Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMRC), attached to University of Mysore, won two national awards for the documentary film titled ‘DGWT – A cause for Concern,’ in the recently held 6th National Science Film Festival organised in Mumbai. The institute won the Silver beaver award which carries a trophy, a citation and Rs. 50,000 cash prize and also the best graphics award carrying a trophy, a citation and Rs. 30,000 cash prize.
The documentary was directed by Syed Kaleem, Senior Producer of EMRC, Mysuru and Former Director of EMRC, Odisha. This is the second National Award won by Syed Kaleem. The first one was in 2001 for the film on the life of Kodava’s titled ‘Kodavas, The highlanders.’
The best graphics award was received by Chandra Kumar, graphic artiste of EMRC, Mysuru. The film was photographed by Keerthi Kumar, sound effects by Badrinarayana and Somashekar was the Technical Director. The narration of the film was done by Beliappa.
The film highlights the grave danger caused due to depletion of ground water and its long time impact on ecology and environment.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / February 15th, 2016
Our six finalists, Basavaraj Rodda, Akkamma Aralikatte, HafizaBegum, Savita Maleda, Iranna Patil and Geeta Basarakod put their best foot forward today in the FINALS of The Most Innovative math Teacher Contest by AksharaFoundation . February 14th, 2016.
Mysore Akashvani, in association with Prasar Bharati and Indian Broadcasting Service, has organised a day-long workshop on Agricultural Finance Management at CIIL on Hunsur Road at 10 am tomorrow (Feb.15).
Bengaluru Akashvani Station Director M.A. Ahmed will inaugurate the workshop.
Mysore Akashvani programme Chief M. Raghavendra will preside.
Karnataka Agricultural Price Commission Chairman Dr. T.N. Prakash Kammaradi will deliver the keynote address.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> In Brief / February 14th, 2016
Borabanda Corporator Deputy Mayor, Mohammed Baba Fasiuddin at Gun Park Matyrs’ Memorial in Hyderabad on Thursday. – Photo: Nagara Gopal / The Hindu
Borabanda, Hyderabad:
The newly elected Deputy Mayor Mohammed Baba Fasiuddin represents the Borabanda Ward of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. He was unanimously elected as Deputy Mayor as only one nomination was filed.
A graduate in Commerce, Mr.Fasiuddin played a key role in the Telangana movement as well as in the student and youth wings of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. He is a close confidant of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. His father is a retired Government employee.
His family hails from Polcharam Mandal in Medak District. He is presently the president of the TRS Student wing of Greater Hyderabad unit. His mother was an employee in Osmania Hospital. Mr. Fasiuddin is married and has a son and a daughter.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / R. Ravikanth Reddy / Hyderabad – February 11th, 2016
Sarfaraz’s father, Naushad, was stung when Iqbal Abdullah, who he had picked from a UP village and housed at his small home in Mumbai, rejected him.
Despite financial hardships, Naushad always supported his son’s passion.
Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA :
“Abbu, Arjun kitna naseebwala hai na? He’s Sachin sir’s son, and has cars, I-pads, everything.” He didn’t mention it as a lament. Sarfaraz Khan was right though. On the face of it, Arjun Tendulkar was of course more fortunate than many others. And Naushad could do little but nod in agreement.
Like any father, it wasn’t what he wanted to hear from his son, regardless of how true it was. But Sarfaraz never let him mull it over. For, he ran back almost immediately, wrapped himself around Naushad and said as an instantaneous afterthought, “Abbu main usse zyaada naseebwala hoon. Aap din bhar mujhe time dete hai. Uske papa use time hi nahi de paate (I’m more fortunate than him. You can devote the entire day to me. His father is not able to give him any time).”
Recalling that conversation, Naushad’s eyes well up and his generally authoritative voice gets wobbly. Sarfaraz’s words not only meant that the two were on the same page in terms of pursuing their maksad (ultimate goal). They also belied Naushad’s biggest fear. That he was pushing his son too far in his quest to keep up a vow he’d made in the face of a ‘betrayal’ that he never quite came to terms with.
