A FESTIVAL OF LETTERS * (Updated with pictures)

We are pleased to inform you that the Dept. of English, Bharati College, Delhi University is organising 'A Festival of letters' from 15 March to 18 March 2011.


The festival shall be inaugurated with a lecture by the playwright Mahesh Dattani, followed by a three day workshop on playwriting / script writing conducted by him. The participants will be expected to have read two of Dattani’s plays Thirty Days in September and Seven Steps around the Fire. They will also be expected to write and share their writings in the workshop.


This shall be followed by a day of literary events for students on 18 March concluding with a production of Bertolt Brecht’s play The Good Person of Szechwan in Hindi, titled Kanpur ki Aurat Bhali Ramkali.


The poster carrying the details of the four day festival:

For further queries, contact:
Dr. Mukti Sanyal  (Teacher convenor)                                                                                             
Shivani Sharma (President, Red Stockings)




UPDATED: The festival went-off well. The workshop with Mr. Mahesh Dattani was very enterprising and the students enjoyed the literary events as well. The play received favourable reviews as well.


Below are pictures by Pooja Singha from English Honours, Ist Year.

                        



                            MR. MAHESH DATTANI  WITH THE WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS

YUVA MEET 2011, DAY 1

The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI) organized the 3rd YUVA Meet on 1-2 February 2011 in New Delhi. It witnessed participation of young researchers and future entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds from across India and foreign shores. There were student delegates from 14 nations such as Sri Lanka, Maldives, Argentina, Canada, Kenya, Swaziland, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Phillippines, Japan, Korea, Fiji Islands, Malaysia amidst others.

 The theme of this year’s event was Road to Global Sustainability via Local Initiatives. It was held at the British Council, KG Marg (Day 1) and at the Delhi Secretariat, IP Extension (Day 2) respectively.


I was one among the six students who represented the college at this prestigious forum. Other students were Vandita Agrawal, Ekta Bansal, Ila Garg, Radhika Sharma and Shruti Jain. Each of us had written a short write-up expressing our thoughts on issues of carbon emissions, sustainability and role of young people having a common vision and commitment in tackling global inertia. This complements the title of the event YUVA or Youth United for Voluntary Action.


The Day 1 got underway with the Inaugural Address by Charlie Walker, Director Programme, British Council. He warmly welcomed the students and hoped that like the previous years, this year’s deliberations would enlighten the youth and bolster their confidence. He expressed the need for good educators who would help in propelling and harnessing the energy of youth and make them socially obligated. This would, of course, be not unidirectional.


Dr Leena Shrivastava, Executive director, TERI proceeded to announce the launch of LaBL or Lighting a Billion Lives. This student volunteer project aims to provide state of the art energy technologies that would facilitate change, inspire hope and transform lives of people in far-flung areas.  By selling the solar energy based lanterns at a very nominal price, this small yet effective difference on part of young work force would bring a smile on faces of men, women and children living in far-flung areas.

The first plenary session revolved around the concept on sustainability. The keynote presentation was given by Prof Bhavik Bakshi, Vice Chancellor, TERI University who spoke in favour of multidisciplinary education- a sort of hybrid education that would cater to the challenges of modern era. 


One of the highlights of the second plenary session was a Power Point Presentation by Rajat Bhargava, a wildlife biologist, World Wildlife Fund, India. The pictures caught the attention of the students at once and they listened intently to his talk about the endangered bird species particularly the Yellow Weaver. Bhargava’s love and passion for his job was clearly reflected in his endeavours.

The Young Achievers Session was the most-sought after that day as Anchor-Actor, Purab Kohli and Common Wealth Games 2010 Athlete, Krishna Poonia arrived as speakers.


In their addresses, these youth icons emphasized that the young people are “important stakeholders” in any efforts to counter environmental challenges and that they need to come in forefront and be actively engaged in creating awareness.


This last statement went well with Krishna Poonia. She enthralled the audience by narrating how her family supported her when she needed them the most and that she owed her success to them.


After the tea break, the results of the group activity were announced and it gives me immense pleasure in informing you that my group was one among those who got selected. We were required to present our poster the next day in a segment called Youth Express.


Then, the film screening of Stories in Stone was followed by a visit to Dilli Haat, a melting pot of Indian handicrafts and handlooms that also features food plazas.

Writing - a conscious and an unconscious effort...

A one day Seminar titled ‘Women Writing/ Writing Women’ was held in Bharati College on 19th November 2010. It was organised by the college in association with the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (Shimla), Indian Council of Cultural Relations (Delhi), Sahitya Academy and the India International Centre.

" The seminar aimed to trace the literary journeys of the Women Writers from the two erstwhile Colonised areas – Africa and India – and enable them to share and exchange ideas and experiences, thus exploring experiences of women in these parts of the Global South".

seminar

View more presentations from BColg10.

Session I* was moderated by Dr. Nandini Sen and witnessed the following speakers :
Karen King Aribasala – Nigeria
Yashodhra Mishra – India (Oriya)
Vaidehi – India (Kannada)


While, Session II* was moderated by Dr. Veena Sharma and featured the following speakers:
Joy Kwesiga – Uganda
Yaba Badoe – Ghana
Mridula Garg – India (Hindi)
Urmila Pawar – India (Marathi)

Vote of Thanks was given by Dr. Nandini Sen

Each session was followed by a round of open discussion in which the audience comprising of delegates from outside and college students got a chance to interact with these writers. They shared their experiences, discussed their journeys as writers and warmly answered questions put forward by the eager listeners.

The final year English Honours found the discussions all the more stimulating as they have African novels, poems and plays in their syllabus.


"The part of the seminar that was held at the India International Centre talked about the aspirations and the challenges that women writers face in today’s world as also their personal journeys through the creative process"


*THE POST HAS BEEN UPDATED AFTER CORRECTION

Strike a chord for health and more...

Street theatre is the earliest form of communication. The street plays or Nukkad Nataks are concise yet they possess this mesmerizing power to speak directly to the audience and strike a chord in their hearts.
A Nukkad natak by World Lung foundation was performed in college grounds on 10 August 2010. It was well-received by students.

The day also witnessed activities organized by Red Stockings Literary Society. First, there was JUST A MINUTE (JAM in popular usage) Competition which was followed by preparing Logo for the society.




The purpose of JAM is to develop quick thinking together with good speaking, good grammar and appropriate use of words. The speakers were given half a minute to think and another minute to speak on the topic. They were scored on the basis of their content, confidence, comprehension of the topic and manner of speech. Some of the topics were I wish I was a bird, my idea of perfect weekend, perfect life, how to keep Earth green, my school days and so on.


The judges were Shrishti, Archna and Anupam from Eng Hons. IIIrd Year.

The winner was Gayatri from Eng Hons. Ist Year.

For Logo competition, there was a palpable interest amongst the audience.