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DU Societies: Online or Offline 

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As a semblance of normalcy begins to return to functioning around us, Delhi University performance-based societies choose to go offline with their workings – a decision that risks alienating outstation students who are still hesitant to return to campus. Read on to find more. 

Delhi University sees a diverse crowd in all terms. The play of privilege has come to the forefront in the era of the digital divide. We witnessed students committing suicide, leaving education, and going to all ends to just afford a phone or laptop for studies. In this phase, where do the cultural societies of Delhi University stand?

In the online scenario, all the performing societies were forced to operate in the online space, as a result of which we saw many online productions, audio plays, and virtual open mics. But the transition phase in DU societies has begun even before the colleges are officially reopened. A few months back a lot of performing societies started functioning offline, some with or without permission from the college authorities.

These mainly comprise drama societies, music and dance societies which need offline spaces to carry on with their operations smoothly. But since DU is not a university of Delhi students only, the question that ‘Do DU societies belong only to Delhi people?’ seems pretty valid in a scenario where outstation students are being repeatedly sidelined by the indiscriminate move to go offline with functioning.

Just a few days back Mood Indigo, the fest of IIT Bombay, organized the prelims for its street theatre competition, where some of the prominent societies performed with their productions like Ibitida, Hindu College, Hansraj Dram Soc, Kahkasha JMC, Lakshya, Kamla Nehru College, Anubhuti, Sri Venkateswara College, and many others. DU Beat talked to Simran from Hansraj Dram Soc to understand their take on conducting offline practices and workshops in collaboration with other societies.

We first years came into the society to perform and sadly it was not happening. Offline practices were essential for us to learn how DCTC worked as we will soon become seniors and the onus of training others will be on us.”

An outstation member of Kshitij, the street play society of Gargi College which organised an offline workshop in collaboration with Hansraj Dram Soc, on grounds of anonymity, shared their views with DU Beat,

If we talk about outstation students, someone who has never seen their college, for them, online meets are everything, that screen becomes more than just a screen. Offline meets are not fair to them, and they cannot be expected to travel long distances to attend, it is just not fair. They are missing out on experiences and lessons because of the circumstances. In the end, it comes down to whose perspective you choose to see – that of the helpless first year or the third year who will choose the offline mode due to the sheer rigour and space it allows one to work in.” 

The culture of performing societies is surely a source of pride for the University of Delhi but another thing that the nukkad nataks propagate is the call for equality. In such a situation, when being in Delhi means being able to experience the societies, aren’t these societies becoming elite spaces? Various outstation students, who can afford to be in the city for internships or societies have moved here already, so who is actually being left behind? For these answers, we talked to Jai Mahajan from Shunya, Ramjas who shared his society experience.

Being in an online space has affected theatre but we are trying our best to level the playfield. Shunya is trying to come up with a fusion of both online and offline work. Surely people in the offline mode are learning and adapting quickly, but it’s up to seniors how they balance the collaboration.” – Jai, a member of Shunya, Ramjas

In the month of November, Shunya conducted its first series of month-long offline workshops. Students across departments and years from the college attended the workshops, which were conducted by incumbent and erstwhile members of the society on a wide range of topics relating to theatre. But the attendees also included a large number of outstation students who flew down to the city specifically to attend these workshops. Although safety precautions were adequately taken for the same, the decision to conduct these workshops in the offline mode, which many society members too could not attend, still remains under question.

As the auditions of performing societies were conducted in the online mode in the time of the digital divide, it already pushed out students from backward sections of societies. Several talented students could not audition due to unstable internet, and some had to travel elsewhere just for the sake of giving their auditions. And after that exclusion, the dispersion of outstation and Delhi students brings forth the question of representation. Performances talking about the evils of caste and class while propagating on those same foundations are making a farce of the art form.

