The Railway Ministry statement said that President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service has been awarded to DB Kasar, Principal Chief Security Commissioner of South Eastern Railway.
A total of 16 officials of Railway Protection Force and Railway Protection Special Force have been awarded the Presidents Police Medal for Distinguished Service and Police Medal for Meritorious Service on the occasion of Independence Day, an official statement said Friday.
The Railway Ministry statement said that President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service has been awarded to DB Kasar, Principal Chief Security Commissioner of South Eastern Railway.
The President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service has been awarded to 15 railway officers, including Santosh N Chandran, DIG/R&T, Railway Board; Rajendra Rupnawar, Senior DSC/Northeast Frontier Railway; Sarika Mohan, Senior DSC/ Northern Railway; Shaik Karimullah, Assistant Security Commissioner/South Central Railway; Himanshu Shekhar Jha, Assistant Security Commissioner/Railway Board; and Gurjasbir Singh, Assistant Security Commissioner/ Northern Railway.
Nepal Singh Gurjar, Sub-Inspector/2BN RPSF; AB Rashid Lone, Inspector/6BN RPSF; M Mohammed Rafi, Head Constable/South Western Railway; Shailesh Kumar, Inspector /Northern Railway; Sudhendu Biswas, Assistant Sub-Inspector/ Eastern Railway; Kawal Singh, Sub Inspector/ 2BN RPSF; K Ventateswarlu, Inspector/ South Central Railway; Ashraf Siddiqui, Inspector/ North Eastern Railway; and Surender Kumar, Assistant Sub Inspector/ Northern Railway have been awarded the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service.
–IANS
source: http://www.newsd.in / Newsd. / Home> India / by IANS / August 14th, 2020
Sikandar Begum with her prime minister, left, and second minister. The photo was published in “A Pilgrimage to Mecca” (1870). (The Asiatic Society of Bombay via AN)
One of the most interesting aspects of Sikandar Begum’s account is her open criticism of Ottoman governance in Makkah
Imprecise library records obscured access to the original Urdu manuscript for decades
Warsaw :
History recently came to life in a manuscript with royal stamps discovered in the archives of SOAS University of London. The historic find? A tantalizing insight into the journey of the first ruler from the Indian subcontinent to set out for Hajj.
In November 1863, the ruler of the princely state of Bhopal, Sikandar Begum, began the sacred pilgrimage many other sovereigns of her time could not make for fear of losing power — in the 19th century, sea travel from India to Makkah meant long months of absence from the throne. Unlike them, Sikandar was safe. Her Hajj included a mission to compile a travelogue for those who guaranteed her reign.
Bhopal had gained independence from the declining Mughal Empire under Dost Mohammad Khan, a Pashtun warrior who, in the early 18th century, founded the Muslim state in today’s Madhya Pradesh. Under British rule, for more than a century the country was led by four women. Sikandar, who ruled from 1844 to 1868, was the most reform-oriented of them. She reorganized the army, appointed a consultative assembly and invested in free education for girls. She was also the first Indian ruler to replace Persian with vernacular Urdu as the official language.
In late January, SOAS librarians came across a title recorded in their archives’ catalogue as “‘Journal of a trip to Mecca’ by Skandar Baigam, Ra’isah’ of Bhopal. Bound manuscript in Urdu. Written at the suggestion of Major-General Sir Henry Marion Durand, 1883.”
“I was really intrigued that such a beautifully bound-in-silk manuscript with obvious royal stamps in its colophon could be linked to such an opaque and short library record,” SOAS Special Collections curator Dominique Akhoun-Schwarb told Arab News.
“It quickly became obvious that there was a bit more story and depth behind the note ‘written at the suggestion of Major-General Sir Henry Durand,’ when the author was a queen herself, a pioneer, since she was the first Indian ruler to have performed the Hajj and authored an account of her pilgrimage.”
The imprecise note had for decades obscured access to the text for researchers. A deformed transliteration of Sikandar’s name had compounded the issue.
Until the chance discovery a few months ago, all scholarship on the Bhopal ruler’s pilgrimage had to rely on two translations of the text as the original Urdu version had been missing for some 150 years. One was the abridgment of Sikandar’s account in Persian, compiled by her daughter, Shah Jahan Begum. The other one, “A Pilgrimage to Mecca, was an English translation by Emma Laura Willoughby-Osborne, wife of a British political agent in Bhopal, which was published in 1870, two years after Sikandar’s death. The two texts are quite different.
