Ex-athlete strides into event management
Peeyush Agnihotri
It’s never too late to reinvent. So when Mohit Attri, a sportsperson, realised that his path of finding job security was bleak, he decided to make his own road. A promising athlete, Mohit has many track and field event medals in his kitty. His sports odyssey began in 1994 when he represented North Zone and won three gold and two silver medals in track events. 

IGNOU introduces PG diploma in audio production
CHANDIGARH: Indira Gandhi National Open University has introduced a Postgraduate Diploma in Audio Programme Production, according to a press note issued by the university. The programme, which is of a one-year duration, will be open for graduates.

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FORTNIGHTLY QUIZ-186

Ex-athlete strides into event management
Peeyush Agnihotri

It’s never too late to reinvent. So when Mohit Attri, a sportsperson, realised that his path of finding job security was bleak, he decided to make his own road.

A promising athlete, Mohit has many track and field event medals in his kitty. His sports odyssey began in 1994 when he represented North Zone and won three gold and two silver medals in track events. He was 16 years of age then. He reigned the track for the next three years and in 1996 won a silver medal in 1,500 m at the state level and again a silver medal at the national level in 5,000 m in 1997.

"Sports was a passion with me. I pursued it with a twin objective. One, pure thrill and secondly, I always thought that getting a good government or a private job under the sports quota would be easy. That was until I saw a race track event gold medallist making innumerable rounds of a government office and getting a Class IV job, finally. My hopes came crashing down. If that was the treatment being meted out to a gold medallist, how could I have expected a better handling? Bhaaji, India vich sports dee koi kadar nahin," he rues.

It was then that he decided that he had to pursue a field other than sports to make a living. So, he moved his legs in a different manner and opted for the next thing he was good at — dance. After apprenticing for one year, he floated his own group by the name of The Touch. Presently, he teaches Western and Punjabi dance to youngsters and manages events. His first show was in 2000 and till date he has organised seven mega events, the latest being a live performance by a budding Punjabi singer, M. Judge.

"There is an English saying — If you find a job you love, you’ll never work a single day. I believe that every individual has some hidden potential within. Every young person should peep inside himself or herself to hunt for that God-gifted talent. Once an individual realises his flair and pursues his objective with single-minded devotion, professional satisfaction is not hard to come by. The mantra for success lies in honing that inborn skill. Everyone can’t be good at engineering, medicine or computers. These are acquired traits and not everyone is a born academic. This world is a happening place and there are a lot of unexplored areas. Rise and shine in those," this former athlete says.

Mohit says the field of event management is unsaturated, vast and yet unexplored. This foot-shuffler idolises Gurdas Mann because his songs are ‘clean and not vulgar’ and plans a mega show in October. The details are under wraps. Can we say that this former athlete has finally landed on his feet?

IGNOU introduces PG diploma in audio production
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH: Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has introduced a Postgraduate Diploma in Audio Programme Production (PGDAPP), according to a press note issued by the university. The programme, which is of a one-year duration, will be open for graduates.

However, preference will be given to those having experience in broadcasting. Giving this information, Dr Umesh Chandra Pandey, Regional Director of IGNOU for Punjab and Chandigarh, said the university would offer the programme through the distance mode of education. Academic services would be provided to students through a variety of means and the programme had been designed in such a way that the maximum possible academic support could be provided to the students in their houses. High quality self-instructional material would be sent to the students at their houses whereas a face-to-face counselling session would be organised for the students on weekends at study centres. Apart from this academic services would be offered through video teleconferencing, live radio counselling through AIR, Jalandhar, and audio visual CDs.

Dr Pandey said the programme in audio production had been designed to address the growing need for training in audio production by imparting both theoretical and practical skills. The broad aim of the programme was to prepare professionals with skills to conceive, plan and produce audio programmes. IGNOU had plans to popularise the programme among professionals working in Prasar Bharti, students of journalism and mass communication who wanted to specialise in audio production, academics in journalism and mass communication and individuals and institutions interested in setting up community radio station.

Students would be given practical exposure in sound recording, talks and discussions, interviews, outdoor broadcasting, news and news reels, features and magazines, presentation techniques, drama, music, advertisements, interactive programmes and documentation.

Our forest wealth contributes significantly to our economy. Moreover, a sizeable part of our population is directly or indirectly dependent on forests for its livelihood. Firewood, timber, fodder as well as the industrial raw materials that we use in our day-to-day lives are all forest produce. Reason enough to have specially trained personnel for maintaining and regenerating our forest resources.

Apart from the Indian Forest Service, which recruits between 30 and 40 officers each year (the intake varies from year to year), other sectors where forest experts are employed include the paper and pulp industry, the plantation industry, companies engaged in manufacturing forest products, silviculture, social forestry, wasteland development, etc.

There are about 35 ongoing, international forestry and Natural Resource Management (NRM) projects worth Rs 16,000 crore in India, all trying to address issues of forest management, livelihood generation, conservation of bio-diversity, eco-tourism and micro-credit for forestry-based products. The demand for professionals trained in forest management is tremendous. In addition to this, the sector is largely immune to market volatility, unlike other sectors like information technology and thus, provides substantial job security and satisfaction.

