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Nexus 2013: The Good and The Bad

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The three day cultural fest of Sri Venkateswara College, christened Nexus, was part of the last batch of fests in DU. Having had a bad run for the past few years except maybe last year, Venky faced the daunting task of restoring its image. Nexus kicked off on the 7th of this month with Member of Parliament, Mr. Shashi Tharoor gracing the inaugural ceremony as the Chief Guest. As he addressed the gathering, he reminisced about his time in college and spoke about how times had changed. The first day of the fest undoubtedly belonged to the talented actors of DU. The day saw the best of acting talent come forth onto the stage with not just the street play but also the theatre competition setting the tone for the day. Eventually, the Street Play competition saw SRCC grab the top prize, with Hansraj College and Hindu College standing second and third respectively. The theatre competition was a fresh break from the usual competitions held during such fests for the actors managed to effortlessly touch the hearts of their audience. The second day of the fest saw a wide variety of events ranging from choreography to debating to the crowd favourite, the Battle of the Bands. Members of the band The Barefaced Liars, which was set to perform later on during the day, judged the Battle of the Bands contest. However, the sound system was quite a dampner during the performances. With Pentagram set to perform on the last day, Venkites pinned their hopes on the last day to turn out better than the second. The morning of 9th March saw The Nizami Brothers put up a show in the Seminar Hall. After that performance, students waited impatiently for Pentagram to take the stage, which they did after a delay of almost three hours at around 7 in the evening. The crowd response after their show, however, was mixed. While some felt that they put up a great show, others were disappointed by the lack of Bollywood music. All in all, there seemed to be no show stealer at this fest. A lot could possibly be done to make it more interesting. The OC should probably jot that down for reference next year. Surya Rajappan [email protected] Image credits: Sonam Satija ]]>

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Campus Central

Sugraahi at Sri Venkateswara College

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Sugraahi the fest of the Social Service Soceity at Sri Venkateswara College- Parivartan took place this morning. The day long festival (that may also be called a small scale NGO Mela) started off with the ceremonial lighting of the lamp by the Chief Guest Mr. Harsh Mander, with Vaishnava Janato being sung in the background. This was followed by a poem on empathy in a very empathetic tone by Mrs. Poonam Pandey a teacher in the Hindi Dept. The Chief Guest, Mr. Harish Mander, an Indian social activist and a writer was felicitated by senior members of Parivartan. Mr. Mander currently is the convenor of the social organisation Aman Biradari. The performances for the day that livened up the Venky front lawn included a self choreographed classical dance performance by Kajol, the president of the Indian Dance Society- Nrityangana. After this the students of Dil Se foundation- one that works for the upliftment of street children- took to stage with their dance performance. Notable performances were the street play on consumerism and bad waste management by Sweccha foundation as part of their Spot it Stop it, clean up campaign, a poem recitation and dance performance both by the students of the National Association for the Blind. There were a few NGO stalls as well that were registering volunteers or simply disseminating information about their respective projects. Also a blood donation camp was held throughout the day in the college in collaboration with Ram Manohar Lohia hospital and it was encouraging to see the number of people who volunteered for the same. Sugraahi means sensitization and the all the efforts Parivartan made in the direction of sensitizing our young minds, were successful!   Anugrah Gopinath and Surya Raju]]>

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Sugraahi- Winds Of Change

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Charlie from ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ (a novel by Stephen Chobosky) very rightly says, “We are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we’ll never know most of them. But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them”. In today’s world, a lot can and should be improved. And we, the people, have the power to affect real change. What most of us lack is the sensitivity to our surroundings. We need to broaden our minds and learn to understand and appreciate the attitudes, feelings and circumstances of others.  In the spirit of this, Parivartan, the social service society of Sri venkateswara College, is hosting an NGO MELA -SUGRAAHI on 12th February 2013 in the front lawn of the college campus.

