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On 25th February, a fight between two groups in Hansraj College took a violent turn, with brandishing of violent weapons, posing even more questions about security inside college campuses.

 On 25th February, a fight took place between two groups at the Lovers’ Point in Hansraj College. The altercation consisted of a few students graduated from Delhi University (DU) and students of Satyawati College, DU. Amidst the barrel, one of the students took out a katta (Indian handmade gun) and threatened the other party. However, they soon dispersed, following which, a large number of police personnel were seen in and around the College. Till now, the administration has not commented on the matter, and there is no official notification of an investigation being conducted in this regard.

On 26th February, the students of Hansraj College, collected in order to protest against the administration’s silence on the matter as well as against the rising communalism in the country. The students marched from the hostel gate of the College to the main gate, where they addressed a gathering and talked about the issues plaguing the country.

A student who organised the protest, in conditions of anonymity told DU Beat, “The administration did not even let us make posters inside the college, let alone protest inside. This protest was combined, about college being a safe space, the administration giving us our agency and us being allowed to use it properly and also to throw light on how the country’s being divided for political gains and people are suffering.” “It is also shameful that we’re hosting a fest in such times.” they added.

An important thing to note is that Hansraj College had only recently installed metal detectors at all entrances. This incident also raises some very important questions about how safe college spaces really are, something that college administrative bodies really need to answer.

Feature Image Credits: Saubhagya Saxena for DU Beat

With the purpose to guide, educate and inspire the budding entrepreneurs, The Entrepreneurial Cell of Hans Raj College organised ‘Illuminate-An Entrepreneurial Summit’ on October 3rd & 4th. In this event, entrepreneurs from diverse fields like entertainment, e-commerce, fashion, real estate etc shared their journey, failures and success stories with the students and also answered their queries. The two-day event was attended by more than 800 students & working adults.

 

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Many successful entrepreneurs like Mr. Keshav Bansal (Director, Intex), Sanjay Bhasin (CEO, Goibibo), Shaili Chopra (Founder, SheThePeople.TV), Akshay Taneja (Director TDI, Founder – Rent A Closet and Mother’s Lap) , Sumeet Kapoor, (Founder of Nearbuy), Raghav Verma, (Founder of Chaayos), Raghav Chandra (Co-Founder Urbanclap) & Mr. Sandeep Agarwal, (Founder of Shopclues & Droom) graced the event. Besides the motivating and energizing stories of speakers,  the event also had a very stimulating panel discussion with Pooja Bhayana (Co-Founder & CEO, Let’s Barter India) ,Supriya Paul (Co-Founder, Josh Talks) and Bhavya Goel (Founder & CEO, AEOM Couture) on ‘Women Entrepreneurs’

 

Content and Images by Entrepreneurial Cell of Hans Raj College.

Confluence’16 was an alloy of three different festivals by Hans Raj Student’s Union in collaboration with HT City Youth Nexus and the North East Cell of the college. It was a three day event, from 18th march to 20th march. Being very close to mid semester breaks, the turn out on the first and the second day was a little disappointing. However, a huge number of competitions were organised in both, the competitive and non-competitive category. Confluence’16 in collaboration with HT City Youth Nexus was a melting pot of popular DJ’s, who graced the fest one after the other. The fest made sure that all who made it, made most of it.

Day 1: Rockonova, Sumit Sethi and other events

Day 1 of Confluence’16 was inaugurated by the Principal of Hans Raj College. This was followed by a Kavi Samelan presided over by poet, Vineet Chauhan. He included topical events like the JNU row in his speech while addressing the audience.

hereafter, a choreography competition organised by Terpsi Chorean, The Choreo society of Hans Raj College also took place. The Choreo society of Hindu College bagged the first position for their performance called ‘vengeance’. LSR and Gargi college were declared second and third, respectively. 

