THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOSTUDENT PAPER OF THE SCHOOL OF MEDIA & LIBERAL ARTS GREATER NOiDA | November 3, 2017 | Vol 1, issue 5 | PAGES 12

WRITAVA BANERJEE

By the side of a very busy square, almost incon-spicuous with buildings growing around it taking the shine away from its glory, lies a monument that’s not very impressive by its structure but by its significance. It’s the spot that’s the geographic centre of India or what is known as the ‘Zero Mile’.

Years of neglect, van-dalism and half-hearted attempts to renovate it have reduced it to a sorry state. The Zero Mile is a 1000 ft structure. The only addition to monument is the pack of four horses beside it. The painting on the milestone has started to peel off. This milestone is a special one, as it has the exact distances of var-ious Indian cities from that point written on it.

Nagpur youth feel strongly about the Zero Mile. Apekshit Masane, a first year medical student tries to add humour to the situation. “The grass

has grown a lot. The hors-es there have too much to feed on. They have be-come fat and cannot run fast. And so have the citi-zens and the civic bodies, it seems. It was on to us to maintain this monu-ment and we have failed miserably,” she says.

Kshitij Bhoge, who has spent most of his school years in Nagpur, feels it shows the lack of develop-ment in India. “Zero Mile is a place from where In-dia radiates. But when the centre itself is not up to the mark, how can we expect India to jump from being a ‘Developing’ to being a ‘De-veloped’ Nation?” he asks.

Aishwarya Menon, who passes the monument everyday on her way to college, feels that citizens are to blame too. She said, “It is because people just don’t care about any sec-ond thing which surrounds them. We can’t even main-tain our own rooms how can we do it for Zero Mile.”

Pallavi Bandiwar, a sec-ond year student feels dif-ferently. “I think it’s cool when it’s left undisturbed. I still like the monument anyway since it belongs to my city. One can only hope that the authorities wake up and give more than zero attention to the Zero Mile. Perhaps one day it will become better,” she said.

TARU MEDHA AND TANVI MISHRA

Being girls and taking part in outdoor sports in a conservative neigh-bourhood is difficult. Yet despite these odds, the five Singh sisters of Vara-nasi scaled the heights of their respective sports.

The five sisters, Pri-yanka, Divya, Prashanti, Akanksha and Pratima have created an identity for themselves in basket-ball, with four of them wearing the Indian jersey at international tourna-ments while one (Pri-yanka) played at the national level. The five sisters have a sixth sibling, their brother, Vikrant, who excels in football.

Two of them, Akank-sha and Pratima Singh, are now sports officers at Bennett University and are in-charge of organis-ing all the sporting events of the University as well as oversee the build-

ing of the sports infra-structure on the campus.

How did the Singh sisters become such ex-pert basketball players? Akanksha said, “There was a college near our home in Varanasi, where our oldest sister, Priyanka, would go and play basket-ball. Influenced by her, the rest of us also started going to practise with her

and eventually became good players.” Akanksha has played for India for 14 years while Pratima has played for 12 years and also received an award of recognition from the President of India for this.

There was a time when all four of the sisters were in Team India at the same time. “Divya was the coach and Prashanti, Akanksha

and myself were players, “ says Pratima, proudly.

“Basketball has been a life changer. Coming from a place where there were many restrictions on the way girls should behave and dress up and still mak-ing it big in the field of sports has taught me a lot in life,” says Akanksha, as she talks about her career.

With her career as a

basketball player coming to an end, Akanksha de-cided to take up a job as a sports officer at the univer-sity. “I have always want-ed to work around kids and work on their devel-opment,” said Akanksha.

She took up the chal-lenge of setting up infra-structure at a new in-stitution and also roped in her sister Pratima to work with her. “ I wanted the challenges of start-ing from scratch and take up the wide scope to do something new,” she says.

Being athletes, both the sisters make sure to keep themselves fit all the time. They make spend some time in the university gym everyday, after they finish work and also try and mo-tivate staff and faculty to join their fitness sessions. “Fitness has always been a driving force in my life. I think that most of my en-ergy and motivation comes from the fact that I keep myself fit, “ says Akansha.

MANSI JAIN

Kashish, 26, is a trans-gender and live in Delhi. But Kashish does not feel a sense of belonging. As a transgender, the constant mocking about gender and sexuality and almost everything else, is irritat-ing. But Kashish tries to not let that dampen the spirits. “We feel normal, it’s the way we are, but it’s just the people who make us feel that we are not nor-mal.”

Kashish discovered his sexuality when he was 13. “I still remember, at the age of seven I was being yelled at by my teacher for going to the girls toilet. At first everything seemed unusual to me. At age 10, I refused to cut my hair. My father was a fisherman and he did not get whether I was a boy or a girl, but later on realising that I was transgender they were quite supportive. Howev-er, they hid it from every-body. My mother asked me not to leave home. I was confused and could not

figure out what was wrong with me,” Kashish said.

While surfing the Net, he got to know about transgenders through a YouTube video. “I felt all my issues were solved but then I realised that society won’t accept me the way I am. There came a time when I was embarrassed by people, who would come to look at me. I felt ugly,” Kashish said.

Kashish wanted to study psychology but his parent refused further ed-

ucation after school, “I was even told that people like me don’t work,” Kashish says.

After years of struggle and hardships faced by Kashish and his family, Kashish managed to get admission in a relative’s institute and was able to pursue further studies. “Society makes us believe that something is wrong with our bodies. We are born this way, not turned this way. That’s the way it is, we cannot do any-thing about it. All the so-ciety does is make us feel less human, by making us object of mockery. All we want from society is equal opportunities and rights, and if ever given a chance to be born again I would still be a muxe, I never re-gret being born this way. it’s just my body I love it the way it is.”

Transgender people want to be same as everyone else. “All we want is comfort, re-spect and happiness in life. ,” says Kashish.

Till things get better, we can atleast respect them.

SOFI TYAGI

There was a lot of excite-ment among the students of Mass Communication in Bennett University when they heard that they’ll soon be bringing out their own newspaper, the Times of Bennett. The name was suggested by two students Triya Gulati and Harshit Mansukhani. “It was an amazing experience that cannot be described in words,” said Triya Gulati.

From writing reports to editing them and design-ing the pages, learning new things and overcoming the problems, it has been an awesome experience. “Even though it got irritat-ing sometimes, as we had to work again and again on editing the reports, it was amazing when we finally completed it. Getting our final pages approved was a tough job as it took me days to get it finalized,” said Neeharika Awasthi. Nikhil Nair further said, “It took more than a day to make the pages and fi-nalize them. And since our getting out of college is re-stricted, it is very difficult for us to get stories. But we managed to overcome these problems and bring out the newspaper.”

Even students from oth-er departments couldn’t help but admire it. “The

guys from Mass Commu-nication did a really awe-some job. I can’t believe they did it,” said Ankita Panda, a LLB student.

The students were di-vided into three batches and while one batch han-dled the page making and sub-editing, the other two were assigned to write re-ports. Batch 1 were the page makers for edition 1 and 4. Batch 2 got editions 2 and 5 while batch 3 made the page of edition 3 and will do the same for edi-tion 6.

Parents were quite hap-py with the efforts their children have put in the paper. “My parents were very happy to see it,” said Reeti Agarwal. “My par-ents were so proud of me for learning so much in

such a short time,” said Neeharika Awasthi.

There were some small issues with the new tech-nology. Overall, students learned the ropes quick-ly, with the enthusiastic ones helping out the re-luctant pagemakers. In the end everyone agreed that completing the paper was worth it and it was an amazing experience.

Students were amazed at how well they man-aged to work it all out, even though it’s been only a few months since the semester started. “The teamwork and cooperation among my batchmates was amazing,” said Triya.

Students agreed that it was very tiring and frustrat-ing job, but the end prod-uct was worth all the pain.

Participants at the start line of the 6 km Bennetthon run held at Bennett University. Photo by Deep Das Barman

Five sisters united by one game

The Zero Mile monument. Photo by Writava Banerjee

Zero maintenance at ‘Zero Mile’ spoils its elegance

Transgenders yearn for respect & equality in society but in vain

Kashish poses for a photograph. Photo by Mansi Jain

Students enjoyed making ToB, found it educative

Students discuss the various articles in the third edition of ToB. Photo by Writava Banerjee

Mass communcation students review the newspaper as part of their training. Photo by Writava Banerjee

Shimla’s Christ Church A big attraction for touristsPAGE 4

Once a dumping ground, now a parkPrashant Vihar residents create a green lung PAGE 5

Assamese artisans seek recognitionCraftsmen want to feel more included PAGE 9

A start-up for recreation spacesBennett Hatchery nurtures a new idea PAGE 12

Pratima Singh(left) and Akanksha Singh(right) in a animated discussui-on during a gym session in Bennett University. Photo by Tanvi Mishra

WRITAVA BANERJEE

The much-awaited sports facility in Bennett Univer-sity is ready and will soon be inaugurated by none other than Abhinav Bindra and Pullela Gopichand.

Bindra will arrive on November 27. He is In-dia’s only individual Olympic Gold medallist and has got a gold medal in Asian Air Gun Cham-pionship, 2015 and has been bestowed with Arju-na, Khel Ratna and Padma Bhushan Awards.

Gopichand will inaugu-rate the badmiton facility on November 29. Gop-ichand is the celebrated coach of Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and Kidambi Sri-kant, who are celebrated . He himself has won the 2001 All England Champi-onship. He has been hon-oured with Arjuna Award, Khel Ratna, Dronacharya Award, Padma Shri Award and also Padma Bhushan award.

The sport facility has been a talk for several months as it was under

construction. The arriv-al of these two renowned players has only added to the excitement in the campus. Ishan Gaul, a BTech student said, “I’ve seen Abhinav Bindra only on TV when he won the Olympic gold. I didn’t have any interest in shoot-ing earlier but I’ve been following the game a bit since then. I am excited to see him.”

Akanksha Singh, the Sports Officer at Bennett University, who has cap-tained the national wom-ens’ basketball team in many international cham-pionships said, “He is a star, an inspiration, an Ar-juna, a Khel Ratan and a Dronacharya of two Olym-pic medallists. No one in India or International sports world has won ti-tles that Gopichand ji has achieved. In new Bharat, he is the Dronacharya of many Arjunas. For me be-ing a proud Indian sports person,its matter of great pride and honour to have Gopichand Ji at Bennett University.”

Bindra, Gopi to open sports facility at BU

KARTIK SHUKLA, MAHIMA GOYAL AND GAURI SHUKLA

“Wish we could tag along our friends as well and make them see what an iconic monument Red Fort is,” said Stephen, an Australian Tourist, who is visiting India for the first time, along with his wife.

Located not so far away from the chaos of Chandni Chowk, Red Fort gets many tourists every day who are very eager to see this historical mon-ument. The main gate to enter the fort is the Lahore Gate, as it faces towards the direction where Lahori in Pakistan. After passing the security check, there is a market with stalls from every Indian state called ‘The Chhatta Bazaar’. After the bazaar comes ‘Diwan-i-am’, a large hall where the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan and his successors received members of the public and addressed their grievances.

The largest of the royal apartments is the ‘Rang Mahal’ also known as ‘Im-tiyaz Mahal’, where events such as dance and music used to take place, but is closed to the public. Right under the Rang Mahal is ‘Kalagaar’, a prison. A se-curity guard at ‘The Rang Mahal’ said, “Nowadays

people just take selfies and are not even

interested in knowing the history of the place”. A lot of public could be seen sitting and chatting in ‘Hayat Baksh’, a garden with pavilions.

The fort built using red sandstone and laid with octagonal plan has the In-dian National flag flying on the top, making every Indian feel proud. “It feels so incredible to live here,” said a rikshaw puller. The ‘Khas Mahal’ was the em-peror’s private palace. The palace has the finest art of marble even on its inner roof. “This is where ‘ani-

mal fights’ were organised for the entertainment of the royals”, said a guide.

‘Moti Masjid’ has cer-tain portions of the wall turned black. It was built by Aurangzeb for his personal use, and as the guide says is because the mosque whose interior is composed entirely of pure white marble is a very holy and sacred place. The tick-et for Red Fort includes an entry to Indian War Me-morial Museum as well. The Museum has huge rifles and bullets from pre-independence and post-independence period. It also displays the various

swords used by the warri-ors through different pe-riods and the kind of uni-forms they used to wear.

Many visitors could also be seen wearing head-phones and listening to the recorded history in the choice of their language. A young boy wearing one such headphone said that he visits this place every once in 6 months to listen to the recorded guide and dreams of become a guide at some Indian historical building.

Near the entrance of the fort there are vendors sell-ing tour books and selfie sticks.

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDANovember 3, 20172

VAIBHAVI GHOSH

“I come here every Friday, sit in the prayer hall and offer namaz, the atmos-phere here is completely different and calm”, said Abdul Shah Aslam, a res-ident of Teen Darwaza Bhurj Market. When you enter Ahmedabad’s Jama Masjid, you come across a different environment, with chirping and a serene environment. The mosque is located in theold walled city between the famous roads of Teen Darwaza and Manek Chowk. Some his-torians claim it was a tem-ple for Hindus dedicated to Goddess Bhadrakali, but was built into a mosque us-ing the Indo-Islamic archi-tectural style.

With 15 domes and 260 spires, the mosque is made up of yellow sandstone. The fretwork carvings of flower and paisley motifs, lotus flowers and creep-ers, mandalas, elephants, coiled serpents represent-ing the kundalini, celes-tial dancers and bells are found carved on the 100 odd surviving pillars that line the temple complex. The extensive courtyard

has a white marble floor-ing and a tank in the center for ritual acts of washing oneself. The courtyard is full of young children running around. “Mujhe yahan papa ke saath aana bahaut accha lagta hai (I love coming here with my father.)”, said Arshia, Ab-dul’s daughter.

There are three en-trances, each at the center

of its sides. Making a walk through the prayer hall, there are beautiful light-ings and shadows seen

through the carvings with the sun rays popping, making the place vibrant. As this was previously a Hindu temple, even today bells are found hanging on some pillars and an ‘Om’ symbol carving in one of the innermost windows. The domes are carved in the shape of lotus flowers, the ones like in the Jain temples.

A discovery walk through Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad’s old city

Red Fort still retains its past glory, making Indians proud

SHREYA CHAKRABORTY

It is the tallest tower in In-dia and is one of the most prestigious monuments of the Indian heritage and that’s probably why the Qutub Minar is one of Delhi’s most popular mon-uments. Being a Sunday, the place was thronging with the visitors but it was disheartening to see peo-ple forgetting that they are doing an irreparable dam-age to this archaeological masterpiece, by inscrib-ing their initials, names, or messages on these na-tional treasures.

A signboard at the en-trance of Qutub Minar clearly states that no bags are allowed inside due to security reasons. There were three boys and all of them had their bags strapped on their shoul-ders. None of the security guards bothered to stop them or to check what

was inside the bags. As a matter of fact, most of the people that morning was carrying bags inside the premises and no one bothered to stop or check. When people pointed out

to the security guards about the bags they were carrying, guards just gave them “Yeah whatever” looks and waived them on. What if the intention was to destroy the monument?

“The place needs prop-er maintenance and more guidelines are required for the visitors.”, said Mukesh Sharma, a visitor to the monument.

Truth is that these are just some facts proving the negligence of authorities. The walls have mould on them, roofs have cracks, the bricks and stone are losing plaster and the top corners of walls have already crum-bled. All this is due to the lack of proper maintenance. “Untrained labourers are employed to maintain and repair this exquisite monu-ment,” feels Seema Singh, another visitor.

There is not one mon-ument in India where you won’t find names and vul-gar words carved on the walls. It makes one won-der whether people actu-ally come to these sites to admire the architecture or just to trash it?

Experience Seven Wonders of the World in Kota’s unique parkABHIMANYU SHARMA

Kota has been the educa-tion hub of the country for over a decade now. People from across the country go there to fulfill their dreams and to ensure a bright fu-ture but, it’s high time peo-ple started to identify Kota as a tourist spot.

