Reality show star Ishmeet Singh drowns in Maldives
29 Jul 2008, 2331 hrs IST, Jatinder Preet,TNN

Singer Ishmeet Singh in Chandigarh (Photo: Jaswinder singh)
LUDHIANA: Very few can forget his innocent smile and soft, tempered voice. Today, though, Ishmeet Singh, the popular winner of a reality singing competition is no more.

In shocking news that engulfed Ludhiana in a pall of gloom and collective mourning, the budding singer died on Tuesday apparently by drowning in Maldives.

A blooming career cut short, the rattled city reacted with disbelief as the news spread like wildfire. People from all walks of life -- friends, relatives and fans of the Sardar who had captured the imagination of the nation with his melodious voice - started streaming into in to his home at Shastri Nagar, many of them weeping loudly.

Only last year the city had run a campaign lobbying for the singing sensation. The Sikh community and Punjabis across India and the world voted proudly and unabashedly for him, making him the eventual winner.

Crying profusely, Charankamal Singh, his uncle and the chief strategist of the lobby group then, confirmed his death on phone before snapping the connection off.

Too shocked to react Gurpinder Singh, father of Ishmeet, said he doesn't know anything about what happened. Ishmeet's mother, too shaken to shed a tear, sat quietly before a TV set relaying news that shattered her.

Atamjit Singh, one of the relatives told TOI that they got a call from the CEO of Big Events, hosting a programme with Ishmeet in Maldives, that he drowned at the beach.

"Ishmeet had gone just this morning to Maldives," he said.

Reports from Colombo said that Singh, 20, had been frolicking in a shallow pool meant for children on Tuesday and later jumped into the deep-end of the main swimming pool and had immediately run into difficulty, an official of the Dhonveli resort in Maldives said.

"We understand that he did not know how to swim and had been advised by his friends not to get to the deep end," a hotel official said when contacted from Colombo. His body was taken to the capital island Male, about half-an-hour by speed boat.

He had arrived in the Indian Ocean atoll nation early on Tuesday to sing at a musical concert on Friday. He had won the Voice of India singing competition organised by the Star television network and shot to stardom in November last year.

Swimming accidents are rare in the Maldivian archipelago which is known for snorkelling and diving and exotic reef fish. Maldives is reportedly the most expensive tourist destination in South Asia.

akale rang da gulab koi na,
teriya kitaba vich veh,
sadi gall da javab koi na



assi dost banna chadeya c par dushman k reh gaye aa,
phool ta koi hor lai geya
sadde hath ta kande hi reh gaye aa,
par pher v sanu sabh manjoor hi c
ik vari yarra sirf ik vari inna jaroor
dassde sadda kasoor ki c


Lokki kehnde tu has mukh hai,
loki kehnde tu has mukh hai,
par ki dassa dost sadde
sinne wich v ik dukh hai,
dukh jo inna dunga
jiss wich samunder v samma jaan je uss dukh nu rabb v kitte laye sun
lave ta uss diya akha wich v hanju aa jaan,
par iss toh bayad v sadde bhulla te ik chup hai
kyun k loki kehnde tu bahut has mukh hai


assi likhna kujh hor chaunde c te dil ne kujh hor likha ditta,
sheesha ta dekhde c tyaar hon vaste par ajj sheeshe ne tera muhh dikha ditta

Main apne aap nu bhul geya
ghera utte dull geya,
main apne aap nu bhul geya ghera utte dull geya,
gher ta pahunch gaye ajj apni manzil te main unna diya raha wich ruul geya


Manzil pauni sokhi hai par manzil diya raha te turna aukha hai, kisse dooje nu torna
sokha hai par app tutt k jurna aukha hai

Tusi Ucche Ho Asi Neeven Haan,
Saadi Neevi Zaat Kabool Karo....

Tusi Charrhde Chann Jehe Roshan Ho,
Asi Kaali Raat Kabool Karo.....

