Chandigarh, June 3
Kriti Puri knows everything except staying out of news. A few days ago she came up trumps in the class XII results declared by the CBSE.

Some steps down the stream of time and she is flowing faster and farther still - this time as the region’s topper in the All- India CBSE PMT examination results declared yesterday. She was ranked seventh in the country.

But Kriti is not taking the leap, not as yet. She told The Tribune from Mumbai today, “I am awaiting two major results - of AIIMS and of Common Admission Test (CAT) for entry to IITs. I pursued both non- medical and medical streams. If I clear both, I will take up medical. I want to be a neurosurgeon.”

A class XII pass out from Bhavan Vidyalaya, Sector 27, Kriti is currently in Mumbai as part of the National Olympiad Squad. She is taking exams to qualify for the international science Olympiads in Biology and Chemistry, and is hopeful on that front too. Hope, after all, is the only factor besides diligence that drives this pretty young girl towards excellence.

If her selection in All India CBSE PMT is no news to some, here is some more — Kriti has cleared all the PMT and engineering entrance tests she has taken. She was rank 4 in Chandigarh Medical College examination, rank 2 in JIPMER, Pondicherry test, and state rank 33 in the All India Engineering Entrance Examination. But by far, her best achievement has been the one of which she learnt yesterday.

An achiever throughout, Kriti has been a classic blend of academic fineness and extra curricular brilliance. She has been a writer at 15 years of age (her fiction work “Kian” was published with much fanfare), a national level skater at an even younger age, a state level tennis player and an arangetram in bharatnaytam at just 14 years. There are many more latent talents which the girl has not had enough time to hone. “Once I get what I want, I will do much more,” she tells.

As Kriti goes about her days with smiles on the face and resilience in the heart, her parents - Dr G.D. Puri and Sunita Puri - follow her progress, keenly overseeing her strengths and weaknesses. Sunita Puri, an Indian Revenue Services officer, reared her daughter in a manner most unconventional. She encouraged her enough to do the “extraordinary” and trusted the consequent honing up of her skills.

In her efforts to chisel Kriti’s academic, artistic and sports capabilities, Sunita Puri received unstinted support from her better half. Dr G.D. Puri, a professor in anesthesia at PGI can’t but smile. He is too humble to admit he has any share in her daughter’s success.

But the mother is more forthcoming and vocal about why Kriti excelled, step by step, move by move. “She is exceptionally gifted, but I am sure her success has something to do wit the way she was brought up. We monitored her growth right from day one. She was a great reader, a brilliant student and a sports enthusiast. We just followed her instincts rather than asking her to follow ours.”

And that made all the difference!

Chandigarh, June 3
An in-service course for training of primary teachers was inaugurated at Kendriya Vidyalaya High Grounds here by the Chairman of the Vidyalaya Group Captain P.P. Khandekar here yesterday.

Addressing the participants, the chairman laid emphasis on strengthening of primary education as they could mould the children to become good citizens.

The principal of the school, Ms S.K. Bhatia, said during the 21-day course, the participants would be made aware of their responsibilities and their role in the society. She said the teachers had to fulfill the aspirations of the students, parents, society and the nation.

As many as 52 teachers of the Chandigarh region are participating in the programme. Ms Hem Lata, Ms C Ummatt, Ms Anita Pathak and Ms Neeraj have been deputed as the resource person.

Chandigarh, June 3
UT Home Secretary Krishna Mohan inaugurated a colourful crafts exhibition-cum-sale at the exhibition hall of Government Central Crafts Institute for Women, Sector 11-C.

The exhibition offered fascinating collection of stitched garments for men, ladies and kids and fridge covers with handles, embroidered linen, such as, embroidered bed sheets, pillow covers, aprons, cushions, napkins.

In the leather goods section, beautiful bags of various shapes, wall hangings, school bags and many other fancy items were put on display which attracted a large number of people.

Interestingly, all these items have been prepared by the students of this institute. The Exhibition Hall was beautifully decked up and display work was quite interesting and appealing. The Home Secretary took a round of the exhibition and highly appreciated the effort of the student and congratulated the staff for their hard work to make the students experts in this field.

This is indeed a powerful and successful effort in empowering the women to take up careers in crafts and earn valuable livelihood for the betterment of their families and for being independent earners which gives women a sense of satisfaction and pride.

A stall gave details of the course of Computer Operator & Programming Assistant of one year, which has commenced at this Institute last year.

Informative and beautiful charts depicted the job-avenues for COPA and Stenography trades and also gave the infrastructure and facilities available at this institute for these trades.

Mr Vivek Atray, Director, Technical Education and Information and Technology, UT, welcomed the chief guest and informed that a new course in the trade of Hair & Skin Care would be started at this institute from the coming session.

Rajan Dogra, Principal of the institute informed that the exhibition will remain open from June 3 to 5.

Chandigarh, June 3
Lately, national art akademies have been in the news for wrong reasons. Today they were again at the centre of a heated discussion among art representative from 11 north Indian states, who passed a controversial resolution demanding non-interference of the government in matters pertaining to culture, art and their promotion.

They called for complete autonomy of national culture organisations, closure of state cultural departments and involvement of NGOs in the field of art promotion.

Assembling under the aegis of Pracheen Kala Kendra, artistes debated on the futility of a non-transparent system of fund disbursement by akademies like Sangeet Natak Akademi. Complaining that most funds were pocketed by well connected institutions, they demanded autonomy insofar as the running of cultural organisations was concerned.

