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Stone for Noorpuri’s memorial lies ignored The foundation stone of the Nandlal Noorpuri Yaadgaar Bhavan at Model House Colony in Jalandhar. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh
Son’s death made him marathoner
Wheat procurement |
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‘Songs glorifying violence give
wrong signal’
Punjabi singer Nachhatar Gill releases his CD “Akhiyaan ch paani” in Jalandhar. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh
Please don’t stop the music
Polytechnics’ staff hold protest
Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Technical University, Dr Rajneesh Arora addresses employees of polytechnic institutes during a dharna outside the campus gate in Kapurthala on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Malikiat Singh
Young World
Vocalist Bhide enthrals audience
Pensioners not happy with dept’s website
Shopkeepers seek arrest of Cong leader’s son
Robbers strike at councillor’s factory in Phagwara
Rs 4.50 lakh stolen from car
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Stone for Noorpuri’s memorial lies ignored
Jalandhar, February 15 Decades later, in 2006, a foundation stone was erected at the site of the well (which had by then been covered up) by the then local bodies minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and Jalandhar mayor Surinder Mahe, with the promise that Nandlal Noorpuri Yaadgaar Bhavan, having a library containing his works,would be set up at the site. Five years down the line, the foundation stone lies forgotten and the government oblivious of its own promises.One of the most popular poets and famed lyricist of Punjab, Noorpuri’s songs still reverberate in the state’s countryside especially during marriages. His songs like Shounkan mele di, Mainu deor de vyah vich nach lain de, Gori diyan jhanjaran, Balle ni Punjab diye, Chumm chumm rakho ni, Mahi ghar aaaya and others, are etched deep in the memory of Punjabis. He has also penned lyrics for movies like Valait Paas, Mangti, Khedan De Din Chaar and others. Inderjit Noorpuri, grandson of the poet, says, “The road to Model House Colony from the Ravidas Chowk was also named after Nandlal Noorpuri in1993-94. It was called Nand Lal Noorpuri Marg. Jaikishan Saini, who was mayor then, had okayed the renaming of the road. But about two-three years later, they painted the sign white. On paper, the road is still the Nandlal Noorpuri Marg but there is no signboard to indicate that at the site. Now people hardly even remember that there was a road by my grandfather’s name here.” The family is sad about the fact that a cultural programme which was carried out at Phagwara in the poet’s name has also stopped. “It was an annual affair and eminent musicians used to participate in them. They also had a white statue of my grandfather made. But after three or four years they stopped holding the programme. We couldn’t trace the statue. Then finally we discovered it at some sufi peer’s (mausoleum’s) place, painted green. We brought it home,” says Inderjit. “My father Satnam Singh died in 1994 and my uncle (father’s brother) Satkartar Singh suffered stroke about two years ago. Both of them were actively preserving his works and memories. It feels difficult to go on without them. I am still keen on collecting grandfather’s works, though. Publishers print his works and ask me if I want anything. I just say at least give me some copies of his works.” What about royalties? “The publishers tell us Punjabi books hardly sell these days. I’m happy with the copies. What’s important is that his collection should not be lost.” Sukhjinder Kaur, wife of Satkartar Singh said, “We were keen on at least a park being built around the area where foundation stone was laid but people in the colony do not let that happen. We also met the present Mayor Rakesh Rathore. He assured to do something to preserve the memory of the late poet but when he would do something, no one knows.”