Meanwhile, on the outer stage Youth Nexus hosted events like the Rockonova, a battle of bands. Out of the four shortlisted teams who participated, Knight Shades from DCAC won and Muffils from Manav Rachna Institute of Technology were declared the runners-up. 
Students from Hans Raj College walked the ramp for the Rigo Fashion show in the presence of Mr Arjun Gehlot, Director Ambience Mall and his wife, Shahista Gehlot.

A western group dance competition was also organised under the banner of HT City Youth Nexus, which was judged by Priyasha Bhardwaj, The Director/ Choreographer of Beyond Routine and Aditya Dogra. Misba, the Western Group Dance society of SSGGS won the competition whereas, Funk in Motion, Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology and Enliven, Gargi college secured the second and the third place respectively.
The evening closed with performances by Suryaveer with his band EHSAAS, Dastak- The Band and DJ Sumit Sethi.

Day 2 Western Solo Dance Competition, DJ Suketu, Electro Sufi and others

The day started with a corporate discussion session by KPMG. This was followed by a talent show under the banner of Youth Nexus. Pushkar Chauhan and Asma from Hans Raj College who won the talent show were declared Rajnigandha Mr and Miss Pearls. A model hunt was also organised by Numero Uno. Shristhi from JDMC , Shubham from Dayal Singh College and Sanjeev from Manav Rachna International University, who were declared the winners are going to present Numero Uno’s spring summer collection in HTYM Fashion Show and will also get a personal professional photoshoot.

A western solo dance competition was also organised by Oorja, The Western Group Dance Society of Hans Raj College. Manpreet Singh from SOL won  and Vidhi Maheshwari from Hansraj College stood second in the competition.


On the outer stage, I Vogue, the fashion society of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce was declared the winner while Dyal singh’s fashion society was declared the runner up of Lava Show Stoppers.

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Day 2 of confluence was a quite a music and dance paradise, which had around four artists performing for the evening.
DJ Ajay Nautiyal opened the evening to dance with his music. He was followed by Electro Sufi: Shahid Maliya with DJ ARKANE who took over the evening with quite literally a storm. Even after a spell of rain, dance and music did not stop. Sooner DJ Suketu took over the evening and played popular remixes of songs like Sooraj Dooba hai from Roy, Tu Meri from Bang Bang and Give me Everything by American rapper Pitbull.

Day 3: Honey Singh, Indian Ocean, Western Group Dance Competition and others

The day started with a western group dance competition organised by Oorja, The Western Group Dance society of Hans Raj college. The competition was judged by Tanya Suri,a professional jazz dancer, Anmol Jamwal and Mohit Raj Thapa. Out of the fifteen participating teams, Misba The Western Dance society of Sri Guru Gobind College of Commerce won the first place in the competition. Tanz, Miranda House stood second.

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Misba Western Dance Crew from Sri Guru Gobind Singh College Of Commerce grabbed the top spot in the Western Group Dance…

Posted by DU Beat on Sunday, March 20, 2016

A street play competition was also organised by HT City Youth Nexus. Navrang,The Hindi Dramatic Society of Institute of Home Economics who won the competition had performed ‘Na Idhar Ka Na Udhar ka’ a play based on the problems of middle class. Ijaad from PGDAV evening performed ‘Panch sitambar’ and were declared the runners up.
This was followed by a North East Festival organised by the North East Cell of Hans Raj College. The event show cased the culture of not only the North Eastern states of India but included Ladakh and Tibet.
Immediately after the NE fest, fans started pouring in huge numbers for a guest appearance of Yo Yo Honey Singh for the promotions of his upcoming movie, Zorawar which is due to release on 6th May. Though the humongous crowd created trouble, Hansraj Student’s Union managed the situation well. Honey Singh gave the audience their much deserved time and tracks and left the stage for Indian Ocean to take over.


Indian ocean, as a part of Coke Studio played their quintessential soulful music and closed the three day annual cultural festival Hans Raj College.

