Amritsar, September 22
People won’t have to stand in long queues at the Amritsar head post office. Owing to its upgradation and transformation into a new avtar, under the third phase of Project Arrow launched all over the country, it will now compete with fast forwarded services provided by major corporates.

Besides, the Golden Temple post office has also been revamped and upgraded. These were recently inaugurated by Postmaster-General Punjab, Col Prithvi Raj Kumar (retd), at a special function.

Established in 1925, the majestic building, declared a heritage building on February 15, 1993, now presents a fresh new look with a new off-white colour with red horizontal stripes adopted by the Postal Department.

It is pertinent to mention here that the post office handles approximately 20,000 mail articles and 3,000 customers daily.

Talking to the media during an inaugural function, Kumar said separate counters had been established with SSPOs and senior officials asked to supervise the area and check the rush and functioning at least four times a day, making sure that customers did not have to wait longer than 15 minutes.

The staff were specially trained to handle computers and soft skills, besides a training centre would also be established in the HPO.

Earlier, employees had to go to other stations to impart training, said the Postmaster-General. He said efforts had been made to improve customer service by imparting specialised training in customer relationships to the staff of the post office.

He said to meet the demands and needs of customers, high-class infrastructure had also been provided, besides changing the work culture. Expressing hope, he said every customer would feel satisfied with the services provided by the post office.

Interestingly, the Postmaster-General said the department had procured three aircraft for the swift delivery of goods and mail. These were stationed at Delhi, Nagpur and Kolkata.

The postmen who, till now distributed the mail on their bicycles, would be provided with mopeds in the near future.

Amritsar, September 22
Customs and traditions have a mysterious pull which always bring back the native to bask in the glory of festivals and celebrations of his motherland.

Talking of the cultural pull of the holy city which is popular worldwide for the Golden Temple, the city is also popular for other attractions one of which is the annual Langoor Mela celebrated at the Durgiana Temple.

This year, three young boys from the UK, the USA and South Africa came here to dress up as langoors during the mela. Their parents had sought the blessings some years ago at the Bara Hanuman Mandir in the Durgiana complex, wishing for a child.

The Langoor Mela at the Durgiana Temple during the Navratra festivities is very popular as mostly childless couples seek the blessings of Lord Hanumana and promise that if they are blessed with a son, they would dress their wards as langoors and observe a nine-day fast during the festivities.

Not just the childless, even the parents of children suffering from various diseases come here to seek the blessings of Lord Hanumana during the Navratras.

The two boys from the UK and the USA stayed here for two days only while the boy who had come from South Africa would stay in the temple complex till the last day of the festival.

Gaurav’s mother, who has settled in South Africa, told The Tribune that her son got seriously ill when he was a year old. She said after she came to know about the historic temple and the festival, she prayed to God and promised to make her son a langoor if he was cured of the disease. She said they were busy all these years and could not come here but this year she vowed to visit India to fulfil her promise of participating in the festival.

Gaurav said the festival was a treat as he had earlier never seen or heard of celebrations of this kind.

Amritsar, September 22
There is much enthusiasm in the development of organic devices in the world and successful efforts are being reported in literature regularly on the use of semiconductors as active layers in future technology and other related switching devices. Due to this, in near future the size of computers would be shrinking to the size of a matchbox.

These views were expressed here today by Dr J.V. Yakhmi, Associate Director, physics group, Babha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, while delivering his lecture at the inaugural session of four-day Homi Bhabha Centenary BRNS-GND University workshop on “Molecular/organic electronic devices” (MOED-2009) being organised by Guru Nanak Dev University.

Prof Robert M. Metzger from the USA, Dr Jorg Kroger from Germany, Prof A.J. Pal and Prof Maria Anita Rimpi from Italy presented their papers on the first day of the workshop.

Dr Yakhmi said in the earlier research on silicon-based micro electronics, India missed the opportunity. However, this time molecular electronic-based research would be taken up at full strength so that Indian became a pioneer in the field. He said India had a booming economy and there was huge young talent, which would make the research successful.

He said organic material being lighter, more flexible and less expensive as compared to silicon could become a desirable alternative in many applications. He said future televisions would be flexible wallpapers, whose size could be adjusted according to the requirement of the viewers.

Dr D.L. Aswal, coordinator, MOED-2009, said the main aim of the workshop was to inspire young Indian researchers by providing them with updates on different aspects of development of organic electronic devices. He added that they would be ready to become active participants when the commercial exploitation of these devices started in the near future.

