EDUCATION

Talent hunt at KVM
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Oct 4 — Students of Kundan Vidya Mandir, city branch, exhibited their talent by presenting cultural items at an inter-house contest held here today.

Solo song, solo dance and play were three items for which the contests were held. In solo song, Vasudha who sang ghazal, Bhulne wale se koi kehde zara, won the first prize and Shruti who sang Tum ko dekha to yeh khayal aaya was declared second.

In the solo dance contest, Amrita Dutta danced on the number Mayiya Yashodha yeh tera Kanhiya and got the best dancer award and Ritika Pabreja who danced on Mehandi lagaoongi main sajna ke naam ki was declared second.

For plays, the team of Tagore House which presented the play Aur shila pighal gayee bagged the first prize and that of Nehru House which presented the play Vetan won the second prize.

Anshu and Nitika together won the best acting award and Preetika who directed the play Parde uthne se pehle was declared the best director. Students of Gandhi House won the overall trophy in the contest.

Ms Indira Kumar, Principal at the Civil Lines branch, gave away the prizes to the students and Ms Manan, Headmistress at the city branch, appreciated the efforts of the participants and encouraged the students to take part in such cultural activities.

COURTS

Telecom Dept ordered to pay compensation
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Oct 4 — The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum here has directed the Department of Telecommunications through the General Manager, Telephones, Ludhiana, to pay Rs 10,000 to Mr Shamsher Singh of Mundian Kalan village as compensation for deficiency in service and to provide a telephone to him within 15 days of the receipt of the order.

The case was taken up with the forum by the Punjab Khapatkar Sangh, on behalf of the complainant, Mr Shamsher Singh.

Mr Shamsher Singh had stated in his complaint that he had applied for a telephone connection by depositing Rs 3000 on July 12,1994. He visited the office of the Department of Telecommunications several times but was told that the file was not traceable and that the telephone would be provided when the same was traced.

Mr Hardial Singh, President of the forum, delivering the order observed, “It is not understandable as to how one-and-a-half years time was taken by the department in sending the advice note from the main office to the office of the SDO. The admissions made by the department clearly speak of defeciency in service.”

The forum order records that in this case, the record had been placed on the file showing that the telephone to Mr Kulbir Singh, who had applied for a telephone connection on May 30,1995, and whose advice note was issued on March 21,1996, was provided with a telephone connection on March 23,1996. The advice note of the complainant, who had applied for a telephone connection on July 12,1994, was issued by the Telecom Department on May17,1996, which was after providing a telephone to Mr Kulbir Singh who had applied much later than the complainant and as such was a case of jumping seniority.

CULTURE

Abdul Hameed Sabri and party regale 
audience with qawwalis

Oct 4 — Abdul Hameed Sabri and party regaled the audience with their traditional qawwalis for more than three hours. The programme was brought to the audience by Markaz-e-Mausiqi, Ludhiana, and they presented bazm-e-qawwali.

Abdul Hameed Sabri stands tall in the field of qawwalis and has travelled all over the world. The compere, Raaez Mirza, who had accompanied the party from Delhi, added more charm to the show by his excellent compering. Paying tributes to Sahir Ludhianvi, he said wherever his kalam was sung, Ludhiana was remembered.

Sabri, tracing the history of qawwali, said, "Qawwalis of Aamir Khusro and Khawja Garib Nawaz are the most sung in the traditional manner. We begin a qawwali with a kaul, a sort of ibadat of God.'' He said, "The use of the Urdu language is decreasing day by day which is a very sad thing."

When asked what is the future of qawwali, he said, "We think qawwali will stay till dargahs are there. When Khwaja Aamir Garib Nawaz came to India, Islam had not established itself. Khusro wanted to popularise his kalam. He met Hazzrate Ukasa (they were called Mirasis) and he told him to make the kalams more colourful so that it could reach people. At that time there was hardly any instrument to accompany a kalam except a dafli.

