The season of Delhi University’s fests seems to be at its peak as we witnessed yet another incredible event. Dyal Singh College organised its 8th annual NCC fest, “PRAKRAM’13” on 19th Feburary, 2013. The fest was organised by the NCC students, headed by the SUO’s Anurag Verma and Lakshita Garg. The three S’s, Sarvottam (Excellence), Sarvada (Everywhere) and Sarvatra (Every time), was this year’s motto.

The event saw the college buzzing with young students dressed in NCC uniform with a sense of pride as they conducted the fest. The chief guests, DIG (AIR BSF) AK Singh and Brigadier DP Joshi graced the event with their presence and were seen interacting with enthusiastic students throughout. The fest witnessed a good turnout as participants gathered from various colleges like Deshbandhu, PGDAV, ARSD, Shaheed Bhagat Singh amongst others. Participants from various reputed Delhi schools such as Ryan International, GBSS and Army Public School were also seen during the event.

The highlight of the event turned out to be the Guard of Honour and the Best Cadet competition. The cadets were trained by Subedar Ram Singh and Subedar Pritam Singh. “Sometimes we go to their camps; sometimes they come to train us. We have  NCC parade on every Saturday”, said Subash Singh Kanwal, an Ex cadet while instructing the 1st Dyal Company of the 3rd battalion of NCC. The drills performed by the cadets were enthralling and attracted  huge crowd. Various events like Group Dance, Solo Dance, Singing and Poster Making Competition were also organized for the entertainment of the students as well as the guests. The poster making competition was popular among all, its theme being “Prevention of Eve teasing”.

The event ended on a high note, promising to be even better and bigger in the coming years.

“Shruti - The Ethereal Song” is ready to make people hum and dance to its tune! The three-day Annual Festival of Indraprastha College for Women will commence on February 21, 2013 with the songs of Ila and Ibra, the Khalid sisters. The fest, with its events on all three days, will be a bundle of joy for everyone! The
day-wise schedule for the Fest is:

Events on Day 1:

10:30 am - Inauguration by Ila and Ibra (Khalid Sisters)
10:00 am to 4:00 pm - NGO PRAVAH
12:00 pm to 4:30 pm - Delhi Dance Fever
12:30 pm - Annual Public Production (show I)
                  Dramatics Society Abhivyakti will present ‘Sakina’                  
                   Rehearsing Manto in the times of GangRape’
2:00 pm to 4:00 pm -Monochromatic acrylic Painting
                                  Rangoli Competition
                                  Newspaper Dressing
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm - -JAM
                                    Literary Dumb Charades
3:30 pm to 5:00 pm - Annual Public Production (shoy II)
                                   Dramatics Society Abhivyakti will present ‘Sakina’
                                   Rehearsing Manto in the times of GangRape’
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm - Photography Exhibition
                                   RJ Hunt
5 pm Onwards - DJ Evening

21st February 2013

10:00 am to 1:00 pm - Turncoat Debate
                                     Quiz
                                     Differently-Able: “WE CAN DO IT” (Quiz for visually challenged students of Delhi                  colleges)
10:00 am to 4:30 pm - Chauraha: Street Play
12:00 pm to 2:00 pm - Film Festival by NSS (Interaction on Gender, Love and Violence)
                                      “What the picture says?”
                                      Debate (Hindi)
2:30 pm to 4:00 pm - “Svarachit” (Hindi Poetry)
2:30 pm to 5:00 pm - Mobile film making
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm - “Nritya Utsav” (Solo Classical Dance)
5:00 pm onwards - “Whacky Feet” (Western Dance)

Events on Day 3: 23rd February 2013

10:00 am to 2:00 pm - “Ninaad” (Classical Singing)
                                      Western Singing
11:30 am to 2:00 pm - “Ramadhenu” (Folk Dance Competition)
2:30 pm to 5:00 pm - Choreography
                                   On the spot potography
5.30 pm-8 pm - SQS BAND from Mumbai

With plethora of fun-filled events, Shruti 2013 promises to be one of the biggest fest in the university. The Organizing Committee is expecting a large footfall this year and asserts the excellence and efficiency of the management. 

