First day at the Rajasthan Junior and Sub Junior Swimming competition saw a few records being given the back seat, as the enthusiastic young performers sought to etch in their own timings this year.
The three day event, which is being held in the joint association of Udaipur and Rajsamand District Swimming Association began on Sunday at the BN College Swimming pool premises. The first session on first day saw Udaipur’s swimming whizkid Gaurvi Singhvi set a state record for 1500meters free style when she clocked 21 minutes and 57 seconds, beating the existing record of 23 minutes 42 seconds. The other girls from Udaipur, viz. Vasundhra Chauhan, Hiya Vyas and Chitrangi Dashora created new records in their events. Four Gold Medalists from Udaipur, other than the records breakers, included Divydev Singh, Guntash, Shaurya Ranawat, Ritesh Khandelwal. Other that this, Udaipur swimmers brought home 6 Silver and 5 Bronze medals as well.
Secretary of the Rajasthan Swimming Association, Chandragupta Singh Chauhan said that first day saw some amazing competition between swimmers from across the state. 7 new records were broken on the first day at the BN Swimming premises. Apart from Gaurvi, Udaipur girls cracked the 4×100 meter record, Ritesh Khandelwal broke a record in the 50 meters backstroke, Jaipur’s Tejaswini broke the record in the girls 50 meter backstroke. 200 meter breaststroke record was broken by Tanish Kaswan, again from Jaipur. Other records included that set by Jaipur’s Akshit Chaudhary in the 400 meter free relay; Nariti Vyas’ and Bhilwara’s Fiza Kayamkhani in the 50 metre back stroke.
source: http://www.udaipurtimes.com / Udaipur Times.com / Home> People> Achievements / by Manoor Orawala / May 29th, 2017
THE LIFE & POETRY OF BAHADUR SHAH ZAFARBy Aslam Parvez, Hay House, Rs 599
This has happened before. When Mahmood Farooqui’s Besieged: Voices from Delhi 1857 was published in 2010, the “voices” of the desperate Dilliwallahs, caught in the throes of a revolt that was not really theirs, sounded strangely familiar. They had been heard in William Dalrymple’s tour de force, The Last Mughal, published four years before Farooqui’s tome came out.
Ather Farouqui’s translation of Aslam Parvez’s seminal work on Bahadur Shah Zafar evokes the same feeling. This is a Zafar we know — a tragic figure undoubtedly, but also one heroic in the midst of adversity, stoic in the face of incomparable loss and grief; a fine poet, humanist and an upholder of the best of the traditions and values that the Mughal court had engendered. Only that Dalrymple’s evocative prose and writing style had done more to popularize the last of the great Mughals than any other piece of work has done for him.
The reason voices and pictures recur is because the works mentioned above conscientiously tapped into long-neglected primary and secondary Persian and Urdu sources that give a very different perspective on Zafar and the Revolt than the conventional viewpoint. Mahmood Farooqui’s research into the Mutiny Papers, written in Shikastah Urdu, threw light on the harrowing experience of the people of Delhi and the personal tragedies that severely dented the picture of the Revolt as a ‘war of independence’. Parvez’s research recovered Zafar’s image and reinstated him as an aesthete, a poet and an iconic figure of the cultural efflorescence that marked the late Mughal era. These independent researches that broke new ground went on to inform, shape and colour Dalrymple’s presentation, which took the story to the large English readership. More than three decades after Parvez had published Zafar’s biography in Urdu, Ather Farouqui’s translation tries to reach the same readership, which, incidentally, heard it all from Dalrymple first.
But Parvez’s treatment of Zafar has a unique flavour. He draws a distinction between Bahadur Shah Zafar the emperor and Zafar the poet. He is unsparing when it comes to the former. Although Parvez acknowledges that the emperor was a victim of his circumstances, reduced to the indignity of having to repeatedly petition the British for his upkeep, the author puts the blame for the last Mughal’s penury on his greed. The ways devised by Zafar’s court to tide over the cash crunch — selling of titles, access to the emperor made easy on payment, his indiscriminate borrowings from the laity — make for incredible reading. What Parvez makes obvious is that even without the Revolt, the British would have made sure that Zafar was the last Mughal to hold fort.
