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One Mind, A Million Thoughts: How to Deal with Them?

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The University of Delhi (DU) commenced its new academic session 2019-20 on 20th July 2019, with over 62,000 freshers joining the Varsity this year. Here are a few thoughts, fears, and anxieties that may be numbing the minds of all freshers, and how to cope up with them.

Freshmen hailing from all parts of the country (and some even from outside the country!) have started on their three-year journey with immense zeal and excitement. Apparently, there are a million thoughts flocking in the minds of the new-comers to the Varsity. The diversity in the student composition of the University is immense, and so is in their thoughts. Some possess a desire to shine out in the crowd, while some are willing to remain just the way they are.

But don’t worry, we are here to help! In pursuance of a better understanding of dealing with these thoughts, here are a few things that we did to make ourselves feel comfortable in the same space.

 

  • Nostalgia– This is one feeling that has clenched us every time an era has come to an end, and a new phase of life has started. Sometimes, being nostalgic is soothing. But more often, nostalgia is depressive, and restricts our ability to initiate a new start. Kashvi Verma, a first-year student in Political Science at Kirorimal College said, “I’ve been missing school a lot lately! I really didn’t think that would happen because I was too excited for college, but reaching here, I started to miss all the busy work schedules I had in school, all my friends, etc. I felt welcomed in school, but here it’s all so different, suddenly, that it makes me want to go back. But I am trying, to be comfortable with it.”

 

Coping Mechanism:-
Make new friends from your own batch, they are all on the same page as you, and you are all going to make some ecstatic memories together.
Start getting involved in your college’s societies which will keep you engaged and you will get lesser time to think about how the past made you feel more comfortable. (And believe it, this is all going to settle down in a while, just give it some time, that’s all it needs!)

 

  • “I don’t know how to make friends, I’m lonely!”– This feeling need not be stressed over much because everyone has had this coming back to us multiple times for the entire duration of the first semester at least. A lot of times we’ve heard freshmen exclaiming, “What if they (fellow batchmates) judge me for my appearance?”, “Whether I’m impactful enough or not?”, “What if everybody hates me already?” This is something that all of us have struggled with at the beginning of college but we’ve all met the same conclusion, that it will end very soon, and the end is going to be beautiful. Garvit Goswami, a first-year student in Economics at Shri Ram College of Commerce said, “Thankfully, I managed to make quite a few friends on the day of my admission and on the orientation. But if that wouldn’t have happened, I can only imagine how lonely I would have been for the entire first week

 

Coping Mechanism:
You need not break out of your eggshell right in the beginning, but eventually, when you start feeling a little comfortable and confident you will have to make an effort, too, to be able to interact with the people around you and make a space for yourself in this ‘group’.
Don’t be afraid of being judged, everyone with you is in the same place as you and are entangled in the same thoughts as you.
Be firm and confident about what you are wearing, and how you are behaving.
Have a friendly appearance with a welcoming smile-  you will end up making a bunch of friends.

 

  • Popularity– Bollywood has definitely created a very misleading impression about college life in its series of “Student of the Year”, “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” and “Main Hoon Na”. And let’s face it, everybody who’s been acing their fields in the micro-world of school, and comes to college thinking that the same will happen in the large world that you’re exposed to in college, actually has their hopes shattered as soon as the auditions and selection process for the co-curricular societies begins in the very first week. But by the time the third semester begins, the unknown ‘fuchchas’ start to make a name in the societies and in academics, and get to establish themselves in the place of their outgoing seniors. “I entered Hindu College as a little baby girl who needed real babysitting from her seniors. I was pissed at the very thought of having to speak to a senior for the smallest of things. Slowly when I started to realise what real college life was and joined the choreography society, I gathered the confidence to bunk classes, hang out with friends and have fun. The transformation from first-year to second-year is immense, and everyone going past this time will experience it for themselves,” said Urzica Chauhan, a second-year student of B.A. Program at Hindu College.

 

Coping Mechanism:
Join a Society! Societies not only help you polish your soft skills but also help you gain confidence and make a name for yourself.
Try and make friends with the seniors from your department. They’ll help you settle down in the department easily.

