Jalandhar, May 28
A student of Swami Sant Dass School, Parul Kalia has done the city proud by securing 98 per cent marks in the CBSE Class XII results declared this morning.

A student from the medical stream, she has obtained 100 per cent marks in English, 99 each in biology and chemistry, 97 in computer science and 95 in physics. She has an aggregate of 490 marks, just 10 marks short of the grand total. She had recently got 100th rank in Punjab PMET and is currently preparing for AIIMS entrance before she finally takes a decision on her admission.

A resident of Rail Vihar Colony here, Parul’s father Manmohan Kalia is serving with the agriculture department in Amritsar while her mother Madhu Kalia is a teacher at Police DAV Public School. Her father had already taken off from work to be with her on her result today and her mother said that she, too, availed a half day to be with her daughter on the special day.

The proud parents claimed that their daughter had not just outshone in school results, she had even brought home scores of prizes in various district and state-level quiz and extempore contests.

Gaurav Arora of non-medical stream from Swami Sant Dass School has got 97.4 per cent marks. A resident of Basti Danishmandan, the boy has bagged cent per cent marks in mathematics as well as chemistry. He has got 97 in English and 95 each in physics and computer science. Aspiring to become a computer science engineer, he has got 11,000th rank in the IIT and is now awaiting the AIEEE result. While his father in a scrap dealer, his mother is a housewife.

Commerce top scorer is Shivani from CT Public School with 96.6 per cent. Aiming to be a chartered accountant, she has scored 95 in English and accountancy, 98 in business studies and physical education and 97 in economics. She does not aim to go to Delhi for any top commerce institute and is planning to take admission in Apeejay College here.

The top position holders in medical stream include Simarjot Singh Sodhi from MGN with 96 per cent, Gurnoor from Dhilwan International School and Shriya Gupta from Innocent Hearts School with 95.4 per cent each. Anmol Garg from MGN and Harveen from Shiv Joti School have got 95.2 per cent marks. Anmol Singh Dhanju from MGN stands at 95 per cent.

In non-medical stream, Pahul Jain of Apeejay has got 96.8 per cent. Kashish Chadha, Karandeep Singh and IIT ranker Vardaan Pahuja of Swami Sant Dass School have got 96.2, 95.8 and 95.4 per cent, respectively. Shivali Sokhi and Sahib Makija of MGN and Innocent Hearts School, respectively, have also touched the 95.4 per cent mark. Prateek Narang of Swami Sant Dass School has got 95.2 per cent.

Among commerce students, Swami Sant Dass students Richa Sharma has attained 96.4 per cent, Prachi of Apeejay has got 95.2 per cent. Innocent Hearts School student Kajal too has got 95.2 per cent. 

Jalandhar, May 28
The city was abuzz with political activity today as 118 candidates filed their nomination papers for the forthcoming civic polls.

The candidates had varied style of coming for filing their papers. While sitting Senior Deputy Mayor and SAD candidate from Ward 45 Kamaljit Bhatia came squatting on the roof of a jeep, SAD’s sitting Deputy Mayor and candidate from Ward 50 Parvesh Tangri came pedalling on a bicycle.

BJP’s candidate from Ward 24 Surmit Singh Happy came riding his scooter. Akali candidate Arvinder Kaur Oberoi from Ward 29 came standing in an open jeep along with her husband and sitting councillor Kuldip Singh Oberoi. Shabana Batra of the Congress from Ward 26 came in a car covered with banners in her support. BJP’s Arjun Pappi came in walking from his residence.

Congress’ couple Anita Raja from Ward 36 and Jagdish Raj Raja from Ward 37 came together to file their nomination papers. It was interesting to watch most couples arrive in the DC complex as they both got down of cars having garlands around their necks, supporters cheering them and dancing on the beats of the drums being played aloud. In most cases, the scene resembled no less than a wedding. The party’s senior leaders and MLAs were seen hanging around with the candidates to the rooms of the ROs.

