DU tales: Cosplay mania takes over Venky’s society freshers’

Members of Petrichor – the creative writing society of Sri Venkateswara College, recently organised an online freshers’ party that had cosplay as the theme.

If you thought that quirky fashion, so typical to Delhi University, had taken a back seat owing to the pandemic, think again! With the uncertainty concerning reopening of colleges, senior students of various societies have found a virtual route to welcome freshers and keep things exciting. Recently, Petrichor – the creative writing society of Sri Venkateswara College – took the same path. But what’s more exciting is that they chose the theme of the online freshers as: Favourite Character Cosplay.

College students of various societies in DU are taking a virtual route to welcome freshers.

New and old members of the society dressed up as characters they admire the most from pop culture. Naman Kapoor, a student of Economics (Hons), who enjoys sharing memes, jokes and even raps, decided to showcase his creative streak with costumes, and dressed up as a joker to “entertain people”. Kapoor says, “It was always fun whenever I watched jokers do tricks in live circus. So I thought let’s spread some smiles by dressing up as this character.”

Naman Kapoor, a student of Economics (Hons), dressed up as a joker for this freshers’ party.

Freshers didn’t limit themselves to the American or English series, and even tried vibrant costumes and makeup based on Anime. “I dressed as Akame from Japanese anime Akame Ga Kill,” says an excited Divya Goyal, a student of B Com (Hons), adding, “When I got to know about this freshers, it suddenly injected me with a new found energy! And I chose Akame because she is brave, courageous and uses her sword in a way to put the strongest people to shame. She fights for right things, and I feel we can all learn from her values. It was so much fun to dress up and talk about my favourite character when everyone was online.”

Even the second and final year students participated, and were given the choice to be online with or without dressing up in the theme. But the seniors didn’t let the chance pass by! Describing Harley Quinn as her alter ego, a second-year student Tanushree Singh Balayan, says, “I thought why not be part of this... at least we’ll get something exciting to do. And I chose Quinn because although people might view her as a psychotic villain, but I see her as a passionate lover. There is a lot of depth to her character if one wants to look properly. I associate myself to her as a lover who can go to any extent to save her love and a woman nobody wants to mess with.”

When asked about her inspiration behind the theme, Bhavini Malhotra, a core member of the society, says, “I felt character cosplay was an ideal theme for the freshers as it’s a fun way to introduce yourself as a newcomer and brings about enthusiastic interaction. Also, as a literary society, it was fitting! The aim was to bolster the freshers’ creativity in the current monotonous environment. I hoped we managed to spark interactions between the freshers and senior members by having them bond over common interests in light of the current pandemic. Above all, Petrichor is a family, and we wanted to find a way to make the freshers feel welcome and have a good time.”

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