In the English version, Sikandar quotes a letter she received from Durand, the British colonial administrator mentioned in the SOAS record, and his wife: “He was anxious to hear what my impressions of Arabia generally, and of Mecca, in particular, might be. I replied that when I returned to Bhopal from the pilgrimage, I would comply with their request, and the present narrative is the result of that promise.”
The letter is nowhere to be found in the Persian text.
A preliminary reading by Arab News of the Urdu manuscript, which has been digitized by SOAS, reveals that Durand’s letter is mentioned in the very first pages of the text. The correspondence and accuracy of other parts, however, are not immediately obvious.
In the preface to “A Pilgrimage to Mecca,” Osborne said that the Urdu manuscript consisted of “rough notes” demanding some arrangement. According to Dr. Piotr Bachtin, from the Department of Iranian Studies of the University of Warsaw, who studied female pilgrimage of the era and translated the Persian version of Sikandar’s account, the English translator’s note immediately raises questions regarding Osborne’s interference in the text.
Osborne’s assurance that the only license she had allowed herself had been the “occasional transposition of a paragraph” seems to be an understatement. It appears that the text was heavily edited. Bachtin suggested that Sikandar might have been a “reporter” entrusted with a specific task and became an “incidental informer” in the service of the British Empire.
The most interesting aspect of the travelogue, which the manuscript may verify, was Sikandar’s political involvement with and open criticism of Ottoman governance in Makkah. One of the most prominent instances of Sikandar’s criticism is the following:
“The Sultan of Turkey gives thirty lakhs of rupees a year for the expenses incurred in keeping up the holy places at Mecca and Medina. But there is neither cleanliness in the city, nor are there any good arrangements made within the precincts of the shrines,” Sikandar wrote, adding that had the money been given to her, she would have made arrangements for a state of order and cleanliness. “I, in a few days, would effect a complete reformation!”
Sikandar’s political commentary is completely missing from the Persian version of her text. “Only in the English translation did she openly criticize both the Pasha and the Sharif of Makkah, going as far as to say that she would have managed Makkah better herself!” Bachtin said, “However, we must remember that her book was commissioned by Sir Henry Marion Durand. For me, this paradoxical dynamic is particularly interesting.”
With the original manuscript now available to researchers, further study should soon reveal how much of the Hajj account was informed by the colonial circumstances Sikandar faced at home, and to what extent it was guided by her own ambitions to be a modern and reformist Muslim ruler.
source: http://www.arabnews.com /Arab News / Home> Latest News> Middle East / by Natalia Laskowska / August 02nd, 2020
The UPSC announced the result of the civil services examination 2019.
The netizens came across the case of reel-meets-real, as a police officer from Delhi has been going viral on social as the the real-life counterpart of the fictitious Imran Ansari from the Netflix series ‘Paatal Lok’.
Constable Firoz Alam works for Delhi Police and much like the handsome, upright and talented Ansari in the Anushka Sharma produced show, Alam has cleared the UPSC examination with 646 rank, as per an update posted by a journalist on Twitter.
The UPSC announced the result of the civil services examination 2019. While Pradeep Singh has topped the exams, Jatin Kishore and Pratibha Verma got the second and third rank, respectively.
But images of Alam have nevertheless been doing the rounds on social media, thanks to his similarity to the character of Ansari, who was also a Delhi Police constable who wanted to become a civil servant and was thus studying to pass the UPSC examination.
_____________
Twitter :
Saurabh Trivedi @saurabh3vedi
A real life Imran Ansari from #paatallok – He is Firoz Alam, a #DelhiPolice constable posted with PCR unit. He has secured AIR 645 in #UPSC2019.
3:41 PM . Aug 04, 2020 / 5,6K / 725 people are Tweeting about this
____________________
Alam is not the only one to make news on social media after the results of UPSC were announced.
A candidate by the name of Rahul Modi – an amalgamation of the names of PM Narendra Modi and his nemesis Congress leader Rahul Gandhi- secured the 420 rank, causing much hilarity on social media.
source: http://www.newsd.in / Newsd.in / Home> Trending / by Newsd / August 05th, 2020
From government school teacher to life coach, Arif has come a long way while training thousands of students in Bengaluru.We trace his journey.
