Picture
It was more than everything it promised to be. Even though Diwali is still a good two weeks away, but Delhi College of Arts &
Commerce (DCAC) celebrated it on November 1 in the form of Aadya: Diwali Mela- a collaboration of NSS and DCAC.  It
was a smooth affair with hardly any glitches. The people were happy & winners delighted. The teachers cancelled classes, well most of them did, & the students honestly weren’t bothered. There was drama, dance, food, music, stalls & a spirit of celebration thronging the venue. Students from various colleges turned up in good numbers & made the event a massive success. Little kids from NSS were invited to join in the festivities & they were the centre of attraction throughout.

Picture
The event was kicked off by Parindey, DCAC’s street play society, parading through the college and inviting everyone to join in the Mela. After the NSS kids inaugurated the event in the ribbon-cutting ceremony, 3 hard-hitting plays from the Street play societies of Shivaji College, Kamala
Nehru College (KNC) & Daulat Ram College (DRC) left the audience a lot
to think about. The DJ had an up-to-date playlist and the students danced away for a large part of the day. ‘Gangnam Style’ by the sensation Psy was undoubtedly the song of the day. ‘Renaissance’ a band from Army Public School, in their maiden performance, awed one and all and left everyone asking for more. The students were in for a treat as yummy snacks of a variety were available. From Bhel Puri to Momos, Brownies to Chuskis, and Ice-Creams to Kathi Rolls- you had it all. Brownies & Chuskis were an instant hit with students & teachers alike.

Various NGO’s and traders had put up stalls that had an amazing variety of products. DCAC’s very own ‘Prakriti’(the Environment society) handed out free paper bags to discourage the use of polybags. Stalls had products ranging from diyas, candles, chocolates, and greeting cards to jewelry, artworks, bakery products, clothes and what not. SIFE, BWWA, TJ and a lot others had put up stalls but somehow there weren’t many footfalls. The organizers said that a lot of students glanced through the products but did not buy anything. Defying the trend, however, was the Tarot-card reading stall which was never seen vacant.
Picture
The talented lot won cool cash prizes and of course, a lot of name and appreciation. The face-painting competition saw Kanupriya of Shivaji College bagging the first prize & Anshuman of Dyal Singh (Evening) College closing the second position. For the poster-making competition, after a tough decision, Kritika Kamra of Janki Devi Memorial was declared the winner. While the online photography competition was won by Sanyam Bajaj of Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, in the on-the-spot photography competition Kanak of Motilal Nehru College was declared the winner. So all in all, the fete had a touch of tradition but was modern, was a mix of the old and the new, a platform to win and lose & was a reason to celebrate. So now that the countdown for Diwali is set, here’s hoping that Aadya sets the tone & rhythm for the events to follow. Wishing every reader a very Happy Diwali.


 
Amanda Todd was a normal twelve year old. She loved to talk to new people, socialise and have fun but she made a mistake - a mistake that was the cause of three years of emotional, mental and physical torture.

During seventh grade, Amanda loved to talk to and meet new people through video chats and one day,
a stranger convinced her to take her top off on camera, which she impetuously did. Later on, the stranger threatened to post her topless photos online if she didn’t give him a “show”.  Amanda refused to comply and during the next Christmas break, she received a knock on her door at 4 A.M.

It was the police, who had come to inform her that her photo was circulating all around the internet. She was devastated. The news pushed her into a world of unhappiness - a world of depression, anxiety and panic disorders, and the only solace she found was in the overuse of drugs and alcohol. To alleviate things, her family moved away from the city, hoping to start life afresh.
 
A year later, however, the stranger resurfaced with a fake Facebook profile and spread Amanda’s photo
throughout her new school and her new life, forcing her to change schools again. The incident was forgotten, a month passed and for the first time in years, Amanda was happy. She even started overcoming her anxiety.
 
She got in touch with an old friend who expressed an interest in her. She genuinely thought that he liked
her and she went and got together with him while his girlfriend was away. A week later, the girlfriend
and her entourage arrived at Amanda’s new school and punched her repeatedly, in front of everybody. Frustrated with her life and the way she was treated, Amanda drank bleach to end it all. She was rushed to the emergency room and fortunately, she survived and recovered.
 
Following her recovery, she discovered abusive messages all over Facebook. People had posted things
like, “She should use a different bleach next time” and “She deserves to die”. Amanda moved again, to try and start anew, but she was still haunted by her past. Hurtful messages were being posted to Social Networking sites, even six months after the episode and on October 10, she was found dead in her home. Post mortems have confirmed that it’s a case of suicide.
 
Amanda lost her life to cyber bullying and in the days preceding her suicide, she posted a video on YouTube, telling her story. She was just a 12 year old, who didn’t know the ramifications of what she was doing.  How could she know? She was just a child and even after all she went through, she tried her best to maintain a healthy attitude towards life, as is evident from her YouTube video’s

caption:
 
“I'm struggling to stay in this world, because everything just touches me so deeply. I'm not doing this for
attention. I'm doing this to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong. I did things to myself to
make pain go away, because I'd rather hurt myself then someone else. Haters are haters but please don't
hate, although im sure I'll get them. I hope I can show you guys that everyone has a story, and everyones future will be bright one day, you just gotta pull through. I'm still here aren't I?”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Picture
Olivia Manning, a twelve year old from Liverpool, has surpassed the IQ of great minds such as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking with an unbelievable score of 162.
 
Owing to her high score, Olivia has been invited to join Mensa – A network of brainiacs from around the world and the most prestigious high IQ society in the world. She confesses to having a knack for remembering and absorbing new
information as is evident from the fact that she learned her lines for the play ‘Macbeth’ in less than twenty four hours.


Thanks to her IQ, she has become the centre of attention in her school with her teachers giving her extra work and pushing her to get As in everything. However, she says that she likes challenges and making her mind think.
 
Both Einstein and Hawking have revolutionised the way we view our universe and geniuses like Olivia may be the next generation of game changers.