Mohammed Imtiaz, right, and his nephew Mohammed Shahbaz Reyaz are seen at their Pen Hospital in Kolkata on Nov. 30, 2023. (Mohammed Shahbaz Reyaz)
Pen Hospital in Chowringhee Lane in Kolkata was established in 1940s
It is increasingly catering to young people rediscovering fine writing instruments
The nondescript facade with a fading nameplate misses the attention of passersby at Chowringhee Lane in Kolkata, remaining a go-to place only for connoisseurs who still cherish the old-fashioned art of handwriting.
In its quiet and quaint interior, a visitor can try thousands of vintage and high-end fountain pens from brands like Montblanc, Parker, Pilot, Visconti, Wilson, Waterman, Pelikan, or Sheaffer, and watch as Mohmmad Imtiaz brings them back to life.
The Pen Hospital represents a bygone era in an age of instant electronic messaging, but it still draws lawyers, academics and collectors from across India and, lately, also young people who have been increasingly attracted to fine writing instruments.
Established in the 1940s by Imtiaz’s great-grandfather Mohammed Shamsuddin, the shop has stayed in the family ever since. Imtiaz’s partner behind the counter is Mohammed Shahbaz Reyaz, the son of his late brother.
“Despite the popularity of high-tech laptops and iPads, pens are also getting popular and that’s the reason I have roped in my nephew into the business. My son will join, too,” Imtiaz told Arab News.
“There is a renewed interest in fountain pens among the new generation. Today, half of my customers are younger people and this gives me hope.”
Depending on the model, it costs between 25 cents and $60 to have a pen “treated” at the Pen Hospital. Sometimes, parts of older or rarer pens need to be procured from different sources.
Imtiaz repairs seven to eight pens a day on his “operation table” — the shop’s counter.
“Sometimes the workload is so high that some customers have to wait a week for an appointment,” he said.
There used to be many such shops during the time of Imtiaz’s great-grandfather and grandfather, but most ceased to exist in the 1990s, when cheap, disposable ball pens hit the mass market in India.
Now, Imtiaz believes his Pen Hospital is the “only shop in eastern India” that still deals in the trade, which began to thrive again only a few years ago.
“Things started taking up after the COVID-19 pandemic. Long periods of lockdown forced many people to read and write, and people started coming with old fountain pens for repair,” he said. “Some people discovered vintage pens in their cupboards. They have not used them for decades.”
His shop has a special value for collectors like Sarthak Ganguly, a media professional, who has been visiting the Pen Hospital for almost 20 years.
“The Pen Hospital is the only place in Kolkata where you can look for some nice vintage pens,” he said.
“Here you will get a fountain pen that can cost you from $1.20 up to $1,200. Many fountain pen collectors, like me, have at least 1,000 old and new fountain pens. Most of my pens have been collected from the Pen Hospital.”
In a city like Kolkata, known as the cultural capital of India, writing with a pen brings together craftsmanship, style and a touch of nostalgia — something that younger people are increasingly fond of.
It is mostly the new generation of collectors that Ganguly sees at the shop in the morning.
“The young generation is buying fountain pens and that is really heartening,” he said.
“The Pen Hospital not only has nostalgic value, but also it is a pleasure to visit such an iconic shop. It reminds you of history.”
source: http://www.arabnews.com / Arab News / Home> World / by Sanjay Kumar / December 13th, 2023
Historians and enthusiasts are taking public education into their own hands to tell the story of the country’s Muslim communities.
The Chronicles of Mehrauli heritage walk. Sonia Sarkar for The NationalThe walk takes visitors through Mehrauli Archaeological Park. Sonia Sarkar for The Nationalit is led by Purani Dilli Walo Ki Baatein. Sonia Sarkar for The NationalIt is one of the oldest inhabited places in the subcontinent. Sonia Sarkar for The NationalMehrauli is rich in historical ruins, tombs and monuments from many eras of Delhi’s past. Sonia Sarkar for The NationalThe Qutb Minar heritage tour. Sonia Sarkar for The NationalPigeon-watching on a tour. Photo: Purani Dilli Walon Ki BaateinA kotha, now a private property, in old Delhi taken during the walk titled ‘Tawaifs and Kothas: Exploring Chawri Bazaar’ by Enroute Indian History. Sonia Sarkar for The NationalThe road leading to Jama Masjid in old Delhi, with guide Anoushka Jain showing an old picture of the same road in the 19th century. Sonia Sarkar for The NationalA tour group on the steps of Jama Masjid. Photo: Enroute Indian History
Chaotic narrow lanes lined with opulent old mansions, shops selling spices, dried fruits and kebabs, all overhung by dangling power cables – any trip to Old Delhi, a bustling Muslim hub built by Mughal ruler Shah Jahan, is a full sensory experience.
