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Bazinga

In the memory of Antardhvani, DU to host a Holi bash for students this year

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With Antardhvani not seeing the light of the day this year, the University of Delhi has decided to give its students a colourful surprise, quite literally. Reliable sources have informed us of a refreshing Holi bash being organised by the university authorities to compensate for Antardhvani celebrations that were scrapped this year.

Rumours are doing the rounds that DU is likely to host this gala event at the Polo Ground in North Campus on 24rd. The Holi bash, insiders tell us, is going to be a a starry affair with celebrities such as Yo Yo Honey Singh performing, after his blanket ban imposed by the University was done away  recently.

This rumour is also accompanied by another. Apparently, water supply to DU hostels  will be stopped on the day of the festival, water tanks will instead supply to the main ground  where the glitzy event is scheduled to unfold. Though, as per some claims that arose that only ‘saffron’ colour would be allowed this Holi, the University has strongly denied such claims and has pledged for a ‘secular holi’ with all colours being used for the festivity!

To avoid Holi hooliganism, the organisers have decided to have different playing spots for girls and boys . A member of the organising team told us, “We are concerned about the safety and security of girls, hence we have taken this decision. With stars like Yo Yo performing, people will go berserk. So it is best to take such measures beforehand to avoid any mishaps.” Not so colourful a party after all, eh?

Entry to the celebration will be through valid college ID-cards and it has been made mandatory to wear white ethnic clothes to be able to enjoy the event.

P.S: This entire report was drafted when the reporter had had 5 bhaang ladoos and 2 bhaang thandaais, and is hence a ‘high’-ly credible report!  Happy Diwali !

Disclaimer: Bazinga is our weekly column of almost believable fake news. It is only to be appreciated, not believed.

Featured Image Credits: thegreatadventurer.com

Riya Chhibber

[email protected]

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Innovation Projects

Students of PGDAV College study Jan Dhan Yojana in their innovation project

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Innovation projects, an undergraduate research initiative by Delhi University witnesses a plethora of project entries from different colleges each year. One of the many Innovation Projects for the session of 2015-2016 approved by the University of Delhi is an assessment of Pradhan Mantri Jhan Dhan Yojana and the need for financial inclusion. The project titled ‘Jan Dhan Yojana and Financial Inclusion’, the aim of the project is to study how financial inclusion broadens the resource base of the financial system by encouraging a culture of savings among large segment of rural population. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 August 2014. This is a National Mission on Financial Inclusion encompassing an integrated approach to bring about comprehensive financial inclusion of all the households in the country.

According to Chandrasekhar, a student involved with the project, “We are collecting both primary and secondary data. We are doing a literature review as well as conducting surveys to know on the ground reality regarding the effectiveness of PMJDY. We have prepared questionnaires for both the beneficiaries of the PMJDY Scheme and the bankers who implement the scheme in order to understand the information asymmetry that has arisen in the implementation of the Scheme.”

The project has a pan Indian character as it covers the five states of Delhi NCR, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. The project aims to study the present scenario of financial inclusion of rural and urban households and assess the major factors affecting the implementation of PMJDY and its implications. It seeks to provide incentives to business and banking correspondents who serve as a link for the last mile between savings account holders as the bank by fixing a minimum monthly reward of Rs. 5000. Some special features include interest on deposit, provision of overdraft facility, no minimum balance required, life insurance cover of 30,000 for customers till 26 January 2016, beneficiaries of Government Schemes will get Direct Benefit Transfer in these accounts and access to pension, Rupay Debit Card and insurance products.

According to Zohaib, a student involved with the project, “It has emerged that many beneficiaries of the Scheme are not aware about the provisions of the PMJDY Scheme. There is a glaring information gap which acts a major obstacle to the effective implantation of the Scheme. A large majority of the customers are illiterate and thus, confused about the various provisions of the Scheme and the terms and conditions attached to the provisions of the Scheme.”

