MBA students shine at ‘Koshish-2003’
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 21
“Koshish-2003”, the seven-day inter-class literary-cum-cultural festival of the Punjab College of Technical Education, Baddowal, started on the campus yesterday. The festival began with a literary event, “case presentation”. Thirteen teams comprising three participants each participated in it. The topics of presentations were knowledge, economy, cyber crime, competitive intelligence, artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, social faces of business, IT industry in India, business ethics, etc. Twenty minutes were given to each team for presenting the case and 10 minutes for critical analysis and query handling.

Gautam Sikri, Shelza Gupta and Abha Bajaj of MBA final year won the first prize, BBA final year got second prize and MCA 2nd year won the third prize in the event.

Photography and software development events were keenly contested. Twenty participants from various classes registered themselves for the photography competition. The event will conclude on September 27. The participants have to click photographs related to the college festival or the campus only.

Twelve teams comprising two participants each from various classes took part in the software development event. The students were required to prepare software on the spot without any external assistance.

In the “just a minute” event held today, Gautam Sikri of MBA final year, Amol Kanda of MCA final year and Charanjeet Singh of BCA final year won first, second and third prizes, respectively.

Dr K.N. Kang, Director, PCTE, said 31 literary and cultural events were being conducted during the festival. 

Peace day celebrated
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 21
International Peace Day was celebrated at the Khalsa College for Women, Civil Lines, Ludhiana, yesterday with the aim of inculcating the feelings of peace, love, equality and universal brotherhood among students.

On this occasion, the Department of Fine Arts, organised a poster and collage making competition on the theme of 'World Peace' .

As many as 69 students participated in the competition and made beautiful posters and collages, reflecting their talent and their love for humanity. The judges for the competitions were- Ms Uma Bedi, Ms Rashmi Gangwani and Ms Shaveta Bali.

Dr (Ms) Varinder Kaur Thind appreciated the efforts put in by the students and distributed prizes among the winners.

In collage-making contest Gagandeep (BA III) got the first prize, Samriti (BA I) got the second prize and Shikha (BA III ) won the third prize.

In poster making contest Jasmine received the first prize in the junior category while Gunjan and Shaveta won the second and third prizes, respectively. Amandeep won a consolation prize in this category.

In the senior category Shruti Sood and Aradhana Chopra got the first and second prizes, respectively. 

Cultural society to set up special school
Our Correspondent

Amloh, September 21
The president of youth club here, Mr Bhushan Sood, will donate a sum of Rs 50,000 for retting up a school for the handicapped and mentally retarded children at Amloh. This was announced by Principal Roshan Lal Sood addressing a cultural function here yesterday. Mr Pardeep Kumar Sharma announced to donate his house besides a sum of Rs 21,000 for the school. Half a dozen members committed to extend financial co-operation to the cause.

Magician S.K. Sharma from Ambala opened his bag of tricks and Manpreet Akhtar presented Punjabi folk songs.

CULTURE

‘Saavi’ suffers barter
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 21
Saavi, the chief protagonist of the play of the same name tells a deeply moving and a poignant tale of a Gujjar woman, who has to suffer male dominance all her life. The play, presented by Alive Group yesterday at Punjabi Bhawan, focuses on the Gujjar custom of ‘vatta-satta’ (barter in marriage).

The play revolves around Saavi and her sacrifice at the altar of ‘vatta-satta’. Saavi’s brother falls in love with Mallon, a tease. He proposes to her. Mallon’s brother agrees to the proposal only if Saavi marries him as per ‘satta-vatta’.

Mallon’s brother has already six wives. Saavi agrees to the proposal as her brother is besotted with Mallon. Saavi’s brother doesn’t care for the fate of his sister as he has become ‘jhalla’ in Mallon’s love. Saavi agrees to marry but instead of Mallon’s brother gets married to his five-year-old son, Ranjho. She brings him up with the hope that on reaching adulthood she will have relations with him. The audience comes to know her unfulfilled desires, her loneliness and her wasted youth as she narrates her tale of woes to a woman while waiting for Ranjho.

But destiny has something else in store for her. Ranjho comes with his girlfriend and says that he has done away with the custom of ‘vatta-satta’, and will marry the girl nonetheless. He addresses Saavi as mother and asks her to bless them as they were going against the customs of the community.

Her dreams are shattered, yet Saavi rises to the occasion picks up the red sheet from the bed she had so lovingly prepared and blesses the couple. There ends the sad tale of a Gujjar woman.

The characters had dressed in typical dresses of hill people. The music used matched the scenario specially the use of flute made vivid the lush green mountains.

Though the artistes’ were amateurs, they performed like seasoned artistes. Saavi played by Sonjit won her an award of Rs 5000 from Mr Devinder Singh. The play was staged on Friday for college students and on Saturday for invitees. The chief guests Mr Davinder, Mr Tejpal Singh, Transport Minister, gifted the group with a sum of Rs 51,000 each.

The play, written by Jagdish Singh, was directed by Nirmal Rishi.