Mysore :
City bodybuilder Najeeb Khan, who participated in the bodybuilding competition organised at Dundamma Government School at Ashokapuram in city recently as part of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s birth anniversary celebration, won ‘Dr. B.R. Ambedkar-2014’ title.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports News / June 22nd, 2014
Mysore :
City girl, Zeba Amina, a 8th standard student of Delhi Public School, Mysore, taking part in the AITA Talent series Under-14 National Level Tennis Tournament held at Trivandrum Tennis Club, Trivandrum, Kerala, from June 16-20th emerged runner-up in the Girls Under-14 singles event.
Zeba Amina, a product of the R. Nagaraj Tennis Academy, Mysore and daughter of Saleem and Shehnaz, performed well in the National U-14 talent series tennis tournament and finished runner-up. In the under-14 singles final, Zeba Amina lost to Tamil Nadu’s Kiran Rani 1-6,2-6.
In the semi-final, Zeba beat Janaki (TN) 6-4, 6-4 and in the quarter-finals beat Ananya (Kerala) 6-1, 6-2 to progress further.
The results: Final: U-14 Girls: Kiran Rani (TN) bt Zeba Amina (Kar) 6-1, 6-2.
Semi-finals: Zeba Amina bt Janaki (TN) 6-4, 6-4; Quarter-finals: Zeba Amina bt Ananya (KER) 6-1, 6-2.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports News / June 20th, 2014
Taj Mahal of India is widely recognized as “the jewel of art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”. It’s a unique monument built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Taj Mahal is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and one of the best examples of Islamic architecture.
Millions visit India to get glimpses of this unique architectural beauty and this includes a large number from Middle East. How about seeing the beauty of Taj Mahal here itself in Kuwait?
Inspired by the architecture of Taj Mahal, Kuwait has designed a mosque exactly like Taj Mahal, a replica. The mosque is a bigger version of India’s Taj Mahal. It’s 3 times bigger.
Sadeeqa Fatimatul Zahra Mosque, a prayer place for the Kuwaitis, looks similar to India’s Taj Mahal from the outside. Located at Block 6, Abdullah Al-Mubarak area, West of Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, the mosque is already gaining a reputation as one of Kuwait’s most distinctive buildings and is called the “Taj Mahal of Kuwait”.
It’s learned that Hassan Johar, a Member of Parliament, who was behind this unique project here, received the blessing of the Indian embassy before building the mosque.
Internal design of the mosque differs from the original. It consists of carvings of verses from the Quran. The four minarets and central dome of the mosque are adorned with brass crescents. The main prayer area is at the ground floor with library and utilities. It has a separate prayer hall for the women in the first floor. The Mosque was officially opened for the public in 2011.
The beauty of the mosque in middle of the desert is mesmerizing. It’s a proud feeling for all Indians here in Kuwait to witness a replica of the Taj Mahal in Kuwait. Those who have not seen the Taj Mahal in India, they can now see it in Kuwait.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> NRI> Contributions> Contributors / by Deepika Nambiar, TOI Contributor / April 30th, 2014
Agra :
The 359th annual Urs of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan will begin at the Taj Mahal from May 25 to 27 and entry will be free for visitors during the three-day celebrations.
“There would be free entry to the monument from 2pm until sunset on May 25 and 26, and on May 27 no entree fee will be charged throughout the day,” N K Pathak, chief superintending archaeologist, ASI, Agra zone said here today.
Khudddam-e-Rauza Committee, the traditional caretaker of the Taj, would put a 735-meter-long chadar on the cenotaph of Shah Jahan, he said.
Committee president Tahiruddin Tahir said that the length of the chadar to be placed on the tomb had been increased by 70-metres from the 635-meters length of last year.
Besides, a chadar made of 359 garlands would also be offered by the Shahi mosque Fatehpuri to mark the Urs on May 27, Saeed Khan, the mutawalli of the mosque said.
During the Urs, prince Yakub Habeebuddin Tusi of Hyderabad, who claims to be the great grandson of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, makes an annual pilgrimage to the monument and offers prayers there.
Shahjahan was the fifth Mughal emperor who ruled the empire for 30 years from 1628 to 1658 before he was deposed by his son Aurangzeb. He died in 1666.
He had erected the Taj Mahal in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / PTI / May 22nd, 2014
Lucknow :
Governor B L Joshi will leave for Jaipur from Raj Bhawan on June 23 at 9am and will be given Guard of Honour by the Indian Army at Raj Bhawan, here at 8.45am. The police will give Guard of Honour at the airport before his departure.
The governor designate Aziz Qureshi will arrive at Amausi Airport the same day in the afternoon. Chief justice of Allahabad HC justice D Y Chandrachud will administer him oath of office in Gandhi sabhagar of the Raj Bhawan at 6pm on June 23. It may be mentioned that governor of Uttarakhand Aziz Qureshi has been given additional charge of UP after resignation of governor BL Joshi.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / June 22nd, 2014
Hyderabad:
Mohammed Jalaluddin Akbar, IFS officer has been posted as Special Officer to the Telangana state Wakf Board.