Parvez believes that although Zafar was unwillingly dragged into the war of 1857, once he had committed himself to it, he remained steadfast in his commitment. Dalrymple pictures it differently though. In his narrative, Zafar is withdrawn, confused and often vacillating. But the aspect Dalrymple powerfully highlights in The Last Mughal is one that Parvez repeatedly draws attention to as well — Zafar identifying himself with the suffering of the Dilliwallahs and his powerful determination to retain the secular fabric of Delhi under the severest of pressures, one that led him to ban cow slaughter even on the eve of Eid. In fact, it was to save his beloved city that Zafar took charge of the Mutiny in Delhi.
The other point that Parvez makes is that irrespective of their interests, the British were not completely unresponsive to Zafar’s needs. As proof, he points to his treatment post-Mutiny, particularly that on the way to and in Rangoon. Perhaps Parvez stretches his case a bit. Zafar is known to have been denied even pen and paper in exile. For a poet, this would have meant instant death.
Parvez’s treatment of Zafar as a poet is very different from his treatment of Zafar as an emperor. He makes a strong case for Zafar’s poetic credentials, demolishing Mohammad Husain Azad’s contention that Zafar’s poetry was ghost-written by Mohammad Ibrahim Zauq, who was appointed by Zafar himself to supervise his work. Parvez delves deep into contemporary evidence and compares literary styles to make his case. Whatever Zafar’s failings as a ruler, his calibre as a poet is something Parvez has no doubts about. Acknowledging Zafar’s limitations, Parvez says, “Zafar was like the sinking notes of music while Ghalib was the rising crescendo.”
Ather Farouqui rightly notes the significance of translating Parvez’s work. Given its importance in drawing attention to the “civilizational comingling” of the times that India is now so close to forgetting, he should have been more careful with the work. But he is not. Take his rendition of the poetry, be that of Shah Alam, Zauq or Zafar. Of the many that sound jarring is the following one by Zafar: Tori mariz-e gham ne tere is tarha se jaan/ Ghabra ke ghamgusar sarahne se uth gae (“The way the lovelorn breathed his last/ Startled sympathizers, they jumped their feet with a start”).
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Front Page> Opinion> Story / by Chirosree Basu / Friday – June 30th, 2017
The Congress on Monday appointed Fairoz Khan, who hails from a remote village in Ramban district of Jammu & Kashmir, as the new president of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), the party’s student wing.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who is in-charge of the frontal organisations of the party, recommended his appointment after personally interviewing those shortlisted for the post.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, the 28-year-old said, “‘I come from a village which is still devoid of electricity and proper roads.” “I come from a family with no political background. My father is a junior engineer in public health engineering department and my mother a housewife,” he adds.
Eldest among four siblings, Fairoz of Pogal Paristan shifted to Ramban for higher education and later, he did BSc from Bhaderwah Degree College and plunged into politics. He studied law from Jammu University in 2012 followed by masters in political science. Presently, he is pursuing post graduate diploma in human rights and duties education from Jammu University’s law school.
Khan, who loves soulful songs of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, remained NSUI national general secretary for four years from 2012. He was also the first elected national delegate of the NSUI from Jammu & Kashmir.
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> India / by Ravi Krishna Khajuria, Hindustan Times / June 12th, 2017
This 10-year-old boy has bagged 75 medals in roller skating | Mangaluru News – Times of India
Mangaluru :
This 10-year-old Mangalurean boy is winner of 75 medals in roller skating.
Muhammad Shamil Arshad, who has bagged four gold medals in a recent national skating championship, has a total of 75 medals to his credit. Shamil has completed his 75th gold medal by securing gold medals and individual championship at the Ist All India Open Speed Skating Meet held at Puducherry.
Shamil, a class five student of The Yenepoya School, Jeppinamogaru in the city, has bagged four gold medals and individual championship at the meet.
Mangalurean skater Dashel Amanda (class six student of Cambridge School) has bagged three gold one silver and individual championship; and Thanmay Kottary (class four student of Canara CBSE School) has secured three gold and individual championship at the same meet. Children have bagged medals and championship in inline speed skating category at Puducherry. Members of Hi-Flyers Skating Club, Shamil, Dashel and Thanmay are being trained by coaches K Mohandas and Jayaraj.
