Jalandhar, September 18
Life has changed for better for the four boys hailing from ordinary families here ever since they have been taken by the Indian Cricket League (ICL) recently.

Selected for a three-year contract on good packages, the foursome- Sarabjit Singh, Rajesh Sharma, Ishan Malhotra and Sumit Kalia -feel that their performance on the field has been duly recognised and finally they managed to get a good break. The boys are not bothered even if they have been banned by the BCCI for playing for them in future.

Rather, these local lads are quite optimistic about the kind of training that they are being imparted, live coverage that their matches have been getting on television and the international matches that they would be playing from October onwards.

The boys, all of whom are students of Labu Ram Doaba Senior Secondary School here, have started a new journey with one another again. The foursome has earlier been playing domestic cricket and even gone for the Ranji Trophy. They had represented the under-19 Indian team that recently went to play at Sharjah, New Zealand, Malaysia and Austrialia.

Giving the details during a telephonic conversation from Chennai, Sarabjit Singh, who excels in wicketkeeper and a batsman, said he was there for a month-long training camp. He said they were being prepared for the 20-20 matches, which they would be played shortly. He said Kapil Dev, Madan Lal and Sandeep Patil had held sessions with them and given tactics for being mentally prepared to bear the pressures of the game.

“Kiran More and Balwinder Sandhu are still with us at the camp. The camp will continue on for a few days and we will be back at our hometown on Friday. Then on, there will be another camp from October 3 most likely at Mumbai”, he said. Bowler Rajesh Sharma, all-rounder Ishan Malhotra and leg spinner Sumit Kalia too want to repeat the Harbhajan Singh’s story and bring the city once again into the limelight in sports arena. Like Harbhajan, they said they too developed their skills in the game playing on roads and parks with their childhood chums, taking training in the school and then representing the district team.

“We were busy with our domestic chores in Jalandhar when we were surprised with a call from Bharat Reddy and Kiran More. They had seen us playing a few of the matches. They asked us for signing a contract. The opportunity was too lucrative for us to refuse that there was no other option”, the boys said adding that they were excited about being a part of one of the six teams that the ICL would be forming soon.

Jalandhar, September 18
Ashley Rebello, the high-flying costume designer from the tinseltown, descended on the city to give a few handy tips to would-be fliers on how to dress to impress the interview board into hiring them. Talking to students of Flying Cats airhostess academy, the designer ended the day with the girls back slapping him on his jokes and laughing their hearts out. As the man himself says the right effect is all about that big sunshine smile on your face and the clothes are meant only to make it possible for you.

Yes, Ashley is the man who has made heroines dance and swirl in his clothes right from a very intense Tabu to a ravishing Katrina Kaif. Yes he has created a few ripples too, creating the new-year party dress worn by scandalously-beautiful Mallika Sherawat, but it’s all a part of creating clothes according to ones personality, says Ashley. From the romance of “Kareeb” to dipping the glamour quotient on NSD-trained actresses in “Chandni Bar”, fame and realism of a Page 3, acclaim has made him a name to reckon with in the industry.

Ashely, who started out with a “Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander” with Aamir Khan, describes himself as the perfectionist costume designer who says his job is all about making the character “believable”. Besides the clothes he designs the whole look, says Ashley. “Hair, shoes even inners help to make the look complete. Fashion to me is not about going over the top but about blending it all with the feel of the character.”

“Success did not come easy as with my first film I thought the whole of the industry works a la Mansoor Khan style but I learnt the tricks with time,” says Ashley who loved designing for Sonali Bendre as everything looked good on her. For his future projects Ashley is designing for a period film starring Sarika and Jackie Shroff. He is also looking forward to Subhash Ghai’s “Yuvraj”, has teamed up with Salman’s sister Alvira Khan for Salman-Katrina film and he also has Aamir’s directorial venture “Tare Zamin Pe” in which he is launching his nephew Imran Khan. “My focus is on character driven designs,” says Ashley. For the season he predicts a riot of orange, turquoise, reds going on the brighter side and princess cuts, knee lengths, soft and even polka dots prints are in toe a la Audrey Hepburn,” says Ashley. Fashion is going all feminine in fall and cuts for the season, says Ashley.

Coming down to Jalandhar, Ashley loved the sheer vibrancy and aggressiveness of the people and faces with bright smiles, he says. And he did not miss on his favourite “kali daal” on a special order for lunch and taste of the water here is something which will linger on as he gets back to Mumbai, signs off Ashley. 

