Jalandhar, July 30
The global recession period seems to have badly hit the ongoing admission process in all technical colleges.

One of the most prestigious institutes of the region, Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT) also seems to have been affected this year, as there are still nearly 25 per cent vacant seats, of the total 684 seats, for B.Tech on the campus.

This, despite the fact that the Central Counselling Board (CCB) with its headquarters, this time at NIT Warangal, has already held four rounds of online counselling. The officials hope of better results after the fifth round, the dates of which are yet to be announced. The new academic session has already begun on July 27.

The officials engaged in the admission process revealed that there are vacant seats in almost all the nine streams of engineering at the campus. One of the most sought after stream of electronics and computer engineering also has a few vacant seats, they disclosed.

While the officials blame it on recession, some insiders have pointed out that the new trend of online counseling, mushrooming of colleges, cut off AIEEE rank of 25,000 and delay in announcement of the schedule of next round of counselling were also to be blamed.

Citing online counselling as one of the reasons, the staff claimed that while most students blocked a seat during the counselling, they often dropped it later marring the prospects of others with marginally lower ranks. “During manual counselling, the fee deposition occurs side-by-side and the status of seats left becomes clear there and then”, they pointed out.

The staff cited another reason saying that as per the rule, an institute could retain only Rs 1,000 of a total amount of semester fee of Rs 25,000 for a blocked. “Since they get a refund of the remaining fee, they do not mind losing Rs 1,000 for a better seat”, they specified.

Dr Arvind Agnihotri, dean academic programme, NIT, agreed on most such issues. Discussing latest trends in admission, he said that computer science engineering, which had been the topmost preference, had sunken a bit. “May be because it is recession time or perhaps because people have now realised that computers and IT are just an application or tools used in all engineering processes”, he commented.

He revealed that mechanical was the third preferred stream, followed by instrumentation and control engineering, civil engineering, industrial and production engineering, chemical engineering, bio-technology and textile technology.

Dr Agnihotri said the placement and job packages determined the preferences. “We had scrapped the leather technology course two years back and replaced it with bio-technology but that too has also not proven to be too rewarding. The course has nearly 40 seats, nearly half as compared to all other branches”, he added.

Jalandhar, July 30
Nearly 100 members of the teaching faculty of Dr B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT) will observe a ‘no teaching day’ tomorrow in protest against “non-fulfillment of their long-pending demands and non-committal attitude of the administration to resolve these issues”.

The members have been long pressing for recognition of their service body by the BoG, implementation of their pay commission report and conducting career advancement scheme (CAS) interviews for the faculty.

A general body meeting of the NIT Teachers’ Association (NITTA) Jalandhar was held yesterday in which the members discussed that while they had submitted a proposal for recognition of their body since December 2004 before the director, it still remained pending. They alleged that the matter was being delayed intentionally despite the MHRD clearance.

The members pointed out that there had been an inordinate delay in implementation of the sixth pay revision by the MHRD. “The staff of all NITs, IITs and IIMs are still not clear about the issue and we plan to hold a common meeting on the issue soon,” they said.

Jalandhar, July 30
To prepare them for dealing with riots efficiently and professionally, the Punjab Police decided to start a special training programme for its personnel at the Punjab Police Academy (PPA), Phillaur.

The top officials of the Police Department took the decision at a high-level meeting in Chandigarh after the force failed to control various incidents of violence and rioting in the state recently thus causing huge losses to the state exchequer and the public.

An official spokesman for the department revealed that the decision was taken after feeling that the force was not trained to move in a formation while dealing with crowd, as a result of which they get outnumbered.

The spokesman said the DGP, P.S. Gill, has issued instructions to start a specialised training in this context. It was also observed that due to lack of training in dealing with rioting crowd, policemen tend to move individually while taking action and were also seen throwing stones back at the crowd for which there were not authorised.

In the beginning, the PPA, Phillaur, would conduct training programme for district reserves and units of armed battalions, particularly the IRB, frequently deployed in such situations. It had also been decided to set up special riot controlling units having one or two companies in major towns of the state so that in case of any lawlessness and hooliganism reported, it could be controlled in the very beginning. The members of these units would be fully equipped with modern riot controlling kits.

Jalandhar, July 30
For the two students of class VIII of Government Middle School, Tahli Mohalla, here, the experience of watching the total solar eclipse held on July 22 was nothing short of a lifetime achievement. “It was an experience of lifetime,” said the two students, who represented Punjab along with their teacher to witness the event in Bhopal.

Kapurthala, July 30
Gagandeep Bhullar has made his country proud by winning the Asian tour title in the Indonesia President Invitational at Jakarta on Sunday. He started playing golf when was just six.