Recently, Shamil also had bagged three gold medals and individual championship under 8-10 years age group at the RFSI National Championship – 54th National Speed Skating Championship 2016-17 held in Bengaluru from January 18 to 23. The event had witness participation of 45 students from 26 states.
Son of Arshad Hussain M S and Ramlath Arshad couple in the city, Shamil had bagged his first gold medal at a state level Roller Skating Championship held in Belagavi in November 2012. As many as 53 participants had taken part in the competitions. Later, he had bagged two gold medals and individual championship at a state level event held in Bengaluru in November 2013. The meet was attended by 53 participants.
Shamil’s medal tally includes 10 national medals (including seven gold, one silver and two bronze), six medals at the South Zone CBSE meets (including three gold, two silver and a bronze), 12 gold at state level, 13 district level medals and 13 medals at inter school competitions. Shamil has bagged 15 individual championships at various events.
Ramlath Arshad, mother of Shamil and a degree college lecturer, told TOI that all the three children who bagged championships in Puducherry are practicing hard to participate in international events.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Mangalore News / Vinobha K T / TNN / June 16th, 2017
A Babur-focussed Uzbeki cultural project is using a common heritage to create a dialogue.
In July 1501, the great-great-greatgrandson of Timur (Tamerlane), Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur — the founder of Mughal empire — left his home in Fergana Valley in present day Uzbekistan. Five hundred years on, the Uzebki government is tracing his journey to India and his Indian connections as part of Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in Art Collections of the World project which began last year.
An effort to piece together the country’s history, researchers are connecting with international museums documenting the antiquity and artifacts connected to them. Till date, the Uzebki government has released 10 volumes and several short films on the cultural legacy of Uzbekistan with the help of information from leading museums in Russia, North America and Australia. “What they are doing is a first. They are not raising a dispute or demanding return of any antiquity. Instead, they are taking a holistic approach — using the common heritage to create a dialogue instead of stoking controversy,” says independent commentator Shashtri Ramachandaran, who participated in a two-day congress on the study organised by the Uzbek government.
An average Indian will be more familiar with United Kingdom, having followed their parliamentary and administrative methods or would be familiar with the cultural milieu of the United States, having developed an appetite for American TV shows. But barring academics, few are aware of the shared heritage between India and Uzbekistan that spans across centuries. A team of researchers from Uzebkistan visited the National Museum this April to piece together this lost history. “Their aim is to document material related to the Mughal era primarily. Once they present a formal proposal which is vetted by the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Culture, they can start documenting work,” said Dr BR Mani, Director General, National Museum, who met with the Uzbekistan’s Ambassador last week to discuss the project.
The Uzbeki interest in the founder of the Mughal dynasty comes at a curious time, given that Babur’s successor Aurangzeb’s name was removed unceremoniously off Delhi’s roads for being an “invader”. Union Minister V K Singh even suggested that his grandfather Akbar should meet with a similar fate. In February this year, the BJP-led government in Rajasthan backed a proposal to rewrite history taught at the university level to attest that Rajput warrior-king Maharana Pratap won the Battle of Haldighati against Akbar’s Mughal army led by general Man Singh, despite historical evidence suggesting otherwise. In the same vein, RSS ideologue Indresh Kumar recently suggested that Babur and his army general Mir Baqi should be tried in court for destroying Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
History suggests that Babur lived in India for only four years and died at the age of 47 in 1530 after successfully ousting Ibrahim Lodhi (in the Battle of Panipat in 1526). But his legacy lived on. The Babri Masjid demolition in December 1992 triggered the campaign to decry the Mughals as invaders. “Labeling the Mughals as “invaders” is bogus, historically. But Hindu nationalists do not use this label as a historical claim,” says Professor Audrey Truscke, who received severe backlash over her recent book Aurangzeb: the Man and the Myth. She adds that maligning Mughals is only a means to fuel “anti-Muslim sentiment in the present”. “It is a shameful business, especially at a time when vigilante violence against Muslims is on the rise,” she adds.