Confluence ’16 in a glimpse

Catch Day-wise event coverage here:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

 

Catch the entire album of Confluence ’16 here

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Arindam Goswani
Srivedant Kar
Arushi Pathak
Kartikeya Bhatotia

Image Credits: 

Gerush Bahal, Hitanksha Jain, Jasmine Chahal, Paurush Bhardwaj, Mridul Kumar, Vegh Daswani and Alex Arthur for DU Beat

Shunya – The Dramatics Society of Ramjas College at the second position with 7 points. The Dramatics societies of SRCC and S.G.T.B. Khalsa share the third place with 5 points each. Undoubtedly, all teams put up spectacular performances that have been appreciated  at various fests by the audience and judges alike.

The Winning Society at a glance

Hans Raj Dramatics Society

The Hans Raj Dramatics Society led this year’s fest season with their annual production Holi. The play narrates the happenings of a day in the lives of a bunch of hostel friends Gopal, Ranjit, Srivastav, Laloo, Madhav and Anand among others, who come with all sorts of temperaments and histories. The day starts off with the announcement that they won’t be getting the day off from classes for Holi. The students, who were already dissatisfied with the college’s policies, are angered and things take a turn for the worse when the principal’s nephew is injured in a tiff. What started off as a normal day, changes the students’ entire lives by the end of it. Holi is based on a very well-known script of the same name by playwright, Shri Mahesh Elkunchwar. Revolving around various tangents of college, particularly hostel life, the play has managed to touch a chord with judges and audience alike. Adapting a play that has been performed innumerable times in the theatre circuit and has been turned into a motion picture, was definitely a herculean task for the directors, Purusharth Budhiraja and Anil Kumar. The play was originally written in 1970s and was adapted into a contemporary setting, keeping most of the original characters and creating some new ones along the way. “We at Hansraj believe in promoting good theatre and not focussing on the competitive part of events. This was exactly the theme of our theatre fest this year as well. This year has been a great journey for us, not only have we grown as theatre practitioners, we have also witnessed very high quality contemporary theatre. Irrespective of all the hiccups we faced, however big or small, it was a tremendous learning opportunity and I am sure next year will bring in even better things”, said Purusharth, the society’s President.

Cast and Crew

Cast: Purusharth Budhiraja, Anil Kumar, Abhinav Sharma, Aishwary Rajput, Rajat Katiyar, Kaushal Raj, Parth Paliwal, Nirmal Kothari, Saksham Shukla, Vikrant Verma, Shaman Goel, Shivika Chauhan, Iresh Gupta, Hansa Malhotra, Srishti Babbar, Sahiba Bali. Backstage – Kamal Kishore, Abhishek Mittal, Harshit Joon, Intaquam Hussain. Sound – Gurjot Sidhu. Lights – Aayushi Rathi, Karishma Khullar, Neha Agarwal. Note: The thirteen fests included in our analysis for this series include SRCC’s Crossroads, Gargi College’s Reverie, Sri Venkateswara College’s Nexus, LSR’s Tarang, Hans Raj’s Confluence, I.P. College for Women’s Shruti, Daulat Ram College’s Manjari, Hindu College’s Mecca, Jesus and Mary College’s Montage, Miranda House’s Tempest, Kamala Nehru College’s Ullas, Kirori Mal College’s Renaissance, SGTB Khalsa’s Lashkara. Out of the fests listed, only 6 had conducted a competitive stage theatre event. To collate this tally, the prizes for the best play were taken into consideration. Update: This story earlier listed Ramjas College at the first position in the DU Beat tally. However, after rectifying a computational error that was later pointed out, the Hans Raj Dramatics Society stands at the top. We apologise for the mistake made by the DU Beat team.]]>

Enactus Hans Raj organized its annual Entrepreneurship Summit on 2nd April. The event had speaker sessions on personality development for girls and social responsibility. A management training workshop was also held along with the much highlighted Internship Fair 2014.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony for the summit was held in the college auditorium. The guests and dignitaries for the event were Mr. Anshul Gupta, founder of Goonj; Mr. Shakun Khanna, Strategic Management consultant, IBM; Ms. Shuchi Soni, Programme Manager from Enactus India (North), Mr. V.K Khwatra, Principal of the college and Ms. Sonal Gupta, ECA Convenor.

The event began with the lamp lighting ceremony by all the guests which was followed by honouring them for presiding over for the summit. V.K Khwatra then delivered a speech for all the young entrepreneurs. “What matters the most is personality. Today you all are here to learn entrepreneurship and get jobs and internships. What matters more than content of your resume is how you present yourself for that job”, he remarked.

The Entrepreneurship Summit was then declared open by Shrey Saxena, President at Enactus Hans Raj. This was followed by Vedika Dabriwal, Vice President and Enactus’s General Secretary, Harshita Muraka elaborated about the projects of Hans Raj Enactus for the year that were Project Swaad, Project Mithaas and Project Lekhni. A 10 minute video presentation revolving around Enactus Hans Raj, its projects, its members and appreciation received was played.

 ‘Mirror image of present India’ presented by Guest Speaker, Anshu Gupta

Mr. Anshu Gupta, Founder of Goonj was the Guest Speaker for the day. Goonj is an NGO which works to ‘make clothes a matter of concern’. Goonj collects underutilized clothes and other materials from urban homes, and uses them as resources for the poor.  Apart from clothes Goonj’s collection include things like shoes, toys, books, electronic gadgets, furniture, utensils and other urban waste.

Mr. Gupta during his session portrayed the ‘mirror image of present India’ in terms of social activities and tried to define norms of the social section. His speech included many questions that still remain unanswered as per him. “Harr kali sadak par hum toll tax kyun dete hain?”, “Harr ek ghar pe purifier kyun lagana padta hai?”

The discussion also included his comments about safety of girls. “Hum apni behen ko ghar par akela kyun ni chorh sakte?” He talked about the infamous Dehi bus gang rape as well. “Janta boht kam jaanti hai. Asli chor toh hum log hain. 500 waale challan ko 100 rupaye ki rishwat se nipta dete hain. 400 ki chori toh ek insaan ek challan pe kar leta hai.” Anshu pointed out the fact that citizens unnecessarily blame the police and the government. He talked about subsidies and health situation in the country. His speech had some youth connect where he rightly mentioned that, “Internships toh tum log sirf certificate ke liye karte ho. Motive aur toh koi hshamai hi nahi.

The audience, which was a gathering of around 500 people, was all ears to what Anshu had to say. His speech was acknowledged by a standing ovation from everybody in the auditorium. This was followed by a question answer round. Samaksh Gupta says, “His speech was well drafted and he was inspiring and mesmerising. His startling facts could inspire anyone to move out of their comfort zone to extend a hand for helping.”

Personality development workshop for girls by Suditi Bhadauria

A personality and confidence building workshop was organized by Veet as a part of the summit exclusively for girls. The workshop was addressed by Suditi Bhadauria, a behavioural corporate trainer.

Her interactive session encouraged full participation in the learning process which led to automatic modification of the behaviours. Divya says, “Her session gave us a lively outlook to the world. Our confidence is surely boosted.” Other girls in the session also felt that Suditi had the capability to mentor the group and her words will have a lasting effect. In her words, “Girls should not doubt themselves and think of themselves as future leaders.”

 

Management Training Workshop by Shakun Khanna

Mr. Gupta’s session was followed by a management training workshop by Mr Shakun Khanna who inspired the budding entrepreneurs to be top notch professionals. He pointed out that the problem of the present generation is to make choices. “It is not about survival. It is more about improvement”, he says. He talked about how one should focus on his or her strengths and develop them but also said that it is important to fix your weaknesses to be successful.

According to him hard work is an important factor but he adds that, “Hard work may not take you to the word class levels.” Talent, for him is the most important factor. He stressed on the fact that talent leads to success and one should have that sense of rhythm in entrepreneurship.

Divya Puri, who attended the workshop says, “His speech was a myth buster. As youngsters, we had a lot of misconceptions in our mind related to business and facts.” What appealed a lot to students there was that Mr. Khanna was not trying to forcefully make the students believe in business and entrepreneurship. He said, “Being an entrepreneur is not the only way to achieve your dreams. Follow what you like and you will be on the top.”

