18 July 2016
MA in Media and Communication Studies Initiative
Volume 7, Issue 4
A SPIRITUAL TREK Bengaluru:Dr. Ivory Lyons, first came to India in the year 2008 during his sabbatical in the US. Though having initially studied engineering in the United States, he soon found his vocation in the study and deep understanding of the unending knowledge of Religion and Spirituality. A professor of African-American religion and Protestant Theology in the University of Mount Union, Ohio, Dr. Lyons also specialised his study in Native American religion and Islam. That being said, Dr. Ivory also believes that other than Christianity, even the teachings of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam speak volumes in many aspects
of our lives. Presently a guest Professor in Christ University, Bengaluru, Dr. Ivory Lyons has introduced a new approach to the learning and education of religion: through means of popular television movies and series such as Matrix, Man of Steel, Little Buddha, Doom and his most recent, Star Wars and Star Trek. His chief aim is to help students understand and realize true meaning in their life through religion. His ‘Trans Talkies’ classes held in the campus is an apt example of being an influential way of making students understand the base of religion in our lives, through the means of ‘Star Trek’. Though it portrays a genre that is purely science fiction, the Professor makes the students delve deep into the context of episodes, which are religiously relevant to our present lives. On being asked on what influenced him to think of such an unconventional approach to an otherwise ancient convention,
he speaks of the book by Matthew Bortolin, ’The Dharma of Star Wars’, as being the inception to such a unique educational idea. The book, which seeks to
explain Buddhist understand through the characters and actions of ‘Star Wars’, was what the Professor used as inspiration. Last year, he taught his students about different religious aspects through the same series, while this year he aims to achieve the same ends by means of Star Trek. And just like the missions in Star Trek, he aims to make the students seek to explore an unknown universe within the realm of human action emotion and frailties alike - Joel Thomas
TEAM WORK! DREAM WORK! Bengaluru:The Social Work department of Christ University celebrated the International Population Day at the campus on Monday. The students with great gusto came together to create awareness among people regarding the problems and effects of increasing world population through a street play. The drum beats, slogans, colourful placards and a group of 26 students all dressed in black and red with painted faces attracted the crowd towards the central block. A 15 to 20 minutes of extravaganza on the street enraptured the crowd. The play depicted a poor family with far too many children,
their low standard of living and low socio-economic status. It incorporated many concepts linked to population explosion like poverty, unemployment, begging, prostitution etc. The
team also came up with solutions in the play for the population problems and tried to make lasting impact on people through slogans like ‘recreation better than procreation.’ Jisha a first year MSW student said, “Our main motto was to create awareness. Nothing we showed is new to people. But increasing world population is a very serious issue which is often neglected. Hence we wanted people to realise the intensity of the problem through this play.” A student and one of the members of the street play team Naveen said, “While scripting, preparing or enacting we didn’t aim to greatly influence people and force family planning measures upon them. That is irrational and impractical. Instead we wanted to provoke them to think about the problem.” The entire act was planned and executed by the students with the help of their seniors. The juniors were glad with the support of their seniors. The coordinators, Anthara Dutta and Remy Dsouza were impressed by the way their juniors responded to this task and took up the
initiative. Talking about their team building efforts Remy said, “Team work is dream work. It shapes our skills and makes a person better.” “With this exercise I have learnt along with my juniors. Initially it seemed difficult but later we learn from each other’s mistakes, corrected one another and performed as one
united team in the end.” The HOD of the department, Victor Paul was satisfied by the efforts of his students. He said, “Being a social worker it’s very important to be able to create awareness among large number of people. Street plays are an important tool and hence it was a skill building activity for our students. More of such activities will be conducted weekly to enable our students to become better social workers.”
