Condom Ads and the Refugee Crisis

In the land where chowmein, non-vegetarian food, jeans and mobile phones are the leading causes of rape, we have yet another theory that has emerged: Condom ads! If an ad about a product that encourages safe sex is going to provoke people to indulge in forced sex, the next thing we should be banning are motorcycle ads. Surely they are provoking people to get onto them and go chain-snatching. Or maybe even telecom company ads should be banned. They advertise faster internet, which the youth will use to download porn at a much faster speed than ever before. And apparently watching porn causes rape. Here’s a crazy idea- Ban ads altogether! I would say this is the most ridiculous of all outlandish theories, despite chowmein being in the list! We are a country of over 1.2 billion people. Should we really be hating condom ads? Condom ads are what we need the most! In fact we should draft a new policy making it mandatory for at least one condom ad to be showed during every commercial break. The condom campaign should be revived. We need people to use condoms while doing morally wrong things they learnt by watching american films the nasty.

Remember this condom campaign?

On a serious note, we have a humongous refugee crisis going on in Europe. The entire world was shaken when the body of a young child, Aylan Kurdi, was washed ashore on the beach of a Turkish resort.

The image that shook the world

All this boy wanted was a childhood. He was running away from the war happening in his homeland. He was on his way to Greece to seek asylum when his boat capsized. He did not deserve to die in the cold water due to human indifference. I know I am nobody to comment on what European nations should or shouldn’t be doing. But I do know this, humanity has failed this little boy. May you rest in peace Aylan. I hope you are in a much better place up there. You can check out other disturbing images of this refugee situation by clicking here. I’m not easily  affected by stupid things like emotions, but some of the pictures I saw moved me to tears. Humanity can do much better than this.

Rohan Parekh

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Rotaract Club of Bombay Film City is just in time to celebrate with The Campus Box!

Dating is weird. Not long ago all the guys in my group were dating and it was hilarious to see the kind of weird ass shit they had to do for their girlfriends to get laid to communicate their love. One ritual, which I could never quite comprehend was celebrating their dating anniversary….wait for it….MONTHLY! Not just the first month, but the second, third, fourth….. You get the point. I tried explaining that an ANNIversary ceases to be an ANNIversary if it isn’t celebrated ANNUALLY, but it was like pouring water on a rock. Not only do they wish each other, they expect third party members to participate in this ludicrous ceremony as well. On the 15th of every month, at exactly 12:01 a.m. (giving me 60 seconds leeway) I get a “Wish me” from my best friend. It has gotten so bad that whenever she abuses me at 12 a.m. I just wish her “Happy Anniversary” to be on the safe side. She absolutely lost her shit when I did this once and it happened to be her birthday, but that is a tale for another time. The reason I am talking about the monthly celebration is because The Campus Box turned 1 month old a few days ago on 30th August, 2015. Woohoooooooo! We have Rotaract Club of Bombay Film City (RCBF) as the newest member of our family to celebrate with us. But who are these mysterious beings and why do they care about us? Lets find out!

Rotaract is an international organization for the youth in the age category of 18 through 30 years, who believe they can make a difference. The purpose of Rotaract is to provide an opportunity for young men and women to enhance knowledge and skills that will assist them in professional development, to address the physical and social needs of their communities, and to promote better relations amongst all people worldwide through a framework of friendship and service.

RCBF is a youth wing of Rotary Club of Bombay Film City and  was charted in the year 2000 on 23rd February. As we can see, the club is a teenager itself. These kids young adults mainly focus on bettering education, youth empowerment, rural development and media revolution. If you have too much time in life and want, you can check out their entire history by clicking here. Okay so here’s a bunch of people with a mission just like the serial killer Jigsaw, but for a good cause. Why the hell is The Campus Box writing about them? They aren’t a college festival! Well dumbfucks if you read our first blog post properly, this blog is dedicated to keeping you informed of interesting stuff happening around and college festivals aren’t the only things happening. RCBF conducts engaging activities throughout the year, right from rural upliftment programs to fashion shows. Whether you’re a nature freak or a tharki fashion enthusiast, they have something for you. Also, The Campus Box happens to be their Blogging Partner! (How cool is that?)