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Son’s death made him marathoner
Jalandhar, February 15 At this ripe age, he took to running and ended up in international marathon events in London, Glasgow, Toronto and many other countries. Inching to complete his 100 years of age, Fauja Singh, wants to add another feather to his cap by breaking the record of a 98-year-old UK resident in marathon. Fauja Singh was in the city to attend the Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Wrestling Tournament held at the PAP Complex recently. He was a special invitee in the tournament. The Tribune team visited his house at Beas Pind and found the living legend holding a hand of his granddaughter and walking in the courtyard. Fauja Singh recalled that he left country after his son, Kuldip Singh, died in a road accident. His wife Gian Kaur died almost 30 years ago and he was residing with his sons - Harvinder Singh and Kuldip Singh - in the village. But the death of his one son left him shattered. After Kuldip’s death, Fauja Singh’s daughter, who was an NRI, took him along with her to London in 1994. Recalling the days when Amrik Singh Dhillon, a Londaon-based NRI from Bathinda, motivated him to took to the running. Just after three month’s stay in London, Fauja Singh participated in a race organised to facilitate cancer patients. It was just a beginning in his 80s and thereafter Fauja Singh never looked back and participated in various marathons in France, Germany, USA, Canada, Norway, Pakistan, Scotland and Portugal. He was declared the oldest half-marathon runner at the age of 99, when Fauja Singh ran the Inter-Faith Marathon in Luxemburg. Fauja Singh has been donating a major part of the money, which he gets as prize by participating in the races, for charity. When asked why he died not participate in the marathon organised in New Delhi and Mumbai, Fauja Singh claimed that his children and coach, Harminder Singh, from Moga district, restrained him from participating, cautioning him about widespread favouritism and corruption in sport events in India. To take a lead, here participants often hook each other and being so old I could be a victim, he added. Even as he was not able to recall the exact dates of winning the medals, yet Fauja Singh, while showing them (medals and his photographs with Queen Elizabeth) to this correspondent recalled that the queen prized him and announced a sum of 125 pounds as monthly honorarium to him. Besides this, Fauja Singh is also getting 500 pounds as monthly old-age pension from the British Government. When asked about the family, Fauja Singh said Harvinder Singh, his youngest son, lived in Beas Pind with his family while other kids were settled in London. Leaving the chair on which he was sitting, Fauja Singh walked away when questioned about Kuldeep’s family, saying, “Kakey (boy) do not ask about him. I neither see his pictures, nor talk about him, it pinches me in
my heart.” |
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Wheat procurement
Jalandhar, February 15 Nearly 50 per cent of the total food grain storage space available with all the official procurement agencies of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is still having previous stocks. The agencies procure wheat and paddy for the central pool on behalf of the FCI. Talking to TNS today, the representatives of all the state procurement agencies said they had been forced to hold a protest against the callous attitude of the government on clearing the stocks. The farmers would be hit hard since they would have to wait for days to sell their produce, said Bhupinder Singh, president of the joint forum of the employees of state’s food grain procurement agencies. “If the ground situation remains unchanged in the coming days, it will be a disaster waiting to happen. Punjab’s average wheat production ranges between 100-110 lakh metric tones and in the current scenario half of this volume would have to be stored in the open,” he added. “In such a situation, the senior bureaucrats and politicians would force the employees to store the stocks in the open and recover all shortages in the event of weather-related damages from us, which is totally unjustified,” he said.
