People entering Taj Mahal complex for prayers on Fridays will now have to carry identity documents, according to a directive issued by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) following a complaint that non-Indians were also entering the mosque despite it being closed for visitors.
The directive, issued by ASI’s Agra unit superintending archaeologist N.K. Pathak on Thursday, has, however, received criticism from Taj Mahal’s Mosque Committee which has said that no Muslim, irrespective of nationality, can be stopped from offering prayers at the mosque.
The local ASI unit had received a complaint that an Indian Muslim had allegedly brought five Bangladeshi nationals along with him to Taj Mahal’s mosque last Friday, leading to a row over as to who all should be allowed inside the mosque.
The ASI authorities claim that the body’s Director General has ruled that only Indians should be allowed to enter the mosque to offer prayers on Fridays, when the monument is closed for visitors.
The Taj Mahal Mosque Committee President Ibrahim Hussain Zaidi, however, criticised the directive and said Muslims should not be discriminated on the basis of nationality.
“The Gazette notification of January 1, 2001 issued by Government of India states that Muslims will be allowed to offer prayers at the Taj mosque on Fridays even though it is closed for visitors. Nowhere does it say that Muslims of other nationality should not be allowed,” he said.
Reacting to Zaidi’s criticism, ASI caretaker at Taj Mahal Syed Muazzar Ali said that the mosque committee has no locus standi on the matter.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Other States / PTI / Agra – December 27th, 2014
COMMUNITY CHRONICLE The wedding invitation of Wajid Ali Shah’s son, a fatwa by a pundit, nikahnamas embossed in gold, a judgement by Akbar Allahabadi…Khalid Sabir’s house in New Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh preserves remnants of yesteryear Awadh
With age, nostalgia becomes a hobby for many. One of its probable side effects is the fascination for most things old — they become a token of the times that were, appealing for the stories they hold, don’t they?
But with New Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh resident Khalid Sabir, young age never became a deterrent in evoking nostalgia for an age his forefathers belonged to, and he began collecting — and collecting — so many things from the past that most of his two-storey house is now packed with an assortment of things that are clearly rare, precious and deserve space in a museum.
The transformation of Sabir, now 62, into being a hardcore collector rather sprang from a strong sense of documenting history that caught his imagination in his school days in Allahabad. Sipping tea, surrounded by things from his valuable collection spread over a bed, an effervescent Sabir reels back to his first venture at collecting things. “My uncle Ahmad Sabir was the still photographer for Mughal-e-Azam . When the film got released, he came to Allahabad and took the entire family to watch it. It was he who gave me a couple of posters of the film. That triggered in me the urge to collect film posters. Over the years, I had an amazing collection but all got burnt during a fire in the house some years ago.”
Collector’s items(From left) Khalid reading out from a royal nikahnama; in a room with old documents; an issue of Urdu daily Nawal Kishore Photos: S. Subramanium
Much later, in the early ’80s, work took Sabir to the U.K. but the urge remained. During visits to his home State Uttar Pradesh — to towns like Allahabad, Lucknow, Rampur, etc. — he would check out on the local scrap collectors, the kabari-wallahs. Each time, he would hit upon a treasure from the past. “I have collected most of my things from kabari-wallahs,” says Sabir, displaying for this reporter a judgement given by the famed Akbar Allahabadi, a silk map of Lucknow dated 1884, an invitation sent out by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah for one of his son’s weddings, a judgement by Sir Lawrence Peel dated 1865 in a case involving Bahu Begum of Faizabad; a fatwa proclaimed by a Hindu pandit in 1800, a pre-1857 nikahnama of a princess written in gold with mehr worth 12 lakhs, among other prized catches culled out from the dump yards. Holding the copy of the fatwa, he points out, “Like the maulanas, Hindu pundits also used to declare fatwa. Urdu was the language of the times, so it was used in them. Every fatwa refers to a hadith, so this one also begins with one written in Urdu by a maulana. It is followed by a pandit answering the maulana by referring to a shloka from the Ramayana in Devnagiri before pronouncing the judgement.” Indicating the date written on top of the fatwa, he says laughing, “This one is before Ghalib.”
Sabir reads out from the wedding invitation of Wajid Ali Shah — known for his love for poetry — prodding you to listen carefully to the language. “It was a time when Urdu was emerging from Persian. You can see the mix here,” he says with relish. That marriage went into trouble, leading to the return of the bride’s dowry. Interestingly, Sabir has letters of the fight between the bride and the groom, also the list of her dowry.
