CULTURE

Alpha Punjabi plays Sa Re Ga ...
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Jan 14 — After the grand success of programme Sa,Re,Ga,Ma, hosted by Sonu Nigam on Zee TV, it is now the turn of Alpha Punjabi to follow suit with its version of Sa,Re,Ga,Ma. audition for the programme had been held in cities like Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ambala, Chandigarh, Patiala, and Delhi.

From among 42 candidates selected from these cities, 32 were short listed. there were equal number of boys and girls among the selected candidates and the first schedule of shooting was held in Chandigarh.

Vivek Rahi, co-ordinator, Assistant Director Sa, Re, Ga, Ma informed, "Today, we are holding the second selection of candidates. We have 22 girls and 28 boys to choose from. We will be selecting 16 girls and 16 boys. The maximum age of the candidates for this programme is 35 years and minimum is 16 years. For selection we hold different rounds.

There will be 13 episodes. Each episode will be divided into three stages. Quarter finals will be of eight episodes where we will short list eight girls and eight boys. Semi-finals will comprise four episodes and then four girls and four boys will be selected for the finals. Final episode can be split into two rounds and that round will give us the winners. More than 35 episodes have been telecast on Punjabi Alpha channel, he said.

the shooting of finals of Sa,Re,Ga,Ma will be held from January 16 to 20.Mr Vivek Rahi said," Tomorrow our main team comprising the director Ashwani Karndikr is arriving alongwith the anchor of the programme Mickey Narula, brother of famous singer Jaspinder Narula". Impressed with the talent of the participants he said," We have found immense talent. music co-ordinator Prashant Nayak and myself are finding difficult to shortlist the singers."

Rohit, a participant said, "I have come from Ambala. It is very cold here yet I am burning with anxiety and nervousness. I hope I will be not be nervous while singing."

The Zee Channel is providing lodging and boarding to the outstation candidates but they have to meet travelling expenses on their own. The Zee TV will award to trophies to the winners and the runners up.

SPORT

D’souza confident of improving standard
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Jan 14 — Cederic D’souza, national hockey coach, feels confident about improving the standards of the game and also in helping players to exploit their potential to the maximum limits.

D’souza, who felt elated over the warm welcome from the sports officials and hockey lovers here, while talking to this correspondent, hoped that the camp in progress at the PAU Astroturf would go a long way in helping the players to improve their talent.

These days, 43 national team probables and seven Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) officials are here for honing their skills. Baljit Singh Dhillon and Dhanraj Pillay are not in the camp. Both are, however, soon expected to join the camp.

This is for the first time that the players have been showing up at the practice sessions regularly. Earlier, the players were shown matches of the other team to prepare themselves against their opponents. “Our players’ mistakes were pointed out by the coach and helped the players in correcting these,” Cederic said, adding, “Earlier we used to see the matches of others to prepare ourselves, but now we see our own game to rectify ourselves.” Cederic opined, “This is very essential for the players as the players can identify their mistakes easily”. Ashish Balal, trainer of the players said, “The video session is a requirement because the player can improve by watching their mistakes as compared to listening to the coach.”

Three aspects will be covered in this training programme i.e the physical, mental and tactical. The physical training has started already. The coach informed that the psychological and tactical training would be starting soon.

After the one-week training, assessment of the players will be done. The player will be identified according to the best position, they can play. After that, the skill of players will be improved on those positions.

The player will practice 6 to 7 hours a day, depending on the weather condition. A regular video session of two-three hours will also be held.

Olympian Baljit Saini opined that the camp would encourage hockey aspirants in Punjab. He was of the view that camps such as these should be organised regularly. Olympian Gaganjit Singh was highly motivated by the gathering of people who had come to see the players practicing. Mahipal Singh, an Indo-Tibet Border Police cop, who is the member of the camp, appreciated the infrastructure and other facilities provided to the players.