Voilà!

It’s mid- February and the fest season is in full swing in SRCC. The college is buzzing with a lot of energy, joy and enthusiasm. Every new day brings with itself new wonders and excitement. The fests in the college have revived the dull and boring life of the students who needed a break from their hectic tiresome lectures.

It all began with the Festival of Youth Sports, the opening ceremony of which, saw Mr. Rakeysh Omprakash as the chief guest. Various Inter college and Intra college events took place which witnessed participation from various colleges. Undoubtedly, the opening ceremony was breathtaking which set up the mood for the entire event.

The Shri Ram Memorial Oration by Mr. Narendra Modi on the occasion of Business Conclave was a grand affair and attracted a huge audience and was also under a lot of media attention. This was followed by Shri Ram Economics Summit organized by the Economics Society, SRCC featuring sessions from eminent personalities like Dr. C. Rangarajan, Dr. Ashok Gulati, Ms. Utsa Patnaik and many others.

The Economics Society’s fest Ecostasy ’13 further spiced up the economics atmosphere created by the Economics Summit. With various events like Monopoly, Mock Stock and Brand-Aid (The Marketing event), EcoSoc kept people busy those four days of the fest. Stalls varying from patisserie to chaatwala were seen on the grounds of the college. Various on-the-spot events were also organized which gave away gifts and coupons.

Before the energy of Ecostasy could die the English Literary Society came up with their annual fest – Zephyr. It comprised of more interesting and merrier events like Dumb Charades (Sounds-of-Silence), Spell Bee, The Advertising making competition (Ad-Mad), English Tambola (Lit-Wit) and the most interesting of all- The Treasure Hunt.

Similar was the scene with the offset of the Commerce Society fest – Biz Street ’13. Spread over 3 days- from the 13th-15th of February, it had all sorts of events ranging from Business Quiz to Case study Competition, Mock Stock to Treasure Hunt, which again saw participation from colleges all around the country. Histrionica– The annual Theater Festival of the college, which is also one of the most celebrated fests added the flavor to the fest season in the college. From Street plays to Stage Plays and performances by the Rock band- Faridkot and Classical musical night – Saaz, Histrionica surely lived up to its hype.

The Class of the Year competition is round the corner in which all the classes fight against each other in various competitions set through various levels with the ultimate goal of getting christened the Class of the Year. However the best is yet to be experienced in the fest season as everyone has their eyes set on the grand finale. The Annual Cultural fest of the college – Crossroads, the grand culmination to this fest season has already generated the excitement amongst the students. The official teaser is out and Crossroads promises to be grander this year. The dates are officially declared by the Students’ Union, SRCC and the adventure begins on the 27th of February. The stage is all set to be ignited, but till then one can only wonder what new facets
Crossroads will bring forth to people this time.

‘Hasratein’, or ‘desires’ as we would simply put it in English, a pretty basic word, but the complexity in its meaning can be understood by the pure range of emotions that such a simple word can invoke each and every one of us.

From the utter despair of an unfulfilled desire to the extreme ecstasy of the ones fulfilled, these desires are what edge us on every single day towards living our lives and the students at Ram Lal Anand’s Dramatics Society were probably thinking along the same lines while Christening their baby, “Hasratein” back in 2009.

The Society, one of the newest entrants in the university theater circuit was formed by Pranav Brara, with the help of fellow theater enthusiasts of the college. Their aim was to provide a platform for the budding actors of RLA to showcase their talent on a bigger stage and to help enthusiasts to explore the enlightening world of theater in either of its form, i.e. stage or street plays, and the society’s current standing is a testament to the success of their vision.

The society, in its early phase, went through a spell of obscurity and was formally recognized in 2010 since when it has not only carved out niche for itself but the society and its members have managed to set it’s Alma Mater’s name deep in people’s mind, taking RLA from just the college near ‘Venky’ to the college that won the Street Play competition at the annual festival of IIT Kharagpur.

