Sahil had a love for vehicles since childhood but he started getting fond of vintage cars when he bought one and got it restored.
New Delhi:
Syed Sahil Agha, a resident of Abul Fazal Enclave in Delhi’s Okhla, has more than 50 American, British cars as also the cars of the erstwhile Rajas and Nawabs in his collection.
Sahil had a love for vehicles since childhood but he started getting fond of vintage cars when he bought one and got it restored.
People would look in awe every time he drove out in his car. Soon enough, another connoisseur of vintage cars, bought his car and paid him a good sum for it. Sahil invested that money into buying two more vintage cars.
Gradually, he fell in love with these cars and started collecting them. Today, his collection of more than 50 vintage cars, includes a Singer 6 of 1931 and Standard Sports of 1929, which are the only two in the whole world.
Apart from these, Sahil also owns a 1947 V12 Lincoln, a Mustang and many special sports cars.
Sahil also included the cars of many rajas and maharajas in this journey to preserve vintage cars.
He believes that awareness should be raised amongst people to save such vehicles. He also helps the owners of such vintage cars in fixing them.
Agha says his motive is to preserve these cars which were usually scrapped, he does so by buying and restoring them. He believes that these cars are a part of India’s history which cannot be brought back once extinct.
Sahil is a graduate from Jamia, Delhi and has done his Post Graduate Diploma in Acting from Shri Ram Bhartiya Kala Kendra, Delhi. He is the son of senior journalist Mansoor Agha.
source: http://www.ummid.com / Ummid.com / Home> India> Life & Style / by IANS / October 21st, 2022
A Muslim woman from Kerala, Naaji Noushi’s decision to travel solo in her four-wheel car to watch the FIFA World Cup in Qatar shows her craziness towards the game of football and of course her madness towards travelling behind the wheel on hitherto uncharted routes.
As the World Cup fever is slowly gripping people and football fans, Noushi, an avid traveller, YouTuber and vlogger, commenced her journey to Qatar by driving a Mahindra Thar from Kannur, Kerala the other day.
Transport Minister Antony Raju flagged off the trip in the presence of village panchayat authorities, reports PTI. It was a dream come true for this soccer crazy woman who has always loved to take adventurous trips.
After reaching Mumbai via Coimbatore, she and her Thar, which is fondly named “olu” (means woman in local parlance), would land in Oman by ship. From there, she would travel via road and would cover Arab countries including UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia before reaching Qatar, which plays host to the FIFA World Cup this time.
Noushi said it may be for the first time that a woman from Kerala was undertaking an overlanding trip to the GCC nations and that too to watch the football world cup. “My plan is to enter Qatar by December 10 and watch the finale.
I am so excited about this trip. I am a hardcore Argentina fan and Lionel Messi…really want to see my favourite team lifting the cup,” she said. She will continue her stay in Qatar till December 31, according to the report.
Noushi said the trip was expected to be a complete van-life experience as all essential cooking articles were stocked in the vehicle. It is also planned to park the vehicle near toll plazas and petrol pumps and stay within it during nights.
She said she has an Oman driving licence, which has already been converted into an international one.
“I am a person who has been dreaming to see an Indian team playing the FIFA World Cup. Through this innovative trip, I am trying to be a part of the gala by reaching there in an Indian-made vehicle,” she said.
Noushi, who has completed her Plus-Two, married Noushad, an NRI, at a young age and became a mother at the age of 19. Describing the family as the pillar of support, she said her husband and children were her actual cheerleaders and were encouraging her to travel more.
Noushi has already completed four travel series including an all-India trip to Ladakh and shared the photos and videos through her social media pages. Noushi said her youngest child is just two years old but her mother is taking care of her children when children when she is away for travel.
“If a woman like me- a homemaker, a wife and a mother of five- can realise my dreams, any ordinary woman in Kerala can chase her dreams confidently,” she said. — PTI
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Indian Muslim> Women / by PTI / October 20th, 2022
Written almost a hundred years ago in a far-off land, this diary of a young Muslim woman anticipates our present situation of religious intolerance.
Book:A Long Way From Hyderabad: Diary Of A Young Muslim Woman In 1930s Britain
Author: Muhammadi Begum
Publisher: Primus
Price: Rs. 1,150
Diaries are like portmanteaus that have a habit of gathering diverse and often disparate genres within the folds of personal jottings.
