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Jhanda Sahib unfurled, mela begins
Devotees raise the Jhanda Sahib at the Jhanda Mela at Guru Ram Rai Darbar Sahib in Dehradun on Friday. Tribune
photo: Vinod Pundir
Distance hasn’t diminished their devotion |
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Campus Notes: IIT Roorkee
Staff on dharna; Irrigation Dept gets two new projects
An athlete participates at the high jump event during the Uttarakhand Technical University Athletics Meet in Dehradun on Friday.
A Tribune photograph
Free dental camp for Sapera Basti kids
‘Change essential for cultural growth’
Students of Kanya Gurukul Mahavidyalaya listen to Prof UP Arora in Dehradun on Friday. A Tribune photograph
She found her niche in hockey
Rathore to be chief of Rahul Gandhi Brigade
32,000 take board exams
Students exchange notes after the first examination of the Uttarakhand Education Board in Dehradun
on Friday. Tribune photo: Anil P Rawat
Students get housekeeping tips
Maa Surkhanda Devi’s doli next month
Union Week begins at DAV College
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Jhanda Sahib unfurled, mela begins
Dehradun, March 5 The blazing red Jhanda Sahib was hoisted in the evening (4 pm) as the rays of the sun began to dim amid chanting of slogans and hymns. Today is the 364th birth anniversary of Guru Ram Rai. Over the years, the spectacle has not lost any of its sheen and is getting bigger and bigger with the passage of time. Several thousand pilgrims - some lending a hand while others using bamboo poles - raised the flag clad in velvet and muslin covers. The city’s complex inter-connections with rural life in the form of migration, history and economic flows are implicitly acknowledged in Jhanda Mela. Guru Ram Rai laid the foundation of the dera in the city and this event gave the place its name. The heart of Dehradun lies here and Guru Ram Rai is its presiding deity. “The abiding influence
of pluralism is visible here. From small marginal farmers from Punjab to
those who have migrated abroad, all participate in the festival with the denizens of Dehradun. “It has rescued us from falling into the trap of religious orthodoxy,” said Devinder Dass, Mahant, Shri Guru Ram Rai Darbar Sahib. From early morning, the Jhanda Sahib precincts were abuzz with activity. Led by Mahant Devinder Das and the priests of the Darbar Sahib, elaborate ceremonies were performed in which the flag was worshipped amid lighting of essence and chanting of hymns. Then, it was the turn
of circling the mast with scarves and covers. Pilgrims, holding the mast in their hands, stood in rows mindful of the fact that it should not touch the ground. “The ceremony is performed in consonance with the Udasin sect whose foundation was laid by Srichand Maharaj,” said DP Maithani, priest of Jhanda Sahib. “The ceremony that takes place at the Paschimi dwar (western gate) is an example of human endurance that allows hundreds of men to carry on the task without missing a step,” he said. “People keep coming in and automatically lend hands. The entire exercise is of a high degree of participation and coordination,” said Navin Dangwal, a resident of Dehradun. At the end of the ceremony ‘surma’, ‘tazib’ and ‘elachi dana’ were distributed as prasad among the pilgrims. “The ‘surma’ is prepared at the Darbar Sahib and usually people with eye ailments and in their middle age benefit from it,” said Kashmiri Lal Sharma, vaidya, Ayurvedic Sewa Samiti. The hoisting of the flag also signalled the start of the week-long mela. The area surrounding the Darbar Sahib, Talab and Jhanda Mohalla has assumed the look of an enormous village fair. Stalls of food items, household utility items, religious knick-knacks, sports items, cosmetics and wooden toys that are no longer sold in upmarket stores and malls are all attracting the eyes of consumers ready to splurge. Petty traders from adjoining towns of Saharanpur, Bijnor, Moradabad and even Rajasthan are here. With diminishing human contact, fairs in India to this day manage to attract people who leave everything to congregate once a year. “For 10 days, I will be here amid people whom
I had met last year. I will be rendering service wherever there is a need. It does
not make me tired, faith keeps me going and the desire to offer service comes from within,” said Mahinder Singh, a resident of Nawanshahr.
