On the night of 1st September, a surprise raid was conducted in the LSR hostel, more popularly known as the Residence hall. The raid was conducted to find out whether the residents had any high wattage electrical appliances or items like spoons, fork, plates, etc. from the mess. A significant amount of items were confiscated, ranging from hair dryers, clothing irons, electric kettles, mess spoons to even vapourisers. The residents, specially first years, were in for a rude shock as members of the security committee of the hostel barged into their room at nine in the night, when they were actually expecting the Superintendant to be on rounds for attendance. The security committee members deftly searched nook and corner of every room and found out these ‘illegal’ items from the remotest of corners. The night turned a little dramatic, however, when one of the residents, who was ill, and distressed about the confiscation of her vapouriser, had to rush to the warden to re-claim it. The security committee members were considerate enough to return her vapouriser for an hour to relieve her from her distress. “We did what we had to do, it was our duty,” stated one of the security committee members. “We don’t care whether people hate us after this. There are stories about hostel fires due to circuit failures, and despite repeated warnings, girls still kept hair dryers worth 2000 watts. We hope this is a lesson for everybody, and they will refrain from keeping such items and breaking the rules in the future.”
The LSR hostel handbook states that hair dryers are allowed, but in the meeting that ensued with the hostel warden on Monday, the distressed and surprised residents were informed that only 500 watt hair dryers were allowed. The students whose items were confiscated had a long rendezvous with the hostel warden, who was extremely angry at the huge turnout of confiscated items including mess spoons. The warden gave the residents an ultimatum till October, and stated that if any resident was found with mess spoons, forks, or other mess items, then the hostel would stop giving the residents any spoons, forks or plates in the future, and they would have to bring their own. The owners of clothing irons as well as hair dryers were also given an hour long lecture and asked to leave their irons and hair dryers at home when they leave for the October holidays.
The LSR hostel had been repeatedly warning the residents, since last year, about not keeping any electrical appliances in the hostel, but even after numerous warnings, some girls kept high wattage items in their rooms. The hostel President has warned about more frequent raids in the future, and with an effective security committee in tow, it is hoped that the residents do not keep any such items in their room in the future!
Photo credits:-Additi Seth
The second week of college at LSR was bustling with activity as various societies were holding their annual auditions. The corridors were swarming with enthusiastic freshers as they hopped from one society board to another, furiously scribbling down the dates for the different auditions. “I am going to try out for as many societies as I can. There are so many options here, from music and dance to film appreciation and social work. I can’t wait to take part!” said an excited Nimisha, one of the many first years.
Boasting of about 21 active societies, LSR offers a wide range of options when it comes to extra-curricular activities. The past week consisted of NSS recruitments, where students were assigned NGOs of their choice to work for a year. The coming of this week began with both the Indian Music Society as well as the Western Music Society holding their auditions on Tuesday, 31st July. “75 students showed up for the IMS Auditions, out of which we chose 22. This was the preliminary round, where the candidates will be singing for the Special assembly put up on Independence Day. We asked them to sing any song of their choice. However, the second round of auditions, which will be held on 16th August, are for the core group of the society. This will only be open to people with a classical background,” said Parampara, the president of the Indian Music Society. The Western Music Society had a similar story to share. The numbers were larger, with 90 students turning up, causing the auditions to be split across two days. Gitana Singh, the president of WMS, was in quite a dilemma, “I asked each student to sing one or two songs of their choice that best represent their talent. After that, I tested their range to see how high or how low they could go. The students who auditioned were very talented. I honestly found it very difficult to choose between so many singers. In the end, I settled for 16 singers and 6 instrumentalists. Out of these, a few will be added to the already existing core group after the Independence Day assembly, for inter-college and out-station competitions.”
Close to 300 students turned up to shake a leg at the Dance Auditions held on Wednesday and Thursday. Anandini, the president of the Dance society, was issued the hard task of selecting the gems among the sea of candidates. When asked how the auditions were conducted, she said, “The LSR dance society is divided into four sub groups-Choreo, Western, Classical, and Folk. Each student could audition for all four, and to facilitate this, our dance team divided itself into four groups and asked each hopeful to approach the group for which they wanted to audition. They brought their own music and danced for 2-3 minutes. There is no preference given to freshers or ECA students, and we encourage everyone to take part.” The end of Thursday saw the first round of dance auditions close with 60 students chosen. Out of these, only 20 students will finally make it after the final round of auditions, scheduled for early next week. “We would love to take more students, but we have to be extremely selective when it comes to selecting for our college dance team,” says Anandini.
The Debating society held its much-awaited auditions on Thursday. These began at 4 in the afternoon and stretched on until 7 in the evening. “They gave us 8 different topics early in the morning, such as whether Sarkozy banning the Burqa was justified, should the UN be disbanded, and so on. My topic was concerning the Censor Board of India and the fact that it oversteps boundaries. They threw many questions at me, and then asked me to turncoat after that. I was given 5 minutes, and it was probably the most nerve-wracking argument I have ever had to give,” says Harnidh Kaur, a first year History student who hopes to get in to the Debsoc.
Friday saw the arrival of the Dramsoc auditions, where 124 expressive students couldn’t wait to put on an act for their judges. They were allowed to prepare a piece of their choice in either Hindi or English. “The drama society is divided into street plays and stage performances, as well as on the bases of language-English and Hindi. However, the initial auditions are taken only for events that are coming up, in this case Independence Day. This is an open society, only the union members are a permanent part of it. Hence, every actor needs to re-audition for a new production. From 124 candidates, we have chosen 37. The second round will be on Saturday, when we will bring this list down to 15,” say Yama, the president of Dramsoc, LSR. She continues, “This year, the quality of acting was extreme. Some performances were brilliant and we were awestruck by their acting and enunciation. On the other hand, we had to face some performances that we hoped would end immediately.”
With many more Society orientations waiting in line next week, such as Projekt-the photography and film club, freshers as well as the seniors can’t wait to begin exploring what LSR has in store for them this year. With its dynamic and talented crowd, one can easily say that LSR societies are ready to take the DU world by storm!
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