People seem to have completely forgotten that Kota is one of the greenest cities and is host to numer-ous site seeing places like Kishore Sagar Talab, Ko-tah Garh, Alania Dam, City Palace and Kota Barage, list is endless and the view that these places provide will surely sweep any-body’s breath away.

Among these amazing wonders of crafts and hu-man architecture, there is this really beautiful mon-ument showcasing the ‘7 wonders of world’ named ‘7 Wonders Park’. This park was a Rs 20 crore project by the UDD ( Ur-ban Development Depart-ment) of UIT ( Urban Im-provement Trust), Kota.

The amount of tourism revenue in Kota has been slacking for the past 20 years because of the “ed-ucation hub” reputation of the city. The 7 Won-ders Park was built with the intention of offering something new to tourist’s and counter the problem

of low tourism income. More than 150 of the finest artisans were given the re-sponsibility of replicating the divine and magnificent aura of each wonder.

The workers did full justice to their task and the outcome is as mesmer-ising as you would expect

from the location that in-cludes all of the ‘7 wonders of the world’. Situated on the banks of Kishore Sagar Talab, the lush green park with plenty of shrubs is a soothing place.

The park showcases Taj Mahal, Great Pyra-mid, Eiffel Tower, Lean-ing Tower, Christ the Redeemer of Brazil, Col-osseum, and Statue of Lib-erty which faces the main entrance giving people a realisation of the grand stature of these man-made wonders. The park was opened for public visits in 2013 and since then it has been a major attraction of the city.

It’s only fair to say that 7 Wonders Park was a much needed addition to rescue the waning tourist footfall in the city. It has become a popular hangout spot for the locals and for outsid-ers and brings a feeling of awe towards the beauty of it. The park has probably brought Kota back on the list of the must visit cities in Rajasthan.

Deekshabhoomi: A place where Ambedkar converted to BuddhismADITI GIRI

Nagpur is not only a place for education, apart from being the winter capital of Maharashtra, the orange city also has monuments and places of human inter-est. With age old buildings and beautiful lakes, Nagpur is one of those places in the country where one wishes to live for a lifetime.

Deekshabhoomi is locat-ed in the heart of the city and is a pilgrimage centre of Buddhism in India. This place is a major attrac-tion for it’s round shape like stupa and this is the place of Dr. B R Ambedkar where he converted to Bud-dhism with approximate-ly 600,000 followers on Ashok Vijaya Dashami(one of the local festivals of the Buddhists).

“Deeksha” means act of obtaining and “Bhoomi” means the ground where

people convert and denote themselves as Buddhists. Designed by the famous ar-chitect Sheo Dan Mal, the dome like structure hous-es an idol of Lord Buddha which was donated by Thai students studying in Nag-pur University at that time.

“Majestic spiritual place, calm and peaceful, and these huge structures add beauty. At the time of fes-tival, the light effects are mesmerizing” says Shilpa Thane the local guide of that place.

There’s a library, and a photo exhibition of the re-markable days in the lives of Gautama Buddha and Dr. B R Ambedkar. This place is one of the historical, cultur-al, peaceful, and beautiful place in India. There are more than 25 lakhs peo-ple coming in Nagpur on Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Din.This place is a must visit.

Rani Talaab no more a suicide pointVISHESH REDHU

After the song, ‘Teri Dun-iya’ from the movie Pavit-ra Paapi was shot on its banks in 1970 , this small lake in Jind, Haryana be-came very infamous. The sad lyrics and picturisa-tion, of the song led people to commit suicide here. This forced the Govern-ment to drain out the water and make it dry, turning it into a cricket field for local children.

Recently, the Haryana government re-construct-ed it to fulfill the demand of Jind residents who de-manded a proper tourist place.

Rani Talaab, also known

as heart of Jind, a part of the Bhuteshwar temple, at-tracted a lot of visitors.

Originally, built for the queen of Jind, Rani Talaab,

has been recently given a new look. Local ruler Ra-ghubir Singh, who reigned from 1864 to 1880, is said to have built this temple.

However, the exact date of creation of this temple is not known. Raghubir Sin-gh is built on the lines of Amritsar’s Golden Temple. This temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It has a large water tank all-around it which is known as Rani Talaab. It is rumored that the king had built a tunnel linking the palace to the pond, so that his queen could go straight to the pond without being seen by the people.

The lake has now be restored to its former glo-ry, but is yet to be filled with water.But the locals can’t wait for this as they feel that it will bring back Jind’s lost glory.

Qutub Minar’s beauty spoilt by poor maintenance, vandalism

(Above) Jama Masjid on a rainy day (below) Abdul Shah Aslam with his child. Photos by Vaibhavi Ghosh.

Qutub Minar India’s tallest monument. Photo by Shreya Chakraborty.

The famous ramparts of Red Fort. Photo by Kartik Shukla.

7 Wonders of the world in Kota’s park. Photo source - www.kotadekho.com.

Deekshabhoomi. Photo by Aditi Giri.

Rani Talaab. Photo source - en.wikigogo.org.

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOGREATER NOIDANovember 3, 2017 3ASI finds Shah Jahan’s summer palace

REETI AGARWAL

Did a Black Taj Mahal Re-ally exist? The excavations at Mehtab Bagh in Agra proves it is jut a myth!

Mehtab Bagh is a gar-den situated on the op-posite bank of the Taj Mahal, also known as the moonlight garden. The leftover structure is often associated with remains of Black Taj Mahal. But recent studies reveal that it was just a garden with fountains.

The garden is well de-signed with walkways, well-ventilated pavilions, pool and fountains. “Black Taj Mahal is a myth. The length of the base of Taj is

nowhere close to the base of structure at Mehtab Bagh” Raj, a local guide.

“The earlier excava-tions found that the white coloured stones turned black over time. Recent ex-cavations according to Ar-chaeological Survey of In-dia (ASI) revealed a huge octagonal tank built with 25 fountains, a small cen-tral tank and a baradari, a pavilion designed to allow free flow of air.

“The place seems to have sunk beneath the sur-face either due to floods or because of the presence of hollow space under the structure,” told a senior ASI officer to Times of In-dia. The garden was de-

signed in such a way that the fountains are con-structed in the same align-ment as in the Taj. Raj told how some guides use to build stories around Black Taj to fascinate foreign tourists.

Yet another famous myth is travellers of the 17th century mentioned Shah Jahan’s wish to build a black marble mausole-um for himself as a twin to Taj, however this could not be conceived as he was imprisoned by his son Au-rangzeb.

The present work is go-ing in the south of the gar-den. ASI is working behind revealing the mystery of the Black Taj.

‘Govt should promote Kurukshetra tomb’SHIVANSHI TOMER

About seven kms away from Kurukshetra, ticked away in small garden is one of the most beautiful creations of the 16th cen-tury: the tomb of Sheikh Chilli.

This tomb is located on the land of the legend-ary Mahabharata war and holds its own historical importance. The tomb was constructed by emperor Shahjahan, in memory of his son Dara Shikoh’s spiritual teacher.The tomb is a visual treat, though it is sad that not many peo-ple know it exists. The tomb is crowned with a pear shaped dome made of marble. The windows have intricate designs carved on them, adding beauty to the structure.

“The tomb has remains of the great Sufi saint Ab-dul-Karim who was also known as Sheikh Chilli,” says Karim Khan, the care-taker of the monument.

Khan describes his con-cern that the monument is slowly losing its beau-ty. He is worried that the tomb may soon vanish, if it is not cared for proper-ly. He complains that the government is not provid-ing enough funds for the maintenance and repair-ing required for the tomb.

At present, the tomb is in a better state since its upkeep has been given to the ASI.

Khan wants more peo-ple to know about its his-torical beauty. He wants the tomb to get its right recognition and impor-tance.Khan compares the tomb with the other tombs in Delhi. He said, “ This tomb would have got more attention had it been in

Delhi.”Khan’s eyes twinkle

when he recalls how his ancestors used to narrate stories related to Sheikh Chilli.Walking through the lush green lawns, he recalls how generations of his family have devoted their life to the tomb.

The garden is made in Charbagh pattern, divided into four equal parts divid-ed by walkways. The style followed is of a typical Mughal gardens, adding scenic beauty to the con-struction. On the eastern side of the central hauz, there is a small rectangular

tank which is a connected with a drain coming from further east. The garden is embellished with a copper fountain in the center.

The caretakers of the tomb believe in contribut-ing to society, by running a Madrasa (a religious ed-ucational institution) for kids, in one of the rooms. A Maulana imparts Islamic knowledge to kids. Studies happen five days a week and the kids are passionate about it.

An elegant Pathar Mas-jid made of red sandstones is situated close to the western gate of the Ma-drasa. Beautiful minarets constructed on the all four sides of the structure gives it a royal Mughal touch. Floral motifs decorate the ceiling of the mosque.

Another tomb situat-ed on the west is said to be of Sheikh Chilli’s wife. People say the idea behind its construction is derived from the Taj Mahal. When it comes to historical im-portance, the monument has been declared as a ‘protected monument’ by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI).

For experiencing peace and tranquility, Khan sug-gests one should visit the monument. One would surely be mesmerised by the historical beauty.

The tomb and its gar-dens are peaceful and tran-quil and the beauty of the tomb mesmerises visitors.

Drona Sagar Lake is Uttarakhand’s pridePARKHI RAWAT

The placid waters of the lake are dotted with lotus blooms, all along its one km circumference. The lake also has 32 temples of different Hindu deities around it.

This lake, known as Drona Sagar Lake, is locat-ed in the centre of Kashi-pur town in Uttarakhand. Drona Sagar is no ordinary lake. It has a long and in-teresting history. The lake is the only place in Uttara-khand that is mentioned in the Hindu epic, Mahab-harata, according to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

According to local leg-end, the lake was part of the Pandavas guru dak-shina to their teacher and mentor, Guru Dronacha-rya. Pandit Darveshwar Prasad, a local priest, said, “the lake has therefore, been named after Guru Dronacharya.”

“The Skand puranas claim that the water Drona Sagar is as divine as that of Ganga and it is considered as a very sacred place af-ter Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri, “ he said.

Although there is ref-erence to this lake in the Mahabharat and Skand Puranas, Kashipur town was founded by Chinese scholar and traveller Yuan- Chwang (also known as Xuanzang) is the 6th cen-tury AD.

Historian claim that Kashipur had 12 lakes but now only three exist. These three lakes are Katoratal Lake, Girital Lake and Drona Sagar.

According to ASI of-ficial, Shiv Shankar, ar-cheological digs in this regions have unearthed utensils and copper im-plements, indicating a trading town. “Many ex-cavations were carried out in 1971 and then in 2003,

during which many things of historic significance were found like a 6th cen-tury temple and a broken stupa,” he explained. The excavated site is now pro-tected by the ASI.

Near the lake is a small temple dedicated to Guru Dronacharya. There are temples dedicated to Guru

Nanak Dev, Tulsidas, Gau-tam Buddha, Dayanand Saraswati and Guru Gora-khnath, all of whom, it is said, spent their time med-itating and preaching in this area.

There are some green areas around the temple, along the banks of the Dro-na Sagar that are mainly

used by the locals for their morning walks.

Although the lake is important historically and culturally, little is being done for its upkeep. And unless local authorities or the ASI spend some money on sprucing up the place, over time it may just lose its significance.

High temperatures cannot keep tourists away

AKRITI SARASWAT

“The world is divided into two kinds of people- those who have seen the Taj Ma-hal and those who have not.” said American writ-er Mark Twain as he was left astounded by one of the most beautiful monu-ments of the world.

Millions of tourists visiting the white beauty every year, which is a sym-bol of love, built by Shah Jahan in the memory of her beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal.

It was built in over 20 years by approximately 20,000 workers and when you see it you know why.

“I had seen a lot of pic-tures of the Taj before coming here and it seemed nice, but when I came to Agra and saw it with my own eyes, I was speech-less and just stood there gazing at it. I had not seen

anything this beautiful in my entire life.” said Arine, from Tbilisi, Georgia.

Even the scorching 40 degrees heat doesn’t stop the tourists from lining up at the Taj. During sum-mer security check is really tight.

People aren’t allowed to take their shoes inside lest the marble gets dam-aged. Cleanliness is keenly looked after.

Harmant Singh, a mem-ber of cleaning staff at the Taj, said, “Even when there is no littering (as people aren’t allowed to bring eatables inside), we work all the time to ensure proper cleanliness.

The marble is pure and white and we like it that way only. So often even when there’s no dirt, you’ll find the cleaning staff wip-ing the floor.”

The Taj Mahal remains closed on Fridays but is

opened for Muslim men for the evening Friday prayers. Great photogra-phers and photojournalists can be seen all around the premises.

Ian Berry, Steve Mc-Curry, Raghu Rai, Carl De Keyzer and Yaman Ibrahim are some of the photographers who have described the Taj Mahal as one of the most amazing places for photography.

As Rabindranath Tagore once said, “ Let the splen-dour of diamond, pearl and ruby vanish? Only let this one teardrop, this Taj Mahal, glisten spotlessly bright on the cheek of time forever.”

The Taj shimmers not just in the eyes of the peo-ple but also in their hearts. This majestic monument speaks for love, happi-ness, sorrow, art, history, culture and hundreds of stories.

A hill that Tagore loved

DEEP DAS BARMAN

Most people know Ra-bindranath Tagore as a writer but very few know about the hill named after him. Located near Ranchi in Morabadi is ‘The Tagore Hill’.

Rabindranath’s elder brother, Jyotindranath Thakur is said to have bought this hill to build a retirement home for him and his brother. After Tagore’s death it was re-named after him.The place is famous for its scenic beauty. The view from the hill is mesmerizing and the history of the place is riv-eting.

‘Shanti Dham’ is the mansion which was built by Thakur on the top of the hill. “Thakur built the mansion in 1910 and lived there with his pet dog ‘Ganju’, it’s puppy ‘Puppy’,

and his pet monkey ‘Roo-pi’,” said the front base plaque.

During his stay in Ranchi, Tagore apparently used to visit this place fre-quently. “Tagore had fall-en in love with the beauty of the place. He loved the idea of building a shed on the highest point of the hill. He is said to have in-scribed some of his Benga-li quotes on the tiles of the shed,” said Kishan, an old man.

Tagore used to sit there and pen down his writings. It is said that he found peace there and wrote most of his poems there which were published in the Nobel prize winning book ‘Gitanjali’. His broth-er did the Bengali trans-lation of Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s Marathi ‘Srimad Bhagwat Geeta Rahasya’, and produced his other fa-

mous works while living in Shanti Dham.

Tagore Hill’s history has some inglorious moments. Thakur lived there for 15 years. After his death, the place was left in isolation and turned into a spot for criminals. In 1963, Purni-ma Thakur, the daughter-in-law of Tagore, sold it for a paltry Rs. 20,000.

After the formation of Jharkhand state, Shan-ti Dham was renovated and was established as a tourist spot. The walls are decorated with art works. Stones carrying inscrip-tions are installed on the way to the top. The tourist department of Jharkhand has restored the place to its original glory. Artist Haren Thakur lead the team of renovators and turned the place into one of the most visited tourist spots of Jharkhand.

Well from which water flowed to the fountains. Photos by Reeti Agarwal

Remains of a fountain

Relics excavated 1.5 years ago

Cleaners work hard to keep the Taj garbage-free. Photo by Akriti Saraswat

Sheikh Chilli’s Tomb in Kurukshetra. Photo by Shivanshi Tomer

The Drona Sagar Lake is covered with lotus flowers. Photo by Parkhi Rawat

The entrance to the Thakur mansion. Photos by Deep Das Barman

The inscription said to be carved by Rabindranath Tagore

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDANovember 3, 20174

Shimla’s Christ Church continues to attract touristsSHREYA DHAKAL

The tall church tower stands out above the Ridge in Shimla. Each of the fours faces of the tower has a clock embedded in it, with the current time and can be seen from far. This christ church is the most visited spot by tourists in Shimla. It is said to be the second oldest church in North India, after the one in Meerut, considered to be the oldest church.