Ki Dena Asi Faqeeran Ne,
Kujh Zakham Te Yaadan Palle Ne....

Yaaran Di Kamaai Bass Geet Ehe,
Bass Ehe Sougaat Kabool Karo....

´Virsa´ : Raj Babbar Launches Aarya’s Debut Punjabi Film Amidst Celebrities
- Abid
At a launch party hosted by Producer Dr. Amanullah Khan of One World Entertainment and Mr.Vikram Khakhar of Wize Mindz Entertainment Pvt Ltd, veteran actor Raj Babbar flagged off the launch of his son Aarya Babbar's debut International Punjabi film 'Virsa' recently in Mumbai!

Present at the film launch were Raj Babbar and renowned Director Mahesh Bhatt who launched the film and the entire cast and crew of the film-Director Pankaj Batra, Aarya Babbar, Gulshan Grover, Kawaljeet Singh, Mehreen Raheal, Naumaan Ijaas, Amaan Ali and Aparna Sharma as well as other Bollywood celebrities such as Producer Anjum Rizvi, Aashish Vidyarti, Rohit Roy, Aryan Vaid, Sudhanshu Pandey, Mohan Doshi, Anoop Soni, Ravee Gupta, Vivek Shroff, Shweta Pandit, Moon Moon, Sadiya Siddiqui and brother Farhan.

Providing familial support to Aarya Babbar was his mother and sister Nadira Babbar and Juhi Babbar.

Virsa is the first truly international Punjabi film with cast and crew from India, Pakistan and Australia.

A Wize Mindz Entertainment production presented by One World Entertainment, 'Virsa' will be shot extensively in Australia, and consists of renowned Indian actors such as Aarya Babbar, Gulshan Grover, Kanwaljeet Singh and talents from Pakistan such as well known model Mehreen Raheal, veteran Pakistani actor, Naumaan Ijaz along with a host of other faces.

Said Mahesh Bhatt on this occasion, "Down with the war-mongers!" while enthusing people from both countries to dare and embrace our each other.

'Virsa' is directed and written by Pankaj Batra, a young and upcoming writer-director with a promising future who started his career by assisting Vidhu Vinod Chopra on Mission Kashmir and followed it by assisting Kalpana Lajmi on Kyon.

'Virsa' is a Wize Mindz Entertainment Pvt Ltd production presented by One World Entertainment

Punjabi was alien to me: Preity
15 Jul 2008, 0000 hrs IST, SUBHASH K JHA ,TNN



Preity Zinta in a still from Heaven On Earth

Preity Zinta didn’t know a word of Punjabi when she signed Heaven On Earth, a Deepa Mehta film that was to be shot entirely in Punjabi.

But she has now successfully completed the whole film. “All I knew was that I had to play this traumatised battered wife. The problem of the language hit me later when I was told about the long monologues I was expected to deliver in Punjabi. As I am a Rajput girl from Himachal Pradesh, Punjabi was totally alien to me,” she says.

But Preity did manage to learn the language in a short span of 50 days. “You could call it a crash course,” she says. “But I only mastered the dialogues that I was required to mouth in the film. Heaven On Earth wasn’t a film about faking emotions. I had to deliver my dialogue and feel the emotions,” she adds.

Language wasn’t the only research area for Preity for Heaven On Earth. She read a lot of material and sat through documentaries on domestic violence. She says, “I read a really bulky book called This is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like and The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. The latter is a novel by Roddy Doyle. I also watched a lot of footage on battered wives including Deepa Mehta’s documentary where the children of battered wives speak on the experience of growing up in violent households.”

Being seriously involved in a subject of such a violent nature took its toll on Preity. She was severely traumatised by the experience of playing a battered wife. In the film, she is repeatedly smacked by her on-screen husband (Vansh Bhardwaj). Many times, Preity ended up raising her fist to retaliate, much to the annoyance and amusement of the director and her co-star. Recalling the experience, Preity says, “It was extremely difficult for me to take on the violence. I’m the kind of girl who would immediately hit back. If you slap me once, I’ll slap you twice.”