Babur was not Indian, even less an Uzbeki. He tried at least thrice to win Samarkhand but failed. “Babur took Samarkand one last time with help from the Safavids of Persia in 1513. However, as he had to publicly acknowledge his support for Qizilbash Shiism, his subjects turned against him,” explains Professor Ali Anooshahr from the History Department of the University of California.
During his time in India, Babur influenced architecture, culture, warfare and even introduced Indians to the sweet melons of Fergana. When Babur reached India, he was disappointed that the only fruit available was mango. It is said that he personally monitored planting of watermelons and musk melons. “In Babarnama, Babur writes about the apricots and pomegranates of Marghilan, fruit trees of Isfara, the melons of Bukhara, and the apples of Samarkand. He also recalled with pleasure, the various flowing rivers and brooks in that region,” adds Prof Anooshahr.
At the museum, the Uzbeki experts are particularly interested in manuscripts of the Holy Quran, scribed in Uzbekistan, which were presented to the Mughal emperors, as is evident from the royal seals on the cover page. Also of interest are 15 illustrated folios of the Baburnama. He wrote his autobiography in Chagatai language, the spoken language of the Andija-Timurids. It was during the reign of Akbar that the work was completely translated in Persian. According to Prof Anooshahr, the most comprehensive copy of the original is the Hyderabad manuscript. “Although I do not know where exactly that copy is located right now,” he adds.
The Uzbeki researchers are now looking at sources beyond the National Museum. “It is gratifying to realize that the culture of such a great country is connected with ours. We are planning to publish a couple of albums in India, depending on the results of our work,” said Professor Andrey Zybkin, the Uzbeki project coordinator.
Few sites of the Babur era have stood the test of time. Some of them include, West Delhi’s Babur era mosque, the Babri Masjid and Ram Bagh in Agra. But it is not just the Mughal era that is of interest. India and Uzbekistan go as far back as the Kushan Dynasty. The Kushan Empire, spanning an area of 37 lakh kilometres, extended from Bihar to southern Uzbekistan. It was an era when the Indian sub-continent saw extraordinary exchange of art and ideas. “At present we do not have first-hand information on the Kushan period artifacts found in Uzbekistan. It will be interesting to see how the pottery, social behaviour and culture changed from Fergana valley to Mathura,” Dr Mani added.
Apart from the Mughals and Kushans, there are other points of convergence between the two nations. Gujaratis had close trade ties with Uzbekis, so did Parsis and Armenian Christians. Professor A K Pasha from JNU explains that somewhere this search for their history is part of a “resurgence of old identity”. “For years, the Uzbeki culture was subjugated and overpowered by Russians. The Islamic feeling is growing which is why they want to resurrect their old identity,” explains Pasha.
source: http://www.mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com / Mumbai Mirror / Home> Others> Sunday Read / by Sobhana K Nair, Mumbai Mirror / June 18th, 2017
The author, his wife and three children circa late 1970s in North Dakota.
This is Day 22 of the 2017 #30Days30Writers Ramadan series – June 17, 2017
by Syed Husain
It was in the summer of 1976, following my post-doctoral assignment at Stanford Research Institute in California, I was offered a faculty position at University of North Dakota, School of Medicine. Although it was a tempting offer, leaving San Francisco and moving to Grand Forks with three small children was a difficult thing to consider.
Recalling the Persian proverb, “Mulk-e-Khuda Tang Neest, Pa-e-mera Lung Neest” (The Kingdom of God has no limits and no broken legs do I have to limit my travel), I decided to accept this offer – though I knew a Muslim community to draw on for support in North Dakota would be virtually nil.
A leap of faith indeed, but as a Muslim, I had a firm belief in my Creator and my destiny.
As we started our journey across the country, it was full of amusement and excitement. We only had ourselves to rely on – myself, my wife, and my three children, ages seven, four and one. The passage through Yosemite with tall redwoods, the majestic Grand Tetons, the enchanting Yellowstone National Park, the amazing Mount Rushmore and the Badlands was an experience to behold.
Finally, we arrived in the small college town of Grand Forks. And, we found the people of this land of Aurora Borealis, sun-dogs, snow and tumble-weed to be friendly, hospitable and compassionate.
