NAAC VISIT 2015 Welcoming NAAC Peer Team members Exit Meeting NAAC NAAC Team in Meeting with Principal NAAC Peer Team interacting with students at Microbiology Lab. NAAC Peer Team with SIES Managing Council members. ‹ 1 › Dakshinayanam 2014-2015 OUR PRIDE Kunal Chhabria, TYBCom, received Gold Medal from Ms. Lakshmi Pillai, TYBA, receiving Gold Medal from the the University of Mumbai Vice Chancellor of Mumbai University. Ms. Kumawat Pinky Chunnilal Badani TYBA-Hindi - 3rd Rank University of Mumbai Tarun Menon (TYBSc), Divya Iyer (FYBA) and Varun Suresh (MSc Part 2) won the University trophy at the national level for General Quiz ‹ 2 › Dakshinayanam Volume 55, 2014-15 THE EDITORIAL BOARD CONTENTS FROM THE Principal’S DESK 4 CHAIRPERSON EDITORIAL 5 Dr. Harsha Mehta Staff EDITORS FROM THE STUDENT EDITOR 6 Dr. Manju Phadke TOPPERS 7 Dr. Rashmi Bhure STUDENT EDITOR LITERARY SECTION Akshay Marathe ARTS 9 PUBLIC TRANSPORT 16 CO-EDITOR Mithilaa Naik-Satam POLITICS 18 Faculty EDITORIAL TEAM INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING 25 Aditya Akerkar FLORA AND FAUNA 30 Anuya Dharap Seema C MILLS TO MALLS 37 Karunanidhi Rai DOWN THE MEMORY LANE 43 Dinesh Pathak Renuka K Results 2013-14 47 REPORTS 49 STUDENT EDITORIAL TEAM Staff ACHIEVEMENTS 74 Flevia Anthony Dilip Unnikrishnan COMMITTEES 87 Shwetant Kumar ANNUAL PRIZE DISTRIBUTION 91 Nivedita Sekhar INTER COllegiate ParticipatiON 95 COVER page & ACADEMIC PRIZE WINNERS 111 illustratiONS BY EVENT Calendar 2014-15 122 Nivedita Sekhar Pukhraj Phadke RESEARCH LUMINARIES 144 PHOTOGRAPHY BY Pranit Shetty Steffi Chiramel SIES College of Arts, Science & Commerce Sion West, Mumbai - 400022, Tel.: 2407 2729, DESIGNED AND PRINTED BY Fax: 2409 6633. Website: www.siesascs.edu.in, The Drawing Board Email: [email protected] ‹ 3 › Dakshinayanam 2014-2015 FROM THE Principal’S DESK Education is the most powerful weapon strictly by merit” and no capitation fee which you can use to change the world. is charged. We believe in leading by ex- - Nelson Mandela ample. The adoption of Kawthewadi, a village in Karjat, is a good illustration andela’s words highlight of this. The youth of our nation are the tremendous responsi- the most important assets we depend bility that institutions have on. We hope that the students who Mtowards shaping the youth who are, step outside the portals of the college through their active citizenship, going will be individuals who are worthy of to be nation-builders and change mak- that trust. We are confident that our ef- ers. Educationists in India echoed the forts will fructify in the form of a self- same sentiment as they drafted the pref- aware pro-active youth engaged in na- ace for The Education Commission’s Report of 1964-66 tion-building. which emphasized the value of education in the follow- Our success on the academic and the extra-curricu- ing manner: lar front bear testimony to this. Keeping up the tradition of academic excellence our students have once again The destiny of India is being shaped in the classrooms. brought laurels to the institution by securing ranks in This we believe is no mere rhetoric in a world based on the University Merit List. Two students of the College science and technology. It is education that determines achieved gold medal in this academic year. Besides these the level of prosperity, welfare and security of the people. achievements, the academic year 2014-15 has brought On the quality and number of persons coming out of our many moments of pride to the college. The institution schools and colleges, will depend our success in the great received the prestigious Ramakrishna Bajaj National enterprise of national reconstruction. Quality Award, a Certificate of Merit in the ‘Education Category’ instituted by the Indian Merchants’ Chamber. Taking inspiration from this, we at SIES constantly The College also received an award for “Best Innovation try to improve ourselves and create our own benchmarks Initiatives” under the category of ‘Graduate Humanities’ that we are continually engaged in surpassing. Our mis- from the Higher Education Forum in 2015. NAAC Peer sion and vision are geared towards an education that Team visited college from 27th-29th April for the third seeks to mould ‘humane’ individuals who are acutely cycle of re-accreditation. We have also applied to the aware of their responsibility towards the human society. University of Mumbai for autonomy. It gives me great In order to realize our goal we provide every possible pleasure to present the magazine as a document of this support – intellectual, technological (The Pragnya Centre energetic process of self re-assessment, improvement and and the Centre for Excellence) and emotional (Spandan re-invention. – our Mentorship Cell). Initiatives such as the Value Lab, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Institutional Social Responsibility Cell and Zero Waste students and the staff of the college