The Elucidator Online - September 2014 - Main Edition

The Elucidator An SIMC(UG) Initiative | september 2014 | issue 5

online

BRINGING NEWS THAT MATTERS

A SNEEK PEEK INTO COMIC CON BANGALORE p2

SIMC-UG THESPIANS ENTHRALL PUNE POLICE p2

NICOLO GOVONI

nicolo.govoni@simcug.edu.in

Pune: A student fundraising in Symbiosis College managed to collect Rs. 65,000 and a substantial amount of blankets, clothes and food to help the flood victims of Kashmir. The funds collected, thanks to the communication with doctors on ground, will allow purchasing the essential prescribed medicines for the affected population.

According to Saima Hussein Mir, promoter of the donation, this amount was collected within seven days, and she hoped to raise a lakh by the end of the next week.

“The first who donated was a friend, then my classmates. Then my classmates. When the hostel got to know about it

TICKER

TAPE

The geek way to explore culture.

The first of its kind in Pune, Geekfest was an event to meet and connect with art, design, literature, film, music, tech and gaming geeks.

Organized by Huda Merchant and Adnan Shaikh and held in the office of Thoughtworks, Yerwada. P2

Conspiracy 101, the student’s favorite.

Extra classes conducted

by Professor Kamath, witness a turnout of over 30 students from the batch of 2017. P2

Lec-Dem at SIMC-UG

Vocal Hindustani classical music performance

by Smita Unkule Deshmukh. P2

THE Elucidator Speaks

Photo By : Shubhankar MisHra

Symbiosis students collect ₹65,000 for Kashmir floods

Symbiosis students collected Rs. 65,000 for Kashmir floods purely through student contributions for Kashmir flood victims, that will help purchasing essential commodities for them. They hoped to collect Rs. 1,00,000 by the end of the next week.

many people volunteered to help, finally spreading the news throughout both SID and SIMC.” said Saima, an SID freshman, regarding the beginning of the initiative.

More than fifteen other students actively volunteered day by day, plac-

ing fundraising boxes on every floor, in every office of the College.

Furthermore, an agreement with the airport authorities, and particularly with IndiGo airlines, provides free transportation for the load of goods and medicines regularly every

Girls’ team secures 3rd position in SIU football Haripriya Suresh

haripriya.suresh@simcug.edu.in

Pune: The girl’s football team of SIMC-UG bagged the 3rd position for the first time at the Symbiosis International University Tournament.

It was also the first time the team had reached the semi-finals.

After defeating SIT, SIMC-PG and losing the

Editor’s pick Poulomi Roy

semifinals to SCMS; the thirteen member team had to play a match against SID to decide who would bag the third place, which they won 2-0.

The team showed considerable team spirit, inspite of recurrent injuries and obstacles along the way. The captain, Sanjana Varma had only one thing to say – “Please take the game forward”.

week.

“For almost a week after the flood I couldn’t reach my family there.

It had been a fearful moment for me and then I realised I really wanted to help my people. So most probably, I will join them by the end of September.”

SIMC(UG) swims its way to victory Bharat Misra

bharat.misra@simcug.edu.in

Pune: SIMC-UG’s swimming team bagged the top honours at the recently concluded SIU inter-institute Swimming Competition, held at the Symbiosis Lavale Campus, thanks to the heroics of Adhidya SR, among others. A participant’s interview follows.

continued » P2

Heera’s the place

roy.poulomi@simcug.edu.in

Pune: Heera is a pretty inconspicuous place for something that’s probably the first thing you hear of when you join Symbiosis.

An anti-climax of sorts; the smoker’s oval is nothing more than a tapri that sells

cigarettes and tobacco.

(Everyone made it sound like an 1800’s opium den.

I had higher expectations).

So it took me a solid ten minutes trying to figure out how to navigate my way to the man who runs the nicotine show. Honey dew smells brilliant so I am not complaining too

TITANIC OF PUNE: THE RACE COURSE p3

much but after an incessant coughing fit I finally got around to asking him the things that matter.

