Manavta Jugeshh develops impressive E-Library at Bal Bharati School in Ghaziabad

Pakistan News & Features Services

The recent Bollywood movie Zilla Ghaziabad, starring Sanjay Dutt, Vivek Oberoi and Arshad Warsi, is not the only thing to have brought into limelight the city of Ghaziabad, located in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, 19 km east of Delhi and 46 km southwest of Meerut.

   

Ghaziabad, a large industrial city well-connected by roads and railways called the gateway of Uttar Pradesh, has been acclaimed the second fastest growing city in the world due to the construction boom it has been experiencing of late according to a City Mayors Foundation survey. 

The E-Library of the Bal Bharati Public School in Brij Vihar, Ghaziabad, has set very high standards. It has collections stored in digital formats which are accessible via computers. The digital content may be stored locally or accessed remotely via computer networks. The digital library is a type of information retrieval system which can be used by free access to these resources from home. 

Manavta Jugeshh, the energetic and visionary librarian of Bal Bharati Public School, has played the lead role in mobilizing resources to develop the digital library. Holding a masters degree in Library and Information Science from the prestigious St. Stephen's College of the Delhi University, she has also organized a vibrant Bal Bharati Library which provides diverse collection of information to its members. 

It has more than 15,000 books on different subjects and 25 journals are subscribed to enlighten the students and teachers. 

Bal Bharati Public School is acclaimed as one of the leading institutions of East Delhi and is managed by Child Education Society.

Scholarships offered for Yale Publishing Course 2013

Pakistan News & Features Services

There are generous scholarships on offer for both the Yale Publishing Course (YPC) 2013 programmes of Leadership Strategies in Magazine & Digital Publishing as well as Leadership Strategies in Book Publishing to be held in July.

   

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) has sponsored the scholarship for one participant to attend Leadership Strategies in Magazine & Digital Publishing. Only ASME members or editors working for them are eligible to receive this full-tuition scholarship. 

The Ashmead award, honoring legendary book editor Larry Ashmead, is designed to nurture the career of a promising young editor in the field of book publishing. This year's winner will attend Leadership Strategies in Book Publishing. The 2012 winner, Michael Szczerban, is now an editor at Scribner. 

The alumni of the YPC have considered their experiences at the Yale University as energizing, stimulating, terrifically enriching, diverse and inspiring. The courses are designed to provide a broader perspective on an ever-changing publishing landscape at the YPC. 

The YPC 2012 had attracted mid to senior level publishing professionals from over 30 countries, from Abu Dhabi to Athens, Shanghai to Sao Paulo, and from all over the United States. They represented companies of all sizes and a wide diversity of publishing programmes.

Prof Dr Nasim Fatima working on 2013 edition of Bazm-e-Akram's Adab-o-Kutub Khana

Pakistan News & Features Services

Prof Dr Nasim Fatima, one of the living legends in the field of Library and Information Science, has started preparations for bringing out the 2013 edition of Bazm-e-Akram's Adab-o-Kutub Khana.

   

Bazm-e-Akram, a forum named after Prof Dr Ghani-ul-Akram Sabzwari, one of the founding fathers of the profession in the country, was founded in 1976 with Adil Usmani being its Founder President. 

Initially it was the labour of love of a few like-minded library scientists but Bazm-e-Akram has expanded gradually having nearly 60 members which include are Mohammad Wasil Usmani, Abdul Wahab Khan Saleem, Dr Rafia Ahmed Shaikh, Abdul Samad Ansari, Dr Rais Ahmed Samdani, Dr Mohammad Fazil Khan, Prof Dr Nasim Fatima, Dr Amna Khatoon, Dr Nargis Shagufta, Zainuddin Siddiqui, Syed Abad Ali, Dr Khadim Khams, Dr Shafqat Mokhari, Rafia Hasan Abidi, Sibte Haider Naseeri, Noor Amrohvi, Huma Mannan Butt, Nazia Mukhtar, Hina Naz, Syed Ahmed Naqvi, Azra Qureshi, Ikram-ul-Haq, Fatima Hasni Khayal, Dr Nigar Sajjad Zaheer, Dr Moinuddin Aqeel, Dr Mughees Ahmed, Dr Shama Aziz, Jamaluddin Akhtar, Syed Ateeb Ahmed, Aamir Subhani, Saima Qadeer, Farzana Abbas, Syeda Najma Sultana, Naheed Jahan, Nuzhat Bano Siddiqui, Abida Sultana, Dr Shamshad Ahmed and Noor Mustafa Khan. 

Prof Dr Nasim Fatima, a former Chairperson of the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of Karachi, has been the livewire of the forum, having edited four publications of the series with Bazm-e-Akram 2012 having been published last January.

Susil Ranasinghe’s volleyball book launched in Colombo

Pakistan News & Features Services

The Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation has recently launched a book ntitled ‘Volleyball Then and Now’ which has been authored by Susil Ranasinghe, General Secretary of the federation. The launch took place at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo with many distinguished guests and past national players in attendance.

   

Although the book is written primarily for a Sinhalese speaking audience, the chapter discussing international volleyball is in English. The picture captions in the book have also been translated into English where possible. The book will be distributed to schools and libraries free of charge. 