 

  • Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)– Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO as we call it, is the anxiety and stress that almost every new-comer to college experiences. It is the stress of having missed out on seemingly important stuff while acquiring other tasks/goals. Mostly FOMO is linked to tasks/goals that your friends are pursuing. Since they’re different from the ones you are acquiring, you fear that you probably missed out on important and seemingly life-changing opportunities, and thus start to become prey to it.

Coping Mechanism:

Chill out a bit! College has millions of opportunities to offer, and all of them will come your way. It’s okay to have missed out on a few to prioritise the ones you chose in the first place.
You need to imperatively stop comparing yourself with your friends/batch mates. Understand, that they are different people, with different insights and interests, and it is not important that whatever comes your way, also comes their way, and vice versa. At the end of the day, you will have to prioritise yourself, your choices, and your lives over theirs.

With this being said, we hope that all of our readers who are undergoing these pressurising thoughts, will come out of them as stronger, more mature individuals, and be able to face the real world of college with a more courageous instinct.

 

Feature Image Credits: The New York Times

Yaksh Handa

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DUB Speak

To the Batch of 2022

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Here is a note from our Editors to help you embrace a world that feels new and scary (but not for too long).

  • Facing the Transition: School to College

NBC once used to air a sitcom called Community. Troy Barnes, one of the lead characters is a high school jock, but at Greendale College, hardly anyone raises a brow seeing him. It’s initially disappointing but eventually, Troy finds his weird bunch of friends and enjoys his life of leading the not-so-popular life in college.

The highlights of every school are its star students – the trophy-kissing champions, the high-ranking class toppers, the big-mouthed debaters, artists, writers, quizzers, and so on.

However, if the competition keeps decreasing, and hardly puts sweat on one’s brow, then one might succumb to pride and arrogance. Luckily, after high school, if you get enrolled in an educational institution like the University of Delhi (DU), it becomes an enlightening destination for a much-needed reality check.

Many ex-head boys and head girls, school toppers, the ones that might have worn the ‘Mr Popular’ and ‘Miss Popular’ sash in their farewell, would feel disillusioned because the world of college needs starting over.

You see, there are hardly any Karan Johar-style heroes in the college, hardly any people around whom the whole world revolves; it is like this film set and we are all members of the supporting cast.

The school debating champion might make a face on hearing better intellectual arguments made by members of various debating societies. The conventional poet from secondary school might now explore more spoken-word genres in the college literary circuit. Your magnificent high school self might look like a watered-down version of itself in college.

Therefore, it is up to us whether to continue fussing over having lost our high school glory or whether to pick up the pieces and work on building a new glory all over again.

In the end, Andy Samberg’s lines from the 2016 film Popstar would best sum it up – “Sometimes, you’re up. Sometimes, you’re down. But the trick is not to lose yourself along the way.”

  • Mental Well-being in College

College is a rollercoaster ride, with many ups and downs. Keeping up psychological wellness may appear to be a simple activity, yet a number of students battle to make that a priority in view of the measure of work they put in, consistently. They have a regular course with assignments, projects, extracurricular activities, sports, internships, along with a social life and 24 hours isn’t sufficient time in a day. The path to graduation, while maintaining a balance between social life and good grades is definitely not easy especially for the students just transitioning to college where, just a few months ago, they had to raise their hand to use the bathroom!

To the batch of 2022, you will endure stressful situations in your first-year. But it is important to not let that sink you and to find ways to cope with it. The experience of first-year is always sublime; suddenly, you are not a kid who would ask permission from their parents to go out, but a responsible person who will make wise and responsible decisions about their own life.

The pressure of fitting into the University culture can take a toll on your mental peace. You might end up thinking that you are not the perfect kid you used to be in school, and in reality, you might just not be and there is nothing wrong with it. The best way to maintain peace is to not compare yourself to others. This comparison leads to unrealistic expectations from oneself which makes us blame ourselves for certain things and situations that are beyond one’s control. Sometimes, we can be really harsh on ourselves without realising.