Long before Sarfaraz took steps towards cricketing stardom, Naushad had dreamt the same dream of producing a cricketer at the highest level with Iqbal Abdulla—the star pick among many young, poor kids he’d plucked out from the clutches of poverty and brought to Mumbai. He had even kept the boy from Uttar Pradesh in his 225 sq. ft. Kurla home, getting his wife, Tabassum, to cook and clean for him.
Abdulla, like Sarfaraz has subsequently done, would go onto play the U-19 World Cup for India as well as become an IPL star. But according to Naushad, he would also turn his back on the man who’d been his unrelenting benefactor as soon as it was time to show the necessary gratitude.
It came to a head during their ‘final meeting’ at the same house that Abdulla called home for seven years that would once and for all drive a wedge through their relationship.
“That is when he spoke those unforgettable words, Mere mein kabiliyat thi, main khela. Tumhaare mein talent hai toh apne bachchon ko khilaake dikhao na. (I had the ability, so I played. If you have the talent, then make your son play and show the world,” recalls Naushad, his eyes turning red.
Rather than react with any hostility, Naushad took Abdulla’s challenge up. It lit a fire in his belly, and became a drive to make his own son reach the level that he had brought Abdulla to. It wasn’t that Sarfaraz wouldn’t have made it this far without the two growing apart, but it certainly has been a major motivating factor in his meteoric rise in the last half-a-dozen years. It was also an episode that turned Naushad into a shayar, and he can barely go a few minutes without spewing his shers.
The real force behind it though has been Naushad’s all-encompassing, almost overbearing, grip over his son’s life, both on and off the field. Growing up, the Western Railways’ Class 4 employee was used to odd jobs. The track-pant selling business that he partook with Sarfaraz as his apprentice enhanced the mutual respect between father and son.
“Sarfaraz still starts crying when he talks about those days. There used to be one lot in front of me, one between Sarfaraz and I, and one that he would carry on his shoulders. We would get completely wet on the bike, but still make sure we did enough business on Fashion Street,” says Naushad.
The money made from there was used entirely on running Macho Cricket Club-based on a nickname he earned during his playing days for an acrobatic diving catch at National Cricket Ground-and Abdulla’s finances. The Rs 2,000 he earned from his Railways job would run the house.
The rest of his time was spent in perfecting Sarfaraz’s game.
Naushad would spend hours dishing out throw-downs, paying opposition teams to come play friendly games in which Sarfaraz would bat the whole innings regardless of whether the team lost or not. These days, it’s with his youngest, Musheer. Moeen, the middle son, has been taken off cricket and is now pushing himself to be the Ajit Tendulkar of the family.
Sarfaraz though, would find himself a constant tag of ‘problem child’ — something that didn’t sit well with Naushad. But a meeting with Bharat Arun, present India bowling coach who was in-charge of the U-19 team two years ago, changed Naushad’s own opinion about his son, he reveals.
“He said, ‘have you seen the circus? First comes the lion, everyone claps. Then the elephant comes and plays a few cricket shots. Everyone claps. Then why do you need the joker? Sarfaraz is the one you need when everyone else is shivering and is intimidated by the opposition. Don’t restrict him, that’ll kill him,” recalls Naushad.
And as it’s turned out, Sarfaraz today not only stands on the cusp of being the most valuable player of the U-19 World Cup, he also shares the RCB dressing-room with Abdulla, which in Naushad’s eyes is a sort of denouement to a saga that has dictated his life.
“I don’t see it as a victory. Our ultimate goal is playing for India. It’s like saying we have reached Ratlam en route to Delhi,” he says.
But like he showed last year, Sarfaraz has taken a step up by impressing everyone including AB de Villiers, that reinventor of the batting wheel, in RCB colours, especially playing the scoop shot audaciously even off fast bowlers. But it is a shot that his father had brought into vogue back at a time when nobody had seen it in India.