Muhammadi Begum’s diary is a veritable mixed bag as her daily observations of the social life of the English university town, Oxford, are imbued with her Hyderabadi ruminations — the practical, poetic and philosophical musings of a young Muslim woman of Hindustan.
Located in Britain of the 1930s, the diary is both a historical journal with an ‘interwar’ and ‘pre-Independence’ air and a domestic memoir full of ‘homely’ quotidian details.
Daniel Majchrowicz’s helpful introduction delineating Muhammadi Begum’s contribution to the genre of female travel literature, and Kulsoom Husein’s familial account recalling the posthumous discovery and subsequent translation, provide rich intellectual and social contexts for understanding this thoughtfully edited and well-produced work.
But diaries are eccentric and whimsical texts, which refuse to tell well-ordered tales. While the reader impatiently waits for the classroom experiences of this outstanding student who had won a scholarship from the government of the Nizam of Hyderabad to study at Oxford from 1934 to 1937, the diary refuses to move beyond the author’s travails over her private tuitions which she took for qualifying the Responsions, the erstwhile Oxford entrance examination!
What could be the reasons for Muhammadi Begum not keeping a diary after she joined St. Hugh’s can only be guessed at as the reader has to be satisfied with the detailed entries for one year which begin with a visit to London and end with a trip from Europe. And although the ending shows that she was an independent and a self-sufficient mother, she repeatedly asserts that her self-confidence was firmly anchored in happy conjugality.
Since diaries often masquerade as unposted letters, Muhammadi Begum’s cross-cultural reflections serve an unstated epistolatory purpose within the testimonial turn of the form. Paralleling her actual letter-writing activity, an enterprise which she and her husband were forever engaged in, the enthusiastic entries regarding conversations, expeditions and explorations add novelty to an otherwise quotidian account of the uncertain and strapped situation of an overseas student’s life in England.
There are important takeaways from this unfinished work. As part of the burgeoning female form, there are noticeable introspective beginnings in the areas of freedom and tolerance. Critically speaking, beginnings don’t necessarily mark a break from the past but indicate an intention towards the meaning-making process.
Likewise, in this diary, beginnings are often ruptured by their collision and collusion with tradition and continuity. Yet, they produce meaningful differences.
For instance, the author’s analysis of English piety and Hindustani prejudice is startlingly relevant for our present times. Despite being a practicing Muslim and a devout believer, she notes the sincerity of English religiosity as against the practice of paying “lip service to ritual” observable in Hindustani compatriots. This difference prompts her to remark that people “at home” know “how to make an uproar and create a public scene over some minor issue”. She then rhetorically asks, “Don’t we realize that the need for sanctity near places of worship has to go with a willingness to educate the public?”
Written almost a hundred years ago in a far-off land, this diary of a young Muslim woman anticipates our present situation of religious intolerance. Or is it that our intolerance has been around for a much longer time?
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> Culture> Books / by Sharmila Purkayashtha / September 09th, 2022
Urdu writers and literary critics at the university have contributed in their own meaningful ways to keep the Persio-Urdu literary culture alive.
Some of the Urdu books written by the professors of the Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University.
Bilingualism, in many cases even multilingualism, being a special quality of most Indians, it comes as no surprise that many scholars working in various English Departments of Indian universities and colleges have produced work of considerable merit in several Indian languages. Often this work, both creative and critical, has not been sufficiently acknowledged because the English Departments in India were mostly concerned with the canonical study of English literature. The work done on the English canon and on Indian languages belonged to two different domains, with a separate group of readers.
With a drastic change in the nature of English studies in India in the last two decades or so, the broadening of the English canon following a decolonising process, the introduction of literatures in Indian languages through English translations and their inclusion in university curricula, and a renewed confidence with which to view local and indigenous traditions of literature and criticism, these two domains are beginning to converge.
Urdu literature in an English department
While taking stock of the work produced in English Department at Aligarh Muslim University on the occasion of the Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, it was heartening to note that many scholars, otherwise well-known as hard-working teachers of English and sound scholars of English literature, contributed in a big way to Urdu literature and criticism. Their grounding in the Persio-Urdu literary culture and knowledge of English literary and critical traditions gave them a distinct identity, which also offered a position of advantage in many ways for approaching English literary texts.