Carefully taking out from a plastic envelope a clasp of yellowed papers a judgement given by the famed poet and judge Akbar Allahabadi in 1862, Sabir says, “Read this, not for nothing there is an old saying in U.P. that what is left in Allahabad apart from Akbar and amrud trees.”
In rows of steel almirahs and shelves covering five rooms of his house, there are stacks of old land deeds of thousands of families across U.P., receipts of property tax issued during the British rule, nikahnamas of Hindu nawabs, initial editions of Urdu dailies like Nawal Kishore , Haqiqat , Awadh Akhbar , personal letters of English couples living in that region among other things. “I have the third issue of the Lucknow newspaper The Pioneer too, which I don’t think the company itself has,” he adds.
A compulsive collector that Sabir is, he also has a roomful of postage stamps from across the world collected since his school days. And another room where stacked to its ceiling are old editions of Indian magazines and press clippings on 400 topics. “I have published 13 books after compiling these press clippings on different subjects,” he informs. Till a while ago, Sabir says, he used to subscribe to 30 newspapers across different languages. “I had employed four people to help me out in preserving my collection. But I have slowed down after a heart attack sometime ago,” he says.
So what does he plan to do with this priceless collection? “I had approached Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University, Rampur Raza Library, all the important places that you might think would be interested in keeping this Awadhi treasure. But none seem to be really so. I have spent a lot of money and time on this collection, don’t want it to go waste. So I am saving money, planning to start a museum on my own,” he says. Meanwhile, he has just returned from Dubai “after giving photocopies of some old newspaper papers for digitisation to a Dubai-based organisation. It digitises for free old Arabic, Persian and Urdu documents.”
I had approached Jamia Millia Islamia, AMU, Rampur Raza Library to preserve this Awadhi treasure. But none seem to be really interested
source: http;//www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty / September 08th, 2014
In a sharp contrast to the sweltering heat, a smiling Mohammad Faisal picks up a huge cooking vessel called degh with his right hand, and applies hair-thin Malaysian tin foil on it. Then, with a thick pad of old cotton soaked innausadar (ammonium chloride) ash, he moves the foil within the vessel, while rotating a fixed iron fan on the floor with his left hand. The result: within minutes an ultra shining degh is ready. This polishing technique is called qalai – a tin polish done only on copper and brass utensil.
Faisal is perhaps the last of this generation who inherited this craft from his grandfather Mohammad Sharfuddin, now 82. His uncle Irfan is managing shop No. 1132 at Matiya Mahal Bazar called Qalai Ghar. It is a nondescript shop in a row of attractive ones, except that it draws attention with its shining vessels – from a small bowl to a degh with 80 kg capacity.
The shop has three naand or pits full of water, as big as the bottom of an 80 kg degh , in which it is immersed slowly, soon after the hot tin foil is rubbed on it. After the wash the shine is exemplary.
Says the 52-year-old Irfan: “This shop is 150 years old but we have been in the business of qalai for about 80 years. We learnt it from our father. For now we have quite a lot of work, especially because in Old Delhi, people still keep brass and copper utensils in their homes and also gift them at weddings. Moreover, Karim Hotel gives us its qalai work every two months – we polish their 70 to 80 big and small utensils and this work remains our main source of income.”
Mohammad Irfan charges as little as Rs.20 for a small bowl measuring three inches in diameter to Rs.800 for an 80 kg degh .
Earlier, Delhi’s Bhogal and Sundar Nagar used to be the hubs for qalaiwalas; some of them can still be located in small corners. Muslim Punjabis or sadagars from Pakistan are the main users of copper and brass utensils and most of them live in Old Delhi.
The Walled City used to have as many as 10-15 qalai shops earlier. Three of the big ones were located at Turkman Gate. One of these closed during the Emergency, another one some 25 years ago, and the third one vanished without a trace, say the area residents.
Qalai Ghar too may close down in a few years from now. Sharing the reason, Irfan says: “I have not taught this skill to my three sons. They sell ready-made garments. This business may not grow in future.” He had also stopped getting ‘boys’ as trainees nearly “40 years ago”. Then inflation has also affected the skill adversely. “Earlier wood coal used to cost me Rs.3 per kg, now it is Rs.35. Earlier, a tin foil used to cost Rs.7, now it comes for Rs.1,800. Moreover, the work needs high energy levels, as we are constantly exposed to heat, fumes and our hands do not stop working for almost eight to 10 hours every day.”