‘Hasratein’ to brag about also has been victorious at cultural festivals  ITS Ghaziabad, Ramanujan(DU),Ram Lal Anand(E), and several others.

Hasratein collaborated with the prestigious National School of Drama in 2011 to churn out its first stage play production, 'Zindagi Countdown 3-2-1', directed by NSD’s Assistant Professor Dinesh Khanna. It also has several other remarkable productions to its name as of now.

Though having achieved so much in such short span of time, the society and its members still have a long way to go and with the lack of support from the college authorities, their work is cut out for them, but, if the society’s short history, and more importantly its current crop of talented actors are anything to count for, the future doesn't look all that cloudy for them.

Organized by Cross Swords, the Debating Society of the college, Rhetoric has the following events this year:

1. Turncoat Debate - Rhetoric's Turncoat Debate will see participants choose a topic and then speak
on it 'for' the motion for 2 minutes and 'against' the motion for another 2 minutes. Participants will get
preparation time of 5 minutes and the topics will range from politics, entertainment and other current
happenings. 

2. Conventional Debate - Rhetoric's Conventional Debate gives participants plenty of room to run their
imagination wild. The motion is "The House Will Take The Bull By The Horns", and debaters can interpret
it however they want to. The time limit for the speakers will be 4 minutes and 1 interjection will be
entertained per speaker. 

Cross Swords is offering interesting cash prizes and other rewards to winners, including ancillary prizes
for Best Dressed Participant, Quirkiest Speaker, Funny One Liner amongst others.

The event starts at 10 am on 27th February 2013 at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce,
Pitampura.

Head down to SGGSCC for some non stock-up, free spirited debating!

- Tushar Aggarwal
UE Correspondent

One of the most awaited fests – Histrionica – The Annual Theatre Festival of Shri Ram College of Commerce commenced on 14th February marking the initiation of one of the biggest fests in the college. Organized by the Dramatics Society SRCC, the fest per se is primarily a theatre festival exhibiting various competitions in the domain of theatrics. Though, this time it was more comprehensive and comprised of various other competitive and non- competitive events as well.

Celebrating the finesse of the theatre was their event Charades– The Stage Play Competition showcasing various English, Hindi and bilingual stages that have always been the charm of the theatre lovers of Delhi University. The event saw participation from various colleges across Delhi University – both from South as well as from North Campus such as LSR, Hindu, Sri Venkateswara College, etc.

Aahvaan - Nukkad Natak as is evident from the name, was the street play competition. Enthralling the crowd from its songs to its human formations, it is one of those events which reflect the true picture of the society and sensitize people towards such evils. Bringing the crowd to life with the beats of the dafli – it was another ‘must-watch’ in the fest.

Besides they had other competitive events as well which included Shutters – The Photography Competition
and Sum of the Parts - Skit Competition (which was Histrionica’s first ever skit competition). There were
events happening by the minute which created an energetic buzz across the campus. An afternoon of riotous fun and hilarious laughter organized with the stand-up comedian 'Raghav Mandava' sent everyone into fits of laughter.

However Live Wire – The Rock Band Competition stole the show away with the scintillating performance of the band – Faridkot. The band performed Live at SRCC on the 16th of February which was preceded by various rock bands’ performances who were participating in the competition from all over the country. It surely was a fun night for the rock music lovers! The Classical Music Night – 'Saaz' was another successful event which entranced the crowd. With the soothing strum of the sitar, the beats of the tabla, the charming melody of the flute ,the star-studded night was devoted to the beauty of the classics with Sa Re Ga Ma Pa finalist Farid Hasan Khan performing at SRCC. His performance was mesmerizing taking the gathering into a trance.

The two day fest at Hans Raj College this year was all vibrant and exciting and it surely raised the bar of the fest with extremely fun events.

