In what could be termed as history repeats itself, the new body of the District Bar Association (DBA) has been elected unanimously after a span of 43 years.

What is more significant that when earlier in 1964 the body of the DBA was elected unanimously, the strength of the Bar was just about 150 whereas now it is over 1,200. Generally it is said that it is difficult to make unanimity among the educated people. The same thing is applicable on the Bar members but senior advocates, including president of the Punjab and Haryana Bar Council chief Navtej Singh Toor, played a vital role for unanimous election of the body.

Giving his best wishes to the new body, Toor said the unanimous elections would enable the Bar members to redress their common grievances unitedly and more efficiently.

Newly elected senior vice-president Ashok Kumar said the priority would be to provide better sanitary condition in and around the chambers of the lawyers. Secondly, make attempts to construct new chambers after selecting a proper place.

The entire team was elected on March 7. However, president Narinder Singh, secretary Om Parkash Sharma, senior vice-president Ashok Kumar, junior vice-president Prem Sharma, joint secretary Paramjit Singh Chani and assistant secretary Rashpal Singh Chumber were elected on February 28.

On hearing that cigarettes are going to cost more, I clinched the fist, lest my nicotined fingers reach out for the deadly pack only an arm-length away. More than cough and an occasional bout of breathlessness, the spiraling cost of the pack prompted me to kick the 30-year-old habit for good.

All such resolves have had life from a day to five years. A former smoker told me that one has to be firm on the resolve for seven years. It is like the proverbial itch with a tendency to return. Part of blame for my fagging goes to the proliferation of vendors around my residence and workplace. Interestingly most of these open after liquor shops.

After union finance minister made the announcement, my brand went out of market. And my flexible, or shall we say, adjusting nature made me go for the next available brand.

By keeping the pack, I ended up smoking more. Slightest pretext of having blurted out an analytical babble was enough provocation to reach out for the pack. Since all my resolves to give up the habit had failed, so I decided upon not keeping the pack with me. Instead, I started buying one at a time.

In order to retain the modicum of respect in the eyes of the naughty domestic help and the gang of attendants in the office, I started walking to the nearest kiosk selling death in installments to willing buyers like me. Having filled up my weak lungs with smoke I would walk back suggesting myself not to go for it again. After an hour I am again in front of the vendor asking for one more. Each time during office hours I meet new set of smokers at the cigarette vend. The vend near the office doesn’t have a permanent place. In order to discourage smoking even outside the office, the big boss often presses the security staff into action and manages to shoo away the vendor by few yards. Once in two months, Estate Office men take away his cigarette packs, chewing tobacco pouches and jars of mouth-fresheners and challan him for the unauthorised use of government land. As a reaction he pushes his wares to a safe corner. The blenders of tobacco must surely be adding some addictive to cigarettes. That must be their well-guarded secret to rule the head and heart . That also explains why liberates like me ignore the statutory warning on each pack and ad campaigns against smoking.

Where medical injunctions and nagging of my wife failed, the sweet talk of a charming colleague succeeded.

Smoking has stubbed all but my bitter taste buds. And any other smell other than that of tobacco fails to tickle me. Her dress and sweet smell drew me to her. And I looked for excuses to talk to her; take her out for coffee. While our companionship grew my visits to the vendor continued.

One day the vendor gave me two cigarettes, instead of the usual one, because he was short on change. After the coffee, I looked for money in my shirt pocket and discovered the lone cigarette stick. I lit it and walked up to her blowing smoke from my nostrils. We walked back to office without exchanging a word. Then on she didn’t speak to me. My vanity refused to take it, I began to sulk. My visits to the vendor became more frequent. After sometime I began to carry a pack on me.

The glowing cigarette tip and the brown butt held in between the lips has been interpreted as an expression of infantile fantasy. One day, I was puffing away my blues in the lawn she walked up to me. Took out the cigarette from my lips and stomped it under her sandal and walked away smothering my infantile fantasy.

An eucalyptus and poplar farm at Semi village in Jalandhar is different. The trees have a straight bole that shed lower branches. “This fetches the tree cultivator a higher price for the wood as it is considered to be of better quality in the market", says cultivator Piare Lal,64.

All trees of a clone have identical leaf shape , bole structure and growth . He demonstrates the functioning of his green house where shoots of the mother clones are grown in trays in a controlled environment. He also points out to those clones that grow fast in highly saline or alkaline soils, where other trees seldom survive.

He has used his 40 years of experience to set up a farm of genetically improved clonal eucalyptus and poplar . The venture called Pragati Biotechnologies has developed a clonal bank of 89 of varieties of superior, fast growing and disease resistant trees and has started selling them to farmers in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and other southern states.