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Distance hasn’t diminished their devotion
Dehradun, March 5 They were seen participating with zeal in the ceremonies that are intrinsically linked with the Shri Ram Rai Darbar Sahib tradition. What impresses people the most is their devotion and the interest that they take in the activities at the Darbar Sahib. This year, around 100 pilgrims from Canada, the UK and USA have come to participate in the ceremony. “A few others may have come from Canada and Thailand, but they usually make private arrangements for their stay. Most of them come to meet the Mahant. “As a large number of people from Punjab have one or more member staying abroad, there are bound to be pilgrims from overseas as well,” said Vishnu Kumar Nautiyal, coordinator, Darbar Guru Ram Rai. Dev Singh Bassi, a trader in the 60s from Midland in the UK, Manjeet Singh Nandra of the UK, Kewal Singh of Auckland and Balbir Singh Gill from Coventry, England, were overwhelmed by the hospitality that has been extended to them. “Our bond with our country gets strengthened through events like these. My family had left for the United Kingdom in the sixties. We have set up a small business in the UK, but it is here that our soul finds peace,” said Bassi. In fact, most of them follow all rituals with keen interest and even managed to safely keep the old scarves from the Jhanda Sahib that were removed yesterday. “We treasure these little pieces as mementos and use these to tie around little children,” said Kewal Singh of Auckland. Last year, 50 NRIs had participated in the ceremony and the fair. This year, the number has gone up. “Invitations were sent through letters to the NRIs well in advance and we made arrangements accordingly. “For the Darbar, each and every pilgrim is important. It is indeed engaging to watch them teach their children about the tradition of the Darbar,” said BP Saklani, Manager, Shri Guru Ram Rai Darbar Sahib.
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Pragati murder: IIT-R gets strict with hostellers
Akash Ghai Tribune News Service
Roorkee, March 5 Now, students here have been directed to be in their hostels before 10 pm and no one can go out of town without informing the concerned authorities. Earlier, the news of Verma’s involvement in the murder of Pragati, a student of IIT, Delhi, at Shimla came as a shock for fellow students and his hostel inmates. Verma, a third-year student of the Architecture Department, was staying in Ravindra hostel and is said to have left the hostel without informing anyone here, two days before the crime. Many of his friends, who did not want to come on record, said that they never thought in their wildest dreams that Verma could commit such a heinous crime. The IIT authorities here are yet to initiate any action against Verma who is said to have confessed his crime to the Shimla police. Workshop begins
A three-day workshop on Chemical Evolution and Origin of Life began here today. Over 100 scientists are expected to congregate at the institute to discuss the controversial issue of origin of life. The Department of Chemistry is holding the international workshop in which scientists will discuss the various theories on the issue. Talking to The Tribune, Professor Kamaluddin, head of the department, said that the event will be attended by scientists from NASA and the six international organisations and the chief guest would be eminent Russian scientist Victor Ostrovsky. “There are lots of theories by various scientists on the question of origin of life on Earth. As all these theories differ from each other, the issue is very contentious. So the aim of holding this international workshop is to provide a platform for further discussion,” said Prof Kamaluddin. The scientists will also discuss the probability of life on Mars and Jupiter after some traces of water and oxygen there have been found, he added.
Hobby exhibition next week
The campus will witness a techno-cum-hobby exhibition Srishti 2010 next week. “Taking inspiration from the great innovations and inventions that have come to the fore in this world out of sheer passion for one’s hobby, we have tried to bring all hobby lovers to get engaged with the boons of technology. “When technology blends with hobby, it opens the possibility of exciting innovations and fascinating creations,” said the organisers of the event which will be organised at Hobbies Club from March 12 to 14. Events like Ek soch: B-plan contest, Art Mela, Minutes to Fame, Pic-hunt and Robomania will be the main attractions in addition to various workshops and competitions. There would be no entry fee and the exhibition would be open for all, said the organisers.