The club’s theme is “Zeal For Zenith”, which shows just how dedicated they are and how they strive to be the best at what they do! With a vision of the future like Steve Jobs and dedication for excellence like Milkha Singh, this group of youngster’s is going to do wonders! So why not join them and do a few wonders of your own? Click here to apply and become a part of RCBF and give your contribution to the betterment of society. While you guys do that I’m going to go enjoy The Campus Box‘s 1st month birthday. In this ever changing world where a million things happen everyday, you never know what will last how long. One should take pleasure in all of life’s small joys. Maybe this is why my friends cherish every month of the relationship? Kal Ho Na Ho? #InsecuritiesOfLife

Rohan Parekh

If you liked this article and want to stay updated with our latest posts, like The Campus Box on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Joule 3.0

Sometimes, life gives you lemons and you go make lemonade. Other times you use the same lemons to go have tequila shots. But sometimes, life squirts that lemon into your eyes, pours the tequila down your nose and kicks you in the nuts. No prizes for guessing which of these three situations my life is on, at this point. I never expected life without a mobile phone to be this bad, but it turns out that a phone smartphone has become a natural extension of us; it is the exterioration of our nervous system. “I phone, therefore I am” is much closer to the truth than we’d like to admit (the iPhone pun was purely coincidental). Despite wanting to cry myself to sleep right now because my phone won’t start, I’m going to write about my Joule experience this year. #ContractualObligations

Jokes apart, Joule 3.0 has been a fantastic experience. Despite being just 3 years old and having a very limited space for holding events, they managed to attract such a huge crowd with 23 contingents participating in full force and a few more! With a total of 23 celebrities, Joule has come a long way from where it started. Some of the events deserve a special mention:

1. Campus Princess

This was the very first event I attended because I’m a guy that was one of the very first ones to start. Pardon me for being crass, but the chicks were HOT! Coming from an engineering college I do tend to be generous with the adjective; but these were at a whole different level altogether ❤

The Winners with Mr. and Miss India 2014

2. Mock It Up

Mock It Up was basically a movie spoof competition. The first word of the event’s name could easily have been changed to a certain 4 letter word which is the most versatile word in the English language. Also it rhymes with “duck”. But lets use the word “screw” for now and blame the festival’s PR head for the censorship on this post. Anyways, the reason it could be renamed to screw it up is because participants actually managed to screw up already screwed up movies (it sounds much better when you replace “screw” with…..). Due respect to the hosts who did their best to keep up the enthusiasm in the room, but there wasn’t much they could do when they had participants who brought full-length movies and would then attempt to spoof it. One team tried to do something like Pretentious Movie Reviews. Correction: They did exactly a pretentious movie review; and by that I mean that they downloaded the original video, and edited out every scene of Kanan and Biswa. But how did I come to know they used the exact same footage? Brilliant question! That is because, every time before they edited out the Kanan and Biswa scene, for one whole second, and I shit you not, you could see Kanan and Biswa on screen! Kudos to their editing!

Kya editing hai!

3. J.A.M.

Those who know me know that I have a soft spot in my heart for J.A.M. When the JAM master wanted 2 volunteers from the crowd to participate, I grabbed onto the opportunity. And I won! I screwing (again, replace “screw” with….) won! Although the win had more to do with the participating contingents who the JAM master described as the most “demented, deranged and insane participants” he had ever seen. Also, did I mention I won?

