City sights: Trams are intrinsic to the Calcutta streetscape

From March 15 to March 18 our department had arranged a documentary shooting session for its first year masters students. The entire class was divided into nine groups of eight to nine students. Each group had a student coordinator to liaise between the other group members and the cameraman.

The subjects for the 10-minute documentaries ranged from fashion trends in the CU campus to a day in College Street, to curio shops, the evergreen trams, Sovabazar Rajbari, richshaw-pullers, child adoption centres, Bowbazar jewellery shops, etc.

Each day, it was a gruelling session. We participated in screenplay writing, dialogue writing, anchoring and learnt how to handle the camera. The experience was enlightening and encouraging as we familiarised ourselves with the tools of our trade.

Arjun Chaudhuri, first-year, MA in journalism and mass communication, Calcutta University

CALCUTTA
Rocking moments

The annual social of our college, Falguni, held on March 15, boasted some rocking moments. While Shilajit took us through the roads of rural Bengal, the enchantment continued with Cactus belting out their chartbusters. It was indeed like knocking on heaven?s door!

Soham Roy & Sanghamitra Choudhury, second year, BSc, Vivekanada College

SANTINIKETAN
Syllabus changes

On March 17 & 18, Visva-Bharati University had organised a state-level student seminar titled ?Negotiating the Syllabus?. The seminar was conducted by the department of English and other modern European languages in collaboration with the British Council, Calcutta. In this unique seminar, students were asked to give their suggestions for a change in the English syllabus at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

What emerged at the end of it was that students wanted the addition of interesting, inter-disciplinary optional papers. They also wanted more Indian and Asian authors to be incuded in the syllabus.

Sulogna Mehta, MA English, Calcutta University