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A cradle of writers
Shrawan’s ‘afsaana’
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CPI to move resolution in
MC for land acquisition
Free education for poor children
‘Deprivation can fuel
violence’
A haven for drug smugglers
Clara to open beauty academy
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A cradle of writers
Amritsar has been a cradle of Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and English literature, particularly during pre-Partition days. Saadat Hasan Manto, one of the greatest short story writers in Urdu, was born on May 11, 1912, in Amritsar. He had once written about himself: “Saadat Hasan will die one day, but ‘Manto’ will never die.” Manto belonged to a middle class Kashmiri family of Amritsar. In January 1948, he moved to Karachi, a metropolitan city of the newly-created state of Pakistan. He virtually drank himself to death in 1954. Eleven years ago, Puran Singh Hunar, an eminent Urdu poet, breathed his last in Amritsar on July 3, 1995, at the age of 90. He had composed his first ghazal in 1920, when he was studying for his matriculation in Dyal Singh High School, Lahore. He was a rare symbol of the composite culture of Punjab that flourished during pre-Partition days. He had taken up the job of a language teacher at a district board school in Amritsar. He retired in 1962 with the record of a meritorious service. Shortly afterwards, the Languages Department, Punjab, appointed him as an Urdu teacher for the neo-literates in this language. In 1982, he was honoured with the Shiromani Sahitkar Purskar, which is the ultimate award conferred by the Punjab Government on an eminent litterateur. One of India’s best-known novelists and short-story writers, Mulk Raj Anand, who died at the age of 99, also belonged to the Holy City. He was born in 1905 in Peshawar (now in Pakistan). After his initial studies in Amritsar (Khalsa College), he moved to England where he spent much of his time in the next three decades. During World War II, he worked as a freelance broadcaster with the BBC in London. Another recipient of the Shiromani Kavi award is Parminderjit. He has been bringing out the famous Punjabi literary magazine “Akkhar”. He began publishing and editing “Akkhar” from the city in 1997, after having been associated with another Punjabi literary magazine “Lo” for a decade. His literary career started with the publication of his first book of poetry “Likhtum Parminderjit”. Although he has written only four books “College Kitab” (1973), “Likhtum Parminderjit” (1981), “Meri Marfat” (2000) and “Bachpan, Ghar Te Main”, he has created his own place in the field of Punjabi poetry. His book “Meri Marfat” remained part of MA (Punjabi), Part-II curriculum of Guru Nanak Dev University for three years. Apart from this, he has a special liking for editing and translating books. These include “Kalma Ke Rishte” (1970), comprising poetry of Indian and Pakistani poets, “Bedian Te Badban” (1973), which he edited in collaboration with Shaheryar, “Kavita Punjab”, “Shairiy 92” (1992) and “Dastak Te Sarnave”. He was honoured with the Kalam Puraskar by the Komantri Lekhak Manch. He has been given a number of awards, including the Safdar Hashmi Puraskar, Bawa Balwant Kavya Puraskar, Janwadi Kavita Puraskar and Maulvi Gulam Rasul Yaadgari Puraskar. Dr K.S. Kang is yet another famous literary person from Amritsar. He has done the city proud, as he has been nominated for this year’s Shiromani Punjabi Lekhak Award by the Punjab government. Earlier, Dr Kang had been disappointed with the state government for the omission of his name from the list of awardees last year. He thinks that he was denied the honour for long, as he writes fearlessly — unmindful of those in power. The 70-year-old writer has enriched the literature with 77 books, the latest being “Punjabi Novel Te Novelkar”. He founded two genres of prose in Punjabi, including lyrical essays and character-sketches. He is credited to have written the first lyrical essays in Punjabi. His famous books are “Sahitya Chintan”, “Badlan De Rang”, “Pathar Leekan” and “Sahitya Meemansa”. Dr Kang’s literary journey began at a comparatively young age. He began his literary career at 16 by writing stories. Gradually, he developed a taste for criticism. Just within a short