Director Imtiaz Ali and actress Alia Bhatt visited Miranda House College on 19th February for the promotion of their upcoming film ‘Highway’ which is slated for release on 21st February.
The programme started with the official trailer of the movie, popular songs like Pataka Guddi and Maahi Ve and a behind the scenes video of the movie being played. After that, Pratibha Jolly, the college principal officially welcomed them on stage where both of the stars talked about the movie and their experience while shooting the film. “I totally believe in girl power,” said Alia Bhatt while addressing the all girls’ crowd, “and Highway is true dedication to girl power.”
Open only to students of Miranda House, the event was followed by an interactive session with the students. The students asked Imtiaz about his life as a student of Delhi University, his journey as a filmmaker and his inspiration behind his films. Alia was asked about her debut film, her character in Highway and how much she relates to the character she plays in the film. She also sang a few lines of Ishq Wala Love from Student of the Year on popular demand by the crowd.
After the interactive session, Imtiaz and Alia gave away free music CDs of Highway to the students who asked the best questions. As a memoir, the college principle presented hand-dyed scarves to the guests.
With the end of the interactive session, a small competition among the cultural societies of the college was held, which was judged by Imiiaz and Alia. Anukriti, the Hindi dramatic society of the college won the first prize and was really appreciated for their expressive performance. The second prize was won by Ariels, the English dramatic society.
“The experience was extremely exciting and equally tiring for the film club. From controlling the crowd that went berserk, to running around trying to get small details like Alia’s green tea right, all of it was worth it for we had an amazing time doing it” said Namita Aggarwal, the Film Club president of the college. “The event went successfully and that gives me immense satisfaction” she added.
Gargi College conducted its Annual Cultural Fest – Reverie 2014 on 5th, 6th and 7th February. Under the tagline – ‘Dreams to Reality’, the three day fest was a culmination of various events ranging from dance, music and art. To top all, there was a last minute change in the Star Night and a delay in the Sufi Night due to rain. Here is a recap of all that happened at Reverie 2014.
The Inauguration
The day kicked off with the inauguration in the Auditorium. With Rajasthani elements of Kalbailiya and Ghoomar, the inauguration did manage to gather the hoots from Gargi students in the packed auditorium.
Choreo Night
Ten teams contested to win the top spots at ‘Cursive-iti’ – the choreo night at Reverie. With no pre-lims, the event was the closing act of day one. The judging panel comprised of Mr. Firoz Haider and Mr. Himanshu Sharma.
The home team from Gargi College was also the winning team, with their performance themed on ‘Astitva, the search within’. Kamala Nehru College’s Adagio performed ‘Trip- Is it worth it?’ and earned the second spot. The third prize came in the kitty of Hansraj College’s Terpsi Chorean for the performance ‘The oomph!’.
An excited Kanika Joshi from winning team, has the following to say, “To achieve something we have never achieved before, we had to do something completely different. We believed in ourselves and let the dance win! Cursive-iti has always enjoyed the most amazing reception and the best teams from across DU. And we won! But I also really liked Hansraj’s performance.”
Hosted by the students union of Gargi College, the second day of the three-day college fest, Reverie had to culminate with the performance of Coke Studio artists – Adi and Suhail. Just when the spirits were soaring, it started to rain at the venue. Though nominal, it ended soon only to start again after sometime. The fluctuating feelings could be seen among the crowd, just when Gargi College’s music society decided to sing some fillers inside the tent where rain was not a problem.
Their performance was accorded with a huge cheer and also gave a ray of hope to the Coke Studio-wallaswho then decided to do the same and perform under the tent. In Adil’s own words, “This is the coolest gig we have performed in our life”. As soon as the crowd heard this, they went beserk and repeatedly applauded for the professional singers and instrumentalists. The duo performed several sufi melodies, including the famous ‘malhar’ and ’ranjha’.