Gagandeep (21) became the youngest Indian winner on an international tour after Jeev Milkha Singh and Shiv Kapur who were 23 when they won titles at Asia.

Gagandeep’s father Harbhajan Bhullar, RCF Chief Welfare Inspector (Sports), is fond of playing golf and his young son used to accompany him to the RCF golf course.

Talking to The Tribune, Harbhajan said Gagandeep’s coach Gian Chand gave an excellent shape to his talent and skills.

Gagandeep was 10-year-old when he won the U-10 National Junior championship at Mumbai in 1998 for the first time. Gagandeep remained number one junior Indian national player for three years from 2002 to 2004. He held the title of India number one amateur player in 2004 to 2005.

Gagandeep won the silver medal in the Asian Games in 2006 at Doha, Qatar. He bagged the first position in his first U-18 world junior championship at Bangkok in Thailand in 2004, Harbhajan added.

Now his aim is to qualify and win USPGA (United States Professional Golf Association) Tour, he added.

Gagandeep did his matric from MGN School, Kapurthala. He completed his class XII from RCF Senior Secondary School. Now he is in BA-III at Lyallpur Khalsa College in Jalandhar. Gagandeep is expected to return to Kapurthala after spending two weeks in Brunei and Macao and one week at Bangalore.

Jalandhar, July 30
It’s a press conference at the Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall. The stage is set. A board (announcing a two-day theatre festival to take place at Red Cross Bhavan on August 1 and 2) hung against a bamboo backdrop and flanked by two portraits of Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga and Habib Tanvir serves as the background for the guests seated on a mattress.

Earthen ware and two harmoniums, a drum placed aesthetically on the far left and right sides of the stage and a rug hung in the middle, complete the setting for the press conference.

The labour put in just seems like an indication of how grand things are going to be at the two-day theatre festival in which plays - Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” (directed by Kranti Pal) and “Hum” (directed by Probir Guha) - would be staged, marking the end of Kalaa, the 18-day workshop organised by the Navchintan Kala at the Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall here.

Talking to the media, Probir Guha said, “This workshop marks the beginning of a series of six workshops (each involving 30 participants) which will take place at different places in the state for five years, with five participants being shortlisted after every workshop. The final workshop will be a rigorous exercise in which the 30 shortlisted members will participate.”

Panel member Gurvinder Singh said, “The workshop aims at promoting professional theatre, the kind which is not usually witnessed in the city.”

Others on the panel included Vikramjit Singh, Amit, Shilpa, Kunal Aggarwal and Dr Balraj Gupta.

Date Plays Time Venue

Aug 1 The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Hum 7:00 pm Red Cross Bhawan

Aug 2 The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Hum 7:00 pm Red Cross Bhawan

Aug 3 The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Hum 7:00 pm Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall

Jalandhar, July 30
It is raining positions for the meritorious students of Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya (HMV) in the recently declared results of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

The college has emerged with flying colours in all the streams.

The HMV girls have bagged first three university positions in BA-I, first two positions in BA-II, first two positions in BSc-II (Non-Medical) and top three positions in BSc-II (Economics).

The toppers owed their success to the constant support and guidance of their college teachers.

College principal J. Kackria lauded the untiring effort of the students, faculty and parents for the success. “I am overwhelmed at this achievement of our students. Indeed it is the friendly ambience of the college coupled with the care of the parents, which has brought laurels for the institution. And we are hopeful to continue with the same gusto in this academic session too,” she added.

Talking to The Tribune, Mamta a topper of BSc-II (Economics) said apart from her hard work, the result is the outcome of the constant support she got from her department teachers. She has scored 619 marks out of 800 and secured 77.37 per cent the highest in the varsity. A topper throughout, she is planning to pursue an MBA degree and join the corporate world.

The second position the university has been achieved by Heena Kochhar, who secured 617 marks followed closely by Simmi who got 616 marks.

In BA- I, first position in the university has been achieved by Reena who apart from being a topper has been an active member of the folk orchestra team of the college and youth festival participant. The topper did not appear for any terminal exam throughout the year and directly gave the final exams. “It is due to the constant support of my teachers especially Kulwinder Kaur and Sangeeta madam that I was able to perform well both in final exams and youth festival. I would be participating in the Indian Classical Dance in the upcoming youth festival as well,” she added.

The topper is a student of Music Vocal, Music Instrumental and Indian Classical Dance. She aims to pursue an MA (Dance) and become a dance teacher. The other toppers of BA- I include Heena Bhasin who got 634 marks out of 800 while Mehak Narang bagged third position securing 630 marks.