span of four years, he was a recognised critic, thanks to his unbiased criticism. His writings portray the contemporary history of the Holy City comprehensively and give readers a peep into various facets of the city’s life. “Yadan De Panchhi” (autobiographical essay) is an exquisite example of this. Dr Kang is a widely travelled writer. He visited Germany, Holland, Denmark, Luxemburg, Thailand, Singapore and Pakistan. The septuagenarian writer also writes in English. His three books — “Principal Teja Singh”, “Bawa Balwant” and “Sujan Singh” — are already available in the market. In his literary career, he compiled Punjabi-English dictionary and his 15 entries found a place in the Encyclopaedia of the Indian Literature published by the Sahitya Akademi. Various state and national literary organisations honoured him for his contribution to literature. The most prolific Punjabi poet of Amritsar, who won the Shiromani Kavi award, is Ajaib Singh Hundal, an advocate by profession. His poems offer a veritable pageant of images from mythology, history and contemporary life, highlighting corruption in society, especially in judiciary. His works have raised Punjabi literature to prominence. Compactness, simplicity, and perfection of form have been the qualities in which Hundal excelled from the outset. Exemplifying the best kind of personal or even confessional poetry, they achieve a universal appeal that is derived from their artistic and emotional integrity. His motifs are his own and they are the most original ones. He took a giant stride with “Lafaz-Balafz”, published in 1985. After Nanak Singh, the great Punjabi novelist who was awarded Sahit Akademi Award, Hundal is the first literary figure from Amritsar who has had the honour to receive Shiromani Poet Award by the Punjab Language Department in 1995. Hundal is also the recipient of S.S. Misha Award (1993), Takht Singh Ghazal Award (2005), Kanwar Chohan Poetry Award (2005). He has authored 17 books and has had many firsts to his credit. He is the first Punjabi poet who has authored six well-acclaimed epic poems. An epic poem “Lafaz-Balafz” is a unique work of Hundal, portraying the “court culture” in unique style. Another long poem of Hundal covers vast period of Punjab, beginning from the period of legendary Sikh leader Master Tara Singh to the assassination of Indira Gandhi. His seminal works include a satire on Waris Shah, a great Punjabi poet of eighteen century who had authored “Heer Ranjha”, based on the traditional folk tale of Heer and her lover Ranjha. The poem is written from a diametrically opposite angle, disapproving the “love affairs” approved of by Waris Shah. Similarly, Hundal’s poem “Apna Apna Kurkshetra” has been written in a unique style, giving a “modern interpretation” to mythological characters. However, the 65-year-old poet has a grouse. He says, no university has ever prescribed his book in its syllabi since he never indulged in lobbying.
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Though Verma was greatly influenced by the matchless stories of Manto, yet he could not meet him during his lifetime, though both lived in Amritsar. With the hope of meeting him, Verma dashed to Mumbai in 1953. However, his hopes were shattered when he learnt that Manto had already left for Pakistan just three days ago. The Language Department, Punjab, honoured him with the Siromani Sahitkar Award for his contribution to Urdu language in 1993. His father, a barrister by profession, shifted to Lucknow before his birth in 1930. Thus, he lived ten years of his childhood in the city of Nawabs and had adequate exposure to the language, which is widely spoken there. His works include five books of short stories and three novels. He penned about 250 short stories during his five-decade-long literary journey and produced poems, too. The turning phase in his career came in 1953, when his story appeared in Urdu magazine “Afkar”, a reputed monthly published from Karachi (Pakistan). — V.W.
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CPI to move resolution in
MC for land acquisition
Expressing sympathy towards the shopkeepers whose kiosks were demolished, the CPI has said that the party would move a resolution in the House of the Municipal Corporation (MC) to acquire a land lying behind the demolished kiosks for rehabilitation.