There has been no technology invented to keep this skill alive either. Technology, says Irfan, is a far cry because utensil sizes vary. “How many machines can be invented to polish the vessels of all sizes and thickness,” he asks.
Though now almost all five star hotels, especially in the Capital, have again started using copper and brass utensils for health reasons and for showing a ‘connect’ with the Indian roots, yet that hasn’t got people like Irfan going.
Notably, the food cooked in an unpolished brass or copper utensil becomes poisonous, and so is the water kept in one. But some families with diabetic patients still use copper vessels for health benefits. But this is not enough to sustain the waning skill either.
The Walled City however, still has a few qalai walas . A couple of them are pheriwalas who go from door to door; a few have fixed shops at Uncha Charagh, Tazana House and Kala Mahal; while one sits on the footpath at Chandni Mahal.
Veteran Sharfuddin warns: “One should not go for pheriwalas as they do ‘duplicate’ work. They use solder rod foil (used for stitching in electronic goods), while the genuine polish can be achieved only through Malaysian tin foil which is expensive. If you rub your finger on fake-polish utensils, they will turn black, while rubbing finger on genuine polish won’t.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Other States / by Rana Siddiqui Zaman / New Delhi – September 09th, 2014
She broke the glass ceiling many a time, from being the first woman to enter any Class-I civil service to becoming the first IRS officer to be appointed as a UPSC member, to being the only woman to have worked in the Central Narcotics Department.
After donning multiple hats during her long career, it was another proud moment for Parveen Talha, when she was conferred the Padma Shri award on Saturday for her contribution to the Civil Services.But the road to success wasn’t easy for Talha and her biggest hurdle was to overcome the anti-women mindset of her bosses at the initial stages of her career.”It is indeed a proud moment for me but I am grateful to my bosses too. Though I had to initially deal with their anti-women mindset when I joined services 45 years ago, after a few years I was able to prove that I could handle the tricky jobs as efficiently as my male colleagues,” Talha told PTI.
70-year-old Talha joined the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) in 1969 where she worked for 35 years and was then picked up as a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in 2004.
“Once my bosses began to trust in my capabilities, I started getting challenging assignments including posting as Deputy Narcotics Commissioner in Uttar Pradesh,” she said.
“There was a large-scale leakage of opium going on in UP then. While I tried my best to play a stringent officer dealing with certain illegal channels, poppy cultivators were surprised too because they had never seen a woman at that level,” she added.
By halting for days in the cultivation areas and delving deep into the processes of poppy cultivation from sowing to lancing and harvesting, she gathered foolproof intelligence which was put to good use by her hand-picked preventive parties.
During her posting in UP and Bihar in 1990s, she attached illegally acquired property worth millions of rupees belonging to smugglers and drug traffickers, risking her life.
While she was posted as the Director General Training in 2002, Talha provided strategic vision to the Department of Customs and Central Excise in evolving comprehensive packages of programmers for technical capacity building of all cadres and service providers.
Talha, who was honoured with the President Award for “Specially Distinguished Record of Service” in 2000, also has a penchant for writing.
She has written ‘Fida-e-Lucknow’, a collection of 22 short stories, besides writing the script for the serial ‘Husn-e-Jana’ directed by Muzaffar Ali.
“I find there are stories in every nook and corner that are waiting to be told. So I will pursue my passion for writing now that I am a retired person,” she said.
source: http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook / Home> News / New Delhi – April 27th, 2014
In one of the nicest ironies in Shiv Sena supremo and `Hindutva’ champion Bal Thackeray’s life, the doctor who treated him for the past five years and was with him in his last hours was a Muslim.
Dr Jalil Parkar, well known Pulmonologist from Lilavati hospital who had been Thackeray’s trusted physician for the last five years, made the announcement of Sena chief’s death last evening with tears in his eyes before the crowd of party workers and mediapersons here.
Dr Parkar, a Muslim, earned the faith of Thackeray family after he successfully treated the Sena patriarch’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a lung disease that makes breathing difficult, some years ago.
From thereon, everytime Thackeray developed health complications, Dr Parkar was called in. He became so close to the family that in the recent years he was spotted on the dais with other VIPs at the annual Dussehra rally of Shiv Sena.