Speaking at the ceremony, Sri Lanka’s Sports Minister, Mahidananda Aluthgamage, remarked that volleyball was a good example of a sport that has taken hold at the grassroots level and in the villages. 

Noting the responsibility of the federation to popularise the game and bring it up to international standards, Alithgamage said, “We must try hard to create a generation of sport loving people in Sri Lanka in the future.”  

Dilan Perera, President of the Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation, praised the author, recognizing that volleyball has progressed so much through the dedicated work done by Susil Ranasinghe. 

Sri Lanka has experienced an expansion in the popularity of the game over the past years, with the number of participating teams in the tournaments having increased to over 5,000. 

Following the book launch there was also a ceremony where the veteran volleyball players who took part in the South Asian Games from 1950 to 1991 were presented with trophies to commemorate their service to the country.

Lahore Literary Festival makes a sensational start

Pakistan News & Features Services

Lahore has been the cultural capital of Pakistan and the city created another sensation by hosting the first-ever Lahore Literary Festival which was inaugurated by the Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, at Alhamra, The Mall, on February 22.  

The highlight of the ceremony was the lifetime achievements awards presented to three icons of literature, Intizar Husain, Bapsi Sidhwa and Zehrah Nigah, who also recited her famous poem on the occasion. 

The Chief Minister, in his speech, fondly recalled the Lahore of 1950s and 1960s when the families, including Parsis and Christians, strolled for hours. Upon the request of the organizers for greater government-private initiative partnership in aid of culture, Shahbaz Sharif announced to set up a fund for writers, pledging to form committee for the purpose soon. 

He welcomed the grand assembly of eminent writers, poets, scholars and journalists, complimenting the organizers for doing a fabulous job by putting it efforts to turn the dream of holding Lahore Literary Festival into reality. 

The passion, patriotism and love for the country, Lahore exuded by not just literary delights but the ever-enthusiastic crowd made the festival an instant success.

Rhetoric of Freedom wins Cairo International Book Fair prize

Pakistan News & Features Services

Emad Abdel Latif’s book Balaghat Al-Horeyya (Rhetoric of Freedom) was declared the best book in the human sciences field during the recently held 44th Cairo International Book Fair 2013 in the Egyptian capital.  

This year's Cairo International Book Fair prizes were announced at the closing ceremony of the fair’s cultural programme. The prizes, each worth US$ 1,490 were awarded to works published in 2012 in 10 different fields namely political books, novels, short stories, poetry, slang poetry, arts, science, human sciences, heritage, and children's books. 

The judging panel included writer and novelist Gamal El-Ghitani, novelist Youssef El-Qaeed, critic Mohammed Badawy and historian Ahmed Zakaria El-Shalq. Best book in human sciences prize went to Emad Abdel Latif for his book Balaghat Al-Horeyya (Rhetoric of Freedom), released by Tanweer Publishing House. 

The book was discussed during the book fair in the presences of its author Abdel Latif, Nabil Abdel-Fattah, Head Researcher at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, and Professor Ammar Ali Hassan, writer and political sociologist, as part of the cultural programme. 

The book analyses the political discourse surrounding the revolution. The first strategy he used he titled the section Discourse of the Squares. 

He has reproduced the slogans, banners, pictures and symbols used throughout the demonstrations across the country, focusing on those most frequently seen. His analysis wasn’t limited to squares in the physical sense, but also expanded the idea of a revolutionary meeting space to the internet, looking at the discourse across Facebook pages and other social networking websites.

Celebrities attend launch of Anuradha Sawhney's book The Vegan Kitchen: Bollywood Style

Pakistan News & Features Services

Bollywood celebrities and socialites attended the launch of Anuradha Sawhney's book 'The Vegan Kitchen: Bollywood Style' in Mumbai recently.  

Renowned actors Gulshan Grover, actress Mahima Chaudhary, Sherlyn Chopra, Anju Mahendroo, Yaana Gupta, model Dipannita Sharma, Achal Sachdev, designer Anita Dongre, dancer Sandeep Soparrkar and Poonam Sinha were among those present in what turned out to be a glittering ceremony. 

The book, published by Westland Limited, brings together the favourite recipes from about 50 leading names from the world of Bollywood, fashion and music. 

"It has a lot of recipes done by a lot of celebrities and I am one of them. I have contributed one recipe and one little story," actor Yaana Gupta remarked. 

Anupam Kher, Dilip Kumar, Gulshan Grover, Hema Malini, John Abraham, Mahesh Bhatt, Om Puri, R. Madhavan, Rahul Khanna, Saira Banu, Sonakshi Sinha, Sonam Kapoor and Vidya Balan are among those having contributed their favourite recipes for the book, showing how it’s possible to incorporate a delicious, healthy vegan diet with no cholesterol in other words, one with no animal products, including dairy into life. 

With appetizing photographs and tips on how to run a vegan kitchen ensure that it will find a place on any shelf. With forewords from two internationally-renowned doctors and a leading fitness expert who explain how a nutritious vegan diet can help reverse heart disease, manage diabetes and reduce obesity, as well as promote fitness, this book is the perfect marriage of taste, glamour and health in vegan style.