The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

‘Paradise plant in PU garden
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 30
Two Panjab University botanists have brought a rare plant for the city from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. A beautiful red and yellow plant not available in any of the city's nurseries or gardens.

Returning from a recent visit to RD University, Jabalpur, these two professors of botany namely Prof S.P. Khullar and Prof M.P. Sharma have planted it in the university's botanical garden.

This plant is close to the "Bird-of-Paradise" or "Crane Flower" or "Crane Lily" or "Queen's Bird of Paradise" or "Strelitizia regina ( Botanically). It belongs to the Banana family Musaceae. The latin name of this plant is Heliconia rostrata. It looks very much like a small Banana plant and is about five feet tall and with leaves between three and four feet long. It bears about 12 alternating flowers, six on each side, on a pendulous stalk. The bracts ( leaf like structures) outside the small insignificant flowers are scarlet red tipped with yellow. These flowers from a distance look like small brightly coloured birds (love birds). It is also known as ‘Native to Peru and Argentina’, this plant is also called "The Paradise Plant."

PU B.Com results declared
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 30
Panjab University has declared the result of B.Com (General) III year examination, held by the university in April-May 2002.

The copies of the result gazette are available at the main enquiry counter of the university on all working days during working hours for personal consultation only. The result can also be accessed at Panjab University website http//results.puchd.ac.in.

No telephonic inquiries will be entertained.

To aspire and actualise is their motto
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 30
The Raunaq Education Foundation has established an English-medium boys residential school, Apollo International, School, with the objective of providing complete and all-round development of students through a deeper, broader and richer educational experience.

Located on the 57th km stone from Delhi on GT Karnal Road, the school has been set up at an estimated cost of Rs 7.5 crore. It has been entrusted to Mr K.N. Dar, a former Principal of Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan’s Sawan Public School and Cambridge School, New Delhi. Spread over an area of 76 acres, the campus is gifted with beautiful lawns, playgrounds, central courtyard, 400 metre running track, and football and cricket grounds. The classrooms are made up of soundproof walls creating the requisite environment.

In a talk with mediapersons here today, Mr Dar said: “Our motto is to aspire and actualise. Our continuous effort will be to encourage every child to recognise his aspiration and to move boldly towards actualising it”.

COURTS

HIGH COURT
Sangat darshan money
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 30
In a statement before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Punjab's Senior Deputy Advocate- General has stated that money disbursed during sangat darshan by former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would not be taken back in case development work was in progress.

Appearing before a Division Bench of the High Court, comprising Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi and Ms Justice Bakhshish Kaur, the DAG stated that a policy in this regard had been taken by the government. The statement is significant as a number of petitions have been filed in the High Court claiming that the money distributed by the former Chief Minister during the sangat darshan was been taken back.

Acquitted

In a complete reversal of events, an Amritsar district resident, convicted and sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh in a drugs case, was on Thursday acquitted by Mr Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Tilak Raj was booked by the Punjab Police under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act on the allegations of possessing 1 kg of heroine. According to the prosecution, the police had acted against the accused on the basis of secret information.

The accused, when confronted with the incriminating evidence against him, had, however, denied the allegations. Claiming to have been implicated in the case at the instance of his landlord, counsel for the petitioner had added that the accused was innocent. After going through the record and hearing the arguments in the case, Mr Justice Goel allowed the appeal before setting aside the orders passed by Amrisar's Additional District and Sessions Judge.

Drugs case

The Punjab and Haryana HIgh Court, in a significant judgement, on Thursday ruled that an accused in a drugs case cannot claim that the provisions of the NDPS Act had not been complied with if an officer merely said he was a Deputy Superintendent of Police, instead of specifying that he was a gazetted officer.

The observations were made by Mr Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel of the High Court while delivering verdict on an appeal filed by a convict in an NDPS case. His counsel had claimed that the provisions of the Act had not been complied with as the DSP had not specified that he was a gazetted officer.

