Abidmian Lalmian Syed (1904-1991), more popularly known as A.L. Syed, is the Doyen of Indian photography. He is regarded as one of the key figures whose works have captured the glory and aura of the Princely States of pre-Independence India.
Born on February 2, 1904, in Vernawada, a village 16 kms from Palanpur, he spent his early childhood in the town where his father was hakim of the Royal family. It was a school tour of Mumbai in 1923 that played an important role in shaping his life. On that trip, a photograph he clicked of sunset at Chowpatty won him the First Prize in Illustrated Weekly of India’s snap shot competition. For the next five decades, his photographs were regularly featured on the pages of the Weekly.
Morning Time In Dyara – 1938 – A. L. Syed
In 1925, his images first began appearing in Kumar, a Gujarati magazine, edited by well- known artist Ravi Shankar Raval, and he was a regular contributor, with photos and feature articles till the publication ceased in 1940.
At that time he was already working with his elder brother, K.L. Syed, a well known freelance and also official court photographer in Palanpur. But unlike his brother, A.L. went beyond portraits, and his famous photograph ‘Traveller of the East’ taken in 1934, won international recognition and was published as one of the world’s best photographs in Odhan Press Home Library series. Since then it has been a part of over 40 international exhibitions and winner of the annual Popular Photography award in 1935, and later became part of the famous Hutchinson Collection in the USA.
Street Sweeper – 1938 – A. L. Syed
One of his many one-man shows was inaugurated by the then President of India, V.V. Giri, on the occasion of the 6th Convention of the Federation of Indian Photography hosted by the Camera Society, Delhi.
Another of his photographs, ‘Difficult Ascent’ was chosen for an award from among the 2,500 received from 15 Asia Pacific countries in the Asia Pacific Cultural Center for the UNESCO (ACCU) Photo Contest in Tokyo in 1977, and in 1980 he was given the honour of inaugurating a photographic exhibition organized by Illustrated Weekly of India to commemorate its centenary. Later in 1983, he was one of the 10 eminent photographers of the world to receive the India International Photographic Council’s highest honour, the Honorary Fellowship for outstanding contribution and service to various branches of photography.
Mr. Syed was more than a photographer; he was a master artist, highly respected in Indiaand abroad, both professionally and personally. His skill in bringing alive remarkable images of day to day life around the country and crafting exquisite portraits have made his work live long after he passed away on August 30, 1991.
His was the hand behind the Arabic inscriptions on the Taj Mahal, which have captivated tourists from across the world.
But today, the mausoleum and the dwelling of Amanat Khan, the calligrapher of the Taj Mahal, lies in decay, neglect and encroachment.
Sarai Amanat Khan, about 29 kilometres south-east of Amritsar on Tarn Taran Attari road, was built by Khan in 1640, where he lived a reclusive life following the death of his elder brother Afzal Khan, the prime minister of Shah Jahan.
But here too, Khan, who came to India from Iran in 1609 and whose real name was Abdul Haq before being conferred the title of “Amanat Khan” by Shah Jahan for his impressive calligraphy, has left the imprint of his craft — the sarai has beautiful Islamic calligraphy inscribed on its fading blue and yellow tiles.
Sarai Amanat Khan was also a guest house, where travellers on the Lahore-Agra route on the Grand Trunk Road would stop for rest in the middle of a long strenuous journey. They would live in the small rooms inside the sarai, and pray in the adjacent mosque and large courtyard.
Today, Sarai Amanat Khan is dilapidated — the Nanakshahi bricks are falling off, and the eastern gate is in disarray; some 800 feet below it is Khan’s ruined tomb.
The sarai is in the middle of a densely populated village, also named after Amanat Khan.
With several shops in its immediate vicinity, the Archaeological Survey of India-protected monument is a site of rampant encroachment. Several families live inside the rooms of the sarai illegally, and claim to have been doing so since Partition. “I was born here,” says 50-year-old Ranjit Singh. “People have been living here since 1947. There had been talks about giving us alternative land and compensation, but those have not materialised,” he adds.
source: http://www.archive.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Archive / by Navjeevan Gopal, New Delhi / July 29th, 2012
In 2014, the Congress-led government had sanctioned Rs 10 crore for the construction of an Urdu Bhavan at Mumbai University’s Kalina campus to promote the language
The state govt’s proposal to set up a centre for the language outside of the university, where it even has an allocated space, has language lovers crying foul
In 2014, the Congress-led government had sanctioned Rs 10 crore for the construction of an Urdu Bhavan at Mumbai University’s Kalina campus to promote the language. Land was allocated and bhoomi poojan was performed. However, the project never saw the light of day.
