Jalandhar, February 24
Taking advantage of the laxity adopted by the municipal corporation for the past few months, the owners of marriage palaces seem to have thrown the mandatory parking provisions to the winds and have been violating the MC bylaws openly.

Since it has been a peak season for marriage palaces, they have been making the most of it by enjoying the freedom to use their parking areas for another marriage function or arranging elaborate stalls in the open. This clearly leaves the visitors to park their cars along the roadsides, leading to trouble for the commuters along the highways.

The scenes of unauthorised parking are quite common outside the palaces on the GT Road, Nakodar Road, Kapurthala Road, Pathankot bypass and even Hoshiarpur Road, making the highways accident-prone. Even the palaces and hotels arranging such functions in the city such as those on Ladowali Road and the old GT Road have failed to make adequate parking arrangements for the guests. The roads remain clogged day and night with hundreds of vehicles that are lined up outside these palaces.

Earlier, almost all palaces had made temporary or permanent parking arrangements by vacating a portion of their own land or acquiring some vacant land around their periphery for the purpose. The MC officials had then held meetings with the palace owners and even issued them notices. A few palaces were even sealed for not taking any corrective measures.

The visitors often find their vehicles stuck up in the middle of the haphazard parking with only an option to wait for the function to be over before they could move their cars out of the mess. The issue has been raised several times in the public grievances committee meetings in the past two years.

MC commissioner Vinay Bublani said an action would soon be taken against the palace owners who had been disregarding the instructions.

Jalandhar, February 24
It has been a state of misery for all those who were still unable to get the benefit of the latest techniques and the advancements which were taking place in the medical science at a fast pace.

“Smile Pinky”, a short documentary by Megan Mylan, which has won the Oscar award in Los Angeles, still has failed to motivate the people to come forward and help in getting smiles on the faces of hundreds of other Pinkys living in remote areas of the county with cleft lip.

Crores of people of remote areas do not have any access to the technology. Moreover, these people were unaware of the treatment of this deformity. A majority of them struggle for one-time meal, while many others die because of hunger.

The “ugly” side could be well imagined as the number of patients who suffered from the disorder were on an increase. Mothers suffering from malnutrition gave birth to kids with this disorder. According to expert reports, incidence of cleft lip is 1:700 live births and quite common among those mothers who suffered from malnutrition.

Talking to The Tribune, city plastic surgeon Dr Puneet Pasricha claimed that his hospital had tied up with the Smile Train, a charity organisation from New York, to carry out surgeries free of cost. The medicines, state-of-the-art surgery and hospital stay were provided free of cost. The person could get the treatment at the age of three months.

He said Smile Train had been providing free treatment to these children and they could now lead a normal life.

Jalandhar, February 24
Aged NRI Dr Avtar Singh showed an exemplary way to others to celebrate birthday. The NRI came all the way from the USA to celebrate his 80th birthday by sponsoring an eye camp at Raipur Pir Bux Wala, a remote village of Kapurthala.Dr Avtar Singh, a senior plant diseases specialist (PhD) entomology, in collaboration with Jalandhar-based Bapu Inder Singh Charitable Trust organised a free eye camp at the community centre on Saturday.

His birthday guests were more than 250 patients and 15 volunteers, besides the trust chairman Avtar Singh, president Dalip Singh, secretary Dr Gurpartap Singh and other office-bearers.

All the eye patients were examined and given free medicines. As many as 35 cases were selected for the cataract operations. Laboratory tests were conducted on the camp venue. About 22 patients were transported to Jalandhar where stitchless cataract surgeries were conducted and intra ocular lenses implanted. 

All patients were transported back to their villages the same day after the operations. The rest of patients would be operated in the next few days at Jalandhar.

There is an interestingly story behind Avtar Singh’s decision to celebrate his birthday in the novel way.

Avtar Singh has been coming to Delhi for the past three years. This time he met Dr Harinder Singh of Punjab Agricultural University who was currently on an assignment to the USA. Dr Harinder Singh told him about his brother-in-law Dr Tajinder Singh Goindi MD (ophthalmology), former Punjab civil medical services chief medical officer, who was staying in the city.

When Dr Tajinder came to know that Dr Avtar Singh’s birthday fell at the time of his visit to India, he suggested him the novel idea of celebrating his birthday by sponsoring the free eye operation camp in remote rural villages of Punjab. Immediately, he agreed and joined hands with the Bapu Inder Singh Charitable Trust, Mithapur via Garha, Jalandhar.

At a brief and simple inauguration ceremony of the camp, he was honoured with a siropa by zila parishad member Jagjit Singh Dala, Kapurthala.

Jalandhar, February 24
A swap kidney transplant tied two strangers from different corners of the country into a strong bond at Kidney Hospital and Lifeline Medical Institutions here.

The kidney transplant is said to be the first of its kind in the region. It was conducted after obtaining permissions from the respective state governments of the native places of the patients.

