Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan was a renowned vocalist. (Source: Instagram)
Since 1981, Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan was serving as the custodian or Khalifa of Dilli Gharana.
Hindustani classical music maestro Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan passed away at the age of 66 on Thursday, December 17, 2020. His demise left many people shocked who took to social media to express their condolences. The vocalist, who belonged to Dilli Gharana, was a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his contribution to classical music.
After receiving his initial training in music from Ustad Chand Khan and later under the guidance of Ustad Hilal Ahmed Khan and Ustad Naseer Ahmed Khan, Ustad Iqbal went on to “teach Indian Classical Music and style of Dilli Gharana Gayaki”, as per his official LinkedIn profile.
A well-known name in Delhi’s cultural scene, owing to his immense contribution to the field, he was serving as the custodian/Khalifa of Dilli Gharana since 1981. He took over the reins after the demise of Ustad Chand Khan Sahib in 1980 and other senior members (rather in quick succession), as per the official website dilligharana.in.
The Gharana’s Sursagar Society was founded in 1940 by the late Ustad Chand Khan Sahab/Saheb (Sangeet Martand) in the memory of his father, Shams-e-Mousiqui Ustad Mamman Khan. The society aims to conserve and promote an awareness of both the rich and heterogeneous cultural tapestry through a focus on the classical arts, with their attendant legends, rituals, mythology and philosophy and the deeper and subtler values of these arts, as per dilligharana.in.
Here are some musical soirees the society used to organise at distant places in Delhi, courtesy Sursagar Society of Delhi Gharana page on Facebook.sources
His style of classical singing and his renderings of Thumri, Dadra, Tappa, Bhajans and Ghazals won him great acclaims.
He was actively involved with classical music through various mediums that included performing, teaching, research, recording and archiving, and curating productions and events that aimed towards preserving and promoting the classical repertoire, both in India and abroad.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Lifestyle> Art &Culture / by Lifestlye Desk / New Delhi – December 17th, 2020
Karnataka is mourning the demise of KM Shareef, the former National President of Popular Front of India. With his demise, the community has expressed grief and a great sense of loss for he was a voice that spoke in favour of the oppressed.
Since the year 2000, KM Shareef – known in the public sphere as a writer, critic, translator, author, orator, and journalist – has been working tirelessly on the social front.
After graduating with a BSc degree, he spent four years in Dubai as a career person.He was a student of Mittabailu Jabbar Ustad, the general secretary of the Samasta Kerala Jamiatul Ulema, from whom he secured religious education.His father, the late Abdullah Haji, served as a Mudarris for 30 consecutive years in the Mittabailu Jamath.
KM Shareef, who advocated towards creating a united struggle for the empowerment of Dalits, Muslims, and other marginalized communities, sought to unite these communities and struggled towards realizing this objective throughout his lifetime in the organizational setup.He emphasized the need to politically empower these communities and stressed the importance of alternative politics in this regard.
In 2003, he served as the convener of Coastal People’s Union, an organization that was established as a coalition of various Muslim social organizations across Coastal Karnataka.
He played a prominent role in establishing ‘Prastutha’, a fortnightly news magazine in 2007, and also served as the editor-in-chief of the publication.Through this media publication, he constantly wrote on behalf of exploited communities.
His writings delved into issues affecting the country, through which he warned that the country was endangered by communal fascism, capitalism, and imperialism.
He has been instrumental in bringing new press campaigns through the Prastutha publication and introducing newfacets of journalism to the press.He was constantly encouraging and inspiring budding young talents to read and write.
Opposing the exploitation of women in society, he has consistently asserted that dowry is a social evil and one of the main causes contributing to women’s atrocities and exploitation in the country.
His Kannada research work, ‘ಶಾಂತಿಗಾಗಿವಿವಾಹ'(Marriage for Peace), is by far the most prominent among his written works. In this book, he objectively outlines how dowry is in effect across the country and in what manner it is weaponized to commit atrocities against women.
When he was the President of the Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD), he organized a series of state-wide, anti-dowry campaigns and encouraged young people to organize simple weddings and dowry-free marriages.