Mr Amarjit Singh Asal, District Secretary, CPI, said he had conveyed this proposal to Mr Sunil Dutti, the Mayor, and various leaders of other parties to table the resolution in the forthcoming budget session of the MC. Mr Tilak Raj Gambhir, the owner of the land proposed to be acquired, had filed a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court for removing the “unauthorised” khokhas (kiosks) in front of the historic Gurdwara Pipli Sahib. The local CPI leaders claimed that the kiosks were not located immediately in front of the gurdwara, but about 20 metres away. Moreover, they said, Mr Gambhir’s 1,700 square yards of land was situated behind the kiosks and the demolition had helped in shooting up the land prices several times. Mr Asal said that Mr Surinder Chaudhry and Mr Pramod Kumar Babla, both independent councillors, Ms Lakshmi Kanta Chawla, state Vice-President of the BJP, and Mr Pardeep Singh Walia, a local Akali leader, had assured him of supporting the resolution, which would be jointly moved by the CPI’s councillor, Mr Vijay Kumar, and Mr Chaudhry, in the next meeting. He said the land could be acquired under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, of which Section 17 stated that in case of urgency, whenever the government so directs, the collector, on the expiration of 15 days from the publication of the notice, could take possession of any land needed for a public purpose. The Act further states that whenever land is required for a public purpose, which in the opinion of the appropriate government is of urgent importance, the collector may, immediately after the publication of the notice mentioned in sub-section(1) and with the previous sanction of the appropriate government enter upon and take possession of such land, which shall thereupon vest absolutely in the government free from all encumbrances. Mr Asal hoped that the resolution would be unanimously passed in the House, as Mr O.P. Soni, MLA, Mr Surinder Singh Chinda, Senior Deputy Mayor, Mr Om Prakash Gabbar, Deputy Mayor, had supported the rehabilitation of the shopkeepers. He said the shopkeepers had been running their shops in the area for the past four decades. Mr Sunil Dutti said they would consider the resolution whenever it would be tabled in the House. When contacted, Mr Gambhir said he would not sell his land to the MC and he had not been contacted about this proposal. He refused to comment on the mentioning of location of the gurdwara in front of kiosks in his writ petition. He said the matter was unnecessarily been politicised.
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DAV Public School turns 25
DAV Public School is holding year-long silver jubilee celebrations to mark the completion of the 25 years of its foundation. The 25 years of the school have been glorious with many unique achievements and accolades. The school’s founder principal, Ms V. Puri, who continues to be at the helm of the affairs, made a humble beginning in 1982 in the canteen of the BBK DAV College with just 200 students and 12 teachers. The school today is a majestic structure with nearly 6,000 students and 272 teachers. It is providing modern infrastructure with five state-of-the-art computer labs, science labs, multimedia labs, a well-stocked three-storey library with 38,000 books and journals, a planetarium at the junior school, besides a science park. Ms Puri claimed that a number of students from the school had achieved proud positions in every nook and corner of the world in various professions. Directly managed by the DAV College Managing Committee in New Delhi, and affiliated to the CBSE, the school is a recipient of the ISO 9001-2000 certificate. The principal said the school had been trying to tap the inner reservoirs of the young minds. The school’s Service Unit had taken under its fold BBK Public School in Yaseen Road providing free education, Ms Puri said, adding that the school was also providing financial and professional assistance to other schools like the Citizens Forum Vidya Mandir for the wards of drug addicts, Nishkam School for rag pickers and Harbans Lal Khanna Memorial School. The Mother Teresa’s Home for Children, Arya Anathalya in Ferozepore and Pingalwara also received the school’s regular help, she added. The school, Ms Puri said, had a versatile network of co-curricular activities — debates, declamation, elocution, extempore speech, poetry recitation, creative writing, quiz competitions, panel discussions, art and craft, and performing arts. She added that on regular basis the school organised seminars, workshops, lectures, talks, delegations, staff-meetings and enrichment programmes through the CBSE, NIEPA, NCERT, Gnostic Centre, IQF and DAV in-service programmes. — FOC
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World records of a different kind
