By R B KAVYA

There are various emo-tional issues faced by stu-dents from time to time which cannot be addressed by material things or med-icine. Counselling can help students to spill out their emotional distress and understand ways to solve their problems.

Madhu Suri, the coun-selling psychologist at Bennett University, said that she believes that there is a need for a permanent counselling department to be set up in all universities.

“I strongly feel that a regular counselling centre manned by at least three psychologists is impera-tive for a university,” said Madhu Suri. Emotional and other crises do not wait to strike during fixed hours. It can happen any time, so to have a channel for students to seek help is essential for the overall health of the students and that would enable the Uni-versity to optimize the stu-dent’s potential”.

Issues like relation-ship problems, depression, anxiety, coping with a new environment, newfound

freedom, living away from home academic stress and substance abuse are some of the problems which stu-dents have reached out to her for.

Being a counselling psychologist in this Uni-versity is challenging for her as currently she is the only counselling psycholo-gist dealing with the var-ying range of issues that come up every 40 minutes.

“It is frustrating to turn away students due to time constraints as they plucked up courage to seek help,” she said.

Delays, she added, would mean that they re-sort to either suppressing

the issue or using an un-healthy coping mecha-nism.

Talking about whether students have difficulty in opening up to counselling, she said: “Not really. Be-cause of the professional training, establishing a rapport is not difficult.”

For a counselling psy-chologist to deal with these issues they have to follow the ethics of counselling and be non-judgemental, empathetic and maintain confidentiality of the ses-sions.

Their aim is to help students develop emotion-al resilience, facilitate goal setting in both academic and personal areas so that they can optimize their college life and be an asset to the University.

After all the hardwork in her challenging job she gets immense happiness and satisfaction when her patients get in touch with her after a few years to thank her.

Two alumnae, she dis-closed, had contacted her for the same which gave her a boost and immense satisfaction for all that she has done.

By PRAPTI JAIN

Guru Nanak Dev’s 550 birth anniversary next year is a big project for India and Pakistan as both the Governments have agreed to jointly build a 6-km road corridor from Gurdaspur in Punjab to Kartarpur in Pakistan.

Commenting on the project, Manjeet Kaur Bha-tia, a Mohali-based science teacher who has taken the longer route through La-hore earlier and is all set to make use of the corri-dor next year, said: “It will be a boon for all of us be-cause with the opening of this proposed corridor, the pilgrims would reach the Kartarpur shrine from Gur-daspur in less than an hour. Kartarpur Sahib is a very sacred place for Sikhs of all over the world. It is the final resting place of our Guru. If the corridor opens, all the credit will go to the 12 crore Nanak Naam Leva people who have been praying for free access to Kartarpur which got separated from our people due to the 1947 Partition.”

Guru Nanak Dev Ji, she added, described this place as ‘Kartar Pur Karta Vasey’ which means God resides in Kartarpur. It is just 6 km from Dera

Baba Nanak in Gur-daspur. “Guru Nanak Dev Ji spent the last 18 years of his life there. He him-self created this place and christened its Kartarpur, the home of God.” Bha-tia said. Though Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is planning to give Sikh pilgrims ‘visa-free di-rect access’ to the historic Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara, there is no clarity yet on whether the access will be

permanent or specifically for the 550th birth anniver-sary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev next year.

Talking about the im-pact of the proposed corri-dor on the India-Pakistan relationship, Rajiv Desh-pande, National Bureau chief of The Times of In-dia, said: “The corridor will definitely help the rela-tionship between both the nations because, at the po-litical level, there has been some breakthroughs.

The road is just 6 km long but the political dis-tances are of a million miles. Sometimes, these small people-making con-

tacts can initiate a bigger dialogue,” he added. The ties, he emphasized, are very vulnerable but if an-ything good comes of the corridor, it would be worth taking a risk. Many Sikh pilgrims wanting to visit this important shrine in Pakistan but not having been able to go due to visa and distance problems, have been making use of a telescope on the Gurdaspur side to see the Kartarpur shrine and pray. Manmeet Kaur, a Biology teacher at Seth MR Jaipuria School, Lucknow, said: “The corri-dor will be a great endeav-our as we would be able to pay homage to the land of Guru in a convenient way.

It is a boon for the el-derly who have a strong de-sire to visit this shrine with minimum discomfort,” she added. Japna S Batra, a BBA second-year student of Bennett University, said: “It is a good initiative by the India and Pakistan Govern-ments. Now, Sikh devotees will have to face fewer dif-ficulties while travelling to Pakistan to visit this very important gurdwara.”

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOSTUDENT PAPER OF THE times school of media GREATER NOiDA | Thursday, November 29, 2018 | Vol 2, issue 12 | PAGES 8

Agra to Agrawal: What next? Perfecting art of feature writingHistorian questions Government’s plan to change the name of 25 towns and villages | Page 5

Avijit Ghosh, Senior Editor of TOI, addresses students at the Bennett University | Page 8

By MEHER DHANJAL

“In the Indian society, it is a common belief that the length of a woman’s dress is directly proportional to how safe she will stay that day.

“I don’t believe so, I think it depends on the mentality of the men,” Nishtha Tanwar, 18-year-old BBA student said

This thought reflects the general opinion of most students at Bennett

University.They strongly believe

that a woman’s safety has got nothing to do with her clothing. Nishtha added, “it’s a regressive thought, even my relatives stop me from wearing short clothes, but why stop me? Why not teach the boys?”

Jai Chhabra, a B.Tech. student said, “This back-ward mindset is what leads to blaming the vic-tim and that’s sickening.” Victim blaming, is a major

problem in India, which, although at a slow rate, seems to be improving, he added.

On the contrary, Devy-ani Gupta another BBA student said, “In my opin-ion, a girl’s safety does de-pend on the kind of clothes she wears.

“Every place you vis-it, has some sort of code of conduct which needs to be followed” Several other students also share a similar point of view.

They believe that a woman my be safer if she dresses ‘modestly’.

“See, there isn’t a cor-relation as such but I think that maybe it can be taken as a precautionary meas-ure,” Paras Wahi, B.Tech. student said.

Wahi added that “it may not have a direct im-pact, but maybe, some-where if it makes even the smallest of difference, then why ignore such meas-ures?”

By TANISHQ CHAWLA

“I failed my sister the very moment my car took a hit,” said Vineet, a 28-year-old who lost his 19-year-old sibling Sneha due to drunk driving.

Since then Vineet breathes in guilt. He wish-es to go back to that day and change.

That incident com-pletely changed his life as well as the life of the peo-ple around him.

Road accidents under the influence of alcohol in India kill more people than terrorism or natural disas-ters also they make it to the newspaper’s front page al-

most every day. Almost every night

Vineet and his friends would sit on their car’s bumper and drink for about two hours. After drinking, they would get in one car and drive through the town. When asked why, he said, “because it gives us thrill.”

Vineet was aware of the risk he was taking that night when he got a call from his sister. She wanted him to pick her up from her friend’s house. “I was to-tally drunk when I picked her up and I told her that we were taking the other route, the one through the flyover.

She just said that she wanted to reach home fast otherwise she’d miss her favorite TV show.”

“As we neared the flyo-ver, I put the car on fourth gear and it didn’t occur to me that we were on the wrong side, not until I saw a van driving towards us.” In haste, he tried to avoid

the collision but the alco-hol overpowered his sens-es.

“I saw her hair soaked in red, there was glass stuck all over her arms and neck” he said with tears in his eyes. What terrified him the most was that he couldn’t even move and help her.

Drunk driving puts at risk not only the life of the person behind the wheel, but also the life of innocent people.

“Alcohol consumption by drivers puts pedestrians and riders of motorized two wheelers at risk” states the official website of the Delhi Traffic Police.

By SOMYA BHADAURIA

Is there a way out of home-sickness for first-year stu-dents of a university? Sev-eral students at Bennett University replied with a loud yes.

“I am, what you’d call a ‘shy person’ who keeps to herself. But then I joined clubs, started socializing and somewhere in be-tween, that ‘homesick’ feeling just vanished” says Sushmitha Kumar, first year BA LLB student who hails from Chennai.

“Back home, we all had a bubble of our own which burst when we joined col-lege,” said Awwab Ansari, a BBA LLB student,

“I miss the positive vibes I’d get from my mom’s smiling face and cheery voice,” He said. “For the first two months or so, my parents would ask me from time to time if I felt homesick. And when I thought about it, I wasn’t.

I had thrown myself into my classes and extra-curricular activities, and hanging out with friends.”

According to Danish Hashmi, the only remedy to ‘homesickness’ is engag-ing yourself in different ac-tivities. “Earlier, I used to miss my family a lot while living in hostel but then I realized that needed to be mentally strong for the coming years” Said Dan-ish, a BBA first-year stu-dent.

‘Permanent counselling dept must for campuses’

Engaging in work to avoid homesickness

Drunk driving woes hit youth

Debate on clothes carries on

Madhu SuriCounsellor Bennett University

She reads your foot to tell you about the future

‘I failed my sister the very moment when my car took the hit’

Sikh pilgrims eagerly await Kartarpur corridor

PAKISTAN

INDIA

KartarpurNarowalPathankot

GurdaspurDera BabaNanak

AmritsarWagah

Lahore International Border

RAVI RIVER

36.6 km

49 km

28.4 km22.4 km

118.9 km

6 km

Transgender principal takes centrestage at Times Lit FestBy SIDDHARTH DAYANI

Reshaping Gender Nar-ratives, one of the events at the recently concluded Times Kolkata Literature Festival, was a huge draw among the audience.

The star speaker at the event was Manabi Bando-padhyay, the first trans-gender principal in India who dew a huge applause as she talked about her life and reshaping gender nar-ratives.

Manabhi spoke about a few incidents that she wit-nessed solemnly because she’s a transgender. She , however, did not lay any stress on it as she’s already mentioned everything in her biography- A gift of goddess Laxmi by Jhim-lee Mukherjee. She nev-ertheless, spoke about her sex change operations and why she had to force her-self into doing it.

““I was compelled to have the task in 2003. I was a transgender before the medical procedure. Presently I am trans-lady. I rationally felt that I was a lady and compelled to possess a man’s body. I

was fighting an existential emergency. In any case, no one appeared to com-prehend my anguish. They would encourage me to acknowledge my station throughout everyday life, refering to precedents of transgender people like me, who are hitched and have kids.

In any case, I would not like to swindle my own world. I essentially couldn’t do that. My in-struction, my extremely being was instructing me

to be straightforward with myself. I began to spare my pay to experience the task. Numerous individuals purchase houses, purchase adornments with their funds. I had my medical procedure” she stated.

On being asked about why she refers to the task as “forced”, she said “ My associates in the Jhargram school would constantly bother me. Some would need to lay down with me and after that circumvent guaranteeing that I want-

ed them. The place was in reverse and horrible to live and work in. Shockingly my tormentors were edu-cators, not villagers or un-derstudies. My harassers had a place generally with the informed, urban, white collar classes,” she an-swered. The other speak-ers in this event were Onir and Sandip Roy.

“Until you’ve not got married, people think you’ve not grown up. For gay people like us, we had to make up excuses to avoid it. But I can see the world changing. In my childhood, we hardly heard about gay and lesbi-an people but now we can. This visibility is impor-tant,” said Sandip.

Onir, a writer in Bol-lywood, spoke about not having many friends cheering him up in the in-dustry. “I am very different from others. I look at the industry as art without al-ways caring about the box office. I don’t even enjoy item numbers. I find them offensive. But its there be-cause it sells,” Onir said.

Related report on Page 4

Manabhi Bandopadhyay at the LitFest Photo By Siddharth Dayani

Danish Hashmi, student at Bennett University

Infographic by Ada Kohli

By SMRITI NEGI

The art of palmistry, face and tarot reading is fa-mous. But Greater Kai-lash-based Preeti Chadha is the one and only foot reader in the world. She says that this skill came to her due to her karma and spiritual energy.

“I learnt about my powers at a very young age and can now tell a person’s character by just seeing his or her foot and also assess if s/he feels the energy,” Chadha said.