Piare Lal has on his tips location of each tree under trial, its scientific name, number, age, bole width and the location of the parent plant. He has even made a computerised position map of all trees, done tabulations and calculations of his best varieties and got published his papers in various forestry journals of national and international repute.

An ex-member of the Indian Forest Service and postgraduate diploma holder in forestry from Indian Forest College, Dehradun, Piare Lal worked in the forest department of Andaman and Nicobar Islands as assistant conservator of forests for three years in the 1960s. He became an IFS member in 1968 from where he resigned in 1970 to join an agro-forestry head with Mumbai based Wimco Ltd. He has worked for 11 years as vice president of plantations with The ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited, Secunderabad, from where he has procured the parent clones.

His son Balmukund Saroa, has joined him in his venture to further expand the project.

Second year mechanical engineering students of CT Institute of Engineering, Management and Technology have successfully designed and tested a solar lawn mower to cut the grass for household application.

The students - Varun Saini, Jaswant Singh, Gagan Deep and Rajesh Kumar have designed the mower that draws power from a DC motor, which is driven by a 12-volt battery charged by the solar panel. The testing was successfully done in the college workshop lawn this weekend.

HOD Mechanical Ashwini Sharma said that the advantage of the solar lawn mower was that it was independent of usual electric supply and environment friendly too. He said that the students used the workshop facilities to design and manufacture 90 per cent of the components in-house. The weight of the blade was reduced by shaping it in smithy shop and the wooden and metal framework was done in carpentry and welding shops, he added. He said that the students would now be working on customised hybrid vehicle which would make use of electrical, thermal and solar energy to run.

Chairman of CT Institutions Charanjit Singh Channi, Managing Director Manbir Singh and Director R.C. Chauhan have congratulated the students for their achievement in the non-conventional energy project category.

Dr B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology will host Utkansh, an all-India inter-college cultural and technical festival to be held from March 16 to 18.

Dr A.P. Singh, chairman of the festival, said that business quiz, paper presentations, preliminary antakshri, rangoli, stage play, choreography and fashion show will be held on the first day.

Contests for street play, elocution, dumb charades, rock band show and instrumental fusion would be held on the second day. Contests for collage making, antaskshri final, ad mad show and mock press conference will be held on the last day.

Along with the increase in poverty, the fast pace urbanisation is affecting the quality of life drastically, said Dr K.L. Sharma, a former vice-chancellor, Rajasthan University, Jaipur, during the two-day national seminar on ‘Quality of life in urbanising world’.

Organised by the department of sociology of Guru Nanak Dev University under UGC Special Assistance Programme, Dr Sharma said the western world had nearly 90 per cent urban population, whereas India had less than 30 per cent.

He said the urbanisation had improved quality of life of many but also affected adversely other sections of society. More wages did not necessarily imply a better quality of life and vice-versa, he added.

Dr Sharma said today’s young IT professionals receive reasonably high salary packages but excessive demand for work makes their life quite miserable. He said the quality of life was being adversely affected all over the world in the current situation of globalisation. The main problem was how to moderate the ill affects of materialism for the poor and hapless people.

He said the criterion of poverty could be food, housing, utilities, clothing, recreation, education, transportation and communication, household necessities, personal and incidental expenses.

Prof S.L. Sharma, director, Institute of Correctional Administration, Chandigarh, talked about physical improvement of life chances, quality of life, life expectancy, child health, survival and education. Apart from physical aspect of urbanisation, he referred to the civic aspect as well which included freedom, opportunities and human rights. It aimed at well being of an individual in every sphere, he added.

Dr Jai Rup Singh, vice-chancellor of the host university, in his presidential remarks spoke about the need for synthesising the ill and good affects of the urbanising world. He said the fundamental flaw was due to faulty planning and there was need of visionary planners of urbanisation. 

High pitched music and top fashion models of the Kamla Nehru College for Women, Phagwara, walking down the ramp in front of a 1,000-strong crowd of enthusiastic youngsters on the college auditorium marked the grand finale of ‘Fashion Fiesta 2006-2007’.

Everything went according to the mood of college students and participants of Fashion Fiesta. The crowd, as expected, did not create much chaos.

Fashion Fiesta, which began on a rather low-key note, witnessed packed house at the valedictory function at the college auditorium. Of course, the high time was the fashion show.

The fashion show presented by the college students began rather an hour late but once it started, youngsters gathered at the auditorium sat mesmerised till the final round of the show. Top models from the college sashayed down the ramp to the music by Rythymix.

Later, Kumud Sharma, a leading lawyer of Phagwara and ex-student of the college, who was the chief guest, gave away prizes to the winners who participated in the fashion show. The students also presented a colourful dance and song programme at the valedictory function.