Think Business – The B-Plan Competition

The Summit also organized a business plan competition. Through the preliminary round, three finalists were selected who presented their business plan in front of the judges for ten minutes. Along with the business plan, the competition also consisted of guesstimates. Ayush Kashri from Maharaja Agarsen College won the competition. His idea of collecting flowers offered to various temples and then selling it to various companies to make perfumes and other cosmetics was chosen as the best idea.

Internship Fair 2014

The highlight of the Summit was the Internship Fair. From 30 companies last year, this time the fair witnessed 60 companies giving out internships to almost 500 candidates. Companies like Axsiom, Mindworkzz, Sawrneempropmart.com, Avanti (NGO), School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL), Pravah (NGO) among many more had put up their stalls. The fair saw the candidates moving from one stall to other submitting their resumes and talking about the job profile.

The fair also had new start ups being launched. Ankit Bagga, co-founder of EDZY says, “We as a start up got an overwhelming response in terms of footfall. We also got applications from many DU students.” The fair provided internships for all fields like marketing, management, social entrepreneurship, to name a few.

Shikha Maheshwari, a candidate who applied for internships says, “The fair offered a lot of choices and opportunities. There were lot of companies especially for the field I wanted to apply. It was very well organized.” With the fair, this year’s edition of Entrepreneurship Summit by Enactus Hans Raj came to an end.

Illuminati – the Hans Raj Quiz Club organised their annual quizzing festival Con Qurso on 28th, 29th and 31st March. This year’s festival comprised of four main quizzes and two filler quizzes. Cash prizes and various number of quizzes attracted inter college and inter-university teams as well The event also saw participants from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM). All the six quizzes were hosted by members of Illuminati.

Here is a look at different quizzes and their respective winners:

Sports Quiz

Sports Quiz began at 9 am on the first day of the festival. The quiz showcased the wide range of questions related to all sports all around the world. After the preliminary round, eight teams made it to the finals of the sports quiz. Conducted by Harshit Tandon, the quiz witnessed participants from various departments of the university and other universities of the capital.

1st Prize: Aniket Mishra (Deptt of Comparative Literature, Delhi University)

Shounak Purkayastha (Deptt of Mathematics, Delhi University)

Bharathan Chandrasekaran (Deptt of History, Delhi University)

 

2nd Prize:

Pratik Panda (Deptt of Mathematics, Delhi University)

Jasojeet Mukherjee (Zakir Hussain College)

Udipan Sinha (Jamia Millia University)

Cash Prize worth Rs. 4000/- were given to the winners and Rs. 2500/- to the runner up team.

Bollywood Quiz

Conducted by Manan Bhan on the first day itself, this filler quiz saw the maximum turnout. With over 40 participating teams, the bollywood quiz covered decades of celebrated cinema. Questions ranged from minimalist posters to legendary dialogues and from Mughal-e-Azam to 3 Idiots. The winners were awarded with the cash of Rs. 2000/-

1st Prize: Bharathan Chandrasekaran (Ramjas College)

Bishal Kumar (Ramjas College)

General Quiz

Last competitive quizzing on first day saw generalized questions being asked to the participating teams. The General Quiz covered the areas of music, entertainment, sports among other topics. After shortlisting, a total of six teams moved on to the finals. With over 70 questions being asked in total for both prelims and finals, this quiz witnessed a close contest. Runner up team were presented with Rs. 2500/- in cash and the winning team bagged Rs. 4000/-. Quiz master for the general quiz was Manan Bhan.

