On 10th of March 2016, Womenite organized a feminist festival, first of its kind, named DARPAN – a mirror to our notions, soul, and conscience. Womenite is a social initiative comprising of students from different colleges, founded by Harshit Gupta with an aim of women empowerment, finding a solution to societal issues advocating equality in its true sense and addressing feminist issues. The cultural-cum-entrepreneurship fest was organized in association with the English Department of Motilal Nehru College in their college premises and was sponsored by Aplava. The event revolved around the theme of feminism and focused on the need of participation of both men and women to counter societal issues. Padmashree Santosh Yadav, the wonder woman who climbed Mount Everest twice, was the chief guest of the event.
Darpan was a kaleidoscopic collection of a number of online and offline events. Photography and creative writing competition were the major online events that experienced overwhelming participation from people which gave the required inertia of support to Darpan.
The photography competition, Parchayi, drew the attention towards the women who prefer to be vendors or hawkers than beggars. Parchayi captured the zeal and determination of these ladies, who are no less than an entrepreneur.
Darpan’s writing competition, the flowing pen, put a number of creative minds to test. “Creativity never disappoints”. Young minds traversed all the dimensions of thinking and set horizons of creativity to a new high.
10th of March was the day of offline events. The fest began with the lighting of the lamp by the honorable chief guest, Mrs. Santosh Yadav. This was followed by her motivational and enlightening speech. She inspired the audience by sharing her experience of conquering 8,848m and encouraged girls to conquer their problems and underlined the importance of equality in day-to-day life.
Soon after that, Darpan was on with its panel discussion to throw light on shades of feminism, entrepreneurs, work culture, and equality. The esteemed panel comprised of Mr. Raghavendra Madhu, founder of poetry couture; Ms. Runjhun Gupta, founder of Zipout; with Mr. Sandeep Mann, a serial entrepreneur, renowned mentor and prolific writer, played the role of moderator. The discussion was a treat for those people who understood the meaning of feminism and believed in advocating equality.
The next in line was slam poetry competition or rather battle of verses. The deep insightful poems engineered by young poets were truly a mirror of the society. The event was judged by Mr. Raghavendra Madhu and Ms. Aditi Angiras.
The Nukkad Natak Competition ran parallel to all the events. Top notch DU colleges like Daulat Ram, Kamla Nehru, Deshbandhu, PGDAV etc. participated in the competition. The energy of participating teams was unmatchable and truly depicted the potential of Indian youth.
A session by Ms. Japleen Pasricha, founder of FeminismInIndia.com, was followed highlighting the need of feminism in India. Meanwhile, Band LIMA (Live Music Alive) entertained the gathering of students and replenished everyone with their energy. The entertainment quotient didn’t end here. This was followed by a magic show that left the crowd spellbound.
On the whole, it was established that feminism is not just centered around women, rather it envelops all the elements of the society. The Yang is as important as the Yin to drive the nature in balance and symphony. It’s essential that women get all the social, political and economic rights they have been deprived of since no one knows when. And then, it’s good to be a feminist!