To make the students aware of the achievements of Sikhs, Mr Prithipal Singh Tuli, a retired bank manager, with a passion for collecting the news clippings and pictures of Sikhs who created history by making world records in different fields, has now started to give these to various schools in the city on a no-profit-no-loss basis. He said the idea came to him when a magazine, in its millennium issue, wrote about persons who had shaped India in the last five decades, but “forgot” to name even one Sikh. He said that besides organising exhibitions, he had decided to adopt this way, which he hoped would make children aware of the contribution of Sikhs to the world in general and to the nation in particular. Mr Tuli, a convener of the Satnam Sarv Kalyan Trust that has adopted about 300 schools in Punjab for teaching divinity, asked no one could forget Lieutenant General Habaksh Singh for his bravery in the 1965 Indo-Pak War, Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, who helped in creating Bangladesh and the present Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, known as father of economic reforms. Mr Tuli claimed that in some fields like sports and science, Sikhs had surpassed other communities. Citing examples, he said the first three world-record holder pilots who landed and took-off from the world’s highest air fields were Sikhs. Wing Commander Sadhu Singh Gill had landed an AN-12 aircraft for the 1261st time at Leh, creating maximum number of landings by a military pilot in the world on the highest operational airfield. Group Captain Tajinder Pal Singh Chhatwal had set a world record in July 1984 by landing a helicopter 42 times in a day on Siachen, the world’s highest battlefield, and got his name registered in the Guinness Book of World Records. Mr Tuli claimed that many private schools, too, were coming forward to take his collection of photographs. “I am also approaching many schools for this cause,” he said.
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Free education for poor children In an effort to provide better education free of cost to the children from Below Poverty Lines (BPL) families at their doorstep, the Akaal Purkh Ki Fauj (APKF) has opened Akaal Purkh Ki Fauj Public School at Wai Puin village, 35 km from here. As many as 200 students from Amritdhari families would be provided quality education and out of these, a minimum of 50 seats have been reserved for girl-students. The school has been opened under the banner of ‘Raising Sikhs of the Future’. The brain behind the project, advocate Jaswinder Singh, Chief of the APKF, and also a member of the SGPC, said the APKF had organised a camp of computer training and sewing centre at the village six months ago at the village. During the camp, Jaswinder Singh said he had observed that the children from this remote area lacked the facility of good schooling. Noting that it was not possible to take the children to city schools for quality education, he decided to embark upon this ambitious project to reach out to the marginal sections of the society. For this purpose, the APKF laid down stern rules for enrolling students. As per the rules, the children from the families, which have household items like coloured TV sets and cable connections, scooters and telephones, cannot seek admission. He says “if a family has even one of the items, then it can easily afford education of a child”. He adds that families with a girl child would be given preference. Built on a plot of two acres, the school has nursery to fifth classes from the first academic year. Qualified teachers have been employed from the city. Students and staff will be daily ferried by school vans, Jaswinder Singh says. The Chief of the APKF said that greater emphasis would be laid on soft skills like table manners, dinning manners, politeness in behaviour and others. Ms Ravinder Kaur, Principal, Bhai Gurdas Academy, has left her paid job to join the school as its principal. Apart from this, other significant features of the school include computer education, Gurmat classes, cultural activities, well-equipped library, regular health check-up and sports activities. Education would be provided through play way method, Jaswinder Singh claims. The APKF was founded in 1999 with an objective of promoting Sikhism and to fight against social evils, including female foeticide, addiction and dowry. — FOC
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‘Deprivation can fuel
violence’
The economically-deprived section of the country must be given recognition as respectable citizens and also as resource persons of the society. These were the views expressed by various social scientists, who participated in the two-day national seminar on “Urban Poverty: A Challenge for Sustainable Development” organised by the Guru Nanak Dev University under the UGC Special Assistance Programme, which concluded here recently.
