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Bonfires mark eve of Holi
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German expert weaves a web about spiders
Today is World House Sparrow Day
Face of the week
A batsman in action during a match of the District Cricket League played at the Survey Stadium in Dehradun on Saturday. A Tribune photograph
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Bonfires mark eve of Holi
Dehradun, March 19
Some of them were busy buying sweets, namkeen and bakery products, while others thronged the markets to purchase gulaal, abeer and gifts for near and dear ones. Holi celebrations in the Doon valley are on in full swing and these began with the Holika poojan ceremony today. Huge bonfires are set at almost every crossing of roads in the city, where women in large numbers gathered around and performed the rituals. The collected pieces of wood were tied with a red thread and then women took a round praying for the well being of their families. “Playing colours is the best part of Holi festival. I love the colourful atmosphere of Holi and the smiles on everyone’s face. Today, my friends and I will participate in the Holika dahan samaroh and later, will start the celebrations with colours and festive goodies. I just bought different types of colours and balloons to burst on others,” said Vishwas Awasthi elatedly with a pocket full of dry and water colours. Apart from the colours and rituals, the exotic sweet and salty delicacies also add to the flavour of the festival. Explaining the concept of Holi, owner of Ahuja Sweet Shop at the Ansari Road Santosh Ahuja said, “Holi is not only a festival of colours, but also an auspicious occasion when brotherhood and togetherness are celebrated, while savouring gujias, namkeens and other bakery products”. The traditional pre-festival preparations of making chips and papads are still alive in the city. “My kids love eating chips, but buying these from outside can cause health problems, so I am making potato chips at home for them,” said Sarita Kumar, a housewife. Another resident of the Defence Colony, Seema Pun said, “My two daughters and their friends relish the festive goodies like gujias, mathris and dahi wade very much. I am preparing a lot of home-cooked sweets under quality hygiene conditions, but I prefer buying goodies for gifting purposes”. Petha, batisa and soan papri costing Rs 120 to Rs 250 per kg are also very much in demand. “We have prepared a variety of sweets and namkeens made from pure ghee to maintain our quality standards. Our gujias and chhena mithais are very much in demand, while a large number of people are thronging to purchase these,” said one of the salesmen at Bengali Sweets. Besides a large number children playing Holi on the streets of Dehradun, women in different parts of the city started the rituals for the Holika dahan from afternoon. CM, Harak Rawat greet each other
Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank organised a Holi Milan function at his residence here today. People from all walks of life came to greet him. A large number of party workers and common people from the hills came early morning to greet the CM, applied gulaal on him and conveyed their best wishes. Later in the day, the CM celebrated the function with a large number of journalists, who were invited for the function. Nishank said the festival of Holi marks the spirit of enjoyment and friendship. He conveyed his best wishes to the members of the journalist community. Later in the afternoon, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Harak Singh Rawat also came to greet the CM. It was a happy occasion as both the leaders hugged each other and applied colours and shared sweets to celebrate the function. BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi and other senior party leaders also attended the Holi Milan function.
Holi Milan programme held
On the eve of Holi, the Sankalp Education and Welfare Society (R) and the Kshatriya Chetna Manch organised Holi Milan programme at Ladpur, near Dehradun, today. Many people from different communities, including women and children of all ages, participated in the function. Eminent social worker and Sankalp president Ravi Singh Negi inaugurated the function and applied gulal to poor children. The programme was presided over by Kshatriya Chetna Manch president Mohan Singh
Chauhan.
Negi and Chauhan conveyed their best wishes for a colourful and safe Holi for all the communities. Matbar Singh Bisht, Devender Singh Pundir, Sashi Shahi, Ashok Rauthan, Budh Singh Rawat, Sansar Sahi, Manjeet Sahi, Ashok Vardhan Panwar, Ranjeet Kaintura, Kamla Chauhan, Anita Negi and Sanjana Chauhan attended the function.
BVP holds Holi Milan samaroh
On occasion of Holi, the Bharat Vikas Parishad (BVP), Uttarakhand, held a Holi Milan samaroh at the Gandhi Park here today. A large number of people gathered on the occasion and enjoyed the cultural programme conducted by the
parishad. The programme began with the Vande Mataram followed by offering prayers to the Almighty. Famous singer Ravi presented a patriotic song “Har karam apna karenge” and enthralled the audience. The local artistes also presented a Garhwali dance. While addressing the event, president of the parishad Savita Kapoor greeted everyone a very happy Holi and congratulated the members of the association for putting up a wonderful event on the eve of Holi. Chief guest on the occasion was Assembly Speaker Harbans Kapoor.
Harish Rawat takes part in Holi Milan
Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Harish Rawat participated in Holi Milan festivities held at Balawala. Those who participated in the Holi Milan included Kishori Lal Saklani, Ranjeet Singh Verma, Mahesh Rawat, Swaran Bhandari, Neeraj Bisht, Urmila Negi and others. Meanwhile, a Hasya Kavya Sammelan was also held at Paras Wedding Point under the aegis of the National Union of Journalist (NUJ). Those who participated in the programme included Rajneesh Dwivedi, Neeta Thakur, Sangeeta, Brahamdatt and others.