CULTURE

R.D. Burman remembered
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 30
Music composer R.D. Burman, affectionately called Pancham Da, was passionately remembered last week at Tagore Theatre. The Majlis Journalists’ and Artists’ Association organised the first All-India R.D. Burman Award competition to perpetuate his memory. The competitors participated in three rounds on May 24 to qualify for the finals on May 26. Six singers finally competed for the three coveted prizes of Rs 5100, Rs 2100 and Rs 1100, respectively. The judges were themselves renowned classically trained singers, Ranjana of Jalandhar Doordarshan fame and Brajesh Ahuja, popular singer and music director of Jaspal Bhatti’s TV shows.

While six competitors were walking the tightrope for the awards, guest singers like Brajesh Ahuja and Ranjana kept the audience spellbound with their melodious singing. Besides these two, five other singers, who had won the prestigious first awards of Majlis in various competitions in previous years, also entertained the audience with peppy and all-time immortal numbers of R.D. Burman.

Majlis is actively involved in promoting performing arts and taking up burning issues before the country by holding talk shows to make people aware of them. Majlis has also been regularly organising musical evenings to pay tributes to music world stalwarts like Mohammed Rafi, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Madan Mohan, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhousle and others. Previous award competitions were in the memory of Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar.

In the aforesaid musical evening, while old numbers, either composed or sung by R.D. Burman, enthralled the audience, the 11-member live orchestra added to the glamour of the evening. The music was conducted by famous music directors of the city, Sanjeev Kapoor and Santosh Kataria. On the flute, veteran Ravindarji commanded the rapt attention of the audience. However, since the hallmark of R.D. Burman compositions are the typical Indian instruments and Western beats, the rhythm section predictably stole the show. The sensitive touches on the keyboards, both by Sanjeev Kapoor and Tarsem, were fully at display for all ears in the audience. Both well-known guitarists, Munish and Rana, gave an exalted performance. The programme was compered by Reeta Sharma.

Jatendra Kumar of Chandigarh, Ramesh Dhiman and Ravi Bakshi of Ambala won the three awards, respectively. Experienced professional musicians on various aspects of singing also gave the aspiring singers, who came from all over the northern region, educative tips.

NIIFT gears up for fashion show
Our Correspondent

SAS Nagar, May 30
Hectic preparations were on the Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology (NIIFT) here today for “Anu-Kama 2002”, a fashion show scheduled for June 1 in Ludhiana with prominent models making a beeline for the campus.

The show will focus on the creations of passing-out fashion design students of NIIFT at which Mrs Parneet Kaur, MP, will be the chief guest.

Models who had arrived today were busy trying to fit into the dresses designed by students of the institute. Models had a word of encouragement for the young fashion designers, whose imaginative creations would be presented at the fashion show.

Dipannita has been into modelling for the past 4 years and has come from Mumbai for the fashion show. She says students have created very nice designs though one does not expect much from beginners. But certain creations are wonderful. “I have already booked a skirt for myself,” adds Dipannita.

Udita, who has come from Delhi, has been a winner of the MTV Model Mission II. She says students here have come out with nice creations but if one compares these designs with those of the students from Delhi and Calcutta, they were much ahead of these students.

Udita, who has come here for the first time, says has not yet gone through the entire range of creations but whatever she has seen is nice.

Jessie Randhawa, who has been modelling mostly for dress designers and has been into the profession for the past 5 years, says the creations of the students are fine but lot of alterations have to be carried out. The “fits” are not very good. But these students are beginners and with time they will be able to improve. They are the designers of tomorrow. In most of the cases the students have come out with Western creation, she said.

Jessie has been doing modelling assignments for designers like Ritu Beri, Suneet Verma, Tarun Tahilani, Ritu Kumar, Ashish Soni, Ravi Bajaj, etc. She has been modelling for NIIFT students earlier also and has come from Mumbai for the show.

Nina Manuel, a ramp model, says the students had come out with fabulous designs. Some of them had made dresses out of paper and she was impressed to see their creations. The designs created by NIIFT students were as good as the creations by students of Delhi and Chennai.