In 2006, KM Shareef spearheaded theKFD campaign ‘ಕೋಮುವಾದಿಫ್ಯಾಶಿಸ್ಟರಿಂದಕರ್ನಾಟಕವನ್ನುರಕ್ಷಿಸಿ'(Protect Karnataka from Communal Fascists), across Karnataka. When the ‘VidhanaSoudhaChalo’ convention was held in Bangalore on the occasion ofconcluding the campaign, a delegation headed by KM Shareef had met with the then Chief Minister Kumaraswamy and filed an appeal.This historic campaign, which occurred amid a series of sustained attacks against minorities in coastal Karnataka, resulted in the KFD organization becoming a household name in Karnataka.
KM Shareef, who sought no limelight or fame in the public sphere, was known for his straightforward, simple personality and disciplined disposition.
He was in constant contact with other leaders who were activelyfightingtowards social justice in the activism circle.He continued to hold close associationswith Dalit leaders, progressive figures, human rights activists, thinkers, and writers.
He was a man who had already possessed farsighted vision and ideas towards Muslim empowerment, when he presented his paper titled, ‘Education and Empowerment of Muslims’ during the Second Beary Literature Conference.
KM Shareef is survived by his wife, three sons, three daughters, and a multitude of relatives, friends, and well-wishers.
source: http://www.prasthutha.com /Prasthutha.com / Home / December 22nd, 2020
After observing that several non-Covid-19 patients are dying due to delay in accessing medical treatment, a city-based biochemist is helping them in a unique way.
Dr Syed Moinuddin Shabbir, a clinical biochemist at Santosh Hospital in Fraser Town, has turned a two-wheeler into a bike ambulance to treat needy patients at their home. He also provides medicines to poor patients based on prescriptions from their doctors.
“After the lockdown was imposed, people were facing problems in even buying provisions. Many senior citizens and children were finding it difficult to access hospitals. I started with providing medicine to poor patients,” he said.
The problems were exacerbated in containment zones where people had to struggle for simple check-ups like blood pressure and glucose levels. “I went to containment zones on the bike and did what was needed,” Shabbir said, listing Padarayanapura, Frazer Town, Bharathinagar, Indiranagar, Vijayanagar, and Thanisandra as some of the areas where he has treated people.
In Shivajinagar, 40 people in one building had tested positive for Covid-19. Shabbir could not take his bike there, but he managed to send the necessary medicine to the people.
The demand for his services did not come down with the lifting of the lockdown but has only increased.
“At least 50 people contact me through Facebook or WhatsApp,” he said.
Shabbir said charitable organisations have come forward to fund his work, which has benefited about 5,000 people and cost him Rs 3 lakh.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City> Life in Bengaluru / by Manohar M ,DHNS, Bengaluru / September 04th, 2020
A blend of flat and sloped roof perfectly suits the weather of Nilambur which receives huge amount of rain
Rahim, an expatriate, has built his dream dwelling near the railway station in the beautiful town of town of Nilambur in Kerala, which is known as the haven of exquisite teak wood.
The structure is built by retaining the natural layout of the steep plot. Most of the trees that stood on the plot are still been protected here.
The house has a spacious front yard which is paved with Bangalore stones.
A blend of flat and sloped roof perfectly suits the weather of Nilambur which receives huge amount of rain. Meanwhile, the cladding on walls are the highlight of the elevation.
This majestic mansion that sprawls in 6500 sqft, has a spacious car porch, sit out, formal and family living areas, dining space, family dining area, courtyard, prayer area, kitchen with an adjacent work area, five bedrooms, upper living room, home theater and balcony.
The family living area has a double height ceiling. The TV unit too is arranged here. Meanwhile, the patio beside the family living area and the dining space leads to greenery of the beautiful garden outside.
Imported Turkish furnish adorn the posh interiors of this house. Meanwhile, exquisite Italian marble grant a regal charm to the flooring works. The common areas don a pleasant green hue to complement the fabulous greenery of the yard. The flooring in the living area and the bedrooms are done using teak wood. The hand railings of the stairway too feature teak wood.
The stairway leads to the spacious upper living area. A sitting space, sturdy area and a home theatre have been arranged here. Besides the main dining area where the guests are hosted, there is a separate family dining area too. The family dining space is closer to the kitchen.
The kitchen cabinets are done in marine ply with planilaque glass finish. Meanwhile, Korean stone has been paved on the counter top.
source: http://www.onmanorama.com / OnManorama / Home> Section> Lifestyle / by IANS / December 18th, 2020
Former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Registrar, alumnus and Madhya Pradesh cadre IPS officer, Mr Syed Mohammad Afzal passed away at a hospital, battling cancer. He was 56-years-old.