After settling in the faculty housing, my priority was to find out how many Muslims, including students, were on campus. As the Ramadan was approaching, I wondered if they had facilities to pray and observe Ramadan. Surprisingly, I found only one another Muslim faculty and a handful of students with no place to worship. Later, I located four more families in a radius of fifty miles from Grand Forks that became the “core group” of Muslims in the area.
In this isolation, as Ramadan arrived, we made frantic calls to Chicago, Montreal, Minneapolis and Winnipeg to confirm the sighting of the moon. To determine the duration of fast and follow the fiqh ruling, we decided to follow the times in Winnipeg, the closest city with a sizable Muslim population. Those were long days — we were fasting for 19 hours a day with the sun setting around 9:45 p.m.
The University had appointed me as Muslim Faculty Adviser, and I was able to get space in the student union for our Jummah prayers and iftars. This small community had no provision for halal meat and no place to buy spices and other ingredients to prepare our food. A good Samaritan in the community located a farmer, who helped us sacrifice a heifer or a black angus.
This farmer became the source our halal meat supply for the rest of our stay (15 years) in North Dakota. Families would share the meat and drive to Winnipeg or as far as Chicago to get condiments and other supplies. The spouses in this small core group got together and started preparing meals, iftar and sahoor for their families and for students as well on weekends. We began to feel the baraka (blessings) of Ramadan in this newly formed community.
Fasting was difficult, but we managed and grew closer as a family (and as a married couple) in doing so. When we finally made it to iftar time around 9:45 p.m. and broke our fast, my wife and I (we were the only ones fasting in our family in the ‘70s) were grateful. Our children would beg us to take them to McDonald’s for ice cream after we prayed Maghreb and ate dinner, around 10:30 p.m. at night, but it was hard to get the energy to do so.
The nights we rallied and took them were very special to all of us – small treats that meant so much to our children and to us.
The summer season in North Dakota is short, sweet and very precious. It was amazing to see farmers busy harvesting crops under floodlights into the wee hours of the night. Our neighborhood on the outskirts of Grand Forks bordered a large farming field. The rumbling noise of trucks hauling beetroot and sunflower seeds were a reminder to us to get up for our sahoor.
I recalled my childhood days back in Hyderabad, India, when at sahoor time hawkers pass through Muslim neighborhoods singing local folklore, breaking the quiet of the night as these trucks did and reminding the community that sahoor time was soon to end.
Our children (and the daughter of one other Muslim family in town) were the only Muslim students in their schools. The school authorities were kind, compassionate and understanding. They were cognizant of the Islamic principles and provided our children with a private bathing facility and a place to worship. This was back in the 1980s in an educational community that probably had never seen or interacted with Muslim kids before.
Alhamdulillah, this conducive, inclusive and inter-faith understanding of the teachers and the school district authorities nurtured a healthy, positive civic atmosphere and a sense of belonging for our children. Our children use to wait eagerly for the arrival of Ramadan and for the celebration of two Eids.
These occasions were a real source of joy to these few host Muslim families and their children and to the small group of students. We celebrated Eids in a church, in an International Students’ Home on campus and in our homes.
This was our Little Mosque on the Prairie much before the celebrated television show.
This was our forging of an American-Muslim experience in a community that sometimes didn’t understand us, but developed friendships and deep relationships with us based on love, kindness and mutual respect.
In our sojourn of 15 years (1976-1991) in North Dakota, we also saw swings in the population of Muslim students and in the community due to graduations, termination of University of North Dakota’s Pilot Training programs with Gulf Airlines and Saudi Arabian Airlines and faculty transfers/retirements. In recent years, the economy of North Dakota has improved greatly due to oil exploration in Williston Basin.
The city of Fargo (one of the largest cities in North Dakota, about an hour away from Grand Forks) has seen a sizeable number of Muslim immigrants arriving. The city of Grand Forks also has its share and has seen a surge in new arrivals. We wish them all a Happy Ramadan and Eid Mubarak.
