NPL Player Auctions

The NPL is back! After the success of last year’s tournament which saw the Northern Nawabs emerge victorious in a much delayed final, the NUJS Premier League has returned for its second editions. Unlike last year’s tournament where the teams were arranged regionally, the organizers have this year opted to give team owners the freedom to brand their teams as they like. The NPL organisers chose the five captains – Kamaljeet Singh, Dilip Kataria, Shubhajit Banerjee, Adit Pujari and Rahul Sharma – who were given 3000 points to bid for registered players in an open auction, which was held on Tuesday the 8^th of September.

The auction rules were also tweaked this time around, as the captains were expected to buy a minimum of 11 players with their points, failing which their teams would be disqualified. Most of the captains came to the auction well prepared with an idea of the players they were most interested in. While the established old names were highly in demand, some of the captains had been keeping a close eye on the first years playing tennis ball cricket, hoping to pick up a few unknown talents cheaply. As usual, the sequence of players to be auctioned was randomly determined, and with the way things panned out, by the time many of the most anticipated players came on the block many of the captains had severely strained their budgets. Consequently, the prices paid for some players were substantially lower than expected, and the 5^th year Animesh Bisht, also known as RP, was far and above the most valuable player of the 2009 NPL auction. Some heated bidding finally ended with Rahul Sharma snapping him up for 900 points.

By the end of the auction, Dilip and Rahul Sharma husbanded their budgets well to finish up with the largest squads, having made 14 and 13 purchases respectively, while the other 3 captains just managed to fulfil their minimum purchase requirement. All teams now look relatively balanced, and the five captains seemed quite pleased with their new acquisitions after the auction. They also now have the option of recruiting general body members who did not register to be auctioned, upon payment to the NPL organisers. Presently, only three of the squads have found owners, but we hope that when the league commences after the Puja break, Adit Pujari and Rahul Sharma will have been able to tout the respective strengths of their teams to attract viable investors.

NUJS' Got Talent

If the insistence of the judges to remain on stage is any indicator of the success of an event, NUJS’ Got Talent was a roaring hit.

After coaxing every dinnertime passer-by to take part, the number of participants was respectable. The auditorium was taken by a surprise to hold noojies to its full capacity, what after all those barely attended acad lectures! Those who thought they were too cool to take part, decided they weren’t so cool that they’d miss watching it. The one thought on everyone’s mind, while watching the participants- Do they hate themselves?! Them not figuring on the over-enthusiastic judges’ winners list notwithstanding, the 3 girls from the first year stole the show with their er… lawyer rhymes. What were they thinking, you ask? No one has got to the bottom of that. You could hold a debate whether the competition had to be called NUJS’ Got Guts instead; only, it’d be a one-sided one. Many a performance got people wondering about the right of some larynxes to remain in use. Another memorable performance was Khushi’s Kathak on Boom Boom Pow. Pipo’s ninja act thingies remain in memory too, but sources say some among the audience have been found looking up the Oblivio charm.

The fifth years’ imitation of the teachers won them the topspot while Aanchal Dalal sang her way into the second place. Joseph and Rituraj tied for the third place. That Friday evening, LCAS was a happy society.

Posters, Posters, Everywhere!

A new one seems to appear each time you look. And getting more creative all the time. From the innovatively designed printed posters to the imaginative hand-made notices, the Hallowed Walls of this Institution of Excellence are perceptibly becoming a collage of inspired ideas. What with so many events being organised by different groups of students, whether on behalf of Societies or not, notice-board space is a coveted commodity. Every available surface is being flooded with fliers, including trees and lampposts! On a more serious note, it is a sad phenomenon that people have been removing posters even before the event they are advertising is over. We hope this is a short-lived trend. Here’s to the hidden artists of NUJS!

