PATNA: Noted Ghazal singer Penaz Masani on late on Saturday mesmerized the audience here with her mellifluous renditions on love joy and separation. Ghazal lovers swayed and tapped their feet in appreciation.

Penaz, who has over 20 albums to her credit, performed at a Times of India (TOI) programme at the S K Memorial Hall. The event organised under TOI's "Times in Village" concept was the concluing ceremony of Maa Tripur Sundari Mahotsava. Tripur Sundari is the village deity of Barahiya in Lakhisarai district.

The event was jointly inaugurated by Bihar animal husbandry minister Giriraj Singh, Dr Arjun Singh of PMCH, Nirman Cement MD Gopal Khemka, SREI group director Rahul Verma and educationist Amrita Dutta. Muzaffarpur ADJ (vigilance) Arun Kumar also graced the occasion.

Gopal Khemka, who hails from Barahiya village, urged upon all not to forget their roots. "We have all come from villages. We should not forget our roots. And when we are financially independent, we should contribute to uplift our co-villagers. We should help them come to the mainstream," Khemka said.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Arjun Singh recalled the infamy with which Barahiya has been wrongly associated with although many sons of the soil have made it big in different fields both in India and abroad.

"The Mahotsava is a step towards shedding that image," he said.

Classical dance performance, under various codified art forms, by Sushmita Chatterjee from Kolkata followed the inauguration of the event.

Sushmita, who was trained under the guidance of legendry classical dancer Brijmohan Nath Mishra popularly known as Pandit Birju Maharaj, earned rounds of applause from the audience for her performance. She was well assisted in putting up a splendid show by a group of five talented dancers.

As the night progressed, the ambience inside the hall turned restless with the audience demanding more of Penaz's popular ghazals. She did not let them down and obliged with hits like "Aao huzur tumko sitaro-mei le challen", "Har phikra ko dhuen mein udata chala gaya" and even mega-hit Dabangg's number "Tere mast mast do nain".

More Biharis flying out to foreign countries

PATNA: The number of Biharis going abroad has been consistently growing during the past few years.

The regional passport office (RPO)-Patna, which received 6,959 and 8,550 passport applications in January and February respectively last year, was flooded with 16,953 applications in December the same year.

"One of the major reasons behind the rise in the number of applicants is our prompt response to the applications," regional passport officer Anand Kumar said.

Till a few years ago, the Patna RPO would receive only 4,000 and odd applications every year. "We have increased the number of service counters to cope with the increased pressure," Kumar said and added the growing workload had burdened the RPO's technological infrastructure which had to be upgraded to cope with the increased pressure.

Siwan sends out the highest number of people with a total of 24,322 passport applications being filed from the natives of the district in 2010. Gopalganj district, from where 17,805 applications were received, ranks second while Patna district's 15,955 residents applied for passport last year.

"Though most of the passport applicants are workers who aspire for a job in Middle East countries, there has been a steady rise in the number of students going overseas for study," another RPO official said.

 

Alok K N Mishra can be contacted at alokknmishra@gmail.com

Mauritian team in Bihar to trace roots

PATNA: The phenomenon of good governance is drawing the attention of people of Bihar origin (PBO) from across the globe. A three-member delegation from Mauritius has arrived here to trace their roots in |Bihar villages.

"We are on a nine-day visit to Bihar to resuscitate our age-old connection with Bihar. Though we are living far away, our emotional attachment with the land of our origin is still intact," former health minister of the republic of Mauritius, Jagdish Govardhan, told TOI.

The three-member delegation will be visiting Bhojpur, Rohtas, Saran and Buxar during their stay. "Our agenda is to meet and interact with Bhojpuri-speaking people and to know about their rituals and traditions," said secretary, Bihar Mauritius Maitri Sangh, Dev Narayan Ojha.

"They want to write a book on their experiences in different parts of the country. They want to experience India from close quarters and have decided to follow the simple life-style which is common to the state they are visiting," said Ojha, who is working as guide.

This delegation is part of a 60-member Mauritian delegation which had come to participate in the recently-concluded 'Pravasi Bhartiya Divas' in New Delhi.

