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DU Responds to DUTA protests, Urges Teachers to Cooperate

By DU Beat December 13, 2019

Senior Academicians and Deans of some faculties of the University of Delhi held a meeting on December 8th, 2019, following which, a Press Release was put up on the University Website.

Responding to the ongoing boycott of duties as well as protests being held by the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA), the University of Delhi (DU) administration has released a statement on their official website.

The statement reads that in the meeting of Senior Academicians and Deans of some faculties of the University, the members were of the ‘view that the ongoing agitation by the DUTA is adversely affecting the students and damaging the reputation of the University.’

Thousands of teachers of Delhi University, who have been on an indefinite strike since last week, held a rally at North Campus on Tuesday, December 10th, 2019 demanding the absorption of ad-hoc teachers.

“The inhuman and exploitative conditions under which ad-hoc teachers have been forced to work for years, including the denial of minimum employee rights like maternity leave and others, can only be mitigated through absorption,” the DUTA said in a statement.

Although the teachers movement has resulted in some of their demands being met, and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) was quick to accede to the union’s immediate demands to withdraw a controversial circular calling for the appointment of guest teachers, the demand for one-time appointment and others such as counting of total years of service for promotions were not addressed, the union said, calling for the initiation of further dialogue by authorities.

Further, the letter issued by the University administration urges the DUTA and its members to ‘comply with the Code of Professional Ethics of Teachers under the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations on Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges 2018.”

Lastly, the Senior Academicians and Deans, unanimously and unequivocally, once again ‘urged the DUTA to call off its agitation immediately and work towards achieving academic excellence.”

Image Credits: News18

Bhavya Pandey

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Identifying the Red Flags of the Examination Season

By Amrashree Mishra December 11, 2019

With the examination season around, it becomes important to study well and prioritise one’s actions and acitivities. Here is a piece on how one can identify and circle down things that take away most of the time in unproductive sessions without making one realise it.

1. Netflix and Chill (?)
Just one episode more! This has led to getting caught in an endless cycle of shows and series. Utilise your time wisely this exam season and just hold on to the urge to watch the series a little later. It is an altogether different joy to experience when one watches shows without the pending loom of having to study for exams!

2. Partners
In the garb of productivity we end up wasting a lot of time by talking to our significant others over social media, in the garb of the ‘one WhatsApp message’ or over the video call with the context of studying together but that is a far call from reality. At the end of the day, one needs some ‘me’ time to for a productive study session. So it’s just a matter of little time. Keep that urge to message or call away just for a little while!

3. Parties
It’s time to reverse the motto of ‘Study Hard, Party Harder’. During the exam season at times, one may find the urge to attend parties after long and tiring sessions of studying. At times it may even feel justified but in the heart of hearts, the realisation does upon that this is not an ideal practice to fall into during the exams. This leads to an endless cycle of partying late, coming home even later and ending up causing a disruptive timetable during this crucial time.

4. The ‘tapri-time’
It seems almost logical and justifiable to go out with our friends and chill over at the Tapri. With the cold winters, a warm cup of tea doesn’t seem a bad option either. However, that tapri trip can turn into a trap and lead to endless hours of unproductivity. It’s important to utilise time wisely and prioritise things during the exam session. The trip can wait, your exams cannot!

Thus, this exam season, let us imbibe ‘delayed gratification’ as the tool to ace the exam season!
Feature Image Credits: Noihrit Gogoi for DU Beat
Image Credits: Noihrit Gogoi and Vaibhav Tekchandani for DU Beat

Amrashree Mishra
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Vaibhav Tekchandani
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The Delayed Construction of South Campus Roads

By Amrashree Mishra December 11, 2019

Four years and five deadlines later, the underpass connecting Benito Juarez Road with San Martin Road in front of Sri Venkateswara College is only half complete. The project, which is a part of the Rao Tula Ram Marg Redevelopment Project recently missed its 6th deadline of completion in June 2019 causing much trouble to roads of South Campus.

When one visits Sri Venkateswara College or Satya Niketan, a sight to behold is the unfinished construction site which is surrounded by gutter streams all around. That is the three-lane underpass, being constructed by the Public Works Department (PWD), which has been delayed for more than 5 deadlines. It has been said to be delayed due to lack of utilities, shift slot issues and the complex nature of project.

A senior PWD official on condition of anonymity said, “It will take another eight to nine months to complete. The delay is due to shifting railway’s power cables, telephone lines and other utilities. The work related to shifting of utilities on BJ Road and SM Road has been completed, while the utilities at Ring Road are yet to be shifted.”

