The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

SOPU’s charter of demands
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 8
The Students Organisation of Panjab University submitted a memorandum of demands to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof K.N. Pathak, at his office in Panjab University, here today.

SOPU president Harveer Singh demanded that the university should make available UGC forms at PU when it followed rules and regulations of the UGC. He said that though the university was making these forms available till last year, the practice had been discontinued this year, causing inconvenience to students.

They also sought holding of reappear papers for science conducted last month, for students who had failed to sit in the test, approval of registration of students for Ph.D denied on grounds of late declaration of the result.

SOPU demanded immediate action on the demands in the interest of the student community.

Protest plan: The Joint Action Committee (Teaching and Non-Teaching Employees) discussed the pension scheme and proposed to adopt a viable scheme for employees of the university at a meeting held here today.

According to an action plan drawn up by the JAC to protest against the rejection of the scheme by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, a meeting of the general body would be held on October 10, followed by a protest march.

A dharna would also be staged outside the VC office from October 11 to 18. On the last day, the JAC would review the progress of the pension case and chalk out the future course of action.

Course on quake: The Department of Geology, Panjab University, launched a short course on paleoseismology and earthquake geology in at the ICSSR Complex, Panjab University, here today.

About 20 participants from various geological organisations and universities are participating in the course. The faculty includes scientists from the Centre of Earth Studies, Trivandrum, the Geological Survey of India and the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and Panjab University.

The visiting scientists would dwell on the history of earthquakes and draw inferences from past happenings. The course would be followed by a two-day field trip to Renuka and its adjoining areas. The cracks in earth in Nada also being on the agenda of the group.

The course was inaugurated by the Director, CSIO, Dr R.P. Bajpai, and presided over by Prof Hans Raj Gill, DUI.

Role of wildlife highlighted
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 8
It was a grand day for scouts and guides of the city to interact with Mr Ishwar Singh, Chief Wildlife Warden, Chandigarh, at the concluding function of the state-level ‘Wildlife Week-2002’.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Ishwar Singh stressed the need for the conservation of wildlife. He highlighted the role of wildlife in the proper functioning of food chain and food web.

The wildlife week was organised by Hindustan Scouts and Guides in collaboration with the Department of Forests and Wildlife, Chandigarh, and the Indian Council for Environmental Education.

Mr S.N. Sharma, national secretary, Hindustan Scouts and Guides, emphasised the role of scouts and guides in the protection of wildlife. Mr Ajay Chaubey, State Secretary, Hindustan Scouts and Guides, Dr Vikas Kohli, General Secretary, Indian Council for Environmental Education, also spoke.

A rally of scouts and guides carrying placards with messages of love and care for wildlife was also flagged off by Mr Ishwar Singh at Hindustan Scouts and Guides state headquarters at DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8-C. It culminated at Leisure Valley. Prizes were given to the winners of painting and clay modelling competition by Mr Ishwar Singh.

Around 300 scouts and guides from various schools of the city participated in the rally.

COURTS

HIGH COURT
‘Give safeguards in NDPS cases’
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 8
For providing safeguards against possible implication in cases registered under the NDPS Act, Mr Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today ruled that capturing the scene of recovery with the help of an electronic gadget, like a digital or a video camera, may help the prosecution.

In a ruling, Mr Justice Goel also directed that the “matter should be considered at the highest level in the states of Punjab and Haryana, besides the Union Territory of Chandigarh, by a team of experts to be nominated by police heads or the Director-General of Police”.

In his detailed order on an appeal filed by an accused in an NDPS case, Mr Justice Goel observed: “Main contention raised by counsel for the appellant is that in the absence of any gazetted officer or Magistrate or an independent witness, it is not safe to uphold the conviction on mere statement of an ASI.... It was submitted that there was no safeguard against an ASI falsely showing that the accused was not interested in calling a gazetted officer or a Magistrate, and had faith in him. It was further submitted that scene of occurrence has not been captured by a digital or a video camera showing the manner in which the recovery was effected”.