Jalandhar, September 18
Educationist and encyclopaedist Raghbir Singh Bains has been selected for the Philanthropy award in Canada. A resident of Urban Estate (Phase I), Bains will be conferred with the award at the Leisure Care Light House awards programme at Vancouver on September 28.

Bains, who had gone to Canada about a decade ago and lives in Surrey, is the first-ever launcher of multimedia technology in the field of encyclopaedias in Sikhism, a project he began in 1985.

He is also credited with setting up of a multimedia Sikh museum at Khadoor Sahib in Tarn Taran, in which robotic and liquid crystal display touch screen technology was used for the first time to provide interactive information on history, social system and heritage of the Sikh faith.

Bains is a keen campaigner who makes untiring efforts to address social and environmental problems in the world with a creative and innovative approach.

He moves globally to create awareness against alcohol, drugs, prostitution, AIDS.

He has organised and addressed dozens of camps and seminars in various countries on social evils by treating everyone equally with respect, regardless of their race, culture, religion, age, financial status, sexual orientation, gender or disabilities.

Born in 1936 and brought up at Manak Dheri village in Hoshiarpur, Bains is the recipient of other prestigious awards, including the Order of British Columbia, Order of Khalsa, Sikh Scholar of Computer Age, Community Mentor award, Vashesh Sahitya award, Bhai Gurdas International award, Panth Ratan award, Nishan-e-Sikhi international award, Good Citizen of Surrey Canada title, Lifetime Achievement award, Wisdom of Age Mentorship award and Queen II’s Golden Jubilee Medal by the federal government of Canada.

At the age of 72, he sits in his office working on computer for 16 hours a day. He says, “I feel happy to serve the needy, sick and disabled. I owe it foremost to my mother and the Almighty for blessing me with the trait for serving others.”

The Lighthouse awards programme of O’ Keefe Leisure Care is a one-of-a-kind programme that recognises exceptional individuals or groups who have made outstanding contribution for the community by providing financial resources, time and efforts to improve the quality of human life.

Jalandhar, September 18
For those who frowned upon Vishal Bhardwaj’s “tampering” with Shakespeare’s works, this one would come as a “shocker”. The bard die-hards can take a backseat. This one is an out-an-out entertainer, a modern take 
on one of the greatest 
playwrights.

The two-hour play, which was staged at Red Cross Bhavan here on Sunday evening, was a parody on Shakespeare’s works, except that calling it a parody might just be an understatement.

The actors were constantly forgetting their dialogues, the costumes and vigs were almost falling apart or off (or something in between); the sword-fights (a special feature of Shakespeare’s plays) were the worst choreographed ever, Shakespearian dialogue was being replaced with US slang (even Hindi and Punjabi at some places) and there were even a few instances of full blown stage fights between the actors on stage, even some poor audience members were “victimised” during one of these fights, but fortunately for the actors and the audience it was all intentional.

The three actors - Kartikey Ambardar, Sattvic and Karamvir Lamba - all students of St. Stephen’s College, and patrons of its Shakespeare Society, left the audience rolling with laughter with their flawless act. During the play the actors addressed each other by their “actual” names.

The play was more of a living room discussion about the playwright and his works, among three well-read modern-day Shakespeare addicts, brought onto open stage and being acted out as a play with all the offensive and defensive conversational bits intact. From Nazi concentration camps to Ekta Kapoor everything was discussed. Othello became a “rap-opera” while Troilus and Crecida were turned into a sports commentary. The play abounded with slapstick humour and goofy tricks, but beneath the distractions the play was replete with intellectual metaphors and a deep understanding of the works of the “bard of Avon” showed through. The actors rendered both the funniest and the most solemn of the dialogues (the Shakespearian ones) with ease.

Namit, the founder director of the Just Imagine Theatre Group, which collaborated with the Black Cow Company to bring the play to the public, said, “Shakespeare is someone who the school kids run away from. The archaic language does not make sense to the young generation. This play is an effort to re-introduce the people to the works of the great playwright through a language and manner which is appealing, funny and which they can understand.”

Jalandhar is the very second place after Delhi where this play has been staged. When asked as to how Jalandhar came into scheme of things, he replied, “We knew people in Jalandhar who were keen to have the play screened here and were confident that the people of the city would love it.” The actors interacted with the audience, all liberties that one can think of were taken, the actors at times seemed more like anchors, when Hamlet was being staged they even made the audience say out loud on behalf of Ophelia “look, cut the crap Hamlet, I want babies now.” But all said and done, the people of Jalandhar did love the play.