Abu Sufyan weaves through the crowd with about 20 people in tow, making his way through streets smelling of flatbread soaked in ghee, the call to prayer at a nearby mosque mingling with the bells of a Hindu temple.
He is on a mission to change negative perceptions of Muslims by showing visitors more of their history in the capital.
“People in old Delhi were labelled as ‘terrorists’ and ‘pickpockets’ because they were predominantly Muslims from the lower economic background, and Mughal rulers were vilified as cruel invaders, as they were considered the ancestors to Indian Muslims,” Abu Sufyan, 29, says.
“My walks involve the local community members including calligraphers, pigeon racers, cooks and weavers with ancestral links in the Mughal era to showcase old Delhi’s heritage beyond these stereotypes.”
Abu Sufyan is one of a growing crop of enterprising men and women using the medium of heritage walks to educate the Indian public and tourists on the nation’s lesser-known history.
He started his walks in 2016, when hatred against Muslim communities was on the rise after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party introduced several anti-Muslim policies.
People walk on a road earlier named Aurangzeb Road, after the Mughal emperor, now renamed to Dr. A. P. J Abdul Kalam, India’s former president, in New Delhi, Thursday, June 2, 2022. / AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
In 2015, a BJP politician urged the local civic body in Delhi to change the name of Aurangzeb Road to APJ Abdul Kalam Road. The civic body immediately obliged, removing the reference to the Mughal ruler from the road by naming it after the former president of India, who was always considered a “patriotic” Muslim.
Later, the 2019 Citizenship (Amendment) Act caused further division, as critics said it could be weaponised against Muslims, who are designated as “foreigners” under the National Register of Citizens.
Occasionally, divisions lead to violence: Thirty-six Muslims were killed in Hindu mob attacks for allegedly trading cattle or consuming beef between May 2015 and December 2018, according to Human Rights Watch.
‘A sense of belonging and togetherness’
Chennai city is also a major cultural site, offering many things to do and sights to see. Frederic Soltan / Corbis
Over 2,000 kilometres away in Chennai, documentary filmmaker Kombai S Anwar hosts walks in Triplicane to tell stories of Tamil Muslim history, Tamil Nadu’s pre-Islamic maritime trade links with West Asia, the arrival of Arab traders, Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s rule, the appointment of a Mughal minister’s son Zulfikhar Ali Khan as the first Nawab of Arcot, and the lives of the subsequent nawab’s descendants.
“Predominantly, non-Muslims participate in these walks because they are ‘curious’ about local Muslims and their heritage. During [Ramadan], they are invited to the historic Nawab Walaja mosque, where they experience the breaking of fast and partake in the iftar meal,” Mr Anwar says.
Tickets for heritage walks across India range between 200 and 5,000 Indian rupees ($2-60).
Historian Narayani Gupta, who conducted heritage walks in Delhi between 1984-1997, said any controversy related to history generates more interest.
“Whether history is right or wrong or good or bad, it has to be backed by research findings,” she says.
17th-century Jami Masjid, India’s largest mosque. Unsplash
Saima Jafari, 28, a project manager at an IT firm, who has attended more than 30 heritage walks in the past five years, says it is hard to ignore the historical monuments in the city since they are almost everywhere.
Delhi-based Ms Jafari recalled one of her best experiences was a walk, in 2021, trailing the path of “Phool Waalon Ki Sair”, an annual procession of Delhi florists, who provide sheets of flowers and floral fans at the shrine of Sufi saint Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki and floral fans and a canopy at the ancient Hindu temple of Devi Yogmaya in Mehrauli.
“When I walked along with others in that heritage walk, I realised that heritage enthusiasts across religion walk together in harmony,” Ms Jafari says.
“One of the best parts of heritage walks is the storytelling that connects places with lives of people of a certain period. Plus, it always gives a sense of belonging and togetherness.”
Anoushka Jain, 28, a postgraduate in history and founder of heritage and research organisation Enroute Indian History, which holds walks to explore the erstwhile “kothas (brothels),” and “attariyas (terraces)” of old Delhi, said during pandemic lockdowns, posts on Instagram helped sparked interest.
“Before the pandemic, barely 40 people participated in two weekly walks as opposed to 50 in each of the four weekly walks which we conduct now,” she says.
But it is not all smooth sailing.
Ms Jain says some people feel uncomfortable when they are given historical facts and research that show Hindu and Jain temples constructed by Rajput rulers were repurposed during the rule of Delhi Sultanate, Qutb ud-Din Aibak.
Iftekhar Ahsan, 41, chief executive of Calcutta Walks and Calcutta Bungalow, adds that sometimes, participants come with preconceived notions that Muslims “destroyed” India for more 1,000 years – but walk leaders hold open conversations to “cut through the clutter” with authentic information.
For some, heritage walks often change perceptions.
“Until I visited mosques in old Delhi during a walk, I didn’t know that women were allowed inside mosques,” law student Sandhya Jain told The National.