They opined that poor people could be rich in terms of values, social relationships and were playing a vital role in the society by carrying out essential and manual jobs like cleaning, rags picking, which was not liked by most of the members of the society. Professor Pritpal Singh from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, presided over the valedictory section. The eminent sociologists were also of the view that the privileged section of the society must realise that if the relative deprivation of the under-privileged was not reduced then it would lead to an increase in violence and crime. They said that women, children and aged, and poorest among the poor need special attention of the society for a sustainable development. Urban poverty must be addressed and given priority by the government, they added. The experts also recommended that financial resources allocated for the poor must reach them and the strategies to uplift their status must be devised in such a way that pilferage of resources did not take place and reached the targeted groups and made a dent in urban poverty. They also resolved that the macro-level planning must be linked to the micro-level problems of the poor. Among others, Professor R.S. Sandhu, Coordinator, UGC Special Assistance Programme, Dr Paramjit Nanda, Dr P.S. Raikhy, Prof Saroop Singh, Prof A.S. Sethi, Dr Maitreyee Bardhan Roy from Kolkata, Dr Aneesa Shafi from Srinagar, presented their papers on various aspects on urban poverty.
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Art of painting on grains
Gurmit Singh and his wife, Harpreet Kaur, are jointly pursuing an unusual hobby of preparing miniature paintings of famous buildings, spiritual personalities, deities and others.
Amazingly, for the purpose, they do not use any canvas, but paint them on grains, pieces of rice, gram and others. The duo has painted religious figures, popular celebrities and wonders of the world to famous monuments of the country. Gurmit Singh portrayed images of Guru Nanak Dev and palanquin (Palki Sahib) on a piece of “til”. On a grain of rice, he wrote names of all the ten Sikh gurus. Showcasing the incidences of inhuman acts of violence in his collection, one of his art pieces on rice depicts gruesome scene of the terror attacks of 9/11 —the ramming of aeroplanes in the World Trade Centre in the US. The other rice piece shows the famous Statue of Liberty of New York. A goldsmith by profession, Gurmit Singh’s skill of giving various shapes to the yellow and white metals came handy in pursuing his hobby successfully. He deftly portrayed Guru Nanak Dev and his companions Bala and Mardana during his travels on a grain. On a tamarind seed, he wrote the Shabd (hymn) “Deh Shiva Var Mohi”. Harpreet Kaur could not help being influenced by her husband, as she too has portrayed several pictures on tiny pieces of grain. She sketched pictures of Lord Shiva, London Bridge, Eiffel Tower, map of the country and others. Interestingly, they made all of their creations with 0.5 lead pencils. The couple now want their names registered in the national and international books of record.
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The two-day fashion extravaganza that opened here recently received an overwhelming response. The event had more than 40 designers and artists who displayed their creations. Organised by Ms Tanya Chatha and Ms Amrita from Fashion Forecast, the show turned out to be grand affair. Talking to The Tribune, Ms Chatha said the best in textiles, handicrafts, semi-precious jewellery and other items were on display. A special Navratas food counter was also set up at the exhibition. Ms Chatha, who had topped in commercial arts in a local college, started small handicraft exhibitions. Gradually picking up the threads, she graduated into big league and organised many exhibitions of her craft at various embassies including British and Australian High Commissions, besides Sudanese and Bhutanese Missions in New Delhi. She achieved raving acclaim for her items, which included woven accessories — a blend of fashion and art. Ms Chatha had done many art pieces herself, including Tanjore-style gold-plated portrait of Guru Nanak Dev, which had been widely acclaimed. Diversifying into interiors, she took up a number of contracts for projects in the city, adding to her repertoire as a complete artist. — FOC
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The ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan has also triggered a series of narcotics smuggling cases from the border belt in the past couple of months. Major seizures in the past two months have revealed that fact that the villages in the close proximity of the international fence have become vulnerable points for the smuggling of contraband, which is generally thrown across at predetermined spots. Cell phones have added a new dimension to these murky operations. Mr J. P. Birdi, ADGP (Intelligence), during his recent visit to the areas, had alleged that Pakistani intelligence bodies were trying to use the vulnerable points across the fence to smuggle narcotics and fake currency into India. He said they had definite