LETHAL LADY: A scene from Macbeth

On October 5, the English department of New Alipore College organised a seminar on William Shakespeare. Dr Sukla Basu, Reader and head of the department of English and other modern European languages at Visva-Bharati University, was the chief guest. She spoke on ?Gendering of evil in Macbeth? and ?Androgyny in power in Twelfth Night and As You Like It.?

The whole session was an interactive one, which was made even more interesting by Dr Basu?s wit. The lectures would have become terribly monotonous had it not been for this. The level of interest could be gauged from the almost perfect attendance despite the bad weather. Special mention must be made of professors Bulu Mukherjee, Neela Sarkar and Dhrubojyoti Bannerjee of our department.

Sayan Aich, second year, BA English (honours), New Alipore College

CALCUTTA
Concord takes off

Concord 2004, Calcutta Boys? inter-school fest, was held from October 9-12. There were a total of 10 city schools battling it out for the honours. The off-stage events comprised prose, poetry, scrabble, chess, body-art, photography, cartooning and ad-spoof.

On-stage, there were some enthralling performances in quiz, medley, fashion show, Indipop, western music and dance. Though all the schools performed commendably, St James? finished first, followed by Don Bosco Park Circus and Mahadevi Birla Shishu Vihar.

The real winners, however, were Calcutta Boys? which organised a superb fest.

Shruti Agarwal, Class X, Mahadevi Birla Shishu Vihar

ASANSOL
Bus blues

?We are going to Sodepur?. Debdip and I had just come out of the headmistress? office with this piece of good news. We had been given permission to go to the fete at the Assembly of God Church School in Sodepur. But, now came the difficult task of arranging buses.

After a four-day fund-raising drive, interspersed with visits to various travel agencies (much to the annoyance of our chemistry teacher because most of the classes we were missing were his), we managed to arrange everything.

We were sure we had done a great job and nothing could go wrong. But we were soon to be proved wrong.

It all started when we received information that one of the buses had not come. ?Oh well, we have provision for an extra bus anyway?, we thought. Then somebody said that one of the boys who was supposed to get two buses had not come.

That was when things started coming unstuck.

We hit the panic button, ran helter-skelter, stopped anything on four wheels and asked if it could be hired. But it was to no avail.

Finally, we stuffed everyone into the remaining buses and pushed off. I have to admit the guys took it very well. There was song and dance throughout the journey and we enjoyed ourselves to the hilt.

We had a lot of fun at the fete and came back exhausted, both physically and financially. It was quite an experience.

Kaustav Mukherjee, Class XII, St Patrick?s School, Asansol

ROCK SHOCK: Cactus performing on stage

CALCUTTA
Newcomers welcome

On October 12, the Presidency College Union held its freshers? welcome party. The party, eagerly awaited every year, is when the newcomers get a feel of what Presidency, otherwise immersed in studies, is capable of.

In the week leading up to the party, the freshers? enthusiasm had to be seen to be believed. Students from every department were seen rehearsing for something or the other.

The party kicked off with one of the most melodious voices in the college, a second-year English honours girl, holding the audience in thrall. Her rendition was followed by songs, dances and recitation, mostly by the newcomers. Their scintillating performance was a tribute to the long hours of practice they had put in.

In between all this, a competition was held for the freshers where, after a questionnaire, a game show and some impromptu singing and dancing, Mr and Miss Fresher were chosen. Next, the college rock band Chaos put up a brief but impressive show.

It was well into the evening when well-known Bangla rock band Cactus took the stage. Within minutes, they drove the crowd into a frenzy as they belted out their popular numbers. When the seemingly never-ending evening finally came to an end, the singers were warmly applauded.

What made the event so significant was that the new students were given a warm welcome to the very special Presidency family.

Sarit Ray, second year, BA English (honours), Presidency College

CALCUTTA
Happy birthday, ma?am!

The Class XII Arts students of Loyola School celebrated our teacher?s birthday on October 1. We had planned everything very meticulously and had collected enough funds to ensure we all had a blast.

When finally sprang the surprise on her, she was pleasantly surprised. She was actually in tears and said she was overwhelmed by our gesture.

We too had a good time with snacks, ice creams and music to go around for everyone.

Kamalika Ghosh, Class XII, Loyola School, Jamshedpur

CALCUTTA
Economics workshop

On September 9, Seth Anandram Jaipuria College held a workshop on development economics. The students were divided into four groups and had to grapple with issues such as gender inequality, demographic transition, international trade and the trap model.

The presentations were judged by eminent professors from City College. Our principal, J. Acharya and the other professors commended us on a job well done. The competition was tough and our group, whose theme was gender inequality, emerged winners.

Paramita Bhattacharya, Economics (honours), SA Jaipuria College

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