Amritsar, September 22
The Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM) has demanded a site for the video broadcast of daily live kirtan programme from Harmandar Sahib on the Internet and also an extension of its audio broadcast on the Internet radio from its beginning to end.

In a reminder to SGPC President Avtar Singh Makkar, manch patron Dr Charanjit Singh Gumtala pointed out that all Sikh shrines in the USA, Canada, UK and many other countries (included India) had set up their own websites and started dishing out video programmes just like TV and one of the most visited sites www.sikhnet.com provided links to different gurdwara websites so as to facilitate the users.

He said programmes from Harmandar Sahib were viewed with respect and enjoyed worldwide by not only the Sikh population but also many others. These programmes were telecast daily by some private channels, which unfortunately were not available on the Internet. To view them a special and costly connection from satellite and cable companies was required.

With the availability of direct video programmes from Harmandar Sahib on the SGPC site, viewers, whether in Europe, America, Far East, Middle East, Australia or New Zealand, would be able to access them. So world over, thousand of university students could also view and listen to the Gurbani on the Internet. This would also negate the charge of marketing Gurbani, which the SGPC had to face often.

Similarly, the radio hours of Gurbani kirtan should be extended to cover the entire service i.e. from the beginning to the end daily.

Amritsar, September 22
More than 30 million people suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease in the world, out of which three million are Indians. Revealing this, Dr Rajnish Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, Government Medical College and Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, during a free medical check up camp organised at the hospital, said the number was pegged at more than six million by 2050 in India if something concrete was not done to spread awareness regarding the disease.

He said every seven seconds a new case of Alzheimer is reported and it was the fourth leading cause of death among the older in the developed world.

Meanwhile, over 100 persons were checked at a free medical and health awareness camp. 

Amritsar, September 22
Punarjyot, the voice of Punjabi culture and heritage, in collaboration with Spring Dale Senior School organised “Maa Boli Mela”, second in the series of the festival initiated last year, here recently. The festival was dedicated to the memory of the patrons of Punjabiyat - Late Manveen Sandhu and Late Dr Shivinder Singh Sandhu.

In the mela a number of CBSE and PSEB-affiliated schools shared various Punjabi arts and talents like poetry, sufi music, calligraphy, multimedia presentation, decoration of an earthen pot, poster-making, etc, through Punjabi language.

Presiding over the function, Dr Inderjeet Kaur, Head, Pingalwara Organisation, congratulated the management for carrying out vision of the school’s mentors in hosting the mela. She said,”Today it seems before we educate our children we need to educate the parents since they feel shy of their mother tongue. One must learn as many languages as one can, but doing it at the cost of one’s own language is no matter of pride. We as a Punjabi community are losing everything that we were once proud of. Our Gurus scripted the principles of our life in Gurmukhi in Guru Granth Sahib. How will our coming generations be able to relate to it if we take them away from Punjabi?”

Addressing the gathering, Dr Kirat Sandhu, Director, Punarjyot, stressed that the aim of the mela was not only to generate love towards the mother tongue, but also to encourage the present generation youth to strengthen the roots of the Punjabi culture, while igniting their passion for “Punjabiyat”.

Principal, Spring Dale Senior School, Rajiv Sharma mentioned that as per a UNESCO report one of world’s languages gets extinct every week. At this rate 7,000 world languages would become extinct in the coming 100 years and Punjabi might not exist after 50 years.

Khalsa College, Amritsar, a beacon of light that was established in 1892 with an aim of providing modern education among Sikhs, has carved a niche for itself in educational scenario during its rich 117 years of history.

Principal Daljit Singh, who took over about four and half years back, talks to Tribune staff correspondent P.K. Jaiswar about the institution, its future plans and his experience as Principal of the institution.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: It’s almost about five years you are heading one of the premier educational institution. Tell us about your experience and challenges you faced during this period.

Dr Singh: It was sheer blessing of almighty and hard work that helped to reach this position and head an institution like historic and prestigious Khalsa College. When I took over as principal, there were two challenges before me. First it was indiscipline among the students and second was work culture among the teaching faculty and staff. However, with the grace the god, we now have best faculty and most disciplined students with work culture at its optimum and results of students for this year were testimony to it. We have four students who have topped in various university examinations.

Q: What are your thrust areas?

Dr Singh: Agriculture, Humanities and Social Sciences, Commerce and Business Administration were always among the thrust areas of the college. Biotechnology is another subject where the college is laying stress.

Q: What are the future plans of the college?

