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PGs – An Enigma in North Campus

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If you happen to roam around North Campus, there are two things you won’t miss seeing: one, a fast-food corner and two, students. They are everywhere, be it Kamla Nagar, Roop Nagar or Aadarsh Nagar. This is not news since North Campus is all about DU colleges. With these students, comes the question of their accommodation as more than 70% of them are outstation residents. It is here that these ‘fancy’ PGs play their role, and how! The students are provided with a fully air conditioned room, a gym, “all kinds of beauty treatment facilities”, Maggi and cold drinks a phone call away, 24 hours power back up, Wi-Fi, personal bathrooms, any time cab facility and so on! The rates of such PGs range from Rs 14000 to 20000 per month.

“In our times a student’s life was considered to be one filled with hardships, where a good result was the fruit of multiple sacrifices that the student made by leaving the comfort of his home and by surviving the brutalities of the world outside. And look at the scenario now!” comments a DU teacher. The students, away from home, live in much luxury now, and their parents think nothing of the 20 or so grand they lavish on their kid each month. The worst part is that the quality of all these PGs tops the scale during the first few months, but it’s downhill after that. Reportedly, the Wi-Fi stops working, the food quality deteriorates and the AC does not work half of the time. “We don’t have an alternative to leave the PG and move elsewhere since that would result in us forfeiting the security the landlords take in the beginning (which is rent of two months)” says Ridhima, a paying guest.

Most of the PGs are not even registered, meaning that they are not legally permitted to carry on a commercial business. The tactics that they use to exploit the comfort-seeking students is deplorable. Just half a decade back the maximum a hostel or a PG charged was Rs 7000.

However, a respite from these fraud PGs is DU hostel. The newly opened Undergraduate hostel and the Rajiv Gandhi hostel for girls are not only cheap but far better than these PGs.  They are clean, spacious and the food is hygienic and delicious. And all this in around Rs 24000 per year! The admission to the hostel is however on merit basis since they provide accommodation only to 800 girls.

 

Aishwarya Chaurasia
[email protected]

Image credits: Sapna Mathur

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Juxtapose

PTMs In DU – Are You For Or Against It?

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Graphic Credits: Siddhant Sharma

The news of Delhi University introducing PTM’s at college level has left students from both North and South campus bewildered. While there are also those who think of it as a good decision taken by the authorities.

This week, Juxtapose gives all you students a chance to raise your voice either, for or against this major decision. Follow the link and start posting your views!

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Campus Central

PTMs in DU: Hello, Military Camp!

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Remember the time when one weekend in a month (or two) neared like impending doom? Remember the circulars, placidly inviting all the dear parents for a “healthy” interaction with the teachers, about how their children were doing at school? I remember dying a little bit inside every time we got one of those. I also remember trudging along nervously, as I would lead my parents up the stairs, to the dark chambers of classrooms and staff-rooms where the teachers waited for the next victim to be slaughtered, while a friend would pass by with a throat-slitting signal and a whispered “yaar aaj to lag gai.” I remember sitting there awkwardly, being talked about in grave tones of concern like I wasn’t even there, having everything from my marks, habits, activities, uniform and even my friends being discussed and dissected. I wasn’t that bad a student, so I would alternate between taking my mom to the teachers who would praise me and those who were sure to land me a lecture on the way back.

Come college, I thought all that was over. But now after I’ve settled down into the comfortable routine of doing things my way, without having to worry about having my activities discussed later, DU decides to burst my bubble. Delhi University’s reported proposal to form a parents’ coordination committee sounds to me like taking a huge leap backwards in the process of student development. What has been supposedly proposed for better administration and policy making seems like not just another way to poke moral reprobation on students’ campus activities, but also as destroying the fundamental difference between college and school life.

When you become a college kid, you’re suddenly in a zone where you’re the only one looking out for yourself. There’s no one you’re really accountable to, be it about your attendance, your studies or the kind of friends you make. Your choices are your own and you’re the one who has to face the consequences. College is also probably the time when most of us learn to become responsible and somewhat independent, be it paying the fee (which I’ve experienced by now to be an extremely harrying process in DU), filling the forms on time or maintaining your attendance and proxies to be able to scrape through and give the exams. Part of the vibrancy and culture of college, which distinguishes it from school, is that when we’re dissatisfied, we can raise our voices because we know what we say counts, and the administration is accountable to US. If parents are going to be introduced in the college scene, for more “accountability” towards the students, what are the students going to do? We’re adults now, we hardly need parents as mediators. But I guess by the end of the year we might be seeing parents hawking around campus and parent-teacher meetings being held, in a back-to-school atmosphere where all that college will be left signifying would be a lack of uniforms.

