The INSAF alliance, comprised of the Fraternity Movement, Muslim Students Federation, Telangana Students’ Forum, National Students’ Union of India and PRISM EFLU secured victory in all central panel seats of the Students’ Union at Hyderabad English & Foreign Languages University (EFLU).
INSAF’s Rathod Raghuvardhan (Telangana Students’ Forum) clinched the presidency while the alliance’s Rana Basheer (Fraternity Movement) achieved a landslide victory in the general secretary position.
In the race for vice president, Nitha Fathima (Muslim Students’ Federation) of the INSAF emerged victorious while Sweata Saha, the alliance’s candidate for joint secretary, secured victory.
Nishant Kumar, from NSUI, has been elected as the sports secretary, while Uthara Kiran has secured the cultural secretary position. Both candidates are part of the INSAF alliance.
The Students Federation of India, a member of the Left Front, managed to secure only one school councillor post. Meanwhile, MSF, Fraternity, and NSUI each won three school councillor posts.
source: http://www.maktoobmedia.com / Maktoob Media.com / Home> India / by Maktoob Staff / March 25th, 2024
Qaiser Nizami, singer and music composer from Kashmir
Qaiser Nizami has not only won the hearts and minds of music lovers across Kashmir but also is the only artist from Jammu and Kashmir to get international attention with his nomination for the prestigious Grammy award from the US in 2019.
He won the nomination for his song “Nazninay…” (O beauty), as a singer, musician, composer, and director. he is thus the only one from J&K to be nominated in the history of Grammys by the Recording Academy of the United States.
There is a long list of Grammy winners from India since its inception in 1959, including Ravi Shankar, Zubin Mehta, Zakir Hussain, A R Rahman, and; Shankar Mahadevan, who received the award for 2024 earlier this month.
Nizami’s nomination for the “Award for Voice” in 2019, led him to visit and perform in New York amid thin movement of people due to the Covid restrictions in 2020 to perform in the category of Kashmiri music and poetry for the “dying melody of Kashmir”.
Qaiser Nizami also had the opportunity to perform with Iranian and other groups, much to the appreciation from the organisers. “The shooting for our performances took place amid the deserted streets of New York that otherwise remain brisk with movement of people round the clock,” he recalls.
Poster of Grammy nominations
He performed in collaboration with Ehsan Matoori, Iranian Santoor player. and Alireza Ghorbani, Iranian Vocalist in “The Voices and Bridges” during his New York visit. “It was a rich experience to perform with the Iranian artists, as most of the musical instruments have come to Kashmir from Iran centuries ago”, he told Awaz-The Voice.
For the last four decades, Qaiser Nizami has been mesmerising the audience with his silky voice from AIR, Srinagar, and different kendras of Doordarshan like Srinagar, Delhi, and Bombay.
Not only as a singer of classical compositions, ghazals, Bhajans, and Sufi poetry in Kashmiri, Urdu, and Hindi, Nizami has also mastered Persian singing. He, however, laments that there are no listeners to some of these songs.
Qaiser has contributed as musical director to various productions of DD, Srinagar, which include “Shanti”, “Pehchan” and “Geath”.
He began his innings with Radio Kashmir, Srinagar (now AIR, Srinagar), as a child artist in 1985-86. Qaiser first participated in weekly Children’s and later musical programmes, singing Kashmiri poetry for the “Yuva Vani”, youth services Section by 1987. At the Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar, he was fully on the screen performing in the New Year programme of 1988.
Despite threats from terrorist organisations that sought to ban all kinds of entertainment including cinema and music, he was approved as an A grade artist by a national jury in 1993 and Top grade artist in 2019.
However, despite winning awards and accolades at the national and international levels, Qaiser Nizami is yet to be honoured by the J&K Government, though he has received appreciation and awards from the Chief Ministers and some institutions.
Qaiser Nizami and Iranian singer-composer Alireza Ghorbani
“Initially I was not inclined to music, but to cricket”, Qaiser Nizami told Awaz-The Voice. His father’s association with Radio Kashmir, Srinagar brought him closer to music. He was often found murmuring famous Urdu Ghazals.
