Jalandhar, June 30
Reaching great heights in their shooting career, two shooters of the PAP Shooting Range, Jalandhar cantonment, Ajitesh Kaushal and Nikita Gupta have been selected for the First Youth Asiad Games which started at Singapore on Monday. The games would conclude on July 7.

The shooters left for Singapore on June 28. The team has been selected on the basis of scores achieved in the National Shooting Championship and selection trials held at Pune. Ajitesh and Nikita have been selected in the air pistol category.

A total of eight shooters have been selected for the Indian team. There are four air pistol and four air rifle shooters.

Talking to The Tribune, PAP Shooting Range General Secretary Rakesh Kaushal said it was indeed an honour for the city that two shooters from Jalandhar had made it to these games. “And we are sure of a good show this time. Moreover, we have opened the shooting range for the public. This would help make the game more popular among the locals,” he added.

Ajitesh has participated in the Open Shooting Championships held at Hungary, Munich and Pilzen (Czech Republic). He won two gold medals at Hungarian Open Shooting Championship, 2008 and one gold medal this year. Besides, he has won many gold medals at the state and at the national-level tournaments.

On the other hand, Nikita Gupta, who is a budding shooter, won a silver medal in the 18th All-India GV Mavlankar Shooting Championship and a bronze medal in the National Championship this year.

The promising shooter participated in Suhl (Germany) and Pilzen (Czech Republic) shooting championship held this year. The girl has won many medals, including gold at the state level. 

Jalandhar, June 30
It all began with his craze to collect Spiderman sketches. As a year-and-a-half-old child, Ritvick Mehra (now 10) often told his mother to draw sketches of the cartoon character for him.

“I would try to copy the cartoon from books and other items as closely as possible for my son but he would never get satisfied. He would often find some mistake and start crying asking for a perfect sketch. 

Dissatisfied with my sketches, he would get down to the same job taking pencil in his own hand,” recalls Suman, mother of Ritvick, who has just won an online drawing competition organised by a US-based website drawingday.org. Ritvick had sent five entries of sketches of Sai Baba, Bumblebee, Goku, its higher power level SSJ3 and his self-created eight-pack-ab cartoon on June 6 for which he has been declared the first prize winner out of a total of one million contestants.

He has just received a hardware which functions as a digital pad and pen and is meant for making sketches directly on computer, as his prize. It was by sheer chance that Ritvick’s elder brother Nikhilesh Mehra got to know about the contest. “I had logged on to the site cartoonsonline.com which had carried information about the contest.

Sanah (Rivick’s nickname) often used to take tutorials on cartoon making from the site,” he said. Using his black pen, writing pads and sheets, the boy has even created his own collection of comic strips titled “Revenge” based on the struggle of a powerful warrior.

The inspiration perhaps comes from his father Lieut-Col Baldev Raj posted at Hisar. Of late, he has started creating the story of another one of his creations, a cartoon character called “Strope” who is a football player. Ritvick has become so proficient in the art that he does not even need to rub his sketches even once. 

As a concerned mother, Suman has carefully assembled all sheets, pads and drawing copies of her son’s creations in a folder and plans to get one of these series printed soon. A class VI student of State Public School, Jalandhar cantonment, Ritvick follows football matches very closely. 

He also regularly watches his favourite cartoon programmes Dragonball-Z and Naruto on Cartoon Network - both of which are based on powerful heroic characters. He is also an ardent reader of Marvel comics and nurses a passion in preparing rap compositions to which his brother lends his voice.

Jalandhar, June 30
The 323 Air Defence (AD) Regiment from Vadodara, Gujarat, came all the way to Jalandhar, the hometown of young martyr Capt Roopendra Singh Garcha, to present a guard of honour on his death anniversary.

An annual feature, the AD regiment has been sending a contingent every year in the memory of the martyr.

The contingent, lead by Capt Sanjeet Mahapatra, presented an impressive guard of honour and laid a wreath at the memorial to the young martyr in the local Urban Estate Phase-II, Shopping Complex.

“It has been a tradition in our regiment and we have been coming here every year to present a guard of honour to the young martyr,” said Capt Mahapatra.

Lieut-Col J.S. Garcha, father of Capt Garcha, said they had formed a Capt Roopendra Singh Garcha Memorial Trust in the memory of his son.

“As my son was an NCC ‘C’ certificate holder, we have been conducting an NCC Golf Cup every year. Besides this, we are planning to provide financial assistance to economically weaker students from certain colleges of the city in his memory,” he added.