Syed Husain, Ph.D. is a retired professor of Pharmacology at the School of Medicine, University of North Dakota and a retired Scientific Review Administrator at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. He now has eight grandchildren forging their own American-Muslim experience.
source: http://www.patheos.com / Patheos / Home> altmuslim / by Syed Asif, Guest Contributor / June 17th, 2017
Muslim girls, some in the burqa and some in the regular uniforms, leave the Jewish Girls School in Calcutta.
Editor’s Note : Anik Basu is a Kolkata-based independent journalist.
Kolkata, India (CNN) :
When Mitana Alexander bid goodbye to Kolkata’s Jewish Girls School in 1975, she was its last Jewish student. The bulk of the others were Muslims.
But it was not the steady influx of Muslim girls in the preceding two decades that moved Alexander’s parents to take her out of the school, she says.
They were worried because she was last remaining occupant of a Jews-only dormitory, as most Jewish girls they had known had migrated to Israkel, America or Europe “with their folks.”
“They (school authorities) had to retain a matron just for me,” recalls Alexander, now aged 50. “I would be alone in the dormitory at night and my parents started panicking. Muslims had nothing to do with my leaving.”
Author-scholar Jael Silliman, whose children are settled in the US, says development in India and the outside world in the 1940s-50s led to an exodus of Jews from Calcutta.
Distinctly Kolkata
The swelling ranks of Muslim girls in the Jewish school offer a glimpse into the deep ties between Kolkata’s Muslim and once-thriving Jewish community.
More than 1,200 of the nearly 1,400 students are Muslims, as is the school’s vice principal and half the faculty.
The change began in the 1950s, when there were not enough Jewish families needing an institution set up specifically to instil Jewish values.
As Jewish enrollment petered out, the authorities decided to admit children of other faiths. The biggest response came from the Muslims of nearby areas.
Aileen Jo Cohen (foreground) and Mitana Alexander talk to Muslim caretakers at one of Calcutta’s three synagogues.
Today, there is very little “Jewish” about the school, save for perhaps its name, the Star of David on the school gates, the school uniform and notebooks, and portraits of Jewish patrons on the walls.
Authorities have made available a “changing room” for Muslim girls whose parents frown upon their stepping out in public in school skirts.
These students leave home in the burqa, change into their uniforms once in school, and put on the burqa when leaving. “Our parents don’t like it if we bare our legs,” says senior student Zara Ahmed, 17.
“The school has come to symbolize Jewish-Muslim harmony in Kolkata,” says managing trustee Aileen “Jo” Cohen.
The harmony is visible elsewhere too; the city’s three synagogues — the smallest of which boasts of more chairs in its prayer hall than there are Jews in Kolkata — are looked after by Muslim caretakers.
Muslims also help with the dressing of bodies for Jewish burials and outside the Magen David Synagogue, Muslim bangle sellers wearing the topi (the Muslim prayer cap), have set up kiosks on the bustling footpath.
“The close ties and positive working relationships between Muslims and Jews are deeply rooted in the local context of Kolkata,” says Jael Silliman, 62, a city-born Jewish scholar and author, and a former Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Iowa.
Exiting Kolkata
The first Jew to arrive in Kolkata, on August 4, 1798, was Shalom Ha-Cohen. A native of Aleppo, Syria, Shalom was initially the court jeweler to a Muslim prince in northern India.
Shalom’s prosperity attracted other Jews from West Asia. According to community records, the population of Jews “of Arabic disposition” expanded to 600 by the 1830s. That number stood at around 4,000 when India gained independence from British rule in 1947.
However, soon after the community started emigrating en mass, beginning the end of a 200-year association with the city.
“A combination of national and global events in the ’40s and ’50s led to a very rapid dissolution of the community,” says Silliman, whose two daughters settled in the US.
With India’s independence, British settlers began returning to England, Israel came into being in May 1948, and the fledgling Indian government’s Socialist policies were perceived as not being conducive to business.
Muslim workers at the 115-year-old Nahoum’s confectionary, founded and owned by Jews, in downtown Calcutta.
Today, the number of Jews in Kolkata stands at 22, the middle-aged Alexander being probably the youngest.
And it is left to the likes of the Jewish Girls School Vice-Principal Abeda Razeq to keep those ties alive.
