Yasir Khan, a farmer’s son, is now a personal fitness trainer, transformation expert, and fitness model in Dubai. Since childhood, he struggled with financial constraints and used to sell milk on the streets to make ends meet.
Picture Credit: Yasir Khan
I was born in a family of a farmer and a librarian in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. In the first 13 years of my life, I lived in a Madrasas over my father’s instruction because he didn’t have enough money working as a working farmer to give me a quality life at home. When I turned 14, I returned to my home in Bhopal, where the economic conditions were still bad. To make ends meet, I started selling milk on the streets through which I used to earn Rs 40 per day and worked at a bookstall.
My English was not good, and because of this reason, I would take out dictionary books from the bookstall to read and learn. It was the same place I first saw the Men’s Health magazine, which attracted me way too much. Since then, I have always had a dream to feature on the cover of this book because seeing a dream won’t cost a penny. Desperately, I wanted to check my potential, and then I shifted to Mumbai, where I sold tea to manage survival.
‘My Time Came’
A time came when I started working at a gym as a helper. Almost for four years, I worked as a helper and trained myself in my free time. Then I was promoted to the junior trainer post, which eventually motivated me to do much more. A year later, I was promoted to the head trainer post and trained myself enough to participate in any modelling shoot or competition. Around that time, I learned that Men’s Health magazine was looking for gym trainers to feature on its cover. I went to Delhi and auditioned for the cover page. It was a massive success as I was featured in the magazine. I kickstarted my career in fitness and modelling since then with consistent dedication and effort.
After a five-year continued effort, I earned a handsome amount of money and decided to shift to Dubai, UAE. It was a new place with new people around me. I opened a gym and struggled to get people on board. For the same, I used to distribute pamphlets and advertising bills on the corner of roads. After four months, I got my first client, and since then, my business has been unstoppable. I repaid all my parents’ debt and even gifted them a car, bringing immense happiness to their faces. It was a long journey but worth it.
source: http://www.thelogicalindian.com / The Logical Indian / Home / by Writer Ronit Kumar Singh, Madhya Pradesh / July 13th, 2022
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma during fielding practice. File | Photo Credit: K.R. Deepak
Watching Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli chase everything and catch everything today, it might be difficult to believe that India began as a team that chased reluctantly and caught by accident.
On a tour of Pakistan, Lala Amarnath, who was there as a media expert introduced me to Gul Mohammed, who had played eight times for India before migrating to Pakistan and playing there. “Greatest fielder,” said Amarnath in the manner he was famous for, leaving it to the listener to fill in the details.
In the years that Indian fielders dropped catches merrily and often let the ball slip through to the boundary, it was not difficult to earn that sobriquet. Perhaps there was one adequate fielder in every generation, and he automatically qualified as the greatest.
I didn’t tell Amarnath that, of course. I was young, on my first full tour and there was something about Amarnath — India’s first Test centurion and first captain of independent India — that kept such responses in check.
In India’s first-ever Test at Lord’s, Lall Singh, probably the only Test cricketer to be born in Malaysia, ran out Frank Woolley to reduce England to 19 for three on the first morning. In later years, Vinoo Mankad was a fine fielder off his own bowling, and Hemu Adhikari earned a reputation as a top class cover point. But it wasn’t until Tiger Pataudi — among the greatest cover points in the game — that India began to pay attention to this aspect of the game.
Trend-setter
“He was doing in the 1960s what modern fielders do as a matter of course now,” according to Sunil Gavaskar. In South Africa, Colin Bland, who many consider the greatest cover fielder ever, told me that Pataudi might have been better than Jonty Rhodes “because his anticipation was superior”.
“I am fanatical in my demands for keen fielding,” Pataudi wrote. He told his team in England, “Although I want to see a smart turnout when we leave the pavilion, once the match starts I want to see a lot of grubby knees…if it takes four or five days to get your flannels cleaned, blame the laundries. I am prepared to put up with a scruffy looking team, but I will never permit scruffy fielding.”
The philosophy percolated down. Pataudi’s boys Ajit Wadekar, Eknath Solkar, Abid Ali, Venkatraghavan, Sunil Gavaskar all played key roles as fielders in India’s maiden series wins in the West Indies and England, although he was no longer captain by then.