These academics were often straddling two worlds without getting sufficient acknowledgement from either. For the western critics and academics they pretended to know what they were not fully entitled to and were hence treated with a degree of condescension, and for their counterparts in Indian languages English professors were trespassers into a territory to which they had forfeited the rights when they opted for a foreign language and literature.
Three important categories of the AMU English Department’s contribution to Urdu can be identified. First, those who joined the Department as faculty members, spending a great deal of their time in Aligarh writing in both Urdu and English. Second, members of the English Department who read in Urdu but wrote in English, either translating from Urdu to English or writing academic articles and books using Urdu sources. Third, those who studied in the Department of English but moved out to different places, doing substantial work belonging to either of the two categories: creative work, literary criticism, and translation into Urdu from English.
The association of the first two categories of people with Urdu also tells the story of the gradually changing status of the language in India. Most of the people, or rather all, belonging to the first category were born in undivided India, when Urdu had a vibrant presence in the country. The generation born before Independence also had the advantage of being familiar with Persian, which made their Urdu impeccable. The second category, born after Independence, was generally more proficient in reading Urdu than in writing in the script, and have mostly written in English.
Mapping out the work of the faculty members of English Department since independence, it emerges that a good number of them, beginning with Professor Khwaja Manzoor Hussain (1904-1986), had a substantial output of Urdu literature and literary criticism. Well-versed in English, Urdu and Persian, Khwaja Manzoor Hussain, chairman of the Department from 1946 to 1948, was a man of immense learning, much sought after for his insights into literature.
Asloob Ahmad Ansari, an eminent Urdu critic mentions in his profile of Hussain in his book Aina Khane Mein that leading Urdu writers and poets like Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pitras Bukhari, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Wiqar Azeem, Intizar Husain, and Shan ul Haq Haqqi have acknowledged Manzoor Hussain’s range of scholarship and critical insights into literature.
Ansari also writes that Faiz sent his famous nazm “Ye daagh daagh ujala ye shab guzida sahar” to Khwaja Manzoor Husain before its publication, and he read it in many gatherings in Aligarh. Another incident relates to English novelist EM Forster – he was a close friend of Sir Ross Masood, Sir Syed’s grandson and AMU’s vice chancellor from 1929 to 1934, and an inspiration for the character of Dr Aziz in Forster’s modern classic A Passage to India – when he was in Aligarh’s historic Union Hall Building to deliver a lecture on Charles Dickens, organised by the Raleigh Literary Society of the Department of English. Introducing the speaker, Khwaja mentioned some of the forgotten writings of Forster, which even the novelist probably did not remember. Forster remarked in wonderment, “You are slandering me”.
Aligarh Muslim University | Credit: PTI
How world literature inspired modern writings in Urdu
A cultured, soft-spoken and self-effacing person, Khwaja did not publish much while in Aligarh, though he was known to be translating some Russian short story writers into Urdu and working on different aspects of Urdu ghazals. It was only in the late 1970s that he published his book of Urdu translations of Russian stories with a preface written by Faiz Ahmad Faiz. Ansari is of the opinion that Hussain’s translation of the stories of writers like Chekhov influenced the course of the Urdu short story significantly.
In other words, Ansari suggests that Urdu writers of short stories were made familiar with Russian greats through Hussain’s translation. Treating some difficult and controversial literary and critical issues with frankness, his book titled Iqbal aur Baaz Dusre Shayar tries to assess Iqbal’s status vis-à-vis other important Urdu and Persian poets. His longstanding interest in the genre of the ghazal, especially its relationship to contemporary social and political movements, yielded two very important books in 1970s: Tahreek Jado Jihad Bataur Mauzu-o- Sukhan and Urdu Ghazal ka Khariji Roop Bahroop. Presenting a new proposition, and receiving bouquets and brickbats in equal measure, he argued that ghazal poetry has a political and social dimension which may not be directly visible on the surface, but is very much a part of this genre.
Salamatullah Khan, another important name in this context who joined the English Department in 1945 and retired as a reader (promotions were difficult at that time), was one of the pioneers of American literature in the northern part of India at a time when American literature hardly had any presence in universities and colleges. He can be spotted in a group photograph of the delegates who met in Mussoorie in 1962, a meeting which led to the establishment of the American Studies Research Center in Hyderabad (ASRC), at one time the best resource for books and journals on American studies.
