V O L U M E I . I S S U E I I I February, 2013

Women Empowerment— A Myth or A Reality ?

India today is at the cusp of a para-

digm change in its growth and its po-sition in the world. We (both men and

women) must act decisively to capture

this opportunity. We need to think big

and scale up rapidly in each and eve-

ry area, be it education, infrastruc-ture, industry, financial services or

equality of both genders. Our first

Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru,

once said, “You can tell the state of a

nation by looking at the status of the

women there”.

For around two centuries, social re-

formers and missionaries like Raja

Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra

Vidyasagar, Mahadev Govind Ranade,

and Jyotiba Phule, have endeavored to bring women out of confines in

which centuries of traditions had kept

them. The need for women’s empow-

erment arises from the subordinate

position they have been accorded for a long time. Empowerment of women

needs to begin with her participation

in different spheres of life.

In India, the empowerment process

has already begun. We are now wit-

nessing a steady improvement in the enrollment of women in schools, col-

leges and even in professional institu-

tions. Their health is better as com-

pared to earlier decades. They are

showing their skills even in non-traditional sectors like police, defense,

administration, media and research

fields. Twenty-six laws have been en-

acted so far to protect women from

various crimes. In the political field,

the reservation for women is a signifi-cant step towards their political em-

powerment. When thirty-three percent

reservations for women in

Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got. There is no yesterday, no tomorrow, it's all the

same .... day.

someone and owes obligation towards

her father in childhood, brother in ado-lescent age, partner in youth and son

in old age. Even the women in India

feel proud to display that they are well

protected and pampered by their hus-

bands without realizing that they are making themselves helpless. Depend-

ent woman is never an empowered

woman. If modern women think that

they are empowered, it's a myth for

them. Empowerment means to inspire

women with the courage to break free from the chains of limiting beliefs. In

short, women are the victims of a

whole plethora of violence committed

against them.

It is true that few women such as Chanda Kochar, Meira Ku-

mar, Kiran Bedi, Pratibha Devi Singh

Patil, have reached echelons of success

in their life, but we must understand

that success is their individual life due to their high standard of merit and

hard work. These examples constitute

a miniscule percentage of total popula-

tion of women in India. We can call it

empowerment of women only if there is

rise in stature of women in India at a mass scale.

Thus, due to all these atrocities on

women, the issue of empowering wom-

en becomes a challenge. It’s a burning

topic of discussion in the Indian socie-ties still and will be one. So, it is a

wake-up call for women to awake from

their deep slumber and understand

the true meaning of empowerment

and make women empowerment a RE-

ALITY rather than a MYTH.

-Written by Anukrati Singh

parliament will become a reality,

women's voice will be heard in the highest forum of democracy. As we

see, government is taking some con-

crete steps in empowering women by

helping women to help themselves

and their families. But are these pro-grams sufficient? Are they brining

about a change in the attitude of a

patriarchic society? Definitely the an-

swers are bitter.

If we analyze the status of the women in India, we come to see a daunting

and pathetic situation. According to a

latest survey, majority of Indian wom-

e n a r e a n e m i c . W o m e n

are raped, kicked, killed, subdued an

d humiliated every day in India. To add to agony, every 26 minutes a

woman is molested. Every 34 minutes

a rape takes place. Every 42 minutes

a sexual harassment incident occurs.

Every 43 minutes a woman is kid-napped. And every 93 minutes a

woman is burnt to death over dowry.

Even before their birth, women folk

have to bear the brunt of female foeti-

cide, and after their birth, their fight

against numerous social evils such as female infanticide, child mar-

riage, dowry, sexual harass-

ment, rejection and negligence at old

age by kith and kin. In a nutshell,

despite various schemes launched by

government, there seems no sign of women empowerment as a whole.

The irony is that today, everybody

talks about women empowerment but

the crude realty is that nobody is will-

ing to take initiative for that as our society is male-dominant. According

to Indian philosophy, women in every

stage of life need to be protected by

We Make Her Cry— But Why?

We made her cry!!

But WHY?

For our wildest fantasy or for her

grievance

or for what so ever;

but does it make any sense, I know you‘ll say, “Never.”

She, like an angel

served us joy & delight,

And we, as devils

Became the reason of her plight.

In every phase of our life

as our mother, friend or a pretty wife,

she stood as a source of ardor and

zeal

but in reward, she was simply killed. Or this creature- so innocent as

pigeon

was thrown to the darkest virtual

dungeon.

We mangled her life,

treated her blood as the cheapest archil,

And she fought bravely in this strife

but often lost against her will.

And again- WE MAKE HER CRY, BUT …..WHY???

-Written by Shwetank Saxena

Zakir Husain College of Engineering and Technology

Campus Diary

Crowned– Grad

The Voice

Editorial

Get– Wit

BARQQ

Inside this issue:

Techno-buzz

In association with

Congratu la t ing the three girls namely- Somya Varshney, Kausar Tanwee and Taru Saraswat of IVth Yr. Computer engg. placed in ADOBE during C a m p u s placement THE MIRROR team had an e xc lus i ve interview with them . Here are some excerpts f r o m t h a t interview :

INTERVIEW with the students cracking the ADOBE`s nut:

Thank you. We are feeling very good

and positive as our preparation finally brought good result. It is like a dream come true. Many students wish of working in such a good company but only few get to work there and being a part of those few has instilled in us a great

confidence and a feeling of satisfaction.

Definitely as Each company has its

own and different set of requirements to be fulfilled. Therefore, one needs to prepare accordingly. But, one thing is common for each of them: you need to have strong base of the corresponding

field you belong to.

ADOBE, apart from testing program-

ming skills, has 2 more sections devoted to ‘LOGICAL REASONING’ and ‘QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS’. Therefore, students need to balance their performances in all the 3 sections so that they clear the CUT-OFF of each of the sections. Since, this time Electronics Engg. Students were also permitted to participate in the placement drive, the programming questions were not very difficult. But the Reasoning and Quants

section were good enough.