The construction has been a menace for long, it acts as an incubator for health hazards as well as take away from the beauty of the place.

The dual access one-way underpass construction begins near Springdales School on Benito Juarez Road and is said to pass under the South Campus Metro Station on the Ring Road. One arm of the underpass is said to go to San Martin Road while another will open on Ring Road towards Moti Bagh.

Being near one of the most prominent metro station for DU south campus students, The Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus metro station, the sore construction site is something which all people are witnesses to.

The delay in the construction has left the entire place stinking and has even hampered the travel on the roads. Due to the construction in process, the roads have been long broken and aren’t even close to getting repaired. It causes a huge traffic problem, as already the streets of Satya Niketan are very narrow with the construction they have been reduced much more on its main entrance which doesn’t allow cars to enter.

Each season there’s a new trouble. In the rainy season, there is collection stagnant water which leads to the breeding and provides a mating ground for many flies, mosquitoes and insects causing diseases. In winds of winters, the dust accumulated there causes dust winds that harms the health of the students.

Tarsh Verma, student of Sri Venkateswara college said, “Its so hazardous to be around this construction because of the broken roads, the enormous amount of mosquitoes and huge water puddles. It has also divided the road from the center making it very inconvenient.”

What’s worse is that this construction will be extended to the Ring Road which is one of the busiest roads in Delhi. The delayed construction will lead to deferred traffic and will be highly inconvenient. Other than traffic, hygiene and convenience issue the construction is also harmful financially.

The underpass was estimated to cost INR 102 crores. Constant delays have escalated the expenditure and have added an extra amount of INR 42 crores to the project.

S. Velmurugan, senior principal scientist, traffic engineering and safety division, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said, “Most of the important projects such as construction of flyover parallel to RTR flyover on the Outer Ring Road and phase-3 of Barapullah elevated corridor are running years behind their deadlines. Such important projects should be completed on time and the responsibilities of the authorities should be fixed.”

The proximity of the construction with the colleges and the metro station should motivate the authorities to complete it as soon as possible.

Feature Image Credits: Aakarsh Gupta for DU Beat

Chhavi Bahmba

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The curious case of the 39 storey building

By DU Beat December 7, 2019

The construction of a 39 floor High Rise building near Vishvavidyala Metro Station has raised important questions about ownership of this land. While the Private Builders braces up to construct a multi-story high rise complex, they want us to believe that the land belongs to Defense Ministry.

Student bodies, teachers association, environmentalists all of them came together to fight against the construction of 39 storey high rise building near Vishvavidyalaya metro station since early November this year. Their plight? How come an area dedicated to a university be used for corporate functionaries. The road that starts from the Vishvavidalaya Metro Station leads to the School of Open Learning, University Stadium which houses Cluster Innovation Centre and the Delhi School of Journalism, the VC house and Gandhi Bhavan. Imagine, amidst this path a giant corporate building standing which has nothing to do with academics let alone the University. This can be a reality if Young Builders Private Limited is allowed to execute its project at the site.

Going back to the disputed land’s history, it was in 2001 when the Ministry of Defense leashed the land to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for the construction of Vishvavidyala Metro Station. After using a part of it for metro construction, DMRC subleased the rest to a private company called Young Builders Pvt. Ltd for 218 Crore Rupees. DMRC selling it at more than 5 times the rate it bought (it bought the land from Defense Ministry at 42.4 Crore) is worth noticing, that too when public money is involved.

Since early November, protests started erupting in the north campus demanding the authorities to intervene and stop the construction. Campaigns like ‘Solidarity Through Food’ and ‘Indefinite Protest Strike’ were launched to garner eyeballs. A few days later, you see “Ye Zameen Raksha Mantralaya Ki hai” written on the boundary that walls the land. But, as mentioned earlier, the land was sold to DMRC way back in 2001 and sub leashed to a private company Young Builder Pvt. Ltd, a few years later. So why are the landowners trying to deceive the students by surrendering the blame to Defense Ministry? There’s no denial of the fact that the government might have an active role in this deceit too.

Young Builder Pvt. Ltd is, after all, a non-government company established in 1981 under the Registrar of Companies Act. The company was founded by Vinod Puranmal Bansal who also owns a few other companies.

