EDUCATION

Inculcating responsibility, nurturing potential
By Kanchan Vasdev
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 4 — Outstanding performance of the students of local Bhavan Vidyalaya in the matriculation examination has brought laurels to the institution. The institution has the maximum number of students scoring more than 90 per cent marks, besides the topper of the city. Six students have been ranked among the top ten in the city.

The Principal, Ms Meenakshi Mohindra, is in high spirits after the result. She recalled her words she had spoken in the first morning assembly of the new millennium to make the students believe that they could score 90 per cent marks if they kept this percentage as their special target of the century. More than 10 students from the school aggregated 90 per cent marks and above. The topper scored 95.2 per cent, the maximum percentage in the city till date.

“It is always teamwork and nobody can win the battle alone. Our school has very cooperative and dedicated teachers. The teachers and students have worked together to reach the place we are today,” opined Ms Mohindra.

The overall result of the school is 100 per cent. Eleven students have scored 90 per cent and above and 55 students have scored between 80 per cent and 90 per cent.

“What differentiates us from most of the other schools is that we inculcate the sense of responsibility among the students. We lay emphasis on self-study and encourage them not to go in for commercialised coaching centres and rely on their hard work and potential,” quipped Ms Mohindra.

“The substantial problem I found with most of the students was that they did not concentrate on the languages as they used to take these very lightly. I motivated them to devote time to all the subjects and the feedback is encouraging,” she added.

The parents of Manav Khullar, the topper, are proud of him. Mr Ashok Khullar, a law officer in the State Bank of India, and Ms Madhu Khullar, a housewife, are more than satisfied.

“I am thanking God for the day when I shifted my son to this school. The school lays emphasis on the overall personality of the students. The teachers do not force anybody to study. They motivate the children in the best possible way,” says Mr Khullar.

They inculcate the feeling of responsibility among students. The students are provided with total freedom but there are no compromises as far as discipline is concerned. The students with a well-developed mind will do well in anything they take up,” he added.

According to Ms Khullar, the school has well qualified teachers. They induce a competitive spirit among the children. About Manav’s preparation for the exams, she said her son was regular in his studies. He studied seriously through the year and during the examination days there was no tension or nervousness, she added.

Foundation course concludes
From Our Correspondent

LALRU, June 4 — A cultural programme, presented by students of various schools from Saharanpur, Dehra Dun, Mathura and Faridabad, marked the valedictory function of the 15-day foundation course organised by Golden Public School here today.

Organised in collaboration with Indian Industrial Association (IIA) , Uttar Pradesh, 63 boys and girls participated in the course meant for the personality development of the children during the summer break.

A fashion show presented by the children was the main attraction of the function.

Besides, studies the children were given lessons on grammar, public speaking, mathematics and environment. Lectures were also given on computer education. They were exposed to singing, toy making, painting and fine arts.

The main attraction of the course was paragliding and swimming in which more than 32 students took part. In sports, the students practised billiards, roller skating and other games.

The course was inaugurated by Ms K.S. Rawat, Director of the Golden Group, on May 21, while Ms Neelima Trivedi, wife of Deepak Trivedi, District Magistrate of Saharanpur, was the chief guest.

Prizes were also given to the participants and their parents.

Besides a number of local residents and parents of the students, Mr Pramod Miglani and Ramji Suneja, Chairman and Senior Vice- President of the I.I.A. Saharanpur, and other prominent persons were also present.

Stage performance by kids
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 4 — Go Bananas Kids Club organised a stage performance as concluding programme for its summer camp for children in the auditorium of the Government College of Arts here today.

The programme, largely attended by the parents, included dance performances by the participating children on the latest hits from Bollywood and Punjabi pop.

The highlight of this hour-long programme was play Bolta Gadha. The sheer simplicity of the play and spontaneity of its young participants managed to hold the attention of the audience. More than 40 children in the age group of four to 13 years participated in the workshop.