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‘Songs glorifying violence give
wrong signal’
Jalandhar, February 15 “That’s not the Punjabi culture. Songs and videos depicting and glorifying such acts give a wrong signal to people on the name of promoting our rich culture. Where’s the music of our vibrant Punjab?” he asks. The singer, whose obsession with music once got him ousted from home, now roams in an Audi and churns out hit music for the masses. Born at Akalgarh village, near Garhshankar, Nachattar was greatly inspired by his father Gyani Hardeep Singh. His father’s specialisation in dhadh sarangi ballads got him hooked to folk elements of the Punjabi music. He took music training from Master Parsa Singh and Pandit Ram Chand of Bhikhowal village. Satwinder Bugga and Durga Rangeela had always been his idols and on their insistence he pursued music as a vocation. His maiden album was Suneha Sohne Yaar Da (1994) followed by Pyaar Vale Bol (95). The dismal returns to the two albums did dampen his spirits, but he did not give up and the success of Ishq Jagave (2002), a duet with Jaspinder Narula, gave him his much needed break. Saddi Gal (2004), Pyaar Ho Jauga (2005), Sahib Jinnan Diyan along with Manne (2006) and Naam (2007), both religious records, were other albums released by him. Chad Ke Na Ja (2009), his only album with music by Sukhshinder Shinda, was a huge hit. Ardas Karan, another religious album was out in 2010 and the latest offering to his fans is Akhiyan Ch pani, which released this Friday. Talking about his latest album, he says it has two songs, title track Akhiyan Ch Pani and Mukh Mod Leya, by renowned Pakistani poet SM Sadiq. Gill believes the music today is soulless. “It’s no more food for the soul,” he says. Talking about lack of folk elements in the music today, he says he always tries to use them in the music for
his albums. Gurmeet Singh and Hardeep Harman being his favourite music directors, he says he always strives to do something different for his albums. “I try to work with raags and different taals,” he adds. On piracy, one of the biggest problems being faced by the music industry today, he says it is a worrisome situation. Though putting videos on the You Tube has done some good to a few artistes, it is causing a huge loss to the music industry, he asserts. |
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Please don’t stop the music
A new study from the McGill University has revealed that listening to music is just as pleasurable as food, drugs and sex. Listening to music releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain important for more tangible pleasures associated with sex or great food.
The study found that dopamine release in response to music elicited "chills", changes in skin conductance, heart rate, breathing, and temperature. Combining PET and fMRI brain scans showed that dopamine release is greater for pleasurable versus neutral music, and that levels of release are correlated with the extent of emotional arousal and pleasurability ratings. "These findings provide neurochemical evidence that intense emotional responses to music involve ancient reward circuitry in the brain," said Dr. Robert Zatorre, neuroscientist at The Neuro. "Music is unique in the sense that we can measure all reward phases in real-time, as it progresses from baseline neutral to anticipation to peak pleasure all during scanning," said lead investigator Valorie Salimpoor, a graduate student in the Zatorre lab at The Neuro and McGill psychology program. "It is generally a great challenge to examine dopamine activity during both the anticipation and the consumption phase of a reward. Both phases are captured together online by the PET scanner, which, combined with the temporal specificity of fMRI provides us with a unique assessment of distinct contributions of each brain region at different time points." The study appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience. — ANI |
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Polytechnics’ staff hold protest
Jalandhar, February 15 The members blocked the gate of the campus for over two hours. They, however, did not block the traffic on the Jalandhar-Kapurthala road, on which the campus is situated. On the call of Jasvir Singh Mahapuri, state general secretary of the Government Polytechnic Staff Union, hundreds of members of the polytechnic institutes raised slogans against the university. Other members, including P.S. Mattewal, president, also addressed the rally warning the university authorities of dire constituencies, if the decision was not revoked. They said they had learnt that the PTU had even finalised an admission schedule in the polytechnics, which further hinted towards such a move. Later, Vice-Chancellor Dr Rajneesh Arora also addressed the rally assuring the staff that no step would be taken for controlling the functioning of the polytechnics. On the demand of the agitators, he even gave such an assurance in writing. The union members had also met the Chief Minister yesterday at Sri Hargobindpur, where he was holding a sangat darshan programme. Mattewal said the CM had assured them that no anti-employee step would be taken by the government.
