Tarn Taran Diary: Mehtab Singh in Indian football team

Mehtab Singh, a 25-year-old youth from Khemkaran in Tarn Taran district, has made it to the Indian football team. Mehtab with his selection in the national team made the district proud, which had earned notoriety for rampant drug abuse over a period of time. “With the selection of Mehtab, it becomes clear that there are large number of youngsters who love games and have the capacity to compete at the international level,” said Dilbag Singh, Mehtab’s elder brother. In Tarn Taran, every second village has a playground and a large number of NRIs organise sports competitions during a visit to their ancestral village. Mehtab was trained at a football academy in Mahilpur, Hoshiarpur, and had represented East Bengal, one of the most widely supported football clubs in Asia, in the Under-18 category in 2017-18 during the Indian Super League. He started playing football at an early age and would practice in his village playground regularly. The entry of Mehtab in the national football team has motivated the local youth. These days more than 200 players can be seen sweating it out in the Khemkaran playground, thanks to the NRIs of the area, who donate liberally for the upkeep of the ground.

Kite flying, livelihood for Palasaur villagers

Residents particularly those belonging to the weaker sections of society in Palasaur village of Tarn Taran district have adopted kite manufacturing as their source of income. In the village, the work has become an honourable source of earning livelihood which gives them sufficient income to meet their expenses. The work is not seasonal but goes on all the year round as a number of traders prefer to store kites and keep them in stock, manufacturing being a slow process. The kites manufactured in the village are flown not just in the area but in different parts of the country as well like Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Gujarat. Kite manufacturing is a skilled work which is tough to comprehend. The residents started this work about 20 years back with just a few families. At present, there are about a 100 families in the profession. There are three categories involved in the kite manufacturing process. These are contractors, manufacturers (helpers) and transporters. The transporters bring raw material from the traders and give it back to them after turning them into products. Kite traders in the markets of Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Jalandhar and other pockets of the state are dependent on this village for their supply. There are about 10 contractors in the village who take the raw material from traders and deliver it to their manufacturers (helpers) who number about 70. The members of these 70 families work hard, day and night, to manufacture kites. This is proving to be an honourable and good profession for these families. Jaspal Singh and his wife Balwinder Kaur, who have been manufacturing kites for the last 20 years, said the profession had give them a lot of income and honour. The couple said they have three daughters and a son. Their kids started helping them at an early age when they were admitted to the first standard in school. After school hours, the kids used to work till late at night. Jaspal Singh said his family had a kutcha house which was made pucca with the income accruing from manufacturing kites and also solemnised the marriages of their four children. At present, the children of their daughters live with them and help them in manufacturing kites. Manjit Kaur, a resident of the village has her son Sarabjit Singh (Class 12), two daughters, Sandeep Kaur (Class 11) and Sumanpreet Kaur (Class 9), who help manufacture kites to meet the expenses incurred on their studies. Sukhmanpreet Kaur (Class 12) and her brother Gurjant Singh (Class 12) and Gagandeep Singh (Class 10) of the village also manufacture kites besides continuing with their studies, to compensate for the expenses on their studies. There are more than 70 students who manufacture kites along with continuing their studies. The families making kites said that as they work from their homes, they are able to do it in their spare time and it was an honourable work even for young girls too. The manufacturers said that they had the capacity to enlarge the scope of their work in case the government provides them loans on liberal terms.

Broken manhole

In the office complex of the SDM, Tarn Taran, the lid of a sewerage manhole has been found broken for the last three weeks. It went unnoticed by the authorities. As a result, people coming for their work to the complex have often fallen down.

(Contributed by Gurbaxpuri)