The construction of this building will compromise with the safety of women living around, torment the environmental stability of the ridge area and create difficulties for people with disabilities who pass through the locality on a daily basis. It’s not that the University has not tried to stop the construction. In 2012, Delhi University moved the High Court against the construction but Court ruled against the varsity saying that the land doesn’t come under North Campus’ jurisdiction. In 2018, DU again filed a case in the National Green Tribunal and the Delhi High Court, but both of them rejected the appeal. In February this year, University appealed to the Supreme Court challenging the previous rulings.

Whereat one end talks of closing the north campus is doing rounds, erecting an odd building out of nowhere which is not even closely related to the varsity or academics will simply dilute the idea of Delhi University. Moreover, the amount of environmental harm it will create can not be undermined,

Feature Image Credits: Jaishree Kumar for DU Beat

Priyanshu

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Chronological Account of the DUTA Ad-Hoc Crisis

By DU Beat December 6, 2019

The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) organised a massive protest on December 4 and December 5 in light of the ad-hoc crisis. The protest was in the form of ‘VC Gherao’ where more than 8000 teachers stormed into the VC (Vice Chancellor) Office. After the protest’s intensity, the circular issued on August 28, 2019 has been amended.

The Delhi University Teachers’ Association showed great distress against the circular issued on 28th August 2019 which led to dismissal of 4500 ad-hoc teachers from their teaching service in the University. On 3rd December, 2019, The DUTA office bearers held a meeting at 6 p.m. wherein they decided that due to lack of communication from Professor Yogesh Tyagi, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi (DU), they will give the administration extra 10 hours to resolve the on-going crisis and inform the DUTA about the same. Failure to do so, the DUTA will go on an indefinite strike, boycotting all invigilation, evaluation and any other official duties from 4th December onwards.

The DUTA collaborated with the staff association of various colleges to completely boycott the exam duties as families of 4500 teachers were at stake. However, DUTA requested the teachers not to stop students from taking exams. The administration along with Vice Chancellor remained silent on the entire issue and provided no relief to the teachers which led to the massive protest on 4th December.

On 4th December 2019, the DUTA began with its ‘indefinite strike’ outside the Vice Chancellor’s Office in the North Campus of the University at 11 a.m. Over 8000 teachers participated in the massive protest in the form of VC Gherao on DUTA’s call in response to ongoing crisis.

Image Caption:Teachers gathered in large number outside the VC Office on the first day of the protest

Image Credits: Anoushka Sharma for DU Beat

Teachers raised slogans such as “Inquilab Zindabaad” and “DU VC shame shame” throughout the day. Teachers also reached out to the masses through the social media to raise awareness about the issue and apprise the students of the cause beyond the exam boycott.

The teachers went through and occupied the Council Hall where Academic Council and Executive Council meetings are held.

“Thank you, VC, for not caring about 4500 Families”, “VC communicate” and “Lodge was stormed in 1984 and 2019” were written all over the walls of the Council Hall to show the dissent of the teachers.

Teachers scribble their dissent on the walls of the VC Office

Several student organisations such as the All India Students’ Union (AISA), Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) and Student Federation of India (SFI) extended their solidarity to the teachers and even joined the protest. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) led Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) also organised protests and condemned the actions of the Vice Chancellor.

At 6:45 P.M. , Many hours after the occupation of the lodge, the VC showed no sign of communication. The police tried to stop the food arrangements made by DUTA for the raging protesters. At 9 P.M., DUTA kept its coordination meeting and decided to keep the strike on with the use of candles and torches.

On December 5, the strike continued outside the VC Lodge with all the teachers protesting relentlessly. Due to the earlier day’s protest, the Administration called the police forces for security. As per sources, the police performed a lathi march on the teachers to stop them from entering the building. Allegedly many of the teachers along with students got injured in the ruckus.

Image Caption: The second day of the protest saw immense barricading and police force deployment as the teachers continued with their demands

Image Credits:Yadu Ushanandani

A meeting was held at 4 p.m. and a circular was released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in light of the ad-hoc crisis.

The circular released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India

At 7 P.M. on the same day, DUTA was promised by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) that no teacher would lose their job because of the August 28 letter. Due to the meeting of DUTA executives with the MHRD, a circular was released that proposed immediate changes in criteria and appointment of the academic staff and promised to launch new additional teaching positions under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in no less than 30 days.

However, while DUTA celebrated a kind of victory, the DUTA Executive decided to keep a meeting on 6th December 2019 and kept the protest on with their continued demand for the absorption for all teachers.