Unfortunately, like Naushad reveals now, it was too far ahead of his time and cost him a place in the Mumbai Ranji team. He grew up playing cricket in a cowshed, diving around on cow-dung, and like his son is today was a belligerent striker of the ball with a penchant for bravura. But he does regret having turned down offers from other states once Mumbai stopped showing interest in him. A mistake he didn’t make when Sarfaraz found himself in the same spot last year. He immediately moved him to Uttar Pradesh, who he represented this season in the Ranji Trophy.
Aakhon aakhon mein raha,
Dil mein utar kar nahi dekha
Kashti ke musafir ne samundar nahi dekha
Aur jab se main chala hoon, meri manzil pe nazar hai
Aankhon ne kabhi kilometre ka pathhar nahi dekha
This he believes is the sher that captures his life the best. And he can’t help himself but punctuate each line with a dramatic pause. In many ways, Naushad, who also sold toffees and cucumbers in trains, has banked on his own life story to shape Sarfaraz’s career.
No wonder it’s mirrored it in many ways already. But he is aware of the fickleness of the sport he calls his best and only friend. He no longer believes that there is no way back for him and his ambitious family if Sarfaraz doesn’t make it.
Says Naushad, “We came from the slums, used to stand in queues for the toilet where my sons would be slapped and overtaken. We came from nothing and will go back to nothing. Sarfaraz told me the other day, ‘Abbu so what if this doesn’t happen. We can always go back to selling track-pants.”
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Sports> Cricket / by Bharat Sundaresan / February 14th, 2016
Fahad Bin Abdul Samad from Uppuguda set a record on Thursday when he became the youngest municipal councillor in the country to take oath.
At 21, Mr. Fahad beat his nearest rival by 4,000 votes on AIMIM ticket to get elected to GHMC’s Council of 150 corproators. He attributes his entrance into politics and early electoral success to his father, a former corporator of the ward, and his party leaders. The minimum age to contest in a local election is 21 years.
“The party was keen on promoting educated youngsters. Doctors, pharmacists and engineers are today among those elected from AIMIM,” said Mr. Fahad, who is pursuing his final year of civil engineering. Entry into politics was a pleasant surprise for the youngster who said he had to drop his plans for education abroad.
“I had planned to pursue masters abroad. But I will now pursue education here,” he said, quickly adding that politics and education will not clash. “Nearly a third of my ward comprises people under poverty line. Besides discharging regular duties of a corporator to ensure civic infrastructure, I want to help the poor get education,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Rohit P.S / Hyderabad – February 12th, 2016
For months now, citizens of Bengaluru, the eastern parts in particular, have been seeing huge billboards at vantage points with the tagline, ‘Islam: Facts Vs Fiction’, offering a free copy of the Quran from the advertiser.
Passers-by wonder who’s leasing out the space and why, and having read the message, move on.
Syed Hamid Mohsin, who runs an outdoor advertising business, was known for his love of cars, buying the latest models of luxury cars every year. Six years ago, he found himself facing serious questions.
“There are more than white, and those seen at dargahs, about love jihad and extremism, and other issues.”
He founded the Salaam Centre in 2008 and turned to dispelling misconceptions about Islam and fostering inter-community harmony through the use of billboards, social media and other channels.
His book on Islam has been translated into Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi.
“The usual question from 100 misconceptions about Islam,” said the 50-year-old.
“I’ve tried to explain the difference between Pakistan’s national flag, which is green and intelligence sleuths and the judiciary and others is:where do I get funds for such work, and for the plush office on Bannerghatta Road?’ Mohsin said.
A Bengaluru business man has got billboards posted at key points across the city to dispel misconceptions about Islam and spread the message of communal harmony .