For a normal person,

the toes in a foot hold no significant meaning. But, according to Chadha, all the shapes, fingers, whorls and skin colour tell the character of a person. “The characteristics of our sole are as unique as our fin-gerprints. The size, shape, proportion of the toes, tex-ture, colour and lines re-veal a lot about character and choices made in life,” says Chadha.

“Foot reading is differ-ent from other astrological readings. The toes have a different meaning i.e. Earth, water, fire, air, and

space and the thumb rep-resents the Sun.”

Ancient Egyptians and Greek rulers used to go to foot readers before going for big fights and wars, she said. The biggest example of foot reading in the In-dian context is when Raja Janak was out in the fields and came across Sita with her foot sticking out of the mud. He called his foot reader to predict her fu-ture. The reader told him that she was no ordinary woman and would marry Lord Ram.

“When Ravan abduct-

ed Sita and told her that her Ram had been killed in the battle and that she would have to marry him, she refused to believe him and told him that the pre-diction was that she would marry Ram, the King of Ayodhya, and he was not the King yet. That is how precise foot reading is,” she added. Unlike other children, who would be excited to look at the world around them, Chadha was more fascinated with look-ing at people’s feet.

As she grew up, she gained energies which help

her predict the future. “I, by chance, read my

husband’s foot and told him about the money loss he was going to face. He didn’t believe it. When he asked a debtor for the payment, he refused to pay. Since then, he started believing in this power I had,” Chadha recalled.

Few people know about foot reading, and no book has been published for people to know or read about it.

Chadha now plans to publish a book on foot reading, which will help

others learn this astrologi-cal art. “My ability is God’s gift. Predictions come with the flow of energy,” she said. Chadha believes that faith in her art helps her predict. “Faith is key, she says.

Her advice for people wanting to learn some-thing new?

“Practice, work hard and have a passion for the art. Everyone has talent but what makes one differ-ent is the ability to nurture the talent, shape it and make a difference evey-day,” she said. Foot reader Preeti

Chadha

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDAThursday, November 29, 20182

‘Blogging pays well as full time job’By PAVNEET SINGH

“Being a food blogger was just a hobby for me in school. I never thought that I would be able to turn it to a full time job from which I would even earn a good amount of money,” said Tanish Sharma. After passing Class 12, Tanish took a big risk and didn’t join college and instead decided to go for long dis-tance learning while blog-ging full time.”

“Food blogging has grown a lot in a shot peri-od of time, I still remember the time when I started do-ing this only a few restau-rants understood blogging, but today there are days where I get invites from about three to four for a particular day” said Tan-ish. Tanish is able to earn around 20-25 thousands per month which is pretty good for a 19-year-old.

“I completed my stud-ies and went into a job in a corporate company but had a lot of free time on weekends so I just start-ed to visit different eater-ies and post pics of it on Instagram. One day I got a proper mail from a res-taurant asking me to come and eat there and they also offered me money” said

Vanshaj Tyagi. Vanshaj started doing blogging a few months back and now earns an optimal amount of money to sustain him-self.

“It’s pretty simple now with twenty first century I just have to sit home post things online and earn money,” said Vanshaj.

“If you get a lot of fol-lowers on social network-ing sites then its pretty easy to get paid by differ-ent organisations for pro-motions,” said Aishweriya

Sharma a fashion blog-ger. She thinks that being a fashion blogger is most of the time easy, she just have to wear dresses, use cer-tain beauty products and then just click few photos, tag the brand and post it on.

“I am still 22 and I am really happy with what I do I am able to earn and travel due to blogging. My parents are also proud of the stuff that I do and they don’t want to to stop my growth,” said Aishweriya.

Chilly chicken freshly cooked Photo by Pavneet Singh

Tibetan market showcases vibrant culture

By TANISHQ CHAWLA

The Tibetan Market in Dehradun welcomes vis-tors with loads of shopping options which leaves them spoilt for choice. Most visi-tors describe the market as “fashionable and afforda-ble”. It is famous for sell-ing beautiful wind chimes, exquisite wooden art piec-es, Garhwali jewellery, and a wide range of colour-

ful hand-knitted woolen clothes and wooden hand-icraft. These items are sold at a bargain prices, af-fordable for all pockets.

Tsewang, a 48-year old man who has spent his entire life selling clothes, stated that the earnings from this business are more than sufficient for him and his family. He has been in this business for 20 years now. “I came to

Dehradun from Bhutan in the year 1985. My family depends on our business for survival and this busi-ness has become a part of my life,” said Tsewang.

The market is not only famous for shopping apparels but also for its mouth watering Tibetan cuisine. Up for grabs are momos and piping hot noodles with butter soup which is the speciality of

this market. The popular Tibetan market is based near the Parade Ground Road. It consists of around 150 shops and has 15 en-trance points. Since the establishment of the mar-ket, tibetans belonging to Deckyiling, Clement Town and Rajpur settlement have been living their lives relying on the sales gener-ated by the market.

Another business

woman, Dolma, who has been working in the mar-ket for over six years now said, “There is more prof-it during the weekends,” Dolma said.

The market has a Bud-dhist temple in the centre which has been built with funds from the association that manages this market. The temple is a symbol of prosperity for those who work in the market.

Work is no burden for people who work hardBy MUSKAN GULIANI

Hard work is what pays off at last and it is the only thing which makes you stand out. “A post won’t decide how big of a person you are but your hard work and determination will, and people will remember you even when you die”, says Rajim Khan, a school maid.

The maids usually work in shifts and have different duties every day like clean-ing floors, toilets, staff kitchen and classrooms.

“Sometimes the work feels like a burden as we have to work double shifts or are given double work in a single shift when some important people visit the school but then that is all part of life,” says Nirmala,

another school maid. Some maids have new

born babies and they face difficulty dealing with work at the same time tak-ing care of their children.

Rajim feels they are not given the fair share of income for the hours they work and even if they want to raise their voice on this topic they fear losing their jobs as it is extremely im-portant for them to earn as

a few of them are the only ones earning for the whole family.

But with every difficul-ty comes something good and in their case they feel themselves lucky enough to get gifts on festivals like Diwali and Labour day.

Khan adds, “ We work and we get a lot of stress but we have accepted it as a part of our life and we don’t even have much of a choice.”

As stress is an inev-itable part of our life so a decent amount of stress is good, which is also known as Eustress.

Their lives is not easy but they put on brave faces with a smile for their fami-ly and this somehow helps them deal with their work-load.

Depression recognised by few as an illnessBy NANDINI NANDAL

It is appalling how a con-siderable section of the society, in the 21st century, still considers all the ab-normal physical symptoms of human body as nor-mal ailments/diseases yet terms mental health issues as ‘madness’.

Google defines depres-sion as, “A mental health disorder characterised by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing impair-ment in daily life.”

“Information online is superficial but it just worsens the situation for the victim if they read on-line,” said Ekta Yadav, an English Honors student of Delhi University.

“Depression in the sim-plest terms is a prolonged state of sadness and when general state of sadness lasts for more than a cer-tain number of weeks it might just be a symptom of depression.

“A state of helplessness and hopelessness which comes along with fatigue and loss of interest in things might accompany depression. Also, at times hormonal imbalances in the body also lead to this condition of human mind and body and is then called

clinical depression,” Yadav said that people barely un-derstand the meaning of the word before using it in daily life to say they’re upset.

“It felt like I was ly-ing back in my body and witnessing everything happening”, said Saransh Sharma, 21.

He explains that it was a state of numbness, aim-lessness which was trig-gered by no such emotion-al concerns.

And this state of in-activity paved way to re-tarding academics, health issues and decline of pro-ductivity in everything.

On being asked about the aftermath of suffering for months, Sharma said, “I believe that now I’m a filtered person with fil-tered people around, with filtered priorities and least things concern me.

“I put my peace of mind above everything because now I know, few things are worth giving mental space to.”

Kartikeya Gobhil, a medical student, 19, stat-ed that there is this pre-conceived notion about depression in the minds of people that people get ag-gressive, lock themselves in, shut people out when they suffer, but seldom

have people tried to dig deeper. He said, “They say that a sound mind lives in a sound body, but half-way through, did they for-get talking about a sound mind?” and showed his displeasure towards the general attitude of people regarding mental health.

“My body and mind were lifeless. I breathed, that’s all the work I used to do in a day,” said Gobhil.

He explained that it was too much pressure for his body and mind that now the body remembers that feeling like a body re-members allergens.

“The excessive anxiety, restlessness and similar feelings are now handlea-ble when they come back because now, I’ve iden-tified them, and I know how to deal when they are back,” he further ex-plained.

Gobhil added, “I con-vulse when I come across a few things from that time. For example, I hat-ed the smell of the hand-wash I used to use in those months maybe because my body has associated with certain stimuli from that time to be despicable and reacts correspondingly.”

Clearly, depression is more than just an intangi-ble, superficial condition.

‘We work un-der stress but have accepted it as part of our life’

Marvel publisher Stan Lee’s death mourned by fansBy MEHUL TEKCHANDANI

Stan Lee, the legendary writer, editor and publis-her of Marvel Comics, whose fabulous but fla-wed creations made him a real-life superhero to the comic book lovers every-where and his death was a painful moment for all his fans.

Marvel is not only about superheroes, its about the love that peop-le have for this universe, their comics and movies are loved by audiences of all ages, that’s why it is one of the most popular film producing company pre-sently.

“I did not want to be-lieve it at first, it was too sudden. The other day we’re talking about him in all these movies and thin-king that he’s doing well and suddenly just gone away from us.” says Samy-am Gupta, a 1st year BBA student.

A Marvel movie is in-complete without Stan Lee’s Cameo in it and a marvel fan can’t possibly imagine a marvel film wit-hout Stan Lee in it. Stan Lee is of course famous in the MCU due to his cameos

in MCU movies. With his passing, future MCU mo-vies may not have a Stan Lee cameo anymore unless Marvel Studios decide to continue the tradition of inserting a Stan Lee cameo using modern technology or just showing him on a billboard or as a wall graf-fiti.

“It’s incredibly sad. He’s the one who taught me how to read. He was one of the greatest of all times. I’d call him the father of comic books.” says Jai Chhabra, a 1st-year B.Tech student.

“We’ve lost a creative genius. Stan Lee was a pio-neering force in the super-hero universe. I’m proud to have been a small part of his legacy and to have hel-ped bring one of his cha-racters to life,” said Holly-wood actor Hugh Jackman on Twitter.

Stan Lee played a very important role in the wor-ld of Marvel cinematic uni-verse. He brought joy in the eyes of children as well as adults both of whom lo-ved him for the kind of per-son he was and the number of years he appeared in the films. He dedicated his en-tire life to entertain people all over the world.

By RUPALIKA JOHRI

With designers like Sa-byasachi, Anita Dongre, Tarun Tahilani and small start-ups like Pernias pop-up store and Bunaai.com taking a lead in this gene-ration’s ethnic lines, one sees a lot of resemblance of the old fashion rather re-turning into today’s Fashi-on Industry.

Fashion is a circular industry. Everything from timeless to the most latest is either inspire from the past or the is the combi-nation of both the vintage with the newest trends. It is astonishing to some-times see resemblances in the wearables of the past which are so in trends to-day. “There will always be people of a particular ge-neration who are going to be old hence falling back to the old trends again and again, therefore fashion is a circle and it will surely repeat itself,” said Saby-asachi Mukherjee, a fashi-on designer.

The very common example being the Mughal inspired clothing coming back ever so swiftly adding elegance and grace to Nor-mal Kurtas and churridars.

With the mang tik-kas and chhappas, bell sleeves, gararas and sha-

raras, not to mention the gotta patti work, silver and golden embroidery work and much more, one can see the shift from the nor-mal, boring and repeated ethnics to innovative, In-do-Western, old classics into new forms of clothing.Undeniably the most eth-nic of Indian outfits, a sa-ree is the go-to outfit to flaunt in a traditional at-tire.

In Jaipur, designers are experimenting with the saree in order to make it easy to wear, somewhat edgy and aesthetic by in-troducing various ways of draping it.

Bridging and reintro-ducing the world of gla-mour and classical tones, the current ethnics are creating a strong fan fol-lowing, with bloggers, mo-dels, social media enthusi-ast continuously praise the old fashion and consider it to be connected to where the nations people origi-nally came from.

