The celebrations culminated on September 14, Hindi Diwas, with a valedictory function. Dr Jeevan Jaya, General Manager (P&A), while welcoming the guests, urged them to spearhead the national mission of promotion of Hindi as a binding language.

Chief Guest, M.K. Kilam, GGM (Project) averred that a pragmatic approach should be taken to make Hindi more popular. N.M. Oza, GGM (WSS), A.T. Kali, GM (Drilling) and M. R. Tomar, GM (Production) were the special guests. All of them reiterated the promotion of Hindi in official work.

Puran Chand, Senior Hindi Officer, presented an overview of the progress of the Hindi activities and requested the department heads to be a guiding force. Over 100 employees were awarded prizes for various competitions.

Officers' club, donation The Officers' Club, ONGC, Mehsana reaffirmed its solidarity with the gallant soldiers by donating Rs 10,000/- for the ``Kargil Martyrs Fund''. The amount was handed over to the District Collector by the club representative on behalf of the President of Officers Club, C Lal, GGM (Project), ONGC, Mehsana.

Mountaineers scale new heights The members of ONGC Himalayan Association, Ahmedabad, are scaling new heights. Manohar D Diwali AEE(P) was recently selected by the Ministry of External Affairs, Govt of India, to participate in the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, 1999. He was a member of the fourth batch which undertook the Yatra in June. Another avid mountaineer, Mahesh R. Raval, EE (P), achieved the rare feat of reaching the 18,123 feet high virgin peak in Chandra-bhaga glacier range of Lahaul and Spiti Valley in upper Himachal. Both Raval and Diwali have a keen interest in trekking. They have completed mountaineering courses from Directorate of mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali (H.P.).

Regional social science exhibition A buzz of activities in K.V. Ahmedabad Region culminated in forty one KVs conducting their regional meet at Vadodara. A Regional Social Science Exhibition was also held to select talents. Around eight hundred and seventy five students came together to compete in group dance, group song, Hindi/English Elocution and project exhibitions.

K.V. (ONGC) Vadodara is the proud winner in three categories. It bagged the first prize in group dance. In Hindi elocution competition, Shivangi Sharma of Std IX came first.