We can’t lose out on practice just because the colleges are online now. To get on the stage and win awards and experience that feeling of dancing in front of people cheering for you hoping that you win. To learn things online is really difficult, offline practice is of the utmost necessity if you want to bring the best out of your crew. There is no formal permission as such but socs have never totally depended on college to practice even when it was offline.” – A member of a dance society

DU performing societies have been known for their rigorous working, but the entire working process changed owing to the prevailing conditions. Talking about how his society operates, Tushar, a member of The Dramatics Society of Dyal Singh Evening College, Junoon said,

Most of the members of our society are from Delhi, offline meets are recorded, and activities are discussed in the online meets. The same activities are done in the online mode with some tweaks to make them feasible.”

Meanwhile, Jai from Shunya, Ramjas shared how audio plays helped them bridge the gap to some extent.

Some of our members are from Kashmir and places where there is low connectivity; for them, we practiced and explored auditory drama on phone calls.”

Shruti, the President of Lakshya, KNC, shared her society experience of working in the online mode. For better functioning, they divided the team into two where outstation members worked on the stage production, working with characters, while the Delhi students worked on street play.

At least some of the students would learn and know something; this year we are focusing more on learning and teaching.”

There are also various societies that chose not to function in the offline space. Siddhi from LSR Dramsoc shared her take on the issue,

Even though the offline experience was beautiful, we chose not to practice in offline mode since we have people from other cities as well in our society. We need to adapt to the times, and to pass on the culture, we talk about our past experiences and activities, so our juniors know about the working. DCTC as a group needs to think and engage in dialogue to come to a better and more feasible conclusion.”

While sharing her experience of being an outstation student, a member of a drama society said in a conversation with DU Beat,

It doesn’t feel like a team anymore; the production doesn’t feel ours. If offline working brings back the culture of theatre it also breaks the team apart in two. It’s a sort of slow coercion over outstation students to leave since we don’t play any active part. We feel like outsiders instead of outstation students, where we realize being in Delhi is a privilege that we can’t afford.” 

Despite the brouhaha surrounding the debate around offline and online functioning, there are societies that have accepted the online mode and have gone ahead with annua productions; for example, the Shakespeare Society of St. Stephens College performed their annual production for the year Chateau Manor House on Zoom a few weeks back. The reluctance of many societies to adapt to the same mode is, on one hand preserving the physical essence of these performance societies. At the same time, it risks non-functioning and becomes largely emblematic of the larger hegemony present in these societies to refuse to adapt to changing times and tweak and challenge procedural functionings that have been set in stone for years now.

Image Credits: Sabha, the dramatics society of St. Stephens College 

Read Also: The Rise of OTT: Destruction of The Theatre Culture?
Remembering Safdar Hashmi: Inquilab and Theatre

Kashish Shivani ([email protected]) 

Anwesh Banerjee ([email protected]) 

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Arts & Culture

Dear Freshers, This is Your Reality Check on DU Societies         

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With the rosy season of auditions going on, this is an introduction for freshers to the dark side of DU Societies.  

As the audition season approaches, one could have seen the college areas buzzing with auditions. On the online campus, it’s a bit different; the society’s social media pages, which have been abandoned for long, now become the main agenda of society meetings. All of a sudden, reels are being posted, and you see clips of happy members of societies playing along, some on screens while some on the ground, and a Ritviz song playing in the background. The usual words that will be used in these videos are “family”, “creative community” and every adjective you can imagine for a bunch of happy undergrads. But are societies really this happy, or is it just the poster happiness to lure in freshers?

(Obviously, not all societies fall into this category, the main aim is to introduce freshers to the toxic side of DU societies.) A lot of societies are run by seniors who exercise control over all the functioning. At some colleges, administration or the teacher or convenor intervene, but at some, they don’t pay any heed. Some societies have also faced such extreme obstruction of administration that even their performances have been canceled, whereas the bullying by many societies goes unchecked due to no surveillance. (Societies should ideally lie between this tussle of control, where admin maintains minimum control but a required check, but hey, we are in DU!)