Star Night with Neeraj Shridhar
Nothing could have been more befitting than the musical adieu, that the final day got with the presence and performance of famous singer, lyricist and music director Neeraj Sridhar. Neeraj who is known for his peppy numbers in Bollywood for almost a decade now, successfully got the audience’s eye and appreciation irrespective of him being roped in at the moment due to Arijit Singh’s ill health.
The celebrity began the concert around 7: 30 p.m. when the ground roared several people cheering and shouting for the star of the night. Starting with the famous peppy numbers like ‘Hey Baby’ , ‘Chor Bazari’ and ‘Prem ki naiyya’ he went on to the recent most awaited chartbusters like ‘tum hi ho bandhu’. Not only did he interact, but also shared interesting stuff about the making of songs and behind the screen happenings which audience enjoyed as well.
Best Play: The Private Ear (Ramjas College) Best Direction and second Best Play: Black Comedy (SRCC) Best actor: Shared by Kabir Ahmad (SRCC) and Dhruv Sirohi (Ramjas). Special Mention (Acting): Gagan Arora, Shaheed Bhagat Singh (evening)
First Position: Rahul and Kshitij from Sadhna Sangeet College (SSC) Second Position: Kshitij, Saptak and Prateek from Hans Raj College Third Position: Miranda House and Jesus & Mary College
First Position:Gargi College Second Position: Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa College (SGTB Khalsa) Third Position: Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce (SGGSCC)
Cursive-ity: Choreo
First Position: Gargi College Second Position: Kamala Nehru College Third Position: Hansraj College
First Position: SGTB Khalsa College’s We, The People Second Position: Guru Gobind Singh College’s Chidiya ki Kahaani Third Position: Kirori Mal College’s Company Raj
Overacting
First Position: Nishant, Sulabh and Sanchit from Maharaja Agrasen College Second Position: Akshat, Satyam, Rahul from PDGAV Third Position:Devesh, Akshay, Rahul from Maharaja Agrasen College
Poster Making Competition
First Position: Kunal Singh from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College Second Position: Sandeep Gupta from Ramjas College Third Position: Anjali Bokaria from Gargi College
Conventional Debate
First Position: Sidhant Shekhar and Aiman Anjum from Deshbandu College Second Position: Sushmita Singh and Meghna Acharjee from Gargi College Best Interjector: Bhawna from Lady Hardinge Medical College.
First Position: Ritu Singh from Gargi College Second Position: Pratibha Pathak from Satyawati College Third Position: Suruchi from St. Stephen’s College
Rangoli Competition
Winner of the Second Position at the Rangoli Competition
First Position:Chahat and Swati of Keshav Mahavidyalaya Second Position: Ekta, Neha, Nisha and Sonia of Janaki Devi Memorial College
Western Music (Choir)
First Position: Lady Shri Ram College for Women
Second Position: Jesus and Mary College
Third Position: Kamala Nehru College
Western Music (Solo)
First Position:Hanita Bhambri, SSCBS Second Position:Shubham Mahajan, SSCBS Third Position:Tie between Lalmuanpuii, SRCC and Yamini Joshi, KNC
Maharaja Agrasen College organized its 2nd National Student Academic Congress on 6th and 7th February, 2014. While the theme of last year’s congress held in March was “Educational Reforms – The Way Forward”, the discussion this time was focussed on “Power of Ethics”.
The two-day conference was inaugurated by Prof. Sudhish Pachauri, Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Delhi in the presence of Dr Sunil Sondhi, Principal, Maharaja Agrasen College who said that such conferences serve as a great opportunity for the students to not just compete with one another but also to increase their knowledge by listening to the views and suggestions of others. Prof. Pachauri in his address spoke at length about the recent reforms at the University of Delhi. He reiterated the need for holistic development of students which skilfully integrates mind, body and heart.
Not just students pursuing graduation and post-graduation, even research scholars and school-going students submitted paper presentations on topics like Life Management & Gita, Morality in Education, Globalization & Relevance of Gandhi, Role of Media in Raising Women-Centric Issues and Impact of Kashmir Conflict on Women and Children. 65 research papers were presented by students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Delhi, Mumbai University and Jamia Milia Islamia.