Known for its neo-goth-

ic style of architecture, this church is still functiono-ing with prayer services being held every Sunday. The prayer and worship sessions are attended by both tourists and locals alike. “I have been visit-ing this church since my childhood. I studied in a local school and we were brought here every morn-ing to attend prayer servic-es and light candles,”says

Akshay, a local resident.The church was reno-

vated in 1932 with a grand sum of Rs. 50,000 that was used for its refurbishment. The church continues to be in decent state with its an-tique furniture still being used. The interior of the church is unchanged since 1932. The musical organ in the church was installed in 1899 and is said to be the largest in the country.

However, it is said, that prayers only began in 1857. What is signifi-cant about the church are the five stained windows on the top, that represent five Christian values. They were designed by Lock-wood Kipling, father of famous author Rudyard Kipling.

The church is also on the map of local tour guides, who bring their cli-ent to the church and can be seen, explaining the his-

tory and significance of the church to them. “I bring mostly foreigners to this church. Some have heard about this church before, but most of them are una-ware. I have been a local guide here for the past 27 years,” says Sanjeev, a tour guide.

The church has visitors through the year but most are seen during the winter season from December to February when the town experiences snowfall and during the fall season from August to October. “Every Sunday we come here to attend the service but I also come here everyday to light a candle. I find peace here,” says Mary, a nurse in local hospital. The vis-itors are from different countries or from south-ern and western region of India. “I knew nothing about this church. It was my guide who brought me

here,”says Aliston Walter, a tourist from Scotland.

The church has foun-dation and remembrance stones hung on the wall near its entrance that give a brief history about the place. Manish, a tourist from Chandigarh said “I had heard a lot about this church. Every time some-one from family visited Shimla they mentioned about this church. So this time when we visited Shimla we made sure to see the church from inside and attended the prayer.”

Being such a huge at-traction, peanut and cot-ton candy vendors have occupied vantage positions outside the church making a quick buck. The pave-ment at the entrance has benches that attract the elderly people of the town and students who relax here and enjoy some sun-shine during the winters.

(Clockwise from top) Christ Church in Shimla; interiors of the church; candles lit by the devout. Photos by Shreya Dhakal

Naini peak charms trekkers ANUKRITI KANDPAL

Walking three km on a hilly dirt road is not tiring when you reach ‘Naini Peak’, the highest peak Nainital which is commonly known as ‘China Peak’ as all your fatigue vanishes on seeing the stunning view from the top of the hill.

From there you can see the entire town of Naini-tal and the snow-covered Himalayas range. Even the Nanakmatta dam, which is 95.3 km away from Nainital can be seen from the peak. Almost all the regions of Kumaon can be seen from the hill-top. “The view from the hill top is so beautiful that it looks like paradise”, Prajjawal, a tourist said. “Standing at the peak is the most scary and beautiful experience at the same time,” he added.

A local forest guard said, “Not more than 20 people visit the peak on a normal day but during the tourist season the num-ber reaches to almost 50 visitors.” The altitude of the peak and the serene atmosphere of the place help the visitors relax and de-”stress themselves. The cool breeze here makes people forget their wor-ries,” he said.

The dirt road is three km long but still some peo-ple prefer to walk all the way from the town which is almost six km. The peo-ple love the scent of the woods when they walk up. Abhinav, a tourist, said, “I love to walk up till the top,

I can feel the hugs of the trees, see various flowers and watch different kind of birds.” There are two ways to reach the top, one from the ‘China Chungi’ and the other through ‘Kilbury’.

The Kilbury has a ‘Sat-yanarayana Temple,’ on the way to the peak. The people who want to visit the temple prefer the way via the temple. Tanmay a local resident said, “There is nothing you have to pay for such a beautiful experi-

ence. I prefer to go up from the China Chungi way and come down from the Kilberry route.”

Some local residents come here for morning walk while some young-sters go there to hang out with friends. A local teen-ager said, “Earlier we used to cook Maggi here, but now we aren’t allowed to do so because of fire safety measures.” It is also a fa-vourite destination for the trekkers.

Why crowds stay away from this parkVIBHUTI YADAV

Located in a corner of West Delhi’s Rohini in the Capital is a Japanese Park. It has beautiful views, huge gardens and lakes with breathtaking sce-narios. But despite this, many people are reluctant to visit the park, due to increased inappropriate behavior of couples and many crimes that have been reported from here.

Crimes reported from here include murders, sex-ual assaults, etc. Visitors say, they hesitate to go there because the environ-ment is inappropriate and unsafe for them and their kids. Take Ravi Chauhan, a resident of Rohini, for example, “Family or bac-

chon ke saath toh yahan aa hi nahi sakte hain, dopahar ko ek dum sun-san hota hai aur sham ko pata nahi kaise kaise log ghumte hain yahan par” (We can’t come with our families and kids here as in the afternoon it’s com-pletely deserted and in the evening the crowd is very bad and unsafe).

Adding to this another young lady, Surbhi Bhatia, resident of Rohini said, “Humne khud dekha hai ki couples yahan aake kya karte hain, hume koi zyada farak nahi padta hai but jab family ya par-ents ke saath aao toh ba-hut ajeeb ho jata hai” (We have seen what all couples do over here, we as young-sters don’t care about it

but when we are with our families or parents, it feels weird).

Preeti Singh of Pitam-pura also spoke about this and said, “Park toh bahut sundar hai par itna gan-da crowd hai sirf isliye hi vahan nahi jate hain zya-da log, akele jane ke liye unsafe hai or families ke saath jane liye sahi jagah nahi hai” (The park in it-self is very beautiful, but the crowd there is so bad. And that is what makes people run away from there. It is not a safe place for coming alone and not the right place to go with families).

Unless the local au-thorities do something to ensure the safety of the public, visitors will contin-ue to shy away from this beautiful park.

Yojna Vihar’s popular park is full of joie de vivre

The Japanese park in Rohini.Photos by Vibhuti Yadav

The open grounds in Yojana ViharPhoto by Ashish Singh

Bathinda’s Dargah welcomes people of all religions NAGMA BANU

The Ziarat-e-Dargah in Bathinda , Punjab is no ordinary shrine. People from all faiths flock here. It is dedicated to poet Haji Ratan and draws Hindus, Sikh and Muslim visitors alike.

According to the locals, Haji Ratan, a poet, was born and brought up in an orthodox Hindu Brahmin environment. However, he had an inclination towards Islam. It is said that he un-dertook the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca by foot and there he converted to Islam. The legend says that Prophet Muhammad was “blithe to see him turn to the path of truth and righteousness,” and blessed him with 700 years of life and also gifted him a female camel. And now this dargah at Bathin-da is dedicated to him.

“Visiting Haji Ratan’s dargah is truly a mesmer-ising experience. I don’t know if it’s something magical or merely psycho-logical, as so many people show faith in Haji Ratan,

just by stepping inside the place you start to feel different and a lot lighter from the inside. It is heart-ening to see people of dif-ferent religions and com-munities coming together and expressing their faith in here,” says Vijay Pari-har, a frequent visitor to the dargah.

Women to are allowed to visit the dargah of Haji Ratan.“There must be suitable logistics for wom-en at mosques as well as at dargahs. That is what our religion says,” said Afreen Ahmed, a woman devotee at Haji Ratan. “According to the Qur’an, the house of Allah is shared equally between men and women, and all people regardless of their physical attributes have an equal right to oc-cupy any given space un-der Allah’s roof,” explains Imam Abdul Rehman.

The popularity of the dargah can be guage by the large number of visi-tors that pour in everyday, making this one of Bathin-da’s most visited places.

Ziarat-e-Dargah in Bathinda.Photos by Nagma Banu

Google provides protection to users

View from the Naini peak.Photo by Anukriti Kandpal

DEEP DAS BARMAN

Google has introduced its new security solution called the Advanced Pro-tection Program. This program is designed for those who are at an elevat-ed risk of attack and are willing to trade off a bit of convenience for more protection of their per-sonal Google Accounts. According to a press re-lease Google claims that it is their strongest security program.

The Advanced Pro-tection Program will pro-vide services like defense against phishing, blocking fraudulent account access and protection from acci-dental sharing of sensitive data.

Even the most careful users are attacked through phishing scams, especial-ly if those phishing scams were individually targeted at the user in question. Protection against phish-ing is provided through se-curity keys. Security keys are small USB or wireless devices and have long been considered the most

secure version of 2-Step Verification, and the best protection against phish-ing. They use public-key cryptography and digital signatures to prove the au-thenticity to Google. Even if an attacker has the pass-word, the login request would still be blocked without proper verifica-tion.

Sometimes people accidentally give access of their personal data to fraudulent applications. To prevent this, Advanced Protection program will limit the sharing of data to only apps of Google. Google plans to expand the limit to a few more apps in future.

Impersonation is an-other popular method of hacking. The new program focuses on multiple level verification during the pro-cess of account verification to prevent this. Addition-

al reviews and requests about the loss of password will be taken into account in the process.

The program was under testing for sever-al weeks. Andrew Ford Lyon, a technologist at internews has given his in-puts for the development of the program . “Jour-nalists, human rights defenders, environment campaigners and civil so-ciety activists working on any number of sensitive issues can quickly find themselves targeted by well-resourced and highly capable adversaries, For those whose work may cause their profile to be-come more visible, setting this up could be seen as an essential preventative step.” said Andrew.

Anyone with a personal Google Account can enrol in Advanced Protection. All they need is to sign up for Advanced Protection in Google chrome brows-er because it supports the U2F standard for Security Keys. Other browsers are also expected to incorpo-rate this soon.

ASHISH SINGH

One of the beauties of Yo-jana Vihar, a this small locality in East Delhi, is a park that is loved and che-

rished by almost all res-idents. “I have a lot of memories here, when my friends were around we used to sit and talk here” said 72-year-old man, who

has been visiting this park for many years.

The park has a lot of facilities for locals to use. For example, it houses a Delhi Public Library, in one corner. It has books in Hindi, English, Urdu, Punjabi and other lan-guages. It also has DVD media collection with dif-ferent section for kids and free internet service as well.

There is an open bad-minton court in front of the library which is main-tained by the library offi-cials. Senior citizens play badminton in the morning after which youngsters take over. According to

these senior folk, bad-minton is the best game to maintain their fitness and is fun to play as well.

There is a basketball court which is used to play cricket. In the morn-ing, the park gets crowded with fitness enthusiasts as well as sportspersons. There are swings in the corner of the park, where kids enjoy their mornings and evenings.

Behind the court there is a separate park which is used by Y.W.A (Youth Welfare Association) for yoga and other fitness events. There is a track on the perimeter of the park

which is used for walking and jogging.

There is a temple on right side of the park, which has become popular for the devout seeking fa-vours from God. It is said that anyone who prays there with a true heart, gets their wish fulfilled within a year.

The park may not be as famous as some of the city’s iconic parks, like Lodhi Gardens or Bud-dha Jayanti Park, but this park is definifely popular amongst the Yojana Vihar residents as it gives them space to enjoy the out-doors.

HARSHIT MANSUKHANI

“It leaves me spell bound, whenever I see these mar-vellous sculptures that Lohdi Gardens has to offer. My way to fall in love with an ancient monument is, that you keep observing it and every time you would see it, a new story is nar-rated.” says M.K Hassan, a historian working with Archaeological Survey of India.

Sayyid’s tomb is one of those many beautiful tombs are part of Lodhi Garden along with the ex-pansive gardens that are beautifully kept.

“People prefer coming here is because of the rea-son that they find peace and tranquillity here, you can sip a coffee while read-ing a book simultaneously gazing at the monuments. “Life here is very peaceful you can spend hours with your family here even if you are a Delhi resident or a traveller,” he adds.

Emilia from Finland, who is here on a pan-In-dia tour, says “We started with Delhi because, the city is filled with heritage and culture, this would be my 3rd or 4th trip to an an-cient monument today and all of the trips have amazed me. My family and I have been sitting here for couple of hours now and we love the way this monument has been preserved, not

only the monuments, but the gardens have been kept up well also,” she said.

Ram Raj, one of the gar-deners at Lodhi Gardens, laments about how people treat the gardens, which is his workplace, “It’s a tough job and I am working here since morning so that I

can bring back something to my home although the ‘Maqbara’ looks beautiful but it is something that I don’t see while working. People gaze at these mon-uments but don’t think as they spill their garbage here, I want people to know that they shouldn’t

be throwing garbage around; you are here to see the ‘Maqbara’ “

Something that was a sight for sore eyes was various names scribbled all over the monument’s walls. Evidently a very small thing to adhere to is not writing on the walls of

preserved monuments but visitors it seems don’t care.

Lodhi tombs are a flaw-less example of how an-cient India looked like and beauty of this monument lies in the way it has been preserved, these monu-ments all though stand tall and strong, but Delhi’s pol-luted air and scribbling on these walls are ruining the best kept treasures of the yester times.

GREATER NOIDANovember 3, 2017 5

MONIKA THAKUR

One of the coolest hangout places, right above the un-derground metro station at Rajiv Chowk is Central Park. It is a beautifully developed 41,500 sq me-ter park, which is bang in the centre of Delhi. Due to easy accessibility and because of its central loca-tion, it attracts a lot of peo-ple including- the nearby office employees, tourists and shoppers.

“It’s a perfect place to visit to spend time in peace, though many chai-walas and namkeenwalas keep you off your office problems,” says Mina-li, who works in an office nearby. The park has been set with 21 fountains with contour lights on each fountain. There is also an amphitheatre with a cen-tral stage; the amphithe-atre is made with seven steps, which can accommo-date about 350 people at a time and has hosted many concerts in Delhi. Also, the

park has several perfectly manicured trees and a va-riety of shrubs including round the year flowering plants. “I am yet to find a Delhiite, who doesn’t love C.P and the central park is like icing on the cake,” says Kapil, a frequent visitor to the place.

The monumental na-tional flag here has the highest flagpole at 207 feet and the largest flag size at 60 ft by 90 ft. and it’s like a huge welcome to the vis-itors. Well-constructed paths in the park are suit-able for joggers and morn-ing walkers. The park has

nine entries and exit gates, out of which two gates lead the visitors, right in front of the Rajiv Chowk metro station.

Even after being de-molished once in the year 2000 by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, when the station underneath was be-ing constructed, the park has been completely re-vived and The Central Park fosters an amazing venue for most of the happening events in the city. Opened on all public days, it is sur-rounded by many multi cuisine restaurants, where people can spend time.

SAKSHI GARG

It was a piece of wasteland that was dumped with gar-bage, debris and was just a stinking mound. Today it is a green, thriving park. This park in Prashant Vihar was created with a motive to reduce environment pol-lution, to let people inhale fresh air. Taking the im-pact of pollution seriously, the people living around saw how the land was be-ing wasted by turning it into a garbage dump. The land was under govern-ment control. They decid-ed to get together and act to clear it of the garbage.

The locals requested the government to allow them to create a park. In-itial pleas to the govern-ment went unheard. But later, the Counsellor for the North Delhi Municipal Corporation shifted to the locality.

People told him about the problem they were fac-ing, how they were unable to reach to the right author-ity for bringing the idea of constructing a park to their notice. They told how the waste there was causing pol-lution, leading to increased illness in past few years.The Counsellor could convince the authorities to create a public park and this is how the park was developed.

The park is designed beautifully and there is greenery all around. It is the place where children come to play and where people exercise.

“I love morning walks, it helps me build motivation for my day ahead and see-ing the beauty around and observing nature is com-plete divine,” said Gunjan Bansal, a regular morning walker in the park, “The only thing a person can curse about morning walks is that you must wake up early when you could eas-ily doze off again for some more moments. But for me, it is the ideal form of an exercise.”

Evenings are the busiest in the park. “It is hearten-

ing to see children play. The small children run to the hawkers, sitting out-side to buy things like ice creams or balloons or toys,” said Manish, an old man on being asked what he enjoys the most in the park. He continues, “There are people who play cards and joke around. But, the thing I enjoy the most is the dance practises or the judo/karate practises that happen.” Manish recalled that a crew that auditioned for the show India’s Got Talent, practised regu-larly in the park. He was amazed by the amount of zeal they carried for dance.