JAM master Hormuz Ragina

4. Beaumonde

Fancy name for a fashion show in which one team had to actually use newspapers to make their dresses. Joule seems to have taken the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan a little too seriously when they decided to give this as one of the themes. They would’ve been like “Kyun na beghar logo ke kapde mein fashion sense daalte hai? Newspapers se kapde banayenge! #CouldNotFindASuitableHashtag”. I would pay good money to see some rich kid roaming around in that (not Lady Gaga though. Lady Gaga is above the fashion trends of us mortals). But fashion show was awesome, wonderful teams with wonderful dresses.

Lady Gaga’s famous “meat dress”

I would’ve posted the newspaper dress image, but my phone conked off…

5. Mr. and Miss Joule

Unfortunately I was participating in JAM when this happened. Did I mention I won it?

6. Tilt Play

This was a laughter riot as participants had to impersonate celebrities and have a debate on topics provided to them. My favourite characters were Hansa and Rakhi Sawant.

Hansa from “Khichdi”

Rakhi Sawant

7. Raftaar

An obstacle race, this was THE MOST physically challenging game of the festival. Not only were participants made to do sit ups,  push ups and lift weights, but were made to eat biscuits half-way into the race to dry their parched throats further. The event heads said “If they (participants) aren’t abusing us by the time they finish, we have failed.” Again I would’ve uploaded photos but my phone….

The hospitality extended by Joule was outstanding. In fact, I may have just made a few friends along the way. The participants too appreciated these KC College students for providing such a huge platform for them to compete and showcase their skills. Jai Hind emerged a winner this year. Hoping some of the contingents come a little more prepared next year, overall it was a remarkably well-executed festival. I was sad when it was time to say goodbye to Joule. Or maybe the sadness was due to the fact that my phone wasn’t working anymore. Oh God! There comes the lemon squirt in the eye *sniff*

Rohan Parekh

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Joule 3.0- The Committee

Joule is indeed a counter-intuitive name for Kishinchand Chellaram College’s festival, considering it is the scientific unit of energy and the fact that it is conducted by commerce students. But it is understandable, considering they too were wannabe science students once upon a time who finally realized, “Humse na ho payega”. For most of you all those who are still wondering what the hell Kishinchand Chellaram is, it is our one and only KC College. For the 5 people who actually read this blog and were wondering what announcement we have this week, we are officially associating with our very first college festival as their blogging partner; this one. Despite being only the 3rd edition, it already has over 25 contingents participating in full force, something the current committee had never expected, but were overjoyed with the response. Here’s a brief overview of the committee:

Chairperson

Tania Punjabi (aka Thania)

She’s the Numero Uno of Joule. Though calm and patient, she can just cannot sit still in one place! “Joule has been quite a journey. From getting delayed by almost 6 months to having to change our theme multiple times, we’ve been through it all” She’s really proud of her committee who have grown from wanting to kill each other having constant fights to becoming the one joint (ahem ahem) family they now are. Oh, she also claimed to be able to “foresee things”. Joule’s in-house fortune teller maybe?

Vice-Chairperson

Rashi Mehta (aka Flat-ass)

Though she didn’t take Joule seriously in the initial days, she has grown to love the fest. “Everyone is so dedicated in their work, apart from Gokal, that is” she jokingly adds. An avid reader, she worships JK Rowling and hasn’t gotten over the Harry Potter series yet. A very talkative person by nature, she anchors college festivals too! What sets Joule apart from every other fest according to her is, and I quote, “Gokal’s eyelashes”! She evidently cannot get enough of Abhishek Gokal. Go date him already!

Marketing Head

Saeem Khan (aka Baa)

He is a powerhouse of talent! He is a professional bike racer, boxer and mixed martial artist! He loves picking fights (though I wonder who would have the balls guts to fight with him [the language had to be PG 13 for Joule to share this post on their page, hence the censorship]). Joule, for him, is a chance to show you’re better than the rest, but it also means “slogging my ass off”. Joule has been a tremendous experience for him, making him travel by train for the first time in the 20 years of his existence #justTownieThings

Public Relations Heads

Anjali Hamirwasia (aka Pandeji) and Shreya Malekar (aka JBV)

Anjali was my first contact in Joule. Staying this thin despite hogging a lot is something I need to learn from her. Definitely the cutest girl in the committee, Joule for her is about infinite energy and craziness. Both of them have succeeded in making Joule so big that they have been getting calls from outstation students for participation. Though they had to decline them this year, we might probably see Joule grow to a national level soon!

