Citygritty 8212; Pune

Cinema's scopeAn award is the crowning recognition of an endeavour but how much more thrilling it must be if you achieve that feat in your f...

Cinema8217;s scope
An award is the crowning recognition of an endeavour but how much more thrilling it must be if you achieve that feat in your first attempt. Anil Zankar, film and television director and teacher, knows that feeling. His maiden book on cinema, Cinemachi Gosht, has been selected for the Best Writing on Cinema in the books category award as part of the 45th National Film Festival.

8220;It is good to feel recognised, it8217;s a definite encouragement to authors writing on cinema,8221; says a happy Zankar, whose book was selected from among 14 other books in various Indian languages. Zankar will be sharing the award with Savita Bhakri and Aditya Awasthi, authors of Hindi Cinema Aur Dilli. The award, which consists of a swarnakamal and a cash prize of Rs 15,000, will be presented to him by President K R Narayanan at a function to be held in New Delhi on July 10. A similar prize will also be awarded to the publisher of the book, Dilip Majgaonkar of Rajhans Publishers.

Lead story
Remember Indrani Rampersad, the leading Hindu priest from Trinidad who was in Pune till recently, pursuing her Masters in Communication and Journalism MCJ? Well, this Sanskrit pandit showed her acumen in the study of Journalism and Communication too, and stood first in the University of Pune for the course, securing 72.9 per cent.

Back home in Trinidad, withstanding the strong wave of dissent and ire, Rampersad was successfully initiated as the first woman priest. She had stated, 8220;In Trinidad, Hindu priests are looked down upon, since most of them are uneducated and come from a peasant background. I aim to raise the status of a Hindu priest through the educated and progressive world view that has always characterised the Hindu tradition.8221; She was also the former bureau chief of The Trinidad Guardian. This high priestess of the Hindu community in Trinidad sure made her presence felt in Pune too, with her brilliant academic performance. Congratulations!

Can you hear me?
Teenage angst, generation gap, parental pressures 8211; are they symptoms of our competitive age? To help bridge the communication gap, the Soroptimist8217;s International Club of Poona has organised a lecture by psychologist Chaula Patel, on the subject of Understanding ourselves in relation to our growing adolescents8217; on July 11 at 108/109, Parmar Chambers, near Sadhu Vaswani Chowk, at 4 pm.

This is to be followed by a three-day workshop starting on July 13 on Sharing and learning communication skills to deal effectively through changing times and values8217; at the same venue. The workshop has been aimed at parents. If Papa don8217;t preach8217; is your child8217;s common refrain, this is the place to be.