Arif Pasha certified by International Life Coach, Kaushik Mahapatra (pic: Arif Pasha)
A few years ago, when Arif Pasha had to drop out of BCom, he never imagined that he would become a life coach who trained students in soft skills, language and academics. Coming from a humble background, he was forced to drop out due to financial constraints. He later received training to become a medical transcriptionist and joined a multinational company. “My work involved converting all the voice notes sent by selected doctors in the US into transcripts. I earned a handsome salary but my interest was in guiding many young students like myself. One day, when I passed by a government school in Koramangala, I asked the principal if I could volunteer as a teacher. The principal readily agreed. After that, I slowly lost interest in my job, so, I decided to quit and take up teaching full-time,” says Arif.
Though his income was quite low and barely enough to make ends meet, Arif didn’t mind as he quickly became the students’ favourite teacher. “I discovered that innovation was missing in their education. Hence, I would spend two hours on the internet every day to learn innovative ideas to teach children. For example, all my lessons would be in the form of stories and real-life examples. I also do not use a stick while teaching children and it gave me good results in terms of response from students. Soon, even other teachers gave up using the stick,” says Arif, adding, “During my tenure in a government school, I was awarded as an outstanding teacher. The school had got good results in the final exams and they were happy with my efforts.”
Dream Merchant: Arif has trained over 35,000 students till date on the methods of achieving their goals
With that, Arif quickly realised that it was time for him to do more for students than just teach them. That’s when he remembered some of the soft skills he learnt during his corporate days — setting goals, planning time and working to achieve them. He then joined Arham Faraaz Leadership Academy in Bengaluru to groom his speaking skills, body language and storytelling skills, and after the completion of his training, he confidently approached a few schools to conduct goal setting sessions for students.
Narrating the story of his very first session, he says, “In 2010, I charged only `10 for each student. With a broken laptop in hand and a few students in class, I started speaking to them. During these sessions, I would explain to students why they have to attend school and what education can fetch them.” And where is Arif now? “As my work gained recognition, an educational institute in Mumbai gave me a boost to travel from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and work with different schools. Today, I have covered over 35,000 students across India in private as well as government schools. This year, my goal is to help and motivate 5,000 students. By 2025, my aim is to help 5 lakh students achieve their dreams.”
Arif says that these life coaching sessions help students transform themselves and they ultimately start performing well in academics. For example, last year, when he was working with the Rajeev Gandhi Public School in Bengaluru, he came across a girl who was not doing well in her studies and she feared facing the Board exams. Through various sessions of counselling, drawing study plans and helping her realise her potential, she was able to score 86 per cent in her class X exams. What better instance can one state to prove that his sessions have served their purpose?
His smart goal: Arif aims to train five lakh students by the year 2025
Arif has even trained under international speaker and author Syed Habeeb, who wrote the book The Warrior Within You. “I worked as a language trainer in a school called LifeBridge Finishing School. We helped engineering students present themselves in their interview and get placed. It was a 21-day residential training programme. On average, every third day, I conducted sessions to train students and teachers. Currently, I am training under Uday Kumar who is a Limited Liability Partnership coach. Aside from this, I am certified by the Indian Leadership Academy by Koushik Mahapatra as a Life Skills Coach and an LLP practitioner,” states Arif who is the founder and CEO of Live Your Dreams. His friend Abdul Afsar Baig handles the operations of the company.
Apart from training students and motivating them, Arif is specialised in training teachers and parents too. He explains, “During my sessions, I found out that many students are interested in achieving their goals but sometimes, their teachers and parents don’t cooperate. This brings down their motivation level. I designed a programme for seven days which includes training students, helping teachers draw their lesson plans, employing innovative skills of teaching, adopting technology to gel with the present generation and lending a ear to what students have to say. Meanwhile, parents play a key role in this as they learn about their children’s dreams and how they can help in achieving them.”
