PU counselling continues
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 6
On the third day of the counselling for admissions to bachelor of engineering, B.Sc. (honours school) and B. Pharmacy being conducted by Panjab University, candidates in the general category ranked till 600 were interviewed today.

All seats in the ‘general category’ in the disciplines of B. Pharmacy (last rank 361), BE (chemical) (last rank 455), BE(microelectronics) (428) and B.Sc. honours school in biochemistry (293), biotechnology (135) and microbiology (262) were filled on the first day of counselling.

The counselling session concludes on July 8. Some vacant seats are left in BE (food technology), BE (biotechnology, software engineering, telecommunication and information technology) and B.Sc. honours school in anthropology, bio-physics, botany, chemistry, computer science and geology, mathematics, mathematics and computing, physics and zoology will be filled on July 7 and 8.

Admissions under the foreign nationals, NRI and NRI-sponsored categories are scheduled for July 9.

Check graft, Governor tells engineers
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, July 6
The Haryana Governor, Babu Parmanand, has urged the engineers to transform India into a developed nation by 202, by creating and strengthening infrastructure like roads, schools, health institutions and power, especially in the rural areas.

The Governor was speaking at the second anniversary celebrations of the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (TIET) Alumini Association, Panchkula chapter, here today.

Babu Parmanand also urged the engineers to check corruption in the development works. He said we must learn lessons from our rich cultural heritage which lays stress on truth and non-violence. It should be the religion of every person to be punctual and perform one’s duty. He also advocated providing universal education to every child in the country.

The Director of the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, Dr. S.C. Saxena, also lauded the role being played by engineers in the gigantic task of nation-building. Among others who were present were Mr F. Lal Kansal, president of the Panchkula chapter of the TIET, and Mr S.L. Garg, Finance Secretary, TIET, who presented Rs 50,000 towards the TIET corpus fund for an Alumini House.

The Governor gave away mementoes and prizes to engineers for their outstanding performance in various social activities.

He also distributed artificial limbs, appliances, tool kits, school bags and Braille papers to the disabled and poor students of different schools.

HAMARA SCHOOL
For schools, it is back to the business of daily grind
Geetanjali Gayatri

The curtains have come down on the summer workshops in the city with the reopening of government schools after the much-awaited summer break is over. Most of the private schools are scheduled to open next week.

Children have fun on their way to school. An extra class in progress at a government school.

While students are hurrying up with their holiday homework and assignments, revising their syllabus and getting their books ready for the post-vacation period, schools, too, are busy setting their house in order.

Painting and white-washing is in full swing in schools with school managements gearing up to welcome the children back to their classes. The last round of scrubbing floors, cleaning and painting blackboards, repair of broken furniture is being carried out."Carpeting of a road is in progress to join the main building and the junior block. We are hurrying up with the project to ensure classes are not disrupted when school reopens. Besides, a lot of repair work is going on which is likely to take a couple of days more," said Sister Elsy, Principal of Sacred Heart School. At St Anne's, Sister Rose said that the school was busy developing a school management software which would shortly be operational.

The KB DAV Centenary Public School in Sector 7 utilised the vacation period to air-condition the science laboratories.

Meanwhile, school children are busy packing their bags to get back to school. and looking forward to meeting friends and attending classes. Says St John's boy Divir Gupta,"I am tired of sitting at home. Though I look forward to the vacation eagerly, after a couple of weeks the longing to attend school. Also, I want to tell my friends of the places I have visited during the vacation, all about my trekking and find out their experience."

A Class IV student of Yadvindra Public School, Vikhyat, wants to go back to school to be able to exchange notes with his friends."We have been away too long. Though we have kept in touch over the phone, it's just not the same as meeting each other. In school, time between two periods gives ample opportunity to catch up on the latest," he adds.

Meanwhile, the campuses of government schools are buzzing with activity. It is already back to books and the initial euphoria of meeting friends and teachers is over. All government schools reopened on July 2 after a month-long break and students are, now, getting ready for their house tests.

"The break never seemed to have begun with one month being hardly any vacation especially since we are loaded with homework and the fear of examinations looms large," says Harjit Singh of a government school in Sector 20.

