OF SMILES AND GIGGLES

The YIN and the YAN are said to be an important part of this world. The same can be seen in a students’ life, there is a college life where things are relaxed and easy going and there is laughter galore. This life has relaxed time table, cool cafeterias and ‘YAARI DOSTI’. The students know a way of life where the work load is huge and yet is the time for your own self. That’s a life where many want to be but the reality of life is for the future to be right you have to make certain hard choices too. Sometimes you have to choose your favourite course in a college you know is going to be hectic and so we choose a life where we forfeit major portion of ‘fun’ time.  This becomes the ‘other’ type of college life. In the sometimes dark, sometime crowded, sometimes long corridors of the University colleges, students spend most of their free time; a time when in our hectic schedules we are just barely able to breathe and think of the professor’s reaction when she gets to know you haven’t done your assignment. In all this time, the foreheads crinkle and shoulders ache from the heavy bags. A total school life without the uniforms. Where the carefree life is a dream. In this life friends mean a whole different thing. They mean survival. The stupid little jokes and those meaningful looks and those funny expressions. The laughter comes from not the ‘hang out’ but the five minutes classroom breaks. When walking in the corridors a funny giggle can cause a wildfire of giggles and that is what uplifts the heart.

Every person obviously has problems in life and when you are alone you just ponder over it and get stressed out. I have observed that going to college and just being with your friends really help you. At least it does in my case.   I go to college to get rid of stress (sometimes it feels so ironic) :P

Everyone has had a day when you just can’t stop laughing, every little thing is funny and even a non significant thing can set you bonkers. When a teacher’s accent can set the class ROFLOL. Those days make memories, days that are the best in our life. Days that make you want to come to college!! That is how important it is to find some happiness when you don’t even have the time for yourself. People who have it easy don’t really value it but I thank my college that it taught me the value of having friends with heart, who care for your smile.

In these two years I have felt a special bond being created between me and my friends and I know that same has to be the case in all the colleges. It’s not something huge but the companionship does wonders. Whenever I have been low I just go to college and the crazy giggles does wonders to me!! The best part is being the reason someone smiles, when I hug a friend and she smiles back at me and says thank you. That makes the hectic life of the college worth having!!   The YAN life is stressful life but totally worth it if we keep our hearts light and not take stuff like a snide comment or not topping the class to heart. I have always heard ‘Life is about living in the moment’ but I have never realised the full of it until now and I think that my fellow DU guys would agree.

Keep smiling because like it is said “It is the smallest curve to someone’s heart”.

KNOW YOUR FRIEND FROM DU

Tulika Banerjee is a student of Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women. She is very passionate about everything she does... she loves to write, sing, dance, paint, speak so on and so forth!! Her friends love her because she loves them A LOT! She generally takes charge of stuff and sees that they are done properly. She is affectionate, strong and a voracious reader. Life is fun for her and exploring it is her job. She hopes that she can grow up well and achieve all her goals.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO KAMLA!

What’s the first thing that springs up in your head when your class gets cancelled or you have some free time before a lecture? “Let’s go to Kamla, guys!” is the most common phrase I get to hear in and around the campus. What is an experience of North Campus without frequently punctuated trips to Kamla Nagar all through your college life?

My first trip to Kamla (though I really don’t count it as one) is one funny incident. I was just a week old in college and it was our lab class. Our teacher insisted on presenting an auxiliary notebook in order to mark our attendance for the class. I told my friend of a stationary store I had once seen near SRCC. So we set out on foot to buy a notebook. But we lost track and ended up walking up till Kamla Nagar. Later, I got to know that we had Xerox shops right next to our college which kept handy the stationary items. My friends really had a good laugh at us later.

