R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

Regional potpourri

Amritsar
talk: Prof John Williams, a political science teacher of Principia College, Illinois, said here on Saturday that voters of the USA keep economic interest in mind while exercising their franchise to elect the government. He was addressing students of postgraduate Departments of Political Science and Public Administration of Khalsa College. Dr Daljit Singh, Principal of the college, presided over the seminar.

Batala
MEDICAL CAMP: The local branch of the Bharat Vikas Parishad organised a medical check-up camp for skin diseases at Kaushalya Devi Sanan Eye Hospital here on Sunday. The camp was organised in the memory of late Nirmalawati and Tarlok Chand Aggarwal. Mr Jagdish Sawhney, former MLA, was the chief guest. Mr Budhish Aggarwal, president of the parishad, said they had spent about Rs 25,000 on medicine, which were given to patients free of cost.

Nawanshahr
INAUGURATED: The Punjab Pradesh Saini Sabha has set up a Jathedar Harnam Singh Memorial Library at Gurdwara Singh Sabha in Barnala Kalan village. Sant Baba Ajit Singh Alachaur inaugurated the library on Sunday. Dr Kulwant Kaur, chairperson, Mali Bhago Brigade, Jathedar Niranjan Singh Saki, Mr Iqbal Singh, president of the sabha, Mr Swaran Singh and Ms Kundan Parkash Kaur, former sarpanches, were among those who addressed the gathering.

FUNCTION: The local Sri Ram Sharanam and Shivalaya Atma Devi Talab Ralla Mal Bhucher Shiv Mandir Committee jointly organised a function at Sri Ram Sharanam Bhavan to honour meritorious students and disburse scholarships among poor students. Mr Vijay Chopra, Editor, Punjab Kesri, Jalandhar, presided over the function. He also lauded the contribution of social workers.

Phagwara
SEMINAR: A seminar was organised at the local Civil Hospital on Saturday to spread awareness about the importance of breast feeding. Dr Yash Mitra, Senior Medical Officer, Phagwara, Dr Sapna Bhalla, gynaecologist, Ms Manmohan Kaur, mass media officer, and Dr Raman Sharma, social worker, addressed the gathering.

Tarn Taran
GANG BUSTED: A two-member gang, that was indulging in the manufacture of spurious milk products, has been nabbed by the Chabal police. The gang members have been identified as Harpreet Singh and Sarabjit Singh, residents of Kherdinke village. A case under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act has been registered.

CHANDIGARH

Teej celebrated: Kalagram is all decked up for Teej which is being jointly celebrated on its campus by the Chandigarh Tourism, North Zone Cultural Centre and Citco. A Teej village has been set up at the venue, displaying traditional bullock carts, village wells, huts, dhols, charkhas, cots and mehndi walas. Malpuda, kheer, jalebi, amarti and other mouth-watering eatables are also available. 

PANCHKULA
Oral hygiene camp: The Iner Wheel Club of Panchkula organised an oral hygiene camp at Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 6, on Friday. As many as 80 children were examined for various dental ailments. They were also given free tooth brushes and tooth pastes. 

Donated: The Ruhani Anjuman, a socio-religious organisation, has donated four patient trolleys to the PGI, Chandigarh. This is for the third time that the organisation has donated trolleys. These had been handed over to Medical Superintendent of the PGI, Chandigarh.

HARYANA

ONE KILLED: One person was killed and eight others were injured, two of them seriously, when their jeep collided with a mule cart on the Jind-Bhiwani road, near Ghimana village, on Saturday night. The deceased has been identified as Umed Singh. All injured have been admitted to the local General Hospital.

Rewari
FOUNDATION STONE: The Haryana Irrigation and Revenue Minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, laid the foundation stone of a youth hostel in Rao Tula Ram stadium complex here on Friday. Captain Yadav said the youth hostel, which would comprise a dining room, a library, a multi-purpose hall and a dormitory, would fulfil a long-standing demand of the youth here.

Rohtak
FOUR KILLED: Four persons were killed when their Maruti car collided with a trailer at Brahmanwas village, near here, on Saturday. They were going to Gohana when the driver of the trailer suddenly applied brakes. The car rammed into it from behind. The deceased have been identified as Rajpal, Sunil, Ravinder and Bijender.

Sonepat
BREAKDOWN: Telephonic link between Sonepat and rest of the country remained cut off for more than 10 hours following the breakdown of the OCB main exchange on Friday. According to a report, a major fault occurred in the exchange around 1 pm and it could not be removed till midnight. As a result, thousands of telephones went dead.