The first day started with the ‘Street Play competition’, the spirit with which each team performed was extremely commendable and Shivaji College walked away with the first prize. Other events like, ‘Flash Mob’ and ‘The stock Guru’ too were organised on the same day. The major attraction of the day was the jamming session with DJ Barkha Kaul. The crowd enjoyed the songs and danced away to glory. ‘Naach’, the Weestern Dance Competition event, gathered a large crowd, cheering at each dance beat. Maitrey College and Sri Venkateshwara College shared the first position, while the second and third went to Daulat Ram College and Indraprastha College for Women, respectively.

The live concert by RDB and Nindy Kaur, was under the constant threat of being spoiled due to the rains. But the zeal, vigour and zest with which the band performed was not deterred by rain which in fact added that variant element. The crowd went mad during the concert and danced joyously.

The varieties of food options available were excellent; Biryani, pizza, burger and even desserts like kulfi and yogurt. But the one stall that attracted exceptional attention was the ‘photo booth’, a little on the expensive side but enabled one to get clicked after putting weird props.

Final Verdict: Thumb’s up!

Alohomora!

And so the gates of Miranda House opened this chilly morning to welcome witches and wizards to celebrate the bliss of reading and magic they have been bestowed with by J.K. Rowling. Oh, our childhood would not have been the same without Rowling’s magnanimous bequest- Harry Potter. Holding its prestige among the most read books and maintaining its zenith among the must- read list of books of all time, Harry potter has brought magic in the lives of all crazy Potterheads who would do anything to break through the gates of Hogwarts and live the life of a wizard.

Miranda House offered one such golden opportune to the Harry Potter fans to have a glimpse of life at Hogwarts. The event was called Spellbound, a fundraiser for ‘V.Krishna Memorial Event’ which will take place in Miranda House early this April. The day had so much to offer ranging from books to junk jewellery to Potter merchandise and much more.

Right at the beginning there was a Food Court which served mouth watering delicacies and drinks. The Food Court had ‘magical’ food
which included Butterbeer, gilly water, fire whisky and love potion while the muggle food comprised of seekh kebabs, cakes, cookies and chicken wings. Acid pops and pink coconut ice were simply irresistible!

‘Flourish and Blotts’, the book bazaar constituted of various genres like Hermoine’s Literary Fiction, Ron Weasely’s Children’s Fiction and Potter’s Popular Fiction. The books ranged from fantasy to sci-fi to crime to romance and classics.

Tomes and Scrolls and Scrivenshafts had multitude posters, bookmarks and notebooks which sold like hot cakes bearing characters’ images and quotes. Ollivanders’ was another section which had amazingly beautiful wands and Harry Potter miniatures crafted by the students. They sold over seventy-five wands and the elder wand was what everybody wanted. Dexter inspired blood smeared wands, wands in the four house colours, pink and white Lavender Brown fairy wands with unicorn hair was what attracted
the people most. The Yummy Yarn sold Harry Potter mufflers and scarves. Borgin and Burkes had bewildering stock of dark magical objects such as jewellery, bags, stationary, scarves and mugs.

Also, there was Department of Prophecy which was no less than Sybil’s Trelawney’s prophetic talent telling of all what you need to know about your academics, love life or career.

NEWTS, like owls was not a cakewalk. It was an electrifying three step competition which gave a chance to young Potterheads to prove their wizardly knack including spell casting and role playing abilities. Even if you are a muggle in the land of Harry Potter maniacs, this event had something for everyone.

“Voldy’s gone mouldy, so now let’s have fun.” That’s what it said. At the end of the day, we hung ourselves out on the broomsticks, guzzled our mugs of butter-beer with an extra dosage of love potion to get bitten by the lovebug; our heads exploding with awesomeness as we chattered happily about the world of magic.


- Suhani Arora
UE Correspondent

The feast of St Valentine, more commonly known as Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14 every year and has rather special connotations for the most of us. Being the day of love, it beckons us to reach out to those who hold a special place in our hearts. This year, the “Spread Love to those in Need” campaign put forward a different definition of love. Initiated by the CSR consultancy, I IMPACT INDIA was founded in 2012 by a group of three socially conscious DU students, aimed at making people aware of the rampant undernourishment which exists in poor children.

