The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Delhi and neighbourhood

	Woman shot in West Delhi New Delhi, January 4 Anita Arora, 35, was shot at and seriously injured by an unidentified assailant at her West Delhi home, the police said today. Anita Arora was rushed to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, after her teenaged son found her lying unconscious and profusely bleeding from a head injury inside their Patel Nagar home early on Friday. The police said that she was alone in the bedroom, when the assailant pumped three bullets into her head. Anita’s son, who was sleeping in the next room, went to her bedroom to check after hearing her scream. Anita’s husband Avinash Arora was at the milk booth near their house when the incident took place. “My son immediately informed me about the attack and we took her to the hospital,” Avinash told reporters.“We have no enmity with anyone and are unaware about the motive behind the firing,” Avinash added. The police ruled out robbery as the motive behind the crime, as no valuable was reported missing till late Thursday.According to the police, the boy and one of their neighbours had seen the assailant fleeing, after the incident. “We are trying to prepare a sketch of the attacker and teams have been formed to apprehend him,” a senior investigating official said. — IANS
	Threat to blow up Akshardham temple New Delhi, January 4 Security at the famous Akshardham temple in the Capital was beefed up on Friday, after the police received intelligence inputs that Kashmiri militants planned to blow it up. “We received an input that some militants belonging to Kashmiri-based groups were planning to create terror in the Capital by blowing up the temple,” deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Alok Kumar said. He did not specify which militant group was planning to carry out the attack. Following the input, the police has deployed more personnel at the temple on the banks of the river Yamuna in East Delhi, visited by thousands of people daily. The Akshardham temple has recently made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for being the world’s largest Hindu temple complex. The temple is spread over expansive lawns covering an area of 86,342 sq feet and is 356 feet wide and 141 feet high. Intelligence agencies had last month warned that militants plan to carry out terror strikes in the Capital. — PTI
	MCD questions demolition monitoring panel New Delhi, January 4 The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) today questioned the appointment of the monitoring committee formed by the Delhi High Court last year to supervise demolition of unauthorised constructions in the Capital. Senior counsel for the MCD Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned the existence of a “parallel body”. Ravi Shankar cited various examples before the court and asked why a monitoring committee had not been appointed for other civic agencies despite flaws in their functioning. “AIIMS work had suffered, when there was a tussle between health minister A. Ramadoss and ex-director P. Venugopal, then why the court did not form a body to oversee its functioning, at that time?” Shankar also pointed over the functioning of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which despite court orders could not rectify the delay of flights due to fog, and asked why no committee had been constituted for it, till date. A division bench comprising Justices A.K. Sikri and Rekha Sharma told the MCD, “We have the power to form a committee under Article 226 of the Constitution and we are adhering to that.” The MCD has to file its reply by January 11. “We have formed the monitoring committee, only when we found our directions were not being implemented properly,” the bench said while making its stand clear over constituting the body. On December 18, the MCD cited observations from a Supreme Court bench against “judicial over-reach” and sought dissolution of the committee devised by the Delhi High Court to oversee demolition of unauthorised constructions in the Capital. In its application, the MCD said the High Court orders for setting up the monitoring committee and appointing the court commissioners were actually encroachments on its executive powers, and thus, according to the Supreme Court, violated the basic structure of the constitution. — IANS
	Hoax calls keep police on toes Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 4 Crime apart, a number of frivolous calls on the PCR during the year gone by kept the Delhi Police busy. According to the report released by the Delhi Police in its annual conference, a total of 6,370 bogus calls were made to the PCR last year, keeping the sleuths on their toes. However, the saving grace was that there was a decline of 27 per cent in the number of such calls in 2007 compared to 2006, which had clocked 8,771 bogus calls. A whopping 726 calls complaining about use of loudspeakers in odd hours during marriages and other functions turned out to be bogus. In all a total of 11,55,247 calls were made to the PCR as against 9,95,691 in 2006. On an average 3,310 calls were made in a day which is an increase of 457 from 2006.
	Cold grip continues Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 4 Even as the cold wave gripping the National Capital Territory of Delhi continued, there was a slight increase in the minimum. This was because of the thin layer of fog which enveloped the area early morning. The minimum temperature was recorded at 3 degrees Celsius, four notches below normal and up by almost one degree Celsius from yesterday’s 1.9 degree Celsius. The Met office said that there may be some relief from the cold wave in the weekend and the minimum temperature was expected to rise to four degrees Celsius.
