Sikh Museum

A Weekend trip to a place near the city, rich with culture and heritage of Sikhism can be a great idea.
Sikh Museum also known as Sikh Ajaibghar located in Mohali is the brainchild of Parwinder Singh, a former scooter Mechanic who dreamt of spreading awareness and educating people about the Sikh heritage.

To offer the maximum recreational as well as educational value of this Museum, Parwinder Singh, the founder and CEO has displayed self-made sculptures presenting the richness of Sikh history. Various eminent incidents from the Sikh history are portrayed using the fiber-glass made sculptures. The Museum has 12 sets of sculptures on display.

The sculptures include:
•         Bhai Kanhaiya Ji
•         Banda Singh Bahadur Ji and His three years old son Uday’s martyrdom
•         Shahidi Bhai Taru Singh Ji
•         Shahidi Bhai Mati Das Ji
•         Shahidi Bhai Mani Singh Ji
•         Shaheed Baba Deep Singh Ji
•         Bhai Subegh Singh Ji and His son Shahbaaz Singh Ji’s martyrdom
•         Sardad Hari Singh Nalua
•         Sher-e-Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh

This museum was set up by Sikh Heritage and Culture Society. The Founder President of this society, Parwinder Singh has been designing these sculptures since twelve years. He has been taking care of this museum solely. In the year 2005, this museum was located on Landran road and now it has been re-located to Balongi Village in Mohali. The museum is almost 4.4 Kms away from the Mohali Bus Station.

Contributed by Mehak Chauhan

City needs robust infrastructure, job opportunities, connectivity to be a Global City: Experts

‘Visioning Chandigarh’ Conference looks at challenges and opportunities for city

The city ‘s growth requires holistic view of the challenges including its satellite cities of Panchkula and Mohali, and future planning should be inclusive of them, felt experts participating in the ‘Visioning Chandigarh’ conclave-cum-workshop organized by Taaleem College of International Studies (TCIS) and the Institute for Competitiveness India.

Leading senior lawyer of the city M.L. Sarin said that though city indeed is a success in terms of the contribution it has made to the country in more than one way, the original character of the city must be preserved.

The city needs a permanent administrative body, and resented the short-sighted changes and ‘accidental development’ that are harming the eco-system and putting unnecessary pressure on the city’s resources.

Dr. Amit Kapoor, honorary chairman of the Institute for Competitiveness India, which is an extension of global network of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School, said that the city has failed from the business perspective because of the absence of manufacturing industry, lack of highly qualified talent, and low job opportunities for the skilled professionals.

City has much more potential to be a global city and more importantly requires much more proactive people’s engagement with the city, encouraging walking, cycling, etc, he said.  Despite being a small city only 9 percent of the people use the pedestrian way, he added.

Dr. S.P.S. Grewal founder of Grewal Eye Institute said that though the city is relatively a healthy city yet its aging population require more centres of excellence in the medical field, and promotion of medical tourism has great potential.  A good convention centre could be another driver of growth for the city, he added.

Quark Media’s Senior Global HR Director Sofi Zahoor said that there should be a uniform policy for Greater Chandigarh – the tricity – and have a long-term plan to attract bigger companies, and more employment opportunities in the region.

CII-Yi (Young India) Chair of Youth Affairs Amanjot Kaur said that youth in the city have been showing remarkable interest in entrepreneurship, and the city must evolve startup funds and incubators to support them.

Jaiprakash Hasrajani, CEO and co-founder of TCIS and Taaleem India felt the need for better international connectivity that could make the city as a gateway to various other tourism and religious destinations in the adjoining states.

Dr. Kevin Stolarick, Research Director, Martin Prosperity Institute, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Canada, facilitated the workshop and involved the participant in group exercise to identify the challenges, that ranged from traffic to corruption, waste management, un-cleanliness, vandalized gardens, to ineffective administration.

Some of the other speakers included  Principal Advisor to Government of Haryana Sastry Tumuluri; Business India’s Advisor Dolly Bhasin; Director of The Millennium School Robin Aggarwal, and Gursimran Kaur, founder and COO of ValuerHR eSolutions Pvt Ltd.

Cruising...the best way to enjoy a complete holiday

Cruising is perhaps one of the best way to enjoy a complete holiday. Whether it is a family trip or a business one for corporate meeting or a sales conference, cruise has everything for everyone.  In fact at times you will find it hard to keep pace with the amount of activities that you can participate in and enjoy.   Reach the boarding destination and hopin.  You could be visiting a number of countries enroute and would have the opportunity to take a day tour, without the hassle of packing and unpacking your luggage when you normally travel from one place to another and rush to catch the flights.
And Chandigarh has the unique distinction of having many people going in for cruise for holidays, honeymoon, on-cruise weddings, corporate events, product launches, and what not. The city now boasts of an exclusive cruise specialist, Sumeer Walia, of Cruise Rover, an ex-Royal Caribean staffer who is now just helping people plan their cruise holidays.  Have a great deal, and great holiday.

Do You Know the Story of Black Retriever in Kasauli?

Kasauli is a beautiful little town esconsed in the Shivalik hills that the Britishers established way back in 1842.  This heritage town has numerous buildings, some preserved while others are quitely withering away.  Nevertheless it is always a pleasure to inhale the cold air filtered through pine trees, and quitely enjoy a cup of tea in the bazar.
However, this one black dog always intrigued me and noone could answer why it sits so quitely guarding the 'English Wine Shop' of Kalyan Hotel.
I would have photographed n-number of times whenever the family visited Kasauli.
This is a beautiful lifelike statue of a black retriever, with its eyes painted red.
This time when I drove up the cloud-filled Kasauli on a weekend, I asked the chaiwala nearby and a vegetable vendor whose shop does thriving business just outside the Hotel building, as to who built this sculpture and why, I could not get much response, except a quick one, "Angrezon ke zamaane se hai yeh shayad" (It is here perhaps from the British times).
Having read about the Japanese dog, Hachiko (the faithful), whose bronze statue at Shibuya train station in Tokyo is a reminder of dog's affection and loyalty for its owner, I was sure that this dog must have had a similar story.
Several hours of relentless brainstorming with 'Google Guru', feeding it with different keywords, ultimately led me to a blog of probably a senior retired Sikh officer who must have lived in Kasauli... very nicely captioned, "I am Daarji".  A very common affectionate sobriquet for father, grandfather and great grandfather. I could not find the real author behind 'Daarji' in any of his blogs and his last entry was of 2012. But 'Daarji' had related the story of this black statue that sits quietly on a pedestal outside the Kalyan hotel, and being the exact life-like replica, is often missed by many.

Indeed it was a memorial to a true friend, a 'hero' of Kasauli.  This old building on the 'Y' junction on the mall was earlier a chemist and druggist store known as "B.Kalicharan & Sons" owned by Mr Kalicharan who was a richest landlord of his time in the town who had a large clout and influence in the area. Daarji relates that the DC of Kasauli, who was a representative of the British Queen, would walk behind him when Seth Kalicharan took a walk on the Kasauli mall.

Since drug stores at that time, were also the licensed wine shops, used to have lots of cash, and one day, some thieves broke into the shop and robbed it off imported wines and trinkets and cash. While the robbery was in progress, the Black Retriever of Sethji attacked the robbers who fled from the scene.  Our 'Hero' immediately woke up the owner, and led the police to the robbers who were caught sharing the booty.

His fame grew and an Englishman photographed the dog, and sent the picture to a bronze foundry in North Devon in Engliand, where the statue was built and shipped back to India.  It was installed outside the Sethji's shop as a memorial to, what Daarji also says, "Man's Best Friend".

So next time, you are in Kasauli, do stop by and appreciate this bronze statue, and salute the 'Hero'.