The campaign kick-started on January 18’13 as the organization posted a video on the immensely
popular site ‘YouTube’ with a very simple agenda; for each view, a packet of biscuit would be
donated to a hungry child on February 14. The heart wrenching video laid out the great disparity
that exists even today in our society. On one hand, there were those who had everything in plenty
whereas the other end of the spectrum was populated with the ones who could barely make ends
meet. With brilliant social media outreach and extensive online promotion, the campaign was all set
to make an impact.

And what a success it was!

Within 20 days, the campaign video recorded 5000 hits and limitless shares on Facebook. As the big
day arrived, the number of views had climbed up to a total of 7000. The unprecedented response was greatly appreciated by the organization and pictures of this noble act were promptly shared, making this Valentine’s day even more fulfilling for all those who had helped make this event a success. The snapshots of those happy, shining faces as they received their packet of biscuit were surely a sight for sore eyes and a reminder of hope and joy. This simplistic yet novel approach towards social awareness has definitely inspired a lot of new ideas as can be seen by a number of other online initiatives. I IMPACT INDIA has truly lived up to its name and re-affirmed their vision, “To drive down the fact that one person can impact us all, impact an entire nation. And that one person is YOU.”

True to its fiery call, the One Billion Rising was a culmination of strength, vigor and the graceful conviction that women represent. The Movement with spearheads like Eve Ensler and Kamla Bhasin, was marked by the indomitable spirits of unifying against all forms of violence being meted out to women in society today.

The One Billion Rising was a shout out to the masses to shed away the societal hypocrisies and become their own agents to the cause of women’s declining worth in the eyes of stark and unapologetic patriarchy. The final chapter of the Movement was seen on February 14th, where people came out to the Parliament Street in teeming numbers to celebrate the “Vagina Day”, and the source of rich feminine spirit. It marked a celebration of women’s sexuality and a revolutionary call to end violence against women happening all over the world. 190 countries across the globe took to the Rising and celebrated the cause to not tolerate any violence against women.

Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University hosted a series of events to mark the day, where
other institutions like Bluebells School and Kamla Nehru College also participated whole-heartedly to
rejoice in the stand against gender violence. An RTI Camp by Satark Nagrik Sangathan, and a bookstall
by Women’s Unlimited was also set up at LSR to facilitate awareness of sexual violence among the
participants. Enthralling musical performances, dance routines and sharing of literary work by Dr.
Minoti Chatterjee (Principal, KNC) alongwith other faculty and students from both colleges evolved an
atmosphere of energy and zest among all participants who followed on to the Parliament Street at 5
p.m.

The final part of the celebration saw immense mass support as people came up to take their pledges in support of the cause and share their experiences. The Dramatics Society of LSR put up a dynamic and engaging street play to urge women to break out of their domestic and societal shackles and claim what
is rightfully theirs. The Choreography Society of KNC presented a deeply moving piece- “Ab Bas”, to denote that women would no longer wait for men or Gods to protect their virtues; they would rise and slay all creepers which could curb their freedom.

Dr. Ujjaini Ray, Convenor of the Women’s Development Cell at Lady Shri Ram remarked, “ LSR was proud to be a part of the One Billion Rising, because we do believe that it’s time to say ‘NO’ to all means of gender violence. We had a wonderful rising today, and the spirit of solidarity seen has deeply affected me. Change, is around the corner.” The various co-ordinators shared the causes they were rising for: Against patriarchy, molestation,  sexual abuse and the frequent attempts to dilute the pure spirit of women under norms of ‘chastity’ and ‘social’ roles.

New Delhi, with the world saw an uprising of honesty, enthusiasm and responsibility. The masses have joined hands to not only safeguard, but reinforce the strength and pride that a woman brings to a household, a society and the nation at large. The essence is in to keep the fire burning and with what
was witnessed with a special celebration of holistic and inclusive love this Valentine’s, the women across the world have taken the untrodden path and are ready to find, show and walk the way!