Sunny Dua

Born to a Dogra couple, thejourney of Sonali Dografrom being a casual singer towin the prestigious title of'Voice of Punjab' organisedby PTC's Singing Talent HuntShow in Amritsar and thattoo after picking up Punjabiaccent in most fluent mannerhas not remained an easypath to tread.

Despite all odds and having won the titleafter beating Punjabi contestants in Pun-jab only, Sonali today feels proud of hav-ing settled in the vicinity of great singinglegend of 40's K L Sehgal in Link Road,Jammu.

Having no background of singing and noformal training in music it was sheer luck,fate and primarily hard work that remainedon Sonali's side throughout her journeyfrom being a school singing star to winningthe title of 'Voice of Punjab'. Today when sheis pursuing her studies in Government Col-lege for Women, Parade she's a just like anyother normal student but sometimes enjoyscelebrity status who if gets recognised by fel-low colleagues is forced to oblige them bysinging her best numbers anywhere in thecollege premises.

Having sung for a Punjabi film as well,this Jammu girl now aspires to hit Bolly-wood as a playback singer if the usual Luckand Hard Work continues to remain on herside as ever. Humbled yet firm on herbelief, she credits her success to her moth-er and brothers who stood by her in herendeavour to her journey of becoming asinger. In an exclusive interview with 'Dai-ly Excelsior', Sonali made it known that shestarted singing in fifth standard only toearn accolades but never ever dreamt ofbeing an established singer or earn anytitles.

Having command on Sufi Music, Son-ali has also performed in Jammu Idol,Voice of India, Choona Hai Aasmaan, Dug-gar Sangeet, Katra Festival, Awaz PunjabDi, Radio and Television before being vic-torious in Voice of Punjab and winning thetitle for her 2016 performances. With herhead held high and feet firmly rooted inground she's clear about her future plans.Singer Dogra wants to be a professional butbelieves that the journey to pinnacle is notas easy as the previous stretch was.

Having judged by top Punjabi singerslike Harbajan Maan and Music directorslike Anu Malik, Sonali Dogra is today con-

fident enough to face top rated Masters inMusic or any stage in the country or any-where else on this globe but intends tomake Jammu proud of her per-formances. If all goes well thebudding singer is virtuallytreading the path of K L Sehgalwho too was born in Jammu andthen left for Kolkata only to landup in Mumbai and make a markthere.

Like Sehgal, Sonali too wasforced to drop out of college for ayear but resolved to continue herstudies despite all odds.

Sonali seems to be repeating thathistory after over 60 years. Born in Jam-mu and then having travelled to Kolkataand then Mumbai she rose to enthralaudiences with her performances inKatra, Jammu and Punjab.She's now eying Bollywodlike Sehgal did. Speakingabout her performancesin Punjab where she haddifficulties in picking upmany typical Punjabiwords, Sonali revealedthat crowds in Amritsar and other loca-tions used to throng to attend her showsand especially the grand finale of PTC'sSinging Talent Hunt Show - Voice of Pun-jab which she won.

The songs that left several of her admir-ers awestruck include Punjabi folk songs,Ranjha, Mirza, Allah Hu, Tere ishqNachaya, baras Ja ai badal, Main HaalVekh Laye Heera De, Sanu te aisa Maahi,Kamli yaar di kamli, Patta vi hillta and Bha-jans and Kirtans that she recites at Katrafestival as well as on many occasions.

"The weather on that day was quite hos-tile yet people of Amritsar had turned upin large numbers to witness the perform-ance. Despite the rain and hailstorm dur-ing the show music lovers faced all odds tosupport the event wherein I was declaredwinner", shares Sonali Dogra. Her duet'Paani diya Challan Hovan....' still mes-merizes many. The best part of this contestwas that previous seasons' contestants ofVoice of Punjab slugged it out against thisyear's contestants.

It was a virtual contest between Mas-ters and Challengers that made the com-petition tough to win, said Sonali. Thejourney to success and that too when theperformances were being judged by acesingers and music composers likeLakhwinder Wadali, Saleem, GurmitSingh and Sachin Ahuja was very tough butthe programme that was anchored bySatinder Satti made it little comfortable forthe contestants, she said.