Expressing condolences on the former AMU Registrar’s demise, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Tariq Mansoor said that deceased will be remembered for numerous contributions to the university.
He added that Mr Afzal was a caring and compassionate person with a larger-than-life personality. His demise is a huge loss to the AMU community.
May the Almighty bless his soul with peace, said Prof Mansoor.
Mr Afzal served as the AMU Registrar from 2000 to 2002 and joined as the Jamia Millia Islamia Registrar in 2005. He also served as a regular resource person to Academic Staff College-AMU, taught IPC, CRPC course to the students of law at AMU regularly and also instructed different subjects of law to IPS probationers at NPA and to DSPs and Sub-Inspectors at State Police Academy, Sagar.
In his distinguished career, Mr Afzal was posted as the DIG of CID, SSP Telecommunication and Commandant 14th Battalion and SP Gwalior, SP Rajgarh and Chattarpur, Commandant of Jammu and Kashmir Battalion, Additional SP Jabalpur, ASP Sagar-Bhopal and ASP, SVP National Police Academy, Hyderabad.
Mr Afzal attended AMU for LL.M (1987), LL.B (1985), B.A Hons (1982) and PUC (1979). Mr Afzal’s brother, Dr Syed Mohammad Amin is a professor of Urdu at AMU and his family resides at Kabir Colony in Aligarh.
He used to run the Aligarh based Al Barakat Educational Society.
source: http://www.amu.ac.in / Aligarh Muslim University / Home / by Public Relations Office, AMU / December 16th, 2020
The tomb stands within an ensemble of 16th century medieval monuments in the Nizamuddin area of the national capital
New Delhi:
The tomb of Abdur Rahim Khan-I-Khana (1556-1627), popularly known as ‘Rahim — one of Akbars navratnas and a military leader — will open for visitors from December 17 here after completion of restoration work by Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and InterGlobe Foundation.
The tomb stands within an ensemble of 16th century medieval monuments in the Nizamuddin area of the national capital.
The conservation project started in 2014, and included a cultural revival of Rahim’s legacy and poetry.
The Union Minister of State for Tourism and Culture Prahlad Singh Patel is scheduled to preside over the completion ceremony of Rahim’s Tomb on December 17, Rahim’s birth anniversary.
An expression of Mughal architecture, Rahim’s tomb informed the design for the Taj Mahal. Clad in red sandstone and marble, the interiors of the mausoleum are decorated with ornamental incised plasterwork, and decorative motifs such as the six-sided star and lotus medallions.
It stands at the edge of the buffer zone of the Humayun’s Tomb World Heritage Site, within an area of high archaeological significance.
Archeological Survey of India (ASI) is the custodian of the monument of note.
According to the organisations involved in the conservation effort, the physical revival of the tomb included repairs to the major damaged structures on the interior and exterior of the mausoleum dalans, canopies (chattris), dome, facade and landscape, along with the wall and ceiling surfaces.
The landscape around Rahim’s tomb has been restored to original slopes and height. The conservation of the dome has been completed with a symbolic addition of marble cladding.
“Conservation at Rahim’s tomb has been possible with a public-private partnership. Not only has a significant monument been conserved for posterity but dignity has been restored to the resting place of the cultural icon, Rahim. Conservation in the Indian context can benefit from thousands of years of building craft traditions and recourse to an interdisciplinary scientific approach. 175,000 craft days of work has helped restore this grandeur,” Ratish Nanda, CEO, Aga Khan Trust for Culture said.
The cultural revival efforts also witnessed compilation of Rahim’s literary works and archival research on his life and works by scholars, culminating in an English publication titled ‘Celebrating Rahim’.
A three-day music festival was also held in 2017 to disseminate Rahim’s literary works that saw a confluence of musical renditions, scholarly discussions on the multifaceted personality of Rahim and an informative exhibition.
The tomb was originally built by Rahim for his wife, making it the first ever Mughal tomb to be built for a woman, with the more celebrated Taj having been built later. As with other tombs in Nizamuddin, Rahim was buried here due the close proximity to the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, as it was considered auspicious to be buried near a saint, said AKTC.
source: http://www.ummid.com / Ummid.com / Home> India / by IANS / December 16th, 2020
The Rehnuma centre in Mumbra, a suburb of Mumbai, offers young Muslim women – many from migrant families – a space to chat, relax with a book, learn English or dream about their village homes
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” says 19-year-old Faiza Ansari in a low voice, almost a whisper. We are sitting cross-legged on the tiled floor of the only library for women in Mumbra – the Rehnuma Library Centre.