Aditya Bal, has been doing ramp modelling for the past 5 years and has also taken part in NIIFT shows earlier. He says it is wonderful to see beautiful creations coming out of an institute like this. He feels that it is important to encourage the young students.

Mrs Vijay Sharma, Director of the institute, said the institute had earlier organised four shows in Chandigarh but this year it was decided to hold the show at Ludhiana because it was the hub of garment industry and most of the students got placements there.

Singing contest for Rafi Award
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 30
The audition for the singing competition for Rafi Award-2002 in men’s and women’s sections will be held on June 9 and 16 at the DAV College mini auditorium, Sector 10, Chandigarh.

Organised by the Yaadgar-e-Rafi Society, the competition will consist of Hindi songs in which the male participants will have to sing Rafi songs while in the women’s section, participants will sing Lata’s songs. The winners in both sections will get Rafi award and the second and third positions will be honoured by trophies in both categories.

The prizes will be given away by a film personality in the society’s annual function Rafi Nite to be held in November. Last year the prizes were given away by popular music director Anandji.

Entries addressed to Mr B. D. Sharma, 3035/29-D, Chandigarh, will close on June 5.

Carnival begins amid fanfare
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, May 30
A four-day fun-filled carnival for kids and youth, organised by Innovative Group, was inaugurated at Parade Ground in Sector 17, here today. The carnival, aimed at exploring the hidden talents of children, amalgamates a host of competitions and games with educative talks on diseases like AIDS and tuberculosis and drug addiction.

The carnival took off with a painting competition in which about 85 children participated. The children drew on cross-border country terrorism and environment. During the carnival, dancing and singing competition, fancy dress competition, baby shows and web designing will also be organised.

Voluntary organisations like AIDS Control Society, Tuberculosis Control Society and Drug Prevention Society will impart education among the visitors by organising street plays on relevant themes and also distributing free literature on the subjects.

NEW RELEASE

TWO much awaited films are scheduled to hit the theatres on Friday, are Shabbo Arts’ ‘Hum Kissi Se Kam Nahin’ and Iqbal Dhillon’s ‘Shaheed-e-Azam’.

The excellent trial report of producer Afzal Khan’s ‘Hum Kissi Se Kam Nahin’. David Dhawan is the only director to boast of a big star cast, including Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt and Aishwarya Roy. HKSKN opens on Friday at Neelam, Chandigarh and Suraj, Panchkula.

Usually inspired from South films, HKSKN is the first David Dhawan film based on the original Warner Bros, Robert De-Nero and Billy Crystal, starrer black comedy, ‘Analyze This’ . HKSKN is a comedy but not the regular ‘David style’. This film has an element of social drama as well.

Amitabh Bachchan plays the role of a psychiatrist, Sanjay Dutt plays an underworld don, Munna Bhai. Ajay Devgan’s character was to be played by Salman Khan earlier, but due to some problem he opted out from HKSKN.

Produced by Afzal Khan and directed by David Dhawan ‘ Hum Kissi Se Kam Nahin’ has the story by Javed Siddiqui , Robin Bhatt and Rumi Jaffri and lyrics by late Anand Bakshi. Anu Malik has come up with a good score.

* * *

The promos on sattlelite channels of the three Bhagat Singh movies have made cine-goers confused. With Bhagat Singh wave sweeping the country, Iqbal Dhillon is all set to release ‘Shaheed-E-Azam’ on Friday all over India. This film will be released on Friday at Jagat Chandigarh. This is the first Bhagat Singh film to hit the silver screen among six films.

‘Shot on locations where the legend of Bhagat Singh was created ‘Shaheed-e-Azam’ has lyrics by renowned poets like Khawja Parwaiz, Saadique Saheb and an original lyric ‘Hum to kha chuke hain Chittod Gad ki kasam’. The film has music by Pakistan’s Saabir Ali, Sardul Sikandar and Maqbool Khan.

Director Sukumar Nair and Iqbal Dhillon, national award-winning filmmakers of ‘Shaheed Udham Singh’ are proud of ‘Shaheed-e-Azam’ . Both have high hopes from this film. Catrack has released the music.