Turns out 50% of his customers are college students which I think is an understatement seeing how the thing looks like a University affiliated venture. continued » P2

Nulli Secundus all the way

It is great pride in being ranked number one. But many forget the years spent on getting there. As far as student publications are concerned, September 2014 celebrates the second anniversary of SIMConnect, SIMC-UG’s first newsletter (a Batch 2013 initiative).

Journalism is a powerful and challenging career to be in. It takes great courage to find stories from the society and its dwellers for there is a delicate balance between them. Student publications such as SIMConnect were The Elucidator’s inspiration where students became the Media. Earlier publications like ‘Outloud’ and ‘Undergrad’ were student magazines that came up in September 2011, both lasted till Feb 2012 with two issues. These were platforms that our fellow students worked and excelled in. Today we have The Elucidator (Feb 2014) and The Bombay Review (Sept 2014) for the many budding reporters, writers and copy editors to work on.

SIMC-UG has seen five student publications since its inception. Students have studied, worked and made merry. They all have come and gone, but behind them is the man who made it possible, the man whose inspiration and guidance helped us become better and efficient media personnel, our Director Prof. Anupam Siddhartha who works tirelessly to this very minute to take SIMC-UG forward to excellence as always.

Reuben Paul Student Editor-in-Chief (Bt 2015)

September 2014

Campus

Photo By : MOHAMMED IHJAZ

SIMC-UG ‘thespians’ enthrall Pune Police

Dressed in the colours of revolution, black and red, the students of SIMC (UG) travelled and performed in front of dignitaries like the Pune Police Commissioner, State Home Ministry and also at the general public at places.

RHEA DANGWAL

rhea.dangwal@simcug.edu.in

Pune: With ever growing incidents of social media abuse and propaganda on social networking, un-

der the patronage of the Pune Police, the students of SIMC - UG prepared a street play highlighting the importance of awareness of cyber crime and how one must evade it.

This was initiated after the event of clashes across Pune city caused by reckless remarks on social media regarding certain communities and faiths. The street play has highlighted some sensitive topics of social media abuse, mobilising masses for wrong intentions, abuse of public forums like blogs to entice the masses, online pornography etc.

Dressed in the colours of revolution, black and red, the students have travelled and performed in front of dignitaries like the Pune Police commissioner, State home ministry and also for the general public at places like Dutta Mandir Chowk, Magarpatta City in the heart of Pune.

Special

Swimming champions at SIMC(UG) Continued from page 1

Pune: We caught up with the first year National-level swimmer, Adhidya SR, and asked her a few questions about what she loves the most: Swimming.

Q. How long have you been swimming formally?

Ans: I started swimming at the age of 6 in grade 1. There was no stopping me after that.

Q. Tell us about your past achievements in the sport?

Ans: In my second nationals I got a silver medal. Later, due to certain unpreventable circumstances I wasn’t able to perform up to the mark. Eventually, I managed to bring myself up and represented Tamil Nadu 7 times.

Q. How did you feel about the competition at the SIU swimming tournament?

Ans: SIU was a surprise: the date, the place and the award. I simply went to the competition for the love of swimming and never thought I’d be able to finish first. There were many well-trained swimmers and it was a bit tough without any workout session.

Conspiracy Class 101 Aishwariya Rajgopalan

aishwariya.rajgopalan@simcug.edu.in

Pune: Very rarely does it happen, that a student’s thirst for knowledge surpasses all else. But when that does happen, extra classes conducted by Professor Kamath, witness a turnout of over 30 students from the batch of 2017.

The students have, in jest, named these classes “Conspiracy one-o-one”, to signify their unofficial essence. The idea of these classes was formulated when the 60 minute classroom periods became inadequate to discuss other worldly (and non- worldly) issues. “It’s great to have a teacher who goes beyond the set curriculum, and manages to make us enthusiastic about history by merging it with the fu-

ture.”, says Kalpak Bhave, an excited first year.

A good dose of physics, philosophy and history is delivered to the students, tinged with the professor’s usual didactic approach.

