students in North Campus have been heard of on social media. However, no official complaints have yet been lodged. DU Beat requests the all those who have suffered at the hands of these scamsters in any form to report them in your nearest police station. Enabling a legal action and investigation is likely to reverse the flow of fear from students to these deceptive groups.
Stay safe and vigilant.

Feature Image Credits: Akarsh Mathur for DU Beat

Kartik Chauhan
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Events

A Vibrant Display of Flowers and Emotions at The Annual Flower Show

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The 61st Annual Flower Show organised by the Garden Committee of University of Delhi saw a powerfully beautiful display of flowers and emotions.

The Mughal Garden of the Vice Chancellor’s Lawns was adorned with a thousand flowers in a stunning array of as many colors on the 1st of March, 2019. Celebrating the 61st edition of the Annual Flower Show of University of Delhi, the exhibit left every spectator spellbound. As Pooja, a fellow admirer of flowers and plants excitedly stated, “It feels like a dreamy heaven!”

Participants from 26 colleges, 14 hostels and University Halls, institutions, schools and students from Delhi-NCR participated in the event. A diverse multitude of around 7000 footfalls including children and senior citizens enjoyed the floral displays and fête. The event was inaugurated by the Pro Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar of the University. Prizes including 72 rolling shields and cups were awarded.

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The annual event aims at sensitizing the university students to participate actively and contribute to the environment by preserving its bounties and beauties. Bakhtawar Iqbal, a third year student from Hindu College exclaimed that he aspired to practise gardening from this day onwards. Pooja, another student bought more than ten saplings from the exhibition. She stated, “One of the best things about this exercise is that they sell these saplings, like succulents, at throwaway prices! I love how the committee maintains the aim to enable students like me, who are always broke, to adopt plants and nurture them.”

One of the main highlights of the exhibit this time was the ‘Forest: Conservation, Productivity, Livelihood’ project. Talking to DU Beat, Parul Bhardwaj, a student of Botany under the Garden Secretary of University of Delhi, Professor Sudeshna Mazumdar-Leighton said, “This is something new about this time. We have an educational exhibit that iterates the imprtance of forests. The project, as the name suggests has three dimensions: Conservation, Productivity, Livelihood. It focuses on usage of Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) like silk, honey and oils like mahua and kusum.” Bhardwaj also mentioned, “Integration of the women community living in close proximity of the forests has been efficiently aimed at as well. Women are the primary sellers, gatherers and processors of NTFPs. This project and its propagation aims at allowing them greater employment opportunities.”

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Notably, the most exuberant display of flowers was by the Miranda House Team. Deservingly, Miranda House was awarded all top three positions. A vast variety of flowers from sunflowers to lillies and daisies, the exhibit captured eyes and emotion alike. Adding to this were various street play performances by societies.

Various artpieces and models displayed in tents drove home powerful and inspiring messages home. Different arrays of flowers were named and interpreted differently. These models that explored themes like women empowerment and the joys and trials of womanhood, or those that voiced concern over brahmanical patriarchy, all of them carried insight.

A special section was dedicated to commemorate the brave soldiers lost in the tragic Pulwama terror attack. Beautiful wreaths mourned and celebrated the martyrs. Many of the flowered models advocated the prevailing of peace and how war is never the answer.

The message driven home by organising this event was that of celebrating nature in all its splendour and serene beauty.

Image Credits: Kartik Chauhan

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Love: A Choice

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The feeling of love is immediate. It cannot be forced. But even this feeling becomes a choice. A choice to act upon.

In ‘Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows’, Dumbledore told Harry, “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love.” The emotion, and the attached exclusivity and essentiality of love is not entirely unjustified. A powerful emotion, that balances in a spectrum of joy and heartbreak, love is an exquisite feeling. And in turbulent times like ours, this feeling is a welcome respite. But despite the power of love, is it justified when it crosses the limits? Is it justified when it becomes uncomfortable for the object of one’s affection? Everyone feels the emotion of love, in fact, everyone wants to feel it so. In this conflict, could we claim that love is an active choice?

The initial response to a good experience is that of being in awe of it. We come to appreciate and elevate the experience or the person. Sometimes, this awe or appreciation solidifies into a strong connect. Love, then, is a very natural ‘process’. It is instant and gradual, at once. The realisation takes time. But once registered, the follow-up action in the process is to act on the instinctive emotion. The question then becomes: “How do I seek the validation for my emotional soaring?” or “Will I find a reciprocal of my emotions in the object of my affection?” Falling in love is not the difficult part. It is a great fall. And like every fall, what matters is really the resilience to carry on, to rise up and seek. Or to act on the love felt.

“Essentially, seeing as how we seek a reciprocative response to our emotions, and also that our generation is in a fix about the idea of commitment, love is really a choice,” says Apoorva Singh, a third-year student at Hindu College. She adds, “It is a choice because over time, it becomes a practice of your own volition. Your emotional responses can change, for one. And so, as the time goes by, love becomes increasingly a choice.”

Truly, in its initial or even in its later stages, love becomes a choicely celebration. If you do not feel the urge to act on an amorous feeling, you can always sideline the same, hoping that it will ‘pass on’. Simply because love cannot be enforced, nor imposed on the other. It is an inherent feeling. But the subsequent acting on it, is a perfect model that works out and calls upon our awake consciousness. So love becomes an active choice, doesn’t it?

Feature Image Credits: NBC News

Kartik Chauhan

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