Confluence – the annual cultural festival of Hans Raj College was set open on 2nd March 2014 by the Principal of the college, Mr. V.K Khwatra. The event started with a brief introduction about the festival and how in the past Confluence has been able to receive tremendous appreciation. Mr. VK Khwatra along with other dignitaries and guests, Mr Bijendra Singh (Hostel Warden) and Mrs. Sonal Gupta (ECA Convener) lighted the holy lamp. Mr. Mohit Saini, the newly elected President of Hans Raj College also joined the lamp lighting ceremony.
Saptak Chattopadhyay, member of Swaranjali (Music Society of the college) created an aura in the auditorium by singing the Durga Stuti and Guru Vandana. The Principal then addressed the students and said, “Extra Curricular Activities are the most important part for both interpersonal and intra-personal development. Confluence, I hope, will bring a lot of learning and experience to each one of you in this regard.” He wished luck to all the participants and organizers and declared Confluence 2014 open!
The festival, later in day, witnessed various cultural competitions being organized by different societies of Hans Raj College. Rachnotsav – the Music Festival by Swaranjali, the Music Society of the college, was a tribute and homage to Late. Rachna Sharma, ECA convenor of college who passed away last year. She was a mentor to many students and inspired each member of the society to do his or her best. The Music Festival that would go on for all three days had two solo competitions on the first day.
Mr. Nilotpal Sinha, Director of House of Symphony and Ms. Grace, a well-known vocalist judged the competition. Indian Solo competition witnessed healthy spirit between the participants and the Western solo competition attracted 16 singers from all over the circuit. In the Indian (Solo) Singing event, the 1st prize was won by Digvijay Singh from Kirori Mal College in the Semi Classical category and the 1st prize in the Classical category went to Bineet Singh from Music Faculty. The Western (Solo) Singing event saw Fiona Lalmalsawmi from Miranda House being awarded the first position while Hanita Bhambri from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies bagged the second position.
In their feedback, the judges mentioned that the contestants should focus on the song selection. They pointed that there were two ways to go about this – one is to choose a complex song and perform it in the simplest way and the other is to choose a simple song and perform it in a complex manner to impress the judges.
Alongside, Pixels, the Photography Society of the college was organizing photography competition called Plickture. The event had a photography exhibition put up in the college with the 100 photographs clicked by the members of society. The visitors had an option to paste their comment there. Also, “Photon on the Spot” was organised with theme – Irony – separately for DSLR and mobile phone users. Battle of Events will also be organized by the society where different photography societies from various colleges will be battling over 5 events in 2 days to win the TITLE OF SOCIETIES, a trophy and Rs. 10000 cash prize. Pithvi Kakkar, President of Pixels told DU Beat that results of all the events of Plickture will be declared on Day 2 of the fest.
In addition, four stage theatre performances were held as part of the college’s annual dramatics fest – Eclat.
The annual parliamentary debating tournament of Hansraj College was held from 17th-20th March, 2013. The festival is seen as one of the most awaited debating festivals in the Delhi University debating circuit because of the quality of debaters and adjudicators it invites, while the prize money is an added perk.
The tournament saw the participation of 24 teams from across colleges that are active in the debating circuit and it also saw cross teams that included some senior debaters. After a course of five preliminary rounds, eight teams broke into the quarterfinals that included teams from the colleges- SRCC, KMC, HINDU, JGLS and two cross teams. The finals were held between Tarand and Nouman from Hindu, competing for the Shanti Narayan trophy with Siddhartha Thyagarajan (ex-RAMJAS)and Aishwarya Iyer (Hindu). The topic of the debate was “This house believes that social movements should discard the use of euphemisms.” Tarang and Nouman successfully defended the motion and won the trophy. The adjudicating panel of the finals included some of the best adjudicators in the debating circuit, such as Anirudh(Hansraj), Shaurya(Hansraj) , Tarun(Hansraj), Shuvam(Hansraj), Shachi(ex-Hansraj), Abeer(Hansraj) and Navin(ex-KMC). The best adjudicator prize went to Rijul from Hindu and best speaker went to Aashay Sahay (ex-RVCE).
Shachi Seth and Navin Kumar were the Adjudication Core of the tournament. The tournament got a lot of positive response in terms of its smooth running, efficient administration, and running on time, the latter feature being something mostly absent in debating tournaments.
The tournament was also an interesting one in terms of the unique strategies implemented to decide proposition and opposition in the post breaks round. Ditching the conventional coin toss, the Hansraj debsoc decided that proposition and opposition will be decided through means of rock-paper-scissors, tip-top, arm wrestling or dance offs. Particularly interesting was the dance off between Vardhan from KMC and Tarang from Hindu in the quarterfinals.
The tabs team was highly praised for carrying out the fastest tabbing in the history of debates, with the tabs being ready for the next round within 5 minutes.
Overall, the 6th Shanti Narayan was very efficiently run, stuck to time rules and provided an unforgettable debating experience.
Photo Credits: hansrajdelhi.batchmates.com
Siddhi Goel