On 6th December 2019, the extended DUTA Executive Meeting was held at 2 p.m. to review the next course of action. After the meeting ended, Seema Das, Member of the Academic Council quoted, “Friends, we think that we have not gained any substantive achievement on any issue, not even the issue of withdrawal of 28th August letter. Rather, it has now become more confusing and makes it subject to interpretation by the head of institution. Besides, nothing concrete is gained on promotion and other issues. Status quo is maintained. At least some concrete step towards Absorption was what we were looking for out of this unprecedented movement. In such situation, I am doing my best to carry on with this fight along with a few dedicated activists and ad-hoc colleagues. Need support from you all.”

Meanwhile, the strike at the VC Office and the exam duty boycott continues with the request for the absorption for all teachers.

Feature Image Credits: Yadu Ushanandani

Chhavi Bahmba

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Stress Busters for the Exam Season

By Amrashree Mishra November 26, 2019

With end semester exams right around the corner, here are few cheap and doable stress busters you can count without burning a hole in your pocket or being too elite or pretentious.

When exams knock at the door, it is common to go paranoid. Exam stress is an actual accepted psychological distress. It can lead to severe anxiety, that turn into physical symptoms like nausea, stomach ache, headache and even dizziness. In this time of chaos, one looks for easy stress relievers that don’t put a dent in your college finances. Often, stress busters are highly elitist, they involve dinners at expensive restaurants and retail therapy that one can’t cope up with.

Here are few stress busters you must do in times of distress:

Talking is Therapeutic

Of all exam stress busters, the best is, of course, talking and communicating stress. If you just cannot get rid of the constant exam tension, how about talking about it with your favourite person? It can be your friend, cousin, sister, teacher, classmate, parent or anybody else. Saying your problems out loud will even help you articulate.

Music and Dance on the Loop

“Mujhe naachne or gaane ka bahut shaunk hai.” (Dancing and singing are my favourite hobbies.) . Read the phrase in typical Anjali’s voice from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Indeed, music transports you and the energetic dance can rejuvenate you from the many all-nighters you will pull this semester. Plus, music is a great way to not feel alone while studying. Pro-tip: The Local Train can literally save all of us.

Sound Sleep

This is probably the most important one. With exam season upon you, it’s important to keep in mind to sleep well. Most of the students often spend all of their time worrying about the exams, and tend to sacrifice their nights for the same. Always remember, a well-rested mind can do wonders. Use white noise or a constructive podcast to listen to while sleeping, that will help with your concentration and productivity.

Slow and Deep Breaths

Before reacting to the next stressful occurrence, take three deep breaths and release them slowly. If you have a few minutes, try out a relaxation technique such as closing your eyes and meditating or just shouting loudly. These are some tricks to calm oneself down.

Talking Loud and Slow

Whenever you feel overwhelmed by stress, practice speaking more slowly than usual. You’ll find that you think more clearly and react more reasonably to stressful situations. Stressed people tend to speak fast and breathlessly; by slowing down your speech you’ll also appear less anxious and more in control of any situation.

An Effective Time Management Strategy

Choose one simple thing you have been putting off (e.g. buying the book for a particular subject), and do it immediately. Just taking care of one nagging responsibility or subject can be energizing and can improve your attitude.

Drinking plenty of water, eating small, nutritious snacks

Hunger and dehydration, even before you’re aware of them, can provoke aggressiveness and exacerbate feelings of anxiety and stress that exams give you. Thus, keep yourself energised and fit by having fppd at regular intervals.

A quick Posture Check

Hold your head and shoulders upright and avoid stooping or slumping. Bad posture can lead to muscle tension, pain and increased stress. It’s most like that you’ll be stuck at your desk most of the day, revising or studying the vast syllabus. In those times, make sure your workstation reflects good ergonomic design principles meaning it’s good enough for your height, doesn’t require you to stress your arm to rest and is comfortable.

Setting Realistic Targets

It is advisable to make realistic revision targets per day instead of trying to squeeze in a lot in one day. If you make unrealistic targets and are unable to achieve them, stress will definitely shoot through the roof and lower your learning power.

Taking out time to unwind

Take out at least half an hour to watch your favourite TV programme or surf the Internet for fun or listen to your favourite music or just laze around. Getting bogged down with too much stress can ruin your positive energies so take that short break and don’t feel guilty about it.

Hopefully these 10 stress busters will equip you enough to handle exam stress like a pro. If you still feel stressed, seek help with people around you. All the best for your exams.