Principals of Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women, Atma Ram Sanatana Dharma College and Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies judged the congress which was spread over 4 sessions. The two- day event came to end with the distribution of certificates to the winners during the Valedictory Session which was chaired by Prof. MM Chaturvedi, Director, Cluster Innovation Centre,University of Delhi.
Hosted by the students union of Gargi College, the second day of the three-day college fest, Reverie had to culminate with the performance of Coke Studio artists – Adi and Suhail. Crowds had flocked in numbers and the stage was all set for the much awaited performance. Just when the spirits were soaring, Zeus decided to put a cap on all those. Yes, it started to rain at the venue. Though nominal, it ended soon only to start again after sometime. The fluctuating feelings could be seen among the crowd, just when Gargi College’s music society decided to sing some fillers inside the tent where rain was not a problem.
Their performance was accorded with a huge cheer and also gave a ray of hope to the Coke Studio-wallas who then decided to do the same and perform under the tent. In Adil’s own words, “This is the coolest gig we have performed in our life”. As soon as the crowd heard this, they went beserk and repeatedly applauded for the professional singers and instrumentalists. The duo performed several sufi melodies, including the famous ‘malhar’ and ‘ranjha’.
The Cluster Innovation Centre (CIC) at Delhi University had recently launched a new course in Media and Communication. The closing ceremony will be held tomorrow, on the 5th of February in the presence of the Registrar of Delhi University, Ms Alka Sharma.
25 students from CIC had been selected for this course. The course was a 10-class, or a 30-hour credited programme that was instructed by Brij Bakshi, the former Additional Director General at Doordarshan, joined by Gouran Dhawan Lal as senior faculty and Mike Pandey, a green Oscar winning wildlife film maker, L V Krishnan, CEO, TAM Media Research and Ashok Raina.
The aim of the course was to improve presentation and communication skills of the students while giving them knowledge about various aspects of media in an interactive manner. A wide range of topics including environment and wildlife programming, understanding TRPs, art of video editing were covered.
Sahil Mathur, a B. Tech student who participated in the programme said, “This course allowed me to understand various facets of media, from film making to editing, from technology to understanding how to present an idea to an audience. The course has made me much more aware in the field of media and communication.”
The Supreme Court of India, which is considered the ‘final guardian and interpreter’ of the Indian Constitution sent shock waves across the world as it overturned the judgement of the Delhi High Court(2009) which declared Section 377 unconstitutional. The SC verdict infringes the ‘right to life and personal liberty’ that the Constitution of India promises to each and every citizen irrespective of their place of birth, caste, creed, religion, race or sex.
The SC’s move has moved all spheres of society, Delhi University being no exception. Enactus Ramjas, in collaboration with NGO ‘NAZ Foundation’ plans to start an online petition to restore the rights of personal liberty to the LGBT community. They also wish to forward the demand for withdrawal of the judgement criminalising sexual intercourse between same sex people.
In order to muster maximum support from the youth of DU, a Facebook page in name of ‘E-queer-LIBRIUM’ has been launched that works towards sensitisation towards the gay community. The group provides a platform to reflect the voice of discriminated and reach out to the concerned authorities. Not only is Enactus Ramjas supporting the LGBT community in their legal battle for equality and justice, but also the members have started an innovative plan called – ‘TransCreations’ where the transgenders are given an opportunity to work in the jewellery designing project of Enactus Ramjas. The jewellery designed is then sold online, in college fests and in select jewellery shops as well. “The workers are thus guaranteed an alternate respectable income, which is a small step towards making them socially acceptable, independent and strong.” said Robin Kumar, President, Enactus Ramjas.
Thus, while the fate of this minority group hangs on a loose thread, it is important for us to observe solidarity and create an atmosphere conducive to each and every member of the society.