The final year project depicts a lot

about the student`s hard work. And also, most of the companies inquire deeply about it, asking you to explain your work. Therefore, students need to choose their topics wisely and according to their interests so that they are able to perform

better and complete them on time.

We went mad. There was a feeling

of immense joy and excitement. Although we know that it`s going to be difficult but at least there is an opportunity for us. Especially for our juniors, it`s once in a lifetime moment. With the news that Google might visit the campus again in July, they should start their preparation

right away.

This can be solely be achieved by

establishing and maintaining contact with the alumni of our college. Many of our alumni are currently working in many major companies. So, certainly their help should be taken in driving more of the companies to the college. The ALUMNI MEET held recently was an excellent step in this direction which should remain

continued forever.

Well, that`s a very difficult one to

answer. But one major change which we would like to see is in the way FESTS are organized in our college. From the experi-ence of visiting many other fests, I must say that everywhere colleges promote themselves through the fests, spreading their good name. That means we should aim for organizing National level Fests. Also, what we witnessed this year was something different: more than one fest. If

all these FESTS could have been organized together and promoted on the national level properly, that would have brought much more recognition to our

college.

Well, what happened on 16th was a

very shameful incident. That reminds of the fact: Though from exterior we are being counted in the world`s biggest econ-omies on account of our GDP, the nation within is suffering from a loads of illness-es. It`s truly said that: “In a place where the women are respected as equally as men, there resides the Supreme Pow-er GOD.” But such acts depict that no-one believes in the above saying. The Government needs to do much more to ensure the safety of women. Instead of amending the laws they need to ensure that the laws are properly implemented. Simultaneously, we too, especially the men need to change their mentality re-garding the status of women in the socie-

ty. Then only the effects would get visible.

Yes, we think so. As before us, only

2 more girls have been able to make it to the ADOBE. We would like to tell all of them that: you can do everything in your life. The only thing you need to do is identify your GOAL, discover your POTENTIAL and work hard. The success

is definitely yours.

Finally, we would like to say:

“It`s not GOD who differentiated be-

tween Men or Women, instead it`s WE

who have created the differences.”

VC’s VISIT TO COLLEGE

Followed by above, the VC then inspected

the car manufactured by the students of our

college for the final round of BAHA

competition that is going to be held in

mid-February. Abhishek Pathak, the lead-

er of TEAM DOERS explained the VC about

the specifications of their car, making him

aware of the major details of the car. Vice

chancellor was very much fascinated by the

efforts of the students and promised the

students to provide all the possible help

from his side. He also met Abhishek Shar-

ma and his team, who won the first prize in

the paper presentation competition

held at the IIT Bombay Techfest.

They also explained the VC about the

idea of their paper. VICE CHANCELLOR

appreciated their project work and

promised them to provide the cash reim-

bursement of Rs20000/- for their travel-

ling expenses.

AMU VC, Lt. Gen. Zameeruddin Shah recently visited our college on 21st Jan especially to meet the students involved in BAHA competition and observe their progress. The students gave a presentation to VC, explaining him about the whole BAHA event; it`s objective, their progress, requirements and their current situation. Actually the event being talked about is the much anticipated event of SAE, conducted every year where students from the various colleges of INDIA including IIT’s and NIT’s participate in the self-manufactured car

race.

Team from ZHCET wins first prize at IIT Bombay Techfest !!!

A team of 5 Students from’ Zakir Hu-

sain college of Engg. And Tech.’ won first prize in an ASIA LEVEL PAPER

PRESENTATION competition-“EARTH “

held at TECHFEST, IIT BOMBAY during

3-5 January 2013.

Among 700 presentations from the con-tinent only 23 research paper and pro-

jects were selected for the final presen-

tation round from all over Asia, in

which the team of Z.H.C.E.T. compris-

ing of:

Abhishek Kumar Sharma ( 3rd yr Civil

Engineering)

Ankur Sharma ( 2nd yr Mechanical En-

gineering)

Sameerah Desnavi (2nd yr Electronics Engineering)

Charu Dixit (2nd yr Electrical Engineer-

ing)

Utkarshaa Varshney ( 2nd yr Electrical

Engineering)

won first prize in the competition and

also a reward of Rs. 40,000. The com-

petition was not only restricted to un-

dergraduate students; it saw participa-

professors from all parts of the country

and prestigious institutions.

The topic of their presentation was”

CONVERSION OF ELECTROPLATING

WASTE TO NANOPARTICLES AND

THEIR APPLICATIONS IN PRODUC-

TION OF BIO-DIESEL FROM BUTCHREY WASTE”.

The tag line of their project was-

“UTILISATION OF WASTE TO UTILISE

THE WASTE”. This project was appreci-

ated highly at IIT Bombay by a judging panel of 6 members.

The students gave credit to the institu-

tion for providing them with such ad-

vanced labs and research technologies

and the honorable professors for their eminent guidance and support.

It also worth mentioning that among the

final 23 papers selected this team had

got its two papers selected for the final

round of presentations, which speaks

volumes about the research capabilities

of the students of Z.H.C.E.T.

“There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first

group; there is less competition there.”

— Indira Gandhi

The Great Placement Drive

Google, visited the campus on

24th January for the students of Computer Engineering. It is the

first time that a company offering a

package as high as 21 lakhs as

well as foreign placements (USD

1,00,000) visited the college cam-pus. Its hiring partner Meritrac visited the campus for con-

ducting the written test to select the students. Selected

students will visit the Google office in Hyderabad/Bangalore

for next set of interview rounds. An alumnus, M. Nayyar

Azam of 2007 batch was instrumental in directing company

towards our college. The written test mainly comprised of objective (20 questions

- technical +aptitude) as well as subjective questions

(Programming + algorithm). The Time limit for the test was

65 min.

