Amritsar, January 12
Lohri, a festival which brings harmony, fun and frolic, apparently would not bring smile on the face of Ram Saran Upadhyaya, a home-maker. Reason: The exorbitant prices of essential commodities which have indeed dampened his spirits to celebrate the festival. As for the other items, while the heart for the festivities, the price tag was a deterrent factor.

We haven’t heard of inflation: School kids dance during Lohri celebrations. Photos: Vishal Kumar

It is not the story of Ram Saran alone, but lakhs of people who do not spare a signle thought to preserve money for this festive season. Inflation has pinched an Indian family the hardest this season when the stats testify inflation of over 15 per cent leaving poor consumer nonplussed.

Be it vegetables, fruits, sugar, milk or even an aam admi’s dal-roti, everything seems to be running away from the consumer’s hold, leaving him with an overtly restricted menu to mark celebrations. Sugar and gur being the prominent ingredients in the preparation of sweets have shown an upsurge of about 30 to 40 per cent. This has compelled the middle-class family to cut short its list for Lohri delicacies this time.

Sugar has seen a record rise in its prices this year. The retail price of sugar has touched Rs 50 per kg from Rs 18-20 a year ago and still may go up further.

Says Charu Mehtani, a home maker, “Sugar is a commodity which, otherwise, needs to be the cheapest given the large consumption in the country. However, it has become the costliest. I fail to understand under what policy matters our government is being run.”

Tradition of Lohri commands exchange of eatables in the shape of gajak, reori, tilbhuga or specially made “khajoors” among relatives and friends but barring those who have to mark Lohri as the first anniversary of their marriage or the arrival of a baby, th rest are preferring to give a second thought for being spendthrift this time.

The traders or sweet makers, though were gearing up to display and prepare their specialities, admit that th people now spend judiciously in the current fluid economic situation.

Rakesh of Bansal Sweet Shop, Lawrence Road, said, “Sweets that have milk, sugar and ghee as ingredients have become costlier. In general there is an increase of 20 per cent as compared to last year. The price of ghee has gone up by around 30 per cent. The customer inflow to our shop has reduced by around 15 per cent.”

With groundnut at Rs 60-65 a kg, gur reori at over Rs 70, gur gajak at Rs 90, sugar gajak at Rs 75, popcorn at Rs 55 and chirwa at Rs 65, the commoner cannot consume these Lohri delicacies liberally.

The prices of dry fruits are, however, running constant. Good-quality almond costs around Rs 700-900 per kg and cashew nut around Rs 450-700 per kg. This has brought a small relief to the consumers for whom the spirit of festival does not diminish even with the lightening inflation. The average increase in th prices for dry fruits is 5 to 6 per cent. “Yes, it is true. Earlier, we regularly used to exchange Lohri delicacies within our friend circle and relatives and never ever considered money factor but now it appears a sort of an extra burden. We would think of avoiding it this time,” opined bank branch manager Harcharan Singh.

History of Maqboolpura

The area inhabited by Muslim artisans and labour before Partition and derived its name from the prominent Muslim of the area Choudhry Maqboolshah. After Partition, many from Sargodha, Layalpur and Jallianwalan (now in Pakistan) settled here. The area came under Municipal Corporation in 1966 but remained deprived of major development schemes till now.

Majority of the residence provided domestic helps and skilled man force to the East Mohan Nagar industrial area across the road but due to long drawn militancy and other factors forced the units to close down leaving them shattered and later took to drugs for recourse. This proves to be the last straw for the families dependent on livelihood for once booming industrial area.

CouncillorSpeak

Congress councillor Ajit Singh Bhatia alleging political apathy said whatever development had taken place, it’s because of the Congress. The SAD-BJP government failed to carry out any development work in their wards. He said after many efforts sewerage was laid in new Golden Avenue, but in the absence of any disposal system, it was in bad condition. He said the party would launch protests against the government if the administration failed to initiate development work.

Amritsar, January 12
Vegetables may have been going out of the reach of common people with each passing day, but Makhan Singh Rataul, an Amritsar-based retired senior Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), has shown the way to beat the price hike to some extent by growing most of the veggies of daily use on rooftop of his Guru Nanak Avenue house.