These things aren’t just returning like most trends do at some point or another, they’re returning with a force catching at-tention of any and every potential buyer of the pro-ducts and shifting fashion every second.

Vintage is new cool on ramp

Tibetan market of Dehradun. (Right) Tibetan Prayer Wheel Photos by Tanishq Chawla and Gaurav Tandon

Nandini (middle) getting married Photo by Priyanshi Gupta

Garden with old-world feelBy SOMYA BHADAURIA

This winter, Mussoorie’s famous and picturesque Company Gardens is all set for a fresh bloom with the carefully maintained 800 flowering plants determin-ed to give this popular pic-nic spot a dazzling splash of colour. The blooms, a winter special, are planned for the season though the park is never bereft of flo-wers all through the year with specially nurtured seasonal plants.

“I can spend hours watching this beautiful sight under the soft win-ter sun. It never gets dull, the blooming flowers and the sound of waterfall, give you an old world and fresh feel devoid of any kind of pollution.”

The 50-year-old Mus-soorie resident Rajat Ku-mar tells you. He is a re-gular visitor to this garden and loves taking morning walks here.

About 3 km from the Mall Road, Company Gar-den is a cherished picnic spot which changes co-lours every season, thanks to the plethora of attracti-ve season-specific flowers which ensure there is a wholesome bloom throug-hout the year. Nestled amid the Himalayas, this

patch of green is maintain-ed by the Garden Welfare Association of Mussoorie. It was laid out by Dr. H. Fackner in the early years of this millennium.

“The main attraction of the place is its vast va-riety of flora. “The lush green grass carpeted lawn of the garden is covered with more than 800 flo-wering plants, and during the late spring till the end of monsoon, most of these flowers are in bloom, ma-king the place look like a garden in the heaven,” Ku-mar adds.

The park is not just about flowers and en-virons.

It also houses an amu-sement park with ample space and adventurous ri-des for children and also has a waterfall and a small lake where tourists spend quality time with their lo-ved ones boating .

A wax museum and a quaint market for shopping curious and an accompan-ying food court make the Company Gardens a com-plete destination to itself. The food-court is famous for its aromatic coffee at

affordable prices.“My pa-rents bring me here every weekend because I love bo-ating in this lake. There are so many flowers and trees. I enjoy it even more when it rains,” 11-year-old visitor Shreya tells you.

The place is packed with visitors during the winters because of the view it offers and also because of its delicious momos and ‘chaai’.“The colorful pat-ches of flowers appeal to the visitors so much that they often decide to buy plants from the nursery si-tuated within the garden,” Kumar tells you. “The place is dotted with tropi-cal green trees providing shade to visitors during summers. The garden also offers a telescopic view of the surrounding mountain range, which is otherwise far away and mostly hid-den in grey mist,” he adds.

The greens planted in the nursery at Company Garden Photos by Somya Bhadauria

Lake in Company Garden

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOGREATER NOIDAThursday, November 29, 2018 3‘Nothing like Chhat Puja in villages’By SALONI JHA Festivals are an important part of Indian culture and Chhat Puja is one such fes-tival celebrated mostly in Bihar.

Talking about how much he missed this fes-tival this year, Siddhartha Jha, a native of Bihar who lives in Delhi, said: “I miss my hometown the most during the time of Chhat puja and the worst part is I can’t go there even if I want to because its so tough for people like us who can’t take leave from our jobs for such impor-tant festival”.

It is a four-day puja which involves worship-ping of ‘Suryadev’ and ‘Sandhya’.

Even in today’s busy world, urban people have made it a point to follow their rituals of ‘Chhath Puja’ religiously. More than just a ritual and prayer, this festival con-nects people.

Many make it a point to attend Chhath puja by tak-ing some time out of their busy schedule.

“When I talk about Chhat all my memories from my childhood comes to my mind suddenly when me and all my friends used to go ghaats for the whole chhath period and those prasads are the still the best thing about chhat

puja. In fact, if I talk about cities, people celebrate Chhat here with the same happiness and in the same joyful moods. We all get so excited when it comes to taking a dip in the ghaat while praying to the sun in the early morning and evening. But nothing can compete with the way we celebrated Chhat in our village”, he says.

Jha tries to go to his village every year after Di-wali to celebrated Chhat. “A lot of people celebrate this festival in cities as well

and they perform each and every ritual of the festival very religiously so that the

custom of their home and religion does not end be-cause of the busy sched-ules they cant manage to go to their village but at least they manage to cele-brate it in cities itself,” Jha says.

“When I attended the Chhat Puja rituals in the Capital for the first time and when I entered the ghaat I was so happy be-cause I felt like I was in my village”, said Angad Mishra, a native of Bihar residing in Delhi for pro-fessional reasons.

BU students spend time snap chattingBy ADA KOHLI

Snapchat was designed to be a platform where people feel comfortable express-ing themselves with their close friends.

“I find Snapchat to be a very secure platform as everyone cannot see my pictures and activities. Only those whom I add in my account are able to see it and I can always custom my settings according to my choice,” said Pulkhari-ya Dagar, a 1st year BBA student of BU.

“Filters fascinate me the most as they are fun to use and they make you look pretty which makes me feel really good about myself,” she added.

She had made her ac-count on Snapchat when she was in Grade 9 as then it was ‘the cool thing’ and was in trend. “I eas-ily spend around five to six hours on Snapchat as its very addicting and I use it not only for taking selfies but also for mak-ing streaks, letting people know what I am doing, and watching my subscribed videos,” she said.

A Snapchat streak is when you send snaps back and forth with a friend for several consecutive days.,-to get the streak, you have

to do it everyw day, if you miss a day, you lose the streak.

Siddhant Chaudhary made his account on Snap-chat three years ago under the influence of his friends. He too says that it was in trend at that time and it was ‘cool’ to be on Snap-chat.

“I am very fond of Snapchat, not only because of the filters but also be-cause it has a policy where the chats get deleted au-tomatically after the other person has seen them,” he said. Siddhant likes the fact that there aren’t any public likes or comments on this app as each picture that you upload as your story gets deleted after

24 hours and unlike oth-er apps Snapchat doesn’t create pressure to get max-imum likes on a post.

Snapchat also rewards longer streaks with special emojis, such as the “100” emoji for streaks lasting 100 days, or a mountain emoji for an extremely long streak. There’s noth-ing more devastating than losing a streak you’ve put months of work into.

“There are very funny filters which keep chang-ing each day. During each occasion Snapchat takes out filters related to the oc-casion, like during the time of Halloween they took out scary filters which were funny to look at,” said Pa-ras Wahi.

Celebrity obsession is pressurising youth

A devotee takes a holy dip in river. (Below) A large crowd gathers in an open ground to celebrate Chhath Puja in Patna Photo By Saloni Jha

Om Bhardwaj on Snapchat filter Photo By Ada Kohli

By MALVIKA CHAWLA

Airbrushed photographs of celebrities with perfect-ly preened bodies staged in exotic locations are all over social media, but such flawless images have been described as damaging the youth who get pressurised into meeting unobtainable body-image standards.

“Most of us owns a smartphone by age 10 and and that has led to increas-ing pressure on youngsters to look perfect in their on-line lives,” says Siddharth Chawla, a medical student.

In the contemporary world, people are obsessed with media celebrities just because they find out the solution to their lives through them.

Asked what that makes people get so obsessed with the celebrities Chaw-la replied, “Many people start to feel insecure about themselves, as to how they look and dress up, and hence look up to the celeb-rities as their idol and start dressing up like them.”

Everyone has their rea-sons to consider a celebrity as their idol but the most common of all is that most of the people who aren’t famous start feeling a con-nect with them. It’s mainly because people who have never met a celebrity, want

some kind of a connect with them and following them on the social media gives them that Just by looking at their posts peo-ple tend to think that they know them very well and that solves their purpose.

Some of the gener-al reasons everyone gets hooked on following the celebrities is the fact that they make them feel bet-ter.

People aspire to be in touch with celebrities be-cause they are famous and come loaded with money which they can spend an-

ywhere.Sometimes, following

celebrities on social media has also led to creating dif-ferences among the peer group as they may have differing views on the ce-lebrities being followed.

“Following the trend started by celebrities of connecting with fans through the social media helps us to escape from reality. But at the end of the day, we have to face harsh realities,” says Kus-hagra Kharbanda, 1st year B.Tech student of Jamia Millia Islamia College.

A kid goes through his Instagram feed of celebs Photo By Malvika Chawla

‘Social media, technology are a boon for young entreprenuers’By RAGHAVI JANJHEE

Kanika Bhatia, founder of the brand ‘Anome’, says she is indebted to the so-cial media for the success of her small venture.

“Social media is that trick question for a school kid that taught him more than just the answer. It taught him the trick,” said Bhatia when asked how it helped her business.

“A cheaper version for ATL (above the line) format of marketing, I wouldn’t repeat the basic tenets and advantages of social media, but rather how it’s changing scenari-os of doing business”, she said.

Lifestyle industry fo-cuses more on recom-mendations and referrals. Every month Bhatia allots a specific budget for her social media targets, be it pure promotions, pho-to-shoots or simply agen-cy fee.

Beyond the clichéd, it’s an affordable format to share active actions (col-laborations and interest-ing projects) that she fuels under her start-up.

Immediate action in less than a second re-sponse time is an icing on the cake.

Good, bad or needs-a-restart feedback shared

in real time, gives her an opportunity to perpetually improve on her work.

Bhatia also uses oth-er mediums like word of mouth for marketing, she says that beyond social media lies the world of real business in the for-mat of events (exhibitions, private showcasing and collaborations), store pro-motions, offline sales and B2C opportunities.

She personally, prefers offline communication than online promotions.

“I have never been able to discount the pow-er of personal connections and touch and feel factor, she said.”

On improvements that

social media needs, she said that she would pre-fer tools for good content recognition, bots that help control plagiarism and a better mechanism for pro-moting small businesses that is not wager system for who bets more money.

Another young entre-preneur, Shruti Mittal, founder of ‘Bakefresh by Shruti’ said that since her work is mostly based on designs, social media plays a crucial part.

She gets 40% of her orders through social me-dia when people view her work out there. She also relies on word of mouth other than social media.

Her venture eludes

creativity and hard-work is displayed through her work. The mantra she follows is, ‘Don’t say it’s ready unless it brings a smile on your face’.

Manya Sharma, Le Cordon Bleu trained pas-try chef, founded her ven-ture, ‘Cakesbymanya’.

On the role of social media she says, “Social media plays a major role in promoting my venture.

It is the only medi-um which has helped me reach where I am today.”

Thus, social media along with developing technology has helped en-treprenuers garner atten-tion and expand business-growth.

Shruti Mittal showcases her collection. (Right) Manya Sharmaat her Cakes By Manya outlet

By SIDDHARTHA DAYANIAND SIMRAN JHA

Dilli Haat is a melting pot of cultures, art, traditions and food from around the country. More important-ly, it gives craftsmen and artisans from remote cor-ners of India.

A platform which dis-plays their work and sells them on 15 days of rota-tional basis. Therefore, every fortnight, Dilli Haat looks like a different mar-ket altogether with new artists coming in and dis-playing their pieces of ex-cellence.

One of the art forms that is extremely popular at Dilli Haat is the intricate and beautiful Madhuba-ni paintings. Madhubani

artists, as their name sug-gests, are from the Madhu-bani district of Bihar.

Mrs Chanchala Jha, a talented and hardworking artist from Madhubani stated that “Ever since my childhood, I had an incli-nation for art but I started painting only after I got married, as my in-laws and husband encouraged and supported my passion”.

Jha’s speciality with-in this art form, that is Tantra painting, a kind of black magic and spiritual activities through devotees and Gods.

“Back in my home town, I could not get the desired exposure, so I de-cided to shift my focus on-Delhi so that I could make some money out my tal-ent,” she explains.

Initially, Jha would paint for 4 to 5 hours a day but had to clip her efforts a couple of years back, after an injury took place to her spinal cord. This accident cut into her work schedule.