  • Coping Tactics

The toll your health takes on the distance from the familiarity of your home, maybe city, and definitely your school is also influenced by an intense need to compete (sometimes, you don’t even realise what you are competing for). This, to some extent, is not limited to a particular year in college. We do exactly what Yuval Noah Harari warned us against – “Nothing should be taken for granted, even if everybody believes it.” We take for granted the fact that it is a do-or-die world and college is the place to chisel yourself for it.

It takes some time to make peace with the fact that it could be a do-it-if-it-feels-okay or you-will-learn-it or you-do-not-want-to-do-it world, depending on how you navigate your way around the myriad of new opportunities that college offers. In fact, the very belief that it is your only chance to determine the course of your life by picking the right course in the best college, and hopefully getting it. Not being able to achieve it is disheartening, but inevitable for many considering that DU received 2,78,574 applications in the 2018-19 admissions season, and the odds of each individual aspiration being achieved with this number are moderate at best. Even probability, dear aspirants, is telling you to calm down and relax.

Marks and awards have always mattered, and will always matter in a materialistic world, but they will never be the endpoint of that world. For the sake of your health, a good rule of thumb would be to let go of your 18-year-old conditioning gradually, because it has prepared you to think of an ‘unseen, looming’ future. Everything has been justified to you – the cost of your deteriorating body strength and your mental well-being – by arguing that there is a brighter, safer, and more ‘stable’ future you are securing with the endless toiling. But the crux of the matter is – there will always be a future to be scared of and to chase, in true oxymoronic fashion. However, the present – right here when you are stepping into your college class for the first time – demands that you take things at your own pace and don’t participate in a race that tires you. It’s your year, and your life, no matter how many cut-offs or forms or society acceptances you think give it meaning- you choose, starting now, to pick your pace and path. In this new journey of life, have faith in yourself. As Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh says, “Promise me you’ll always remember – you’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

With Love,

DU Beat Editors

 
Feature Image Credits: Debaangshu Sen for DU Beat

 

Anoushka Sharma

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Anushree Joshi

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Shaurya Singh Thapa

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Beyond the Obvious of Delhi University Colleges

2019 So Far: Exploring the First Trimester of the Year

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With the first three months of the year gone, let us look back at how these months went ahead for us and what will the rest of the year have in store for us.

In the blink of an eye, I remember dosing off to sleep at 4 a.m. on 1st January, after all the New Year wishes were attended to, and now as the fourth month of this year has started, I simply wonder how and where did these three months go.

The first trimester of the year, for any student of University of Delhi (DU) is absorbed in the fest season, either in attending it or as a participant running every other day for competitions in some or the other hosting college. The intensity of the course takes a back seat with the incessant strikes, which we callously enjoy, without truly acknowledging their purpose.

I would like to ask a simple question- all of us make resolutions, but, do we even stick to them? While I genuinely don’t believe in the concept of making resolutions particularly when the calendar flips the date to 01/01, I believe any time can be the perfect time to turn over a new leaf. Without digressing further, let me get back to my question. What is the strategic realism to these resolutions, as I feel hardly a few make it past the first week of their marked promises, before narrowing back to their old lifestyle. Annie Rana, a literature student of Maitreyi College feels, “The fact that every week, month or situation asks out of us different ways to react or behave, so keeping resolution as a sole means to discipline, won’t really help.”

As every year has something or the other in it, something to look forward to, 2019 has so far witnessed a lot in these three months. Talking about the personal, national and the international front, we have faced a tough three months to begin with, and while the next trimester has already started, the election fury will reign over as the midtown madness this summer. The next trimester will look forward to ‘voting for the first time’ for a majority of us, or having to take career related choices, or entering a new path of life, every demarcation of the calendar has been split with a beautiful finesse.

“Every month, I track my growth. Some acts are bound to be childish, but I tend to see a progression in the maturity,” says Heena, a student of Maitreyi College as she looks at her journey in 2019 so far. To map out your journey is a really important thing and when most of us miss out on this, a sense of existential crisis hits us. To look back when I started college, the change from 2017 to 2019, not just as a big bracket of 730 days, but as the mental growth which chartered into me is also something which can be represented as a progressing draft, in the fourth quadrant!

