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Bull’s Eye: This game is all about hitting the target, with concentration, patience and plenty of practise. The 4th West Bengal Inter-school Darts Tournament 2004 was held at Assembly of God Church, Park Street, from August 18 to 20. Eleven teams of four each participated, with St Thomas Boys, Howrah, crowned the winner by actress June on Friday. Assembly of God Church (boys) was runners-up. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya |
This month has been a hectic and memorable one for IIM-Calcutta. Here is a round-up of some of the on-campus events that had students and teachers abuzz:
“Can the Left go with the Right?” was the hot topic of discussion at the Colloquia Annual Economics Debate. “Scope for disagreement between the Left and the Right is getting limited in this era of coalition… We are learning to live with each other,” said Ashoke Lahiri, chief economic advisor, ministry of finance, government of India.
Organised by the students’ body Colloquia, the debate is based on facts, figures, ideas, perceptions and arguments by experts on relevant topics.
Lahiri said the government must not overstretch itself in addressing the issue of empowerment of the poor, but become target-oriented, focusing more on delivery mechanism. He argued that there would be opposition, but the current state of affairs does not leave much room for political manoeuvring if the goal of poverty alleviation by 2015 is to be achieved.
Expressing concern over some state governments spending through borrowing, leading to empty coffers, he stressed that for a sustainable growth rate in the agricultural sector, it should be diversified into horticulture, floriculture, etc. Other participants argued that the consensus is born of compulsion. Prof Sushil Khanna felt that the differences are now limited to the political and social spheres. The debate was moderated by Prof Anup Sinha, dean, programme initiatives, IIMC, who felt that agreement on broad economic policies but acknowledgement of poor delivery mechanism is a global phenomenon.
A career in consultancy was the other subject of debate at IIMC. A consulting job is much more about having the will rather than skill. It involves working in teams and hence, one needs to be a good team player. These were some salient points of working in the consultancy sector, shared by IIMC alumnus Jyoti Kumar Agarwal.
The Consulting Club of the management institute had organised an informal interactive session on consultancy as a career, where the former club member and current employee of Boston Consultancy Group elaborated on the requirements of the sector.
Agarwal emphasised that a consulting firm requires good analytical and excellent interpersonal skills, as well as putting in long hours. Work experience also helps. Consultancy may involve travelling. An employee has to maintain a delicate balance between job and personal life. Clients’ needs have to be addressed to get a good solution within the time frame. It requires keeping sensitive information confidential. Consultancy firms developing strategy are the most sought after, followed by domain-specific ones.
The session ended with distribution of certificates to the winning teams of the club’s recently-concluded Hutch-Kautilya ’04 competition.
And finally, IIMC made a hat-trick by bagging the Best Young Teacher Award by Association of Institutes of Management for the third consecutive year. Prof Uttam Kumar Sarkar of the MIS group got this award for the year 2004. The last two years’ Young Teacher Award were bagged by Prof Sougata Ray and Prof U. Dinesh Kumar.
Festive fun
The cubs, scouts, bulbuls and guides of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy (LSA) celebrated their group day through a colourful carnival, Umang, in school last month. Principal Anjali Razdaan broke the ice with encouraging words and started the fest.
Over 20 game stalls were flamboyantly festooned. Eager children queued up for a chance to grapple with the games as deftly as possible to win attractive prizes. Events like musical chairs, an eating competition, a drinking contest, lucky dip, Identify the Dhun and Juke Box entertained everyone.
Prizes were given to the winners of the solo dance, solo song and RJ hunt competitions. Mouth-watering food, Fancy Dress and Crazy Castle thrilled the young participants. Special attractions were the dance performances by the guest group from Khalsa English High School and the water babies of LSA, Jal House.
Darshan Singh Gill,
Lakshmipat Singhania Academy
Akshar School held its first inter-school fest, Avsar, recently, with 12 schools participating. There were 10 participants in each team, from Classes IV to VI. The schools chose one of two topics — rivers or India’s neighbouring country. There were six events, including a thematic display, a power-point presentation, dance, elocution, quiz and an art event. Akshar won the overall trophy, but gave it to Heritage School, which came second.