Cut to present: The state government has proposed building the Urdu Bhavan in Byculla,. “The bhavan will come up on a 10,000 sqft area near the Agripada police station. And, if we get a larger FSI, we will be able to construct a four-storeyed structure with state-of-the-art facilities. We have asked the Centre to provide us with R50 crore for this,” says advocate Waris Pathan, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislator from Byculla, who has been at the forefront of getting approvals for this project. As per the proposal, the bhavan will have a library, convention centre, a girls’ hostel and will offer a range of new courses. “The Urdu readership in Byculla is high so it will see a lot of traction,” says Pathan
‘It’s not a Muslim language’
Yet, the news of the bhavan coming up at Byculla has lovers of the language divided. Members of Jai Ho Foundation, a charity organisation in Kurla, have written a letter to the Union Minority Affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, CM Devendra Fadnavis, Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, education minister Vinod Tawde and MU VC Suhas Pednekar, requesting them to reconsider the location. “We want the centre to be built inside the varsity because that will make it more accessible to students. By constructing it in a Byculla bylane, they are propagating the misguided notion that it’s a Muslim language,” says Jai Ho’s president Afroz Malik. Presently, the MU has a bhasha (language) bhavan dedicated to Marathi and Sanskrit.
There have been talks about building a Hindi bhasha bhavan as well. Malik says Kalina is a strategic location which makes it convenient for people commuting from both the suburbs as well as from South Mumbai. Moreover, setting it up in a healthy academic atmosphere will only help promote the language, he adds. “MU has people enrolling from all walks of life. It also has students from overseas. Urdu will get more exposure,” he states.
A matter of space
Meanwhile, the land allocated to the Urdu Bhavan at Kalina remains vacant. This is in stark contrast to the buzzing Urdu department, which has seen a sharp growth in the number of students as well as non-teaching staff. “The increasing curiosity around the language has translated into more people signing up for courses. The MA course sees more enrolments,” Dr Sahab Ali, head of Urdu department, says. Presently, the department has an overall strength of 200 students. While Dr Ali is happy to learn of a bhavan coming up in Byculla, he says it’s not enough. “I would want the centre to be built here because we are running out of space to accommodate students,” he says. The Urdu department at MU was established in 1982.
In 2013, Dr Ali had written to the Department of Minorities Affairs requesting the need for a bhasha bhavan to cater to the growing needs of the language. The request received the green light in 2014. The change in ruling parties resulted in the project languishing for years.
Farid Khan, convenor of Urdu Caravan, an NGO that promotes Urdu language and culture, says he sees merit in NGO Jai Ho’s stand. “I believe a language will thrive in an academic setting.”
source: http://www.mid-day.com / mid-day.com / Home> News> National News / by Anju Maskeri / May13th, 2018
A.K.Hussain of Ahamad Brothers of Tiruchy was unanimously elected as president.
Tiruchy:
Former students of Jamal Mohamed college (JMC) of Tiruchy formed an alumni association recently for which A.K.Hussain of Ahamad Brothers of Tiruchy was unanimously elected as president. In a release at Tiruchy on Tuesday, Hussain said while Abdul Aleem, founder of the Ant-Dowry Association of Koothanallur was elected as secretary, Riyaz of Tiruchy was elected as treasurer.
Basheer Ahamed and Dr. Gobinath of Tiruchy were elected as vice-presidents and Mohammed Ismail and Dhanraj of Tiruchy as joint secretaries. In addition to this, a seven member executive committee has been formed with auditor Murugan, Nazeer Ali, Padmanabhan, Senthilkumar, advocate Madhani, Akbar Ali and B.G. Naidu Balaji, he added.
Hussain said that old students working and settled abroad had already formed and were running the JMC alumni associations in various countries including at Malaysia, Singapore, Kuwait,Saudi Arabia and Chennai in TN and giving scholarships to poor students of JMC. They were also helping to improve infrastructure and construct new buildings for the college. The newly formed Tiruchy based alumni associati-on of the JMC also will follow the footprints of the existing alumni associations, he added. Secretary of the JMC Dr. Khaja Najummudeen, assistant secretary Jamal Mohamad Sahib and others greeted office bearers of the newly formed alumni association.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> In Other News / Deccan Chronicle / July 15th, 2015
Karim’s had transformed from a local purveyor of aloo gosht into a monument. It was visited by princes and prime ministers, eulogised by journalists, studied by historians, and patronised by tourists.
