Chandigarh, July 20
Nearly 50 students of Panjab University have not been refunded their admission fee more than a year after they applied for the same. The students had secured admission in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Food Technology in 2004. Most of them had left following admission in other educational institutes. The sum amounts to Rs 7, 000 each. During the time of their admission to the department, they had to pay society fee of Rs 7,000 each along with the admission fee of Rs 7, 320. The students are demanding the society fee which was refundable.

At least six students have complained to the Vice-Chancellor and the Dean University Instructions. However, no action has been initiated yet. The complainants include Varun Garg, Parwinder Singh, Jatin Bhanot, Abhishek Sharma, Abhinav Midda and Vivek Sharma They have been running from pillar to post for nearly 11 months to get back their refund. They said that there were 45 students admitted in the course.

They have written to the Dean University Instructions and to the Vice- Chancellor after making several rounds to the office of the chairman of the Chemical Engineering Department. Mr Daljeet Singh, who said, “The problem had happened in the tenure of former chairman Jagdish Singh. Though the society fee was not refundable, I feel that extra amount was charged from the students. I have recommended to the higher authorities to refund the money, which amounts to Rs 4 lakh. Even a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Dean University Instructions and it was decided that 75 per cent of the amount of the students will be refunded”.

The DUI, Mr J. K. Gupta, said, “I am aware about the issue and have talked to the chairman. We will definitely come out with a solution. In any case we have to refund the money to the students and will do it soon. This year the department has stopped charging the high amount from the students. I think now the charges are only Rs 1,500”.

Chandigarh, July 20
Extolling the historic socio cultural opulence of Punjab, legendary poet Mohan Singh had once said: ‘Bharat hai vaang mundri, vich nagg Punjab da, Bharat hai je sharaab, eh nasha sharaab daa…’. And years later, the suave young poet, Harvinder, has reinvented the glory of Punjabi tradition with a fresh insight through his poetic creations titled ‘Panj Nadiyan Da Geet’.

The collection of 28 poems, mostly free verse, was released under the aegis of the ‘Kaumantri Lekhak Manch (Kalm) today at the Chandigarh Press Club.

Eminent litterateurs Satinder Singh ‘Noor’, Dr Jagtar and Dr S.S. Johl performed the ceremonial book release ceremony. Besides former bureaucrat-poets A.S. Pooni, N.S. Rattan and Pritam Singh, Punjabi scholars K.S. Thind, Avtar Jaura, Gurbachan, Shabdeesh and Surjit Judge participated in discussions on the book.

They complimented the author for indepth analysis of the ideological, political, economical, religious and social factors affecting the cultural life of the people.

Harvinder has inserted couplets on relevant themes from legendary poets to embellish his poems. 

Chandigarh, July 20
Around 18 final year M Sc students from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, have landed in deep trouble. Having applied for Ph D (life sciences) entrance test of the PGI, scheduled to be held here tomorrow, all they have faced is rejection. And this, for no fault 
of theirs.

With the PGI refusing to issue them roll numbers to take the test tomorrow, the students have no option but to wait for another six months to take the next test. The problem has surfaced because of the university’s inability to declare the students’ results 
in time

Although the students took their M Sc examination on May 22 this year, their results are still awaited. The PGI has refused to cooperate with the students, who could not submit the detailed marks sheet of MSc.

The PGI prospectus for the PhD entrance test clearly mentions the eligibility of 60 per cent marks at the MSc level. With that formality not having been completed, the institute has not issued roll numbers to the students concerned.

Nitika Gupta, who did her MSc in Human Genetics and has applied for PhD in Experimental Medicine in the PGI said: “We sent in our applications to the PGI in April. Till the final entrance examination we had two months to submit the detailed marks sheet, but our results are still not ready. The PGI gave us another option stating that we could submit a confidential result card, but that is also not possible because the university has not yet prepared our award sheet. All we could offer is a certificate from respective Heads of Department, Life Sciences, of the university stating that we are their students and that our results would soon be declared.”

The same is, however, not acceptable under the PhD entrance test rules of the PGI which makes the submission of detailed marks card mandatory.

Chandigarh, July 20
Muzaffar Ali’s “Gaman” was a classic.

Not because it stirred the popular conscience but because it soared on the wings of soulful poetry. Overnight an obscure educationist from Aligarh Muslim University became the best selling lyricist of Bollywood.

Sheheryar was born with the song “Seene mein jalan aankhon mein tufaaan sa kyun hai”; and Suresh Wadkar was reborn as a singer. Years after the magical spell which Sheheryar cast with his hauntingly realistic lyrics in “Umrao Jaan”, “Anjuman” and “Faasle,” the poet is struggling to change, lest he repeats himself.

In Chandigarh today for the Indo-Pakistan poetic symposium, Ikhlaq Mohd Khan, alias Sheheryar, spoke to The Tribune about the weight of his poetry and the vanity of it.

“When I assumed the pen name Sheheryar, my friends teased me. The word means “a prince”. But that is what I felt like in the company of words -reassured and secure. I began writing as a 20-year-old when the Leftists were stressing the form more than the content. Soon I overgrew the trend and evolved a style where social commitment was the king and I was the prince,” said the recluse, casting a spell as always.

For Sheheryar, who taught Urdu at Aligarh Muslim University for decades, poetry was an extension of academics. But it lasted longer than his other passions. “Perhaps because I pursued it at the cost of everything else,” he

said, “I could never survive with the money my poetry fetched. Teaching was my mainstay, but wrote to fulfill my obligations to the world. I had to make it beautiful,” Sheheryar mused.

His first anthology came in 1965. “Two friends were at war and I was distressed. That was when I wrote “Ism-e-Azam”, which featured poetry on relationships, romance and reconciliation.”

As for films, they happened accidentally just as poetry happened. “Muzaffar Ali had heard my verse and he had been floored by it. He used two ghazals in “Gaman”. Then he expressed a desire to make “Umrao Jaan”. I had studied the subject extensively. I drew a broad outline for him and he handled the theme sensitively. I wrote all ghazals for that film,” said Sheheryar. Interestingly, the only other film he did apart from Muzaffar Ali’s creations was Yash Chopra’s “Faasle”.

The poet’s honeymoon with films, however, did not last long. “Because the films, like estranged friends, sought new lovers. I never disowned them; they disowned me. Perhaps I was too emotional for Bollywood. Look at “Bunty aur Bubly” — a Yash Chopra film, then look at “Faasle”. Who would not be pained at the difference? The latter is an insignificant happening; the former was an innocent indulgence. I can’t but stay at the fringes and watch helplessly.”

But Sheheryar has found his calling in the six monthly Urdu paper titled “Sher-o-Hikmat” in which he offers platform to new talent. As for the fire of the poet in him, it is still raging and it always will. Sheheryar wraps up with a verse: “Dil mein tufaan hai aur aankhon mein tuliyaani hai

Zindagi hamne abhi haar nahi maani hai…”