Guest Relations Heads

Shreya Singh (aka Hitler) and Nidhi Rathod (aka Babu bhai)

Shreya loves planning trips and is the jugaadu person of the committee. Her nickname is self-explanatory, with Nidhi’s nature being completely opposite to it. When asked why they chose GR, I got “I didn’t choose GR, GR chose me” *ba dum tsss*. Their only complaint is “Celebs are too moody yaar”. Duh! Welcome to Bollywood!

Creatives Heads

Varun Kale (aka Nariman and Paneer Cheese Roll) 

Aayushi Kalkar (aka Kaalu)

Varun considers himself to be a very lazy person (*same pinch*) but is able to make sure the work is done on time. You should be able to guess what his favourite dish in the college canteen is unless you’re retarded, in which case you shouldn’t be here in the first place. Aayushi loves dancing, but can’t (ABCD is so not true). “I’m not even that creative” is what this creatives head had to say but again, she manages to make sure work is done. She too manages to stay extremely thin despite her love for food in general and chocolates in particular! Happy that they got a class to work in this year (compared to the stairs last year), Joule for them is about putting their artistic expression up for the world to see. Budding Picassos? At least their paintings make sense.

Fine Arts Head

Shaurya Maheshwari (aka The Dark Knight)

Starting off as a creatives head, he finds Joule to be the perfect opportunity to display his skills. Considers himself an open book, it remains to be seen whether the book is Five Point Someone or Shakespeare. Probably the only guy who’s most awaited event was NOT fashion show.

Cultural Head

Mamta Bharti (aka Ma ki Mamta and Cake girl)

A pink freak, Mamta loves cooking and baking (hence the nickname). a self-proclaimed fattu, she finds Saeem’s building creepy and has claimed to have experienced somewhat paranormal activity out there. This could be where the next Gostbusters episode is shot!

Academics Heads

Shivani Vasnani (aka Chembur) and Rishabh Shah (aka GOTi)

Being an avid Game Of Thrones fan, Rishabh has, after lots of persuasion, brought up an event purely along the theme of GOT. You sir, are awesome. Valar Morghulis!

Sports Heads

Abhishek Gokal (aka Goks) and Shaaz Adka (aka Shazzini)

Both non-mumbaikars, Shaaz is from Karnataka while Gokal is from Delhi. Shaaz, a state-level badminton player, is doing Joule for the experience and management skills it provides. Rashi’s bae, Goks, feels like an alien here in Mumbai. Like a typical delhi-ite, he finds Mumbai not so much interesting. The first mistake of his life was when he entered a Virar fast on his first day here. LOL!

Hospitality Heads

Ronith Ramesh (aka Rana) and Raj Katira

Ronith’s association with the creatives department is well known *wink wink*. Joule for him is all about work, meeting Ritika ma’am and going to Crawford market. Raj is a little short-tempered and believes in spirituality a lot! They consider hospi to be the most chilled out dept. After all, there’s little work pre-fest.

Logistics Head

Sakshi Bahl (aka Paneer)

A professional kathak dancer, Joule for her means ‘unity’. If any equipment during the fest hasn’t arrived, you know who to catch!

Security Heads

Khushboo Thakkar (aka Boss), Vidhi Gala and Shubkirat Sidhu (aka Egoist)

You do NOT want to mess with them!

Photography and Technical Heads

Nayan and Vinay Jain

Being the only second years in the committee, they say “We rag the third years. They don’t rag us!”