Just after the 'Pravasi Bhartiya Divas', they had been to Aapravasi Ghat in Kolkata. Aapravasi Ghat is the anchor from where the first ship carrying hundreds of Biharis who migrated as indentured labourers had left for Mauritius way back in 1831.

The team visited different places in the city on Monday and will leave for Ara on Tuesday morning. Jagdish Gowardhan is leading the team, which also has Hoshila Rosel and Akhilanand Rosel.
Alok K N Mishra can be contacted at alokknmishra@gmail.com

Ruckus at Patna airport

PATNA: Fliers to and from Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) airport on Sunday had a difficult time as most of the flights operated far behind schedule.

About 90 passengers booked on Go Air's Patna-Delhi (G8-342) morning flight created a ruckus over the abnormal delay in its operation.

"It's hell. We have been left in the lurch. The airline officials are not listening to us," a lady passenger complained.

Go Air's G8-341 was on Monday scheduled to take off from Indira Gandhi International airport (IGI), Delhi at around 9 am. And its return journey from JPNI airport was scheduled at 10.50 am.

As the flight was delayed, passengers wanted to know whether the airline was planning to cancel it. As passengers' queries regarding the status of G8-341 failed to elicit a proper answer from airline officials, bedlam broke out.

Most of the passengers had gone through security check and had to helplessly wait in the security hold area for hours. Poor visibility had delayed the flight's take off from IGI Delhi by around 4 hours. It finally arrived here around 1.45 pm.

According to airport sources, dense fog over Delhi sky had hampered flights operation on Monday morning. "Almost all flights to and from IGI, Delhi were delayed. Normal flight operation resumed only after visibility improved around noon," sources added.

Air India's Delhi-Patna-Delhi flight (IC-409) which was scheduled to arrive around 12 nooon was delayed by around four hours. Indigo's Chennai-Mumbai-Delhi-Patna-Chennai (191), which is scheduled here around 2 pm, and its Delhi-Patna flight (6E-178), which is scheduled to arrive here by 1.55 pm, were also delayed by hours.

Go Air has decided to change the timing of its Delhi-Patna-Delhi (G8 341-342) flight from Tuesday. The flight will take off from IGI, Delhi at 7.20 am and reach JPNI airport by 9 am. Its return flight will depart at 9.25 am and reach Delhi at 10.55 am.

Alok K N Mishra is can be contacted at alokknmishra@gmail.com

Bihar beckons young NRIs

PATNA: "It's amazing. I love Bihar... I love you guys," Keshri Pragg of Trinidad and Tobago thus gushed about Bihar and Biharis.

The 24-year-old is one of the 37 young overseas Indians currently on a tour to the land of their forefathers on an invitation from Bihar Foundation. Hailing from 13 countries, these youngsters have come to the land of Buddha for the first time and would be winding up their 10-day visit later this week.

"The real Bihar is contrary to what media reports say about it," Pragg, a final year student at the University of the West Indies, said and added international media reports usually associate India with hungry beggars waiting to ambush the guests the moment they get out of their hotel. "But I found Bihar as lovely as any other lovely place outside India," said Pragg, a professional Hindustani classical dancer whose ancestors migrated to Trinidad and Tobago 150 years ago.

Andrea Santos, who lives in the coastal city of Vancouver, nodded. "Prior to my visit, I thought I was going to an unsafe state. But no sooner did we reach than we saw cops on roads. And nobody came to snatch my belongings," she said.

The 23-year-old, who like many others in the group prostrated in worship at the Mahavir Mandir near Patna Junction, said she was awed to see people waiting in serpentine queues just to pay obeisance to the Lord. "I haven't seen such a grand display of devotion anywhere in the world. It's unique to Indians," said Andrea, an international studies student at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

"I love my India... I love Bihar," cooed Sanam Isseri, a student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). The 20-year-old professional Indian classical singer, who has performed at several shows in South Africa, wishes to "come home" after she is done with her studies at UKZN. "I would like to teach singing, dancing and English to my Bihari brothers and sisters here," said Isseri, who is fluent in English and also speaks in Hindi, albeit with difficulty.
Isseri said Indians in SA have not shunned their culture and tradition. "We celebrate Diwali, Holi, Makar Sakranti and all other Hindu and Muslim festivals with traditional fervor," she said.

