Chandigarh, November 26
Chaos prevailed outside DAV Model School, Sector 15, here this evening when students and their parents carrying valid passes to the school function, where Bollywood starlet Kangna Ranaut was the chief guest, were denied entry.

The police had a tough time in controlling the mob, including children, who had come to the show. Many outsiders, who tried to crash into the venue, worsened the situation leading to a commotion outside the school. The police used mild force to disperse the crowd and in the process, children were found to be at the receiving end. Some of them even received minor injuries in the melee.

It all started at around 5:15 pm when Kangna came to the venue. The police prevented people from entering the school premises to allow safe passage to the star. The crowd got restless and resentment prevailed among them over the arrangement made by the school authorities.

Some of the parents and students requested to the policemen on duty to allow them entry.

However, SHO of the Sector 11 police station Ramesh Chand Sharma said no force was used and the things went on smoothly.

Meanwhile, the function, sponsored by the Kalpana Chawla Memorial Education Society, began with chanting of vedic mantras and the actress was presented with a sash titled ‘Pride of DAV-15’ by the school principal, Dr Rakesh Sachdeva. Prof S.C. Gupta, chairman, Kalpana Chawla Memorial Education Society, crowned Kangana with a gem-studded crown. Kangana lit the ceremonial lamp to begin the annual function before releasing the school souvenir.

DAV teachers with over 25 years of service with the institution were honoured by Puneet Bedi, manager DAV School and principal MCM DAV College. The teachers who were honoured were Sarla, Pushpa Devi, Shashi Puri, Karuna, Neelan Anand and Renu Bala.

The event showcased many items, including Bhojpuri dance and hippi dance. This was followed by dance numbers from the latest movies of Kangana Ranaut.

Chandigarh, November 26
“Opportunities in the hospitality industry await Indian students,” said Jeanine Picard, director, internal affairs, ESSEC Business School, Paris, during an interaction session held at Alliance De Française, Sector 36, today. Giving a brief introduction about the two-year course in hospitality management, Picard said the course would equip the students for the management of big hotels and related areas. Placement assistance would also be given to the students at the end of the course, she added. Picard also talked about the possibilities of various student-exchange programmes.

The institute has been ranked fourth in Europe and first in France. Apart from the expenditure of about 14,500 euros every year, the students can also get scholarships on the merit basis.

Listing out the plus points of Indian students, she said apart from the advantage of coming from an English-speaking country, Indian students had the better job prospects as compared to the other foreign students. “They can work in their own country as the industry is flourishing in India,” she added.

Chandigarh, November 26
The public administration department of Panjab University, in association with the regional branch of IIPA, held a special lecture titled ‘My Experiments in Earth and Environment Outreach: A Geoethical Obligation of Geosciences for Society’ today. Prof B.S. Ghuman, chairman, department of public administration and honorary secretary of the IIPA regional branch, while welcoming the speaker and participants, said the university under the stewardship of Prof R.C. Sobti had aggressively launched a campaign to save environment.

Prof Arun Deep Ahluwalia, department of geology, PU, was the guest speaker. Prof Ahluwalia underlined the fact that caring for the planet earth was absolutely must as working for this cause was akin to working for the future generations. Briefing the students on how global warming was affecting the planet earth, he rejected the hypothesis that global warming had been caused by man and stated that actually man had only accelerated the process. He concluded by quoting Al Gore’s Oscar winning movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth: Global Warning’ with the words “It is time to wake up”. Dr Satnam Singh, director, Regional Public Health Institute, presided over the function.

Chandigarh, November 26
DAV Senior Secondary School, Amritsar (Hathigate), won the over-all trophy while DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, Chandigarh, won the runner-up trophy in the 38th All-India Inter-state Inter-school Cultural Competition held at DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, Chandigarh, here today.

Results: Qawali: 1 Sahil and group, DAV Senior Secondary School, Amritsar (Hathigate), 2 Kanika & group, Dayanand Model School, Jalandhar, and Bhavya & group DAV Public School, Kurukshetra, 3 Nishant & group, DAV Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh; group dances: 1 Abhishek & group, DAV Senior Secondary School, Amritsar(Hathigate) and Swati & group, DAV Public School, Kurukshetra, 2 Sandeep & group, DAV Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh, 3 Manisha & group, Army School, Chandi Mandir.

CULTURAL BONANZA: Senior students of St Stephen’s School-45 presented a cultural bonanza at the school auditorium here today. The show started with the lighting of a lamp by honourable chief guest Zafar Ahmed Ali, CEO of Dipin Foundation, UK. Various items, including a dance and an English play, were presented. Importance of turban was highlighted by a Punjabi play. The show ended with bhangra.