Dr Singh: The college is planning to start post graduation in Biotechnology besides MBA and MCA in its college campus. An inspection team from Guru Nanak Dev University would be visiting the college within couple of days and hopefully we would be able to start these courses from next year.

Q: You a professor of Law. Yet there was no course available in the college in this subject. Are you going to start courses in law also?

Dr Singh: Yes. This is very much in the pipeline. The college management has taken NOC from the Punjab Government and has applied for university affiliation. Hopefully, this would also start from next year.

Q: Will you also teach?

Dr Singh: Yes, definitely I’ll.

Q: What about research?

Dr Singh: The faculty of the college has also applied for four projects to UGC in Biotechnology, Political Science, Chemistry and Physics. The college is very much on concentrating on this part also. In future we are going to apply for more research-oriented projects.

Q: What is the strength of the students in the college?

Dr Singh: The students, especially number of girls, have increased as compared to past several years. It’s more than 4,000 and this year the number has increased by 400. In fact we are going to construct a new hostel for girls the number of which has almost doubled. The hostel would be completed in December this year.

Q: Any message for students?

Dr Singh: Day by day, the competition has been increasing and only hard working, honest and dedicated students could achieve the mark they wanted to attain. They should not be burden on the society; rather they should contribute to society for its development and progress.

Amritsar, September 22
Making effigies of all sizes is in full swing as the festival of Dasehra is round the corner. The 125-foot-high effigy of Ravana has been prepared by residents of the Lohgarh area, while Passiyan Wala Chowk and Shastri Market have got 100-foot-high effigies prepared.

Sri Dasehra Committee general secretary Vinod Sehdev said the effigies would be set on fire at Dasehra ground which had been taken on a day’s lease from the Army.

The committee, which works under the patronisation of Sri Durgiana Committee, is perhaps the oldest Dasehra organisation in the city. It was founded about 70 years ago with then President of the Amritsar Municipal Committee Radha Krishan Seth as its president. The committee had started awarding the party which prepared the highest and attractive effigies. However, the practice was dropped after a few years as it had ensued fighting among the contestants.

As per the unique tradition of the city several bazaars inside the walled city hold religious processions, according to which several youngsters, especially children, dress up as Lord Rama, Lakshmana and Sita. They are taken in the shape of a procession to different areas of the city on Ram Navami. Eventually, on the day of Dasehra, also the last day of the Navratri, seated on chariot they are again taken to Dasehra ground where they release arrow indicating towards setting the effigies on fire.

The festival, a symbol of victory of good over evil, draws people from all sections of society. However, it also provides a platform for politicians to project their image among citizens who are their prospective vote bank. That the celebrations for the festival are held separately by politicians having allegiance to various political parties cannot be denied. The effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghnatha are burnt at Chheharta, Bhadrakali, Verka, Majitha Road and many other parts of the city. Sehdev says on an average a 100-foot-high effigy costs nearly Rs 1 lakh.

Amritsar, September 22
Stressing on the need for a new model of development based on “Human Happiness Index”, noted economist Dr Bajrang Lal Gupt stated that present development models based on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as an indicator had failed to fulfil the aspirations of people belonging to all economic strata all over the world.

He was delivering a keynote address at a national seminar, “New paradigm of development”, held here. The seminar was organised by the local Panchnad Study Centre to commemorate the silver jubilee of its parent body Panchnad Research Institute.

Elaborating his point, Dr Gupt said the global meltdown due to collapsing of American economy proved that economies based on consumerism, plastic card economy and ill-conceived industrialisation were not sustainable. The health care, employment and education systems were in dire state in the so-called robust economy of the world.

The impact of the failure of banking and financial institutions and regulatory mechanisms in the USA had been shattering on European and Asian countries too while the rapid industrialisation has resulted in blatant exploitation of natural resources hurting the ecology beyond repair. He pointed out that such models could not do any good to a country like India.

Proposing a new economic growth model for India, Dr Gupt said new economic growth model for India should be based on the Human Happiness Index instead of the GDP based on four key principles of Food for all, Health for all, Employment for all and Equitable distribution of resources.

He said the Indian concept of “Sarbat da bhalaa” or “Vishav ka kalyan ho” was based on this premise. He said the Indian culture that was based on self control, prevention of diseases and sharing of resources was a better option than excessive consumerism that promoted exploitation and resulted in ill-health and non-communicable diseases.

Prof Sudesh Garg of Kurukshetra University, Dr A.K. Saihjpal of Panjab University and Prof Suresh Soni from Government College, Bilaspur, also delivered their papers in the seminar. A large number of intellectuals from all over Punjab participated.