Remembering the D-Day, Sonaliexplains that this grand finale of thisbiggest Punjabi singing reality show -Voice of Punjab Season 6 was held at Ran-

jit Avenue Ground, Ajnala Road, Amritsarwherein she performed after leavingbehind several contestants and coming upin the slot of top six singers. Those who lostwere equally talented and had done theirbest but it was again the luck and MataVaishno Devi JI's blessings that made myday, said Sonali Dogra.

Sunny Atwal, Sonu Gill, Sonali Dogra,Priya Sidhu, Mohd. Danish and SahilAkhtar were the six finalists who per-formed that day in grand finale. Recallingher past, she said that P N Raina remainedher teacher for some time and advisedyoungsters to seek formal trainings is casethey intend to make it to the top slot ofsinging world. A foreign company intomusic has already approached for makingof a solo album which she intends to com-plete in months to come.

Back home, BSF School and somesocial organisations have honoured her forbeing the title winner of Voice of Punjabbut her own college - Government Collegefor Women, Parade is yet to recognise hercredentials into the field of Music whichshe regrets. For Sonali bringing laurels forJammu is a matter of proud as she and herentire family is completely drenched inDogra culture which they feel proud of.

Today she sings in Punjabi, Hindi andDogri and feels proud in reciting Dogri-Pakhan whenever and wherever she gets achance. Her recent performance organisedby Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR), Jammu chapter at Jammu had leftaudiences spellbound wherein critics alsocompared her with a established versatilesinger of Jammu Sufi singer Ragini Rainuas well.

Dr. Ravdeep Singh and Dr. Harneet Kour

TTooddaayy wwee wwiillll ttaallkk aabboouutt tthhee oonnllyy ccrreeaattuurreeoonn tthhiiss eeaarrtthh tthhaatt lloovveess yyoouu mmoorree tthhaann yyoouulloovvee yyoouurrsseellff.. NNooww,, aa ddaayy wwee aarree ssoo mmuucchheennggaaggeedd wwiitthh oouurr eeaarrnniinnggss tthhaatt wwee hhaavveeppuutt oouurr oowwnn hheeaalltthh oonn eexxcchhaannggee.. WWee aarreebbeeccoommiinngg rriicchh aanndd ppoooorr aatt tthhee ssaammee ttiimmee..

Rich by earning bucks and poor by losing very crucial rela-tionships with the family, friends, relatives and colleagues.Most of the time we are ending our day with anxiety, depres-sion, stress, pain and sleeping problems. It is not so late, youstill have a chance to relive your life by owing a dog. It is com-monly said, dog is the best companion of human beings. Butit is not a surprise that only few of us are fully aware of thisquote and know the scientific benefits of owing a dog. Today,we will talk about some benefits and positive impacts of owinga dog on your physical and mental health. If you have everowned a dog, you already know how much fun and affectionthey can bring. Dogs are able to understand many of the wordswe use, they are even better at interpreting our tone of voice,body language, and gestures. And like your best human friend,a loyal dog will look into your eyes to judge your emotionalstate and try to understand what you are thinking and feeling.We are not his teachers, he teaches us many important les-sons and aspects of life, like responsibility, time management,making emotional links with your loved ones, improving com-munication, companionship, learning truth about life, addinghealthy routine to your day and positivity to your personali-ty.

When you get a pet you have to take care of a creature whichwill depend entirely on you. The life or death of another beingwill be in your hands and this alone will make you a moreresponsible person. Having a pet is not something that youcan do without getting time from your busy schedule. Thisusually means that you will have to make room in your sched-ule for your little friend and this is something which will putyour time managing skills to the test. This will improve yourtime management skills and it is for sure that after having apet you will start your day as early as possible. You will defi-nitely start sleeping early and as a result you wake up beforethe crowing of your neighbor's Rooster.