In BSc- II (Non-Medical), the first position in the university has been bagged by Shikha Karir who bagged 84.5 per cent securing 676 marks out of 800.

Sharing her success tips, the topper said that apart from making regular notes, joint discussions with friends helped her a lot. The topper has already started preparing for her future dream to pursue MSc (Physics). Taranpreet, another student of the same class, bagged the third position in the university by securing 632 marks out of 800.

Another topper who brought laurels to the college is Kamaljit Kaur, a student of BA-II who got 691 marks out of 800. The topper has achieved a good score of 86.37 per cent marks in aggregate followed by Renu Soni who secured 649 marks.

Jalandhar, July 30
Several doctors of the Civil Hospital asked PCMS Association President Dr Harish Bhardwaj to form a panel of three-four doctors to redress grievances faced by doctors.

A meeting was held under the presidentship of Dr Ashok Bhagat in which doctors requested Bhardwaj to form a panel.

It was decided that the elections of the association would be held within six months after constituting a neutral committee and nominating electoral officials for holding a free and fair poll.

Bhagat and other doctors said some persons were spreading rumours about the elections of the association for their personal interests which may weaken the association.

Among others, Dr Harjinder Singh, Dr Raj Kumar, Dr Mukesh Chander, Dr Charanjit Singh, Dr Rajneesh and Dr Vijay Joshi were present.

Jalandhar, July 30
His songs don’t come alone. Sufi mysticism plays through them like the captivating scent which plays along the parched summer soil freshly strewn with the allaying drops of first monsoon showers.

Fighting to keep the precious legacy of the Meer Alams alive, Dilbahar, on one hand, has soothed masses at home with his countless renditions of the golden compositions handed over to him by his learned ancestors, on the other, he has driven the DJ crazy, tashan-hungry masses wild with his “Superchor” version of Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’s digitalised, filmy jugni.

Born and brought up at Basti Danishmandan in Jalandhar, Dilbahar was greeted by an atmosphere of music at home. His maternal grandmother Bibi Nooran being a legendary sufi vocalist, he grew up watching his father Master Sohan Lal and mother Bibi Swaran Nooran too serving music as they did regular shows at places of peers, fairs and other musical gatherings.

His interest in “congo” (cylindrical drums, fitted on a metal frame, played with hands), which he used to play everyday, made his father buy him a tabla when he was just four.

Accompanying his parents to musical gatherings, he was just picking up the art, learning its finer nuances from his father when his father’s illness during one of the functions led Dilabahar to take the stage along with his mother, at the age of just nine.

His father’s demise, after about a month, almost brought upon the total responsibility of running shows on him and from being a shy accompaniment to his parents at shows, he suddenly became the centre of attraction at performances.

The son had taken it to himself to keep alive the legacy of the father but their lives were still overpowered by extreme poverty. Living in a kuccha house, sometimes walking as much as 20 km with the harmonium slung on his shoulders, were situations he’d gotten used to.

Sometimes singing for the soul, sometimes for stomach, he spent his early years as an artiste jumping in and out of bad phases. But then lady luck smiled.

In 2,000, Shefali Bhushan, a patron of music, came looking for the family of Bibi Nooran in Jalandhar and Dilbahar’s strong, smooth voice had her floored.

She took him to Delhi where some of his songs were recorded for eight days. The recordings were followed by shows which were attended by biggies like I.K. Gujral, Manmohan Singh and there he found for himself a fan in poetess Amrita Pritam.

When his hour-long performance ended, an old, familiar woman in the crowd sought his autograph. I said I was uneducated. “Pher enna kitthon gaa leya?” she replied.

His first and last encounter with the poetess taught him lessons which he cherishes to this very day.

The second turning point in his career came. Sneha Khanwalkar, the music director for the film “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye” came hunting for him at Jalandhar. The trigger? His songs in the CD recorded by Shefali Bhushan.

He shortly recorded the contemporary version of jugni at Chandigarh, getting to spend quality time with music director Dibakar Banerjee, the song ending up as one of the most popular tracks in the movie.

Jugni’s a nationwide hit but people hardly know him. He has battled hunger pangs and non-paying weirdos but constant support from friends, holding onto principles and passion for the art, keeps him afloat. He currently continues with shows in the region banking on shows for a living.

Jalandhar, July 30
Students of the Red Cross School for Deaf celebrated Teej here on Wednesday. Students danced on Punjabi folk songs. They also enjoyed swings. Principal Harvinder Negi distributed refreshments among students and discussed significance of festivals in the Indian culture through sign language.