Haji Zahooruddin (extreme right) with Bollywood star Dilip Kumar.(Image courtesy Zain-al-Abedin,Zaeemuddin Ahmed and family))
When Haji Zahooruddin started working at Karim’s over 70 years ago, the business consisted of a single restaurant run by his father and grandfather. On January 27, when he died at the age of 85, Zahooruddin was the managing director of a small empire, with 26 outlets overseen by around a dozen other family members.
Karim’s had transformed from a local purveyor of aloo gosht into a monument. It was visited by princes and prime ministers, eulogised by journalists, studied by historians, and patronised by tourists.
Much though Karim’s success was the result of adaptation to changing times — with the addition of Punjabi butter chicken to the Mughlai menu, for example, and the establishment of small take-out joints throughout the city — Zahooruddin devoted himself to protecting Karim’s most valuable asset: its heritage.
“This is time-tested Mughlai food and we do it well,” he told an English daily in 2013, “so why should we change?”
Karim’s changed only as much as it had to. Striking this balance enabled Zahooruddin’s “number one contribution”, said Shahid Siddiqui, a regular at the restaurant who has written extensively about Old Delhi. “He introduced the food of the old city to New Delhi and to the public in general.”
The Karim’s family attributes their culinary lineage to Mohammad Awaiz, a chef in the royal court of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar. When the British sacked Delhi and expelled the king to Rangoon, Awaiz fled. He settled in Ghaziabad and found other work, but taught his son, Haji Karimuddin, everything he knew about Mughal cuisine. During the coronation of King George V in Delhi in 1911, Karimuddin returned to the imperial city and set up a food stall. In two years, he made enough money to open a restaurant.
Karimuddin’s son, Haji Nooruddin, had four sons of his own, including Zahooruddin, who was born around 1932. He started working at Karim’s at the age of 12. The young boy learned the power of belonging to the Karim’s family when a particularly strict teacher demanded Zahooruddin hand over the food in his tiffin box every day at lunchtime. Zahooruddin may have gone hungry, but he was spared the beatings inflicted on his classmates.
He spent his whole adult life working at the restaurant, learning its traditions zubaani (orally) and mixing spices with his male relatives — the only ones allowed to know Karim’s recipes. In the late 1940s, he married Samar Jahan, also a resident of Old Delhi, and had four children, two of them sons who have spent their careers working at Karim’s. Four of Zahooruddin’s grandchildren now manage branches of the restaurant.
Zahooruddin’s son Zaid-ul-Abedin, his brother Salahuddin, and nephew Zaeemuddin, three of the current directors of Karim’s, say that his focus was always on Karim’s buniyaad, both in terms of values and dishes. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)
Clients and business associates found Zahooruddin to be a commanding figure, and heeded his advice. For newlyweds, he recommended nahari; to the sick, thigh meat for its high degree of bone marrow; to one fat customer, Siddiqui remembered Zahooruddin making the suggestion, improbable for a restaurateur, that the man eat a little less. If a customer said something was wrong with their mutton or chicken, Zahooruddin would keep the piece of meat and show it to his butcher in disapproval. “Babu would scold me sometimes,” said Javed Qureshi, whose family has supplied Karim’s with meat for decades, “but he loved me like a son.” Qureshi is one of many people who refer to Zahooruddin as “Babu” (father).
As time went on, Karim’s business grew, and its legend along with it. The family opened a second branch in Nizamuddin in the years before the Emergency. The former Presidents Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and Zakir Husain became devoted customers, the latter ordering his food to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Indira Gandhi was also fond of Karim’s, but had security guards oversee the meals cooked for her.
The obvious antiquity of Karim’s Jama Masjid alleyway, its family’s claims of royal patronage, their distinctive Old Delhi Urdu, their promotion of old-fashioned dishes such as mutton brains — all this was stimulus for myth-making and myth-debunking. Historians debate whether Karim’s famous ‘istoo’ is authentically Mughal or secretly British. Some trace the family’s origins to a Saudi Arabian soldier who became Babur’s personal cook, but Zaeemuddin Ahmed, Zahooruddin’s nephew, said the family does not know anything about their ancestors prior to Awaiz.