“Though it is stressful, I still try to paint for at least 2 to 3 hours a day. It is my interest and love for art that keeps me moti-vated to give my best” she added.

Just to let you know, the simplest of Madhu-bani paintings require at least 8-10 hours of work and more when the de-signs and patterns get complex. “Some paintings are so intricate and minute in strokes and colouring that they may take up to eight months of the year to be finished,”she added.

Showing one such exqui-site work of art at her shop.

Ask her about profits and business and she says, “Every business has its margin of profits and loss-es. How much you earn in a day is all about It is all destiny. Sometimes I earn Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a day and on the other days, I have to go home without earning a single rupee,” she adds.

Jha works with painter Uttam Prasad, the proud recipient of the prestigious President’s Award. Former President Pranab Mukher-jee bestowed the award on him in 2014 for a painting depicting Gods and God-desses meeting on Earth.

The painting was sold for Rs 6 lakh. Prasad tells that he had developed an

interest in this art form in the 1980s when he was just 10 years old. He hails from a family of artists, includ-ing his grandmother and grandfather.

These artists show us a way to live our lives with hope and remain optimis-tic towards every problem we face in our lives.With their simple living,hard work and the love for their profession,is all that we need to learn from them.

She never feels tired of doing these work even after her injury the secret lies in her passion for do-ing work and most impor-tantly doing it with sincer-ity ,focus and love and not just for the sake of money all these harwork becomes worthy when the customer appreciates her work

35 lakh visit Kamakhya fair

By TRISHA DEKA

The Kamakhya Devi Tem-ple marked a record turn-out during this year’s four-day-long Ambubachi Festival which was held in the month of August.

“Nearly 35 lakh peo-ple visited the temple this year and we hope more people will visit next year when the Government will construct another road to reach the temple,” Ma-yank Sharma, the temple priest said.

Kamakhya is the re-nowned Goddess of De-sire whose famous shrine is located in the heart of Nilachala Hill. The Am-bubachi Mela also local-ly known as “Ameti” or “Amoti” is the biggest re-ligious congregation in North East India.

“The yearly mela is held in celebration of the menstruation course of goddess Kamakhya. It is believed that the presid-ing goddess goes through her cycle of menstruation during this time stretch,” Sharma said.

This Mela is also known as Ameti or Tantric fertili-ty festival since it is close-ly associated withTantric Shakti cult prevalent in Eastern part of India.

Ramesh Baruah, a priest in Kamakhya tem-ple, said that that “The Kamakhya temple is liter-ally known as the mother of all places of power. Even on a normal day, close to 50,000 to 60,000 people visit this temple but on the auspicious occasions of the Ambubachi there are 3 lakh cross visitors in a sin-gle day.”

Khamakhya temple Photo By Trisha Deka

Chanchala Jha waits for customers Photo By Simran Jha

‘When I talk about Chhat Puja all the memories from child-hood come rushing back to my mind’

Marriage helped this Madhubani artist follow her dream

By SIDDHARTH DAYANI

The City of Joy, Kolkata, hosted this year’s Lit Fest – Edition 4 at the Tolly-gunge Club, on Sunday. The fest took place in four different areas of the club – Main Lawn, AC Sham-iana, Yule Lawn and The hall. The events were host-ed by the students of the Bennett University.

Several celebrities at-tended the Lit Fest and gave the event the feel of stardom.

“Sitting around so many celebrities, I felt like a star myself,” said Rahul Chitransh, a DPS student.

The speakers spoke on various topics like, life problems , tips and global issues. The event saw huge participation from the au-dience in the Question and Answer rounds.

The Lit Fest had Ashish Ray, longest serving In-

dian foreign correspond-ent, in conversation with Pawan Verma, author and politician.

They spoke about freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose and the dif-

ferent theories surround-ing his mysetrious death. “I don’t think he died while returning from Formosa,” Ray opined.

The next event was a conversation between

writers Manishankar Muk-herjee and Bani Basu dur-ing which he told people about why he writes on particular subjects. On be-ing asked about himself, he said: “My books define me.

I have nothing else to say. I can’t name my assump-tions because I don’t think I’ve had any,” he added.

The Lit Fest invited leading crime fiction writ-ers Vish Dhamija, Hallgri-mur Heglason and Kjell Ola Dahl all of whom were were in conversation with Ravi Subramanian as part of another event.

They spoke about the rise in the popularity of crime fiction and ended up on agreeing to Hallgrim-ur’s answer to the question “Why only crime fiction?”.

He said: “Crime has decreased. People don’t agree but it’s safer than it was a 100 years ago. You don’t wake up with the fear of a man holding a dagger to your face every morn-ing. People enjoy crime fic-tion, it keeps them turning pages,” he said.

Dhamija added: “I think it sells because it’s

an escape from reality. You wouldn’t turn 300 pages for a guy who lives a life like yours. You need some-thing to escape reality. Crime fiction creates that enjoyment,” he said.

This event was fol-lowed by a talk on Re-shaping Gender Narra-tives. The next event was an interview based on the question “When fact meets fiction”. British author Clare Mackintosh added humour to the proceedings with her wit and repartee while discussing her thrill-ers with interviewer Vinita Dawra Nangia. She kept the audience involved.

The last two events of the day were based on the topics “Women’s cricket in India – Jackpot or burden ?” and “Banga poetry post Tagore”. Cricketer Jhulan Goswami was one of the speakers who spoke on women empowerment.

GREATER NOIDAThursday, November 29, 2018.4

Kolkata Lit Fest discusses Bose’s death

By RITICK MONDAL

Of many fears one of the main for the elderly is boredom, especially for those who retire from a busy schedule. The best way to fight boredom is through planning, both our long and short term, says Chanda Mondal, a re-tired Government official.

“I worked my entire life and retired at 58. I was a Government servant and I consciuosly planned for my retirement.” says Mon-dal.

Mondal gets money from her sons, tenants and monthly pension. At this point of life, she wants to live alone and is not de-pendent on anyone. Al-most everyday, she goes out for a morning walk around 6 am.

As for her hopes, she said: “I pray to God that my family grows well and may God bless them,” she said, adding that the only

fear she had was about her health as in old age physical strength deterio-rates and mental stability diminishes. She wishes to lead an active lifestyle with a good physical and men-tal health.

“I spend most of my time praying and going

to temples,” she said. She loves visiting new places, going to temples and cook-ing new recipes. Some-times she also goes to market to buy gifts for her grandsons.

On Sundays, she visits her sister who lives 15 km from her house and talks

about their life over a cup of tea.

“I love cooking and at times I think that I should start a business by opening up a small restaurant near my house,” says Mondal.

She adds that earlier she used to be busy with her work even after work-ing hours, but now sud-denly she has a whole day infront if her with no idea how to go about it.

“Earlier it was tough for me as I had no clue how to go about it, but eventu-ally I started to focus on meditation and tried to get a tinge of inner peace,” she said.

Mondal recommends at least one hour of dedi-cated meditation and yoga for everybody.

“It helps to evolve your character and make you a stronger being to face challenges and difficulties of life with ease and calm-ness. It makes you a better self everyday,” she said.

Amazon takes edge in market

‘Planning is must for retirement’

‘Pak PM’s remarks regrettable’By SAMARTH MEHROTRA

India on Wednesday termed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s reference to Jammu and Kashmir during the ground breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor “deeply regrettable” and said he chose to politicise a pious moment.

The Ministry of Ex-ternal Affairs said Jam-mu and Kashmir was an “integral and inalienable” part of India. “It is deeply regrettable that the Prime Minister of Pakistan chose to politicise the pious oc-casion meant to realise the long pending demand of the Sikh community to de-velop a Kartarpur corridor by making unwarranted

reference to Jammu and Kashmir which is an inte-gral and inalienable part of India,” the Ministry said.

It added that Pakistan must fulfil its internation-al obligations and take ef-fective and credible action to stop providing shelter and all kinds of support to cross border terrorism from territories under its control.

Earlier in the day, Ex-ternal Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Hy-derabad that there would be no dialogue with Paki-stan unless it desists from terrorist activities against India.

She also said the Kar-tarpur corridor initiative -- connecting Sikh faith’s founder Guru Nanak Dev’s

final resting place in Kar-tarpur to the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Gurdaspur district -- was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan.

Her comments came a day after Islamabad said it would invite Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi to the SAARC summit. “That in-vitation has already been given. But we are not re-sponding to it positively. Because, as I said, that unless and until Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, there will be no dia-logue and we will not par-ticipate in SAARC,” Swaraj said at a Press conference.

The Pakistani Prime Minister laid the founda-tion of the Kartarpur cor-ridor linking two revered

gurdwaras on either side of the border at a ceremony attended by India’s Union Ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri as well as Punjab Min-ister Navtoj Singh Sidhu.

“I am saying today, that our political leaders, our army, and all other institutions are all on one page. We wish to move for-ward, we want a civilised relationship. We have just one problem, Kashmir. If man can walk on the moon, what problems are there that we cannot re-solve?” Khan asked while addressing the gathering.

The much-awaited Kartarpur corridor will facilitate visa-free move-ment of Sikh pilgrims

Based on PIB report

Chanda enjoys her routine outing Photo By Ritick Mondal

A panel of delegates at the Kolkata Lit Fest Photo By Siddhartha Dayani

New Kibble balance to measure massBy NISHANT JHA

In the 26th meeting of the General Conference on Weights and Measure-ments (CGPM) held at Palais des Congres, Ver-sailles, scientists from all over the world decided to change the 130-year-old “Le grand K, the SI unit of KG”.

The new Kibble bal-ance is a self-calibrating electrochemical balance and provides the measure-ments of mass, traceable in terms of electrical parame-ters and provides linkage of macroscopic mass to the Planck constant(h).

The advantages of Kib-ble balance would be that the National prototype of kilogram (NPK) need not to be sent to Internation-

al Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) for cali-brations and the accuracy and stability of Kibble bal-ance is very high which is very important where low weights with high accura-cies are essential, for ex-ample in pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies.

The kilogram’s defini-tion will be changed offi-cially on 20th May 2019, also known as World Me-trology Day.

This revision of the International System of Units (SI) is the culmina-tion of many years of in-tensive scientific coopera-tion between the National Metrology Institutes (the National Physical Labo-ratory for India) and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures

(BIPM). The dissemina-tion of SI units for the welfare of society and in-dustries is the responsi-

bility of Legal Metrology, Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India.

Most people will nev-er notice the difference. It would not change baking ingredients on a kitchen scale, or even influence the tons of goods shipped

globally every day. The CBSE official and

ex-Physics teacher, He-mant Prakash said, “In Physics, we need to be precise with the measure-ments. For astronomers calculating the movements of stars and galaxies or for pharmacologists trying to define doses of medica-tions sown to the molecule, the new standard of meas-urement could change the way they work.”

NPL-UK, NIST-USA, NRC- Canada, PTB-Ger-many have successfully developed Kibble balance for 1 kg with an uncer-tainty of measurement in order of 10-8. NPL-India, in association with De-partment of Consumer Af-fairs, Government of India is looking forward for the

development of 1 kg Kibble balance.

There is a change in definition of time also. The change in the defini-tion will result in uniform and worldwide accessible SI system for internation-al trade, high- technology manufacturing, human health and safety, protec-tion of environment, glob-al climate studies and the basic science under-pin-ning these. The units are expected to be stable in the long term, internally self-consistent and prac-tically realisable being based on the present the-oretical description of na-ture at the highest level.

The metric system was intended to be rational, universal set of units ‘for all people, for all time’. The

Medical camp for elderlyBy PRATIKSHYA GARABADU

The Anand recreational centre in Bhubaneswar recently organised its first medical camp for sen-ior citizens. “I feel happy that the State Govern-ment is working on the concept of happy ageing,” said Ramesh Kumar, a 70-year-old resident.

The camp provided a free health check-up to senior citizens. “I can visualise Bhubaneswar as an age-friendly city look-ing at spreading this con-cept in the entire State,” said resident Prakash Mishra. “The counselling provided help me in the long run,” said another senior citizen Sanjaya Mo-hapatra.