Representatives from various organizations and NGOs are coming to interact with students regarding their work. All the organizations will put up stalls and open up registrations, distribute pamphlets and manage various activities. Members of Parivartan have been volunteering with many of these organizations such as Friends Organization (works for the rights of the differently abled), Green Peace India and Sweccha (work for environmental causes/awareness), Dil Se (provides shelter homes to street children), BloodConnect (a student run organization that organizes blood donation camps across NCR), The Leprosy Mission (works for people suffering from leprosy) and National Association of Blind (works in regard with blind students). Other organizations that are coming include Yuvati (works for empowerment of women), Grameen Foundation (works for empowerment of women in rural India), Deeksha (works for the environment), Udayan Care, Goonj (both work to uplift kids without basic necessities) and Make a Difference (spreads education to kids). NGO MELA- SUGRAAHI a great oppoutunity for students from all over DU to interact with and become a part of such organizations and start affecting change.

The day starts with the inaugural ceremony at 10:00am with an address by the Chief Guest, Mr. Harsh Mander, an Indian social activist and a writer. At present, he is the convener of ‘Aman Biradari’ which works for secularism, peace and justice. His writings includes a collection of essays ‘Unheard voices: Stories of Forgotten Lives’ and Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre (2009) among other works.

The day follows with events and competitions and you are sure to find something that’s right up your ally. There are going to be a number of skits and dance performances by kids from the various NGOs and organizations from 10:30am to 12:30pm. You won’t be able to help being won over by these. For all those up for a bit of a challenge, the fun kicks off with a photography competition at 9:00 am. This is followed by a kite flying competition starting at 11:00 am. Other events include face painting (12:30 pm onwards). To top it all, there’s a blood donation camp that’s going to be held from 10:00 am onwards. in foyer of college. Here’s your chance to really do something and help someone in need. And what is a MELA without food! Don’t worry, there are going to be enough opportunities for food, games and fun.

Hopefully by the end of the day, with our hearts  a little lighter, we will all have become a little more receptive to the world around us, ready to “do things.”

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Campus Central

Approach at your own risk: Venky Administration

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One sentiment that is universal in the corridors of Sri Venkateswara College is that the college administration is completely “f****d up”. Anyone who has studied in Venky could tell you stories about days spent wasted outside the office, waiting for the people inside to awake from their slumber and pretend to be granting you forbidden favours. The number of classes that are let by every time you need to get something done from the office would alone suffice to push up your attendance by a considerable margin. The utter chaos that reigns on days of fees submission makes you want to pull your hair out. “They are rude and arrogant and do not reply to our queries”, said a 1st year student of the college. Multiple complaints have been made directly to the Principle who assures us every time that adequate action would be taken and that next time, students would face no such problem. However, nothing seems to have changed and students are still subjected to the same treatment. “When I went to get the revaluation form signed, Mishra ji asked me to wait so he could yawn and stretch and then told me that it would take two weeks to get a signature. He wouldn’t respond properly when asked why it would take two weeks”, says a 3rd year student from Venky. Clearly, the administration in Venky does not seem to have a lot of fans. It’s about time that they went in for a complete facelift.   Surya Raju [email protected] Image credits: Sapna Mathur]]>

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Events

Blisspoint 2012-A Curtain Raiser

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Blisspoint, the Annual Economics Festival of Sri Venkateswara College is back with a bang. The 20th edition of the event is all set to be bigger and better than before. Serving under the theme of “Sustaining India’s Growth amidst the Global Crisis,” there will be focus on the imperatives of social development and broad-based growth.

Prominent names like Dr. Pronab Sen (Principal Adviser, Planning Commission) and Prof. Rohini Somanathan (Professor at the Delhi School of Economics) will serve as Chief Guest and Guest of Honour respectively. With panel discussions by alumni and introduction of new competitions, one can anticipate a stellar experience on the cards. Events like Animal Spirits (Mock Stock), B-Plan, Be an Economist, Group Discussion, Siddharth Memorial Debate, Treasure Hunt (comprising two rounds; the first of which will focus on logical reasoning), Quiz (general, not economic) and Filler Events (including photography contests and Sudoku among others) will be making a comeback, while Sell the Sizzle not the Steak (essentially focusing on the product’s USP and not the product itself) and Marshal’s Dojo (Paper Presentation) will test the waters for the first time. BlissMUN which in its third year has managed to make a mark and be known as one of DU’s best MUNs will prove to be one of the most popular events of the festival.

Registrations for all the competitions are open and anyone wanting to participate can simply log on to the website or check out the facebook page.