Administration Heads

Hardee Shah (aka Weirdo) and Kevin Shah (aka High BP)

Joule for these two is all about fun, DRAMA, energy and experience. Kevin is a quizzer whereas Hardee is known for randomly bursting into a song and a dance anywhere on the college’s 6th floor. I wonder how she earned that nickname…

Treasurer and Digital Head

Nayan Gandhi (aka Naan)

Tripta Jaisinghani

An Ulhasnagar resident, she is the brains and work behind every Joule poster created. At least someone in the committee knows Photoshop….

There you go. Phew, that was a long ass post! If you managed to reach all the way here, now that you know the entire organizing committee, you now know they aren’t some elusive space walkers but ordinary people like you and me. Come this weekend on the 22nd and 23rd and witness the extraordinary festival they put up on their college premises. It’ll be awesome, I pinky promise.

Rohan Parekh

If you liked this article and want to stay updated with our latest posts, like The Campus Box on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Malhar ’15- Conclave

Festival season is finally here! Oh no I’m not referring to the pollution causing monstrosity we celebrate in the name of God. The past weekend marked the beginning of this academic year’s college festivals. One of the first ones The Campus Box visited was St. Xavier’s festival, Malhar.

So what does Malhar mean in the first place? Malhar is an old raga in Indian classical music. According to legend, raga Malhar is so powerful that when sung, it can induce rainfall. It is possible that the rainfall that the legends speak of is in fact metaphorical of the state of mind brought about by the recital of the raga. And rain it did at Malhar 2015’s Conclave. It rained inspiration, wisdom, creativity and invaluable insights from some venerable personalities. Malhar is the only college festival which dedicates an entire day for a series of talks and panel discussions which leave students wanting for more. Although considered “boring” by students who can barely survive half an hour long college lectures, Conclave is anything but boring for the interested mind. Here are the few talks I attended.

The keynote address was delivered by former Director General of the Punjab Police, Mr. Julio Francis Ribiero, who led the Punjab Police during part of the Punjab insurgency periods. He spoke about his career in the Indian Police Service. He feels the value system in the police force has been diminishing. “The ‘S’ in IPS stands for service. You’ve come to serve the people, not be their masters. If you want to make money, you should join the corporate world. This (money) isn’t what you joined for.”  He is saddened by that fact that nowadays almost everybody in the police force has a pipeline to some or the other politician. “Politicians are running the (police) force now.”  On being asked how he managed to work honourably despite being pressurized by allegedly corrupt ministers, he said, “When you have the public on your side, they can’t touch you. And you can only have the public on your side if you serve them.” Though he believes that he isn’t cut out for politics, he reckons it to be a great idea for the youth to join and become the leaders of a possibly corruption-free tomorrow. His solution to building a corruption-free India is to influence young minds. They are going to mould our country’s future. It was a pleasure listening to this enigmatic personality speak.

We were then joined by the first Indian man in space, Mr. Rakesh Sharma. Space has always fascinated me. As a child, I always wanted to be an astronaut, hence this session was especially alluring to me. a former test flight pilot, Mr. Sharma never had any dreams to go to space. In fact he refers to himself as a “lottery ticket winner”. His first reaction on seeing the Earth from space was an anticlimactic “This is it?”. He vividly recalls the splendid view from up there; the golden deserts, green forests, blue oceans and purple mountains. He jokingly recalled that the most stressful part of his space expedition was speaking to Mrs. Indira Gandhi on the phone with the whole nation listening to him. When the erstwhile PM asked him how India looked, he replied with “Saare jahan se achha”. He also added “India looked beautiful, as did Africa, but it was the Indian PM I was talking to”, sending a ripple of chuckles through St. Xavier’s auditorium. On being asked he mentioned that India managed to have the cheapest space program solely because we didn’t do things to impress our neighbours (hinting at USA and the former USSR). Although we have a long way to go before we start colonizing space, Mr. Sharma firmly believes that is what the future holds for us. “We are explorers by nature”, he says. “You don’t see borders from space. I sincerely hope we do not export human conflict when we go about colonizing other planets”.