The Nature Club of St Joseph’s College, The Green Crusaders, organised its annual fest, Insurrection ’04, on August 7. About seven schools participated. It began with a quiz by The Telegraph In Schools (TTIS), won by Loreto Bowbazar. Following this was the debate, “Nature Clubs in schools serve no real purpose”, with Calcutta Girls’ bagging the top honour and Ketaki Mukherjee declared best speaker.
The one-act skit competition saw future Rani Mukherjees and Shah Rukh Khans (Saif, if you prefer) at their best. The subject was “Yeh Dil Maange More”. The drama had to be related to over-consumption of natural resources in the world. The hosts were the favourites, with everyone, from George Bush to Laloo Prasad Yadav and Saddam Hussein (names changed on stage, of course), making an appearance.
The off-stage events had Loreto Bowbazar winning the collage competition, while the poetry challenge was won by Loreto Sealdah. A surprise event named Dirty Money was added. Here, the participants had to recycle garbage into meaningful articles. This event was hidden from the schools and added to the fun. Ling Liang were the undisputed winners.
It ended with some of the schools putting up song or dance performances in an entertainment programme. The hosts ended the day with a dance on saving the environment, to the song Bring Me To Life.
Akshay Jain,
St Joseph’s College
I-Day celebrations
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The Heritage School celebrated Independence Day despite the drizzle. After the flag-hoisting and pledge-taking ceremony was the cultural programme. The campus wore a festive look with tri-coloured buntings. Patriotic songs added an auspicious fervour to the occasion. The cultural programme included songs, a dance item, an orchestra performance and a mime on child labour. The significance of the day was explained to the children. The school authorities distributed special snacks packets to the children, which included tri-coloured barfis.
They may be “perfect accountants”, but on August 15, students of The Institute of Computer Accountants proved their ability in event management, with Independence Rock. The show kicked off with a group dance performance by the students. Next was a recitation of poems by an 86-year-old, whose husband was a freedom fighter.
After the national anthem was the most awaited part of the evening — Bengali singer Nachiketa’s performance. Most of his songs were based on social problems, and his lively interaction with the audience was much appreciated. Bangla band Cactus was next, with Shudhu Tumi Ale Na, Telephone, Juddho and more.
Asif Salam,
Asutosh College
Independence Day celebrations in Mitra Institution was a sombre affair, organised by the higher secondary section students. After the flag-hoisting and national anthem was a speech by the principal. The boys from the secondary section recited poems and the programme ended with a short lecture by a teacher.
Rajorshee Banerjee,
Mitra Institution
Play time
Student theatre group Reflection came up with another production at INOX, City Centre, earlier this month. The street play, Red Carnations, was directed by Laura Mishra. The comedy, set in the late 1920’s, is about three characters.
The production, in the form of an “enactment”, also promoted the movie Laws of Attraction. Reflection will be teaming up with Proscenium for its next venture, Death and the Maiden, written by Ariel Dorfman. This thriller, to be directed by Nivedita Bhattacharyya, will be staged in November.
project report
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A dash of colour
They are under-privileged and disabled. But these children, too, have passion. It was to help them express themselves through art that the event I Am Able was held at Science City on Sunday. Organised jointly by The Eye Within and Mobility India, the message was “disability does not effect creativity and capability of children”. About 40 youngsters from poor families in the Garden Reach area with handicaps like polio, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, blindness, hearing impairment and congenital limb deficiency were brought together. Helping them in their endeavours were eminent artists like Wasim Kapoor, Aditya Basak, Isha Mohammed, Jaya Ganguly and Subrata Paul. The works of some artists and group paintings of the children were auctioned, to raise money for the youngsters. They were also taken on a tour of Science City, a first for most of the kids, adding a dash of colour to the young lives.