Kamla Nagar

Coming to my first actual shopping trip to Kamla Nagar. It was around the time we were about to have our fresher’s party(which actually never happened owing to several delays and then complete dismal, courtesy the approaching exams and the incomplete syllabus). Kamla has so much to offer that you can never get enough of it. An exquisite blend of street food and international taste, everybody has something to dig in. The street spicy Chacha Chole Wala was the perfect place to start our delicious journey. The sale notices outside the stores tempting us to walk in through every store. Picking up random stuff from roadside vendors, accessorising our cell-phones and stopping by at almost every street food vendor got us to know each of us better. Planning about what to do the next time we come to Kamla Nagar, we practically raided every store in there.

After that one time, Kamla Nagar became our second home, almost.  I remember once a friend going their just to eat the piquant bhel-puri. Over the year, “K Nags” has always been to our rescue, be it a thing as insignificant as a hair clip or the over-rated farewell blouses. It’s like that spare mobile phone you cannot part with which saves the day when your fad yet complicated phone turns back on you!

KNOW YOUR FRIEND FROM DU 

Radhika Tandon is a student of B.Sc. Physical Science first year from S.G.T.B. Khalsa College. She loves to read and write about her surroundings. She is passionate about music and is a trained classical singer. She dislikes meeting new people but loves to hangout with her friends.

 

THE DU COSY FASHION

Since time immemorial fashion has been a ruling point in a girl’s world, apart from that, chocolates and shopping there seldom something that can uplift our mind and hearts.

You would agree with me that when one thinks of DU, one rarely thinks of its enormous workload but rather picture in mind students hanging out in canteens dressed in high end clothes and looking picture perfect. The story is sometimes far from so…

In the first year, students are fashion conscious, they put real effort after their look. Fresh out of their schools and the monotony of the uniforms it is a race against time to bring out the ‘dudes’ and the ‘dudettes’ in them. Taking a world of people who have never always had the freedom to dress, they can be seen strutting in heels and flaunting their accessories. It’s a vibrant and brand new world! As in when the months go the focus tilts, the semester system leaves you with less time to really spend an hour in front of the mirror and even the inclination is reduced. As we roll into the second year we see that comfort becomes the new ‘fashion’. Students wear what is cool and light not only to combat the weather but as it is also easier to manage. Not only that, but it also gives them that edge of being ‘carelessly cool’.

Students wear the simples of tees maybe paired with a vibrant coloured lower and they are set! Maybe after a year tussling with (a) what you want to wear, (b) what your parents what you to wear and (c) what you SHOULD wear, you finally develop a ground where it comes to you naturally! What I call the ‘cosy fashion’. A perfect example that comes to my mind is of my own class. In the first year all the girls with long hair would probably put an hour worth of effort just to make the hair fall right or that the ‘puff’ is just right! Now when I look at my class, they are blissfully ignorant of what their hairstyle is, in fact most of them just pull it into a bun and stick a pencil into it to keep it in place! 

Many people also have this belief that all the girl’s colleges are some sort of Mecca of high street fashion. I do agree that is really the case in some colleges especially the north campus ones as they have the luxury of ‘Kamla Nagar’ with them but many others just don’t follow the trend. They follow simple wear, needless to say, the competition is minimal and the air of the college is relaxed and sweet!

Over the years, though my school and college, I have learnt that fashion is really not about what you wear or how you wear it, instead how you wear your attitude! Even if you wear drab clothes but you have a pleasing personality, people will ‘stop and stare’. Isn’t it true, that a smile is the first thing we notice on someone? It’s the aura you project that matters and not the amount of money you have invested behind that Tee.  It’s about how comfortable you can be with your own self. After all a college is a place where you not only nurture your brain but also your personality and it does not come from your looks. Be comfortable with what you really are inside and the world will love you! After all isn’t that the most important thing?

Image courtesy: Fagun Ralhan

KNOW YOUR FRIEND FROM DU

Tulika Banerjee is a student of Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women. She is very passionate about everything she does... she loves to write, sing, dance, paint, speak so on and so forth!! Her friends love her because she loves them A LOT! She generally takes charge of stuff and sees that they are done properly. She is affectionate, strong and a voracious reader. Life is fun for her and exploring it is her job. She hopes that she can grow up well and achieve all her goals.