It is like Prashant Vihar has got a much-needed lung transplant.

MUSKAAN JAIN

The home for people who are seen lying on the streets in pathetic condi-tions suffering from some mental or physical prob-lems and do not have an-yone to look after them. Apna Ghar Ashram is their place of refuge, with 20 ashrams all over India, in-cluding two in the Capital.

Treatment and other amenities are provided to the ashram residents and

they are called as ‘Prab-hu’ by the staff for the belief that they are also a part of God. “Service to humanity is the rent that we pay for living on the Earth” is the motto of the ashram. The Bharatpur ashram has nearly 2,000 residents out of which 1900 are ailing.

The ashram staff tries to find clues about the families of the residents in a bid to repatriate them. The ashram has several

helpline numbers where anyone can call if they see someone helplessly lying on the streets. Members of the ashram send an ambu-lance to pick them up.

The ashram was started by a doctor couple, B.M. Bharadwaj and Mad-huri Bharadwaj in 1993 in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. It gets funds from people who willingly come to do-nate for the cause. The dai-ly expenditure of ashram is around INR 4 lakhs. Bha-

radwaj said, “God sends us money. We don’t ask for charity from anyone.”

The couple has vowed not to have their own chil-dren and to devote their lives to these people. “We don’t feel the want of hav-ing kids. We already have 76 children in the ashram. They are our children”, he said.

Dr. Bharadwaj said that he once saw an old man, in a condition worse than death, lying in a park. He

died a few days later. It was then, that he decided that he would do his best not to let anyone die like this because of not getting treatment. So, after com-pleting their B.H.M.S, he along with Madhuri start-ed this ashram with the money they had saved and selling off her jewellery.

The couple now lives in the Bharatpur ashram with the residents of the ashram, eat what they eat and live like they do.

SANDALI SINHA

One of the most famous parks of Bihar located in Patna is the Buddha Smriti Park. It was developed by the Bihar Government in the memory of Lord Bud-dha. This park was inaugu-rated by Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, on 27 May 2010 by planting two Saplings.The central attraction of this park is ‘The Stupa’, known as Patliputra Karuna Stupa. It is 200 feet high and is situated in the middle of the park. Inside the stupa.The park also has a library, that mainly has books on Bhuddism. Also, there is a museum inside the park on Buddha and his life his-tory. Rahul, a visitor, re-siding near the park said,

“The park is amazing and I love listening to the peace-ful mantras being played in the park.” There is a free of cost laser show in the evening. “Most of the tick-

ets are sold on week days rather than weekends.”, claimed the ticket seller at park. “Almost, four thou-sand tickets are sold dur-ing week days and around three hundred tickets are sold during weekends,” he said.

Sudheer Kumar, an in-spector on duty, said that “There are total 150 guards appointed for security. The park closes at 7 pm. Talk-ing about the issues relat-ed to the maintenance of the staff, he said, “There are very few water cool-ers in the park, number of benches is also inade-quate.”

In spite of these prob-lems the park attracts a large number of visitors from Patna as well as tour-ists from other places.

Central Park welcomes visitors

Highest and the Largest flag in the central parkPhotos by Monika Thakur

Once a dumping ground,now a beautiful green park

A glimpse of Prashant Vihar ParkPhoto by Sakshi Garg

Story behind Buddha Smriti Park

Lodhi Gardens offer rejuvenating walks

Apna Ghar Ashram a shelter for the homeless

AKANKSHA YADAV

Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone for five infrastructure and reconstruction projects in the flood-ravaged Kedarnath on October 24. These include the de-velopment of retaining wall and ghat on the Man-dakini river, development of houses for Kedarnath purohits and renovation of Adi Guru Shankara-charya’s tomb which was devastated in the flash floods of 2013.

The surrounding area was destroyed in June 2013 after the Chorabari Glacier Lake breached following heavy rain that caused flash floods in the river Mandakini.

Modi addressed a public meeting near the temple. He said that the infrastruc-ture being developed in Kedarnath will be of good quality and added that it will be modern, but at the same time it would pre-serve the traditional ethos.

Recalling the natu-ral calamity of 2013, the Prime Minister said that as the Chief Minister of Guja-rat, he had come to do all that he could for the vic-tims. He also offered sup-port from the state of Gu-jarat for the reconstruction effort.

The stupa at Smriti Park. Photo by Sandali Sinha

Infographics by DEBOMITRA DAS

The attractive Sayyid’s tomb at Lodhi GradensPhotos by Harshit Mansukhani

Gravestones of Mohd. Sayyid and his family

A walkway in central park

PM launches projects forKedarnath

A closer view of the octagonal tomb

Some of the residents of ashram Photos by Muskaan Jain

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDANovember 3, 20176

TRIYA GULATI andKRITIKA LALWANI

The Hazratganj market is the most beautiful and busy market of Lucknow. It is the most loved place of all Lucknowites . It is among one of those mar-kets in Lucknow where you get each and everything .Hazratganj is the heart of the city. Each one who visits Lucknow does visits Hazratganj.

It is popularly known as ‘Ganj’. A market which has a huge number of crowds throughout the day, no matter it is hot sunny af-ternoon or cold chilly eve-nings. The beauty of this market enhances much more in the evening with all the beautiful lights and crowd of people. Being the largest market of lucknow it caters to all the demands of the public.

A variety of show-rooms are located here from women , men to kids wear. All major clothing brands are found here like the Raymonds , BIBA, MEENA BAZAR, JINNY & JOHNNY and etc. Foot-wear brands like Wood-land, Khadims are also found their which update you with the latest foot-wear trends. Jewellery, is said, adds on to a wom-

an’s beauty and elegance. So how could it miss its place in this market. Major Jewellery showrooms are located here with few com-pany outlets too. It even has some specks stores which are fetching enough footfalls daily. Even the furniture stores of Bajaj and various other com-panies are also attracting public in huge number.

Apart from all this, The Sahara Ganj Mall is a 5-storied major shopping mall located in hazratganj which is one of the largest market in india. The Naza Market, situated in Haz-ratganj is the biggest mar-ket for computer/IT goods in the state and the second largest in the country after Delhi’s Nehru Place.

When one comes to do shopping in this huge mar-ket, it is obvious that one feels hungry. So a number of food stalls are situated, catering a variety of food, from pani puree to burgers and to give a cooling effect the most famous thandai. Apoorva Srivastava says, “When in Lucknow spe-cially in Hazratganj pam-per yourself endlessly with the rich Lucknawi cuisine.Hazratganj has various food joints like Rovers it offers you the best franky go and try it once you would love it.Next in row is JJ bakers it is a dessert paradise for anyone with a sweet tooth.One can spend time and enjoy snacks and beverages at Tramp Tree Café.Have pav bhaji at the famous Pav Bhaji wala.Want to have tea visit the Sharma Chaiwala and en-

joy hot tea with garam sa-mosa and bun makkhan.Wish to have kajju badam milk visit the Chaudhary milk shake corner and en-joy the cold milk.Lastly to have dinner you can visit Royal Sky it offers one of the best food.You can have hot coffee and cookies at either Barista or Café Co-fee Day.End your Ganjing by having a sweet pan at Chaurasia Pan Wala or

visit the Moti Mahal and have matake wali Kulfi or Imarti.’’ It is not compul-sory that if you visit the market then you have to purchase something, one can go there for relax-ing and spending quality time with their family. Sitting arrangements are also provided along with free Wi-Fi. Tanya Maurya says, “You can even shop for books from Minoo and

Dinshaw Book seller and universal. Now a day’s metro construction work is going on in Hazratganj. In a few months one can travel to Hazratganj via metro.Hazratganj is a mini Lucknow and it is a must place to visit.One can walk around the place . Sit on the benches and relax and breath in fresh air.”

Hazratganj market not

only comprises of expen-sive stores but also some cheap shops which fulfills the demands of people who are not ready to spend enough money on expen-sive brands.

This particular place consists of everything one requires. Aaarushi Saxena says,’’Ganj has banks, au-tomobile stores, branded outlets. It even has Hanu-man temple, various jew-ellery shops, two theaters Sahu and Leela.

Various movie shootings take place in Hazratganj . This place is also home to some of the best schools in Lucknow like St.Francis College, St. Joseph Cathe-dral, La Martiniere Girl’s College, Loreto Convent.’’

People who visit Luc-know never forget to visit this attractive and expen-sive market.

Even the foreigners are much more attracted to-wards the Indian clothing and footwear stores. As it is a crowded market, its

safety is also very impor-tant. A number of surveil-lance cameras are present in the market area. A lot of visitors results in traffic jam, therefore traffic police officers are always active in this area.

Like all other monu-ments, Hazratganj also holds an interesting history.Its foundation was laid by Nawab Nasiruddin Haider to create a market for selling Chinese and Kaptaan goods from china, japan and Bel-gium and it was known as Ganj market. After few years its name was changed to Hazratganj after the name of Nawab Amjad Ali Shah who was popularly known as ‘Hazrat.’

After the first world war, britishers took away the market and was mod-eled like the Queen’s street

of London. In 2010, to celebrate 200 years of Hazratganj, the then gov-ernment, started a pro-gramme for the makeover of the area.

The original makeover plan designed by coun-try’s noted architect Nasir Munjee, that entailed an expense of Rs 30 crore. Hoardings from rooftops were removed and the buildings were painted in in a uniform creme and pink, along with lamp posts, waste-bins and benches.

On weekends it is quite difficult to step in these lanes but still the crowd is unable to resist themselves from going to ganj .

“Ganjing” is a term used for shopping in the wide and narrow lanes of Haz-ratganj.

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ADITI TYAGI

“Growing up in the streets of Lucknow have been a blessing for me,” says Sud-hir, a 48 year Government official, a theatre artist and a resident of the City of Nawabs. He takes pride in talking about the mon-uments in old Lucknow, like the Imam Bara, Bhool Bhuliya, Residency and more.

Sudhir spoke about the magnificent beau-ty of these monuments. The beauty of these mon-uments have been mes-merising tourists for years “The Bada and the Chota Imam Bara were built in 1784 and have ever since been a must-visit for any tourist visiting Lucknow,” he says.

“The Bhool Bhuliya is an architectural maze,” he says, “ and many localites have tried to find their way out of the maze with-out a gudie. Sudhir being a theater artist has per-formed quite a number of times in the Residency.

“While practicing for a play once my friends and I decided to enter the Bhool Bhuliya on our own and

lost our way in those sim-ilar looking corridors.” he recalls.

The Residency com-plex has a sound and light show, which was a great amazement for him as a

child. “We used to take our cycles out and rush to the Residency to watch the night show,” he continues.

“The clock tower near Imam Bara has helped many lost men, right from the Mughal times and con-tinues to be a major tour-ist attraction,” he says. Standing on the roof of the Bara Imam bara one can see the whole of old Luc-

know. “The small windows helped the soldiers locate the enemies from a dis-tance,” he says.

“The security and the confusing corridors made it impossible for the

enemies to get through the Palace, which has made Imam Bara a memo-rable place,” he says.

Growing up on the streets of places like Ami-nabad, Hazratganj, Chowk and others, the children of Lucknow gradually developed love for spicy food, chikan-embroidered clothes and non-vegetari-an food,” he says.

MANYA KASHYAP

The City of Nawabs, is famous for three things chicken, chikan embroi-dery and the Imambara.Every visitor to Lucknow indulges in all three things. “The Imambara is a must visit place for anybody who comes to Lucknow. It’s for the third time I’m coming here and it still looks as magnificent like it seemed to me when I came here for the first time may years back,” said a tourist from Bangalore.

The of ground floor of the Imam Bara, houses all the artistic things of Raja Asad Ul- Daula, the Nawab who constructed the mon-ument. After the tour of ground floor, visitors are taken upstairs by the guides, to Bhool-Bhulaiya. It is a maze of tunnels from where they take people and ask them to find the right path to get out of the place. “We take people to the centre of the place and ask them to find the right path. Some of them do find the right exit but some of them don’t and they start

panicing. Children and as well as adults enjoy this.” said a local guide (who wished to remain anonymous). Though it’s a source of fun and excite-ment for others, it’s hard for elderly people to climb the steep stairs and stand all time.

The stairs are too steep and not safe at all, if some-body falls down there are chances of serious inju-ries. Since there are no medical facilities nearby, it could be very dangerous, local guide said “Historic places like these needs to be preserved, they are de-grading. Tourists coming from different parts of the world write their names, draw figures on the walls and in spite of dustbins be-ing provided; they throw things wherever they want. I have been working here since long and I have seen many such cases. “

Although the Imam-bara and the palace are important monuments of Lucknow, they sadly seem to lack in upkeep. We must play our part to keep these tourist-heavy places.

KRITIKA LALWANI

What Marine Drive is to Mumbai, the riverfront is to Lucknow. From young-sters taking a million self-ies, to families enjoying in the lawns and children frolicking around, the riv-erfront is the place to be on weekends. The river Gom-ti flows gently past Luc-know but the river bank is vibrant, thronging with Lucknowites looking for an evening of family en-tertainment coolest tourist attraction spot these days.

‘’Riverfront has be-come the favorite place to hangout for all Lucknow-ites irrespective of age ‘’, says Divya Saxena , a local resident. She loves visiting Riverfront and spend time with her family. “It is the best place to sit and relax.

It is a ‘mood lifter’, “ she says. “Visiting this place lets you forget all your worries and refreshes your mood and relaxes your mind,” she says.

The riverfront offers various food stalls and now has become the best place to spend quality time. Ram, a momo stall owner said, “ When the park in-itially started only young people could be seen but now people of all ages come here. Old age people are usually seen walking in the evening . There is heavy rush of families on Saturday and Sunday. And young people can be seen on all days playing, click-ing selfies and having fun with friends, “ he explains. He says youngsters usually buy a plate of momos and flavored soda and enjoy

their visit to the park.Garry, a foreign tourist,

found the light changing fountain fascinating.

“It looks beautiful and it’s great to get pictures clicked, “ he says. The light of the fountain continu-ously changes from red to blue to yellow to pink and

creates a soothing envi-ronment. Aarushi, who frequently visits the park, says she loves to visit when it’s dark as the whole place is adorned with lights.

It’s the perfect area for an evening walk. The cool breeze of the park acts as a relaxant for many. Tanya,

another local, says the best time of the year to visit the park is in winter.

“The aloo bhonda is amazing and with goe swell with a hot cup of tea in the freezing cold<; she says. Another visitor Ko-mal says “This is the best place for a photo-shoot especially pre-wedding shoots, which are very popular’.

The Riverfront is no longer a shady place but the coolest, hippest hangout in the City of Nawabs.

Harzartganj continues to be Lucknow’s popular hangout

Actor recalls Lucknow’s glory Bhool Bhulaiya stays mysterious for most

Gomti Riverfront emerges as top tourist attraction

The Hazratganj market receives large number of footfalls everyday. Photo by Triya Gulati

King of Chaat serves one of the best pani puri. Photo by Kritika Lalwani

Jugal Kishore Jewellers one of the best-knownjewellers in the city decorated their shops on Diwali. Photo by Triya Gulati

A still from Riverfront with the setting sun. Photo by Kritika Lalwani

Infographic by Shreya Chakraborty and Vibhuti Yadav

The scene at Hazratganj a few years ago. Photo by Kritika Lalwani

The vibrant beauty of Bada Imambara castle. Photo by Aditi Tyagi

“In Ganj pamper yourself endlessly with the rich cuisine and plenty of shopping”

CorrectionThe photograph captioned: “Blame the night: Freshers’ Party in full swing” that was used on Page 6 of Edition 1 was taken by Radhika Maheshwari, a student of BBA (LLB), Semes-ter I. The picture was wrongly credited to Triya Gulati. The error is regretted.

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOGREATER NOIDANovember 3, 2017 7

Tales from the Raj: Rewari loco shed’s quaint steam enginesHARSHIT MANSUKHANI

The railways were a way of life during British Raj and magnificent history of Rail-ways begins from there.

