Binding through Football

The students of 1 MAMCS and 3 MAMCS went head to head in a friendly throwball match held at the Dharmaram ground in the games hour from 3pm-4pm. 3 MAMCS emerged victorious in a game that was filled with moments of excitement and thrill as both teams produced commendable performances.
In the two-set tie, 3 MAMCS gathered early momentum with some excellent serves delivered by Shireen Honmode, Keya Christiena and Kavya B. As the set progressed, 1 MAMCS showed resilience and determination to reduce the margin and put the game in balance. However, due to the well co-ordinated effort of 3 MAMCS in the critical concluding points of the first set, they bagged the first set 20-16.
In the second set, 3MAMCS set the tempo as Abhoy Talukdar’s rifling returns caused trouble for 1 MAMCS players, but they quickly got back on level terms owing to some brilliant catches and serves from Anitha Jacques and Shreya Shetty. However, 1 MAMCS seemed to run out of fuel as they were eventually overtaken by 3 MAMCS who won 20-14 in the second set.
The highlight of the match was the majority participation of girls who shined and showcased their talent on the court. The match was played in a positive spirit and players from both teams revelled as their reflexes were tested. The atmosphere was electric as students of MAMCS cheered from the sidelines. The players were provided refreshments after the game was finished.

A workshop of Content

A YouTube creator contest was organised by Danuon in collaboration with Centre for Digital Innovation. A few days prior to the contest there was a workshop that was conducted for two days and two different batch of students from the media department that included at least 30 students in each batch attended and benefitted from the workshop. The workshop included prepping the students to post videos and gave them a lot of insights on how YouTube works. A platform where anybody can post videos and a chance to create content. The students also could experience and learn a lot about Virtual Reality, they were each given a VR glass to experience the virtual world. The workshop not only taught the students what they needed to know but they were also put to a practical test, they gave each student an android tablet, the students were assigned an activity, they were to go around the campus and shoot and edit a short video, the theme or the type of video was left to them, they had to put on their creative cap on and shoot. Apart from the workshop they also conducted two different competitions on two different days, the first one was a non-fiction story-based script writing contest, the participants were expected to write a script that which would support a 2-minute video. The second competition consisted of making a less than 3-minute video suitable to upload on YouTube, the organizers were of great help, they supported the students and helped them throughout with their assistance in shooting, editing as well as giving tips to render a better-quality video. There were a fair number of at least 15-20 participants and the winners were awarded generously, there were 6 winners for the video-making contest and 3 winners for the script-writing contest. It was a great opportunity to learn about the possibilities of a platform where we view videos everyday and also to grow individually to create content that makes us feel content.

Let’s bring them to alive—Puppetry Workshop

According to Les Coleman, “Puppets go to sleep the moment they break free from their strings.”
A one-day workshop was organized by the media department for the 2MAMCS Students as per part of their course plan in which they learnt a lot about puppetry history, also making one of them by using basic materials like the cardboard, black KG cardboard, bamboo sticks, threads and waste cloth. The workshop was extensive on the design, as in teams’ students created, while the puppets were done, the team of professionals trained us with synchronization of the puppet actions and the throw of voice.
History of Puppetry
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performance is also known as a puppet play. The puppeteer uses movements of her hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to move the body, head, limbs, and in some cases the mouth and eyes of the puppet.
India has a long tradition of puppetry. In the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata, there are references to puppets. The string puppets of Karnataka are called Gombeyatta. They are styled and designed like the characters of Yakshagana, the traditional theatre form of the region. The Gombeyatta puppet figures are highly stylized and have joints at the legs, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. These puppets are manipulated by five to seven strings tied to a prop.
According to Mr. Upendra, Puppetry is an art in which a person makes anything look alive. He added, the intensity brought out in these performances create a powerful illusion of life in these puppets which leaves the audience in awe of this art form. The puppeteer transcends his life into these puppets which is indeed magical.

–Rhythm Gupta
Photography—Abhijith Nair
Students found it very interesting in doing this workshop, Rishabh Sharma one the student said, this is a platform where unexpressive students can also express what they want to say and another Atulya Nair thanked professionals for such great experience and said this powerful medium of communication can make anyone understand things easily.

Trip to the The Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary, Chikmagalur.

