Hundreds including Ministers Tanveer Sait and MLA Vasu pay last respects
Mysuru :
Dr. Nazeer Ahmed (94), Chief patron of Al-Ansaar Hospital, located at Mohamed Sait Block in city, passed away on Saturday evening at his residence in Subhashnagar. Namaz-e-Janaza was offered on Sunday at 2 pm after Namaz-e-Zohar at Siddiqia Arabic College on Mysuru-Bengaluru Road. He is survived by four sons, a daughter and host of friends and relatives.
Late Dr. Nazeer Ahmed’s son Dr. Ifthekar Ahmed led the Nama-e-Janaza in which hundreds of community members took part.
Last rites was held Muslim Burial Ground at Bada Makan near Tipu Circle.
Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Tanveer Sait, MLA Vasu, SJCE Principal Dr Syed Shakeeb Ur Rahman, Yenepoya University Former Vice-Chancellor Dr. Syed Akheel Ahmed, Mangalore and Goa Universities former Vice-Chancellor Dr. B. Shaik Ali, former Mayors Ayub Khan and Ariff Hussain, Corporators Suhail Baig, Mysuru District Wakf Advisory Committee Chairman Ariff Ahmed Mehkri and others took part in the last rites rituals.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Monday, July 25th, 2016
REAL ISSUES, GRAND PRESENTATION Mohammad Ali Baig / Photo: P.V. Sivakumar
Hyderabad , TELANGANA :
As Mohammad Ali Baig’s “1857: Turrebaz Khan” opens in Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August, the playwright-director-actor talks about the heroic figure in Deccan history
Already recognised as one of India’s best known theatre personalities and India’s youngest Padma awardee in theatre, playwright-director-actor Mohammad Ali Baig has received multiple national and global honours and awards. This time, beginning August first week, his well-known play, “Quli: Dilon ka Shahzaada”, as well as his new production “1857: Turrebaz Khan” have both been invited to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016. While “Quli” has already seen several productions across the world, “Turrebaz Khan” will be premiering at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, before travelling to London and then returning to Hyderabad.
Excerpts from an interview:
Tell us about your new play, “1857: Turrebaz Khan”, and its central character?
Turrebaz Khan was a heroic figure in Deccan history, known for his valour and courage. There is a slang in Hyderabad folklore, a positive one — “Turram Khan”. When you call someone that, you are calling him heroic. That comes from Turrebaz Khan’s name. He was a revolutionary figure freedom fighter, who revolted against the ruling design of the 4th Nizam of Hyderabad and the British. He attacked the British residency, which now houses the women’s college in Koti in Hyderabad, to free his comrade who was detained on charges of treachery without a fair trial by the British. He was caught and detained, but even the jail he was put in couldn’t hold him. After a year, he escaped, and then was caught in the forest of an area called Toopran, near Hyderabad. The man who caught him, Qurban Ali Baig, was the talukdar there. Turrebaz Khan was kept in captivity, then shot, and then his body was hanged in the centre of the city to prevent further rebellion. That is his story.
When you read about 1857, places like Delhi, Meerut, Lucknow, Jhansi and Mysore, all of them are mentioned, but Hyderabad isn’t. This is because the Nizams were allies of the British, and there was no reason to fight. But with Turrebaz Khan, there came a brief period when Hyderabad joined the struggle, the uprising.
Does the play follow Turrebaz Khan’s life?
No, the structure of the play is very interesting actually. It follows the last one hour of his life in captivity, and that one hour is also the duration of the play. It shows the difference between the man who has been captured, and his captor, Ali Baig. They are both sons of the same soil, are of the same colour, but they stand on opposite sides. Ali Baig has allied with the British. He is a man who is privileged in more ways than one, and he has no problem with who his allies are — Indians, British, French. His life is about his own family and prosperity. From his point of view, Turrebaz is “naïve”, and immature. For Turrebaz, Ali Baig has a self-serving agenda.
How does the play deal with this clear difference between the two men?
There are two people, one placating the system, another one going against it in the name of his motherland. Neither one is shown as the villain. Both are victims of their situation.
