Sadhus in town for yatra

As the annual Shri Amarnath Yatra is to begin in July, a number of sadhus from different religious places across the country have started reaching the winter capital for the mandatory registration process. Many places in Jammu city, such as Geeta Bhawan, Ram Mandir and Peerkho, are accommodating these sadhus who are reaching Jammu in groups on daily basis. “I am so lucky that Lord Shiva invites me every year to J&K for darshan. For the past many years, I am paying obeisance at the holy Shri Amar Nath Shrine cave along with other sadhus,” one of the sadhus said. Vikas Sharma

Match keeps everyone home

The city of temples wore a deserted look on Sunday, as it was an important day for cricket lovers, who sacrificed all their programmes to watch the India-Pakistan match. Most of the shops in the city markets were also closed and people preferred to stay at home to enjoy the match. They were seen waiting eagerly for the match to start since the morning. Amit Khajuria 

Catching on cricket fever 

They say cricket is worshipped in our country and when the national team clashes with arch rival Pakistan, the hype reaches its zenith. Also, to beat the heat, people are installing kiosks of sweet water at various points in the city. To cater to people’s interest for cricket, organisers of some of these stalls were seen streaming the match on their mobile phones so that passersby could have the latest information about the status of the match. People were seen crowding these venues to halt for a while, cheer for India and exchange views about the likelihood of the outcome of the match. The euphoria was so high that some of the organisers had already assembled crackers and had decided to stay on road till the end of the match. Vikram Sharma 

‘Look who’s talking’ 

Amid the soaring temperature, Jammu region is confronting unprecedented power cuts. Local BJP leaders, who are habitual of shifting blame on the previous regimes, alleged that it was due to the poor quality of equipment installed during the past two years that power infrastructure had virtually broken down. Ironically, the leaders did not realise that during the past two years their own party was at the helm of affairs. Dinesh Manhotra

10 from Valley make it to IITs 

A decade ago, making it to an IIT for Valley students was a dream as just one or two would qualify the exam. The trend has changed since 2105 with at least 5-6 students clearing the exam from Kashmir every year. This year, 10 students from one institute have cracked the tough JEE Advanced exam. Among them are Huzaib-Ul Hassan (5184 rank), Mumin (8172) and Faisal (8892) and Sajid (category rank 14). Notably, all of them prepared for the exam at RISE Institute. Salman Shahid of Team RISE, said, “We are satisfied with the result. There is still a lot that needs to be done with regard to attitude of students and parents towards competitive examinations.” Rifat Mohidin