According to Ms Anu Vala, Director of the club, this summer camp was primarily a theatre workshop. "Children underwent various theatre and mirror exercises. It also involved camera facing sessions and mirror exercises. Basically such workshops are a great learning experience for the youngsters," she said.

The directors of the play, Mrs Veena Kapoor and Mr Ravinder Happy, said the entire play had been built and improvised by the kids themselves. "When we do such theatre workshops, kids are involved in all the aspects which also include costumes, music and the stage setting."

Tiny masters create masterpieces
By Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 4 — Ever seen young children playing with mud during rains on streets and attempting to give some form to the moulds. An interested passerby could stop and help the child in giving a form. The child upholds his creation expecting public recognition.

Similar tiny masters create ‘masterpieces’ with their paint brushes at an ongoing workshop at the Durga Das Foundation. Avan Mehta can be seen working in collaboration with tiny-tots in completing their art forms on canvas.

The game is an arts and crafts workshop “Children react very strongly to colours against popular beliefs. Colours also have an inner capacity for longer attraction of children as compared to other activities,” Avan says.

Picking colours from among various shades on the floor shows kids’ capability in imitating others, some caring more about the location of the figure from where they are imitating, some so anxious to copy that they would spill colours all over the canvas but manage a place to stamp hurriedly.

Avan says the whole process is letting loose creativity of kids. This freedom enables them undertake journeys of exploration in the world all around. Letting loose is central but the freedom can be given a perspective in which to ponder. They should know what they are doing.

Avan is a computer grapher with a stint at Adobe Illustrator, New York. She also has a couple of other specialisations from abroad. Avan is basically a visualiser with strong affiliation with the Shiamak Davar group.

Avan is primarily experimenting in the art and also runs private crafts entrepreneur. Avan says the best way to teach children was having a natural stint of ‘ loving them’ within yourself.

Vikram Kapadia, a P. Padamsee student, shows his experience in deftful handling of children at a theatre workshop bearing a stamp of years spent in quality theatre nationally .The strength off the course and the lure for children was ‘party time ‘.

Kapadia said he was not sure whether children understood the technicalities of what theatre offered but children were definitely helped. The way of presenting self changed among learners. They were not aware of what they were learning but became aware about what they were involved with, Kapadia said.

Kapadia who ventured into television a few years back is convinced that “no good serial was being made in India on television. The medium however offered money and screen opportunities to many with coming in of the satellite antennae”.

He is busy currently with two plays ‘ Mask Maiden’ and ‘ Sobha yatra’. Lesser time for theatre all around was a test for commitment and theatre’s ultimate position, Kapadia added.

Talent search festival
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 4 — Over 100 children were awarded special prizes for obtaining outstanding positions in a talent search festival organised by the Sant Nirankari Mandal here today.

Poetry recitation, skits, speeches and songs were the highlights of the programme based on the theme of “loss of love is the root cause of shocking crash of human values”. Mr Naranjan Singh, an IAS officer, was the chief guest.

Mr Amarjit Singh “Amar”, an intellectual of the Nirankari Mission, said all the existing problems would remain unless special care was taken with reference to the bringing up of children in a proper spiritual environment and transforming them into ideal citizens.

Relay fast by ITI students
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 4 — Agitation of students of the local ITI entered its sixth day here today.

Talking to The Tribune, a student said that agitating students had also started relay fast. Students are demanding the national-level (NCVT) recognition for its vocational courses in tool and mechanist grinding.

One of the courses is a three-year course while the grinding course is of two-year duration. There are talks that committees of accredition of the national level had visited the campus more than twice. However, the infrastructure was not found up to the mark and recognition was denied.

This was accepted by the senior officials of the college who have promised to pursue the case at the highest level at the earliest..

