With the DU fest season finally concluded, we bring to you a timeline of all the celebrity appearances that took place throughout the academic year of 2016-17. From movie promotions and musical performances to mesmerising star nights, this fest season has been an absolute feast for any DU student.
Relive it here!
Radhika Boruah
[email protected]
Vineeta Rana
[email protected]
The University of Delhi (DU), which sees students from all across the world enrol into various courses, has decided to extend the deadline for the admission of foreign applicants. Every year, hundreds of aspirants from countries such as Afghanistan, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka apply to DU for courses such as Economics (Hons.), B.Com (Hons.) etc. in the undergraduate programme. This year, the University saw their number rise to a record 3,300. Thus, a conscious measure taken to extend the application deadline was required, in order to ease up the document submission and screening process.
Ashutosh Bhardwaj, a senior official of the admission committee, verified the news to MAIL TODAY. He said that while the deadline for admission to undergraduate courses for non-Indian students has been shifted to 4th May, the deadline for Ph.D. applications has also been extended to 31st May 2017. Earlier, the deadline for online applications for the upcoming academic session was 20th April 2017 for the undergraduate students. The new deadlines, as Bhardwaj confirmed, give students more time to submit their documents for verification. This step does, indeed, create an opportunity for both the students and the University to participate in the admission process and to make it a smooth and hassle-free affair.
Feature Image Credits: CryBytes
Deepannita Misra
[email protected]
A multitude of people bear witness to the magical fest period; for each eye views the enigma on stage in a different light. What do your eyes see during these vibrant days?
Between the starry nights and stimulating events; between the pre-fest anticipation and the post-fest remembrances; between the excitement of a fresher and the nostalgia of a third year lies the magnificence of the fest season. The long affair is the product of months of diligent planning, hours of tiresome execution, and transcendence of the vision into reality. Read on to explore what strings in the back of the mind of the college factions!
The Enthused Fresher’s
Stories, anecdotes, and experiences are often parted to the first years as the extensive bits of pearls of wisdom. The first thing to grace our minds in relation to DU is the grand affair of fests which lasts for weeks. With elevated expectations do the first years get ready to grace their first cycle to witness the glory!
The Nostalgic Soon-to-be-Pass outs
As the graduation phase draws to a close for the topmost layer of students, a wave of beaming nostalgia hits the hearts and souls of the those who shall bid adieu to the varsity which has managed to envelop our lives. With a stream of flashbacks clouding their thoughts and vision to capture anything and everything, this set of the audience is sure to make the best of the bests!
The Over-worked Organisers
From the department fests to college fests, leave it to the Organising Committee to be flustered with an incessant supply of work and a shortage of time to do it. To see all ideas translated into action is a thing of beauty, but the degree of hard work and hectic schedules which go in the behind-the-scenes is exhausting. Running through the event, they are the architects of the wonderful creations!
The Omnipotent Media Team
Once the stage is set, from hunting for information to endeavouring to achieve the perfect click, the media teams (yours truly!) circle the campus with recording devices, ready to spread all reins of our coverage. The goal of this faction lies in the belief of covering and capturing the very essence of the event, to be chronicled for the world to remember!
Image Credits: DU Beat
Image Caption: The varying perspectives of the different sections of people who visit fests!
Saumya Kalia
An entrance exam for B.Com is in the offing from the upcoming academic session, in order to give students a fair chance to prove their mettle.
It has been speculated that Delhi University is likely to conduct an entrance exam for admission into B.Com courses beginning from the admission process in 2017. Currently, Delhi University conducts entrance examinations solely for professional and post graduate courses; admissions to undergraduate programmes take place on the basis of 12th standard board examination results. The most well known course under DU which does have an entrance examination procedure for the undergraduate course is the Bachelors of Management Studies.
Dr. Manoj Khanna, the convener of the Delhi University admissions committee said, “We are planning to conduct entrance exams for admission to B.Com (Honours) and BA (Programme) for the upcoming academic session. We are ready for this in terms of infrastructure and preparedness. But this needs to be accepted by all statutory bodies.” Dr. Khanna also spoke about forming a tie up with the CBSE board in this regard. He also said that the foundation of this procedure will begin with the Commerce courses, but the committee is also exploring the possibility of this move in the case of other subjects. Dr. Khanna stated, “We are exploring all possibilities. We are taking all stakeholders, including college principals, faculty and students, in confidence and consulting them. If we succeed in organising this competition for the commerce stream, one-third of the student population will be catered to.”
The rationale behind implementing an entrance examination is that many deserving students do not get admission in several reputed courses and colleges due to low scores in board examinations. Through entrance tests all students will be given a fair chance to prove their mettle. Dr. Manoj Khanna also added that the admission committee is discussing the possibility of conducting an entrance test for Science and Humanities courses too. Furthermore, the University is also assessing how to strengthen infrastructure for online admissions and preparation of entrance tests, with a focus towards evolving a “student friendly” admission system.
