Donning those piercing looks
Dehradun, July 18
Where women are finding ways to shell some bucks on their favourite piece of jewellery, men in the city are catching up with the latest trends in body piercing to make a style statement. The trend for piercing the tongue, the eyebrow and the chin gained popularity with most movie stars opting for it, be it the dashing Sanju Baba or the controversy king Salman Khan.

Murdered Anshu’s parents seek CBI probe 
Dehradun, July 18
Demanding a CBI probe into the murder of 19-year-old Anshu Nautial, family members of the deceased along with activists of the Youth Congress today sat on fast at Gandhi Park here. Criticising the state government for ordering a CB-CID inquery, Anshu’s brother Harish Nautial alleged that the authorities were not handing over the case to the CBI “ deliberately”.

Soon, hostel for Gurukul girls 
Haridwar, July 18
With the UGC granting Rs 1 crore, the long-pending demand of Kanya Gurukul College for a hostel will soon be met.

Root cause t t t t t A volunteer of  Eco-Friends gives saplings to passersby at Rajpur Road in Dehradun on Saturday.  Tribune photo: Vinod Pundir

Dehradun, July 18
Students, teachers, staff and alumni of the prestigious century-old Oak Grove School in Jharipani, located a few miles from Mussoorie hills, are looking forward to their school being awarded the World Heritage Site status.

This school run by the Indian Railway has been nominated for the honour. All associated with it are extremely happy with the rare distinction. After earning World Heritage Status for the Kalka-Shimla rail line, the Indian Railway decided to work for the same for Oak Grove School.

It is for the first time that a school in India has been nominated for the World Heritage Status inscription.The railways has included Oak Grove School among its four sites in UNESCO’s tentative list for the honour-the other three being the Gwalior light railway, western railway headquarters, the Churchgate Building and the Kangra valley railway.

Last year, the Indian Railway started the process of collecting requisite documents and other material pertaining to the school for submitting the same to UNESCO. The railways executive director of heritage visited the school a couple of times during past nine months tin this connection.

“If granted World Heritage Status, the school will become world famous. This will help in the further holistic development of the school,” feels Rakesh Jha, who passed out from the school in 1994.

He said the status would be a matter of pride for the school, the railways and the country.

The school was set up by the East Indian Railways in 1888 when it acquired Oak Grove Estate. Oak Grove School was the result of the simultaneous coming up of the railways, the Missoorie hill resort and the public school culture in the 19th century. All three blended into making of this institution.

The importance of the school can be gauged by the fact that the chief architect of the East Indian Railway was engaged for designing the first building for the boys' school that opened on June 1, 1888. In subsequent years, the girls' block and a junior school also came up.

The school, affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi, is being run as a welfare measure for the railway staff. A majority of students are wards of railway employees, both serving and retired, and enjoy a substantial fee concession.

School principal Anurag Tripathi, speaking to The Tribune, expressed the hope of school being inducted into the prestigious list of World Heritage Site. He said no changes were made in the structure of the building ever since it came up in 1988.

“Even the interiors of the school have not been disturbed. From time to time, school expansion took place but without upsetting the natural environs spread over an area of 250 acres,” he said.

The school is a study in gothic architecture, the dominant rock form being sedimentary, specially shale and limestone.

“The most significant and interesting feature of the school building is that it is earthquake-resistant and constructed in such a manner as to require no major renovation or repair for 500 years,” claimed a member of the school staff.

The Indian hockey owes its success during its formative years to Oak Grove School which nurtured as many as seven Olympic hockey gold medal winners between 1928 and 1936. Oak Grove School has had an active Alumni Association since more than 60 years.

Its chapters are active in London, Auckland, Melbourne, and the USA. In India, these are working in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata.

The school recognises the need for turning out men and women fully equipped in the art and science of living. Activities like debate, declamation, dramatics, quiz, music, art, painting, dancing and craftworkare whole promoted and encouraged among the students.

Training in the NCC is also imparted.Taking advantage of the natural surroundings, adventure sports are being promoted and the students take active part in trekking. Facilities are available for a wide range of indoor and outdoor games like hockey, football, cricket, basketball, tennis, TT, badminton and squash.

A well-equipped health club with an up-to-date gym and a swimming pool are also available. The school is a regular participant in various inter-school competitions at the district, state and national level.

The school has a built-up area of 100 acres and houses the three school blocks, their respective dormitories, kitchen, staff quarters for 200 employees, a hospital, an auditorium and swimming pool.

A large part of the estate is under the mighty Oak trees which blend beautifully with the school’s natural surroundings.

Around 35 well-qualified and well-paid teaching staff are available round the clock at the campus to look after the needs of 550 students.