for keeping the SIES Policy ensure that our students become morally, socially flag flying high! and environmentally responsible citizens. In an increasingly materialistic environment, our Dr. Harsha Mehta institution has dared to follow a policy of “Admission Principal ‹ 4 › EDITORIAL his year the Dakshinayanam maga- mous challenges zine is theme based and guess what the of urbanization theme is- Mumbai, yes Aapli Mumbai! like-increasing TThe editors believe that for the magazine to population, space remain apposite and effervescent it has to be crunch, pollution, always evolving and so last year the magazine crime, terrorism broke the language barriers in the literary sec- and many more. tion and now it’s going thematic. The editors Dr. Manju Phadke In the globalized churned many ideas with the student editori- world India is also going through a transitional al team and unanimously decided to bring out period. All this definitely has repercussion on different aspects and shades of the most vibrant the lives of youngsters. The social, psycholog- city of India. Mumbai in the bygone era is the ical and economic pressures on them are tre- sub theme of the magazine. mendous. We are certain that this year’s theme There are many parallels that can be drawn of the magazine will appeal the student com- between the city of Mumbai and the youth munity the most. today. They are both lively and resilient. It’s Apart from bringing out different facets of said that this city Mumbai, Dakshinayanam encompass all the never sleeps like- academic, cultural and co-curricular activities wise the youth of our students and staff for the academic year are most active on 2014-2015. We hope that the changes made to Facebook, Twitter the magazine would be liked by all the readers. and Whatsapp at night. On the flip Dr. Manju Phadke & side Mumbai to- Dr. Rashmi Bhure day is facing enor- Dr. Rashmi Bhure Editors ‹ 5 › Dakshinayanam 2014-2015 STUDENT EDITORIAL orking with capable and efficient of the magazine intact, but have introduced a teammates is always a privilege, thematic Literary section, in which students and we can say with confidence have expressed themselves about their favourite Wthat this year’s Dakshinayanam team was all Mumbai city. of that and more. Our entire team worked in- This year we also introduced the “Down credibly hard right from the beginning to put the memory lane” section in which alumni of together a magazine that all students of the col- the college have shared interesting anecdotes lege, including the alumni, would be proud of. form their time in this college. On behalf of the Every year, we at SIES College, strive to do bet- entire team, we would like to say that we hope ter. This year, we have kept the basic structure you will enjoy reading Dakshinayanam. We understand we are bearing the glorious legacy of this great magazine and we certainly hope we have been able to live up to it. Editor, Akshay Marathe Co-Editor, Mithilaa Naik-Satam From L to R: Dilip Unnikrishnan, Nivedita Sekhar, Flevia Anthony, Mithilaa Naik-Satam, Akshay Marathe, Shwetant Kumar ‹ 6 › TOPPERS Amala Christy TYBSC Arokia Jenifer TYBSC Asmita Kannappanp Assari Shilparaj TYBA Bhoir Vaishnavi TYBA FYBSC Che Asheen Anoop Chhabria Kunal S Chougale Yashwant K Dhinoja Sanchi M Dixit Vaidehi SYBSC Kumar TybSC TYBCOM TybSC TybSC Grachel Andrin Monis Hadage Ankita D TybSC Jahnavi S TYBA Jaideep P. V SYBA Jubin Tessy TYBA SYBCOM Khan Rukaiya Khatoon Kumawat Pinky TYBA Murthy Lakshmi TybSC Nair Ashwathy TybSC Nair Soumya TybSC TybSC ‹ 7 › Dakshinayanam 2014-2015 O Shin Maria TYBSC Odakayi Ria M TybSC Pillai Lakshmi TYBA Poojari Rupesh B Rukhsar Bano TYBA TybSC Seshadri Nandita FYBA Shaikh Oneza TYBA Shanti Suvarna TYBSC Shettigar Vaishnavi Vira Labdhi TYBA TYBSC Yadav Neetu FYBCOM ‹ 8 › Literary Section Arts Arts FIRANGI MUSIC, DESI MIND An attempt to squeeze 75 years of musical “inspiration” into 750 words ollywood has always tried to be all things to all Duke Ellington performed at Shanmukhananda Hall people, and this “psychedelic grab-bag mental- in the 1960s, and pianist Dave Brubeck’s signature ity”, as music critic Geeta Dayal calls it, led to tune “Take Five” was allegedly written during his Bthat strange brew known as the Bollywood soundtrack. 1958 stopover in Mumbai (then Bombay). Jazz re- Song and dance numbers have become such a vital mained an important part of Bollywood music till the part of Indian cinema that perhaps the only place for early 1970s, even though its most overt use was in the a songless film is a film festival. item numbers of the day – “cabaret” songs. Early Indian cinema was inspired by Indian my- The Beatle culture arrived in India in the mid- thology, Hollywood musicals, and indigenous theatre 1960s, and with it, rock music. Biddu and Remo Fer- forms – all of which seamlessly integrated music, nandes, both of whom would spearhead the Indipop dance and drama.