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Campus Central

Signature Campaign by Tibetan Youth Congress

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Tibetan Youth Congress has initiated a signature campaign and organised a street play, photo exhibition, documentary film screening in Delhi University and vowed to take their mission to every corner of the world and spread that Tibet’s struggle for freedom is a struggle for truth and justice.

The organization appealed to students to support their cause highlighting the brutality and sufferings many Tibetan’s face under Chinese rule.

Many students showed their support and participated in the signature campaign. Many DU students volunteered for the event raising awareness about their cause in colleges.

The event was held to commemorate the selfless sacrifices that Tibetan martyrs showed in the uprising of 27TH September 1987.

They lamented the historic event of 1987 when patriotic Tibetan’s demonstrated in streets on the streets of Lhasa shouting “free Tibet” and asking Chinese to go away, but they were arrested and brutally beaten. Despite Chinese military crackdown and harsh persecutions, Tibetan’s in Tibet still stand in unity and raised their voice against the brutal oppression.

“Even today our struggle gets stronger than ever. We would make sure none of their voice goes unheard and we stand in strong conviction that the flame of truth would never extinguish. The current situation is getting even worse and intense inside Tibet” exclaimed one of the volunteers.

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Campus Central

Of Idlis, Dosas, Puchkas and Mishti-Doi

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One lovable thing about Delhi is that it belongs to one and all.  It is a delightful mixed bag of all cultures. It is perhaps one of the only cities where you’ll probably find a Bengali, a Gujarati, a South Indian, an Assamese, and a Bihari – all sitting on one table. Similarly enough Delhi University has its wings spread out in all directions, people from all over the country aspire to graduate from DU.

Over the years, DU has managed to create its very own set of regional stereotypes. Why does one have to be a “bong” a “gujju” a “mallu” a “bhaiyya” or a “chink”? A sense of ‘otherisation’ trickles in with the casual labelling people do to those who aren’t from Delhi. There is absolutely no reason why we should reduce ourselves and others to our regional identities.

If you’re from anywhere outside Delhi, you’re expected to know everything from the language to the myths, the fluency, the music, the dance, the recipes and even the soil type. The stereotype goes like this- if you’re a Bengali, you’re supposed to know all about Satyajit Ray and Tagore, you’re supposed to know which halvai sells the best and most authentic mishti doi and sondes, you’re expected to know ten different ways of frying fish; if you’re a south Indian, you’re expected to know all the dances, you’re expected to pick out the best kanjiverem silk by its texture, you’re expected to know how to fry dosas; if you’re a Kashmiri, you’re expected to be romantic, poetic, and (ridiculous as it may sound) even pretty; and if you’re from the northeast, then you’re expected to love momos and know all about tattoos and piercings  and affordable fashion.

It is considered unnatural for someone from Haryana to be anything but rowdy, just like it is considered natural for jaats to be the gunda–raaj of the ilaaqa. The “Delhi Boy” memes would probably explain better. There are “tips” for each region as well, be it “Bongtips” “Rajasthan tips” or “Delhitips”. Sadly enough, the generation of iPods has adopted the trend of categorisation, which has further led to regional stereotyping.

Perhaps regional jokes, region-wise tips, memes, etc don’t mean much harm, but somewhere in the middle of all the casual labelling, the jokes, the general assumptions, etc have smudged the thin line between assertion of one’s regional identity, and limiting oneself to it. Somewhere in the midst of all this, we are forgetting one very important fact-that anyone can do anything, or be anything.

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In Their Shoes

Dinesh Singh

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If Mr. Dinesh Singh were a Pokémon, he would surely be from the same family as the cumbersome and exponentially lazy Slowpoke. Like his far cuter counterpart, the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University took a while to wake up and realize that he was digging his own grave by not paying heed to any of the furious questions hurtled at him by the agitated youth studying in the capital. With issues such as safety, accommodation, and elections hanging by an incredibly thin thread, Dinesh Singh finally took matters into his own, highly slippery hands and addressed the students on 1st September.

If replying to tricky questions was an art, none could have been better than our beloved Vice Chancellor. Every controversial question was tackled with a diplomatic smile and a not-so-subtle subject change. Since safety was of utmost importance, girls were promised a hostel with free travel facilities as well as the installation of CCTV’s all around the campus. Looks like programmes such as Big Boss are not enough to satisfy the TRP-hungry show producers and their equally bored audience. Next in line is a peek into the lives of the young and frustrated DU Students.