The sentiment that each year holds is also important. As I look at the batch which will graduate this year, 2019 marks as this primal year which will witness a major change in them, and while the three months which buzzed past us, have gone, the sinking of them in the memory and action won’t. It was a series of lasts. Talking to my seniors I could figure out how every competition, every fest, every department activity associated with the college, would be their last, and with that emotion flaring in, the efforts, the smile and the hidden tears were a mixed bag of emotions through the entire three months. As this month will go ahead as the ‘vidaai’ or the farewell time for them, the bucket-full of memories they take on with them is sublime.

To 2019 so far, you haven’t been particularly kind, and I don’t expect you to get sweet and mellow, anytime soon. Conclusions are sweeter, cathartic. I have been exhausted and drained completely, and in these three months, the motivation has been sucked out of me, too bad the exams are right around the corner. As the summer will settle in with the hope of getting off a daily routine, i.e. college, I will find a relief (I suppose so),  from the experience which was- the daily running to Sadar Bazaar, as the department and college fests lined up, being on the phone 24×7, for sponsorships, scripting my real conversations as well! To not being able to take time out with the friends and sit in the comfort or solace of each other like we do as a routine, to finding the infinitesimal balance between studies, society, interning and working in a media house, to forming mental ticks in my mind as the work load started gliding away, one after the other, swiftly, to sitting back and sipping tea in nostalgia and having the worst phase of constant bouts of low self-esteem and worth, to finding the phase of confidence back, I can say these three months took a lot from me and gave me back a bitter sweet collection of everything.

To 2019, I promised myself this year will be a sole devotion to travel and exploration- the physical and the mental aspect of this duality. And as every month, a new travel destination finds its spot in my heart and I set forth to plan it out, every place I visit, makes a spiritual connection within me and with this hope, the year will progress with its own set of ups and downs which I will look forward to with an open heart.

Image credits: DU Beat

Avnika Chhikara

[email protected]

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Beyond the Obvious of Delhi University Colleges

2019 So Far: Exploring the First Trimester of New Year

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With the first three months of the year gone, let us look back at how these months went ahead for us and what will the rest of the year have in store for us.

In the blink of an eye, I remember dosing off to sleep at 4 A.M. on the first of January, after all the New Year wishes were attended to, and now as the fourth month of this year has started, I simply wonder how and where did these three months go.

The first trimester of the year, for any University of Delhi (DU) student is absorbed in the fest season, either in attending it or, as a participant, running every other day for competitions in some or the other host college. The intensity of the course takes a back-seat with the incessant strikes, which we callously enjoy, without truly acknowledging their purpose.

I would like to ask a simple question- all of us make New Year’s resolutions, but, do we even stick to them? While I genuinely don’t believe in the concept of making resolutions particularly when the calendar flips the date to 01/01, I believe any time can be the perfect time to turn over a new leaf. Without digressing further, let me get back to my question. What is the strategic realism to these resolutions, as hardly a few make it past the first week of their marked promises, before narrowing back to their old lifestyle. Annie Rana, a literature student of Maitreyi College, feels, “The fact that every week, month, or situation asks out of us different ways to react or behave, so keeping resolution as a sole means to discipline (yourself), won’t really help.”

As every year has something or the other in it to look forward to, 2019 too has witnessed a lot so far in these three months. Talking about the personal, national, and the international front, we have faced a tough three months to begin with, and while the next trimester has already started, the election fury will reign over as the midtown madness this summer. The next trimester will look forward to ‘voting for the first time’ for a majority of us, or having to make career-related choices, or entering a new path of life; every demarcation of the calendar has been split with a beautiful finesse.

“Every month, I track my growth. Some acts are bound to be childish, but I tend to see a progression in the maturity,” says Heena, a student of Maitreyi College as she looks at her journey in 2019 so far. To map out your journey is a really important thing and when most of us miss out on this, a sense of existential crisis hits us. To look back when I started college, the change from 2017 to 2019, not just as a big bracket of 730 days, but as the mental growth which chartered into me is also something which can be represented as a progressing draft, in the fourth quadrant.