Her father’s best friend at college was a Jew, whose family runs the 115-year-old confectionary store Nahoum’s, and their friendship, which continued beyond college, first exposed Razeq to Jewish culture.
The two families exchanged gift hampers during their respective festivals and Razeq learnt of the similarities and differences between kosher and halal cuisine.
She even helped out at Nahoum’s at Easter and Christmas: a Muslim girl at a Jewish bakery wrapping cakes during Christian festivals in a predominantly Hindu city.
The Nahoum family has shrunk to just one member now, who spends much of his time abroad, and the workers — many of them Muslims — run the show.
Razeq did her dissertation on Kolkata’s unique Jewish-Muslim relationship, and wishes she had the time to complete her doctorate on it.
“It’s a rich subject,” she says.
source: http://www.edition.cnn.com / CNN / Home> Region> Asia / by Anik Basu / June 16th, 2017
Saqib Saleem practices Kathak for his upcoming short film on Fathers’ Day.
Saqib Saleem is working on a short film that will be released on the occasion of Fathers’ Day this Sunday. The actor has learnt Kathak for the project.
Bollywood actor Saqib Saleem, who was recently seen alongside Huma Qureshi in Dobaara: See Your Evil, is now learning Kathak, a classical Indian dance form for his next project.
Saqib is working on a short film titled Aamad, where he plays the character of a Kathak dancer.
Though it was very challenging for him, the actor took it in his own stride and put together a genuine effort to learn the dance form from professional Kathak guru and actress Ishita Sharma.
Aamad is about a father who is a Kathak dancer and how his son is embarrassed of his father’s art. The plot explores how they build their relation over a period of time and overcome their personal apprehensions and start a new friendship.
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Entertainment> Bollywood / HT Correspondent – Hindustan Times / June 16th, 2017
Two policemen –Sajjad Ahmad and Shabbir Ahmad– were killed in separate attacks by militants in Kashmir in last 24 hours.
Unidentified militants fired upon two policemen outside mosque after namaz in Hyderpora, resulting in injuries to both. One of them, Sajjad Ahmad, succumbed to his injuries on Friday.
This was the second attack by militants on policemen in the Kashmir valley.
Earlier on Thursday, militants shot dead a policeman in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
Constable Shabir Ahmad was shot outside his residence at Bogund in Kulgam, a police official said.
The cop was rushed to a local hospital but he did not survive.
The terrorists, however, managed to escape the scene after firing. A search operation was also launched to track them down.
Terror attacks aimed at security forces have increased in the Kashmir Valley, in the recent times.
A cordon and search operation was also launched at Arwani village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Friday after security forces received intelligence inputs about the presence of suspected terrorists in the area.
Militants had carried out a series of attacks on security forces on Tuesday in Kashmir, in which 13 jawans were injured and four service rifles looted. The attacks — four in south and one in north Kashmir — came in a span of four hours.
A grenade was hurled at a CRPF camp at Ladiyar in Tral area of Pulwama district. 10 paramilitary jawans were injured in the attack.
In the second attack, the militants opened firing on the security personnel guarding the residence of a retired high court judge at Anchidora in Anantnag district, resulting in injuries to two cops.
The third attack took place on a CRPF camp at Padgampora in Pulwama, but no one was hurt in it as the grenade hurled by the militants exploded mid-air.
The militants also hurled a grenade at Pulwama police station, resulting in minor injuries to a policeman.
Another attack took place near Bomai in North Kashmir’s Sopore, but no damage was caused.
(With inputs from agencies)
source: http://www.abplive.in / ABP / Home> ABP Live> India / by ABP News Bureau / June 16th, 2017
(From left) Zahid Husain, Alhaj A. Mohammed Ashraf, Mohamed Rifath Shaarook Raaj and Amanullah Shah | Photo Credit: special arrangement
Mohamed Rifath has just joined a physics undergraduate course at New College, but his classmates and teachers are seeing him as a star scientist. Read on and find out why
Can you imagine a fresher receiving a rousing welcome at his college, on the day of joining? When Mohamed Rifath Shaarook Raaj recently joined the B.Sc Physics stream of New College, he was being accorded a reception befitting a celebrity. Not only that, the secretary and correspondent of the college, A. Mohammed Ashraf, had waived off his fee for the undergraduate course, and also promised that the college would take care of his education till he completed his Ph.D.