Upon being asked for his opinions on these classes, Professor Kamath says that even though it may be interesting to talk about such intriguing topics and think about the questions he raises; a system of enquiry needs to be set with certain ground rules in place. He feels that soon, a purpose should emerge out of these abstract discussions.

“In his classes, the expected is just the beginning, and it’s the unexpected that changes our life”, says Ayushmita Rao, another enthusiastic student.

2

GeekFest : A crossroad of culture and creativity Vidushi Bhatia

vidushi.bhatia@simcug.edu.in

Pune: The first of its kind in Pune, Geekfest was an event to meet and connect with art, design, literature, film, music, tech and gaming geeks. Organised

by Huda Merchant and Adnan Shaikh, the event was held in the office of Thoughtworks, Yerwada on September 14.

It started with some spoken word poetry. Following that was a GeekTalk on Creativity and Conformity by Siddharth Pathak. Then there was a

An enthralling Lec-Dem @ SIMC Vaibhavi Khanwalkar

second Geek talk: a start up by visually challenged people. Next, there was an interesting art workshop.

The third geektalk was by the founder of Social Hashtag, Amey Sharma.

In the following workshop, participants were to make ‘Kleskographs’, widely known as the Rorschach test ink blots. Next, a demonstration showcased 3D printing. The final GeekTalk was about gaming

by Mr. Teran. The last talk was by an SIMC (UG) alumni, Aniket Dasgupta.

The event ended with a talk about Viman Talkies.

Pune: SIMC-ians got a chance to listen to a music form purely native to India through a vocal Hindustani classical music performance by Smita Unkule Deshmukh.

This cultural event also known as Samskritam by SIMC (UG) was held at the SVC auditorium on 26th September at 5 pm.

A brilliant Lecturecum-demonstration, it started with the Raaga Purya-kallam and ended with a question and answer session.

statutory warnings.

And that’s not even the worst of it. When you’re an adult you have every right to exercise your free will.

You know who shouldn’t be caught in the cross fire between undulating peer pressure and the presence of a cigarette shack no more than a few meters apart from school?

School kids.

Let us not mollify our words and mince them to bits to convince ourselves what we do is right because it’s not. Smoking in front of school kids is not what’s called setting a good example and it’s surprisingly cavalier on the part of the people who do so.

The act is ineffective; it’s not curbing the cigarette soliciting crowd. It’s not doing anything to stop

the constant threat Hira poses to the very capricious preteen/teen population that the campus houses and everyone pretends to be happily oblivious to its existence.

So children, what did we learn about Hira’s today? Hira’s makes a lot of money, if this media thing doesn’t work out for you; you always know what to do. That’s right, passive aggressively kill people with nicotine.

vaibhavi.khanwalkar@simcug.edu.in

You shouldn’t be at Heera’s

Poulomi Roy

roy.poulomi@simcug.edu.in

Pune: Owners of Heera’s sell five thousand rupees worth of cigarettes every day. That’s a lot of cigarettes sold. That’s one too many pair of lungs ruined.

The shack is not supposed to be there for starters - According to Supreme Court ruling tobacco products cannot be sold in places within 100 meters radius from the outer boundary of an institution of education, which includes schools, colleges and institutions of higher learning established or recognized by an appropriate authority.

Most of us know that but we conveniently manage to ignore the sign that literally glows red in all its

Pune’s homegrown literary bonanza BHARAT MISRA

bharat.misra@simcug.edu.in

Pune: Since last year, Pune has the rare distinction of hosting one of the few festivals in the country that celebrate literature.

Held over three days from the 18th to 20th of September at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology in Kothrud, it featured eminent speakers, who took up all aspects of literature and talk about them at length.

Aditi Kumar of Batch 2016 was part of the festival as a compere, among others. She spoke to us about the festival’s SIMC connection. “Visiting faculty members Ramesh Menon and Vinita Deshmukh gave excellent talks on journalism and corporate influence in the

press. Mr. Menon also spoke about his new book, ‘Modi Demystified’, which seemed interesting.”

Apart from literary personalities like Amish Tripathi, Madhulika Liddle and Francois Gautier, there

The Pune International Literary Festival witnessed some of the greatest writers, literateurs and film makers coming together on a single platform.

was a considerable presence of people from the field of cinema. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, director of celebrated films like Rang De Basanti and

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was present on the final day of the festival to share his thoughts on the social relevance of motion pictures in our society.

Other Bollywood veterans like Anjum Rajabali, Mansoor Khan, Jyothi Kapur Das and noted film critic Mayank Shekhar also participated in the discussions that were scheduled throughout the three dayperiod.

Mansoor Khan, director of classics like Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar and Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, talked about his on-andoff journey in Bollywood.

“I was always an accidental filmmaker,” he recounted, “making films was never an agenda; it just happened.” He has recently released a book on Indian economy titled ‘The Third Curve’.

The three days were jam-packed as the city’s literati thronged at the venue to ‘experience’ literature from its best practitioners.

September 2014

Exclusive

The Titanic of Pune : Along the racecourse lines

At quarter past two; the field came to life with a wonderful display. Right at the beginning, we’d noticed these strange hut-like structures in the lush green center of the shayonnita.mallik@simcug.edu.in sagarika.tumkar@simcug.edu.in racecourse field, and wondered what happened there.

The air buzzed with excitement, as three choppers flew in Pune: The Southern Gold Cup Race held by the Royal from seemingly nowhere, and in an instant, several solTurf Club in collaboration with the Southern Command diers climbed out in uniform, armed with guns and wits.

The huts were model terrorist hideouts, and we were of the Indian army was held in Pune on the 4th of September 1948. Sixty-six years later, on the 7th of Septem- to see a seven minute site-extermination. We did see, in absolute awe, the speed at ber, the event began with which these people worked the promise of something – rescuing mock hostagmore than just horse races. es, killing mock terrorist With expectant feet we and finally taking to wing stepped into the cobbled again. threshold of the Pune raceAs we exited the stands course. We had the fortune and strolled to the betof sitting both, in the memting booths, we saw a very ber’s stand as ‘members of different scenario. There the press’, and mingling were several people here, with the proletariat who in mismatched, unbrandsat on wooden benches ed clothes – young, old, with their eyes glued to fat men – impatient with small color screens. As first the thrill of it all – standtime race-viewers, we sat ing together in serpentine quite clueless, wondering The jockey, steadily mounted on his stallion, leaps towards lines, perspiring, chatterwhat to judge and what to victory as hundreds of onlookers stare, cheer and hope. ing, arguing, calculating expect. Most of the viewers how much to bet today. were army member who were invited to have a peaceful morning over sausage Here lay lines of wooden benches – filled with another rolls and cups of cinnamon tea. There were racing en- strata of our society – one that came to races to earn that thusiasts of course – each with one of those curious little little money. Here stood, humans who embraced our black books in their hands – talking in whispered voices foolish questions enthusiastically and posed happily for pictures. of thoroughbreds and politics.

We left that day, wondering for whom were these races Collecting our wits, we began to unobtrusively make conversation around us. A charming Punjabi army-cou- were held? Those who sat under antique fans, on elevated ple told us about the upcoming army displays; and how stands; or those who leaned over warm metal barriers, the little books were printed every day and held valuable under those very stands, just to get a closer view. Our society exists in two parallel worlds. Which one do you live in? information about each competing horse.

Shayonnita Mallik Sagarika Tumkar

Photo By : SAGARIKA TUMKAR

A Comedy of Errors RHEA DANGWAL

rhea.dangwal@simcug.edu.in

Imagine a parallel universe where serial killers are on talk shows and parents fret when their kid doesn’t come out of the closet; a counsellor who urges a client to commit suicide and a wife who congratulates her husband’s abductor at his success.

Now imagine these sequences rendered on stage by some of the best theatre artists of the industry:- Kalki Keochlin, Cyrus Sahukar, Purab Kohli and Richa Chaddha.

The Play “Trivial Disasters”, directed by Atul Kumar incorporates satire and dark comedy seamlessly, so much so that as the audience, you are left rolling with laughter and appalled by the sheer audacity of the stories.

