Hansraj Public School tops in quiz
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh May 14
About 17 schools of the city participated in the mega inter-school quiz contest held at Shivalik Public School in Sector 41 today. Hansraj Public School in Sector 6, Panchkula, got the first position in quiz. The second position was bagged by St Annes School in Sector 32 and the third position went to St Stephens School, Sector 45. The quiz was conducted in four knock-out rounds and the grand final buzzer and visual rounds. The questions in all rounds pertained to current affairs, history, media and entertainment, general knowledge and sports.

The “Bonn Talent Hunt 2003” was also organised. The talent masters of the year prize went to Aditi Chatterjee from St Annes School in Sector 32.

The second and third prizes went to Prabhdeep from Guru Nanak Public School in Sector 36 and Raghu Mahajan from St Stephens School in Sector 45, respectively.

The Education Minister, Punjab, Mr Harnam Das Johar, inaugurated the quiz. Prizes were given away to the winners and participants were issued certificates by marketing head, “Bonn Nutrients,” Mr Lakhvinder Singh.

Poetry contest
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 14
As many as 32 students participated in the Inter-Shivalik Poetry Recitation contest, organised at Shivalik Public School, Sector 41, here today.

The contest was open to students of classes VIII to XII. The themes were patriotism, nature and mother.

The results, in the order of merit are —

English (Category A): Manonit Kaur; Arshdeep Kaur.

English (Category B): Aditya Goel, Puneet Singh, Suchreet Kaur and Sapna Prabhu.

Punjabi (Category A): Parvinder Singh, Sunit.

Punjabi (Category B): Harpreet Kaur, Priobrata.

Question paper distributed late
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 14
A number of students who took the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination at Kendriya Vidyalya, Sector 29, here on May 11 have also complained that the mathematics question paper was distributed late at their centre, leading to a loss of about 25 minutes.

Earlier, the students who took this examination at Government Model Senior Secondary School in Sector 22-A as well as from another centre had made a similar complaint.

The students said they could not attempt many questions because of the paucity of time. They said the CBSE, which conducted the examination, should give them grace marks.

Notice on Garg’s bail application
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, May 14
Acting on a bail application moved by N.K. Garg, Chartered Accountant who had been arrested by the UT police in a scam relating to income tax returns on the basis of forged TDS certificates, a local court has issued notice to the state to file reply in the case till May 19.

Garg’s counsel pleaded that he had been in police custody for more than 100 days and the UT police had filed an incomplete challan against him. Therefore, he deserved the concessions of the bail.

According to the police Garg had opened 74 bank accounts in various banks on false pretexts and was involved in a scam relating to income tax returns on the basis of the forged TDS certificates. 

CULTURE

Showcasing cultural legacy of Chhattisgarh
Tribune News Service

A woman from Chhattisgarh shows her creations at an exhibition of handicrafts and handloom, ‘Shabari’, being held at Lajpat Rai Bhavan in Chandigarh on Wednesday. — A Tribune photograph

Frequent references to local mythology, rituals, religion, and folklore in the exquisite shape and form of the handicraft reflect the cultural legacy of the people that craft them. On display at the exhibition are products created by artisans from Baster, Kondagaon, Nagamar, and Raigarh. The exhibition will go on till May 19.

Parmita’s road to stardom
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 14
Parmita Katkar is suddenly going international. On a winning spree ever since she entered the Femina Miss India pageant in 2003, this Bangalore girl has been busy gathering credits.

Apart from representing India in the forthcoming Miss Asia Pacific contest, Parmita will also project the new face of Indian cinema at the Canne’s Film Festival, where her film ‘Supari’ has been nominated from the Indian film section this year. The achievement becomes phenomenal when compared with ‘Devdas’ — the celebrated Indian movie that made it straight to Canne’s last year. Somewhere in the scheme of things, Parmita also wants to make space for another passion. “I want to be a sports journalist someday. I would write on anything but cricket because, I feel cricket is over hyped,” said the model-turned actress who was in the city today to award certificates of merit to some students of the National Institute of Fashion Design (NIFD).

Meanwhile, with praise reserved for Supari, Parmita is finding life challenging. Today she talked about the road to stardom, which has, so far, been smooth for her. “I have been very fortunate with career options. Modelling came by chance, so did films,” said the business management graduate from the famous Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, which has written history by producing the maximum number of beauty queens in India. Interestingly, former Miss Universe, Lara Dutta is also an alumni of the same institution.

When asked if her success had something to do with her academic grounding, Parmita began listing the points that add punch to the institution. “It may also be purely coincidental, but I must say that Mount Carmel, as an institution, knows what works best for its students. We had a diverse group pursuing various disciplines at the college. Most of the girls have made it to the zenith of their respective professions. I was a national athlete, a swimmer and later a journalist writing for some publications. I must say that I had come to Mumbai to specialise in journalism. I was late for the admission and there was no point in going back. I stayed back to became a model and then an actress.”