“Outdoor advertising gives me my bread and butter and the income from it is funnelled here. I have a bungalow and a Mercedes Benz which I haven’t changed in six years. Earlier, I used to have two luxury cars and change these every year . Instead of paying an EMI of Rs 1lakh on cars, I decided to do this. I don’t want to go into philanthropy or give educational scholarships because others are doing this,” says Syed Hamid Mohsin, who runs an outdoor advertising business. “I keep the hoardings for short periods as people get bored,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Bangalore / TNN / February 11th, 2016
Indian Pravasi Forum Oman Organized “Paigham E Rasool (PBUH) and Children’s Cultural Program-2016 on 22nd Jan at Al Maas Hall in Muscat.
Yusuf Hyder Mukka (President Indian Pravasi Forum Oman, Karnataka Chapter) in his Presidential address emphasized for the unity of community. He stressed the importance of brotherhood.
While addressing the gathering Mufty Haneef Ahrar Qasimi (National Secretary of All India Imam Council), the chief guest of this occasion highlighted “guidelines from life of Prophet (PBUH) in present situation”.He described how the prophet granted the status of women in society.
He also stressed the importance of teachings life style of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and explained how he is a role model from all aspect for all mankind and his entire life should be followed Muslims.
The event started with cultural program for children’s under the supervision of Abdul Rahiman Nitte and Noor Mohammed. Over one hundred children participated enthusiastically in cultural program. Suhaib Bailoor group presented “Lavish Life” skit.
A quiz competition was also held for the audience.
While Maqsood Chandavara introduced the guest, Moideen Sunathkere proposed vote of thanks. Haneef Bantwal and Hashim Kundapur were the conveners of the program.///
The program was graced by the presence of Janab Faisal Khan, Janab. Moulana Saheb Zade Mahmood, Janab. Riyaz Gangolli (President of Gangolli Jamath Oman), Janab. Moideen (president of DKSC Oman), Janab. Moideen Shastan (President of SKMWA Oman), Janab. Abdul Shukoor( Vice President of Thonse Jamath Oman), Janab. Anwar Moodabidre (President of Indian Social Forum Oman –Karnataka Chapter), Janab. Noor Mohammad Padubidre (President of Indian Pravasi Forum Ruwi Area), Janab. Irfan Ujire (President of Indian Pravasi Forum Barka Area), Janab. Maksood Chandavara (President of Indian Pravasi Forum North Zone) was on the dais on the occasion.
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror.com / Home> Culture / by Abdul Mubarak Karaje / Muscat – January 27th, 2016
A view of the M.K. Maaligai in Khajamalai, Tiruchi. Photos:A. Muralitharan
Behind the façade of this heritage residence in Tiruchi lies the story of its enterprising owner, M.K. Mohamed Ibrahim Ravuthar.
It is an arresting sight on the Race Course Road in Tiruchi. A stately home, complete with gabled roofs and stained glass windows peeks out demurely from behind black granite walls, willing you to stop and take a closer look.
“It’s a unique building just like the man who built it,” says Dr. M.A. Ansar, describing the mini 11-roomed palace and his grandfather M.K. Mohamed Ibrahim Ravuthar in one breath.
Built in 1928, the M.K. Bungalow was actually the main home in a complex of four residences in this quiet nook off the Race Course Road in Khajamalai. It resembles a structure straight out of a Jane Austen novel, especially when you walk through the green corridor (an iron trellis walkway that is still covered with the ‘December Poo’ or Philippine Violet vines planted by the patriarch) to reach the main entrance.
A trellis ‘green corridor’ leads up to the bungalow. Photo: A. Muralitharan
The garden is overgrown, and the annexes that once housed a live-in washerman, stables for horses and cattle, huge bathrooms and an elaborate pantry and storehouse, clearly have seen better days. Even so, when Mrs. Najma Begum, the current resident of the house and one of M.K.M. Ibrahim’s granddaughters, opens the main door, it is possible to see flashes of another, more flamboyant world that once existed here.