Being sure that they would probably govern In-dia forever, British-Indian Railway companies in the early days of the rule in-vested heavily in India with the latest locomotives and equipments, expanding services everywhere. It is said that the facilities avail-able on trains in India in those days were better than even those in England! They tend to build a more extensive system.

Three most debated topics are obviously Kohi-noor, English language and Railways itself, most sup-porters say that this was a lot British left Indi with while The counter argu-ment to the British enter-prise presented by authors like Shashi Tharoor, said in his book ‘Inglorious Em-pire’- “In their very con-ception and construction, the Indian railways were a colonial scam.”

“We were there to see those magnificent engines running rather lucky ones to run them as well certain times, that was the time when engines ran with an authority although times have changed and we have diesel engines but those were the golden days” said Hemraj, Steam Engine su-pervisor at Rewari Loco-motive Shed.

No doubt Railways cre-ated employment and ease of travel for all English, An-glo-Indians and Indians: ignoring the deep rooted rail

discrimination would be like playing only for the empire another reason why they never wanted a glorious sys-tem for their colony.”

‘Frontier Mail’ that ran between Bombay-Baro-da-Delhi-Lahore-Pesha-war and such an elite train this was that entire Bom-bay Central station was lit up to welcome it and such has been the train’s im-pact that the same train was taken off the rails im-

mediately after the inde-pendence and its successor “Golden Temple Rail ‘runs today between Mumbai and Amritsar via Delhi.”-said Hemraj

“Other trains of those day were Grand Trunk Ex-press, the Flying Ranee, the Flying Mail, the Boat Mail, and the Deccan Queen.

Most of these famous and historic trains of past India still run today and have given lots of pres-

tige” he added. Even if we thank British for gifting us a plagued system of rail-ways why couldn’t we ask them for compensation for all the loot and the murder of our land.

“Imperial railways was a signature of British luxury while we fight today with an outdated system of railways and think of bullet trains, we should also look back where we come from forgetting im-perial rail system and glori-ous days won’t be justified “said Gopal Krishnan, visi-tor to the museum

“Those golden days will still remain present, please don’t misjudge me when I say glorious I am not talking about the empire I am talking about railways and they have helped us to reach where we are I guess 3rd or 4th largest rail net-work in the world” Hemraj said.

The magnificent white dome of Humayun’s Tomb

Imambara delights touristTRIYA GULATI

Two prayer halls of mus-lim, Bara and Chota Imambara are among the landmarks in Lucknow. The Bara Imambara is been declared world’s largest arched room. When one takes a close look at the structure of both the monuments, they reveal many unique fea-tures in terms of architec-ture.

The Bara Imambara is very famous for its mind boggling Bhulbulaiya. This is located at the upper floor. Md. Yaya khan, a visitor to Bara Imambara said, “There is something extraordinary about this place. I never get bored of visiting this place. Coming to this place gives me inner peace and strength to fight with the daily strug-gles of life.”

One can view a pano-rama of the city from the top of the monument. The Bhulbulaiya is a must see and the best way to get out of this maze without losing yourself is to hire a guide. It is an important place of worship for the muslims who come here every year to celebrate the religious festival of Muharram.

What is unique about the construction of Bara Imambara is, the blocks are put together in an in-terlocking system of bricks. Another amazing thing is that the roof is steady without any support of pil-lars. The Bara Imambara was built in 1784 by Asaf-ud-Daula.

In the Chota Imambara, when you enter the main gates, one comes across two huge bronze cast hu-man figures that actually are a part of the lightening conductor arranhment.

They are connected to spikes on top of the gate through metal chains. There is also a small lake with a bridge on top, when viewed from front. There are two kinds of structures on the lake, it is also con-sidered to be a small repli-ca of Taj Mahal.

A visitor said,” Al-though its features are similar to Taj Mahal but still it is much more at-tractive than it. What I like the most about this place is its history and I can bet you my life savings that no other monument would have such an interesting history.”

It also consists of a Hamam. Steps along the platform lead to the Azakhana - the main hall where the majlis i.e. as-sembly for the mourning of Hussain is held. On the south of the hall is the Shahnashin, a platform with arches, on which the alam and patka are kept. They signify the banners and flags of the small army

of Imam Hussain. A num-ber of Taazia made of sil-ver, ivory and perfumed sandalwood are kept on the Shahnashin.

There is also a big Taa-zia that is made of wax and tinsel paper. A silver mim-bar is also kept in the hall upon which the Zakir is seated when he addresses the majlis.

Mohammed Ali Shah and his mother are bur-ied below the floor, in the basement of the Azakhana hall. This Imambara was

built by Mohammed Ali Shah in 1839.

Another monument which is the centre of at-traction in Lucknow is the Rumi Darwaza, which an imposing gateway is built under the patronage of Nawab Asaf ud Daula in 1784. It is the most beau-tiful and spectacular city-scape that he had ever seen, better than Rome, Paris and London.

Over the years it has been come a logo for the city of Lucknow.

Through the stone walls of Humayun’s Tomb

A side view of the beautiful Humayun tomb located in Delhi

The Tomb of Isa Khan Niyazi, built in 1547 Humayun’s Tomb was an inspiration for Taj Mahal

Steam engines being showcased at Rewari Loco Shed

Sher-E-Punjab steam engine at display Photos by Harshit Mansukhani

The Bowli of Chota Imambara

The main entrance of Bada Imambara Photos by Manvi Singh

Humayun's tomb is the resting place of the Mughal Emperor commisioned by his first wife and chief consiort, Empress Bega Begum and designed by Mirak Mirza Ghiyas.Photo Essay by TARU MEDHA

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDANovember 3, 20178

Steer clear of steroids and focus more on your diet, says fitness expert DAKSH GOGIA

“Challenges are your best friends because they raise your standards,” said Gau-tam Handa, a teenager who accomplished the phenom-enal task of transforming his slim and unimpressive physique to a muscular and attractive one through sheer determination.

Like every teenager, Gautam used to dream of having the looks to match his age but his thin body structure came in the way. It was a blow to his self-es-teem each time anyone teased him over his phy-sique.

At the age of 15, he start-ed exercising in a regular gym. After two months of regular exercises, he didn’t see any results. He then consulted his trainer and told him of his struggle. The trainer suggested that Gau-tam take artificial supple-ments.“I talked to my father about it but he shot it down.

But as he was concerned about me, he consulted a dietitian who prescribed me a diet for increasing my weight,” Gautam said. After three years of exercise and a strict diet he gained weight naturally.

He saw his dream of a muscular physique come true.Gautam is a living ex-ample for many teenagers who believe artificial sup-

plements are necessary for body building.

According to Kapil Ya-dav, the branch manager of ‘The Gym’, most of the gym’s customers are teen agers. “Most of them built their bodies with the help of supplements like proteins, aminos, BCAA etc.

They are building their strength artificially. In my observation, 90% of teenag-ers use protein; 50% BCAA; and 2% steroids,” Yadav said.“There is a myth that one has to use steroids to get a muscular physique,” he said.

According to Jaslyn Kaur, a dietitian, “A proper diet can help in reducing or gaining weight.” She said

everybody fights several battles daily, many of them are fought between habitual taste patterns and healthy food. Kaur is the owner of Just Diet Clinic, which helps people to fight these battles by creating a bal-anced diet chart for them according to their needs.

“Use of steroids and other such artificial sup-plements which have side effects should be avoided. Awareness should be gen-erated in schools and at fitness centres so that few-er misconceptions spread among teenagers. We can easily achieve a good phy-sique by following a proper diet and regular exercise,”

Third-generation Dzire sells more than one lakh units in 5 months MANVI SINGH

With just a little over five months since its launch, Maruti Suzuki’s all-new Dzire is the fastest to cross the one-lakh unit sales milestone.

The third generation Dzire was launched on May 17, 2017.Expressing gratitude to customers for making Dzire the most successful entry sedan, RS Kalsi, Senior Executive Director (Marketing and Sales) at Maruti Suzuki India, said: “Indeed, the Dzire has brought an un-precedented disruption in the automobile market.”

Maruti has spent Rs 1,000 crore to develop the new Dzire, which is much lighter and more fuel-effi-cient than its earlier mod-els.

The diesel Dzire runs 28.4kmpl (6.8 percent improvement compared to its predecessor) while the petrol version can cov-er 22kmpl and has seen a 5.5 percent improvement.

This is mainly because the new Dzire is 105kg lighter that its earlier models.

“The new Dzire takes the brand to a whole new level. It is an authentic sedan designed for the young, aspirational and indulgence seeking Indian customer.

Committed to redefine the market, brand Dzire has not only expanded our

share in the entry sedan segment but also expand-ed the industry size,” said Kalsi.

According to internal research, the top three reasons that have delight-ed Dzire customers in this avatar include the authen-tic sedan style and looks; the reliable and efficient Maruti Suzuki brand name and exciting new features

in the car like the Smart Play infotainment system with Android Auto, Apple Carplay and Mirror-link technology and the Auto Gear Shift.

The AGS technology is now available on six op-tions starting V trim up to Z and Z+ in Petrol and Die-sel fuel variants.

The diesel variant of Maruti Dzire delivers best in industry fuel econo-my in passenger cars at 28.40kmpl.

Petrol fuel efficiency is 22kmpl, making it the best in its segment.

The sedan also won the recently held prestigious Good Design Awards 2017, hosted by the Japan Insti-tute of Design Promotion in Japan.

According to the offi-cials, nearly half of the new Dzire customers have cho-sen the sedan as their first car purchase which shows a paradigm shift in the choices of Indian custom-ers who are now opting for a sedan as their first car.

The evolution of a gift: From a ‘mithai ka dabba’ to high-priced presents GURBANI SINGH

The tradition of gifting dates back to early hu-mans collecting stones and animal pelts to give to each other as gifts. Today, gifting has turned into a wallet-busting tradition during what have come to be known as The Holidays.Back when our parents were young, ‘a mithai ka dabba’ was considered a Diwali gift for all our rel-atives and friends. The exchange of sweets was a gesture to express grati-tude and share the joy of a festival.

A festival back in those days was meant to focus more on the togetherness. Meals would be cooked and gifts would be bought for everyone in the house. All ate together, the elders told stories to the younger ones and they all enjoyed each other’s presence to make the day memorable.

Now, it is not that these holidays aren’t celebrat-ed or made memorable but materialism has taken over people’s lives to such an extent that most people don’t realise it. Gifts are personalised for each rela-tive and they burn a hole in

the buyer’s pockets every time.

It is almost like the more money you spend on someone’s gift, the more love or affection you are supposed to be expressing. But should that be the case? Isn’t the concept of a holiday or a festival to spread joy among everyone? This joy is now spread through gifts. Children grow up expecting gifts and presents every time a holiday comes along. No one becomes good or bad because of this trend but a

whole tradition of human company has been replaced by material gifts. Shopkeep-ers and retailers are benefit-ing the most out of this, and are manipulating people into buying more. The sales and offers one gets around Diwali and Christmas time are so tempting that one ends up stocking up gifts for cousins one hasn’t even met in ages.

The psychological satis-faction that one gets while giving gifts to someone has also been trimmed. To do

what a box of sweets used to do 30 years ago, is attempt-ed to be done by much more expensive things, which are usually not things of utility.

Besides, it has become a compulsion. From stones to sweetmeats to expensive gadgets, the gift has come a long way and even today it brings a smile to people’s faces. Wouldn’t it be better if people took a minute to con-template what a gift really means to them? Should’nt it be just sharing the gift of love this festive season?

Google lets you save pets’ photos easily RUDRA PRATAP SINGH

Isn’t it a little annoying when you want to create a collage of your pet’s photos and have to scroll through your entire gallery to find their pictures? Well, Goog-le Photos’ new update will automatically collect all the pictures of your cat or dog and put them in a folder named after them by using facial recognition technology.

When initially one had to search for related imag-es in the search bar by us-ing generic words such as “cat” or “dog” and getting all images of that category, you can now have them all in one place in an organ-ised manner.

According to the press release from Google, Goog-le Photos has an existing feature which performs the same task but works on people only.

This update will now make it easier for you to make albums, collages and photo books of your pets as it displays good pictures of your pet as well as you along with them. Google, earlier this year introduced a fea-ture where it automatically makes a mini-movie featur-

ing your pet. You can now manually select the images you want of your pet, and make a mini-movie of your own with an option of up to six soundtracks to go with the visuals.

In addition to all this, Google Photos allows you to search for your pet by using

the animals breed and even dog or cat emojis. Google Photos introduced these features on the 25th of Oc-tober in order to compete with other photo accessory apps. Innovative features to photograph ones pets or children is a key factor in the selling of such apps.

A police officer is on duty 24x7, even on off days: South Delhi copVANI KAUL

Lalan, a station house of-ficer (SHO) in charge of Sarojini Nagar and Saf-durjung Enclave police stations, firmly believes that a police officer is on duty 24x7. Although police officers have a weekly day off, they are on call even on their days off because of the nature of their job.

Despite the occupation-al hazards, Lalan loves his job and always remains ready to face all the chal-lenges.With 36 years of experience under his belt, he has been involved in the investigation of various cases.

Now, as the SHO, he deals with criminal cas-es and his work revolves around collecting the de-tails about criminals such as photographs, finger-prints, details of their fam-ilies, dealing with the ac-cused’s advocate, etc.

He oversees the crea-tion of separate folders for

criminals who have more than one crime reported against them.

As the officer in charge of the police station, Lalan has to keep track of want-ed criminals as well. Even though he couldn’t reveal much about the pending cases as the information is confidential, he said that the primary concern of all police officers is to ensure that convicts don’t escape.

Also, they aim to get the chargesheet approved as soon as possible.

He feels proud to be a part of Delhi Police, which according to him is “the best-known police force in India”.

He added that in com-parison to the police forces in other states, Delhi’s po-lice force is more welcom-ing. But he is upset with the mentality of people, who spread rumours about the involvement of police in thefts.

He says that such ru-mours are baseless. He

adds that delays in nabbing some criminals are be-cause it is difficult to track and arrest them from other states.

Commenting on the cur-rent status of corruption, he said, “Corruption ab toh

nahi hota hai, pehle hota tha” (Corruption was ram-pant earlier, now it’s not). When questioned upon the relationship between police officers and lawyers, he said the relationship is neither good nor bad.

It takes about a month to make one chikan kurta, says woman artisan KRITIKA LALWANI

Chikankari, is a delicate embroidery style from Lucknow, the Land of Te-hzeeb. Payal , a chikankari worker from a village near Lucknow, says, “It takes about a month to complete one chikan kurta.”

She added that she and her co-workers can work only in the daytime as their craft involves fine work. This restricts their work-ing hours to six to seven hours a day.

Payal says that she and her co-workers get work from Atiq Ahmad Khan, a middleman who collects work from manufacturing outlets and distributes it among the chikan work-ers of the village. He then

collects the finished pieces from them after a month.

Payal says she gets paid Rs 400 for completing one kurta on time. She ex-plains the various process-es involved in chikanka-ri starting from cutting, stitching, block printing, embroidery, washing and finishing. After the cloth has been cut for the gar-ment and stitched, the desired design is made on it using multiple wooden blocks. Tracing paper is positioned on the cloth and the wooden block which is dipped in kerosene oil is used to imprint designs on the fabric. The cloth is then distributed among different workers who set the fabric within a small frame and start stitching

the design. She uses differ-ent stitches to trace the ink printed patterns. She says the type of embroidery to be done depends upon the motifs. The most common motif is floral motif. Stitch-es used are phanda, bakhi-ya, murri, tepchi, keel kan-gan, urman, seedhi and ulti bakhiya, jali etc.

Bakhiya is also called the shadow stitch .In this stitch the thread work is done on the opposite side of the fabric. “Jali is a spe-ciality of Lucknow. This stitch gives a delicate net effect and is done with cot-ton, silk, polyester, or re-sham threads,” says Payal.