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The Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary is situated in the midst of the Western Ghats in Chikmagalur and Shimoga districts of Karnataka. It is about 275 km from Bangalore and 38 km from Chikmagalur town. Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment. As a part of our curriculum to understand and experience nature on a wider perspective, we were taken to the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. We made an overnight journey on the 28th of February 2019 and reached the Sanctuary at around 4.00AM on the 1st of March 2019. We kept ourselves warm to beat the cold and were gazing at the bright twinkling stars and were waiting for our watches to tick 7.30AM for the forest officials to arrive.

We quickly got refreshed and began the day by visiting the museum there. Mr Padmakumar, the Head of Media Department, explained to all of us the history of the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. He also shared his valuable knowledge on wildlife, nature and the environment. The lush green vegetation and lofty hill ranges were so beautiful and spectacular. The wildlife sanctuary is called so after the Bhadra River which flows through the lush forests. The lush green vegetation of the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary consists of mostly moist and dry deciduous forests.

Mr Bharath who is fiercely protective of the wildlife and forests of Chikmagalur and neighbouring areas in Karnataka took all of us on a trip around the sanctuary. While on a nature walk, he explained to us the differences between protected and unprotected forests. He told us about the variety of trees that were rooted in the soil since long time. The most exciting part of the day was the 2-hour safari in the Sanctuary. The safari was one of those silent trips that had enthralled all of us. We were amazed and startled with every encounter of animals like the Sambar Deer, Elephants, Gaurs, Giant Malabar Squirrels, Langoor Monkeys, Jungle Fowls and a variety of teeny-tiny butterflies and birds.

With these fond memories of those mesmerizing encounter of animals and a mini trek to the woods, we thanked the forest officials, Mr Bharath, Mr Padmakumar, Mr Meljo Thomas and left for Bangalore.

-Akhileshwari

Influence is Key

 

The students of 2MAMCS attended a guest lecture by Dr. David L Hamilton. He is an expert in the field of Social Psychology and graduated with a degree in Masters in Social Work from the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

He engaged the students with his knowledge about the types of Influence. He shared his experiences in the field of social work and how he overcame certain obstacles. He conveyed his contributions to his society and his experience with research. In his session, he shared with us the types of leadership according to G Yuki from Leadership in Organisations, which included topics like persuasion, reward, information distortion, situational engineering and decision identification. He shared some examples about these types, that were practical and situations that happen on a day to day basis.

The lecture was interactive and engaging, providing us with information about how to create an influential personality trait among all of us. Dr. Hamilton shared some interesting analogies that made us understand that anyone can be an influencer, through the different techniques he shared with us. The session concluded with questions and answers, giving us a clearer understanding of the same.

AKAB – for making changes

 

The experience at 6:10 Block 4 indeed gave a hint of how change making is possible with providing the students with Awareness about the lift etiquette. It was done through spreading the Knowledge about the technique that should be used by demonstrating it to students standing in the queue for the lift.

The whole process of change will only be successful when the Attitude towards the approach of getting in the lift would change. Since it was the peak time, there was long queues for the lift. So the students can be easily shown that how so many people are standing in the line and more can get it at once if we change the attitude about it and think of others too so as to bring about a positive change. The Behaviour change will come about when it will come in daily practice of people using the lift. The behavioral changes is assured I feel looking over the efforts the security staff were giving in spreading the message. They were all also informed about the same and they were very helpful in making people do it in action after hearing and watching us as we demonstrate the technique.

I feel with a little continued reminder of this thing we can bring about a change in whole University system. And not just University but also when we go out anywhere and we will be going to corporates, Christites will be standing out with the social behaviour they have been known for, for things as basic as lift etiquettes.

We could see the changes in the pattern of people standing in the elevator. They could fit more people than before it all because of the change in holding positions. Eventually, we could make it spread among a large number of people. The change in attitude and behaviour would take a little longer to change but the awareness and the dissemination of knowledge was well done

 

Peepli Live

With the fifth edition of transtalkies, the department of Media and Communication saw a thought provoking movie “Peepli Live”.

Transtalkies is a part of the curriculum that makes the media students ponder over issues through media criticism after they are shown various movies belonging to different genres.

This is done in order to polish their analysing skills and to make them better media critiques with substantial understanding of media.

We were “Peepli live” directed by Anusha Rizvi and Mahmood Farooqui which revolves around the very grave and crucial Isis of farmer suicides taking the country by the storm.

The movie proved to be extremely thought provoking and had us on our toes.

The event saw Dr Rose Merin from the department of English as the guest. Held in the media lab, the movie session was followed by discussions over farmer suicides and the political agendas during the elections pertaining to the same in order to bag votes and funds.