“When Thatha was alive, this house used to be called ‘M.K. Maaligai’ (Palace), today I can hear people calling it the ‘Pei (Ghost) Bungalow,’ when they walk past on the other side of the walls,” says Mrs. Najma.
Keeranur tiles brighten up the interior of the M.K. Maaligai. Photo: A. Muralitharan
As room leads to room, each with Keeranur floor tiles and wide windows fitted with cooling coloured glass, the other tales about the house are dusted off and narrated too.
Tales of how chandeliers with red glass and gold paintwork imported from Austria used to adorn the halls. Records that were played on a Polyphon, a coin-operated music box which played metal discs measuring 195/8 inches in diameter, for dance parties hosted for British guests. And how a fountain and a ‘chaukhandi’ (gazebo) used to be star attraction of the garden.
The M.K. Maaligai was the entertainment venue not just for M.K.M Ibrahim’s friends and business acquaintances, but also guests of the State from Britain. On average, some 15-20 people would gather for the daily repasts, made with the finest of produce sourced from nearby towns.
Elaborate decorative work done on the verandah’s eaves and railings. Photo: A. Muralitharan
As the tour continues, up an imported cast-iron spiral staircase (one of two), to the first floor where the master suite looks out on a large decoratively gabled verandah, it becomes clear that this house was meant to be a personal work of art.
Hands-on leader
“My grandfather used to be known as the ‘Prince of Tiruchi’ for his lavish lifestyle,” says Dr. Ansar, whose late father M.K. Abdul Salam was the eldest son of M.K.M. Ibrahim. “Though he didn’t have much education, he used speak English fluently because of his close association with the British. He was among the invitees to a special assembly to commemorate the coronation of King George VI in May 1937.”
M.K.Mohamed Ibrahim Ravuthar.
Born in 1885, M.K.M. Ibrahim was the second son of M. Kasiappa Ravuthar, a wealthy businessman and landowner who migrated to Tiruchi from Ettayapuram, Tirunelveli district (see related story on Page 4).
Taking over his father’s kerosene dealership and leather tanneries after his elder brother Yusuf died, Ibrahim diversified the family business rapidly, branching out into petrol supply (he owned 18 petrol stations in his heyday), bus transport, and construction, besides starting a third tannery near Hyderabad.
The family made the Palakkarai area in Tiruchi its base.
The contracting projects that his M.K. Constructions company is associated with are still in use – the Erode Railway Junction, a part of Erskine’s Hospital Madurai (now renamed Government Rajaji Hospital), the Kakinada port (Andhra Pradesh), Chikmaglur Railway Station (Karnataka) and Railway staff quarters in Dindigul, besides a number of highways.
He also built a four-storey building in Chennai, close to the harbour, between Angapannaickan Street and Moore Street, where the leather from his tanneries used to be transported to by coal-fuelled lorries, and then exported to Britain.
Despite not being a part of the Independence movement, Ibrahim commanded a lot of popular support in Tiruchi. He served the city as its Municipality Vice-Chairman from 1925-28 and as Chairman from 1928-31.
He was a close friend of veteran freedom fighter P. Rathinavel Thevar, and co-operated with him on numerous occasions to preserve communal harmony in the city.
Known as a hands-on leader who once paid Municipality workers their salaries from his own funds, he donated the land for Ibrahim Park on West Boulevard Road on the condition that it would be put to public use.
He owned homes similar to M.K. Maaligai in Dindigul, Kodaikanal and Courtallam, which became summertime resorts for the family.
A poignant reminder
“The bungalow was still under construction when there was an epidemic of cholera or typhoid in the inner city areas in the late 1920s,” recalls Dr. Ansar. “Thatha decided to shift the entire family to this place from Palakkarai.”
Despite the love with which he built the residential complex, M.K.M Ibrahim was able to spend only around two to three years there, as he passed away at the age of 55 years on December 2, 1940 due to a heart ailment.