In a performance that lasted a whole of 10 mins, Akshay Labroo and Nikhil Saha of Ramjas College delivered speeches that made them the winners of a one-week sponsored tour in the UK, which includes visits to historical sites, academic institutions, cultural events along with peer group interactions. The Great Debate, organised by the Delhi University in collaboration with The British High Commission was witness to participation of 46 teams of the 54 that registered.
In an interactive session on 8th January,2014 at the the British High Commission, Paul Rennie, Head of Political and Bilateral Affairs released the motions for the debate to the participants while , the coordinators of the debate Ms. Suchitra Gupta and Ms. Sumitra Mohanty explained the rules and regulations . Present at the event was Ms. Priti Patel, Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom who encouraged the participants to visit the country.
The debate was divided into two rounds with the first being held on the morning of 9th Jan, 2014 and the final at 3 pm at the Viceregal Lodge, University of Delhi. The five teams that made it to the finals were Dayal Singh Collge, Janki Devi College, Miranda House, Ramjas College and Sri Venkateshwara College. The teams debated on the motion, “This house believes that it is the best time to be young” and were judged by a panel of eminent judges including Ms. Ktty Tawakley, Deputy Head Press and Communications and Mr.Stephen King,General Manager Virgin Atlantic which had partnered with The British High Commission to sponsor this debate.
The Vice Chancellor Mr. Dinesh Singh and Sir James Bevan, UK High Commissioner joined the participants a little later in the session. In his speech ,Sir James Bevan listed the top ten reasons on why an Indian student must choose UK as the place to continue their studies over its other competitors. As for the amount that goes into sponsoring a UK education he said, “Studying in the UK is not cheap. But in life you get what you pay for,quality costs money and the cost of a UK education is possibly the best single investment you can make in your own future”. In his speech the Vice Chancellor regaled the the history of debating in India with the example of Mahatma Gandhi and stressed on the importance of form and matter in a debate.
While everybody enjoyed the debate and the opportunity it presented,the participants were made to wait a long time before the declaration of the results of the preliminary round. At the feedback session, the coordinators were suggested to have an award or recognition for not just teams but also speakers individually, which they promised to include in the next season of this debate.The organisation of the programme under Pradyumna Bora was well performed and managed to resolve issues of late participants and disqualification of a team timely.
Results are possibly the most unnerving concept in a student’s life. As the fresh batch of Delhi University students awaited their results, many believed that like the first batch of the semester system saw an exponential hike in marks in their first university exam, this new batch would undergo a similar fate. Another effort by the University to show us all how right they were to introduce the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), and how all the dharnas, strikes, protest marches against the FYUP were completely baseless. And as luck would have it, they were not proven wrong. Scores touched the sky, and many of those who didn’t even write the papers got 50% marks.
As someone who believes very firmly that marks are no measure of a person’s caliber, intellect and heart, my problems with the generous marking is that our administration needs to justify its bad decisions. Proven eloquently by many, and multiple times, it is not something that can be solved by being stingy and ruthless, but possibly by some introspection that University officials, teachers, students and even the HRD ministry could all benefit from.
Simply put, it’s not so much about the marks as it is about the intentions. Intentions to make an entire batch of the student community silent, content with the half baked knowledge they’re gaining about subjects that don’t interest them and are poorly structured; intentions to silence all teachers who have been courageously speaking out against the ruin of the University, sometimes even risking their jobs; intentions to give the fore bearers of the FYUP a pat on the back for having achieved what the University has never achieved before – sky high marks, leading to polished CVs, which in turn, lead to the biggest argument made for the FYUP – ‘employability’.
Assuming this employability will actually exist, what would it be worth if it means employing someone whose result sheet speaks far more than the concepts they learnt? Or if it comes at the cost of being made to study a subject you have absolutely no interest in? Would this employability be worth an unhappy four years, made tolerable by marks one probably doesn’t deserve, making those who deserve these scores feel mediocre? Isn’t the price we’re paying for this (assumed) employability far too high?
