DPS crisis worries parents
Management assurance on new appointments
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, July 24
The mass resignation by teachers of Panchkula branch of Delhi Public School has triggered off a crisis in the school, with the management and staff blaming each other for the situation. Things came to a head at the Parent Teacher meeting held in the school today, as parents of students expressed their fears over the future of the school and whether it would still be affiliated to the Delhi Public School Society. Ms Bimla Arora, member of the DPS Pinjore Management Committee, assured them that mass resignation by teachers had no bearing on the school's functioning and new staff had been hired to fill in the vacancies.

Parents also expressed concern over the fact that the school had been functioning without a Principal since June 1, ever since the former Principal, Ms Seema Malik, shifted to DPS, Ludhiana. Ms Arora informed the parents that a new Principal had been selected by the DPS Society and Mr Samson Massey, would join before the beginning of next month.

As many as six teachers, including the Senior Academic Coordinator Smriti Kaila, junior academic coordinator Poonam Saluja, Ekta, Sharma, Ela Gaba, Neeru Bhandari and Usha Gupta, had put in their papers collectively in protest against the alleged "harassment at the hands of a local member of the DPS Society". These teachers have reportedly also sent a complaint to the chairman of the DPS Society at Delhi, alleging "humiliating working conditions." They alleged that a local member of the management was critical of the DPS work culture and would ridicule them on the slightest pretext.

However, the school management denies the allegations and says that the resignations were engineered by a DPS employee. ‘‘The same teachers had been working in the school, before it was affiliated to the DPS Society and under the same management member. But there were no problems then. Three of these six teachers had been given a conditional appointment, subject to their completing a degree in Bachelor of Education within two years, but they did not bother to get themselves registered for the degree. Another teacher had put in her papers in April, when the local management member was not in charge of the school affairs, and Ms Malik was still in the school. We were even paying them the PGT and TGT grades, ’’ says Ms Arora.

She adds that the teachers were pulled up by the local management member after the parents had complained against them for failing to get the syllabus covered in time.

The teachers who have resigned also accuse the school management of withholding their work experience certificates. ‘‘We have written to the management to give us certificates, but are being denied this,’’ said one teacher. However, Ms Arora denied this and said they had received the letter for certificates during the vacation time and would issue these certificates soon. 

Architecture students win design contest
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 24
Two students of the Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA) have been selected as winning entries in the All India design competition organised by Grasim Industries recently.

Jasmeet Kahlon and Nazina Ahmed, both second semester students at the CCA, worked as a team in this contest organised by the Birla White Cement group.

The contest required them to design a floor, as per the hypothetical situation given to them by the panel conducting the contest. What makes the victory of these budding architects special is that there were 1,000 entries in all, and members of the jury were masters in their respective fields.

The college received the official communication about the winning of its students recently. Prof Rajnish Wattas, Principal of the college, told The Tribune, “They were asked to create a design for a floor. The situation was given to them, so were the directions with regard to which the floor pattern to work on. The selection of these designs is extremely significant because second semester is otherwise a very junior class.”

Judges on the panel of Grasim Industries were Y.P. Pitkar, Principal, J.J. College of Architecture, Bombay, Nitin Killawala and Varsha Desai, practising architects and Mr Subodh Poddar, Creative Head for FCB Ulka Advertising.

The grand final ceremony will be held in Mumbai on August 7, where these two students have been invited. A teacher from the college will also accompany them.

With this victory, the CCA has added another feather to its cap. It has already undertaken significant consultancy projects in and around Chandigarh over the past two years.

These include War Memorial at Chandigarh, Ethnic village at Rai and Adventure Park at Morni, The Riding Club at Chandimandir, Income tax Headquarters building at Chandigarh and Beautification of city’s entry points.

Spend quality time with kids: expert
Tribune News Service

Mohali, July 24
Improve your self-confidence if you want to build your child’s confidence. This was stated by Dr Jogindra Mukherjee while delivering a talk to parents at Shemrock Senior Secondary School, Sector 69, here today. A lecturer in guidance and counselling, Government College for Education, Sector 20, Chandigarh, Dr Mukerjee talked to the parents about their role in confidence building of the child. Emphasising that a parent of 2004 was not the same as a parent 30 years ago, Dr Mukerjee said parents had to realise that whatever their parents did for them was not necessarily the best for their children in today’s world.

She said that the parents must play with their children and participate in their various activities. ‘‘Be a positive mirror to the child. Encourage them and let them feel secure and worthy in your presence, she said. To build child’s confidence the parents should adopt the following steps: Practice attachment parenting; help your child be home wise before street smart; monitor school influence on child; give your child responsibility and encourage children to express.

Dr Mukherjee also stressed that the parents should spend quality time with the children, as also be role models of the aspects of personality which they wanted to inculcate in them. The reaction of the parents to any situation should not be judgmental, comparing the child with others because there was no uniform level of achievement and achievements of different individuals were different based on their own inherent capabilities. She added that the parents should not transfer their stress and worries to children nor should they create an artificial “fear” world. All these got stored in mind and later affected the self-confidence. After her talk was over, there was an open house for questions from parents. 