His father, Mohammad Amin Nizami, popularly known as “Amin Bhai”, was co-presenting “Aap Ki Farmayish”, a weekly programme of Hindi film songs, when Radio was the only means of entertainment. “Amin Bhai”, having been in the company of musicians, singers, and other artists at the Radio Station also loved music and had a few musical instruments like Harmonium and Nai at home.
“I would try playing these instruments without proper guidance”. His father spotted his talent.
At the beginning of his career as a singer, Qaiser had the opportunity to get blessings and approval from the Santoor Maestro Padma Shri Bhajan Sopori, then associated with Radio Kashmir, Srinagar.
He was also lucky to get guidance from Asrar Hussain, Shahi Qawwaal of Dargah at Ajmer, who organised two weeks of “Mehfils” at the residence of Amin Bhai in Srinagar. Qaiser had also the blessings of Ustad Mohammad Ayub Khan Barelvi of Agra Gharana, who had also visited Srinagar in Qaiser’s early childhood.
Qaiser Nizami says the association with the maestros influenced his career.
source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Story / by Ehsan Fazili, Srinagar / March 01st, 2024
NEW DELHI—Zakat Centre India (ZCI) secretary Abdul Jabbar Siddiqui has highlighted the need to use Zakat collections for skill development and livelihood generation programmes for Muslims who are at the bottom of the labour force participation rate (LFPR) and worker population ratio (WPR) among various social and religious groups in India.
An analysis of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data for the period July 2022 to June 2023 says that WPR for Muslims for the survey period was 31.7 percent against national average of 42 percent. According to the PLFS data, WPR for Muslims fell from 35.5 in 2020-21 to 31.7 per cent in 2022-23. LFPR and WPR measures employment status among social and religious groups.
Based on these data, Mr Siddiqui says that only a little over 30 percent of Muslims in the age group above 15 per cent are employed getting regular salary and the whopping 70 percent of the Muslim population have no work at all. According to Mr. Siddiqui, this is one of the basic reasons for mass poverty among Muslims in India.
Mr. Siddiqui is not wrong. His observations are supported by Santosh Mehrotra, a professor of Economics in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He says that among major religious groups, the labour force participation rate (LFPR) and WPR of only Muslims have declined. (LFPR is the share of population which is looking for work, and WPR is the share of the working age population that has work).
But Mehrotra has made a mistake in his analysis. Based on declining WPR, Mehrotra has concluded that “Muslims are not looking for work” which is not true. Nobody wants to live in poverty. Everybody has an innate desire to increase his/her income.
But there are certain obstacles that come in the way of Muslims getting absorbed in the job market.
In a video he circulated on the social media to create awareness among the educated members of the community, Mr Siddiqui, who is also associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), one of the prominent Muslim organisations in India, says that it is not that Muslims are not willing to work or not looking for work.
According to him, Muslims are willing to work but they don’t possess requisite skills and capital and also the knowledge required to get absorbed in the job market.
But even if one has knowledge and skill, one requires working capital for starting one’s own business and trade. According to Mr. Siddiqui, it is here that Zakat can play a vital role in providing capital to poor Muslims to set up their own businesses and become financially independent.
According to Mr. Siddiqui, Zakat money can be utilized in development of skill and generating livelihood activities for the poor Muslims. He said that if Zakat money is utilized properly, for example, to provide work to at least 80 percent of the Muslim population having no regular sources of income, the community can play a positive role in boosting national economy and bring happiness to the community, besides contributing to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country.
Zakat Center India, according to Mr. Siddiqui, has been set up to make poverty-free Muslim community.
ZCI that began operations throughout the country in 2022 has so far impacted the lives of 6,000 people. Of the total money it spent since then, it spent 69.4 per cent on livelihood projects, making 1,058 persons financially self-reliant. The rest of the money was spent on developing skills and providing education, and ration to poor people.
Donations to ZCI can be made in its bank account: Zakat Center India, HDFC Bank, Account Number: 50200067009755, IFSC Code: HDFC0000365, Account Type: Current Account, Branch: Mehdipatnam Hyderabad.
source: http://www.indiatomorrow.net / India Tomorrow / Home> Economy> National Interview / Syed Khalique Ahmed / by admin indiatomorrow / March 28th, 2024
In a remarkable feat of medical expertise, a team of doctors, spearheaded by Dr. Sameena Haroon, Chief Physician of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at KMC Hospital in Mangalore, successfully performed a challenging delivery procedure, ultimately saving the lives of both mother and child.
The delivery, which employed the innovative “Intrauterine Transfusion” system, proved critical in addressing complications arising from blood group-related issues.
The patient, a 35-year-old woman from Pune, was admitted to KMC Hospital for her third delivery due to complications stemming from blood group incompatibility. With the timely intervention and meticulous care provided by the medical team, she was safely discharged from the hospital, marking a triumph over adversity.
Blood group incompatibility between parents, particularly when one is Rh-positive and the other is Rh-negative, often leads to complications in subsequent pregnancies. These complications arise from the development of antibodies in the mother’s bloodstream during pregnancy, posing risks to both mother and fetus. Dr. Sameena Haroon emphasized the impact of such blood group disparities on maternal and fetal health.
The patient’s medical history revealed a prior normal delivery four years ago, followed by complications during her second delivery, which tragically resulted in the demise of the infant within a year due to intracranial hemorrhage. Subsequent pregnancies posed heightened risks, necessitating vigilant monitoring and specialized care.
During the current pregnancy, complications emerged at the five-month mark, prompting intensive monitoring. At 30 weeks gestation, an Indirect Coombs Test (ICT) returned positive, indicating depleted iron levels in the blood—a critical concern necessitating immediate intervention to safeguard the fetus. Premature delivery posed risks, including jaundice and intracranial bleeding, underscoring the importance of delaying delivery until the optimal timeframe.
In response to the precarious situation, the medical team executed a challenging intrauterine transfusion procedure to replenish the fetus’s hemoglobin levels, thereby mitigating the risk of preterm birth. After two subsequent weeks, delivery at 35 weeks gestation alleviated concerns surrounding low hemoglobin levels in the infant, ensuring a safe outcome for both mother and child.
Dr. Sameena added that the baby was kept under observation and monitoring in NICU for over a week post-delivery where the child received further transfusions before being discharged subsequently.
Dr. Sameena Haroon expressed gratitude for the collaborative efforts of her colleagues, including Dr. Shami Shastri, Dr. Pundalik Baliga, and Dr Mario J Bukelo, whose expertise and teamwork were instrumental in achieving a successful delivery. Despite the complexities posed by the patient’s history of fetal loss, the utilization of modern medical advancements and the dedication of the medical team culminated in a positive outcome, with both mother and child discharged from the hospital in good health.
What is intrauterine blood transfusion?
Intrauterine blood transfusion is a complex medical procedure performed during pregnancy to address severe fetal anemia. Through the procedure, the baby in mother’s womb is transfused blood.
Before the procedure, the mother undergoes thorough assessments, including ultrasound scans and blood tests. Continuous ultrasound guidance is used throughout the procedure to visualize the fetus, placenta, and the specific blood vessels involved. A thin, specialized needle is carefully inserted through the mother’s abdomen and into the amniotic sac, guided by real-time ultrasound imaging. The goal is to reach the umbilical vein of the fetus.
Once the needle is correctly positioned, compatible blood is slowly transfused into the fetus through the umbilical vein. The amount of blood transfused is carefully controlled to avoid overloading the fetal circulation.
This successful delivery at KMC Hospital in Mangalore also marks a significant milestone in medical advancement within the region. The utilization of the “Intrauterine Transfusion” system, under the adept supervision of Dr. Sameena Haroon, signifies one of the pioneering instances of this rare procedure in Mangalore. Dr. Sameena’s leadership and expertise, coupled with the collaborative efforts of her medical team, have not only facilitated a positive outcome for the patient and her child but have also expanded the scope of obstetric care in the region.
source: http://www.english.varthabharati.in / Vartha Bharati / Home> Karavali / by Vartha Bharati / March 28th, 2024
Mumbai-born Firoz Merchant is well known for his jewelry business and above all human service in the UAE. Each year before Ramazan, he gets prisoners who are languishing in jails after serving their terms but unable to pay the fines imposed by the Courts on them freed from the UAE’s jails.
For this mission, he set up an organization called ‘The Forgotten Society’ in 2008. As per the society’s policy, a week ago Firoz Merchant handed over Rs 2.5 crore to the UAE government as the cumulative fine amount for the release of 900 prisoners.
Merchant had to drop out of school due to financial difficulties and he moved to UAE where he worked and gradually established his business.
Firoz Merchant says he does this to ensure that the prisoners can return to their homes before Ramazan. ‘The Forgotten Society’ arranges tickets for the air travel of prisoners. Firoz Merchant, 66, is the owner ‘Pure Gold Jewellers which he set up in Dubai in 1989. He claims to live up to the name of his business and sell only quality jewelry to his customers.
Firoz Merchant says after becoming a brand and enjoying a monopoly on the jewelry market of Dubai and later Abu Dhabi, he wants to expand globally with his new design jewelry.
Merchant being falicitated by Police for his services
All the exquisite gold-diamond designer jewelry of ‘Pure Gold Jewellers’ is available for sale online.
While selling designer jewelry, one day Firoz Merchant thought of freeing the prisoners lodged in various jails who don’t have a relative and resources to pay the fine imposed on them by the court as part of the punishment.
His organization also helps prisoners through various means.
Due to their efforts, 700 prisoners were released in 2019. This year, 900 prisoners were released a week ago. His initiative has helped more than 20,000 prisoners in the last few years. This year, he donated 1 million dirhams, or about Rs 2.5 crore, to the UAE government to get 900 prisoners released.
He says his target is to get 3,000 prisoners released in 2024. According to Firoz Merchant’s office, this is a message of humility, humanity, forgiveness, and kindness ahead of Ramazan. The Forgotten Society is busy organizing facilities and passage to home for the just-released prisoners.
Due to the efforts of Firoz Merchant, so far 495 prisoners have been released from Ajman jail, 170 from Fujairah, 121 from Dubai, 69 from Umm Al Quwain, and 28 from Ras Al Khaimah jail. He even paid off the debts of a few individuals.
Merchant, in collaboration with the Director Generals of Police of the central prisons of the UAE, has helped more than 20,000 prisoners over the years. His work is also getting praise from government officials.
Merchant said, “I am grateful for the cooperation of the (UAE) government. Forgotten Society believes that humanity has no limits. We do not discriminate in providing help to prisoners.”
Colonel Mohammed Youssef Al-Matrooshi of the UAE praised Merchant’s dedication to prisoner rehabilitation. According to the Colonel “Merchant’s quiet generosity provides real hope to those struggling to pay their fines.”
Firoz Merchant had paid 272,242 dollars to the UAE for the release of 700 prisoners in 2019. He said his “move is in line with the tolerance of the UAE.”
Merchants helped free prisoners from Afghanistan, Iraq, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, and Thailand.
Major General Sheikh Sultan bin Abdullah Al Nuaimi, Commander-in-Chief of Ajman Police, said that the release of the prisoners is a symbol of the solidarity of Pure Gold.
source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Story / by Malick Asghar Hashmi, New Delhi / March 27th, 2024
Bihar Diwas or Bihar Foundation Day celebrated on 22nd of March every year was organised earlier owing to the upcoming month of Ramadan, by the team of Heritage times a website dedicated to exploring the forgotten and lesser-known aspects of Indian history.
The event was organised in Government Tibbi College, Patna on 9 March 2024 by inviting political leaders and historians.
‘Making of Bihar’ a six-minute documentary, scripted by Md Umar Ashraf and edited by Shahrukh Dawar Khan, highlighting the history of Bihar was screened for the audience followed by talks by the historians.
Historian Professor Imtiaz Ahmed, while throwing light on the history of Bihar, said that Bihar is a land where great people like Emperors Ashoka, Sher Shah Suri and Sikh guru Guru Gobind Singh have been born. He also clarified that Bakhtiyar Khilji is not responsible for the fall of the Nalanda University as is being falsely believed.
Dr. Anant Ashutosh Dwivedi, known for documenting the glorious heritage scattered in the villages of Bihar and India said, “there are more than two thousand heritage villages in Bihar alone, whose history is thousands of years old and needs to be told.” Speaking about Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta caves, he said that these caves are at par with Jehanabad and were inspired by Nagarjuna caves.
The founder of Heritage Times, Md Umar Ashraf, while talking about the establishment of modern Bihar, said that apart from Dr. Sachchidanand Sinha, many people made important contributions in establishing Bihar. These include people like Ali Imam, Mazhar Ul Haq, Nawab Sarfaraz Khan, Ganesh Dutt, Muhammad Fakhruddin, Mahesh Narayan, Nand Kishore Lal, Tej Narayan and many others. And the endeavour of Heritage Times has always been to bring to the forefront these contributions lest they be lost forever in the annals of history.
The chief guest of the event, Dr. Shakeel Ahmed, Former Union Minister and leader of Indian National Congress appreciated the work of Heritage Times and praised founder Omar Ashraf and his team for their efforts to restore history. He further said that the glory of the Bihar state will be restored just like its ancient glorious past during the reign of the Magadha Empire, if the ideas of the great men who laid the foundation of Bihar will be followed.
The event was presided over by Hakim Tanveer Alam, former principal of Tibbi College and moderated by Muhammad Zakaria and Muhammad Zeeshan Ul Islam Farooqui.
Many prominent personalities from different walks of fields such as scholars, academicians, sports-persons attended the event. Some of them were Intekhab Alam, Naqeeb Ekta, Mashkoor Ahmed, Rajiv Kumar, Umesh Kumar, Muhammad Sahil, Yusuf Jamil, National Karate Champion Zabir Ansari, Khurram Mallik and others.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Art-Culture / by Syed Amjad Hussain / TCN News / March 10th, 2024
Dr. Syed Altaf, Director Kidwai Cancer Hospital, Bengaluru
Bengaluru :
Dr Syed Althaf, professor and head of the Department of Surgical Oncology, has been appointed as Director of the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology.
The government order was issued by Mohammed Mohsin, Principal Secretary of the Medical Education Department, following a report by the investigating committee headed by Arundhathi Chandrashekar, Commissioner, Department of Treasuries.
The report highlighted that the institute, under Dr Lokesh, misused funds, provided low-quality treatment to patients at much higher costs, lacked necessary medicine stocks, violated the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement (KTPP) Act in tender procurements, and committed corruption, among other things.
Dr. Syed Althaf has been practicing as General Surgeon in Karnataka for a considerable amount of time, and is respected by his peers. Whether you’re coming for a simple check-up or a more complex treatment, you will be treated with utmost empathy.
Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology is a cancer care hospital here. It is an autonomous institution of the Government of Karnataka and a Regional Cancer Centre funded by the Government of India. It was granted Regional Cancer Center status on 1 November 1980.
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai played a major role in donating 20 acres of the campus land and Rs.100,000 for the radiotherapy machine. It was founded on 26 June 1973. The Government of Karnataka, by an order on 27 December 1979, converted the institute into an autonomous institution.
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai (18 February 1894-24 October 1954) was a politician, an Indian independence activist and a socialist. Kidwai served as a Minister of Communications in the first Cabinet of Independent India.
source: http://www.radiancenews.com / Radiance News / Home> Latest News / by Radiance News Bureau / February 17th, 2023
Asiya Siddiqi (1928-2019) (Pic Courtesy: Obaid Siddiqi)
Siddiqi also broke new ground by studying 20,000 HC insolvency records to recreate the lives of an array of 19th-century city inhabitants.