1st Prize: Sreshth Shah (Amity University, Noida

Prasanth John Abraham (IIM, Calcutta)

Harsh Vikram (Amity University, Noida)

 

2nd Prize:  

Shounak (Department of Mathematics, Delhi University)

Bharathan (Department of History, Delhi University)

Open MELA Quiz

The only quiz at Con Qurso that permitted non-college quizzers was the MELA Quiz that was conducted on 29th March by Atishay Sehgal. With professionals participating in the quiz, it covered Music, Entertainment, Literature and Art (MELA)

The quiz had a turnout of over 15 teams from which six made it to the finals. Despite an open participation, college quizzers took away the major prizes. This main quiz also gave out Rs. 6500/- as cash prizes.

1st Prize: Anagh Mukherjee (Jamia Millia University)

Abhishek Kapoor (IIT Delhi)

Ankan Kazi (Open participant)

 

2nd Prize:

Ayan Madan (Hindu College)

Sameer Thomas (Hindu College)

Rahul Mehra (St. Stephen’s College)

India Quiz

Organised on the last day of the festival, India Quiz covered various aspects of our nation including culture, heritage, politics, sports and current affairs. Six teams after fighting the battle, were selected for the final round. Quiz masters for the quiz were Pratik Panda and Abhishek Mishra. Cash prize was equivalent to other main quizzes of the festival.

1st Prize:Mukund Marodia (St. Stephen’s College)

Shubham Prabhakar (Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology)

 

2nd Prize:

Mohak Chhibber (YMCA University)

Biz-Tech Quiz

The second filler quiz and the last competition of the festival was Biz-tech quiz. The questions revolved around the commece and business sector along with insight into the world of technology.

Conducted by Abhishek Mishra, Biz-Tech quiz gave out a cash prize of Rs. 2000/- to the winning team.

1st Prize: Mukund Marodia (St. Stephen’sCollege)

Mohd Fahad (Delhi Technical University)

 

The History Department of Hans Raj College organised Samvat – their annual department festival on 27th March. The festival that began at 12’o clock in the afternoon witnessed a history debate, history quiz and a keynote lecture along with other recreational activities and competitions.

The associated theme for the festival was ‘Time, Space, People and Culture.’ A photography exhibition was set up near the registration area for the visitors and participants who evaluated each photo on display. The exhibition showcased various pictures related to the above mentioned theme clicked by members of Pixels, the photography society of the college. Kartik Gupta was declared the winner for the exhibition with maximum number of visitor comments.

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Dr. David Zou

Dr. David Zou, a professor at Department of History, Delhi University gave a lecture on ‘What is History’ in the conference room of the college. With Dr. Zou, Ms. Sharmila Srivastava, head of the history department of college led the session. He shared his personal experiences with famous personalities and also talked about print culture and literary culture. Shrishti Singh, a 3rd year history student who attended the lecture says, “The lecture was very informative and interactive. He talked about censorship of books which was the most interesting topic.”

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Kite Flying

A history quiz was also conducted as part of the festival. The quiz revolved around both modern and ancient history and the questions covered historical events of various ages and timelines from all over the world. Conducted by members of the quiz society, the history quiz saw participation by 15 teams. The competition saw participants from the host college and cross college teams also took part. After the preliminary round, six teams moved on into the finals. Pratik Panda and Bishal Kumar from Hans Raj College and Kirori Mal College were declared the winners.

A history debate on the topic ‘This house will exempt all books and works of art from government bans’ was conducted. Debating societies from the university circuit participated in the competition. Ananya and Navjeet from the debating society of Miranda House were adjudged the winners for the debate. Ananya, depicting here views on the topic says, “The motion today was one which, no matter how many times it’s debated, can never lose it’s relevance, considering as historical precedents suggest that attempts at curtailing free expression are a recurring phenomenon.”

Apart from the main events at the workshop filler activities also attracted students. Pottery workshop was held in the college where students were seen making earthen wares with their own hands. Kite flying was also organised. Principal of the college, Dr. VK Khwatra exuberantly challenged other kite flyers and himself handled the manja well.

After the first day at the Hans Raj Annual Cultural Event focused on dance and drama, the second day turned out to be a musical one.

The event was attended by few guests and dignitaries. Dr. V.K Khwatra – principal of the college, Mrs. Sonal Gupta – ECA Convenor, Mr. M.P Sharma – Dramatics Head and Sports Faculty, Dr. Mahasweta Saika and other faculty members of the college were present.