Computer teachers’ recruitment process begins
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 24
The Punjab Government has initiated the process of recruiting about 3000 teachers for compulsory computer education in 1287 government schools on contractual basis. The process is being carried out under the Information and Communication Technology project.

A written test for short listing the candidates was held on July 11 at Amritsar, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Ferozepore and Chandigarh centres. The result was declared on July 20.

The candidates qualifying the test will now have to appear for a computer skill test. It will be held at Sector 32 GGDSD College from July 30 to August 1. The test will be of 90 minutes duration. The candidates can get the details of the schedule from the office of the Director, Public Instructions (Secondary Education), at Chandigarh.

Demand for uniform policy on admissions
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 24
The Society for Excellence in Education and Career Planning (SEECAP) at its fortnightly meeting held here today took stock of confusion prevalent among students after passing Class XII. The students seeking admission to professional courses were particularly confused about various entrance tests, the SEECAP honorary director S.M. Sardhana said.

Calling for a uniform policy on admission, the society members rued that some universities relied on AIEEE, while others conducted their own entrance test for admission to engineering. With Panjab University’s University Institute of Engineering Technology being `open to all' and Punjab Engineering College reducing the reservation for Chandigarh students to 50 per cent, students from Chandigarh were a discriminated lot, they alleged. If the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology could reserve 85 per cent seats for locals, why could there not be a similar provision for Chandigarh students at the institutions in Chandigarh, asked the society members.

Mohali Diary
Environment week
Tribune News Service

Mohali, July 24
Students of J.V. Sarvhitkari Model School, Sector 71, here celebrated “environment awareness week”. The children wore green dresses at the inaugural function on July 22. A painting contest was organised. The winners were Pankaj, Savreet, Poonam, Pearly Sayeed, Harsh, Shahzad, Simran, Ankur and Amarjit. Students read out poems and spoke on various environment-related topics. Simran of Class VIII and Ankur of Class VII were adjudged best speakers.

Medical camp: A medical camp was organised at DAV Public School on July 18. All students from nursery to Class X were examined by a team of specialists led by Dr Vidhi Chand, Medical Officer, Civil Dispensary Phase IX. Many students were vaccinated. Deficiency in students were detected and medicines prescribed.

Elected: Prof Gurmeet Singh has been elected All-India Human Rights Watch president. Members of the central body of the organisation, presidents and general secretaries of all district and blocks attended the meeting held under the chairmanship of Mr Anil Kaushik.

Cultural Show: Students of Swami Ram Tirath Public High School, Phase IV, participated in a cultural programme organised by Shri Ram Chander Mission Chandigarh, on July 17. The students presented an English skit entitled “Who am I?” A kathak dance and a group song were the other item presented.

Green drive: As many as 200 saplings were planted at Doon International School, Sector 69, by members of the Lions Club. The ceremony was inaugurated by the SDM, Mohali. Mr Gurcharan Singh, regional Chairman, Lions Club, was the guest of honour.

MCA admissions

Chandigarh, July 24
Admissions to the Masters in Computer Application (MCA) course at the university campus and the Regional Centre, Muktsar, was held at Panjab University (PU) here today.

Under the general category, the rank of the last candidate, who was admitted to the PU was 344 while the rank of the last candidate to get admission in Muktsar was 2,429.

One seat remained vacant in the NRI/Industry sponsored category in the PU while no seat in the category could be filled up at the regional centre, Muktsar. Admission to the five-year B.Sc (Honours school) and five-year BA LLB (Hons) integrated course for candidates belonging to the “physically handicapped, terrorist victim and scheduled caste” categories would be made tomorrow. — TNS

Film Review
“Julie” bold but average
Rama Sharma

It seems that Bollywood is set to explore something different. It can choose good themes or some socially relevant issues. But what ruins the game is that it fails to give these themes a realistic touch.

“Julie” starts on a bold note with the heroine, Julie, (Neha Dhupia) declaring in a TV studio that she is a call girl. Sadly the boldness is limited to only body exposure. The script does not deal with the issue forthrightly.

In a flashback, Julie is a simple girl brought up lovingly by her baker father in beautiful environs of Goa. She loves cycling and playing at beaches and has no high ambition. She goes to church praying that she wants to make food for husband and kids.

She comes to Mumbai for a job and had bad experience with two men. After that she suddenly walks into a hotel room to ‘entertain’ a customer. Thoroughly unbelievable.

A beautiful story of a grateful Buddhist nun is twisted and narrated totally out of context. It is used to convince Julie that she should be thankful for getting a chance to make easy money. Some real imagination.

Neha Dhupia performs reasonably well. She gets almost all reel length to expose the body but a few to emote. The Mihir -Julie track is supposedly highly emotional but there is no corresponding display of such expressions.

Priyanshu Chatterjee as Mihir Shandilya, a decent multi-millionaire bachelor, who loves Julie is quite suited for the role .Dialogues are okay. Music is average. Title song “Julie” is quite soft and rhythmic. The scene of Julie’s reunion with her father is touching. But overall the movie hardly leaves an impression.

