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HIMACHAL PRADESH |
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Chamba
Setting up of JCC: The Himachal Pensioners’ Kalyan Sangh has mooted the constitution of a joint consultative committees (JCC) at the state and district-level for which names of four persons should be nominated. This was decided at a state-level convention of the Himachal pensioners’ Kalyan Sangh held here on Friday. Detailing the minutes of the convention, Mr P.C. Oberoy, district president of the sangh, said the pensioners had also urged the state government to constitute a ‘pensioners’ adalat’.Kangra
Youth arrested: Baijnath police on Friday arrested a youth for firing from his licensed rifle and later seized two licensed weapons from him. Yogesh Thakur, alias Bunty, a resident of Baijnath, has been arrested under Section 27 of Arms Act and under Section 336 of the IPC. The police said Yogesh was drunk and asked a rehariwala, Mr Toshi Ram, to provide him soup and refused to pay for it. When Toshi Ram insisted Yogesh fired from his rifle. CDs seized: The
Kangra police on Saturday raided a shop at Gaggal and recovered 200 pirated CDs & 20 pornographic CDs and arrested the owner Rajesh Kumar. A case has been registered. Meanwhile police has arrested four women involved in
illicit liquor trade in district & smashed two working stills and seized more than 40,000 ml of illicit liquor.
Versatile in verse
Hisar-based poet Udai Bhanu Hans, who was recently honoured with the Sur Puraskar by the Haryana Sahitya Akademi, has nearly 20 titles to his credit and has been a member of the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, for almost a decade. Besides, this poet of Haryana has other awards and achievements under his belt. Initially, Hans took to writing in Urdu as well as Sanskrit, but soon switched to Hindi poetry. Largely known for his lyrical recitation of Hindi “rubaiyan”, Hans carved a niche for himself with “Sant Sipahi”, an epic description of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh guru. Born in 1926 at Dera Deenpanah village in Muzaffargarh district (now in Pakistan), he came to Delhi after Partition. Apart from taking Prabhakar classes at coaching colleges, he wrote guides and textbooks for Hindi students. The “rubaiyan”, which he penned in the early 1950s, brought him name, fame and money. “Hindi Rubaiyan” was his first collection, which got published in 1952. The “rubaiyan’ have been made popular in Hindi by Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Hans, among others. Hans left Delhi to join as a lecturer at Government College, Hisar, from where he retired as Principal. Apart from critical essays on the works of Hindi writers, he has penned his autobiography “Smritiyon ke Shilalekh” during a long writing career spanning over six decades.
Committed to a cause Even at the age of 82, Gokul Chand moves around briskly on the premises of the Dainik Prarthna Sabha in Qila Mandi, Batala.
Popularly known as Mahashayaji, he has devoted himself to four goals: food for all, medicines for the sick, education for the illiterate and proliferation of good ideas. Having taken to social service from the early teens, he believes that “nar seva” (service of human beings) is the best way of doing “Narayan seva” (worship of God). Influenced by great Indian scholars and saints like Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar, Mahatma Hansraj etc, he chose a life of celibacy so as to dedicate himself completely to social work. In 1947, he started the Dainik Prarthna Sabha for the uplift of the downtrodden, the sick, widows and the illiterate. From a small organisation established with the help of a few social activists like Baba Munshi Ram, Shastri Atam Parkash and Puran Chand after Partition, its activities have now been extended to Batala, Haridwar and Vrindaban. He has also established two postgraduate degree colleges, one for boys and another for girls, and a school in the town. Though he has been honoured by the public, his services are yet to be recognised by the state.
Idol choice
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The bronze idol of Lord Vishnu in the Hari Rai Temple of Chamba has been chosen as the logo for the millennium celebrations.
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The picturesque Chamba valley, also known as ‘Shiv bhoomi’, is dotted with temples dating back to the 6th century. Though every temple in the town has some unique feature, it is the huge bronze idol of Lord Vishnu in the Hari Rai Temple that has been chosen by the state-level Committee for the Celebration of the Chamba Millennium as its logo.The celebrations are scheduled from April 13 to 19. There is an interesting story behind this statue. Weighing around 240 kg, the bronze idol was stolen from the temple on the night of May 6-7 in 1971. Its disappearance had then sent shock waves among the residents. But thanks to the efforts of some detective agencies, the plot to smuggle the idol out of India was foiled. After a 45-day nationwide hunt, the agencies traced the idol to a godown at Mazagaon in Mumbai in June, 1971. The statue finally returned to Chamba, where it was reinstalled in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple during a grand function. On the front, the four-faced idol has an image of Lord Vishnu wearing a crown in the form of a lotus. There is the face of a lion on the right, that of a boar on the left and a face with a moustache on the back. This idol will now further occupy a pride of place as the logo
for the
millennium celebrations. ---------------------- Contributed by Sunit Dhawan, Balraj Mahajan and Balkrishan Prashar
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