Image credits: DU Admissions
Joyee Bhattacharya
So here we are, having survived 2016, with all the swag and luster, at Delhi University. This year shall be remembered in the academic vicinity for various reasons. As for the freshers and rest alike, whether you were basking in the carelessness of the post-war (pun intended) vacation or were getting yourselves squeezed in the queue for hours together in the ruthless Northern summer after overnight brainstorming to dismantle the enigma of the Delhi University cut offs, detrimental things were going on around you.
If you failed to pay heed to these developments, we come up with 5 controversies which made the year.
1. Something which took freshers by surprise was the boycott of the admission process by the faculty. Later, we learnt of the boycott of the evaluation process itself. This was all in response of the University Grants Commission (UGC) gazette notification, which intended to raise the working hours. Since we ended up being taught, the crisis must have been resolved.
2. The Delhi University election sent shock waves throughout September. The guidelines against the usage of paper pamphlets fell to the deaf ears of the young candidates as is the pollution in Diwali to Delhi-ites. Three out of four posts, including that of president, were bagged by ABVP, RSS’s student outfit, amidst cries of foul play by NSUI. The 4th October pictures of Amit Tanwar, the president, posing with guns in the varsity campus deepened the charges of hooliganism and criminalisation of DU politics, reducing our expectations from our leaders which had already been weakened by all the freebies.
3. The ceiling collapse on 30th August at Daulat Ram College was the frightful realisation of long time fears of all the 63 DU colleges. This incident brought into national focus the hollow claims about the infrastructure and raised many questions. Students came out on the streets asking for more washrooms, basic sanitation facilities and better heed to grievances from immediate effect.
4. 2016, to an extent, saw the Pinjra Tod movement, an initiative which grew out of a Facebook page in August, 2015 to champion the causes of women in hostels and PG, yield results. In response to the countless protest marches, curfews have been slackened, leading to the removal of guardian’s permission for leave, among many other feats. But as Sabika Naqvi rightly maintains, there is a long long way to go.
5. On 8th November, DU professor Nandini Sundar was booked on the alleged charges of murder of a tribal man Shamnath Baghel in Sukma district of Chattisgarh. She called the allegations ‘absurd’ and fittingly no new development seems on the plate.Interstingly, this is not her maiden face off with Bastar Inspector General Kalluri. Nandini Sundar had been the whistle-blower in the alleged atrocities at the hands of security forces. Earlier this year, her trip to Bastar under the alias of Richa Keshav had already flaked controversies.
Nikhil Kumar
[email protected]
Image credits: www.123rf.com
Being one of the most sought after courses in Delhi University, English Honours crests up the expectations of every literati who seeks admission in this course. The idea of meeting Shakespeare, Jane Austen or George Eliot everyday makes it nothing short of exciting. But how is the journey actually like, well, let’s find out here!
After braving the cut off crisis, entering college on the first day as an English Honours student is bound to elate any literature enthusiast who is looking forward to an expedition of the literary world! The initial days of study in this course certainly blurs the boundaries of literature exploration. Meeting great authors, playwrights and critics through their work takes some time to be familiarized with, yet, makes one feel like delving deeper into the sea of literature. How can we forget the joy of purchasing those new books that never fail to bring a wave of happiness with the smell of their new pages!
Seeing all that happiness, our dear friend – the syllabus, starts pouring us some more love with endless discussions, chapters which seem to never finish and, motley range of timeless drama and poetry. This is when we feel like telling this friend of ours to calm down! With the ever increasing number of texts and background readings, at times it starts getting difficult to manage academic reading and leisure reading at the same time. Adding on to it, friends from different courses keep envying us for reading mere “stories” in the syllabus and having an easy course structure. This is the moment when we feel like enlightening those friends about the difference between reading Blake and Swift for leisure and reading them as part of one’s syllabi. Thus, we join the brigade that breaks baseless myths about the course being a mere cake walk!
Just after the crest phase comes the road to the trough. The teachers expecting students to read their respective texts completely and “critically analyze” everything that comes our way starts getting a little too tricky! This is when we start shifting from mere readers to critical readers of literature. But the road doesn’t seem all that easy in the first semester of the course. With loads of narratives and analysis to remember, one definitely gets overwhelmed with the amount of reading to be done, while being unaware of the questions that can be asked for such study. After putting in much effort, we’re forced to rely on help books to help us sail through the semester. However, the ultimate test of literature love for a first semester student is the semester examination. A study loaded with truckloads of texts, the first semester exams of the course resurface the general emotion for studies in no time.