The sentiment that each year holds is also important. As I look at the batch which will graduate this year, 2019 marks as this primal year which will witness a major change in them, and while three months have buzzed past us, the sinking of them in the memory and action won’t. It was a series of lasts. Talking to my seniors, I could figure out how every competition, every fest, every department activity associated with the college, would be their last. With that emotion flaring in, the efforts, the smile, and the hidden tears were a mixed bag of emotions through the entire three months. As this month will go ahead as the ‘vidaai’ or the farewell time for them, the bucketful of memories they take on with them is sublime.

To 2019 so far, you haven’t been particularly kind, and I don’t expect you to get sweet and mellow, anytime soon. Conclusions are sweeter, cathartic. I have been exhausted and drained completely, and in these three months, the motivation has been sucked out of me (too bad the exams are right around the corner). As the summer will settle in with the hope of getting off a daily routine, i.e. college, I will find a relief (I suppose so), from the experience which was- the daily running to Sadar Bazaar, as the department and college fests lined up, being on the phone 24*7 for sponsorships, scripting my real conversations as well! From not being able to take time out with the friends and sit in the comfort or solace each other like we do as a routine to finding the infinitesimal balance between studies, societies, interning, and working in a media house, from forming mental ticks in my mind as the work load started gliding away, one after the other, swiftly, to sitting back and sipping tea in nostalgia and having the worst phase of constant bouts of low self-esteem and worth, and finding the phase of confidence back; I can say these three months took a lot from me and gave me back a bitter-sweet collection of everything.

To 2019, I promised myself this year will be a sole devotion to travel and exploration- the physical and the mental aspect of this duality. And as every month, a new travel destination finds its spot in my heart and I set forth to plan it out, every place I visit, makes a spiritual connection within me and with this hope, the year will progress with its own set of ups and downs which I will look forward to with an open heart.

Feature Image Credits: Eastside Projects

Avnika Chhikara

[email protected]

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DUB Speak

Why New Year Resolutions Don’t Always Work

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Everybody wants to work on themselves and be a better version of them. However, it is really difficult to let go of old, bad habits, and form new ones, especially on New Year since the expectations from oneself is tremendously high at the start of the year.

It’s the last week of December and you thought that this year would be different. This year, you would not slack and procrastinate to the point of self-sabotage. You make new resolutions, maybe not publicly, maybe in your mind, and decide to stick to achieving it by putting in the work required. It can be anything ranging from paying more attention to your academics, being more kind or as cliché as going to the gym regularly.

Cut to the New Year and it’s the third day of the year and you find yourself staring at the ceiling giving up the resolutions you made, the promises you made to yourself. Is there a reason why nobody seems to stick up to their resolutions, except for those highly- motivated and high functioning adults? Maybe we give up too easily, maybe we never really wanted it that much, maybe we have accepted that New Year resolutions are bound to fail and that everyone fails and you’re not alone. Now, this aim of yours ends up staying on that resolution list with no physical evidence.

You don’t need to wait till the end of December to make yourself better, but sometimes New Year can be a great way to push yourself to make better, smarter goals for yourself. Here are a couple of tips for your new year’s resolutions:

  1. Be specific: Don’t say I want to ‘get fit’. Let’s make it a quantifiable goal – I want to weigh 5 kilos more or 5 kilos less by this date.
  1. Be reasonable: Don’t take too much into your plate. You won’t magically be an Olympic athlete by December, and you won’t suddenly have no urge to smoke if you’ve been smoking for a while. Old habits die hard. So, keep your goals attainable.
  1. Plan your journey: You won’t suddenly know what the right steps are into being a happy, healthy person in 2019. Unfortunately, there’s no manual. You have to know yourself, and plan out what steps you wish to take along the way. Make weekly and monthly sub-goals.
  1. Expect rough patches: You won’t have great workout days all year round. You won’t succeed all the time when you’re trying to manage your anger. Sometimes you will slip, and smoke one cigarette, or eat a packet of cookies. Expect setbacks, and learn to bounce back from them.
  1. Expect demotivation: This is the part where we all seem to hit a major roadblock. What do I do when I just don’t feel like it? The trick is to preempt your brain’s lazy response. Make a plan for exactly what to do, when you don’t feel like it, and how you can push yourself.
  1. Reward yourself: You’re doing a lot of work, mentally and physically, in just trying to work on your goals. No matter how small or trivial your task seems to be, reward yourself! Remind yourself of how far you’ve come, and how much you’ve accomplished!
  1. Guilt is bad for you: Feeling guilty about not doing as much as you had hoped, having a setback, and general deviations from your plan can actually be counterproductive. If you obsess over just how much you’ve failed, and not your wins, you’ll have a hard time progressing.