For those students promoted to classes which would take their Board examinations, schools never did close down. “The school managements organised special extra classes. This was done with a view to finish the syllabi as early as possible. This would enable a number of revisions before we finally take the examinations. Not only will it improve the overall school results but directly have a bearing on our result,”says Hitesh Dhiman of KB DAV Centenary Public School, Sector 7.

Admission season gets underway in government schools

Attending school might be a monotonous affair for those who have been promoted to the next class. However, for those who appeared in the Class X Board examinations, the going is tough with the battle for a seat in a course and school of their choice just having begun.

Students queue up for admissions at GMSSS-23.

Admission season is in full swing in the government schools of the city, the process beginning on July 2 and slated to continue till July 17. The centralised admission system for Class XI of government schools, introduced five years back, began smoothly with the UT Education department announcing the admission schedule with "manageable" numbers being called in everyday.

At the venue, GMSSS-23, parents and students await their turn with bated breath as seats in the Science stream of the top schools are being lapped up quickly. Clearly the favourite among the four streams of Science, Commerce, Humanities and Vocational education, seats in the coveted government schools of Sector 16, 35 and 33 were over on the first day itself.

The scene at the school each morning is the same: anxious parents and students begin queuing up well before time. Then begins the endless wait outside the main building for an announcement of percentages, the passport for entry into the building. Once inside, it takes only 10 minutes to be admitted. The student is handed over his form with choice of subjects and option of school and depending upon availability of seats, he is given admission.

All private schools are over with their admissions to Class XI, most preferring to promote their own students to the next class rather than making admissions a grand affair. In these schools, extra classes for Class XI and XII were held during the summer vacation to give maximum time to students for preparation and revision.

With the vacation period behind them and admissions almost through, its time to get down to the business of studies.

SCHOOL WORLD
Nuggets on vedic mathematics

Welcome to the wonderful world of Vedic mathematics. A science lost due to the advent of modern mathematics. Vedic mathematics - a gift given to this world by the ancient sages of India. A system which is far more simpler and enjoyable than modern mathematics.

*Dr (Mrs) Madhu Chitkara, ex-senior lecturer, Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector 36-B & Best Teacher State awardee, 1987

DAILY NEWS QUIZ
How well do you read The Tribune?

Answers to the following questions are hidden in the last one weeks’

Your entries should reach us by email at contest@tribuneindia.com by July 11, 2003

Answers to last week quiz:1. Brijesh Takkar 2.China 3. Hong Kong 4. World Health Organisation

Correct entries sent by: Rohan, Sanam, Priyesh, Birinder, Gagandeep, Prerna, Tarika Ankush, Naaz, Shahrukh, Danush, Akash, Harpreet, Divya, Puneet, Rushil, Rabhas, Aakriti, Hiumanshu, Munish, Pavan, Nitin.

TRICKY CROSSWORD-20
Hi Kids! check out your vocabulary with this

Across 1 Division of a poem or song that also means adapted suitably (3) - 4 To collect in plenty (5) - 9 A flightless Australian bird (3) - 10 The social setting for this one (6) - 12 Salts of Epsom (5,5) - 14 A small slaty bird at the Sukhna and other local waterbodies (4) - 15 An implement for hoeing (3) - 16 To exchange is not allowed in some shops (4) - 18 To rub harshly (5) - 20 Uncontrolled tremor of the body (5) - 22 Direction away from in [pl.] (4) - 23 In time that has passed by (3) - 24 A chatter that lacks worth or basis (4) - 26 The US did this with Pakistan in the hope of getting at Osama (10) - 30 To prepare and store fodder for silage (6) - 31 A small approximate umber of indicated things (3) - 32 Of the colour of sad (5) - 33 An poetic way of writing even (3).

Down 1 Amount paid for some service (3) - 2 A small demon, sometimes a child too (3) - 3 A town name anagrammatic with 'actual so-so' (10) - 4 Ammunition (4) - 5 Water in the form of small particles obscuring vision [pl.] (5) - 6 A wing like part (3) - 7 Etienne's ephemeral tenure as the French Controller General of Finance in 1767 gave artists this word for a dark image on a light background (10) - 8 Turn out (3-3) - 11 Those who use [pl.] (5) - 13 An expression of dismay and surprise (4) - 16 Out there where air does not exist (5) - 17 Four wheel transport vehicles (6) - 19 Common to campa, pepsi and coca (4) - 21 To give away, relinquish (5) - 25 A variant of dray (4) - 27 Thin piece of metal used to hold sheaves together (3) - 28 Mother to a lamb (3) - 29 To put on but in Bihar it is dangerous (3).