It is one of the first theatre performances in India being carried out on such a large scale with performances in places like Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata etc. The play consists of nine stories which are performed as consecutive sketches with a transitional background. Every sketch sees the four actors swiftly changing roles and garb.

Trivial Disasters is definitely worth the watch and if someone were willing to pay two grand for a ticket for me, I wouldn’t mind watching it twice over.

3 A hospitable and cultural Oman Aditi Kumar

aditi.kumar@simcug.edu.in

In a recent news item titled ‘Top Kerala artistes perform in Oman’, I came across yet another example of how nonhostile Oman as a country really is, in terms of hospitability. The piece was written regarding a traditional Keralite temple performance art form. It is incredible to see how Oman defeats the stereotype of an Islamic country that refuses to open its boundaries to any outside religion or culture, and pretty much annihilates those who try.

Muscat, the capital city, has developed in varied ways, adhering to the cosmopolitan demands of modern society. However, it is commendable for its incredible efforts in maintaining a constant injection of cultural influences on the society - particularly for the expatriate Indians.

The Indian Social Club at present conducts a vast gamut of activities from sports to entertainment and a special wing for each region of the country. Programmes, conducted by experts in the field residing in the country for decades, have a wide and diverse audience, including the youth. To put it plainly, the city does a lot to cultivate the atmosphere of a home away from home.

Perhaps its magnum opus in this case has been the construction of the Royal Opera House, located in the Qurum district of the city. With acts ranging from performances by famed violinist Joshua Bell and Welsh opera, it also boasts of a record on Indian terms, such as a multimedia concert on the five elements of classical Indian music.

Despite the increasingly tight restrictions on expat work, visit and entry visas, Oman sure makes being a resident a treat by itself, with a level of cordiality, kindness and a love of varied cultural themes that have a significant impact on its growth and development.

The pop-culturist’s utopia at Comic Con: B’lore NISHA HEGDE

nisha.hegde@simcug.edu.in

Bangalore: Comic Con 2014 held between 12th and 14th September was this year’s biggest pop culture event to be held in Bangalore. Some of the best International

Four individuals cosplaying as their favourite pop-culture characters, taking their fandom to escalated heights.

Authors and Artists came especially for the convention along with a variety of amazing cosplays ranging from anime like Bleach and One Piece to video game characters, Tinkle comics characters and Doctor Who. Two professional Japanese cosplayers also attended the event, cosplaying as Naruto, Final Fantasy and Vocaloid characters. Several independent artists and graphic novelists also attended the event. Mr Jai Udurti happens to be one such individual. Creator of ‘Hyderabad: A Graphic Novel’ and ‘Robots of Dharma’, both graphic novels blending multiple genres together, he attributes the entirety of his inspiration to his interest for science-fiction and the wave of pulp magazines that infiltrated the Indian Markets in the late 20th century. During an interview he adviced amateur graphic novelists by suggesting that it is important to plough through obstacles, come what may.

For sci-fi fans, Stan Chou, another graphic novelist says: “Ideally, when drawing robots and the like, you want to spend a lot of time designing from scratch. That means you approach it like a real engineer”.

To top it off, onlookers witnessed the breathtaking sight of a skinny, hairy man dressed up as wonder-woman. We just cannot wait for next year.

Special

Spain’s business landscape at a glance

Having spent my penultimate year of business school on exchange in magdalena Andersson IS A Europe, it was surprising STUDENT OF Warwick Business to spot the great differSchool, uk. magdalena.andersson@warwick.ac.uk ences in entrepreneurial spirit and drive among different European nations. With experience from top UK, Italian and Swedish universities, studying in Spain presented a different environment.

Studies confirm that Spaniards tend to look for security rather than exposure to risks.

75% of young Spaniards for example wish to work in civil service, have a job for life.

Youth unemployment exceeding 50% may justify the Spanish quest for security. A

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

by-product of Spain’s low investments in R&D are accompanied by high bureaucratic hurdles for aspiring entrepreneurs, as setting up and operating businesses is met with cumbersome legalities which have to be followed. Starting a business in Spain ranks at 142nd place of 189 countries according to the World Bank.