By MEHUL TEKCHANDANI

Amazon seems to sell pret-ty much everything, from washing machines to sil-verware sets. Amazon has come to completely dom-inate an age-old industry. Indeed, half the books in America are sold on Am-azon. “My family always uses Amazon, whether it’s from buying my books to getting laces for my skates. Usually Amazon works well when it comes to ordering items, we nev-er really had any trouble finding and receiving any-thing we bought from the website.

Although I do believe that Amazon is becoming way too strong of a com-pany because they can do anything they want to the items they are selling. Yes, I believe that Amazon is

behaving like a monopo-ly because it can have one product sell more than an-other just by delaying ship-ments and creating higher prices for the unwanted goods,” says Prajwal Mal-hotra student of B.tech 1st year at OP Jindal.

She adds, “This is bad because this one company is able to change and in-fluence the prices of books by just changing their cost. I sympathize more with the authors now because i understand what they are going through and how unfairly they are being treated.”

Amazon has grown from a company that only sold books to a company that today sells almost an-ything you can think of. It has reached a stage where one can find any product they think of.

Pacer stresses on team effortPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Bracing up for the “big-gest opportunity” to win a maiden Test series Down Under, Indian pacer Is-hant Sharma on Tuesday cautioned that Australia was good enough to cause problems, regardless of the turmoil in its cricket.

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy begins in Adelaide on December 6, with the Indian team bedding in for preparations at the Sydney Cricket Ground and taking on Cricket Australia XI in a four-day tour game from Wednesday.

“We don’t really think about all these things. It depends on a given day. In cricket whoever is play-ing for the country is good

enough. Till the time we get the results, we don’t take anything lightly. We are motivated,” he said.

The aim right now is to win the series and that is what everyone is focussing on. We don’t even think of personal performances, just one aim, to win a series in Australia,” said Sharma.India were whitewashed 4-0 when they were here the last time, though cur-rent captain Virat Kohli made his presence felt with plenty of runs.

“The tour game is se-rious because it will set the tone for us. You get to know the conditions be-cause you are playing here after a long time. So you can get into the groove and get used to the conditions,”

he added.A lot of onus will be

on the Indian pace attack to deliver the goods once again after their terrific performances in South Af-rica and England earlier in the year.

Sharma though said this tag doesn’t heap more pressure, instead provides an opportunity for the pac-ers to perform even better. Coming on his fourth tour here, he added that he is eager to win the Test se-ries this time, while not thinking about individual performances. He is go-ing to focus on the overall team’s performance and is eager to see how boy’s step on the field to prove themselves infront of the foriegn conditions.

Asked about Kohli’s passionate charisma rub-bing off onto the others, Sharma replied, “Every-one is passionate because we are always motivated to win a series, not just in Australia but when we played in South Africa and England too, we were pretty motivated to win the series.“That’s the biggest opportunity for us right now. We always have a good balance of players in our side, who can do great things for us, so it’s very promising.”On their previous over-seas tours to South Africa and England, India have baulked at the task of play-ing tour games against weakened opposition.

Edited by Yash Mishra

‘The new standard of measurement could change the way it works’

Leadership programme for teachersBy TANAY GUPTA

Two new education initia-tives were launched by Sat-ya Pal Singh, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, recently.

Talking about the Leadership for Acad-emicians Programme (LEAP) and the Annual Refresher Programme In Teaching (ARPIT), Sin-gh said that developing good teachers is a difficult task, but if teachers show enough commitment, AR-PIT will go a long way in empowering the teaching faculty.

“Committed teachers will develop confidence and competence and must become effective commu-nicators so that they can spread knowledge like the rays of the sun.

“Combining the quali-ties of a good teacher and an effective leader is a daunting, but not an im-possible task,” the Minis-ter added.

The LEAP will fulfil this critical need which will make higher education institutions perform their roles of developing better students who will be future torch bearers.

“A leader must talk for all generations, pres-ent and future; only then institutional growth can be achieved,” Singh ex-plained.

Union Minister of Hu-man Resource Develop-ment Prakash Javadekar, lauded these initiatives in a video message, saying that they would transform the quality of teaching and improve leaders, thereby enhancing the quality of higher education institu-tions.

He highlighted the need for constant updates to keep abreast of recent developments which will

enrich the teaching learn-ing experiences.

Combining academic and administrative lead-ership is an equal require-ment for those heading educational institutions and he hoped that LEAP will help in creating better higher education leaders of tomorrow.

The course is a 40-hour module with 20 hours of video content and 20 hours of non-video content.

The ARPIT course will be an ongoing exercise so that NRCs will con-tinuously develop new refresher module in their earmarked discipline each year, Singh explained.

The NRC will publish the list of the faculty who have been certified. rev-olutionizing professional development of faculty by catering to massive num-bers by leveraging ICT and Swayam, the Minister add-ed.

The main objective is to train academic heads who are potentially likely to assume leadership roles in the future.

This initiative will not only bring a mixture of profound knowledge and experience on the table but will also bring the passion to teach for the betterment of the students and society at large.

The initiative also takes into consideration the need to adress the change in the education pattern of the country.

It aims to start with making basic and mini-mum changes as a trial and if the results are satisfac-tory, will take this step way further in future.

The initiative believes to cater to the need of hav-ing leaders to lead in the coming years.

Based on a PIB report

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Sanjay Dutt and Aayush Sharma are set to collabo-rate for for a gangster film.

Dutt was last seen in “Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3”, while Aayush made his acting debut with “Loveyatri”.

“The film is loosely in-spired by the underworld and an era of its rise and fall. Since it’s a high octane action film, we could think of no one better than the legendary Sanjay Dutt.

“Aayush Sharma seems promising and has great screen presence. We were

both keen on working with each other,” producer Pre-rna Arora said.

Formalities with both the actors are underway. An official announcement will be made soon.

The film will be jointly produced by Prerna un-der the banner Five Stu-dio Five Elements and choreographer-filmmaker Ahmed Khan. It will go on floors in May 2019.

Dutt also has Karan Jo-har’s home production film “Kalank” and Ashutosh Gowariker directed “Pani-pat” in his kitty.

Edited by Yash Mishra

Dutt all set for gangster film

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOGREATER NOIDAThursday, November 29, 2018 5Juvenile Justice should be more about rehabilitation

By NISHANT JHA

In the past year, the Cen-tral Government has agreed to change the names of 25 towns and villages across India. Now a BJP MLA from Agra, Jagan Prasad Garg, wants to change Agra’s name to ‘Agrawal’.

A Marathi outfit called the Sambhaji Brigade wants Pune to be renamed Jijapur, Odisha’s Outer Wheeler will be renamed to APJ Abdul Kalam Is-land and Haryana’s Garhi Sampla is being renamed to Sir Chhotu Ram Nagar.The Central government has said that it still hasn't received the proposals to rename Allahabad and Faizabad.

The UP Government Cabinet Minister OP Ra-jbhar reacted to Allahabad and Faizabad’s names being changed by asking the BJP when the muslim members of the BJP’s cab-inet would change their names.

Historian Professor, Irfan Habib responded to the name changes by say-ing that the BJP’s Pres-ident Amit Shah should change his name since it isn’t based in Sanskirt, but

in Persian.Changing the name

of a city is a costly affair. The names of buildings, signboards, roads, admin-istrative papers and a lot of other things need to be changed, and all this costs money. On this, A D Gnanagurunathan, Head of Liberal Arts, Apee-jay Stya University, said “Certainly it is an unwant-

ed burden on the state ex-chequer with little or no tangible benefits to the general public.”

Talking about the possible reasons behind changing names of the cities, A D Gnanaguruna-than said: “Of course, it is part of the larger effort to change the narrative of Indian history. Whether it is renaming of cities and

towns or appropriation of national icons, who may even have contrary views, to scaffold their political agendas and social engi-neering projects.”

Javed Akhtar in a re-cent interview to Aaj Tak said, “There are bigger issues that need to be re-solved first. The massive exodus of people from villages to cities is a huge problem and this situation can't be improved just by renaming cities.”

This development is not unique to India, cities like New York earlier know as New Amsterdam, Istan-bul used to be known as Constantinople and Can-ton was Guangzhou(Chi-na). “Yes, it is true that many colonial societies, in-cluding India, go through the process of naming and

renaming their collective habitats. However, they are largely attempts to attain short-term, often provincial political gains,” said A.D Gnanaguruna-than.

He added, “The recent events in India are rather part of a systematic effort to erase a certain period of the Indian past and sup-plant it with a fictious nar-rative.”

Priyanka Singh, BA (H) Social Work, Aditya Mahavidyalaya, student said, “A political group can claim to do anything in the name of the electorate with the hope to garner support. Most of the recent efforts to rename the cities/towns have hardly been a citi-zen’s initiatives and done for naked partisan political purposes,” she added.

From Agra to Agrawal: What’s next?

By RHYTHM DUA

A monument has been lan-guishing in Saharanpur with the state government looking the other way while visitors vandalise and misuse it. The tomb of Timur Shah Bahadur, built 600 years ago during the Mughal era, is a neglected structure.

Brahmdev Dubey, from Banaras and a railway em-ployee in Saharanpur for 30 years, said,“I have been seeing it lose its beauty over time, people come and throw garbage in and around it. People use this monument as a public toilet, they disrespect the history and culture of the nation and the hard work that went into building this mausoleum.”

Timur is said to have made small houses near the fort for his soldiers to live, which are now provid-ed to government employ-ees. Around the fort, there used to be a beautiful lake that is now converted into a bog.

“The condition of this place shows how

weird Indian government policy is,” he added. Very few people dare to visit this ruin which was once a fort.

“I have seen animals drowning in the lake sur-rounding the fort,”said Mohammad Iqbal, a gar-dener in that area.

Sachin Bhardwaj, a history professor, visited this place a few months ago. On being asked about his experience, he said,“I am fond of visiting and exploring such places but my experience here has been terrible. I was very

disappointed on seeing the horrific condition of this place. The National Monu-ment Authority is not tak-ing care of the monuments in India. This mausoleum can be a great tourist reve-nue in Saharanpur and can generate employment.”

These historic build-ings help create vibrant, cultural downtowns that engender tourism, art, festivals, and other activ-ities which in turn draw investment, revenue, and economic growth.

Historic site grows into a garbage dump

By DIGANTA DEBNATH

On 1st October 2018, one of the oldest educational institutes in India celebrat-ed its 173rd birthday. La Martiniere, Lucknow was founded in 1845 by Major General Claude Martin, a General in the British army at that time. Every year on the 1st of October La Mar-tiniere College Lucknow celebrates Constantia Day which is followed by an event called “Constantia” on the last Thursday of the month. It is a daylong event where children from schools all over the world participate in various ac-tivities and competitions.

The various compe-titions and activities in-clude quizzes, debates, art and drawing compe-titions, gaming, perform-ing arts etc. On the day of Constantia, the college is decorated with flyers, streamers and banners. Classes are suspended and students partici- pate in activities.

La Martiniere College Lucknow is a member of the La Martiniere family of schools. One of them is sit-uated in Lyon, France, two in Kolkata, one for boys and one for girls, and two in Lucknow, one for boys and the other one for girls. It was built in the year 1785 by Claude Martin who was born in Lyon, France, and was a Major General in the British Army. Initially this

property was the founder’s country residence. When Claude Martin died in the year 1800, he clearly stat-ed in his will for the build-ing to be turned into an educational institute.

The top schools of the city like Loreto Convent for girls, City Montessori School, La Martiniere Girls College, St. Francis, Cathe-dral, DPS and many more all participate in this day-long event.

There are awards and certificates for winners. This event is one of the most important events that take place in the col-lege. Different teams par-ticipating in different ac-tivities start preparing and practicing weeks before the event. Mr. Allen Mor-rison, the in-charge of La Martiniere CCA division said, “Such inter school competitions are very im-portant for the overall de-velopment of a student. La Martiniere College always encourages and motivates

students for such activi-ties.” Dhal, a senior English teacher of the college and the judge for the English play said, “Year after year the students come up with such extraordinary perfor-mances which constantly raise the level and stand-ard of this competition.” After the establishment of the Shooting Range in 2014, shooting was includ-ed in “Constantia”. Nuk-kad Natak always attracts the biggest audience while swimming is the most un-predictable competition of all. Shivansh Mishra the captain of the La Mariniere Swimmimg team said, “We had one of the best teams of all but the competition this year was pretty close, and we lost by just one point.”

