The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

SJOBA organises seminar on counselling
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9
It was their first lesson in growing up to face the challenges that lay outside the confines of their Alma Mater and one that would shape their destiny in the years to come.

Much to the disappointment of the Governor, no student raised his hand to his question, “How many of you would like to join the army?’,’ which he mentioned repeatedly in his speech.

However, much to the surprise of everybody, the tables turned after Colonel Chabbewal gave his presentation as 22 students opted for the profession at a poll conducted during the interactive session with the speakers.

The St. John’s Old Boys Association’s (SJOBA) contribution to their “juniors’’ came by way of a career counselling seminar organised for the outgoing Class X batch at St. John’s High School, Sector 26, here today.

Speakers from various professions weighed the pros and cons of their job requirements, while informing students on the manner of achieving targets they set for themselves. Most of them strictly recommended a contingency plan to pursue as back up in case the students failed to achieve their heart’s desire.

An on-the-spot poll conducted to assess the students’ choice revealed that most of them had a clear inclination towards studying abroad. The second most sought after profession, which came as a surprise to the organisers, was the armed forces, while law finished the “favourite’’ third among the 130-odd students present at the seminar.

Later, speakers answered queries of curious students on their respective professions and updated them on sources to secure information for admission to the professional courses.

Among the speakers who elucidated on the professional courses, Mr M.L. Sarin, a lawyer, gave inputs on adopting law as a profession, while Mr D.S. Dhesi, Principal Secretary to Haryana Chief Minister, spoke on the work involved in securing a seat in the coveted Indian Administrative Service.

Pointing out that Information Technology was no “magic wand’’, the Director, Information Technology, Mr Vivek Atray, informed the students that there was greater scope in the IT-enabled industry rather than core IT, which involved greater technical skill. The crisp presentation by Colonel Chabbewal on a career in the Army motivated the students enough to take it up as a profession. He said contrary to popular belief, Army was a lucrative option and officers were better paid than in government jobs.

Speakers, including Mr Arvind Kumar, Ms Neelam Man Singh and Mr Pranav Gupta, spoke on jobs in the IPS, theatre and education opportunities in the USA.

Earlier, the Punjab Governor and Administrator, UT, Lt-Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), underlined the need for having a well-organised career counselling system to help students select career according to their own potential.

Stressing the need for organised and balanced system of dispersion of students according to their potential, General Jacob said students were generally pushed by their parents in careers they were unsuited for, leaving them in an unsuitable vocational environment.

Among others who spoke included SJOBA President, Maj N.S. sangwan, Mr M.L. Sarin, Principal of the school, Ms P. Cheema, and honorary secretary of SJOBA, Mr Ajay Thiara.

A clarification
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9
Prof S.C. Bedi, Organising Secretary of the All India Vice-Chancellors’ Conference, today clarified that it was erroneous to blame organisers of the conference for lapses in verifying the identity of the imposter, who impersonated as C.L. Kaul.

Prof Bedi said mediapersons did not care to verify the facts from the Organising Secretary of the conference who was duty-bound to issue authenticated and quotable statements over the conference matters.

In a statement, Prof Bedi said he personally confronted the imposter on the Raj Bhavan lawns, unnerved him with stern questions, stripped him of his identity badge and handed him over to the Raj Bhavan security. He claimed that the imposter’s custody was given to the police later with the help of “Dr Goyal and Dr Mehta in full view of several guests.” He added that Mr R.K. Singh, Chief Security Officer of the university “falsely claimed to have been keeping tabs over the imposter,” said Prof Bedi.

He added that Mr Singh had to be reminded of his duties and the gravity of the matter and then only he joined the process and that too reluctantly.

Prof Bedi said the registration process for the conference was faulty that was partly responsible for this episode. In the absence of any registration fee, the participant Vice-Chancellors kept the organisers guessing about their travel programmes and some of them even sent a telephone call or message. Those who sent their travel programmes did not necessarily come and those who had not sent might turn up at the last moment throwing all arrangements in disarray.

As it was, the travel programmes of even some standing committee members did not exist. In such cases they were registered on the spot just as in the case of Mr C.L. Kaul. It looked too impolite to ask a Vice-Chancellor to prove his identity and too risky if the official happened to be from the U.G.C., the funding agency.

4,000 appear in entrance test
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9
Over 4,000 students appeared for the combined entrance test for the IIMs at five centres in the city, here today.

The centres for the test included DAV College, Sector 10, MCM DAV College, Sector 36, Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36, SGGS College, Sector 26, and GGS College, Sector 26.

About 3,000 candidates were given free multi-media educational CDs by Bull’s Eye, a private institute involved in preparing students for the entrance examination.

Claiming that the number of candidates appearing for the test had gone up from 2,600 to 4,000 this year, the centre head of the Institute of Management Studies, Sector 35, Ms Guneet R. Singh, said the increase could be attributed to the waning charm of computer industry. “The market for the GRE is also down after terrorist attacks in the US,” she added.

This year the number of questions in the three sections of the paper had been reduced from 165 to 150. “This would imply that cut-off marks would be higher in comparison to last year”, Ms Guneet said.