Preity was allowed no make-up in the film. “No wigs either,” she says. “Deepa made me wear hair extensions that were naturally woven into my hair to give me the perfect Punjabi look. If I arrived to the sets after a good night’s sleep, they applied black make-up around my eyes to give me a troubled look.”

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kk9NaTEGP_A

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pfsaKiJjLIc

Punjabi women steal Great Indian Laughter Challenge
Friday - Jul 04, 2008
Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | Chandigarh
For many, it's still hard to picture a woman as a stand-up comedian. But three ladies on Star One's The Great Indian Laughter Challenge 4 reaslity show are breaking the mould, that only men have a sense of humour. And, what makes them special is that they are all from Punjab, one contestant from Jalandhar and the other two from Amritsar.


For Amritsar's Rajbir Kaur, doing comedy is nothing new. She's used to showcasing skills in monoacting and histrionics at youth fests. "The offer came my way via a friend who recommended me to Gurpreet Ghuggi; Ghuggi put in a word to the show's producers. I auditioned and got a call. I was hesitant but my husband convinced me to prove my talent to a larger audience."

How does it feel competing with so many men? "Women do not lag behind in any way in India. President too is a woman. And, I fared well in the first episode." Kaur says.

Kaur's favourite comedian is Raju Srivastav. Like him, her spoofs are on real-life situations. "My jokes are on relationships."


Bharti Singh, the youngest woman participant on the show, is also from Amritsar. She describes herself as 'chhoti aur moti'. This student of Bachelors in Multimedia had to forego her final exams to be in Mumbai for the shoot. "I'm also a stage actress and a national-level gold medallist shooter," Singh says.

Jalandhar's Sugandha Mishra, a postgraduate in vocal music, used to be an FM radio jockey before she cleared the Laughter Challenge audition. She got selected at the auditions in Jalandhar. "It's a big platform to show talent. It's a new world. The ambience at the show is good; we women vibe well."

Mishra too's one of the semi-finalists. "To prepare the content is tough. My jokes centre around current topics; I make bits of it musical."

tere raavan teri zindagi vich naa aavan ge
tere shehro hauke vaangu nikkal jaavan ge
Jass naalo saare rishte toran waliye ni
tere naa naal duniya saanu kyon bulaundi ae,,
takkna chaddeya tainu vekhi bhul vi jaavan ge
jaan nikalldi aakhir thoda chir taan laundi ae


eh kisey gayak ne gaeyo aa, kisey nu pata kehda aa?

Rabbi:The new rocker
28 Jun 2008, 0000 hrs IST, RAJAT GHAI ,TNN



Three years ago, Rabbi Shergill appeared on our homescreens for the first time, wearing the traditional Sikh turban and a pair of spectacles strumming a guitar.

A complete antithesis of the quintessential rocker. But with his new-age rendition of Punjab’s legendary Sufi, Baba Bulleh Shah’s famous kafi, Bulla Ki Jaana, his first album Rabbi stormed the music charts and billboards. His second album, Avengi Ja Nahin, released recently and the musician is all agog. “It is my best work so far. I believe that language and art can always be used as a form of protest. In this album, I have protested against increasing globalisation,” says Rabbi. Bulla was a huge success. Has it been a tough act to follow? “People do expect an encore of Bulla. But, I am not into conjuring formulas of success and revisiting them.”

