Trail-Runner Pranab Roy seltcted as Ambassador of Team CLAW

Press Release 

Pranab Roy selected as Ambassador of Team CLAW for India

Chandigarh-based trail-runner Pranab Roy has been handpicked by the Team CLAW and selected to be an Ambassador for Operation Blue Freedom mission to turn people with disabilities (PwD) into high achievers. 

Pranab Roy, a Guinneese world record holder and the first Indian to complete the 140kms run in Asian Trail Master in 2018 in Malang, Indonesia, who met with a road accident later in 2019, rendering him paralysed waste down due to spinal injury, but through his own self-belief, determination and hardwork, that he not only started walking but resumed running. 

They are the real heroes, said Mr Vivek Jacob, the founder of Team CLAW (Conquer Land, Air, Water) to transform them into people with substance and role models for everyone, and shatter the common perception of pity, charity and inability associated with 'disability' and recreate it to one of dignity, ability and freedom.

The Team CLAW under its Operation Blue Freedom, has signed an MoU with Maldivian Integrated Tourism Council (MITDC) to conduct a world championship to create triple records on land, water and air by preparing largest teams of PwDs to participate in scuba diving in Maldives in March 2021, freefall sky diving in Dubai in June, and a trek to the highest battlefield in the world, the Siachen glacier in India. .

Nearly 50 PwDs from across the globe are training at Puducherry and later in Lakshwadeep with Pranab Roy as one of the participants, comprising training in Sky Diving, Scuba Diving and Mountaineering by the former Special Forces instructors and civilian volunteers.

The MoU with MITDC also covers long term collaboration between CLAW Global and MITDC to create cutting edge rehabilitation ecosystems for people with disabilities not only from Maldives but from India and other parts of the world.

 

Rotarians gift 500 Kg of sweets to Chandigarh Police

Members of Rotary Club of Chandigarh gifted 500kgs of sweets to Chandigarh Police, today, 30th November, as a mark of appreciation of the wonderful work that the force did during the hard times of corona pandemic. The sweets were distributed among those members of the police who were present, while the remaining were handed over to be sent to various police stations for distribution.

In his welcome address, Mr Ketan Bansal IPS lauded the contribution of Rotary Club of Chandigarh in reaching out to the police force and appreciating the work done by the police.

President Sukhjiit Singh Gill informed that the Rotarians have contributed money to send their best wishes on the occasion of Gurpurab of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji, through the efforts of Past Rotary International President Rajendra K Saboo, the guiding force of Rotary Club of Chandigarh. PDG Kawal Bedi has been a big support in raising these funds. He stated that there is a long-standing association between Rotary Club of Chandigarh and Chandigarh Police Department, and together, they have done many projects on traffic awareness, and the like.

This partnership was at its zenith during the pandemic lockdown, as Rotary Club of Chandigarh took up supplying ration and cooked food to the stranded residents. It was the daredevil staff of Chandigarh Police that came forward to distribute the cooked food and the ration to the needy.

Those present on the occasion included Rotarians Jaspal Sidhu, Dr. Nusrat Shafiq, Mandeep Singh Sodhi, and Aarti Goyal.

Rotary sends another 2000 kg mithai for army jawans

Past Rotary International President R K Saboo (second from right) along with other senior Rotarians with Club President Sukhjit Singh Gill (extreme left) at Rotary House, flagging off the consignment for jawans. 

Rotarians of Rotary District 3080 have sent another 2000kg of mithai to the army jawans on boarder today. 

President Sukhjit Singh Gill informed that the Rotarians have contributed more money to send their greetings on the Gurpurab of Sri Guru Nanak Dev through the efforts of Past Rotary International President Rajendra K Saboo, Past District Governor Kawal Bedi, and the current Rotary District Governor Ramesh Bajaj.

 

The 2000 kg was flagged off by the President from the city to be delivered to the forward posts in Kupwara and Baramula region of Sri Nagar.

 

Earlier the Rotarians had sent 4000 kgs of sweets for army jawans on border on Diwali.

 

This is the humble tribute that we can pay to them, as the sticker on each box said, "Aap Hain to Hum Hain", said PDG Kawal Bedi. 

CAPTION: 

Men should open their minds to strong and creative women

The concluding session was with CLS Chairperson Dr Sumita Misra in conversation with celebrated bestselling author, poet, activist and teacher of writing who joined in from Houston, USA, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

 

Best known for her work translated into twenty-nine languages many of which have been turned into films and her last novel was a retelling of the Ramayana from Sita's perspective, "The Forest of Enchantments". 

Men should open their mind to strong and creative women who handle their lives much better, she said thanking her readers.

She remembered her time in 70s when she arrived in the USA and would go to work in a mall wearing sarees, since not many Indians were not there in the state of Ohio, and this made me proud of being an Indian woman.

I started writing to analyse myself with the immigrants' stories published as "Arranged Marriage" that captured the travails and trauma of diaspora having been uprooted from their cultures, and that had been the subject of my studies, she said.

Women have shared and transmitted the centuries of our culture through stories and narratives.

As a writer writing on mythologies and i treat my subject with open mind and try to research afresh so that i can look at these subjects more effectively.  

What is important to me is to make writing graphically to depict that particular character would have experienced at that moment. 

Even my understanding of being-like Sita, self-effacing and tolerant was unpalatable and therefore, my representation had to be different not for those traditional reasons but being strong and how she faced the challenges. 

Punjabi Film writer, director, with famous movies like Jatt James Bond(2014) , Farar (2015), Babukaat (2016), Rabb Da Radio (2017), Saab Bahadur (2017), Ikk Sandhu Hunda Si (2020). Jass Grewal shared his journey with Ravee Pandher.