Hopefully, at the end of the year you find yourself satisfied with all the hard work you did to achieve that goal of yours and make new resolutions to make yourself even a better person.

Feature Image Credits: Naijaloaded

Disha Saxena

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DUB Speak

New Year, New You: Why Change is Important

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They say change is the only constant, but ever wondered why change is so integral in our lives? Let us figure out how 2019 brings in the change for us!

 

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”- Socrates.

Every day and every hour, every moment in our lives we come across situations which stay embedded in our minds forever. How to grow from it, how to incorporate lessons learnt and how to develop a more positive attitude towards life, that remains the real challenge. Change is subjective. To each their own journey. But what is important to learn is that each year demands a new you. By that being said, it means every year will have in store their own share of experiences for you to unravel and accustom to. Each year is a beautiful journey of three hundred and sixty five days waiting for you and testing you at every minute.

In The Greatest Salesman on Earth, OG Mandino said, “I will live this day as if it is my last. …I will waste not a moment mourning yesterday’s misfortunes, Yesterday’s defeats, yesterday’s aches of the heart, for why should I throw good after bad?’’. There is always a hesitancy to adapt to something new. Think of it like a small child meeting a stranger and feeling somewhat scared. We are so accustomed to depend upon and live in the past that it entrusts us into a sense of complacency.

The beauty of change lies in the parallel beauty of unpredictability. We cannot always be assured of what the future holds in for us. We ‘invest’ in our future through the actions of the present and the past. So, what or how exactly can we bring change? The answer is simple, but requires determination. The answer is introspection. Reflect on the actions; see how this year went by. You will feel gushes of love, hatred, regrets, and all a stew of different but normal emotions. How to amalgamate and take the best actions forward to the next year, while promising to improve the mistakes of the past year is how you really experience change. Change is a constant learning. Change does not always have to be associated with something grand. Exhibit change in small actions. For example, you smile more, you cry more, you laugh more, you hurt less, you listen more, you stress less and the train of list goes on.

Let change be the vocabulary of the soul. Let it garner what you wish to be. And so, as humans, in our mortal life, every year, in fact every day presents us a new chance. It lets us make mistakes but only at the chance of learning from them. You know what you need to do once the clock strikes twelve and your phone is buzzing with New Year messages. You sit back, close your eyes and rewind 2018. The good and the bad. Be vulnerable, as that is how you can be intimate to your feelings. Be very honest to yourself. Keep it as personal as you wish, because it is your journey and you are the sculptor, design it, break it, mold it and reconstruct as long as you reach the finale or the end.

Hence, here’s to wishing you a new year and with a high hope the year presents beautiful opportunities for personal growth!

 

Feature image credits: livemint

 

Avnika Chhikara

[email protected]

 

 

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Arts & Culture

Ideas for a Pocket-friendly New Year’s Party

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Organising a new year’s party can be tricky business.

There’s a lot to account for and take care of- food, drinks, decoration, lighting, music, guest lists, etc. The sheer profundity of the list is quite overwhelming in itself. On top of that, the fact that in the end we’re all students and are hence almost always financially insecure, can create more issues for us rather than solve them. To make things a little bit easier, we at DU Beat present to you a catalogue of ways in which you can have a pocket-friendly new year’s party.

 Here’s what you can do:

1. No Decorations:

If you’re exceedingly low on budget while planning a party, you might want to do away with decorations altogether. Afterall, eventually you just make a huge lump of the waste decorations and toss them into trash. Hence, by avoiding them, you might end up saving on a fortune. The best part is, you won’t even have to make the effort of taking them off once the party is over.