Among those who filed their nomination papers from the Congress were Des Raj Jassal from Ward 1, Janak Rani from Ward 2, Nirmala Devi from Ward 9, Vijay Kumar Dakoha from Ward 13, Amrita from Ward 14, Rajinder Shekhar from Ward 16, Palni Apal from Ward 17, Anil Vashisht from Ward 19, Om Parkash from Ward 22, Shabana Batra from Ward 26, Neerja Jain from Ward 33, Randeep Suri from Ward 35, Anita Raja from Ward 36, Jagdish Raja from Ward 37, Pardeep Singh from Ward 40, Pawan Sharma from Ward 41, Harjinder Singh Ladda from Ward 43, Amanpreet Kaur from Ward 48, Tarsem Chand from Ward 51, Sardari Lal from Ward 52, Swaran Singh from 53, Pawan Kumar from Ward 54 and Aruna Arora from Ward 55.

The SAD nominees who filed papers today were Davinder Kaur from Ward 3, Sneh Lata from Ward 6, Jabir Kaur from Ward 8, Simarjit Kaur from Ward 10, Dalwinder Kaur from Ward 21, Arvinder Kaur of Ward 29, Jaspal Kaur from Ward 39, Gurpal Singh Takkar of Ward 40, Pritam Singh from Ward 43, Kamaljit Singh Bhatia from Ward 45 and Parvesh Tangri from Ward 50.

The BJP nominees include Bhagwant Prabhakar from Ward 4, Manjit Kaur from Ward 14, Majinder Singh from Ward 15, Arjun Pappi from Ward 16, Suman Sehgal from Ward 18, Kawaljit Singh from Ward 22, Surmit Singh from Ward 24, Minta Kochhar from Ward 27, Usha Kala from Ward 32, Vijay Laxmi from Ward 36, Rajan Angural from Ward 46, Shardha Sharma from Ward 48 and Prabh Dayal from Ward 59.

The PPP candidates who filed their papers included Sunita Rani from Ward 14 and Paramjit Singh Mall from Ward 57. From the BSP, Madhu Rana from Ward 6 and Ram Singh from Ward 13 filed their papers.

There were no nomination papers filed today from Wards 5, 12, 20, 28, 30, 31, 38, 44, 49, 56 and 60. Owing to much rush of vehicles and pedestrians outside the DC office, the regular visitors to the DC complex and passers-by faced inconvenience. 

Jalandhar, May 28
YUVA theatre group’s latest production ‘Bichu’ staged at Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall on Saturday and Sunday was like a whiff of fresh air.

A period drama about two miserly fathers, who wouldn’t let their sons bask in the glory of their new-found love, the play introduced Muslim grandeur and coy grace to a theatre scene devoid of poetry and poise.

The painstaking effort with which director Ankur Sharma ensured that Urdu mouthed by the characters is impeccable and free of the contriving Punjabi accent (a phenomenon which has often played spoilsport to the best of productions), was laudable.

The dialogues mouthed had a lot of old-world charm and wisdom about them.

The Muslim setting was truly believable, the characters never felt out of place and the one-liners, especially the ones mouthed by Rehmat aka Bichu (played by director Ankur himself) were spontaneous and evoked applause and laughter.

His eyes talked and his assistant Hashmat’s (played by Harish Dogra) moves were loaded with rustic charm that the character was meant to convey.

However, the play was ruined somewhere towards the end as Ankur and his cast failed to hold on to the tempo. Towards the end, the play began to drag and the audience started getting edgy.

Not the script, but the length of the play was to blame. If only the director had managed to keep it taut, the execution would have been flawless. One could even put a finger at the point where the play began to drag.

In the hilarious sequence where Rehmat beats up the Nawab Banne Mian (played by Harvinder Kumar) hiding in the sack, on the pretext of saving him from blood-thirsty mobsters, Ankur could have saved a bit of his energy to the end of the bit.

But even as he started on a high, aggressive and funny note, till the time he was changing his voices playing the third (read: imaginary) hooligan, he was clearly drained.

The female characters Smriti Sharma and Tuhima (as Neeli and Razia) exuded grace and so did the male lovers Afzal and Munir (played by Vishesh Arora and Amit Sharma).

The portrayals by Nawab Banne Miyan and Manne Miyan (played by Harjit Singh) also raised plenty of laughs.