But history enthusiast Sohail Hashmi, who started leading heritage walks in Delhi 16 years ago, cautions that some walk leaders present popular tales as historical fact.
A mansion called Khazanchi ki Haveli in old Delhi’s Dariba Kalan is presented as the Palace of the Treasurer of the Mughals by some walk leaders, Mr Hashmi says. The Mughals, however, were virtual pensioners of the Marathas – Marathi-speaking warrior group mostly from what is now the western state of Maharashtra – and later the British and had no treasures left by the time the mansion was built in the late 18th or early 19th century.
Another walk leader had photo-copied an 1850 map of Shahjahanabad, now old Delhi, passing it off as his own research, he adds.
“The walk leaders must be well-read and responsible enough to ensure that the myths are debunked,” Mr Hashmi says.
source: http://www.thenationalnews.com / The National / Home> World> Asia / by Sonia Sarkar / June 01st, 2023
Earlier, Mohammed Faizan Ahmed and Mohammed Haris Sumair, who secured All India Rank 58 and 270, respectively were also students of MS IAS Academy.
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) today announced the Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2022 results. Among the successful candidates, Mohammed Burhan Zaman, a student of MS IAS Academy, has achieved an All India Rank (AIR) of 768.
Mohammed Burhan Zaman who hails from Kolkata is the third student of MS IAS Academy who cleared the UPSC civil service examination in the past three years.
Stages in UPSC CSE 2022
The Civil Services Examination is one of the most challenging and prestigious competitive exams in India. It consists of multiple stages, and candidates need to excel in each phase to secure a coveted position in the civil services.
The journey began with the preliminary examination held on June 5, 2022. Serving as a screening test, the preliminary exam determines the eligibility of candidates to proceed to the subsequent stages of the selection process. The results of the preliminary examination were declared on June 22, opening the doors for qualified candidates to move forward.
The main examination, conducted from September 16 to 25, forms the second stage of the UPSC CSE. It comprises a comprehensive written examination that evaluates candidates’ knowledge and understanding of various subjects.
After the evaluation of the main examination papers, the results were announced on December 6. Candidates who successfully cleared the main examination became eligible for the final stage – the interview round.
Following the interview process, which concluded on May 18, the Union Public Service Commission has finally released the final results of the Civil Services Examination 2022 today. This year, a total of 933 candidates have made it to the final list. Among these candidates, Mohammed Burhan Zaman from MS IAS Academy has secured a place in the final merit list.
MS IAS Academy’s performance
It is worth noting that MS IAS Academy has consistently produced successful candidates in the UPSC CSE in recent years. In the 2022 examination, nine students from the academy passed the preliminary exam. Out of these, three students successfully cleared the main examination and progressed to the interview stage. Among them, Mohammed Burhan Zaman secured a position in the final merit list.
On this momentous occasion, Mohammed Lateef Khan, the Chairman of MS Education Academy expressed his happiness.
Earlier, Mohammed Faizan Ahmed and Mohammed Haris Sumair, who secured All India Rank 58 and 270, respectively were also students of MS IAS Academy. Both of them have been selected for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> News> India / by News Desk / May 23rd, 2023
Bouncing back from adversity with indomitable resilience and willpower, Asif Iqbal helps others with disabilities as he pushes the limits. Ejaz Kaiser shares his story.
Since 2021, Iqbal has run 10 km each on 12 different races.
Chhattisgarh :
A life well lived is a life worth talking about. With complete vision loss, Mohammed Asif Iqbal’s life can force anyone to rethink disability.
A Kolkata resident, who had a successful stint in Central government’s smart city projects for digital inclusion initiative at Nava Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Iqbal (46) had partial vision loss since birth due to a genetic disorder called retinal degeneration. By the time he turned 16, he had turned completely blind.
He moved to the United States and managed complete his high school and partial college education in Oregon, USA. Iqbal returned to India in 1995 to later become the first visually challenged commerce graduate of St Xavier’s College Kolkata and got his MBA in human resources from Symbiosis Institute, Pune.
Around six years back, he was diagnosed with high blood pressure. Having given a choice to either change his lifestyle or be on medicines all his life, Iqbal decided to lead a life worth living. “I thought my health shouldn’t be a hurdle towards my contribution to nation-building. Just the thought of doing something to ensure I remain healthy. I was overweight. I began visiting the playground and park with the help of friends. It was there the idea clicked to participate in marathons and began preparing for the race to build my confidence”, Iqbal said.
Running became a routine; starting from 100 metre, he increased the length slowly to 300 and later to a few kilometres with the support of volunteers. Gradually, he learnt navigation on his own.
“I was competing with myself to enhance my performance”, he added. Since 2021, Iqbal has run 10 km each on 12 different races and has also been recognised by former Indian cricket skipper master blaster Sachin Tendulkar for his brave initiative.