The placement drive of

Tejas networks was re-

cently held on 28th and

29th jan, in which 4 stu-

dents were selected by

the company during the

drive. The names of the

selected students are Musheer Ahmad, Ghulam Mustafa, Fai-

sal Nehal, Ariz Zubair.

Tejas Networks is an Indian Networking and Tele-

com equipment products company and is one of the major re-

cruiters of our college. The company offered a pay package of

5.7 lacs per annum to all the students and the students will be

posted at Bangalore where the headquarters of the company is

located, at the time of joining.

Department of Electronics Engineering Aligarh Muslim University

The Department of Electronics Engineering shall be

completing 25 years in March 2013. To mark the

Silver Jubilee, an Alumni Meeting, on 23-24 Febru-

ary 2013, is proposed.

Paper Presentation 9th Feb 2013

Project Presentation 16th Feb 2013

T-Shirt Design Contest

Cricket (Boys)

Table Tennis (Boys)

Football (Boys)

Volleyball (Boys)

Chess (Boys)

Table Tennis (Girls)

Badminton (Girls)

Debate (Girls)

Rangoli Competition (Girls)

Musical Chairs (Girls)

For details : http://www.electronics-amu.com/events.html

Silver Jubilee Celebrations !!!

We talked to one

of the alumni

Mrs. Sangeeta

Jain who also

came to attend

the alumni meet.

Here is the

conversation that

we had with her.

ALUMNI MEET

Chat with Alumni

one gets an opportunity like this.

Ques. What changes have you noticed in the college, since your last visit? Ans. There was no prominent change except a small coffee shop and a MIG-23 fighter plane being the centre of attraction. The college was as majestic as ever. The corridors, the classrooms, the workshop, everything was just the

same.

Ques. How AMU played a role in chang-ing your life? Ans. AMU gave me an academic benchmark which would not have been possible otherwise. The 5 yrs spent in ZHCET helped me grow intellectually, developed my skills, self-confidence and encouraged me to achieve my personal excellence. It also inculcated in me certain values which I practice and cher-

ish. Ques. Any message you would like to give to the present students. Ans. I would like to tell all the students

that they are very fortunate to be a part

of this education paradise and should

feel proud of it. I would also like to add

that they should grab every opportunity

to refine and define themselves. Learn

and enjoy every moment as college life is

once for all. We are always there for

your support. Good luck and best wish-

es!

Ques. Please give a brief introduction about yourself. Ans. I am currently a visiting faculty in Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (NSIT), Delhi. I have also been a visiting faculty in Delhi College of Engineering

(now DTU).

Ques. How was your experience on coming back to AMU after such a long time? Ans. The experience was like homecom-ing after a gap of 25 years. Walking in the corridors made me feel like a young

girl again. Classrooms made me nostalgic. All of us got transformed into enthusiastic youngsters trying to recognize one another and recollecting names. The memories kept flashing in. Overall it was an exhilarating experi-ence to relive the college life. Not every-

It was nice to have conversation with Mrs. Sangeeta Jain who told us a lot of interesting things. We hope that appropriate

actions would be taken by the college administration, alumni and students for the betterment of our college and the things

discussed in the meet would get implemented soon. Also, we would like to thank all the alumni who came to attend the meet,

especially from the overseas. Despite the chilling weather, a whooping no. of 58 alumni attended the meet. We hope that this

no. would get further enhanced in future.

ALUMNI MEET

An alumni meet of

the batch 1986-87

r e c e n t l y

held at the as-

sembly hall of our

college. Around 58

a l u m n i

participated in this

meet. Most of

these alumni were

currently holding

some of the

topmost positions

in their respective organisations. The

panel of alumni attending the meet

included: MD – Jusco, Country Head -

Alstom Power, Cyber Security Head –

NIC, VP - Reliance Telecommunica-

tions, VP - Hindustan Petrochemicals

Ltd, Recruiting Officer – DMRC, Sen-

ior Engineer – MCD, Project Head -

Power Grid, Group Captain - Coast

Guard, Senior Representative – IBM

and many more.

The important points raised by the

alumni panel as well as the students

during the meet are as follows:

1. Setting Up of some sort of "Help

Group" to channelize the resources

from Alumni to the students.

2. Sharing industry experience with

students and guiding them in their

projects, internships, personality de-

velopment and placements.

3. Registration of the "ZHCET Alumni

Association" as per the norms of UP

govt. and Aligarh Muslim University.

4. Rotation of the Chair positions of

this association on an annual basis.

5. Setting up of a website specifically

dedicated to ZHCET where only the

members of ZHCET family can regis-

ter (using their enrolment no as the

identification proof) and reaching

through it to maximum no. of alumni

possible.

6. Making this alumni meet an annual

event entitled to take place in the

month of December.

->With MR. S. M. A. CHISTI:

Ques. What are the changes you find here now? Ans. I find a tremendous change here now.

The college has grown a lot since I had left. At that time there was hardly a company visiting the college for recruitment. The training and placement office here has shown extensive growth and it is still flourishing.

Ques. As you are presently working abroad, if any how you get a chance to come back to India and work here on an equivalent post, package and perks. Will you? Ans. I have learnt a lot in India and I had a

great work experience in NTPC but if I get a chance to work again in India I will say NO because now I have become used to the work culture of Canada. I have seen an exponential growth in my career and I have really learnt a lot there. In Canada you get a warm and cozy atmosphere to work with people.

Ques. How was your college life here? Ans. I spent a great time here, which is

unforgettable. I was a good regular student regarding studies. I used to study for a short but for a steady period every day. The most motivating part of my time in college was that the teachers who were very helpful and kind to me in every manner especially Prof. Ekram Husain. I never participated in extra-curricular activities like debate, presentation, etc. due to my shy nature. I used to spend and enjoy a lot of time with my friends. Summing up all these, it was a remarkable experience for me. I learnt many things from here apart from studies and achieved a good personality besides my graduation degree.