A DAY WHEN DELHI STANDS STILL

12 am- chilled room , sleeping family

2 am- sweltering heat , people wide awake standing in balconies


No metros, No water , No food, No connectivity
30th July 2012 –A day when Delhi stands still

Waking up to no electricity is experienced by almost the whole of Indian population (leaving out the Ambanis, Tatas and all). But Monday showed yet another side. At least six states, including Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, UP, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir, were affected after a failure in the northern grid.

A massive grid failure in Delhi and much of northern India left more than 300 million people without electricity on Monday in one of the worst blackouts to hit the country in more than a decade. Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that by 11 am, 60% of the power supply was restored. He said that the last time the grid collapsed, in 2001, it took 16 hours to restore services. This time, he said, most services were back up within six hours.

A majority of college goers were overjoyed by the Grid Failure- reason being, yet another day without the results being declared!


8 hours – Still Delhi Survived

KNOW YOUR FRIEND FROM DU

Kriti Anand is a second year student pursuing Economics honours from Shri Ram College of Commerce. She is passionate about writing and reading. You will find a good collection of books with her. She loves exploring new places, making new friends and loves chatting with them. She gets inspiration from the group she is surrounded by.

THE GREAT ADMISSION MARATHON

Thousands of students throng to the campus and post offices as Delhi University opens its door for the admission 2012, this week. While close to 50,000 forms have been sold till yet, many still remain clueless about the admission procedure. So here is a quick guide to all that you need to know about filling of the admission forms:

The forms that come along with the information booklet cost Rs. 100 and will be on sale till June 18 across 10 head post offices and colleges. The admission process is for about 54,000 seats across 79 colleges of the university. The first cut-off list will be out on 26 June on the university website and the selected students can pay their fees till 28 June, 1 p.m. The second cut-off list will be out on June 28, third on July 3, fourth on July 6 and the fifth on July 10. Close to three lakh applications are expected for all colleges across the university’s two sprawling campuses. Also this year the university has made the forms available online in order to reach out to a larger outstation population (www.du.ac.in). While many have opted to fill the form online, the conventional OMR forms still have many takers. Many are still flocking to the campus to fill the forms as they are sceptical about the online mode and seek the guidance of current students. The Sports and ECA admission category forms can be bought from the concerned colleges directly. The DU Helpline managed by the Delhi University Information Centre can be contacted regarding any queries on 155215 or 011-27006900. 

OMR form

Finally, bit of an advice before you head out to apply in the colleges after the cut-off lists come out: Keep the Xerox copies of your Originals handy!

KNOW YOUR FRIEND FROM DU

Radhika Tandon is a student of B.Sc. Physical Science first year from S.G.T.B. Khalsa College. She loves to read and write about her surroundings. She is passionate about music and is a trained classical singer. She dislikes meeting new people but loves to hangout with her friends.

INDIAN Premier League...

9 teams

12 venues

54 days

76 matches

The IPL is here.

But which team do you support?

I had never asked this question to myself and never would have, if, today morning, my roommate would not have said “Delhi Daredevils at heart “. She being from Hyderabad, her words were a bit shocking for me.

It made me start thinking that in Delhi, there are so many outstation people. Considering my gang, for example, only two of my friends are Delhi-ites but still all of us love watching IPL matches together. All of us are from different parts of the country – Hyderabad , Ludhiana , Lucknow, Pondicherry , Kerala, Manipur  and so on , but still team rivalry never creep up .

Somewhere, someplace it does become ironical, that no one supports their respective states’ IPL team. We all end up cheering for Delhi.

Maybe my roommate is right – we met here, we live here, we roam here, we enjoy here, Delhi has become our life. So, it doesn’t matter that we don’t support our state teams, for we celebrate when our team wins – whether it’s Delhi, Mumbai or Punjab.

