20 Years of being GENCONIAN:

20 Years of being GENCONIAN: Probably 20 years back this was the time when a batch of 198 people entered into this royal institution and got the privilege to be the part of royal "Genconian" family. Those four years were as if we all lived one life together. Couple of days back I met Gurwinder (Bagga), a batch mate of mine at ISB Campus, Mohall and my instant reaction was "oye saliya tu ithe kive". My reaction towards him was pretty natural, without realizing this fact that he is Associate Director, Career Advancement Services there. Probably this is a beauty of "being genconian", which helped to keep all of us humble and together.
Entire Genconian clan was divided into five broad categories "Pendu Quota", "Day Scholar", "Delhi Wale","Bhappe" and "Group Wale" . Combination of all was popularly known as "JANTA". Amongst them minority status communities were "Day Scholar", "Delhi Wale" and "Bhappe". For girls, we had only one respectable classification system and that was "BHABHI", which somehow showed our commitment and respect towards them at that time. The minority status communities always remained on our targets because of their close association with "Bhabhi" community. "Tea" was our official drink and that too from "Jatt Tea Stall". "Land Line" phone in girl's hostel was the only technical source of romance and communication for us. Unlike today, technology never supported us and that was the reason we had only one" in house love affair" in entire batch of 198. Speaking in English was treated it as a "serious criminal offence", as if we are not in GNE but in France. Cochran boiler is still mystery to all of us and I had been informed by my seniors that top wire on high transmission electric towers is used to facilitate birds to sit…. Difficult to pen down those beautiful feelings. Thank you Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana for making us what we all are today…salute to the spirit of "being genconian". 

नई सोच का "नवदीप"

Nai Soch Ka Navdeep

Satya Swadesh, 24th August 2014, National Chandigarh Edition

Government Primary School, Dona Nanka and New Salemshah

Brand Fazilka : "ਦੇਹ ਸਿਵਾ ਬਰੁ ਮੋਹਿ ਇਹੈ ਸੁਭ ਕਰਮਨ ਤੇ ਕਬਹੂੰ ਨ ਟਰੋਂ ॥"
Meet my two friends and the most dedicated teachers from our Fazilka regionLavjeet Grewal and Rakeysh Kamboj..their work can be seen in the pictures below..these are the pictures of the two Government Primary Schools, Dona Nanka and New Salemshah respectively....last two villages on India Pakistan Border...and what they have created in their schools is simply outstanding...24 x 7 power backup, RO water..toilets for boys and girls... their government schools are far better in terms of infrastructure and results...e.g. Dona Nanka Primary School kids won 17 awards out of best 20 in the entire state..people in nearby villages have actually stopped going to private schools, from their own pockets they have made beautiful campus and office...(Red is Dona Nanka and Brown back wall is New SalemShah)...they are certainly in the 1% category of those government teachers, who believes in delivery than protesting...i never found them discussing their promotion, transfers and increments unlike many others....then themselves never climbed water tanks but made their students on the top of the world....they have created all from the same set of resources which are meant for everyone.....Hats off to you..

"Irade nek ho to, sapne bhi sakar hote hai..
agar sachchi lagan ho to,raaste aasan hote hai"

Will introduce you with few more of our champion teachers, who are creating miracles in this border town.....

More Bikes on Our Roads Actually Make Them Safer

Attention, drivers: You might want to think twice before flipping the bird at that morning cycling group for slowing down your commute. In fact, you should probably thank them.

A study published in the April issue of Accident Analysis & Prevention suggests that more bikes make roads safer for cyclists and motorists — a finding that could have national implications as more and more Americans hop on two wheels. "Improving the streets to better accommodate bicycles may enhance safety for everyone," said Wesley Marshall, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado Denver and co-author of the study.

Marshall and other CU Denver researchers honed in on the city of Boulder, where 12 percent of residents ride bikes, one of the highest rates in the country. Their goal? To create a safety performance function (SPF) for the city's bikes — a mathematical model of the relationship between the frequency of crashes and the major factors related to them — that could inform traffic safety laws and infrastructure. (SPFs exist in a number of cities for vehicles, but not for bikes.)

The researchers focused on the intersections throughout Boulder, where more than two-thirds of crashes occur between drivers and cyclists. They compared collision data from police reports to city data on the number of bikes wheeling through the intersections each day.

Their findings? The chance of collision actually decreased with more cyclists. Specifically, intersections that saw more than 200 bicycles a day had "the largest safety benefits," Marshall said.

The number of people who pedal to work in the U.S. jumped 60 percent over the last decade.

The reasons for the trend aren't entirely clear — yet. Marshall and his colleagues think it could be due to "safety in numbers," the theory — and common Mom refrain — that being part of a large group makes you less likely to be part of a collision or other mishap. A group of bicyclists tends to be easier to spot than lone individuals, alerting drivers who are then more likely to take extra precautions. Indeed, earlier studies proposed that when drivers expect to encounter a large number of cyclists, they're more apt to glance over their shoulder before making a right turn, for example.

Or there's the possibility that cyclists simply gravitate toward safer streets. The team plans to unravel the underlying causes in future studies.

Although the researchers' SPF applies only to Boulder, their method for creating the model "can and should be applied and tested everywhere," especially amid today's biking boom, they wrote. The number of people who pedal to work in the U.S. jumped 60 percent over the last decade, according to the Census Bureau.

The study doesn't prove that more bikes are directly responsible for safer streets, but there does appear to be a link. And there's one strategy for boosting ridership — and hopefully road safety as well: creating protected bike lanes. A recent National Institute for Transportation and Communities study of bike lanes in Portland, San Francisco, Austin, Chicago and Washington, D.C. found that ridership increased an average of 75 percent within a year of installing such lanes. Pedal on.

Source: Ozy

NB: Press Cutting Service

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat