Latest
DU Beat – Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper
Tag

LSR

Browsing
Lady Shri Ram College for Women

Juxtapose 2015: Deconstructing Identities, Reconstructing Perceptions

By

The Department of Journalism at Lady Shri Ram College for Women kicked off its Annual Academic Meet, Juxtapose 2015 on October 7. The theme for this year’s meet was ‘Deconstructing Identities, Reconstructing Perceptions’ and shined through in the topics of the various events.

 

Pre Juxtapose, 7 October- All India Media Meet

The issue of freedom of expression in the light of recent killing of journalists was subjected to heated discussion at The All India Media Meet of Department of Journalism, Lady Shri Ram College on 7th October 2015. The discussion shed light upon the subjective issue of freedom of press. The major issues of whether killing of journalists is an ultimate resolution to the “offensive” content produced by media was put to discussion. The major issues addressed during the course of discussion were the need of media and government to be independent bodies, inadequate self-regulatory mechanism prevalent in media, how killing of journalists is a direct consequence confrontational journalism.

The conference finally sought to address the two major issues of implementing an ideal law exclusively for the safety of journalists and the question of the actual identification of journalists considering how the concept of citizen journalists has led to ambiguity in the definition of journalists.  Other issues of media blackout,the thin line of difference between hate speech and criticism and the leading consequences of defamation of judiciary by the press were address.

The debate whether an independent body other than the Press Council of India is required for safeguarding the interests of journalists was the final question addressed towards the end of the discussion. The discussion concluded with the following recommendations by the delegates of the committee –

  1. Creation of a committee that gives licenses to freelancers and not citizen journalists and ensures that these licenses are not misused.
  2. Ensuring that the committee formed shall ensure legal safety of journalists.
  3. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting should put forward these recommendations to the Parliament.
  4. Periodic meetings like AIMM must happen frequently to address these issues.

Day 1, 8 October- Turncoat Debate, Panel Discussion and AdMad

The topic for the Annual Turncoat Debate – Vox Pop at Juxtapose 2015 was whether film certification works in favour of the state or the public. Ideas like state propaganda, state mandate, to name a few, surfaced. Speakers spoke of how the Indian government compresses its citizens into a monolithic identity while at many a times completely disregarding the plurality of the country and on the other hand, how the state’s “parental attitude” was essential and justified.

‘Kissa Kursi Ka’ was a movie cited as an example by many speakers. However, as felt by the judge, Ms. Ishita Tiwary, what happened to the movie after it was banned wasn’t talked about by the speakers. This was an integral part as it shows the lengths the state can go to, to prevent anything that goes against its interests. After drawing comic reactions to a reference by speaker Chandrashekhar to Ragini MMS and how it had a “mentally scarring” effect on children, he went on to win the debate. The second and third positions were bagged by Naman Malhotra and Kushal Mishra. 

The panel discussion, the second event of the day, was on the topic, “Media’s content: A state of compromise or progression?” The panelists included eminent personalities from the field of media – Abhinandan Sekhri, Shoma Chaudhary, Ritu Kapur and Supriya Sharma. Anshul Tewari, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of YouthKiAwaaz.com, was the moderator.

“Digital media has really shot up in the last 7-8 years. Though it has received a fair share of criticism but it has emerged as a powerful tool for people to speak up,” said Anshul Tewari. “Yes, digital media is limited there is no denying but I think over the next few years it will go deeper,” said Ritu Kapur, co-founder- The Quint. They further went on discussing the impact of digital media to which Abhinandan Sekhri’s stance was very unambiguous. According to him it’s a screen and it doesn’t really matter whether it is NDTV or News Laundry or Scoop Whoop. Also, he said that he believes that the number of views is not a yardstick to judge whether something has impacted people or not, rather, it’s the time they are spending in reading it which speaks.

On comparing the online media with print, Supriya Sharma, recipient of the Chameli Devi Award, given for excellence in Journalism, pointed out that online media is an interactive media with young readership and a sense of feedback. For her it is really very exciting to be able to influence the young minds of the country.

Towards the end the panelists discussed free speech and reasonable restrictions to which Abhinandan responded by saying that he is an absolutist and does not believe that any restriction is reasonable. His opinion was seconded by Ms. Shoma but with two caveats, which were – factuality and incitement to violence. The session concluded with a question and answer session with the audience where in issues like gate keeping, hate speeches and corporate ownership were discussed.

The AdMad competition was judged by Professor Shikha Jhingan and Professor Vibhushan Subba, from the Department of Journalism at LSR. One team that stood out was the one given a “mind reader” to sell. Their mind reader was a pair of flashily lit glasses. Team 4, consisting of Khushwinder and Dhruv, from who advertised an online grocery store bagged the first position, followed by Team 8, Manan, Akhil, Ishan and Vikas from Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology. The second runner up was Team 10, consisting of Manan Batra and Tushar Singh from Sri Venkateswara College. 

Day 2, 9 October: Paper presentation, Panel Discussion, Media quiz

“Media presents to the audience what the audience wishes to see.” A paper presentation competition, Samantha vs. Savitri, organized by the Department of Journalism at LSR, kicked off the final day of their Annual Academic Meet – Juxtapose 2015. This platform acted as a podium where speakers presented their papers, on the question of representation of gender identities in 21st Century Sitcoms. The five participants present here had been shortlisted on the basis of their abstracts submitted much in advance. The event was judged by Ms. Abhija Ghosh, a student of Cinema Studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The presentations highlighted how women in particular are stereotyped as being submissive, prudent, and emotional with lack of strength. While the debate concentrated move over the roles of women, reference to other genders were also brought in by speakers. They mentioned how genders apart from the males and females are hardly mentioned as they are considered “unnatural”.

One of the participants, Sukanya, from Daulat Ram College, said, “Ironically, the small screen acts a harbinger of change”. But what change are we talking about if the whole concept of sitcoms dwell on reinforcing stereotypes in just a “funny or new” manner. Indian television serials show mainstream drama projecting the relationship between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law as being manipulative and competitive to gain the sympathies of the son/husband.” Another participant, Azra Qaisar, who also happened to be the winner of this event, quoted Naomi Wolf, “Women are allowed to have a body or brain but not both”. A student of LSR itself, her paper focused on the women characters in the famous American sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

The title of the panel discussion of Day 2 was Alternative vs. Mainstream Cinema, will the spectrums ever converge? The panelists on board were Mr. Pankaj Butalia, an award winning documentary filmmaker known for his films like Moksha and Textures of Losses; Mr. Aamir Bashir, a renown Indian actor and filmmaker, known for his work in films like Harud and A Wednesday; Mr. Adil Hussain, an Indian stage, film and television actor most known for his work in Life of Pi and English Vinglish; and Ms. Shohini Ghosh, is the Zakir Hussain Professor of media at the AJK Mass Communication Research Center, an essayist on popular culture and a documentary filmmaker. The discussion was moderated by Ms. Abhija Ghosh, who is a student of Cinema Studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University. The discussion began with the moderator asking each panelist to define what mainstream and alternative films are to them.

One particular analogy given by Shohini Ghosh, was that of “the king’s highway and the detours” referring to the mainstream and alternative films, respectively, was used extensively througout the debate. Ms. Ghosh looked more towards the intersection of the two ways, and the ways in which each has its own importance. She quoted the example of Christopher Nolan, as to how he converged the king’s highway and the detour to completely redefine film form. She said, she prefers the term ‘independent cinema’ over alternative cinema. Documentaries, she believes, create the ground for content based movies in the mainstream cinema and have an invisible network of screening and reaching the audience.

Mr. Aamir Bashir wondered where the “dung on the detours” would go with the “swachh abhiyaan” happening. He said that the problem was of appropriation of alternative into the mainstream and how the mainstream tries to proach the alternative. He questioned the distribution system and market economy and how these forces were not willing to back alternative content. He also clearly mentioned, how he wasn’t very optimistic for the future of alternative films in India.  

Mr. Butalia was concerned with documentaries and the lack of importance given to them in conversations about films in general, saying that it was “almost as if they do not belong to the category of films“. In the words of Mr.Batalia, we look at the “content” and “form” to distinguish between alternative and mainstream cinema. As the content gets more and more acceptable, it gets appropriated into mainstream media. The demands of commerce do not constrain the alternative film whereas a formula is literally laid out to govern the mainstream cinema; while the alternative cinema experiments more with the form. According to him, creativity is the defining factor in alternative media.

Adil Hussain said that all people who act, make or criticise movies are only human. Human nature and tendencies lead to mainstream media to be more widely accepted than the alternative, simply because it is more familiar and more acceptable to the masses. According to him, the greatest flaw in the medium of film is the need for money to begin making it. While comparing films to theatre, he mentioned how theatre needs no such investment. He defined alternative or more artistic films as those which put the characters and content under an electron microscope, giving them a completely new perspective rising from extreme curiosity and respect towards the arts.

The final event of Juxtapose 2015, was the media quiz. This year’s quiz was conducted by QuizCraft Global Knowledge Solutions.  The Quiz Master was Mr. Adittya Nath Mubayi, Director of QuizCraft Global. 

The quiz began with a preliminary round of 25 questions. A total of 65 teams participated out of which 6 made it to the final. Each team consisted of two members. To break the ice, Mr. Mubayi interacted with each of the final teams and asked them which journalist they would become, if given a chance, for 60 seconds.

The teams that made it to the final quiz had some really interesting names like Inter Galactic Hanuman Sena, Merry Pranksters and Bazingaa to cite a few. In the first round, each question was backed up by 2 hints. Each team had to recognize a person. First the audio was shown then the first hint would be a fact and the second would be the photo. Answering without using hints meant 60 points while it came down to 40 and 20 with the use of the first and the second hint respectively. The second round had direct oral questions. The third round was named Look here, Look hear which included audios and visuals. It covered questions right from the iconic interview with Princess Diana to who the voice of the Delhi Metro is. The fourth round again had direct questions. The last round was the buzzer round. This was a +40 and -20 round and had eight questions. The interesting part about the quiz was that each round began with a question from the audience and ended with the same and also when no team could answer, it was passed on to the audience. For every correct answer from the audience Amazon Kindle e-vouchers were given as gifts.

Team Chapter 11 which had Sreshth Shah of Amity University and Raletim of IGNOU won the quiz with a total of 440 points, they were given a cash prize of Rs. 5,000 and gifts from Support Foundation, Muskaan the NGO and Print Octopus. “The quiz was quite tough and interesting and we are lucky to win it,” said Sreshth Shah after his victory. They were followed by Merry Pranksters which had Gokul and Arunav, students of Atma Ram Sanatan Dharm College and Aryabhatt College. There was tie between LSR’s Bazinga and Gulabbo for the third position and with a tie breaking round, Team Gulabbo grabbed the third position. The runner ups were awarded with cash prizes and gifts from the sponsors.

Compiled by: Sakshi Jain Megha Kalia, Maitreyee Misra, Tanvi Jalan and Saloni Singla

 

Keep Reading
By
Lady Shri Ram College for Women

Amazon’s Kindle on Campus initiative in LSR

By
LSR amazon kindle

Amazon’s Kindle On Campus is an initiative to encourage reading amongst student communities and make it easier to do so through the Kindle app and device.

An interactive session with the Amazon leaders had students asking questions on the program and how they could get involved. The program started with a quiz where several students won Kindle vouchers.

LSR amazon kindle

The launch of Amazon Kindle on Campus program took place on 15th September 2015 at LSR at 1pm. The speakers of the session were Meenu Handa who’s the Director, PR of Amazon India; and,
Parthasarathy Madhukar, the head of Kindle For Education, Amazon India.

LSR amazon kindle

Ms. Meenu Handa eloquently spoke about Amazon’s leadership principles which had the audience awestruck.

The event was organised by the Placement Cell of LSR and the students were briefed about the program. 7 Kindle Evangelists were selected from LSR who were given Kindle Paper White and Kindle Evangelist kits.  These evangelists are to be the face of Kindle on campus.

LSR amazon kindle

This is Kindle India’s first program for Undergraduate students. Hence, it becomes a huge step towards integrating College students at root level.

Question and Answer round took place where the winners were gifted Kindle vouchers; and Amazon’s 14 Leadership principles were introduced during the session.

Shaina Ahluwalia

[email protected]

Image credits: Swastika Jajoo+

Keep Reading
By
Features

Chehel – an LSR’s graduate’s initiative for education

By

“If a child doesn’t understand the way we teach, perhaps we should teach them the way they learn.”

This clearly emphasises on our need to focus on child education through which every student is nurtured. Hence, we need to pull our attention to the need of the hour which is concentrating on educating the children who aren’t economically and socially in an advantageous situation.

It is from this notion that the concept of Chehel, an NGO which was started with an initiative of providing quality education to the children who cannot access such resources, germinated. Along with quality education, Chehel aims to provide overall development to the students through teaching. Since its inception in 2010 to the present, Chehel has seen many upheavals which have only strengthened its roots in providing the best to children and working more passionately towards the society.

Chehel is proudly imparting education to over sixty students presently and with the amount of hardwork and passion shown by both volunteers and the students, they aim to touch greater heights in coming days. Chehel believes, “If you don’t stand for child education, you don’t stand for much.” Enriching children with constructive knowledge, artistic skills and morals lays the first stone towards breaking the cycle of poverty and helping the children from the less-privileged section to lead empowered lives.