More young women come and go from the two-room apartment turned library on the first floor in a decrepit building near the Darul Falah mosque. They hang their burkhas on idle plastic chairs and sprawl on the cool floor. It’s 36 degrees outside in this northeastern suburb roughly 35 kilometres from central Mumbai.
As Faiza recalls Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, I insist on hearing more. All eyes turn towards her, including her sister Razia’s. Faiza paraphrases a line from Romeo and Juliet, “A beautiful heart is better than a beautiful face.” Razia looks at her sister coyly. The other girls hoot, nudge each other, and bashfully giggle. The joke is anybody’s guess.
Razia Ansari, 18, is not as shy. She presents to me an intriguing summary of the only Shakespeare story she has read. “Twelfth Night is like a Hindi film. Viola has a double role,” she says of Viola’s disguise as Cesario. Razia is trying to improve her English and has joined the spoken English class at the library. Classes are conducted here five days a week in numerous one-hour batches from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Faiza and Razia Ansari, from Asansol in Jharkhand, are regulars at the libraryLibrarian Faiza Khan also doubles up as an English teacher
Faiza and Razia’s family moved to Mumbra from Asansol village in Dumka district of Jharkhand around 18 months ago. The sisters dislike Mumbra. “There’s garbage everywhere,” Razia says. Faiza agrees: “There are more eateries than bookshops.” The sisters were not expected to wear a burkha in their village. “We had a lot of freedom back home,” Razia says. “But here,” Faiza continues, “our mother says that the mahol [environment] is not good.”
Their father owned a wholesale groceries shop in Asansol and decided to come to Mumbai, where their grandmother and other family members already lived, “to make more money and for better education for the children,” Razia says. He has since set up a groceries shop near their house.
The sisters spend a majority of their day at the nearby A.E. Kalsekar Degree College, where they are studying in the first and second year BA, respectively. But it’s in the Rehnuma library, a short walk from their home, that they are reminded, Razia says, “of the home they left behind [in the village].”
For Bashira Shah, from Babhnan village in Harraiya tehsil of Uttar Pradesh, the library is where she can stop thinking about home. Bashira got married when she was around 14 years old and moved to her husband’s house in Ashokpur village near Gonda city. Her husband was a construction labourer in Saudi Arabia. Now 36, she has been widowed for two years and lives with her mother, her four children, and two younger sisters in Mumbra.
Her parents moved here in the 2000s but in October 2017, her father passed away. He had a dry fruits shop in Masjid Bunder which is now leased out. Two of Bashira’s sons, 16 and 15 years old, have dropped out of school. But Bashira, who received a religious education and studied Urdu till Class 3, has decided to study more. “My dream, she says, “is to be able to talk to Shamshir and Shifa in English.” Shamshir, 12, her youngest son and her daughter Shifa, 9, study at the Mumbra Public School in English.
Since the Rehnuma Library – rehnuma means a ‘guide’ in Urdu and Hindi – was started in 2003, women come here throughout the day to converse, laugh, relax, or curl up with a book. The library was set up with donations and a crowd-funding campaign by Awaaz-e-Niswaan, a non-governmental organisation. The space is also the NGO’s Mumbra centre, where they focus on literacy for women and legal aid – many women come here with issues related to divorce, polygamy and domestic violence, among others.
The locality was chosen because of its predominantly Muslim population and, as Yasmeen Aga, Awaaz-e-Niswaan’s coordinator for Mumbra says, “the lack of spaces for women to take off their burkha, interact with each other and relax.” The library initially acquired members by telling schoolgirls and their mothers about it, but as college girls found out, they too wanted to join.
The library’s 350 patrons – all women, many of them from families that have migrated to Mumbai from various villages – renew their Rs. 100 membership every year to return home with books or magazines and occasionally participate in book club meetings and workshops.
At the library, Bashira Shah, from UP’s Babhnan village, can stop thinking of home. Faiza, the librarian, also helps visitors become members
In the last book club meeting in mid-January, 12 young women discussed the poems of Mirza Ghalib and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Librarian Faiza Khan says, “The readers were divided into two camps – each wanting the other to concede and admit that the poet they admired was the best.” Faiza, was in the Ghalib camp, but chose to remain sternly neutral.
