Veteran Indian diplomat Anwar Haleem today assumed charge as the Ambassador of India to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The new Ambassador was given warm welcome by all Mission officials in Amman upon his arrival at the Embassy premises. He presented a copy of his Credentials to H.E. Mr. Zaid Al-Louzi, Secretary General, Foreign Ministry in Amman.
Anwar Haleem is an IFS officer passed out in 1991. He was working as the Additional Secretary in the National Defence College before taking charge as an ambassador.
Anwar Haleem obtained the MA degree in Indian History and International Studies from JNU. He joined M Phil in Disarmament Division as JRF Scholars. He has MBA Finance & LLB. He has a very distinguished academic record and varied experience in public affairs.
Anwar Haleem joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1991. He has served at Indian missions in Egypt, UAE and Saudi Arabia. He has vast experience of working in different divisions of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Haleem has served in different capacities in foreign missions, covering range of political, economic, cultural and community affairs activities as well as crisis management. He has Arabic as his foreign language with vast experience of Gulf and Muslims countries.
At South Block, he was the Desk officer for Sri Lanka and later Director for Latin American Countries, Director SAARC and Director Gulf. He has served as Deputy Director General of India Council of cultural Relations (ICCR), India Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and Joint Secretary in MEA.
Haleem has been the editor of ‘Gagananchal’ a Hindi magazine and ‘India Quarterly’, published by SAGE. He has published works on Technology Transfer from MacGraw Hill.
source: http://www.newsbharati.com / NewsBharati.com / Home / August 01st, 2019
Bushra Arshad with her husband and children. | Photo by arrangement
A mother of two, Bushra Arshad Bano’s story is one of grit and determination. Cracking the civil services exams for the third time last week, Bushra has finally secured her dream job of IPS.
Uttar Pradesh :
It is no easy feat for Bushra Arshad Bano from Kannuaj, Uttar Pradesh, a mother of two, to crack India’s toughest and prestigious civil services exam thrice.
Currently posted as a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Sadar in Firozabad, Bushra resumed her studies after thirteen years of marriage and cracked the civil services exam thrice and will be an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer – which has been her lifelong dream.
Bushra told TwoCircles.net that she has undergone four major surgeries but this didn’t deter her to fulfil her dreams. Expressing joy over being allotted the IPS category, she said, “I would join IPS as it has been my aim always.”
In earlier exams, Bushra Arshad was given IRS and was a top ranker in Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPCS) exams.
Her achievement has been lauded by one and all.
Bushra Arshad, who hails from Saurikh village in Kannuaj, Uttar Pradesh, was the only Muslim participant to become SDM in UPPCS-2017. When she secured 277th rank in the UPSC result in July last year, she was selected for IRS, which as per her “did not satisfy her.” She appeared again in the exams and got 234th rank and secured IPS in the current seat allotment.
Bushra said she had resolved to continue to work hard till she came on top.
Bushra is fond of breaking the ‘myth’, proving misconceptions wrong, and breaking stereotypes.
Her family and relatives said that they always believed in her.
Bushra’s father is a farmer, and her mother is a homemaker. She comes from an educated family – both parents are graduates, and her siblings are well educated. Bushra, however, is extraordinary. After graduating at the age of seventeen, she completed her MBA degree before turning 20. She completed her studies till class XII from Kannauj and went to Kanpur to graduate.
Bushra said that she wanted to appear in the UPSC exam back then, but she was too young and wasn’t eligible.
According to Bushra’s mother Shama, “Bushra was admitted to 2nd standard at the age of four and a half years.”
“Bushra had learned so much at home that she never came second. She has a habit of being a topper. She has always been on top,” her mother told TwoCircles.net.
Bushra recalls relatives visiting her family and telling her family to make her (Bushra) a collector (considered a coveted job). Bushra has gone a step further and become a police captain.
“Age was never a bar for me. It never occurred to me that that I cannot give the UPSC exams or the JRF exams,” she said.
Bushra cleared the Junior Research Fellow (JRF) exam on her very first attempt and got a PhD in Distress Management from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). It was while being at AMU that she married Asmar Hussain, an engineer. The couple went to Saudi where Asmar started teaching at a university there, and Bushra got a well-paying job in a company.
Forsaking their jobs, the couple returned to India.
“The only reason to return to my country was patriotism and unconditional love for the country. I often used to think that the knowledge that I have learned from the residents of my country in India, the skill generated from it should also benefit the residents of my own country. They should also get it, as it is their right,” she said.
Her husband Asmar Hussain told TwoCircles.net that she (Bushra) got a job in Coal India while being a mother of two. “Ten years passed, but her hunger for excellence kept on,” she said.
Talking about that period of her life, Bushra said, “I did the job honestly, and fulfilled my duty as a mother and as a wife.”
“Bushra is a hard-working woman who accomplishes what she decides to do,” her husband said.