Dr Parkar is credited with saving Thackeray’s life five times in five years. When senior Thackeray needed a second heart intervention in 2009 (the first was needed in 1996), it was Dr Parkar who prescribed the treatment which was readily accepted by the Sena chief.
When Uddhav Thackeray, his son and Shiv Sena executive president, needed a heart surgery some months ago, it was again Dr Parkar who led the medical team which treated him.
Though there was some commentary in political circles about Thackeray’s personal doctor being a Muslim, Dr Parkar never commented on this aspect. All he would say was the Sena Chief had been very kind to him.
source: http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook / Home> Mumbai – November 18th, 2012
Kerala Governor Sikander Bakht, who died here tonight, was BJP’s best known Muslim face after having played a long innings in the Congress.
Born and brought up in Delhi, Bakht, epitomising the culture and charm of the old world of the Indian capital, was a seasoned politician adept at devising the right strategy in complex situations.
Leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha for seven years, 85-yer-old Bakht joined BJP after long association with Congress and a brief stint with Janata Party.
He was a member of the Congress till the 1969 split when he threw his lot with the Congress (O) and was in the party’s working committee between 1969 and 1977.
Having suffered imprisonment for 18 months during the 1975-77 Emergency, Bakht became one of the founder-members of Janata Party.
Elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977, Bakht joined the Morarji Desai Cabinet as Minister for Works, Housing, Supply, Rehabilitation and Wakf.
When Janata Party split after the fall of the Morarji Government, Bakht joined BJP, a party with which he had been associated since then as one of its tallest leaders from the minority community.
In 1980-82, he was BJP general secretary and from 1982 to 1993 the party’s vice president.
Bakht was assigned the key External Affairs portfolio in the first A B Vajpayee Governmnent which lasted only 13 days in 1996. He was there again in 1998-99 Vajpayee Government holding the charge of Industry.
Bakht had served as the opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha from 1992 to 1998 and leader of the house in 1998-99. He was sworn in as Kerala Governor on April 18, 2002.
A skilled parliamentarian and astute debator, Bakht led several parliamentary committees and delegations abroad.
Bakht had also served as chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Commerce from 1999 to 2002 and headed the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Wakf Board during the same period.
He had led the Indian delegation to Indian Infrastructure summit in Washington in 1998, Indo-Bearus inter-governmental commission to Minsk in 1998 and Destination India programme, in Tokyo in 1998.
A graduate from Delhi university, Bakht had been an ardent fan of Indian classical music and a keen student of Urdu poetry and had special interest in sports.
source: http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook / Home> News / PTI / Thiruvananthapuram – February 23rd, 2004
At 93 years of age, MF Husain could have been forgiven for calling it a day. But when he sought exile from India in 2006—on account of the vandalisation of his works and the stress of presenting himself in small-town courts all over India, where cases of obscenity had been filed to harass him for having had the temerity to paint goddesses in the nude—he sought not retirement but revalidation.
And that came easily for, arguably, India’s most popular artist. In spite of his advanced age, the royal family of Qatar commissioned him to paint an epic series on the Arabic civilisation for the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. And in London, the Mittal family—which had gifted the city the controversial ArcelorMittal Orbit ahead of the Olympic Games—seized the opportunity to ask him to paint a tribute to Indian civilisation.
That should have been enough to keep most artists busy, but Husain, missing familiar places and faces in India, was known to have painted extempore at the homes and offices of a large number of Indian families, demanding nothing more than affection and a home-cooked meal in exchange for a hastily improvised drawing or painting. He would appear at the doughty Dorchester, where the staff invoiced him for scribbling figures on its pristine damask napkins. In Mayfair, where he had a studio, the white-haired and often barefoot artist became a familiar sight for Londoners bemused that he should carry a large paintbrush with him as an indication of his profession. At the venerable Victoria & Albert Museum, like scores of art students on any given day, he could be seen sketching on his pad at the Ironwork Gallery, unaware of the chuckles he inspired among visitors ignorant of his fame but conscious only of his age.
It is from this phase of his life, spent in Doha, Dubai and, in particular, London, that a number of ‘last’ works by the artist are gaining currency.