Faiza, now 28, started coming to Rehnuma when she was 19. She was born and brought up in Mumbra, has a degree in Management Studies, and was offered the librarian’s job in 2014. “The public spaces are dominated by men,” she says. “And women are locked inside their houses”. But at the library, she says, “women can be unabashed and sit and talk like men do.”
She not only holds the key to the library, but also helps wandering visitors become members, and nurtures their reading tastes. “Urdu books,” she says, “are the most sought after.” These make the majority of the 6,000 books stocked in the library’s five wood cabinets.
Some of the most popular books are by Pakistani authors that have been on long journeys. The pages of Ibn-e-Safi’s Imran series and Jasoosi Duniya, highly popular spy novels, have turned yellow. The library has a collection of 72 Ibn-e-Safi novels.
The plaque at the entrance of the building that houses the Rehnuma centre
And the pages of the novels of Umera Ahmad (the library’s most-read author), to Faiza’s utter dismay, are dog-eared with plenty of margin notes. There are also books by Razia Butt, Ismat Chughtai, Munshi Premchand, Saadat Hasan Manto, along with the Urdu translations of Shakespeare. And there is Harry Potter, and of course, Chetan Bhagat too.
Zardab Shah, 20, who came to Mumbra from Khizirpur Ali Nagar village in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh, has been reading Ujaale ki Talaash, a thriller in Hindi by Sharad Pagare, but wistfully looks at the World Book Encyclopaedia placed at the top of a cabinet. “We are not allowed to take these home,” she says, regretfully. “I like to look at the maps and imagine going on an adventure to Switzerland.”
The closest Shah has got to a sense of adventure was when she secured admission at Banaras Hindu University for an MA in English last year. But her parents didn’t let her go. Her father is a truck driver, her mother a homemaker. “They didn’t want me to live in a hostel,” she says. Instead, they moved Zardab from her uncle’s home in the village – where she was staying while studying – to be with them in Mumbra. She is now trying to get admission in a Mumbai college. When someone in her building told her about Rehnuma, she immediately joined.
“I was wasting my time in the village… here, at least, I am reading and learning,” she says. It took her some time to get used to Mumbra, but Zardab doesn’t miss her village. “There are no opportunities,” she says. “It’s a place you can love as a child but not as a grown-up.” And now she has forged an attachment so strong with the Rehnuma Library, that, she confides, “this might be all the adventure I need”.
Shafiya Shaikh, one of the library’s most voracious readers, often reads aloud to her daughterThe novels of Nemrah Ahmed are a hot favourite
A large number of Muslim families moved to Mumbra after the 1992 riots in Bombay. Shafiya Shaikh’s family too shifted at that time, distraught but physically unharmed, from Worli in south Mumbai. The first time she came to Rehnuma was when she was seeking help to get a divorce from her husband. He had abandoned a pregnant Shafiya after eight months of marriage. But when she saw the stacked books, she was confused, “I thought that like everything else for women in our society, even books were out of reach.”
Soon, Shafiya and her mother Haseena Bano became members. Shafiya, now 27, also reads some of the books out to her four-year-old daughter Misbaah Fatima. The Shaikhs are now among the most voracious readers the library has seen – they check out 2-3 books and 2-3 magazines per week while others read and return one book in a couple of months.
Shafiya is currently reading Jannat Ke Pattay by Nemrah Ahmed, an acclaimed Pakistani novelist. It’s about sexual violence against a girl, and the story’s male lead doesn’t save her. “It’s not like a hero will come to save everyone,” she says.
Apart from the lure of the books, the library brings women together to enjoy the company of others. Here, Zardab says, “We can sit however we like, laugh, play, or chat. There’s freedom here that we don’t find at home.” A current hot topic is the popular Zee TV show about triple talaq – Ishq Subhan Allah.
Librarian Faiza has also become a role model for the young women – a job she has reluctantly accepted. She now takes it upon herself to gather them and discuss books they may not read themselves. The last book she discussed was Rana Ayyub’s Gujarat Files – on the investigations in the 2002 riots in the state – and unlike the Ghalib-Faiz session, this discussion remained utterly sombre.
source: http://www.ruralindiaonline.com / PARI – People’s Archive of Rural India / Home> Things We Do> The Rural in the Urban> Women / by Apekshita Varshney / July 04th, 2018
Deora Village (Dharbanga District) , BIHAR / Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA :
Sadiya Shaikh is an undergraduate student getting her bachelor’s in Sociology-Literature in English from Rizvi College in Bandra.
