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Fashion show, message wall mark
SJOBA bash
Chandigarh, December 25 The model list was good enough to be flaunted. It featured Sunaina Tandon, Ms India finalist 2003, Himani, Ms India finalist 2004, Amanpreet Wahi, Gladrags second runner-up, 2004, Sahiba Singh, Ritu Singh, Kamal, Jayshree and Angela Sharma. Another “first” at the SJOBA winter ball was the hi-tech laser show, structured to recall the making of the association over the past 25 years. Laced with special effects, the show led everyone down the memory lane, helping them learn about the achievements of the association as well as the ball’s sponsor Airtel. Amidst thunderous applause, all former SJOBA presidents marched past the ramp, adding a touch of history to the otherwise glamorous event. Another highlight of the show was the special Airtel-SJOBA mobile card which was launched by Mr Vinod Sawhny, CEO and Director-Mobility. This co-branded card offers special benefits to SJOBA members. Close to 15,000 persons thronged the venue, dressed to dance and impress. As the crème-de-la-creme of Chandigarh danced the chill away, DJ Bhanu’s pulsating techno music kept the moods alive. Special effects complete with UV lighting, lasers and pyro-techniques made the show a bit too glitzy. In another corner, a love band catered to the guests who believed in what is called ‘instant music’. The genre on play was foot-tapping rock ‘n’ roll and pop music. Nostalgia was naturally palpable throughout the celebrations that had the old boys meet the new, as if handing down a legacy. There was a lot of back-thumping as old boys remembered the days gone by and exchanged notes on how their lives were changing and shaping for better or worse. Amused wives looked on as they saw their husbands let go of care. For once! Roving camera crews had also been called in to capture the razzmtazz as well as the emotional moments which were being screened live on the huge projection screens installed in the campus. Not to miss the fireworks display that left everyone dazzled, even while the massive Airtel message wall was almost filled by the time the show ended. Earlier during the day, a treasure hunt marked the SJOBA winter
festival.
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SJOBA goes on treasure hunt
Chandigarh, December 25 The second position went to Mr Anurag Aggarwal and his team, while the third position was grabbed by Mr Akshay Verma and his team. It all started at about 10 am. Eager to zip down the road leading to fame, the young old students reached the school campus in their four-wheelers for a briefing. Cold winter breeze, piercing through the thick jackets, failed to freeze the thrill as they stood there in rapt attention, listening to the instructions. As always, they were told that the treasure hunt would offer them a chance to test their knowledge about Chandigarh and to know how familiar they were with its facets. They were also told that the event would test their skill at deciphering the clues, and at times grasp the English language. Use of alcohol, narcotics or any other performance-enhancing drug prior to the commencement of the event was strictly banned. The convoy of about 130 cars with numbers printed in bold letters was flagged off by Chandigarh’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Inderjit Singh Sandhu at about 10.30 am. In fact, he read out the fist clue. Armed with it, team captains — essentially former students of the school — along with three other associates, hopped into their cars before beginning their unknown journey towards known destination. The clues were confusing, as expected. No wonder, the participants scratched their heads with tired fingers trying to decipher them. The absence of life lines made the job all the more difficult. Some drove in vain on road leading to Sukhna Lake, others rushed towards the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research. A few patrolled the Madhya Marg in search of hope. Though prohibited, mobiles were used extensively by some groping in broad daylight. The first clue took the young enthusiasts to the traffic lines in Sector 29. Another led them to the Open Hand monument behind the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Also to Sip and Dine restaurant, besides the Indian Coffee House in Sector 17. Eight snaps of Lord Krishna took them to Gopal Sweets. In all, there were 16 destinations, most of the participants were able to reach 12 in the race against time.
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Ugandan High Commissioner visits PU
Chandigarh, December 25 Mr Charles said till the year 2000, around one million students used to seek admission every year to Indian universities. Now, they were focusing their attention on architecture, engineering, textile and fashion designing, information technology, economics, commerce and medicine, he said. The High Commissioner added that a majority of the top-ranking Ugandans in every walk of life have had their education from Panjab University and some other leading universities in India. Earlier, Prof Paramjit Singh, Registrar, briefed the High Commissioner about the facilities available on the campus. He said at present there were 91 foreign students studying in Chandigarh, of which 39 were studying at PU. Giving a brief history of the university, Prof Paramjit Singh explained that Panjab University was one of the oldest globally known universities and ranked among the top seven universities in the country. The university had more than 50 teaching departments from 11 faculties, he added. “The UGC had conferred the five-star plus status on it and it had the maximum centres of advanced studies among universities,” he stated. Dr Shashi Sharma, Dean Foreign students, said every department had a provision for admission for foreign students. The university could accommodate up to 20 per cent foreign students in every department. Mr S.K. Sharma, Secretary to Vice-Chancellor, said the fee structure for foreign students was the lowest among universities. During his visit, the High Commissioner was escorted by Mr J.S. Ahluwalia, vice-president of the WWICS and former Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, and Mr Kulwant Singh Tiwana, Manager, WWICS, and was received by Dr Paramjit Singh, Registrar, Prof J.K. Gupta, Dean University Instruction; Prof Nirmal Singh, Dean Student Welfare; Dr Shashi Sharma, Dean Foreign Students, and Mr S.K. Sharma, Secretary to Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University.