We then had a panel discussion with Dr. Ilina Sen, Ms. Reetika Khera, Mr. Parth Shah and Mr. Sreenivasan Jain on the topic of “Welfare” and whether it was really helping the country. Moderator Abhinandan Sekhri jogged the panel throughout the discussion via engaging questions on pertinent issues. Few things highlighted here were:

• Most welfare schemes are scams. Everyone doesn’t get access to them equally.
• Crop insurance protects the farmer in the event of crop failure only for defecting his loan payment. The insurance doen’t cover the actual loss suffered by farmers.
• Welfare doesn’t just include the mid-day meals, it also covered tax benefits and SEZs. Why then do austerity measures begin with cutting down spending on the former?
• The words associated with welfare are “doles”, “handouts and “freebies”. This has a derogatory impact. Why is welfare considered to be a grant and not an entitlement?

That was not all. Malhar also had a Comic Con and an art exhibition on display!

An extensive collection of comic books

Wonderful artwork

All in all, the day was truly a captivating one. The courtesy extended by the Malhar PR team was outstanding. One can see why it is Asia’s second largest student festival. Do catch them next year.

Rohan Parekh

If you liked this article and want to stay updated with our latest posts, like The Campus Box on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Umang, Malhar and Southpaw…

Confused? So was I; after watching the mediocre film with the amazingly tantalizing trailer that Southpaw has. To enjoy the film after watching the breathtaking trailer you would have to do exactly what Deepika did when she started dating Ranveer Singh after Ranbir Kapoor- drop your standards ridiculously low, and then have a crow shit on them. The movie made me truly appreciate the relativistic nature of time, seeing how it refused to move forward at all for the duration of the film. Cliched storyline; a star falls down only to rise back up, loses his kid only to get her back and all that same old shit. What surprised me was how they could take a movie based on boxing, which is such a fast paced sport and completely ruin it with the snail’s pace at which the movie has been made. The fight sequences were good, but nothing extraordinary, nothing to make you want some more.

This is the movie poster

If you haven’t watched it, please don’t. Now I understood why there are only three daily shows in entire Mumbai. The only awesome thing I found in the movie was Eminem’s new single, Phenomenal. It truly is phenomenal!

Alright then. That’s that. We have two huge festivals coming up this week. Umang happens from 14th-17th August and Malhar from 15th-17th. Like a Rohit Shetty film and extraordinary car crashes, these two festivals somehow ended up together this year again. But Umang happens in Vile Parle and Malhar in CST. How do you decide where to go? Let’s see what both of them have to offer.

Umang

This is NM College’s annual fest. If you’ve ever come to eat the vada pav outside Mithibai, there’s no introduction needed to this college. With a theme of “Throwback Retro”, they are expecting a footfall of over 1500 participants! Apart from the usual events, we, at The Campus Box are particularly excited for the following:-

• Retrospectrum

Bagging some of the greatest accolades in the field of acting and social activism, noted for her intensity on screen matched by her fierce advocacy, Umang brings to you Shabana Azmi who will be giving a talk in Bhaidas hall on the 17th of August from 12-2. If you have any questions for her, right from “Who was your role model” to “What the fuck were you thinking while accepting the film “Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd”?”, this is the place for you to be.

• Investigative Courtroom Trial

“That’s the difference between you and me. You wanna lose small, I wanna win big.” If you recognize this statement you abso-flippin-lutely have to attend this! The name is self explanatory. For those who are still stuck up on that line, its a quote from Harvey Specter in the television series “Suits”.

• Pehel

If TVF’s Pitchers has gotten you all charged up about startups, this is your thing. Pitch your business idea out here. You never know who’s listening…

• The Confused Sperm

By that, of course we mean Ayushmann Khurana, who all of us have grown fond of after Vicky Donor, is going to be performing at JRM on 14th August 7 pm onwards. Grab your passes now!

