The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

Sec 26 polytechnic to integrate disabled students
By Poonam Batth
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 27 — The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Secondary Education and Higher Education has sanctioned a centrally-sponsored scheme for the UT of Chandigarh, to introduce technical/vocational and continuing education programmes for the disabled.

The UT Home Secretary-cum -Secretary Technical Education, Mr M.P. Singh, informed that the scheme provides for the upgradation of an existing polytechnic to integrate the physically disabled in the mainstream of technical and vocational education. The Central Polytechnic, Sector 26, is among the 10 polytechnics selected during the first phase of upgradation. The ambitious scheme, with a budget outlay of Rs 36.37 crore aims to upgrade 50 such polytechnics all over the country.

Giving details of the scheme, Dr S.K. Aggarwal, Director Technical Education, UT, said the scheme envisages to cover gaps in the facilities currently available in technical education and training of persons with disabilities. Under this, the Central Polytechnic will conduct research and trace studies relating to education and training, utilisation, employability etc. of physically handicapped and develop institutional environment which gradually reduces discrimination and disparities and integrates the disabled with the mainstream. He disclosed that it is estimated that 10 to 15 per cent additional seats will be filled in the existing stream of diploma courses of civil, electrical, mechanical, architectural, electronics and communication engineering streams. At least 25 seats would be provided for the disabled in regular three-year diploma programmes. Besides this, training and continuing education will also be provided to 100 students per year in disciplines like welding, electrical repairs, wood working and furniture repairs, painting, sheet metal works, electroplating etc. in need-based vocational courses of six months' duration.

The admission process for students with disabilities for diploma programmes would be similar to those of regular students. However, a specific number of seats would be earmarked and age and qualifying percentage marks relaxations would be offered as per existing State/Central government rules. The entry level for vocational and continuing education programmes will be more flexible. Special coaching programmes will also be organised. To begin with, 15 per cent seats will be reserved to accommodate the disabled women in both diploma and continuing education programmes.

Dr Aggarwal further explained that faculty and staff will be specifically trained to offer effective educational services and to tackle the adjustment problems of students with disabilities. In addition to this, consultants will also be appointed to assist in various aspects of development.

Students with disabilities will be encouraged to join the polytechnic through provisions like scholarship, transport facilities or alternative financial incentives, supply of books/educational materials and uniforms. However, these will be provided by the beneficiary state/UT. The existing employment promotion cell, functioning in the Directorate will be further strengthened to enable easy employment of the disabled students, he added.

The Department of Education (MHRD) would support the scheme during the remaining period of the Ninth plan by providing financial assistance of Rs 70 lakh, mainly towards non-recurring expenditure and staff development programmes. A major part of this will be used for making basic modifications of existing physical resources such as construction of low inclined ramps, special toilets, special furniture, hostel rooms specially designed for the disabled students, location of instruments/workshops, counselling room and other provisions for free, easy and secure movement of the disabled students. In order to accommodate the disabled women students, either a small wing will be provided in the existing hostel or a new hostel will be created, depending upon the requirement. On the other hand, recurring grant will be used to cover the expenditure on salary of consultants, expenditure on staff development, consumables and maintenance.

COURTS

Re-investigation unlikely to yield any result
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 27 — The re-investigation of the court firing case is reportedly not expected to unearth anything new and will reportedly be sent as untraced. This in spite of the fact that the police had withdrawn its recommendation to send the court firing case as untraced and had moved an application in this context in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate in January 4.

Sources said the case, being reinvestigated by a DSP as per the directions of the court, is unlikely to unearth anything new in view of the alleged hostility on the part of the complainant. As such, the report will reportedly be a repeat of the previous one, the sources pointed out.

It may be recalled that nearly one-and-a-half years ago, 45 minutes of indiscriminate firing outside the Sector 17 District Courts complex, the first of its kind, had sent shock waves around the city and the Chandigarh police had recommended treating the case as untraced.

The Tribune had highlighted the case during December-end. Sources said the case is being reinvestigated in view of certain new evidence which has come to light now. The recommendation had raised many eyebrows in the police circles and the legal fraternity, which had questioned the way the case had been investigated and how those responsible for the incident right outside the district courts could be allowed to go scot-free.

The firing followed the murder of Harjit Singh Sandhu in the market of Sector 10 by Harvinder Singh, alias Vicky, who was subsequently arrested and remanded to judicial custody.