Having learnt so much from Delhi University, I’m writing this in the hope that the FYUP doesn’t take this learning away from those who’ve just made the transition from school to college – a transition that isn’t easy, to say the least. And to top that, when all your dreams of studying and learning what you really want to, studying it well, having the time to soak the concepts into your mind, body and heart (which would be far more ‘integrated’ without the FYUP!) are shattered, only to console you with marks that you didn’t expect, the University becomes a mere sham. I hope these scores don’t silence us, and I hope we continue to stand up for learning, education and character.
The shift to the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) in Delhi University also led to the incorporation of the much hyped and criticised Foundation Courses. The University also sanctioned some books and extra classes in adherence to the same. The courses sublimed into the regular college hours easily and students accepted them as a part of their curriculum. But now, with the culmination of the 1st semester exams, many eyebrows are being raised on the mere basis of these courses.
The emerging concern here is with respect to the questions that propped up during the examinations. As we approached the students to gather their sentiments on the same, one could easily figure out the angst in them. “I came to college to receive education of higher quality and learn things my school life prepared me for 13 years, not to do things as juvenile as writing a paragraph on national harmony”, said Saptarshi Lahiri, pursuing political science from SGTB Khalsa College. The questions which came in the exams merely connoted themselves to the respective courses.
For example, a student had to write an essay on the ‘Importance of festivals in integrating different religions of India’, in the exam of FC-Hindi, something which he/she could have written on the basis of mere general knowledge. Not only Hindi, but various other FCs had similar questions.
“Anyone could have answered them (questions) without even attending a single class”, said Roopali Handa, a student from SRCC, while referring to a question, ‘To write an article on social networking sites’ which came in the exam of Information Technology. Similar reactions were seen from those who came out after giving the exam for FC – Maths. ‘The material provided in the book and questions asked in the exam were irrelative. For example, Q5 required a person to make a bar graph or pie chart for which there are few methods, which were though not mentioned in book’, said Kalee Kapoor of Matreyi college.
One can easily figure out the increasing rage pertaining to FCs among the students. With DUTA demanding a rollback and the rising sentiments of students who are unhappy with the inclusion of FCs, along with 44 colleges against the FYUP, the Foundation Courses as well as the FYUP seem to be in deep trouble.
Be it student initiatives, changed academic systems, social work, protests, international trips, inviting celebrities or launching awareness campaigns, Delhi University has witnessed them all. Quite recently, i.e. on 7th August ,2013, ‘Pink Chain’, a month-long campaign to create awareness about breast cancer among the students of Delhi University, was launched in the national capital. The programme which is disseminating information about breast cancer will end on the 4th of September.
Being an initiative of Punarjeevan Bihar, an NGO, along with eminent doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in association with the Department of Bio-Technology (DBT) Science Centre, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur (SGTB) Khalsa College, it has some serious messages to give to the students regarding breast cancer. It is meant to create awareness regarding the feeling of caring for oneself, for the protection of women’s feminism and self worth, and maintenance of their healthy or disease-free journey of life. The students from Miranda House, Daulat Ram and Khalsa College were present at the launch.
Screening of the documentary-drama- ‘Pink Chain’, power-point presentations and experiences of people who have seen the disease closely will act as tools to create awareness about breast cancer. Interactive sessions will be held and presentations will be made by the AIIMS doctors. Several colleges will be grouped together to give information about breast cancer. It can be regarded as a campaign dedicated solely to the nation’s women.
While the past week saw sessions in colleges such as Hindu, SRCC and SGTB Khalsa, several other colleges would witness similar sessions in the coming weeks. Here is the schedule of the same:
[tabgroup][tab title=”Forth-coming events”]
16th August: Hans Raj College/Ramjas College
19th August: Sri Venkateswara/Motilal Nehru/RLA College
21st August: Gargi/Kamala Nehru/LSR
23rd August: Lady Irwin College
26th August: Satyawati College
3rd September: ARSD College
4th September: Jesus and Mary College [/tab][/tabgroup]