Most, understandably, are not for sale; they are the legacy of families who befriended him in an alien city and extended warmth and hospitality. Though Husain was wealthy—if his collection of sports cars and bikes is any indication, he was extremely rich—money was something he rarely carried on him, so his art became the currency of exchange for favours rendered. The right-wing parties that had hounded him in India enjoy the support of many non-resident Indians, but in London Husain seemed not so much offensive as vulnerable. Secretly, they clamoured for his works, so even though prices were falling back home—or, at least, they were failing to keep pace with modernists SH Raza, FN Souza, Tyeb Mehta and VS Gaitonde—his popularity never waned. Because he still had a large inventory of unsold canvases, he was not required to paint to eke out an existence, however luxurious. The sale of those works—this writer is privy to some of them—now afforded him the comfort to paint in a manner and style of his choosing.
Some of these ‘last’ works, the ones commissioned by Usha Mittal, will now go to the V&A’s gallery 38A for a viewing as ‘Master of Modern Indian Painting’ from May 28 to July 27. According to a spokesperson, even though Husain is “not very well-known” in London, “this exhibition will rectify that”. The V&A had been in conference with the Mittals about a number of projects, and it was natural that the First Family of Steel should suggest the Husain exhibits as a starting point for that venture.
Husain wanted to paint 31 triptychs or 93 panels to express his vision of India, a country that he referred to as “a museum without walls”. Among the peers of the Progressive Artists’ Group, Husain alone, among the founding members, chose to paint a holistic view of Indian society from the vantage of the street, often portraying myths from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, but also singers, dancers, musicians in a manner that some described as expressionistic while others dubbed it primitive impressionism. Wrongly called ‘the Picasso of India’—that sobriquet better suiting Souza—Husain was maverick, manipulative, marketable, as popular for his remarkable talent as his ability to command the media. He mocked the press, made films with popular film stars, and was quick with repartee, a one-man act that became the face and form of modern art in India from the 1950s till his death in London in 2011.
Critics and collectors claim his best works were done in the early decades, but Husain continued to reinvent and surprise himself and everyone else. Identified for his paintings of horses, he is equally well regarded for his works on Mother Teresa. He courted controversy during the Emergency, when he painted Indira Gandhi in the form of Durga riding a tiger, but was a member of the Rajya Sabha in the eighties.
An observant artist, his eye for detail livens up the Mittal canvases, even though he was at an advanced age when they were painted. Husain completed eight of the 31 triptychs before he died, each painting consisting of three 12ft x 6ft panels (or 12ft x 18ft for the triptych), and it is this unfinished collection that offers a glimpse into his thinking.
Not only did he refuse to create a linear historicity, his insistence on providing glimpses of the life and culture of India in the manner that he experienced it became the context from which he visualised the whole project. The exhibition, therefore, begins with an invocation to Ganesh, the beloved elephant-headed god who is considered a remover of obstacles, the only single panel or painting in the exhibition. The eight triptychs, which form part of his vision of India from Mohenjodaro to Mahatma Gandhi, span “mythology, architecture and popular culture”, according to Usha Mittal, who was privileged to see the artist work on the series in London.
However sure he might have been, Husain pored over books, journals and tomes to ensure that he chose the correct nuances for the triptychs.
Which other artist would have picked something as banal as Indian Households as a subject for one of those triptychs? Yet, in his hands, it becomes a comment on the co-existence of religions and faith in India with its unique syncretism. The first panel of the painting depicts a Muslim household, where the old man with the hookah could be an allegory for his grandfather, and the little boy playing under the charpoy may be autobiographical. The second panel peeps into an educated Hindu household from the south—witness the head of the family immersed in The Hindu—while the familiar image of the umbrella, another leit-motif for his grandfather, links it to the previous panel. The third panel depicts a warrior Sikh family, but not without its middle-class nuances, captured through the table clock and Singer sewing machine, voyeuristic glimpses of middle class lives in India.
It is these delightful insights that make up the rest of the triptychs. In ‘Indian Dance Forms’, the sage Bharata holds forth on the Natya Shastra, while the other two panels depict bharatnatyam and kathakali. The ‘Hindu Triad’ has, of course, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in their roles as protector, preserver and destroyer, while in ‘Three Dynasties’ he picks the Mauryan, the Mughal and the British Raj for their abiding influence. In ‘Tale of Three Cities’, he opts for Delhi for its historicity, Varanasi for its spirituality and Kolkata for its culture, and in ‘Indian Festivals’ he chooses Holi, Tulsi Pooja and Poornima—all Hindu festivals, the right-wingers will be glad to know—while ‘Language of Stone’ highlights the country’s—again, Hindu—sculptural tradition alongside poet-laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry.