Rabbi’s lyrics, imagery and videos are an eclectic mix, bordering on themes such as joy, love, contemporary issues, philosophy and mysticism. Explaining his music’s contemporary feel Rabbi says, “I am not an insulated person to remain unaffected by what happens around me. All societies generate pressure. Artistes are like a society’s pressure valves.” Having been termed as a “Sufi rocker”, what explains his mystic side? “Well, most of my music is rock. I have been deeply influenced by rock bands and artistes like Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix, U2, Edge and Sting. If you call it Sufi, I wouldn’t mind. The element of mysticism in me is because of being raised in an academically-oriented family. My father was a Sikh preacher. My mother, a Delhi college principal, has been writing Punjabi poetry for as long as I remember. My sister too writes Punjabi poetry,” says Rabbi, an alumnus of Khalsa College, Delhi.

Rabbi (whose real name is Gurpreet Singh Gill) has been termed as ‘Punjabi music’s urban balladeer.’ Does he see a paradox here since Punjabi music is mostly based on the province’s rural and agrarian lifestyle? “The present age is one of urbanisation. Even Punjabi life has not escaped it. Many Punjabis are today concentrated in urban areas of India, Pakistan and other countries. In being an ‘urban balladeer’, I am trying to resolve the various psychological contradictions of my lineage,” says Rabbi, whose ancestral village, Chak Mishri Khan is in Amritsar district.

And no, he doesn’t want to do playback singing for Bollywood just yet. “The stock role of a playback singer does not interest me. If I meet interesting people, collaborations may happen. But I am not hell-bent,” says Rabbi, who has sung for Delhi Heights.
So, what is next? “I would be promoting my new album full-time. Since my team and I have taken a lot of chances in producing it, I would be doing lots of shows in the months ahead.”

MASTER OF PUNJABI POETRY- DR SURJIT PATAR
Dr. Amarjit Tanda | 06-12-2008


              At the Ferozepore road in Ludhiana, there is a Makka of Punjabi poetry on the back side of Aggar Nagar, also known as Maggar Nagar sometimes. You can meet a very light weight man, champion of Punjabi poetry welcoming you with a nikki jehi smile all the time whenever you visit him, even without any information in advance. Now he wears a small pagri too sometimes in the evening, not a patka. During my recent visit to Ludhiana in April,2008, I went to visit my longotia Yaar, another Panjabi Hindi poet Dr Sukhchain (Mistry), who lives on the back of this Punjabi poetry Makka. It looks like the door of this Punjabi poetry Makka opens on both sides of the world of poets, one on the rising sun and another on the lehande passé.

                           I could not meet Dr Sukhchain last time as bhabi told me he is in Bhopal. However during my recent tour, I met  him two three times, once in the PAU Ludhiana and secondly at his literary home, decorated with his paintings with poetic verse of many poets.. One evening, I myself & Dr Sukhchain were enjoying and sharing our college days at his home, but there was no other man to present us wiyh nikke 2 jokes, the environment was serious. So we thought of our Bheesam Pitamma of modern Punjabi Poetry to be with us. Dr Sukhchain said me ,let’s go , and he was leading me to his newly extended house and we entered in without even knocking at. Sukhchain was saying to me aaja aaja ghabra na. I thought people might have changed after growing grey and touring abroad. However, this never happens with literary people. We found a slim, grey black bearded man Dr Surjit Patar who took us into ghutmi te piari jaffi varri 2 while on his mobile phone to Dr Tiwana , keeping his one hand on phone, and talking both ways,kade sade naal te kade kade Dr Tiwana naal. He was very busy during those days because of Sahit Academy elections, being contested like Assembly Elections, with the misunderstanding of a contestant, who had a  big galat fehmi about himself.

              We were talking about, Dr Patar, I met this markoo jeha Pehalwan of Panjabi Poetry in 1973-74 for the first time in his department of Languages and I was completing my BSc.at PAU Ludhiana, the days of naxalite movement.

                  Patar appeared on the Punjabi poetry scene in the 60s, always use to spoke to the audience in an intimate manner about his poetic journey and also the creative process of some of his famous poems. Patar started writing poems in his college days at Kapurthala,may be willing to be a musician. He says such facilities were not in a village. The college had a library and I read voraciously. Poets Bawa Balwant and Harbhajan Singh, influenced me in the early days, he was telling like a story of his past. Shiv Kumar Batalvi was also gaining popularity at that time, it was only later that we could assess the merit of his verses. Sohan Singh Misha with his modern tone appealed more to my youthful heart, he continued.