Trouble erupted in July, 1998, when he was produced in the court. There was tension between supporters of both parties who were present outside the court complex. When the accused was being taken back after being produced in the court, supporters of the deceased raised slogans against the Punjab police as Mr Jagjit Singh Gill, DSP, PP, was also present with his gunmen.

Suddenly, some supporters of the accused started firing without any provocation, besides pelting stones on the supporters of the deceased and the police party. In the incident, which lasted 45 minutes, with the lawyers and litigants ducking and running helter-skelter, ASI Ajmer Singh, Harpreet Singh, Kulwant Singh, Sadhu Singh and Avtar Singh received injuries.

The police had arrested the DSP, besides 18 others, and a case under Sections 147, 148, 149, 332, 353, 307 and 336 of the IPC and Sections 25, 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act was registered at the Central police station.

As per the previous report, "No person suffered any bullet injury." Avtar Singh, the main witness, was cleared by doctors, saying that such injuries could have been caused by falling on an iron object. Since the shirt had a hole, it was sent to the CFSL where the experts stated that no firing discharge residues could be detected. It was not possible to form a definite opinion whether the hole was caused due to firing or not. Apart from this, Avtar Singh also gave an affidavit stating that he had suffered no bullet injuries.

ASI Ajmer Singh, another injured, said that there was a fracture of his nasal bone, but no one had hit him during the incident. He further added he had received the injury by falling on a road berm.

The report had further listed some observations totally absolving the other accused, the sources said.

CULTURE

Shiv Singh’s ethereal water colours

AN assiduous application of man’s ability to create gives us works of marvellous beauty, as in the fine arts of drawing, painting, sculpture, graphics and architecture. Art’s quintessence was best expressed by Ananda Coomaraswamy who tersely (and inimitably) observed that an artist in not a special kind of a person; rather, every person is a special kind of an artist. Nothing explains the amazing diversity of artistic creations better than this insightful aphorism. The “isms” that we encounter in art are, at best, incomplete expressions of creativity and craft of art. These are adopted by historians and some art critics for the sake of convenience to make sense of what is otherwise mind-boggling diversity, hard to handle and harder to comprehend. All art must be seen in its unique situation. Every artist, by virtue of his or her highly personalised self-expression, conceals an much as he or she reveals in art.

It would be important to bear the above exposition while viewing Shiv Singh’s works. Hailing from a small village Bassi Gullam Hussain along the Shivalik Hills in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, he has become a sculptor of national repute. In addition, he also devotes his time regularly to other forms of creativity such as drawing painting and graphic designs. Tracking his work since 1960s, one is compelled to observe that whatever be the medium or mode his self-expression, his art always bears his distinct signature. Everything he does is the expression as well as exploration of artistic freedom.

The power of Shiv Singh’s work derives from his rural background. Rusticity is the mother of spontaneity and India’s chief cultural endowment. It is this rusticity that Shiv Singh celebrates, albeit unconsciously. It is this rusticity that is pitted against “sophistication” — lifeless aesthetics of mechanical precision — of the so called advanced world. Within this polarity produced by rusticity and sophistication, however, dwells the paradox which is the sine qua non of significant art. The resolution of the paradox is the unique achievement of man’s creative imagination.

Shiv Singh uses the wet technique in which the drawing sheet allows free flow of colours used, so that their running into one another compliments the playful mood of the painter himself. Besides, all the different pigments (both transparent and opaque paints) create their own individual aesthetic territories while settling for common ground as a congenital counterpart. Thus, between the sharp-hued personality of various colours a romantic mustiness springs up. The sophistication of mechanical precision is deliberately lost to the rusticity of unpremeditated outcome. The paradox inherent in the exercise imparts a certain mythic potency to the art so created. Shiv Singh uses large brushes for applying the paint and plates instead of palette for supplying large, uninterrupted quanta of pigments. The speed required for the act of such paintings calls for a highly cultivated skill. Both the size of the format and the evocativeness of the outcome testify to Shiv Singh’s ability as a water-colourist of exclusive eminence.

Shiv Singh chooses his subject matter in such a way as not to dampen the spirit playfulness of the wet-surface water-colour technique. Thus, there is persistent preference of “Abstract Impression” — a stylistic idiosyncrasy that expresses more by suggestion than by depiction the theme he has in mind.