Handwritten notes describe each panel and their importance, something he discussed at length with Usha Mittal as part of a venture that, had it been completed, would have changed the visual perspective of India as well as that of its artist.
Let it be said: Husain was its most enthusiastic votary.
Image: Dave M.Benett / Getty Images Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal with wife Usha and MF Husain
The Commission
Usha Mittal was principally responsible for the patronage the family extended to MF Husain when he began work on the project in 2008 in London. In this email interview, Usha Mittal shares the shaping of the series and her interactions with the artist.
Why did you choose Husain for painting this series?
Husain Sahib had a profound understanding of Indian history and culture and was knowledgeable about many aspects of life in the subcontinent, from mythology and religious beliefs to architecture, poetry, music and the visual arts. On seeing Husain’s series on the Hindi film Mughal-e-Azam, I suggested to him that he should capture the history of the Indian civilisation on canvas. The conversation led to a major commission, which the artist started working on during the final years of his life.
Why pick on the Indian civilisation as the series theme?
The Indian civilisation is rich in culture and diversity, and spans thousands of years. Aspects of Indian civilisation have been represented in Husain’s paintings from the start, whether folk images, rural life, dance, mythology or history. With his immense understanding of India and her culture, I felt that Husain Sahib was uniquely endowed to execute such a commission.
Did he discuss the panels with you before painting them?
He was very inspired by this project. Every time I would meet him, he would talk only about the next panel, and would ask for my opinion. In fact, he was talking and dreaming about the forthcoming panels on his last day.
Which are the other Indian artists in your collection?
Apart from Husain, I very much admire the works of Ram Kumar, Tyeb Mehta and SH Raza.
Can you share incidents
of your interactions with Husain while he was working on this series in London?
I saw him paint on several occasions. When he painted, he was totally submerged in the paintings. He had a childlike enthusiasm, and happily painted while listening to music. He had a great sense of humour, and his knowledge of Indian culture, customs and traditions was commendable. Before he started painting the history of India, he read several books on Indian history, and spent several weeks analysing and determining what he wanted to paint and how. He decided he wanted to paint 31 triptychs, but unfortunately could complete only eight. I always admired his qualities as a painter.
Husain’s worth, or the worth of a Husain
Despite a fall from grace, he cared about his legacy
Image: Amit Verma / A Husain (left) and a Souza displayed on the same wall at the Christie’s auction in Mumbai last December
That he was prolific has never been in doubt, and observers have speculated about the number of paintings he painted in his lifetime: Variously between 20,000 and 40,000 works, which record has a parallel with that other equally productive artist, Pablo Picasso.
Husain was always conscious of his value, using it as a benchmark of his talent as well as his popularity. Early in his career, he would sulk if Raza’s prices at an exhibition were marked higher than his, removing his own works on one such occasion. He did see Raza’s prices, as well as those of Souza’s and Tyeb Mehta’s, best his own in his lifetime, by which time he was concentrating harder on his painting, knowing that time was now against him as he raced to complete commissions that would result in a unique legacy of art.
Even so, for decades he enjoyed the distinction of being India’s most expensive artist, and the movement of Husain’s works in galleries and at auctions has always been brisk. With his most iconic works in museums and in collections that are unlikely to sell, it is only those works in the market that determine his benchmark.
For now, his top canvases do command prices in the region of Rs 2–5 crore. Since uniqueness and provenance adds value to an artist’s worth, his triptychs for the Mittals could be among the more expensive of his works, though Usha Mittal has refrained from commenting on the commission’s value, only commenting that it was “a private matter between Husain Sahib and myself”.
source: http://www.forbesindia.com / Forbes India / Home> Life/Special / by Kishore Singh / May 13th, 2014
This Muslim woman worked for the French resistance in WW2. Hear her remarkable story
By any standards, Noor Inayat Khan led an unusual life. Born in Moscow in 1914, she was a direct descendent of an 18th century Indian Muslim ruler, later becoming an accomplished musician and children’s author. But then the Second World War broke out, and she was recruited by British spies to help the French resistance. Documentary maker Alex Kronemer has been telling her remarkable story.