In an age that sometimes overrates quantity and is beguiled by grandiloquence, economic historian Asiya Siddiqi, who passed away on Monday morning, went against the grain.
A chronicler of 19th century India, she wrote just two books. But each was a culmination of decades of painstaking original research, presented in prose that many might describe as being quietly elegant. In between working on the two books, she edited a volume on trade and finance in colonial India.
She broke new ground in both her books by closely reading new or underutilised primary sources. In the second book, Bombay’s People, 1860-1898: Insolvents in the City, published in 2017 by the Oxford University Press, she not only tapped a voluminous new source, namely about 20,000 insolvency records in the high court, but also incorporated the innovative conceptual approach of microhistory to illuminate the past.
She admired the work of one of microhistory’s founding scholars, Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg, especially his book ‘The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a 16th Century Miller’. Microhistory focuses on small units of research, such as a village, a single event or an individual, instead of large ones such as nations, kingdoms and cities. Siddiqi’s chapter, ‘Ayesha’s World’, the story of an unlettered butcher’s wife, is a gem of this genre.
“She was a first-rate historian, approaching her work with a craftlike precision,” said Mariam Dossal, a friend of hers who is an urban and maritime historian of 18th and 19th -century Mumbai and a former professor at the University of Mumbai, where Siddiqi worked for everal years. “In Bombay’s People, her view was so rich and broad that it covered every kind of person who inhabited the city, from the wealthy Jamshetji Jejeebhoy all the way to Ayesha. One marvelled at her beautiful use of language, through which she recreated the worlds of these inhabitants. For Asiya, everybody deserved a history.”
Her early work on the 19th-century opium and cotton trade based in Mumbai was also influential, in particular her article ‘The Business World of Jamshetji Jejeebhoy’, which appeared in the Indian Economic and Social History Review in 1982. She worked for years on the private papers of the merchant who was a central figure in those two trades to offer a finely-etched view of the entrepreneurial climate of that period, while also shedding light on the ways in which Mumbai supported the growth of the British economy.
A large portion of these papers consisted of letters in which Jejeebhoy had recorded both his business dealings and social life in great detail. Because the papers were disintegrating in the heat and humidity of Mumbai, she got them laminated with help from her uncle Saiyid Nurul Hasan, who was then the union minister of state for education, Dossal recalled.
Asiya Siddiqi’s first book, Agrarian Change in a Northern Indian State: Uttar Pradesh, 1819 to 1833, published in 1973 by Oxford Clarendon Press, grew out of the thesis she did for her DPhil at Oxford University. In what became a classic of South Asian economic history, she analysed the relevant records with characteristic rigor, becoming one of of the earliest to show how colonial trade policies contributed to a severe agricultural depression in the region.
She grew up in Lucknow, and from 1962 worked in and on Mumbai for four decades. She moved in the late 1990s to Bangalore, where her daughter said she passed away peacefully in her sleep. Her husband was the eminent biologist Obaid Siddiqi, who founded the biology department at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Colaba and the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore. He passed away in 2013.
Asiya Siddiqi balanced her research with bringing up four accomplished children: the eldest Imran, a leading plant biologist based in Hyderabad; Yumna, a professor of English in the US; and fraternal twins, Diba, a visual artist and high school social science teacher in Bangalore, and Kaleem, a computer scientist in Canada.
Siddiqi seemed happiest working by herself in the archives, as an independent researcher, although she had two productive teaching stints: one at Aligarh Muslim University, where she met her husband just after getting a bachelor’s degree at Oxford University, and the other at Mumbai University.
She quit teaching when, at one point she found it difficult to commute from her home in south Mumbai to the university campus in Kalina while also keeping up with her research and and raising four children.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author’s own. The opinions and facts expressed here do not reflect the views of Mirror and Mirror does not assume any responsibility or or liability for the same.
source: http://www.mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com / Mumbai Mirror / Opinion > Columnist / by Sumana Ramanan / October 11th, 2019
Mir Shakeel Ur Rahman and Amal Ahmed have broken records and achieved several personal ambitions during their adventures. (Supplied)
The couple set out on their first discovery ride after the coronavirus pandemic, traveling around Saudi Arabia
Later, Ahmed became the first Saudi woman to ride across the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range
A Saudi-Indian husband and wife team have been clocking up the miles in a round-the-world odyssey — on motorbikes.