Swaranjali – the music society of college had the present as well as alumni bands performing. The function also witnessed some solo performances by members of the society.

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Jasleen Kaur – member of Swaranjali started the event with her solo performance. She sang two songs for the audience which were both punjabi folk tracks. Aisian Nighwan originally sung by Richa Sharma for Coke Studio was her first song and is about the joyful feeling one experiences in love. Charkha by Wadali Brothers, on the contrary is about separation and pain in love which she sung next. Jasleen is a well known classical and sufi singer and she has featured on various channels like Zee Punjabi, Fateh TV, PTC Punjabi and more. She was the only one from the university to perform a solo at Mood Indigo, IIT – Bombay’s classical concert where she opened for famous Pandit Ronu Majhumdar and secured the third position.

Raagleela – last year’s Indian Band of the college performed its five original productions. The band has opened for Salim-Sulaiman at Mood Indigo 2012 and was also shortlisted in top 100 bands of country to compete for a slot at MTV Coke Studio.

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Freewill was also an alumni band that performed for the event. It was a western band of the college for the year 2012-13. The members reunited after a year to perform in the college. They performed one original production and two cover productions.

Sagar Chawla, who is the keyboard player for both Freewill and Raagleela said, “I feel really nostalgic to come back to the place from where it all started. But at the same time we all miss the presence of Rachna Ma’am. This all couldn’t have been possible without them.” Members also dedicated a song to Late. Rachna Sharma, who was the ECA Convener of the college.

Nirupan Sinha, a western vocalist of the college band and also part of Freewill also gave a solo performance. Nirupan performed two songs which were Dreaming and Make you feel my love. He had bagged the first position for western solo singing at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Kamala Nehru College, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce and ISBF. At Mood Indigo, he was adjudged the second best singer.

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Last for the day was the current band of the college – Hansraj Projekt. The band performed it’s four original productions namely Batiyaan, Dil Se, Tarapa & In and Out. The home crowd at Hans Raj cheered for their band and the guests also enjoyed the performance.

Hansraj Projekt with it’s four productions this year has bagged various prizes at different competition like other societies of the college. They won the battle of bands at IIT Bombay where they also opened for Mohit Chauhan. The band was awarded an recording contract with T-SERIES there. It also recorded the track Kaisa Hota for the album Sounds of Freedom’14. The band participated in the band competitions all over the country and were awarded first positions at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, IIT Delhi, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies and ISBF.

Sajal Sharma, the president of Swaranjali and also a member of Hansraj Projekt and Freewill told DU Beat, “This was a mission for us and it was accomplished. It was great to have the alumni members coming in and taking part in this small celebration of music.”

Image Credit: Udit Chauhan

The Fine Arts Society and Dramatics Society of Hans Raj College organised Annual Cultural Event on 12-13th March. The event aims to bring all the cultural societies of the college together to perform for the home crowd.

Chief Guest for the event was Dr. Suchitra Gupta – Deputy Dean, Culture and Youth Affairs, University of Delhi. She said, “I appreciate the effort of college authorities for organising this cultural event in the cultural week alloted by the University.” The event was also attended by the college principal, Dr. VK Khwatra; ECA Convenor, Mrs. Sonal Gupta; Hindi Dramatics Head, Mr. M.P Sharma and other teachers of various departments.

The first day began with the Rangoli Making in front of the auditorium with participation from both students and teachers. This was followed by Swaranjali – the music society of college performing it’s Indian choir composition called Pratham Gajavadana Dhyaye Sada. After the spiritual Ganesh Vandana, the lamp lighting ceremony took place. All the guests for the day lit the holy lamp.

Dr. V.K. Khwatra while addressing the audience said, “Cultural activities are the essence of one’s college life. Irrespective of what your future plans are, each student should go through the process of joining a society in college and doing something productive along with studies.”

