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

sign off

Browsing
DUB Speak

The Rants and Preachiness of a Student Storyteller; Shaurya Thapa’s DU Beat Biopic Pitch; Signing Off Web Editor 2019-2020

By

Here are a few words by the Heads at DU Beat, sharing the experiences which built their journey, as they bid adieu to this family. While this journey comes to an end, the memories last forever, Shaurya Thapa, Web Editor 2019-2020, shares his honest words with us.

All right, all right, all right, where do I start? I joined DU Beat aka DUB aka DU ‘Beats’ (as some people call it) in my second year. I was a closeted kid in school, in the sense that I didn’t question or observe many things around me. I didn’t do that cause’ I never cared about what’s happening.

Then, some amount of maturity did come to my head in College. That way, I feel blessed that I got a shot to study in North Campus. I saw a lot of anger, bitterness, communal emptiness. Everyone seemed to have their own issues. I interacted with rebels, closeted rebels, intellectuals, pseudo-intellectuals, artists, academics, Vella observers, potheads, extremists, radicals, feminists, sexists, bigots, pacifists, everyone. And everyone had a different story to tell.

I took a course called B.A. History (Hons) and while I don’t aim to be an IAS officer (like many History students from Hindu College become) or a Historian, I did get inspired by the scribes that I have read about in the history of various empires. I became a storyteller, a communicator of the different tales that the different subjects of the kingdom of North Campus told me.

And that’s what prompted me to join DUB, a place where I got to learn new things. I started questioning the morality behind institutions, protests, people, ideals, and a lot of other concepts.

It has been quite a trip under people like Niharika Dabral (ex-Associate Editor of DU Beat, fun fact-she’s the one who took my interview) and Rishabh Gogoi (ex-Head of Photography) and correspondents like Priyanshu and Faizan.

Now, let’s get to the other side. Throughout my tenure as a Correspondent and the Web Editor, I have also got a mock corporate culture-like session from DUB. I have realised that there are people who can snitch on you, who can betray your trust, be problematic and hypocritical, etc. It’s funny to see some people in the team who post all consciously woke feminist stories on their Instagram, who click photos or write reports on pride parades.

But then at the same time, these very same people might not think twice before using words like a ‘chakka’ as a funny slur, people who might feel that ‘Harassment toh hota rehta hai. Why should we issue a note that Stan Lee was allegedly involved in harassment cases on the day he died? We should respect his legacy’, people who would ‘slut-shame’ fellow people and judge them by their preferences in men, women, or whomsoever involved. Fights, ‘bitch fights’, ‘behind-the-back’ fights, I have observed enough people with their share of this in DU Beat at times.

All I’m saying is that maybe such differences in opinion and problematic behaviour might be common in society. All we can do is maturely handle such matters and try speaking up whenever possible. In some cases, I have been a silent observer and I will have my regrets for those times.

On the positive note, some of the double-faced/problematic people that I faced have actually improved a little over the past few months. And I’m really glad about that. The others who are still ‘dheet’, I just pity those lost souls.

Anyway, enough with the preachiness and the rants, I should now start thinking about my future. Being the Web Editor of India’s largest student newspaper was just a baby step. Now if I graduate (whenever I pass after the global pandemic ends), I might aim to be a bigger storyteller.

Signing Off,

Shaurya Singh Thapa

Web Editor 2019-20

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

On Goodbyes and Lessons Learned: Signing Off, Print Editor 2019-2020

By

Here are a few words by the Heads at DU Beat, sharing the experiences which built their journey, as they bid adieu to this family. While this journey comes to an end, the memories last forever. Anushree Joshi, Print Editor 2019-2020, shares her honest words with us. 

In an Instagram live session with singer-songwriter Ali Sethi, renowned lyricist, writer, and stand-up comic Varun Grover said something which I’ve taken the liberty to paraphrase here – we miss places only after we have left them behind. As I sit here today, thinking about saying some profound parting words as the Print Editor, I am unable to feel a kick of overwhelming nostalgia – partly because I’m not a very sentimental person, and partly because I’m eager to see what comes next for me, outside the mind-numbingly time-consuming and not-for-profit shenanigans of DU Beat.