A hierarchy is maintained among all the members to maintain ‘discipline’. But this setup often leads to toxicity as seniors in positions of responsibility take undue advantage of their power. The societies that should act as communities housing creative talent become a powerhouse of trashy politics and toxicity, where bullying and ragging houses.

Recently, such a situation came to light during the auditions of Finance Investment Cell of Hansraj College, about which a first-year student said,

During our Finance Investment Cell interviews, the core team members made us dance against our will, I felt uncomfortable but since I wanted to get into the soc, I had to go with the flow. Later on, they were boasting about the fact that they made us do squats, dance, and sing in the interviews during our induction meeting.” 

First Years who are already ridden with anxiety get pushed underneath the wish of being in the cool circles of college and fail to report such behaviors, and the cycle of toxicity continues. Another student from a dance society shared their experience in a conversation with DU Beat.

This certain level of hierarchy restricts our freedom as an artist and as a person. The role of unions should be to represent the members of the society and to guide us, but it feels like someone has given them authority and they just want to show it off.”

Even in the online mode, several students have suffered terrible things at the hands of societies. With the second batch moving into the online campus, we need to configure our thinking accordingly. If the cultural front of the university keeps on reeking privilege and toxicity, the development of the individual would be a far-gone concept here. It’s high time proper redressal forums (talking about Cultural Secretaries) work in every college to respond to all grievances and dismantle these toxic hierarchies.

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Kashish Shivani

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Campus Central

Teacher’s Day Without Teachers

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Thinking about teacher’s day while going through the nostalgia of what the relationship with a teacher meant back in school and what it means now on screen. 

When I think of teachers, my mind doesn’t think of the last class I attended yesterday when I was listening to my mom from one ear and the other one had an earphone plugged in. My mind takes me to one or two years back when my Commerce teacher asked us how would we eat an elephant (not literally). This is how he taught us some most important lessons. You should eat an elephant slowly and steadily, which means you should study your vast syllabus slowly, you can’t swallow it all at once. 

I think of my English Teacher who lent me his books (they were hardcovers) for about six months and never really asked them back but obviously, I returned them. I think of my 12th standard class teacher who was more of my only friend in the class or maybe my Accounts teacher whose determined attitude never stops inspiring me. When I think about it, I don’t feel like I have had a teacher since I left school. 

Maybe more than just teaching, a teacher to me means all other things they do. Like how my Accounts teacher still called up on a random day to ask how I was doing. I never have an answer to the question that followed. How is College? I can rant about online teaching mode for hours but maybe I have done a lot of it already and now silence seems to be a good answer. 

I can think of my seniors telling me how college life used to be, teaching me hacks of not just internships or projects but of life as well. How Swati didi would be present at every open mic (yes online events) where I ever performed and ask for the recording if she ever missed one. How Akshat would always pat my back whenever I wrote something good and provided me with the ‘DU culture’ as much as he could.  

My seniors often tell me how some Professors would join them in protests, how the class would start from a random topic and drift away to revolutionary art or some other topic of political significance. There are a few Professors who are very active on social media. At the hours of utmost missing, I can be found on their profiles, dangling between their highlights. I have saved those posts where they mention even the minutest detail about college so that I don’t feel completely alien when I step on campus. 

I try to know as much as I can, from listening to anecdotes from seniors to watching that 2-hour long seminar whose video lies at the end of a playlist with only 25 views. When the administration made it compulsory for teachers to take classes from the college itself, I heard a Professor from another class took his laptop and walked through the entire college, to show students where they actually belong. 

During the same time, I heard a Professor took his classes from the parking area because there’s a network issue in my college (Yes I am from Gargi). I wish I could see the problems they go through just to be on the screen for 88 students who have never seen them, all they know is just an email Id and a link that arrives daily. 

The number of add-on recharges I have done many times just logging into a class and putting it on mute has pushed me away from having teachers at college. Many of us try but don’t have the ample resources, some have all they need for online classes but that is not what they want. 