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Centre on Sikhism studies in the offing
Mohali, December 25 The construction work at the site started today following an inauguration by the Members of Parliament, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal and Mr Sukhdev Singh Libra. The five-floor complex would house special rooms for the research scholars, a library, computers and various communication facilities. The complex would be spread over 2.5 acres of land and has been designed by the Chandigarh-based Bachitter architects. "The complex would be a study centre providing research facilities and house seminar halls. It would offer a common platform to those making Sikhism-related studies," said the Khalsa College Managing Committee members. In the second phase of the construction, the complex would include the living quarters for the researchers from abroad.
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Book exhibition on Sikh history
Mohali, December 25 A special exhibition of books on history of
Sikhs and Sikhism is currently on at the library in the wake of the 300 years of the
martyrdom of the Sahibzadas of Guru Gobind Singh. More than 400 titles on the subject have been displayed by the library. “Some of these are rare works, not easily available in other libraries.
Visitors are coming to us to go through the commentary of the Kartarpuri bir by Bhai Jodh Singh. Other than this, we have commentaries on Dasham Granth, the
English translation of the Zafarnama by Guru Gobind Singh,” said Ms Jaswinder Kaur, Librarian. The exhibition began on December 20 and will continue till December 31. Visitors can come to see and read books on display from 9 am to 7 pm. The exhibition also includes brief biographies of the 10 Gurus of the Sikhs for children to read. Other than these, books like “Panth Prakash”, an encyclopaedia on Sikhism, the Sanskrit translation of Japji Sahib and the latest works on Sikh history are also on display.
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40 women rewarded at education camp
Mohali, December 25 The camp, organised at Kambali village, was inaugurated on December 22 by Mr Tiroki Nath Sharma, president of the organisation. Mr Gursewak Singh, Education Officer of the Board, rewarded 40 women who had participated in various self-employment, education and environmental education projects.
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Part-timer teachers seek better salary
Chandigarh, December 25 The teachers, deputed as the guest faculty, were taking three classes every day, including theory and practical. The regular teachers of the vocational subjects were also putting an equal amount of teaching hours but were being paid much more. The part-timers, on the condition of anonymity, said the department had increased the wages from Rs 1500 per month to Rs 3600 per month in December 2003 after the issue of low wages was raised at various forums. In Delhi, the part-timers were being paid Rs 5800 a month, claimed a teacher. “since vocational education has become a part of the mainstream subjects in the government schools and the Central Government is funding the promotion of the vocational education, those teaching such subjects should also be taken care off”, said a part-timer. Inquiries reveal that in the advertisements given for the part-time teachers, it is stated that the services of self-employed professionals/retired/working and having rich experience with adequate communication skills were required. The minimum qualification or the experience required is mentioned nowhere. There were around 50 part-timers who were taking classes in different vocational subjects in various schools. When the department was paying Rs 1500 per month, the part-timers were supposed to take two classes every day. But when the monthly wages were increased to Rs 3600, the part-timers were asked to take three periods per day.
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Head Constable gets police remand
Chandigarh, December 25 According to information, the CBI also raided the house of a member of the District Bar Association (DBA), Mr Sunil Kumar, at Surajpur in Panchkula district, in connection with the case late Wednesday night. Bhim Sen had allegedly promised to refer a court case to Mr Sunil Kumar.
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Film Review
Renowned Bengali film-maker Rituparno Ghosh’s Hindi debut, ‘Raincoat’, is tragic in more ways than one. It begins with a whimper, but ends with a bang. It gives you enough simmering content but no salvation. Like its main player, Manu (Ajay Devgan) who borrows a raincoat from his host to meet his former beloved who married a rich man,leaving him broken-hearted.