	Three ATM thieves arrested Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 4 The South West District police today arrested three persons – Prashant Sharma, Dinesh Kumar and Mohit Malik, who broke ATMs in various parts of the Capital and stole a hefty amount. A case was registered on December 30 at the Vasant Kunj police station regarding a theft of Rs 1,84,000 from the ATM of ICICI Bank, B-7 Vasant Kunj Market. ATM guard Vidhya Sagar, who was on duty on the fateful day, revealed that a firm was having a contract for the maintenance of the ATM and two of its employees had come to repair the ATM. The police interrogated the employees of the firm and monitored the CCTV recordings of the ATM booth. Following this, three employees of the firm — Prashant Sharma, Dinesh Kumar and Mohit Malik were arrested. Vidhya Sagar identified Prashant Sharma and Dinesh Kumar. Mohit Malik was arrested on the duo’s instance. The three hail from Baghpat in UP. They admitted of stealing Rs 4,50,000 from the ATM of ICICI Bank, Chandni Chowk. Raids were conducted at various places on their instance and a total amount of Rs. 3,55,000 was recovered.
	MCD schools closed till Jan 13 Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 4 The MCD-run schools will remain closed till January 13 due to the ongoing cold wave in the Capital, Education Committee chairman Prithviraj Sahini said. He said the schools run by the corporation, which reopened on January 1 after the winter vacation, would remain closed till January 13 due to the prevailling cold wave conditions in the city. ‘’The schools will reopen on January 14,’’ he said. The city has been experiencing a severe cold wave since the beginning of this week with the mercury plummeting to 1.9 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.
	Nagar kirtan held Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 4 The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) organised a nagar kirtan today on the eve of the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. The procession passed through Pt. Pant Marg, Ashoka Road, Patel Chowk, Parliament Street, Regal Building, Connaught Circus, Madras Hotel, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Market, Gole Market, Bhai Veer Singh Road, Gole Post Office and Baba Kharak Singh Marg. The nagar kirtan terminated at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib late in the evening. Schoolchildren from Guru Harkrishan Public School and other Khalsa-aided schools including bands, gatka parties, shabad kirtan jathas also participated in the nagar kirtan. S Paramjit Singh Sarna, president, DSGMC; S Kuldip Singh, senior vice-president; S Davinder Singh Kawatra, junior vice-president; S Balbir Singh, general secretary, DSGMC and S Kartar Singh Kochhar, joint secretary and were also present.
	Is Agra safe for foreign tourists? Brij Khandelwal Agra, January 4 On an average, 20,000 tourists visit the Taj Mahal every day. But comments written in the Visitors’ Book at the world famous monument reveal how shocked and concerned foreigners are about crime in this city. Many say they will never return while others say it was a mistake to have come. Foreign visitors have been easy targets of unscrupulous cheats and touts masquerading as guides and friendly neighbourhood faces in Agra. They reported at least a dozen cases of rape, harassment, theft and cheating last year. The figures tell a grim story of how government agencies have been callously indifferent to the sordid tales of harassment, molestation, snatching and plain cheating that have brought a bad name to the city of the Taj which every tourist entering India wants to see. After a hue and cry following the gangrape of two Japanese tourists in September 2007, a new Tourist Thana—a special police station for tourists—was opened. But the situation has not improved. In the last quarter of 2007, at least half a dozen complaints were lodged by foreign tourists. The latest is the shocking case of a Russian woman tourist being shot dead in the Kamayani Express train on the Agra-Jhansi stretch on December 28 while it was running. Unidentified desperadoes armed with guns entered the AC compartment and started looting and bashing up passengers between Dabora and Panhai. When the Russian couple protested, the woman was shot point blank and the husband beaten up. One of the most shocking was the gangrape of the two Japanese girls on September 19. The girls were so shocked that they did not even lodge a complaint in Agra. The complaint was registered in New Delhi with assistance from officials of the Japanese embassy. Agra Police later registered a case. Three persons are now in jail. After that case, there has been a decrease in the number of tourists from Japan, according to half a dozen Japanese language knowing guides at the Taj Mahal. A survey by Shyam Vir Singh, a researcher, shows that most victims in 2007 were those who had problems with their English. “The Japanese, the Koreans and even some south Indians find it hard to communicate in Hindi or in English and are often misunderstood. Being extra polite could mean acceptance of an offer to drink or spend time together,” Singh explains. In another case, acid was thrown on a Russian girl when she was returning with her friend after dinner at a hotel on Mall Road on November 28. Every few days a foreign or domestic tourist is cheated or harassed by touts called ‘lapkas’ in local parlance. 