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‘Public’ schools mushroom in
villages NAYA GAON (Kharar) People in villages like Mullanpur, Nayagaon, Painthpur are attracted to such schools. The illiterate or the semi-literate farmer is the prime target. They admit their wards in these schools. Few can judge the standard of such schools. However, those with money send their children to schools in Chandigarh or SAS Nagar. There are at least 15 private schools — with fancy sounding names — in Nayagaon, which has developed into a major residential colony due to its location north of Punjab Engineering College in Sector 12 of Chandigarh. Sadly, most of these schools as well as those in the periphery are not recognised, according to sources in the Punjab Education Department. A large number of these schools send their students to the Board Examinations as private candidates. Innocent villagers think their wards are studying in private schools and cannot differentiate. With cable television reaching villages, villagers have become interested in English-medium schools. A senior official in the Punjab
Education Department said, ‘‘The catch word is public’’. Schools simply add the word in the names of their schools and the villagers are attracted, he added. Another factor which attracts villagers to these schools is the school uniform. People who do graduation or have some other higher degree, open schools and many such schools are run by only one individual who acts as Principal, teacher and also performs the clerical jobs. A survey done by Chandigarh Tribune reveals: Parents in the villages want to give better and quality education to their wards and they are not satisfied by the performance of government schools. They find it hard to send their children to schools in Chandigarh and Ropar. The only option left to them is to send them to numerous private schools which have mushroomed in the area. Sources in the Punjab Education Department said most of these schools have an average strength of not more than 20 students. As far as qualification of the teachers is concerned, it is not satisfactory. In some schools, the teachers are mere graduates and even less, said a director of a private coaching institute in Naya Gaon. |
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Competition on
libraries CHANDIGARH St Stephen’s School, Sector 45, emerged as a winner, Sacred Heart School, Sector 26, came second and St John’s High School, Sector 26, bagged the third position. The General Secretary, Chandigarh Librarians Association, Mr I.B. Verma, said the competition was an added feature this year. The main objective was to educate the students through entertainment. The competitions were organised every year to focus the attention of the school and college students to the declining reading habits. An inter-college quiz competition will be organised at the British Library on January 18. |
The revenge of a wronged woman CHANDIGARH A woman wronged by her lover is back to a dilapidated town after years. The wretched human, who was bought for a bottle of wine, now has millions to buy the entire town. People here are battling against poverty. The mills have closed and the economy is drained. The millionaire is back, promising millions to people in return for the head of her lover, who ditched her. People start borrowing lavishly in hope of the money coming in from the madam. The targeted man runs from pillar to post to plead for his security. Most of the pillars of administration, security and even religion seemed to have weakened. A group of ‘wise’ people approach the lady to spare the man. They are informed that the city infrastructure had been brought by the lady herself, who got the factories and other places shut. In a way she was responsible for the misery all around. “Now I will buy justice. At that time you bought me for a bottle of wine, says the madam stating her intent clearly. All for revenge. Money has unlimited power to corrupt, is the message. Anoop Sharma as Chaman Lal excels in the lead role. He deserves praise for sustaining the grace of his character. Vishal saini has played the lead role of Nirmala Zachanassian and deserves definitely worth many pats on ‘his’ back. Parijat Sharma is Yakoob Kasai; Rahul Josh is Hasan Mian; Rahul Bhadouria is the station master; Deepinder Gorky is the MLA; Sanjeev Gupta is the principal; Rajesh Rathore is the pujari; and Rajiv Bakshi is the police inspector, among others who play significant role. The original German play ‘The Old Lady’s Visit’ has been authored by Friedrich Duerrenmatt. The Swiss settings have been adapted as Indian by Kumara Verma, who is also the director. Mahendra once again reflects class in designing . This is mentionable, particularly in regard to creating images of places and things which could not fit in an indoor theatre. The show has an appealing narrative force, further enhanced by careful characterisation and giving a separate but distinct identity to each. |
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Strokes of pain in
colour CHANDIGARH,
The beauty of the works, which have been executed in a rare medium, lies in that they connect elements of thought, and are hence easy for the viewer to comprehend. There is a definite developmental streak in the paintings, as also admitted by Padamshri Keshav Malik, who inaugurated the exhibition here today. The works reflect social concerns or rather the hard realities which society is faced with. The pain of Kashmir valley is specifically voiced in many works, and naturally so. Because the artist relates to the valley with passion. As he says, “ These images are not idyllic. They reflect tension, the travail which the valley is currently going through. I face the agony of the valley in almost equal proportions, and hence my images reflect that pain. The turmoil of the valley is me.” The works have been used to reflect the smouldering valley and quite successfully so. The languid images tell tales of the agony of Dal Lake on the one hand and the lost grandeur of the valley on the other. But there is a definite optimist streak in the creation. There are works which stress the significance of hope, which is never quite lost. “Towards prosperity”, is one such work in which the artist perceives a different scenario where there would be peace and tranquility. The same is also reflected in the usage of colours in the work, which is predominantly in green and blue. The medium used is rare indeed. The artist has tried to communicate with images on paper. As he says, “When the creative process starts, I am treading an undetermined path. I just connect to images. So one image leads on to another which in turn crystallises into yet another image.” The relevance of the medium is well-placed, as was also suggested by Dr
B.N. Goswamy, who visited the exhibition. |