After an overdose of skin display, we are treated to some philosophical lecture on social concern. Some balancing act indeed.

What does the message go with the masses?A woman has no identity of her own.She gets respect only if she gets acceptance from man. If rejected, she is disgraced. Society views her from a man’s eye.

Bollywood desperately needs to change its perspective on such issues. If properly worked upon there are many chances that these would be liked by masses.

Western Film Review
‘Spider-man’ in emotional web
Rajiv Kaplish

CHANDIGARH: The net weaver is in an emotional dilemma. Caught in the web of life this time, the Marvel Comics character is torn between his human failings and superman heroics. The lazy lover or the much-adored crime fighter? It is a difficult choice to make. While on the one hand is his unflinching love for his girlfriend, on the other is his dedication to crime-busting duties.

Cobbling together masala ingredients of a typical Hollywood potboiler, director Sam Raimi pits Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), a reluctant superhero, against a scientist-turned-monster, Dr Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) in ‘‘Spider-man 2’’ (Kiran, Fun Republic).

Lovelorn Peter is in danger of losing his beloved Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), who is tired of his failure to keep promises, even as he is confronting Dr Octavius. The latter has grafted four cyber-intelligent tentacles to his spine and has turned into an evil octopus following the conking out of a vital chip in his system.

Viewers on a Friday show seemed to be joining ‘‘Spider-man....’’ in his emotional rollercoaster ride as much as they appeared to be relishing his acts of heroism. That is what audience-participation cinema is all about.

LIFESTYLE

Mobile companies unleash ‘ad war’ on city roads

An ‘‘Ad war’’ has been unleashed in the city by three major GSM technology mobile service providers. All three companies - Airtel, Hutch and Spice -- in a bid to outdo each other, are vying for the same vantage spots near traffic lights and in busy shopping areas.

In the past two weeks one company had put over 70-feet wide banners on Jagat and Kiran cinemas thus giving a new look to the concept of advertising in Chandigarh.

As of today all vantage spots, an ice-cream parlour, a stationary shop, restaurant or even a chemist shop, have hoardings of these mobile companies. Interestingly, at all spots ads of all three companies are usually put up together. The shopkeepers are happy. Though no one is willing to say what the companies pay sources said the rates are on per square foot basis. The payment is good. The criteria is that the shop should be at a place where vehicle have to stop.

The most sought after places are traffic lights at Sectors 19 and 18. Also traffic lights at Kiran Theatre and at Sectors 22 and 23. Piccadily chowk and near Hotel South End and also hotel Metro, both in Sector 35.

If Sachin Tendulkar stands tall in the advertisement of Airtel. The Hutch advertisement says "Hi " and has a photo of a child or a young man. Not to miss out, Spice has also purchased space to have its hoardings right next to the ones put up by these companies. Sources, says the mobile density ( number of mobiles per thousand persons) in Chandigarh is very high and is close to that in metros like Mumbai and Delhi.

Apart from these three companies, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) offers its GSM technology-based mobiles. But the state run BSNL is not part of this advertising.

Connect and Reliance are the two other players in the CDMA-based technology offering mobile services but these two are also largely unaffected by the ‘‘advertisement war’’ unleashed by the three GSM technology companies. TNS

Crafting his dream machine
Swarleen Kaur

If you are innovative, you are bound to find some ways and means to channelise your energy. For Hitesh Madhok, a mechanical engineer based in Mohali, his motor cycle is true expression of his creative skills.

He has modified his 20-year-old Yezdi classic 1981 model recently, making it a powerful performer. The inspiration came from a Harley Davidson bike which he watched on the Internet. This set him working on his childhood bike which he had bought just for Rs 8,000.

Hitesh said, “I have been riding it when I was just 10 years old. It took me six months to collect the required material for modifying the motor cycle and it cost me over Rs 40,000”.

Using mild steel and aluminium sheets, he has fabricated front mudguard. Its petrol tank has three openings. The motor cycle has spacious side cowl boxes on which locks are fitted from outside with hinges. Hitesh has installed front shockers of Yamaha 350, bigger rear mudguard and double seat to give it a better look. Then he applied his mind in putting brake rod in front instead of usual wire brake at the back. But working on it for four days, the desired result could be achieved. Not only this a foot-rest has been placed in the front for a comfortable ride.

An 18-inch front tyre provides a better angle of inclination. The length of plungers was increased to maximise height. The headlights fitted in the vehicle are normally used in trucks. A powerful battery of 12 volts and 9 ampere has been fitted.

Hitesh, who carried out these modifications in Sector 48 car market, says he is thankful to certain shopkeepers of the market, especially Kaku, a welder, for helping him in this creative venture.

Magic of old melodies at plaza

It was all colours and lights at the Weekend Cultural Show at Plaza at Sector 17 on Saturday. For the visitors, the melodious rhythms by the Chandigarh Police Band for over an hour on drums and other instruments, was indeed a treat.