The project is being carried out under the leadership of Principal investigator, Dr. Manoj Kumar Sinha and Co-investigators including- Dr. Giridhar Gopal Sharma, Dr. Abhay Prasad Singh, Dr. Rajni Jagota, Mr. Chhetan Chhoidub. Some of the students involved in the project are SVD Chandrasekhar, Aakash Trivedi, Mohammad Zohaib Belal, Kapil Lamba, Tavishi Gupta, Sneh Yadav, Manit Aggarwal, Pooja Aghi, Srishti Puri and Yash Gupta.

Submitted by Innovation Project team from PGDAV College 

Send us details of your Innovation Project at [email protected]

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Child Rights and You with DU Beat

Ready to take over the world: Young girls from CRY dream big against all odds

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It is that week of the year when we specially remember and think of all the phenomenal women around the world – women who break stereotypes, who are unafraid to question and are not broken by defeat. Child Rights and You (CRY), an organization that works for the rights of children in India brings to us the stories of 4 resilient young girls who have not only dreamt out louder than most children their age but are also working very hard towards making their dreams come true. The volunteers of CRY have been working to help nurture the precious dreams of these resilient, young girls. They have their feet on the ground yet have their eyes on the stars. These young girls are leaders and role models in their communities. Excerpts from some stories: 

Anu – The Athlete

“What do you want to be when you grow up?,” Anu, a young girl from CRY’s Public Action Group at Dwarka was asked. “I want to be in the police force, she says. And I want to be able to run like PT Usha someday. Or even faster!,”  she exclaims.

Anu practices running everyday after school. No, she doesn’t have fancy tracks to run on. And no, she doesn’t have someone to coach her either. Anu  practices at a small park right outside her basti from 4-6pm everyday.

Anu

Purnima – The Drama Queen

Purnima is a drama queen, quite literally. She loves watching movies and practicing her dialogues. “My mother often tells me it is stupid and unrealistic to dream to be an actor when you come from a basti like ours. But I don’t think she gets it. I can show you. I can act like Katrina if you want me to.”, she says, as she then, very animatedly acts out a scene from the movie Fitoor.

Purnima

Tannu – The Singer

Tannu was not good at English and would get punished often by the teacher for not being able to complete her assignment on time. This had taken a toll on her confidence. Once a CRY volunteer not only spoke to the teacher about the best practice to help Tannu improve in her assignments but also started working very closely with her to understand her subject of interest.

Today, 3 years later, Tannu dreams of being a rockstar. She has recently expressed an interest in starting her own Youtube channel.

Tannu

Nindi – The karate kid

Nindi Kumari was all of 16 when going to school got difficult for her because of serious harassment situations. The martial arts classes however costed her more than she had imagined.  As a consequence, she went to school in the day and took up stitching in the afternoon to fund her martial arts class. 4 years on, she now is a gold medalist at a district and state level and has made not only her family proud but is also a proud Martial Arts trainer for about 50 girls in her locality.

These young girls are unapologetic and are turning their vulnerabilities into their inspiration. They are unafraid of defeat and are setting an example for other girls in their community. As we celebrate women and their strength this week, we at DU Beat along with CRY would like to celebrate their resilience and courage.

Nindi

Information and picture source: CRY Database and Media Advocacy Team

Riya Chhibber

[email protected]

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DU Annual Fest Season

KNC and LSR stole the show at A cappella ; Sufi Night enthralled the audience at Day 2 of Nexus

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With musical spirit on a high, Day 2 of Nexus’16 flagged off with music in the air with the Indian vocals group competition – Alaap on 4th March 2016. The competition saw participation from 13 teams belonging to various DU colleges among which Geetanjali, Indian music society of Miranda House out shined others by bagging the 1st position followed by Daulat Ram College bagging the 2nd position.

Follwed by the Indian Vocals was the Street Dance competition, held in the Audi Lobby, which saw many power packed performances. The crowd went wild with applause as the performers pulled seemingly impossible flips and stunts. The judge Mr. Arjun, from PSD – a street dance project, finally declared Zest from Dayal Singh College as the winners followed by CVS streets team in the 2nd position.