The initiative to bring the change was taken by Vrinda Loiwal, an LSR graduate, in 2010. Seeing children begging on streets left her feeling helpless and agitated.

She started teaching with 3 kids which gradually increased to 60 by May 2015. She was assisted by her juniors and friends, and after she graduated and moved out of Delhi, Chehel was sustained by her juniors. Year after year, senior Chehel volunteers graduate and their vacancies are filled by new faces.

Just like the word suggests, Chehel stands for movement, change and vibrancy. With such a noble endeavour, we wish Chehel all the very best!

Ishita Sharma

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
Lady Shri Ram College for Women

LSR holds three day conference – Where Women Lead

By

Following the course of dialogue set by the Academic Congress on gender held earlier in the year, Lady Shri Ram College held a three-day conference  from 31st march- 2nd April 2014- Where Women Lead, in association with the Women in Public Service Project, a global non-governmental initiative aiming to build a generation of women leader who would take responsibility to further the betterment of their countries.

The conference was held at the India International Centre and concluded at the college, it was supported by Ford Foundation India and the US Embassy. The conference saw educationists, policy makers, activists and performers all come together and interact with the students and the staff. The brainchild of college Principal Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath and Dr. Rangita De Silva De Alwis, head of the  Global Women’s Leadership Initiative at the Wilson Center, the conference witnessed a total of 14 sessions as well as multiple film screenings and performances. The inaugural address was delivered by Nancy Powell, former US Ambassador to India, who spoke about how women’s issues were not just women’s issues but also those of family, economy, security and justice and that violence blocks the participation of women in society. Her message to the gathering was short and clear- we must do more.

The sessions on the opening day, focused on the importance of academic institutions in public leadership,which saw educationists from India, Sri Lanka and the United States talk about the role of women’s colleges. Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh later addressed the delegates on what constitutes the private and the public and how these notions are highly gender-ed. The later sessions on law and rights hosted by acclaimed experts like Kamala Bhasin and Vrinda Groverhow talked about how human rights and women’s rights mean the same things and the importance of rights being accessible . Each session had a dedicated time slot for a Youth Speak round where the floor was open to questions and comments from the students.

The second day saw a series of dialogues unfold around democracy and equal (or unequal) participation, representation of women in politics and policy making, i.e., how it changes when women are at the helm. Aruna Roy, founder of MKSS, spoke about the need to go beyond voting and engage in alternative politics in order for women to exercise their rights as citizens, she also spoke about the big disconnect between formal leadership and the grassroots. Planning Commission member .Meanwhile, in a parallel session, women’s representation in top decision making bodies was discussed by a group of eminent party members from different South Asian countries. The day ended with the screening of Uma Chakravarti’s Fragments of a Past followed by a discussion with the filmmaker. An installation titled ‘Women in Movement’ was also showcased at the India International Centre on the first two days of the conference.

On the third day, all the sessions was held at the college itself; the day opened with the screening of an excerpt from Aung San Suu Kyi’s address to the college in November 2012. This was followed by a discussion by the faculty members on what leadership means to women and what happens when questions of caste, class and sexuality are woven into pre-existing gender imbalances. At the end of the session, it was clear that a feminist interpretation of leadership means collective leadership and this was reiterated by Dr. Gopinath in her closing speech when she quoted from Heider’s Tao of Leadership,” like water, the leader is yielding. Because the leader does not push, the group does not resent or resist.” 

After the screening of the critically acclaimed film Girl Rising, the faculty and the students split into two different venues where each group, after over an hour of deliberation, arrived at action plans at various levels. These plans were read out and adopted as a declaration and a similar conference is soon hoped to be convened in order to implement the plan and track the progress made. The evening ended with moving closing comments and Kaleidoscope- a series of evoking recitations and performances. Through the conference, the college and especially its students hope to bring forward women’s leadership which, as put by Hillary Clinton, remains the unfinished business of the 21st century.

Photo Credits: Sahiba Chawdhary, DU Beat

Keep Reading
By
Campus Central

Top Societies at Delhi University Fests: LSR for Western Music

By

Every year, societies from colleges across the campus compete neck to neck and put up spectacular performances during the fest season. This year too, saw certain teams shine a little brighter than the rest. We bring you a series with college societies that put their heart and soul into their respective fields and took home the top prizes at various cultural fests. The best college society in each category was selected by creating a tally of the top 3 positions at competitive events held during 13 cultural fests of this season. Whenever a society won the first prize they were award 3 points, for the second position they received 2 points and for the third position, 1 point was added to their tally. In the Western Music (Group) category, Lady Shri Ram College for Women’s Western Music Society leads the charts with 13 points in total. Sri Venkateswara College’s Crescendo follows a close second with 12 points, while Jesus and Mary College’s Echo stands third with 6 points.

