Jammu, Apr28:Natrang staged a dramatic presentation of Munshi Prem Chand’s famous short story, ‘Kafan’ here at Natrang Studio Theatre in its Sunday Theatre Series. The play was directed by Neeraj Kant.
Though written many years ago by country’s most celebrated and visionary writer, the story appears timeless and still has a lot to convey to the present generation and even generations to come and it is a very precise satire on the degradation of human values.
The play revolves around a father and his son who work as laborers in a village. The son’s wife is near the end of her pregnancy and is in need of medical attention, which the family certainly cannot afford. The poor lady cries in pain as ‘Ghisu’ and his son ‘Madhav’ watch helplessly.
She eventually dies during childbirth, adding to the problems of the father and son. Driven to extreme poverty and despair, they have no money or means to perform the last rites for the unfortunate women. They cannot ignore the dead body lying in their hut, and set out to ask the villagers for some monetary assistance which they get after some effort but when it comes to the purchase the shroud for her, they change their mind and rather buy liquor out of that charity money, giving consolation to their sinful souls that what would a dead woman do with that piece of cloth, she does not need anything but blessings.
The play very emotionally exposes the monster of alcoholism and the story seems to be so relevant and close to the contemporary times. The play shows that people ruin their life and lives of their dependents in lust of alcohol and those who are captured in its trap may have nothing to eat and feed their family but will go out of ways to muster resources for the acquisition of liquor.
Kafan which translates to a shroud in English describes the degradation of human beings to the lowest level possible. Natrang young actors who performed in the play included Sanket Bhagat, Vishal Sharma, Chaitanaya Shekhar, Kushal Bhat, Aadesh Dhar and Payal Khanna.Lights of the play were designed and executed by Neeraj Kant whereas Kananpreet Kaur rendered the music of the play. The show was coordinated by Brijesh Avtar Sharma.
IITs and Higher Ed Dept offer internships, sponsored M.Tech for Ladakh students
Leh, Apr 28: Continuing the groundbreaking initiative started in 2022, the Department of Higher Education, UT Ladakh announced the Internship and sponsored M Tech program for 2024 for students in prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) of Kanpur, Delhi, and Bombay.
Applications are now open for internship and sponsored M. Tech. program for the Academic Session 2024-25 and students must apply online at https://www.iitk.ac.in/doaa/ladakh/.
The programs are open to students specializing in Computer Science, Civil Engineering, Energy Engineering, and related disciplines. The internship is open to students from science streams as well.
A total of 30 seats are available at the three IITs for short-term internships, 15 seats for long-term internships, and 12 seats for M. Tech programs.
The last date to apply for the M. Tech. program is May 31st, 2024. The last date to apply for the Internship program is May 15th, 2024.
The selection will be done by the IITs in coordination with the Higher Education Department based on academic qualifications and interviews.
This initiative, targeting students from Ladakh, offers an unparalleled chance to pursue higher education and gain hands-on experience in the country’s top educational institutions.
The higher Education Department, Administration of Ladakh, and the three IITs signed an EoI on 23rd Sept 2021 with a focus on innovation, entrepreneurship development enhancing the quality of technical education, and setting up an engineering institution in Ladakh, and the first batch of students from Ladakh pursued Internship and M Tech in the three IITs in 2022.