The act of actually grooming and petting your little friendwill create a great emotional link inside you, which is going tolast for your whole life. You will always remember the timesyou spent together and you will remember that special bondthat made you so happy. In this way you learn to link up emo-tionally with your love ones and many studies have shown anoutstanding impact on child emotional development. Childlearns to make emotional relations with the family membersand respect elders throughout life. Now, many families owedog to build up mental health of their children. Form a dog,child learns to keep patience, forget what ever went wrong inpast and stick to the attitude of love and affection with others.To summarise, the child who lives with dog is more affection-ate, generous, responsible, concern with environment, social-ly active, good communicator, intelligent and loyal. Accord-ing to a study carried out in Paris and France, seventy-six per-cent of the people interviewed believed that the presence of apet favoured the communication between family members.Various other studies have also found that: Dog owners areless likely to suffer from depression than those without dogs,

People with dogs have lower blood pressure in stressful situ-ations than those without dogs. Touch and movement are twohealthy ways to quickly manage stress.

Stroking a dog lowers blood pressure and can help youquickly feel calmer and less stressed. One study even foundthat when people with borderline hypertension adopted dogsfrom a shelter, their blood pressure declined significantlywithin five months, playing with a dog can elevate levels ofserotonin and dopamine in body, which makes you calm andrelax, pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol lev-els (indicators of heart disease) than those without pets, heartattack patients with dogs survive longer than those withoutpets and old pet owners pay less visits to their doctors thanthose without pets. Dog owners are far more likely to meettheir daily exercise requirements than the others. Compan-ionship can help prevent illness and even add years to yourlife, while isolation and loneliness can trigger symptoms ofdepression.

Caring for a living animal can help make you feel neededand wanted, and take the focus away from your problems,especially if you live alone. The companionship of a dog canoffer comfort, help ease anxiety, and build self-confidence forpeople anxious about going out into the world. Because dogslive in the moment, they don't worry about what happenedyesterday or what might happen tomorrow they can help youto live and appreciate the joy of the present. Pet dogs can helptheir owners to lead a more normal life, as with the case ofguide dogs for the blind and for deaf people to identify andreact to signals they cannot normally perceive. In the end dogteaches us a very important lesson of life that is nothing is eter-nal, every living creature has to end up one day. Having a pethelps people to understand the cycle of life. People who haveowned several pets during their life time deal better with emo-tional trials and can handle any frequency of emotions. Sothese are some of the most important reasons why we believethat everyone should have a pet dog at least once in their lifetime. It is not too late to start before you start regretting.

Dr. Jyoti Sharma

EEyyeess aarree tthhee pprreecciioouuss GGiifftt ooff GGoodd.. CClloossee yyoouurreeyyeess aanndd iimmaaggiinnee tthhee wwoorrlldd aanndd yyoouurrsseellff.. YYoouuwwiillll nnoott hhaavvee aann iiddeeaa wwiitthh wwhhaatt iitt llooookkss lliikkeewwhheenn yyoouu oonnllyy ffeeeell iitt.. EEyyeess aarree vveerryy iimmppoorrttaannttffoorr tthhee hhuummaann bbooddyy.. WWiitthhoouutt iitt aa mmaann wwoonn''tt bbeeaabbllee ttoo sseeee tthhee bbeeaauuttyy ooff tthhee wwoonnddeerrffuull wwoorrlldd..EEyyeess ppllaayy aa vviittaall rroollee iinn oouurr ddaayy ttoo ddaayy lliivveess aannddaarree ppeerrhhaappss tthhee mmoosstt pprreecciioouuss ggiifftt wwee hhaavvee..

This world is visible to us because we are blessed with eye-sight. Eyes are one of the most important sensory organs in thehuman body because it renders vision and the power to see.Visually impaired people feel that their life is incomplete asthey can just touch, feel and smell things but can't see it. TheCornea is the clear tissue covering the front of the eye. It is afocusing element of the eye. The vision is dramaticallyreduced or lost if the cornea becomes cloudy. This loss ofthe vision is referred to as corneal blindness. Severalcorneal diseases affect children and adults and canaffect both eyes making them blind.

When the eye is affected only by corneal dis-eases, replacing this part will restore the vision insuch people. Corneal replacement is an easy andsimple surgery and isperformed at severaleye hospitals in thecountry.