“Impressionist Landscape” is a good example of this curious artistry. The trees, the cloudy sky and sandy riverbed are all held together by a common element;a let-go sway in the windy weather. Despite the deliberateness, the trees in the grove seem to have been formed by sheer accident! Shiv Singh has taken recourse here to brisk scratching to “draw” the trunks and branches, whereby the nearamorphous mass of variegated colours is transformed into animated tree-forms.

In “Inverted Lingam” the red and yellow dominate, offset by black background, and highlighted by a careful blue outline of a pelvis-like structure. The black phallus-figure, in upsidedown position with its hazy configuration, seems to dissolve back into the source: the primal energy. The sharp orange-yellow curvilinear strokes, encompassing the central figure, look like the corona of the sun in eclipse. The overall visual impact is that of the vibrant presence of energy — in an act of self-reabsorption.

The opposite theme of primal energy in an act of creation is captured in “Shiv Shakti”. The colour scheme, though the same as before, delineates very different forms caught in an outward motion. The dominant white pushes the pitch-black to the background, in self-asserting genesis — though simultaneously underscoring the nascent duality of the created world. The “Yoni-Lingam” is the principal duo among several other organic forms of life. Axial symmetry is a guiding principle of both these paintings — for all that moves must have symmetry.

The “Mother of Pearl” is a “created” object rather than raw energy in the throes of creation. The near violent movement is gone, and an acquiescent repose takes its place.

Both the themes of creation and of dissolution are well captured in “Cosmic Egg”. This mythic form is self-created, with the innate power to create all that we see around us.

All said and done,these vibrant water colours by Shiv Singh are neither “tantric” art nor “diagram” art that one frequently comes across in Indian paintings. The savage spontaneity with which the artist accomplishes his work precludes the stated “isms”. The playfulness and the palpable vibrancy of his works suggest that Shiv Singh’s resources are not confined to any, now-fashionable, revivalist art-form. It is the uninhabited making of art from the illimitable resources of the “self” that makes Shiv Singh an ethereal artist.

— By S.S. Bhatti

An evening of classical dance at PCC
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, THE Punjab Cricket Club, Mohali, will hold an evening of Indian classical dance by Vrunda Mehta and a Hindustani vocal recital by Hemang Mehta from Mumbai on April 30 at the club lawns.

Born in London, brought up in a traditional family at Bangalore, Vrunda’s grooming as a Bharat Natyam dancer was done at the renowned Kalakshetra of Rukminidevi Arundale, Madras. During her stay at Kalakshetra, she has taken lead roles in the celebrated dance dramas of the institution. Vrunda’s role as Rukmini in Rukmini Kalyanam and Sita in Sita Swayamvaram were well appreciated.

In 1992 she toured Germany and France as part of the Kalakshetra troupe and took part in the Festival of India, held in Germany, and the Avignon Festival in France. Ever since then as a soloist, Vrunda has performed extensively in India as well as abroad, having taken part in various festivals. She was also invited to perform for the India Fest at Dubai to commemorate 50 years of Indian Independence.

Her sensitive expressions and her polished movements enable her to strike a spontaneous rapport with her audience. Vrunda also has quite a few choreographic works to her credit. Vrunda has also established herself as a young able and active teacher.

Hemang Mehta comes from a family of Gujarati businessmen, steeped in culture, religion and music. Since his early childhood he has been surrounded by the music of Pandit Jasraj. He received intensive training from his guru Shri Chandrashekhar Swamy under the strict guidance of Pandit Jasraj as a result of day association with the maestro.

He has several awards to his credit including the Surmani Award, 1994, and has had a number of recitals in India, at the Mewati Gharana Sammelan, Bhopal, NCPA Mumbai, Maharashtra State Festival, Swar Vilas, Baroda, Jhankar Music Circle, Calcutta, Baithak, New Delhi and Nrityagram’s Vasantahabba, Bangalore among others. His concerts abroad include performances at the Lotus Festival, Bloomington (Indiana), Festival of Indian Arts and Culture at Cincinnatti, Toronto, New York etc.

Dressing cinestars this Chandigarhian’s forte

She got lured into current profession on the sets of Ismail Merchant’s Heat and Dust in 1982. An honours graduate from the Government College for Women, Sector 11, Loveleen Bains is a Chandigarhian who is an established costume designer having an impressive portfolio. With a post graduation degree in English literature and mass communication from Pune, Loveleen began her career as a copywriter in an advertising agency in Bombay and simultaneously freelanced for femina and Eves Weekly. Maintaining a somewhat quite demeanour, a reserved sophistication and an extremely charming personality, Loveleen launched herself in the art of costume designing by delivering her creative excellence coupled with good fortune. What we did know was that some of the most famous period pieces of Indian and international cinema have been “dressed” by none other but Saadi Kudi from Chandigarh!