Solution to last week’s crossword:

Across: 1 Marc, 5 Avows, 10 Ilea, 11 Repro, 12 Spar, 13 Grays, 14 Disloyal, 16 Insoul, 17 Ecu, 20 Dee, 21 Tensor, 23 Massacre, 25 Rabbi, 27 Rent, 28 Oiled, 29 Knee, 30 Clyde, 31 Star. Down: 1 Misdid, 2 Alpine, 3 Reassembly, 4 Carlo, 5 Argyles, 6 Vera, 7 Opalescent, 8 Wry, 9 Sos, 15 Outside, 18 Cornea, 19 Ureter, 22 Narks, 24 Abed, 25 Roc, 26 Ail.

© Dr. M . Rajivlochan

CULTURE

Dissecting the corporate world with words
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 6
Had it not been for words and for the power to portray them, so many of the our world’s realities would have remained confined to their respective places of occurrence. Just as the one which has been brilliantly portrayed by Anurag Mathur in his novel — “Scenes from an Executive Life”.

It was not without reason that the celebrated theatre director Mohan Maharishi picked up Anurag Mathur’s theme and translated it in the language of theatre for making the inaugural show of Spice theatre festival meaningful. The first show of Mohan Maharishi’s play “Saanp Seedhi”, based on Anurag Mathur’s work, was held this evening in the mini auditorium of DAV College in Sector 10.

But for the venue, everything else was perfectly placed for the evening. The story, the setting, the dialogues and the characters — all fitted into the potent script well enough to cast a spell on the limited audience. The story, as is clear from the title of the novel, attempts a literal dissection of the corporate world, where stakes are too high and ethics too low in the priority list. The story begins and ends perfectly — picking along the line all those sequences which any brilliant corporate executive must go through during the course of his professional journey.

The play, written and directed by Maharishi, was all about baring the bitterness that virtually defines the corporate worlds and its ways. Rohit Batra in the role of the protagonist manages to impress the audience. Despite his sometimes immoral leanings, the protagonist has complete sympathy of the audience, who remain trapped in the progress of the story. Permanently in the line of fire for his ability to turn the tide in his favour, the central character named Gambhir is shown facing the crests and troughs, both in professional and personal life. Along with portraying the dirt that rules the corporate sector, where the talented is invariable sinned against, the play also irks the viewer at a moral level. It shows how marriage has been reduced to an institution of convenience and how partners, bound by a divine law, throw the same law away at every drop of the hat.

Jaspal Deol in the role of the protagonist’s wife is good, but for her unclear diction, Jainendra as an insecure boss, intensively lobbying against Gambhir, is impressive, Tahira Kashyap easily brings home the relevance of her character in the play. She plays a marketing trainee, planted in the company to embroil Gambhir in a sex scandal. With her easy dialogue delivery and her concentrated effort to lend credibility to the character, she contributes well to add meaning to the issue.

Finally, the play is all about well-connected sequences which uncover the sleaze of private and professional life. It is also about how in the contemporary corporate sector, talent is seen more as a vice than a virtue.

The play, which is Spice’s attempt to bring culture home to its subscribers, will also be staged in Patiala (July 23), Ludhiana (July 25), Jalandhar (July 27) and Amritsar (July 29). The final show will be in Chandigarh on August 1.

Hans was amazed by the deft movements of the famous magician. “It’s amazing”, he said, adding that “I wouldn’t be able to do it in a million years. How did he manage to change that paper into a Rs.500 note?”

Ayodhyapati Dass Prabhu remembered

Chandigarh, July 6
The local unit of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) organised a function in memory of Ayodhyapati Dass Prabhu at Hare Krishna Dham, Sector 36-B, here today. Hundreds of devotees thronged the temple on the occasion.

In the death of Ayodhyapati Dass Prabhu, the ISKCON movement has lost a luminary and an untiring ambassador of spiritualism, said Bhakti Vinod Das Prabhu, president of the local chapter of ISKCON. Ayodhyapati Das Prabhu did a lot for ISKCON devotees in general and Panchkula residents in particular by enlightening them with the message of Bhagwadgita. TNS