Former Goa governor Mohammed Fazal and economist passed away at his residence in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday. He was 92.
He was educated at the university of Allahabad and then at London school of economics. He was a senior member of the Planning Commission during 1980-85. In 1999, he was appointed governor of Goa and later as Maharashtra governor in 2002 and held the office till 2004.
Deputy chief minister and acting chief minster Francis D’Souza has expressed deep grief on the demise of Fazal.
In a condolence message, the D’Souza recalled his contribution to public life and prayed that the Almighty rest the departed soul in eternal peace and grant courage and strength to the bereaved family to bear the irreparable loss with fortitude.
Governor Mridula Sinha, has expressed deep grief over the sad demise of Mohammed Fazal, former governor of Goa and Maharashtra.
The governor has conveyed her heartfelt condolences and sympathy to the bereaved family.
Condoling the death of Fazal, the Goa Pradesh Congress committee in a statement said, “It was an honour to have known such a great person as he served Goa with utmost dignity,” adding that, “our heartfelt sympathies go out to his family”.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Hoem> City> Goa / TNN / September 05th, 2014
At Saad Bin Jung’s luxury eco-tourism lodge in Kabini, Karnataka, villagers and tribals work together to conserve the forest and the big cats that inhabit it
Image: Shaaz Jung A new calling: Saad Jung believes in eco-tourism that conserves more than animals
As the last rays of sunlight filter through the leaves, a shadow slinks out of the thick foliage with an unmistakable feline elegance. “There,” whispers 27-year-old Shaaz Jung from his perch atop a jeep. Immediately, seven pairs of eyes turn to the clearing ahead. Under the rapt gaze of the tourists, a male leopard emerges from the foliage. A flurry of clicks from SLR cameras breaks the silence of the waning dusk. But the leopard makes an indifferent model. He was aware of the jeep the moment the vehicle entered his territory, deep in the jungles of Karnataka. For the tourists, however, this sighting is a privilege. The shy animal deigned to make an appearance on the last of the five game drives organised by Bison Wildlife Resort near Kabini Lake, Karnataka. The resort, started by Shaaz’s father, 53-year-old Saad Bin Jung, lies between two national parks, Nagarhole and Bandipur, and is a two-hour drive from Mysore. It is also a labour of love, one in which villagers and tribals work with the Jungs to conserve and preserve this ecologically vibrant zone.
Though the eco-resort opened five years ago, it took over a decade to come to fruition. Consider its back story.
Like his uncle Mansur Ali Khan—the late nawab who is remembered by his moniker ‘Tiger’ Pataudi—Saad Jung started his career as a cricketer. A descendant of the royal Pataudi family of Bhopal and the Paigahs of Hyderabad, he acknowledges and accepts the popular portrayal of Indian nobility as hunters. “I now realise the mistakes we made while addressing wildlife conservation within the forests that belonged to our family,” says Jung. “The rulers, to a large extent, permitted community usage of forest produce. Locals were asked to manage forest land, but were banned from hunting. That was the sole prerogative of the royals. There was control, but there was also inclusion.”
Image: Prasad Gori for Forbes Life India The village: The resort maintains a rustic look and feel, although it houses luxurious facilities
Saad began taking an active interest in conservation in 1986. He started with Bush Betta Resort at Bandipur and an angling camp on the Kaveri river soon after. In 1997, he acquired patta (registered) land outside the protected forest area and worked with locals to build a luxury resort, one that doesn’t intrude on or disturb the ecologically sensitive zone. The Bison Resort, made up of African lodge-style stilted, elaborate tents and decks that overlook the forest and Kabini lake, is the result. Most of the building material for it was sourced locally. Rather than alienating tribals and villagers from the land, Saad brokered a symbiotic relationship between resort and village.
The Bison, which opened in 2009, has succeeded because it combines luxury with inclusive growth. Saad and Shaaz, who is the resort manager, create a rustic yet opulent experience. From sunken showers in bathrooms to bars that overlook the lake, the resort delivers a unique kind of grandeur—one that typically costs more than Rs 10,000 a night for Indians and Rs 24,240 ($400) a night for foreign nationals. Most employees are locals and their intimate knowledge of the land heightens a visitor’s experience.
source: http://www.forbesindia.com / Forbes India / Home> Forbes India/Live / by Shravan Bhat / August 16th, 2014