 

Down to earth, and deep thinker, Jass Grewal shared he believe in Vedanta and writings of Paramhans Yogananda, and a great believer in simplicity, said that he is working on a horror movie „Kaun aa Yaar" and „Bajre da Sitta"

 

Ashish Vidyarthi creates magic at Literati

The national award-winning actor, writer, podcaster, motivational speaker, and corporate trainer, Ashish Vidyarthi in conversation with Suparna Saraswati Puri, unfolded his concept of life providing an entirely newer perspective on life, its purpose, and the magic one can create in other's lives.

He talked about the fragility of life that pandemic has brought to the fore that has also need to be understood as an extreme privilege that one should celebrate and liberate oneself at every step of the way.

Sharing his journey as an actor and now as a coach, mentor and motivational speaker, what he called as a good 'SEO' word, Ashish said that every moment of one's life is all about enjoying it fully.

"I love to be an igniter", he remarked.

"I love to engage people in real conversation during corporate coaching sessions on one to one basis, to ignite liberating thoughts and the inner potential of the people to open up their clenched fists and be themselves."

Whatever you are doing in life, do it for yourself first, only then you as a delightful liberated individual person would be able to make an impact on the lives of others, he advised. 

TV Journalism on the decline: RAJDEEP SARDESAI

 

The Power Coffee session at the fag end of the second day of Chandigarh Literary Society's 8^th edition of Literati turned out to be a powerful and engrossing session with Rajdeep Sardesai batting with aplomb.

He livened up the session with his memories of working as a lawyer after returning from Oxford to entry into journalism with Times of India to be the first one to declare Sachin Tendulkar as the upcoming don of Indian cricket way back in November 1988 grabbing the front page byeline with his story.

Winner of over 50 awards for journalistic excellence and Padma Shri in Journalism in 2018, his two best sellers, "2014: The Election that Changed India", and "2019: How Modi Won India", according to him, were the documentations of Indian political and democratic scenario for the posterity to understand what, how, and why of these historic events.

Both books were written to educate the readers and make politics accessible to the readers, inform them about political trends and events that unfolded, and not to make or impose any opinion, he said, since we as journalists are privileged to get access to the ringside view of the happenings as they unfold.

People did try to label me on political parameters but my 'dharma' as a journalist is to report the news and the facts, and not take any sides, since an author writes for a much larger audience and not to please the players in the events, he remarked.

He, however, lamented the fact that with over 400 tv channels in the country, the tv journalists are sharply polarized and divided just like our society, and strongly believed that TV journalism is on the decline and Sushant Singh Rajput's case sounded the death knell turning channels into a farce/'tamasha'.

The editors and owners of channels will have to raise the bar and the ethical and professional standards of journalism to plug the decline, and he believed that print media at least is protected so far in retaining its credibility, Sardesai felt.

He also referred to the fake news through social media channels impacting the lives of the people through wrong narratives which is far more dangerous since we don't have the means to counter such campaigns.

Rajdeep Sardesai offered to participate in the next Literati at Chandigarh, which, he said, is a beautiful city unlike the 'gas chamber' that we live in here in Delhi. 

Coming of Age Stories for Young Adults

IMPOSSIBLE SECRETS

Songwriter and author Anmol Malik daughter of music director Annu Malik, and another prolific writer with 17 books to her credit, travel writer, poet, Vibha Mitra, explored the softer dimensions of the Impossible Secrets: Coming of Age Stories for Young Adults' in a session moderated by RJ Mehak 98.3 Mirchi Chandigarh

 

Working with Yash Raj Films as a scriptwriter, Anmol said that love romcom but it is not all sugar and fun, it takes cares of lot of serious issues, like the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai formed the backdrop of my book, and is about love story of a Russian guy and Indian teenage girl, but is beyond a stereowriter.   I studied screenwriting at Warwick and that impacts the dynamic between your characters and therefore it is dialogue heavy since you tell their story.

 

She talked about her character, especially Arya, whose goal in life is to slip in thru the cracks and she tries to cheat the system even for passing her exams in college.

 

Studying abroad makes you much more responsible, and mature, and the lessons I personally learnt there I have put them across in this book also.  

 

Vibha, whose recent book "The Secret Life of Debbie G" said that writing for the young adults one has to be very careful especially using safe choice of words that resonate with them.

 

There is always a story in everyone back of the mind and one need to share it, said Anmol, and though I am writing regularly I do not know as yet what it would be, and Vibha plans to do a book for older readers.

 

The award-winning author and journalist with his recent bestseller, "2019: How Modi won India" Rajdeep Sardesai, the consulting editor with India Today, was another highlight of the evening session 'Power Coffee' in conversation with author Jupinderjit Singh

 

The session on 'Mystical Poetry from Tagore to Years' saw Irish poet now settled in India Emer Davis who has recently published her anthology during a pandemic, "Poetry in the Plague Year', along with Dr Reba Som, an academic, historian, writer and former director of Indian Council for Cultural Relations in conversation with Nisha Luthra.

Another evening session "Raw and Crunchy: The Supernatural Benefits of Super Foods", author and food enthusiast Lily Swarn, a power-packed panel comprising Erini Loucaides, a published Australian-Cypriot writer is a winner of Bridport Prize 2020 along with Kavita Devgan, nutritionist and author of popular 'Fix it with Food'  talked about the power of simple, wholesome, everyday foods that can provide important nutrients for optimum mental and physical health.

The last session of the day "Once Upon a Time: The Fabulous Four Met a Spyder' focused on children writing, and revolved around the latest novel "Itsy Bitsy Spyder" by Bangalore based author Apeksha, and another children's writer Rajesh Talwar whose recent fantasy "Fabulous Four Battle Zoozoo Wizard" has been published.