The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

CULTURE

GLITZ & GLAMOUR
The Memsaab’s maya extends beyond acting
Smriti Kak

FOR all of you left wondering as to what happened to the beautiful and talented Maya Memsaab, here is good news.

The Memsaab is back with a brand new hairdo and some really exciting stuff. She has announced the launch of Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC).

It is designed to provide advanced training to the industry professionals in computer graphics and animation, visual effects, film scanning, recording, composting and editing.

The first base of this institute has been made in the Capitals' South Extension. State-of-art facilities, certified trainers, live projects from various organisations from the industry and a full-fledged studio for students are the main attractions of the MAAC. On successful completion of the course, the candidates are assured of in-house placements as well as in the industry.

According to the lady behind this venture, "It is the ICE age – Information, Communication and Entertainment are blooming industries of the day and we want the Indian students to gain maximum advantage in these fields."

Touche! Memsaab. And when she says this, she is not acting for once.

Little dream girl

The dream girl's little girl is all set to make her debut in Boney Kapoor's Koi Mere Dil Se Pooche opposite the very cute Aftab Shivdasani. Whether the film is going to be a success, time will tell. The music, however, is doing fairly well.

The music release of the film, held in the Capital recently saw Boney Kapoor with Sridevi and their daughter smile for the cameras. A happy family picture included kid brother, Sanjay as well. The film directed by Satish Kaushik has Jaya Bachchan in a special role and the versatile Anupam Kher. Rajesh Roshan has scored the music, while the lyrics are credited to Dev Kholi Satyabhan Gupta and Ibrahim. Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam and Hema Sardesai have lent their vocal chords to the film set for a January 11 release.

Audio-Visual Fete

Fashion diva Ritu Beri and music maestro Claude Challe are treating the Capital to an audio-visual treat.

Ritu with her colorful clothes and Claude with his foot-tapping notes have joined forces to mesmerise audiences. "Nirvana" is an eclectic mix of a whole new gamut of vividly different elements all culminating in an interesting collection. From short and brazen western dresses to sensual Bagh embroidery cat suits and frothy asymmetrical cuts, the collection is rich in colours and detail.

The Nirvana collection is replete with Beri's favourite Swarovski crystals.

The collection was on display in the Capital's Taj Palace on Tuesday.

Couple plan theatre drive against foeticide
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 18
Punjabi theatre couple Sunita and Pran Sabharwal, who were conferred the K. S. Dhaliwal Theatre Award the other day, plan to launch a theatre campaign against female foeticide in Punjab and Delhi.

According to Pran Sabharwal, who is the director of the Patiala-based National Theatre Arts Society and international coordinator of the World Punjabi Theatre Movement, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has agreed to support their proposed theatre campaign in the cause of women uplift and against female foeticide, which, he says, is disturbing the male-female ratio in the country, especially in the North. Also agreed upon is the staging of the Punjabi musical, “Daire”, to make the Year of Women Empowerment an eventful one.

SPORTS

National Stadium hums with cricket coaching once again
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 18
The cricket trainees of National Stadium are back at their home ground, after cramming it out with other trainees at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium cricket centre for several months. The National Stadium was out of bounds for the cricket trainees when it was handed over to the Public Works Department for renovation works in preparation of the inaugural Afro-Asian Games.

When the renovation work and laying of the hockey Astro-Turf started at the National Stadium in the middle of this year, the cricket trainees were packed off to the Nehru Stadium.

Hundreds of trainees of Sunita Sharma, Maninder Singh and Arun Bharadwaj were forced to train together at the Nehru Stadium. The main reason for closing down the cricket centres at the National Stadium was that water for watering the cricket pitches had to be diverted for the laying of the Astro-Turf.

But the National Stadium cricket trainees were forced to train at the Nehru Stadium long after the inaugural Afro-Asian Games were postponed, and the renovation work at the National Stadium had ended.

The specious plea given for keeping the cricketers away from National Stadium was that the renovation work on the bath rooms and change rooms had not been completed. When there was no sign of the work on the bathrooms being completed, after the abrupt cancellation of the Afro Asian Games, the Sports Authority of India decided to allow the resumption of cricket coaching at the National Stadium “bathroom or no bathroom”.

But several months of neglect had taken a heavy toll of the otherwise well-maintained cricket grounds, as starved of water, the cricket pitches had gone bone dry. It took almost one month’s careful watering and tending of the grounds by coaches Sunita Sharma, Maninder Singh and Chopra to get the pitches back in green shape.

Jadeja Fans Club demands his recall
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 18
With the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sending out no positive signal for the immediate recall of Ajay Jadeja, whose name had figured in the match-fixing scandal, into the Indian team, the “Ajay Jadeja Fans Club” has made a representation to the Board for the immediate recall of the dashing batsman.

“Ajay Jadeja Fans Club” president Deepak Tanwar presented a representation to BCCI vice-president C K Khanna, who is also the vice-president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) on Tuesday, requesting his intervention for the lifting of the ban on Ajay Jadeja by the BCCI. The Ajay Jadeja Fans Club wanted Mr Khanna to forward the representation to BCCI president Jag Mohan Dalmia for the honourable reinstatement of Jadeja in the Indian team.

Delhi dismiss J & K for paltry 194
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 18
Delhi were sitting pretty at 72 for four after dismissing Jammu and Kashmir for 194 in 64.4 overs on the first day of the North Zone Under-22 Cricket League match at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground in the Capital on Tuesday.

Jammu and Kashmir won the toss and opted to bat. But it proved to be a suicidal decision as their batsmen failed to cope with the turn and flight generated by left-arm spinner Vivek Khurana who ended up with a rich haul of five for 57.

Yogesh Schdeva provided the necessary support to Khurana, as he claimed 2 for 24 to break the back of the J and K batting line-up.

Inderjit Singh, who scored a precious 40 runs, and Sanjay Sharma, who cracked 28 runs, tried to thwart the Delhi bowlers, but they could achieve only limited success which was not enough to give J and K a solid foundation.

Imtiaz Ahmed (22), Imraj Thakur (20) and Parnav Mahajan (20) were the other batsmen who did their bit of swinging the bat to keep the scoreboard moving, but not much as the Delhi bowlers eventually got on top of them to send J and K packing for 192.

Delhi, in reply, lost four wickets for 72 off 26 overs, with Dhruv Mohan making 35, and Sidharth Verma scoring an unbeaten 14. Parnav Mahajan bowled with venom to snatch 2/19 and put shackles on the Delhi batting for quite some time, but the hosts have such a solid batting line-up that they can easily overtake J and K’s total on Wednesday, if they don’t rush through their strokes.