Loveleen has established her impeccable credentials through films like Utsav, Kamasutra, Sarfarosh, Deceivers, and Muhafiz, for which she was honoured with a national award for costume designing for 1994. She also happens to be the first Indian to get a nomination for Ginie Award for 1999 given by the Canadian Film Academy for her work in Rohitan Mistry’s ‘Such a Long Journey’. Having professionally oscillated between Bollywood and its international counterpart, does Loveleen have a preference workwise? “Most definitely. There is no comparison between the two cinema worlds. For international projects, the approach is very direct and focused as far as a costume designer is concerned. Here, clothes are not just clothes but they are part of the character and you are only catering to the requirements of the director alone. In India a costume designer is treated more or less as a star dresser. You need to satisfy the cine star even though I must confess the trend is slightly changing now,” says Loveleen.

She has had the liberty of shifting within three canvasses of the visual performing arts. Besides films, Loveleen Bains has worked for prominent theatre productions and TV serials. She reacts to the difference in designing for movie and TV serials by remarking, “While doing serials like Dhund and Gatha I learnt that there is no budget for television costume designing. Also the approach of doing up the costumes is different in the sense that in the television serials I would concentrate on an effective close-up since usually it is only the upper half of the body that is most seen. Whereas in movies it is a foolscap image, so I need to look into the smallest details while doing my work. Besides movies have a life whereas television is short-lived.” Her stint with theatre costume designing began in 1990 with Feroz Khan’s first production The Royal Hunt of the Sun. She also worked for Saalgirah, Mahatma Versus Gandhi and Salesman Ramlal. How was the experience while designing for such a medium as theatre? “Designing for theatre cannot be subtle as in case of the films. There are bolder strokes on stage because clothes must appear larger than life and yet comfortable. I believe in using single colours and minimal accessory material while doing theatre costume designing and, of course, going strictly according to the requirements of the script. For example with Feroz’s plays it is a stylised look that he as a director needs and not a distractive one.”

In case of Mahatma Versus Gandhi, Loveleen conducted a massive research at the Main Bharan in Mumbai in order to understand the historical variations that the play entails for its costumes. Is there a scene that Loveleen is extremely satisfied with from this play? “Yes, in fact there is. It is a beautiful scene just like a painting. This is when Harilal’s wife enters the stage for the first time, that entire frame has been remarkably conceived by the director in terms of visual imagery. On the whole Mahatma Versus Gandhi has proved to be a good production in terms of its sale values. And of course the efforts of the entire company have been tremendous in making it a complete success.”

On being asked as to what determines the approach of her work, Loveleen explains, “It is basically the defining of a role and the interpretation of the script by the director that demarcates the periphery of a costume designer’s work scale. Flexibility is mandatory here. After the research part of the project is over, the second crucial step is interaction with the actors to know as well as understand their perspective on the project. I always bear in mind that my costumes cannot be imposing or binding for the performer. They need to be comfortable with them in order to relate to the role. Lastly comes the execution of my work where I always conduct three fitting sessions for the costumes that I design with the stars.”

Having worked with the best of actors, actresses and directors, Loveleen Bains comes across as a humble and utterly modest creative artist. At the same time there are memorable experience during the course of her work that have provided a feeling of justified pride and appreciation of the talent within her. She is of the firm belief that it is professionalism and the capacity to deliver excellence alone that qualifies an artistic individual to be acknowledged by one and all in the competitive field of performing arts.

On being asked for her favourite piece of work so far, Loveleen pensively states, “My first film as an independent costume designer and a favourite one has been Muhafiz. The creative rapport that I struck with the director is Ismail was amazing. It was a joy working with such a committed, sensitive and highly professional a person like himself. This is primarily the reason for my rating the project as the dearest one.” Regarding her future plans, this mature and enthusiastically creative designer smiles charmingly and says I am here because I love what I do therefore as long as I continue my drive for this passion by sheer choice I will be what I am.

There are very few women professionals who harness their inherent talent to the maximum while being involved in their domestic environment. Loveleen Bains is one such young Indian woman to have balanced her two worlds of career and home rather brilliantly. Chandigarh is proud to be the domicile station of this artiste.

— Suparna Saraswati