The Winning Society at a glance

Western Music Society, Lady Shri Ram College for Women

Lady Shri Ram College’s Western Music society is well known for its acapella performances. Though they have covered a range of genres from Gospel to Indie music, their competitive piece is always a complex Jazz acapella arrangement. “We don’t practice for hours and hours every day. We just have a 1.5-2 hour practice session 5 days a week. But in that time, we make sure to channel our musical energies completely and make the most of our time. We are genuinely and truly fond of one another; we have the best times together as a society and as close friends. And coupled with our mutual love for music- it makes singing together a great experience”, shared the team. Performing Team Members: Kamakshi Khanna (President and Conductor), Abhilasha Sinha (Vice-President), Nolina Mishra, Kimberley Rodigues, Michri Thejaseno, Cindy Z Tlau, Anna Charenamai, Nandini Singha, Rhea Mahanta, Bhavya Kulshreshtha, Glory Salam, Varnika Prakash, Uttara Thapa M, Saakshi V Lama, Geyir Sora, Ankita Naik, Sanchia Thimanna, Sharanya S, Satwiki Adla. 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 8 had conducted a competitive Western Music (Group) competition.]]>

Keep Reading
By
Lady Shri Ram College for Women

LSR elects their Students’ Union for the upcoming academic year

By

Come every spring and the Lady Shri Ram College for Women’s campus comes abuzz with political fervor and elections become the flavor of the season. It is the time of the year when the baton is passed on from one generation of office holders to another. In a span of two weeks, the Students’ Union, the many departments and societies, the NSO (National Sports Organization), the NSS (National Service Scheme), the NCC (National Cadet Corps) and the Residence Hall all elect their new representatives.

As in a democracy, the elections process for the Students’ Union comprises of a series of steps. Nominations are filed, core teams for each candidate formed, agendas released, campaigns carried out and secret ballots cast. The process for the various department and society associations is not an as elaborate one; however, it is as democratic in its conduct.

DSC_8524
Students Campaigning. | Image Credit: Mugdha for DU Beat

The Students’ Union at LSR comprises of four posts- President, Cultural Secretary, General Secretary and Treasurer; the first three in that hierarchical order. The first two posts are open to all second year students and the second two to all first year students, the Union that gets elected replaces the incumbent Union at the end of the academic year in a formal Passing Over Ceremony. This year, the college saw a considerably overwhelming number of applications for all posts and an equally encouraging voter turnout. Three students each contested for the post of the President and Cultural Secretary, five for General Secretary and four for Treasurer. When asked why the aspiring candidates chose to contest, Lakshmi Venkitesh, who contested for the post of Cultural Secretary said that it was the best way to give back to a place that had changed her for the better in more ways than one.

While the informal confrontation saw demands like Urdu rap and English nursery rhymes in Hindi, the formal confrontation saw each candidate present her agenda and take questions from the from the existing Union and the audience. In the Group Discussion, questions like ‘Should the social media be used for college election campaigning’ were deliberated upon. These events were held with an aim to intimate the student body with their candidates’ ideas and outlook.

IMG-20140328-WA0010
Students Voting. | Image Credit: Keshini Dhamania

But at the end of the day, it was the campaigning that stole the show. The two day long campaigning saw the wackiest of slogans- ‘Janhit mein jaari hai, Sabika ki baari hai’ and ‘Main Jaya Jaya chillaungi kurta phaad ke’. With the amount of clamour, sometimes musical and sometimes not, it was quite the battle of the bands, albeit with cymbals and tambourines. “Our voice cords trembled as the tempo increased but the game was on”, says Shireen Vidrohi, a campaigner for one of the presidential candidates.

The week long elections remained largely hassle-free one and some great camaraderie despite the competitive air. After the polling was conducted on 28th March, 2014, the results were announced by college Vice-Principal Priti Dhawan the very same day. The newly elected Union has Sabika Abbas as the President, Manosi Chaterjee as Cultural Secretary, Jyotirupa Das as General Secretary and Latika Sidhu as Treasurer. “I wish the new Union luck and hope that will take the collaboration model further. Work hard and party harder“, says incumbent President Tanvi Bist who is happy to pass on the reins to Sabika who assures us that she will try her best to fulfill her agenda promises and will focus on the accommodation and integration of Hindi medium students into the college.