information that the ISI was behind these nefarious designs, and added that the government had taken a serious view of these attempts and had already established a Special Narcotics Cell to counter these anti-national activities near the border. Experts feel that there should be better coordination and networking amongst various intelligence and enforcement agencies in the border belt to thwart such attempts. The seizure of major hauls of heroin and narcotics is a pointer towards an organised drug smugglers’ network, which is operational in the border areas targeting the economically-weaker sections in the border villages. Experts says villagers are being used as informers and couriers for safe delivery of the consignments to contact points across the country. They add that once the villagers are trapped in the vicious circle of the underground dealings, it becomes difficult to escape due to the clout of the operators. The Border Security Force and the Narcotics Controls Bureau, in a joint operation, seized 19 kg of heroin from one Avtar Singh, a resident of Kakkar village near the border on March 28. Similarly, in another breakthrough, the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) recovered a similar contraband of 10 kg from Putlighar Chowk area by intercepting a new car, and arrested one Sukhwinder Singh. The BSF jawans had seized about 13 kg of heroin from one Baljinder Singh from Vaan Tara Singh village. The Special Narcotics Cell had also seized seven kg of heroin concealed in a LPG cylinder from one Amolak Singh, another smuggler. The agencies are yet to arrest the kingpin. It was always the couriers, who are arrested by the various agencies, but the big fish manage to elude the security agencies. — P.K.
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Dr Ashok Goel, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the Government Medical College here, has the distinction of having developed two vaccines against human rabies — “Rabivax” (liquid) and “Rabivax” (lyophilized). These two modern anti-rabies vaccines would help manage animal bites and one of these is being marketed internationally. An advisor to the Department of Science, Technology, Environment and Non-Conventional Energy, Government of Punjab, Dr Goel was born into a humble family. It was due to his untiring efforts that he completed his MBBS and MD in pharmacology from the institute, where he is teaching now. He has been associated with the Punjab Government for the past 24 years discharging various duties. He had been the executive member of the Department of Science. His teaching experience spans 20 years. He has been a guest speaker at numerous social and scientific national and international conferences. Besides, he has the honour of organising more than ten national and regional conferences. His health opinion have been published in more than 200 newspapers and magazines. He has also published a book in Punjabi on AIDS. — FOC
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Clara to open beauty academy
Malaysian beauty academy chain, Clara International, would open its centre in the city soon.
The academy would train students in all the segments of the beauty business. The
academy, headed by Dr Clara L. Chee, claims to have trained and placed
over 50,000 students around the globe. The biggest USP of the academy is the internationally recognised courses and diplomas they offer. Clara International has a worldwide network of beauty academies in countries like Switzerland , China , Myanmar, Mauritius, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong and the USA among others. The career avenues include cosmetologist, beauty managers, spa specialist, beauty therapist, makeup artist, slimming consultant, image specialist and product consultant.
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Exam topper
Ms Aanchal Arora, a student of the BBK DAV College for Women here, has topped the fourth semester examination of the Bachelor of Design of the Guru Nanak Dev University held here recently. FCI visit Mr Jugal Kishore Sharma, Member of the Legislative Assembly, and Chairman of the Improvement Trust, Amritsar, recently visited the food storage depot of the Food Corporation of India (FCI). While inspecting the stocks stored in the depot, Mr Sharma appreciated the staff and management of the FCI for maintaining good and hygienic conditions and clean the environment. Doctors invited Two local doctors have been selected by the American Diabetes Association and the Society of Hypertension to address an international symposium on Atherosclerosis. Dr Atul Kapoor, chief radiologist, Advanced Diagnostics, and Dr Rohit Kapoor, a leading heart physician, would lead the team that would present research papers at the 66th Scientific Session to be held in Washington from June 9 to 13. Dr Atul Kapoor said the second part of the study would be presented in the 15th International Symposium Atherosclerosis to be held in Italy from June 18 to 22.
— FOC
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Shrawan Kumar Verma, is a renowned living “afsaana nigaar”, or short-story writer of Urdu language. He is a prolific writer.