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Young World
Jalandhar, February 15 While addressing the gathering, Dr Raghbir Singh Bains, an international drug therapist from Canada, said awareness and educational campaigns should be held to eradicate the drug menace and female foeticide. “It is not only the government but also the entire society, including socio-religious leaders, who should play an honest role in eradicating the evils. Doctors indulged in gender selection and female foeticide must be dealt with severity,” he added. The chief guests, Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal, Dr Inderjit Kaur of Pingalwara Trust, Amritsar, and Mota Singh Sarai, president, European Chapter of Punjabi Sath, were honoured by the YAAD Foundation for their services in the respective fields. Dr RL Bassan, district health officer, Jalandhar, and Dr Nirmal Singh of Punjabi Sath Lambra, were also honoured on the occasion. Dr Raghbir Bains was honoured by the Punjabi Press Club of Canada and YAAD Foundation with the “Galileo’s Global Peace Award” for creating first of its kind encyclopedia of Sikhism and setting a record of installing four multimedia Sikh museums in the world that took him 25 years. Seechewal urged the people of the state to stay away from physical and mental pollution to save the earth. The seminar was supported by many Hindu, Sikh, Christian and Muslim organisations from all over the state who offered every kind of support to root out the menace completely from society. An exhibition on evils of drugs and female foeticide was arranged by the district health authorities, Jalandhar. ‘Kirpal week’ Darshan Academy celebrated “Kirpal week of selfless service” from February 7 to 11. After introductory performances on February 7, a spiritual song was chorused by students of Grade VI in the morning assembly on February 8. On February 9, intra-class drawing competition was organised and students of Grade V to VII went for a mass awareness rally to New Rasila Nagar and Grover Colony on February 10. On February 11, students of Grade VII presented a play on self-service. A science project exhibition was organised on February 11. Principal Ravinder Kaur delivered a vote of thanks on the concluding day. Campus placements The placement cell of the GNA-IMT, Phagwara, organised a campus placement drive for final-year students of MBA, BBA and BCA streams. Over 15 companies visited the GNA-IMT campus, namely Infocom Network Ltd, Cryobanks International India Pvt Ltd, Thyrocare Technologies Ltd, Money Matters Inc, Fullerton Securities and Wealth Advisors Ltd, HCL, Radio Mantra 91.9 FM, Stan Maruti, Haveli (Jalandhar), IMB, etc. As many as 250 students appeared for the interviews, out of which 20 students from MBA, 10 students from BBA and a few students from BCA got selected. Assessment test Shehbeet Kaur, student of NBS Gurukul, has brought laurels to Punjab by winning the high distinction in the international assessment test conducted by the Educational Assessment Australia of the University of New South Wales (Sydney), Australia, and Macmillan Publishers India Ltd by scoring 98 international percentile in science. As many as 2,07,683 students of classes 3 to 12 from 2,631 schools in India, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Mauritius, Maldives, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq had taken tests in English, science, mathematics and computer skills in 2010 IAIS. Seven students of Gurukul got distinction in maths and 16 students got credit rating. In science one student got high distinction and six students got distinctions, whereas 26 students got credit rating. Two students got distinction in English.
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Vocalist Bhide enthrals audience
Jalndhar, January 15 Bhide began the recital with Raag Vrindavani Sarang ‘Jiya bekal hot’. Her voice, amplified marginally by the microphone, doled out the precious Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana treasure for students. Her folksy articulation of words, as classical music recitals demand, was charming and her aggressive, ringing taans, a delight for the listeners. Once over with the raag, Bhide taught students about the particulars of classical music. The students asked her many questions related to taals, raag, mantras, bandish etc. While talking about samvads to the students, the artiste, a doctorate in bio-chemistry, used algebraic expressions as she explained the frequency and relation between sa and pa. Bhide attempted not only to present a recital and leave but also made students question the music they practiced and to develop a scientific understanding of it. Barely some seconds into her second presentation, ‘Dheet langar khelo na mose hori’, upset with the constant commotion caused by students in the back rows, she cut it short. She reprimanded them and refused to sing. On being requested, she resumed with a Saraswati Vandana in Raag Basant (Carnatic) and ended