Dr R.S. Chahal, medical director of the hospital, while addressing mediapersons, claimed to have conducted a swap kidney transplant on two patients, Alka Sood, a resident of Tutu, near Shimla, in Himachal Pradesh and Ankit Gupta of Subhash Nagar in Bareilly (UP), after getting kidneys from their wives, Kuldeep Sood and Shalini Gupta.

Seeking a solution to renal failure, the couples had approached the hospital for kidney transplants but faced disappointment because of non-compatibility. However, a cross-matching of organs made the transplant possible and the swap facility was offered to them, the doctor claimed.

Dr Chahal said, “The health ministry has finished drafting changes in the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994. Under the new rules, which have been made public for comments, swapping of vital organs between willing but incompatible donors will be made legal. A copy of the draft has also been given to the Delhi High Court. Attempts are being made to finalise the recommendations that will make organ transplant easy for genuine patients.”

The health ministry had also been planning incentives for live cadaver donors in order to curb commercialisation, he claimed. The hospital management made both the couples available for media here today.

Jalandhar, February 24
The continuous casual chatter of restless students hits the walls as they fill the auditorium to its capacity. After some announcements, felicitations and a lamp lighting ceremony, the guru comes in and gives a brief introduction about Manipuri dance and the first episode to be performed.

In a programme wrapped up in unbelievable grace, poise and warmth, artiste couple and Manipuri dance exponents Padma Shri Guru Rajkumar Singhajit Singh and his wife Charu Shija Mathur performed at a concert held at the Lovely Professional University in association with Spic Macay, along with their other troupe members. 

Hitherto unexposed to almost 'anything' from Manipur, the students could not have had a better and more responsible way of being introduced to ‘the jeweled land’.

The concert started with an episode from the Raslila depicting the play of colours between Radha and Krishna during the spring season. The students seemed to have a thing for Radha’s (played by senior dancer Nandita Devi) costume here, especially her traditional green potloi (skirt) sighing in awe as she first entered the stage. Krishna was played by Charu Shija Mathur.

This episode set the mood for an enriching, goose bumpy experience, a bird’s eye view into the culture of Manipur through the grace-strewn performances of the artistes.

Next came the Pung Cholom, performed by Inaocha Singh Keirungmba Singh and Ashakumar Singh, this was a vigorous drum dance, an excerpt from the sankirtana in the temples of Manipur. The three artistes were almost a mirror image of each other. Their moves and somersaults flawlessly coordinated with the beats of the 
Pung (drum) that they themselves played.

Pung Cholom was followed by Maibi, the dance of the high priestess who reckons the youth to wake up from their slumber. An ancient variety of a pre-Hindu dance form, it was supported by Sanatumbi Devi’s vocals and Jagannath Ghoshal’s flute.

Poise seemed to carry Nandita Devi through as she performed in a solemn white costume exuberating unparallelled grace.

Then came the prayer to Goddess Bhubaneswari, a dance performed by Guru Singhajit Singh and Charu Shija Mathur, reflecting both the masculine and feminine aspects of dance. Dancing to the accompaniment of cymbals played by themselves, him playing the bigger one and she the smaller one representing the masculine and feminine aspect, respectively.

The last performance was another drum dance in which big drums were used to express the gay abandon and festivities of the holy festival of Manipur.

The performances brought out the lasya (lyrical) and tandava (vigorous) aspects of the Manipuri dance.

Bewitched by the charm of the dance form and the performers, one of the many requests and questions the students asked Guru Singhajit and Guruma Charu during the interactive session was if she could touch their feet.

The student indeed came up the stage and did so. Moved by their love for them, the artistes also lay their hearts out for the students.

Guru Singhajit told them how he and Charu met when she was just 14 and was learning dance from him. “I had many students but she was the brightest. We used to have a lot of arguments and disagreements. I decided to punish her someway. I decided marriage was the best way to do so,” he chuckled, making the students hoot out loud in answer.

Charu on being questioned how she copes with the may roles in life as a woman, told the students that she received a lot of support from her husband and in-laws who cooperated fully when she had to abstain from dance during the birth of their two daughters.

Whatever art form or dance form you pursue, pursue it using your heart, never 'consciously' pursue art, try to make it a part of your system, something that comes naturally to you, he told the students.

Jalandhar, February 24
Days and nights both seem super short. The taken-for-granted books which lay ignored all year around now suddenly seem to be some fat, huge, ugly epics beyond the limits of comprehension. 

Alphabets and numbers look like some horrendous gnats with a thousand slimy limbs making the skin creep with so much as a single glance (good old Ishan Awasthi from Taare Zameen Par might agree on that one) feb. 

Even if you overcome all of the above, eyes just won’t open with a million ton-cement-block-hanging-from-them feeling every time you eye that torturous textbook.