EYEDONATION:-

Eye donationis an act of donat-ing one's eyesafter his/her death.It is an act of charity, pure-ly for the benefit of the societyand is totally voluntary. Theeye donation of the deceased canbe authorized by the next of kith &kin even if the deceased did not pledgeto donate his / her eyes before death. Age or systemic illnesssuch as diabetes or hypertension, heart disease, kidney diseaseis not barriers for eye donations. The corneas of a person areunaffected even if they have undergone any eye surgeries in thepast and hence will be useful can be transplanted in others.

IMPORTANCE OF EYE DONATION:-Donated eyes can be used to restore vision in people who are

suffering from corneal blindness. The front, clear and transpar-ent tissue of the eye called as cornea can be used to restorevision in a corneal blind person. From each pair of donated eyes,two blind people will get vision and light in to their life, thusmaking it more divine. Statistics show that there are 15 millionblind people in India and out of this, 6.8 million people are suf-fering from corneal blindness. So the importance of eyes dona-tion can be well imagined.

MYTHS RELATED WITH EYE DONATION:-People are of the opinion that if they donate their eyes in this

life, they shall be born blind in the next-life :- There is no writ-ten rule about this and nobody has experienced this! Eye dona-tion is truly a good deed and a good deed always begets good. Allreligions and their institutions support eye donation and con-sider it as one of the best donation a person can make.

People hesitate to pledge their eyes for donationworrying about how their relatives will react.

Such people should keep in mind that a little resistanceshould not hinder the good deed that one is performing. In fact,

they should try to motivate their relatives and friends for donat-ing the eyes, by describing the good effects of this donationmovement.

Person with eye problem like Cataract or Glaucomacannot donate their eyes.

Many people have that myth. Many of my seniors and col-leagues believe that a person suffering from myopia or hyper-metropia cannot donate his/her eyes. A Person who hasCataract or Glaucoma cannot donate their eyes, But a personoperated for Cataract or Glaucoma can BE considered for eyedonation. Also, Age will not come into picture while donatingthe eyes. As long as the person or his/her family/friends have agood mindset of doing some good to blind, can donate their eyes

PROCEDURE FOR EYES DONATION:-The local telephone directory usually lists the phone number

of eye banks under essential services. The eye bank personnelwould give directions and precautions to be taken. The process

of removing eyes does not take more than 15 to 20 minutes.The eye bank team can come either to the house where

death has taken place or to the hospital where death hastaken place to remove the eyes there. It would not delay

the funeral arrangements. Switch off fans and switch onAir conditioner (if available). Raise the head of thedeceased slightly by placing a pillow underneath.Place wet clean cloth over the closed eye lids. Pleaseensure that the eyelids are properly closed. Keep a

copy of the death certifi-cate ready (if available).Contact the nearest eyebank as quickly as pos-sible. Give the correctaddress with specificlandmarks or famousname of our area andmobile and residencenumber to enable the

team of eye bank for locat-ing the house easily. Give

alternate cell number of anyavailable relatives also. The eye

bank team, which would have atrained technician and/or a registered

medical practitioner, would remove the eyes after taking con-sent on a printed form in the presence of two witnesses.

HOW TO CONTACT AN EYE BANKA special Toll free number 1919 (BSNL) Nationwide has

been allotted for eye banks. Most of the eye banks all over thecountry have this number, once information for eye donation iscommunicated to eye banks; the eye bank sends its team to col-lect the eyes. By calling this number, details about eye donationcan also be obtained. Also, all local news paper carry the eyebanks number in their Emergency Number list.

CONCLUSION:-Just feel the feeling that you are still alive after your death

and serving some other in most crucial way. All religionsendorse eye donation. There are numerous examples in our tra-ditions and scriptures, which endorse eye and organ donation.A part of the body would be consumed by flames and reduced toashes or which is buried and allowed to decay and disintegrate& cannot be put to a better use than restoring vision to theneedy. There are wide spread social awareness programs andactivities conducted across the country to impart the signifi-cance of eye donation and its usefulness to the visually impairedpeople. Till date, medical researchers and scientists are workingon developing artificial cornea, but till that time, donating theeyes would be the best gift ever for a blind person suffering fromcorneal blindness.