Ques. Was it your ambition to pursue job in abroad? Ans. Not exactly, I never made my mind to

go abroad for job. I worked in India for many years and when I got the opportuni-

ty, I took it with pleasure.

Ques. What is your message to the stu-dents? Ans. I would only say that the pessimistic

thoughts of your mind will always keep you in the bore well. Your approach should be optimistic which will build your confidence. Focus on your communication skills and dedicate some time for enhancing your personality apart from ac-ademics and lastly I would say that DO TAKE RISK IN LIFE if you really want to

learn and grow.

Mr. Chisti is one of

the alumni of our

college. He did his

B. tech in Electrical

Engg. And presently

he is working in

Canada. Here are

some experiences

shared by him.

->With Mrs. Sangeeta Jain :

“All that happened can be attributed to

the degradation of the values of the soci-

ety as a whole. People become interested

in such matters, only when their rela-

tives are involved, otherwise they turn a

blind eye to all such incidents. Clearly,

no one gets affected by these incidents.

Government needs to ensure the proper

implementation of the existing laws but

they can't be present everywhere. We, the

people have to play an active role in

avoiding such horrible incidents and

catching the culprits.”

“The only thing responsible

for such misconducts is the

destruction of our moral val-

ues-those which strengthen

the roots of our life, develop

our mentality, which thereby

decide what one pursues.

The moral education provid-

ed by the guardians is lacking

from the lives of young individ-

uals due to their hectic life

and education has turned

purely materialistic. As a re-

sult, our social structure is

disturbed and law enforcing

authorities are not performing

their duties for public wel-

fare.” Shivank Gupta

Definitely, such horrible incidents are the consequences of the ignorance of moral values, principles of discipline and decorum In the tremendous rush of life. In this modern era, though we talk about various fundamental rights but some-where we ourselves are unwilling to implement the vision of equality in a more refined way. Yes we are developing economically, technically but the graph of humanity is decreasing because we don't want to pause for a while to think deeply that which way are we leading?? Ac-tually the whole system is corrupt from root to upper level. The people who are leading our government have no real patriotic sentiments for our country; they are only money-minded.

I think one of the possible causes for the

crimes against woman: from lewd com-

ments to the heinous one is the adverse

effect of today’s cinema and the glamor-

ous world. I am not against the cinema

as they play a crucial role in the field of

entertainment and helps in stabilizing

our country’s economy but today the way

in which they depict the woman through

item songs ,through advertisement cre-

ates negative effect on the minds of uned-

ucated and mentally sick people.

Today the cinema is using woman as a

product to earn more profits and people

starts following their ideals, what we

watch as entertainment, the mentally

retarded and uneducated people take it as

real and they repeat the same thing in

their life whether it is morally and legally

good or bad. Moral values has gone from

the world of cinema and the censorship

board has also become flawed and cor-

rupted to a great extent.

According to me, the major responsibility

lies with the narrow mindedness and poor

mentality of the people particularly men,

considering the women as inferior and the

individuals meant to be suppressed. Then,

comes the: lack of proper administration

and negligence of duties by the traffic police

and the government as the bus which was

violating every traffic law, one of them be-

ing: black tinted windows, was roaming

freely in the city. Finally, the excessive con-

sumption of alcohol, by the people which is

easily accessible everywhere, is the major

cause of concern.”

The major cause of occurrence

of such incidents is the inabil-

ity of the judicial system to

provide quick and severe con-

viction to the culprits. Pre-

venting the women from going

out at nights and commenting

on their dress would do no

good. If you are good enough

and have respect for women,

then any kinda dress would

not lead to such acts. Govern-

ment needs to make more

strict laws regarding such inci-

dents along with improving

the performance of the police.

There can be many reasons for such

episodes. The most important I think

is the Electronic media, films and the

T.V culture... the parents, school and

College to some extent and above all

degradation of our ethical values. Of

course the Government and the ad-

ministrative psyche is also to be

blamed... Only enacting laws will not

serve the purpose.. There should be

strict and quick implementation of

law and the culprits should be public-

ly prosecuted...

“Instead of questioning who is,

let`s question who`s not... from

this govt. elected by us to the so-

ciety manipulated by us. In my

eyes we all are equally responsible

for such acts. The need of the hour

is a drastic but positive change in

the mentality and outlook of the

society. Women are not sources of

entertainment and should not be

treated as objects of lust. The re-

tarding force which compels one

to not commit such a crime must

not be: The fear of punishment

but the gut feeling that this is

wrong.

Respect them, for the least. Curse

not the darkness, light a lamp.”

IT WON'T CHANGE EVER OR WOULD IT? accountable, ring a bell? Yes, you raised

your voice on these issues. And now there’s a total hush about it. (Well, except

for the little duel between Anna and

Arvind, each fearing a loss of media at-

tention due to the other). Is the issue re-

solved? Wake up call? Anything?

The Delhi case has catapulted all likewise

crimes throughout the country into the

national media. A crime that was never

less is now highlighted like never before.

Another spike, another burst of rage in the 1.2 billion people who call themselves

Indians. But for God’s sake, do not forget

it by month-end! Do not make it yet an-

other case of typical momentary rage.

There are 1.2 billion Indians, and proba-bly as many problems the country has to

tackle. We are gonna writhe in agony as

we have since the day the British flag was

hoisted in Calcutta. Swaraj has changed

less. UNLESS..

-We stand up for an issue and never back

down till it gets resolved.

I go through the news these days and

there is predominantly one thing splashed all over in the Indian media:

crimes against women. There’s a sad

element to it, an element Indians have

failed to recognize and hence counter.

Crime against women has never been less. It took one horrific incident in the

streets of the national capital to wake

up the Indian masses.

An uprising of a similar scale was a reg-

ular sight some 12-18 months ago, the issue being corruption. A lot has hap-

pened on that front since then, fasts,

celebrities joining in, the AAP, and fi-

nally a (pretty much expected) clash

between Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejri-wal. The mob hushed almost as fast as

it rose.