The performances started with Terpsichoreon – the choreography society of college performing their annual dance production. A 10-minute dance act on the theme, “personality fear” talked about how we should accept and acknowledge this fear because one can by no means overcome this personality fear.

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Siddhi Jain with her Bharat Natyam Performance

Siddhi Jain, the ECA entry for dance performed Bharatanatyam for the audience. The act performed was a ‘Pushpanjali’ – which means an offering of flowers. Siddhi is a disciple of Guru Jayalakshmi Eshwar and has been learning Bharata Natyam since the age of five years. She has also performed in Japan under the cultural programme JNESYS.

Oorja – the western dance society performed thereafter. The western dance was performed on a medley of various hindi and punjabi songs. Tanushree Pande, the president of the society said, “Oorja is the only society to have bagged a chance to perform with world’s best Latin dancers at IFL 2013. We consider this as a great achievement.”

Santosh – a Sanskrit honours student of the college was handling fillers in the event. He was entertaining the audience with his Hindi shayari.

A Kathak dance was performed by a Srihari Madhav, a trained Kathak Dancer. He is also an ECA entrant into the college for dance and is part of Terpsichoreon. He started with a ganesh vandana by Late Guru Pandit Durga Lal which was followed by conventional kathak performance on Panjitji’s compositions in teentaal. Srihari who is trained Kathak dancer from Kathak Kendra, the national academy of Kathak dance says, “During my childhood, a teacher used to come to train my sister. I just joined in then. Not many male dancwers go out to learn this dance form but a form like this stays with you for life.” Srihari is a proud performer for CWG 2010 Youth Festival and Didacta Education Fair in Hanover Germnay.

Day one ended with a performance by Hansraj Dramatics Society who presented their much acclaimed production ‘Holi’. The play has won the first position at SGTB Khalsa, Daulat Ram College and Jesus and Mary College. Holi, a story about a bunch of hostel friends showcases the different levels of temperament of today’s youth. A play that projects the events happening in a single day talks about the realistic lifestyle of a college hostel and how the timeline changes from day to night. The production has also won awards at Dyal Singh College, Hindu College and St. Stephens College. Purusharth Budhiraja and Nirmal Kothari, actors for the production have also bagged the best actor awards. Mrs. Gupta, the chief guest who is also an eminent theatre personality gave members of Holi a small feedback and expressed her desire to have one common theatre production for the whole university.

Mrs. Sonal Gupta, the ECA Convenor said, “It is great to see how all the societies of the college excel in various competitions all over the country. It is a matter of great pride for the college.”

On March 10, 2014, the English department of Hansraj College hosted its annual fest that saw a coming together of informative lectures, seminars, theatre, and a pinch of literary games to add to the fun.

The first session of the day was a session by internationally acclaimed film maker Pankaj Butalia titled: Reading Cinema- The importance of beginnings. The talk discussed the turmoil of the film maker as he/she deals with his/her own set of confusions as to how to project the desired emotion on screen. He also discussed the importance of the beginning scenes and the precedence it sets and how we can read them through processing a range of visual representations and metaphors.

The “Book n bake” sale attracted a large audience and was received well. Prior to the fest, students and teachers were asked to donate books for the sale and an impressive collection was accumulated at the end of it. The books were available at cheap rates were quickly sold out. The sale of cupcakes and other confectioneries right next to the book sale added a sweet tooth to the book shopping.

The second lecture was by Sambudha Sen titled- Domesticity and the making of the female subject: From Dutch interior paintings to Jane Austen. He discussed important painters like Peter de Hooch and Vermeer who were painting in the 1th and 17th centuries that how and from when does the domestic as a sphere for women emerge as an entity. He later discussed at length about Fanny, the protagonist of “Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen in comparison to other texts that dealt with issues of sexual liberation, autonomy and domesticity.

Activities such as general quiz, literary dumb charades, and character dramatization were a fun ride and attracted quite an audience. The concluding event of the day was a stage play called “Room for doubt” by “The Players”, the dramatic society of Kirori Mal College.