Malhar

St. Xavier’s welcomes you to Malhar’15- A Chronicle. It is the second largest festival we have in Mumbai after IIT Bombay’s Mood Indigo. With an expected footfall of 40,000, you better have your entry pass with you already (yes you require a pass just to enter), because they are no longer available. For those of you who do have them, here’s what you’ll should check out:

• Conclave

A variety of eminent speakers like India’s first astronaut in space, Rakesh Sharma, Padma Shri Awardee Julio Ribeiro and many more are going to be present to spread some knowledge. It is a full day session. With the awesome pre-note session with Mr. Narayana Murthy, we have high hopes from this event. Check out our review of this amazing event by clicking here.

• Speak. Interrupt. Repeat.

JAM (Just A Minute) is arguably one of the most entertaining events of any college festival. This is especially true for Malhar since it attracts some of the best JAMmers in the country (no kidding). The object of the game is for panellists to spontaneously talk for sixty seconds on a given subject, “without hesitation, repetition or deviation”. Hilarity ensues from attempts to keep within these rules and the banter among the participants.

• A Comical Turn of Events – The Raga Comic Con

You read it right. Malhar is having a Comic Con this year. For all you kids Marvel and DC fans, this is what you call heaven!

There you have it. Gujju gangs Umang on one side and townie snobs Malhar on the other. Why restrict yourself to just one festival though? Grab your friends and head out there. If you have no friends You can also go solo and make some new ones out there. Both the festivals will give you completely different experiences. Don’t miss out. Also, share your experiences on our Facebook page. We’d love to hear from you.

We also have an exciting announcement coming up next week. Stay tuned!

Rohan Parekh

If you liked this article and want to stay updated with our latest posts, like The Campus Box on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Mr. Narayana Murthy is coming to Malhar. Are you?

Mondays are usually greeted with the sheer hatred people otherwise reserve for karela ki sabzi. It’s true! I’m pretty sure even Rahul Gandhi, who anyways has nothing to do in life (especially this weekend since his favourite internet past time was banned in India for the past few days) would be like “Is it Monday already? I can’t go back to the fish market parliament so soon!”

But the following Monday is different. I am actually looking forward to it! If you are retarded and haven’t yet figured out why, it is because I’m going to meet Mr. Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy (yes I had to Google his full name). Okay maybe not so much ‘meet’ as ‘attend a talk that he is going to deliver’. But it is pretty awesome nevertheless! Mr. Narayana Murthy, as we all know, is the co-founder Infosys, a company which believes in “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, which translates to “The world is one family” (another such company being TCS). This is evident in their mass recruiting campaigns at engineering colleges giving many engineers that one last ray of hope to validate their last 4 years of existence. Everyone is welcome! Well, almost everyone. Seriously, if you can’t manage to get into Infosys or TCS, you might as well donate your graduation degree to your local bhel-puri wala who’ll make better use of that paper in serving people food on it. Or better yet, open your own bhel-puri stall. Nowadays even selling tea can become a startup idea! That’s exactly what happened with Chaayos.

Coming back to Mr. Murthy, he has been awarded with the Padma Vibhushan and Padma Shri awards, some of the highest awards awarded to a civilian. He is an entrepreneurial badass, growing Infosys, which was started with a seed capital of just ₹10,000 to its current market capitalization of $30.9B!! Listening to his upcoming talk is one thing you shouldn’t miss. He is coming for the Pre-Note Session of Conclave at St. Xavier’s College for Malhar’15.