In 1988, when Karim’s registered itself as a company, Zahooruddin was made chairman. When his brother Alimuddin Ahmed died in 2007, Zahooruddin took over from him as managing director. A slim gentleman with a well-trimmed moustache, he became the public face of his venerable restaurant. He attended numerous award ceremonies and made an appearance on the NDTV show Foodistan. At such moments, Zahooruddin smiled with the discomfort of a dignified man in a flamboyant place.
The public image of him as an embodiment of Old Delhi customs was shared by those who knew him personally. When Faiz-ul-Islam, his friend of over 40 years, returned from Haj, Zahooruddin invited 200 of Islam’s friends for a free breakfast at Karim’s, in keeping with his sense of mehmannawazi (hospitality). “He did it without takalluf (hesitation) and without a single line on his forehead,” said Fazl-ul-Islam, Islam’s son.
Zahooruddin performed culinary experiments, sometimes inventing his own dishes, while also sampling the food from different outlets of Karim’s every week to ensure his standards were being upheld. He insisted that the core of the menu — qorma, nahari, mutton burra, kebab — remain untouched.
“Babu used to say, ‘If we let others own a franchise, will they give the same attention to the quality of spices we use?’” said Zain-ul-Abedin, Zahooruddin’s son. “For example, he would say that cloves are something most people don’t eat: they take it out and put it aside on the plate. So another restaurant owner may think, ‘What is the use of putting in the cloves or buying the best-quality cloves?’ But clove adds to the taste, its juices mix with the food and bring out the smell of meat.”
What he was selling, after all, was not just food. Visit Humayun’s Tomb, and you’ll find a silent testament to the dead. Visit Zahooruddin’s restaurant, and you’ll find traces of the past still alive.
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Delhi / by Alex Traub and Zehra Kazmi, Hindustan Times / February 01st, 2018
In his quivering voice you could hear the rustle of silk and the muffled sound of a broken heart. Few singers could put the listener in a blue mood like Talat Mahmood, who passed away on May 9 exactly 10 years ago.
And thanks to a website created by his son Khalid that gets about 1,50,000 hits every week from Indians and Pakistanis all over the world – “and a few Israelis”, Khalid adds – his memory is fresh as ever.
“Talat saab came from Lucknow and his Urdu pronunciation was perfect. He could exactly reproduce a song the way a composer had conjured up in his mind. He was an original singer whose distinctive voice was near impossible to duplicate,” recalls masterclass music director Khayyam.
One of the veteran music composer’s memorable compositions – Shaam-e-gham ki kasam (film: Footpath) – was sung by Talat, also known as king of ghazals. Khayyam recalls that in that memorable song he had experimented with the orchestration by not using any rhythm instrument like tabla.
“We used a piano, guitar and solo vox, a basic version of the synthesizer used in those days. Recording the number took plenty of time. But Talat saab ke mathe pe shikan nahi aayee,” he says.
Senior lyricist Naqsh Lyallpuri remembers a recording with the singer. The song was Zindagi kis mod pe laayi mujhe, from the film “Diwali ki Raat”. Snehal Bhatkar was the music director. Says Lyallpuri, “We had only two musicians at the rehearsal. They were playing the tabla and the sitar. But the producer liked his singing so much that he said, there is no need for any other instrument. We recorded the song with just those two instruments.”
Lyallpuri remembers Talat as an extremely soft spoken man. Which Khayyam affirms. “He was a perfect gentleman. With him there was no loose talk. He was always well-dressed: his shoes shining and his trousers perfectly creased.”
To honour his father’s memory, Khalid Mahmood set up a website, talatmahmood.net, just a few months after the singer’s death in 1998 at the age of 74. Apart from the huge number hits every day, he also gets about 200-300 emails every week.
“The choice for me was between doing a book and setting up a website. I settled for the latter because it is more accessible,” says Khalid.
Talat recorded his first track way back in 1941 and sang around 750 songs in 12 languages. He also acted in over a dozen movies such as “Dil-e-Nadaan”, “Lala Rukh” and “Ek Gaon Ki Kahani”.
Few know that the singer-actor aroused mass hysteria when he arrived in Trinidad in West Indies on a concert tour in 1968. Fans thronged the roads from the airport to the city. The local group, West Indies Steel Band, composed a Calypso track in his honour. They sang, “Talat Mahmood we are proud and glad, to have a personality like you here in Trinidad.”