But his biggest moment came on December 18, 2022 when he accomplished TSK-25 km (15.53 miles) marathon run in Kolkata only through voice guidance. He was blind-folded and had zero physical touch or physical assistance from anyone. He set a record and entered into Asian Book of Records, as the first Indian Asian blind runner to complete a marathon in 3:32 hours with voice navigation support from Dibyendu Mondel and Prakash Singh who piloted his run.
“While I run on voice guidance (talking GPS) issued by fellow buddy runners who run at the same speed, the mission of 25km marathon in Kolkata was well achieved,” Iqbal said.
He is also the recipient of a national award, West Bengal state role model award and the extraordinary citizen of Kolkata award among others.
During his career spanning over 15 years, he has designed and implemented social inclusion strategy for AADHAR enrollment, accessible income tax, and accessible telecom under Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) among others.
He is presently an associate director at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India Ltd. In 2000, he filed a public interest litigation (PIL) for implementation of reservation quota in government-run universities including the IIMs and IITs.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Ejaz Kaiser, Express News Service / January 29th, 2023
Mohammed Salim, the first Indian footballer to play for a foreign club. In this photograph from 1936, due to playing in bare feet, he is having them bandaged by Jimmy McMenemy the Celtic FC trainer. Photo: Wikipedia
Who was the first Indian footballer to play for a European football club? Very few people in India will be able to answer this question correctly.
He was a Kolkata-based football player Mohammed Salim who was selected by the well-known Celtic Football Club in Scotland in 1936. He carved out a brief but glorious career before returning to his hometown.
An interesting story was once told by his son Rashid Ahmed. After his father had grown old, the son decided to see if the famous Celtic Club of Scotland still remembered his father. He wrote to Celtic Club introducing himself as the son of their former player Mohammed Salim and stated that his father was facing financial difficulty in his old age.
Rashid Ahmed was not really expecting any reply from the club authorities after so many years. He had simply taken a chance. However, he got the biggest surprise of his life when the Celtic football club replied with a letter of sympathy and a bank draft of 100 pounds enclosed.
“I really had no need for the money. It was just a ploy to find out if Mohammed Salim was still alive in their memory. To my amazement, I received a letter from the club. Inside was a bank draft for £100. I was delighted, not because I received the money but because my father still he had a place of pride in Celtic. I have not encashed the draft and will preserve it till I die. I just want my father’s name to be remembered as the first Indian footballer to play abroad,” Rashid told the media.
The reason why Salim returned to India was that he was uncomfortable with the food and the climate of Scotland. He had been born and brought up in Kolkata and therefore was not used to the foreign conditions. Celtic Club pleaded with him to remain in Scotland and even offered to organise a charity match on his behalf. Salim refused and asked that the money be donated to local orphans.
Thereafter German clubs also became interested in retaining Salim. He was offered a professional contract to play in Germany. But he was resolute that he would return to India. So he traveled back to India to rejoin Mohammedan Sporting Club for the beginning of the 1937 Calcutta Football League.
To trace his life back to the starting point, he was born to a middle-class family in Metiaburj in Bengal in 1904. He was studying to be a chemist but football was his first love. His skills were soon spotted by the Mohammedan Sporting club and he was recruited in 1927.
After a brief stint with other clubs, Salim rejoined Mohammedan Sporting in 1934 and ensured that it reached the very top. It was the golden period of this club with Salim spearheading the attacks. He won thousands of hearts with his ball control, dribbling and accurate passes.
A Chinese football official Dr. Chi Chao Yung who saw Salim and his teammates in action said: “Allow me to congratulate the members of the Indian team for their wonderful display. In the course of the game, they showed perfect understanding and exceptional speed. The forwards, Salim, Rahim, Bhattacharjee and Abbas were outstanding in their game.”
Soon after this, Salim departed for Scotland to try his luck there. The well-known Scottish manager Willie Mayley was surprised at the skills that Salim displayed and took him in the Celtic side. On 28 August 1936, he helped Celtic win 7–1 against Galston. The Scottish Daily Express carried the headline: “Indian Juggler – A New Style”, along with a description of Salim that read: “Ten twinkling toes of Salim, Celtic FC’s player from India, hypnotised the crowd last night. Three of Celtic’s seven goals came from his moves.” Another newspaper, The Glasgow Observer wrote: “Salim tickled the crowd at Celtic Park on Friday with his magnificent ball manipulation despite playing barefooted.”
But even after the praise and success, Salim decided to return to India because he missed his home country. In 1940 Mohammedan Sporting became the first Indian club to win the Durand Cup in front of one lakh spectators. The British Viceroy at that time Lord Linlithgow, witnessed the match against the Royal Warwickshire regiment.
In 1980, at the age of 76, Salim passed away in Kolkata.