Rifath, 18 years old, is the Lead Scientist of Space Kidz India (SKI), a Chennai-based organisation promoting students’ research in science and working towards making science accessible to students. Rifath is part of a team that has designed a satellite, which is expected to be launched into space on 21 June, 2017 from the NASA Wallops Space Flight Facility, Virginia, at no cost.
Major Zahid Husain, principal of the college, said that fellow students should emulate this young scientist and that it was a great honour for the college to enrol him. The student scientist has not only taken the local educationalists by storm but even the judges and directors of Colorado Space Grans Consortium were awe-struck by his experiment. Thus his satellite (supported by his team-mates) is planned to be launched into space on June 21, 2017 from NASA Wallops Space Flight Felicity, Virginia at no cost.
“NASA and I doodle Learning Inc. conducted a space challenge called ‘Cubes in Space’. Students have to design an experimental satellite which will help develop space technology. The best-designed satellite will get a sub-orbital space flight to real space on a NASA Rocket. Being a member of the NASA Kids Club, I learnt about this challenge and decided to design together with my team, an experimental satellite that will fit inside a 4cm cube and weigh 64 grams with +/- 1 gram limit (neither high nor less since it may affect the centre of gravity). Apart from creating just a payload, we wanted to design, build and launch a full satellite within a 4cm cube with a mass of 64 grams,” he explains.
Rifath, who hails from Pallapatti in Tamil Nadu, completed his schooling from Crescent Matriculation School, scoring 62.5% in the higher secondary board exams, and wants to emulate former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
“It all started when I was chided for making paper rockets; so I was determined to make a real one. I participated in the first edition of Young Scientist-2013 conducted by Space Kidz India and met its director Srimathy. I participated till the third edition of Young Scientist, even though I didn’t win but she noticed my talent. Then, I joined the organisation. My initial project with SKI was making a balloon-satellite with NSLV (Near Space Launch Vehicle) which was a huge success and we got into the Limca Book of Records and became the first private company in India to launch an NSLV. After launching a balloon-satellite to near space (>40km altitude), we wanted to send a satellite or a spacecraft to true Space (>100km where the Karman line and official true space starts). At first, we concentrated on the standard one unit 10cm cube satellite of 1kg mass but as we proceeded, we realised the cost would be too high. As students we were strapped for money and therefore, reduced the size and mass of the Cube satellites (Cube Satellite itself is a Nano satellite but we wanted to reduce the size further).
“At first, we wanted to create something similar to Kicksats but they are not true satellites but just a postcard sized PCB with non-customisable electronics, which cannot work, without a big mother satellite — in other words, it’s just a Space toy. But we always wanted to create an independent full-fledged fully-customisable, scalable, low-cost satellite with new technology. Initially we designed a 125gram, 5cm cube satellite which is 1/8th of a standard cube satellite which will also reduce the cost of the launch. But later, due to NASA’s challenge guidelines we built a 3.8cm independent cube satellite. Previously, a 5cm cube satellite was the smallest satellite, but now we are about to break that record and it’s also going to be the first 3D-printed satellite to be launched into space.
“Here, we are only talking about sub-orbital spaceflight in which our satellite will go into space on a rocket, do the research and land again on surface/ocean in a capsule, so the students can get back their satellite, research more and create a better space system which can be used in orbital and interplanetary missions. Our aim is not to just send a Cube satellite, built from Off-the-shelf components previously available in space market, and launch that into space. Our invention is to create a new space platform. We are also creating a space platform where our future scientists can develop their own payloads, and, for example, we can use this kind of Femto satellite constellations as Ham Radio reflectors which we can use in disaster-like situations when all other communications may fail.
We may face solar flares which may destroy satellites outside earth’s magnetosphere (36,000 km altitude). In situations like these, these Femto satellites can be a backup; they can be quickly launched and protected by an artificial magnetosphere, since they are very small. This satellite is fully 3D-printed, other than electronics.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by M.O. Badsha / June 16th, 2017