CHANDIGARH CALLING

Slums are a problem of civilisation, says Jagmohan

It must have been a hectic week for senior functionaries of the Chandigarh Administration as the Union Minister for Urban Development, Mr Jagmohan, was here for two days on his first official visit to the City. Though Mr Jagmohan’s suggestion to the Punjab Government to set up an expert committee before taking a final decision about setting up of Anandgarh in the immediate periphery of the city did not get any “positive official response”, the administration was keen to use the visit as an occasion to convey its “displeasure” over Anandgarh. Mr Jagmohan played safe without criticising the Punjab Government at any stage over the Anandgarh issue.

He only made suggestions without making any official statement. He said that the Urban Ministry was not officially aware of any protests from any quarters against development of Anandgarh. Chandigarh, he said, may have filed its objections as a Union Territory.

Besides Anandgarh, other issues that figured prominently during his discussions with various officials, councillors and others in the city mainly veered around “unauthorised slums and their control and further urban development of Chandigarh Metropolitan Region.

Mr Jagmohan was very clear that “slums is not a problem of poverty”, but “is a problem of civilisation”, problem because of crisis of character and also because of “urban indiscipline” as the Administration or the government agencies were unable to implement the law.

“I want to create an environment where might is no more a right, where lawlessness does not win over lawfulness. I know it is a tough task but someone has to start it and gradually convert it into a movement,” he said while interacting with newsmen.

Mr Jagmohan also had an interaction with Councillors of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation and made it clear that the civic body should not depend upon grants alone but should rather generate resources on its own. He did not agree that some of the action required to be taken by the corporation should be deferred as no such actions, including imposition of civic taxes, were taken earlier by the Administration when there was no civic body. The Minister also reportedly made it clear that Corporation was one of functional arms of the Administration and not a body to supersede the Administration.

Results: Chandigarh girls have proved rest of the nation wrong. Out of nearly 80 students from Chandigarh, Panchkula and SAS Nagar, who secured 90 per cent or more marks in the matriculation examination of the Central Board of Secondary Education, more than 60 per cent are girls.

Interestingly, wards of some senior bureaucrats of both Punjab and Haryana have done exceedingly well in the exams. For example, Aastha Gupta, daughter of Mr Pradeep Gupta and Mrs Anuradha Gupta, an IAS couple of Haryana, secured 89.2 per cent marks. Her percentage would have been much higher but for her marks in Hindi. She got 98 per cent in Science and 97 per cent in Maths. A student of Carmel Convent School, she is placed second in her stream in the school.

Another ward of a senior bureaucrat to do well is Arpita Garg, who topped the list of successful candidates of Sacred Heart Convent School, by securing 92.6 per cent marks. Her father, Dr Bhushan Chander Gupta, is now Secretary, Labour, Punjab, while her mother is Dr Vinita Gupta.

Sukhna’s toy train: At a function held at the Sukhna lake on Friday last Lt-Gen J.F.R. Jacob, Governor Punjab and Administrator, Chandigarh, distributed school bags to children of slum dwellers.

Parents and wards of children as well as tourists went round the cafetaria. They observed that the toy train for the children is based on a concrete floor directly under the sun and on the bank of the lake. In summer the children and the parents feel uncomfortable. They urged the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourist Development Corporation (CITCO) to shift the toy train system to the nearby grassy plot under the shade of trees away from Sukhna’s shores.

They also asked the authorities to reduce the charges of toy train ride from Rs 15 to Rs 5.

Eat with care: Channa bhatura and chawal which many people eat from the vendors may be tasty and cheaper but these items are prepared under unhygienic conditions prevailing in their homes in the labour colonies around the city.

During routine surveys carried out by the Environment Society of India (ESI) it was observed that several vendors residing in Bapu Dham Colony had made life of the residents around their homes miserable. The vendors start their work at 4 a.m., burn hard coke in the “sigaries” / “angeethies” and keep these outside. As a result offensive smoke pollutes the atmosphere and disturbs the sleep of children and their wards. Many residents complain that they are suffering from asthma, cough and bronchitis.