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Staff on dharna; Irrigation Dept gets two new projects
Dehradun, March 5 AB Pathak, head of the department, said that the employees must be given some projects to work on so that they can earn their bread. Employees are reeling in the insecurity that they may be declared redundant and would either be asked to take up VRS or adjusted in other departments. Officials of the UJVNL are blaming Irrigation Minister Matbar Singh Kandari for instigating the employees to rake up the issue and stall the transfer of authority. Kandari was earlier successful in nipping the transfer of the same power project two years ago by adopting the same tactics. But this time, the ploy may not work given the bad reputation the department had earned by harming the power project in October to the tune of Rs 6 crore which made the appeal of transfer so successful with the Chief Minister. The employees of the Irrigation Department too are protesting with great caution. Out of 350 protesters, only four are sitting on the rotational dharna at any given time. Umesh Kumar, Superintendent Engineer of the Irrigation Department, said that it was the second time that a project has slipped from the hands of the department to the UJVNL. In July 2008, the Maneri Bhali project of 304 MW near Uttarkashi had to be shut for a month due to deposition of silt. As it was not cleared in time by the department and losses to the tune of Rs 60 crore had occurred, the maintenance charge was given to the UJVNL after two months. RP Godiyal, Sinchai Vibhag Karamchari Mahasangh, Rishikesh unit, has been striving to draw the sympathy of the masses by indicating that the present move would prove dear to the common man. He said, “The UJVNL has electrical expertise and not in civil and mechanical engineering which only the Irrigation Department is adept at. If they snatch the civil/mechanical maintenance from us, then they will have to hire private players who will charge many times more than us. This will directly raise the cost of electricity and affect the common man.” KC Jain, Adviser of the nigam, dismissed the speculation of the irrigation employees, saying that they have their own civil/mechanical wing which would deal with the maintenance work. Sources said that the new unit of the civil/mechanical wing of the nigam was not quite experienced, so they would have to opt to borrow expertise from the private sector. The Irrigation Department is keeping an eye on the nigam to see how it manages its affairs without the department’s aid. Godiyal said that the nigam had not been able to maintain its turbines at Chilla and this hampered electricity production. “To save its skin, the nigam blamed the Irrigation department.” Shrugging off the accusation of negligence showed in repairing the damaged gates, regular cleaning of the trash screen and other repair work, he said, “The leaks are not a major issue. We have been adjusting water loss by giving surplus inflow to maintain the balance.” He added, “The delay in repair work takes place because of the nigam’s dilly-dallying approach in paying bills. It has never paid the full amount in one go.” But the nigam at the moment is agog over its newfound success and is ready to make a compromise with the Irrigation Department employees to find a solution. It has taken the lead by agreeing to let Irrigation employees continue to live in the locality built for the civil section of the Chilla power project and is ready to house its civil wing only in those houses that are lying vacant. Not only this, KC Jain said that after having taken over the control of its only hydel project with the Irrigation Department on the Ganga, the nigam has written to the state government to get the maintenance rights of its five other projects on the Yamuna - Chibro project of 240 MW, Khodri of 120 MW near Dat Pathar, Thakrani of 33 MW near Harbatpur, Dhalipur project of 51 MW and Kullial of 30 MW near Paonta Sahib from the Irrigation Department. To pacify the apprehensions of department that it would lose all of its work and justification of its finances, the department has been given complete control of two new projects. AB Pathak, head of the department, said, “The two new hydroelectric projects - Arakot Tuni of 60 MW and Tuni Plasu of 80 MW - both worth Rs 1,200 crore on the Yamuna near Pabhar river will be built single-handedly by the Irrigation Department for power generation.” The project will strengthen the weakening financial position of the Irrigation Department as Pathak said, “The Department lost its grip after the UJVNL was set up when Uttarakhand was formed. It has to now look for finance towards the UJVNL, which is funded by the Power Corporation. “Earlier, when the control was in the hands of the Irrigation Department, funds would come to it directly, but this is not the case anymore. The Irrigation Department now depends on the mercy of other departments to whom it gives its services.”