The Judge further added: “Before I consider the rival submissions, it is necessary to focus on contention raised on behalf of the appellant, that is how can the Court be reassured about the genuineness of the alleged recovery so that possible false implication or even a plea of false implication is ruled out. The Court expects independent corroboration of the prosecution story which is required to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. Court has to be more cautious in appreciating evidence of the official witnesses in the absence of any independent witness though in appropriate cases, version of official witnesses may be accepted as credible. Prosecution can ill-afford to risk its version being rejected and must address itself to the question as to the nature of evidence in such cases. Surely the association of a gazetted officer or a Magistrate adds credibility to the prosecution case as against the credibility of version that accused declined this offer.... ”

Justice Roy may take over as CJ
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 8
Mr Justice Binod Kumar Roy, sitting Judge of the Allahabad High Court, is likely to take over as the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi is currently acting as the Chief Justice after the post fell vacant following the retirement of Justice Arun B. Saharya after attaining the age of superannuation.

Mr Justice Roy had served as a Judge of the Patna High Court from October 1988 to April 1994 before being transferred to the Allahabad High Court. A graduate in arts with honours in political science, he did his postgraduation in political science with constitutional law from Patna University and graduated in law from Magadh University. He was enrolled as an advocate with the Bihar State Bar Council in 1968. Mr Justice Roy had practised as a civil, criminal, constitutional, labour and revenue lawyer in the Patna High Court.

With the appointment of Mr Justice Roy, the number of high court judges will increase to 32. The shortage of judges, according to sources in the high court, had resulted in an increase in the backlog. The sources added that civil cases dating back to the mid-80s were pending in the courts, while criminal appeals against acquittals were pending since mid-90’s.

DISTRICT COURTS
SI’s bail plea dismissed
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, October 8
A local court today dismissed the bail plea moved by a Sub-Inspector with the UT police, Janak Raj, in a corruption case. The bail plea moved by the SI was dismissed by the UT Additional and Sessions Judge, Mr Balbir Singh.

SI Janak Raj was arrested by the CBI while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1,200 in the Sector 9 market for extending a favour in a case of challan issued by the police.

Cheating case: An anticipatory bail plea moved by Ram Lal in a cheating case was yesterday accepted by a local court. The UT Additional and Sessions Judge, Mr Balbir Singh, granted bail to a suspect, Ram Lal, on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 25,000 in a cheating case registered against him in the Sector 31 police station.

He was booked by the UT police on September 24, 2002, under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC. Ram Lal had filed an anticipatory bail plea in a cheating case claiming that the police wanted to make him an approver in another case pending against him, but he refused. Therefore, the police had threatened him to implicate in other cases.

Meanwhile, in a rape case of a Shimla-based girl, a suspect, Ram Lal, and three others, Baldev, Surinder Sharma and Narveer, were remanded in judicial custody.

Two-year term: Ram Lal and Sham Lal were sentenced to two-year rigorous imprisonment by a local court in a case of an injury case. The case against the two was registered on the complaint by Joginder in 1997.

The complainant had alleged that the accused had seriously injured him with a set of scissors.

CULTURE

Shubha’s ragas a feast for ears
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 8
In music you can’t help thinking with the heart and feeling with the brain. Especially so when flowing from the other side of a delightful setting are melodies from none other than Shubha Mudgal, an exponent of North Indian classical music, who has surprised the world with her versatility. Holding on to the forms which have made her worth her salt, Shubha kept light vocal music at bay from today’s classical music schedule. The concert was organised by Durga Das Foundation and sponsored by The Tribune and Spice Telecom.

As she began spelling divinity in the language of music created by her revered guru Pandit Ramashreji, the gathering was in for a state of bliss, which only heightened every each passing moment of the concert. The introductory presentation in raga Shri set the mood for the rest of the evening which was to be a celebration of life with the festival of classical music. Exhibiting tremendous power and poise, Shubha proved again that music could never be restricted to boundaries. It was a universal blessing, meant to be everybody’s possession.

Talking to The Tribune, the vocalist admitted: “As a student of music my work is to profess the form, not to analyse if it suits the needs of a contemporary audience. We never learn music with the objective of cutting albums. We practice music to enrich ourselves. Whatever good follows is a blessing of the gurus”.

It is another matter that Shubha has made it big in the world of popular music. Her works — right from ‘Ab Ke Sawan’ and ‘Man Ke Manjire’ to her rendering of Sufiana poetry — have been universally respected. However, the vocalist never headed towards anything with a conscious will to make it big. “I never set schedules ahead of me. I like to be in the concert circuit. I also like making albums and sharing music with the world, but only when I am ready with a piece”.