Jalaluddin Akbar, belonging to 1999 IFS batch, was holding the post of Conservator of Forests (Production), Telangana.
The government on Friday issued orders to transfer him to Minority Welfare department as Special Officer to Board, with immediate effect for a period of one year or until further orders, whichever is earlier, under the provisions of Wakf Act (Central Act 43 of 1995).
However, as per the provisions of the Act, the state government has power to appoint a special officer for a period of six months and not for a period of one year as stated in GO.
After noticing this, the government has decided issue an addendum to the GO.
Jalaluddin Akbar, the first special officer of the Board, earlier served as Buddha Purnima Project director.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / DC Correspondent / June 21st, 2014
Thiruvananthapuram:
Boys outsmarted girls by winning the first 10 ranks in the engineering entrance exams. A total of 57,081 candidates have been included in the rank list of the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, which was published on Sunday. Out of this, 25,551 are girls.
Rithul P. of Malappuram secured the first rank with a total score of 585.84 and Safeel A.K. of Malappuram stood second with 583.5100. Haradev G.S. of Kollam came third with 578.8808. Nitin M.Pai won the fourth rank, Vivek Jacob Mathai the fifth, Farzin .K the sixth, Alan Thelliyil Augustine, the seventh, Muhammed Ahsan K.V. the eighth, Pranav .S the ninth, and Anand U.R., the tenth rank.
In the SC category, Sidharth Ravi and Sarath B. secured the second rank. In the Schedule Tribe category, Raksha S. and Umesh K.U. won the first two ranks. The first two rank holders have been eyeing admissions to the IIT and prefer the mechanical stream.
For first rank holder Rithul P. it was his second attempt. For second rank holder Safeel A.K. too, it was the second time. However, it was the first attempt for third rank holder Haradev G.S. The Kerala Engineering Entrance Examination was conducted at 332 venues, in all the 14 revenue districts of the State, New Delhi, Mumbai, Ranchi and Dubai.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / DC Correspondent / June 16th, 2014
London:
The birth centenary year of Noor Inayat Khan, the famous Indian-origin World War II spy, was observed in the UK this week.
Popular English novelist and political commentator Frederick Forsyth was among the key guests at a special memorial event in London to celebrate the life of Noor, the great-great-great-grand-daughter of Tipu Sultan, who became the first female radio operator to be sent from Britain into occupied France.
“What is so remarkable about Noor Inayat Khan is that she owed us nothing; she didn’t have to go,” said Forsyth, the well-known thriller writer behind books such as ‘The Day of the Jackal’ and ‘The Odessa File’ who compared her to the 18th century ruler, Tipu Sultan, known as the ‘Tiger of Mysore’.
“When it came to being recruited for the SOE (Special Operations Executive), she could have said ‘thank you but no’…but she volunteered. There must be something of the old tiger in her genes. It is recorded that she fought like a tigress…Noor absolutely did not die for nothing.
“She is an amazement, a remarkable and extraordinarily brave woman who did what she did for a country to which she owed nothing,” Forsyth said.
The memorial event was organised by the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust set up by Shrabani Basu – author of the World War II heroine’s biography ‘Spy Princess’.
It coincided with the dates of June 16-17, 1943, when Noor – under her codename Madeleine – was flown to the landing ground in Northern France.
“She combined the rational side of her personality with her hatred of injustice and became one of our greatest heroines. My hope is that she would have gone back to that inner life that sustained her,” said Christine Crawley, a Labour party politician who has campaigned for the contribution of women agents in the war to be commemorated.
The SOE was an underground force established in Britain in 1940 by war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill to “set Europe ablaze”.
It recruited men and women to launch a guerilla war against Hitler’s forces.
Noor, born in September 1914 to an Indian Muslim father and an American mother, grew up in Britain and France.
Despite her pacifist views, she decided to join the war effort to defeat the Nazis and was eventually captured.
In spite of being repeatedly tortured and interrogated, she revealed nothing and was executed by an SS officer on September 13, 1944, at Dachau concentration camp at the age of 30.
She was later awarded the George Cross, the highest civilian decoration in the UK, in recognition of her bravery.
A bust in Noor’s memory now stands at Gordon Square in central London, a stone’s throw from the home she briefly lived in.
source: http://www.ndtv.com / NDTV / Home> Diaspora / Press Trust of India / June 19th, 2014
Books help human beings lead a good life, said former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in the city on Saturday.
In an interactive session with the students of Presidency College, Mr. Kalam said when he was studying at the Madras Institute of Technology in Chromepet, he used to come to Moore Market complex to buy old books.
When asked about his first failure, Mr. Kalam said, in 1979, he headed a team which was involved in launching a satellite at Indian Space Research Organisation, Sriharikotta.
On the day of the launch, the satellite, instead of moving on its scheduled orbit, fell into the Bay of Bengal. That was his first failure from which he learnt and conducted several successful missions.
Answering another question on the importance of technology and research, Mr. Kalam said intensity was lacking amongst researchers today.
To improve this, there is a need to rewrite the curriculum in a way that it promotes research. Students should also learn to accept defeats and celebrate it, he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Events / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – June 22nd, 2014