Chandigarh, April 8
Around 8,000 students from Punjab, Himachal and Chandigarh appeared for the most coveted joint entrance examination of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) conducted at various centres across the city today.

The students who are appearing in Class XII this year or have passed the class in 2006 could appear for the test.

The examination consisting of separate sections - physics, chemistry and mathematics - was held in two sessions each of three hours duration.

Each subject consisted of 22 questions of four types - multiple choice questions with negative marking, assertion reasoning, comprehensive and match the columns.

Students felt relief on finding the second session paper on the same lines as of the first session paper.

Students said the physics and chemistry paper was in accordance with the syllabus and the pattern while the mathematics paper was a bit tough and lengthy.

"The paper was well set and good for both extraordinary as well as average students. They are all happy with the new pattern of the exam," said Prof S.C. Gupta, a physics lecturer.

Dr B.M. Kapila, chemistry lecturer at DAV College, Sector 10, said, "The chemistry portion was the toughest among all. Some questions were even of the olympiad level"

According to Prof Rajni Gupta, a mathematics lecturer, the students did not find any difficulty in the paper.

Rphit, Ayush and Puneet Garg, students of Excellent Coaching Centre, Sector 15, found the maths portion to be little tough. “Few questions from the maths portion were of the advanced level. They needed lengthy calculations, which consumed a lot of time, ” they said. "I expected it to be tough, but overall it was an easy paper. It was based on usual pattern. The physics portion was the easiest one," said Iqbaal from Chandi Mandir.

For Gurpratap Singh (Hoshiarpur), Rohit (Ambala) and Rajan Saini (Gurdaspur), the paper was well set. All options appeared to be correct. In all, it was of very tricky kind.

According to Prof S.C. Gupta, “The marks of both papers will be computed. Based on the cutoff marks in the individual subjects as well as aggregate marks in the examination, a common merit list will be prepared without any relaxed criteria.”

The results will be declared on May 30.

Banur, April 8
Prachi won the newspaper making contest as the curtains came down on "Crayons '07, a two-day festival of sports, art and technology, on the Chitkara campus at Jhansla, near here, today.

There were lively debates as students presented their views on a range of subjects in the youth parliament.

Following were the winners in various contests: spelling bee: Manveen; d'sign: Bhupinder Pal Singh; corporate quiz: Harman; science mysteries: Manveen; hey! my model works: Hemant Monga, Nipun Kaushik and Piyush; arm wrestling: Jagmit Singh (boys) and Nitasha (girls); road runner:Tarun Gupta and Nikhil Bhardwaj; technical rangoli: Vibha Saini; treasure hunt: Sahil; fused fission: Piyush; video group discussion: Aditi; business deal: Sahil, Vipul and Paras; technical paper presentation: Priyanka and Gunveen; script writing: Prachi Sharma; survival of the fittest: Arvind Joshi, Vaibhav Sabhlok and Kulbir Singh; and bios-chaos: Yuvraj and Amita.

Other results: youth parliament: Rajat; admad: Mitish Garg; LAN games: Amneet Singh; C++ trail: Ritika, Shilpa and Kamna; bike basketball: Amandeep and Jaideep; web designing: Saurav Nagpal; technical dance: Eshan; T-shirt painting: Priya Saini; face painting: Nikhil Bhardwaj and Tarun Gupta; spin a yarn: Gaurav Sharma and Ashish K. Gupta; and guftagu: Gurmanwal.

Chandigarh, April 8
Job fest organised by the ITFT at Hotel Mountview, Sector 10, concluded today with 1600 unemployed graduates getting placement offers by corporates who represented various segments of the service industry. More than 10,000 unemployed graduate youth of the region, including final-year students of graduation, had appeared for the interviews. Out of which around 1000 were shortlisted by the corporates for their future requirements.

Participation of a number of retired and retiring defence officers seeking their re-occupation at the middle and higher levels in various organisations was the highlight of the fest. Forty defence officers were selected to be human resource developers and trainers while 35 were shortlisted by Thakral Group of Companies based at Singapore.

Chandigarh, April 8
Having spent years marking students absent, Panjab University teachers will now have to mark their own absence!

PU teachers have been asked by the Vice-Chancellor to inform the University authorities the time of the day when their house remains unattended. This is being done to improve security arrangements in the campus.

A circular issued by the VC recently states that campus residents give the complete information of who all stay in the house, and submit along with pictures the complete details of household helps. The name and complete address and photographs of servant and gardener, etc, has to be submitted to the assistant registrar (estate).

House allottees on the campus have also been requested to get their doors interlocked, that is mortise locks be put on all doors at the expense of the resident.

The circular comes in the wake of three major thefts on the campus last month in the E-1 type houses. The employees had been on the duty in their respective departments when the thefts were committed.

No rickshaw or rehri or vendor will be allowed to stay on the campus without the permission of the AR (estates).

Chandigarh, April 8
Putul Yatra 07, an annual festival and exhibition of Indian puppetry, is being organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in collaboration with the Punjab Arts Council. Though the week-long puppet shows that were held every evening at Punjab Kala Bhavan end today, the exhibition of puppets from all over the country will continue till the 15th of this month.

Putul Yatra was first organised on the occasion of akademi’s golden jubilee celebrations in New Delhi in 2003. Since then, the festival has been travelling along with reputed puppet festivals to state capitals such as Mumbai in 2005 and Lucknow in 2006. The festival began on April 2 and presented 14 traditional and modern performances. The finale today will see the traditional performance of Orissa and contemporary performance from West Bengal.

Sharing his views on contemporary puppetry, an artist Sudip Gupta who performed on the closing day, said, “Puppetry is an art form that is the amalgamation of all other art forms, including theatre, acting, dances, music, design etc.” His performance with his troupe of eight members ‘Taming of the wild’ was a non-verbal presentation with a fusion of traditional Indian and western music in the background. Associated with Dolls Theatre in Kolkata, he explains the significance of puppets. “Puppets are the representation of our lives. Puppet shows are perhaps the only ones left now where the entire family can come together and enjoy.” On being asked to point out the most difficult part of puppetry, he said making the puppets act was the most tedious part of the art. Defying all possibilities of puppetry being a dying art, the puppeteer remarked that the art was never dying. “The interest that people now have, has always been there.” It is his dream to build a puppet museum and auditorium in Kolkata. Looking at the success of the festival, the Punjab Arts Council was in the process of organising more such puppet shows and even taking them to the interiors of Punjab, informed the secretary general of council.