Featured Image Credit: Mugdha for DU Beat

Keep Reading
By
Lady Shri Ram College for Women

Inside LSR’s recently inaugurated academic complex

By

After the much-awaited inauguration of the new blocks by His Holiness The Dalai Lama, the students of Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) are only waiting to move in as soon as the new semester sets in. The new blocks, namely, the Dr. Bharat Ram Academic Complex and the Aung San Suu Kyi Centre for Peace are expected to provide state of the art infrastructure to the students as well as solve the space crunch problem for both academic and non-academic purposes. Paucity of space had become a major concern for most Delhi University colleges after the expansion of OBC seats in 2009. With the introduction of the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) and the number of active batches soon to be increased from three to four, this shortage is only expected to become worse.

The Centre for Peace has been constructed as an extension of the existing main building and has been envisioned as a centre for research and learning. A part of the centre is also to be used by the Department of Psychology. The Centre has been christened after the college’s most notable alumnus, Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The Dr. Bharat Ram Academic Block is an all new three-storey building which boasts of multiple lecture rooms and seminar rooms, an amphitheatre and an exhibition gallery along with a dedicated section to suit the technical requirements of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. Dr. Bharat Ram, after whom the block has been named, was an industrialist and educationist, the son of the college’s founder, Sir Shri Ram.

The interconnected and expandable lecture rooms of the new block, 16 in number, can accommodate 25 to 100 students depending upon the requirement. The seminar rooms too have the capacity to seat a hundred. The Manju Bharat Ram Conference Hall, named after the late educationist and Padma Shri awardee, is the biggest of such rooms. As of now, the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Department of Elementary Education have been allotted rooms in the block. However, the final allocation will take place only by the end of the academic year. Along with the amphitheatre and the exhibition gallery, another new feature is the Multipurpose Room that is expected to be at the students’ disposition for extra-curricular activities.

IMG_8275

A glass panel on the ground floor acknowledges the contribution of the people and the organizations that helped with the college meet the financial expenditure. The construction of the blocks has been funded in part by the university and in a big way by the alumni, faculty and college associations. The exhibition gallery showcases the journey of LSR through the years, highlighting significant events and turn points while at the same time stressing upon the principles that the college seeks to uphold. And the inner walls reiterate what the college stands for- Leadership with Social Responsibility, an alternative explanation of the acronym LSR, being one of them. With all that has gone into their making, these new blocks are set to carry forward the legacy of the red walls.

Image Credit: Kanchi Malhotra

Keep Reading
By
Lady Shri Ram College for Women

Dalai Lama addresses students at LSR, inaugurates new academic complex

By

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama visited Lady Shri Ram College for Women on the 20th of March 2014. Talking about morality, ethics and the idea of a healthy inner-self, he spoke on “Success, Ethics and Happiness”.

Initially scheduled to start at 12: 30, the spiritual leader arrived for the inauguration of the new academic complex at around 2 p.m. With the sound of the gong marking his arrival, he first inaugurated the Aung San Suu Kyi Centre for Peace and then the Dr. Bharat Ram Academic Complex. This was followed by the lecture in the auditorium.

DSC_7823

During his address to the audience at LSR, His Holiness spoke of inner-wealth, stating that inner-happiness was above all material wealth. With the ideals of universal responsibility, compassion and altruism dominating the speech, he also focused on social responsibility. While speaking to the set of young girls, he emphasised the importance of the female community to create a better 21st century. He believes that they should play a more active role to bring compassion and empathy to the world. He also appreciated India’s secular framework, stating that it was the only nation in the world where people of all faiths and religion lived together.

Coming to ethics, he spoke of ethics being a necessity for a peaceful and happier world. He says, “Success requires ethics. Ethical life means honesty. Honesty brings trust. Trust brings friendship. Friendship brings unity. Unity leads to a more peaceful world”.

 

His ideas were followed by a series of questions that members of the audience wanted to bring about in the discussion. Students and faculty raised questions about the definition of success as well as questioned ideas of whether happiness could exist without spiritual belief. The religious leader says that even non-believers can be happy as long as there is awareness. On defining success, he stated that when at the end you are at peace and happy, that is success.

lama

 

The event closed with the vote of thanks presented by the Students Union President of the college, Tanvi Bist. This was followed by Yashaswini Basu, the Cultural Secretary of the college presenting his holiness a long life prayer with the signature of students and it’s recital in Tibetan by the college students.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama will also be visiting Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) on the 24th of March on the occasion of the college’s Annual Day.

