Jalandhar, April 9
It has been a complete brush with the Indian culture for the seven students, two teachers and their principal from a Swedish school on a 10-day tour to Police DAV Public School here.

From learning to apply mehndi, making various colourful patterns of rangoli, attending prayer and yoga sessions, taking culinary classes in Indian cooking, attending dance classes on Indian music and donning Indian traditional dresses with parandis on their hair, the class VIII Swedish students have had a chance to imbibe it all.

But the Swedish students who are scheduled to leave out on Saturday believe that their most memorable moments have been their stay with the Indian host families. The foreign guests have been putting up with the same students of the host school who will visit them in Sweden in June.

As Louise Wendleby mentioned, “My hosts have been so accommodating. They have been fulfilling each of my demands. They enjoy spending time with me. I have never been pampered so much ever before.”

Mark Loyal, alias Rahul, who originally is from Haryana, was all praise for the family culture here. “The children here are much more respectful for their elders. There is so much of bonding within the families. Such values are amiss in Sweden,” he observed as he showed his henna coloured hands. Asked if he knew that boys do not apply mehndi, he replied, “I was told that but did not want to miss the experience.”

Pegah Zaree and Nazmme Noor said they enjoyed the cooking classes. “We learnt making puri, aaloo, halwa, dal and rice. We have relished dal and rice more than anything else,” they said.

Twins Annie Singh and Agam Singh, both of Punjabi origin, said they enjoyed learning the dance steps on “Sohni aaja mahi ve”.

Anandita, a school student, who is part of the exchange programme, said it had been an interesting experience interacting with the Swedish students. She had learnt about their food habits. “They have meals just twice a day and do not like too much in between. They cannot have spicy food. I have also sometimes had bland food to give my host Nazmme a company,” she laughed.

The itinerary for the academic and cultural exchange programme had a long list of other activities as well including a cricket match, soccer match, visit to a sports goods factory, historical sites at Amritsar and attending a marriage function. The team is scheduled to give a performance tomorrow evening, including one on Indian dances and another on Persian music.

Jalandhar, April 9
‘Normal’ human beings, most often, tend to take ‘normalcy’ for granted; sleeping through the obvious, unable to read or understand it, right as it happens in front of their eyes.

Its our inability to comprehend them, which makes us call them invalids, burdens, discards and morons, but it takes a chosen few to read their extraordinary traits and assets which might even put superman to shame.

Amarjit Singh Anand is one man who sees the obvious and makes the most of it.

Reaching out to parents with special children, he sees a potential in these children that few others have managed to gauge.

Running Chaanan, an association for special children, Anand not only motivates parents to spend more time and pay more attention to their children’s needs, but also makes efforts to apprise them of the latest schemes introduced for the welfare of their wards by the central government.

The association which came into existence by his efforts nearly 17 years back now has 150 local children suffering from mental retardation, Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism. The members hold meetings discussing issues on getting land from the government for starting a new special school with a student teacher ratio of 1:6 as specified by the National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped, Hyderabad, and a vocational training centre.

They even discuss means for availing new medical policies for the children and opening centres in villages with 10 such children availing a government grant of Rs 300 per day.

“But our prime focus is on sensitising the mothers of such children to take coaching from special trainers and open up small vocation centres with some support so that they can ensure a steady income for themselves as well as help children with special needs”, Anand stressed. He added that presently there was a dearth of such trainers, physiotherapists and clinical psychologists.

While most parents believe that these children are good for nothing, Anand insists that it is a totally wrong perception.

He clarifies, “Recently, I have toured several places where vocational centres for special children are being run. I have realised that special children, with the help of their mothers or any able guidance, could do a lot of work ranging from making flags, envelopes, soft toys, candles, diyas, running a bakery, laundry and even doing tiffin service.”

He suggested that several corporate offices were also indulging in goodwill services for children with special needs these days. “I have met a group of five mothers and a bunch of grown up special children employed with ITC Hotels for wrapping up dried towels of different sizes, putting them in bags and supplying them to rooms in trolleys.

The leading designer fabric group, Satya Paul, has given jobs to such children for wrapping up the dress material and packaging it for export purposes.

Liquor baron Ponty Chadda runs an NGO in which special children earn by making durries and mats. There is yet another NGO that has engaged the children in collecting flowers and garlands offered in gurdwaras and temples, drying these up and sending them across to Maharashtra for use in Ganesh Chaturthi festival”, he said.