Malhar is the second largest inter-collegiate youth festival in Asia, hosted annually by the students of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. The festival includes events and cultural contests in literary, performing arts and fine arts categories, along with a number of workshops on different themes. Conclave has hosted people such as the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, The 14th Dalai Lama, Aruna Roy and Mani Shankar Aiyar among many others. With such notable personalities being present, Conclave is one of the best events Malhar has to provide. This year has an interesting line of speakers too. You can check them out here. Register for Mr. Narayana Murthy’s Pre-Note session here before the registrations close! Keeping with the spirit of The Campus Box I urge you to attend this event. You won’t regret it.

Rohan Parekh

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Mujhse Fraandship Karoge?

*yawn* Sunday mornings afternoons are the best! It’s the one day you get to wake up without an alarm. On your phone, that is. I still had to wake up to “Uthi ja nalayak! Ek vaagi gayo. Aa chhokra nu su karu?” But I digress. As every other “young adult”, I sat up in my drowsy state and my hand reached out to my phone, almost as if a reflex action. But I noticed something odd. 35 WhatsApp messages? It isn’t even my birthday! This could only mean one thing. My engineering semester 4 results were out! Holy shit! That thought alone was enough to kick away every ounce of sleep still left in me. My brain went into hyper drive, coming up with a multitude of reasons, explaining whatever “great” grades I would’ve got, to my parents. With trembling fingers I open WhatsApp, just to heave a sigh of relief.  It is only Friendship Day. Silly me :p

Friendship Day is one of the few days in the year where people become philosophers and poets. They spend a lot of time coming up with something original and thoughtful; sending across their thoughts specially penned down for you. And by that I mean they press the ‘Forward to all’ button on their smartphone on the first fancy message they read whilst sitting at home in their pj’s avoiding any plans being made to meet up because “Actually meeting friends on Friendship Day is too mainstream #mahLifeMahRulez”. It is also only the second day in the year (the first being my birthday) where more than 5 people realize I’m alive and their message isn’t “Bhai kal ki exam ka importance bata de, warna KT lag jayegi.” I see a whole variety of people from my friendship spectrum sending me the “Happy Friendship Day” message, right from people I hate, people I like, to my crush. Although my heart wants to say “Fuck you”, “Happy Friendship Day dawg!” and “Fuck me!” to those three categories of people respectively, I have a feeling it would be frowned upon; so I send out the customary “Happy Friendship Day to you too! :D” to them all.

But seriously, Friendship Day is awesome. Friends are an integral part of one’s life. Who else would accompany us in doing the retarded shit we do? They’re the family you get to choose, so choose well we must. It is easy to get sucked into spending your time with a needy friend who constantly seeks out your companionship but leaves you enervated at the end of the day, or with a toxic friend who is filled with ambivalence but conveniently lives close by. Consciously choose the people that matter to you, the ones who get the best out of you and the relationships you genuinely want to nurture the most. The right set of friends can do wonders to your life! To all my friends out there, whether we talk often or not, you’re awesome! To the others, Mujhse Fraandship Karoge?

Rohan Parekh

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Hello World!

Welcome to Box Tales, the blog dedicated to keeping you informed of interesting tales happening around. We all know that festivals are an integral part of college life. Its the few years you get to attend concerts for free :p And guess what? Festival season is just around the corner. After a long and refreshing vacation, we are all back on campus, the only break to the monotony of attending relatively boring lectures being college festivals! We at Box Tales believe it is of utmost importance for students to go out of their campus and explore festivals of other colleges. It is a great way of meeting new people and spreading new ideas. People studying different courses might just give you a whole new perspective on life! Who knows? Okay that was a bit far-fetched. Nevertheless, it will be one of the most breathtaking memories you shall cherish in the days to come.

Keeping this in mind, Box Tales is going to be writing about all upcoming Mumbai college festivals and giving you some  magnificent reasons to get off your lazy asses and go be a part of them! To add a personal touch, we will also be attending festivals that we partner with and talk about our own unique experiences. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay updated!

(Want us to talk about your festival/college event, write to us at thecampusbox@gmail.com)

[“Box Tales” is the blog controlled by “The Campus Box”]