Attitude issues
Fielding and fitness began to be taken seriously by a team that had got off on the wrong foot thanks to the attitude of the Maharajahs who played the key roles in the early years and probably believed that running was beneath them. They were perhaps irritated too by the fact they couldn’t ask their retinue of servants to do the job instead.
The cricket historian Edward Docker summed up the early Indian approach thus: “The deep field couldn’t be relied upon to walk in with the bowler. Fieldsmen failed to anticipate the ball. Or overran it. Or used their feet to stop it. The catching was poor, the throwing abominable…”
Writing in the 1940s, the journalist Berry Sarbadhikary said, “Although homilies on the need for first-class fielding are indulged in freely by men in authority, it is the same persons who take the least notice of fielding ability when it comes to the actual selection…”
Watching Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli chase everything and catch everything today, it might be difficult to believe that India began as a team that chased reluctantly and caught by accident.
Emergence of fielding stars
Pataudi’s example and attitude changed all that. Brijesh Patel, who began his first class career in 1969-70 was still cutting off boundaries and cover drives nearly two decades later by which time India’s finest all round fielder had emerged. This was Mohammad Azharuddin, as spectacular in the slips as he was in the outfield, his lithe form adding grace to his movements.
By then Kapil Dev had already exhibited his natural athleticism — he was a superb catcher at gully, but was needed to patrol the outfield where his casual throws to the top of the stumps were a treat.
India’s stock grew in white ball cricket, and a bunch of fielders helped make that happen: Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Mohammed Kaif.
Today it is no longer necessary to ‘hide’ a fielder, as India were once forced to do when players were important for one or two of three skills, or when they were chosen for reasons other than cricket.
The flat-footed was stationed in the slips with the prayer that no snick would go to him; or at mid-on hoping that an on-drive might fortuitously be stopped by a boot or a knee.
The story of Indian fielding is the evolution from ten passengers (usually) in a team to none at all. The Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram, who led on a tour of England, would not recognise this team.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Between Wickets / by Suresh Menon / June 08th, 2022
Tall marble pillars frame photos, automobiles and more, as the Bhopal royals open up their past at the Jehan Numa Palace Hotel
Over the years, the Jehan Numa Palace in Bhopal — built on the slopes of the Shyamla Hills in 1890 by General Obaidullah Khan, commander-in-chief of the Bhopal State Force, and the second son of Nawab Sultan Jehan Begum — has worn many garbs.
The white marble edifice, which melds British Colonial, Italian Renaissance and Classical Greek architectural styles with facets of Art Deco, was constructed as the general’s office, and then used as his sons’ secretariat. After Independence, it became a government hostel, and later, the offices of the Geological Survey of India.
In 1983, after restoring the five-acre property, the general’s grandsons reopened it as a heritage hotel — its colonnaded corridors showcasing sepia-toned portraits, and the interiors housing rooms, four restaurants, two bars and a spa. Now, the pandemic has given it another facet: a museum, which came together almost like a “jigsaw puzzle”, says Faiz Rashid, director of the Jehan Numa Group of Hotels and a member of the Bhopal royal family.
Faiz Rashid
A colonnaded showcase
“[Over the last 20-odd months] we tried to come up with innovative ways to nurture hospitality. Because of the time on hand, we started looking at family archives and thought why not share the legacy with the world,” says Rashid. He tells me about putting together memorabilia: artefacts, attire, “lovely letters in Urdu” written to his great grandfather, documents, “invoices of the cars the royal family bought [like a Ford Phantom and a customised Bentley]” — all of which are now on show at the hotel.
“General Obaidullah Khan accompanied his mother, the last begum, on her foreign trips. He was inspired by different architectural styles, and the display is a pictorial history of the hotel’s evolution from the time it was built in the 19th century,” he says.
The corridors along the central courtyard, with its famed 100-year-old mango tree, were chosen as the ideal backdrop for the display. I take a virtual tour of the elegantly-framed archives, arranged in clusters on the walls of the chequered black-and-white marble and granite corridors, zooming into the photographs, and taking in glimpses of the life and times of a pre-Independence royalty that was progressive and involved, wealthy but not flamboyant, stylish but never garish.
From letters to thoroughbreds
The family took the help of Joe Alvarez, the well-known jazz singer who has written a coffee-table book on Bhopal, to curate the memorabilia.