Before independence, challenging the might of the British rulers was a Herculean task. Salim achieved this seemingly impossible feat with his football. That was his greatest glory. He demonstrated that even barefooted Indian players, with determination and skill, could overcome the strongest of British teams.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Featured News / by Abhijit Sent Gupta / November 26th, 2022
A collection of speeches and articles by former vice-president Hamid Ansari, offering engaging insights into our democracy.
Challenges to a Liberal Polity: Human Rights, Citizenship & Identity / by M Hamid Ansari / Publisher Penguin / Pages 277 /Price 799 INR
For the past decade, public discourse in India has remained sharply focused on challenges to the liberal polity and the threats that have grown to human rights. Issues of citizenship and identity are entwined inextricably in this. It is in this context that Challenges to a Liberal Polity: Human Rights, Citizenship & Identity assumes not only topicality but also a significance that can be overlooked only at the readers’ own peril.
Hamid Ansari is a distinguished diplomat, academic, statesman and also, the often misused word, a public intellectual. He has, in his long career, worn many hats. He has served as the Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Chairman of the Minorities Commission and the Vice President of India. Throughout his life, Ansari has never shied away from speaking his mind—bluntly if need be.
The author has, at times, been exposed to unfair criticism and deliberately humiliated by persons in high office who should have known better. When bidding him farewell, PM Narendra Modi was unnecessarily sarcastic—some thought gracelessly—by mentioning that Ansari had spent most of his diplomatic career in Islamic countries and perhaps he would be more comfortable now that he was relieved of the burden of the constitutional position to freely voice criticism of whatever he didn’t agree with. The PM conveniently forgot that the former vice-president served with distinction as India’s permanent representative in the United Nations and as Chief of Protocol when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister in an era of dynamic Indian diplomacy. But, let us not digress.
This volume is a collection of speeches, forewords and articles contributed by the author on subjects that overlap and cover a vast time span from the turn of the century to the present day. The introduction is stimulating and thought-provoking. It presents a distilled essence of state-of-the-art research in political science and Indian society. This prepares the readers for what is to follow.
The book is divided into three sections. The first section deals with human rights and group rights. The subsections or mini-chapters can be read profitably as independent essays. Of particular interest are the ones titled––‘India and the Contemporary International Norms on Group Rights’, ‘Minorities and the Modern State’ and ‘Majorities and Minorities in Secular India: Sensitivity and Responsibility’.
The second section is titled ‘Indian Polity, Identity, Diversity and Citizenship’. This is more substantial than the preceding segment and covers a range of topics that should engage readers with different interests and ideological orientations. Examples include ‘Identity and Citizenship: An Indian Perspective’, ‘Religion, Religiosity and World Order’, ‘Two Obligatory -isms: Why Pluralism and Secularism is Essential to our Democracy’. There are shorter pieces like ‘The Ethics of Gandhi’ and ‘The Dead Weight of State Craft’, ‘India’s Plural Diversity is Under Threat: Some Thoughts on Contemporary Challenges in the Realm of Culture’. How one wishes that these themes had been explored in greater detail.
To some it may appear that this is nitpicking, but this is the hazard of compiling a collection of comments and observations made on commemorative occasions such as inaugurating or concluding a seminar, a workshop or writing a short preface. Ansari is primarily a scholar, who is deeply distraught by the happenings around him and is restless to share his constructive thoughts and not just the distress and despair. The tone is always cautiously optimistic.
The concluding section deals with ‘Indian-Muslim Perception and Indian Contribution to Culture of Islam’. The essays on ‘Militant Islam’, ‘Islam and Democratic Principle’ and ‘India and Islamic Civilisation: Contributions and Challenges’ deserve to be read by all Indians, particularly the young. One may disagree with the author, but it is impossible to imagine that any meaningful dialogue can take place between the majorities and minorities in India without an understanding of how the ‘other’ thinks and perceives the world.
His convocation addresses delivered at Jamia Millia Islamia (where he taught) and the AMU (his alma mater) have a different flavour. The tone is personal and evokes shared nostalgia. The final essay is a review of India and muslim world.
The book has substantial end-notes that provide useful bibliographical information. One can flip through these pages to pursue the themes dealt in the book according to one’s own inclination and at leisure.
This book is for all. The general reader, who has no scholarly pretensions, too can turn the pages of this book with great pleasure. Many a time, the author peppers the prose with Urdu couplets that hook the reader to his line of arguments. One such piece is his Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Memorial lecture. Most people remember this vice-president as the supine individual who signed on the dotted line with dimmer when Indira Gandhi declared Emergency at midnight. Ansari, however, has used the book brilliantly to make some hard- hitting comments that are im- possible not to take on the chin.
