EDUCATION

Sri Lankan students in PAU
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Aug 27 — Career advancement may be what brought them across the sea, miles and miles away from their near and dear ones, yet they pine for home. Although these students from Sri Lanka feel nostalgic yet they are resolved to stay here and complete their studies in Punjab Agricultural University.

It has been just ten days that they arrived here and these students appear to have acclimatised themselves with their surroundings. They no longer feel themselves as strangers as they were when they first placed a foot in the campus.

It was not quite simple for Samathi Withanage to part with her one year old daughter Panudeeta, to proceed for studies in a far off land. She was almost moved to tears while narrating how she felt when Panudeeta cried at the airport while bidding goodbye.

Samathi was working as a research officer in the Rubber Research Institute in the western province of Sri Lanka, near Colombo. In her early 30s, she believes in enhancing her education, which will be of great benefit to her as she is likely to have a promotion or get an incentive in pay. Back home she earned 10,000 Sri Lankan rupees. She now avails a scholarship of $ 300 per month from the Central Agricultural Research Project. She said, if there were some provision, she would like to bring her daughter along .

Staying in PAU girls hostel, Samathi is accompanied by three other fellow-students from Sri Lanka. Chandrani Dissanayaka (33), Sashi Prabha Kandasamy (37) and Awanti Wijesinghe (35), have also come to India with similar dreams. Chandrani was working as a Research Officer in Department of Agriculture at Kandy. She sought admission to MSc Vegetables, on account of the scholarship sponsored by ICAR and CARP. ‘’It is very difficult to stay without my family”, she said, while remembering her two babies Tarase (3) and Pasani (1) and her husband.

Sashi and Awanti have spent a lot of money on making telephone calls home. Sashi was working as a lecturer at Vanuya, in the school of agriculture. Now she has joined MSc in microbiology. Whereas Awanti, who recently joined MSc in Soils, hails from Kandy, where she was working as a research officer.

“We think we will be able to adjust as the people here are very friendly”, says Samathi. The only problem they face, according to them, is language which they are not able to understand and food which they do not relish.

Daniel Temagel who is a second year student of MSc Extension Education, in PAU ,belongs to Ethopia. He goes to Parker House every Saturday, to have his lunch as he could never develop a taste for karri over a period of one and a half years. He was an Agriculture Development Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, Sri Lanka. He came to PAU to improve his professional qualification and expects a promotion when he returns. Selome, has joined the Department of Entomology on a government scholarship. She is yet to attend a class. She liked PAU a lot, but still needs time to adjust.

Exhibition on philately held
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, Aug 27 — Preet Kanwal of Kundan Vidya Mandir School was adjudged the best speaker in a seminar-cum-exhibition on philately, organised by the Department of Postal Services, local city division, at the PAU extension library here, today.

The second spot was won by Archna Bedi of BCM school while the third honour went to Urvashi Pahwa of KVM school.

The department also organised a painting competition on the theme of ‘Road safety and pollution free India’ on the occasion. Nearly 350 school children participated in it.

Vipra Khurd of BCM won the first spot in the seniors’ category, while Simarjit Singh of Spring Dale Public School and Mehak of KVM were declared second and third, respectively.

In the juniors’ category, the top spot went to Anubha of KVM while Shikha of BVM and Baby Noni of the school for deaf children won the second and third spot, respectively.

Earlier Col Tilak Raj, Chief Postmaster General, Punjab Circle, inaugurated a two-day exhibition of stamps. He highlighted the advantages of developing the hobby of stamp collection as it not only improved the general knowledge of the child but can also brought financial benefits through the sale of stamps to other philatelists.

Nearly 500 school children participated in the event.The exhibition would continue tomorrow as well. A workshop on stamp collection is also scheduled for tomorrow. The participating children, while talking to Ludhiana Tribune, said, watching the exhibition was a marvelous experience for them. They said, before coming to the exhibition they never knew that one stamps was a window to the history of the ear.

Mr M.K. Khan, Senior Superintendent, Post Offices, informed that the event was held to encourage stamp collection among children. He said philately was not only enriching for the collector but also provided revenue to the department. He said the programme was a part of a series planned by the Postal Department, here, to encourage philately and to boost their sales.