Here are a few tips that Arif gives students
No matter what people around you say, one should not stop thinking if they want to become a doctor, engineer, IAS officer, astronaut, singer or artist
Thinking alone won’t help. One should have strong will power and commitment to plan and work accordingly
Always tell yourself that you can do it instead of you can’t
Convert everything that you study into an image so that you don’t forget easily.
source: http://www.edexlive.com / EDEX / Home> People> Life Coach / by Rashmi Patil , Edex Live / July 20th, 2019
Volunteers from Anjuman-e-Islam preparing oxygen cylinders to be distributed free to COVID-19 patients in Belagavi
Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are helping poor patients battle COVID-19 by providing them free oxygen cylinders.
The Anjuman-e-Islam committee in Belagavi has tied up with industrial gas industries and plans to provide oxygen cylinders to the needy. The committee will provide 120 cylinders in the first phase. It plans to increase the numbers in the next few weeks.
“Our members wanted to help society in some way in the battle against COVID-19. Some of us observed that the number of bodies being cremated in the city had nearly doubled. We were getting around two bodies per day before June. But in recent weeks, it had shot up to four bodies per day. This was alarming and we decided to join the government’s efforts in helping patients,” committee chairman Raju Seth.
“A background study helped us understand that a large number of patients were from poor families. Some of them could not afford industrial oxygen supply, especially if they were home quarantined and needed cylinders. We have enlisted the services of volunteers and are providing door delivery of cylinders,” Mr. Seth said.
“We are supplying cylinders to people from all communities and faiths. We also have a list of doctors on call. We are sending them to the houses of those with symptoms who want advice on the epidemic, like whether they need a test or if they should choose a hospital or should stay home,” Mr. Seth said.
Residents of Belagavi and nearby areas can contact the committee’s volunteers Samiullah Madiwale on Ph: 7676686778 or Ameen Pattekari on Ph: 7676513526.
Holistic services
In Bidar, a group of organisations has come together to provide holistic services to people of the city and nearby areas. A helpline has been set up for free counselling and medical advice. The group can be contacted through Amir Pasha on Ph: 886197540, Yousuf Raheem on Ph: 9845628595 or M. Asaduddin on Ph: 7975298728.
Whenever a family feels that one of its members is having symptoms indicative of COVID-19, it can call these numbers to get its doubts clarified.
Then, a group of two volunteers will go to the family’s house with a pulse oximeter and a pamphlet on managing the disease.
Already, the volunteers have supplied around 50 cylinders and provided free counselling to 60 families till now. The group has also pressed into service two ambulances to ferry patients to hospital and to take them back home. All these services are given free.
Other organisations such as the Idgah Committee, Alimoddin Foundation, Rahim Khan Trust, Safa Baitul Maal, Jamiat Ahle Hadees, Jamaat-e-Islami and Pharmacists Association have joined hands in these efforts.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Rishikesh Bahadur Desai / Belagavi – August 03rd, 2020
Riyaz, a student of Delhi’s Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, was gifted a racing bike Friday by President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
President Ram Nath Kovind with Riyaz, 16, at Rashtrapati Bhavan Friday | Credit: Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi:
Until 2017, Riyaz, 16, had never even seen a racing bicycle. Three years later, his obvious potential in the sport has earned him special recognition from the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
President Ram Nath Kovind Friday gifted a racing bicycle to Riyaz, a Ghaziabad resident who only goes by his first name, after coming across a news report about his passion for the sport and the arduous efforts he was making to excel in it.
The son of a small-time cook, Riyaz juggles his studies with a part-time job at a Ghaziabad eatery. Over the last three years, he has emerged as a force to be reckoned with on the cycling circuit, acing several races, including those on the national level.
“I am elated after meeting the President, who gifted me this bicycle a day before Eid. This is my Eidi,” Riyaz told ThePrint in a telephonic interview.
“It is a dream come true for me. This has motivated me to do even better, and I am grateful to my coaches Ajay Arya, Pramod Sharma and other teachers for the support,” Riyaz said.
A native of Bihar’s Madhubani district, Riyaz’s father is a cook who worked at small dhabas and eateries in Delhi until the Covid lockdown forced him to return home. His mother lives in his native village with Riyaz’s four siblings.
“Due to the lockdown, my father went back home. He wanted to take me with him but I chose not to go because that would have affected my training,” said Riyaz, a student of Class 9 at Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Delhi, who regularly trains at the capital’s Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
An ‘accidental’ passion
Riyaz makes his living washing dishes at an eatery in Ghaziabad, where he lives in a Rs 2,500/month rented room. He came to the President’s notice after a 14 July report in the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran detailed his struggle. He was saving money from his pay for professional coaching in cycling, the report said, adding that he had won bronze at the Delhi State Cycling Championship 2020 this January. As he gifted him the bicycle, President Kovind wished Riyaz the best and said he hopes he becomes an international champion.
