Apply now: http://ccs.in/internship/apply.php

Location: New Delhi
Duration: 6 June – 20 July

Explore, debate, and discuss powerful ideas and ground realities with curious students, guides, and
speakers. The Researching Reality Summer Internship at Centre for Civil Society (CCS) provides
students a transformative learning experience in real-life application of social and economic
principles and develops their skills of research, writing, and above all critical thinking.

“The only summer which changed me intellectually and made me develop a rational
perspective on the impact of public policy from an on ground view.” —Saurav Patyal

Researching Reality is unique in that interns do not merely read and report the theories of others;
they go out into the real world to see what’s going on for themselves. Equipped with appropriate
research tools and expert research guidance, interns do field visits to conduct primary research as
part of their work. Finally, interns publish their findings in a way that will be most likely to inform
public opinion and public policy.

The internship consists of a four-day residential course in public policy and liberal philosophy, an
orientation to research methods, followed by six weeks of firsthand research on a topic of mutual
interest to the intern and CCS. Research projects cluster around three main areas:

1. the effects of regulation on livelihood freedom for poor and informal sector workers,
2. the effects of choice-based policy and private enterprise on education, and
3. issues of accountability and good governance.

Student may also suggest their own topics as long as they match the research interest and
competence of CCS.

“There was always room for arguing my point, perhaps because CCS tells you ‘how’ to think,
not ‘what’ to think.” —Areeba Hamid

Students need no special background knowledge to participate. Applications will be assessed on
candidates’ motivation for attending the program, ability to perform well during the internship, and
future career interests.

For more information, go to the internship webpage: http://www.ccs.in/internship

If after visiting the webpage you have further questions, feel free to contact us: internship@ccs.in

Sometimes people do want to see cricket

IPL, the BCCI’s personal mint, has been vastly successful in its first four seasons with many christening it as the English Premier League of cricket. The initial buzz surrounding the fifth version of the league will certainly make the BCCI feel at ease. However, a closer analysis of this ‘buzz’ brings out several worrying issues which remind me of my experiences with the LED TV.

IPL has done to cricket what an LED TV does to TV shows. It has made cricket larger than life. It roped in movie stars and cheerleaders to occupy every inch of popular perception.

Just like an LED TV makes a show more interesting by enhancing the way it is presented (in HD quality) without actually altering or utilising the contents of the show, the IPL made cricket more saleable by banking on factors which were as divorced from cricket as Liz Hurley is from Arun Nayar.

The thrill came from the act of watching in itself. After all, this was supposed to be the most expensive league in the world in which the great Shah Rukh Khan himself had invested his hard earned cash and reputation. The burden of entertainment was thus taken off cricket. The novelty though cannot last forever and the wheels have already begun to fall off. Last year the viewership of IPL declined by 15% and the trend this year is likely to be worse affecting the sale of advertisement slots. Most of the regular advertisers with the IPL are yet to sign on this year. They say that with the fall in viewership the cost per eyeball has increased dramatically, pointing to the fact that the buzz might fizz out.

In such a scenario the burden of carrying the IPL forward falls for the first time on cricket the sport. Worryingly for the BCCI, cricket is no longer the in thing anymore. The attendances across stadiums when England toured India were so dismal that one could well have confused the matches to be Ranji trophy encounters. Add to that the woeful performance of the Indian team in recent times and you have a nation which has had enough of cricket. The cricket saturation is best epitomised by the latest Pepsi advertisement. You will probably remember the ‘Change the Game’ tag that Pepsi floated to describe the more unorthodox techniques used by Indian cricketers. The same Pepsi has now literally changed the game, ridiculing the national obsession with cricket while siding with football in its new commecial. The BCCI’s showpiece is in need of a dramatic change in plot to keep the viewers interested for, quite evidently, all LED TVs get old.

Harsh Vardhana

(The views expresses are of the author)

The fest kicked off with an inauguration ceremony by Dr. Bhim Sen Singh, the principal of the college and Vice-Principal, Dr. M.C Nahar. “Considering how the situation was, the fact that the fest would even be held was doubtful, but the Students Union hard work only turned the cards”, said Dr. Singh. The crowd, with numbers running in thousands was pumped in with ardor after a breathtaking dance performance by Sensation- the dance society of the college. In the ‘Battle of the Bands’, The Mangalz, a Delhi based Metal band made people mosh and bang their heads off with their original compositions and other songs like Emotional Atyachaar, Technical Difficulties etc and were eventually declared the winners of the event. This was followed by a scintillating performance by Musoc, the Music Society of the college. The one hour set by them included songs by Rahman, Adele and Sanam Marvi. Musoc’s performance charged up the crowd and left them craving for more. Next in line was Blitz, a performance by the Eka Trio. Eka’s music is an amalgamation of various genres into what they call “Swatantra Rock”. Their intense, peppy and energetic medleys and originals saw the crowds dancing their feet hurt.