DSC_0422 DSC_0380

 

However, the range of events lined up at Day 2 didn’t end with this. Day 2 was full of myriad solo events which also included Western Dance (Solo) Competition. More than 25 participants registered who had about five minutes to present their performances. The event was judged by Mr. Shivank Chauhan and Mr. Sanjay Batra, both professors at the college. Manpreet of School of Open Learning as declared the winner while Sanjeevani of Zakir Husain College and Surbhi of Deshbandhu College were declared as the Runner’s Up.

Following the Western Dance (Solo) event was the Western Music (Choir) Competition which saw nine teams participating from all over Delhi University. The event was judged by Mr. Aftab Bose, a graduate from Swarna Bhoomi School of Music. The event was in the Acappella format where teams were given a maximum of 12 minutes to bring forward their presentations. Zephyr, the Western Music Society of Kamala Nehru College bagged the first position followed by the Western Music Society of Lady Shri Ram College for Women at the second position.

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Zephyr-The Western Music Society of KNC emerged as the winners of the Western vocals group competition at Nexus’16.

Rejoicing their win, Raya Dhar, Piya Podder and Kriti Mamgain of Zephyr said, “We were treated as underdogs for quite some time. But we kept working hard and it has finally paid off. The underdogs are now getting recognised!”

On the solo event front, Indian Vocal Solo competition, organised by Alaap, witnessed performances by 8 participants, each accompanied by an instrumentalist. The first position, being a tie was won by Bineet Singh (GTBIT) and Saptak Chatterjee(Hansraj College). Likewise, the second position was shared by Swaradhana (DRC) and Saayon (DTU). Among the variety of events, the film making event saw Alex Arthur from SRM University bag the first position while Effulgence from Venky grabbed the second spot. You can catch up the winning entry here.

A ‘Duo dance based on theme’ event was held with a total of 7 teams participating from various colleges of Delhi University.  Aishwarya and Raghav of Sri Venkateswara college bagged the first position followed by Umesh and Ankita of Satyawati college with the second position. The winning team performed a fusion between Kathak and Bharatnatyam and the event was judged by Mrs. Kodhai Nayarayan,  a Bharatnatyam exponent.

Day 2 of Nexus drew to a close with a soulful Sufi rendition, with the much awaited performance by the Nizami Khusro Brothers, who energised the audience with popular renditions like Allah Hu, Kun Faya, Kajrare and many more. Sufi night was followed by Razzmataz, the Western dance event, which saw Miranda’s Tanz winning the first spot while Maitreyi’s Zeal was adjudged as the runner up team.

Reporters:

Tarushi Varma

Arushi Pathak

Shefali

Lovleen Kaur

Image Credits: Vegh Daswani, Gerush, Vibhana Kanwar, Uzma Rehman 

Feature image Credits: Gerush for DU Beat 

Riya Chhibber

[email protected] 

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DU Annual Fest Season

SRCC and Shivaji College’s nukkads steal the show at Nexus; HRC wins Battle of Bands on Day 1

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After much hustle and bustle, Nexus-The Annual cultural fest of Sri Venkateswara College kicked off on 3rd March 2016. Commenced by a ceremonial inauguration, many events unfolded simultaneously on Day 1.

The highlight of the day was the event called- ‘Madari’, organised by Anubhuti, the street play society of Venky. A competitive event, unrelated to the main Nexus events, it grabbed the attention of the audience with powerful themes. With 12 participating teams, the theme of the event was ‘Out of the box’. From religion to mental illness, various ideas were explored by the teams with The Dramatics Society of SRCC emerging as the winner, while Vyam and Ibtida of Shivaji and Hindu College stood second and third respectively.  

On the dance front, Mudra, the classical solo dance event organised by Nrityangana society saw some breathtaking performances by 8 participants from different DU colleges. Tejasvini Sharma of  Hansraj college was adjudged the winner while Raghav from Venky won accolades and the second spot in the competition.

 

While classical beats entertained people, Riyaaz, the Semi Classical Solo vocals event, was adjudicated by Mr. Avinash Kumar, a famous Hindustani vocalist, Dr. Priyanka, Professor of Political Science Department, Sri Venkateswara College and Dr. Yadav, Professor from the Hindi Department. Dhruv Pargai from Indian Institute of Information Technology grabbed the winning spot while Madhulika Panday from Faculty of Music, Delhi stood second and Rambhajan Bedi from Zakir Hussain College stood third. 