Though Khan worked on Emily Dickinson for his doctoral thesis, a lesser-known aspect of his work is the publication of his three books in Urdu titled Majaz ka Almiya aur Doosre Mazameen (1969), Amriki Adab ka Mukhtasar Jayeza (1978), and Ernest Hemingway: Hayat-o-Fan ka Tanqidi Mutaala (1980). Majaz ka Almiya includes his essays on Mir Taqi Mir, Ghalib, Sauda, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, some rebel poets of Urdu, and the genres of ‘azad nazm’ and ‘inshaiya’. His history of American literature follows the method of literary history popular at that time, introducing first the pioneers like Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, and then discussing different trends and movement in American literature. His crisp and analytical style, not a very common feature of Urdu prose, makes his book on Hemingway, which covers all his important works, a good read even today.
How Aligarh Muslim University nurtured contemporary Urdu literature
The most prolific of all academics associated with the department was undoubtedly Asloob Ahmad Ansari (1925-2016), who wrote extensively in both English and Urdu. A bilingual critic, Ansari joined the department in 1947, headed it for almost two decades, and influenced a whole generation of his students and colleagues to read closely and write carefully.
An established Shakespeare and Blake scholar, he has a huge corpus of work in Urdu, mostly literary criticism, but also sketches and memoirs, and many edited volumes. Ghalib and Iqbal were his favourite poets, but he has written on almost all important Urdu poets. His books on Ghalib include Naqsh-e-Ghalib (1970), Naqsh Hai Rang Rang (1998) and on Iqbal Iqbal ki Terah Nazmein (1977), Iqbal ki Muntakhib Nazmein and Ghazlein (1994), Iqbal Harf-o-Mani (1998). Among the many books he edited, his two-volume GhazalTanqeed: Vali Deccani se Iqbal aur Maabad Iqbal Tak (2002) is especially remarkable for its comprehensiveness and variety.
Though he has written more on Urdu poetry, a dominant genre in Urdu literature, Ansari’s work does cover his analysis and evaluation of all canonic Urdu novels and other genres of prose. His books Urdu ke Pandrah Novel (2003) discusses, among others, important novels like Umraojan Ada, Maidan-e-Amal, Udas Naslein, and Aag ka Dariya. His book Aitraf-e-Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqui (1977) unravels the personality and art of Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui, a master humorist and satirist. His articles on different literary issues are included in Adab aur Tanqeed (1968) and Andazey (2008).
An excellent prose writer, Ansari has also written a delightful book of sketches, Aina Khane Mein, which includes his sketches and assessments of some of his contemporaries, such as Dr Zakir Husain, Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui, Khwaja Manzoor Husain, Maulvi Zia Ahmad Badauni, Dr Abdul Aleem, Syed Hamid, Malik Ram, Khaleeq Ahmad Nizami, Ale Ahmad Suroor, and Mukhtaruddin Arzoo.
Ansari brought out a literary journal in Urdu, Naqdo Nazar, which provided a platform to many of his colleagues to write on a regular basis. Among his colleagues in the Department of English, Professor ZA Usmani, Zahida Zaidi, Amin Ashraf, Mohd Yasin, Maqbool Hasan Khan, S Wiqar Husain, Abdul Raheem Kidwai, and Syed Asim Ali wrote for the journal regularly, often at his persuasion. He also motivated many young scholars from other disciplines, including people like Shafey Kidwai, now a Sahitya Akademi award winner in Urdu, to write for Naqdo Nazar.
Ansari himself contributed articles, analyses of poems and book reviews to the journal on a regular basis. In fact, often the major portion of the journal comprised his own contributions. He also brought out a collection of his editorials and obituaries published in Naqdo Nazar in his book Harf-e-Chand (2005). Many of Ansari’s articles, written over a long period of time, were published in book form in his last phase, largely due to the practical help he received from his former student Abdul Raheem Kidwai.
The work of Zahida Zaidi (1930-2011), a poet, dramatist, novelist, translator and above all a liberal face of Aligarh all through her career, will surely enjoy an afterlife as more and more English translations of her Urdu plays appear on the scene. Known for nurturing the talent of Naseeruddin Shah and introducing him to many Continental playwrights, Zaidi was one of the pioneers of Urdu drama. She translated the plays of Chekhov, Pirandello, Sartre, Beckett and the poems of Eugenio Montale, Garcia Lorca, and Pablo Neruda into Urdu. Full of elaborate stage directions, her Urdu plays are heavily inspired by absurdist theatre, where often there is minimalist use of stagecraft. Departing from the technique of realism, they have, however, been inspired by many real events and topical issues.