So I am a college student, who doesn’t know the names of some of her Professors and haven’t seen a lot of them. Better than hearing a voice that is repeatedly cracked by network errors from both sides, I prefer downloaded lectures from a Youtube channel. I don’t know if I can say I have had teachers or not, but I am sure I haven’t felt what learning actually meant. I don’t blame any side, maybe time and circumstances can bear that pain. 

So maybe Happy Teacher’s day to YouTube, Udemy, PDFs and Google Meet. And also to those people who are my designated teachers right now, I hope we can discuss a variety of things someday in classes, whose window sees the lush lawns and red walls and no link or network error exists in between. 

Read Also: Online Classes: A Blessing in Disguise?

Featured Image Credits: Adobe Stock 

Kashish Shivani

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Campus Central

The Stolen Sixth Semester: Woes of a Final-Year Student

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Read the words of our Editor-in-Chief for one last time, before she graduates, as she complains about her stolen sixth semester.

I remember last year, around this time, I was preparing for the farewell ceremony for my seniors at DU Beat- my phone would blow up with some 250 random messages on WhatsApp, endless calls discussing the venue, theme, gifts, and what not. At that time, I didn’t actually understand what the final semester meant to my seniors because I was too engrossed thinking about how life and work would be without them being around. But I also had the settling feeling that I would know when time comes.

Cut to 2020, the last semester of my college life as an undergraduate student, sitting at home, writing this article, and thinking about where my last semester went. I think of the stuff I would have been doing with my college friends and my team at this wonderful organisation.

However, I have always believed ‘expect the unexpected’ and I think that this is the only thing that is keeping me sane in such uncertain times. As kids, most of us might have experienced an unsettling feeling when somebody would snatch out a lollipop from our mouth. This is exactly what happened to our final semester.

Having said this, I would not talk only about the sad situation we are in. As a graduating student, a host of memories flash in front of me right now- the day I got admitted to the University of Delhi(DU), the day I met my college best friend, and the day I joined this organisation.

The three years of my college life have been the most challenging, yet the best years of my life. From being a student coming out of the protected cocoon of school life to graduating college with confidence and an identity, this is what these three years have made me. As college students, we are stuck with assignments, internals, submissions, deadlines, placements, societies, and endless preoccupations.

The nationwide lockdown gave me enough time to introspect and surprisingly, all that mattered to me during this difficult time were the people. I realised that my college life was not only defined by a degree or my friends, but also the security guard of my college who would wish ‘Good morning bacchon’ every morning, the canteen staff who would talk about their families, and the housekeeping staff of the college who would smile and wish me luck before every exam.

I wish I could get to relive all this one last time because I didn’t know that the chai I had on 6th March in my college canteen was the last cup I would have with my college friends while Ravi bhaiya (college canteen staff) talked about his Holi plans. You know something impacts you a great deal when you are unable to write about it without being cheesy and clichéd. It’s a faux-pas I’m willing to indulge in for the sake of honesty.

As much as I have talked about the final year students, I would also like to talk about the juniors. They are also the ones who hope to give their seniors the most memorable days of their college life. The end semester is also a reminder that they have become older, and are now themselves seniors. It’s a nostalgic time for the third-year students but what we often forget is how overwhelming it is for the juniors as well.

Dear Delhi University, the batch of 2020 will miss their last fest season, internals, college parties, night stays, bunks, submissions, and the last lectures and yes, they will miss you too- a place which gave them friendships, lessons, and lots of memories.

Feature Image Source: Anoushka Sharma for DU Beat

Anoushka Sharma

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An Open Letter: Why I Left My Society

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Societies have been touted as the best way to engage in extra curricular activities while studying in Delhi University (DU). There are times however when they fail to meet the expectations we have and make us ask whether its time to leave.

The first thing that many of us in first year are told after we get into DU is that our lives will revolve around whichever college society/ies that we choose. “ classroom se zyada society mai seekhega tu ( You will learn more in your society than in the classroom.)“ , “tujhe tera crowd society mai milega (You will find like-minded people in your society.)” While these monikers might stand true for the right society for an individual, it is not universally true.