The chapter begins with: Yaad-e-maazi azaab hai yaa rab/ Chheen le mujhse hafiza mera (The memory of the past is torturous, O God/Take away my memory from me), and concludes with: “Can the amnesia, the compromises and the misconceptions of recent and not-so-recent past be overcome?” Yes, only if meaningful alternative is offered. We do stand at the crossroads.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Lifestyle> Books / by Pushpesh Pant / Express News Service / November 06th, 2022
When we talk of youngsters in their early twenties, of course, we think that it’s time for them to work hard and party harder. Right? But we are seeing a lot of youngsters take up entrepreneurship at a young age to make it big. But there are some like Alina Alam from Kolkata, who took to social entrepreneurship to make the world a better place for the differently-abled. All of 27 years of age, Alina started with her ‘Mitti Cafe’ when she was 23, which is run entirely by a staff of persons with a disability, ranging from visual and hearing impaired to Asperger’s and to Down’s syndrome.
The Mitti Cafe
While pursuing her graduation from Azim Premji University, Alina volunteered in an organisation that works with adults with a disability. That’s when she realised that the problem is not their ability but the disability in our perception, which needs to change. Talking to us about the cafe, Alina said, “I started with the Mitti Cafe in 2017, with an aim to create platforms for adults with physical, intellectual and multiple disabilities to showcase their abundant potential for productive activity and create awareness for the cause of equal opportunities in employment.”
Not every enterprise needs a VC funding, as Alina started this venture with funding from her friends, family and partnerships with Deshpande Foundation, NSRCEL-IIM Bangalore & N-Core Foundation. And now she has several branches of the cafe in both Kolkata and Bengaluru.
Facilities Enabling The Staff One can find menus printed in braille, food orders written on sheets of a note pad, self-explanatory placards and flicker lights that signal the staff when a customer calls for them, and more such unique ideas to facilitate the differently-abled staff at the Mitti Cafe.
Apart from remuneration, Alina explained how they have additional benefits like accommodation for the staff, “Since most of our employees along with having a disability come from a low-income background, apart from salaries, we also provide them with accommodation, food and logistics. We provide wheelchairs to those who cannot afford it. There are placards in the cafe for communication with our HSI staff and menu as well as instructions in Braille for our staff with visual impairment. The training methodology for our adults with an intellectual disability involves innovative techniques that involve songs, poetry and pictorial training.”
Impact & Help With The COVID-19 Outbreak Talking about the impact of her venture, Alina said, “We currently have a total of 71 adults with disability employed at the various cafes branches and we provide experiential training to adults with a disability who is placed in the hospitality sector, retail sector or decide to start their own business.” Not only that, currently Alina and her team is also helping the vulnerable sections of the society affected by the Coronavirus lockdown. Talking about the same, she added, “The MITTI team is working on a war footing currently to help in the COVID 19 crisis by providing the most basic of the necessities: food to 2000 of our Frontline Heroes-daily wage labourers every day.”
Alina runs the social enterprise with the help of her amazing team members who left their cushy corporate jobs for the cause, including the COO & Director- Swati, another Director- Anjani Gupta and Area Operations Heads- Sanidhya Bindal & Amruta Wadekar.
She also shared her future plans with us which include, “Creating awareness about economic empowerment and dignity-one cafe at a time, till Mitto Café becomes outdated. We are hopeful that should be soon.”
source: http://www.inclusiveindia.in / Inclusive India / Home> Feature> Inclusivity / by Shobita Dutt / April 17th, 2020
Educator and social reformer Mamoon Akhtar. | Photo by Partho Burman
More than 6000 kids from underprivileged families are benefiting from schools run by Mamoom Akhtar in West Bengal.
Kolkata :
It was the summer of 2001. Mamoon Akhtar, a slum dweller from Tikiapara, was returning home during the afternoon when a child named Ahmed, aged 7, ran up to him and pleaded with him to free his mother from a man who was forcing his mother to sell narcotics, something she despised. With the assistance of the police, he intervened to resolve the conflict. Before leaving, Akhtar inquired about Ahmed’s activities. “Sir, I want to learn,” the boy replied.
His response moved Akhtar. He recalled an incident from his school days when he was asked to leave his school for not paying his fees.Despite his traumatic childhood, Akhtar was able to finish high school.
Akhtar invited Ahmed to study at his home. He handed the young Ahmed a pencil and a notebook. On the second day, Ahmed returned with three children. On the third day, he arrived with four more.
This sparked hope in Akhtar. He asked his mother for permission to set up an informal school in a 300-square-foot room at his home and she agreed. He cleaned the room and bought a polythene sheet for the kids to sit on. “In addition, I set up a blackboard. That’s how it all started back in 2001. How a small street encounter transformed my life,” Akhtar told TwoCircles.net.
To ensure that no child is denied an education due to a lack of funds, he founded Samaritan Help Mission (SHM) in 2001, where he started providing quality education to children from economically disadvantaged families in Tikiapara, Howrah district, a neighbourhood where 80 per cent of the population is Muslim. Children, who previously did not attend school, are doing so now.
