CHANDIGARH CALLING

Indias salad culture





Tribune photo by Parvesh Chauhan O ut of the many remarks that Sir Mark Tully fondly made about India during his lecture at the British Library on November 6, the most interesting one pertained to the culture of India vis-a-vis America. Lauding India and Indians for their delightful pluralism and their wonderful history that is replete with examples of assimilation of varied cultures, Sir Mark Tully compared America and India thus: America has a soup culture, in which everything tastes alike, whereas India has a salad culture, where you are treated to a host of delicacies and can taste each one of them in isolation. So you know what the carrot, the radish and the lettuce taste like and you can also enjoy and savour their variety. Green details Chandigarh College of Architecture on the Punjab Engineering College campus in Sector 12 welcomes the visitors with interesting details not only about itself and its origin, but also about a lot of other things that dot its rich compound. Known for maintaining an animated campus, the CCA authorities have gone a step further by adding more punch to the surroundings. This time around, their focus has been on the different kind of trees that find place on the compact outer area of the college. Every cluster of trees has been identified for a casual viewer to the campus, who will now know the species of the tree, its common as well as botanical name just by looking at the tree. At the base of every cluster stands a small indicator carrying details of the trees, much to the delight of visitors, who make sure they stroll about the green spaces, consuming every green detail on offer. While no one still knows the exact description of the greening plan of Chandigarh, every visitor to CCA at least now knows what trees enrich the PEC campus. These trees include  Amaltas (Cassia fistula); Chattim (Salstonia scholari), Neem (Azadirachita indica) and Chandni. Passionate people After Mark Tullys heartfelt disposition on India the other day, it became very difficult for the man conducting the show to prevent people from voicing their opinions about the state of affairs in India. So what was meant to be half an hour interactive session between Sir Tully and the listners, turned into another session of lectures, this time by those among the audience. While the man behind the dais kept requesting people to keep their questions short and straight, many among the gathering took the opportunity to lecture the journalist back on issues critical to India and its governance. As a result, some genuinely intrigued minds could not vent their feelings. Agitated over the paucity of time, an elderly person took on the organisers, who wanted to wrap up the show. He said: Tully just talked about the urgency of public expression. You would be defeating the very purpose of his talk if you prevent me from talking to him. No wonder the schedules went haywire, even as Sir Mark Tully benignly accommodated every question posed to him. She turned into he Rajinder Pal Singh Mudhar, a resident of SAS Nagar, has highlighted a peculiar situation he faces at hands of the Regional Passport Office. The RPO has changed the sex of his daughter. The passport of Prabhjot Kaur Mudhar shows her to be a male. Mr Mudhar has pointed out that the application clearly mentioned her sex as female; the school certificate attached along with the application also shows the fact; the police enquiry gave the same report; and most importantly the clerk working in India should know that Kaur was used for females only. Now, should Mr Mudhar once again stand in a queue asking for correction or will the passport authorities volunteer to help? Press stickers Meeting the demand of parking stickers from members of the fourth estate is becoming a headache for the officers of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh. Things have come to such a pass that the Mayor of the corporation is reluctant to issue any more stickers to the mediapersons. But the Mayor has every reason to say no. A number of instances have been quoted when persons directly or indirectly related to a media organisation have passed on the press stickers to their distant relatives or friends for personal use. Such stickers have been noticed on the vehicles of non-journalists, say officers of the corporation. By the rule book, the parking sticker could be issued to an accredited journalist, a correspondent who covers the corporation beat or to a working journalist. To check the menace, the parking contractors have started asking for the identity card to verify whether the person driving a car was a genuine journalist. AC Bar room After a very long time, the pending project of airconditioning the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Room will move towards completion. The ducts had been laid and false ceiling installed, but somehow due to paucity of funds the work had come to a near standstill. But now with the Chief Minister announcing a grant of Rs 33 lakh and promising another Rs 32 lakh the next year, the work will start again. At least this is what Bar Association President Dr Anmol Rattan Sidhu has to say. Not really dead The living memory of a performing artist, who made his final exit from the world while saving the life of a school student, is being kept alive through fiction. Every year in November, one-act play festival  Natyotsav  is organised on the occasion of his birthday. This year, television and film personality Pankaj Berry is expected to arrive in the city for attending the festival being held on November 22 at DAV College auditorium in Sector 10. About 250 young artists from all over the region will be staging as many as 15 plays. The first session will be devoted to schools students. The second session will be held for college students and others interested. It was on August 5, 1987, when artist Prabhat Gupta, popularly known as Michael, was served his final summons at the busy intersection of Sector 19 and 27. Just as a truck was about to hit a young innocent, Gupta pushed him aside before losing his balance. Before breathing his last, the artist told the child, I have saved you, but now I am going.... Special stamp The Department of Posts has released a commemorative postage stamp of Narendra Mohan, a noted journalist. A special stamp in the denomination of Rs 500 was recently issued by the Senior Postmaster, Chandigarh. The contemporary Indian press drew inspiration from his legacy of powerful and fearless journalism. Narendra Mohan, an illustrious journalist, was born on October 10, 1934 at Kapli, Uttar Pradesh. He moved to Kanpur later on where his father, Babu Puran Chander Gupta, set up the Hindi newspaper, Dainik Jagran in 1947. Narendra Mohan became the editor of Dainik Jagran in 1965. During the heyday of English newspapers, he took upon himself the mantle of upliftment of Hindi journalism. In recognition of his achievements, Narendra Mohan was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1996. The noted journalist passed away on September 20, 2002. Cancer research Dr Rajeev Bedi, a Doctor of Medicine (DM) in Medical Oncology, has come in as a prized asset to residents of the city and surrounding areas as he is the first one from this field to come to the city. He has recently joined the Fortis Hospital, SAS Nagar. The Oncologist specialises in medical oncology which is one of the frontal areas of research on cancer. Dr Bedi finished as the 10th overall candidate from the AIIMS and as the first one from Punjab in December, 2002. During his seven years experience at the premier institution of the country, Dr Bedi won a gold medal and a prize for best cancer research at AIIMS during the convocation in March earlier this year. Dr Bedi has travelled to the UK earlier this year to Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital, London. Tailpiece Written in a Sector 35 PCO: If you have spare time, dont waste it here  Go to Fragrance Garden.  Sentinel