The second day of the fest saw people dancing away under the spring sun in Groove – the Jam Session and doing impromptu jigs on the stage. From Chikni Chameli to Desi Boyz, the impromptu performances had people asking for more. Students were seen trying to break into the barricaded stage area, just to get a better view of the show stopper for the day, Ayushmann Khurrana – an actor and an ex-Roadie who had arrived for the promotion of his movie, Vicky Donor. Posters and banners of his movie were stuck around at various places all over the KMC campus. “I like the audience. Everyone seems so full of zip and vigour. They all are talented bunch of sperms. Sperm donation is like bloody donation, eye donation and this concept totally needs to reach out to the masses” said an ecstatic Ayushmann Khurrana. Ayushmann was accompanied by Shefali Dhanak, a new face in the fashion industry. The duo also played the judges of Blaze – the Fashion Show competition. The fashion societies of Amity University and KMC bagged the first and second positions respectively.

The third and the final day of the fest witnessed an astounding performance by Neeraj Shridhar. He sang a number of his Bollywood hits, including Jhak Maar Ke, Character Dheela Hai, Aahun Aahun, Prem Ki Naiyya, Bhool Bhulaiya et al. Entry to the fest was by Delhi University ID card and students took full advantage of this.

Shweta Arora
shwetaa@dubeat.com

Photo Credits: Parthiv Goel

Can we have some crowd management please?

The Sports Day of Sri Venkateswara College would probably have never witnessed an attendance of such magnitude as it did this year. The reason wouldn’t exactly accrue to the brilliant marketing of the steeplechases or the relay races, but to the presence of the Nawab of Najafgarh; Virender Sehwag.

True to his flamboyant cricketing style, Sehwag drove up in a dazzling white Audi and was immediately inundated with people wishing to get any part of him on camera. So what if that happened to be his nostrils? They were Virender Sehwag’s nostrils! Hordes of excited students and equally excited friends of the excited students were fended off by the college guards because surprisingly Sehwag brought no entourage. He then moved, rather was pushed towards the Principal’s office which provided him some respite from the crowd. However this would probably be one of the few occasions wherein students wanted to rush into the Principal’s office just so they could catch a glimpse of the opener!

Those who were either vertically challenged or too weak hearted to jostle their way to the front of the swarm of people could assuage their feelings however as they were privy to even the slightest nuance of Sehwag’s movements owing to the intensity of the squeals emanating from the crowd. This continued till the Chief Guest reached the multicolored pandal which was to be his refuge for the next 20 minutes. Seated next to the Principal, Ms. Hemalatha Reddy, Sehwag got himself some breathing space with the college authorities finally managing to create a respectable distance between him and the wannabe glimpse catchers.

Amidst all the brouhaha, Sehwag eventually got down to inaugurating the 51st Sports Day of the college. He said, “It’s nice to see students take a keen interest in sports.” Talking about the sports facilities of the college he said, “The facilities are very good and such events will bring forth fresh talent.” Following this Sehwag was again escorted to his Audi by the squealing crowd and he left with the amount of flamboyance unchanged.

Urvi Gupta

urvig@dubeat.com

Surprisingly, this year Rio Tinto beat the traditional Deutsche Bank in offering Mehtab Singh Chima and Akshita Kapur the highest pay package, a whooping figure of 30 lakhs. Being undergraduates, this figure is a big achievement. The average package was roughly 5.5 lakhs this year indicating that one of the finest commerce institutions still continues to promise a host of deserving employees to the corporate sector.

Mannat Sandhu 
mannats@dubeat.com

Kevin Pietersen

Do you have a friend who supports the Mumbai Indians because of Sachin Tendulkar, or RCB because it has the star power, or maybe Chennai Superkings because they have won the IPL twice, and worst of all Kolkata Knight Riders because of a certain Mr. Khan?

I am a staunch supporter of Delhi Daredevils not because they win or lose but because I have lived in the ‘Delhi spirit’ for the past 12 years and have loved the city despite its peculiarity. When I heard about the concept of IPL five years back, I imagined a fierce intercity rivalry with teams built around the respective cities. I imagined a Delhi-Mumbai match where Delhiites would thrive for Sachin’s wicket and not for his cover drive (however tempting that may be), a Delhi-Kolkata match where the average Delhite would support Virender Sehwag rather than the owner of the opposite team just because they have seen Dilwale Dulhinayi Le Jayenge innumerable times.