Woh Subah Kabhi Toh Ayegi (1990) a feminist play in many ways, responds to the issue of domestic abuse. In Doosra Kamra (1990) a play in which the line between dream and reality appears blurred, all characters meet in one room while another room becomes a frightening place, with dead bodies appearing in it one by one. Jungal Jalta Raha (1990) probes the complexities of human character and Kyun Kar Us But se Rakhoon Jan Azeez (1998) laments the loss of culture and values in academic spaces.
Responding to the tragedy of the Gulf War, she wrote Sahra-e-Azam (1991), an anti-imperialist play where she is critical of American bombing in Iraq. She also responded to the tragedy of Gujarat in her play Bahut Door Tak Raat Hogi (2006) and dedicated it to “the martyrs and persecuted people of Gujarat; those persecuted women who were victims of the lust of cruel beasts; those innocent people languishing in jails for their innocence; those innocent children who are in search of their lost paradise.” Like George Bernard Shaw, Zaidi wrote long prefaces to her plays which provide a rich commentary on the context, making it easier for her readers to appreciate the technique and thematic concerns.
Zahida Zaidi’s lone novel Inquilab ka Ek Din (1996) is a campus novel, talking about one day in the life of its young female protagonist, but its canvas is wider because her use of stream of consciousness narration in certain parts of the novel. Zaidi also has seven collections of poems, two in English titled Broken Mirror (1979) and Beyond Words (1984), and five in Urdu titled Zahr-e-Hayat, Dharti Ka Lams, Sang-e-Jan, Shola-e-Jan, and Sham-e-Tanhai.
A poet of ghazals and nazms, her poetry has different shades, topical, symbolic, experimental, and philosophical and spiritual; especially in her final collection Sham-e-Tanhai (2008). Defining the nature of her poetry in the preface of her book Shola-e-Jan (2000) she writes, “For me poetry is a practice of transforming deep and intense experiences into insights through the vehicle of creative rhythm and potential of language.” Her important write-ups on Urdu literature written in English are included in the book Glimpses of Urdu Literature: Select Writings (2011).
Syed Amin Ashraf (1930-2013), who joined the Department in 1963 and retired in 1991, was better known for his light-hearted conversation, bursting with anecdotes, and his Urdu couplets than for his scholarship. His three collections of poems, Jadah Shab (2000), Bahar Ejaad (2007) Qafs-e-Rang (2011), and a single collection of prose writings and translations Burg-o-Vabaar, were published many years after his retirement. Hailed as a poet of love, especially the sufic concept of love, his poetry, using very few words, holds an appeal for both heart and mind.
Amin Ashraf’s khanqahi background also colours his poetry. Jadah Shab, containing both nazms and ghazals, was written over almost half a century. In his introduction to Bahar Ejaad, a collection of his ghazals, eminent Urdu critic Shamsur Rahman Faruqi expresses the view that reading just a few ghazals of Amin Ashraf’s makes the reader not only a confidant of the poet’s, but also in posses himself composed those couplets.
Jadia Asjad, a research scholar at Aligarh Muslim University working on Amin Ashraf’s poetry, is of the view that there appears a conflict sometimes in Amin Ashraf’s mind between classical and modernist (jadeed) models of poetry but he was too devoted to classical tradition of poetry to try modernist poetry. Burg-o-Vabaar includes his explication of many nazms and scholarly essays on various poets and writers like Iqbal, Fani, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Muzaffar Hanafi and a comparative view of the conception of Satan in Milton and Iqbal. His Urdu translations of Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800) titled Shayri aur Shayri Zabaan-o-Bayaan, American critic Mark Schorer’s famous essay “Technique as Discovery” titled “Takneek Daryaaft ki Hasiyat Se” and an essay of French critic Paul Valery greatly benefited his Urdu readers.
Mohd Yasin (1932-2010), a hard working teacher, authored two very important books in Urdu titled Angrezi Adab ki Mukhtasar Tareeq and Naqoosh-o-Afkaar aur Nazaryat: Muntakhib Mazaamin (2010) in addition to his articles and book reviews published in Naqdo Nazar. First published in 1971, Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu Hind, at the insistence of famous Urdu critic Ale Ahmad Suroor, had its revised and expanded second edition in 1990 (Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy) and a third revised edition in 2009 (Educational Book House, Aligarh). This book, indebted to Legouis and Cazamian’s famous A History of English Literature, was written with an awareness that Urdu readers not only need to know English literature in order to assess the limitations or the special features of their literature, but they can also approach world literature through a window provided by the ideas, forms and philosophy contained in English literature.
His essays in Naqoosh-o-Afkar, written over a long period of time, include his sketches of Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui, Majnoo Gorakhpuri, Amelendu Bose, Maulana Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi, Ale Ahmad Suroor, Ateeq Ahmad Siddiqui, and Syed Amin Ashraf, including his observations on different literary issues and his point of view on many social and political problems faced by Aligarh Muslim University and Indian Muslims. He also familiarised Urdu readers by writing essays on French novelists Balzac and Flaubert in Naqdo Nazar.
Najma Mahmood’s collection of poems Registan mein Jheel (2014) reflects the modernist sensibility of an accomplished poet of nazms and songs. Drawing upon the images from nature like lake, river, water, rains, waves, sea, lightening, moon, sky and many others, her work touches on, among other subjects, themes of creativity, beauty, gender-relations and problems of existence. There is not only an element of restlessness in her poetry, noted by Syed Hamid, or shades of romanticism, noticed by Waheed Akhtar, there is also a deep psychological and spiritual probing in her nazms. Her feminist concerns are most visible in her famous poem Mother Goddess.
(From L to R): Asloob Ahmad Ansari, Zahida Zaidi, Syed Amin Ashraf, Najma Mahmood.
Many other members of the Department wrote and published in Urdu. Masoodul Hasan(1928-2019), a prolific writer in English till his last days, wrote interesting and critical reviews of all books sent to him as presents. His articles, reviews and creative pieces in Urdu are included in Maya-e-Khewesh (2019), ably compiled and edited by Mohammad Haris Bin Mansoor.
Maqbool Hasan Khan’s writings on Ghalib, Iqbal and Qurratulain Hyder were greatly appreciated. In fact, Khan disagreed with the largely held view of Urdu critics about Hyder’s stream of consciousness technique in her novels. ZU Usmani, widely praised for his insights into difficult literary texts, wrote on Ghalib, Fani, Premchand, and Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui in Naqdo Nazar. S Wiqar Husain, a very well-read person, wrote insightful essays on Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui’s symbolic characters, features of Moin Ahsan Jazbi’s poetry and analyses of ghazals of Iqbal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Nasir Kazmi, Asghar Gondvi, and Fani.
Raza Imam’s collection of stories in Urdu titled Shor aur Sannata, which has a foreword written by noted Urdu critic Shamim Hanafi, was published after his death. AR Kidwai, a celebrated translator of difficult philosophical and religious texts, has written a number of books in Urdu. Syed Asim Ali, who has written substantially in Urdu and translated important works, is also a poet of ghazals. He has written essays on Iqbal’s criticism, Shelley’s intellectual evolution in his poetry, analyses of the ghazals of Mir Taqi Mir, Khwaja Mir Dard and other Urdu poets apart from incisive book reviews in Naqdo Nazar.
Urdu poets, creative writers and literary critics at the Department of English at Aligarh Muslim University have contributed in their own ways to make Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav a meaningful affair.
Mohammad Asim Siddiqui is professor in the Department of English at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.
source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Language of Literature / by Mohammad Asim Siddiqui / October 09th, 2022
Dr Tahera Qutbuddin, a professor of Arabic Literature at the University of Chicago, recently became the first person of Indian-origin to win the 15th Sheikh Zyed Book Award. The award is considered to be the Nobel Prize of the Arab world.
Dr Qutbuddin, who was born in Mumbai and was educated until class 12 in India, also serves on the editorial board of NYU Abu Dhabi’s Library of Arabic Literature. She won the award for her latest book, Arabic Oration – Art and Function, published by Brill Academic Publishers of Leiden in 2019.