Feature Image Credits: Scopio

Chhavi Bahmba

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The Dearth of Home-Cooked Meals

By Amrashree Mishra November 24, 2019

Being an out-station student isn’t easy, especially when it comes to compromising on food. Let us look at the role the college canteen plays in a student’s life.

Good food is probably on the top in the wish-list of all university students. However, most of the students don’t have access to the heart warming home-cooked meals. After a long and exhausting day of sleeping during lectures and wrangling in society meetings, we all long for comforting meals. But, where does one find them?

After discussing about this issue with lots of students at a personal level, I found out that most students resort to the college canteen for their meals. A very small proportion actually carried lunchboxes. Even the hostellers and PG-dwellers prefer the canteen over their promised, paid meals.

“Being a PG student, the lunch that I get is usually iced coffee or bread butter everyday. Although I don’t prefer eating food from canteen daily but I have to rely on it. If I were a Delhi student, I would never consider food from canteen. Also being a PG student, I am broke more than half of the time so it’s real struggle deciding what to do about lunch. So although I don’t love canteen food, but it has become my lunch everyday,” says Avni Dhawan, student of Kamla Nehru College.

Deewanshi Vats, a resident of the Under Graduate Hostel For Girls (UGHG) says, “Though we have a 4 meal package in a day, the quality of food is pathetic. You literally have to search for dal in dal which is just nothing but water! We don’t get nutrient rich food like sprouts and dry lentils at all; also no curd! Salad (only cucumber) provided is usually stale. Quality of rice and other vegetables is really low.”

With the poor quality of meals provided, most students have no choice left but to fall back on the canteen food. This affects them both financially and health-wise. Spending good proportions of monthly pocket-money on unhealthy, and often not very tasty food is not the ideal preference of any student. This is where students cherish home-cooked meals packed in lunch boxes the most.

“One thing you miss more than home is homemade food! It’s quite understandable that you cannot get the same ‘ghar ke khana ka taste’ when you move to a different city; and for a while will enjoy eating fancy food and junk, but there is this saturation point where you will miss basic daal and roti and then no other food will be able to satisfy your tummy!” commented an out-station student of Daulat Ram College.

It truly becomes a sorry state of affairs for the outstation students when it comes to the matters of food. But there is one ray of hope for all the outstation students. With the end of the semester around the corner, one can comfort themselves with the loving thought of returning back to home after the exams are over and enjoy the warmth of those homely meals to their hearts’ fullest content. It almost seems like the delayed gratification, worth all the while.

Feature Image Credits: The Outlook

Aditi Gutgutia
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The Unspoken College Essentials: Delhi Metro and Buses

By Amrashree Mishra November 13, 2019

This piece aims at comparing and contrasting between two of the most popular transportation mediums amongst the students of the University of Delhi (DU) in light of the National Transportation Day.

The daily pilgrimage to college is clearly left incomplete if one does not mention about transportation, be it the long metro rides or the jam packed buses! Here is a comparison and evaluation of Delhi Metro and Delhi Buses on various factors ranging right from comfort to money.

1. Comfort:

The metro offers a comfortable journey as one is away from the sudden breaks and jerks. But the seats are something which everyone has a mutual hatred for! Hard and uncomfortable, with people trying to squeeze into the tiniest of cracks and effectively invading your privacy is something everyone is troubled during the metro rides.

The buses on the other hand have a much more deadlier relationship when it comes to seats and people. The local buses which you board on places near the campus are surely very crowded. But the ones that connect bigger areas offer respite with only one person per seat.

2. Time efficiency:

The metro is steady, stable and unvarying in this attribute. It takes the same amount of time, every time, more or less. Constancy is a much desired trait, no doubt, in humans as well as in one’s means of transport. The bus on the other hand is at the mercy of the city’s infamous traffic jams. Bus travel can stretch excruciatingly long at times but that is if you are truly unfortunate. For reliability, metro is always the wisest option.

3. Expenditure:

The bus wins this one hands down! Personal observation! Where it costs me about 200 rupees for 5 days of travel in the metro, and that too if I stick strictly to my route from home to college and college to home, the bus offers unlimited travel for Rs. 165 a month to wherever I may want to venture (student perks, y’all! ). So much more money for food

4. People:

Travelling alone in the metro can be quite tiresome when you are forced to eavesdrop on conversations you otherwise will have no interest in. Although for some it’s the opposite, some who find spicy snippets of gossip amusing.