Air Defence College, Gopalpur (Orissa), too has constituted a “young officer trophy” in the name of Capt Garcha. The officer was killed during an explosion while fighting militants near Lakirpur village in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on June 30, 2000.

He was commissioned in the Corps of Army Air Defence and he joined 323 AD Regiment on September 5, 1997, at the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai. Capt Garcha always wanted to be a part of the glorious armed forces and completed four courses, including commando training, during his tenure in the Indian army.

Commander of 91 Sub Area, Brig A.K. Sharma, the chief guest on the occasion, laid a wreath on the statue of Capt Garcha. The ceremony was attended by serving and retired army officers and their families. Deputy Director of District Sainik Welfare Office Lieut-Col Manmohan Singh also laid a wreath on the statue of the young officer.

Addressing the gathering on the ninth death anniversary of the officer, Brig Sharma said the supreme sacrifice of Capt Garcha would always motivate the younger generation to be part of the armed forces. 

Jalandhar, June 30
White dots intermitted with coloured footprints lead one to a room on the first floor of Virsa Vihar where the action is taking place. The doubts created by the footprints are translated into a vibrant, throbbing reality, the moment one enters the place of action. 

Paintings of a colourful butterfly, a huge laughing clown, some hands trying to reach flying balloons and two kids playing around the alphabets “colors of life” - all done on newspaper - adorn the walls of the room along with some clay statuettes of a jiving, kid-world, cowboy guy (which you later come to know is again compressed newspaper, not clay).

Arranged by painter Amit, the 11-day art workshop was held at Virsa Vihar (from June 18), which provided lessons in calligraphy, lettering, poster making, cartooning and puppet making, mask making, to art and craft lovers of the city.

With a total of 15 participants (almost all kids) the workshop was a hit with the students, some of them coming in from places like Kapurthala, Batala and Ropar.

The dry leaves decorating the entrance were picked up by Amit from outside the DC office complex. A weathered, bone-dry tree which acts as a hanger for the artworks of the kids was picked from the junk he found outside a tea stall.

While talking to The Tribune, 10-year-old Srishti said, “Calligarphy and lettering are what I loved the most, I had never attended an art class at school or anywhere else where I was taught such a huge variety of stuff.”

Aarti, mother of a student from Ropar, said, “Nitish (her son) didn’t know anything about the art as yet, I’m happy that he took a good start.”

Saruchi (24), an interior designer, said what she learnt during the workshop would help her immensely in giving better results as a professional too.

Speaking on the occasion, Amit, whose transformation from a realistic painter into a specialist in animation and mask-making talks of his range and hold in the art, said the sole reason for him to organise the workshop was to instill a culture of arts among the kids.

“I hate to see sad kids walking down the streets. Making their kids befriend colours is one of the best ways parents can help boost their energy and happiness. Besides, for the city to get a better environment in arts, things will have to begin from kids.” 

Jalandhar, June 30
Lyallpur Khalsa College lifted the ‘A’ division overall championship trophy in the men’s section, while Hans Raj Mahila Vidyalaya clinched the ‘A’ division overall championship trophy in the women’s section during the 39th annual sports prize distribution of Guru Nanak Dev University.

At a function held at Dashmesh Auditorium, both the colleges were given individual trophies, besides cash awards to the sportspersons for excellence in various disciplines of sports. While Khalsa College won this trophy with 123 points in the men’s section, HMV won the top honours by scoring 157 points in the women’s section.

The sports women of HMV took part in 38 championships and not only won the overall trophy, but beat its previous record. The college participated in 38 disciplines of games, of which it won 22 championships. HMV bagged the 10th runners-up position and the five second runners-up positions in different inter-college championships held last year.

HMV Principal J. Kackeria said the girls gave a tough competition to the other colleges affiliated to the university. “Our girls bagged the gold medals at the all-India level in football, kabaddi, softball, hockey, athletics and yoga. Besides, these 15 girls have won the gold medals at the national level, while 23 students have won at the all-India university level,” she added.

Khalsa College participated in 39 inter-college competitions. The college bagged the first position in 12 games, second position in 14 games and third position in seven games. Besides, it won the Teja Singh Samundri Championship Trophy of the university for the ninth time during the previous academic session.

Talking to The Tribune, Khalsa College Principal Dr Jaspal Singh Randhawa said the college had remained a front-runner in various disciplines of sports. “Keeping in sync with needs of the sportspersons, we conducted a fitness camp for the players in the campus which was a big success. The college has played a key role in churning out some of the best national and international level players,” he added.