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Chandramani sprints to gold at UTU Athletics Meet
Dehradun, March 5 Chandramani was the star performer for the team with 100m gold. In men’s events: In 100m Chandramani of DIT College gave an outstanding performance to win gold beating Ravi also of DIT, who had to settle for silver, whereas Girish won the bronze medal. It was Girija who had to satisfy for bronze. In 400m, DIT’s Balender Rawat came up with a gold winning performance, Neeraj Saini of DIT was second with silver whereas Mukesh S Bhakuni of DIT won bronze. In 5000m, Pankaj (DIT) won gold, whereas GRD’s Devesh Pant settled for silver and Naresh Joshi won bronze. In shot put Saurabh Chamoli of UIT won gold, Akshay Bajaj of DIT was placed second and Kamal Dev Sharma of GRD claimed bronze. In High Jump event Jageet Singh of DIT clinched gold, Shailesh Adhikari of UIT had to settle for silver and Mukesh was placed third. In Long Jump Jagjeet Singh (DIT) claimed gold, Rakesh Singh (DIT) settled for silver and Balender Rawat got bronze. In women’s events: In 200m Amita of HIPR won gold, Neelam of UIT came up with silver and Priti of DIT won bronze. In 400m Preeti Khatri claimed gold, Ruby Pant won silver and Lata Joshi won bronze. In high jump Rashmi Lekhwar (UIT) came up with gold, Deepti (UIT) won silver, whereas Divya Rana and Neelam jointly won the bronze medals. In long jump Deepti Bhatt settle for gold, Ameeta Pandey came second, whereas Lata Joshi was third.
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Free dental camp for Sapera Basti kids
Dehradun, March 5 The school had adopted the basti under their social service project in April, 2009. Dr Roy, who had conducted a free dental checkup camp for 250 visually impaired children of Sharp Memorial School, Rajpur, in February, said when she was approached by Dr Praveen Dwivedi and Namrata Pandey of The Doon School to conduct the free dental camp for the underprivileged children, she readily agreed as this provided her with another chance to work for the poor and underprivileged sections of society and she would continue doing this whenever she got this kind of opportunity. Philip Burrett, Deputy Headmaster, The Doon School, said the school had adopted Sapera Basti under its social service project wherein they worked towards empowerment and health improvement of children. He thanked Dr Ritu for associating with school in their effort. Amrit Burrett, coordinator, The Doon School Social Service, hailed the free dental health camp and said this was an important step in complete health management of underprivileged children. The team had earlier conducted a de-worming and Hb test at the basti. Free toothbrushes and toothpastes were distributed among the children at the camp. The dental checkup should be followed by treatment as a majority of the children needed intense and moderate dental treatment, said Dr Roy. The Doon School would raise adequate funds for the purpose, said Dr MC Joshi, Dean of Activity, The Doon School. The camp was attended by Sujata Paul Malaya, Col Ravi Sehgal (retd), Raj Sharma, Manish Pant besides members of the Gyanodaya Vatika project Sudhir Thapa, Ahmed Kamran and Ritu Mohan.
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‘Change essential for cultural growth’
Dehradun, March 5 Professor Arora, top historian of the country who also heads the Greek Chair at School of Language Literature and Cultural Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, said globalisation should not be feared: “Our ancient civilisation has benefited immensely from these influences. It is a mutual give and take with both gaining in return, stressed Professor Arora. He said complete objectivity was not possible in history as it was not a physical science. “We are dealing with human beings and history has it’s own conventions. It has to be comparatively objective and time is of great importance in history. What a history writer can do is like a judge removes the biases and sift facts from fiction,” he said. Later speaking to The Tribune, Professor Arora said when history became a tool for politicians and they blatantly began interfering it created a problem. “We need to evolve a system in which the state does not interfere and has no vested interests. History taught in schools should be above biases, what we are dealing are impressionable minds,” he added. Of late there had been efforts to present India as a monolithic society, that is not the case, Islam and Christianity too have evolved here along with different ideologies. “In fact, a 14 century text titled Sarv Darshan Sangrah in Hindi documents the prevalence of 16 ideologies that existed at that point of time in the country. Significantly there is an over emphasis on spiritual aspect of Indian thought often ignoring the parallel growth of scientific temperament that too evolved during the ancient times in India,” said Professor Arora. Lamenting the lack of interest in Greek studies in India, he said no effort had been made to set up independent departments or schools in universities, when several historical accounts about ancient Indian civilisation had been written by Greek scholars which were of immense importance.