Talat is long gone. But as long as the human heart knows how to fall in love and emerge with ache, his velvet voice will live on.
(avijit.ghosh@timesgroup.com)
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> India News / May 09th, 2008
Could the Tiger’s position — now behind a glass case, its crank handle inaccessible to the public — be an apology for the disrespect permitted in East India House?
The artefact sitting in V&A was iconic, identifiable and far away from home
The day I saw Tipu’s Tiger behind its glass case at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London was a day of significance. That morning, after months of being cooped up in Oxford, some friends and I took the train to Marylebone and found the absence of dreaming spires refreshing to say the least. At noon, a friend from India was waiting for me on the other side of the busy Camden High Street. As we hugged amidst the crush of gliding Londoners, her muffled exclamation might have been: ‘It’s so crazy we’re meeting here of all places, so far from home.’
That phrase would be borrowed by me on two separate occasions during the day. In the evening, I stood before Julian Barnes at the Royal Institution and told him how I had read ‘A Short History of Hairdressing’ over and over again to teach myself the ‘architecture’ of a short story. I felt a potent urge then to parrot my friend. It was ‘crazy’ to see and hear Barnes in the flesh, so far from my bedroom in Kolkata, the only other place he had seemed real and, dare I say, attainable through his prose and through the material object, that is, his books in my hands, the only feasible rendezvous with the man.
I had never thought then it would happen: to have someone I studied so minutely sit before me and confess he didn’t think as highly of his short prose as I did.
Iconic meeting
The second occasion I was inclined to echo her words that day was when I stood in the South Asia section of the V&A before Tipu’s Tiger, which had always been relegated to the Did You Know section of our history books. It was not exactly like meeting an old friend or a revered author, but it bore all the characteristics of such a meeting. Like Barnes and my Kolkata friend, it was instantly iconic, identifiable from a distance, and a ready reminder of my distance from India. In fact, standing before the wooden automaton, slightly disconcerted, I addressed it and thought: ‘You are so far away from home.’
The possible inspiration for the mechanical figure seems fitting to some. Hector Munro Jr, whose father defeated Tipu’s father Hyder Ali in the Second Anglo-Mysore War in 1781, was mauled by a royal Bengal tiger at Saugor Island in 1792 and died from the injuries. This must have seemed like divine intervention to Tipu, a wrong set right. The carved and painted, almost life-size, wooden musical automaton was created for the Sultan, whose personal emblem was a tiger and whose hatred of the British was well-known.
The last laugh
With the fall, however, of Seringapatam and the execution of Tipu in the Fourth Mysore War of 1799, the Tiger travelled from the music room of Tipu’s summer palace to the Company’s East India House at Leadenhall Street in London, where the public was given access to view and play with it.
Its wooden body with a keyboard embedded in the flank was thrown open to the English masses who came in and played ‘God Save the King’ and ‘Rule, Brittania!’ upon it. If Tipu thought he had been mocking the Englishmen with the Tiger, they were now having the last laugh.
I deal with issues of empire and post-colonial anxiety almost on a daily basis, especially in a place like Oxford, especially on a course called World Literatures in English. Of course, when I first saw it, I silently demanded a restoration of the tiger to its previous owner, to its previous nation. My anger at seeing the Tiger in an English museum, so far away from home, was justifiable. The Tiger was not borrowed. Nor was it touring, as it had to New York’s MoMA in the 50s. Instead, it was a ‘permanent’ acquisition at the V&A.
Of collaborations
For every Indian schoolchild, the Tiger, just an artefact but nonetheless awe-inspiring, was not an affordable train or flight away, like Fatehpur Sikri or Sher Shah’s tomb.
For me, the Tiger’s distance from my home was a reiteration of the national and racial distinctions not only of the Anglo-Mysore variety, but also of the Jadavpur-Oxford type that I faced every day. Besides dodging questions like ‘If you’re from India, how’s your English so good?’ for the past few months, I had had to clarify to a white friend who subsisted on the chic-ideal of Zadie Smith that India has Bengalis too, and no, I did not have relatives in Brick Lane, not that I knew of anyway.
Seeing Tipu’s Tiger that day catalysed a recollection of an afternoon in 2016 in the Victoria Memorial Hall with Thomas Daniell and his nephew William. Their tranquil scenes of India, while in stark contrast to the ferocity of the Tiger, do something interesting.