Sadly, this has often been the case with

the Indian masses. We never take is-

sues till the end. A few months of shouting and protesting, and we all get

back to what we were.

Corruption, Lokpal, holding politicians

-One issue at a time will take a couple of centuries for it all to get in tone. We

have the largest democracy; 1.2 billion

people use them all.

-And for God’s sake try to be an ‘Indian’

in the meantime. Regionalism, commu-nalism and all that craps is in the ene-

my’s arsenal. Know that.

-Try not to be a hypocrite. I know it is

difficult, but do try, it’s you and your

nation at stake.

Are we heading for yet another hush?

(Weirdly, there are lulls after storms in

India, and we have perfected the art of

it.)

Or are we heading for a first-ever revolu-tion by the Indian masses? (Clearly, even

the Indian struggle for independence

was not united.)

1.2 billion Brains (and counting) to de-

cide. And there’s not much time.

— Tariq Hashmat Tauheed

BEING UP... Lovers of the English Language might

enjoy this. It is yet another example of why people learning English have trou-

ble with the Language learning. The nu-

ances of English make it a difficult lan-

guage. There’s a two letter word in Eng-

lish that perhaps has more meaning than any other two letter word. Well

this is- ‘UP’. It is listed in the dictionary

as being used as an (adv.), (pre.), (adj.),

n or v.

It’s easy to understand ‘up’, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list,

but when we awaken in the morning,

why do we wake up?

At a meeting, why does a topic come

‘up’? Why do we speak ‘up’, and why are

the policemen ‘up’ for elections and it is ‘up’ to a secretary to write ‘up’ a report?

We call ‘up’ our friends and we use bulb

to brighten ‘up’ a room, polish ‘up’ the

copper. We warm ‘up’ the leftovers and

clean ‘up’ the kitchen. We lock ‘up’ the house and some guys fix ‘up’ the old car.

At other times, the little word has a real

special meaning. People stir ‘up’ trouble,

line ‘up’ for tickets, work ‘up’ an appetite,

and think ‘up’ excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be

dressed ‘up’ is special. And this ‘up’ is

confusing. A drain must be opened ‘up’

because it was stopped ‘up’. We open ‘up’

a store in the morning but we close it ‘up’

at the night. We seem to be

pretty mixed ‘up’ about ‘up’!

To be knowledgeable about the proper

uses of ‘up’, look the word ‘up’ in the

dictionary. If you give ‘up’ to it, you

might try building ‘up’ a list of the many

ways ‘up’ is used. It will take ‘up’ a lot of your time, but if you don’t give ‘up’, you

may wind ‘up’ with a hundred or more.

When the sun comes out we say it is

cleaning ‘up’. When it rains it wets ‘up’

the earth. When it does not rain for a while, things dry ‘up’.

One could go on and on, but it’s time to

wrap it ‘up’, so time to shut ‘up’.

— Mohsin Shiraz

Recently about a month ago, the

‘honble. Supreme Court of India’ ad-monished a District Magistrate for re-

leasing an affidavit that there is no

manual scavenging in his district. Also,

Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of

Rural Development publicly apologized for the practice being followed even to-

day.

Even Bollywood star Amir Khan met

officials of Central Government de-

manding ban of such practice in the country after releasing a full episode on

social discrimination in the famous tel-

evision show ‘Satyamev Jayate’. These

incidents made me ashamed of being

called as an Indian (though I love my

nation).

I saw a documentary by Stalin in which

a girl was asked questions about her

experience in school. When asked if she

was fond of going to school, she an-

swered in affirmative but continued sor-rowfully that she had left school as she

was asked to sit on the last bench and

other classmates did not wish to sit be-

side her since her father was a manual

scavenger. She wanted to become a

nurse in future but ended with a des-perate as she was born in a socially

backward family or what we call as

states that ‘untouchability’ must be abol-

ished but I don’t find any reinforcement of it as a girl is asked to sit at the back

simply because none of her mates want

to maintain any sort of contact with her.

However, there has been a steep decrease

in social discrimination since independ-ence but still we find such cases in some

remote and rural areas and to some ex-

tent in urban areas too. Even while ap-

proaching to politicians and leaders of

their own community, they end up de-manding more reservations and nothing

else. But these reservations do help only

the ‘economically stronger section of a

socially weaker society.

The actual victims of these practices are yet waiting for the solution to their miser-

ies. Have we achieved fraternity- One of

the principal objectives of constitutional

frame? Well, I think definitely not. How

can we say that our society is fraternized

when one of our brothers/sisters carry our filth on his/her head. These people

lose their pride, respect and dignity as a

human being and are regarded as differ-

ent from others. They never enjoy a good

social status and respectful position in

society. The continuation of manual scavenging even in today’s time is a black

spot on us not only as the citizens of

India but also as a human being. This is

not only a nation’s problem but an inter-national problem related to human

rights. It has been acknowledged in pub-

lic meetings that manual scavenging is a

human rights issue and not about sani-

tation. Central system often states that this practice will soon be banned and we

will soon be residing in a Nirmal Bharat,

but it continues. There have been many

deadlines for eradicating this practice;

one such deadline was March31, 2010.

Deadlines were reached and left behind and manual scavengers continue their

work. It is estimated that around 13 lac.

people from ‘dalit’ communities contin-

ued to be employed as manual scaven-

gers across the country- in private homes, in community dry latrines of mu-

nicipality, in railways, hotels, etc.

The best way to overcome this problem

is the enforcement of strict laws against

it by the government. There should be a strict provision of punishment for those

who indulge people in such inhuman

occupation. At last, there must be an

innate feeling from every individual’s

heart for abolishing these practices and

dignifying the individuality of manual scavengers.

—Ankur Gautam

Burying Humanity in Human Waste

“I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens’. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try.” — Nikki Giovanni

Paradox

You are walking

But if you had to stop, when would you?