Samaritan Mission School was the first school set up by Mamoom Akhtar. | Photo by Partho Burman
Mamoon did not have a stable source of livelihood at the time, but he wanted to make sure he didn’t disappoint the children. He continued to conduct classes and began collecting newspapers and old books from his neighborhood. He sold them to raise funds for the slum pupils’ stationery. He invited several of the community’s college-going girls to join him in the classroom. He made them an offer of Rs 100 every month. He also requested his students to make a monthly contribution of Rs 5 for their education. They may bring in newspapers and old books instead of Rs 5 if they couldn’t afford it, he told them.
“I didn’t want the kids to believe they were destitute, so they are getting help. They needed to believe that their education was earned and that they deserved it. So, whether it’s Rs 1 or Rs 5, I implore them to pay,” he said.
“The school was administered by the poor for the poor,” Akhtar, who will turn 50 this year, said.
Mamoon Akhtar with the students of his school. | Photo by Partho Burman
In 2003, he came across a newspaper cutting while taking a walk. It included a photograph of a woman with some children. She was Lee Alison Sibley, an actress, social crusader and the wife of the American Consulate General in Kolkata. He sent her a letter asking for assistance. She responded with gratitude but declined to provide any assistance. Mamoon thanked her with a second letter.
Lee Alison Sibley eventually supported the cause and gave Rs 10000. “As a Muslim, I informed her that I don’t work for just Muslims. I solely work for the benefit of humanity. Because I think that hunger and poverty have no religion,” Mamoon recalled.
An article about her visit was published in a newspaper and Ramesh Kacholia, a Mumbai resident read it. He then sent his son to contribute Rs 11000 to him. For SHM, this was a watershed moment.
A co-educational English medium institution named Samaritan Mission School was founded in 2006. In 2008, the state of West Bengal granted it certification.
Akhtar told TwoCircles.net that many of the students at his school came from economically challenged backgrounds. Their fathers work as rickshaw pullers or daily labourers and some of them are in prison. “But their children are receiving a good education and performing well. I may not be able to do so for the country, but I will do all in my power to eliminate illiteracy in Tikiapara,” he said.
Three schools with 6500 students are now in operation. Samaritan Mission School High, Rebecca Belilious English Institution – a primary school and Samaritan Public School, which is located in Bankra, Howrah district, 10 kilometers from Tikiapara. Another school is coming up in the same complex at Bankra by January 2023. The total number of students is projected to reach 10,000. The exterior work on these schools has been completed.
Children receive education from nursery to grade 12. The medium of education is English, with Bengali as the secondary language. Howrah Municipal Corporation approached him to administer the inactive Tikiapara Municipal School based on his model of work. Akhtar took over the school in 2019, and in less than a year, it grew to 400 kids. It was once an Urdu-medium school, but it has since been transformed into an English-medium school.
Gradually, the social reformer broadened the scope of Samaritan Help Mission’s services to include health, sports, women’s livelihood and elderly care. 600 households get rations and medication every month from SHM. He started a vocational training programme as a source of income for widowed and divorced women. Around 400 women are employed as dressmakers.
Mamoon is the only son among five siblings and comes from a poor family. His father worked as a competent fabricator in the iron industry, while his mother took care of the family. Married with four kids, three of whom are students at his school. “I am a firm believer in the ideas of Prophet Mohammad and Swami Vivekananda. I read a lot about them,” Mamoon concluded.
www.samaritanhelpmission.org
Partho Burman is an award-winning independent journalist based in Kolkata. He writes inspirational, motivational and environmental stories. He tweets at @ParthoBurman
soure: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Lead Story / by Partho Burman / March 14th, 2022
Modelling professional, rugby player and dermatologist among role models.
(From left) Bilkes Perveen, Saba Ali Firoz and Suraiya Rahman. Gautam Bose
A young woman set a condition to her would-be husband that she would marry only if she was allowed to pursue sports after wedding.
A girl whose neighbours once complained she wore jeans pursued her dream and became a fashion model, an entrepreneur and an anchor-presenter.
Several Muslim women who refused to tread the steps that many others wanted them to — get married, have children and live a domestic life — are now successful professionals. They came together at a gathering on Thursday afternoon.
The women will be feted by the NGO Friends of Alumni of Colleges Educational Institutes and Schools (FACES) and Mashriq Education Trust next week.
The Telegraph listened to some of their stories:
Bilkes Perveen
Anchor, model and entrepreneur
She was once frowned upon for wearing jeans. Bilkes, in her early 30s, who grew up on Convent Road in central Kolkata, said she was probably the only girl in her community in the neighbourhood who wore a pair of jeans.
“My neighbours were not happy with me wearing jeans. It was a very conservative space where I grew up,” she said. But she didn’t budge.