Adhunik Nursery School function
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, December 9
Tiny tots of Adhunik Nursery School in Sector 6 here turned out in their best along with their parents to celebrate the annual function of the school at Yavanika, open air theatre in Sector 5 today.

The children in the age group of three to six enacted Ramayana, which was presented through the “sutra dhar” in the form of a puppet. Brimming with confidence, the students presented a Haryanvi dance. Another dance form, “2 Love My India”, was also impressive. The play class of the school also did not lag behind their seniors when its students presented two action songs.

The Principal of the school, Mrs Sudha Bhatia, who welcomed the parents, said the school was established in 1985.

School annual function
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, December 9
Rhythm and zest were the hallmark of a variety programme presented by students of Dutt Vishesh School, Sector 26, on the occasion of their annual function here today.

A message on environment protection was given by the Students of Class II through a play titled, “Mother Nature”, while another Punjabi play, “Mamaji” staged by students of Class IV highlighted the simplicity of village life.

Dance items like Shiv Tandav Nritya and Garba were another other attractions. The Walt Disney show and a play, “Stolen Visit” had the audience in laughter. The principal of the school presented the annual report.

Conference of school boards
Tribune News Service

SAS Nagar, December 9
The 28th convention of the Confederation of Boards of Secondary Education is being held at the Punjab School Education Board here beginning from December 11.

CULTURE

Anandji weaves magic; presents Rafi awards
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9
Some reminiscences of the bygone era, some romance of lyrical melodies and some magic of the music-makers called Kalyanji-Anandji ....The day brought such a treat of music that no one present in Tagore Theatre actually wanted to leave. Each moment of the evening was so refreshing that it seemed to wash away from the soul the dust of everyday life. Like a true showman, the chief guest of the Yaadgar-e-Rafi Society’s annual Rafi award nite, Anandji did not just consume the music he was offered; he breathed a new soul in today’s show by being present on the performance space throughout.

Beginning to today’s show which was dedicated to the memory of the legendary Mohd Rafi could not have been better made. Breaking the mundane style, Anandji paid his homage by singing the all-time favourite ‘Badi door se aaye hain...pyar ka tohfa laye hain...,’ and as the audience burst into applause, it did not look back. The hall was at once full of vibrations so soothing that the sound of applause actually seemed to disturb the spell of melody created by singers.

In all, the evening had 24 song presentations by promising singers, many of whom have also won the Rafi awards in the past. But more than the presentation, the day was about honouring the winner of last year’s contest. Anandji presented trophies to last year’s winners of the Rafi awards. The first prize in female category was bagged by Kajal Panju, a girl from Amritsar, who also won the French Nightingale Award this year. A winner of Saregama (Alpha Punjabi), Kajal is the first year MA student of vocal music at GND University. Veena Sehgal from Ludhiana won the second prize. An M.Phil in music from Delhi University, Veena has also won the Alpha Punjabi’s Saragama contest. The third prize went to Rekha Arora who had also bagged the Close Up Picnic Antakshri contest of DD in 1999.

In the men’s section, the first prize went to SAS Nagar’s Bhupendra Singh. Trained by his brother Rajender Moni, Bhupendra is pursuing music in academics. He has participated in Saregama (both Hindi and Punjabi) and likes old numbers of Mohd Rafi very much.

Ramesh Dhiman, the first runner-up, is training under Suraj Prakash Grover in Ambala. He had bagged the award last year for the song ‘Ab kya misaal doon main tumhare shabaab ki’. He was the winner of Meri Aawaaz Suno contest organised sometime back in Lalru.

The third prize went to Manmohan Singh of Jagadhri, who is learning music from Taranjit Singh. He also regaled the audience today by singing the legendary duet ‘Yun hi tum mujhse baat karti ho’ with Veena Senhal.

Among other songs rendered on stage today were the all-time classics like Kalyanji-Anandji’s first song ‘Chahe paas ho chahe door ho’ sung by K.K. Tandon and Rimi Chopra, ‘O dilbar janiye mere ho tum mere’ sung by Dr Anil Sharma and the full-of-life song of Aamne Saamne ‘Kabhi raat din hum door the ab din raat ka saath hai’ sung by Raman Kant and Rinku Kalia.

The most memorable of today’s presentations was the one by S.K. Kathuria who sang ‘Nain milakar chain churana’. So impressive was his style and range that Anandji himself asked him to repeat the one stanza of the song. “Sing like Shashi Kumar,” he told Mr Kathuria. Mohd Naushad (winner of Rafi award in 1999) was very imposing on stage with the legendary song ‘Mere mitwa mere meet re’ which he sang with great passion. Among other songs presented this evening were ‘Mohabbat ke suhane’, ‘Sare shehar mein’. Tarsem Khullar presentation of ‘Akele hain chale aao’ was also applauded.

Another chief guest for today’s show which was also sponsored by the North Zone Cultural Centre was Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Punjab’s Finance Minister. He donated Rs 31,000 to the society.

While music for the evening was arranged by Raman Kant, other musicians included Arun Kant, S.P. Sharma, Rohit Kant, Wavel Sharma, Subhash Naik, Suresh Naik, Parveen Rahi, P. Talwar, Sudarshan, Neeraj, Bubble, Raju Naik and Neetu.