The NUJS Parliamentary Debate

After a one year hiatus, the NUJS Inter-collegiate Parliamentary Debate bounced back king-style, with as many as thirty three teams from various parts of the country, and neighbouring Bangladesh battling it out for top rhetorical honours. After dominating most of the tournament, Team 1 from NLS Bangalore lost a tantalizing 5-4 split in the finals to Ramjas College from DU, with Vipul from NLS topping the Speaker Tab. The Competition had it all: adjudication histrionics, Tab-room drama, definitional challenges, a party on the roof and even a cross-team from DU which came over only for the love of debating. The tourney’s resurrection indicates a healthy renewal of impetus to debating in college which we can only hope is here to stay.

Outlawed 2009

A motley crowd hung around in front of the stage set up in the quad, head-banging as a rock band performed. Another small group of harried looking people hung around near the side entrance of the college, cell phones in hand; these were definitely some of the organizers. A scattered crowd hung around, putting up posters or just laughing and talking, listening to the music being churned out, guiltily thinking they were wasting their time, but knowing full well that this was what made up college spirit. The morning half of each of the three Outlawed days looked and felt very similar to each other, except the Battle of the Bands that happened throughout Day 2.

The three days saw hardly a dull moment. The ambience was set by the fantastic lighting and giant posters put up on the acad block walls at the second college entrance. Blaring death metal made many a Noojie relaxing in the hostels want to kill the performers on stage. One of those times you felt you really couldn’t blame them for staying inside their rooms.

But it was in the evenings that the excitement levels really rose up. The first night saw Bandish performing in the NUJS campus.

A series of unfortunate events prevented Black Lips from turning up for the third and final night of Outlawed. They were sadly arrested for their (er… somewhat… er... lewd) stage antics at a stage show in Chennai, following which they went underground. Some were disappointed that they couldn’t hear the band, some because the arrest did not happen in college. Others who’d been having their doubts about calling the band, given their reputation, heaved a relieved sigh. It also, of course, meant that the SJA was no longer drastically short of funds. The flow of sponsor-money had been more like a trickle.

The gap in the plan meant that the self-styled college band (in spite of Vishnu’s insistence on it not being the college band, but a band made of people who “happen(ed) to be in the same college”, the GB’s spirit of solidarity is such that we just can’t think of it but as the College Band), Unlawful Assembly, would now open for Indigo Children (formerly Superfuzz). It was also U/A’s debut performance, with a fairly scary Joker in the form of Manu Chaturvedi creating sporadic diversions in the audience. The night also saw former Decibel member, Siddhartha Sinha coax his famous strain of Naagin from his guitar.

One of the other highlights of the three day fest was the Amazing Race organized commendably by the LCAS. The inter-college participation only made the event more fun as confusion reigned across the college grounds.

Some other events that saw sizeable participation though less hype were Face Painting, Twister (which made us wonder if Esha Shekhar had bones or was she just rubber), Musical Chairs (in which Vivek Menon came second to a NALSAR guy, but more importantly, managed not to break a single bone!), the Newspaper Dance (won by the team of future MagCom members Vaneesha and Shan after a very tough competition), Tug of War, Arm-wrestling… the list could go on!

Among other things, the Pictionary saw very enthusiastic participation. A high point of the game was when “Forrest Gump” was wrongly guessed as “Run Forrest Gump” due to some miscommunication between the team members which left the remaining participants and audience with tears of laughter. The Eastern Singing competition saw some bathroom singers test their vocal chords on stage. Some performances, like Kinshuk Jhunjhunwala’s, were hailed by all to be excellent. Some others were an affliction for the eardrums.

The cultural events, like the dance performance by a mostly first year team led by third years Abhisaar and Mikey, stole everybody’s hearts as well as the show.

What interested the volunteers and participants more was the free and almost unlimited supply of Mentos mints as they slogged it out at the mad rush of the registration desks. There did seem to be too much to do and very few volunteers, the number of whom surprisingly increased when the time came for purchasing Outlawed T-Shirts at subsidized rates.

All in all, the event was a huge success. Kudos to the SJA for executing the fest so well. We do seem to be improving with each successive year.

NUJS Nite 2009

It was like magic. Little golden lights glittered on the shrubbery, a stage had materialised out of thin air and we wondered at how so much sitting space had been created, interspersed with angeethis that were warmly welcomed by all on the cold 3rd January night. The NUJS Nite, a post New Year get-together between the faculty and students, a modest affair started by the Mess Com in 2008 had turned into a full blown gala this year. Abhisaar led us through the programme smoothly with a little assistance from Kaushik Krishnan. Kaushik, alone, was as good as a Saif-Shahrukh compering pair at a Filmfare award ceremony with his ever witty expressions and inane descriptions.

Shameek Sir, better known as PinkyDa, was brilliant with his imitations of past and present luminaries of NUJS and, for once, we had a teacher having a go at a student, when PinkyDa recollected snippets of his conversation with a fourth year notorious for his PJs. The stage was set on fire when we had the ‘Powerpuff Girls’, Rukmini ma’am and Ruchira ma’am show us the right moves in a display of diplomacy and dancing, both setting their subject of sociology aside for the while. A second round of imitations, this time of the teachers and students by Arnab Roy, left the entire audience in splits. From the mannerisms to the style of speaking, he got it right, time and time again! The teachers good naturedly joined in the laughter at their expense.

A high point of the program was having the teachers tackle some tongue in cheek questions from the students, and the panache with which the teachers gave their replies made the entire exercise all the more interesting. One such Q & A round that had everyone doubling over in laughter was the one posed to the duo of Mr. Pritam Baruah and Mr. Shamnaad Basheer by Abhisaar. Even Dr. Poddar tackled his specific questions with finesse showing us exactly why this good natured soul is the representative of NUJS in CLAT. Special mention must be made of the background music (provided by SidSin and Saurabh Mehta among others) that greeted every new entrant on stage. Anirban Sir was welcomed with the theme song of Sarkar, Pritam and Shamnaad Sirs with Mai Khiladi tu Anadi, and to top it all our Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Dr. Prof. M.P. Singh came up on stage with the song Singh is King playing in the background! The programme ended with Rohan Sahai mesmerising the audience with three beautiful pieces that he played on a piano forte. He was encored and even given a standing ovation for his enthralling performance.

It was, all in all, an enchanting evening, with good music, dances and lots of laughter. At the start of the evening Ashish, the SJA President better known as Bappa, had recited a few lines penned by him, “Tu ugta hai main doobta hoon, par ravi toh hum dono hi hain / tu padhta hai, main likhta hoon, par kavi toh hum dono hi hain…” thus putting into words what events like NUJS Nite showcase that though there may be differences between the teachers and the students but sharing this campus gives us much to share, to remember and to laugh over.

Mess Uniforms

With a view towards instilling a greater degree of professionalism within the Mess Staff, the Mess Com has now introduced uniforms and name badges for all the Mess Staff. This is seen as part of a larger plan to change the manner in which the Mess Com is viewed by the GB. Not only do these sharp looking suits add respectability, the name-badges have also proved to be a source of much amazement and interest. For example how many of us knew that Chottu’s first name was Pathik?