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Conference on landmarks on American scene
opens
Chandigarh, March 28 The welcome speech was made by Prof Manju Jaidka, Chairperson of the Department of English and Secretary of the MELUS — India executive board. The presidential address was made by Prof. M.G. Ramanan from the University of Hyderabad. The first plenary session was chaired by Prof M.L. Raina, patron for the MELUS-India executive board as well as a faculty member of the Department of English, PU. The keynote address titled “The Wings of Freedom: From Harriet Jacobs to Toni Morrison,” was given by Dr Jasbir Jain from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. The second speaker was Dr Susan Friedman from the University of Madison, Wisconsin, who spoke on “Diaspora Blues: A Poetics of Home and Displacement”. Dr Mukesh Williams from Keio-SFC University, spoke on “The Literary Landmarks in American Literature”. The audience included delegates from various States of the country as well as participants from the USA, France, Germany, Taiwan, Japan and Bangladesh and faculty members and students of the Department of English, PU.
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School board’s budget
cleared
Mohali, March 28 The budget proposals had been cleared by the Finance Committee of the board at a meeting held earlier. Sources say that the board proposes to earn an income of Rs 3956.50 lakh from examination fee while Rs 2500 lakh are expected to be earned by way of production. Registration and migration work will fetch an income of Rs 488.50 lakh, while the proposed earning from open schools has been fixed at Rs 341.25 lakh. The boards expects to recover loans to the tune of Rs 280 lakh while interest on deposits are likely to fetch an income of Rs 280 lakh. Income from miscellaneous sources is expected to be Rs 271.93 lakh. The PSEB proposes to spend Rs 1677.11 lakh on the conduct of examinations and payment of staff. Expenditure on general administration comes to Rs 791.10 lakh while that on Adarsh Vidyalayas stands at Rs 421.05 lakh. Other proposed expenditure comes to Rs 1012 lakh. According to sources the members constituted a screening committee for looking into reports that come to the board in connection with the affiliation of schools. Mr Joginder Singh, Chief Librarian of the board, has reportedly been made convener of the committee. Mr Jagdish Singh of the Sant Singh Sukha Singh Senior Secondary School, Amritsar, is also one of the members of the screening committee. The long standing demand of the board employees union to have 1:1 ratio of staff for dealing with examination work has also been cleared at the meeting. Now one set of employees will constitute one assistant and one clerk against the earlier practice of having a set of one assistant and two clerks.
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Criti tops DAV Class VIII
examination
Chandigarh, March 28 Nikhil Mukhija of the same school shared the second spot with Tarun Goel of DAV Public School, Sector 8, by score 92 per cent marks, results were declared today. Akshay Chawla scored 91.3 per cent marks, while Harsimran Singh was a close third in the school at 90.1 per cent. The school registered per cent 100 pass percentage Fifty percent students passed the examination with distinction. Nishant Kausal and Manjeet Singh stood third in KBDAV by securing 91.16 per cent marks each. Seven students of the school secured above 90 per cent marks while 20 students secured above 85 per cent. As many as 64 students of the school secured above 80 per cent while 91 students got above 70 per cent and 134 students got first division from the 149 students who took the exam. Invited: Two students of Vivek High school will leave for the UK and Canada under the Round Square Student Exchange programme. Prateek Kanwal, Class X student of Vivek High school, will go to Abbotsholme School in the UK for the April to July term. Harsimran Chatha of class X will go to Appleby College, Ontario, Canada for the April to June term.
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Seminar on Dr
Ambedkar
Chandigarh, March 28 He said it was regrettable that even after more than 50 years of independence we had not succeeded in eliminating caste based hierarchy and practice of untouchability. The seminar was organised by the Ambedkar Centre, PU, and the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), Chandigarh Administration. In his keynote address, Mr Gopal Guru, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, elaborated the ideas of Dr Ambedkar on political and social democracy. He said Dr Ambedkar expected empowerment not only limited to reservation but also the enduring empowerment through consciousness rising. At present the elite sections of society get special protection and privileges from the state while the Dalit masses were left to fend for themselves, he added. Ms Madhavi Kataria, Director, DSW, in her welcome address pointed out that we were still living under inner colonialism whereby rich were debarring poor on social, political and economic accounts. In the first technical session, Professor Paramjit Singh Judge, Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, read his paper on Dalit migration from rural areas to urban and highlighted that how the caste segregation and caste consolidation was being recreated even at the urban places.