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She found her niche in hockey
She is the only woman player from Uttarakhand who had played at the national-level tournaments during her young age. But always felt that craze for hockey has never been high in girls. “I had played the game since class VI, but have always found that it was not so popular among girls, despite the fact they were provided good facilities, girls had shown little interest. The hostel has played an important role in motivating me to take up the game,” said Anuradha. She revealed further that to improve their game, hostel use to organise a good amount of tours for them in a year. “The tours improved our skill and as a result we found it easy to tackle with the problem on the field during a match.” Speaking about the present condition of hockey, she said there was not much drastic change in girls’ attitude towards the game. Mostly because of the poor ground facilities and promotion it got. Her team had occupied a fourth position at the all-India level competition in 1997-98. Maharishi, a coach at the hostel, has helped her improve her game and tackle the problem she came across. Presently, she is employed as head of the sports department at DAV Public School.
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Rathore to be chief of Rahul Gandhi Brigade
Rathore, who was earlier state vice-president of the organisation, said the formal announcement of his appointment as the state president would be made at a state-level convention of the brigade in Haridwar on March 27 till then he would be working in capacity as working president of the brigade. Rathore, while outlining his task in the state, said the brigade would follow the path and mission undertaken by Rahul Gandhi. The first task in hand was to strengthen the organisation in Uttarakhand and to bring more than 50,000 youth into its fold. A women brigade would be formed in the coming days. The organisation would address all socio-political issues and the district committee of Uttarakhand would also be formed before the state convention. He said Rahul Gandhi was ready to lead the nation as Prime Mister whenever he desired. Chairman of the CWC Ajit Jogi is the chief patron of the brigade while Mahanand Bhardwaj is its convener.
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32,000 take board exams
Dehradun, March 5 Starting from 10 am to 1 pm, to avoid any uncalled circumstances as well as to provide a congenial environment for examinees, all preparations pertaining to security and vigilance was maintained. With internal flying squads, there are tehsildars, BDO’s and sector magistrate on duty to keep a check on students and avoid them from indulging in acts of deceitfulness. However, to further avoid any such acts during the period of Maha Kumbh, Jhanda Mela and coming Vidhan Sabha sessions, security measures will be strictly adhered to.
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Students get housekeeping tips
Dehradun, March 5 Addressing the gathering, Mittal shared here experiences in the area of house keeping and to keep the session lively she also interacted with the aspirants. “In the hotel industry, the department of housekeeping plays an imperative role to impress clients, who keep a check on the hygiene level of hotels,” said Mittal. Students got important tips to work effectively in the hotel industry. Present at the workshop were MAHAR’s Director Hemant Kochhar, Principal KK Chopra and other staff members.
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Maa Surkhanda Devi’s doli next month
Mussoorie, March 5 This was stated by the founder of the Ma Surkhanda Devi temple, Gun Hill, Kamal Bhandari today. He said the doli would start on April 15 after a formal ceremony from the temple and pass through Kulri Bazar, Picture Palace, Mall Road and leave for Haridwar from the Masonic Lodge bus stand. The next day, along with other dolis from Garhwal, it would reach Sati Kund and after Kumbh snan at Har-ki-Pauri it would return to Mussoorie the same day.
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Union Week begins at DAV College
Dehradun, March 5 On the first day, mehndi and rangoli competition was organised. Each team consisted 12 members and showcased their creative bend of mind by creating colourful rangoli and captivating patterns of mehndi. Top three winners were declared later in the day. The chief guest appreciated the efforts of the students and congratulated the winners. In large number, students from various departments participated and enjoyed the function.
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Dehradun, March 5
Dehradun, March 5
Dehradun, March 5
Mussoorie, March 5