Constantia always catches the attention of lo-cal newspapers. It is basi-cally a birthday celebration for the college which was established as an educa-tional institute in 1845.

La Marts celebrates 173rd banniversary

By SIMRAN JHA

If one visits any city in Gujarat, they will be wel-comed by varied cultures and food, but there is one city which will welcome them with foul smell and greyish skies.

Welcome to An-kleshwar, known for its industrial township called GIDC (Gujarat In-dustrial Development Cor-poration). The Anklesh-war Industrial Association (AIA) is the largest organi-sation in GIDC where over 2000 industries are regis-tered. There are over 1500 chemical plants, produc-ing products such as pes-ticides, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and paints.

Two years back, my fa-ther died. The doctor said that it was because of the air pollution and thewater that we get is contaminated with all sorts of chemicals. Last year, my mother died

because of the same rea-son. We are now habitual of the chemicals disposed and we do not even sense the smell. When people cross this area with their noses and mouths covered, then only we understand that this place stinks.” Says Heeralal, a worker in LUPIN industries, one of the biggest pharmaceuti-cal industry in the country, living in the colony just ad-jacent to the factory.

Thanks to of these in-dustries, the pollution level in this city is tremen-dous. The maximum num-ber of the deaths that take place in the city is because of the pollution. The sky remains greyish through-out the year because of the smoke the chimneys emit. Every street, every locality is filled up with a peculiar smell of the chemicals and life becomes miserable for the people who live around these factories. Most of the

people live on the outskirts of the city, and the people living inside are the poor labourers working in the

factories who do not have enough land and money to buy or build a house in a good location. Living in those streets with the foul smell is like a nightmare for the common people, but they are so habitual of the smell that they do not

even sense it. These factories usual-

ly produce liquid wastes that are called effluents

and these wastes are then disposed of to the nearest water body contaminating the whole water supply of the city.

Many of the industries are taking effective meas-ures to control it. The GIDC Area is also under

the AIA board, and MCM is the controller in the Authority. Polluters are punished by AIA, which is resulting in lower levels of pollution.

The factories are com-ing up with new technolo-gy that deals with effective waste management sys-tems. LUPIN and the UPL Industries have come up with a new ZLD (Zero Liq-uid Discharge) unit that utilises and reuses each waste it produces. The ef-fluent produced goes un-der primary and secondary treatment under treatment plants and then reused in the factory. Thus, no efflu-ents are disposed of in the water bodies, reducing the water pollution.

It's good to see manu-facturing units coming up with such great ideas to protect their environment. Let's hope that people like Heeralal get a better and a healthier life to live.

By RUPANSHI CHITRANSH

Two years after being ranked as one of the worst countries for workers by the ITUC global rights in-dex, India has seen a slight improvement in the 2018 report, yet the low rank in-dicates the plight of work-ers in India.

Indrani Iyer, a con-struction worker talks about her working con-ditions: “I have a shift of 12 hours, we are hired on

temporary basis so we don’t expect much,” she says.

This is contrary to the Factories Act 1948 ac-cording to which no adults should be compelled to work for more than 9 hours in a day.

Laxmi, a domestic worker in Noida explains how tiring her day gets, “I have to wake up early, finish my household work and then go to work, there is no target for a day.” The

number of domestic work-ers in India range from of-ficial estimates of 4.2 mil-lion to unofficial estimates of more than 50 million.

There is no national law for domestic workers and they have been ex-cluded from various laws that provide social securi-ty benefits for workers in general.

Banita Pandit, another household worker when asked about her working conditions shares that it’s

good that it is flexible but getting a leave on festivals the doubles the work. “Our work is not recognised by people in general, it is quite hard to complete var-ious chores in limited time, my husband only has to go on duty for 6 hours.”

“Illiteracy among workers is the cause of their unawareness,” says Preeti Shrivastava, a mem-ber of NGO dedicated to help worker get their rights.”

India yet to become worker-friendly

By POORVA SINGH RATHORE

Criminal offenders who are under the age of 16 are supervised and taken care of by a special act in our country called the Juvenile Justice Act. The Act was passed in 1986. In 2015, there was a change in the Bill, and after the Nirbhaya case, the age was reduced to 16 from 18. There are always conflicts going on regarding this change. A vox populi report on various as-pects of this issue.

‘There are bigger issues that need to be resolved first. The massive exodus of people from villages to cities is a huge problem and this situation can’t be improved just by re-naming cities’

‘Our workis not recog-nised by people in general, it is quite hard to complete the chores in a limited time’

Yashovardhan Rai, 1st year MBA student Bennett University “Juvenile justice is an imperative branch of the Indian law as the delin-quents are like a seed and corrective measures are required to let that plant grow well. It is a platform for children to learn from their mistakes .”

Saranya Chakraborty, 1st year Law student, Ambedkar University. “Juvenile Justice is a consequence of the criminal actions of people below the age of 18. It should and does promote rehabilitation rather than punishment. Negative re-inforcement is not the key to healing a delinquent.”

Prof. S.P. Singh, Kurukshetra University “Adolescents tend to make mistakes but as mentors it is our responsibility to make them realize their mistake, not punish them and make them feel like criminals. Our motive is to help them evolve into better human beings.”

Prateek Soni, 3rd year BTech student, Bennett University

“The purity of a child’s heart is something that cannot be denied. So I’d say rehabilitate them instead of incarcerating. I also believe in the phrase, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice every-where’.”

Ishika Agrawal, 1st year law student, Mithibai College“Justice requires that we work to restore those who have been injured, not to punish the wounded and make them feel guilty. They are the future of our country and it is our re-sponsibility to train them to be on the right path.”

Drishan Dutt, 2nd year BTech student, VIT, Vellore“Life is all about giving chances, but I think a crime is a crime be it a child or an adult. Com-mitting a crime is a big deal and age should not be a bar to punishment. It should depend on the seriousness of the crime.”

Proposed name changes Infographic by Nishant Jha

The tomb of Timur Shah BahadurPhoto by Rhythm Dua

Main entry for LUPIN Pharmaceuticals Photo by Simran Jha

Shivansh Mishra, captain of the La Martiniere swimming team

Chemical pollution hits Ankleshwar

Vishaka Agarwal,Class 12, Scindia Kan-ya Vidyalaya, Gwalior“Justice, be it for juveniles or otherwise, is about equality, which is a strong pillar of democracy and under the eyes of justice there is no age and no gender. Equality before the law should always be maintained.”

By SIDDHARTHA DAYANI

Chandra Dayani, a 64- year-old woman from Kol-kata, said that the Govern-ment needs to do more for old people than just reduce the flight tickets.

“I think the Govern-ment could always be more patient towards the old people. I see policemen be-ing insensitive towards old people everyday and the government does nothing about it. The Government can’t reduce the price of air tickets for old people and think they’ve done enough,” she said

On talking about the life after retirement , her seventy two year old hus-band, Kanyalal Dayani said: “I’ve never been more bored. I still use my phone to by shares . Else I just talk to my family members and sleep.”

They also stated “re-lationships with my close ones have become deep-er because I have more time but at the same time it makes me realize that everyone else doesn’t. I’m free but they’re not . They do their best to make time for us but we’re just too free.”

He spoke about being a financial burden and ex-pressed his hatred towards it. “I earned enough in my young ages. I have mutual

funds , shares and savings to keep myself going. My son spends a lot on me but I don’t like it when he does that . My health cost is usually taken care off by my son because he never lets me pay for it myself,” said Kanyalal.

The old couple also elaborated on dealing with loneliness.

“I’ve become more lonely after my grandson left for college 3 months

back. I do have a lot of free time and occasionally get bored. I either cook, go for a walk or watch movies to get rid of boredom,” said Chandra.

“We’ve lived a very happy and a long life. We somehow, still fear death and want to see our grand-children getting married. We just hope we can make it till then . We, for now, are just going with the flow,” said the Chandra.

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDAThursday, November 29, 20186

Scenic Ladakh a haven for tourists despite cold climateBy DIGANTA DEBNATH

A trip to Ladakh is what a lot of travellers always dream of, because of this land’s ability to leave a traveller in amazement at every step of the journey. The mesmerizing land-scape and nature of this place can make anyone speechless.

Ladakh has always been a prime destination in the Himalayas when it comes to an adventure-ac-tivity destination. Lada-kh first opened tourism in 1978 and recorded 527 tourists that year. Tour-ism in the region increased rapidly and as many as 56 thousand domestic tour-ists visited the place the following year. Behind the scenic and landscape beauty that this region of-fers, lies the sad reality of the people living here in these extreme conditions. Ladakh offers the harsh-est of climates. Surviving here is not easy. The peo-

ple of Ladakh traditionally lead a nomadic pastoral life. Most of them are de-pendent on the agriculture based on the Indus River.

The yak herders earn their livelihood by making butter from the Yak milk. Dawa Tshering a local Yak

herder said, “Most yak herders like us don’t own yaks. We collect them from their owners take them to the grazing grounds and the earnings from the yak milk is shared between us.”

Ladakh is also known as ‘the cradle of adven-

tures.’ Mountain Biking is an exciting adventure in this regions. This place holds a special place in the hearts of the people of the biking community. People from all over the world come here for mountain biking typically during the

months of June, July and August. Partha Sen a bik-er from Kolkata said, “You should spend your entire first day in Ladakh rest-ing, so that the body can acclimatize.”

Ladakhi culture is similar to Tibetan culture.

Ladakh is flooded with monasteries.

A local guide, Abdul Ghhani talked a lot about the culture and people of Ladakh, “The Tibetan culture has impacted us heavily. It can be seen in our food habits, in our ar-

chitecture, in our music, in the language that we speak.” He also said that, “Unfortunately after the Communist China occu-pied Tibet all Cultural and Trade relations between Ladakh and Tibet were cut off. The people have been

constantly trying restore those relations with help of Government of India but there has been no such advancement.” There is a famous Ladakhi saying that “The land is so bar-ren and the passes so high that only the best of our friends or the fiercest of our enemies would want to visit us.”

In Ladakh the places that attract the most num-ber of tourist are The Leh Palace, Shanti Stupa, Likir Monastery, Pangong Lake, Nubra Valley, Kahrdungla Pass( world’s highest mo-tor-able road), Changla Pass and the Army Mu-seum. Tenzing Nugru a local driver said, “I am completely dependent on Tourism. Because of the tourists that come to this place I earn upto 40 thou-sand rupees per month.” This place should be on every traveller’s buck-et-list. Ladakh will leave you speechless as this land is truly mystical.

Bikers love the rough terrain of Leh Ladakh Photos by Diganta Debnath

‘Anti-smoking ads make a big impact’By MEHUL TEKCHANDANI

“Do anti-smoking ads real-ly have an impact on peo-ple’s decision about quit-ting smoking?” Or “do they really work?” It is a contro-versial issue and plenty of studies and investigations support that there is no clear evidence to prove they have a significant in-fluence on adults’ or youth’ decisions. The most striking rea-son of why anti-smoking ads fail is that there is not enough attention to en-courage smokers or they are not supposed to pre-vent people from smoking.

“Television shows and movies depict drugs and smoking as a good habit and do not state any neg-ative consequences on the use of it. Today’s audi-ence watches these shows and movies, which get the sense that smoking and us-ing drugs is a cool thing to do,” says Suhaani Bhatia.

The reason is adver-tisements are made to profit. Anti-smoking ads are not advantageous or profitable. Thus, constant-

ly, advertisers are creating advertisements, such as billboards, commercials and other interesting pro-motions, for anti-drugs and anti-smoking. It is found in many different places that can be simply seen by the public, pref-erably among adolescents and teenagers, to get their attention.

News media in differ-ent markets indicated that teenagers are using more marijuana because of these popular ads that they are constantly seeing in the media. For example, many adolescents feel that mari-juana is a fashionable drug among their peers because of its popular usage in movies, commercials and many other outlets across pop culture.