For that’s what IPL is all about – Bringing people closer (and of course entertainment).

So who Do I support Now – INDIA!

1 country

28 states

7 union territories

1.22 billion population

Image Courtesy: Google

KNOW YOUR FRIEND FROM DU

Kriti Anand is a second year student pursuing Economics honours from Shri Ram College of Commerce. She is passionate about writing and reading. You will find a good collection of books with her. She loves exploring new places, making new friends and loves chatting with them. She gets inspiration from the group she is surrounded by.

PARTIES AHOY!!

The second semester...and anyone would be ready to agree with me that the going gets tougher by the day. Even though we get free time but it’s usually spent in a frenzy, writing on file sheets and assignment copies. This semester is less on casual outings and the next semester would be stricter.  My seniors don’t waste one moment in telling me how cruel and heartless the professors in the next year would be. I can’t even shoot down this notion as I have seen many of them crying in the corridors because of some or the other punishment. Oh well…! In all this doom only one thing kept all of us alive: my best friend’s approaching birthday, who happens to be the C.R. and is dear to us all.  We just HAD to give her a surprise party! Not bragging, but I have an awesome brain when it comes to thinking of surprises. It all started a month before the date and I started collecting video clips from all my classmates wishing her happy birthday and expressing what they feel about her. I wished to make it into a long movie and present the CD to her. Trust me, it’s a pretty difficult task when half the population is camera shy and the other half is busy with something or the other. Her mother had called us over to an afternoon lunch and we were thrilled!! On her birthday we all hugged her tight and gave her our individual gifts and made a move towards her place. The lunch was lip smackingly awesome and her parents and siblings were very hospitable and sweet. My friend broke into tears when she saw the movie as she had never really had anyone gift her something so personal and that required so much of time and energy. She hugged us all again and so did her mother as even she was very touched. It was the greatest break from the monotonous life we were leading. I would say the best part was the time when we were travelling in the Metro, the chatter and the laughter would have very well brought the roof down! We talked of the most random and idiotic topics and reveled in the weird looks we got.

The euphoria of that day took a week to fade. Just when we were going to slip into our gray scales again a notice arrived with the news of a trip to ‘Adventure Island’ and we were alive again! Most of the class agreed to go there and it was like static in the whole classroom.  When we were thinking that these are going to be the only good things happening in this month, yet another notice appeared which said that our second years are giving an unofficial farewell to the third years and performances and games have to be prepared. It was like all my dreams had come true! Me and my friend prepared a sequence packed with the most recent Bollywood songs and the best of Hollywood. It was fantastic!! On the farewell day everyone was dressed in their best and the usual Shaheed Rajguru geeky girls had transformed into Runway supermodels. We had the usual vote of thanks and each and every third year was given a cheeky title. The seconds years were enthusiastic as they were the hosts and their eyes gleamed when they saw all the third years enjoying so much. And each and every third year had a big grin on their faces. As for us, the first years, we were anxious as next year the present second years would be expecting something better for their farewell!!

Me and my friend performed our sequence and ended with the whole class erupting in a wild cheer and hooting. The whole hall was converted into a discotheque when all the teachers had left and we danced to our heart’s content. Later on we were served burgers and puffs and ample amount of cold drink and each and every person in that room was as happy as anyone could be. The boring and completely sad month became the one which would keep us going for a long time. Three cheers to college life!! Hip hip, hurray! Hip hip, hurray! Hip hip, HURRRRAYYYY!!!   

Image Courtesy: Google




KNOW YOUR FRIEND FROM DU

Tulika Banerjee is a student of Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women. She is very passionate about everything she does... she loves to write, sing, dance, paint, speak so on and so forth!! Her friends love her because she loves them A LOT! She generally takes charge of stuff and sees that they are done properly. She is affectionate, strong and a voracious reader. Life is fun for her and exploring it is her job. She hopes that she can grow up well and achieve all her goals.