When she was 18, Bilkes took a night-shift job. She would go to her workplace wearing jeans or trousers. “I was 18. I wanted to be financially independent. Relatives and neighbours questioned why I took a night job. They wanted me to marry and have a kid instead of working. Fortunately, my parents stood by me,” Bilkes said on Thursday.
Life had better in store for her. At 19, she took up a job with a bank. It is while working there that she found her future husband, Tanmay Chatterjee. “Tanmay has always been very supportive. He wanted me to be a role model for others. After marriage I set up a company named Perveen and Chatterjee,” she said.
Bilkes wants to help women who have dreams but are afraid of defying the moral police. “My company trains Muslim women in personality development,” she said.
Bilkes herself hosts events as anchor and is also a model for a sari brand. “I am today happy with what I am doing,” she said.
Saba Ali Firoz
Rugby player and stylist
Saba had set a condition to her husband before marriage — she would pursue sports, her passion.
“My husband was fine with it,” said the 39-year-old mother of two.
She continues to do it despite unsolicited comments meant to fetter her. “I had to wear short skirts for playing, for which I had to hear comments like ‘you are not Sania Mirza’. Wearing a short skirt is a taboo,” she said.
Daughter of a retired police officer, Saba, a resident of Metropolitan off EM Bypass, got inducted into sports from her early teens by her father. “I did sprints and long jumps. It was my father who inspired me to take up athletics.”
Saba’s interest in sports spans disciplines. She has represented her club CCFC in rugby. She has played darts, badminton and tennis. She has also inculcated the passion for sports in her kids. Her 15-year-old son has represented the state in swimming and her 9-year-old daughter is training in swimming and basketball.
Imran Zaki, president of Faces, one of the organisers of Thursday’s get-together, said Muslim women were usually not encouraged by the society to take up sports and continue that after marriage. “It is to Saba’s credit and her will that she has managed to do what she loves. She is the one to emulate,” said Zaki.
As a professional, Saba runs her own studio at her home. She is a stylist and a make-up artist.
Suraiya Rahman
Gynaecologist and owner of a hospital
Suraiya earned her MBBS degree from Bihar in 1967. She was the only Muslim woman in her batch. She later completed her MD from Kolkata in 1975. Again she was the only Muslim woman in her batch.
“There were objections from relatives and acquaintances. They thought it was disgraceful for a woman to go to a convent school and a medical college,” she said. “But my parents never let those objections reach me. My younger sister is a gynaecologist,” she said.
If Suraiya was a rare example in her student days, she is one even now. At 76, Suraiya is running a hospital on Dilkusha Street near bridge number 4 in Park Circus. She does procedures, looks after the daily administration and advises junior doctors. “I am only 76,” she said when applauded for being so active at her age.
Farah Khan, director, Mashriq Education Trust, said: “Suraiya Rahman is a role model for the entire community. So many young doctors from our community, both women and men, look up to her.”
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Kolkata / Home> My Kolkata / News> Women’s Empowerment / by Subhajoy Roy / June 10th, 2022
A book titled ‘A world Divided: Human Rights in an Unequal World’ written on the 25-year struggle of famous social activist Shamim Ahmed was launched on September 25 at a grand ceremony held at the Five Star Ruff Hotel The Park in the West Bengal Capital.
Former minister and congress leader Mani Shankar Iyer paid tributes to Shamim as he said there are very few people in the country who do great service for the restoration of human rights and to put a smile on the face of the people of the country.
He congratulated the author of the book and said that the author has researched the life of Shamim Ahmed and brought a book before us.
The book sheds light on the life of Shamim Ahmed and his work in promotion of Urdu language.
Shankar said that he had the opportunity to read a book, adding that he was very much impressed with his “Food for All” campaign.
“Rights and opportunities have not been found. Even today, people on the streets are longing for food.” Mani Shankar Aiyar said that India is a multi-religious country. “The destiny of this country lies in national unity.”
pix: goodreads.com
Former Member of Parliament and renowned intellectual Mohammad Adib, while acknowledging the services of Shamim Ahmed, said that coming from Bihar to Bengal and launching a movement to make Urdu the second official language is nothing short of a feat.
He said, “it is unfortunate that after India’s independence Later, Urdu was treated leniently. There was injustice with Urdu in Bengal as well. Shamim Ahmed raised his voice against this injustice.
Expressing his views on the occasion, Adib said that the 25-year journey of Shamim was full of difficulties, trials and tribulations.
On the occasion, renowned international artist and Bengali intellectual Shubha Parsna said that Shamim Ahmed is the pride of Bengal. “We are happy that there are people in Bengal who speak of humanity and deal with people on humanitarian grounds. That I have known Shamim Ahmed for the last many years. He had compassion for humanity in his heart.
Prasana urged books should be written on such personalities so that the new generation is aware of him. The event was attended by important personalities from different sections of the society.
source: http://www.millattimes.com / Millat Times / Home> National / by Millat Times Staff / October 05th, 2021