Nonetheless, English Honours sure makes every seeker a thinker beyond the average one. Despite the initial hiccups, this course is not a mere study, but a leap ahead in the understanding of the world.
Feature Image Credits: www.flavorwire.com
Priyal Mahtta
A recent graduate from SRCC, Yogesh Gautam has started a crowdfunding campaign so that he can embark on a 50,000km road journey to promote chess in the interiors of India.
Starting on October 5, from Jammu and Kashmir, Gautam’s itinerary includes places such as Bikaner (Rajasthan), Katch (Gujarat), Katni (Madhya Pradesh), Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu), Agartala (Tripura) and his hometown Bhiwani, Haryana. “I will teach kids Chess, and will distribute chess sets for free, DVDs and books on the game in remote areas. As all of this require funds, I have started a crowd funding campaign for it,” he says, talking to a popular national daily.
The 21-year-old also seeks to break the Guinness World Record for the longest journey by car in a country. “The Guinness World Record for the longest journey by car in a country is 36,060.1km. By travelling 50,000km, I’m hoping to break that record as well. However, that will only be the icing on the cake. The main motive for me to aim for setting these world records is also only to draw more attention towards chess,” adds Gautam.
A fresh graduate from one of the most prestigious colleges in the country, Gautam is all praise for his college in helping him nurture his love for the game. “Not a lot of colleges go the extra mile for their sports students, but my teachers supported me a lot. Not only would I get attendance for my tournaments and practice sessions, the teachers would also give me extra classes just so I could catch up on my coursework,” he was quoted as saying.
His affair with Chess began over a decade ago when his sister gifted him a chess set. He believes that people in India don’t know the game and don’t care about it much. “Aaj tak mujhe koi scholarship nahi mili hai. In my own state, many have been celebrated for bringing Olympic medals in various sports, but many still don’t consider Chess asport. I want to change that”, he remarks in an interview with a national daily.
With inputs from Hindustan Times
Riya Chhibber
Art is all-pervasive, and the students of the Fine Arts Society of SGTB Khalsa College portrayed their imagination beautifully across the broad horizons of their college.Strokes- the Fine Arts Society of SGTB Khalsa College organized their annual art exhibition, Duende, on 17th and 18th October 2016 to display the exciting work of their zealous artists. The event was set up at the heart of the college, the famous Jannat, and attracted eyes and interests through the two days. The area was adorned with a variety of shapes and forms of paper matches hanging above the people, giving a shade of ethereal beauty to the contiguous area.
With more than thirty paintings displayed, decorated and placed in the structure of a circle, each painting captured the imagination and wove a beautiful aura amidst the sublime atmosphere. Themes such as life style, new beginnings, fire and ice, sacred love and many others were captured. A fascinating visual was seen with inspiring paintings hanging and the session of live painting which gave a chance to the people to get their portraits drawn. The artistry displayed was exquisite and gave birth to some brilliant pieces! The creative streak did not only end there; the visitors were also invigorated to see the quirky craft station set up. With bookmarks, paper corners, envelopes, cards, dream catchers and many other handmade products, Duende did justice to transcending the essence of art across a multitude of platforms, which piqued appraise and interest.
A member of the society, summarised the experience on the first day as, ‘The turnout was huge even at the first day at college after mid semester break. People who visited the exhibition were astonished by the work done by the artists which further increased the enthusiasm in the members.’With an amalgamation of a quirky theme, inspiring paintings, and personalized stationery and activities, the members of Strokes painted a background which contended the aesthetic hues and left the audience sure to be moved!
Saumya Kalia
Image Credits: Saumya Kalia for DU Beat
After days of anticipation and a rigorous electoral campaign, ABVP’s Vice Presidential candidate Priyanka Chhawri emerged victorious. A graduate in Mathematics from Lakshmibai College , University of Delhi, and currently pursuing her M.A in Buddhist Studies from Dept. Of Buddhist Studies, DU, from discussing her journey into politics to her plans of bringing changes in the campuse, we got chatting with her about her new found role.
Excerpts:
DUB: What motivated you to pursue your candidature in the DUSU elections? How did your journey into student level politics begin?
Priyanka Chhawri: I am a student activist from the past five years and it all started when I appeared for CATE entrance and saw a group of students protesting at the arts faculty against the DU administration. The protest was led by ABVP.I was so influenced by the student leaders that it occurred to me that I must also be there one day! So when I got admission in LBC, I joined ABVP and became an active member! I saw a great change in me in these five years. ABVP groomed me into a more confident and responsible person and with time I attained the leadership skills that were needed to contest in DUSU elections and now, here I am, as the DUSU Vice President.
DUB: What are your some of the key areas that you are personally looking forward to focusing upon in your tenure?