After descending from the USA where he spent about six months last year, Rataul carried home the idea of growing vegetables on the rooftop and practised it with a little research and hard work.

The idea worked and Rataul got good results as he was not only able to grow most of the vegetables of daily use like spinach, carrot, tomato, brinjal, methi, coriander and cauliflower, but also to get a good yield of these vegetables.

“The results are very encouraging and the practice can be very useful for people having small houses and lesser open spaces. The best part of the whole exercise is that we can get farm fresh veggies whenever we want for our breakfast, lunch or dinner and that too sans any deadly pesticides. In fact, availability of sun rays in good amount at the rooftops work for good growth of vegetables. Next session we are going to grow vegetables of gourd family,” said Rataul.

To ensure more oxygen for roots of vegetable plants, Makhan Singh has put to use wooden containers having wide gaps along with lining of polythene sheet. “The more exposure of vegetable plants to the sun makes these disease resistant, particularly in winters,” he said.

Amritsar, January 12
The holy city residents have expressed their reservations over the proposed installation of statues on the roundabouts.

Their major concern was safety, which they felt was being compromised in the name of ‘statues’.

The people reasoned that when the Amritsar Municipal Corporation either did away or downsized the major roundabouts of the city where the traffic density is quite high, why these installations at the chowks.

For example, the MC has proposed to plant the statue of BJP stalwart Dr Baldev Prakash, on the circuit house roundabout on January 17, without considering that it is located on the highway leading to the Amritsar international airport and bear enormous traffic volume almost all the day.

“The situation here would be from bad to worse as you would see big banners and posters on this roundabout which would disrupt the view for vehicles because every second day battery of ministers would be visiting the circuit house via this route, but who cares?”, said Harnam Das, a resident.

“On one hand, it was appreciative of the MC to replace the crowded roundabouts with lights, on the other installation of this statue is a step taken backward. Once this statue is installed on this roundabout, it would be next to impossible to remove or shift it,” opined Rajesh Kochhar, an executive.

“We appreciate the spirit behind raising memorials for our martyrs like Dr Baldev Prakash, but I think raising statues does not seem to be the best way to remember them.

A more befitting memorial would be an institution or library named after them”, said Lakhbir S. Ghuman, secretary of the Amritsar Vikas Manch. The manch has communicated a letter to the Prime Minister over the issue. 

Amritsar January 12
We often hear little children singing popular folk song during the days of Lohri, “Sunder mundariye…ho, tera kon vichara...ho, Dulla Bhatti wala...ho, dulle dhi viyai...ho, ser sakar pai...ho” but only a handful know the story behind the inception of the festival in a nondescript Pakistani village called Pindi Bhattiyan, the namesake of the village hero Dulla Bhatti, about 130 km from Lahore.

In an attempt to relate the correct historical perspective of Lohri, DAV Public School in collaboration with historian and researcher Surinder Kochhar and Dharam Singh Goriya (UK) stage convener of the Guru Nanak Foundation, Washington, presented a play, “Dulla Bhatti”, on the school premises here today, tracing the heroic deeds of Dulla Bhatti, the legendry folk hero of the festival of Lohri.

The story revealed the life of Dulla Bhatti, a Muslim rebel who opposed the mighty Mughals and fought against the various “lagaans” (taxes) imposed on the public by the Shahi sarkar (government) of Humayun.

The play depicted that when Dulla was approached by the father of 14-year-old girl Sunder Mundri who was being forced to marry the already married nambardar, Dulla invites the barat (wedding party) of both the nambardar and a village Hindu boy. His gang then attacks the oppressive nambardar and burns his fields in jubilation when the wedding ceremony with the Hindu boy is completed, where Dulla is given the honour of performing “kanyadan” of Sunder Mundri in th marriage.

The play was first performed in Pindi Bhattiyan, Pakistan, in 2007 by the same Indian troupe of Dulla Bhatti Society which corrected th popular misconception that Dulla’s mother Laddi had weaned Emperor Akbar’s son Jehangir on her milk by highlighting the discrepancies of the claim in consonance with historical dates.