It was the startling lack of discernment of the privileged and the problem of illiteracy in India, especially in Bihar, that prompted her to come to the aid of the community in any which way she could.
Eighteen-year-old Sadiya Shaikh was born in Darbhanga district of Bihar. Sadiya’s parents had decided to move their family to Mumbai, Maharashtra when she was only a toddler, to ensure that the children got the life and education they deserved.
She was visiting her hometown during the lockdown when she managed to establish the accessible, well-stocked, and only library her village has.
The Maulana Azad Library in Deora village of Darbhanga District is an initiative taken up by young Sadiya with help from her family and friends to sow the seeds for inclusive education for all the students in the community who cannot afford the luxury of getting appropriate and established means of instruction.
Deora stands at a total population of 3,446 persons and 631 houses. While the village literacy rate stands at 40.9%, the female literacy rate is a staggering 18.6%.
The close linked relationship between illiteracy and poverty has challenged the development of the people of Deora for a long time therefore, the library is of service to the students of all grades along with school textbooks, there is accessible material for aspirants of competitive examinations, along with a couple of trained professionals who help to tutor the children, who, even though, are enrolled in schools, cannot afford to go and own the required textbooks and other study materials.
“Few sections of our society have benefitted the most from the library, the youth who used to wander during the evening, now sit in the library and study, along with them, the elderly also use the library as a space to sit and read the daily newspaper,” Nawaz, a resident of Deora and a daily visitor of the library said to Maktoob.
The library has books pertaining to the school boards in the state and NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) books from standard one to 12.
Nawaz said his village doesn’t even have a well-established government school.
“Even though there is a private school just out of the village, most families cannot afford to send their children there, and even when they somehow arrange to pay the high-end fee they still cannot afford to buy the books and other school material, so the public library has ensured the well-being of such children by providing them these books at zero-cost along with the facility of issuing the required textbooks and taking them home to read,” he added.
The library has books pertaining to the school boards in the state and NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) books from standard one to 12.
Akbar Ali, a second year BCom student told Maktoob that with the establishment of Maulana Azad Library, an atmosphere to study has been created in his village.
Sadiya Shaikh is an undergraduate student getting her bachelor’s in Sociology-Literature in English from Rizvi College in Bandra. She aspires to get her Postgraduate Degree from the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Delhi.
She considers her education to be the informant that made her acquainted with the social and political predicament that threatens the minorities and women in India. Sadiya was an active participant in the anti-CAA-NRC-NPR protests and has been applauded for the various speeches she delivered disputing the law at various public-speaking events, one of which was in company with activists Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar.
Sadiya was an active participant in the anti-CAA-NRC-NPR protests and has been applauded for the various speeches she delivered disputing the law at various public-speaking events, one of which was in company with activists Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar.
Moving forward, Sadiya has her sights set on helping the women in her community and creating employment for the ones who are bound to the four walls of their household.
Sadiya believes that for any social change to be brought about, it’s the privileged and the educated members of the community who need to step up and stand in allyship with the marginalised, and only through education, can they stand a fair shot with the favoured class.
“Development of one person in a society consisting of under-privileged is no development at all. It is when the fortunate ones uplift the disadvantaged and curb inequality, does real development take place,” Sadiya told Maktoob.
“During the lockdown, many children didn’t have access to any regular means of instruction so the books from the library proved to be very beneficial, they also provided newspapers for older students and adults at Maulana Azad Library”- Rahela who lives near the library says.
source: http://www.maktoobmedia.com / Maktoob / Home> Features / by Sania Javed / December 04th, 2020
Thoufeek Zakariyah, Sarah Cohen and Isaac Ashkenazi inspecting a Torah that Thoufeek designed.
Down in the heart of “God’s Own Country,” as the Indian state of Kerala is affectionately known, an Indian Muslim calligrapher is using his skills in the art of the ink flourishes to bridge Jewish and Muslim communities.
Thoufeek Zakriya is an Indian Muslim from the city of Cochin who does calligraphy in a number of languages, including Arabic, Samaritan, Syriac and Sanskrit. More interestingly, he is a Muslim who does masterful Hebrew calligraphy.