Anand rues that the northern region miserably lagged behind in carrying out any such project. In south, the Satyam Foundation and IBM have opened Smart Schools with hi-tech, multi-media classrooms for such children.

“I began doing work in this direction and realised the pain of parents of such children at the time when I could not find a good local school for the education of my daughter who suffers from Mosaic Down Syndrome.

She passed Class V from a normal school in Ambala. She is 22 now,” he concluded the discussion.

Jalandhar, April 9
Dil de rabbab yaaron vekhe jinne cher ke
Hanjhu hanjhu hoe khooa akhiyan da ged ke
Laatan te patange nachde majboor ne
Ek shisha dooja dil dono
Tutde zaroor ne…

God fearer, wife worshipper, duet starter, sarangi lover, melancholy crooner, workaholic. Nachattar Gill is the balancing act that our desi industry (going on videsi lines) seeks solace in. Mastering the sad mad blues of Punjabi music, he belts out continuous doses of bhangra beats for the bhangra-happy masses. Past three flopped releases (in 1994, 95 and 97), a failed attempt to go abroad in 1998 and battling resentment from friends and family (even having contemplated suicide!); his spirit to fight and sincerity towards music made destiny bow down to him as music director Gurmeet Singh took notice of him in 2002, giving him his first hit.

Born and brought up at Akalgarh village near Garhshankar, he was the youngest in a total of five siblings. His father being a part of a kirtani jatha, he grew up respecting traditional instruments and classical music. “I’ve never heard anyone play sarangi like my father. If I could do with my voice even a bit of what my father does with the sarangi, I’d be the best around.” He started off singing at the baal sabhas at school. Listening intently to radio while in the fields at his ancestral house with a speaker kept inverted on an earthen pot for the added affect, he learnt music from Master Parsa Singh during college and Pandit Ram Chand. By the time he did his BA, he had developed a fond love for Ghulam Ali and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (happening upon their records as his father once brought them from one of his trips abroad).

Music was his calling, he had decided on that one, but then came the most critical phase of his life - struggle. “I hopped in and out of studios looking for work. I wasn’t selected for radio, which was very important in those days. I remember all my family members used to sleep with the coolers on in the summers but I did not even have a fan for my room, because I was the only one who wasn’t earning. I had to tell one of my friends to get me one. Even the money I used to take to studios was given by my wife who sewed clothes to keep things going for us.”

Things, however, worked out in 2002 and there was no turning back for him after that. After his first hit album, followed a string of other hits in Saadi gal (2004), Pyaar ho Jauga (2005), Sahib jinnan diyan manne (2006), Naam (2007) and the latest Chadd ke na jaa (2009). He started the duet trend with his song picchon vaaj mari. “But duets have changed now. The subject tunes and lyrics have lost charm. That’s why I have also shifted to solos.”

He thinks piracy is eating in to the roots of the industry and attributes his success to his ‘team’ (of music directors, lyricists and promoters).

A Jat by origin, he is proud of the fact that many have been astounded when they heard him for the first time. “They expected me to sing a Mirza or something but when they heard me humming Ghulam Ali they said, ‘Ai Jattan da nai marasiyan da munda lagda hai’.”

Talking about the latest chad ken na ja, he says he thought he was taking a huge risk working ‘out of his team’ for the first time. As acclaimed director Sukhshinder Shinda (who generally works abroad for music) came to Bombay for the first time to do music for him since the album needed traditional instruments to be worked with. “But the album’s a huge success and I am thankful to god and my fans for that.”

The best compliment he got.

On one of my trips to Vancuover, an old lady with a kid climbed up the ferry I was in, with a lot of difficulty just to ensure whether the guy she just saw was the one who sang pichhon vaaj mari aa.

Message for upcoming artists.

Learn before you make an album.

Favourite artistes.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ghulam Ali, Feroz Khan, Salim, Satwinder Bugga, Sarddol Sikander, Gurbaksh Saunki.

Upcoming projects.

Songs in many Punjabi films.

Gill presently lives at Phagwara with his wife Dalvinder Kaur and children Sarpreet (daughter) and Manbir (son).

Jalandhar, April 9
The District Football Association would be conducting the 21st Punjab State Sub-Junior (U-16) Football Championship at Chabbewal village, Hoshiarpur, from April 14 to 19.