The residents who approached the Department of Environment were told that this type of pollution is not covered under the Air Pollution Act.

The residents then contacted the Health Department of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh. A squad of inspectors went round and challaned the vendors for creating insanitary conditions only. The vendors promised to use gas chullahs but did not do so. The MCC inspectors say they have no powers to prosecute the vendors burning coke outside. Would the senior officers of MCC intervene?

Kind-hearted cop: Normally, policeman come into the news for harassing people. But what Constable Daya Ram of the Chandigarh Police did the other day is entirely different. Recently, a colleague’s young daughter riding a scooter had a flat tyre. She parked the scooter near the intersection of Sector 27 and 28, because she did not know how to replace the wheel.

Mr Daya Ram who was passing by stopped his scooter and asked her what the problem was. On being told that she had a punctured scooter on hand, he get down to work and changed the wheel in no time.

If only we had more Daya Rams amongst us!

AFA gesture: A senior citizens’ home meant for retired IAF personnel has been established at Tughlakabad near Delhi by the Air Force Association. The home will provide board and lodging facilities to personnel who otherwise have no other place to stay after retirement.

The home has 38 rooms (76 beds) for officers and an equal number for personnel below officer rank (PBOR), besides other facilities, including a canteen, bar, bank, library, gymnasium and medical aid.

Charges, which are on the higher side, include a one-time payment of Rs 2.5 lakh for officers, in addition to a security deposit of Rs 50,000 and registration fee of Rs 10,000. For PBOR, the charges are Rs 1.99 lakh, Rs 30,000 and Rs 6,000, respectively.

Unoccupied rooms will also be available to serving and retired personnel in transit for a period of up to six days. For officer couples the daily tariff is Rs 500 and for a single officer Rs 450. For PBOR couple the tariff has been set at Rs 300 per day and for single PBOR, Rs 250.

The secretary of the Chandigarh AFA unit, Wg Cdr Satish Bhatia, (retd) says that IAF personnel from the region desirous for accommodation at the home can contact the AFA office at the Chandigarh Air Force Station.

Canine villain: Here is this story about a bachelor executive who lives in one of the better localities of Chandigarh. After landing here some two years back he desperately looked for a house and got one finally. The rent and everything else being finalised, he checked into the house and discovered, pleasurably, that the landlady had four daughters, three of them grown up and beautiful. As luck would have it, there was no male member in the house, the landlady’s husband being dead because of excessive drinking some years back and she having no male child.” So there is nobody to scare me away”, the bachelor executive thought and so excited he was that he shared the story of his good fortune with some of his friends.

And then came the disappointment. It turned out that the landlady had a dog, small but quite incorrigible, which fact she did not disclose when the negotiation with the tenant took place. Once the bachelor executive settled down and was planning whether he should set out on one girl or on all three, the canine guard appeared on the scene. The dog’s brief was quite clear — to chase away potential beaus from the girls.

The dog hated him and he hated the dog and all this was over the girls! In two years’ time our executive, so deft in professional matters, has failed to make any headway with any of the girls because each time he has tried to strike up a conversation with them, the dog has come out roaring forcing him to beat a retreat. He has now become the butt of jokes for his friends who have advised him to look for a house with girls and without a dog !

Justice Gupta: Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Mr Justice K.C. Gupta does not agree.

Elevated to the Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently, he attributes his success not to a woman, but women — his mother and wife.

He also believes in honesty and hard work. Born in Sherpur, a small town in Sangrur district, Mr Justice Gupta did his graduation from Mohindra College in Patiala before completing law from Panjab University here.

He joined Haryana Judicial Service in 1970 after practising for about six years at Dhuri and Sangrur. He was promoted as District and Sessions Judge in 1985 and posted at Kurukshetra, Hisar and Faridabad.

Double trouble: Residents of the Sector 61 Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) complex are facing the big band of red tape.