(The author is Assistant Director, P&DD)

SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 2016 (PAGE 4)

PERSONALITY

HEALTHLINESNATURE

His debut film Heropanti releasedalmost two years ago. Since then TigerShroff has not been heard much. Theactor, who prefers to go slow and wait

for the right script, will be seen next in Baaghi - A Rebel for Love,

alongside Shraddha Kapoor. Shroffspoke to Gaurav Sharma on his newfilms, martial art, his future projects andmore

Excerpts from an interview:It's almost two years since the audience saw you

in theatres(Smiles) Yes, I know. I am doing great. I know this is

one question that I will now be asked quite often. Yes, ithas really been a while…since I made my debut; peopleexpect a debutant to do more films. But I believe in focus-ing on one thing at a time. I know at times out of sightmeans out of mind but I am in no hurry. I was concentrat-ing on my upcoming film Baaghi and wanted to give all myattention to it. And now that the film is nearing release, Iam sure that the wait will be over

So you believe in waiting for the right script tocome your way?

(Pauses) Yes, I think that's how everyone works today.It's not about doing more films but doing good films. I don'twant to make wrong choices so early on in my careerthough everything is not always in your hands. Heropan-ti gave me the right exposure and I was appreciated, so Iwas just taking my time for the right script to come my wayand I think Baaghi is just the perfect second film for me.

Baaghi is one of the most awaited films this yearThat really gives me a high. It is a lovely film with a love-

ly story of two lovers and how the situation turns this loverinto a rebel.

In fact, the film's producer Sajid Nadiadwaladidn't want to reveal your look too early before thefilm's release

Yes, I understand the reason behind that. After my firstfilm it was very important for me to do something differ-ent. A lot of hard work has gone into this film. I even tookspecial training to perform a few stunts. So, it was quiteobvious for the makers to keep my looks under wrapsbecause they wanted to surprise the audience with my newlook.

You will be seen romancing your childhoodfriend Shraddha Kapoor in the film

(Smiles) That definitely makes the film special to bothof us. We have grown up together. Our fathers (JackieShroff and Shakti Kapoor) are good friends and contem-poraries. So, we too share a great bonding. I think thathelped a lot on the sets and it will definitely help the filmtoo because our chemistry is the one to watch out for.Shraddha is a great performer and she has already provedthat in a short span of time with some very good films likeAashiqui 2 and Ek Villain. Baaghi has both action andromance and I must say it was great working with Shrad-dha.

Baaghi means rebel. Are you a rebel in real life

too?Oh no, not really, I think my father (Jackie Shroff) is a

bigger rebel. His attitude tells everything about him andfor me he is the biggest rebel. I wish I can become like him.

Your father too did a lot of action films wherehe played a rebel and your first film Heropanti toowas high on action

(Cuts in) In fact, Baaghi too is high on action but to bevery honest I don't want to get labelled as an action hero…atleast not so early on in my career.

But you are known for being a brilliant martialarts performer…

Yes, but that's something I like doing. I love sports andaction and adventure sports. It's something I have beendoing for years now…I mean I was doing it even before Istarted nurturing the dreams of being an actor. It definite-ly has helped me a lot as an actor too because I can exe-cute the action shots and sequences with more finesse. Butthat doesn't mean I want to project myself as an actionhero. I want to try out a variety of roles and that's one ofthe reasons I am not rushing things. I am waiting for goodroles where I have a scope to perform.

You also celebrated your birthday recently on March 2and you were working throughout the day.

Yes. It was a working birthday for me and I enjoyed theday in my own way.

What are your plans now?I am taking things as they come. I am enjoying my work

and I hope I get to do a variety of roles. (TWF)

BOLLYWOOD-BUZZ

LLiivviinngg aafftteerr DDeeaatthh

Jammu girl is 'Voice of Punjab'"I was waiting for the right script"

A pet helps understand life