The school has a healthy teacher, student ratio of 1:15. The school got a 600-seat auditorium-cum-indoor badminton hall as centenary gift in 1988 .

Mussoorie, July 18
A common wild flower that grows in plenty in the mountains is the dandelion, widely known as bitter milk.

The dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale) is a perennial small plant not higher than 50 to 60 cm. Its spike-edged leaves spread evenly on the ground sprouting a bunch of fragile capillary shoots that bear lush yellow flowers on the tip from May through July.

The flower eventually turns into a beautiful round clump of tender hair with the seed in the bottom which gets carried away by the wind that helps it to re-grow in distant lands. The children in the mountains play with the dandelion clump puffing it over each other.

The dandelion capillary stem, the bud and the flower secrete a white milk-like fluid when plucked. The fluid resembles milk but is bitter in taste.

Mothers in the mountains drip the fluid over their breasts in humour in order to startle the feasting infant with the bitter taste and to get rid of the toddlers who hamper their work asking to be breastfed. Despite being a bitter plant, the dandelion is of high medicinal value. The leaves and the roots are a rich source of potassium salt, fructose and insulin. People in the mountains have been using the leaves and the roots to cure urine retention and kidney disorders.

The leaves or the roots, or sometimes both, are boiled in water to attain a pale green syrup which is bitter in taste but helps flushing of the urinary tract and dissolves stones in the gall bladder and in the kidney. The potassium salt content covers the loss caused during secretion. Sometimes, the roots are eaten raw as a laxative. Although dandelion is often considered an ordinary plant because of its abundance in the mountains, it has been described in Ayurveda and other ancient medical literature of the Himalayas.

Dandelion is found scattered in hilly slopes and meadows but it can be planted in any given land in the hills. The seeds from the flower clump can be gently collected and sowed within a distance of about 1 ft each.

It bears nice yellow flowers which attract beautiful butterflies and children love to play with the flower clumps. Lots of medicinal goodies that the plant possesses makes it worth planting.

Dehradun, July 18
Where women are finding ways to shell some bucks on their favourite piece of jewellery, men in the city are catching up with the latest trends in body piercing to make a style statement.

The trend for piercing the tongue, the eyebrow and the chin gained popularity with most movie stars opting for it, be it the dashing Sanju Baba or the controversy king Salman Khan.

This fashion statement is affordable and easy to maintain. It started with the metros and gradually reached small cities. Roorkee, primarily known for its Indian institute of technology (IIT) has started providing facilities for body piercing and has a large number men happy with this change.

“I am a big fan of Salman Khan. So I decided to wear a stud and flaunt his kind of style,” confessed Rishab, a student.

“Since centuries women have had their ears and nose pierced, but boys have been lured towards it now due to the influence of the television. Affordability is another major factor as one can experiment piercing one’s ears or eyebrows for a mere Rs 100. As far as chin and tongue go, we haven’t started it yet but if the demand soars we will definitely venture into it,” said Vipin Jain, a jeweller. For piercing the ears, silver and gold studs are a safe bet. But the coolest thing to wear these days is metal studs with big brands like Archie’s venturing into it.

“Boys are opting for big metal studs which gives them a feeling of a rock star and they prefer gun piercing to traditional methods of piercing. “But for preventing allergy or pain, we advice them to wear silver and gold studs as much as possible,” added Vipin.

Dehradun, July 18
Demanding a CBI probe into the murder of 19-year-old Anshu Nautial, family members of the deceased along with activists of the Youth Congress today sat on fast at Gandhi Park here.

Criticising the state government for ordering a CB-CID inquery, Anshu’s brother Harish Nautial alleged that the authorities were not handing over the case to the CBI “ deliberately”.

He said so far the police had not made the lie-detector report of Praveen Chawla, the main accused, public. Speaking to mediapersons, president of the Mahanagar Youth Congress Tinkel Arora said within 48 hours the government should hand over the matter to the CBI and also make the lie-detector report public.

He said in case the government failed to do so, the Youth Congress would launch a major agitation.

Haridwar, July 18
With the UGC granting Rs 1 crore, the long-pending demand of Kanya Gurukul College for a hostel will soon be met.

In addition, quarters for non-teaching staff will also be built.

Earlier, girls from distant areas had to face a lot of inconvenience without any hostel facility at the varsity.

They had to rent rooms at high rates in the city or stay in PG accommodations. Keeping this in mind, the varsity authorities had sent a proposal to the UGC in this regard.

Vice Chancellor Swatantra Kumar said construction work for the building would soon be started and hoped that it would be completed by early next year.