EDUCATION

GCG-11 teams win antakshri contest
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 13 — Government College for Girls, Sector 11, in collaboration with the Lions Club Chandigarh Nightingale organised the first -ever inter- girls college Antakshri competition at the college premises today as part of the youth week celebrations. As many as 16 teams from GCG-42, MCM DAV College, Government College, Sector 46 and the host college took part in an exciting contest that ended with the host teams winning the first three prizes.

the programme, held in the jam packed auditorium, was anchored by Saibal Sinha.After the first four preliminary rounds only four out of the 16 teams were left in the fray.. Called Antakshri Number one the competition was interactive in the final phase when members of the audience suggested themes and situations for the participants to sing. Ms Madhavi Kataria, DPI (Colleges)-cum Director Social Welfare, was the chief guest.

Ms Vijaylakshmi, Principal of the college, welcomed the guests which included Lion N.K. Grover, District Governor, Lions Club International District 321, Lion Narinder Malhotra, Lion Rajinder Bansal,Regional Chairman and Lion Sushma Malhotra, President of Lions Club Chandigarh Nightingale.

GCG-11 team of Leena, Queen and Nitika won the first prize while Shailja, Komal and Anu of the same college won the second prize while another GCG-11 team comprising Bhanuja, Kusum and Harpreet won the third prize.

Results of library-related contests
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 13 — Teams from more than 32 schools along with teams from all colleges of Chandigarh participated in the second set of inter-school and inter-college library-related competitions organised by the Chandigarh Librarians’ Association and sponsored by Competition Master at the Centre-State Library, Sector 34, here today.

Ms Madhavi Kataria, DPI (Colleges), was the chief guest at the occasion and spoke about the utility of such competitions as confidence-building exercises for children. She also stated that lesser use of any library is a wastage of national resource and, further, lauded the efforts of the librarians’ association in this direction.

Ms Kataria was welcomed by the President of the association, Mr J. K. Kataria, while the General Secretary, Mr I.B. Verma, related the activities of the association to the participants and the audience.

In the reference hunting competition, Anant and Pritish of St John’s High School, Sector 26, won the first prize in the upto 5th class category, while Ankush and Sadhika of Sector 35 Model School won the second prize and Ankit and Surbhi of Little Flower Convent School, Panchkula, won the third prize. In the class 6th to 8th category, Vidisha and Akanksha of Little Flower Convent School, Panchkula, won the first prize while Nitika and Rishba of Sector 35 Model School won the second prize and Harsimranjit Singh and Abhinav Saini of St John’s High School, Sector 26 won the third prize. In the Class 9th to 12th category, Deepak and Vaibhav of Sector 35 Model School took away the first prize while Sunita Yadav and Aman Gupta of AKS Public School Sector 41 won the second prize and Nagender Singh and Rishi Amrit of Dav College Sector 10 won the third prize. In the college category, Divya and Priti of Dev Samaj College Sector 45 won the first prize while Latika and Paramjit of GGDSD College Sector 32 won the second prize and Mrigank and Amit of Government College Sector 46 won the third prize.

In the best reader competitions, up to the 5th category, Mrinal Sharma of St John’s High School, Sector 26, won the first prize while Sidharth Khadewal and Pritish Chakrawarty of the same school won the second and third prize. Nivedita and Aashna Gupta of Hansraj Public School won the consolation certificates in this category. In the 6th to 8th class category, Ujala Joshi of Carmel Convent School won the first prize while Ankita Sagar won the second prize and Sarab Sodhi and Ankit Sood of St John’s High School won the third prize jointly. Arjun Goel, Razak Gupta and Gaurav Shah of St Stephen’s School won the consolation certificates in this category. In the 8th to 12th category, Pulkit Dhiman of St John’s High School won the first prize while Mohit Pramanik of GMSSS, Sector 35, won the second prize and Aanchal Mahajan of DAV School, Sector 15, won the third prize. In the college category, Bhavna Ranjan of GGDSD College Sector 32 won the first prize.

Students celebrate Lohri 
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 13 — Students of Government College, Sector 46, celebrated Lohri on the college campus here today with verve and enthusiasm. The bonfire was lighted by the Principal, Mr D.P. Singh. Yesterday more than 150 students of the college had donated blood to mark Youth Day. The NSS unit of the college along with the Lions Club, Chandigarh Nightingale, and the State Bank of India had organised the camp.

The Principal inaugurated the camp and also donated blood for the 55th time. Ms Madhavi Kataria, DPI (Colleges), was the chief guest.

Students of the Government College for Girls, Sector 11, also celebrated Lohri in the hostel.

Lohri was also celebrated in the boys hostel of GGDSD College, Sector 32, on Friday night. Dr A C Vaid, principal of the college, and other staff members were present at the celebrations.

COURTS

Bail refused in assault case
From Our Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, Jan 13 — The UT Additional District and Session Judge, Mr S.K. Goel, today dismissed the bail plea moved by a resident of Sangrur, Ravinder Singh, in an assault case.

The applicant had moved the plea under Sections 437 and 439 of the Criminal Procedure Code. It was stated in the bail plea that the applicant had joined law classes in Pune and should therefore be granted bail. The complainant, Mr Shivinder Singh, a resident of Sector 37, alleged that the accused, along with others, had come to his house and assaulted him and his family members. The case against the accused had been registered under Sections 452, 323 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code in 1995.