For all his talent, however, it was a pure accident that led Riyaz towards cycle racing.
“I was always interested in sports. I joined Delhi’s Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in 2016 and started participating in different sports events. I also won three gold medals at the zonal level in that year — in the 400-metre race, long jump and high jump, and was declared the best athlete,” he said.
“In 2017, there was a cycling event in Guwahati and my coach, Ajay sir, asked me if I wanted to join the team as there were fewer participants than required, and I agreed,” Riyaz added.
He agreed, but the thought of competing against around 60 contestants scared him. “But coach sir motivated me and I secured the fifth position in that race,” he said, adding that he borrowed someone’s cycle for the race.
A long struggle
Arya speaks about his protege’s struggle in glowing terms. “He used to work until late, sometimes till around midnight. He then used to wake up at 4am to go for training,” said Arya.
According to the coach, Riyaz initially began his training on a regular bicycle. “The racing bicycle is very expensive. No good bicycle comes for less than Rs 50,000,” added Riyaz. Having practised on a borrowed cycle so far, Riyaz said he is happy that he now owns one.
Asked how his parents reacted, he said he has not had a chance to speak to them. “I told them yesterday that I was being called to the Rashtrapati Bhavan. But I did not get to speak with them after getting the bicycle.”
source: http://www.theprint.in / The Print / Home> India/ by Unnati Sharma / July 31st, 2020
Mumbai girl Asma is a student of Hirjeebhoy Allarakhia and Laljeebhoy Sajan Girls High School.
Asma Salim Shaikh from Mumbai passed Maharashtra SSC exams despite staying at a footpath
A Mumbai girl, who stays at a footpath, along with her family, caught the limelight after she scored 40 per cent marks in Maharasthra SSC exams.
Asma Salim Shaikh’s father Salim Shaikh said, “It’s the happiest day of her life, because she has scored 40 per cent in Maharashtra SSC exam.”
Asma is a student of Hirjeebhoy Allarakhia and Laljeebhoy Sajan Girls High School. She has spent her life on the pavement outside Azad Maidan near CST. She did not have access to basic amenities like a place to study or stationary. She used to study on the footpath under the streetlight. Seventeen-year-old Asma now plans to take Arts in Junior college.
Asma celebrates with her father
Her video in which she is seen celebrating the feat with her father went viral over social media. The video has received more than 2 lakh views and more than 10,000 likes.
Asma stated that her father sells lemonade on the roadside to earn a living. The financial condition of the house is not good. Despite this, her father got her admission done in a Mumbai school and allowed and supported her to complete her school.
Asma said, “I studied under street lights as I did not have means to get a comfortable place for studying. Now, I will pursue Arts in junior college.”
The girl got the support of former Union Minister of State Milind Deora saying that he will help the girl in every possible way.
In a similar development, Bharti Khandekar, who lived with her parents and two younger brothers on a footpath in the Shivaji Nagar Market area in Indore, secured 68 per cent marks in the Madhya Pradesh state board examinations.
Her story was highlighted by the media and this led to Indore Municipal Corporation deciding to allot the family a flat.
Municipal commissioner Pratibha Pal said that, “Under a scheme for the economically weaker section, we have allotted them a one-BHK (bedroom-hall-kitchen) flat in Bhoori Tekri area.”
She further stated that when she met Bharti, she was amazed by her confidence. Bharti stated that she wants to be an IAS officer when she grows up.
source: http://www.ibtimes.com / International Business Times / Home> India / by Anjali Singh Deswal / July 30th, 2020
Baroda, MADHYA PRADESH / Paris, FRANCE / London, UNITED KINGDOM :
If the proposal is passed, it will be the first time that non-white people will be featured on British coins or notes.
Born in Moscow to an Indian father and an American mother, Noor’s family moved to London and then to Paris during the First World War. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
British media reported this week that Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is considering a proposal to feature historical figures from the Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) community of the country on a set of coins titled ‘Service to the Nation’.