The play is about discrimination and about oppression, two issues that are relevant anywhere in the world. It can be discrimination of blacks and whites, of haves and have nots, east and west. The play brings both sides of the story out by bringing out both characters. There is very interesting wordplay between the two, philosophical debates which explore different sides of the story. At one point, Ali Baig says to Turrebaz that you talk about leaving your home to fight for your motherland, but what about your own mother at home? What about your aging father, who needs you? Before you, there have been so many others who tried to revolt against the British empire, and look what happened to them.
To this, Turrebaz replies that his motherland is more important to him than his mother; that if he is killed, the world will remember him. No one will remember Qurban Ali Baig.
There are many such debates and wordplay between the two characters and the play is an intense drama. I’ve used live percussion— marfa, dhol, etc.— to complement the dialogues.
The research must have been challenging. Do you supplement it with a lot of fiction?
A lot of research went into this play. It is definitely a challenge, because you can’t fictionalise plays like these too much. You have to pay due respect and maintain sanctity, when you portray these historical figures, since there is no one around to correct the errors. Forget political correctness, you have a responsibility of not putting them in a light that is not morally and ethically right. You can’t sit in judgement. For this play, we have picked the aspects of the story that are relevant to today’s global scenario, since it has to make sense to lot of audience everywhere.
My wife, Noor, who is also my co-playwright, has done most of the research, and a lot of it is also based on research by authorities who have written on Turrebaz.
You spoke about the need to make your play’s relevance to audience across the world. Tell us about the responses you get from these audience? How do you see them connecting to your work?
If you take “Quli”, which is the legendary love story on which Hyderabad is supposed to be founded, or “Spaces”, which is about the thought of sticking to your home and heritage, and about traditionalism versus modernism; both could be about people and lives anywhere in the world. We don’t stick to judgement; we don’t say who is right and who is wrong. Our purpose is to bring out an issue, and let the audience decide their own views.
I’ve taken these plays to English, Turkish, Romanian, Bosnian, Iranian, American audiences, to name a few. “Spaces” moves them to tears; many of them come backstage to me and tell me that this is their story. “Quli” too, sees the audience connecting to it. When they are moved, it moves me as a playwright; it shows me that the kind of theatre I believe in is working, that despite the barrier of language and context, people can connect with these plays. I hope that “1857: Turrebaz Khan” will do that same.
Your productions, held in forts and ruins, are known for usually being larger than life. How difficult is it to travel with these productions?
The earlier plays that I mounted were really huge and I was stuck with own vision of them, so we couldn’t travel. But since the last few plays, like “Spaces”, “Quli” and now “Turrebaz”, I’m still mounting them on a big scale, but I’ve tried to make them production sensible. I keep the portability in mind, so that now we are travelling light, but the end result is still grand. Of course, adapting a play I stage in forts and ruins to a festival setting is difficult, but so far, we have managed to do it successfully.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Swati Daftuar / July 29th, 2016
Tanveer Sait to inaugurate Haj Camp-2016 on Aug. 1
Mysuru :
The District Haj Committee held its preliminary meeting under the Chairmanship of Abdul Azeez Chand at Muslim Girls Orphanage in city recently. The meeting elected Abdul Azeez Chand as Convener and Arif Ahmed Mekhri as Joint Convener for the orientation and inoculation for pilgrims of Haj-2016 from Mysuru, Mandya and Chamarajanagar.
The Haj Camp-2016 will be held on Aug. 1 at RK Palace in Udayagiri. Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, Minority Welfare and Wakf Tanveer Sait will be the chief guest.
Co-ordinator Mohammed Mumtaz Ahmed, Anwar Pasha, Syed Younus, Rafeeq Ahmed Khan, Rehman Khan, Irfan Silverline, Sohail Baig, Yusuf Jidda, Shabnam Sayeed, Akbar Aleem of Nanjangud, Mohiuddin of Mandya, Qurath Bhai and Khaleel, District Wakf Advisory Board Officers, were present.
For details, contact the Cordinator on Mob:97417-89000.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / July 23rd, 2016
Four baking enthusiasts have joined hands in an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for making the largest dirt pudding cake in the world.
Danish Ali, Archana Diwan, Nidhi Bagri and Poonam Ankur Shrishrimal love baking and intend to take that to a new level altogether. The task that they are about to take on is a new experience for them, but they hope that they will be able to pull it off well.
