Singing language of soul, says Batala's folk singing schoolboy

Singing allows young Guntajpreet Singh (16) to express himself in a way he would not be able to do otherwise. A Class XI student of the commerce stream of Woodstock Public School, he has done his family, school and the city proud by winning the folk singing competition in the prestigious National Kala Utsav Folk Singing meet, which concluded in Bhubaneswar recently. Fondly addressed as Guntaj by his teachers and family members, he was among the top six performers in the PTC Voice of Punjab competition a few years ago. Thereafter, he won many district and state-level folk singing championships. He belongs to a modest family, his father Sukhpreet Singh being a farmer and mother Komalpreet Kaur, a government primary school teacher. “Music heals all forms of misery. The road will be less tedious for all of us if we travel it with a song on our lips. Actually, when I was in my formative years, my parents often told me that singing is the language of the soul,” he says. In Bhubaneswar, he represented Punjab and sang the folk song Mirza. Dr Satnam Singh Nijjar and Dr Satinder Kaur Nijjar, both members of the school management, recently felicitated him. “They have encouraged me to move ahead in the field of music. Folk singing takes us back to the roots of our culture. My ambition is to be the best in India. I follow my ambition passionately. I love music and I hope to achieve something big with my traditional folk songs. I want people to understand that music speaks when words fail. Without music, life would be so boring,” he said. His school management and teachers are all praise for him. “Winning at the Kala Utsav is indeed a big thing. There were participants from all over the country. We want to bring the best out of him. No one respects a talent that is concealed. Guntaj is young and is a good learner. I often tell him that talent is God-given, be humble. Fame is man-given, be grateful. Conceit is self-given, be careful,” said Dr Satinder Kaur Nijjar, who is also the school principal.

Do not copy the counterfeiter

Gurdaspur cops were planning this for the past few weeks. The police had some information that fake currency notes were definitely in circulation, but somehow the person behind this nefarious activity was eluding them. Yesterday turned out to be a red-letter day for the cops when they finally zeroed in on the accused, albeit after much hard work and perseverance. SSP Deepak Hilori had formed a special team to crack the case. The accused, Baldev Singh, had actually kept a printer and had used it to print currency worth Rs 2 lakh at his home itself. Now, that is really an embarrassingly easy way to make money. The disclaimer here is that do not follow in the footsteps of the counterfeiter. Otherwise, like he heard a knock at his door, you too might be disturbed by the cops in your early morning sleep.

(contributed by Ravi Dhaliwal)

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