- Madhura Chandana
Gear up! Apron on! Bengaluru: It’s lonely at the top, and without a doubt that saying stands true for fourth year BHM students. The Hotel Management course is an exquisite course celebrating 25 years of journey in Christ University, as they truly celebrates the diversity that exists within the student community in the campus and in the global spectrum. Venturing into the Hospitality industry is a ‘challenge’ says a fourth year BHM student Antisha Ann Mathew. The experience however is enriching and let’s all agree that culinary skills truly satisfies the midafternoon tummy cries, as magic lies within the reach of
their fingertips. Christ University provides a holistic growth to the students
with equal weightage given to theoretical and practical subjects. The students commence their specialization soon after they receive a formal
foundation to the various aspects of the hospitality industry, which gives them an idea of the different venues that they can streamline themselves into. The college also equips them with industry exposure, by putting them through Internships that require their 100% sincerity, further the department also hosts various events that also equips the students for outdoor catering. Focusing particularly on the culinary specialization, the students enjoy a mix of culture in their work, starting with their Saturday practical hours. The students are encouraged to take upon various cuisines around the world and recreate them in their own dishes. From French to the Vietnamese they have done it all and done it well. Through these activities
the students are encouraged to conduct their research on various cultures and cuisines thus ensuring learning on multiple levels. The students mingle with the beauty of various cultures and their traditions through their practical classes ,which involves a lot of research and ground work. Christ University also ensures that these young chefs reach
good hands, with various hotels like Hilton and Taj coming in for recruitments. The industry ensures fun but its weighed out by the pressure and quality of work demanded by the hospitality industry. As they move towards the end of their journey in Christ University, they are filled with immense knowledge and experience to venture into the real world. - Diya Maria Joseph
Bengaluru:Christ University has become full of cheer and festivities with the ‘Darpan 2016-2017’ being conducted by the university where students get to showcase their talents in the field of dance, drama, music and such. Christ University, is a one of a kind university that gives importance to the Indian Culture and the traditional values. The ‘Darpan 2016-2017’ is a fest hosted by the university that acts as a platform for the student community to express their talents. A much awaited event during the fest is ‘classical dance’ where students gracefully sway to rythmic music. On 12th July, the classical solo dance competition was conducted in the mini
merising eyes, amazing expresNRITYA KALA- sions enlightened the already lit up stage. The faculty was also THE ART OF present to encourage the particiCLASSICAL pants. There were two esteemed jury members to judge the event DANCE and one of them was a faculty of auditorium of block 1 with perform- Christ College, Mr. Vijay. ances by 35-40 participants dancing Apart from the dance event, brilliantly to the rhythm of classical many other events and contests music. Classical dance is considered were also held on 12th, 13th as the most expressive and alluring &14th of July namely, Cartoonart form and one of the most delecing, Air Crash, Western instrutable dance forms that holds the atmental solo and Western solo tention of the public. At singing. All these competitions the same time, it is the are conducted every year where most challenging dance students get to showcase their forms and in fact many talents and learn from other conpeople actually realised testants at the same time. All in the same when they saw all ‘Darpan 2016-2017’ unthe participants dressed leashes a beautiful array of talup in the heavy attire and gracefully ents that enhances the students performed on stage. Not only the for a better future. girls but even the boys came forward -Neha Gera and did not hesitate to showcase their talent in the classical dance form. The charming faces, mes-
Bengaluru:Pursuit of excellence is one of the core values that is encouraged and expected in every Christite. In this pursuit, Christ University tries to keep all its students up- to-date in terms of technological advancements. The university always tries to introduce students to a new way of learning which is faster, smarter and in sync with industrial demands. One of the meticulously managed systems at Christ is that of the various online portals. Students here do not submit their assignments on paper, but rather through their online course management system-
Moodle- where students upload their assignments in the link provided. This system ensures that the students stick to their deadlines thereby pro-
A CLICK AWAY moting the value of punctuality. To inculcate a reading habit in students, the university has two extensive libraries accessible to all. In addition, there are a number of online sites that a student can access for online
journals, research articles and books. All advancements in various fields and updates are available for students at a click away. Another technology employed at Christ in the most effective way is that of Google Classroom. Here, students and teachers can interact with each other, have discussions with their classmates and share their works with their peers. It is not enough to just work hard these days; you also need to work smarter. So make use of these brilliant systems that Christ provides… it’s just a click away!! -John Michael Fernandez
Poojitha Kowligi, Western solo singing participant, “It’s such a huge platform. I had stage fear. But after singing here I feel so much better and much more confident.” Anushka Phadnis, “Darpan brings people from different streams together. It unites people and culture.” Remus Noronha “Darpan is all about having lot of fun.” -I JPE students
DARPAN 2016
Bengaluru’s one of the biggest intra college fest. Annual fest and a platform for students to get into the Student Welfare Cultural Team. “Darpan is all about meeting our juniors and guiding them through the process of student welfare organisation selections and its working.” -Arun Nair, III B.sc, PCM, Student Welfare Volunteer.