While studying in madrasa, he learned that the Jewish people were considered by Islam to be ahl al-kitab (“People of the Book”), which sparked a curiosity in him to learn more about this religious community. His curiosity led him to find a copy of the Gideon’s Bible, which had a page with prayers in 23 different languages. He decided to find what encompassed the Hebrew word for God, so using the page as his “Rosetta Stone” he was able to decipher what letters entailed the Hebrew name for the Lord.
Jewtown – home of the tiny yet historic community of Jews in Cochin
Thoufeek became more interested in Judaism and Hebrew calligraphy, and reached out to the tiny yet historic Jewish community in Cochin . Thoufeek purchased some Hebrew texts he found at a streetside book shop and he went about learning the Hebrew alphabet. His studies in Hebrew led him to begin crafting calligraphy of Jewish prayers such as the Birkat haBayit (prayer for the home) in golden resplendent brilliance.
Birkat HaBayit, the blessing for the home.
Thofeek even began creating calligraphic replicas of the Torah.
More importantly, Thoufeek does something very unique: he has crafted Hebrew calligraphy in the ancient Kufic Arabic script. Such work is a rarity in the calligraphic world, and his innovations in the Kufic/Hebrew calligraphy has brought Thoufeek accolades from admirers from all over the world. Zakriya has been commissioned as far away as Ukraine and the United States to create works that combine Arabic calligraphy with Jewish prayers.
Birkat Kufic in Jerusalem Stone. The Hebrew letters here are turned into the Kufic Arabic script.
Thoufeek’s work and his dedication to study Jewish history and culture led to a close friendship between him and Cochin’s Jewish community, including his warm friendship with the community’s matriarch Sarah Cohen. Cohen has hosted Thoufeek for Passover seders and other Jewish holiday celebrations.
Thoufeek with Sarah Cohen
I met Thoufeek at Sarah Cohen’s embroidery shop, where she stitches yarmulkes and other Jewish-Indian embroideries. As we sat sipping tea and eating watermelon squares and black helwa (sweets), she remarked that she considers him to be like a grandson and a real mensch.
Birkat Kufic in stone. The Hebrew letters here are turned into the Kufic Arabic script
Thoufeek Zakriya is a wonderful symbol of India’s legendary tolerance for religious communities. “At a time when Jews and Muslims are sadly seen as natural adversaries, Thoufeek’s Hebrew calligraphy emerges as yet another example of Muslim-Jewish amity from India,” says Dr. Navras Aafreedi, an Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Gautam Buddha University. Professor Aafreedi studies Jewish communities of India, and noted that Zakriya is the only known Muslim Hebrew calligrapher in India
Card for Rosh Hashanah reading, “Good New Year.”
“Thoufeek’s work shows us that the way to peace is through the exploration of each other’s culture and the commonalities between them,” says Dr. Aafreedi, “His work is a reminder of the shared cultural and religious heritage of Jews and Muslims, which definitely needs to be brought into sharper focus in such a manner that it overshadows the disputes, conflicts and differences.”
Photographs courtesy: Paul Rockower & Thoufeek Zakariya
This article first appeared in Huffington Post, and has been republished here in arrangement with the author. Follow Paul Rockower on Twitter: https://twitter.com/levantine18
source: http://www.thebetterindia.com / The Better India / Home> The Better Home / by Paul Rockower / January 02nd, 2013
Telangana University awarded PhD to three research scholars on Tuesday, among them two are from Telugu department and one is from Botany
Nizamabad:
Both research scholars are Muslims, their mother tongue is Urdu but they choose Telugu language as their career and obtain PhD from Telugu department of Telangana University.
Telangana University awarded PhD to three research scholars on Tuesday, among them two are from Telugu department and one is from Botany. These two research scholars’ are Syed Afreen and Shaik Akbar Pasha. Afreen researched on ‘Observation on Telangana female novelists’, and Akbar Pasha researched on ‘Development of Warangal district literature’.
Telugu department senior professor and Arts department Dean Prof Kanakaiah guided these scholars.
Syed Afreen, research scholar said that being Muslim and by having their mother tongue Urdu, they grown in Hindu people locality and speak Telugu language very well, also having interest in Telugu literature and had done Ph D in Telugu language.
source: http://www.telanganatoday.com / Telangana Today / Home> Telangana> Nizamabad / by Telangana Today / November 24th, 2020
