Enjoy the Punjabi zest! - Bhangra Empire @ Bruin Bhangra 2009

Watch this stunning performance of the Bhangra by the group Empire!

(For some reason I couldn't post it as a clickable link so please cut and paste in your browser)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BxMMQs-6nQ

In a Lighter Vein ....for the computer savvy Punjabi !

If your computer starts working in Punjabi these would be the commands!


Send = Sutto
Insert = Wich Paao
Attachement = Naal Laao
Edit = Sidda Karo
View = Waikhee Jaao
Forward = Aggay Sutto
Inbox = Undar Da Daak Khaana
Outbox = Bahar Da Daak Khana
Trash = Mitti Paao
Sent Items = Bheji Gayee Dak
Address Book = Patay Wali Kaapy
Delete = Daffa Karo
Download = Thallay Laao
Properties = Jaidaad
Connect = Naal Milaao
Paste = Thook Naal Chipkaao
From = Bhejan Walaa Banda
To = Door Betha Hoya Banda
Subject = Khaas Gall
Carbon Copy = Koelay Walee Naqal
High priority = Waddee Takleef

and finally
Ctrl+Alt+Delete = Sara Syapa Mukao.

Model schools in Punjab under public-private partnerships!

Here is a news item submitted by wym -one of our active blog followers - as part of a discussion under The State of our Schools. I am placing it here because its an important bit of information that will be of interest to all of us ..

Chandigarh, Sep 24 (IANS) The Punjab government has exempted Adarsh (model) schools, coming up under the public-private partnership (PPP) model in the state, from various taxes.

‘This decision was taken at a meeting headed by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal,’ a government spokesperson said here Thursday.

The draft agreement and the lease deed between the government and the private partners were also finalised in the meeting of the Punjab Education Development Board (PEDB), the official said.

PEDB has finalised five private partners and approved 15 sites for setting up these modern and well-equipped schools in the state.

Adarsh schools would impart free education from pre-nursery to 12th class. Presently, there are nine Adarsh schools in the state.

As per the agreement, if the private partner fails to run the school according to the set terms and conditions, the board would take over its control.

Similarly, if the government fails to discharge its obligations, the private management could take over the school, with a condition to charge fees on 75 percent students and impart free education to the rest.

For each school, PEDB is providing 10-15 acres for 99 years lease, which could be renewed with mutual consent of both parties. The operational cost of the school would be shared on 70:30 basis between the board and the private partner.

The capital cost for the construction of school building would be around Rs.4-5 crore, and it would be shared on 50:50 basis.

‘We have suggested that students’ strength should be increased from 1,000 to 1,200 in Adarsh schools,’ Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said here Thursday.

I hope this partly answers your question. I think the Punjab Education Development Board can provide more information.

A Punjabi to be proud of!

I doubt that many Punjabis are aware that Punjabi scientists, many of whom have prior affiliations with the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), have played a key role in solving the problems of world food availability by spear heading research on enhancing rice productivity at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) headquartered in the Philippines and with offices in 14 countries. More than half of the world’s 6.7 billion people are rice eaters.

Dr. Gurdev Singh Khush a former principal scientist at IRRI, is perhaps the most well known. Dr Khush is an internationally acclaimed rice breeder and geneticist. Dr Khush won the World Food Prize in 1996. He has been awarded by at least 15 countries including China, Japan and Korea, the major rice dependent nations of the world. He is also a recipient of the Padma Shri. Dr Khush has played a key role in the development of more than 300 varieties of rice. He retired from IRRI in 2002 and teaches at the University of California, Davis (UC-Davis)

Dr Khush obtained his agriculture degree at PAU, Ludhiana before going to UC, Davis where he obtained his PhD in genetics. On 15 January 2009, at the convocation ceremonies of the PAU, Dr Khush did something that you don’t hear of in India much. He donated Rs 3.5 crore (approximately US$700,000) to PAU to strengthen its research program. This amount represented the accumulated value of the prize money of various international awards that Dr Khush has received to date. His advice to the young graduates: "Your schooling may be over but, remember, your education will continue forever; learning is a continuous lifelong process. You have the responsibility to improve the quality of life and widen the span of knowledge of our country".

I have had the honor of interacting with Dr Khush. A gentler, humbler, more gracious human being is hard to come by.

More on our other eminent rice research scientists will follow.

Saving Punjab....an article from The Smithsonian magazine...

Saving Punjab
A Sikh architect is helping to preserve cultural sites in the north Indian state still haunted by 1947’s heart-wrenching Partition

* By Geoffrey C. Ward
* Photographs by Raghu Rai
* Smithsonian magazine, September 2009


Read more: www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Saving-Punjab-India.html#ixzz0QvRf7ISB

Punjab –the Land of Milk and Honey no more?

When I was growing up and we came home to our village for the winter holidays, I recall it used to be boasted that the milk was so pure (from cows and/or buffaloes that we owned) that not a drop of water had been added to it. I also recall my father’s lament when the first milk collection centers were established in support of the state’s dairy development scheme. Hi comment: “This is going to ruin the health of the people in the villages”. His argument was that people will start selling the last extra drop of milk for cash, depriving the children and other family members of milk, butter, ghee, curd and lassi. The money they earn will be spent on consumer goods, more expenditure at weddings, more clothes etc. The poor would suffer because they would no longer have access to the surplus “lassi” or milk from the better off households.

While the milk has been diverted from rural areas to meet the demand from the urban areas, the milk for cash culture has bred other evils. There have been reports of milk adulteration for many years. A couple of years ago, it was reported that over 90 percent of milk samples taken from private milk sellers or “dhoodh wallahs” were found to be adulterated. Now, Anil Kaura of the Tribune reports that “synthetic” milk is surfacing in Punjab in a big way. According to the report, urea, caustic soda, cheap cooking oils and commonly used detergents are used to prepare synthetic milk. Refined oil is used as a substitute for milk fat and detergents are added to emulsify and dissolve the oil in water and give this “milk’ its white color. The report also adds that synthetic milk is mixed with natural milk and is sold to consumers at Rs 10-Rs 15 per litre whereas the cost of producing it is less than Rs 3 per litre.

It is a shame that in the state known all over for its milk based diet and for its robust population, milk should become such a tarnished commodity. Could it be that this is also linked to the high rates of stunting and malnutrition among children and women in Punjab? After all, availability of milk in a rural household was always a marker of its overall well-being.

In a Lighter Vein

Name dropping, from being a somewhat refined pastime in the past, has evolved into a crass habit that seems to pervade every conversation these days. Whenever I visit Punjab I am surprised at how pervasive this habit has become. People are always trying to find out who knows who, making a mental note of these connections so that they can be used in the right place at the right time. Doors, otherwise firmly shut, will fling wide open when the right name is dropped at the right moment. This phenomenon is beautifully caricatured in this encounter our very own Santa Singh has with the cops:

Santa Singh is caught cutting a red light and is stopped by the traffic police. Asked to show his papers, Santa twirls his mustache and says “I know your IG traffic very well”. As expected, the police immediately let him go. As he drives off, from a safe distance, he yells to the police, “But your IG does not know me!”