Chandigarh, October 21
A two-day seminar on “Aging: issues and emerging trends, with special reference to women’s problems” was inaugurated today at the MCM DAV College for Women, Sector 36. The seminar aims to address various issues pertaining to gerontology and endeavors to combine various related agencies and bring them on a common platform to discuss the issue.

It was inaugurated by Justice A.L. Bahri, vice-president, DAV College Managing Committee. Prof J.J. Kattakayam, Director, Centre of Gerontological Studies, University of Kerala, Trivandrum, was the main speaker. He highlighted that the aged population in India was currently the second largest in the world. “There are 77 million older persons in India according to 2001 census, of which 37 million are males and 40 million are females.”

The second session began with paper presentations. The topic was “Social support systems for the aged in India. Prof J.J. Kattakayam, Dr M. Jha, Assistant Professor, IIT, Kanpur, Brig Keshav Chandra, former president, Senior Citizen Association, and Ms Kamini Tayal, lecturer in sociology, MCM DAV college, presented their papers. The third session saw presentations by Dr M.K. Teja, Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology, Panjab University, Dr Rajesh Gill of the Department of Sociology, Panjab University, Surjit Saroch, Lecturer, Government College, Palampur, and Gurjit Virk, Research Scholar, PU.

Chandigarh, October 21
It was the day of the tiny tots at Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, Sector 26, as Class I students put up a spectacular cultural show “Fantasia” this evening.

It was a show of the children by the children, but for the parents. Everything — right from the welcome address to the vote of thanks — was conducted perfectly by students. The proud parents and teachers gave them a thunderous applause.

From barracks in 1992, Government Model High School, Sector 12 (PGI), Chandigarh, is providing quality education. Thanks to the strong determination and hard work of Ms Skarma Sharma, the school has now been temporarily shifted to the PGI Rotary Srai building. The school is fulfilling the educational needs of the wards of PGI employees and children from nearby areas (like Kansal, Nayagaon, Khuda Jassu and Khuda Lahora).

The school is now running under the progressive leadership of its Principal, Ms Vijay Kaushal. The hard working staff is a blend of experienced and young enthusiastic teachers. The staff and students have brought honour to the school with the achievements in academics, sports and co-curricular activities.

To highlight, the main achievements are : 100 per cent result of class VIII in 2004; 98 per cent result of class X; 98 per cent result of class VIII in 2005; selection of 10 players for national championships in kabaddi, kho-kho, dodge ball and athletics; two gold medals in poster making and slogan writing contests (state level); two first, two second and two third positions in the state-level paper-reading contest; one third position in the inter-school Hindi poem recitation contest; selection of the school bhangra team for a cultural function at Musafer Auditorium; presentation of Punjabi play “Chirrian Da Chamba” on the eve of the Republic Day; two state-level first positions in story writing and another in the essay writing contest by TGT Mr Ravinder Singh.

All academic, sports and literary achievements become more mentionable because the limitations of proper infrastructure, including building, hall and play ground, fail to slow down the will power of the staff and students. The Head Mistress, Ms Kaushal, with deep insight and rich managerial skill is adequately using scarce resources to its best. With the help of local community and institutions like PTA she is determined to bring more glory to the school.

I have just joined this school and trying my best to accelerate the progress in curricular and co-curricular activities. Although we have scarcity of resources and infrastructure yet the best can be produced from the least. I feel that the head of the institution should prefer leading from the front instead of pushing from behind. A head must be able to establish coordination and inculcate a spirit of hard work among the staff members and must command respect instead of demanding it. It is the need of the hour that we should inculcate moral values in the students because pseudo culture and materialistic attitude is affecting the rich heritage of our great traditions. Too much privatisation and domination of private sector is causing many problems in the third world countries. Now the time has come that the teacher must help in making a strong foundation of the nation.

The partition was a tragedy of the highest magnitude which shocked the peace loving people on both sides of the border.

“Teesri Dastak” is a veritable summation of the tribulations and pangs of the Partition still fresh in the minds of the masses.

Scripted by legendary playwright Shahid Nadeem, founder of the Ajoka Theatre Group of Lahore, the theme of socio-ethical play found its true expression during its staging under the care of thespian Gursharan Singh in the two-day drama festival of Pakistani plays organised by the Chandigarh School of Drama and Pracheen Kala Kendra at Tagore Theatre on Friday.

Harpreet Lovely, who presented this play at Sriram Centre, New Delhi, two days back in a drama festival of the Punjabi Akademy, Delhi, won admiration for being the youngest director.

The play depicts the plight of the poor uprooted inhabitants of an old haveli at Lahore owned by Hazi, who employs all sort of maneuvers to get his haveli premises vacated from refugee occupants. The verbal skirmishes and fights between haveli owner Hazi and residents, including an old insane Baba Yousaf, an unemployed youth Izaz, a rickshaw-puller Zulfi, Zamila and others, were a regular feature. They rejoice over his killing by Mansoor but his reappearance shortens their joy. The play attempts to bring the system into focus be it the government or society which is by and large anti-poor and the struggle of the poor for survival and justice.

The artistes attempted to give a feel of the Pakistani Punjabi flavour through crisp dialogue delivery and persuasive performance. Jasbir Kumar, Ikattar Sahota, Gaurav Sharma, Mukesh, Indu Sharma, Amandeep, Harpreet Bahl and Baljinder Kaur formed the main cast. The chiaroscuro effects by Parveen Jaggi deserve mention. OC