With some great ideas in the pipeline, such as mobile canteens and easy access to Wi-Fi, it is quite a shame that this pipe is similar to Delhi’s sewage line constructed during the colonial times; untouched and never to be modified. Dinesh Singh was obviously daydreaming when he announced that disabled-friendly modes of transport would be provided in the form of DTCs and Metros, forgetting that the college campus itself would still be a nightmare for those facing difficulties. He also seems to have taken Dalrymple’s description of Delhi as the city of Djinns quite seriously, with his strong belief in an invisible hostel that has already been magically constructed for girls in South Campus, in a location that shows it is still clearly under-construction.

If I were bestowed with the honor of being made the Vice Chancellor of DU, I would dye my hair and get a face-lift to make sure my dynamic audience has its eyes glued on me instead of snoring at the back. Then the words that come out all airbrushed from my lips might as well be ignored. While mentioning the proposition that the football teams in DU would be getting a special training in New Zealand, I wouldn’t add the extra advantage being offered to the women’s soccer team being sent free of cost. This hidden information exists for the sole reason that, brilliant though the opportunity sounds, Dinesh Singh conveniently forgot to mention that the facilities for women’s soccer are relatively new and still under development in many colleges. So unless there was a secret agreement between New Zealand and India regarding the exchange of their excess population of sheep in return for female textile workers disguised in soccer cleats and sweat absorbing shorts, It is hard to see how this would boost the morale of rising sport stars without motivating them to train first.

My humble request to our Vice Chancellor would be for him to invest in an expensive hearing aid, so that his ears don’t fail him when questions regarding various important issues are shot at him. However, if I were in his place I would definitely arm myself with a shield, just in case one well-aimed arrow leaves me struggling to form coherent sentences.

 

 

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Kirorimal College

KMC Professors Agitated over Showcause Notices

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The struggle by Kirori Mal College’s students and teachers against the VC and KMC Chairman Baleshwar Rai; and in support of their suspended principal, Dr. Bhim Sen Singh has developed into extensive protest marches and dharnas. The KMC Teachers’ Association has been staging a dharna for two days to oppose the functioning and “authoritarian decision making” of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dinesh Singh. The association issued a statement on Thursday, lamenting the manner in which Prof. Dinesh Singh has been handling the protests and especially showcause of two teachers. They also demanded for an autonomous and impartial body that would decide on the whole suspension issue.

“The DUTA executive condemns the autocratic manner in which the university administration has attacked teachers’ rights to protest, as evident in the case of the letters of the university registrar of 1st August 2012 and, subsequently of the acting Principal of Kirori Mal College to the teachers, denying the right of casual leave,” reads the official statement issued by KMC. DUTA has demanded for withdrawal of the showcause notices against post-holders of the staff-association. It further states the “attack on the staff association is an attack on DUTA. Therefore, DUTA demands immediate withdrawal of showcause notices against office-bearers of the staff association. DUTA shall not tolerate this continuous attack on our right to protest and will resort to direct action unless the letters are withdrawn.”

On being asked the acting Principal Dr. S.P Gupta about the showcause notices that were issued, he said that he had no idea about how all this happened and he did what he was directed to do by the VC. He never meant to suppress and undermine the rights of the Teachers’ Association.

All the teachers and students now require a permission slip to meet the new acting Principal in his office and entry without permission won’t be allowed. Students have not been attending classes as they have been active along with the teachers to stage protests and dharnas. A few students from the hostel were summoned and asked to end their protests and dharnas. There is agitation among students and teachers because the results of some of the university courses have still not been declared, the University recently announced some new fundamentally flawed Meta Courses, the M.A admissions are still not complete (the examinations being in November); and VC Singh is trying to focus on other trivial things like issuing showcause notices to teachers for no rhyme or reason.

 

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Bazinga

Bazinga

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Picture source: hostels247

The students of a boarding school in North Delhi were in for a surprise this Monday when a group of monkeys decided to settle down on the third floor of the boys’ hostel. The students residing in the same building claim that the monkeys had driven out the earlier occupants living on that floor. Incidentally, the floor was occupied by a group of students who caused a lot of inconvenience to their neighbours by partying with loud music at ungodly hours in the night and driving around the campus at high speeds, despite strict rules against the possession of personal vehicles.

When the displaced students were asked to comment, the only response they had to offer was a furious scratching of their heads, while one of them went to the extent of stuffing 5 bananas into his mouth in one go. According to the one of resident teachers, who also happens to be a part-time veterinarian, the monkeys are descendants from a certain clan called ‘Magica Lemuria’ that belongs to the lost enchanted forests of Enid. He claimed that this could be predicted by the length of their fingernails, the peace sign tattooed on their thigh and the way they lick the fur on their head into a particular shape, consisting of a sideways parting. As for the rest of the student community, the relief in the air is palpable as they now enjoy an undisturbed sleep, occasionally broken by the sound of branches breaking and clothes falling from a height.