Now that the fifth season of IPL is approaching fast, the Delhi Daredevils have made a whole load of changes. Having roped in Ross Taylor, Kevin Pietersen, Mahela Jayawardane, Andre Russell and Douglas Bracewell the GMR Group have strengthened the team significantly. What they are aiming at is a batting lineup built up by the four foreign players while having a bowling lineup featuring Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron. The Daredevils have also parted ways with James Hopes and Ashok Dinda, both of whom have gone to the Pune Warriors. In addition, Colin Ingram and Mathew Wade are not present in the 30 man squad, while Travis Birt will be out for the season due to a shoulder injury.

Although the team boasts of enough strength in the bowling attack with Morne Morkel and Doub Bracewell ready to take up one of the few coveted spots, it remains to be seen how the team shapes up for a spinner friendly track. With no world class spinner among the ranks, and only Roelof Van der Merwe the recognizable spinner, Delhi might have to resort to part time bowlers in Sehwag, Yogesh Nagar and Kevin Pietersen. Nonetheless, this will also present an opportunity for local players to stake their claim for the spinner’s role.

The batting though, will be the talking point for Delhi Daredevils. Ross Taylor is being seen as a smart buy as he is expected to be available during the entire schedule along with Vice Captain Mahela Jayawardane. David Warner will only be available in May following Australia’s tour of West Indies, while Kevin Pietersen might miss out on the latter part of the tournament. When at full strength this is how the final XI might look like:

Virender Sehwag, David Warner, Mahela Jayawardane, Kevin Pietersen, Ross Taylor, Venugopal Rao, Naman Ojha, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Umesh Yadav/Varun Aaron, Shahbaz Nadeem.

Shashank Gupta

(The views expressed are of the author )

You have to love Peter Griffin when he finds Jesus at a record store and innocuously believes that its his second coming; or when he visits Ground Zero and postulates that the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by Saddam Hussein or someone from Iraq. Stewie, the one-year-old baby with an ambiguous sexual orientation is the headliner of the show with Brian coming a close second. Again you just can’t ignore their trip to a parallel universe where Christianity is absent and the world is 1000 years more advanced or when they make references to Walt Disney’s anti-semitism. And the list just doesn’t end over here, from Jews to Hitler, from Kim Kardarshian to George Bush, from religion to Star Trek, from the homosexuals to the handicapped, they haven’t spared anyone.

It wouldn’t be naive to reason that there is some truth behind the lampooning. Since when did the truth become a matter of merriment and joy, something you could go over and have a good laugh when you’re back from a tough day at the office.

So why can’t this ‘comical truth’ have its manifestation amongst the Indian palette. Its not that we don’t have a sense of humour, evidence of it being the myriad of ‘laughter shows’ on TV and their ever high ratings. So it probably has to do with the fact that the makers of the ‘Indian Family Guy’ might get killed by a mercenary ‘allegedly’ hired by a politician’s babu. Or it might become another debate agenda to hit the Indian Parliament with the neutrals supporting it, and the right and left wing opposing it, actuating another trust vote.

Censorship reflects the lack of confidence of society in itself; yes quite a few famous people have said this and it is true in the Indian context. The hyperglobalizers school of thought has lost out to the sceptics in this aspect, with the Indian state exercising absolute sovereignty over reviewing television content under the facade of penalising seditious activity. Family Guy stands for the ability to accept a pun, a joke or even a mistake, and move on. The state has been taking itself too seriously, its about time it had a good laugh at itself; and came back reinvigorated. Something tells me the Indian State could do with a family guy right now.

Rohan Seth
rohans@dubeat.com

The campaigning for the 2012 – 13 union elections started around the 17th of March 2012 – as soon as the names were shortlisted after the interviews taken by the election committee. It was an ‘in-campus’ campaign and the candidates were not allowed to propagate themselves via any means outside the college premises through calls or sms.

Agendas were put up on notice boards on Monday and since then the notice boards were never left alone. There were always groups standing around them with coffees and ice teas looking at the agendas of different candidates, contemplating and discussing as to who should earn their precious vote.

The Big Fight- the electoral debate happened on Wednesday, candidates were ready to fight it out, was a shoe full of arguments, debates and candidates furthering their agendas and luring as many voters as they could in their stride. A noisy and enlightening change from the usual schedule of lectures (though the lectures were never suspended).

The final dot in the circle was joined when the poll booths were declared open today. All calls of ‘vote for me/XYZ’ came to a halt and there stood the candidates holding the placards with their names. They stood there from 9:30am to 1pm. For better or for worse they were not allowed to speak and propagate themselves any further.

Though it started on a decent scale, the contacts period from 12-1 pm saw girls from all courses turning out in huge numbers to fight it out for their favorite candidates.
All said and done, the final results were declared around 4pm. It left some rejoicing in their victory and some in despair but with a hope that there is always a next time
So now the people who need to realize that with such a joy comes a humungous responsibility (the winners of this grand affair) are:

Gargi College Student Union Election Results: