The luxury bus donated by Dubai-based businessman Surinder Pal Singh Oberoi to the Gurdaspur district administration has hit a road block even before it had travelled an inch. The bus was initially given last year to Punjabi University Patiala on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev. Oberoi had donated the vehicle with the assurance that the university would get it registered with the Transport Department. However that never happened following which a livid Oberoi asked the university to hand it back. In the meantime Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ishfaq told the businessman that his administration had conceived a religious tourism project for which he needed a bus. Oberoi was all too happy to hand over the vehicle to the DC at a function held recently in Kalanaur with the rider that “the bus should be registered with the Transport Department.” However following a technical hitch the administration could not get the registration process done. The DC consulted Oberoi who in turn requested Cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa to intervene and get the needful done. After making a couple of calls to the State Transport Commissioner (STC) Randhawa informed both the DC and Oberoi that the registration process would be completed within a month. Once commissioned the yellow coloured bus will start its journey on a daily basis from Amritsar and will then proceed to Kandh Sahib Gurdwara and Achleshwar temple in Batala before ending its journey in Gurdaspur but not before it touches Gurdwara Chotta Ghallughara. Bon voyage! All the Kings men Politically speaking after days of being in a state of inertia the steel town of Batala has become hyper active. The spotlight is on the post of the first ever Mayor of the city. In 2017 then MP Sunil Jakhars efforts had led to the municipal committee being upgraded to a full-fledged corporation. Now the time has come to elect its first citizen. Next week 36 city fathers will sit down have a cup of tea and then proceed to select a candidate after which a sham of an election will follow. The script has been written by Cabinet minister Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa who is the king and the kingmaker both rolled into one. Everyone has been asked to follow the script in letter and spirit. Any deviation or dissension will be treated as a rebuke towards the king. The king has his favourites and one of them is Sukh Teja. He is his eyes and ears in the city. A few days ago the king appointed a committee whose main members were Cabinet minister Sukh Sarkaria and Amritsar Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu. The committee was asked to arrive at a consensus after holding a meeting with the councillors. The outcome was as obvious as saying that Mozart was musical. For the record the committee instead of directly saying that the next Mayor should be Teja actually veered around to the theory that the “next mayor should be a Jat Sikh.” The next step in logical progression was to say that that particular Jat Sikh should be Sukh Teja. This was music to the kings ears. He got what he wanted thus reducing the official meeting to be held on April 19 to a mere formality. There were murmurs that the first citizen should be from the Hindu Khatri community. But then these murmurs being murmurs quickly died down. The king had played his cards to a nicety. He did not have to use his aces to achieve his goal of elevating his Man Friday to the Mayoral post. Young painter trying to revel on the big stage The rule is that students of architecture rarely venture into the world of art. Karandeep Singh Bajwa (24) is an exception. And it is always an exception that proves a rule. Painting was his passion when he was still in school. The young architect who has graduated from the Chandigarh College of Architecture is now holding a week-long exhibition of his works at Chandigarh Lalit Kala Academy (CLKA) which was scheduled to commence on April 17 before the weekend lockdown came in. The show named Black VIBGYOR will be inaugurated by Guru Jyothi Pattabhiram Chairperson and Founding Director of Bangalore based charitable organisation Sadhana Sangama dedicated to promoting yoga and cultural activities. Karandeep is the son of Assistant Commissioner (Excise) Rajwinder Kaur Bajwa and Shaheed Major Balwinder Singh Bajwa. The youngster is adept in using raw charcoal in his works. The passion for painting ran deep when Karan was still in Little Flower Convent School Gurdaspur. He was fully supported by his mother who “sacrificed a lot just to keep my passion for painting afloat.” The young artist spends a lot of time in the serenity of Manali where as he says comes up with new ideas. “Painting is self discovery. Every good artist paints what he is. I do not paint dreams and nightmares. I paint my own reality and the reality of things happening around me. I create my own works with my own mind. An artist who plagiarises produces pictures of little merit because he takes the works of others as his standard. This reminds me of the protagonist of Ayn Rands classic The Fountainhead. Howard Roark is an architect par excellence but when somebody like his bête-noire Peter Keating does tries to copy his designs he demolishes his own work to ensure nobody in future plagiarises it.” As for the mother she is a proud woman. “I have always backed Karan. “Every canvas is a journey all of its own” she says. (Contributed by Ravi Dhaliwal)

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