Having worked for films, the latest being ‘Chandni Bar’, Shubha looks forward to a lot of musical feats. She has rendered Amir Khusro’s poetry during the Khusro festival lately and she is now working harder with the classical forms ‘khayal’ and ‘thumri’, which make her the woman of worth that she is. Like most established vocalists, Shubha attaches significance with the ‘gharanas’. She said: “Every ‘gharana’ has something to offer. That is why when you read the biographies of great vocalists you would see that they have all wandered from one ‘gharana’ to another. From one form to the other music is more enriching experience”.

Dignity of music being her foremost priority, Shubha is naturally against commercial activities that promote talent other than original. Despite being one of the judges in the V pop star hunt, she feels: “Programmes like V Pop Hunt and Saregama are welcome insofar as they achieve an objective of baring talent. But it would serve more of we could promote singers in their original mould. Right now we have good singers, but their talent is borrowed because they imitate the legends. They should try and hone originality”.

Back to the concert, Shubha later made an offerings in raga Adhana. Composed by her guru, the bandish celebrated the victory of Lord Rama over Lankeshwar. She later went on to present two more compositions by her guru. Shubha was accompanied by Anish Pradhan on tabla, Mehmood Dholpuri on harmonium an Shruti Mala on tanpura.

Dramatisations of life
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 8
Continuing its tradition of presenting dramatisation of short stories under the title of Rasbharian, Sandli Pairan Kala Kender yesterday hosted another theatre show at Tagore Theatre.

Presented with the collaboration of the Department of Cultural Affairs, Haryana, Rasbharian IV was a collection of three stories by Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu writers. Relevant to society, the stories raise basic issues of existence. Included in yesterday’s production, which was of a rather short duration than expected, were three stories, Sardar Nirpinder Ratan’s “Ik Afsar da janam”, Prakash Kant’s “Papa main Hindustan launga” and Krishan Chander’s “Panghura”.

Where the first two productions did not seem to have been prepared well enough to be staged, the last one was still fairly presented, Focusing on the issue of unwedded motherhood, the production unravelled the various causes behind the tendency. Right from the increasingly-selfish and morally weak women hankering after power and money to the men, who are ever ready to elude responsibility of parenthood. The production dealt with the painful easiness with which people give birth to children and their abandon them in an orphanage, alienating their affections as if they never were.

“Panghura”, as this production was titled, revealed the grave proportions of this problem of unwanted parenthood.

The other two plays, although well-chosen for the script value, had not been prepared well. In the first production, the actors were even forgetting their dialogues. However, the stories suited the contemporary mood and made strong statements. The plays were directed by Parveen Jaggi.

Theatre artistes blend tales to showcase woman’s travails
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 8
Merging a script essentially Indian in tone with another one that has strong Western influences is not an easy job, especially when the merger is aimed at creating a project for theatre. But Delhi-based actress Lushin Dubey and director Arvind Gaur seem to have conceived of a wonderful piece, drawing from their human sensibilities and technical prowess.

What has emerged is a fine piece of theatre art based upon Vijaydan Detha’s “Nyari nyari maryada” on the one hand and Nobel Laureate Dario Fo’s “Medea” on the other. The untitled production, that has already been staged 10 times in various cities of India, stands apart for the creativity with which thoughts have been woven in the form of a script. The striking part of this solo production by Lushin is that she plays 17 parts in the same setting. At one point she is Medea, Dario Fo’s protagonist who kills her own children to seek revenge from her husband Jason; at the other point she plays Jason, the man who wrongs Medea by spurning her for a younger woman. Puppets by Dadi Pudumjee enhance the creative potential of this production, which underlines the worth of a woman in the end. The production is a bilingual.

Through two powerful tales of dejection and degradation of women at the hands of male counterparts, the solo presentation by Lushin bares a lot of pain that is often buried within the four walls of a house. She voices the concern of women, who are battered irrespective of caste and status.

In city already, Lushin today talked about how she got Arvind to create this project, which spells some hope at some level. Having watched the plight of Afghani women in the Taliban regime (as showcased in the BBC documentary Beneath the veil), Lushin was inspired to dedicate a production to women. She said, “I felt an urge to do something for the larger cause of women. And I wanted to stage something for them so that I could enter all kinds of settings — from rural to urban and voice the pain of women everywhere.”