She says nowadays mukesh and gota patti work is done to beautify chikankari. After embroi-dery is done she gives it back to the middleman, following which other

workers soak the fabric in water to remove ink imprints. After that the fabric is starched till it be-comes stiff. The last step in the process is cleaning, in which the extra threads are removed with the help of a cutter.

“Chikan work is largely manual,” says Payal. Ear-lier, chikan work was done only on malmal cloth but with the progress in fash-ion, it is also done on silk, chiffon, georgette, net, kota and organza,” says Payal. She adds that ear-lier chikan work was done only on a white cloth but now it is done on cloth of almost every colour. Ear-lier, only kameez and sal-war were embroidered but nowadays chikan work can be found on all kinds of clothes ranging from sa-rees to pillow covers.

Infographic by Manvi Singh

The new Google update makes it easier to save your pet’s photos Photo by Lakshay Kumar

(Above)Gautam Han-da 3 years ago; (Right) Gautam now Photos by Daksh Gogia

The delicate chikan work on a kurta Photo by Kritika Lalwani

Chikankari atrist Payal working on a design. Photo by Kritika Lalwani

Gifts have become personalised and expensive Illustration by Vibhuti Bharti

SHO Lalan ... an officer and a gentleman

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOGREATER NOIDANovember 3, 2017 9Assamese artisans seek recognitionHARSHIT MANSUKHANI

“Last year this time, I was here to represent the cause of Assamese people, which is a call for recognition and respect by the rest of India,” said Purbashree, a craftsman with a message for everyone to hear.

Purbashree, who is from the northeastern re-gion, was at Dilli Haat in INA Market where crafts-men from all over India gather to showcase the best of craftsmanship from their states and regions.

Amid these craftsmen are those who come with a mission and go back with it.

Purbashree has an ap-peal for all: “Start acknowl-edging the Northeast as a part of the country.”

“For years now, we have been caught in the storm of not being acknowledged as Indians. I stand here for the entire north-eastern re-gion with a simple slogan, “Hum Hindi hain”. Last year, I showcased wooden animals and sculptures of gods which were complete-ly handmade. This time, I am showcasing couches and other things made out of bamboo.

Since the introduction of machines in an industry that relies on hands, the number of craftsmen has come down, which threat-ens to sound the death knell to craftsmanship.

“Although machines save time and increase tall-productivity, they are be-ing used by big production houses which can produce

on a large scale, display and sell at large which is affecting us highly.”

When asked if any in-itiatives taken up by the government have helped them, he said, “For the first time in recent histo-ry, a sitting prime minister has visited our land but it hasn’t changed our plight in any way. We don’t need financial or industrial help from the government, nor do we need reservations. We only need equal con-tribution in the nation’s growth with full acknowl-edgement for that.”

The Bodoland conflict is a series of events that has plagued the growth of Northeast India and has

adversely affected indus-tries there.

“Bodo people are de-manding their land but there is nothing that In-dia or Bodoland will get from the conflict. The Na-

tional Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) has carried out a lot of armed attacks, killing a lot of peo-ple while we suffer the con-sequences.”

“Since this year’s theme

at Dilli Haat is women em-powerment, I would like to contribute to the edu-cation of girls in Assam. Girls contribute a lot to the development of communi-ties, and both of my girls help me after their school which is satisfying because they will put forward our cause in the future”, said Purbashree.

‘Unconscious mind writer’s best friend,’ says TariqueKRITIKA LALWANI

Omair Tarique is a co–founder of The Scribbled Stories, an online platform that serves as a storytelling platform for amateur writ-ers, and author of the book, ‘Stranger’. He is from the city of joy, Kolkata. He is a second-year student pursuing English honours from Surendranath Col-lege.

Having started writ-ing in 2013, he has since written micro-fiction, poems and short stories.Tarique says, “Writing did not happen because of a heartbreak or a terrible in-cident. It happened when my English teacher told me I was good at it and if I cannot think of anything , I should pursue literature. I hate numbers. So litera-ture came into the picture way before my boards.”

He says that he usually writes in the morning, soon after having his breakfast or late at night. “To be hon-est, writing to me is both my profession and passion. I am thrilled to write new stories all the time.”

When asked about the books that fortify him as a writer, he says, “I enjoy books by Las Kepler very much. They have always topped the list of my fa-vorite authors. He says I am greatly inspired by a lot of people for their per-sonalities, but so far I don’t have an idol.

When asked whether the unconscious mind is a writer’s best friend, he says, “I believe we most-ly live in our own heads more than in reality. There are stories that you dream about when you are asleep and history has proven that those stories have al-

ways been a productive muse.

He says, “As a writer to be true to my stories, I have to become the person I know nothing about.

There is a lot of research to do if I am writing about a maniacal doctor or a patient in coma. Writing adds words and character-istics to your personality.” He further says that he is working on a novel right now. He says, “I am not sure if I am good at writing or not. I delete tears from most of the things I write.”

A quote from ‘Stranger’, “Every night, I just stare at your name and the famil-iarity hits me , and it hits hard- speaking of a famil-iar name sounds so aloof and heavy between my lips’’.

Ganga ferryman also works on festivalsDEBOMITRA DAS

A strong breeze wafted as one crossed the Ganga on a ferry boat. The river was serene as the ‘captain’ of the boat recounted some of his experiences while keeping the boat moving. The usual question about the person’s name that comes up naturally when one accosts a stranger drew an unusual reply. “What will you do by knowing my name? I’m just a common man in this world without an identity worth talking about,”

The ferryman said he had sailed boats and fer-ries for a living for 30 years and continues to do so.

Hailing from Bhawan-ipur in West Bengal, this ferryman has received marine training for five years in West Bengal. He was posted in private firms where he had to sail ships. Later in 2008, he got a job as a government officer and since then, he has been ferrying people across the Ganga near Dakshinesh-

war Temple.The boatman has stud-

ied till Class 10, after which he had to drop out of school because of his family’s financial situa-tion. “Boys have to work, no matter what”, said the ‘captain’.

He further said that he gets to meet his family every weekend as he gets a weekly day off. Besides, there are many Govern-

ment holidays which allow him to take a day off from his monotonous schedule. He works from 3.30 in the afternoon to 8 at night. He and his partner work in shifts to cover the rides scheduled for the day.

His only regret is that he doesn’t get to go home during the festival season as that is also the time when people come out for a boat ride, especially on

the Ganga, near Dakshine-shwar Temple.

His wife and child are not happy because of his inability to come home during the festive season when everybody rejoices with the family.

When all is said and done, the ferryman likes his job because sailing across the Ganga and near the temple keeps his heart close to God.

She quit medicine to become a painter MONIKA THAKUR

Sadaf, a 35-year- old wom-an from Jamia Nagar, New Delhi, is not only an artist but also a mother, a wifeand a daughter-in-law, handling all her roles pret-ty well. She owns a studio in Delhi, where she keeps all her works. With exhi-bitions to her credit, Sadaf shared her journey from being a medical student to a succesful artist.

As she was a medical student with an excellent academic record, her par-ents wanted her to become a doctor. “That was the turning point in my life,” she said, as she could not see herself as a doctor.

“I knew that whatever my parents expected from me was the best for me, but I also knew that it was my heart’s desire to be an artist.”

Convincing her parents to support her, she grad-uated with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts (B.FA) degree from Aligarh Muslim Uni-versity; she also did her

postgraduation in fine arts.Sadaf’s inspiration

in the world of painting comes from Rabindranath Tagore. She admires his different worldview. When asked about her style of painting, she said, “My paintings are simple. I

like to try something new every time.” She prefers using all possible styles in her paintings. It takes her a month or so to complete one painting.

She got married soon after completing her post-graduation and had to

move to Hyderabad be-cause of her husband’s transferable job. She worked as a cartoonist in a lot of companies there.

To get a deeper knowl-edge of her work, she learned courses like Graphic Designing, Ani-mation and web designing.

“A flood of opportuni-ties knocked on my door after I came to Delhi,” she said. She started looking for ways to showcase her work. She would keep all her paintings as a record. “One of the biggest days of my life was the day when my first exhibition was held at the Indian Habitat Centre,” she said.

Her work drew acco-lades from all the visitors. According to her, out of all the places she has lived in so far, Delhi gave her the platform she needed.

On her ambition in life, Sadaf said, “I have reached a point in life where I don’t crave for recognition, The only motive of my life is to get better with every paint-ing.”

Flowers give him a livelihoodNIKHIL NAIR

Although he is surround-ed by flowers all day, life is not a bed of roses for Sonu Kumar. The 40-year-old florist lives in D Block, Vikaspuri in West Delhi, with his family comprising three other members. He owns a flower shop in H Block of Vikaspuri, where he has been doing businesssince 1993.

He works from 7 am to 11 pm daily. In the morn-ing, he starts by watering his flowers, arranging his shop etc.

He started working at the age of 24 to support his parents and wife. His father was in the same business, which he later took over. His 17-year- old nephew Suman Bacchhan works with him now.

Suman had to drop out of school to support his family. His father is a de-livery man and his mother works as a maid.

Sonu buys all his flow-ers from a reliable source in Ghazipur Mandi. He gets all types of flowers from his supplier like white dandelions, lilies and many more.

Mostly, the flowers that are sold are Gladiolus, Ra-janigandha and Marigold (Gandhi flower) as they are available throughout the year. He said that the

flowers that he is unable to sell are discarded as he has no place to store them. On Wednesday, he goes to Ghazipur Mandi to replenish his stock of flowers.

Woman accountant calls for gender parityIn this world, nothing is certain expect death and taxes. So, always watch your finances like a hawk. Akshara Nair of The Times of Bennett spoke to Nandita Nair, a charted accountant working with CRISIL.

Q: Since when have you been practising as an accountant?A: I have been in this pro-fession for nearly five years now.

Q: What knowledge should a Charted Ac-countant have?A: A Chartered Account-ant should have knowl-edge across all verticals of finance such as costing, taxation, treasury, tech-nical accounting, forensic accounting and auditing. Usually a professional has in-depth knowledge in one of the above verticals and basic knowledge in the rest.

Q: What are the factors that can affect cash flow and business prof-itability?A: Operating cycle, basi-cally your collection and payment terms (revenue and payment cycle), inter-est cost, borrowings, stock options, investment and treasury policies broadly

affect the cash flow po-sition of the company. Business profitability is a broader term and there are both internal and ex-ternal factors that affect it. Some of the factors that affect it are government regulations, economic conditions and market po-sitions.

Q: In terms of work culture, which envi-ronment do you see yourself succeeding in?A: When the environ-ment is conducive to men and women equally. Where opportunities are equal and solely based on performance, it helps and motivates a professional.

Q: What methods do you use for estimating bad debts?A: We generally use the av-erage of the previous three years of bad debts on total debtors as a percentage.

Q: What types of audits have you done?A: I have done internal au-dit and forensic audits.

Q: What is your expe-rience in developing business metrics?A: I have not worked in the area of developing busi-ness metrics.

Q: Can you recall a time when you took the lead in the implementation of some initiative?A: I drove SAP implemen-tation in a company that we acquired. Also, I have developed cost sheets andcost presentation which help in better analysis and decision-making.

Q: How do you mini-mise the risk of errors in your work?A: Better controls equals to fewer risks. Generally, the tolerance for errors is very less. So, you have to incor-porate a lot of checks and balances in your reports to ensure that everything is accurate.

Q: What is the most memorable moment in your career?A: Being praised for my professional accomplish-ments by the CFO of the company was one of the best moments of my life.

Purbashree’s stalls at Dilli Haat in INA MarketPhotos by Harshit Mansukhani

The unnamed ‘captain’ looking at the calm waves of the GangaPhoto by Debomitra Das

CA Nandita Nair on a leisure tripPhoto by Akshara Nair

Sadaf, 35, showcasing her worksPhoto by Monika Thakur

Bamboo couches made by Purbashree

Bamboo handicrafts displayed at the stalls

Omair Tarique with his new book, ‘Stranger’Photo by Kritika Lalwani

Sonu and Suman working long hours

Flower bouquets ready to be soldPhotos by Nikhil Nair

“As a writer to be true to my stories, I have to become the person I know nothing about”

Movie- Mother!Director- Darren AronofskyCast- Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ed Harris etcGenre – DramaDuration – 121 minutesRating- 3

Mother! is a collection of visual metaphors all crammed into one movie. However, the movie fol-lows mostly a linear narra-tive. It is about a married couple played by Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bar-dem, who live a tranquil life in their country home, isolated from the rest of the world. Their solitude is disturbed when two com-plete strangers played by Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer, visit their home. As time passes, more peo-

ple arrive in the house and disturb the peace, some-thing which is not liked by the wife.

Mother! is the latest movie directed by the vi-sionary director Darren Aronofsky and much like his other movies such as

Requiem for a Dream, there is more to this mov-ie than meets the eye. Like his previous films, this one is also filled with visual metaphors about life, death and marriage, but mostly about religion, which is not surprising

at all considering his last movie was ‘Noah’.

In the last decade or so, Javier Bardem has emerged as one of the fin-est actors of today, having worked in films like ‘No Country for Old Men’ and ‘Sky fall’. However, in this one, he fails to grab eye-balls as Jennifer Lawrence steals the show by giving one of her best perfor-mances, if not the best of her career.

From the set design to the costumes and makeup is top notch as expected from a Darren Aronofsky film. The point where the film loses its track is when it’s trying to show too many metaphors and se-cret messages in one scene. The messages are so strong and cryptic that the view-ers can be left decoding the

meaning of the previous scene and completely ig-noring the current one. At times, it feels as though the director is spoon-feeding the audience. This movie is also not for the faint-heart-ed as there are scenes of violence, which is sure to cause some heads to turn away in disgust.What sets Mother! apart from the other movies of the season is that two peo-ple could watch the same movie and yet understand it differently. One could think of it as a movie on re-lationship abuse, while the other could think of it as a Biblical allegory. All these confirm the fact that this film will be talked about extensively in the days to come. -MOHAMMED HAARIS BEG

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDANovember 3, 201710

Movie name: JFKRating-3.5/5Directed By: Oliver StoneWritten By: Oliver Stone, Zachary SklarCast- Kevin Costner, Tom-my Lee Johns, Gary Old-man, Kevin BaconGenre: Drama, Mystery & SuspenseA mixture of fact and speculation surrounding the death of US President John F. Kennedy on No-vember 22, 1963. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, reopens the long kept secret files of the investigation and takes note of the facts presented by the FBI. His question-ing and interference cause his and his family’s lives to be at risk. But he keeps on the trail and soon uncovers a lead which points to the war in Vietnam and the bigger government con-spiracy.

The plot revolves around the assassination of the former US President but is not able to success-fully identify one political heavyweight who would be in connection with the in-cidents of the day.

The movie is filled with facts being thrown at the

viewers who may not be able to digest them. From opening the files to inves-tigating from scratch, ‘JFK’ tries hard to keep the view-er engrossed.

The infamous Dallas Plaza, has been shown in its real form, as the movie revolves around that build-ing and two main charac-ters. Something to note is that the writer’s view is re-flected in Kevin Costner’s role, who tries hard to clear Lee Harvey Oswald’s name (accused of the as-sassination) and prove a government conspiracy in the killing.

Stone’s film is watcha-ble. Leaving aside its dra-ma and emotion, it is a masterpiece of film assem-bly. From writing to edit-ing, music to cinematogra-

phy, all elements are aptly used in a film of enormous complexity, to weave a per-suasive tapestry out of an overwhelming mountain of evidence and testimony.

As Garrison, Kevin Costner, gives a measured yet passionate perfor-mance. Like a man who has hold of an idea he can-not let go, he forges ahead, insisting that there is more to the assassination than meets the eye. Stone has surrounded him with an astonishing cast, able to give us the uncanny im-pression that we are seeing historical figures.