They receive separate bills for water and power while in the entire city the bills are clubbed together to enable residents to pay at one go. Residents of Sector say they have approached authorities but to no avail. So one month they receive a power bill and the next month it is time for a water bill. Thus they are standing in queues every month whereas those living in other sectors have to undergo this chore once in two months, as their bills are clubbed. Will anybody rectify this error? asked a working couple living in the CHB complex as they have to take a day’s leave just to deposit the bills each month.

Dry run: Strange are the ways of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC). While a number of its public water standposts continue to overflow for days together, others remain dry much to inconvenience of the general public.

One of such standposts (see photograph) is in Sector 17— a stone’s throw from the MCC Office. With its tap broken, the standpost continues to be without water for the past several months. The area around the standpost now seems to have been converted into a “dumping ground” with vendors keeping sundry items there.

Interestingly, the board warning the anti-social elements against tampering with the standpost also remains covered with posters. One wonders what is the purpose of wasting tax payers’ money if this way?

Crank letters: Some residents of the Mansa Devi Complex have received strange photocopied letters — in unstamped envelopes for which they had to pay Rs 6 each. ‘‘You will have good luck within a few days of receiving this letter. This is not a joke, you will receive some development next month’’, the letter says. But one condition: ‘‘Make 30 copies of this letter and mail these. Do not keep this letter for more than 96 hours. Otherwise something undesirable will happen on the fourth day. After nine days you will receive some surprise. This is true. Mr K.Y. received this letter in 1955. He forgot to post the letter and lost his job. After a few days he sent 30 copies of this letter and he found a new job within three days. Do not neglect this’’.

The residents are aghast but amused. The letter writer is perhaps only trying to add a little more money to otherwise empty coffers of the post office. Interestingly he uses the name ‘‘Om Shirdi Sai Baba’’ on the letter. But there is no name of the sender. Is the writer scared of the consequences as many would like to call a spade and tell him to stop being crankish and what not?

— Sentinel

SPORT

Bedi XI beat Pb Sectt
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, June 4 — Arun Singla, who scored 41 runs in 22 deliveries, helped Bedi XI in defeating Punjab Secretariat by eight wickets in the fourth UT league cricket tournament, being organised by the UT Cricket Association at PGI grounds here today.

In the rain-affected match, which was reduced to 20 overs, Bedi XI won the toss and elected to field first. Punjab Secretariat team lost two quick wickets when the score was two. The team was bundled out for 100 runs.

In reply, Bedi XI’s opening batsman Rakesh Purang began the innings with some cracking shots. Arun Singla hit three sixes and five fours in his knock. The target was achieved in 13 overs. Rakesh made 35 runs.

Brief scores — Punjab Secretariat: 100 all out in 20 overs (Sunil 23, Harjit Singh 22, Amrinder Singh 19, Chander Sekhar 3 for 26, Jagdish Dhawan 2 for 19); Bedi XI: 102 for two in 13 overs (Arun Singla 41, Rakesh Purang 35, TP Singh 19 n.o.).

Coaching camp: The Chandigarh Ball Badminton Association selected 25 boys and 25 girls for the coaching camp at Shivalik Public school, Sector 41. They are — boys: Gurvinder Singh, Vinay Garg, Ajit Anjan Singh, Amritraj Singh, Saurav Garg, Maninder Singh, Amit Bhalla, Shiv Kumar, Manoj, Mohd Iqbal, Sikandar, Ajay, Parveen, Parul, Dhiraj, Mukesh, Rahul Chugh, Manish Rana, Deepak, Brajesh Khanna, Gagan, Abhineet, Avtar, Manish and Jagmeet Singh; and girls: Jagdeep Kaur, Monu Dhiman, Shivani, Raman, Neha, Poonam, Anshu, Rohini, Gurpreet Kaur, Jasmine, Nisha, Kanchan, Renu, Shobha, Dimple, Deepa, Seema, Shivani, Renu II, Monika, K Smiti, Swati, Suruchi, Poonam Kaur and Radhika