If the proposal is passed, it will be the first time that non-white people will be featured on British coins or notes. The plan has been submitted to the Royal Mint, which is to come up with proposals and designs.
Zehra Zaidi of the advocacy campaign ‘Banknotes of Colour’, along with a group of historians and MPs, had written to the Chancellor proposing some historical figures. Among them were the Indian-origin British spy Noor Inayat Khan, as well as Khudadad Khan, the first soldier of the British Indian Army to receive the Victoria Cross. Khudadad Khan, who belonged to the Chakwal district of Punjab in present-day Pakistan, died in 1971.
The continuing Black Lives Matter protests in the United States , triggered by the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis in May, which have put a spotlight on the lack of BAME representation in the UK, and have compelled authorities to take appropriate steps.
Who was Noor Inayat Khan?
Born in Moscow to an Indian father and an American mother, her family moved to London and then to Paris during the First World War. Although Noor started working as a children’s writer in Paris, she escaped to England after the fall of France (when it was invaded by Germany) during the Second World War.
In November 1940, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, an arm of the UK’s Royal Air Force to train as a wireless operator. She then did a stint at the secret intelligence organisation set up by Winston Churchill called Special Operations Executive (SOE).
A bust of Noor Inayat Khan in Gordon Square, London. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
She became the first radio operator to be sent to Paris to work for SOE’s Prosper resistance network under the codename Madeleine. She was just 29 then, and had signed up for a job in which people were not expected to be alive for longer than six weeks.
Even as many members of the network were being arrested by the Nazi secret police Gestapo, Noor chose to stay put — and spent the summer moving from one place to another, sending messages back to London, until she was arrested in 1943.
She was executed at the Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany near Munich. Noor was awarded the highest honour in the UK, the George Cross, in 1949, and the French Croix de Guerre with the silver star posthumously.
What was Noor’s connection to India?
She was connected to India through her father Inayat Khan. He was founder of the Sufi Order of the West, which is now known as the Inayati Order. He had migrated to the West as n Hindustani classical musician, and then moved to teaching Sufism.
Inayat Khan was born in Baroda. His maternal grandfather was the noted musician Ustad Maula Bakhsh Khan, who founded the music academy Gyanshala, which now serves as the Faculty of Performing Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University. Maula Bakhsh’s wife, Qasim Bibi, was a granddaughter of Tipu Sultan of Mysore.
Inayat returned to India in 1926 and chose the site of his burial at the Nizamuddin Dargah complex in New Delhi. The Inayat Khan dargah still stands in a corner of the complex.
Besides being a GC, what other honours has Noor received?
In 2014, Britain’s Royal Mail had issued a postage stamp in honour of Noor as part of a set of 10 stamps in the ‘Remarkable Lives’ series. In 2012, a memorial with a bust of Noor was unveiled in London by Princess Anne. Shrabani Basu, author of ‘Spy Princess, The Life of Noor Inayat Khan’, and Chair of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust, had campaigned for the memorial.
In February 2019, Noor’s London home at 4 Taviton Street in Bloomsbury, the house that she left for her final mission, was honoured with a blue plaque. She was the first Indian-origin woman to be awarded the plaque.
How has Noor been represented in popular culture?
Various documentaries on women agents and the SOE have featured her story, such as Netflix’s ‘Churchill’s Secret Agents: The New Recruits’. In 2018, a play titled ‘Agent Madeleine’ premiered at the Ottawa Fringe Festival.
In 2012, Indian producers Zafar Hai and Tabrez Noorani obtained the film rights to the biography by Basu. In the film ‘Liberté: A Call to Spy’, an American historical drama, actor Radhike Apte played the role of Noor. The film had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last year.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Explained / by Surbhi Gupta / New Delhi / July 29th, 2020
Wasim and 22 other men are part of NGO Helping Hands and they stay at the burial ground till 10 pm, doing what even family members of relatives are scared to do – burying COVID-19 victims’ bodies.
The team has completed over 100 burials of COVID-19 victims till date. (Photo | Shriram BN, EPS)
Wasim Zubair’s day begins with his prayers after which he heads to the burial ground at Quddus Saheb Edgar at 5.30 am to get a list of the deceased who will be brought for their last rites.
Wasim and 22 other men are part of NGO Helping Hands and they stay at the burial ground till 10 pm, doing what even some family members are scared to do – burying COVID-19 victims.