Their meeting in a dimly-lit room forms the essence of the film. Moving at a snail’s pace, the story does not build up till
interval. As the two former lovers exchange lies to hide their bleak present, the flick is entirely robbed of entertainment value. Ghosh’s attempt to explore the relationship is lacklustre. His love crescent has depth but is not
touching. Inspired by O’ Henry, his dialogues are very natural, very precise. Watch it if you must for Aishwarya Rai’s notable performance .A de-glamourised Aishwarya is sparkling in the sense that she manages to ignite the screen. Her dialogue delivery here shows remarkable improvement. She has given good face expressions and her constant chattering is the only spice here. Her depth of sacrifice , her steel-gritted pride comes out well. Post-interval, she successfully heightens the pain of a women who is clueless about her fate. Ajay Devgan as a man who has gone to meet his beloved after six years of her marriage, is the silent and skilful player. His face fully reflects the depressed ambience which Ghosh is trying to create with vivid emotions. Shubha Moudgil’s golden voice in the background lends a mystical
aura. It blends well into the rain-marred streets of Kolkata which seems to be poking fun at his poverty. As the two lovers set apart by a timeframe tell lie and assure each other, it becomes clear that the director’s zeal to infuse vigour has failed. ‘Raincoat’ ends where most of the loves stories would have
begun. The gloom in the air never lifts . It stimulates you for a while but does not leave any
impact. TNS |
Best Punjabi anchor at 22
Navjot Noor, a 22-year-old Punjabi artiste, has brought laurels to this subdivisional town of Patiala district by bagging the best Punjabi Anchor Award-2004 besides over six other awards and certificates of merit.
Noor was honoured with the prestigious award at a function organised by the Mohammed Rafi Society, Amritsar, on September 12. A meritorious student, Noor completed her schooling from Jalandhar and graduation from Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar. Her hobby for writing poems and perform on stage bore fruit when she got a chance to prove herself. A private producer introduced her as an anchor for a stage show ‘Kaun Dilan Diyan Jaane’ in Jalandhar one-and-a-half years ago. Noor was a student of BA-II year then. Impressed by her performance and confidence in facing the camera, Delhi Doordarshan, Jalandhar, a TV
channel, offered her the job of an anchor for its programmes, “Aamne Saamne” and “Chitra Geet”. She was
appreciated by the audience for her anchoring for ‘Nacchan mein Ludhiane’, a function organised at Ludhiana on the New Year’s bash in 2003. The ETC Punjabi channel selected her for the anchoring of a Punjabi mela held in New Delhi in 2004. Currently, the Alfa-Punjabi channel has been airing a
programme ‘Pyar Naal’ with Noor as a host anchor. In an interview with The Tribune,
Noor gives credit to Surinder Laddi, Ravi Arora and Gurmeet Singh, known Punjabi artistes, for her success for providing her an opportunity in ETC Punjabi. “This could happen because of the cooperation from my in-laws and Gagan Preet Singh, my husband,” she said. At present Noor, a mother of a one-and-half-year-old son is residing in Dera Bassi along with her family. Though offers to anchor various cultural functions have been pouring in, she wants to act in some Punjabi TV serial.
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2004: IN
RETROSPECT
The bygone year might be history, but it is fortunate to have made some too. For ages to come, 2004 will remain well entrenched in the imagination of this city as of the world that watched the Planet of Love make a transit, all to meet the Sun. The historic communion may well have set the tone for the year that was full of events inspired by art. Given the frequency with which celebrated film makers from Yash Chopra and Sanjay Leela Bhansali to Anil Sharma headed northwards, Chandigarh can well stake its claim as a film city, next only to Mumbai. It is still revelling in the fact that Amitabh Bachchan was here for over a month shooting both for Sharma’s “Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon” and Yash Chopra’s “Veer-Zaara”. In fact, so smitten was Yash Chopra by the greens of Punjab that these finalised his dream location the moment someone took him around Hoshiarpur’s lush green farms that one sees in plenty in “Veer-Zaara”. Thanks to the film maker’s rekindled interest in Punjab, actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta passed through Chandigarh and also graced autograph diaries of diehard fans. By default though, Hrithik Roshan also dropped by to open the Tomyhilfiger outlet in Sector 17. While film shoots progressed on one plane, on the other it was time for talent to bloom. For anyone aspiring to become anything in life, this was the right time. As talent hunts took over, thousands of youngsters lined up to audition, first for MTV Popstars, then for Zee TV’s, ‘Cine Stars ki Khoj’, then for Sony’s ‘Indian Idol Hunt’, and finally for Samsung’s ‘Superstar Hunt’. Among judges for the shows were the legendary N. Chandra, Anu Malik and Adnan Sami, to mention some. No one from the city, however, made it to the finals of any contest. A lot of shooting for the promos of ITC Champions Trophy also happened in Chandigarh this year, and for some strange reason Mandira Bedi, the host, played hard to get. She remained cocooned in Kapil Dev’s brand new hotel “Captain’s Retreat” which he opened this very season. Also in town was “Jassi” with her braces very much in place. If films occupied the centrestage, theatre was not too far behind. Some of the best plays ever made in India were staged at Tagore Theatre which also played host to several theatre festivals, including the National Theatre festival organised by the Haryana Public Relations and Cultural Affairs Department. September thus witnessed classic productions from the repertoire of legends like Habib Tanvir who brought “Charandas Chor” to Chandigarh; Dr Usha Ganguly’s “Kashinama”; S. Vasudev’s “Ek Aur Yudh”; and Sanjay Upadhyay’s “Mor Kataye Gelah”. “Rang Bhoomi” was another major presentation this season which also saw Anupam Kher bringing to town his autobiographical solo production, “Kuchh Bhi Ho Sakta Hai, directed by Firoz Khan. Punjabi theatre was also at its best with a full-fledged festival of Dr Gursharan Singh’s plays being staged this year. M.K. Raina brought his production based on the short stories by four eminent Punjabi writers, including Amrita Pritam. Amritsar’s Neeta Mohindra played the lead in this show, which found an equivalent in Rani Balbir Kaur’s “Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Hasin Sitam” based on the poetry of Kaifi Azmi. It goes to Rani’s credit that she managed to have among guests the entire Azmi family, including Shabana, Tanvi, Baba and Javed Akhtar. Among the finest presentations in theatre circuit was Neelam Mansingh’s “Sibo in Supermarket” which bared the pangs of displacement.