Moving from the classical to the western front, Western Vocals Trio, organised by Crescendo, the Western Music society, enthralled the fest comers with foot tapping beats. Judged by Dr. Deepti Sharma, Department of Chemistry and Mr. Prabhtoj Singh, 5 teams participated out of which Gargi College stole both the limelight and the first position, with KMC and CBS ending for a tie for the second spot. 

Among the myriad number of events, some engaging informal events like ‘On the spot photography, Treasure hunt, Beat Boxing and English Debate also took place.

Day 1 at Nexus came to a closure with the Battle of the Bands and Choreography competition. While The Hans Raj Projekt grabbed the first position, Night Shades from DCAC were adjudged as the runners up for Battle of Bands.

After much ado, Srijya, the Choreography society of Hindu college and Terpichorean, from Hansraj bagged the first and second position respectively in the Choreography event, which was judged by the director of Dance Buzz, Mr.Amit, eventually drawing curtains to the Day 1 at Nexus.

Image credits: Mridul Kumar, Sahil Chauhan and Gerush for DU Beat

Feature image credits: Sahil Chauhan 

Reporting team:

Shagun Marwah, Arindam, Tarushi Varma and Lovleen Kaur 

Riya Chhibber

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Child Rights and You with DU Beat

Run For Child Rights: CRY’s Child Rights Leaders organise a marathon across North Campus

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Child Rights and You, also known as CRY, an NGO that works for the underprivileged children and protection of child rights in India, organised a marathon-‘Run for Child Rights’, on 26 February 2016, at Delhi University North Campus to bring about an awareness about child labour in India. The marathon was organized by CRY’s Child Rights Leaders across 8 colleges in Delhi University.

With a turnout of about a 100 students, the marathon began from the Vishwavidyalaya metro station and covered most colleges in the campus including Miranda House, Ramjas, Hindu, St.Stephens, SRCC, Hansraj, Kirori Mal, SGTB Khalsa and Daulat Ram College. 

With morning zest, student volunteers at the marathon raised slogans like- “Education is our birth right, child labour we must fight, Hamane aab hain ye thana, bal bazdoori ko jad se mitana, Abhi humey karni hai padhai, mat karvaao humse kamaai”. 

The marathon was organized keeping in mind the rising number of Child Labourers in the campus and how we, as young adults, have got so immune to seeing these children engage in labour, that seldom do we stop and think twice about helping them get out of their situation. 

While we sit in the comfort of our warm blankets and enjoy the luxuries of our life, the child labour statistics of the country are staggering. As per the National Census 2011, India has 10.1 million child labourers in the age group of 5 to 14. 168 million children are estimated to be engaged in Child Labour around the world (ILO, 2012) that means every 17th working child in the world is in India.

Child labour, somehow, has become a social norm that we accept and tolerate in our society. This exploitative and abusive practice will continue unless society adopts a zero tolerance attitude towards it. Children continue to be exploited and abused because the State and people do not address children’s issues comprehensively and effectively.

However, only ‘rescuing’ children, often will not help. What is required is addressing the reasons that force children to work. Children work mainly to help their families because the adults do not have appropriate employment and adequate income. Children also work because there is a demand for cheap labour in the market. When children are forced to work long hours their ability to get adequate nourishment and to attend school is limited, preventing them from gaining education. Therefore, the need of the hour is to rise and give voice to these children who slog the innocence of their childhood in labour and give them the bright future they rightfully deserve. 

Image credits: CRY team 

Riya Chhibber 

[email protected] 

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St. Stephen's

Dastaan 2016: A Treat for Theater Aficionados at St. Stephen’s College

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Sabha, the multilingual dramatics society at St. Stephen’s College, organised its annual four-day theater festival, Dastaan, from the 19th to the 23rd of February. The riot of energy and colour kick-started on the 19th with a performance of ‘Dastaan-e-Bhookh,’ an absurdist play performed by the acclaimed theater group, Third Space Collective. The play is an adaptation of Sam Shepard’s ‘Curse of the Starving Class’ which takes us into the hearts and minds of a squabbling family. The performance was followed by an interactive session with the director, Dhwani Vij, and the cast and crew of the play, who gave us valuable insights into the thought process that went into the making of the play and its minute details.