Later the kalams of the qawwalis were set within the scale of musical notes and various raagas. But since they had to start with kaul and that had to sing kauls at the beginning of every qawwali whether in the morning or evening, he mixed the morning and evening raagas and called the morning raagas as sanam and the evening raagas ganam. The qawwali has to end with kafi thaat raaga.

Raaez said, "Sabri belongs to the famous Delhi gharana where qawwali singing has been going on for generations. Their ustad Chand Khan was a renowned singer. Sabri has sung all the four qawwalis in the serial Aamir Khusro and is going to release a cassette of his latest qawwalis soon."

Did qawwali originate in India or Pakistan?

"Of course, in India, I have competed with Pakistan qawwals and won all the competitions there," said Sabri.

After singing kaul in a very devotional tone, Sabri and party and the other two singers sang at different pitches and along with tabla and dholak, the music was just too good and a treat for the ears.

The next kalam by Aamir Khusro went straight to the heart. The opening lines were:

Kaga chun chun khaiyo

Chun chun khaiyo maas

Par do naina mat khaiyo

Mujhe piya milan ki aas

Then he sang a beautiful qawwali in Raag Bahar. Mirza narrated a very touching story about the origin of the story. Nizamuddin Auliya had no children. He had adopted his nephew who died at the age of 20. Aamir Khusro tried to cheer the bereaved Nizamuddin, but in vain.

One day while Aamir Khusro was walking in the fields, he saw some young women dressed in yellow clothes and celebrating Basant. Khusro donned a yellow ghagra ad covered himself with a chunni and sang the qawwali — Sakal basant aayo ri. Seeing him dressed in yellow clothes, Nizamuddin became cheerful.

On public request, he sang Dama dam mast kalandar followed by jugalbandi of tabla and dholak. The beats were so forceful that it sent the pulses raising of the audience. In the end he sang a qawwali in kafi thaat and left a good message.

Phool rakhen na rakhen rahon pe

Par labon par hamesha dua rakhiye

It was a memorable evening. The singing was almost divine and Sabri said sadly, "Western music can affect us adversely and our singing for it is becoming very popular with the younger generation. If we want to promote our classical singing and qawwalis, we have to stop being possessive of our gharanas. We should not limit our knowledge to our gharans only but distribute it freely among deserving desciples so that the qawwali can survive."

Ludhianvis get a taste of daandia
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Oct 4 — It was yet another entertaining evening for the Ludhianvis as they witnessed the charming Ria Sen and Gladrags super model John Abraham playing daandia live at the daandia-raas nite organised by the Red and White and Provogue fashions at Magnet Resorts.

Expressions, an event management company from Jaipur, and organiser of the colourful nite, has been organising such shows for the past three years. The show with John and Ria in the northern region was held for the first time in the city. A separate stage had been set up for the celebrities to perform in front of more than 1,000 people. Ria, in a typical Jaipur bandhni turquoise lehanga, looked ethnic and graceful, while John was clad in black denim shirt and trousers. They were introduced to the public by compere Manpreet Waraich of Chandigarh.

Both of them started dancing to the various tunes of the DJ, Rhythmics, which had a great sound impact and the various interesting numbers played by the DJ encouraged the public to dance. All the daandia hits of Phalguni Pathak were played for the dance lovers.

However, there was some discouragement for the people who joined the show a bit late. Their favourite models had gone after spending a few minutes at the stage. They were quite disappointed when they learnt that show was already over.

Most of the girls wore traditional Indian dresses like saris, suits, lehangas and lachas. On being asked about how they liked the nite, Archna, a college student, said, “It is good for the Ludhianvis to experience such events as there is nothing much to see here.”

Sanjay Sethi, a businessman, had another reason for liking the show, “What I like in the show is the mind-blowing music of the DJ. It is because of my children who have to attend school tomorrow and I have to rush back, otherwise I would have danced the whole night.”

The organisers had arranged various prizes for the public. Amit was declared the best-dressed man and Roli Tondon got the prize for best dressed woman. Mohit was adjudged the best male dancer for the evening, while Nupur got the prize for best female dancer.