TNS
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Festival of plays on Dec 27
THE Suchetak Rangmanch Mohali will organise a festival of plays immortalised by the octogenarian thespian Gursharan Singh on December 27 and 28 at the Tagore Theatre, Chandigarh.
The festival will feature all those artistes who had been associated with the maestro during his theatre career, disclosed Anita Shabdeesh and Dilawar Sidhu , of the Suchetak rangmanch at a press conference held at Uttam Complex on Saturday. Noted playwright director Jatinder Brar will present a slide show on the life and achievements of Gursharn Singh. Two Punjabi plays “Sukhi Basse Maskiniya” and “Mein Phir Awanaga”, will be staged under the direction of Keerti Kirpal while another play, ‘Ghar Ghar’ directed by Pali Bhupinder will be presented on the concluding day. Gursharan Singh will also share his personal experiences with the audience, said Shabdeesh.
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Ru-Ba-Ru with Surjeet Kalsi
“The literary creations are images of crystallising reality transcending the vicissitudes of time and history” feels the Canada-based poetess Surjeet Kalsi. An academician with two postgraduate degrees, she also holds a master’s degree in creative writing as well as counselling psychology from a Canadian university. She is revered as a literary icon in the alien land with 11 books to her credit.
As many as six books of poetry, three each in English and Punjabi, dramas and
critical appreciation of the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Bhai Vir Singh speaks about her writing prowess. However, it was her endeavour to introduce fifty five Punjabi poets from India and other countries and Punjabi poetry to the Western readership with her classic venture, “Glimpses of the Twentieth Century Punjabi Poetry” which proved a landmark for the promotion of her “Ma boli”. A local literary society, Sahit Chitan, organised a function at the Pracheen Kala Kendra complex, Chandigarh, on Saturday to facilitate Surjeet Kalsi and mark the release of her eleventh book ‘Roam Roam bich jagde deeve’. The book, categorized in four parts, reveals her experiences concerning spiritual contemplations, relationships and technical view of Lord Buddha’s on meditation, all expressed in poetic flow. Sharing her literary voyage with the Chandigarh Tribune she disclosed that following the death of her parents, the loneliness inspired her to invent herself through writings when she was barely in her teens. Having early education at Amritsar, graduation at KMV Jalandhar and postgraduation in English and Punjabi got her a job with the All-India Radio. Her marriage to famous writer Ajmer Rode took her to Canada where she attempted fusion of the native tradition with that of the West in her transliteration works. It got her the job of Associate Editor of ‘Toronto South Asian Review’ journal. “As a professional therapist, I had the chance to come across many sordid realities of life which I have tried to translate into my writings. However, divergent views were expressed on her works during the “Ru-Ba-Ru” session in which writers of eminence, including Gursharan Singh, president, Sahit Chintan, former Punjab commissioner NPS Rattan, Atma Ram,Nirmal Dutt, Dr Joginder Luthra, Dr Surinder Gill and others. The Secretary, Sardara Singh Cheema participated in the proceedings.
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As far as star visitation goes, this year beat the last that witnessed a heavy star presence for J.P. Dutta’s “LOC”. In totality, 2004 was literally a year that rained stars in Chandigarh. Among those who came over was Amrish Puri who shot for “Shrimaan Chanakya” in Sector 8. Others included Raj Babbar, Juhi Chawla, Aryan Babbar, Gracy Singh, Kiron Kher, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Ronit Roy, Ila Arun, Rajit Kapoor, Sonu Sood, Adnan Sami and Anu Malik.