Autonomy, the gathering resolved, would prevent commercialisation of art, besides ensuring that deserving artistes received monetary encouragement in the form of scholarships. They also suggested that reputed NGOs from the country be handed over the task of culture promotion.

In a rare display of anguish, some people associated with state cultural departments spoke candidly about what ailed the system.

Mr. B.L. Bhardwaj from the Department of Culture and the Academy of Arts, languages and Culture, Himachal Pradesh, said: “The Department of Culture has a budget of Rs 40 lakh. The salary of its staff is also Rs 40 lakh. You can well imagine the kind of importance art commands in the region.”

It was a revelation that Himachal Pradesh was giving a paltry Rs 300 per month as pension to veteran artistes. Said Mr Bhardwaj, “That comes to Rs 10 a day. That’s what state cultural departments are doing for the sake of artistes. They should be wound up or revamped.”

Dr S.L. Sharma, a professor of music, reputed classical artistes Manu Kumar Seen, Jammu based poet S.S. Leher and former Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Akademi member Keshav Talegaonkar talked on similar lines, demanding credibility of art institutions.

Besides advocating autonomy of art and culture organisation, all artistes jointly resolved to boycott those performers who had reduced art to a commodity. Sunil Satpathy from Orissa, Thakur Chakrapani from Delhi, Shyamal Bhattacharya from West Bengal, Mr M.L. Koser from Chandigarh and Purushottam Patil from Maharashtra admitted in principle to discourage those who expected unreasonable monetary favours in lieu of a recital. Many among the delegates cited examples where the revered Indian classical artistes had demanded money even for gracing ceremonies held in their own honour.

In the light of this discussion, the artistes formed an All Indian Artistes’ Committee which has sent a representation to the President of India, demanding his urgent intervention in the matter.

Among the demands are - autonomy of national art akademies, closure of state cultural departments/zonal cultural centres and involvement of NGOs in the field of art promotion.

LEISURE

Remix singer with a mind of her own

“Like the Indian classical music the French music is sublime with an emotional appeal which nourishes the soul besides being governed by the rigid code of rhythmic specifications..” said Bruno Cohard leader of the ‘Images Quartette’, a French music band, in Chandigarh to perform on Saturday. The band would present the French classical and jazz clarinets ‘concert at the Makhan Shah Lobana Auditorium Sector 30- A on Saturday from 6.30 PM onwards under the aegis of the Alliance Francaise de Chandigarh, supported by the French Embassy.

Maestro Bruno Cohard expressed delight over the appreciation showered on its troupe during the nine performances in different cities of India.

He said, We are excited to enthrall elite music lovers of the city, the brain child of our very own legendary architect, Le Corbusier. Sharing the musical voyage of ‘Images Quartette’ having an International repute, the band was originally formed in 1990 but the present set of accomplished musicians specialising in Clarinet and similar wind instruments was just five-year-old. These five are trained musicians in the classical tradition from the school of western classical music.

Hailing their first musical tour in India as a landmark, bass clarinet player Bruno and Francois Chamhert, who plays clarinet, flutes and saxophone, said that the special theme of their Indian tour was dedicated to the ‘colours’ the spectrum of emotions.

The troupe chose to play the classical and jazz compositions of the great maestros. They were in the process of releasing an album of their own compositions soon. There was a fair amount of patronage from the government and organisations to promote the musical arts. Vincent Lauret, bands youngest small clarinet player and Arnaud Pair claimed ‘the clarinet’ playing was indeed a tough and challenging and the accordion and piano were more popular choice. But Jean Benerad would be content articulating the melody meter of four clarinets on his drums tomorrow.

The troupe members will to interact with the local musicians and music lovers on Saturday at the Makhan Shah Lobana auditorium from 10 a.m. Interested may contact at phone no. 98881-43700. OC

Padamshri Vijay Tendulakar had cultivated the art of exposing the evils rampant in the society through the powerful medium of theatre in a lucid style of his own which had enabled him to score an edge over his compatriots.

His writings, blazing with satire exude didacticism, inspiring many for self introspection. Revering his works and obsessed with the urge to stage only the plays of Vijay Tendulkar, the ace director and actor Rajinder Sharma presented yet another play ‘Baby’ from the pen of Vijay Tendulkar. Staged under the aegis of the ‘Art and Act Academy’ in association with the department of Public Relations and Cultural Affairs at the Tagore Theatre today, the play juxtaposes the male hegemony ruling the roost in the society.

The protagonist ‘Baby’ represents the character of a young ambitious girl always in a scintillating reverie. An influential filmi goonda, Shivapa, exploits her to the extent of living a parasitic life on her earnings. Finding her brother Raghav to be an obstacle, Shivappa manages to send him to an asylam as an insane. The dreams and ugly motifs of Bollywood world too are brought alive by the film director Karve.

Rajinder Sharma had employed all his life long theatrical expertise to make the complex play memorable for his academy.

The intricate role of ‘Baby’ is by no means a small achievement. The best set of versatile actors Sachin Sharma, Yogesh Arora and Gaurav Sharma had induced life into the production which, however, needed to be edited for the lengthy sequences, at times looking mechanical and monotonous. Light effects by Parvin jaggi and make-up by Parvesh Sethi augmented the performance level. OC