Last time he visited Sydney, he met me two times not like before because there were many fans who gherahoed him after the show. However we had a long jaffi and shared some light galan of PAU. He visited my home one day and we remained in the way for two and a half hours which was of 10 minutes, as we started enjoying and recoding some of our old jokes & yaddan with red wine in a clear zone of Sydney. My family members were worried about us, as I told them to come back in 10 minutes. Here we met after a gap of 11 years. He shared with me many jokes. He was telling in Punjab people stop on red light if police is there. He also told that these days people dare to ask the officer many questions, why my job has not been done and if the concerned man asks who are you the man says, I am public and you are our a public servant. So you are supposed to do my pending job first.

               Patar said that his verses blossomed in the very creative environment of the 60s at Patiala recalling his poetic journey. I chose to study in Punjabi University because well known writers and intellectuals like DrDalip Kaur Tiwana, Dr Attar Singh and S Balwant Singh were associated with it. Outside the campus I came across the influence of Gurbhagat Singh, Harinder Mehboob, S.S. Noor and Baba Laali, he added.

            Born in 1944, at Patran village, which became his  Takhalash as Patar.  Surjit Patar achieved an M.A.from Punjabi University, Patiala. Later on, he and Dr Kairon, both jointly (jokingly) did another Ph.D in Punjabi on Elements of Folklore in the Poetry of Guru Nanak Dev and again Patar joined the academic profession with Doctor da Khitaab. Actually, his name looks better as it was without a Dr before his name. He has retired as Professor of Punjabi from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana not from poetry. However these days you can find him working like a politician campaigning for Dr Tiwana. He is one of the most prominent poets of Punjabi, who has kept alive the tradition of lyric along with his verses. He has attracted and charmed the poetry lovers by his ghazals in Taranum and steals the show many times.           

                  Patar said he was once passing through the old courts of Ludhiana,talking of his famous poem, ‘Kujh kiha taan hanera jarega kivein’, he saw the dried up trees in the compound. He felt that these were people who had turned into trees waiting for justice. All this and the justice the Naxalites had sought merged into the making of this poem. Another incident when Hindus were being pulled out of a bus and killed perturbed me much. And I thought with horror that if the much-loved Punjabi poet Shiv Kumar had been among them, this would have been his fate too, referring to another well-known poem written during terrorism-

‘Kal Waris Shah nu wandea si ajj Shiv Kumar di vaari hai
Oh zakham tuhanu bhul vi gaye naveian di hor tiyari hai’

          Hawa Vich Likhe Harf (Words written in the Air), Birkh Arz Kar (Thus speaks the Tree), Hanere Vich Sulghdi Varnmala (Words smouldering in the Dark) and Lafzanh Di Dargah (Shrine of Words) are his works of poetry. The three tragedies of Garcia Lorca, the play Nag Mandala of Girish Karnad, and poems of Bertolt Brecht and Pablo Neruda has been translated into Punjabi by him and worked on Giradoux, Euripides and Racine plays. He has penned down the tele-scripts starting from Punjabi poets Sheikh Farid of the 13th century to Amrita Pritam of the 20th under the name of Suraj Da Sirnama..

                        He was the President, Punjabi Sahit Academy, Ludhiana twice before Dr Tiwana, apni Guru Ton Pehlan ik Vidhyarathi 2 vaar Pardhan reha. He was awarded with Sahitya Academy Award(1993), for his book Hanere vich Sulghdi Varnmala, and Bhartiya Bhasha Parishad Purskar. He has influenced many young poets with his new words  and his style of penning down, like netting a beautiful sweater with excellent design.