The English hands of the Daniells reproduce the Indian hands of the architects behind the buildings and locations they sketch. Their canvas becomes a surface of Anglo-Indian collaboration, similar to how it is conjectured that the mechanics of the Tiger have an Indo-French history.
This recollection, and the subsequent contemplation on collaboration, made me think of several works of restoration that the V&A carried out upon the Tiger, especially after the bombing of London in World War II. Could this act of restoration be seen as an act of reparation? Could the Tiger’s position — now behind a glass case, its crank handle inaccessible to the public — be an apology for the disrespect permitted in East India House?
The Tiger, so far from home, is an icon that reminds me of a past based on plunder and pillage by the nation it sits in. Yet, its 18th century splendour has weathered war and wear so well. Do present acts of safekeeping obliterate the violent history of its, for want of a better word, theft?
I am persuaded to wonder if the Tiger is now a collaboration between Tipu’s Mysore craftsmen and its modern conservationists in England and if I should be thankful for the restoration. Are the acquisition and conservation of an Indian object in a British museum and the works of British painters displayed in a Calcutta museum an instance of transnational collaboration and exchange? But in the case of Tipu’s Tiger, this then also begs the question: how long is too long before we forget that what is ‘acquired’ is what was once ‘removed’ from its home?
The writer, a Felix Scholar, is studying World Literatures in English at Oxford
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Rohit Chakraborty / May 05th, 2018
Mushairas and Kavi Sammelans, being one of the latest trends in Lucknow, usually get to witness a majority of male poets with only a handful of lady poets in attendance.
Qazi Meraj Ahmad and Sabiha Ahmad (R) Aisha Ayub (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal
However, to give the trend a twist, Aisha Ayub organised a mushaira titled Raushnaai – Bazm-e-Sukhan at Buddha Research Centre which had just women poets participating.
A total of 11 ladies from all across India, shared their thoughts and feelings in the form of poetry with the audience and surprised many with their talent.
Aisha, while highlighting the reason for this initiative, shared, “It is said that women are more expressive than men, then why do we get to see the majority of males in the field of mushaira? In order to bring a change and prove that women are no less than their male counterparts, I organised this event. It took me around two months to gather 11 women poets, whom people don’t know much about but who are strong with their poetic skills for this event.”
Sabra Habib (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
Dr Sabra Habib, a professor and a writer anchored the event.
Malvika Hariom and Meenakshi (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)Manisha Sharma and Raj Smriti (R) Sharib Rudaulvi (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)Uzma Ishrat and Taha Mahmood (R) Dimple Trivedi (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)Dr Mehnaz and Mini (R) Faryal Faisal (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)Hina (R) Geetanjali Rai (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
Geetanjali Rai, a 28-year-old poet and an IT analyst, recited her poems Neem Ka Ped and Jaadugar, while Hina Rizvi, a housewife, presented the poems Binte Hawa Hun Main, Daamane Ulfat Se Nikalna Bhi Nahi Hai Mujhko, among others.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> Entertainment> Hindi> Events> Lucknow / TNN / by Adnan Rizvi / May 04th, 2018
Four friends sat down to hang out one evening in 2016, a couple of months before Durga Puja. The idea was to discuss a plan that one of them had, to bounce it off among the other three. Fortunately, they were very excited at the idea… and thus started their project to feed Kolkata.
It started as one “ATM” to “ladle” out free food to the hungry. In a period of just nine months, it’s gone up to three ATMS. And, if things go according to plan, there’ll be two more before Puja this year.Together, the three Food ATMs, as the project is being lovingly called, feed at least 2,000 people each day. The first one came up on the EM Bypass at Uttarpanchanna Gram, the second opposite Ladies Park on CIT Road, and the third one inside Ramleela Maidan off Moulali. The fourth is supposed to come up at Bhowanipore, near Chakraberia, and then a fifth near the 8B bus stand at Jadavpur.
Restaurateur Asif Ahmed and his three entrepreneur friends Prakash Nahata, Rahul Agarwal and Nirmal Bajaj decided to start their endeavour as a sort of experiment by connecting with clubs that organise Puja. With the first letters of their names they formed Pran, a group to fight for a hunger-free Kolkata. Almost every club cooks and feeds bhog on all four days of Puja. “We requested them to cook some extra bhog, so that we could distribute it among pavement-dwellers,” Ahmed says. “We were able to convince 15 clubs, and they gave us immense quantities of food, which we were able to distribute among hungry pavement-dwellers. The gratitude and satisfaction we saw on those poor faces was the incentive that sowed the seeds of the Food ATM project.”