What one should keep first and foremost with all endeavors including societies is the affect that it is has on our mental health. Societies and the extra work load they bring can have a negative impact even if we are surrounded by wonderful people in the society. Paridhi, a first year student from Jesus and Mary College, says “ I was not in a good place mental health wise, and I didn’t think I could commit to the work in a way I would’ve liked to, that resulted in me learning more too. With something like Poetry too, despite the society being full of amazing, empathetic women; it felt like a burden to keep afloat with everything that was going on.”

In the current political scenario, if you are one of those who believe that now is the time to stand up and raise your voice for what India stands for, a college society can be a roadblock in your way and a source of frustration. Lots of societies choose to be ‘apolitical’ o down right apathetic to the situation in the country. With your societies refusing to take stands and/or prioritising practice or work before dissenting, It is a very valid reason to leave your society. Apoliticism, of all things, is ironically one of the things followed in many societies that function around expressing your opinions. All this, amongst major national political crisis.

Another reason one would join a society is for professional growth, and this dilemma between professional growth and fun is the reason why many of us end up in academic societies as well as cultural societies. But managing many societies at a time isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, which at times forces one to leave a society. Theoretically, one should go for professional growth but cultural societies get an upper hand because of the family like feeling that one gets owing to hours and hours of practice, hundreds of cultural fests to compete in and the liberal way in which they function.

But not all societies are a family, a fresher to the society may find it difficult to socialise with their seniors, thus getting the sense of lonesome even after spending most of your day with their society. This feeling of alienation could also be the reason you want to leave your society.

Amidst all these fun and partying that these societies offer, they also come with a pinch of salt in the form of toxicity arising from the “circuits” that each society has in the University. Every weekend there is a new competition, a new tournament, with the same people in the circuit one would see the same people quite often! While many of us would want to be friends with different people within the circuit, there is also this competitiveness owing to everyone’s desire to win the cash prizes that leads to this toxicity. Sadly, this is the ugly truth of societies that make it unbearable for someone who is not much dedicated to the art.

Whatever be your passion, there is a society for that, but at the same time, if you feel like a particular society would not help you to pursue your dreams, it is okay for you to leave it and make a trail of your own, for one can take the road less traveled.

Feature Image Credits: Hitesh Kalra for DU Beat

Akshat Arora

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Prabhanu Kumar Das

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Blurry Lines of Friends with Benefits

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In the age of instant gratification, longterm commitments can sometimes seem burdensome. Presenting to you, an insight into the weird contrast of being ‘friends with benefits’.

Friends with Benefits, in simple terms, is being friends with the added benefit of a sexual relationship, sans the feelings. In theory, it seems like the perfect idea: you are sleeping with someone you trust and like enough, who has mutual respect for you, but there’s never the added baggage of emotions and commitment. However, contrary to the simplicity it promises, it is a relationship that requires utmost care while being dealt with. Friends with Benefits (FwB) is an interesting dynamic, for it falls between romantic attraction and sexual attraction. There are people you could be romantically compatible with, and there are people you could be sexually compatible with; while there are people who you might have the hots for, they don’t need to be the same people you visualize a happily ever after with. In those cases, if you and they are interested in being around each other sexually, having a chilled out (but a well discussed and thought out) friends with benefits relationship can do wonders.

Like all healthy relationships, the key to a healthy FwB relationship is understanding and communication. For a friends with benefits arrangement to work, you have to know each other and understand what feelings the emotional and sexual dynamic evokes in you. It is also important to communicate about what each person expects and where each is, as the relationship evolves. A third-year student, shared, “Given the difference between sexual and romantic attraction, along with the fact that some people are better as friends, I think a friends with benefits arrangement is ideal. Labeling relationships always leads to unnecessary expectations, which friendship is free from. I find that it is quite liberating in that way. The only thing that one should always keep in mind is that it stays consensual and that there is complete clarity on the terms of the agreement”. But, before getting into one, it is very important to check if you’re both on the same page: that you’re neither looking to commit to the person nor do you want them to commit to you. This helps to avoid misread signals and hurt down the line. It is also important to both remember and remind that this relationship would not develop into anything more intimate.