Hold your breath for a thunderous speech by Costner. - HARSHIT MANSUKHANI

The truth under conspiracy ‘IT’ is nefarious and neuroticRating- 3.5/5Language: ENGLISHDuration: 2 hours 15 minutesDirector: Andy MuschiettiCast- Bill Skarsgard, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs

Clowns, 1980s pop culture references and great per-formances are among the few reasons to watch Andy Muschietti’s ‘IT’. Based on the cult classic Stephen King novel, which goes by the same name, ‘IT’ was one of the most anticipat-ed horror movies of 2017.The story revolves around a few bullied kids who re-fer to themselves as ‘los-ers’. They are faced with a monster that forces them to face their fears. Muschi-etti loves horror and has already made two movies of the same genre in the past. Hence, this one was on his home turf and he was doing what he loves to do.

The movie opens with an iconic scene inspired from the 1991 television adaptation of the same book. The gore accom-panied by subtle humour

grips the audience for 2 hours and 15 minutes of pure hor-com (horror comedy).

Starting with the direc-tion, the director goes with an avant-garde approach which was refreshing after the monotonous spell of conjuring-esque direction. The director embraces cli-chés with his own creative input making ‘IT’ a unique movie of its genre.

The direction com-plements the screenplay which is very well com-posed, all accredited to the genius of Stephen King.

The cinematography is breath-taking and really adds to the mood and tone of the movie. Countless iconic shots can only be ac-credited to the cinematog-rapher who handles the camera differently. The subtle change in the cam-era work during horror scenes is highly impressive and showed how much of a visionary the cinematog-rapher is.

Soundtrack was very typical of a horror movie, but is bearable and even adds to the mood to some

extent.The part that was dis-

appointing and to some extent annoying was the editing, which was very choppy. The movie seemed prolonged and could have been edited better.

The movie overall is not very scary but scores all the marks when it comes to the performances. The cast is mostly full of fresh faces except for Finn Wolfhard, still an audience favourite from the Netflix original series ‘Stranger Things’, who steals the show with his portrayal of the blunt and eccentric ‘Richie’. The young cast delivers a per-formance so mature and ahead of their time.

The movie tries to con-vey the message of facing one’s fear and fighting in-ner demons during times of distress. I recommend this movie not on the ba-sis of its fear factor or the jump scares, but on the grounds of the spectacu-lar performances by the actors and the mere idea the director is trying to convey.

-RUDRA SINGH

‘I’ll be there for you’Rating: 5/5Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David SchwimmerCreated by: David Crane and Marta KauffmanDuration: 10 seasons: 236 episodes: 20-22 minutes each

The American sitcom tel-evision series, first aired on September 22, 1994 is one of the most watched TV series in the world. The series revolves around six friends between 20-30 years of age living in Man-hattan going through ad-ventures of life together.

The characters impet-uously convert the show into a sitcom series. Ra-chel Green (Jennifer Aniston), Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), Phoe-be Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) and Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) face heartbreaks, loss-es and obstacles at every point in life. They discover love, companionship and life goals throughout the show. Thick or thin, all six of them stick together throughout the series as they grow in life.

As the name suggests, the show is about friends but that’s not all. On crit-ically analysing it, one gets to know that the show has other motives as well. The show tries to teach its viewers about positive body image, surrogacy, di-vorce, accepting the past and facing the present; moving on with life, adop-tion, sexuality, being con-tented with whatever you have, working hard, having a fresh start and follow-ing your heart. Whatever may come, the characters always have a goofy side attached to them, which makes the show full of hu-mour at every point.

The highly acclaimed theme song by the Amer-ican pop rock duo, The Rembrandts, “I’ll be there for you” perfectly suits the show. The cast appeared on the official music vid-eo of the song as well.

The show mostly revolves around three places – apartments of Monica/Rachel and Chandler/Joey and the cafe Central Perk, which has now inspired a large number of cafes around the world.

Certain phrases like ‘How You doin’ and ‘Joey’s special (meaning: double pizza)’ by Matt LeBlanc a.k.a Joey Tribbiani went on to become one of the most famous catchphrases of the world.

The show has come to an end but it still holds a part in the lives and hearts of its viewers. You’ll still feel like watching it on re-peat even if you’ve watched it for a hundred times be-fore. F.R.I.E.N.D.S is a show you can’t get enough of. That’s the beauty of the show as it never disap-points you. -AKRITI SARASWAT

Cryptic messages left for decoding

Fear and humour in Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal rejigRating- 2.5 starsDirector- Rohit ShettyGenre- Comedy

The usual cast of the fran-chise - Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade, Kunal Khemu and Tusshar Kapoor are yet again seen in the film. Tabu is a new entrant in Rohit Shetty’s land and so is Parineeti Chopra. Seeing Tabu act-ing in a light-hearted com-edy does raise eyebrows but she proves she knows her stuff in this genre as well.

The movie begins in typical Rohit Shetty style as Devgn makes an entry balancing himself on two cars and the title track playing in the background.

If you ask what’s new in the film, apart from cast-ing a critically acclaimed actress, who delivers a power-packed perfor-mance, is the fact that this time ‘Golmaal Again’ revolves around ghosts. Moreover, the location has been changed from Goa to

Ooty. Apart from that, we have the same cast with same names, divided into two groups wherein Gopal (Ajay Devgn) and Laxman 1 (Shreyas Talpade) form one gang and Madhav (Arshad Warsi), Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor) and Laxman 2 (Kunal Khemu)

form another one. The two gangs are always in conflict with each other.

The plot revolves around a ghost, played by Parineeti Chopra, who tries to take revenge on her murderer, but the di-rection makes the story go haywire. But then you don’t go and watch a Rohit Shetty film to find logic in it. This movie is far better than the last sequel of the franchise as Ajay Devgn and Tabu showcase that they don’t need a strong script in order to entertain. Something that’ll total-ly crack you up would be witnessing the rest of the cast making fun of Gopal as he develops a crush on Khushi (Parineeti). Some

witty punches can be heard there.

There’s also a gig on Nana Patekar in the movie which might be amusing in the beginning but be-comes repetitive and irri-tating later. At the same time, Vrajesh Hirjee has to be there in the Golmaal sequel with his all-time fa-vourite ‘cobra gig’.

The songs are meaning-less and do not contribute to the storyline. Howev-er, the cinematographer deserves applause as the visuals are breath-taking. The climax of the movie is abrupt and vague. It seems as if Rohit Shetty was in a hurry to make his next se-quel. -MEGHNA PUSHPAM

Democracy & education go hand in handDirector- Amit.V MasurkarProducer- Manish MundraGenre- Black comedy and dramaCast- Rajkumar Rao, Pankaj Tripathy, Anjali PatilRating – 4/5

Newton is the story of a government clerk, who is sent on election duty in a Naxal-affected area. He tries his best to tackle the rebels and also to conduct free and fair elections.At first, the villagers are not ready to cast their vote but soon a foreigner reporter succeeds in con-vincing the villagers to vote. It did not take him time to understand that the main problem was il-literacy and he willingly tries to educate the illiter-ates. He decides to sit on the polling booth during a particular time slot but is forced to leave the place due to Naxal attacks. His courage is well appreciated by the audience.

Towards the end, he does not hesitate to point

a gun at his chief of forces. For him, his loyalty and commitment towards his job is paramount.

The film altogether is worth a watch. It stands on the expectation of the audience and Rajkumar Rao has once again proved his versitility. Apart from him, Pankaj Tripathy also portrays a strong character. The plot and storyline are completely new. The film moves in continuity with-out any lapses. The chem-istry between Anjali Patel and Rajkumar Rao is well accepted by the audience. It is often tough to work with versatile actors because in

front of them, one tends to lose one’s own identity.

But Anjali was able to leave an impression in the minds of her viewers.

The cinematography is kept simple and the lo-cations contribute well to the story. The lyric of the song, ‘Chal tu apna kaam kar’, is also loaded with meaning. The dialogues of the movie are outstanding and the one which stands out is, “My parents named me Nutan Kumar, people used to make fun of me. So in my 10th grade form, I changed ‘Nu’ to ‘New’ and ‘tan’ to ‘ton’.”

-TRIYA GULATI

Author- Karan JoharGenre- AutobiographyNo. of pages- 352Publisher- Penguin BooksPrice- Rs 699

Karan Johar is known for his storytelling, often those stories turn into films which people can re-late to and leave the audi-ence wanting more. While he throws an amaz-ing tale of his films, one ex-pected more from his auto-biography, co-authored by Poonam Saxena, ‘An Un-suitable Boy’.

Johar has described his life and many child-hood events which stir you because of his hon-esty. He has talked about his darkest secrets. At the

beginning of the book, you are given a ride to the sky but the best part is that it weaves a way to the ground.

In this book, KJo re-

members the influence of his Punjabi father and Sin-dhi mother on him during his childhood, his obsess-ing over Bollywood, his en-try into the film world and his love life. He tells about his significant friendships with Shah Rukh Khan, meltdown with Kajol, the shows Koffee with Karan and AIB Roast, and the list continues.

In the initial part of the book, the fond memories of Karan’s school days ex-press his nostalgia. But in the first paragraph itself, he says that he won’t speak about his sexuality, which he talks about in the latter chapters of the book. He doesn’t explicitly state that he is gay, given the reali-

ties of our society, but it is there between the lines.

Sadly, the book has none of his sense of hu-mour and his writing style is far from remarkable. There is a lot of repetition.

The book traces Karan’s phenomenal transforma-tion from being a ‘pansy’ or effeminate boy with weight issues, into a suave and hugely influential Bol-lywood filmmaker and a social figure.

He ends the book with a vague idea of having kids by surrogacy so that he doesn’t have to be alone in his old age.

He miscalculates his au-dience as he often switches to Hindi in the book which forces a non-Hindi-speak-

ing reader to skip those portions or consult Google Translator.

The fact that makes the book worth read-ing is the insight it offers into Karan’s exceptional and eloquent journey to-wards self-discovery and self-awareness.

It is interesting to read about his take on his mov-ies, his motives and aspi-rations for making movies. And how his life changed from time to time with his misfortunes, insecurities and accomplishments. On balance, ‘The Unsuitable Boy’ motivates you, moves you and gives you a fresh perspective on Karan the filmmaker and the celebrity.

-SAKSHI GARG

Unsuitable Boy transparent and motivating

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOGREATER NOIDANovember 3, 2017 11

The everlasting glow of the Varanasi ghatsPhoto by: Manvi Singh

MANVI SINGH

Greek philosopher Socrates has said, “Death may be the greatest of all human gifts,” but before making a statement of that nature, he might have been aware of the concept of ‘Mok-sha’(Salvation). Death is usually not talked about by people at large but in Vara-nasi people fantasise about their death.

Yes, it is ‘moksha’ from this cycle of birth and death that the city gives you.

If you have been search-ing for sanity far and wide, Varanasi is the place for you. It can take time for you to figure out the crowd in the city but it hardly takes a minute for all the autow-allas, rickshawallas and taxiwallas from the same crowd to drag your luggage down to their chariot of service and much to your surprise you would not be able to say no and soon find yourself zipping down the

narrow roads of Varanasi.By the time you hit the

“roads” of the city, which is also called Banaras or Kashi, you realise that these are roads just for the sake of the vehicles on them, otherwise they are just walking trails. And if this wasn’t enough to give you a new perspective, you might as well find people struggling to make their way through cows and buf-falos taking a break on the “roads” of the city.

Mark Twain called the city, “Older than history, older than legend, older than tradition… older than all of these put together.” Mark Twain’s explanation for the city given a hundred years ago still holds true, as the city lacks all sorts of technological advance-ments. However, common-ers of the city seem more than satisfied, maybe be-cause they find themselves to be a part of their deity, ‘Bhole Baba’ (Lord Shiva).

With dawn the ghats come alive which are noth-ing less than theatres, more than 80 ghats along 3km of riverfront cater to all the needs of different pilgrims. Some ghats are for crema-tion and some are used to perform post-birth rituals while other ghats lie aban-doned.Unlike in western cities, death is celebrated in Varanasi. Corpses are paraded down the streets to the river Ganges for the last ceremony of cremation after which the ashes are released in the sacred river.Hindus believe cremation in this holy city liberates them from reincarnation. The reason behind this is said to be the powerless-ness of Yama, the god of death, by virtue of Lord Shiva’s presence in the city.

If you do not wish to en-dure the pain of rebirth, no matter which religion you believe in, the city of Kashi will always welcome you and the steps of the ghats

shall serve as the steps to-wards enlightenment.

“Death in Kashi is not feared,” wrote Diana L. Ecks in her book ‘Banaras’. But if you wish to go to heaven without dying, consider having a glass of ‘bhaang’. Dwellers of the city occasionally eat break-fast at their homes, they prefer to gather around pushcarts holding ‘dona’, a bowl made of dried leaves holding piping hot aloo-kachori and jalebi. If you ever get to visit this city, the ‘paan’ is a must have, which gives you a taste that will last for a lifetime. Lassi and tea are a part of the routine of the commoners here.

If your budget is not big, don’t worry, the city is fair-ly inexpensive. Do not al-low yourself to waste mon-ey over lunch or dinner, just sit along the ‘Dashash-wameva ghat’ or any oth-er crowded ghat and you will get food in the form of ‘Prasad’ for free.

Varanasi: A city which is beyond death and birth

TANVI MISHRA

In a country with a rich her-itage of handicrafts, every state and every artisan has something unique to offer. Each artisan’s works convey a journey, portray their pas-sion, hard work and dedica-tion to their vocation.

Akram Hussain from Ludhiana is one such crafts-man. Akram, who is in his thirties, is committed to his work and has been practis-ing the art of embroidery for the last 20 years. He began honing his skills at the age of 12.

When asked about who inspired him to take up embroidery, Akram said, “I was inspired by the women in my home including my mother.” For him drawing was just a hobby but looking at his mother and grand-mother work on pieces of cloth, he took this hobby

to the next level and made designing and handcraft-ing his means of livelihood.Akram works for Lawn Ba-zar in Ludhiana but is also a freelance who helps owners of other boutiques in his lo-cality in cutting and design-ing cloth. He has learned various forms of handiwork like ‘Aari’, ‘Gota’, ‘Mukesh’, and Punjabi embroidery. He loves to do ‘Zari’ work.

Akram has studied till Class 7 but due to unfore-seen circumstances he had to drop out of school and take up the responsibilities of the house. But he wants his children, aged seven and five, to complete their education.

He said, “My children are too young to be given life lessons. When the time is right, they will understand the true meaning and es-sence of life.” Akram intends to leave the choice of profes-

sion to his children and says he wouldn’t force his prefer-ences on his kids.

When asked who would carry on the tradition of his passion, he said, “This is my labour, I don’t have equip-ment or a factory to leave behind.”

His work gives him sat-isfaction and he will pursue his toil till his body allows him to, Akram said. The love for his work was clearly visi-ble when he mentioned that his job has provided for his family and he would never be tired of it.

Akram earns about Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a month. During the seasons of festivities or special occa-sions, the earnings double to Rs 30,000. In a family of seven members – three brothers and two sisters – Akram has solely managed their wedding expenses and numerous other re-

Akram doing the delicate work of embroidery on a garmentPhoto by: Japna Batra

SANDALI SINHAGoogle has launched a product about the size of a donut, Google Home Mini. It has all the smarts of the Google Assistant to give a hands-free help in any room of the house. This device can be bought on-line from Google Store or online from shelves of Best Buy, Walmart, Target and other stores.

The device starts with ‘Hey Google’. Then mu-sic or TV shows, and con-trolling of compatible smart home devices starts. It even can match the voice with the Voice Match, and can tell anyone’s voice from others—up to six peo-ple can get personal assis-tance on each device.

There are six interesting things that could be done with the Mini. First, it can

find your phone. It can find the phone from the couch cushions. “Hey Google, find my phone” will ring your Android phone (even if it’s on silent) or your iPhone. Second, setting a sleep alarm. Third, playing of news by different chan-nels and being updated all the time. Fourth, the Assistant can even turn the TV on and off, as the commands are said. Fifth, enabling of night mode, it dims the light and the lowers the volume so that others don’t get disturbed when it’s late (or early). Sixth, setting a default TV or Speaker, so that when-ever anything is to be opened, just by saying it on the Mini it can open. Apart from these features, some more are to be launched in a few months.