And during their road trips, adventurers Mir Shakeel Ur Rahman and Amal Ahmed have broken records and achieved several personal ambitions.
The couple set out on their first discovery ride after the coronavirus pandemic, traveling around Saudi Arabia to areas including Makkah, Jazan, Abha, Hail, Riyadh, Dammam, and Al-Ahsa, before exploring other countries.
Later, Ahmed became the first Saudi woman to ride across the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range. “It was an unbelievable moment, and I will not forget it,” she said.
Her husband said: “This was a great achievement for a Saudi woman during the 92nd national day for Saudi Arabia and I was happy to see her flying the Saudi flag on the top.”
The pair’s shared passion for biking has transformed their lives.
Rahman, originally from the south Indian city of Hyderabad, has been working in the Kingdom for 30 years in the field of navigation air services.
He said: “In India, the first thing you learn is how to ride a motorcycle. Me and my sister used to steal our father’s bike while he was sleeping. So, that was the time when I became obsessed with motorcycling.
“It has been a passion since I was young, and I have been all over the world.”
Soon after moving to Makkah in 1993, he bought his first motorcycle — a Honda 70. “I was happy with my first bike and very pleased to continue my passion here in Saudi Arabia,” he added.
Until meeting Rahman, Ahmed had never considered riding a motorbike.
“As a Saudi woman, I used to travel by plane, car, or train, and never thought I would travel on a motorcycle until I met my husband in Jeddah. He convinced me, despite my fear, that riding was something anyone could enjoy,” she added.
For her birthday last year, Rahman surprised his wife with a new Honda Gold Wing touring bike. The couple — who married five years ago — now have three motorcycles, including a classic Harley-Davidson, and a Kawasaki.
Ahmed said: “We started riding on a two-seater bike around Jeddah with other groups and then took off to several places in the Kingdom. Our first regional trip was to Ras Al-Khaimah in the UAE. It was a great experience.”
The couple regularly post videos online which have gathered quite a following.
“As a long-time rider, I have been everywhere in the world but didn’t document my adventures until my wife created our accounts on various platforms,” Rahman said.
Ahmed added: “I wanted to make it a very important part of our life and we really received positive reactions from our followers. Our goal is to spread happiness and smiles to our followers.”
The biking duo next plan to journey to Kashmir.
source: http://www.arabnews.com / Arab News / Home> Saudi Arabia> Lifestyle / by Saleh Fareed / January 09th, 2024
MA Mohammed Jamal, the revered godfather to thousands of orphans and general secretary of Wayanad Muslim Orphanage (WMO) in Kerala’s Wayanad district, passed away on Thursday, 21 December.
Having dedicated his life to the orphanage since 1967, Jamal transformed the lives of numerous orphans.
Initially a member of the Indian Union Muslim League, he assumed leadership of the orphanage in 1987 following the passing of veteran Muslim leader Abdul Rahman Bafaqui Thangal.
Over 400 students, with WMO’s financial support, pursue higher studies nationwide after leaving the orphanage, and many expressed their grief on social media following the death of “Jamaluppa,” the name they used to call him.
Jamal, also a Kerala state committee member of the Indian Union Muslim League, was 83.
His demise leaves a significant void at the helm of the 19 institutes providing religious and moral education to approximately 9000 students in Wayanad.
In recognition of his philanthropic endeavors, Jamal received prestigious awards, including the Kerala Mappila Kala Academy’s first Sharifa Fatima Award in 2006, the Indira Gandhi Sadbhavana Award for Best Education Worker in 2008, the KSTU’s first Shihab Thangal Award for Best Social Worker in 2011, and the Quaid-E-Millath Foundation’s Quaid-E-Millath Award.
source: http://www.maktoobmedia.com / Maktoob Media / Home> India / by Maktoob Staff / December 21st, 2023