The task is tiring as they have to sweat it out wearing their PPE kits, which they have to constantly change after each burial. There is no incentive for them to do this, not to mention the risk they run of contracting the infection.
Ask them why they do it and Abdul Muheeb, founder of NGO Helping Hands, says, “In April, we locals would see families struggling to carry the dead body of their relatives as very few people were turning up for the last rites fearing coronavirus. Seeing them helpless, and some of them not in the right state of mind while bidding farewell to their near and dear ones made us want to help. The happiness we get when we help them perform the last rites is unparalleled.”
Photo | Shriram BN, EPS
The team has completed over 100 burials of COVID-19 victims till date.
“We see fear of the virus that has gripped people world over, so much so that I witnessed the son of a dead father not wanting to perform the last rites. We tell one or two family members to join us so they know where the grave is. We give them PPE kits as well,” Muheeb said.
Wasim has seen several instances of brothers, sons and grandsons of elderly COVID-19 victims hesitating at the gates of the burial ground.
A cloth of 10 metres by 10 metres is placed on the ground, one horizontally and the other vertically. With the help of the handles of the body bag, they lift the body from the stretcher on to the cloth.
They then lift the cloth and lower the body into the grave. The stretcher is then sanitised and the last Namaz also done as per religious norms.
The JCB digs 30 pits at the burial ground in advance at the beginning of each day.
Thankfully, none of the volunteers have contracted the virus so far.
Wasim says they take the necessary precautions and avoid getting too close to the body or even the primary contacts of the dead person.
“Most of our team members are youngsters. Our tagline is ‘Making it possible by his grace’. We spend our money on PPE kits but sometimes people donate a few kits to us. We don’t charge the family a single rupee,” Wasim said, speaking to The New Indian Express even as three funerals were taking place on Tuesday afternoon.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Ranjani Madhavan / Express News Service / July 22nd, 2020
A city-level task force of medical experts, philanthropists, social activists and Medical College Alumnus Association has been set up to fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
The task force monitored by Mohammed Asif Hussain Sohail, Chairman of Sakina Foundation and President of Telangana Parents Association For Child Rights and Safety. This force also includes a group of 25 national and international organisations, Doctors Association and doctors from other countries like Dr. Aslam of America whose roots are in Hyderabad. They have come together on a single platform to combat coronavirus.
This programme has been named as ‘Hyderabad COVID Task Force.’
Member of Hyderabad COVID Task Force, Mohd Asif Hussain Sohail said, “The idea of setting up the task force was conceptualised seeing the pain and sufferings of the Hyderabadis for medical treatment, ration and food especially funerals. The Task Force aims to serve the people who are facing difficulties during the pandemic. Hyderabad Covid Task Force is going to conduct awareness on Covid-19 pandemic in colonies particularly in the city’s slums. They will provide aid to COVID-19 patients for the medical treatment, food for patients and their attendants in hospitals. It will also help the family also organise final rides, land for the burial, final ablution and even for the other community people of the deceased persons died to COVID-19,” Asif Hussain told Siasat.com.
As a large number of people in the city are also being suffering from a viral fever which has created panic among them and they are going for COVID-19 tests. In this situation the Hyderabad COVID Task Force team is undertaking the awareness programmes, counselling for corona patients, checking peoples’ medical need and etc. in each locality with volunteers and also providing online consultations with doctors and giving a medication,” said Asif Sohail.
“Each organisation had at least 50 volunteers who are working in various parts of city. Under this, the Sakina foundation is working on a pilot project which identifies the poor and needy people, their health issues and helps them with food, medication, and funerals for their deceased ones,” he added
He also said that he is also supplying free Oxygen cylinders with Pulse oximeters for suspected carriers and positive cases under home isolation care by providing PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) among the deceased members during the funeral.
The organisation remains connected through a zoom call with Dr. Aslam from USA, who initiated and coordinated with other doctors, philanthropists and organisations from the USA — including DAAME (Deccan Alumni Association Middle East), DAA (Deccan College of Medical Science Alumni Association) and etc.
Asif Sohail coordinated all the doctors, NGOs, activists, and philanthropists based in Hyderabad.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> News> Hyderabad / by Mohammad Hussain / July 10th, 2020