“Ours is a complete volunteer body and we all work hard to make sure Darpan is a success every year.” -Ann, one of the 3 heads of the Art group, student welfare organisation
Western solo singing contestant
Crowd and the judges at the western solo singing event
Event - collage making -Madhura Chandana
Bengaluru:A dramatic entry never fails to impress the audience, and a director explores ways to impress and engage his audience, at all times. As for Mr. Deepu , he was nothing but engaging. He entered with a crowd following him. At first we were startled, but soon the recognizing faces among the crowd were our own students, who took it upon themselves to ensure the guest’s arrival. Mr. Deepu is a known figure in the movie industry. He works along with the ‘Pedestrian Production’ and is highly regarded for his work the ‘Invisible Faces’ and his work with the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha in Kerala. Throwing words and gestures at the audience, Deepu seemed to capture the audience through Hitchcock’s philosophy and intricately embedded the idea of a director’s role as storyteller, in the minds of the audience. Being a powerful storyteller himself, Deepu explores the technicalities of the camera and the internal intricacies that lie within a character. Being a proficient cinematographer with years of experience by his side, Deepu has no inhibitions, whatsoever to explain his ideas through personal anecdotes. He says, “Direction is a language that meets with another language, and it is through this that we must try to impress the audience”. Hence to understand this language, we must know the rules of the art that enables us to push through the restrictions of art itself. After spelling out
the various elements of direction, he took on the most important criteria, of understanding the character and understanding the importance of each scene in a movie. Using the movie ‘Notorious’ as his base, Mr. Deepu studied the nature of the characters, the story that lies within each of these characters and the emotions that pushes them to perform the way they do. He does so by asking questions such as, “What does the character think of himself?”, “How does the other characters perceive this particular character” and finally “What does the writer think of the character?”. Through these engaging and powerful questions he encouraged the audience to take a leap
The Art Of Direction
forward towards understanding every speck of their creation. He portrays the character in itself to be a dynamic self with various nuances in his walk and leap. It is through this step-by-step analysis that we were taken into the depths of cinematography and the in-depth understanding of direction. -Diya Maria Joseph
Dosa with Lassi - The Uncanny Combination Bengaluru:‘Dosa… Not Again ! I so miss the home cooked food that mom makes me !’ Food becomes a major issue when we are away from home due to the absence of our soul food, the hot home cooked meals. But when you are a Christite, there’s no need to worry about food, since Christ university is a place ready to welcome and accept people belonging to different cultural backgrounds and geographical spheres. They also make it a point that the students of the
university and all those staying in the hostel do not compromise on their health and strives to provide the home cooked food that everybody misses. A number of eateries exist in the Christ campus from where christites can get all kind of cuisines right from Punjabi to South Indian.Punjabis are popular for their sumptious food habits and the university has a lot of Punjabis coming in every year. Hence the solution to the
Punjabi cravings lie in Aman Rasoi located at the extreme beginning of the Christ campus with authentic Punjabi food being offered along with Chinese and South Indian dishes as well. Then there’s Indian Coffee house serving South Indian delicacies at a very reasonable price maintaining a completely South Indian ambience where the staff too suit up in South Indian attire, which adds on to the homely feel to your fellow South Indians. Further snacks along with tea and coffee are available in umpteen numbers in the campus, starting with ‘Mingos’ located
at the birds park where christites love to go and spend a casual evening with friends. Since most of the students in campus have come to the university leaving their homes behind, the university makes sure that the students get proper diet and so, there’s ‘Nandini’ and ‘Freshetria’ right in front of the Basketball ground offering dairy products and fresh fruits. Apart from it, there are so many other eateries inside the Christ campus offering finger licking delicacies without being ignorant of the health and hygiene of the students. Also, with so many options available, students get to observe the food habits and tastes of different people belonging to different places. Christ University creates a pleasant experience for students with heart warming dishes and fun filled cusines to excite and indulge their students in. -Neha Gera
manufactures in Bangalore. More than fifteen lakhs was spent to construct this facility for students. Without any tiring challenges, Natesh was personally asked by the co-ordinators of Christ University to train the students. It is evident that, around 300 to 350 students from the age of 17 to 23 join the centre every year. The students come from various departments around the University to undergo fitness traning in this centre. Some students prefer temporary fitness routines while a few others go for long term fitness routines.Each student spends a minimum of 45mins to 1hour in the fitness centre. Mostly boys use the facility, however from time to time girls too work out in the gym. The timings for the boys are from 6am to 8am in the morning and the next session begins from 4pm to 8pm in the evening and as for the girls it begins from 8am to 9.30am in the morning. The diet plan changes for every student depending on their day to day activities. Some students follow weight gaining exer-
Healthy Body! Healthy Man! Bengaluru:Fitness is not about being better than someone. It’s all about being better than you used to be. When the word “Bodybuilding” is mentioned, the Austrian Bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger comes to our mind. Everyday, you workout and your body eventually becomes healthier than yesterday. Christ University, Bangalore provides Fitness centre for the students inside their campus. This fitness centre was started in 2011 by Natesh. The equipments used are absolutely of good quality, ordered from
cises and some others follow weight loss excercises. Finally as I bid goodbye to Natesh said,
“Avoid Bad Habits that damages your Health and start working out, which promotes good health”.
The Team: Diya Maria Joseph, Joel Thomas, Madhura Chandana, Neha Gera, John Michael Fernandez, Kiran David. Faculty In-Charge: Suparna Naresh, Fr.Biju K.Chacko
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY
- Kiran David