It was later that Arvind Gaur, who has been associated with the theatre group Asmita, teamed up with Lushin to make her dream come true. “The production was workshopped and created over a period of two months. We blended the two tales to tell a common story. Also, we have used Indian instruments to lend the production an Indian touch. It has also been translated into English so that it can be carried all over the world,” said Arvind. Music in the production has been rendered by Ms Sangeeta Gaur. After being staged at the National School of Drama festival and Ishara Puppet Theatre festival, the production will now be staged at Tagore Theatre on October 10 (6.30 pm).

As for Lushin, the illustrious sister of the famous actress Lilette Dubey, she is now acting in a television serial Kashmir wherein she plays the wife of Farooq Sheikh. Suresh Oberoi and Salim Shah also star in this soon-to-be-released serial.

Preparations on for Durga Puja
Parbina Rashid

Chandigarh, October 8
Nostalgia is the buzz word at Banga Bhavan these days. The bhavan in Sector 35, which exists in oblivion for almost the year round, has suddenly sprung into life with about 1,000 Bengali families of the city under the umbrella of the Bangiya Sanskritik Sammilini (BSS), getting ready to celebrate Durga puja, one of the major festivals in West Bengal.

For the Bengali community living thousands of miles away from their place of origin, this is a time to do some soul searching — about their roots, culture and tradition. But what makes the festival unique is that, the puja also symbolises their efforts to assimilate into a diversified cultural arena.

A visit of the bhavan after 7 pm, and a flurry of activities greet you, giving you a slice of West Bengal. Tent-house workers working hard to get the puja pandal erected while the cultural troupe rehearsing. However, the best part of the celebrations is that even if you do not belong to the community, you are not going to feel like an outsider. The BSS members are taking utmost care to add variety in their cultural schedule to take care of different tastes.

“This is one time that revives the nostalgia of the Bengal life and we use the occasion to inculcate our culture among the younger generation here who has not had much chance to learn it in the true Bengali way,” says Ms Renuka Bhattacharya who is directing a play to be staged on ‘saptami’. The actual celebrations that starts from October 11 at 7 p.m. include group songs, instrumentals, Struti natak, dance drama and plays.

Albeit, different from Durga Puja celebrations in West Bengal, the BSS is taking care of striking a balance between entertainment and tradition. “Keeping in view that programme like Antakshari and Boogie Woogie are held in almost every celebrations, we are also incorporating a few such programmes,” says Dr T. K. Nagsarkar, a retired professor from Punjab Engineering College.

“In West Bengal, the main attraction of the puja is the pandal in which committees spend lakhs of rupees. They organise star or singer nites in the evenings while the cultural programmes like ‘bhavna’ (plays), song and dance items run throughout the day,” says Mr Chandan Banerjee, general secretary, BSS. But with Rs 2 lakh for running a five-day show, the pandal has to be a simple one and instead of inviting famous singers it promises to be more of a participatory nature.

“However, the programme will not be absolutely devoid of celebrities,” says Mr Banerjee. On the ‘saptami’ well-known instrumentalist Subhash Ghosh will give a recital while on ‘ashtami’ Ms Suchitra Mitra, famous Kathak dancer, will perform an item.

Parallel to the BSS celebrations, The Kalibari Management Committee of the Kalibari temple will erect its own Durga Puja pandal, complete with religious rituals and cultural programme. Giving information, Mr Rajesh Roy, General Secretary of the committee says the major attraction of the festival will be a dance drama based on Rabindra Nath Tagore’s composition “Ritu Rang” and folk-based traditional Jatra theatre, but even here the ‘Ashtami’ is completely dedicated to Hindi programmes. “The ‘ashtami’ falling on a Sunday and the temple premises being closer to the 3 BRDF colony, we are expecting non-Bengali people that day,” explains Mr Roy.

However, the most unique feature of the Kalibari Committee is that a lion’s share of the Durga puja fund they raised would go towards charitable organisations. “We raised about Rs 7 lakh this year. Besides giving away some money to the Prime Minister’s Fund and Natural Calamity Fund as usual, we are organising a free eye and health camp on October 13,” added Mr Roy. Another major project, the committee will undertake is the construction of the 72-foot Kali temple which will to be the tallest temple in North India.