The second day of Dastaan 2016 saw 12 street play teams from across Delhi battle it out ian a street play competition, ‘Anhad.’ The infectious enthusiasm that the teams exuded kept the audience glued to the circle that forms around the performers in a street play. Addressing several pertinent social issues like medical negligence, freedom of expression and homophobia, the street play teams from various colleges kept the lawns at St.Stephen’s pulsating with energy.

Hansraj Dramatics Society at Dastaan| Image by Vegh Daswani
Hansraj Dramatics Society | Image by Vegh Daswani

The competition was judged by Mr. Nishant Aggarwal from Asmita theater group, and Mr. Anish Singh, both experienced theater personalities, who shared their valuable feedback with the teams. The team from Kalindi College walked away with the first position, with Hindu College coming second and Motilal Nehru College taking third place.

Images by Vegh Daswani for DU Beat 

Dastaan culminated with ‘Bhaasha,’ a multilingual one-act stage play competition that saw participation from 10 colleges across Delhi, over the two days of the competition. From those that delved into the philosophical aspects of human life and its complexities, to some that were sheer entertainment, the plays were an interesting amalgamation of characters, plots and sets.

Images by Snigdha for DU Beat 

Ramjas College secured the prize for the best play for their production ‘Deluxe Hair Cutting Salon,’ with Shivaji College taking second place. Kirorimal College and SGTB Khalsa received special mentions.

Dastaan 2016 concluded with a resounding success, having provided a 4-day feast for theatre aficionados, while simultaneously encouraging theatre at the college level.

Images by Snigdha for DU Beat 

Feature Image Credits: Vegh Daswani by DU Beat!

Abhinaya Harigovind

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Kamala Nehru College

Concoction’16: KNC enthralls in the spirit of theatre

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Without a villain in the story, there is never a hero! Elevating the importance of an antagonist in every story,  Lakshya, the theatre society of Kamala Nehru College saw the seventh edition of its annual theatre festival- Concoction, unfold on the theme- ‘Main hoon Khalnayak’ from 17-19th February 2016.

With exuberant performances and energised crowd, Concoction was a non-competitive, three day theatre extravaganza which aimed at promotion of the spirit of theatre and performance above competition and contention.

stage play 5

The day 1 of the festival saw Aaghaz- The street play event, that involved the performance of complex and mostly political issue oriented productions at the college’s chaupal. From street acts based on Kashmir, Israel-Palestine, and religion to productions on mental illness, the event was a success at grabbing student attention. The production by SRCC, based on mental illness called-‘The defective ward’, stood out for the audience the most. The day ended with a dynamic jamming session by the Djembefola United group and also a mesmerizing performance by Mukul & Shenjit, who brought everyone up on their toes.

stage play 4

Mokshika, the President of Lakshya, the theatre society of Kamala Nehru College, speaking to us, shared that, “ We had a non-competitive Concoction this year. Apart from administrative and logistical hassles, for me, the spirit of theatre and performing arts is most important and Concoction was an attempt to promote the same. I hope the teams had as much fun as we did while organising the event.”

Followed by street, Day 2 and 3 saw Archlights- The stage play event, that was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience. Colleges like Dyal Singh, SRCC, Sri Venkateswara, Ramanujan and Hindu shook the stage with their excellent execution, lighting techniques and prop usage. While Hindu’s production called-‘Characters Revolt’ talked about characters of three boys entrapped within the confines of a writer’s story and how they wish to rewrite it, Sri Venkateswara’s play titled-‘Veronica’s Room’ completely took the audience by surprise with its element of unpredictable suspense. Post some mind blowing stage acts, Day 3 witnessed Pratiyug, a sufi pop-rock band that galvanised the gathering with their electrifying renditions.

stage play2

Alongside the main event, Concoction ’16 had two informal events planned for the day, Treasure Hunt and Quiz that gave the crowd an opportunity to win some prizes for themselves.