Poonam, a glass designer by profession, says, “No one has attempted to bake on this scale and we are making a 1000 kg cake which will be displayed at The Park Hotel Bangalore.”
As to why they decided to take up the challenge, they say that it is their love and passion for baking that has made them come forward. Incidentally, the very same team was also a part of the seven participant group which made an entry into the Limca Book of Records for making India’s largest caricature cake — a Santa on one leg.
“The preparation will be done throughout Saturday night, July 30, beginning at 9 pm, and it will be completed by 7 am the next day,” says Nidhi, a professional blogger.
Archana, a dentist, says, “There are a lot of rules like using custom made equipment and weighing machines and also that a proper recipe should be followed with the measurements scaled up. We hope that we are able to meet all these requirements as a cake of this magnitude hasn’t been made before.” Danish, the only guy among the ‘Bangalore baking buddies’, has his own HP gas station and a catering unit.
How would you like to receive a surprise package of books, hand picked specially for you, at your doorstep every month? An initiative of Mohammed Musab, a fresh BBA graduate and his friends, ‘Read a Book Challenge’ is giving bookworms in the city a new excuse to curl up in bed and stay put.
Readers who register for the challenge on their Facebook page will receive three to four books, beautifully packaged along with a handwritten personal note. At the end of the month, the books are collected and a new package of surprise titles is delivered.
“I have been an avid reader from childhood and I used to tell my friends in college to develop the habit of reading. They told me that they couldn’t decide what to read. So I recommended books for them,” said Musab. That was how the idea behind the challenge came to him and he decided to give it a shot.
The first step was to convince ‘endorsers’ to let him lend their books to strangers. “Book-lovers are very possessive about their collections. I had to assure them that I would take care of their books,” he added. Besides, he offered them the incentive of earning money through their books. After the first month, the readers are charged a nominal amount of Rs 150 which is used to cover costs and pay the endorser between Rs 15 and Rs 20 for each book lent. “I really liked the idea and my book collection was lying idle at home. Being an avid reader myself, I saw this as a chance to help people inculcate the habit of reading,” said Mohammed Shuaib Mumtaz, the first endorser who has contributed 150 books to the inventory. Musab got his friends on board — Sneh Jain designs the packaging, HayattNoorul makes promotional videos and posters and Rishav Jain and Smriti Menon help with the execution. The team delivered the first batch of books on June 15. Already, they have over 100 readers and 10 endorsers on board contributing over 2,500 books to their inventory.
Word of their initiative spread and people in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and even Srinagar have requested them to bring the challenge to their cities. Though most of their readers are in the age group of 20 to 23, now even parents are showing interest.
Having received two packages so far, Ayesha Shuaib is happy with the variety her nine-year-old son is being exposed to. “He has got books on the themes of adventure, mystery and school amongst others. As a parent, it is a great relief for me because I don’t have to make multiple trips to the library to keep him engaged,” she said.
Monthly surprises
Meanwhile, they are preparing to deliver monthly surprises to their growing number of readers. An engineer is helping them develop a website and software to manage the inventory. They are also in the process of developing an algorithm to automatically select books based on the readers’ preference.
“I have received offers from investors. However, I haven’t accepted any for now because I am not sure what I am dealing with. I don’t know if this is going to be a small startup or the next big thing so I want to let it grow slowly,” said Musab.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / DHNS / Meghana Choukkar / Bengaluru, DHNS – July 29th, 2016
Former Rajya Sabha member and Congress leader Faiz Mohammed Khan (82), popularly known as F.M. Khan, who was residing at Balayatrie Estate in Kodagu, passed away yesterday after a brief illness.
He leaves behind his wife and three daughters.
According to family sources, Khan’s last rites were held at Rasulpur in Guddehosur in Kodagu this morning.
Khan entered politics during 1960s along with his friend former Chief Minister R. Gundu Rao and joined the Indian National Congress led by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
He became the General Secretary of State Youth Congress before becoming a member of the Legislative Council in 1974.
Khan was a two-time RS MP, elected in 1976 and1982. He was also a former Vice-President of Indian Olympic Association (IOA). He had been away from politics for more than two decades.