‘Hey Google’ sets your entire home in motion

Dedicated to embroidery, artist’s passion turns career

HAARIS BEG

“Participating in co-cur-ricular activities is as im-portant as studies,” said Lavanya Jhawar, who was attending an inter-school fest at La Martiniere Col-lege, Lucknow. Constantia is the annual cultural and technological fest of La Martiniere College.

“Inter-school events are the ideal forums to show-case our talents outside the academic field. Partic-ipating in them helps us develop skills that would have remained untapped if we just spend our entire time attending classes,” Lavanya said.

She had participated in a debate competition and was expecting to win the first prize. “Public speak-ing is a skill that will help you in the outside world

no matter in which corner of it you land. It helps peo-ple develop confidence in themselves, it has certainly helped me,” Lavanya said.

Karun Joshi, one of the teachers managing the event, said, “Dancing and singing are considered useless in the corporate world; some parents don’t even let their children hone their talents if they are not in line with the ul-timate goal of getting a job.

Most parents don’t know that participation and accomplishment cer-tificates in co-curricular activities actually help in increasing the over-all quality of the CVs and thus increasing the chanc-es of getting a good job. That is why we organise inter-school competitions every year.”

La Martiniere College

has been organising their inter-school fest for five years and in these years it has seen hundreds of students showcasing their talents ranging from pub-lic speaking to face paint-ing. La Martiniere College is home to ‘Constantia’, a 200-year-old monument that was built by Major General Claude Martin, a Frenchman, while he was serving the British. In his will, he said that his resi-dence, Constantia, should be converted into a school for young gentleman after his death.

Since 1845, La Mar-tiniere College has been home to generations of scholars and has also served as a tourist attrac-tion for many. It is one of the few monuments con-structed by the British that are still revered in India.

Co-curricular activities vital for overall development

La Martiniere College , LucknowPhoto by: Haaris Beg

WRITAVA BANERJEE

The streets of Noida’s Sec-tor 29 are very dark because the streetlights are the only source of light. But Brah-maputra market shines in contrast to the roads adjoining it. The market is filled to the brim with shops and the space be-tween them is so little that people often stumble upon each other while wading their way through the mar-ket. But the smell of food makes up for everything.

People who visit the market and food stalls can’t stop praising the place. Ar-jun and Tanisha, who’ve been living in Noida for 10 years, come here often. “Tanisha is a vegetarian while I love non-veg food. Thus obviously we need variety. The variety of food available here is just amaz-ing. While she enjoys her golgappa and paneer roll, I can munch on my chicken shawarma,” Arjun said.

The variety is mind-bog-gling. Biryani, shawarma, rolls, and even golas (balls of ice covered in flavoured syrup). While eating sha-warma, the smell of kebab

will catch up. Shreshth, a college student, visits the market weekly with his friends. He said, “Even though we come here for a snack, we end up going back to our hostels with a full stomach. These shops are so close to each other, we just can’t control our-selves. And the variety is immense. So we don’t real-ly feel bored because we eat something different every time we come here.”

Even though Brahma-putra is a favorite haunt for youngsters, people of other age groups go there to enjoy street food. Ra-hul, a 87-year-old man, has been coming here for four years. “I come here for the aura. This old age decreases your scope to have fun, but I occasionally come to this place to spoil myself with all these foods.

The autowallas and the rickshaw drivers stay away from this noisy buzz of people. “Hum kahan yeh sab khayenge? Hume roti sabji hi bhaati hai (How can we eat such food? For us bread and vegetables are enough)” said one of them.

Gaiety complex a tourists’ hotspotSHREYA DHAKAL

A remnant of Victorian his-tory, Gaiety Heritage Cul-tural Complex is a signifi-cant tourist spot in Shimla. Constructed in May 1877 by Henry Irwin, Gaiety is mainly known for its thea-tre and cultural events.

With ancient gothic style

of architecture, this theatre holds cultural evenings and exhibitions to display modern and ancient art-work. Students and adults organise music and theatre events every weekend that are attended by locals and tourists. “Today we have a music competition here. And I am among the partic-

ipants. The theatre is going to be full like always.” said Daksh, a student.

Situated on The Ridge, Gaiety was a six-storey building when it was con-structed. It comprised a theatre, ballroom, police office, an armoury, bar and galleries. However, other than the theatre everything else was demolished. The current complex comprises Old Gaiety theatre, Tavern Hall with ventilation tun-nel, a conference hall, Lalit Kala Gallery, Amphithea-tre, and a photo gallery.

To date, Gaiety holds exhibitions to display art-work. “Every Sunday I visit

this place. There are exhi-bitions on art, theatre acts and musical nights. And most of the time the entry is free,” said Tej Katoria , a local resident.

Gaiety was famous among the kids for their favourite character Charlie Chaplin, A replica of Chaplin would stand outside the the-atre’s entrance every week-end and shake hands with children. During Christmas, Santa used to accompany him. Maya, another local resident, said, “I remem-ber when I was a kid, every Sunday when I used to come to the mall and cross Gaie-ty a man dressed as Charlie

Chaplin used to stand at the door. I used to shake hands with him.

Another local guide said that tourists from across the world visit the Gaiety complex. Counted among the top tourist hotspots, the photo gallery inside the complex showcases pencil sketches of historic build-ings in Shimla, informs the visitors about Gandhi’s vis-it to Shimla, and there are pictures of English plays performed during British times in the theatre.

The complex witness-es a great influx of visitors throughout the year. “I had heard about this theatre be-

fore I planned my visit to In-dia. The complex is beauti-ful. I was mesmerised by the bright colours shown during the cultural night I attended last weekend. Today I am here for this music competi-tion,” said Mellisa Cooper, a tourist from England.

The complex has been a common platform for In-dia cinema for shootings. Many Bollywood films have been shot around the com-plex. Famous songs from the movie “Gadar” such as “Main Nikla Gadi Leke” were shot inside the thea-tre. The prime attraction in the complex remains the Gaiety theatre.

Food overflows in this Brahmaputra

Gaiety, a tourist spot in ShimlaPhoto by: Shreya Dhakal

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDANovember 3, 201712

GREATER NOIDASeptember 25, 20172

OCTOBER 13, 2017 | VOL. 1 | ISSUE 3

MUSKAN BABUTA, GURBANI SINGH, KRITIKA LALWANI, REETI AGARWAL, RIDDHI DWIVEDI, PARKHI RAWAT, SOFI TYAGI, KABEER SOLANKI, VISHESH, ADITI GIRI, MANYA KASHYAP, DEVSHREE GAURI SHUKLA, LAKSHAY SHARMA, ABHIMANYU SHARMA, VRINDA GOYAL, ADITI TYAGI, AANCHAL SINGLA, SOUMYA SRIVASTAVA, TEJUS KISHORE, SAUMYA TEOTIA, ASHISH SINGH, LARAIB QURESHI, ANUKRITI KANDPAL, ATISHA GUPTA, DAKSH GOGIA, LAKSHAY KUMAR, LALIT DHAWAN, MANSI JAIN, MEGHNA PUSHPAM, MONIKA THAKUR, MUSKAAN JAIN, NAGMA BANU, NIKHIL J NAIR, NISHITA SINGH BUNDELA,RAMIT SHARAN, SAKSHI GARG, SHREYA CHAKRABORTY, SHREYA DHAKAL, TANVI MISHRA, TARU MEDHA, VAIBHAVI UJJAL GHOSH, VANI KAUL, VARNIKA SHARMA, VIBHUTI YADAV, VIREN TAK, WRITAVA BANERJEE

SUB EDITORSHARRIS BEG, DAKSH GOGIA (Page 1), AKRITI SARASWAT, SANDALI SINHA (Page 2), ANMOL THUKRAL , KUDRAT SANDHU (Page 3), TANMAY SHARMA, ANUBHAV TYAGI (Page 4), ANURAG KUMAR , MANVI SINGH (Page 5), AKANKSHA YADAV, DANISH NAQVI(Page 6), RISHIKA SINGH , DEBOMITRA DAS (Page 7), DEEP DAS BURMAN, NEEHARIKA AWASTHI(Page 8), HARSHIT MANSUKHANI , HIA BASU(Page 9), KARTIK SHUKLA, TANVI MISHRA(Page 10), AKSHARA NAIR , ADITI GIRI (Page 11), TRIYA GULATI, MAHIMA GOYAL (Page 12),

Published by Sunil Saxena on behalf of School of Media and Liberal Arts, 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

Students and faculty run 6 km for the nationMANVI SINGH

On October 26, 2017 Bennetthon, a 6 Km run conducted by Bennett University witnessed an overwhelming participa-tion by over 180 students and 36 faculty and staff members. The univer-sity had aimed to bring the feeling of citizenship amongst people through this race.

The marathon, which was a tribute to the nation, commenced at 3:30 pm. The various checkpoints of the marathon were named after the cities of India. They were, at 1 km distance-Kashmir, at 2 km distance- New Delhi, at 3 km distance- Bhopal, at 4 km distance- Hyderabad, at 5 km distance- Bengalu-ru, at 6 km distance- Kan-yakumari (Finish line) re-spectively.

The winner of this 6 km marathon in female facul-ty category was Neelam Choudary, the runner-up was Vidya Deshpande and the second runner-up was Nidhi Sinha

The winner in facul-ty male category was Harendra Raghav, the runner-up was Pradeep Girl and the second runner-up was Rishi Dutt.

The winner in female student category was Man-vi Singh (first year BAMC), runner-up was Varnika Sharma (first year BAMC) and the second runner-up was Muskan (first year BBA).

The winner in male student category was Vihaan (first year BBA-LLB), the runner-up was Gaurav Rathore (second year Btech) and the sec-ond runner-up was Rachit

Dubey (first year BBA). Vihaan when asked about how he felt after winning the marathon, he said, “I had never participated in a marathon before so I was not expecting to win; I had registered my name just to have fun and to pay tribute to the nation.”

The chief guests for the event were Dr. Suneet Tuli (Dean, School Engineer-ing And Applied Sciences), Ajay Batra (Director, CIE) and Nishant Venkatesh-war (Circle Officer).

The medal ceremony began with a speech by

Akanksha Singh (Sports Officer) who told every-one about how the idea of Bennetthon sprouted, she said, “Bennetthon is a mes-

sage to all the citizens that they are responsible for shaping the nation, so we all should stop criticising and start acting.”

Pratima Singh (Asst. Sports Officer) also ad-dressed the gathering and spoke on fitness and im-portance of good health and how Bennetthon pro-moted it. Chief Guest, Nishant also graced the gathering by his speech on why we need to change our perception about police.

The members of the Sports Committee pledged to contribute to the nation in their own way.

It was the hard work of Akanksha and

Pratima along with volunteers and the Sports Commit-tee which made the

event possible.

TRIYA GULATI

Maya Angelou said, “You can never use up creativi-ty. The more you use, the more you have.” Abiding by this quote, four students of Bennett University, Ayesha Akhtar, Bhoomika, Drishti (MBA 2nd year) and Prateek Soni, (B.Tech 2nd year) came up with an idea of a startup which no one could have imagined. A Recreational Space, ac-cording to Ayesha, “would basically comprises Art and Music studio where people would come, relax and express themselves, which none of us do,” she-said. She even added that sometimes it happens that we are unable to carry out a particular thing which is in our mind because we don’t know what to do and when to do it. Prateek and Ayesha

will solve your problems by providing you with a medi-um which will help you to express yourself with ease.Ayesha said, “It happens in our lives when we have to choose between passion or profession because we are unable to juggle between

two things. We generally are forced or some of us voluntarily leave our pas-sion So never leave passion for achieving a secure life.”

To this Prateek added with an example that sup-pose there is a man who works in a company and at

some point of time was a very good singer. But being very busy in his daily sched-ule, he has somewhere giv-en up on his passion. Such people can join our recre-ational centre which by its name it states that creating your passion again.

Talking about the tar-get segments, she said, although everyone would be allowed to be a part of it, our primary focus is on college-going students and young professionals. And the vision of this startup is learning and collaboration.

The Hatchery of BU played a very impor-tant role in guiding them throughout. Ayesha said, “When this idea came into my mind it was all scat-tered I did not know where to start from and what to do.” So Hatchery created a timeline for her, which were 5 steps which started from understanding your-self first. Because unless and until you know your-self, you will be able to do nothing. Prateek further added that hatchery does not picks you up and plac-es you on a route and tells

you to follow it. Basically it nudges you to choose one option which according to you is appropriate for you. They show all possible di-rections for your idea and also gives you valuable in-sights of a particular busi-ness.

Ayesha and Prateek ad-dressing the first year said, “ Don’t compromise with what you love. If it is still in your head, give it a shot.”

The current situation of the startup is that they are validating the results of the market survey which they carried out by getting filled google docs forms. Till know they are satisfied with the positive response they are getting from all the stu-dents and people around.

In the end of the con-versation Ayesha made a very simple remark, “JUST BE.”

Students come up with innovative start-up idea THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOOCTOBER 13, 2017 | VOL. 1 | ISSUE 5

MUSKAN BABUTA, GURBANI SINGH, KRITIKA LALWANI, REETI AGARWAL, RIDDHI DWIVEDI, PARKHI RAWAT, SOFI TYAGI, KABEER SOLANKI, VISHESH, ADITI GIRI, MANYA KASHYAP, MAHIMA GOYAL, SAUMYA TEOTIA, KARTIK SHUKLA, DEVSHREE GAURI SHUKLA, LAKSHAY SHARMA, ABHIMANYU SHARMA, VRINDA GOYAL, ADITI TYAGI, AANCHAL SINGLA, SOUMYA SRIVASTAVA, TEJUS KISHORE, ASHISH SINGH, LARAIB QURESHI, AKRITI SARASWAT, AKSHARA RAMSHANKAR NAIR, ANMOL THUKRAL, ANUBHAV TYAGI, ANURAG KUMAR,DANISH NAQVI, DEBOMITRA DAS, DEEP DAS BARMAN,HARSHIT MANSUKHANI,HIA BASU, KUDRAT SANDHU, MANVI SINGH, HAARIS BEG, NANDINI BISHNOI, NEEHARIKA AWASTHI, RISHIKA SINGH, RUDRA PRATAP SINGH SANDALI N.A SINHA

SUB EDITORSNIKHIL NAIR, WRITAVA BANERJEE (Page 1),NISHITA BUNDELA, VANI KAUL (Page 2), SAKSHI GARG, NAGMA BANU (Page 3), VAIBHAVI GHOSH, MUSKAAN JAIN(Page 4), MONIKA THAKUR, VARNIKA SHARMA(Page 5), TRIYA GULATI, VIBHUTI YADAV(Page 6), LALIT DHAWAN,(Page 7), DAKSH GOGIA, TARU MEDHA(Page 8), LAKSHAY KUMAR, SHREYA CHAKRABORTY(Page 9), MANSI JAIN, TANVI MISHRA(Page 10), ATISHA GUPTA, KABEER SOLANKI (Page 11), ANUKRITI KANDPAL, VIREN TAK (Page 12),

Published by Sunil Saxena on behalf of School of Media and Liberal Arts, 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

Bennetthon is flagged offPhoto by Deep Das Barman

Prateek Soni and Ayesha Akhter

Members of the sports committee with the prize winners and guests. Photo by Deep Das Barman

Winners (faculty male): Harendra Raghv (winner), Pradeep Giri (runner-up), Rishi Dutt (2nd runner-up) Photo by Deep Das Barman

Winners (faculty female): Neelam Choudary (winner), Vidya Deshpande (runner-up), Nidhi Sinha (2nd runner-up)Photo by Haaris Beg

Nishant Vanketeshwar addressing the gatheringPhoto by Deep Das Barman

Participants Ankit Panda and Maninderjeet enjoying the run. Photo by Haaris Beg

Suneet Tuli presenting the medal to Vihaan (winner) Photo by Deep Das Barman

Ajay Batra presenting the medal to Manvi Singh (winner)Photo by Deep Das Darman