From left) Students Rohini Sen of Bethune College and Surma Guha of Presidency College, designer Snehashish Bhattacharya, model Devdutta, moderator Rita Bhimani, actress Chaiti Ghoshal and students Sumeet Thakur of St Xavier’s College and Ira Chatterjee of NUJS debated the topic ‘In today’s world, style is more important than substance’ at the Desh Pavilion in the Book Fair on Friday evening. Voices for the motion were defeated in the two-hour talk as most panelists and the crowd at The Goodlife Talk Show spoke against the motion. Picture by Rashbehari Das

Money cannot buy everything. We students of Loreto College learnt this while working on our annual community service programme. Over Rs 20,000 collected by the students through raffles was to be used to help the underprivileged. Each department was assigned different slums, the political science department surveyed the Tiljala slums.

We were supposed to supply poor families with buckets, mugs, etc. But we soon found out that they had no place to keep these items. Basic necessities like toilets were non-existent, so with no other alternative they had to use the Park Circus railway line for their daily ablutions.

Contrary to the government?s claim of primary education and free mid-day meals, the students, most of whom dropped out of school to support their families, got only uncooked pulses once in a while and the attendance of teachers in these schools is abysmal, according to the kids.

Our firsthand survey clearly indicates that short-term help for these people will not suffice. They require long-term assistance in the form of employment ? all the people in this slum, including women and children, are ready to work.

Despite all their problems, these people have a lot to offer society. Close family ties, communal harmony and no gender discrimination among the children are some of the things we learnt while doing the survey. This clearly indicates that all social problems cannot be solely attributed to poverty. These are not merely the practices of the ?underprivileged?, but a manipulation by the ?overprivileged?.

Mariya Salim,
1st yr political science, Loreto College

 

Question time

It promised to be ?a clash of sharpest minds on campus?. A packed Taj Bengal saw the preliminary round of The Tata Crucible Campus Quiz 2006 whittle down hundreds of budding young businessmen and women to a select six teams. Taking its cue from the recent cricket format, the quiz this year was based on the 20:20 format. The initial 20 questions, asked by host Giri ?Pick Brain? Balasubramanium, tested the general knowledge and lateral thinking of the participants.

After a nerve-wracking half-hour wait for the preliminary papers to be marked, the results were announced. High-fives were exchanged by some, whilst others? heads dropped as the answers were read out. Six teams made it to the finals.

Sharp minds were certainly needed when it came to being in command of the rules of the game, with as many convoluted rules and conditions as the most complex of business contracts. There was also the additional gamble of the ?Powerplay?, in which contestants could increase their points if correct, but also lose points for incorrect answers.

Questions on the Tata group proved to be ubiquitous throughout the quiz. In the second round, the teams had to answer a mixture of association questions where one had to name the factor connecting several different companies, products or events. More straightforward questions were also asked.

IIM Calcutta fielded two teams (Hiran Chandran and Harish D. in one, Abishek Pal and D.V.S. Bharath in the other) in the final six. One team, however, dominated the game, scoring 105 points, nearly double the next highest score. Balasubramanium called them ?the Mr Consistents of the day?, an accurate description of Jacob Diso and Arun Paul Alex of XLRI, Jamshedpur. The pair answered the most obscure questions relating to all facets of business and engineering. The duo took home the first prize of Rs 60,000, saluted by a proud XLRI contingent. They also received an all-expenses-paid trip to Mumbai for the national finals.

Patrick Pringle

 

(Birla High School for Boys (junior) held its annual sports meet at Rabindra Sarobar on January 18. There was a variety of events, theme races — say it with flowers, getting ready for school, stretcher race — and drills like The Monkey Menace and The Panchatantra, as well as karate, yoga and taekwondo

Dance delight

Sapphire Creations Dance Workshop, Calcutta, in collaboration with Kalabharati, of Montreal, Canada, will launch its school section at Crossword on February 9. To continue with its international alliances, Sapphire Creations Dance Workshop is now ready to begin the school.

It is a step towards opening the India chapter of UNESCO?s Dance and Child International (DaCi) in Calcutta. Kalabharati, headed by scholar and Bharatanatyam exponent Mamata Niyogi Nakra, is the initiator of Sapphire?s effort to partner the UNESCO project.

As part of its 10th anniversary celebrations in 2002, Sapphire had started the Link the Arts movement. The aim was to bring together the arts and artistes to address issues that matter to them. The brainstorming sessions were meant for an exchange of ideas, to develop solutions and form a larger and more meaningful art fraternity, which can provide encouragement and support to budding artists and reach out to educate and create new audiences.

As the sixth Link the Arts event, the official launch of the Sapphire school section would be declared through a panel discussion on Thursday, at Crossword. The event will feature eminent names like actor and dancer Debolina Dutta, filmmaker Raja Sen, musician Neel Adhikari and theatre personality Kaushik Sen, along with Mamata Niyogi Nakra and Harbans Nakra.

DaCi, formerly called IDEA (International Dance Educators/Education Association), was formed in 1978 in Edmonton, Canada. In 1979, it became part of CID, UNESCO, to focus on development of opportunities for young people to experience dance as creators, performers and spectators. The aim was to work within and between countries to preserve a cultural heritage of all forms of dance, included in both general education and community programmes and be part of the academic curriculum.

This project envisages non-verbal communication skills like the movement arts to teach and train kids in various subjects.

The focus of the event would be on the network and ideas of DaCi in various academic and cultural institutions and their sensitisation to make dance and arts as part of the educational curriculum. Creating child-friendly modules of movements and connecting to the overall development of children and young persons is another aim, to help them realise their inner strengths and get an insight of their body in terms of creativity, aesthetics and sensitivity towards art, towards each other and towards life.

The event will feature a performance by members of Sapphire school section and filming of sections of Shishu Sadhana modules developed by Niyogi Nakra.

whatsup

Quiz call

It’s time again for the annual inter-college quiz organised by the Centre for Studies in Romantic Literature. The 10th edition will be held on February 8 at the HL Roy auditorium of JU. The centre invites two-member teams from undergraduate colleges.
The quiz will cover all aspects of the Romantic age in English literature, as well as the composers and painters of the age and historical facts. It will end with a dumb charade. The event concludes two days of academic discussions.

Professors Michael and Caroline Franklin of the University of Wales at Swansea, known names in Orientalism and Byron scholarship respectively, will be the visiting speakers this year. For registration in the quiz, contact 22476324.