In the book, she puts forth a comprehensive theory of Arabic literature in its foundational oral period dating the seventh and eighth centuries AD. She discusses it’s influence on modern-day sermons and lectures as well.
Having completed her higher secondary from Sophia College in Mumbai, Dr Qutbuddin pursued her BA from Ain Shams University, Cairo and got her PhD and MA from Harvard University, USA.
In a recent interview with a portal, she said that although she has lived away for many decades in Egypt and now the US, her roots are vital to who she is, and Indian culture is part of the fabric of her being.
“It (Mumbai) is the place of my childhood memories, of playing in the monsoon rains and eating mangoes in the summer. I come back to Mumbai often. I love my Mother India, and pray for her security and progress, and for harmony and love between the many beautiful communities that call her home,” she said.
According to her bio, her research “focuses on intersections of the literary, the religious, and the political in classical Arabic poetry and prose.”
She is the recipient of several prestigious fellowships, including support from the Franke Institute of Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
source: http://www.femina.in / Femina / Home> Trending> Achievers / by Shraddha Kamdar / April 30th, 2021
Ghulam Mohammad Zaz is the last of eight generations of craftsmen specialising in making classical musical instruments in Kashmir’s Srinagar city.
In the heart of Srinagar’s old city, lives Ghulam Mohammad Zaz, an octogenarian whose expertise lies in hand-crafting musical instruments.
Zaz lives in a small house that’s built on the banks of river Jhelum, and the place where he works stands on the same block, just a few footsteps away.
However, when temperatures plummet to sub-zero in the Himalayan region during winter, Zaz does not go to his workshop — a small confined room, on the second floor of the 300-year-old building, roughly spread across 80 square feet, with mud-plastered walls and half-broken windows. The dimly lit staircase leading to the artisan’s workshop is so narrow that another person can not pass at the same time.
Zaz crafts and styles an array of traditional stringed instruments like Rababs, Sitars and Santoors. Some of his masterpieces have been played by acclaimed Kashmiri musicians like the legendary Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Sharma has received several national and international awards, including India’s highest civilian awards like Padma Shri and the Padma Vibhushan.
Zaz inherited the craft from his ancestors, who have been making instruments for seven generations. He belongs to the eighth generation, and inevitably the last, as his ancestral legacy has run its course: Zaz has three daughters who have chosen different lines of work, and his art will likely one day fade into the abyss.
“This trade has given me livelihood and contentment. I have no remorse that there’s no one after me,” said Zaz.
During the second wave of the pandemic, Zaz contracted the Covid-19 virus and was bedridden for nearly three months. And since then, he finds it difficult to work as industriously as he would before.
Although his working hours have gone down, Zaz, the last Santoor-maker of Kashmir’s capital city, is not disillusioned.
“I am happy, and will keep on doing this as long my health allows,” added the old man, who started his journey as an apprentice in 1953 when he was just 12 years old.
Ghulam Mohammad Zaz, 80, the last Santoor maker of Kashmir’s capital city, sits quietly in the confines of his workshop. (Shah Umar / TRTWorld) (Shah Umar / TRTWorld)Zaz busy tuning the Rabab he has made for a client based in the South Indian city of Bangalore. In front of him lies another handmade instrument called the Santoor, which he has crafted for a client based in Dubai. (Shah Umar / TRTWorld)
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma’s photo (top left) hangs on the grime-covered wall of Zaz’s workshop. Sharma is a globally acclaimed musician who was born in Jammu and has received awards like Padma Shree and Padma Vibhushan, considered as the fourth and the second highest civilian honours conferred by the Indian Republic. (Shah Umar / TRTWorld) Zaz sits in a makeshift workspace— a hall on the second floor of his house. Owing to the harsh winter, Zaz finds the hall warmer than the workshop where he would usually work. (Shah Umar / TRTWorld) Zaz lives in Srinagar’s old city. A skyline of Zaz’s hometown is seen in the picture. The wooden bridge, Zaina Kadal, seen in the picture was built by Sultan Zainul Aabideen in the 15th century, and hence the name ‘Zaina’ Kadal. (Shah Umar / TRTWorld)Zaz with his grandsons Saadat (left) and Hassan (right). (Shah Umar / TRTWorld)
source: http://www.trtworld.com / TRT World / Home> News-Magazine / by Peerzada Sheikh Muzamil (text edited) / Pics: Shah Umar / February 02nd, 2022
The art was created with plywood sheets, screws, and spray paint. It is constructed of 20 frames and three lakh screws. The installation weighs 460 kilogrammes, is 444 centimetres tall, and is 555 centimetres wide.