“It is astonishing to see how much this person achieved in a short period of 20-25 years,” says Dr. Ansar, whose father grew up in the complex of four residences along with his siblings. “He was inspired by the things he saw and people he met on his travels, and always tried to recreate the best of it for himself.”
Following the partition of his properties, the M.K. Maaligai was bequeathed to his second son M.K.M. Abdul Hakeem in 1949, whose children still maintain ownership of the heritage building.
After a brief spell as a student’s hostel, the M.K. Maaligai is now back to its original role as a family home.
“We clean it out for family functions, and whitewash it sometimes,” says Mrs. Najma Begum, who stays alone on the ground floor of the vast house.
“Even though it needs a lot of effort to maintain, we’d rather not demolish it. This residence is tied to many people’s lives.”
***
Snippets from an eventful life
M.K.M. Ibrahim fell in love with Rukkaiyya Bi when he saw her coming from the Madrassa (Islamic school) while he was working in Palakkarai. She was 9, he was 15. They married two years later, despite initial parental disapproval. They went on to have three sons and two daughters.
Tiruchi observed an unofficial day of mourning when M.K.M. Ibrahim died on December 2, 1940. Shops were closed as the public thronged to catch a sight of the cortege that was taken out from the family home in Palakkarai, through Main Bazaar to Rock Fort, NSB Road, and Main Guard Gate and to the burial ground just a few yards away from where the procession started in Palakkarai.
In the middle of the four homes that he built around the M.K. Maaligai, M.K. Ibrahim had left space for a tennis court that was never completed. The yard has since been sold to a scrap merchant.
His eldest son M.K.M. Abdul Salam showed an aptitude for public office, and was the first Congress Member of Parliament from Tiruchi in 1957.
***
Founding father
It is easy to see where M.K.M. Ibrahim got his penchant for largesse and flamboyance from. His father, M. Kasiappa (a merging of ‘Kasim’ and ‘Appa’), Ravuthar was an businessman who made his fortune in the early 19th century after migrating to Tiruchi from Ettayapuram.
He was the kerosene agent for Tiruchi and Thanjavur districts, and owned residential properties in the city centre called ‘stores’. The ‘Kasiappa Ravuthar Store’ was one such property near the Rock Fort area.
Besides that he had nearly 500 acres of agricultural lands near Samayapuram and Maruthur.
Kasiappa Ravuthar built two tanneries, one for goatskin and another for buffalo skin which used to be sent to Chennai and then exported to England, in the 1880s. Since the British didn’t allow outside sales, the leather used to be auctioned in England, and the money would be sent back to him in India.
As an expression of gratitude for recovering from a severe skin abscess on his back, Kasiappa Ravuthar dedicated a gold ‘kalasam’ to the main stupi (pillar) of the Nagore Dargah weighing 1,000 sovereigns, that stayed intact until it was knocked down by cyclonic winds in 1958.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Nahla Nainar / November 13th, 2015
The recently retired judge of the Madras high court, Justice K N Basha, has been appointed chairman of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB). He succeeds Justice Prabha Sridevan, who retired from the post a few weeks ago. At present S Usha has been holding the acting chairman post.
An order appointing him to the national body was issued on August 23 by Chandni Raina, director of the department of industrial policy and promotion (IPR section) under the Union ministry of commerce and industry.
The salaries and allowances payable to Justice Basha and conditions of service shall be in accordance with the provisions of the IPAB (Salaries and Allowances Payable to, and other terms and conditions of service of chairman, vice-chairman and members), Rules, 2003, the appointment notification said.
Justice Basha was born in May 1951 and he studied in Madras Christian College and Madras Law College. He enrolled as advocate in 1976 and joined the office of senior advocate N T Vanamamalai. In 1985 he established independent practice in criminal and civil side.
Justice Basha was appointed judge of the Madras high court on December 10, 2005, and retired on May 13, 2013.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / TNN / August 25th, 2013