Image Credit: Mugdha for DU Beat

Keep Reading
By
Lady Shri Ram College for Women

Taking street theatre where it belongs: LSR Dram Soc performs play on prostitution at G.B. Road

By

Lady Shri Ram College’s (LSR) Dramatics society on 9th March, Sunday performed their annual street play production, “Jahaan Neelaam hai Insaaniyat” at G.B Road, New Delhi’s largest red light area. The play revolves around prostitution and talks about the rights of prostitutes and how it should be recognized as a profession and not looked down at with disgrace.

The performance was scheduled with legal police permissions with help of Khanabadosh – a theatre group of ex-Delhi University students who do street theatre only for public awareness.

At 12:30 PM, LSR Dramatics Society and Khanabadosh made a common call in the area before starting the performances. ‘Demo-crazy’ was the first play presented by Khanabadosh on politics. It talked about how democracy isn’t only the matter of voting and is formed by people and not politicians.

This was followed by ‘Jahaan Neelaam Hai Insaaniyat’ by LSR girls. The play had many spectators from all over the area. Chandu who was present there to watch the play said, “Hum zyadatar dukaandar log hai yahan jo dekh rahe hai, jinn log ko aap dikhaana chahte hain unhe koi baahar aane nahi deta.”

Performance attracted various actors from different college societies of the University. Members of an NGO, Kat-Katha which works towards the welfare of children of prostitutes were also present. Mr. Sandeep Rawat, founder of Samarth – an organization that does theatre with blind students of Delhi University was also part of the audience.

On asking about the security issues, Aishwarya – a student of LSR who had come to watch the play told DU Beat, “Yes, I had some fear in mind while coming to this area. But there was this nervous excitement as well. Theatre in the university is a mere source of winning competitions nowadays, but this step is very rare. This is where this play belongs.”

The play talked about the problems a woman in this profession has to face and how the men in our society are the leading force. It highlighted that most of the women are trafficked in our country and they don’t choose to be where they are. The play was written using various slogans that left the crowd teary-eyed like “Kya yehi vo duniya sanskari, jahan ghat ghat pe bikti nari” & “Woh auzaar thi, auzaar hai aur auzaar hi rahegi.” The play projected that the public does nothing for a woman who undergoes such trauma. “Hum to aaj ki janta, humein vaishya ki haalat se koi farak ni padta.” According to people in the audience, a small drawback for both the plays was that they had few dialogues in the English language. The message may not have been clearly delivered.

Talking about why a topic like prostitution was chosen, Nishtha Pandey – the society’s president said, “There are many preconceived notions about this matter. The incorrect fact with people is that 15% of the women choose this work on their own, whereas this percentage is only 2%. Myths regarding this subjects are not really myths. It is true that 60-70% of the women who are prostitutes are affected by HIV AIDS. Their condition is horrifying. Ours is a small step towards this.”

The president of the society also feels that addressing prostitutes as sex workers only glamourises the name and doesn’t gurantee any rights or respect. Hence the play used the term ‘prostitutes’ against ‘sex workers.’ The act also provided solutions in the end by mentioning that unionisation should be undertaken for these prostitutes to protect their rights as being done at Sonagachi, one of the biggest red light areas of Kolkata. The members of the society also said that they feel that finally the motive of making this play was achieved. Mr. Siddhant Sharma, the leading person behind organising this all also congratulated the artists from LSR.

But the most important question that arises here is that was the target audience actually targeted. As commented by a localite of that area the women are not allowed outside the brothels for any such happenings. Ramlal said, “Isse farak bohot kam padega. Aisa kaam jaari rakhna hoga jiske chalte logo ko zyada se zyada pta chalta rahe.” Due to this very fact, no questions were raised by people from the local audience during the question answer round. The team promised that they will try making efforts in this regards in the future as well.

“Kal ek vaishya ne kaha, ki aaj mujh par jung lag gya hai,
Kal tak jo mere dar aata tha, aaj wahi mujhse darr gaya hai.
Koi dalal ko kyun nahi tokta, kyun ilzaam mujh par hi lag gya hai,
Kal ek vaishya ne kaha, ki aaj mujh par jung lag gya hai.
Jab tak hum andekha karenge, tab tak chalegi haiwaniyat,
Mitta do unn hawaalon ki, jahan nilaam hai insaaniyat”

Keep Reading
By
Lady Shri Ram College for Women

LSR Genderknowledge Day 2: “Inhone apni awaaz uthayi – isiliye humne apni awaaz paayi”

By

The second day of Genderknowledge, the LSR Academic Congress saw yet another set of fantastic panels, lectures and performances, and yet another smitten, awed audience.