Or where indeed, walking

All this while for that something

Albeit never achieved.

You converse But if there was only one question at

stake

What would you ask?

Or WOULD you ask?

Contemplate

Is the question and answer not the same?

Pursuing soul, to seek and to find

If there was one final place

The beginning and end and everything

in space Would it be real or in your mind?

O poet,

Romantic, detached, and all grace,

If there was one face In your perfect mirror

Would your beloved had resided,

Or your flawless image?

Your mind crowded

With a million possibilities But if in its silence emerges one word

Just one word

Would it be a plea?

Or God’s very command

To Be…

You born, you die, Laugh and cry.

One fact accepted

One illusion rejected

Though both are same and one

One life Can I question it?

— Anam Akhter

What It Is Not. Or Is. Or Should Be.

I read this a few days back and could

not stop thinking about it. Of course, I had to tell someone why. The genera-

tion I am a part of seems to be pretty

unabashed about our opinions. So,

here it goes.

You see, the last thing that many peo-ple have on their minds when they

think of love is ‘love’ itself. They think of

attachment, desire, lust, obsession…

However, what we fail to do is embrace

the all-consuming feeling that love is. My Dad once told me, in an e-mail

(Bless that wise old man) – “You should

trust yourself, have faith and believe in

the goodness of love. The feeling of

lightness that comes with it will let you

soar high and then you won’t need to fear walking on eggshells.”

Isn’t that the truth? We’re all just afraid

of what it does to us. Why should we

put someone else’s needs ahead of

ours? We think of losing ourselves or our individuality like that. Fair enough.

But, did you see their faces when they

are that happy? When you gave away that

last slice of pizza? When you waltzed in at 2 am with the sandwich that they’d need-

ed for a while? I know my references are

all food related, but I guess to me – Love

is giving away your favorite food just as to

share the awesomeness with someone you love or care.

We think love will walk through the door

along with the autumn winds when we’re

all bushy-tailed and beautiful, saying,

“HOTDAYUUMMM GURRRL!” As much as I would love to say that happens too, love

could also walk in and just say Hello.

That starts things. Well, just saying.

I could Ted/Love Actually/Dumbledore

on this post and say the most eloquent and idealistic things about love and the

strange things it makes you feel, but I

guess the article I cited here has already

done that for me.

I guess I also had to write this because I disagree with one main point it makes: ‘If

it hurts, it’s not love.’

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP.

Love is painful. It comes in bites, shoves,

pushes-and-pulls, sure. The worst that

love can give you is seeing their face

when they lose something. That’s the

moment when you want to collect all the

shiny things in the world to distract them, wish you had seriously considered

Clown College and hope musicals were

right when they said you could fix it with

a kiss and a song.

I wrote this too, some time back. I am nowhere close to the answer yet. But, till

I know, I’ll just wait here. I’m a girl like

that. When he reads this someday, I

know he’ll say, “Did you actually have

the time to think up of all that?” and laugh as he sips on that blasted cup of

coffee I made him though I hate coffee so

much.

Sigh. Love…

— Hera Khwaja

The “baby girl” is buried alive, again.

Her Crime - ‘she is a GIRL’. She is among the many million girls who have

sacrificed their lives, giving the living

ones a chance to prove themselves

again. The machine predicts it’s a girl

and the family wants her dead. Why? What possible omen can the innocent

baby bring to their family? Had the girl

survived she would have grown into a

beautiful lady, nurturing and caring for

her family; she couldn’t possibly harm

in any way! But she wasn’t even given a chance. God alone knows the noble

cause behind the evil job. But nothing

can be nobler than “saving” the baby

girl. Oh yes, the social evil “dowry”;

that’s the reason of her death. Lame, that’s a crime in itself. Who are these

murderers? Don’t they know that the

‘DEVI’ is a female; the mother is a wom-

an;(SHE) Prathiba Patil, Sunita Wil-

liams, Kiran Bedi, Madhubala, Saina

and numerous many are all ladies who have proved themselves .

Blessed is the house which has a lady.

Life is not possible without her. Today, she is at par with men, in fact better.

She deserves kindness, love and above

all humanity. Well, she doesn’t even get

that. At least not from what the census

speaks off. Money has its value, but not above a ‘human’. “She” is a God’s gift.

How can the mother let others kill her

baby? Mother is supposed to uncondi-

tionally love her babies and protect

them. Well, the human species can be

very unpredictable. While ‘Oprah’ is in-vesting in girl’s education in Africa, here

these fools are brutally killing them, if

not, then at least making life miserable

for them. What do they want? A male

dominant society with no ladies. Well deep down even they know that, if all the

baby girls were supposedly dead, the

world would end in no time as there is

NO LIFE without women!

— Taleya Fatima Bilgrami

SHE

“I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life..” — Eleanor Roosevelt

Why is it always assumed that a boy and girl

who share a close friendship will fall for each other, or one for another; but two people of

the same gender can be completely platonic

for infinity? It really feels strange when I

listen to a statement like “A Guy and Girl

Cannot Be Friends”, what is this notion all about? Think of all close relationships one has in

life. Were we born loving our family? No, even

that time we didn’t knew, what the word

‘love’ meant, we started sharing our life and

spending time together and built an unbreakable family bond. Friendship also

grows in a similar fashion. When we share

our life and spend time with a best friend, we

build an unbreakable bond of a lifetime.

Everyone develops their friendship in a

different way. Sometimes friends are family. Sometimes we love them just as friends,

not in any romantic way, not in a family

way, but just as a friend. But still people stick to the same old

notion and I guess they have a reason. Now-

adays many boys & girls use the name of

friendship with the concealed motive or feel of love within them. And this is something

that’s spoiling the true essence of friendship,

something that is giving a reason to the

society to comment on actual friends. If you

really think your love is true, then you

would never need to fake it with the

name of friendship. If you pretend to be

someone’s friend with the hopes of more, you

might prefer stopping it right there. If who you think you love and who might love you

back talks to you & shares feelings & prob-

lems with you, it does not mean that there’s

any fairy-tale love between the two of you.

