SCHOOL BUZZ
Charlie Chaplin & Pratibha Prahlad part of cultural feast for kids
Smriti Kak

THE Heritage School, Vasant Kunj, organised SPICMACAY silver jubilee festival, ‘Virasat 2002’, for a week. The students enjoyed the Charlie Chaplain classic movie, “ Gold Rush”.

Noted Bharatanatyam danseuse Pratibha Prahlad performed for the students. She laid stress on the importance of mudras and the wide range of expressions they are used to convey. Pratibha also held an interactive session with the students. She invited students onto the stage for performing mudras and answered questions that the students put to her.

The Principal, Ms Rita Kaul, spoke to the students about the dancer’s achievements, which are a result of her hard work and commitment.

Heritage School will open two new branches of the school in Gurgaon and Rohini from the next academic session. Initially, the two new branches will be only for students up to class VI. An additional class will be added each year. The new schools will have central air-conditioning apart from other facilities. The schools will also have a multi activity play station that will cater to as many as 50 children at a time.

Trekking camp organised

A spot of fun on the way to Neelkanth Mahadev.

Accompanied by Mr Anil Kaushik of the eco club, the students were also given an insight into the causes of pollution. Three students from the group, Anuj, Bhupendra Rana and Dharam Narayan, have been selected for a trekking programme scheduled for November.

GHPS students bring laurels

Three GHPS students were awarded certificates on the occasion of World Children Summit held in the Capital.

The seminar was conducted by Stacey Coates, a drama teacher and consultant with the John F Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts and with Trinity College, Washington.

Reference library

Encyclopaedia Britannica has announced the release of its 2003 Ultimate Reference Suite (URS), an expanded multimedia product for information seekers of all ages from primary to high school and beyond.

The new product, available on CD-ROM and DVD for windows, provides comprehensive information for everyone from elementary school to adulthood. The product includes three encyclopaedias, Encyclopaedia Britannica and two others, for students in early and middle grades.

Founder’s Day celebrated

DPS, Gurgaon, celebrated its first Founder’s Day last week. The chief guest was the Minister of Information and Technology and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Pramod Mahajan.

The President of the DPS Society, Mr Salman Khurshid, was the guest of honour. The Pro Vice-Chairperson, Ms Dhara Jaipuria, welcomed the guests and parents and the Principal, Ms Aditi Mishra, highlighted the academic and co-curricular achievements of the school.

A musical extravaganza, ‘Pandora’s Box’, was presented by the students of the school and was based on the theme how hope can overcome the miseries of life.

Woman skydiver felicitated

The first Indian woman skydiver to step on the North Pole, Ms Rachel Thomas, was felicitated by Ryan International, Vasant Kunj.

Ms Thomas, who is a grandmother, had this to say, “If you want to live life, start taking adventures in your life as it changes your personality”. At a function held in the Capital, appreciation cam from all quarters for Ms Thomas’s foray. Among those present were Ms Lydia V Kulik, cultural attaché to the Russian Embassy.

Ms Thomas shared with the children her experience of jumping from over 67,000 feet at the temperature of minus 45 degrees celsius. The Director of Ryan International, Ms Grace Pinto, presented her with a memento and a school flag bearing the imprints of the children.

While Ms Thomas has agreed to take two students from the school with her to the South Pole, Ms Pinto had this to say about her, “Rachel Thomas sets an example for every person, especially womenfolk, to do something in their lives and I am proud that we have got privilege to share her experience”.

Teachers study Kuwait schools

Principal S. S. Minhas of GHPS, Vasant Vihar, and Chairman of TEACH accompanied by other delegates with Dr Mansour G. Hussein, Asst Under Secretary for Planning and Information, Kuwait.

Part of this delegation were Mr S S Minhas, Principal, GHPS, Vasant Vihar, who led the team. The others included Mr L. V. Sehgal, Ms Kusum Bhardwaj, Ms Ravinder Datta, Ms Asha Katyal and Mr Sunil Menni.

Principalspeak
You are never too late to learn

MAN remains a student throughout his life and the world is a vast university that imparts education to him every living moment. Learning is a dynamic process that cannot be limited by age — one is never too old to learn. Every experience further enhances the personality and character of a person, the challenges that life poses, the struggle in overcoming them, the enriching interactions in society, gentle and harsh lessons…knowledge cannot be quantified. It is vast, abounding and a continuous process of learning makes us stronger, wiser and mature.

As a toddler we learn to find our feet, to speak and explore our surroundings. As a child and as a young adult we undergo formal education in schools where we assimilate a wealth of information and knowledge as well as an ability to discern the relevant and cull out the best.

However, only formal education ends here. The real lessons of life still await us. As a teacher I know that it is not only I who teaches the students, but I am taught by my pupils. There are instances where students themselves write the books for other students to read. These stories provide a peep into the adolescent mind and the thought and experiences therein. All of us have a lot to learn from each other.

Only for an egocentric person the world begins, ends and revolves round him. A person who refuses to learn any further is under the misconception that he has acquired all possible knowledge. He exhibits a rigidity that stagnates his growth and this often becomes his undoing. People who resist changes are often mulish in their attitude. They argue, ‘We have always done it that way’ or ‘I don’t think it will make any difference’. This negative approach checks progress. Being ignorant is not shameful but being unwilling to learn is. We should learn from the wisdom of older people, the innocent yet sharp insights of children, and the bitter and happy chapters of life and from everyday experiences. The tremendous response to the adult education classes is an excellent example of man’s desire and willingness to learn. If a man has the will to learn nothing can check his flight.