The bus on the other hand has not yet put me through such an ordeal. Till now I have found the people in the bus to keep their love affairs to themselves. Although there is no guarantee of this remaining unvaried in the future since the people everywhere are still the same puerile Delhiites. (Of which I’m one and proud to be so!)

5. Congestion:

This is completely susceptible to the time of your travel. Both the metro and the bus fare more or less the same in this category. Both are filled to the brim in office hours with no breathing space. People are known to die (almost) in both. Both subject people to the same kind of harrowing treatment on trying to board or de-board the metro/bus. People are inconsiderate of others in both and no matter how crowded, they often tend to let other people have a whiff of the gases brewing inside them

6. Accessibility:

Bus stops are everywhere. Metro stations are on their way but even then, in a city like Delhi, they cannot achieve the ubiquity of the bus stops. Constructing metro stations is a lot more work and requires a lot more space. Buses are far more convenient on this front.

7. View:

Metro gives an aerial view and can be quite awe-inspiring the first few times. One is left gaping at the neat roads and tiny cars crawling along, their rash movements imperceptible at the height I was at. But one gets used to all things in life, especially the good ones. No one stares out the window in the metro any longer, they are all busy staring at their phone screens, texting, playing games or have earphones plugged on. Soon I started feeling nostalgic for the road. The metro gives an isolated feeling at times, as if you are disconnected from the outside world. On the road you get a closer view of the workings of the city, you feel closer to its heart brimming with blood and activity!

Feature Image Credits: Hitesh Kalra for DU Beat

Chhavi Bahmba

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The Luxury of Riding a Cycle Rickshaw

By Amrashree Mishra November 13, 2019

With a lot of us using public transport to commute daily for college and to other places we go to, we sometimes take these for granted and fail to see the little bundle of happiness that the public system of transport is.

“Metro se Kaun-Kaun jayega?” (Who all will take the metro back home?) is a question that is very common in the college campuses of the University of Delhi. Whether you might be a student from the Delhi NCR region or somebody who lives away from college intentionally to save some money, we all have used the Delhi Metro a lot. And certainly, the Delhi Metro has had a lot of importance in the daily lives of Delhiites, but it’s not like all the colleges are at a walking distance from their closest metro station. Thankfully we have a lot of public transport facilities available to make that small commute easier, in the forms of E-Rickshaws or Auto Rickshaws. But there exists another form of transportation that maybe has gone oblivious with the fast moving world, that is the quintessential ‘Cycle Rickshaw’.

Cycle rickshaws are the type of three wheeler public transport which is structured a lot like any other type of rickshaw, except it is pulled by cycle like mechanism and is powered by a human! Look at it this way, a human, in the 21st century, willingly pulling a cycle rickshaw for you and doing so much hard work just to earn some money. It almost sad but remains a living reality of a large part of India.

It is truly ironical that such a cheap luxury is available to us and still we rarely ever use it. Since the cycle rickshaws are a dying industry, it is mostly run by fairly old men and it is heartbreaking to see an old person doing the hard work for you. When asked, they simply smile and reply something along the lines of “Beta abb toh aadat si ho gayi hai” (Oh child. Now,I am used to it). And truly, these rickshaw pullers would be one of the fittest people you would ever meet.

Cycle rickshaws were initially a very big part of our childhood as well, from fighting with our cousins to sit at the back of the small seat to sometimes even asking the rickshaw puller if we could pull it; even seeing a cycle rickshaw can sometimes bring back the most beautiful memories and one can simply forget all the worries of life with a ride. But they need not be restricted to just reliving old memories, they can also be used to create new ones. Cycle rickshaws are perfect to ride with dates; they are silent, eco-friendly and some of them can only carry two adults at a time; the perfect kind of privacy you need! Not just that, they are versatile because one can enjoy cool breeze without its overhead roof and can also protect oneself from the sun with its adjustable roof, sort of like a sports car; which makes it a luxury in another aspect!

Cycle rickshaws have a beauty of their own in terms of aesthetics and one can enjoy life at its slow pace while enjoying this modern day luxury. One can also learn a lot from a simple conversation with any rickshaw puller because they have a lot of experience and a simple act of kindness brings upon such a big smile on their face, it certainly lights up one’s day.

Feature Image Credits: Deewanshi Vats for DU Beat

Akshat Arora

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Constructing a Smile

By Amrashree Mishra November 13, 2019

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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