Parmita’s very first commercial was Videocon, opposite the dashing Shah Rukh Khan. What followed was a string of prestigious campaigns like Toyota Qualis, Mc Dowells, Maaza, Horlicks, Dabur Hajmola. Parmita’s first film offer came through a friend in Bangalore, who was doing casting for ‘Bas yu hi’, which also featured Nandita Das. Recalls Parmita, “I was selected without any hassles. I did not have to go looking for films,. They came to me. After ‘Bas yu hi’ and ‘Inteqam’, ‘Supari’ has come as a whiff of fresh air. In this film, which stars Uday Chopra and three women in the lead, I managed a performance-based role. I also had an edge because I knew dancing and had done a little bit of stage in the College. The film is fabulous as far as story line and thematic content goes. I am waiting for the big release,” said Parmita, who also has the Miss Asia Pacific contest on her mind.

“The training is yet to start, but I am already working on stress management, besides catching up with news and fiction,” Parmita said. Earlier during the day, Ms Priyanka Singh, Centre Head, NIFD, presented a special memento to the visiting guest.

Stamps in honour of singing legends
Manoj Kumar
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 14
In an era of e-mails and SMS, the Department of Posts is making efforts to revive its lost glory by associating with legendary singers — Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Mohammad Rafi and Hemant Kumar. By releasing stamps in their honour, say officials, they are trying to encourage their fans to use the service, besides promoting their music.

To honour these legendary golden voices of yesteryears, the Department of Posts is releasing a commemorative set up of postage stamps in the denominations of Rs 5 each tomorrow.

These stamps would be available at the Philatelic Bureau of General Postal Office.

The department has printed eight lakh stamps in four colours to honour these great heroes of Indian music.

Though many trusts and societies have been set up in the country to keep their memorable voice intact, yet most of the music companies have brought out remixed versions of their music, only the encash on their music, alleged Ms Sangita, a fan of Kishore Kumar.

Postal Department officials claimed that these stamps would help the young generation to remember their contribution to the film music.

They pointed out that as part of the countrywide move to revive the Indian music, they also wanted to make a small contribution.

Another senior official of the department felt that though the trend of writing letters was on decline, but whenever a youngster would put a stamp of Mukesh on a ‘love letter,’ it may remind him,‘‘ Dil Jalta hai to jalne de....’’ a song sung by Mukesh for Pahli Nazar (1945).

The department has also honoured Mohammed Rafi (1924-1980), who rose to prominence with Baiju Bawara’s ‘‘Tu Ganga ki mauj, mai Jamuna ki dhara....’’ in early 50s and became favourite of millions of music lovers throughout the country.

Appreciating the efforts of the department, Mr Mahinder Kumar, a businessman, said, ‘‘It should also improve its delivery service and do not force the public to sing ‘ Kya hua tera vaada.....,’ another song of Rafi.’’

At a time when fast service of e-mails and SMS is making a dent in the urban areas, the stamp on Hemant Kumar may encourage some lovers of the Postal Department to think,‘‘ Man dole mera tan dole.....’ the evergreen song of Hemant sung during the golden era of Hindi film music and to try again its service, said a postman, Anil Kumar.

‘Mission Akshardham’ screened
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 14
The governor of Haryana, Babu Parmanand, was the chief guest at the screening of ‘Mission Akshardham’ — a telefilm made by Zee News that narrates the conspiracy behind the premeditated attack on one of the largest temples in the country with the intention of destabilising India.

According to Mr L.N. Goel, Director, News group, the telefilm is a part of the channel’s contribution to the ongoing fight against terrorism. The film “Mission Akshardham” is a concerted effort to present the truth before the people of India, so as to how the ISI’s top brass conspired and misguided young minds into following the path of terrorism. This film is a real story of how these young people are driven and trained for such a merciless mission. “Mission Akshardham”, a 40-minute telefilm produced by Zee News is an attempt to recapture the attack that took place on September 24, 2002, when militants attacked the famous Akshardham temple at Gandhinagar in Gujarat killing the innocent people.

The film has been shot in Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat to recreate an original ambience. Zee News has also used the actual white ambassador car in the film, which was hired by the terrorists for the attack. The cast of the film includes Bollywood and well-known theatre personalities like Sunil Sinha, Shyam Pathak and others.

Zee News Principal Correspondent and director of the film Naveen Kumar who was working on this investigative piece managed to uncover details like the money paid to the terrorists for the act, kind of training which was given to the terrorists, actual names and ranks of the ISI officers involved, how the automatic weapons were smuggled into Ahmedabad, where the weapons were hidden before the final day of the attack, the local network which colluded and from where they picked up essential supplies before heading towards the temple. Naveen Kumar has earlier investigated and developed the concept for “13 December” the telefilm reconstructing the conspiracy behind the attack on Parliament, which was also produced by Zee News.