Vernacular Creative Writing Competition

The Library Committee held its first creative writing competition to celebrate International Mother Tongue Day. Fittingly, the topic for the competition was how regional languages are languishing under the shadow of English. A spot of confusion was created when it was discovered that the mother tongue of one of the participating students was in fact English. Kinjal Ghose of the Fifth Year was adjudged the winner.

Creative in Class

The Mag Com held its first Creative in Class (CiC). Given a randomly selected topic, students were asked to submit a fictional entry within the exact time taken by one class. Needlesss to say, the competition was organized and implemented without the knowledge of any teachers. Although the CiC could only be held for the Class of 2012, we were surprised at the level of participation. The winning entry, a short, non-scandalous and definitely non-libellous story, was written by Ankit Thakur. Special mention must also be made of Arpita, Shatadru and Jhalak for their thoroughly creative entries.

Library goes Wi-Fi

Now you may sit coolly at any corner of the library and go surfing the world web. Capture the world in your comp as the library goes wi-fi. Yup! Great relief and reward for students constantly needing access to the Westlaw, Hein-online and other data-bases. In fact, believe it or not, this post was uploaded from the library - no wires at all! Further, the dedicated lease–line for the hostels is just split-seconds away; which means unlimited downloads and a lot more access on a much fast internet.

Annual Day

The Eighth Annual Day was organized in precisely the same way in which the SJA had operated in the last academic half-year: with swiftness and extreme stealth. Hardly had we recovered from the Invicta-Outlawed hangover, and gotten over the postponement of the Annual Elections that we realized that the Annual Day was upon us again.

The event was graced by Mr. R.N. Jhunjhunwalla, Managing Partner, Khaitan and Co. as the Chief Guest. In his address, he congratulated the NUJS student community heartily on their manifold achievements and endeavours and urged them to maintain an adequate work-leisure balance in order to ensure that their juridical potentials got utilized to the fullest. The SJA President then came forth with his annual report, highlighting the achievements of the Student Body in the last six months of its tenure. And the lists were impressive indeed. In the last two hundred days, Ashish and his merry men had ensured inter alia, a fully functioning gymnasium, the completion of the University auditorium and Wireless Internet in the Library in addition to organizing Outlawed, Invicta and the NUJS Debate on far larger scales than ever seen before.

The Awards Ceremony that followed felicitated a diverse group of students for an equally diverse set of achievements throughout the academic year. While Pranay Chaturvedi and Ankur Dalal were lauded for publishing their first book, some won accolades for their Sporting, Debating and Mooting achievements, and some were crowned University Bhaiyya. Animesh and Tanya were adjudged Sportsman and Sportswoman of the year; and Sarbajeet bagged the Best All-Round Student Award. The Magazine Committee, not unusually, won the Best SJA Committee Award for its first time ever.

The cultural segment of the event kick-started with Shameek Sir and Anirban’s (from the LLM Batch) rendition of Bangla rock numbers. Neat Karaoke performances by Kinshuk, Udit and Zorthanpui were then interspersed with Ashish Arun who emceed on in his inimitable style, introducing newer and innovative awardees on stage, such as the Best Class Rep., the Best Office Bearers, and the Best GB Member. Three hilarious short plays performed commendably by Animesh and Sudarshan followed, which had all and sundry in stitches. Alarmingly, even Sayak from the Final Year shared stage time with Ashish in doling out his legendary PJ’s that critics have long acknowledged to be far potent than an mg of Zyklon-B.

However, the show was most definitely stolen by the girls from the Fifth Year with their dance-medley finale, featuring Bollywood classics from over five decades. The medley also featured a cameo by Dore who did a convincing Ranbir Kapoor, jigging to Bachna e Haseenon; and six shaded boys who suddenly entered stage without cue, rhyme or reason, shaking themselves to Emotional Atyachar. It all ended with a bang with all of the Fifth Years running onto stage and bopping away to Deewangi from Om Shanti Om.

The Annual Day was thus the culmination of an eventful year, and made it abundantly clear that the subsequent SJA had a lot to live up to indeed.