Who says mathematics is insipid and soporific? Definitely its not. Mathematics makes you marvel at the miracles of its own genre. So adroitly that you cannot help but fall in love with its wonderful results. Here is a beautiful illustration for you.

The table of 19, which you might have learnt during school days, also contains spectacular results. Have you ever noticed it…? If not, take pen or pencil, write down the table of 19 on a piece of paper or in a notebook, and then try to find whether you can draw any miraculous results from there or not. If you are unable to do so, look at this.

19 x 1 = 19 -- 1+9 = 10 -- 1+0 = 1

19 x 2 = 38 -- 3+8 = 11 -- 1+1 = 2

19 x 3 = 57 -- 5+7 = 12 -- 1+2 = 3

19 x 4 = 76 -- 7+6 = 13 -- 1+3 = 4

19 x 5 = 95 -- 9+5 = 14 -- 1+4 = 5

19 x 6 = 114 -- 11+4 = 15 -- 1+5 = 6

19 x 7 = 133 -- 13+3 = 16 -- 1+6 = 7

19 x 8 = 152 -- 15+2 = 17 -- 1+7 = 8

19 x 9 = 171 -- 17+1 = 18 -- 1+8 = 9

19 x 10 = 190 -- 19+0 = 19 -- 1+9 = 10

Did you notice anything? You must have! This miracle is nothing but juggling of numbers.

First, multiply 19 by 1, 2, 3, ... up to 10 and write its answers. Now add the corresponding digits of the outcome one by one and you will get a sum from 10 to 19, respectively.

For example, when you multiply 19 by 1, you will get 19x1=19 and after adding its digits 1 and 9, you get 10 i.e.,1+9=10 and when you multiply 19 by 2, you get 19x2=38 and addition of its digits will yield the answer as 11 (3+8=11) and so on.

If you probe deep into the result, you will be amazed to see that further addition of the additive resultant of digits will bring numbers from 1 to 10, respectively, which will be same as those digits with which 19 has been multiplied.

To understand it, take this example. If you multiply 19 by 3, you will get 57 i.e. 19x3=57. Now add the digits of the answer which are 5 and 7 i.e. 5+7=12. Again, after adding the digits 1 and 2, you will get 1+2=3, which is same as the number with which you have multiplied 19. Hence, the ultimate outcome of 19 multiplied by 3 comes out to be three again.

Therefore, friends you must have learnt the techniques of getting marvellous results from the table of 19.

(bansalvanadana@yahoo.com)

Jalandhar, September 18
Sanskriti KMV School celebrated Hindi week. As part of the celebrations, the Hindi teachers conducted the morning assembly and gave all commands in Hindi. Jatinder Yadav of class VII talked about the significance of Hindi language. Besides, literary couplets, riddles, jokes and short stories were also narrated.

Jalandhar, September 18
With just 10 days left for the birth centenary of Bhagat Singh, the youth brigade in the city is gearing up arranging for the celebrations. From holding processions to torch marches, conducting poetical sessions, speeches and musical programmes, the preparations are at full swing across the city for the mega event.

Though a state-level function has been scheduled for September 27 at Khatkar Kalan, national-level celebrations are slated for September 28 at Amritsar. The district administration has also chalked out a district-level event to celebrate Bhagat Singh’s birthday.

As per the plan, around 100 local youth in the age group of 16 to 22 years would dress like Bhagat Singh and will start a march towards Jallianwala Bagh carrying torches on September 27.

Besides, the administration would also organise a programme at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall in which school and college students will present patriotic songs and items related to the freedom struggle. The youth representatives of various social and political bodies too have their independent programmes for remembering the martyr.

As part of the celebrations, members of the CPI (ML) have been holding “Kafla inqlab marches” in various parts of the district. They have been leading processions raising slogans “inqlab zindabad, samraj murdabad,” at Bilga village, Noormahal, Kartarpur and Mehatpur. The members also plan to hold a massive torch march on September 21 night at Kartarpur. To add to the jubilations, an “azadi shradhanjli samaroh” would be organised by the comrades’ at Khatkar Kalan. Describing about the programme, local activist Kashmir Singh Ghugshore said farmers, youth, students and representatives of other sections would be converging on their programme to pay tributes to Bhagat Singh.