2007 started with a theft case in the hotel Taj View. The victim was a foreigner called Jolandra from West Europe. Another tourist, Anwar Mohammed, was a victim of theft and lost dollars, pounds and a credit card. Malaysia’s Sheng became a victim of harassment and attempted molestation on February 5. Tourists from the Philippines on February 17 last year lodged a complaint of theft of camera and some currency inside the Taj Mahal premises. In March the same year, two American female tourists lodged a complaint of harassment and taunts, again inside the Taj premises. The Government Railway Police (GRP) station at Agra Cantonment is still investigating at least a dozen cases. — IANS
	Mother, five kids burnt Parmindar Singh Ghaziabad, January 4 A woman and her five children perished when their house in village Kastala Kasmabad under Pilkhua police station in Hapur caught fire yesterday night. Four of the children had died on the spot while the mother and her two-month-old baby succumbed to burn injures in a Delhi hospital on Friday afternoon. Her husband and another daughter continue to be in a critical condition in the hospital. District magistrate Deepak Agarwal has issued instructions for giving financial help to the family. The death of five children and their mother has cast a gloom on the village and stunned the villagers. The family of Inderpal Nat (bards), originally from Rajasthan, had been living in the house of Tejvir on the outskirts of the village Kastala Kasmabad for about past 12 years. The family had gone to bed after lighting a kerosene lamp in the hut. But lamp appears to have fallen from its niche during the night, causing the blaze. The villagers could not go in to rescue the inmates, after hearing the alarm raised by the inmates as the blaze was very strong at the only entrance of the room. By the time the inmates were rescued, four kids—Komal, 14, Ashish, 10, Monica, 8, and Nirmala, 4, had already died. Inderpal, 35, and his wife Kusum, 31, daughter Sonica, 6, and two-year-old son, Vishal were badly charred. Though police and fire tenders did not take long to arrive, but by then the damage had been done. All badly charred were rushed to Ghaziabad district hospital. They were later referred to a Delhi hospital where Kusum and Vishal also succumbed to their burns while Inderpal and Sonica are dangling between life and death.
	Indian music industry is coming of age: Kunal Ganjawala Shweta Thakur New Delhi, January 4 Bollywood playback singer Kunal Ganjawala blames his originality for achieving success late compared to his contemporaries. But he also feels the Indian music industry is changing. “There is a lot of struggle in the music industry and for me it was an individual one. It took me really long to succeed because I was real,” Ganjawala told IANS here. “When I started my singing career, the clones of past singers were required, but I refused to copy and maintained my style. Hence, it took time for me to make it to the hearts of music directors and success was delayed,” he explained. But, he is upbeat about the future of the music industry. “The Indian music industry is slowly coming of age. Today, songs are made keeping singers in mind and soon specialised singing will take the industry by storm. “Moreover, if producers ask their music directors to make original music and give time to the singer to rehearse, we could churn out many more beautiful songs.” The singer struck fame with the song ‘Bheege honth tere...’. His numbers in films like – ‘Saathiya’, ‘Dhoom’, ‘Krrish’ and ‘Saawariya’, to name some, set sales soaring. Once a participant in the reality music talent hunt show ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’, Kunal is currently judging ‘Chhote Ustaad’ and says that he is tired of seeing the wrong people win. “I am sick of seeing the wrong person winning a competition. Now, we (Kunal, Pritam and Shreya) have got the power and we will undo the wrong. “This year, I have taken a resolution that this reality show will become a true talent hunt show. We will select the most talented singer instead of the most popular one,” said Kunal, who was in the Capital to promote ‘Chhote Ustaad’. Kunal also slammed the phenomenon of judges fighting on-screen. “Whether on screen or off screen, at no point of time can one compromise on etiquette. I don’t think that such tussles are shown to increase TRPs. Actually, when different points of view clash, they fuel such clashes. “But, as a layman, I believe no one should fight. Moreover, it should not be shown on screen, as nobody likes to see it. “I don’t think such fights will happen among us because we are very simple people and have no hidden motives.Also, we discuss more about the voices of participants and our point of focus is kids, not we,” concluded Kunal. In an ever-demanding profession, where the burnout rate is rapid, what keeps Kunal going? “Our profession is extremely taxing and I think marriage proves to be a great help. My wife Gayatri Iyer is from the same field and understands the pressures very well.For instance, when I am travelling, she would just message me to give a call, when I am free. “Distance does matter but spending quality time and each other’s support largely helps cope with work pressures.” — IANS