2. Chic-styled decorations, if no decoration is not an option:

If you can’t say NO to decorations out of your sheer love for a humble ambience, you may want to settle for classy, chic, yet pocket friendly themed décor style. For example, dual tone interiors with black crockery and a white table cloth, sprinkled with black glitter, can create a real classy ambience at a pocket-friendly cost.

3. Re-use of left-overs from the festive season:

Since the New-Year’s party falls just a couple days after the Festive Season of Christmas, you can even try re-using things from the Christmas party. For example, empty liquor bottles can be placed all around to give an aesthetic appeal to the place. Similarly, Cartons from boxing day can be re-used for storing food items. In fact, you can even re-use fairy lights from Christmas to lighten up the room.

4. Food

You don’t necessarily have to have a full-fledged 4 course meal for your guests during the party. New Year is the time of festivity and carnivalesque spirit. Even though food is considered to be the biggest bundle of joy by some, New Year’s Eve is still a time frame when people devote more of themselves to dancing and revelry, rather than hogging on food. Thus, you may decide to cut down on the number of food items that you place. An alternate to organising all the food by yourself, is a potluck, where each guest brings one dish. After all, tis’ the Season to be generous! 

5. Avoid Bonfires

New Year’s Eve witnesses a customary phenomenon in most cultures- the lighting of the Bonfire. Although it is more or less a part of a tradition now, but we must note that the materials needed for the bonfire- wood and the fuel needed to trigger initial combustion may take up a substantial amount of your budget. It is thus more like literally burning your money. Also, we live in an environment that already reels under pollution. Hence, Bonfires are not a good idea, and therefore, must be avoided.

Feature Image Credits: Toledo City Paper

Aashish Jain

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DUB Speak

The False Consolation That A New Year Brings With It

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The New Years are a time of utmost revelry and celebrations, where people come together to welcome the new year. However, what is really so new about new year, except a change in the calendar?

A century lasts for 100 years. A year constitutes 12 months with 30 days in it. It is an endless, repetitive cycle wherein everyone crosses off the same dates in the calendar in their kitchen every year, yet with a different digit at the end of the year itself. The point being, that time is a social construct, packaged into minutes and hours and days and years, every passing minute, every tick on the clock, a glaring reminder that the “time” that has passed is not to return and each second spent unproductively, is each second gone to waste. This again is a reminder of how in this super competitive, goal-oriented era, we are also addled with this pressure to do well and “make every second count’. Sure, this is also somewhat a product of capitalism that prevails in society, which has completely altered our mindset and made us believe so.

Now at the end of every year, people adorn their party shoes or choose to stay back at home instead and order-in pizza. On the last day of December, the ball drops in Times Square, there is mad celebration and festivities all around the world, adhering to different time zones.  Every first day of the month January, the old calendar hits the bin and is replaced with the one with a new digit at the end. Whatsapp messages are circulated around, wishing health, peace and prosperity, the same old jargon. New year resolutions are made, mentally by the adults and jotted down on colourful sticky notes by children. The same old reiteration of resolutions that didn’t see the light of day last year, some being of course, false promises of going to the gym, or traveling more in the upcoming year.  All in all, there seems to be a very peculiar way in which people seem to celebrate the arrival of a new year, that in fact, has nothing new in it at all. Your life is still going to be the same; you’ll return to the same house, same job, same family. Of course, it will have its share of change in it, change is the only constant, and something that doesn’t really have to do anything with the new year.

Sure, I do have my share of complaints with this whole idea of ‘new year, new beginnings’’, but I also do accept the fact (quite grudgingly) that this false consolation can almost be appositive and not just another reason to party. This whole pessimistic rant comes from a very dark, rather too rational a place, however, if we were to look at the bright side, new year’s do bring about a certain hope in the hearts of people, and a certain break from the everyday monotony. Even if I were to debate about the legitimacy of this, it wouldn’t still be able to take away the fact that sometimes this new beginning brings with it the kind of encouragement and motivation that we need to go on with our lives, and one which we desperately seek time to time, and this, somehow, outweighs it all.