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Campus Central

Stranded in Powerless Delhi

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Picture source: Reuters   As the sun rose over the country this morning, a large part of North India found itself in the middle of the worst power outage in ten years. Citizens of New Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir were left with with no power supply in their homes to carry out day to day activities. Majority of the nation was especially brought to a standstill as all other activities halted due to lack of electricity. Inter- state transport, water supply and public transport faced the brunt of this power cut. In New Delhi, the metro services suffered as stations were locked out and people were left stranded. Looking closely at the plight of DU Students, as the Delhi Metro (an impetus for commuting) had come to an abrupt halt- students had to rely on over- crowded busses, auto rickshaws or cars on Delhi roads, which already happened to be clogged with traffic. Adding to their misery, once the students did make the perilous journey to college they discovered that classes had either been cancelled or postponed. “It was horrible, in fact horrible is an understatement. We were squished in the over crowded bus, a friend of mine was on the verge of crying. We had to get off halfway and take an auto- only to find out that classes had been cancelled.” said Riya Anna Kuruvilla, a first year student from Hindu college who had to travel from Dwarka to North Campus. “I took the metro for granted as I used to travel by it since day one, today I had to take a bus. Being new to this route it was tough for me, but owing to the power cut, I could discover an alternate way of commuting!” Shreya Mudgil, a first year English Hons. student from Bharti College added. Thanks to the prowess of the authorities most of the electricity supply did return soon bringing life back to normal; however the morning was a bit of a jolt to the whole of North India. Deepali Datta a first year student from LSR made an uncanny observation she said, “An interesting side of Delhi emerged today as everybody became everybody’s Google Map, people gave way to pedestrians despite faulty traffic lights. Some students like me, did miss out on the attendance for the first lecture, but the lesson learnt was worth it, nothing can stop a city like Delhi. One grid collapsed but another emerged- the People’s Grid.” A pat on the back to all Delhiites- students, parents, office goers alike- who did made it to their respective duties on time and did not abort any of the city’s activities! And DU students who did manage to get the whole day’s attendance deserve special mention here, don’t they?   Anugrah Gopinath [email protected]]]>

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Campus Central

Defining the To and Fro of Delhi University

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Rickshaws are a common sight at North Campus
The shining ray of hope is, of course, the jam-packed metro service. For all the students situated far away in their northern abode, Vishvavidyalaya station on the yellow line is the portal leading them away from the inconvenience of having to search for a way to get to North campus. Outside the station, hoards of cycle rickshaws stand, waiting to take you to your respective colleges. Shouts of “Rs. 20 only” being interrupted by another enthusiastic rickshaw wala rushing forward to offer you deals such as “Do Savari, Rs. 15” is a promising indication that you can get to your college on time for that dreaded first lesson. Apart from rickshaws, North campus also has a shuttle bus that takes passengers from the Vishvavidyalaya metro station to certain colleges around campus, such as Kirori Mal, Hansraj, Law Faculty and Arts Faculty. It also stops close to Stephen’s, Hindu and Ramjas.
The South Campus is scattered across various parts of Delhi, thus getting to these colleges might require the use of multiple forms of transportation. The good old metro always comes in handy, especially for students living at a distance, such as those in Gurgaon, Noida and the rest of the NCR. For colleges like JMC, getting off at the Race course station on the yellow line is the most feasible option, while its neighbour Venky prefers the AIIMS station as the college is down one straight road. With a little bit of bargaining, one can easily get an auto from any of these stations for 40-50 bucks. For colleges like Kamala Nehru and Gargi, Green Park station is a mere Rs. 25-30 ride away. LSR has Moolchand metro station on the purple line strategically placed behind it, leading to a brisk 7-8 minute walk to the main gate of the college. As for those who are unable to walk or simply lazy, there is no dearth of cycle rickshaws and autos. Bus routes ply all across Delhi too. For example, LSR has a BRT station right opposite its main gate. Various other south campus colleges are also easily accessible by many bus routes, mostly DTC. Bus, metro, auto, or your own vehicle, transportation in Delhi is easy and accessible. Moreover, it gives you a great opportunity to practice your haggling skills before you hit the famous Sarojini, Lajpat and Kamla Nagar markets. So hop on board and savour a memorable ride through your college years!  ]]>

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