EDUCATION

PU Syndicate meeting postponed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 30 — The Panjab University Syndicate meeting was postponed today sine die following discussions in a divided House on the appointments issue.

The Vice-Chancellor was also requested an audience by the DPIs of Punjab and Chandigarh during the meeting.

Heated exchanges over the new appointments marked a rather stormy Syndicate meeting. The ensuing verbal battles had the Vice-Chancellor walking out of the room on two occasions.

As expected the issue of appointments remained centrestage. This led to a section of members coming to the floor of the house in opposition. These included the DPIs of Punjab and Chandigarh and Prof Chawla among others.

The argument broke out following the house division on clearing the appointments following which the house was informed to vote. The opposition complained that the vote of Prof O.N. Nagi was not taken into account as he had reportedly not voted and so the meeting be deffered.

Following a walkout by the members the discussions were soon over.

The Syndicate passed an item saying that there would be no entrance examination for the Bachelor of Business Administration and the Bachelor of Computer Application courses in colleges from the forthcoming session.

Prof Charanjit Chawla said the university should make efforts to do away with the entrance examination for majority of the courses. These affected the study for normal courses as the course patterns varied. Children spent too much of money and also bunked classes as the preparation for further courses needed specialised courses. The chair asked a detailed report on the subject.

There was also a debate on the seats in the NRI quota. Prof Ramparkash, Ms Sneh Mahajan, Dr R.D.Anand and Prof Chawla stressed the quality of recruitment and a close watch on the fee structure.

The debate also centred around the constitution of a special committee for Lala Lajpat Rai Chair. A special committee has been given a three month tenure to draft the outlines of the aspects which could be taken up during research.

32 toppers honoured
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 30 —As many as 32 toppers from engineering, medical and professional colleges of the region were honoured by the Guru Harkrishan Educational Society here today.

Among the toppers included students from PU, Punjabi University, Guru Nanak Dev University, Panjab Agricultural University, Kurukshetra University and MDU, besides the TIET, Punjab School Education Board and Punjab State Board of Technical Education among others.

Mr N.S. Rattan, Principal Secretary, and Vice Chancellor of the Punjab Technical University, was the chief guest on the occasion. Mr Rattan stressed the need for vocational education in the present day context.

Mr A.S. Rawel, Honorary Secretary of the society, presented the annual report. Prof Harnam Singh Shan was the guest of honour.

CULTURE

A city artiste with a rare distinction
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 30 —A golden voice of the city reiterated its beauty by winning the ‘sa re ga ma’ Punjabi contest of Zee Television at Mumbai recently.

Rinku Kalia, a familiar voice among the music lovers of the city, is also a crown holder of the TVS ‘sa re ga ma’ crown. In a way she is the only singer to hold two top titles among the most highly rated television channel music contests in the country.

Rinku Kalia, addressing a press conference here today, said that she could not think of the date which she could mention about the beginning of the musical journey. She was on stage when she was in Class I and the first professional performance came when she was only in class IX. She did have rigorous training sessions in classical style.

The achievement is definitely commendable for Rinku, a lecturer in sociology at Government College, Sector 42. Winner of the Yadgar-e-Rafi Society award in 1994, she was also crowned the best ghazal singer of Panjab University in same year.

A highpoint of her career came in 1997, when she became the only girl from the rest of India except Mumbai and Calcutta to win the highest rated satellite TV musical programme hosted by Sonu Nigam and was judged by Anil Biswas.

It was said that “ there was no looking back for Rinku Kalia right from the beginning in the contest at Mumbai . Lalit Sen declared her the winner in the quarter finals. Melody king O.P. Nayyar, who was a judge in the finals, had a special word for the singer as she rendered a Hussain Baksh ghazal, Shiv Batalvi’s Jagjit number and ‘Heer’.

Beginning in May , the contest endeavours to popularise rich musical heritage of Punjab which often does not reflect in the current musical hits. Over 300 singers from all over the country participated in the contest. Only 16 male and female singers, in each category, were selected for the finals.

A regular singer for the NZCC, Patiala’s ghazal programme, she has participated in several teleserials, devotional cassettes and a Punjabi movie besides others.

Rinku said “I want to perform in all kinds of music. Good music was good music, whether it was traditional, devotional or pop. Now, I want to devote full time to music”, she added.