On asking people their experience of the festival, we received some great positive responses.“Art cannot be described, one can only experience it by watching, especially incase of theatre. All the performances at the event were such that no words can be appropriate enough to describe the beauty of theatre”, remarked Aakriti Sharma, a student of KNC.

Dilgrace Kaur, a dedicated Lakshya member shared with us her experience of organising the event. “Each day is a new experience. Learning, unlearning, enjoying and working. The 3 most awaited days of the year for any Lakshya member are the days of Concoction where we bring together all the talent in the town”, she remarked.

Stage play1

As the event drew to a closure, the teams took with them special hampers, love, appreciation and the sound of the resounding claps which had no end!

Image credits: Vedvanti Kasture 

Riya Chhibber

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Enactus

Enactus DTU’s Project Chhaap brings out custom designed T-shirts and sweatshirts

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The Enactus chapter of Delhi Technological University, with it project Chhaap, aims at helping college societies get customised clothes easily. The project has empowered a group of slum women who have been successfully printing and delivering custom-designed bulk orders of T-shirts and sweatshirts to various institutions like IIT Delhi, IIT Roorkee, Miranda House, Pearl Academy, Jesus and Mary College and more since the past 4 years.

Project Chhaap has made and continues to make a large impact in these women’s lives as they have become self-sufficient and largely independent. All the profit earned from their orders belongs to the slum women.

Enactus DTU Project Chhaap (1)

Under this project, some slum women of the Pitampura community have been trained in the process of screen-printing on T-shirts, sweatshirts, paper bags or cloth bags by providing them the apparatus and the chemicals required. The printing is done in the slum itself. While the women are working, the women’s families take care of their kids.

Enactus DTU team believes in empowerment of weaker sections of the society through business acumen. The team plans to continue on the positivity and momentum and achieve even greater milestones in the future through dedication and creativity.

We suggest you make Project Chhaap your go-to team when you require good quality and quickly delivered bulk orders of custom-designed T-shirts and sweatshirts along with the satisfaction of contributing to the women’s lives!

Riya Chhibber

[email protected]

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Events

First TEDx session at Hansraj a great success

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Keeping up with the spirit of spreading ideas by means of enigmatic speakers, TEDx Hansraj College tasted success with its first ever TEDx session on 16th January, 2016. Hosted by Education Tree founder Kunal Arora and the event curator, Puneet Singh Bhela, many notable speakers put in their best foot forward to engage the audience with their talk. Many inspiring figures including the likes of Richard Rekhy (CEO of KPMG India), Anuranjita Kumar (Chief Human Resources Officer of Citi Bank South Asia) among others shared their experiences with the young minds. 

While Sumant Sinha, the CEO of ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd., explained to the audience why he thinks renewable energy has the enormous potential to give our energy production the push it desperately needs, Richard Rekhy, CEO of KPMG India, enlightened the audience by urging everyone to follow their passion and staying true to it. As he narrated an incident of his meeting with a physically disabled achiever and how she made him realise if a person is determined on his mission, he certainly struck the emotional chord of the audience. 

Chief Human Resources Officer of CitiBank South Asia, Anuranjita Kumar, shared her life’s important details and her journey from being a medical student to choosing Psychology for graduation and moving on to becoming the most powerful HR professional in India in 2012. Her stint with fighting a major disease only to come back to the two things she loved the most: her family and her work, just added to her extravagant amount of experience that inspired many. Other notable speakers at the event included Louisa Tomlinson, Deeba Rajpal, Gaurav Gupta and magician Raj Kumar. 

Some participants of the HansRaj music society including- Rahul Jain, Suvir Chandana and Kartik Balan performed an interesting composition that they had concocted. 

While, at the end of the session, Poonam Bagai, founder of CanKids KidsCan explained the struggles people with cancer go through and the hardships they face, Navin Piplani shared the importance of perspective on the other hand. 

All in all, the stories of the speakers inspired some people on one hand and also left an indelible imprint on the minds of others.

Image courtesy: https://www.filepicker.io/api/file/uI1vlnGZTVidDNevzEVB

Riya Chhibber

[email protected]

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