the recital with a bhajan by Sant Surdas. Earlier in the day, she had told students to listen and not just hear when it comes to classical music. Excerpts from her conversation with The Tribune on the sidelines of the concert: Q: What made you choose a profession in music after a masters’ degree in microbiology and a doctorate in bio-chemistry? A: Music was a part of my upbringing. I was always into it along with my academics. In fact the academics helped me understand music better and vice-versa. Q: What is the speciality of the Jaipur-Atrauli
Gharana? A: In our gharana, the balance between sur and lay is deeply stressed upon. Like in the Kirana
Gharana, sur is more stressed upon, Agra Gharana emphasises more on lay but Jaipur-Atrauli stresses upon a balance between both. Also, our lay is not straight and simple. It is complicated. Q: Do you agree that children today are largely distanced from the classical music? A: I think it’s not the children, but the government and the parents. Unless they tell the children about it and bring them closer to it how are they supposed to develop an understanding? Parents need to be enlightened and I think organisations like Spic Macay can play a major role in promoting this understanding. Q: How do you think a bhaav (emotion) and not technique-oriented understanding of music be promoted among students? A: Classical music shouldn’t be all about boredom to students. They should be involved with it in a way that they flow with it and not feel bounded by it. |
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Pensioners not happy with dept’s website
Jalandhar, February 15 The pensioners say they are not satisfied with the service of the portal, CPENGRAM, as they claim that none of the 12 cases put up since October and November have been redressed. They rue that these cases pertaining to the Department of Telecom, Railway Board, Civil Aviation and other Central Government departments had not even been acknowledged online. V.S. Jolly, a member of the All-India Central Government Pensioners’ Association said the pensioners had been demanding a time-bound framework for the redressal of the grievances registered. He said the association had written to the Minister of State for Pensioners and Pensioners’ Grievances, V.
Narayanasamy, to be a bit more sensitive towards the grievances of pensioners. — TNS |
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Shopkeepers seek arrest of Cong leader’s son
Jalandhar, February 15 The shopkeepers also kept their business establishments closed for over two hours and raised slogans against the police officials for allegedly shielding the accused. The protesters complained that Munish Sharma, son of Srikanth, a Congress leader, had assaulted Shubhash Puri, a kerosene dealer, with a baseball bat leaving him seriously injured late Saturday night. Munish Sharma had even rammed his car into a scooter, ridden by Puri, near Milak Chowk, they alleged. Despite registering a case of attempt to murder against the leader, his son and two others at Division No 4 police station, the police authorities had failed to arrest them, they alleged. Later, a delegation of the shopkeepers met the Police Commissioner and gave him a representation in this regard.
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Robbers strike at councillor’s factory in Phagwara
Phagwara, February 15 An employee, Banwari, got up and tried to raise alarm, but the robbers tied him with a rope and took him to a room where another employee Ram Sukh and his wife Seeta Devi were sleeping. The robbers also tied the couple to a bed and locked the room from outside. The robbers took away gun metal weighing more than 7 tonnes worth Rs 40 lakh. Some migrant labourers in the neighbourhood heard the cries of the employees, who were tied to a bed. They reached there and rescued the employees. The DSP, Sandip Sharma, rushed to the spot. Fingerprint experts were also summoned. The police has registered a case under Sections 380, 342, 148 and 149 of the IPC. The police has recovered a knife of the robbers, which was found on the floor of the factory. |
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Rs 4.50 lakh stolen from car
Jalandhar, February 15 Rajinder Pahwa, CMD of RFH Solutions Private Limited, a furniture-manufacturing company, after parking the car in front of his office with the briefcase inside, went to a nearby shop for some work. He found the door glass broken and the briefcase missing from the vehicle as he returned just 15 minutes later. Pahwa informed the police and a case was registered at Division No 4 police station. |
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Jalandhar, February 15
“Ohnan nu border te bhej dao (send them to the border),” Punjabi singer Nachattar Gill says of men whose songs talk about bandookan (guns) and gandassiyan (swords).
“That’s not the Punjabi culture. Songs and videos depicting and glorifying such acts give a wrong signal to people on the name of promoting our rich culture. Where’s the music of our vibrant Punjab?” he asks.
Jalandhar, February 15
An international seminar was organised here today on female foeticide and drug addiction by the Youth Against Alcohol and Drug
(YAAD) Foundation in association with the MGN College of Education, Jalandhar, Punjabi
Sath, Lambra, European Chapter of Punjabi Sath and Sikh Education and Research Society, Canada. The seminar was organised on the premises of the MGN College of Education.