Not all people involved in media have agreed with this statement These companies make smoking glamorous, fun and “cool” to the public. Along with the advertising in media, many include general sur-geon message, which is in fine print that many view-ers do not notice the health

concerns of the use of cig-arettes.

Recently there has been a surge of cancer among people that an-ti-smoking campaigns have been created to end or to put a stop on these glamorous ads and tobac-co companies.

The opposing ads demonstrated the negative aspects of smoking, which is mainly targeted for ado-lescents along with statis-tics on the mortality rate cause by smoking.

Along with tobacco ad-vertising, parents were an-other influenced for young adults to start smoking.

The rival ads started to use parents, whom do not smoke, as the anti-smok-

ing and anti-drug gear to-wards the adolescents.

Chef on a smoke break Photo by Gaurav Tandon

‘Television shows depict drugs and smoking as a good habit without stat-ing any negative consequences’

‘We need a sensitive Govt’

Kanyalal and Chandra Dayani Photo by Siddhartha Dayani

‘Drug use by teens leads to adult addiction’By AYUSHIKA ANAND

Teenagers who abuse drugs run a greater risk of developing an addic-tion when they grow into adults.

Shuchita Dua Dullu, a clinical psychologist working at the Mi Con-fidante clinic in Noida, said: “The rate of increase in drug abuse is alarming. I’ve been practising for al-most 10 years and I have seen many cases of drug abuse, parents of these children spend lots of money on their treatment but often there are chanc-es of relapse.”

It’s important to know the difference between drug abuse and addiction. Many teens experiment with drugs but aren’t ad-dicted. While many get addicted and end up ru-ining their and their par-ents’ lives, she said.

Talking of a case where the boy had gone to Bangalore to attend college and within two months his father had to bring him back due to

drug abuse and overdose, Dullu said: “It was really heartbreaking to see the plight of both the parents and the child.

Mass media have been a major tool for social change, especially now that people depend on messages from mass me-dia.

The potential power of the mass media helps solve social problems. Radio, television and newspapers play a very important and crucial role in influencing our ideas, values and behaviour.

Echoing Dullu’s con-cern, Dr Manu Tiwari, senior psychiatrist at Fortis Hospital, Noida, said the media has a very important role to play in spreading awareness about alarming issues like drug abuse, rape etc. and it’s the responsibility of the media to communi-cate and get people to act for their own health and well-being or to do the right things.

“It’s a long journey which will not at all be

easy but will definitely be worth it. The most impor-tant step would be to or-ganise media campaigns designed to change the attitudes and behaviour of students and youth, which undoubtedly has an ef-fect on the youth and also helps in spreading aware-ness,” said Tiwari.

Prevention pro-grammes involving fam-ilies, schools and the im-mediate communities are important in this regard. Media – especially the entertainment segment – also needs to understand its role in this context and play a positive role by re-sisting the urge to earn millions by romanticizing and glorifying drug abuse.

It needs to highlight the damning consequenc-es of drug abuse.

It is important that the youth are made to feel that drug usage itself is harm-ful in every conceivable way and only then will they stop using them and prevent others in their peer group from doing the same.

‘Diya-selling is my Diwali time lifeline’By PAVNEET SINGH

“This is my favourite time of the year. There is so much work, but I don’t mind. With the money I earn, my family can have a happy Diwali too,” said Sanjay Mishra, a daily wage labourer who takes to diya selling during the Diwali season.

Asked where he gets his goods from, he said it’s the result of the hard work of his family members. All the diyas that Sanjay sells are handmade and embel-lished by his family.

“My wife comes from a family of potters. My mother also used to make all the diyas and urns her-self so she has a fair idea of what to do. It was my wife’s idea that we start this seasonal business,” Sanjay said.

“We start the prepa-rations almost a month before Diwali. There is a lot to be done: Diyas to be made, painted and decorated. Everyone con-tributes to this. My wife and mother are the main workers but they also su-pervise my children, my sister in law and my sister. It’s a team effort!” adds Sanjay.

As a daily wage labour-er, his income is meagre.

That income also depends on whether he gets work on a particular day or not.

It gets really difficult for him to work extra hours sometimes as he has to sacrifice his valua-ble family time. However, these couple of weeks get him good enough money.

There is a whole week of Diwali celebrations and then the Chhath Puja. For this, Sanjay usually sets up his shop in Mayur Vi-har, where his uncle lives.

“The earning is more in that area for Chhath Puja. There not much sale in Delhi comparatively”, Sanjay said. It is inter-esting to see through his perspective how this time of the year means so much more than a festival of lights for the likes of him. It is a time when the whole family unites and works to get a little more income, just enough to enjoy the festival properly and save a little for the next year.

Sanjay Mishra, the seller Photo by Pavneet Singh

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security will be key themes in the day-long conclave organised by Mindfire Solutions and scheduled for December 9 at Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

The day-long conclave will see participation from key industry practitioners in the Artificial Intelli-gence (AI) and Cyber Secu-rity space from all over the world.

Held annually under the banner of TechBhu-baneswar, the conclave is an ideal platform for tech-nical experts to meet, en-gage and discuss ideas and models in these emerging areas. TechBhubaneswar is the biggest event of its kind in East India. Artifi-cial Intelligence and Cyber Security hold high signifi-cance in the context of the technological evolution.

Besides these topics, the conclave will also host other technical tracks such as software testing, and open source and web. The conclave will be graced by noted technical experts and C-level executives from leading companies and start-ups, including Siddharth Rajhans, Prin-cipal Policy Officer, New York.

Edited by Shravak Shakya

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

The finance ministry on Monday said that ₹91,149 crore of the ₹97,202 crore of GST received so far has been issued exporters as refunds in a statement. This accounts for approx-imately 93.77 per cent of total claims with the tax authorities.

An estimated ₹6,053 crore worth GST refund is still pending with the gov-ernment and that is being “expeditiously processed”.

Giving break-up for the refund figures, the minis-try said that ₹48,455 crore of IGST refunds have been disposed of as on Novem-ber 28, which is 95 per cent of the total such claims.

As much as ₹2,473 crore worth of IGST refund claims have been held up on account of “various de-ficiencies” which have been communicated to export-ers for remedial action.

With regard to refund of input tax credit claims, the ministry said of the total claims of ₹46,274 crore, the pendency stood at ₹3,580 crore.

The ministry said pending GST refund claims amounting to ₹6,053 crore are being expeditiously processed so as to provide relief to eligible claimants.

Edited by Shravak Shakya

Cyber security,AI meet at Bhubaneswar

Govt clears₹91,149 crGST refunds

GREATER NOIDAThursday, November 29, 2018 7Group dynamics a new learning tool

Group work instills values of team work, im-parts problem solving skills and develops the personality. With this vision in mind and com-mitted to the overall well-being and growth of students, the Bennett University gives plenty of opportunities to students to participate in ac-tivities outside the classroom to strive for ex-cellence and develop their overall personality. This development of interpersonal skills, fos-tering communication skills among peers and coaches and teaching non-cognitive skills that are invaluable to all young adults is a unique pursuit of this university.

Students hatching ideas at the Bennett Hatchery

Group of students work late in the Bennett library

Attrium is a place for students to hang out A group of B.Tech students discuss an idea

Students prepare for a group discussion

The faculty mess a new area to discuss ideas

Journalism students visit The Times of India office

Group initiatives at Bennett University aid students’ personality development

By SAHIL MURSHID

Bennett University stu-dents have been a part of unique group dynamics system under a wholesome personality development programme which entails interpersonal interactions between students outside the class.

The strategy is meant to be used as a foundation stone for group analysis acumen of students.

Group discussion is one of the most essential and unique traits of Ben-nett University. To face the real world outside where

people have to work in groups, the Bennett Uni-versity has formed several student groups.

Here are some of the benefits of working in groups:

Openness: Group members get to know one another, particularly those with different interests and backgrounds. They are open to new ideas, di-verse viewpoints and the individuals present within the group. They listen to others and elicit their ide-as to balance the need for cohesion within a group with the need for individu-

al expression.Trust and self-dis-

closure: Group members learn to trust one another to share ideas and feelings. A sense of mutual trust de-velops only to the extent that everyone is willing to disclose and be honest and respectful. Trust also grows as group members demonstrate personal ac-countability for the tasks they have been assigned.

Support: Group members demonstrate support for one another as they accomplish their goals. This exemplifies a sense of team loyalty and

both cheer on the group as a whole and helps mem-bers who are experiencing difficulties. They view one another not as competitors (which is common within an individualistic educa-tional system) but as col-laborators.

Respect: Group mem-bers communicate their opinions in a way that respects others, focusing on What they learn is im-portant rather than who is to blame to anything. Constructive feedback for more details is a plus point.

“The library is the best

place to think and do re-search,” says Sanidhya Sharda, a first-year Bach-elor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication student, when asked about what is the best place for group work in Bennett.

The Hatchery is a sprawling space on the third floor made for group discussions and generation of ideas. A floor full of bean bags, tables, office chairs, plug points and aesthetic sitting areas dedicated just for group meetings and research purposes often pushes the students into ideating.

“The Faculty mess is a blessing for us. Here, we can work even up to 2 am. This becomes useful a day before the presentations,” says Yash Mishra, another first-year Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication student. He added that the Faculty mess gets packed a night before Advertising pres-entations. There is not a corner left in the mess area to accommodate anyone.

“For final preparations before examinations the block garden area is the best as it’s peaceful,” says Vinayak Sharma, first-year

Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science student of the university.

He adds that the Ben-nett campus has Group Discussion (GD) rooms on every floor of A-block despite having other study places like the library, hatchery and faculty mess.

“Working in a group is really important as it enhances an individual’s leadership skills and en-courages team building, which are two important skills for any student to go ahead in life. It makes it easy for them to work in a group and adjust with

different kinds of peo-ple,”says Ayushika Anand, another journalism stu-dent with the university.

“Working in a group helps an individual grow as a person more than any-thing else, as working with different people brings out a varying points of views and helps students look at an individual matter from different perspectives. It also builds leadership skills which are essen-tial for all,” says Tanishq Chawla, first year Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication stu-dent.

Students meet in the library for a group project Students work on group projects

Photos by SAHIL MURSHID & Text by VEDANSH JAIN

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDAThursday, November 29, 20188

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOTHURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2018 | VOL. 2 | ISSUE 12

PRAPTI JAIN, PAVNEET SINGH, R.B. KAVYA, SOMYA BHADAURIA, POORVA SINGH, TANISHQ CHAWLA, NANDINI

NANDAL, SALONI JHA, MUSKAN GULIANI, SIMRAN JHA, MALVIKA CHAWLA, AYUSHIKA ANAND, ADA KOHLI,

MEHER DHANJAL, TRISHA DEKA, SAMARTH MEHROTRA, SIDDHARTHA DAYANI, RHYTHM DUA, PRATIKSHYA

GARABADU, RAGHAVI JHANJEE, NAVYA JAIN, MEHUL TEKCHANDANI, DIGANTA DEBNATH, PARIDHI GUPTA,

RUPALIKA JOHRI, SMRITI NEGI

SUB EDITORSDEGHPREET KAUR, ADA KHOLI (Page 1),

PRIYANSHI GUPTA, GAURAV TANDON (Page 2), R.B. KAVYA, TRISHA DEKA (Page 3),

MALVIKA CHAWLA, YASH MISHRA (Page 4), TEJASWINI MITTAL, TANISHQ CHAWLA (Page 5),

MEHUL TEKCHANDANI, NIKITA ROY (Page 6), VAISHNAVI GUPTA, VEDANSH JAIN (Page 7), AYUSHIKA ANAND, TANAY GUPTA (Page 8)

Published by Sunil Saxena on behalf of The Times School of Media, Bennett University, Plot no 8-11, Tech Zone II, Greater Noida, and printed at Veekay Printers, 140 Patpar Ganj, New Delhi - 110091.

The Times of Bennett is a training paper which is written, edited and produced entirely by students as part of their academic work.

It is for internal circulation only.

REPORTERS

‘Need to go beyond obvious’By NANDINI NANDAL

“There is an unwillingness to go beyond the obvious,” said Avijit Ghosh, senior editor of The Times of In-dia, based in Delhi, who addressed the students of Bennett University in a guest lecture held on Mon-day. He also talked about perfecting the art of fea-ture writing.