This can also be observed in Spanish education. Spain’s biggest business lobby, Círculo de Empre-sarios, expresses its disappointment of the government’s failure to take measures to increase cooperation: “We need to change the mentality. Traditionally, our model of education is very theoretical and conservative. It encourages people to look for safe jobs; education should encourage creativity and innovation”.

Whether Spain’s low innovation levels and high uncertainty avoidance are linked to government regulations is another topic of debate. Nevertheless, it is highly evident throughout the Spanish society and has an impact on both business and education.

September 2014

Showcase

4

9 MONTHS LATER, THE BIRTH OF A STUDENT SHORT FILM Bharat Misra

bharat.misra@simcug.edu.in

A short film in-the-making for nine months is something largely unheard of, especially at SIMC(UG), where film productions are generally expedited for abundance of contributing personnel. Amid such a frenzy of filmmaking, second year mass communication student Abhash Singh’s sophomoric directorial venture, AVLO, is a rare outlier.

“It was conceived as a late night joke with friends,” explains Singh, “we never imagined it would turn into something quite as big as this.” Co-written by Singh with his batch mates Himangshu Arya and Samarth Verma, the film is an intense psychological thriller with a runtime of almost 35 minutes, another rarity for a student film.

“With a script of over 25 pages, we shouldn’t have expected anything lesser,” says Arya. Also the cinematographer of the movie, Arya believes AVLO’s longevity is a strength more than anything else. “We have grown as filmmakers throughout the months of shooting and editing,” he adds. “The evolution in our craft is apparent.”

Since the storyline spans generations and depicts two scenarios almost forty years apart, the planning and shooting took a long time to execute. “We have tried to keep the look and feel of the two time periods distinct, partly by taking measures at the shooting stage and partly on the editing table,” explains Singh, who also doubles up as the editor of the film. His technical know-how of industry level editing softwares only helped.

ALVO stars Sahil Punyani, Aditya Gandhi, Bharat Misra and Abhash himself in leading roles. Made on virtually no budget, getting the sound recording right was also a challenge the filmmakers faced. Opting to dub dialogues in post production for most scenes instead of using sync sound was a creative decision that was taken by the director while the film was being shot.

“We have given our hearts to completing AVLO. Through sleepless nights of shooting, re-shooting, editing and re-edeting, we have grown as storytellers,” signs off Arya.

Incidentally, once the film was finally screened, the overwhelming response and stellar crowd feedback managed to reflect this immense effort that had gone into its creation.

SIMComs SUDOKU ( DIFFICULTY LEVEL : EVIL )

‘AS’ IT IS.

COURTESY : WEBSUDOKU.COM

Rhea Dangwal

THOUGHT I.I.T. WAS TOUGH?

AFTERALL, IT’S NOT A GIG AT ‘THE HIGH’

RHea DangWal

Shristi Singh

SOLUTION TO PREVIOUS SUDOKU

The Elucidator September 2014, Issue 5

PUBLISHEd by Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication (Under Graduate), Viman Nagar, Pune, Maharashtra - 411014 Editor-in-Chief : Prof. Anupam Siddhartha | Editor : Prof. Vidyabhushan Arya | Student Editor-in-Chief : Reuben Paul Student News Editor : Arpit Bhatia | Student Chief of Bureau : Sanjana Venkatesan | Student Master Illustrator : Arpit Bhatia Student Assistant Editor (Editorial) : Manek Singh Kohli | Student Dy. Assistant Editor (Editorial) : Aishwarya Banerjee Student Features Editor : Bharat Misra | Student Dy. Features Editor : Nikhita Gowra Student DY. NEWS EDITOR : SHAYONNITA MALLIK | Student JR. EDITOR (EDITORIAL) : AISHWARYA RAJGOPALAN Student JR. CHiEF OF BUREAU : RHEA DANGWAL | student PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR : SHUBHANKAR MISHRA