One-year RI
The UT Judicial Magistrate (First Class) sentenced a resident of Sector 41, Balak Ram, to one-year rigorous imprisonment and fine of Rs 1000 in a cheque bounce case. The complainant, Ms Sudha, a resident of Sector 37, alleged that the accused had taken a loan of Rs 17,000 from her on June 28, 1998. The accused gave a cheque to the complainant on July 23, 1998, which bounced the next day.

One remanded
The UT Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sant Parkash, remanded a resident of Sector 30, Om Parkash, in judicial custody in an assault case. The complainant, Mr Sandeep Kumar of Sector 10, alleged that the accused, along with others, assaulted and threatened him in Sector 30 on January 12. The case against the accused had been registered under Sections 147, 149, 323 and 506 of the IPC.

Bribery case
The UT Additional District and Sessions Judge granted bail to B.R. Goyal in a bribery case. It was alleged that the UT Vigilance Department had caught the accused for taking a bribe of Rs 5000. The accused was granted bail on furnishing a bond of Rs 20,000 and surety of same amount.

CULTURE

Seminar on Punjabi culture
From Our Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, Jan 13 — “Khaada peeta Aap Daa, baki Nadir Shah daa” sums up Punjabi ethos, said author Dr Satish Verma at a seminar on “Punjab through the ages and its contemporary issues: A cultural perspective”. The seminar was organised by the Institute of Tourism and Future Management Trends here today.

Dr Satish Verma, said Punjab has a rich heritage, but many were not appreciating it.

Installations raise questions
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 13 — The exhibition of installation projects by the six Delhi-based artists, which opened at the Panjab University Fine Arts Museum today, sets the mind to question merits and validity of these artistic expressions.

The exhibition is much more than a collection of artistic endeavours of various artists taken from the collection of the museum itself and then re-contextualised to be rendered an altogether new, creative meaning. The man behind the project is American curator and artist Peter Nagy who is more famous for his New Delhi gallery — Nature Morte.

The concept dates back to April 2000, when Dr Alka Pande, the then Director of the museum, invited Peter to curate a show drawing from the collection of the Fine Arts Museum. The idea was to keep the heritage of the museum from declining, and also to present it to the public of the city in an entirely new perspective.

As for Peter Nagy, who seems quite impressed with the city's identity, as also with the strong collection in the Fine Arts Museum, there was no looking back. The show took about one and a half year to be curated, but today when it was opened in its final form, one knew what had transpired in the time of preparation. Peter and the six Delhi-based artists, whose help he has sought to adorn the wonderful physical spaces of the gallery, have put together a powerful show which sorts out works in the museum's collection to offer inspiration.

Out of the 14 galleries, three have been curated by Peter, but it would serve to recreate the magic just as the artist weaves it. In treatment of the first gallery, there lies a homage to Mr B.P. Mathur, the principal architect of buildings of the Panjab University. The second gallery has Peter Nagy curating and arranging a number of objects so as to create a synthesis among the aesthetics of India, Japan and American Minimalism.

Anita Dube's close connection with sculptor Krishna Kumar is bared in her project which fills the space of the third gallery. From the Museum's collection, she picks up the sculpture titled Yellow Monkey which Krishna made in 1985. Anita has shrouded the sculpture with a tent of blue plastic netting. The idea is to dematerialise the sculpture underneath.

In the fourth gallery, Peter Nagy has chosen to exhibit three works so as to examine the uses of figuration and abstraction in the contemporary Indian painting. In combination are works by Bhupen Khakhar, Madavi Parekh and Sudhir Patvardhan. Samit Das bares his admiration of the city's architecture in his project at the fifth gallery. Samit has created a mini city within the Museum. He also uses photographs of the city taken by him.

Vivan Sundaram is pleased to handle three galleries which he fills up with the experinces of the Kasauli Art Centre. So he creates an installation about the centre, putting on the desks photo albums which carry moments of artistic experience from the various workshops at Kasauli.

Sonia Khurana collects paintings from the archives and screens them with cloth. On these screens she pastes a collection of images which relate to the memories reflected by hung paintings. By creating overlays between the various paintings, the artist seeks to lend innumerable interpretations to various works of art.

Ram Rahman combines his work with those by Gagenendranath Tagore and tries to achieve a connection between socio-economic conditions prevailing today and those in the past century. The juxtapositions highlight parallels between Tagore's age and pour own contemporary mores.

The 12th and the 13th galleries have Peter Nagy paying a tribute to J. Swaminathan. He uses three paintings by Swaminathan and lends a personal touch to them. In the 14th gallery, Peter has used the collection of the museum to create an impressive assortment of sculptures in the museum.

A very novel use of the courtyard has been made by Sobodh Gupta who uses painting, sculpture, photography and video to examine current ideologies. The installations use specific symbols like cow, cow dung, utensils, lotus and country-made pistol.

After the inauguration today, a panel discussion was held with Peter Nagy and the six artists. It was moderated by Dr Alka Pande. Later, Vivan Sundaram screened his video "Structures of Memory " on the installation project which he exhibited in Victoria Memorial in 1998.

Last session of the day saw Dr M.A. Greenstein presenting a lecture on issues pertaining to the exhibition.