Khan was famous for his annual flower show at his Balayatrie Estate in Kodagu.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / July 22nd, 2016
Passion for innovative ideas is one the prerequisites to become a successful entrepreneur, students from engineering colleges were told at a startup event organized in the city on Thursday.
Former chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), southern region, Navas Meeran, inaugurated the session titled, The Next Wave of Indian Economy, organized by CII.
He told the students that the Startupreneurs Forum had been formed to facilitate favourable eco system and engagement with start-ups across the region.
This is an initiative to encourage southern states to engage with the start-up community and provide newcomers the much- needed hand-holding support and guidance of established entrepreneurs.The main objective of the forum is to identify and nurture innovative ideas into start-up businesses, to create a network for start-ups with potential investors and senior professionals through monthly meets and also to hold an Annual Regional Startupreneurs Awards to recognize the best start-ups of the year, participants were told.
Two social entrepreneurs Happy Hens, which is into rearing of free range chicken to produce quality eggs and Rainstock, which deals in rainwater harvesting spoke about their ventures and answered questions raised by students.
Young entrepreneur K Sakthivel said passion for an idea will help an entrepreneur realize his goals. To get investment for that idea should be secondary, he said.
Chairman of CII, Madurai Zone, M Anbukani, welcomed the move to form the forum.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Madurai / July 22nd, 2016
Not everyone knows that Luthfudeen Basha, son of veteran actor Nasser, studied music composition and sound design in Malaysia before Saivam (2014) happened. Excited about his upcoming flick Parandhu Sella Vaa, directed by Dhanapal Padmanabhan, he says, “This rom-com, shot entirely in Singapore, is about the lives of today’s youth, capturing the positive aspects of life.”
The actor adds he plays a naive guy from Chennai, who goes to Singapore and falls in love with everyone. “The story is about how he adapts to a new environment and what he eventually faces,” he says.
Luthfudeen adds that he’s a director’s actor. Maybe, that’s why he didn’t have any apprehensions about shooting a couple of lip-lock scenes for the film. “I don’t know why everyone makes such a huge fuss about the whole thing. It’s just a film! Besides Aishwarya Rajesh, who’s the female lead (an urban architect), there’s this Chinese actor Narelle Kheng, who plays an important role. The script demanded that we do it. I initially asked the director if there was an alternative, but he went for the take! However, we finished everything in a single shot. She was comfortable with it and so was I,” he says.
He quickly adds that he doesn’t want to be typical hero material. “I want to do roles like what appa (Nasser) did in his early days. Like Thevar Magan (1992) — I want to do a powerful villain role like that!”
Filmmaker Dhanapal Padmanabhan is confident that the movie will strike a chord with the audience, especially the student community. “I visit Singapore often and every time I go there, I’m bowled by its culture and beauty. It’s a romantic city. I see a lot of youngsters from small towns there travel all over the world and excel in all they do. So I thought, ‘Why not do a ‘clean’ film set in Singapore?’ I’ve shown my sensibilities about love and relationships,” he smiles.
Dhanapal says that not many Tamil films have successfully captured the youth’s light-hearted take on life. “Parandhu… will focus on the transition of a carefree youth into a man in a sensible way. A lot of thought has gone into making the film. It has a mix of artistes and technicians from India and Singapore. The stunts have been done by Sunny Pang, who has done Chinese and Indonesian films. To win over the audience, breathtaking visuals aren’t enough, we need a good story too. Santhosh Vijayakumar Prabhakaran has done a wonderful job with the cinematography. The team opted for Luthfudeen because he fits the bill perfectly. We wanted someone who’s really young,” he smiles.
The director is all praise for his Chinese actor Narelle as well. “She wrote the Tamil dialogues in English and emoted quite effortlessly,” he laughs. He adds that for the first time, the comedians Karunakaran, RJ Balaji and Sathish have been brought on board for the film. “The audience will burst out laughing. But, they will keep you occupied throughout, though their combination scenes are few,” says Dhanapal.
Ask what’s next, and he says, “I want to do something different with every film. My first venture Krishnaveni Panjaalai (2012) was about cotton mill workers near Coimbatore. It was offbeat; Parandhu… is a breezy entertainer,” he says.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Entertainment> Tamil / by S Subhakeerthana / July 25t, 2016
Seventy-year-old S Nagoor Meraan is a tailor by day and a watchman by night. Meraan is one of those scores of people whom you wouldn’t bother giving a second glance unless you come across his photograph with former President Abdul Kalam that adorns his makeshift workplace under a tree in Thiruvanmiyur here.