The first plenary of the day was called “Humari Awaaz Suno: Gender and Marginalized Voices”, which started with distinguished a panel of distinguished filmmaker Anand Patwardhan and exemplary scholar Gopal Guru, moderated by Dr. Sunalini Kumar, LSR Professor. Prof. S Thoarat, Chairman of the ICSSR was also to be there but could not make it due to ill health. The panel discussed in depth the operations of caste and gender in India – with Gopal Guru speaking about the institution of marriage (something unique to the human species) as performing almost arbitrarily, the function of reproducing caste. Anand Patwardhan showed the caste and gender nexus differently, but equally powerfully – through clippings of some of his most beautiful films – Waves of Revolution (Kranti ki Tarange) and Father, Son and Holy War (His famous film Jai Bhim Comrade has already been screened as a pre-congress event a few days back).

taxi

Session two gave us a different way of looking at gender and marginalized voices, with a panel consisting of renowned feminist writer and publisher Urvashi Butalia, Sunita Choudhary – north India’s first woman to become an auto rickshaw driver, Meenu Vadera (Secretary, Azad Foundation and Director, Sakha Consulting Wings Pvt. Ltd.) along with three women who drive Taxis at Sakha – Shanti, Saroj – the guest of honour though seemed implicitly to have been Baby Haldar, a domestic worker whose three books have been translated in multiple languages and read across the world. The session was moderated by LSR professor Dr. Nayana Das Gupta. Each of these women spoke of their lives, their experiences and many in tears.

The first half of the day also had a musical interlude by Azaad Parindey, a choir from Azad foundation. Azaad Parindey is a choir formed by a group of trainee drivers at Sakha. Their music was filled with inspiring lyrics, which the audience enjoyed a lot. The first half ended with the screening of the documentary “Fragments of a Past” by Uma Chakravarthy. Uma Chakravarty is a feminist historian. The documentary focuses on the life and works of a woman political activist. The screening was followed by a round of questions with Uma Chakravarty. The session was moderated by Bindu Menon.

The afternoon plenary was moderated by the Principal Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath and started with a lecture by the acclaimed Feminist theorist Mary.E John – her analysis on issues of violence and sexuality in India – especially discussions on the Ramisabi Case and the Mathura case were extremely intriguing. Further, she gave us a sense of the violence of exclusion in the Indian workspace – where only 15% women are getting paid for work.

This was followed by a documentary screening by filmmaker Shikha Trivedi, called Safe City Dialogues, which touched on many issues of how we look at safety, security, violence and gender.

March 6th also saw two round-table conferences on ‘Redefining Responsibility: Beyond Glass Ceiling’ with the first panel consisting of Mr. Pramod Bhasin, Former CEO, Genpact; Ms. Reema Nanavati, SEWA; Ms. Mitu Samar, CRISIL; Ms. Renu Kakar, Apeejay Surendra Group and Mr Ravi Mohan Sethi, Stellar Group of Companies. The second panel included Ms. Shahnaz Hussain, Shahnaz Herbal Inc.; Ms. Chavi Rajawat, Sarpanch, Soda Village; Mr. Rajnish Dutta, Yes Bank; Mr. Manav Subodh, Intel Corporation; Geetanjali Ghate and Ms. Jasmeet Kaur Srivastava, The Third Eye. The panel was moderated by Ms. Shweta Rajpal Kohli, Economic Affairs Editor, NDTV.

shehnaz

 Ms. Kohli sparked of the discussion by asking the students for the meaning of “glass ceiling” in the corporate sector. With this definition, Mr. Bhasin claimed that these constraints exist while Mr. Sethi advised the girls to be realistic about their aspirations, at the same time, Ms. Chavi blamed the education system for the restrictions on women. Ms. Mitu Samar mentioned that some companies are moving towards the change. Ms. Reema from her experience of working for SEWA explained that with appropriate facility and availability, women prove to be good risk takers.

The concluding panel of the day however, was most apt to end a discussion on violence – we had Bhawari Devi (a rape survivor from Rajasthan) tell us her story, giving us a sense of how much we do have today thanks to women like her who chose to fight it out. Dr. Gopinath beautifully introduced her with the words “Inhone apni awaaz uthai, isiliye humne apni awaaz paayi”. Kavita Srivastava from Vishakha, an NGO in Rajasthan that played a vital role in the Sexual Harrasment at the Workplace law spoke next, explaining the intricacies and complexities of Bhawari Devi’s story.

Image Credit: Sahiba Chawdhary

Keep Reading
By