PC: Personally , I would focus more on introducing societies for blind and physically handicapped students, constructing pathways for the same, giving North Campus a new look by putting the map of the campus near metro and recognised places, creating awareness session about the women safety app launched by ABVP – ‘I FEEL SAFE’, in every college, providing health cards,making medical rooms functional in every college and providing the facility of printed mark sheets be issued to students after every semester.
DUB: The DUSU polls saw some lavish campaigning this time again. What is your take on the guidelines by Lyngdoh Committee and National Green Tribunal about the budget restrictions and green campaigning? Do you think they are realistic targets that can be met?
PC: I think it’s not feasible to contest DUSU election in just 5ooo Rupees. How unrealistic it is, that the same amount is allowed to both contest college elections and DUSU? From the last four years , the Lyngdoh Committee hasn’t been reviewed and it’s time that we look into this matter.So, as an officer bearer, I will certainly put forward this issue. As far as paper usage is concerned, it is reduced as compared to last two years but yes it needs to end and just be limited to wall of democracy and advertising sites.
DUB: Last year saw DUSU office bearers being involved in some controversy or the other and accountability and work transparency was also an issue. How do you seek to tackle that?
PC: ABVP led DUSU is very committed to work for the student welfare and we have started working the day we joined our office. We submitted a memorandum to the DSW concerning the issues of students and currently we are working to combat the recent mass failure of the LL.B students regarding which, we have given a letter to the VC. This DUSU panel is dedicated to work for the student community and we have started our work positively !
DUB: NSUI has alleged discrepancy in the voting process and after a hunger strike, they are now planning to move to the court. What is your take on this whole matter?
PC: DU is a democratic university and it’s NSUI’s democratic right to get their doubts clear but I think by doing this they are questioning the mandate of the students. I think they should accept the decision of the students and move on and raise students issues rather than sitting and challenging the choice of students.
DUB: Having gone through the entire process of filing nominations, becoming the final candidate to actually winning, is there anything that you wish to change (procedural or otherwise) in the way DUSU elections unfold?
PC: From filing the nomination to actually contesting DUSU was a great experience. The administration has been very cautious during the scrutiny. But, an incident that seemed like a failure to me was when a candidate who filled the nomination was not present during scrutiny. It should become mandatory for all the candidates to be present during that process.
DUB: DUSU elections have been known to provide the country with some of the finest ministers we have had at the helm of authority in the past. Do you see yourself there? Do you plan to continue in politics?
PC: As of now , I will be working for the students and continue as a student activist.
DUB: Any interesting anecdote you would like to share with us that happened during the election process?
PC: Yes. Once I was delivering a speech in Shaheed Bhagat Singh College. I was in such a hurry (because it was the last day to campaign and I had to cover many colleges) that I forgot the last part and garbled some words and ran away. The students found it so funny and they said, ‘Hum samajh gaye aapki bhaavna’.
DUB: In a line, how would you define your motto for this year as a DUSU office bearer?
PC: I want this DUSU panel to be a medium of exposure for the student community. I will work on involving more students in every activity that is organised by DUSU!
Interviewed by Riya Chhibber
Lean IN is an international organisation founded by Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg. It aims at creating an equivalent society and working towards making women more confident and better leaders.
Tanya Jain, a student of Economic (H) from Hansraj College has started a Lean IN circle in the college recently. The concept behind this is to have a chapter under which various Lean IN circles are registered. Lean IN Hansraj circle is registered under the Lean IN India chapter and is being initiated in collaboration with the Women Development Cell of the college. Lean IN Hansraj would be following the guidelines from Lean IN itself.
Lean IN provides resources for all its circles and chapters. There are workshops & expert videos which each circle is supposed to follow. Lean IN provides circle members with step-by-step meeting guides, which contain topics for discussion, workshops, and videos recorded by Lean IN Leaders. However, the organisation provides immense amount of flexibility to its members to work according to their circumstances.
All the provided guides/expert videos are aimed at making its members communicate freely with each other along with giving them a confidence boost and turning them into better leaders. Circle meetings include discussions which are highly interactive in nature and allow members to speak up without any qualms whatsoever.
Lean IN circle Hansraj recently conducted its first meeting and set goals to follow in the coming year.
These goals include-
1. Interacting freely with one another and getting to know each other better.
2. Gaining self confidence and getting over fears/inhibitions by accepting themselves.
3. Improving their leadership skills.
How to start a Lean IN Circle:- Visit the website http://www.leanin.org/, click on the tab ‘Start a circle’, fill in your details. You become a new circle leader and are eligible to open your circle for applications. Lean IN has kept the process very simple to let more and more people feel motivated towards starting one circle.
Image Credits- Nikita Mohite from Hansraj College
Akshara Srivastava
[email protected]