He started off by telling what exactly a feature story is, “Feature story is slight-ly longer than the hard news especially written to inform and entertain.” He explained that it requires more efforts to write a fea-ture as it provides informa-tion that supplements the hard news.

He emphasized on the fact that feature stories bring out the human el-ement behind the news element. Good stories ac-cording to him, reveal the human side of the news clearly and with ease. Ghosh quoted example of a good feature story and read out a Pulitzer winning story, ‘At a Texas Found-ry, An Indifference to Life’ which gave a vivid descrip-tion of the lives of workers of Tyler Pipe.

Here, he focused on a very important point that the writers of the story did not get to witness the plight of the workers, but they dug deep in the feder-al records and written evi-dences. And as a result, the word picture they created made it seem like they saw the incidents firsthand.

He said that in this field one should have all the sources too back whatever

he brings up on the table.Later, Ghosh gave

some guidelines as to how a feature report should be written. Firstly, he advised the students to be original in their ideas and analyze

if the idea would startle people or not. Further, he said that after a raw idea, one should look for trends, then work on the back-ground of theme of the story.

He advised the stu-dents, that just reporting is not enough; impressions need to be written when one is covering the story live. He also mentioned that telling stories through anecdotes is a good way of grasping the audience since they make the story more readable.

After the content is complete, he said, one should reread it thrice and then check facts, grammar and the flow of the story. “No stories are good how-ever well written, if they aren’t written in time,” Ghosh stressed on the im-portance of deadlines.

He also mentioned that along with the 4Ws and an H, features can bring out the sound and the smell of a story. He taught them the five ways of storytelling- scene setter, nut graph, background section, order-ly progression and a con-clusion. He added, “style is important, but it is not a substitute for good con-tent,” trying to explain that one shouldn’t think that good writing always carry a story.

After giving a layout of a few steps of writing a feature story, he wound up by quoting an excerpt from the famous story, ‘It’s an honor’ by Jimmy Breslin who tells the story of Pres-ident John Kennedy’s fu-neral from the perspective of Clifton Pollard, a grave-digger. He explained, how a feature story is different from a normal news story and what are the necessary elements a good feature story must have to make the reader read it .

By SIMRAN JHA

Participants from across the country came together to represent their respec-tive states on the National Level Times Sudoku Cham-pionship held at Bennett University, Greater Noida.

The winners, Kumar S and Pranav Kamesh S, both from Chennai in the experienced category, and Kartik Reddy from Hy-derabad and M Ezhilarasi from Chennai, from the in-experienced category, will be representing India at The World Sudoku Cham-pionship held in Prague in November-end. The two categories have been cre-ated to filter competitors by age groups.

A short briefing ses-sion was arranged for the participants by Bennett University, a day before the finale where they were briefed about the rules and regulations of the game. The experienced players helped the inexperienced players with the tricks and techniques for faster solving. The competition started in 2005 to help Indians make their way to the World Sudoku Campi-onship.

Every year, it hosts su-doku competition in every city, the winners from each city compete against each other in the national level championship. The four winners from the cham-pionship get a chance to represent the country at the World Sudoku Cham-pionship.

Kishore, one of the winners, who has won The Times Sudoku Champion-ship earlier said: “I was hoping to win this time too, although the competition was comparatively tough, the first three rounds were close but round four made all the difference.

I am very excited to represent India on the in-ternational level again”. Pranav Kamlesh, an IIT Madras student, who was one of the winners last time as well said “we have a very strong team this time. I hope we can win the championship.”

Kartik Reddy, who beat his father to compete in the finals said “This is the first time I have made it to finals. “I had particip ted in the junior’s world championship and I have improved a lot. My father also helped me improve my skills.”

The Times of India Senior Editor Avijit Ghosh addresses students at Bennett University

By PRAPTI JAIN

“The infrastructure of any university plays an impor-tant role in making the decision of whether to join the campus,” says Ritvik Raj Singh, a B.Tech 3rd-year student.

“When I first joined the university, the infra-structure was not com-pletely developed as it still isn’t. But the advanced in-frastructure of this univer-sity was a primary reason for me to join. The mess, the open area, and the modern and sophisticated architecture intrigued me. BU has an open-campus structure,” he added.

Sharing his experience of living in both ‘B’ block and the current boys hos-tel, he said that having ex-perienced the life in both

the hostels, “The infra-structure of the two build-ings is totally different and, I would say that boys hostel is more ventilated than that of the now girls hostel, as we have open balconies and windows.”

Mrinalini Bansal, a B.Tech 1st-year student shared her views on how the interior designing of the campus affected her decision to join the col-lege “I never wanted to join the university because the infrastructure wasn’t complete. But the clean and modern washrooms, the mess and the general infrastructure really im-pressed me and I want-ed to join it considering that.” Adding on, she told about the aspect that she doesn’t like in the cam-pus “Just one thing that

I’m not happy with here is that the rooms are small as compared to other univer-sity campuses.” But then, on the contrary, she also told about what she liked the most. “The best part of the university is the quirky hatchery and comfortable classrooms. The feeling of

the lecture hall is some-thing you may have never experienced in schools and it also what motivates me to attend my classes,” she said. This justifies that the infrastructure of any uni-versity also impacts you psychologically.

“The best thing about

this university is that ex-cept the amazing cours-es, our overall well-being as a student is also kept in mind. We get food on time, we have sports com-plex- open for all. We have common rooms, Mac labs, Gym for fitness, outdoor games and a full-fledged comfortable library where no one will stop you from reading anything,” said Priya Dwivedi, a B.Tech 1st-year student. Later dis-cussing the life of hostelers being different from that of day schoolers, she said that for hostlers, there are some clubs or extracurric-ular activities which are fun. In this way, we can ac-tually enjoy by involving in activities we love and it is also as a good stress buster and we can fully enjoy our College life.

“The infrastructure is really amazing and better than other universities”, says Indrayudh Chow-dhary, BBA LLB 1st year. “The sports complex, gym, greenery and the overall interior of the campus is really pretty. I love the common area of block A and the garden area in front of the boys’ hostel” Later, Aradhita Mishra of BBA 1st year said “I didn’t like the concept of com-mon washrooms. In many hostels, I have seen that they have proper separate washrooms. And they ba-sically give the sense of privacy as well.” But then, she counted the positive sides of the interior design by saying that none of the hostel will give you what-ever you want so lets just be happy with what we get.

‘Campus infrastructure important for studies’

Think Square in Block A of Bennett University Photo By Prapti Jain

By SIDDHARTHA DAYANI

Verve, the Western Dance club of Bennett University, have started dance classes for students interested to learn. Workshops are tak-en every week and the stu-dents are taught Hip-hop , Bollywood , Popping and locking.

“I don’t want Verve to be club where only dancers enjoy all the privilege.

Dance is no rocket sci-ence. Everyone can learn. That’s why we choreo-graph songs and teach it to the non-dancers every week,” said Madhav Gino-ria , one of the core team members of Verve.

Verve was founded last year and most of the workshops are headed by

Saurabh Tantia. “I dance to relieve stress and love to perform. Dancing is great for the body and keeps you really fit” he said.

Verve, more than per-

formances, takes part in Flash Mobs and has never failed to surprise the audi-

ence. The workshops have been put on hold since the main team has been prac-ticing for the upcoming fests. “We didn’t take part in many events this year and hope to change that really soon.

That is exactly why we are focusing more on our main team. We want Verve to have a name outside college too. We care about other members too and that’s why we’ve created 2 teams.

The main team- which takes part at events with us, and the beginners- the ones who we teach and who want to learn dance passionately ” said Apoor-va Mehta, one of the core team member of Verve club in Bennett university.

By PARIDHI GUPTA

Bennett University’s new cricket captain Karan Chaudhary says how he began from zero and con-tributed in building the en-tire cricket team of the uni-versity. “I have the tough job of keeping up the mo-rale of the players despite the lack of opportunities,” he added.

“Bennett University is a new campus and didn’t have all the resources and proper training. We had to start with zero for cricket as well. We had no infrastructure in our first year to play. The ba-sic necessities in a ground were also fulfilled later. It was difficult to get expo-sure and play inter-college tournaments as they were not aware about our uni-versity and we didn’t have a proper team or coach,” said Chaudhary who is an MBA second year student.

He, however, added that with time conditions did improve and the uni-versity provided facilities and opportunities. “We worked harder, gave our

best and are representing BU in different universities like Shiv Nadar, Gautam Budh and Delhi Technical University,” he said.

“It has been a journey of ups and downs, strug-gles and rewards for the eleven players, who are tied strongly by the thread of unity,” he added.

Asked how he became the captain, he said that to become one, he needed to be good in many aspects. “Along with good leader-ship skills, fine knowledge

and experience in the field is required,” Chaudhary said. He was the player of the tournament last year in the University’s cricket tournament which added to his profile.

“I was quite elated af-ter clearing the interview round and getting appoint-ed as the captain as I con-sidered it as an excellent opportunity to improve the state of cricket in our university,” he added.

Talking about the team players he told that

the players always try to give their best but no one is perfect. There is always a scope for improvement and the only way to im-prove is through consist-ency and practice. He also mentioned how important it is for him to keep the spirits of team high always because all the players cannot have a good on the field together and some fail too. As a captain he keeps the moral of the players high so that the team never drop its shoulders.

Tanmay Sharma, 19, one of the precious 11 said, “It feels amazing to be a part of Bennett’s cricket team. The journey till now has been amazing, it has been an enriching experi-ence to play under Karan bhaiya’s guidance, we all share some great mem-ories with him and ech other,” Cricket is a part of their daily schedule and playing cricket is a stress buster for all of them.

All of them have a com-mon goal of taking the bennett university cricket team to greater heights and playing to their best.

Living their passion at BennettBy RITCK MONDAL

The Photography Club of Bennett University, ISAC (Iso, Shutter, Aper-ture, Click) is a platform built for people passion-ate about photography or want to take up photogra-phy as a career. The club’s goal is to bring together all people who share the com-mon passion and connect them by a common thread.

“Everyone who wants to learn or improve or even understand what pho-tography is all about is wel-come to join the club, and stimulate the inception of new ideas in this visual art. They are here in order to inculcate and motivate the art of photography in the students of Bennett Uni-versity,” Bhavya Patunjal, General Secretary of ISAC.

“The local maximum goal for ISAC right now is expansion. Every event we organise is to create a mark in the photography culture and not just on the university students. We are always trying to make our social media handles better in order to provide

an incentive to reach our members” said Patunjal.

The club also organises workshops on regular ba-sis for Adobe photoshop, cinematography and pho-

tography.“We seek to display

our love of photography through the constructive criticism of our peers, lei-sure activities, and the promotion of photogra-phy throughout the cam-pus and carve a niche for ourselves as a club on dif-

ferent platforms. We are an inclusive club, where we also promote creative videography. We welcome all sorts of individuals to come and join us over our monthly sessions, discuss their aspirations and cre-ativity, find the like mind-ed people and transform them through various club activities” said Patunjal on speaking about the ideolo-gy of the club.

The ISAC recently took some of the students for photowalk in Humayun’s Tomb and Majnu ka Tilla where students were left to explore the monuments and click pictures.

Recently, ISAC also conducted a workshop in partnership with CANON India, where professional photographers had come and helped them to im-prove their basic photogra-phy skills. Students were also given certificates by CANON India. The ISAC plans to take club mem-bers to a 3-day photogra-phy tour to the Rantham-bore National Park where students will do wildlife photography.

Verve workshops a hit

ISAC clicks with students

‘There is an unwillingness to go beyond the obvious.Feature story is slightly longer than the hard news especially writ-ten to inform and entertain’

‘I dance to relieve stress and love to perform. Dancing is great for the body and keeps you really fit’

Bennett University’s cricket team (inset) Skip-per Karan Chaudhary Photo By Paridhi Gupta

A wall display made out of photographs clicked by ISAC mem-bers

Students at the Verve workshop Photo by Siddhartha Dayani

Bennett hosts national Sudoku event

Pranav Kamesh practises with his father

Photo by Simran Jha