Mohali, November 26
Shivalik Public School, Mohali, presented a colourful extravaganza on the occasion of its prize distribution day. The chief guest Justice K.S.Garewal lit the ‘lamp of knowledge’ to inaugurate the function. The school co-ordinator Malvinder Kaur read the annual report. The chief guest gave away the trophies to 55 meritorious students who excelled in scholastic and non-scholastic fields. The director principal D.S. Bedi delivered vote of thanks.

Educational trip: Golden Bells Public School, Sector 77, organised an educational trip for its students to Rajgarh in Himachal Pradesh here. The students enjoyed Himgiri Waterfall and had their thrilling experience while doing some adventurous activities like Tarzan swinging, shooting, pine tree climbing, trekking, rappelling etc. Students stayed there in the tents for one night.

Chandigarh, November 26
Students and faculty members of the Guru Gobind Singh College for Women, Sector 26, observed the ‘World AIDS Day’ today. Various activities were organised in the college by the NSS volunteers and the Red Ribbon Club, “EHSAAS”. A blood donation camp was held in which as many as 100 persons donated blood. The hostellers took out a candle march and pledged to never experiment with drugs and spread awareness about AIDS and the harmful effects of drugs.

SWARANJALI: A musical event, ‘Swaranjali-2007’, was organised by students and teachers of the Satyug Darshan Sangeet Kala Kendra, Chandigarh, at DAV College, Sector 10, today. Rashma Gandhi, managing trustee of the Satyug Darshan Trust, was the chief guest. Various songs, dances and instrumental performances were presented. The principal of the kendra, Dr Ranjana Saxena, thanked everyone for their participation and support.

Chandigarh, November 26
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum-II has directed GE Money, a finance company, to pay Rs 13,000 in compensation for wrongly taking Rs 3,000 as cheque bouncing charges from the complainant.

Sonia, a resident of Panchkula, had taken a personal loan for Rs 32,000 at a monthly interest of 2.73 per cent from the company. She had settled to pay monthly installments of Rs 2,092.

She averred that it was agreed between the company and her that the monthly installment would be debited by the company from her account with Centurion Bank. Sonia claimed to have deposited the agreed amount on time.

Later, she learned that cheques had been dishonoured on grounds of maintaining insufficient funds.

She claimed that she had always left balance in her account and was surprised to hear about the bouncing of cheques.

On receiving the account statement, she contacted the official concerned at the bank. The official informed her that no cheque had ever been presented or had ever bounced at the bank. The bank issued a certificate confirming the same.

Sonia filed a complaint against the the officials of the finance company.

The company denied deficiency in service on their part and pleaded the forum to dismiss the case.

The forum stated: “The opposite party (GE Money) has been able to produce copies of only two cheques along with the cheque returning memo. Even in these two cases, the reason cited by the party is ‘insufficient funds’ whereas the paying bank’s returning money states ‘drawers signature differs from the specimen on record’. Thus, there is contradiction between the two.”

The forum held the finance company of having been deficient in rendering satisfactory services to Sonia.

Chandigarh, November 26
“Of all Indian performing arts, classical dances, especially Kathak, are endowed with more spontaneous and charismatic appeal to the foreign art lovers,” claims Singapore-based kathak dance guru Charan Girdhar Chand. Supporting his contention, Chand disclosed that the north Indian dance form, in fact, is a hybrid offspring of vastly different Hindu and Moghul cultures which flourished under the royal patronage earlier. Because of the simplicity of its code and conduct, kathak has an international acceptance today and a wider following too, he adds. In the city on invitation of the Pracheen Kala Kendra for a performance, he shared his views with The Tribune on the contemporary Indian classical dance scene abroad.

Charan Girdhar Chand inherited the sense of rhythm and learnt the intricate and finer nuances of the Jaipur katahk tradition from his father guru Nritacharya Narayan Parsad. He went on ICCR teaching assignments to Guyana and Mauritius for about 10 years before taking up the reigns of the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society way back in 1995. “We had endeavored to blend our Indian traditions with modernity by introducing various innovations in content, treatment and presentation style with special chiaroscuro lighting effects, sounds and costumes of the related era to which the composition belonged,” intervened Ramni Kashyap the foremost disciple of guru Chand. Born and brought up in the city, Ramni (Wadhawan) Kashyap learnt kathak under guru Shobha Koser while studying at the GCW here. Now settled in Singapore, she practices kathak along with her daughter Aditi Kashyap.

“The Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation had telecast 13 episodes of my film ‘Let Us Learn Kathak’, which was highly appreciated and attracted more aspirants to our kendra. But I am determined to take kathak to the horizons,” promises the maestro.