Let’s call a spade a spade because being a part of this team takes a lot of dedication and patience. I remember being in 12th grade, over-dependent and over-enthusiastically invested in every news update or graphic DU Beat put up because they were the most reliable source for all the information that sustains an anxious high-schooler and a Delhi University aspirant. I knew I had to be there, so I applied to DU Beat immediately after applying to DU, and the rest – as the cliché goes – is history. Never in those moments of peak worry about making the cut in their editorial team did I imagine I would be so invested in something that didn’t even pay me back. However, I also didn’t imagine that I would ever be recognised as the ‘Print Editor’ in the halls of my college, and across DU.

In this daunting vast sphere of diversity, DU Beat gave me a lot of nauseous panic-worthy days, but it also provided me with a stable center to come home to. There may be a lot this organisation has to learn in terms of team diversity, intersectionality, and sometimes empathy too – but it gives one some takeaways for the ages too. In working with excellent designers, photographers, correspondents, and resource-persons across the University, I somewhere became a little more capable. From brainstorming memes to microscopically sifting through PDFs for alignment errors, from dancing at fests to negotiating with the most headstrong authorities, from cursing WordPress as a copyeditor to breaking stories at student protests – DU Beat is the hub of lessons I didn’t even know I needed. There have been a lot of sleepless nights and tiring weekends that I lost to DU Beat, but I gained the ineffable pleasure of holding a newspaper, week after week, and knowing that I had been instrumental in creating it from scratch.

If you are reading it as a DU Beat-aspirant or as a current DUBster, I don’t want to paint a rosy lie and say that there is nowhere else you would enhance your skills in writing, editing, reporting, designing, photography, etc. But I can take a gamble and claim that it won’t be an experience as agency-giving as working with a bunch of students who don’t know everything they are doing, but they figure it nonetheless (and how). DU Beat is a memorable place for friendships and relationships for many – I found some great people along the way too, but the most significant difference this organisation made in my life – and can make in yours too – is the power to believe that I can learn and I can create something, for the ages.

 

Signing off,

Anushree Joshi

Print Editor 2019-2020

 

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Bidding Goodbyes and Uncertain Endings: Signing Off, Head of Design 2019-2020

By

Even the most beautiful journeys can have the most sudden and abrupt endings. And my journey with DUB is the best example here!

It was in July 2018, the orientation ceremony of DUB took place. I was sitting alone in a corner, leaning on the wall of a room full of about some 50  strangers. Nervous and hesitant to interact with any new face, with this I began a new journey of my life and perhaps the most important one!

College life can be very difficult for some, and I was no different. However, DUB has been the most tender companion to embark on this bittersweet journey with. Over the months, my love for this place has only grown deeper. From being a naive, nervous kid, I got to head a team of my own and make a small family under the umbrella of this big, fat joint family.

DUB has always been known for its people. And the opportunity to share a table with the Delhi university’s best and the finest writers, photographers, managers, and designers, was something only DUB could have given. But it’s the quality of work that these people create together, makes DUB known and stand out among the slab.

And now, when my journey with DUB Is ending, I have nothing else than immense gratitude for everyone I’ve worked within DUB, and a huge bundle of memories that I shall reminiscent over the coming years of my life.

Ending this beautiful journey, especially in these tough circumstances, makes this challenge even harder than its nature. However, a quote that I live by, “finding aesthetics in times of crisis” shall be the attitude, as despite many unventured paths, it was one delightful journey.

So, if I got to go back, and have a conversation with that nervous kid that I was once, I would only tell her to hold on to each moment, stay a little more late at the Monday meetings, attend more fest coverages, create more graphics and enjoy every bit of it, cause eventually, when all of this will be over, she’s going to love and cherish this journey till ducks start barking or forever! And who knows if she’ll get a chance to give a goodbye hug to everyone or not.

Signing Off,

Sanjana Sanehi

Head of Design 2019-2020

 

Keep Reading
By