Don’t take their feelings otherwise. Don’t

jump to conclusions. You are just a good

friend, nothing more, nothing less. And still

if you think you are soul mates and are

meant to be together, you will definitely

be, but not just by your timetables or

stupid plans, but by Fate's. On another note; nowadays many people

think that having a boyfriend/girlfriend is an

important and necessary status symbol. And to get this status they use all the possible

cheap deals. Plenty of guys like to parade

their trophy girlfriend on their arm and proud of being looked up to as a man who's

been able to capture a lady. They need a

partner not to share their feelings but only

for the sake of show off. To all such people I

would just say “Showing off is the fool's

idea of glory”. Stop living your lives on the others parameters, it’s your life and you must decide what you have to do, just

because your whole group has girlfriends/

boyfriends doesn’t make the same

compulsory over you. Get a life, don’t do this to yourself, be honest with yourself at least! Lastly, I don’t know why we all tend to label

relationships? It has to be either 'this' or

‘that’; it has to be 'Nothing' or 'Love'. Life is

not just about the black and white; but

it’s about the many shades of gray in

between. According to me Friendship is

much more divine than love, because love is

being close and knowing each other & sharing everything. Friendship is also the

same with a lot many restrictions &

limitations, and maintaining those

restrictions 'naturally' is the most divine

task. So the normal scenario,

Hi-----Can we be friends?-----Can we be best friends?----Can we be lovers?"

Should be changed now. Changed to what???

Well that I leave for you to decide…!!

Ye aaj mera vatan kaisa ho gaya............... Logon ka Zameer jane kaha kho gaya........ Har jagah phela bhrashtachar hai.......... Aaj is vatan mein jeena bhi dushwar hai. Dharm aur eeman kaha kho gaya.............. Ye aaj mera vatan kaisa ho gaya............... Kisi roz ye vatan veeron ki bhumi tha....... Par aaj ye shaitano ka gulistan hai......... Deshbhakti ka lahu safed ho gaya .......... Ye aaj mera vatan kaisa ho gaya.............. Na koi veer hai na veerangana................ Har jagah kayaron ka raj ho gaya............ Ye aaj mera vatan kaisa ho gaya............... Aey desh ke yuva ab uth bhi ja................ Apni khyalon ki duniya se tu bahar aa.... Apni shakti se ab desh ko bacha.............. Veeron ko dekhe ....zamana ho gaya......... Ye aaj mera vatan kaisa ho gaya………......

YE AAJ MERA VATAN KAISA HO GAYA..?

By:-

And cut my call abruptly! I drained all the coffee;

Ate some spicy chips; Put on some energetic musics!

To keep me struggling- like a soldier! But alas!

I was no longer conscious; All my brain nerves were jammed.

I nearly concluded; This is false engineering! With future depending;

On grades of college.! The morning came;

While the birds were singing and chirping; I hated their happiness!

As I was stuck; In a dying position!

Just then papa came; And said;

"Beta! do your very best in today's paper and score high!"

I was speechless!!! I showed this Accident!

To one of my (then) friend; Now I share with you all;

My Exam's Night @ college!

It was the night before my 2nd endsems, And all through the college;

The students were sweating out; For the last minute knowledge.

I was quite sleepy; With Red-Eyes; But my head;

Didn't touch my bed. Because all the stuffs of notes;

Danced in my head. I had been cramming, and mugging;

The expected equations and questions; I stared my notes for the 1st time;

And counted the number of pages left; The only word came out of my shivering lips;

BAAP REYY ! My eyes went Blurred!!

I just couldn't study. Just then I turned towards Clock;

"Mr.Clock; You always walk slow in normal days; Why you hurry and trouble me so much

nowadays?!!" I also felt;

God would be kind enough to help me; The next day!!

I phoned my friend; To inquire his progress.

He was also speechless!! His nose in his books;

"Exam's Night @ College"

By:-

By:-

Geetanjali Sengar

BARQQ— Sparks of Ingenuity

on the dates 19th and 20th of January. It

contained numerous events which ex-ploited both physical as well as mental

workability of a human being. The star

events were: Ignesia – the paper presenta-

tion competition, Nova’nate – the project

presentation competition, Cyborg – Ro-botic Events, The Technopreneur and

Evocomania.

Well, the fest was not just a ‘technical’

event; it had a number of fun events

which engrossed the younger students and kids. It would not be justified if we

say that even the senior students didn’t

enjoy these events. 60 seconds to win,

MAD, Koppel, Beat the clock were there

to name a few. Also, there were events to

test the IQ, GK, literary and orating capa-bilities of the youth. To name some of

them, there were: Enigme, Megamind,

Exprimere, Tech Charade, Calligraphy,

Word Chain, Scrabulary, etc. And the

event which stood out unique and ob-served a hefty participation was Gaming

Rage, the LAN gaming event. A T-shirt

painting event was also organized as a

part of promotion and to help the needy,

with the help of the Human’s Pride Or-

ganization. The event involved participa-tion from the school students as well as

from the other faculties. In short, this

event was the highlight of ‘Barqq’.

This fest, unlike most of the other fests,

gave stress at the online events. It was totally focused on fun. The participation

and response which we got took us to the

seventh Trollsta, Faking News, Coverage,

For the first time, the students’ branch

of IEEE (AMU) took an initiative which was a long foot forward both in terms of

taking the name of IEEE to a higher

limit and also giving a chance to young

creative minds to do something extra

ordinary. It was the college fest named ‘BARQQ’, which attracted students from

the whole university and also from the

outside college. The retort was whoop-

ing, the participation was overwhelm-

ing; it was surely a treat to get such a

response after working so much for an event to happen successfully.