Two criminals shot

Mathura, January 4
Two criminals were killed in an encounter near Daddi Gadhi village in the district today.

On the basis of a tip-off by police that a group of criminals had stolen a truck and fled towards the district, the police chased them. The six criminals abandoned the truck after some time and tried to flee. Police opened fire at them and in the subsequent encounter, two of them were killed while the rest fled — PTI

Cross-hatching finds a new voice in Bhowmick’s art show
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 4
It is an art form that was immortalized by stalwarts like F. N. Souza and Jogen Chowdhury in the past and now cross-hatching finds a new voice in Delhi-based Ashok Bhowmick’s art show at Kumar Gallery. Bhowmick first paints with acrylic and then cross-hatches it with pen and ink using a dip-nib.

King Stag by Ashok Bhowmick

Thousands of intricately drawn lines and usage of deep shadow and dramatic shade-light in his work makes him a master of cross-hatching and acrylic washes.

Cross-hatching is a method of shading with lines that are either parallel or cross one another to create a mesh-like pattern. Multiple layers in varying direction are also used to create texture and tonal effects.

Says Sunit Kumar Jain, director, Kumar Gallery, “In this show, Bhowmick makes several social and political comments like issue of street children, women emancipation, political dynasties and yet, his works are optimistic celebrating life in its myriad aspects. He uses the symbol of a bird as the protagonist in all his work, sometimes as a story-teller, sometimes as an observer.”

Born in Nagpur, 1953, the artist completed his diploma in Fine Arts from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta. His works exhibit his close connection to the political situation in the state of West Bengal. A distinct feature of his work is the manipulation in his portrayal of images, which makes living objects appear frozen, and energizes inactive, lifeless elements.

For Bhowmick, painting is a means of connecting with the masses. He says: “Urban art is often the expression of lonely or socially and spiritually uprooted individuals. The timeless symbols of the old culture are still meaningful, but they are badly in need of renewal in fresh contemporary forms. And only artists can do so, for they bring back the dead wood of abstraction to life.”

Bhowmick works best when he digs into his personal trove of fond memories, when jesters, puppets, kings, queens and other childhood favourites romp through his paintings searching for the moon, conversing with a bird. His works are figurative and contains a lot of contemporary themes based on the society he lives in.

For example in his work titled Ektara, Wind Toy, Boatman and Flute, part of his Street Child Series, he captures the moment of ecstasy of the poor kids who beg on the streets for earning one square meal a day.

While a simple penny given to them can put a bewitching smile on their face, rejection only makes them retreat into their own melancholy world without a complaint. These works make the onlooker realize that money may give worldly pleasures but not happiness.

Bhowmick caricatures the bird as the main protagonist in most of his paintings, making it a story-teller at times and a messenger at others. In Three Birds, the bird communicates with a lady who seems to be full of loneliness even in the middle of festivity.

It is the bird’s wisdom that sends out a message about women’s emancipation.

In Dynasty-III the bird, once again, plays a prominent role by recording political situations of the past and relating them to the present, breaking the false truth of democracy in the country.

Asks the artist: “Why is that a king’s son is always king? Even today we can see that powerful families dominate the political scenario.

Since money and power is both being inherited today, I paint the irony of the political world.”

In his work, Bhowmick portrays the dead king as the man without eyes while his sons are caught up in a struggle for power.

In a similar vein of thought, he paints Procession where the crowd of commoners holds a rally with puppets of king, queen, birds and animals in a unique interpretation of how the common man follows his leader in blind faith.

In yet another satirical attack, Bhowmick paints Her Tiger, part of Royal Bengal Tiger Series, demanding a need to break the illusion of parochial egos that boast of intellectual conceit.