Madhu Chandra, Principal, Birla Vidya Niketan

Camps on career guidance held
Our Correspondent

Rewari, October 27
Two short-duration career guidance camps - one each in Government College, Nehar and the DAV Girls College, Kosli, were held on Saturday under the auspices of the National Centre for Rural Development, a prominent Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) crusading against dowry, liquor-addiction as well as for the elimination of unemployment among educated youths in rural areas of Ahirwal.

Addressing the collegians both at Nahar and Kosli, DR Tara Chand Yadav (ex army officer), founder general secretary of the organisation, asserted that there was no dearth of jobs in the country, but it was only lack of appropriate vocational counselling-cum-guidance and job-oriented awareness which was proving detrimental to the junior as well as senior students.

He said that while designing and art, mass communication, marketing services, tourism and hospitality industry, finance and accounts, railways, education, sports and defence services offered a plethora of job opportunities to humanities and commerce students; aviation Industry, architecture , engineering and technology, home science and food technology, agriculture and allied fields, health care industry and defence and paramilitary services had opened countless vocational portals for science and technology students.

Placing the services of his organisation at the disposal of the students, Dr Yadav also urged them to make good use of his new book ‘Employment opportunities and career counselling’, which was released at Nahar by Swami Shranananda on Saturday.

He also presented five copies of the book to the libraries of two colleges. Simultaneously, Dr Yadav also exhorted the students to keep off procrastination, welcome new challenges, eschew defeatist mentality, garner robust optimism and develop a positive attitude which, he said, were a must for success in life as well as in profession.

Mrs Raj Demblan, Principal (Nahar), Dr Mrs Nirmal Devi Sharma, Principal (Kosli), Swami Shranananda, Mr Hazari Lal Yadav (retd principal) and several others also spoke.

AICC member to take up cause of ad hoc teachers
Our Correspondent

Rewari, October 27
Congress legislator Rao Inderjit Singh, who is also a member of the All India Congress Committee, has said that he would raise the issue of the 10,000-odd ad hoc and contract-based teachers in the special session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabhas which would begin on October 30.

An assurance to this effect was given by him to a delegation of teachers who met him at his residence in Delhi this morning.

Mr D C Sharma, president of the ad hoc teachers association informed that these 10,000 teachers, who had been appointed on ad hoc and contractual basis by the previous state government in 1994 and 1997, had already completed 5 to 7 years service. But it was deplorable that in spite of their repeated representations, their services were not regularised.

Understanding the genuineness of their demand, Rao Inderjit Singh also assured them that he would urge the state government to regularise their services.

COURTS

HC order on transfer of property to Wakf Board
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 27
The Delhi High Court has issued an order to the government asking it to inform the court whether about 200 property it proposed to transfer to the Delhi Wakf Board were covered under the Archaeological Survey of India Act, thereby prohibiting any kind of demolition or construction at the said sites.

A Division Bench comprising Justices A. D. Singh and R. S. Sodhi sought the reply to be filed by January 21. The court was hearing a petition filed by Indraprastha Vishwa Hindu Parishad, through its Counsel Alok Kumar, which opposed the government’s March 1984 decision to transfer the properties. The court had passed a stay order on the transfer in June 1984, which still continues. The petition said the properties had been acquired by the government between 1911 to 1915 for development and expansion of Delhi. The properties were since put to different uses for public purposes, it added.

The Wakf Board was constituted in 1970 and it published a list of properties that it said belonged to it. The list included the impugned properties, belonging to the government and entrusted with the Land and Development Officer and Delhi Development Authority, the petition claimed.

The Government initially opposed the Wakf Board’s claim. Later, however, after a report by a committee under the Chairmanship of S. M. H. Burney, constituted to find a solution to the problem, the government withdrew its title claim to all the said properties, it alleged.

By its March 1984 decision, the government propose to transfer the properties on perpetual lease basis on payment of ground rent of Rs one per acre per annum. It also planned to give a right to the Board to get its development schemes approved from the competent authorities and to give the said properties after construction and development on licence, it added.

Now the court wants to know whether any demolition, construction, alteration or development was possible on such properties, which included the Krishi Bhawan, Udyog Bhawan, Lady Harding Medical College, Maulana Azad Medical College and Hospital. 

9 cases settled in Lok Adalat

New Delhi, October 27
A Lok Adalat organised by the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Delhi Legal Services Authority settled nine out of the 11 pending cases. Two cases were adjourned for the next Lok Adalat. Cases placed before the Lok Adalat included those related to commercial, power and Health Department. These cases had been pending in various courts for more than 5 to 10 years, a press release said. TNS

City lawyer convicted under Officials Secrets Act
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 27
A Delhi court has sentenced a city lawyer to seven-year rigorous imprisonment for having passed sensitive defence documents to Pakistani High Commission officials here 14 years ago. Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) S. N. Gupta, who found accused Subhash Chander Dutt guilty under the Official Secrets Act, also slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 on him. In case the convict fails to pay the fine, he would have to further undergo simple imprisonment for a year. The advocate, on bail since July 1995, was immediately taken into custody and sent to Tihar Jail, the police said. The spy racket was busted by the Counter Espionage Section of the Special Branch of Delhi Police.