Agreed, making a career decision is not the easiest thing in the world. But please don’t let mere statistics guide your choice of career. Numbers don’t count. Your calibre does.

Today success knows no gender, nor does it make any difference on the shop floor. Success comes to those who dare.

While there may be relatively fewer women in the traditional branches of engineering like civil or mechanical that involve working outdoors, on site, or on the factory shop floor, there are any number of hot-shot electronics and computer engineers who are women. Contrary to belief, women engineers have made their mark not only in soft jobs like academics but also in numerous other "tough fields." There are women engineers who run construction firms, manufacture jigs and fixtures and precision components and those who work in government establishments, including defence organisations and industry. India has had women engineers right since Independence.

And the same goes with doctors.

Both medicine as well as engineering, are top-of-the-line professional courses, which leads me to believe that you are keen on pursuing a professional career. It is therefore very important to go by your interests, aptitude and inclination rather than conforming to outdated beliefs and assumptions. Which is certainly not to belittle certain practical considerations. For instance, if you are really keen on medicine but don’t savour the prospect of being on call round-the-clock, you may opt for fields like dentistry, ophthalmology, dermatology, plastic surgery, etc, which pose fewer emergencies. Of course you must be prepared to endure the comparatively long duration of study that specialisation and super specialisation in medicine entails.

But do also consider this very obvious fact: if we continue to opt for the typical ‘soft options’ that women have been traditionally pursuing, we are bound to remain confined to the conventional age-old stereotypes.

The swift pace of modernisation, economic liberalisation and a shrinking world have opened up a whole new world of home-business avenues for women beyond the usual achar-pappad making. Basing the main activity at your home, you can take your pick from the truly wide array of options — depending on your educational background, aptitude and skills, training and experience, etc.

Giving tuition at various levels, catering service, tailoring, infant/adult care, beautycare, counselling, cookery classes, placement services, dance/music classes, translation, fitness/aerobics, network marketing, (Amway, Oriflamme, Avon, Tupperware, Modicare, etc.) are some of the options you could consider.

If you are computer literate and have a computer at your home, you may try your hand at word processing services, teaching foreign languages, conversational English, editing or proof reading for publishing houses.

It appears from your question that you apprehend that the course (MSc-Bio-chemistry) which you are currently pursuing may not lead to a good job.

As regards pursuing an evening course simultaneously, you would be aware that the universe of part-time courses is indeed very wide - ranging from languages to computers to fashion to engineering and IT! The important thing therefore is to select a course that builds on your existing academic knowledge or some other personal strengths.

You could consider building on your background in food and nutrition - since opportunities are available in a number of fields such as hospitals, healthcare, hotels, fitness centres, industrial canteens, airlines and the processed food industry. Sports nutrition is yet another area you could look at.

— Pervin Malhotra, Director, CARING

Please send in your query preferably on a postcard along with your name, complete address and academic qualifications to: 
Editor, Query Hotline, The Tribune, Sector 29, Chandigarh-160020, or at careerguide@tribuneindia.com

FORTNIGHTLY QUIZ-186

1. Name the first Indian to win the Wimbledon junior girls doubles title.

2. Name the ex-student of the Vishwa Bharati who has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in physics for the third time.

3. What term is used to describe the twins joined by some part of the body at birth?

4. Name the writer of the novel ‘Tamas’.

5. Which is the only Indian firm on the Fortune 500 list of global majors?

6. Whose autobiography is titled ‘Living History’?

7. Which country has the largest number of hungry people according to a UNDP report?

8. Expand AIMPLB.

9. What is the route length of the Delhi-Lahore bus?

10. What is the capital of Zimbabwe?

11. With which sport is Bimal Lakra associated?

12. Name the bowler who has taken the maximum number of wickets for Sri Lanka in Test cricket.

13. Name the winners of this year’s men’s and women’s Wimbledon singles titles.

14. Who has equalled Billy Jean King’s record of 20 Wimbledon titles by winning this year’s mixed doubles title?

15. Who recently set a new world record in the women’s pole vault by clearing 4.82 m?

Winners of quiz 185: The first prize by draw of lots goes to Gargi Parashar, XII-D, SD Public School, Chottiline, Jagadhari. Second: Mani Pal Singh Sandhu, IX-C, Modern Senior Secondary School, Patiala.

Third: Garima Dogra, VIII, Ch Balbir Singh Public School (Sen Wing), Arya Samaj Road, Hoshiarpur-146001.

Answers to quiz 185: Nathu La; Liberhan Commission; Lt- Gen A.A.K. Niazi; Opportunity; Punjabi and Urdu; Lord Jagannath, Balbhadra and Subhadra; China; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Brain; Football; Lennox Lewis; Marc Vivien Foe; Lleyton Hewitt; Ivo Karlovic; Cricket Australia.

Cash awards of Rs 400, 300 and 200 are given to the first, second and third prize winners, respectively. These are sent at the school address.

— Tarun Sharma