Pointing to the photograph, he recollects the story of pedalling all the way from his hometown Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu to Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi (over 2700km) in 2003 to meet the former President.
The idea of meeting Kalam was mooted when a Lions Club member told him to make use of his passion for cycling to attract the Missile Man’s attention.
Thus began the journey that lasted 35 days taking the Chennai, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Bhopal and Agra route. During the journey, he camped at police stations, open spaces and even strangers’ houses. “Curiously enough, not even once did my cycle tyres get punctured. It was a smooth journey. It was as if Allah was conspiring for my meeting with Kalam,” says Meraan, who’s now into his 70s.
Initially, his plans of meeting the former President was met with uncertainty. “When I reached Delhi, I couldn’t meet him immediately. I wrote a letter of my mission and dropped it in a guest box on the Rashtrapati Bhavan premises. Fortunately, he read the letter and extended an invite,” he says.
Meraan dined with Kalam during the rendezvous that spanned 35 minutes. “I had taken along with me a shawl to present to him. But he declined the offer citing the presence of many homeless in the capital city suffering due to extreme cold and asked me to give that to one of them,” he recollects.
He stayed in the official residence for two-and-a-half days and had his brush with a few politicians. During the time, they discussed issues such as world peace, humanity and a charter of demand for Meraan’s hometown among other things.
“Kalam sir asked me to make interacting with school students a habit. I had always hatched a plan to travel to Mecca, partly by cycling and partly otherwise. He strongly advised against it citing security issues,” says Meraan who has been a tailor for over three decades now.
Reflecting on Kalam’s first death anniversary, Meraan says, “He should have lived, instead of me.”
He is penning a collection of short poems and plans to publish the same in the near future if there are takers.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> India / Shilpa Vasudevan / TNN / July 27th, 2016
Indian cricketer Mohammed Shami delivers a ball the three-day tour match between India and WICB President’s XI squad at the Warner Park stadium in Basseterre, Saint Kitts, on July 14, 2016. / AFP / Jewel SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
Injuries and bad luck is something which had not let MD Shami enjoy the game for quite some time but finally, it looks like that his time has come. After being available for the Delhi Daredevils throughout the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 , Mohammad is a part of the Indian Team in the ongoing Test series against the West Indies and is firing with his ball.
Shami literally rattled the Windies top order in the 1st innings of the first Test, which is being played in Antigua. His 50th Test victim was the experienced Marlon Samuels and he achieved this feat in merely 13 games, which makes him the joint fastest Indian pacer alongside Venkatesh Prasad to 50 Test match wickets.
India cricketer Mohammed Shami (C) is congratulated by teammates during day two of the cricket test match between West Indies and India July 22, 2016 at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in St John’s, Antigua. The decision was made that Brathwaite was not out. / AFP / DON EMMERT (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)
The right arm fast bowler was phenomenal in the first two sessions on Day 3 and his opening wicket was batsman Rajendra Chandrika. Shami kept attacking by bowling a tight off-stump line with the support of an attacking inner ring field set-up. It was obvious this strategy would reap rewards as he got one to move away from Darren Bravo and Bravo had no clue.
He bowled a magical over, where he took 2 wickets, that of Samuels and Blackwood and didn’t give away a single run. His other partners were hardly posing any trouble but Shami played it smart by making the batsman play almost every delivery of his.
We all know that Shami is immensely backed by both Test and ODI captains and the selectors as well but had a real tough time after he injured his knee during the marque 2015 World Cup in Australia. The doctors had said that it might be a career-threatening one but the 26-year-old did not give up and tried coming back in the Australia tour earlier this year but was again haunted by the knee injury. He finally came back in the IPL and now is in full flow against the West Indies as we see our beloved fast bowler in the Indian jersey.
We hope that he stays fit, in the long run, as Team India have a hectic Test season coming up as the team is scheduled to play 16 more Test matches, after this one.
source: http://www.circleofcricket.co / Circle of Cricket / Home> Latest News / by baggabhrigu / July 24th, 2016