Rinku conceded that Chandigarh city had its limitations in exposure. She is a contemplating professional move.

Hobby courses aplenty in city
By Monika Sharma

CHANDIGARH, April 30 — As the summer vacations are coming up, children are in a mood to spend their holidays in the best possible way. Plans are afoot to explore their talent and some are determined to surf the net at cyber cafes.

Left alone at home while their parents go to offices, children feel suffocated and make plans to do something constructive. Parents make there children join one or the other course. Enquiries reveal that the city now offers many opportunities to children.

A variety of summer courses are going on in the city. Courses in different fields help children to shun their inhibitions and shape their ideas and imaginations. The extra-curricular activities also help to develop the overall personality, general psychological behaviour and appearance of the children.

Pracheen Kala Kendra in Sector 35 is organising its 8th “Children Theatre Workshop” from May 26 to June 24. The main features include movement (aerobics and yoga), acting, craft and design, music and dance, mask making, improvisation, theatre games, speech work, storytelling and make-up. With the above mentioned courses, the children get to learn many new things on a common platform.

Aptech in Sector 34 offers two special courses for summer vacations to the kids. “Vidya”, a 44-hour course is approximately for one and a half month. It contains fundamentals, Windows and complete MS Office, which includes Word Excel, Power Point and Internet. This package is applicable to schoolchildren.

There is another course with Aptech for ten weeks, which includes MS Access. The children have sufficient to learn these vacations because there are many new courses. Meditation, yoga and simple process of breathing are the basic courses provided at the Art of Living in Sector 8. It is a five-day course, with a follow-up every week.

Bal Bhavan in Sector 23 offers courses in painting, music, stitching, dance and library. According to official sources, some government schools are also planning different courses of creativity and other coaching classes.

Maysha Creations Art College in Sector 22-D has some courses in fabric painting, mural, foil embossing, stain glass, soft toy making, mythology, pot making, cookery, beauty culture and others. Government polytechnics in different sectors also offer different courses like stitching, embroidery and painting.

Food Craft Institute in Sector 42 is also giving special summer offers. Different classes in cookery, baking items and Chinese and Indian food are being conducted. Asset International in Sector 34, Tulec in Sector 17 and RCC in Sector 17 have some summer packages.

The Food and Nutrition Extension Centre in Sector 23 gives training on food and vegetable preservation and nutrition, which comprises courses of about 15 to 20 days. Trainees are taught how to make squashes, jams, jellies, sauce and pickles. Stitching classes are also held.

There are many other institutions which have yet to decide for the summer vacation courses. In each sector, hobby classes are going on. Ms Grover in Sector 18 offers summer courses on cookery.

The swimming pool in Sector 23 gets full during the evenings in summer vacations. Games like table tennis and badminton are also amongst the courses. Some children have also decided to join clubs for horse-riding, golf, squash and billiards. Children can be seen playing video games .

There are some who will start the summer courses from next week. Parents feel that their wards should do something creative and utilise the time in doing something beneficial. Ms Seema Bansal a housewife says,“I want my children to join some hobby classes and not to idle away their time in doing useless chores.”

Sumedha, a Class IX student, says, “I am joining computer course at Tulec and foil painting and glass painting in sector 15”. Mrs Manjeet, who runs hobby classes in summer says, “We witness a lot of rush in the summer vacations because the parents and students have become aware of how to spend the long vacations.”

Talk on cinema approaches held
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 30 — A former Head of the Department of English, PU Prof M.L. Raina, yesterday delivered a talk on film appreciation here at Art Folio. The talk on “Reading films: an approach to Cinama” was attended by a huge gathering.

Professor Raina began his talk with reference to the most popular approach to the film studies — the humanist approach — which involves value judgements and treats films as an expression of human experience. Other approaches include the auteur (or author) approach which relates to the individual style of the film maker, the specific characteristics by which one realises the producer of the film, whether it is a Hitchcock or a Satyajit Ray. This is the most viable approach to film studies in the West, he informed.

Decording a film, as per Professor Raina, is a complicated business as communication takes place on various levels: verbal and visual, the language of the camera and the one which ordinary people speak. The lecture was interspersed with examples from French, American, Russian and Indian cinema. Video clippings from Satyajit Ray’s films were also shown.