Dr. Rose Merin put her perspective on the movie and helped us see it through the eyes of a critique.

To summarise, the session went successfully with varied arguments coming from the students during the succession.

Report – Priyadarshni Bishnoi
Photography – Athul David

Kids Who Kode

Purna Mukesh and Shweta Mukesh, the brains behind “Kids Who Kode” delivered an awe-inspiring talk about coding and informed us as to how it isn’t just for the nerds.Purna Mukesh is an educator and an entrepreneur who believes that education can change the world while, Shweta Mukesh is a marketing wiz who believes that small things can change the world.  The talk was organised on the 07th of February by Fr. Biju.

Kids Who Kode (KWK) is an organisation that works for the technological development of underprivileged children. They partner with affordable private schools to teach every child the basics of computers. A 3 months bootcamp is organised for the students to code and create websites. It starts from the basics of computer science and ends with website creation. During these bootcamps, the kids get to interact with Tech gurus from various leading companies, who share their knowledge on technology and coding. Companies collaborate with KWK for guest lectures, field trips and student mentorship.

At present, the teaching, learning and follow-ups are all facilitated and monitored by a group of volunteers. KWK has adopted 3 schools and about 2000 children have consumed the fruit of their reap. The children not just attain computer knowledge but are also trained for the development of soft skills as well.

At the end of their talk, Shweta and Purna Mukesh proposed to the students of II MAMCS to work with KWK and bring a change to the part of the society that is always sidelined.

The vote of thanks was delivered by Aditi Bhutda at the end on behalf of all the students of II MAMCS. The session was truly inspiring and motivating.

• Niharika P V

WeWork- An Unconventional Vision

A visit to WeWork, a coworking and office space was organised for the students of 4MAMCS as a part of their Entrepreneurship project. It was a beautiful, huge building that aims at creating suitable environment for innovations, productivity and connections. It works towards transforming a company into a community unveiling the potential of people and organisations. With its extremely warm hospitality and an exceptionally well designed interior, it enables the teams to put in their best efforts. Professor Vedantan and Professor Ashok made the students understand how the world of entrepreneurship works and how people who seek to become entrepreneurs get benefitted from a space like WeWork.

A complete tour of the place was then given to the students in order to understand its working and the facilities provided. In addition to this a session on Digital Marketing by the CEO of a very successful company ‘Being The Parent’ was highly enriching as it made the students aware of how the digital marketing industry works. He also shared knowledge about the various digital trends that are prominently prevailing in the market. His own life experiences and his journey of being an entrepreneur and a digital marketer despite of being a B.com graduate was really exciting and inspirational. He managed to answer all the queries of the students and imparted great knowledge on the aspects the students hadn’t studied before. Overall it was an immensely insightful visit and once in a lifetime experience for all the students.

    -Harmeet Kaur

One with Nature

The industrial visit for II MAMCS on 5.02.2019 was organised at GPS Institute of Agriculture Management, located on the outskirts of Bengaluru, with the intention of learning about the nuances of basic agriculture and the developments in the field, during a span of about 5 hours.

The institute spread out over many acres of land houses many smaller plots for farming various kinds of vegetable, along with an organic manure production unit under the brand name of Annapurna and the unit produces about different types of organic manure- including Coirpith, Castor powder, Neem powder and vermicompost- most of which is exported around the world, including Japan. Dr.Prabhakar- who was our guide for the day, explained how vermicompost and other manures are produced in large quantities. He also briefed on the usual costs of production and how much the brand sells it for as compared to the actual market price. He later explained a little about the business aspects of it and how in this business it is all about turning “trash into cash”.

We then moved onto learning the basics of sowing a seed and nurturing it into a fully grown plant- including the components of the Media- which consists of soil and its components like- coco peat (helps in holding moisture), organic manure (for nourishment) and mud/soil for anchoring the plant. We also were explained as to how vermicompost is created and how the earthworm acts as the most important media and the business of selling the manure. Learning about Polyhouse protected cultivation was the most interesting part of the day where we understood why protected cultivation prevents a lot of pests and diseases.

Technology was evidently, being utilised by the institute they had engaged drones to oversee the proper watering of plants and harmless fertilisation. The institute also houses a sheeps and poultry- inside which was a small area for hydroponic farming- where maize was being grown without the use of soil and careful use of water under constant observation (the resultant crop was being used as fodder for the sheep or the cows in the dairy farm). The day ended with a ride back to the boarding point, on the back of a small truck.

Report by: Gopika Krishnan
Photographs: Minni