The romanticisation of friends with benefits in popular culture does not help either. While all FwB might begin with communication and understanding of the equation between the two partners, it is also very likely that one of them might develop feelings down the road. Stringing along the other person, and being the one strung along, are both unhealthy mentally and emotionally. And among all of it is the greatest fear of them all: losing your friendship over this new dynamic.

“FwB is all fun and games until one of them catches feelings and if you’re anywhere like me, you are doomed. I have had my fair share of encounters but a sense of companionship and the possibility of something more always loomed largely. To each its own, but I have gone from liking to majorly disliking friends with benefits solely because I have zero control over myself,” said Anandi, a first-year student. While a friends with benefits relationship is not the most convenient dynamic to initiate, apt precautions on both the partners sides with a truck full of communication and understanding can sustain the relationship. Regardless of the relationship dynamics, being sexually involved with someone is a churning pot of emotions: emotions build, as does trust, intimacy, connection, and familiarity. If there is room to work through challenges to maintain the friendship, even at the expense of the benefits, then you are in a successful FwB relationship.

Feature Image Credits:

Satviki Sanjay

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DUB Speak

The Journey of The First Semester of College

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How does college life hold up to the expectations of freshers?

 

I remember how I walked into my college the first day- dressed dandy, eyes glimmering with hope and my tote bag heavy, with things enough to last a zombie attack. The college itself was brimming enthusiasm and anticipation- the kind of anticipation only 18-year-old kids finally going to college can muster.

For some, college life is a new beginning. For others, it’s a chance to finally delve into what they love. Regardless, I wasn’t the only excited 18-year-old there. A romantic by heart, I was expecting my own Pitch Perfect-esque adventures.  Coming to college felt like that Miley Cyrus song, the one where she hops off with a dream and a cardigan.

The first week of college felt great, but I knew it was too good to be true. The rose glasses soon came off. What I expected were breezy days where I could dress up to my heart and come and leave whenever I wanted, finally doing something I truly was interested in. What I soon found out was that technically college was all that, except with an asterisk that said Terms and Conditions apply in the fine print.

While I already had low expectations, the first thing that college changed was my study habits. Education took a backseat on this ride. Travelling for an hour for just one class became a chore and education for me started revolving around attendance, assignment submissions, internals, and externals. Like every other fresher, I got involved in college societies.

The biggest surprise that came was how the hype around societies failed to meet the expectations. The entire buzz around societies, auditions, and inductions mellowed down as soon as it dawned on us that societies, too, weren’t all games. The first week was filled with overenthusiastic students like me eager to be a part of every society possible. Fast forward to two months later, and half of us had already left or were regretting what we joined.

The desire to join a society, though, felt like a part of my bigger desire to fit in. To find a place. To finally figure out what it was that I was meant to do. It was easy to get lost in a space where everyone is just as talented, especially when I was still on my path to self-discovery and enlightenment.

The one thing that college did get right is the diversity and variety. That any given point of time, there was something happening for someone. Interested in student politics? There’s a protest in the Arts Faculty. A film critic? The film society is hosting a screening. Into drama? There’s a street play at the metro station. And this gave me, and every other fresher out there, a chance to try out new things.

College life showed me how it is easy to get caught up in this whirlpool. Easy to get lost in the eye of all this newfound freedom. Easy to forget who I was amidst assignments, projects, new friends, and ‘getting a life’. What they said was that college was about going out of my comfort box, meeting new people and discovering myself. What they didn’t tell me was how college was also five continuous classes a day, piling coursework and sometimes biting off more than I could chew.

But what I’m learning is that college comes with so many firsts. But it also seems like a place that makes things last and I’m just taking my time on my ride!

