It is no secret that if you want to enjoy your college life to the fullest in Delhi University, you should join a society. Joining a society gives you the exposure that your young soul craves for. But what do you do if your college does not have any resources for the societies to run?  Would you still want to be a part of a society? Well, I am about to tell you all about the societies of Motilal Nehru College Evening.
1. Zero Funds
Recently, all the office bearers of the cultural societies of Motilal Nehru College Evening tried to contact the college authorities about funds for the societies as they have been facing this problem for some time. The societies face trouble in organizing festivals without funds.
The students understand that the societies are supposed to bring in their own sponsorships. But every college has a cultural fund, out of which the societies get a certain amount every year.
However, On the Annual Day that was conducted on 18th April, 2018, the college has made sure that it will see for the arrangement of funds for the societies. The societies eagerly wait for this to be realized in the next session.
2. Morning College’s attitude:
Make sure you understand that this is not somebody crying over some petty issue. These are real issues that students at MLNCE deal with. There are a number of problems with the morning college’s attitude. I’ll take up the issue of the SEMINAR ROOM.
The evening college students have to take the permission of the morning college to book the seminar room for a certain day. But the fact of the matter is, that even if you go a month before the prospective date, you’ll find the room booked by the morning college itself for all the days. Even if you successfully book it, you shouldn’t be surprised if the morning college cancels your booking on the day of your event. Here is one such event that happened:
On 20th February 2018, Alfaaz- the bilingual debating society of MLNCE organized its first ever inter-college festival, Polymics’18. As the office bearers went to book the seminar room, they found that the entire February was already blocked by the morning college. However, there was a teacher who had five bookings in the same month, and that too, for class presentations (Mind you, the evening college does not get the room for biggest of events and there were five bookings for class presentations).
The morning college conveniently told the debating society that they could not be allotted the seminar room as it was already allotted to the respective teacher. It was made clear that the society needed to get the permission of that teacher. In fact, it was told that the evening college students will have to arrange for the teacher to have the seminar room in March.
However, the permission was finally obtained and the room was booked for the 20th.
Alfaaz planned the decorations, prepared the material, sent out the invites and the posters. Everything was set.
On 18th (two days before the event),  the society was informed that their booking had been cancelled and the seminar room had been allotted to the Yoga Society of the Morning college. Alfaaz was offered the Lecture Theatre. Mind you, Alfaaz needed to organize debating events, which require mics, sound systems and much more. The seminar room is equipped with all this while the Lecture Theatres are not.
Questions here:
1. When the morning college had made it clear that the permission of that teacher was to be taken since she had booked the room first, how could they revoke the evening college’s debating society’s booking without taking their permission? Shouldn‚Äôt there be same rules for everyone?
2. How could the morning college decide that the Yoga Society’s event is more important than the evening college’s debsoc’s event?
3. Out of all the 28 days in the month, why was only 20th chosen for the event? Did the morning college take it for granted that they could revoke the booking of the evening college?
4. If the members of Alfaaz hadn’t seen the posters, who would have been responsible?
Again, this might seem to be a trivial issue, but in MLNCE, the students are accustomed to see their teachers running around on the day of the event, with the participants already arrived and waiting, because the morning college has conveniently refused to handover the keys of the room.
3. Entry timing disparities:
As a society member, you need to hold meetings every now and then. In fact, groups like Dramatics Society, Dance and Music Society have to meet almost every day. Since the evening college ends late in the evening, the societies can hold meetings before the college only. But the evening students are not allowed inside the campus before 2 pm.
Now, this is a rule and it can be understood!
But why is it that the Morning College students can stay inside the college even as late as 7 in the evening? The whole point of not allowing the evening students before 2 pm is that the campus is a different college altogether before that time. Then, why is it that the same rule does not apply to the students of morning college. Even if the evening students try to stay back after the classes, they cannot because as soon as the classes end, the guards make sure that every student leaves the campus. Why isn’t the same done with morning college students every day between 2:00-3:30?
The result is that every day, the drama society, dance society and debate society of the morning college can be seen practicing till 7 in the evening. On the other hand, the societies of the evening college can be seen struggling in the parks in Satya Niketan!
In fact, when any society of the evening college organizes an inter-college event, they need to enter the campus in the morning for decorations and stuff. To do so, they are required to submit an application containing the names, Roll Numbers and Courses of the members to the Security Guard at the gate. Then, why is it that the morning college’s events go on till late in the evening and they do not need to submit any applications?? Why are they allowed inside the campus even in the timings of the evening college?
4. No place for Practice
There is only one Cultural Room in the campus of Motilal Nehru College, and that has always been conveniently used by the morning college. The societies of the evening college have no access to that room. The room is used by the Morning college’s dance society to practice, the drama society to keep their instruments and practice and all of this goes on till late. On the other hand, all that the evening college‚Äôs societies can do is look from far away and gulp down their anger and accept their poor state.
The dance society of the evening college has no place at all to practice. For them, sometime, it is the basketball court, sometimes, it is a vacant park. In fact, the dance society often practices in front of the morning college’s library and use its windows as the mirror in a dance room.
The drama society also has no place at all to keep the few instruments that they have managed to collect without any help from college. They can be seen spending time in the parks nearby to practice. Mind you, both these societies need electric connection to practice and thus, they can’t ideally practice anywhere. But that’s exactly what they’ve been doing.
However, the college recently conducted the Annual Day. The authorities have made sure that the evening students will get their own Cultural Room very soon. It is a great step on the part of the college to have acted on the demands of the students so quickly.
The societies in MLNCE work very hard. I, being the secretary of ALFAAZ- the bilingual debating society and President of ‘The Aesthetes’- English Literary Society of MLNCE know how hard the societies of the college work. It is a matter of great pride that despite all these difficulties, the students have been winning prizes left, right and centre.
So, the next time you come to Motilal Nehru College Evening in an Inter-College Event, make sure that you appreciate the organization. Because the host society would have gone great lengths and faced all the problems mentioned above to make that one day possible.
The author of this article,Aayush Bhatt is the Secretary of¬†ALFAAZ- The Bilingual Debating Society and President of ‘The Aesthetes’- English Literary Society of Motilal Nehru Evening College.