For us, the organizers, it was a dream,

an oasis of hope, a souvenir of the life

which we constrained.

‘Barqq – sparks of ingenuity’, was a

technical fest which took place in the

premises of Zakir Husain College of En-

gineering and Technology and was held

Your app idea!, Conundrum, etc. For the

first time, we were able to publicize the fest through the online sources, on such

a large scale.

We had events which were part of the

Google program headed by Sidhika

Varshney. There were 5 events in all – Google Doodle (the T-shirt painting Com-

petition) and Geek-o-Google which be-

longed to the offline category. Moreover,

Snap+, Applicious and Talentizing were

among the online cut. This Google Pro-gram helped us a lot in terms of publici-

ty.

This fest would have not been suc-

cessfully organized without the valu-

able support of : Prof. Mukhtar Ah-mad, Prof. Ekram Husain, Prof.

Ekram Khan, Prof. Hamid Sir, Nabeel

Bhai and Tayyab Bhai. The permis-

sions, the grants, the Duas were of

immense needs.

The organizing team comprised of Mohd. Owais Khan, Hamza Bin Masood, Syed Saad Anwer, Mohd. Asaad, Mohd. Asif, Mohd. Ahmed Khan and Sidhika varsh-ney. At the last but not the least, BARQQ team would like to thank the juniors and volunteers who were simply outstanding in their work. We are greatly moved and thankful to all the event heads and the photography team, especially Areeb Ali, who dedicated their time and hearts for a succeful happening of this fest.

Source/Courtesy: BARQQ TEAM

“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.”

— Maureen Dowd

Mirror Team:

Anukrati Singh, Rizwana Ahmed, Raghav Sharma, Abhinav Jain, Nikhil Tiwari, Shwetank Saxena, Devansh Sharma, Ashu Saini, Priyanshu Kumar, Mohit Agarwal, Vishal Gupta

Contact Us:

E-mail: feedbackthemirror@gmail.com

Join Us At Facebook :- Like the Page: TheMirror@zhcet

JOIN THE MIRROR TEAM

If you wish to serve others by providing them the news around your campus in a unique

and interesting way, and if you simply believe

in doing your work without demanding any

credit then "THE MIRROR"... is for you.

You can Fill The Form Online @ http://tinyurl.com/aovkxz4

ou You can visit this link from our Facebook group or Page.

For details contact :

Shwetank Saxena: 8899301399

Abhinav Jain: 8439091588

Rizwana Ahmed

Join the group “THE MIRROR”

Scan This Q.R. Code To Visit The

WEBSITES FOR FUN:

EDUCATIONAL Websites:

The National Programme on Technology

Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) is a Govern-

ment of India sponsored collaborative ed-

ucational programme. By developing cur-

riculum-based video and web courses the

programme aims to enhance the quality of

engineering education in India. It is being

jointly carried out by 7 IITs and IISc Ban-

galore, and is funded by the Ministry of

Human Resources Development of

the Government of India.

Courses are present on almost all the top-

ics. The course videos are available in

streaming mode, and may also be down-

loaded for viewing offline. The video files

are also view-able via the IIT Channel

on Youtube.

Visit the above useful site at:

http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/

Coursera is a for-profit educational

technology company founded by com-

puter science professors Andrew

Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford

University. Coursera partners with vari-

ous universities and makes a few of their

courses available online; free for a large

audience. The website provides free

online courses in the fields of Computer

Science; Healthcare, Medicine, and Biolo-

gy; Society, Networks, and Information;

Humanities and Social Science; Mathe-

matics and Statistics; and Economic, Fi-

nance, and Business Each course in-

cludes short video lectures on different

topics and assignments to be submitted,

usually on a weekly basis.

Check this out at :

https://www.coursera.org/

Audio cassettes, floppy disks, typewriters

and phones with cords; what do these

items have in common? They have all van-

ished and been replaced by digital technol-

ogy. But they're certainly not forgotten.

This site, which is actually a YouTube

channel with a specialized design, provides

short films with creepy computer voiceo-

vers to keep you and future generations

fully informed about what society used in

days of yore.

Check this out at :

http://www.youtube.com/mooojvm

Wondering what the most critically

acclaimed novels are in science fiction

and fantasy, so you don't read some

clunker? Adam Doppelt curates this

site with lists by author, title, series,

and awards (like the Nebula and Hugo

and more) to show you who's worth

reading, from the 1950s to today.

Check this out at:

http://www.bestsfbooks.com/

EVENTS ORGANIZED BY THE

MIRROR:

CREATIVE WRITING COMPETITION (In association with

Carpe-Diem)— WINNERS: 1ST –Manav Jain

2ND –Ankur Gautam

3RD –Geetanjali Sengar

SCRABULARY (Under Barqq)—

WINNERS: 1ST -Kushagra Kumar

2ND -Tabiya Ahmed

WORD CHAIN (Under Barqq)—

WINNERS: 1ST -Saad Mohammed and Rayed Qamar MBBS

2ND - Syed Asim and Akansha Gupta

Dr. Samar Ansari (Fac. Adv.– The Mirror) awarding the winners.

When you need step-by-step instruc-

tions For just about anything, visit

Instructables. It's the ultimate DIY

site for everything from cooking to

building rockets, complete with imag-

es, diagrams, and even videos. The

content is user-provided, so you can

post your own Instructable on what-

ever it is you make best.

Check this out at:

http://www.instructables.com/

I f y o u ’ r e n o t p o s i t i v e

what mendicant, indite and fugacious mea

n, Vocabulary.com is here to help. The site

beefs up your word power with more than 40,000 multiple-choice questions and re-

fines its choices as it learns about your

knowledge of the English language. Then

it patiently returns to words you missed

until you get them right. Additional features include a dictionary, a word

blog and a section that lets users create

and share vocabulary lists, like “100 SAT

W o r d s B e g i n n i n g w i t h ‘ A . ’

Check out at : http://www.vocabulary.com