 

Featured Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

 

Satviki Sanjay

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Constructing a Smile

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Why is it that in this gloomy, fast-paced world we don’t put in a little extra effort to make others smile more often? On World Kindness Day, this year let us try a bit harder to turn a few frowns upside down!

As children we’ve all been told on countless occasions to be kind to those around you. It sounds like such a simple and obvious idea and well, it really is! But somewhere down the road the whole concept seems to have gotten lost in its journey. We tend to forget how easy it is to be kind. Kindness is a gift which everyone can afford. So why is it that we don’t share it more often with people around us?

The single, smallest and the most random act of kindness can make a person smile. Given that we live in such a dismal and cynical society, we all can use a little cheering up. Little acts such as greeting the cab driver a good morning with a happy face can bring joy to a person in ways one never thinks. Who knows your day will turn out beautiful just by saying kind words? It’s almost saddening to see how nobody greets each other anymore.

Our lives these days are very busy. It’s as if we barely have time for ourselves, let alone others. We are so occupied in our own businesses that we ignore the others’. We fail to ensure whether those around us are doing well or not; did they smile today or not? Just a “How are you?” after a “Hey” can make a person feel special and acknowledged.  The words of Dalai Lama ring all the more true now when he said, “When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace,”

Being kind is like giving hope to someone who feels alone. We don’t realise how our words and actions impact those around us. Nobody knows what the other is going through. We casually crack jokes that often can be derogatory but are yet supposed to be “funny”. Thus, always think twice or thrice or maybe even a hundred times before being rude to someone.

It’s the best time to be nice to people around you. Kindness can be expressed in the most mundane actions, for instance, smiling at someone, offering to open the door, letting them know they look nice or maybe just making them laugh.

On asking around I received different views by others as to what they feel is an act of kindness, most people associate kindness as an act which makes them smile. This includes gestures right from sharing music, reminding your friends to ‘stay hydrated’, a random hug, marking your friend’s proxy or just recommending a good book!

What act of kindness did you do today? Did you make someone smile?

 

Feature Image Credits: Navya Jindal for DU Beat

Aditi Gutgutia

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Thighs Attract Boys: The Curious Case of St. Francis College

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Education is meant to liberate the educated. Read on to know what happens when there exists a polarity between the two.

Recently, a video of St. Francis College, Hyderabad, had made rounds on the internet. The video was received with widespread outrage across different social media platforms. The protesting students alleged that a faculty member had shamed a student for wearing a sleeveless dress. “The head of my department gave the example of actors who are paid to wear ‘such clothes’. That statement affected me. I have written down this incident verbatim in my book,” an enraged student said. “Sr. Sandra announced a new dress code change in the middle of the year and her colleagues told our representatives that a long kurta would get us good marriage proposals. They told our representatives that standing up for a cause is blasphemous, raising your voice is blasphemous.

This went against the very grain of our values as millennials of the 21st Century. Things got worse, every day we were all humiliated for wearing a kurta that was just an inch or less above the knee, we were made to stand outside the college, losing out on classes and tests. Things did not stop there, the college went ahead and hired female security guards in the pretext of security, these female guards were checking the length of our kurtas, they went ahead and pulled girls by their ID (identity) cards and even pulled their kurtas,” Zanobia Tumbi, who is a student at St. Francis, posted on her Facebook profile, along with the video. Eventually, the women decided to protest and were finally allowed to wear “long tops” to college. But that does not even begin to end the discourse. The Indian education system, specifically talking about higher education, has a way of putting unnecessary obligations on students.

Be it a certain way of dressing, a mandatory minimum attendance, or a particular way of writing the papers to fetch more marks, they all contribute to cease the liberty of students. What is worrying is that the students of these institutions have internalised this behaviour, and do not really seem to have a problem with it. When I asked a few students studying in a reputed college which followed the same practice, their answers ranged from, “I have never given it a thought,” to “No, I don’t have anything to say about it.” When humans are fed a diet of entirely problematic substances, they stop dissecting the reality to find out the truth.