Bushra’s story is a testament that nothing is impossible for this determined woman from Uttar Pradesh.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Lead Story / by Aas Mohammad Kaif, TwoCirlcles.net / Devember 02nd, 2021
The 35-year old social worker in Lucknow, while fasting during Ramadan, has arranged the cremation of around 7-8 COVID-19 patients who had no one to cremate them.
Lucknow:
Azra Mobin has been through a whirlwind of emotions in the past few weeks. The 35-year old social worker in Lucknow, while fasting during Ramadan, has arranged the cremation of around 7-8 COVID-19 patients who had no one to cremate them.
The first cremation that she arranged and witnessed was of an 80-year-old Moolchandra Srivastava, a man she did not know until his son Gaurav called and pleaded for help.
Moolchandra had been infected with COVID-19 and was admitted in a private hospital in the city. His son was apprehensive of cremating the body because he has diabetes, and his brother and sister-in-law were also infected with the virus.
From Aliganj, where she lives, she went to take the body and in ambulance went to Baikunth Dham to get him cremated. Accompanying her was Deepak, a friend of hers. Not just for help, but she had also asked Deepak to tag along for a better understanding of the last rites.
It was a hot sunny day and Mobin was fasting as well. Wearing the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) suit, she started to feel dizzy. Mobin said, “I thought I would faint near the pyre where the body was burning, and I sat on a slab nearby. But I wanted to make sure the body was cremated first.”
Two crematorium workers, one of them named Khurshid, she recalled, also helped her during the cremation.
“Humein mazhab se matlab nahi hai, bas aisa nah ho ke kisi ki laash reh jaye,” said Mobin. (I don’t care about the religion; I just don’t want anyone’s body to be left behind.)
It all started last month when she felt helpless and numb hearing one devastating news after another. On 19 April, she posted her number on Facebook, asking people to contact her if any help needed for cremations.
The incident that still shakes her core
One day, after iftar, she had a conversation with a young 21 year old boy, Aman Srivastava that still breaks her heart.
Aman could not stop crying on the call. He was at Raebareli road and he had reached out for help for his mother but by then she had passed away. Aman has a younger sister. His father was in isolation and in a critical condition.
He was breathing heavily so Mobin asked him if he has COVID-19, to which he said, “No. I don’t. I just haven’t eaten anything. I miss my mother, how can I even eat?”
She tried to comfort him and assured that she is available if any help needed. The following day, she was back to arranging other cremations.
All this while, she could not stop worrying about the boy and wondered why he had not called. A few days later, his sister answered her call.
“The day after you called, my father passed away. The next day, my brother whom you spoke to, Aman also passed away. My grandmother, in this shock of these deaths, also passed away.” his sister said.
Already quite disturbed, Aman was told to take the ashes to Kanpur. He got in an accident and and passed away.
This hit Mobin really hard. She assured all help to the girl and her relatives, yet in that moment she felt nothing but helpless.
Throughout this second wave of the pandemic, one which has wreaked havoc in the urban and rural spaces, citizens keep trying to fill the gap created by the authorities. The onus to help with leads, provide materials and services have fallen on the shoulders of the locals. In an ideal world, citizens should not have had to do this.
Azra Mobin
‘No matter what your faith Is, I’m here to help’
Traditionally in India, Hindu or Muslim women do not participate in last rites, visit the cremation grounds or cremate the bodies.
For some families, generally, she said, they are scared to cremate or go to the cremation grounds. Either the family members are not available or they are self-isolating. A lot of times neighbours have also refused to help.
After the first cremation, Mobin received a lot of messages of encouragement from people. From a Muslim cleric to strangers, they all sent their prayers and that emboldened her to continue working.
“I thought about the people that have been cremated — did they even know me? Did they ever think their family will not be cremating them?” I think, maybe, God made me connected to them for a reason,” she said.
Mobin is a mother of two, an 11-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy. When she decided to help during the pandemic, she sent them to their grandmother’s house. Mobin’s mother was worried and disapproved of the work initially, but Mobin is not one to back down. “I tell my mother I have gotten this altruistic spirit from her that she cannot do much about,” she said.
When she returns from the cremation ground, she discards the PPE suit and self-isolates.
Uttar Pradesh on Thursday reported 17,745 new coronavirus cases, 277 deaths in 24 hours. Out of the deaths, more than 20 were from Lucknow. The government, however, has been accused of reportedly concealing the numbers.
On being asked if she fears any action from the government, Mobin said, “I am not scared of talking about the reality on the ground. If they think by highlighting the reality, people are spreading ‘rumours,’ then they can come with me on the ground, see and hear the cries of the people. I have seen people losing their lives on the road.”
As she continues to attend to SOS calls, she also thinks of her future. “What if tomorrow when I die, I have no one to cremate my body? I would like to think that someone will be there for me when my time comes,” she remarked. The only positive note here, she says is that the calls for cremation have reduced in the past couple of days.
Aliza Noor is a multimedia journalist based in Lucknow.
source: http://www.maktoobmedia.com / Maktoob / Home> Features India> North India / by Aliza Noor / May 14th, 2021
