Cityscape — Chandigarh

Cowed
The mini milk plant from Israel set up at the Agro Tech was one of the biggest crowd-pullers at the fair. The Israelis gave the Punjab-based milk-product stalls a run for their money. Worse still, this happened on home turf! Maybe Punjabis need to hone their marketing skills.

Coffee Mayor
The three-hour long debate on the resolution seeking to subject City Mayor Gian Chand Gupta to a vote of confidence took an interesting turn when former deputy mayor and Satya Pal Jain supporter, Prem Sagar Jain termed Gupta the "Coffee Mayor".

The jibe apparently didn’t faze Gupta, since the next thing he did was instruct MC officials to hand out coffee to the reporters (along with press notes highlighting his achievements).

Tariff talks
A city-based consumer organisation, Chandigarh Telecom District Subscribers’ Association (CTSA) has been invited by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to participate in discussions on telephone tariffs. The meeting will be held at the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers at Lodhi Road on December 15, 1998. Earlier CTSA had been recognised by the TRAI. City subscribers or groups interested in telecom-related issues can contact the general secretary of CTSA, Randhir Kumar Verma, at 606487.

Guard duty
The Guards Officers’ Regimental Association (GORA) held a reunion of serving as well as retired officers of the Brigade of The Guards at Chandimandir last week. Although GORA reunions are held at local levels once a month, it was for the first time that officers from other stations also attended the meet. Besides two retired generals, those present included Maha Vir Chakra-holder Maj Gen Shamsher Singh (retd) who had driven down from Dehra dun. The newly appointed Commandant of the Guards Regimental Centre, Kamptee, as well as commanding officers of several Guards Battalions were also present. The Colonel of the Brigade of The Guards, Lt Gen H.R.S. Mann presided at the meeting, where regimental activities were discussed.

Silver lining
Whenever any public-dealing department strikes work, newspapers report that the public was badly hit. However, sometimes some people don’t always find it that bad. When CTU buses went off the road for two hours last week a group of guys observed at a Sector 27 bus-stop appeared to be happy as larks … despite their 90-minute wait for transportation. "Not only we got to bunk our classes, we also had quite a few gals standing with us. Why doesn’t the CTU Union strike more frequently?" one of them said.

Like the big kids
They had fun … and it was different: no green pastures, no streams, no regular picnic spot and no mummy-daddy either.

The young (age 4 to 6) students of Aanchal Preparatory School pushed off early in the morning to visit Chahatbir Zoo, then returned to the school for a magic show and a puppet show in the evening. As the moon rose, a bonfire was lit in the schoolyard and they sat around it singing their favourite songs until eyelids drooped and it was time to sack out in their school-room "camp".

Up, down, all around
Congress president Sonia Gandhi was in town on Friday to boost the hopes of already euphoric Congressmen, who scrambled to see her both inside and outside the UT State Guest House. Understandably, she took local Congressmen by a storm, but the common man also jostled for a glimpse of her. "She is pulling more crowds than the ministers and chief ministers at Agro Tech," said one Congressman. However, the visit was not without its little glitches. Take a close look at the photo that accompanies this edition of Cityscape. As the Express photographer drove down the road dividing sectors 18 and 19 he stunned to notice the Congress Party flags fluttering on the roundabout with the green strip on top and the hand pointed fingers-down. Perhaps this was no accident but some kind of divine warning against over-confidence … after all, an upside-down flag is the universally recognised sign of distress.