Something similar seems to be happening with the Indian youth, and this is a cause of concern. Education is supposed to make them distinguish between real and false virtues, but in such cases, it is robbing them of it. When there is an imposition of uncalled-for rules, it tends to hamper with the real issues plaguing the country and the world as communities. India lags behind when it comes to research, innovations, and modifications in education. Instead of sanitising the post-millenials of their ungodly ways, the system should take a long, critical look within its cracks and make amends to the damage. While the whole world is progressing to form a more holistic approach towards education, actions such as these put a big question mark on the system.

There is also a debate about what the parents’ reaction is. According to the management of St. Francis, most of the parents had received this decision of their daughters wearing a kurta in a positive light. In this situation, dissent, and not the narrative of “disobedience” that we have been fed, is necessary. Across colleges, and especially in women’s educational institutions, patriarchy or moral policing should have no space. Such places in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, or across smaller cities, have given the country women that the world is proud of. If we limit them to, and define them by what they wear, these places will stop producing the kind of talent that they have. In an educational institution of the present time, moral policing on women’s bodies and clothing should be the topic of criticism and not a notice issued by the authorities who hold power. When it comes to learning, steps like these comply with the misogyny and sexism women in our country, and from all over the world, have actively been fighting to put in the past.

Feature Image Credits: The Hindu

Maumil Mehraj

[email protected]

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Arts & Culture

The FOMO of Not Living on Campus

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Early morning classes can kill you on the inside, and the weariness from attending five back-to-back lectures is enough for you to consider dropping out. But, the real heartbreak happens when your friends, who live on campus, make plans to go out at 8 p.m., and you can’t join in because travelling back home takes you two hours alone. In this moment, you truly feel the FOMO of not staying on campus.

Fresh out of the cages of you school life, college becomes synonymous to freedom and fun- to hours of hanging out with friends, to shop, and to go out to drink or eat. You feel unstoppable, the life at Delhi University is famously known for its leisure and easy accessibility to a number of trendy and hip hang-out spots.

And then you receive a churlish reality-check when you realise that travelling to college from places away from campus buries your dreams to the ground. By the time your friends make a plan to go out to eat at someplace you’ve all been dying to go to, you’re halfway across the city at Rajiv Chowk, suffocating with everybody else on the Blue-Line, making to your way to back to Noida, or getting off at IFFCO Chowk after hours of weary travel in a cramped metro with busted air conditioning. Even if plans are made when you’re in attendance, you are unable to join them because that going out with everybody at 6 p.m. means getting done by 8, which inevitable means  reaching home by 9. Assuming you don’t have a curfew, you still say no because boarding the metro during office hours is a person’s worst nightmare.

It is then that you realise that you’ll forever be the “responsible friend” when everyone is drinking, not because you do it out of the goodness of your heart, but because you have to. You know you have no other option- there’s no way you can travel in the metro while you’re wasted, and there’s no way your mother won’t call you once the clock strikes 7, if you decide to stay back and recuperate. It is always missing out on society meets, and then feeling like a slacker when you can’t attend impromptu training sessions because boarding the metro after 4 means hell. You will have to miss out on seminars and unpremeditated extra classes by professors who keep last minute extra classes, and don’t take into consideration that not everybody lives 20 minutes away from college. It is coming to terms that you’ll always, always be tired no matter how much you sleep and that you will need an entire Sunday to catch up on your week’s sleep.

You understand after the first week that your happening school-schedule of falling asleep at 2 a.m. will be going down the drain because you will start falling asleep at 10 p.m.- even before your parents-to wake up at 6 a.m. and feel like an old person. And lastly, it’s the feeling of wanting to abandon your ancestral roots of being non-violent and floor a person the moment they say, “just shift to campus na, yaar!”

Feature Image Credit: Ivy Marketing

Shreya Juyal

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