The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

HC stays Principal's transfer
From Our Correspondent

DORAHA, Sept 16 — The Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the transfer of the Principal of the Mata Ganga Khalsa College for Girls, Manji Sahib Kottan, which is run by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). The Principal, Mrs Paramjit Kaur Tiwana, resumed her duties yesterday.

The SGPC had transferred Mrs Tiwana to the Mata Sahib College for Girls, Talwandi Sabo, on August 28. Mrs Tiwana, who was appointed by former SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra, is a resident of Chanarthal Kalan village near Tohra village.

According to Mrs Tiwana, on the August 30 SGPC officials came to the college. Five of the officials went inside the office of the Principal. They had the transfer orders of Mrs Tiwana with them. They were accompanied by Mrs Manjinder Kaur, former Principal, Mata Sahib Kaur Memorial College, Talwandi Sabo, who was supposed to join in place of Mrs Tiwana.

CULTURE

Gurmeet Bawa brings alive folk strains
From A Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Sept 16 —‘Kaharo doli na chaiyo Aje mera babul ayo nahi’
These lines were sung so soulfully that every female member of the audience had moist eyes. The song rendered with so much of pathos and pain even quietened the boys who were busy indulging in cat calls. In the song, the girl refuses to leave her father’s house till he comes.

In her rich and powerful voice, Gurmeet-Bawa sang one song after another without any strain. It seemed as if she had a garland of flowers up her sleeve, and she took out one flower after another, unfolded it, and spread its fragrance around.

The very popular songs, Jindua, jind mai baaj tere kumlaiyan ni had everyone tapping their feet. Her display of folk music, her ever famous jugni sung in her own unique style held the people mesmerised. Challa, Mirza, Sohni-Mahiwal and Sahiba, hauntingly beautiful songs kept the audience glued to their seats.

Bawa never expected the boys to pay her so much of attention, but the boys seem to be on a high after listening to her rich voice. No wonder she has enthralled audiences all over the world and has been highly appreciated.

Balwinder Mast accompanied her ably. Harbhajan Singh Mann the on chimta was too good and in perfect sync with the hake of Gurmeet. Chaman Singh played on the algosa, a twin bansuri. The whole team presented a perfect picture of Punjabi folk lore, very alluring and appealing.

Gurmeet Bawa said, “The Punjabi songs being shown on Punjabi channels are contrary to the ethos and traditions of Punjab. I appeal to the young generation not to fall prey to modern trends, but hold on to their roots. I was appreciated everywhere and I have not left my roots.”

One SPIC MACAY member said, “She is charismatic and absolutely gorgeous. Her range is tremendous. Her voice is terrific.”

Rajni and Sandeep, third year engineering students said, “She is too good. She expressed deep feelings. Her songs were as soulful as those of Celine Dion in Titanic. She has bound us to our culture.”

Jasmeet Sidhu, an ex-student said, “She is marvellous, but the boys should have behaved better.”

Manmeet, Hardeep, Preetinder, Varpereet Kaur, second year engineering, commented, “Such programmes should be held again and again. She has a marvellous voice. We want to listen to her again and again. She has bound us to our culture; a remarkable achievement of SPIC MACAY.”

In the end, everyone was shouting for more, but all good things have to come to an end. Listening to Gurmeet Bawa was both a soul stirring and an ecstatic experience.

Kathakali dancer charms audience
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Sept 16 — Ludhianvis had a chance to see the first-ever live performance of Kathakali, and that too of a dancer of eminence P.V. Bala Krishna, fondly called ‘guruji’.

Shrisadanam Bala Krishna has specialised in Paccha and Katti roles and is equally proficient in Tadi. He has produced several well-known plays. He has performed widely in India and abroad and conducted workshops and lecture demonstrations also.

The traditional make-up takes three hours, so he was dressed simply, and not in traditional dress.

First of all he demonstrated facial expressions of eyes, eyebrows, cheeks, neck and shoulders. A teacher par excellence, he explained the nine ‘rasas’. He gave a live demonstration of ‘raudra ras’ by showing a verbal duel between Bhima, one of the Pandavas, and Dushasan, through his actions only. The thunderous applause that followed showed how successful he was.

Kathakali is a dance of Kerala, performed by male artists and depicts a story based on a theme from Puranas. The eyes and the eyebrows quiver delicately and with a great deal of alacrity and are to a large extent responsible for conveying the right expressions and feelings.

Since the audience was mainly of children, he chose to depict a story of animals. He portrayed the story of a huge elephant, drunk with power, who thinks too highly of himself.

Students of BCM and its founder, Mr Satyachand Munjal, could not find words to express their thanks to him.

‘Today’s music a collection of beats’
By Vimal Sumbly
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, Sept 16 — Noted lyricist and music composer Ravinder Jain feels today’s film music lacks soul and depth. There is no rhythm and melody in it. It is a simple sound arrangement put together, regrets Jain, adding that it is proving to be short lived.

Ravinder Jain, who was here today in connection with a musical night organised by the Jain community, in an interview with TNS, pointed out the decline in Indian film music. He said, the music in Hindi films was supposed to be the best, but now it appeared to be the contrary.

Earlier, there used to be legends like Shyam Sunder, Chitrgupt, Naushad, S.D. Burman, Madan Mohan and others in the Indian film industry. There is life in their music. The only reason that people still like and listen to their music is that it touches their soul, he said.

Drawing a parallel between the compositions of then and now, he remarked, “There is no composition at all, but a simple assembling of sound beats. It is much too decorative from outside and hollow within”.

Ravinder Jain is one of the few artists who, besides composing music, also writes lyrics for the movies. In fact, so far he has composed music for his own lyrics only. He has already composed music for about 250 movies, including some regional movies. These include great musical hits like Henna, Saudagar, Ram Teri Ganga Meli, Akhiyoon Kay Jharonkoon Se, Chitchor, Kanch aur Heera , Insaf Ka Tarazoo and several others. Besides he has done music for popular television serials like Ramayan, Krishna, Jai Hanuman and others.

Jain has written songs for various situations in the Ramayana TV serial also. In fact, he says, he seeks inspiration from Tulsi Dass only. “Sita shradha desh ki, Ram atal vishwas, Ramayan Tulsi rachit, Hum Tulsi kay das”. Elaborating his point he says, “While we cannot equal Tulsi Dass, we should ensure that our compositions are such that people may even hesitate to draw comparisons”.

Ravinder Jain belongs to Aligarh, to a family which had distinguished itself in scholarship. His father, Pandit Indermani Jain, was a well-known Sanskrit scholar. However, Ravinder was born with a visual handicap. The doctors advised that he should not study although he had some sight left in his eyes. His parents decided to teach him music instead. He took his basic training from Pandit G.L. Jain, Pandit Janardhan Sharma and Pandit Nathu Ram. Later, he went to Calcutta and ultimately landed in Bombay to compose music for films and serials.

He feels that no handicap can deter anyone from achieving his goal. He often recites a poem, addressed to those, who like him are visually challenged — Bandh aankhoon se aise kam karo, aankh khul jaye aankh waloon ki.

It is very difficult to draw a line between the musician and the poet in him. For him music and poetry go together.

“They are complimentary to each other. Poetry without music is incomplete and so is music without poetry”, he remarks. Jain has also brought out a collection of ghazals, Ujaloon ka Silsila (The Course of Light).