Giant screw art piece featuring the UAE’s ‘Spirit of the Union’ picture, as well as the Expo 2020 Dubai emblem.
An Indian family in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has created a giant screw art piece featuring the UAE’s ‘Spirit of the Union’ picture, as well as the Expo 2020 Dubai emblem. The three lakh screw art piece has been inscribed in the Arabian Book of World Records as the world’s largest screw art.
According to Gulf News, EA. Sirajudheen, a 45-year-old and his 39-year-old wife Badariya, both from Kerala, chose to make the massive art piece as a homage to the UAE on its 50th National Day.
Sirajudheen was a former aeronautical engineer who transitioned to business after moving to the UAE 24 years ago and is now the owner of Brightway Tyres and Auto Service in Abu Dhabi.
The art was created with plywood sheets, screws, and spray paint. It is constructed of 20 frames and three lakh screws. The installation weighs 460 kilogrammes, is 444 centimetres tall, and is 555 centimetres wide.
According to the couple, the Guinness World Record was for a piece of art that used 250,000 screws. They said that they first utilised sticker printouts of the photos to adhere to various portions of the boards, and then used hand drills to repair the screw. After being spray-painted with black, red, green, and gold paints, the boards were assembled to form the full-frame.
The couple has two children, 14-year-old Shehzaz and 11-year-old Zia, who helped their parents in the massive screw art. The family finished the project in one month.
Zenith Wheel Alignment, the art piece, is now on show at the Abu Dhabi Malayali Samajam in Musaffah, after the National Day exhibition. The duo stated that they wanted to show their artwork to a larger audience at the Sheikh Zayed Festival in Al Wathba.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Kerala / by News Desk – Sumaya Junaid Ahmed / January 07th, 2022
Nishhat Afza, Founder and Director of Curiocity — School of Creative Art and Design, N.R. Mohalla, Mysuru, has bagged first prize in the ornamental terrace garden and 1st prize in waterfalls for the 5th consecutive year in the Dasara Home Garden contest organised by the Horticulture Department.
An active member of Srushti Bonsai Club, she has also participated in women empowerment and other social activities. Besides, she helps people with landscaping and waterfall designing.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Gallery> Photo News / October 07th, 2022
S M Aboobacker (60), resident of Golnadu grama, Suribail passed away due to sickness.
He was the president of the school progress committee at the Suribail government upgraded higher primary school for the last several years. He had grown a flower garden, vegetable plants and areca nut trees in the school premises and was looking after them. The school has bagged national environment award and other awards due to his efforts.
The school received district Rajyotsava award considering his services.
He was the office bearer of the state SDMC committee, secretary of Suribail mosque management committee and was the member of Kolnadu gram panchayat for two terms. He was a well-known philanthropist. He has left behind his wife.
Former minister B Ramanath Rai, district panchayat member M S Mohammed, Congress panchayat committee district president Subhaschandra Shetty Kulala, Sudeep Kumar Shetty and others visited his residence and paid their tributes.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Daijiworld.com / Home> Obituary> Karnataka / by Mounesh Vishwakarma / Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (EP) / October 07th, 2022
India Fraternity Forum is organizing an annual “Fraternity Fest” to bring together non-resident Indians through a socio-cultural program on October 20.
The poster launch of “Snehakoota-22″ event was held in Riyadh. A family reunion and expatriates get-together event named Fraternity Fest is being held by India fraternity forum across Saudi Arabia.
Whilst releasing the poster of the event, Tajuddin, president of India Fraternity Forum, Karnataka chapter, Riyadh, invited all NRIs to participate in the event.
Various cultural and social events will be held at the get-together on October 20 at Sa-Ada Istirah in Exit-18, Riyadh. The colorful event will feature different activities like public speaking, sports, quiz, public awareness programs etc.
India Fraternity Forum, Riyadh Karnataka chapter general secretary Muhammed Naveed, state committee members Sabith Hassan, Muhammed Shareef and Nizamuddin were present at the press meet.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Daijiworld.com / Home> Middle East / by Media Release / Riyadh, September 18th, 2022