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Punjabi singers’ new
releases CHANDIGARH, Jan 17 — Artists Kulbir and Dolly Singh introduced mediapersons to their new releases Yaad and Udeekan. Harbhajan Shera, of Mahi Mahi fame, Kulbir, Dolly Singh, Gurbawa and Jeet Harjit, who performed in the new year album Charkha Chanan Da, were also introduced at a press conference organised here today. Kulbir, the boy from Jalandhar, has come out with his new album Yaad, the memories of love. The album has eight songs based on memories of loved ones with the music by Surinder Bachan . He is the one who created the first bhangra group at Dubai with people from different parts of the world. Dolly Singh’s album Udeekan is an album having a real touch of Punjab in it. The music is again given by Surinder
Bachan. |
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An artist with a
conscience CHANDIGARH, Jan 17 — “Looking through the lens of objectivity, a number of so-called developments of the world might sound a bit farcical, for real development and prosperity lie hidden in matters of the heart — in matters that find root in the humanist approach. And one such matter is art, hence its role in promoting civilisation”. Hearing the eminent art critic and poet, Keshav Malik, talk about how a keen conscience proves to be the first step towards creation of great art, was blissful this morning, to say the least. “All artists may not follow the path which leads them away from dominant global forces, but they must learn to resist these forces which are willy nilly likely to steal their most precious asset — their personality,” said the artist. This and many more such truths came from Keshav Malik, who spoke this morning about factors which led to great civilisations. The stress was on making individuals of worth, say artists for example, who could fight external forces. “The next century awaits individuals who will not compromise easily with the increasingly soul-destroying circumstances around them,” he said. Malik’s was a profound lecture, which dealt intricately with the issues that make or mar society. As he said, “Civilisation is a continuing activity. It does not come from setting up a college of art here or there. It comes from imbibing life functions into the very stream of artistic activity.” During the course of the analysis on how art and civilisation had come to be an inseparable twosome, the critic bared various contours — right from the fact that from a profound culture to a degraded one, we had lost a major part of our substance — to the fact that artists, as promoters of social sensitisation, needed to transcend the ‘small self’, imaginatively and that too in directions where no rewards or social acclaim were visible. He immensely stressed the fact that it was finally for the thinking section of the society to come together and lace their pursuits with serious activity. As he reiterated in plain words, “Works of art are no passive pastime. The artists need to realise that these works are not meant purely for the market. They have a much larger social obligation to perform. The seriousness in work comes actually from the missing face behind them.” All through, the emphasis was on the fact that the intensity, which was once a hallmark of our culture or pieces of art, so to say, had been lost in material pursuits, and that the progress and building up of civilisation lay in getting that lost fraction back into the system. Recalling the history of various civilisations, Malik began musing over which works actually measured upto the standards of being works of art. “When I relate to works of art in different civilisations, I find that very few of them stand up to a scratch. All they do is appeal to the educative, the missionary mind, to the nobility within us, and nothing else. In that regard I can well say that the works of art being created in the backward countries are good, and are laced with a lot of potential. They have not been ‘misdirected’ yet.” Malik also referred extensively in his talk to the technically-proficient civilisation that America is. He lamented the fact that American painters hardly ever paint. “There are heavy-weight machines to do all the jobs. So the real activity is lost,” he said. Coming back to India, he categorically mentioned that India was rudderless, at least so far as culture was concerned. “There is an urgent need to restore the feeling that stimuli is important. My human identity is all the worth I have. We have to determine our priorities. The pressures we feel inside at times, the need to be valued, they drive us towards creative activity. They are of paramount importance and cannot be ignored.” Focusing on works of art, he said that the artist was a creation of circumstance, and all his work, as an artist, must have the power to reflect culture. “An artist must put his all into his work. Also he must bear some degree of self resistance which is important to avoid confusion between ends and means.
Good response to Bhojpuri
play CHANDIGARH, Jan 17 — The second day of Swarnotsav, a festival of traditional and contemporary theatre by young artists, brought to the city by Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, saw a Bhojpuri play being staged at the Tagore Theatre. Written by Bhikhari Thakur and directed by Sanjay Upadhyay, the play Bidesia, was presented to the city audience by Nirman Kala Manch, Patna. The play has a pride of place in the theatre world of Bihar which is said to reverberate with Bhikari’s Bidesia. The play has a distinct human touch, as it lays importance on the pains and miseries of the masses. Bidesia is about a character who leaves his newly-married wife (Pyari Sundri) to look for a job in Kolkata. There, he falls in love with another woman, who bears two children by him. The agony of Sundri is reflected by the director quite successfully and the story matures as a Batohi, on his way to Kolkata, takes pity on Sundri’s state, and brings the Bideshi back with him. The play directed by Sanjay in 1987, has seen over 100 performances and is one of the most popular plays in Bihar. PANCHKULA, Jan 17—An exhibition of documents and pictures
pertaining to the contribution of Indians in the first war of
independence and during the rise of the national movement after the
coming of the Congress in1885, was opened to the public, here today.
The archivist, Ms Mridula Bhargava, said that while some of the
documents were as old as 300 years, there were others which were a
rarity. Among these was the horoscope of Lala Amir Chand of Ambala,
which nearly 50 feet long and contained pictures of gods and
goddesses.
Prominent among the displays were jewels, weapons, dresses and
sources of entertainment in Ain-i-Akbari, dating back to the 18th
century during the reign of the Mughal king Akbar.
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