“We divided them into nine subjects, starting with the four begums, the last nawab, dignitary visits, nawabi sports and the outdoors, and such,” says Alvarez, who has also generated a voice-over, and added a QR code to enable a Walk-In Museum audio guide.
The track at the Jehan Numa Palace Hotel
He expounds about the images of a thriving stud farm, something that continues till date (a trotting track set up when the hotel opened gives visitors a peek into the royal family’s passion for breeding thoroughbreds), of custom-built automobiles, branded guns and weapons, and official visits by dignitaries.
The begum’s photo from the archives
“The nawab begums of Bhopal were very dynamic and built the city differently from male rulers. They focussed on all areas, from education to women’s empowerment. We realised so much of their contribution — like building hospitals, enhancing the railways, opening schools — while putting this together,” shares Rashid, adding that, in 1889, Shah Jehan Begum funded the construction of Britain’s first purpose-built mosque at Woking. The collection is still evolving as more memorabilia makes its way to them slowly, from the extended family. A plan to restore and display the wedding dresses of the begums is also in the pipeline.
The museum is open to all. Rooms at the hotel are from ₹8,000 onwards. Details: jehannuma.com
Bori Safari Lodge
Spot the tiger at Bori Safari Lodge
Another post-pandemic hospitality initiative is Bori Safari Lodge, an eight-room wildlife camp started by Rashid’s brother, Aly, in the Satpura Forest. “When we started the Reni Pani Jungle Lodge [a two-and-a-half hour drive away] in 2009, it was about experiencing the diversity of the forest, with river safaris, walking trails and birding. With the Bori, the tiger comes centre stage,” says the trained naturalist, who has partnered with the state tourism department.
Aly is a trained naturalist
A tiger relocation programme successfully initiated four years ago has revitalised the habitat and the local population. “The tigers have not only flourished, but have actively begun mating.” Aly — who has great memories of spending his childhood in the forests — also leads expeditions to spot snow leopards in Ladakh and seek out the red panda in the Northeast. “This [project] is a means to conserve the landscape. The alternate income for the locals will recharge the community, support conservation, and will help wildlife be seen as an asset.”
From ₹25,000 onwards (all inclusive)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Art> Weekend Travel Special 2022 / by Priyadershini S / April 15th, 2022
In a video of the incident, Mehboob can be seen holding the woman’s head down to prevent it from hitting anything protruding from the undercarriage.
Muslim man jumps under moving train to rescue woman fallen on tracks
Bhopal:
In an act of tremendous courage a 37-year-old Muslim man jumped in front of a moving goods train to save a woman who had fallen on the railway track in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal, an official said on Saturday.
While the incident took place on February 5, a video of the occurrence went viral on social media on Friday, garnering praise from all quarters.
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एक युवती ने आत्महत्या के नज़रिए से चलती मालगाड़ी के आगे छलांग लगा दिया।
वहा पर मौजूद युवक महबूब ने किशोरी को बचाने के लिए ट्रेन के समाने छलांग लगा दी, लड़की को पटरी के बीच पकड़े रहा जब तक ट्रैन ऊपर से नहीं निकल गई, दोनों सुरक्षित।
The incident took place in Barkhedi around 8 pm on February 5, when Mohammed Mehboob, a carpenter, was walking near the scene after offering namaz.
A woman in her 20s carrying a backpack was crossing the railway track at the time when a goods train started approaching, said Shoaib Hashmi, a friend of Mehboob told PTI on Saturday.
The woman got scared and tripped on the tracks and could not get up and move away from the train’s path, he said.
When onlookers started shouting in panic, Mehboob acted on impulse and jumped on the track and ran up to the woman, dragged her to the middle of the trackbed, and kept her from lifting her head as the train passed over them, Hashmi said.
People kept cautioning the duo to stay down till at least 28 wagons on the train passed over them, he added.
After the near-death experience, the woman broke down in tears and hugged her father and brother who had not crossed the railway track with her at the time, Hashmi said.
In a video of the incident, Mehboob can be seen holding the woman’s head down to prevent it from hitting anything protruding from the undercarriage.
Ever since the video went viral on social media, people have been flocking Mehboob’s home in Ashok Vihar Bank Colony, Aishbag to congratulate him.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> News> India / by Syeda Faiza Kazim , the News Desk / February 12th, 2022