YOUTH SHOT AT: A youth, Bhupinder Singh, escaped unhurt after being shot at by his brother-in-law, Vinod Kumar, at Bidhlan village, about 10 km from here, on Friday night. According to a report, Bhupinder Singh had gone to the village in a car to greet his sister on the occasion of Teej, where he had an altercation with his sister’s husband. The villagers intervened and Bhupinder Singh agreed to leave the village but as he sat in his car he was shot at by Vinod Kumar. Thereafter, Bhupinder Singh lodged a complaint with the Kharkhauda police in this connection and the police arrested the assailant.

Yamunanagar
BURGLARY: Four shops situated on the Jagashri-Bilaspur road here were burgled on Thursday. As per police sources, thieves broke the front shutters of a shop and took away Rs 10,000 and a mobile phone lying in the cash box. The cash box was found dumped in nearby bushes. Another shop was also burgled and Rs 3,000 stolen.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

ROOTING for nature

Nature and man can co-exist without harming each other’s interest. A Ludhiana-based businessman has shown how, by constructing a three-storeyed building around the trunk of a 50-year-old jamun tree without causing any harm to it.

It was 18 years ago that the hosiery industrialist Brij Mohan Kalra was faced with a difficult decision: either to save the tree or construct the building. He found a way to build the structure as well as keep the tree.

Now, the building with the tree stands as an oasis in a jungle of concrete on the Dewan Nihal Chand Road in the city. Despite stiff opposition from his architect, who had to change the design to accommodate the tree in the building, Kalra had decided that he would not uproot the tree as it would have rendered countless birds homeless.

“To construct a shelter for myself, how could I destroy the habitat of so many birds and insects who were living on the tree? My architect even told me that the tree would not survive after being surrounded by concrete. But I decided to make it survive. Even after 18 years, it is green and thriving,” says Kalra.

Workers sit inside the rooms of the hosiery through which branches of the tree pass and the owner functions from a room built around the trunk of the tree. “Our architect designed the building in such a way that the roofs and ventilators of various rooms made way for its trunk and branches. There were problems initially, when rain water would enter the rooms, but now we have taken corrective measures,” he adds.

To ensure that the tree does not suffer the effects of being surrounded by a building, Kalra requested a PAU expert to visit the place frequently and take care of the tree. “At times, some injections have to be given to it, but the tree is doing fine,” he adds.

Return of the poet

The old run-down fort at Chowk Hussainpura in Amritsar is a favourite haunt of the Punjabi literati, for in a dingy old room on its premises Parminderjit has been labouring for some three decades to uphold the little tradition of little magazines in the state. Little things matter in a big way and so the two magazines that Parminderjit has edited, earlier ‘Lo’ and now ‘Akhar’, have had a devoted readership.

Parminderjit is considered one of the finest literary editors in Punjabi, more so in presenting the best of contemporary poetry. This comes easily to him, for he is a poet himself. Recently, it was time for twin celebrations at the ‘Akhar’ office. The reason was that Parminderjit’s new book ‘Bachpan Ghar te Main’ and the Shiromani Kavi Award for him from the Punjab Languages Department came at the same time. This is his third anthology of poetry and the earlier two were ‘Likhtum Parminderjit’ and ‘Meri Marfat’.

In the latest anthology, the poet goes to environment that leaves the greatest impact on one. So, it is back to childhood, home and the self. Parminderjit views his own childhood in the context of the children of today.

The poet says, “Childhood memories came to me at a time when I was going through trials and tribulations, shedding light on the dark patches. It is not easy for one to return to childhood in literature, but my poems seemed to do this spontaneously.” Last year, Parminderjit had suffered a severe illness. So, this poetic return and recognition are most welcome.

Doc who treats cars too

This man is an expert not only in operating upon human beings, but also vehicles. Dr Naresh Malhotra of Ludhiana, an ENT surgeon, not only makes parts of the human body function properly but also keeps auto parts in good working condition as a Maruti dealer and head of Stan Autos.

Having been elected President of the ENT Association and Head and Neck Surgeons Forum for two years, he says this is an achievement purely his own. But he credits the success of Stan Autos, which has bagged Maruti’s ‘Customer Satisfaction Index’ award for the Northern Zone (comprising Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and J&K) for four consecutive years, to his younger brother Anil, a chartered accountant. He says his brother has worked hard to improve the sales and service of the firm that started operations a decade ago.

For Dr Malhotra heading the Surgeons Forum is not merely a ‘tag’. He proposes to achieve a high patient satisfaction level. “I plan to create awareness about ENT issues that will help to prevent and treat problems such as seasonal allergies, environment and pollution-related diseases,” he says. But what is even closer to his heart is working on the management of hearing impairment. “Nearly seven to eight per cent of our population is hearing impaired.

Early detection can help reduce hearing loss and this will be my main area of focus,” he adds.

Dr Malhotra is the former Head of the ENT Department at Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana. He has not only trained several ENT surgeons in the region, but has also performed surgeries that have won him acclaim.

Contributed by Kanchan Vasdev, Nirupama Dutt and Naveen S. Garewal