Shevangee Gupta, vice president of the Economics Society said, “This edition is going to be absolutely fantastic and we invite all to participate and make it a success. We guarantee that it will be a huge amount of fun.”

So, mark your calendars for 27th and 28th of September for Blisspoint 2012 will truly be spectacular.

 

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Campus Central

Marks Fiasco at Sri Venkateswara College

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DU students once again, were on the losing end due to nonchalant teachers and unconcerned office staff.

The incident happened in Sri Venkateswara College, with the students of 3rd year English Hons. when teachers of two subjects- Literary Theory and English Literature 5 muddled up the internal marks. This lead to an overall reduction of two marks in each of these subjects out of the total of 25 marks for internals. The teachers who were supposed to give marks out of 4 sets (out of which an aggregate is taken) only gave marks for 3 sets and hence the reduction in the aggregate. The office staff did not bring this to the teachers’ notice and conveniently entered the wrong marks into the system, leaving the 4th column blank. All students of Literary Theory (which is an optional paper) suffered, while the teacher of English Literature 5 simply overlooked a sheet and one third of the class ended up getting the wrong aggregate.

“Students had noticed the glitches before the college had sent out the marks to the university. But office people were highly uncooperative, at times rudely talking to us and even chucking us out of the office.” Said Kriti Talwar, one of the many students who lost out on marks. The office staff only noticed the errors once the marks had been sent out to the university. Apparently the anomaly had occurred in other departments as well and nothing was done until it was too late, and marks had been forwarded to the University.

A committee was set up to look into the matter much later. “We were asked to fill a form and then come back and ask in a month’s time. Recently the Vice Principal informed me that the cases sent to the University had been sent back, and they’d refused to address these. Vice Principal asked me if I had any contacts in the University I said, no. He said, “Phir toh kuch nahi ho sakta. Find a contact and get it done.” Kriti said.

Additionally, some students involved in the various societies did not get marks for attendance. Students now have given up.

 

Anugrah Gopinath
[email protected] 

Picture credits: Sapna Mathur

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10 things you couldn’t miss at Nexus 2012

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‘After two years of disappointment, justice had finally been done to the brand name Venky is’. This was the general opinion after Nexus 2012, the annual cultural festival of Sri Venkateswara College came to an end. This year’s event stood out in a number of aspects from its previous arrangements, having 5 professional shows being just one of them.

From a spectator’s point of view, the three days were certainly eventful. I list the 10 things you couldn’t have missed at Nexus 2012:

Rangoli competition

 

  1. The Rangoli’s. Every other fest is marked by a beautiful Rangoli to greet the participants, and Nexus 2012 was no different. Made at the centre of the foyer, it made for a pretty sighting. So much so that not even a single person stepped over it, careful of not disturbing its beauty.
  2. Celebrating Delhi’s 100 years. A number of events showcased this year’s theme of celebrating Delhi’s 100 years as capital of India. Upon entering the college, you could see a cutout of the Lotus temple placed in front of the entrance. Apart from that, the Rangoli competition, Collage making among others incorporated the same.
  3. The photographs, which were pinned to the walls in front of the seminar hall, in the lobby, in the foyer, almost everywhere were a hit with the audience as well.
  4. Security. After the hap hazard handling of the audience during Celeb nights the previous year, the security handled the situation very well this time round. Though at one point of time the Delhi Police authorities did not allow anyone to enter the college including the participants. What followed were the typical Dilliwallah dialogues – ‘Sir, organizing authority mein hun mai, XYZ se puch lo aap’, ‘ Bhai gate pe hun, entry karwa de meri’ among others.
  5. The organizers. Dressed in their suits running from one end to another with a walkie-talkie in their hand, responding to the numerous requests from sponsors, celebrities and the participants.
  6. The impromptu b-boying to some videshi numbers was a huge crowd puller. The back spin, turtles, hand glide, six steps were among the various moves these performers pulled out of their magic hat. You can find the video on DU Beat’s facebook page.
  7. Even though Parikrama rocked, strangely enough there were seats deployed for a ‘concert’, and the audience was supposed to be sitting during numbers like Highway to Hell and But it Rained. While the audience in the front often got up, some cranky fellows sitting at the back who had apparently come for a movie started cribbing. One of them even said – ‘Baith jaoo oyee, warna aag laga dunga sab mein’. He was with a girl, so the crowd let it be.
  8. The rattled expressions on your face when you were thoroughly stumped by the questions in the Delhi Quiz, wondering if you have been living in a parallel universe for the past 12 years.
  9. Razzmatazz, the western dance competition was marked by a few technical stoppages, but kudos to the teams which kept on performing even with minimal sound and were rightfully cheered on by an appreciating audience.
  10. Finally, after the enthralling performances by Parikrama and Advaita, next was the turn of Shibani Kashyap. But, even her ‘Sajnaaaaa ‘performance could not match up to the levels set by the two bands. If this was not enough, a shimmering dress and a pointless Guitar prop did not help her case, entertaining none the less.