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619 students awarded degrees
Chandigarh, March 28 Pathak congratulated the students and stressed the need for an interdisciplinary approach. He urged them to apply the theory of relativity in their lives.
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Call for legislation to stop NRIs from importing
judgements
Chandigarh, March 28 And as they speak about the necessity of enacting composite legislation to prevent non-resident Indians (NRIs) from importing judgements, you realise that exposure has infused authority in their voice. Back in their Sector 16 office after attending XIX Biennial Lawasia Conference at Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, the brothers — Anil and Ranjit Malhotra — say so many NRIs invoke jurisdiction of foreign courts before convincing the Judges to pass favourable orders. The NRIs then seek execution of orders through courts in India after importing the judgements passed in their favour. Quoting an example, the brothers say in a large number of cases partners violate foreign court order. One of them brings the child to India, forcing the other to approach the court here. The aggrieved spouse seeks the child’s return by producing foreign court’s custody order. This is not all. In a substantial number of cases, partners also seek recognition and indirect implementation of divorce decrees issued by foreign courts. The spouse — residing in area under foreign jurisdiction — produces the decree, often ex-parte, in Indian court and seeks its implementation. As a result, Malhotras — the only lawyers from Chandigarh to attend the conference — add, it is essential to give NRIs a law that is applicable to them, rather than letting them invade the Indian system with judgements of foreign jurisdictions, not applicable otherwise also. “The Indian legislature should seriously review the issue and come out with a composite legislation in family law matters,” says Mr Anil Malhotra. “Till this is done, foreign court judgements in domestic matters will keep on cropping up”. Agreeing with him, Mr Ranjit Malhotra adds, “Even though courts in the country interpret judgements issued by foreign courts in harmony with Indian laws, the Indian judiciary has made one thing very clear — the courts here will not mechanically enforce such judgements and decrees in family matters”. He adds: “The Indian courts have now started looking into the merits of the matters and are deciding them in accordance with the law prevailing in the country, rather than simply implementing the orders without examining them”. Giving details of the conference, he says about 1000 participants from 23 countries converged at Gold Coast. The speakers included Chief Justices of Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia, China, Singapore, Japan, Mongolia and Phillipines, besides senior judges of the Supreme Court of India and Pakistan. Senior Indian Supreme Court Judge Mr Justice Y.K.Sabharwal chaired Tsunami session covering legal and human reactions to the tragedy. Mr Justice N. Santosh Hegde of the apex court was also present, along with Mr Justice Vijender Jain from the Delhi Hsigh Court, former Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Mr A.B. Saharaya and former Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee.
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Not a shop for 650 houses!
Chandigarh, March 28 The petitioner, Mr Balwinder Singh Bhinder, who is president of the Punjab Government Employees Residents Welfare Association of Category I Houses, Sector 39-C, has claimed that no shop has been provided for in the area that has over 650 houses meant for the government employees. Class III and IV staff resided in these quarters, the petitioner stated. He also stated that no steps have been taken to construct and develop the vacant land available in the area. The land, he said, has been turned into garbage dump. After hearing the petitioner, who was appearing in person, the Bench issued a notice of motion for May 9 to the UT Adviser.
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Farmers get stay against
PUDA
Chandigarh, March 28 The petitioners, while challenging the decision of PUDA to acquire their land, have stated that the entire acquisition policy was flawed. They have stated that as per the Land Acquisition Act, farmers like them, have to be paid the current land rates while acquiring their land. But, since they are not allowed to dispose of their lands themselves due to the restrictions imposed by the Periphery Control Act, they have no way of knowing the present rate of their land. By acquiring their land at throwaway prices, PUDA is taking them for a ride, the petitioners have alleged. The hearing will now resume on May 7.
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LHRI condemns threat to lawyer
Chandigarh, March 28 In a press note issued here, the LHRI alleged that the threats of Inspector Surinder Pal Singh were a challenge to the criminal justice system. The silence of the Punjab Government on the issue speaks volumes about the protection of human rights. It said the LHRI has asked Mr Sodhi, who is also a vice-president of the organisation, to move an application for the restoration of the security cover, which was unilaterally withdrawn by the state government in 2000.