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German expert weaves a web about spiders
Dehradun, March 19 Spiderman Dr Peter Jager, who is the head of arachnology, Senckenberg Research Institute of Natural History Museum, Frankfurt, Germany, is in Uttarakhand these days and studying spider biodiversity in the Nandadevi Biosphere. After visiting Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, Dr Jager, along with a team of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), is engaged in the study of spider biodiversity at Joshimath in Chamoli Garhwal district of the state. All invertebrates are a key part of ecological systems and the spider’s role as a eco-system health indicator is of paramount importance. A spider’s role even as an indicator in agriculture, particularly pest control, is recognised in countries like Hungary and Germany. A spider is as beautiful as any other charismatic species. “In Germany, we hold programmes in schools and other public places to inform children and others of the importance of spiders in the eco-system,” Jager said adding that he had even filmed a female spider taking care of her newborn which was screened at various schools in Germany. There is little awareness on spiders from a taxonomic point of view. The general perception that spiders are the most ugly prevails, which is quite contrary to the truth. “Spiders are as beautiful as others when seen at night,” Jager said arguing that there could be spider watchers on the lines of bird watchers, provided people were rightly informed about this magnificent creation of God. He said the study of spiders was much deeper in central European countries, including Germany. Here in India, many spiders specialists were needed. Not much was known about the diversity of spiders in India. In Germany, spider fauna was well documented, but that was missing in countries like India, he said. Referring to his visit to Joshimath, Dr Peter Jager described Joshimath as rich in spider biodiversity and did not rule out the emergence of some interesting facts on spider species. Dr VP Uniyal, senior scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India, who accompanied Dr Jager to Joshimath, had earlier conducted a comprehensive study on effective management practices on spider diversity in the Terai Conservation Area (TCA). He said the study of spiders in Joshimath in the Nandadevi Biosphere Region was aimed at evaluating the species diversity of spiders in the eco-system and to examine their occurrence in non-burning and burning grassland areas and to suggest appropriate measures. Shazia Quasin, senior research fellow at the WII, was another key member of the team to Joshimath.
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Today is World House Sparrow Day
Dehradun, March 19 Prateek Panwar, Founder Trustee, Action and Research for Conservation in the Himalayas (ARCH), who has been among the first to make the World House Sparrow Day an important
He said ARCH had already distributed over 250 wooden nests. Panwar pointed out that the house sparrow stood as a symbol of conservation of avian fauna as the birds always revealed the health of the environment. He did not rule out changes in the house-building pattern as the main reason behind the dwindling number of house sparrows. He said usage of pesticides certainly had been a reason behind the deaths of sparrows. Panwar said, “ARCH has been receiving tremendous response towards the conservation of house sparrows”. He added that ARCH had also come up with a group, Friends of House Sparrows, to further the cause.
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Bringing beauty of nature on canvas
Yamini Sunwar Tribune News Service
Dehradun, March 19 Reeta started her career as an art educator from Welham Girls School, but had to transfer to Marshall School midway due to the family responsibility that could not get in sync with her career commitments. It has been more than two decades now that Reeta is serving at the Marshall School as a senior art teacher with dedication and perseverance. “I was inspired to pursue a career in arts by my school art teacher. I have completed my masters in drawing and painting and have done PhD from Banaras Hindu University. After finishing my art education, I went on to teach arts at Gorakhpur University as a lecturer in the Fine Arts Department and continued to make art for my portfolio in my spare time,” said Reeta. “My career is still unfolding. Apart from educating students in school, I am a member of the Doon Art Society through which I got a chance for exhibiting my work in the UGB Art Gallery twice. All my paintings won accolades and appreciation from visitors, but it felt good to get praise from my own students, who have seen their teacher being strict on them for not paying attention in the class,” she said. Reeta had been secretary (arts) at RG College, Meerut, for two years, while she was pursuing her arts education in the same institute itself. During her college days she took a variety of art courses that exposed her to many different mediums of drawing, painting, sculpture, dyeing, craft making and printmaking. While expressing her concern over the condition of art colleges in the country, Reeta said, “The art education system needs to be changed for better service to the society. The apathy by the authorities concerned is responsible for the problems faced by several art colleges in the country. These colleges really need to be funded better and must look forward to offer variety of courses in the programme”. Reeta specialises in geometrical, figure, abstract, nature and modern art, but has keen interest in Madhubani and Rajasthani paintings. She wants to encourage these two fortes of art form that can build up national inheritance at its best. “Acrylic paints, paintbrush and canvass are the major tools of the trade that are used in making an art piece. For sketches and portraits, a good pen or pencil is a must to give wings to your creativity during work,” said Reeta, when questioned about the basic tools of art. Reeta Seth is also a better homemaker who knows how to devote time to her family out of her busy schedule. “In my routine work, I work at the school until 3.30 pm doing a variety of school work related tasks such as preparing for new lessons and teaching my students all the varieties of art form. After school, I do my household work and even look after my grand daughter, who makes me run after her down the stairs and in the garden. Some days I do art work or watch television or read books”. On being asked what can students applying to art schools or programme should do to increase their chances of being accepted, said Reeta. “One should concentrate on having an impressive portfolio of his artwork. Along with the work done in school, include something from outside and that is abstract. Try to include the remarks and reviews of your teachers, along with the criticism that can strongly point out strong and weak sides of an artist in you. “I want to start up a school of arts for amateur, budding artists and even for freshers, so that no child with an inclination in arts and painting has to leave the Doon valley to pursue his dream or career goals. I even look forward to providing a place as in the form of an art gallery to artists, where they can exhibit their artwork,” Reeta signed off.
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ACA, Helax triumph
Dehradun, March 19 Batting first, New Sky Club scored 122 runs all out. Shah Nawaz scored the highest (33) runs. Abhimanyu and Vaibhav of ACA took three wickets each. Chasing the target, ACA crossed the finish line just losing four wickets. Abhimanyu, Priyanshu and Ravi Negi contributed 27, 26 and 21 runs respectively. Junaid of New Sky Club took three wickets. In another match, Helax won its match against Dehradun Institute of Technology (DIT) by 62 runs. Batting first, Helax scored 195 runs in the allotted overs. DIT could just manage to make 133 runs all out.
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With just a few hours left for the Holi celebrations to begin, enthusiastic Doon residents were found busy making preparations for having a gala time amid family and friends today.
Dehradun, March 19