A Punjabi book “Dulla Bhatti” penned by Dharam Singh Goriya was released on the occasion. Apart from this, personalities, who had contributed towards Punjab’s cultural heritage, were honoured with mementos.

Deputy Commissioner K.S. Pannu was honoured with the Amritsar da Alambardar award, while Kuldeep Singh Bedi, Vandana Vadi and Desraj Kali were presented with the Dulla Bhatti commendation award. Punjabi folk singers Gurmeet Bawa and Lakhwinder Wadali and theatre personality Jatinder Brar (Punjab Natshala) were given the Dulla Bhatti cultural award, while Dharam Singh Goraya was bestowed the honour of “Aaj da Dulla Bhatti” and Dr Pritam Singh with “Punjab da Puttar” award.

Amritsar, January 12
German shepherd, rottweiler, pug, labrador, bull dog and whippet were cynosures in the 22nd and 23rd all-breed championship.

The Amritsar Kennel Club organised the dog show at the Sri Guru Harkrishan Public School ground in Ranjit Avenue on Sunday. The kennel show left the city residents flabbergasted with a range of dogs of various breeds. As many as 257 dogs participated in the championship. The participants were seen taking interest in the pets brought from far-off places for their attractive looks and breeds. Questions like the kind of food they prefer and time taken for growth were readily asked. Obviously, the prices of these dogs were the other important points to be noted.

A.I.S Bhinder’s German shepherd clinched the “best of show” title in both events.

In the 22nd show, Tibetan master of Himmat Singh Sekhon secured the second position, while rottweiler of Sakattar Singh and boxer of Karan Singh Bhatti secured the third and fourth positions, respectively. In the 23nd best of show, boxer of Resham Sodhi won the second position, while labrador of Mahinder Pal Singh and rottweiler of Avninder Grewal secured the third and fourth positions, respectively.

The organisers were of the view that the participation of dogs came down this time owing to prevalent dense foggy condition in the northern India. Member of Parliament Navjot Singh Sidhu and vice-president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation Pervez Ahmed Bhandara distributed the prizes among the winners. 

Amritsar, January 12
DAV College organised a seminar-cum-workshop on electrochemical sensors.

Principal Suresh Sharma said utility of the electrochemical sensors was tremendous and added that a boon in the analytical world which would help in cost effective monitoring of pollution and in finding the method of controlling them timely. Dr Rakesh Mahajan from the department of chemistry, Guru Nanak Dev University, said electrochemical sensors were important and cheapest means for trace level determination of cations and anions and the scientists could determine the exact concentration of ions which were present in environment and caused health hazards.

These developments had been used in the medicinal, environmental, agricultural and industrial fields as they helped in accurate, reproducible, fast and selective determination of various ionic species present in various water bodies. Surfactants find numerous applications in household detergents, personal care products, industrial cleaner and processing.

Therefore, surfactant-polymer interactions have become increasing important in view of large industrial applications. Development in sensor revolutionise the industrial world because these sensors were cost effective, easy to prepare, easy to operate and are quite handy so they can be taken to the spot of investigation of environmental pollutants. Moreover, they give immediate results.

During the practical session Dr Mahajan gave the demonstration of making ion selective membranes and reference electrode. The undergraduate students of the institution had an opportunity to learn the new developments in the workshop.

The department of biotechnology, Ministry of Human Resources, provided financial assistance for the workshop.

Amritsar, January 12
Delhi-based NGO Avantika, in its silver jubilee year, awarded 290 students and 36 school principals at a function held at DAV Public School here on Tuesday.

The NGO gave away prizes in memory of late Sarla Gupta, a noted academician.

The NGO awarded scholarships to outstanding students from economically backward sections.

As many as 66 students of DAV Public School, 10 from Delhi Public School, 33 from DAV International, 30 from Police DAV School, besides students from Sri Ram Ashram, SL Bhavans and others, were given prizes.

Avantika announced the launch of its website shortly. The NGO is funded by a devoted group of retired persons from all over India with the aim of developing holistic education and recognising the talent of students in non-academic fields. The NGO brings a bouquet of competitions in schools annually and has spread out in India as well as 16 other countries, including Afghanistan, Tanzania, Japan and the UAE.