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Taste of Texas and more with Al Young
“The world is having a taste of Texas these days,” said celebrated American writer taking a little dig at US President George Bush as he went over the culture and life of Texas where law-making was always a problem. He was talking of course of the legendary songster Leadbelly. His liberal talk caused the First Secretary of the US Embassy, Ms Robin Diallo to intervene and say that “Al Young is here as a guest of the US State Department but he is not expressing the views of the state and that is the beauty of American democracy.”
With this diplomatic job done, came a memorable American Corner meeting Al Young replete with humour on high-tech society, singing of old Negro spirituals and Leadbelly’s Blues as well as some storytelling this evening at the State Library in Sector 17. A rare occasion indeed for Young is a celebrated essayist, novelist, poet and screenplay writer who has worked with names as celebrated as Sidney Poitier, Bill Cossby and Richard Pryor. Thus it was sad that his talk on ‘Why Poetry, storytelling and music matters’ was so scantily attended. There should have been an effort to get a larger audience as many lovers of literature will probably learn of his visit here from newspaper reports. Criticising the modern industrial society where the youth had lost its sense of wonder, Young said that poetry, music and storytelling were the best vehicles of carrying forward a cultural legacy of a people. Cynical of the time that was now owned by big corporatism, the poet said that moving away from body time and natural time had been at the cost of human creativity. “Now a child will say that his father will tell a story for 15 minutes and waste their time. I have known storytelling in old Mississippi where storytelling went on for several days and people did not tire. Congratulating old cultures where values were developed, he lamented the fact that industrialised western societies had lost much by way of creativity. He gave the example of Australians catching hold of aborigines in the eighties to know of the parallel eality of ‘dream time’ lest it be lost. The poems he recited mirrored his feelings and one on old Houston town was very moving. While Young has lived most of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area, he was born on May 31, 1939, at Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Bloomsbury Review’s poetry editor Ray Gonzalez said thus of Young: “When we look back at 20th-century American literature, Al Young will be seen as a writer whose contribution is major and profound.” TNS
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Tickling taste buds with South Indian flavour
The restaurant at the Hotel Mountview is virtually transformed into a mini South India, wearing a festive look and abuzz with an unprecedented rush of inquisitive visitors as the South Indian food festival here emerges to be a big draw.
The hotel management has ventured to create an admirable ambience with the restaurant staff attired in traditional South Indian cream- coloured dhotis and dresses with chandan tilak adoring their fore heads and soothing Carnatic music emanating from stereos. At the top of this, the rates for all the special South Indian dishes had been discounted to a large extent, said Mr R.P. Singla, Genreal Manger. The concept behind the festival is to extend a special offer to school children who need a rejuvenation after the examinations, reiterates Mr Singla. "We offer our special items like Avial, Aloo Kora, Parippu, Kancheepuram, Idli besides general dishes at very competitive rates and in view of the interest evinced by the public, the festival may be extended after March 29," adds Mr Anurag Walia, Deputy General Manager. OC
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Fiction imbues wood with life
Description of an art object through a narrative is a normal phenomenon but illustrating a story through the medium of art is wondrous marvel indeed.
But the exhibition, displaying charismatic art work of wood-cut prints and stone-etching, titled ' Cycle of Life' put up by a group of 17 versatile students of the Fine Arts Department of the Punjabi University, Patiala, is a creditable effort which opened today at the Museum of Fine Arts, Punjab University.
Defining the spirit of unity in diversity, all the 17 artists contributed individually as well as collectively to depict the story of a life experience of a fictional character 'Samarditya'. Enjoying the bounties at his kingdom, Samarditya ventures to a deep thick forest only to lose his path and faces many ordeals including terror of elephant attack, snakes and eventual deadly trysts with life. The artists have translated all these episodes in their respective miniature art works frame by frame with an immaculate perception which is a testimony to their laborious and patient attitude. The direct frame of reference for the collective involvement, however, came to life at a lecture delivered to the students by the great art historian Dr B.N. Goswamy during a workshop, discloses Mr Jagdeep Garcha, the project teacher. Besides, the students have put up etching works in marbles which is limited to be technique-oriented and the project also traces the development of art from the prehistoric era to the contemporary art forms, adds Mr Garcha. Also, the students have put up works in the abstract modern art form. Reflections by Sonia, Relations by Rupinder Inner feelings by Megha and works by Meenakshi, Parvinder, Vimalpreet, Sidharth, Shivani, Mandeep, Manpreet, Jagmeet, Harcharan, Pooja, Sunita, Sweety and Harmesh Kumari deserve to be complimented. The exhibition is open till March 31.
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