Feature Image Credits: Festival Sherpa

Anoushka Singh
[email protected]

 

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Offbeat

Things To Look Forward to in 2019

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With a new year approaching, we step into a whole different arena of possibilities that are up for grabs in the coming year.

If you can already feel the crispness in the air, the inkling of a little something called hope in your hearts, then my friend, you’ve stepped into that time of the year that marks the end and beginning of something. With the whole excitement surrounding the new year, here are a few things one can look forward to this upcoming year.

  • ICC Cricket World Cup 2019

For all cricket fans, this year brings a wave of excitement, as soon enough it will be the beginning of the World Cup season when patriotism reaches its all-time high. Fans and non-fans alike will get together and watch India-Pakistan matches(and all the other too of course) with similar fervour, rather than executing fights over the TV remote. India won the World Cup last time in 2011, a very historic victory indeed, and it would be a treat to watch something similar. Here’s hoping for the best!

  • General Elections 2019

Another tussle, a war of words this time around, will ensue with each party fighting over votes. Will BJP retain its throne, or will it be over-thrown, we need to wait and watch. On second thoughts, don’t. It is important to be an active participant in the political functioning of the country and be politically aware. If you are above 18, rather than busying yourself in making a fake ID, get yourself a voter Id card and cast your vote for your preferred candidate.

  • Too Many Long weekends

You can start planning weekend getaways and trips to your nearby hill station, or you can choose to just sit back and relax, because 2019 has about 14 long weekends at its disposal, making room for a lot of leisure and relaxation this year. Don’t miss out on the opportunity and start planning already.

  • Movies to Look Forward to

A series of our favourite animated movies are coming up with there sequels, like Frozen 2, How to train your dragon 3, The Lego Movie 2, Toy Story 4, and the list goes on. It almost seems like It’s the year of sequels with Jumanji 2 and two new X-Men movies coming out. Here’s hoping that the sequels live up to their prequels.

  • Game Of Thrones season 8

Now a lot of people might just not share the same amount of excitement but it seems fitting to include the release of the final season of GOT on the list. The spoilers and the memes that have been a source of discussion for the viewers and the non-viewers alike will finally reach its culmination in 2019, wrapping of the story of the seven kingdoms. Truly the end of an era.

 

Feature Image Credits: Abhinav Chandel Photography

Anoushka Singh
[email protected]

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DUB Speak

New Year, Same Old Clichés

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With a new year comes a series of promises and resolutions disguised as “new”, which are, in fact, the same old overused clichés that we never seem to follow.

 At the end of every year, emotional messages are sent out, bad habits are let go of, reunions are organised, and apologies are made, along with the promises of a fresh start. But there’s something about the first week of January that makes all of us go back to our old selves.  We turn back to the same old things we wanted to run away from in the hopes that the new year would bring a sense of closure. Who knew “starting afresh” came with an expiration date? The closure that every new year brings is only an illusion that comes with the ghost of a happy feeling; we smile and laugh as we adjust to our new routine, until we get tired and fall back into the accustomed pattern that we have been unable to escape from.

So what’s the point of celebrating something that’s so short lived? Do we seek satisfaction in finding temporary closure through the same old clichés? We make our resolutions based on our insecurities that surface the year before, in the hopes that we will overcome them in the coming one. But the end of a year isn’t going to stop bad things from happening to us – there will still be problems and situations and stress we don’t want to deal with. And we will learn, cope, and overcome as we go, because that’s how life works – not because you made a list when you were half drunk on the last night of the year.

We make a list of things that we think lead us to the “right” way to live life, but we forget to add the things that actually make us happy. The pressure of “new year, new me” forces us to set a time limit to improving ourselves, but being a better version of yourself doesn’t come with a change in the date. A minor change in the calendar doesn’t mean you have to leave everything behind, uproot your existing life, and become a “new” person. What matters is if you’re a better person. I believe in celebrating my growth at the end of the year. Was I kind to my loved ones? Did I push myself to my best? Am I proud of my achievements? These are some of the questions I ask myself, looking back at where I was a year ago. Our list of resolutions for the new year should only have one: do everything that will make you proud of yourself at the end of the year, and then do it again.

 

Anagha Rakta
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