Vinit Vishal Nand, from Fiji, said he knows several Hindu families in Fiji who organize Satya Narayan Vrat Katha.

Before this visit, Alisa Kumar (19), from New Zealand, didn't know much about India except that it was least-affected country during the recent economic recession. "But now I can boast of a first-hand feel of India," said the Massey University student.

The youths originally came to India to participate in the Pravasi Bharatiya Sammelan in New Delhi from January 7 to 9. In Bihar, they visited Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda and Munger's yoga university besides the Golghar and floating restaurant in Patna. On January 23, they are slated to leave for New Delhi where they would watch Republic Day parade before leaving for home, said Satyajit Singh of Bihar Foundation.

A2Z to keep whole city clean



A two lane road stretching through capital of Bihar.

PATNA: A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited, a common sight on sanitation bins in select localities of the city, would soon make its presence felt in the entire state capital.

A2Z is currently responsible for sanitation and waste disposal from nine main roads and 10 of the 72 municipal wards of the city. The state government recently decided to hire the private agency to provide sanitation services to the entire city.

The agency is gearing up to take the bigger responsibility and it recently carried out a survey in the Bankipore and New Capital circles of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC). "We hope to complete the survey in all the PMC circles by the end of next month. And we are likely to expand our area of operations from March this year," A2Z AGM Vikash Jha told TOI.

The agency proposes a door-to-door garbage collection system. "Our workers would collect the garbage from every house in the morning," Jha said and added four large bins would be provided for every 100 households.

The agency has at its disposal in Patna 120 mini trucks and nine large trucks to transport out the garbage collected by its 450-odd workers.

"We have adequate infrastructure for the current workload. We are already on the job to strengthen our workforce and supplement our infrastructure in proportion to the increased workload," Jha said and added A2Z also plans to organise public awareness events on a regular basis to instill civic sense into residents.

As per the agreement with PMC, A2Z currently looks after Fraser Road, Bailey Road, Beerchand Patel Path, Boring Road, Boring Canal Road, Exhibition Road, Ashok Rajpath, Old Bypass Road and Hardinge Road.

However, not everyone is impressed with A2Z performance. Complaints about heaps of garbage in many areas looked after A2Z were a common refrain as TOI spoke to several Patnaites.





Alok K N Mishra can be contacted at 91+9234629956



'Lion' is the king at dog show

PATNA: Lion, a dog of Neapolitan Mastiff breed, owned by one S Bhardwaj, was awarded the first prize in the best of breed category in 'All Breed Championship Dog Show, 2011' held here on Sunday. The show was organised by the Canine Club of Bihar (CCB) at the Veterinary College Campus.

Under the same category, Scoop, a dog of Labrador breed, owned by Jayaprakash, was awarded second prize and Bruno, a dog of Wire haired breed, owned by justice (Retd) U P Singh, was awarded the third prize.

Jenny, a dog of Puppy breed, owned by Sanjay Kumar Singh, was awarded first prize in obedience category. Rocky of Ajay Kumar Singh and Raja of B Tripathy were awarded second and third prizes respectively.

Ravi Kumar and Kriti Rohini were adjudged first and second as best dog trainers. Club secretary Dr Ajit Kumar, in his speech on the occasion said that Patna was now among the few cities known across India for rare and pure breed dogs.

A total of about 195 dogs of 25 breeds from across the city participated in the dog show. CCB has been regularly organizing dog shows in the city since 1996.

Dog breeds like Chihuahua, the smallest dog; Rottweiler, the most dangerous; Pug, the most likeable; St Bernard, Bull Mastiff and English Mastiff (among the world s largest) were the highlights of the show.

Earlier, the show was inaugurated by principal secretary, animal husbandry and fisheries, S K Negi. Delhi-based expert on dogs Ravindra Singh and Kolkata-based expert Vimal Shaw were the judges of the show.

Alok K N Mishra is a Times of India journalist at Patna.