 

Shashank Gupta

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Campus Central

Battle of the Bands at Nexus 2012

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Mutiny In March, a metal-rock band, were the first to perform. Though their performance was laden with synchronised head-banging by the band members, their music seemed to not rouse the audience a great deal. They were followed by the rock group which calls itself Uncertainty Principle, who started a teeny bit shakily with their Nescafe jingle but their subsequent songs were immediate hits with audience, with many standing up even on their seats. [caption id="attachment_3611" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The Uncertainty Principle"][/caption]

Swarantara was next in line, and they had a large ensemble of musicians with guitarists, tabla players, a drummer, pianist and both Indian and Western singers. They performed the popular Bollywood number, ‘Dil Chahta Hai’. However, they too failed to enrapture the hordes of students who had been in their element for the previous band.

The last band to perform in the competition was aptly titled as regards their order of appearance as they were called Better Late Than Never (BLTN). BLTN performed a cover of a popular Arctic Monkeys song among their other items and concluded with a self-composition – ‘Come Back Home’.

[caption id="attachment_3612" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The much-enthralled audience who was rocking along with the performers."][/caption]

The judges, who were the members of the celebrated Indian rock band, Parikrama, who were to perform later that night, came up with the results soon thereafter. It came as no surprise as Uncertainty Principle bagged the award for ‘Best Drummer’, ‘Best Guitarist’ and eventually they were named the ‘Best Band’ of the night. Mutiny In March was declared the runners-up.

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Campus Central

Controversy stalks Venky President

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All those who thought nothing more could possibly go wrong with the semester system after the intense furore over the ‘brilliant’ semester results, are in for quite a big shock. It seems as if the semester system’s armour is not as impregnable as believed. To ensure classes began on time following the winter vacations, the Office of the Dean of Colleges had written to all colleges to submit their time table to the office and also to put up the time table on their college website.

However, according to The Daily Pioneer, since extensive construction work and repairs were going on Sri Venkateswara College, classes were put on hold. Moreover, timetables came up on the notice board only by the 9th of January. In fact a complaint had been dispatched to the VC by the student’s union regarding delay in the conduction of classes. The Daily Pioneer also quoted Amit Yadav, President of the college student union as saying that he couldn’t fathom how the vast course under the semester system would be completed with such few days of classes further reduced because of the ongoing construction.

This however is not the end of the story. The Principal of Sri Venkateswara College, Dr. Hemalatha Reddy took umbrage at this report by the Daily Pioneer. She issued a letter to the Editor of the newspaper informing them that the timetables had in fact been put up on the 2nd of January and classes had commenced from that day itself. She also mentioned that the renovation work was happening only in 4 classrooms, alternatives for which had already been provided for. In an extremely surprising turn of events, the letter also contained Amit Yadav’s denial at ever having been questioned by Ms. Rohini Singh; reporter of the Daily Pioneer who authored the aforementioned infamous article. He maintained that he had only received an SMS from her saying she wanted to interview him but never got in touch with him after that communication. View the letter at http://www.svc.ac.in/page282.html

Obviously the Daily Pioneer would not take this lying low. In an article dated January 17, the Daily Pioneer reported that although the Principal said that classes had only been postponed by four days and would be covered up on holidays; many teachers had raised objections to repairs bring carried out now. They thought it wiser to do the same in the summer break. According to the Vice Principal however, it was necessary to start the work in the winter break, since the funds for the OBC expansion given by the University lapse after March.

It seems as if fissures are just continuing to widen and this new controversy shall only serve as an impetus for the same.

 

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