Ahmed first turned his attention towards the food that his restaurant was left with at the end of each day. At his Uttar Panchannagram outlet, he got his workers to cool, pack and refrigerate the food, so that it could be distributed. His friends got a real estate company to donate a specially designed refrigerator, kept outside his restaurant, packed with food. Twice a day, the food was distributed to the needy. “We started on August 15, 2017 to emphasize the freedom factor. What is the value of freedom unless we are able to give freedom from hunger to everyone in the city?” Ahmed says.
Bengali New Year’s Day was celebrated on April 15 a little differently at the Ramleela Maidan. Members of the Entally Yuvak Brinda joined hands with Pran to start the city’s third food ATM. A special room was built beside the park, where the refrigerator is kept stocked with food, water and cold drinks, to be distributed among the homeless twice each day. At least 10 restaurants in the vicinity have been sending their packed excess food to the food ATM. “We just had to visit the restaurant owners and tell them about our intent, and they readily agreed. If the city restaurants stop wasting their leftover food and refrigerate it, we will be able to eradicate hunger completely,” says Jami Siddique, theclub’s secretary.
Most restaurants have to throw away the food even after feeding their staff, as they do not have extra refrigeration facilities and also because they cannot serve it to customers the next day. They just needed an organised, hygienic and efficient collection and distribution system, which is why the idea of the food-ATM seemed so appealing to the donors. “Once in a while, restaurants also give away cold drink bottles, which we gratefully accept,” says Sujoy Banerjee, a member of the club’s Food ATM organising committee. Members are now going a step further and approaching households in the area, telling them not to waste food but to pack it up neatly and call a helpline number that the club has set up, so that it can be collected from their doorsteps. “Even one small container of rice and a little dal or dry sabzi, which is what we are able to collect from most households, is enough lunch for a hungry mouth,” Siddique says.
You have to be present at Ramleela Maidan around 1pm or 9pm any given day to see how the distribution is done and to see how happily the recipients — especially the kids — are, leaving with the food packets. “Khub bhalo khabar… we even get pieces of chicken, fish or eggs at times,” says Monua Patra, a 70-year-old woman who comes with her grandchildren for the food every day. “We share the food amongst us. God bless these good men,” she says.
Perhaps the most popular of all the food ATMs is the one opposite Ladies Park on CIT Road. “At this ATM, we are not only getting food from restaurants, but also get excess food and cakes from birthday parties, wedding halls and party organisers,” says Surjya Kanta Haldar, the points person for this ATM.
This ATM is also getting a lot of donations from schoolchildren of Don Bosco Park Circus and Mahadevi Birla Girls HS School, who keep chocolate, juices and cakes on their birthdays. “These happen quite often nowadays and we are able to happily distribute the goodies among the needy kids,” Haldar says.
Both in Bhowanipore and Jadavpur, Pran is in the last stages of discussion about starting the ATMs. The refrigerators come free from the real estate group in accordance with the agreement with Pran. “The real challenge is that the club members need to network with local restaurants and in the neighbourhood to get a steady chain of donors,” Ahmed adds.
At each partner restaurant, efforts are on to educate patrons about the initiative so that after they have eaten what they need, they can ask waiters to pack up the leftovers. Needless to say, the idea has clicked.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Kolkata News> Civic Issues / TNN / May 05th, 2018
Irshad Kamil at Panjab University’s Hindi department
Department of Hindi, Panjab University organized ‘Rukhsat 2018’ the farewell ceremony for M.A fourth semester students on Wednesday.
The students of the department presented a cultural program and brought together the folk dances like Gidda, Himachali Naati and Rajasthani folk dance.
The chief guest for the event was celebrated Bollywood lyricist Dr Irshad Kamil.
He awarded 26 meritorious students with various scholarships. He also presented the special scholarship as a tribute to his mother Begum Iqbal to two meritorious students, Divya and Manjinder.
The Department presented Kamil with his portrait as a souvenir.
Chairperson of Hindi dept, Dr Gurmeet Singh said that the highlight of the program was participation from a number of alumni of the department.
The judges panel comprised choreographer Preeti Arora, budding actor Satish Yadav and transgenderr activist Dhananjay.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Chandigarh News / TNN / May 02nd, 2018
