Ornamental garden is the dream of plant-loving urban dwellers. Plants, foliage and flowering of different hues in various combination can express the beauty of nature around the living area. It is not the size that matters as one can landscape even a small home ground in the same way as done for larger estates or public parks. When done in the best form it is the pride of the house.
An ‘ornamental garden’ developed by a woman falls into this category. The owner, gardener and executor is none other than the winner of the first prize in the Annual Dasara Flower Show under ornamental garden category: Ms. Hashmath Fathima. It is an artistic outdoor garden developed around her little dwelling place in a plot of land in Kalyanagiri, all on her own. The garden has all the ingredients of a modern ornamental garden with display of choicest flowering and foliage plants in the form of annuals and perennials (herbs, shrubs, climbers, trees, ornamental grasses, bulbs etc.) embellished with various design elements.
The special feature is most part of the garden is developed using containers of various size, shape and hues. The entrance gate opens up into a path leading to the garage, beautifully paved with lawn grass in the crevices which makes up for the absence of a lawn (due to lack of space). On entry into the garden you can notice the potted plants stacked up in multiple rows in various colour combination of foliage and flowers & height along side the wooden wall. The half wall of the verandah has been decked up with colourful overhanging Lantanas, besides the hanging pots at the entrance of the house.
For embellishment valuable objects of artefacts in the form of figurines of various objects, birds nests etc., are placed at vantage points. The northern wall of the house is fully green, a breathing wall completely covered with creeping fig (Ficus repens). The perennial climbers (Allamanda, Quisqualis, Bougainvillea etc.) with their foothold on the northern edge ramble on the wooden barricade. The garlic vine (Mansoa alliacea) overarching the garage makes spectacular display with purple coloured blooms and attracts the onlookers. A small pond is also designed in the backyard with water lily (Nymphae sps) in it. In addition to being pleasant to look at, this ornamental garden is also enjoyable to use with a recreation area to sit and enjoy reading etc., in the form of a bench decorated with an arch covered with a climber in the front yard and an aviary with plenty of beautiful birds in the backyard.
Another eye-catching addition is the bottle garden (hanging) created using soft drink bottles planted with variegated Alternantheras. This impressed me a lot. In general the display of plants is such that as soon as one enters one can experience the burst of flowers of all hues amidst the colourful foliage. Above all, with innumerable flowering and foliage plants (Acalypha, Althea rosea, Asparagus, Aglonema, Alternanthera, Anthuriums, Asters, Coleus, Catharanthus, Chrysanthemums, Cocks comb, Begonias, Cosmos, Calendulas, Chlorophytum, Duranta, Euphorbia milii, Gamphrena, Gazania, Gerberas, Day lily, Ferns, Marigolds, Pentas, Petunias, Zinnias etc., etc.) this little paradise looked like a “mini flower show.”
Ms. Hashmath is into gardening for more than a decade and has won several first prizes in the past too. I understand that she herself carries out most of her gardening work and uses only organic manure. Most of her earnings are spent on maintaining the garden. A dress designer by profession, she has put her heart and soul in designing the beautiful and attractive garden as well! Furthermore, she has shown the ability and imagination of the gardener in her in the best form besides the woman power.
Text & photographs by Dr. Mahadeswara Swamy, Scientist, Mob: 97429-91057, e-mail: swamy_clri@hotmail.com
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / November 06th, 2016
The fourth International Kerala History Congress will begin at Calicut University on Friday. Calicut University Vice Chancellor K. Mohammed Basheer will inaugurate the meet. Jean-Baptiste Prashant More, a Tamil-born French historian, will deliver the keynote address.
M.G.S. Narayanan, chairman of the Kerala History Conference, will preside over the inaugural function. Prof. Narayanan, M.R. Raghava Varier, and Kesavan Veluthat will make presentations under the ‘doyens of Kerala historiography lecture’ series.
Exhibition of archives
An exhibition of archives and historical documents began on Wednesday as part of the History Congress. Syndicate member K. Fatimat Zuhra inaugurated the exhibition. Syndicate member and head of the Department of History P. Sivadasan presided. The exhibition will be free for the public until Sunday.
The exhibition is arranged jointly by the State Archives Department, the Calicut University Department of History, and Zamorin’s Guruvayurappan College, Kozhikode. The exhibition has a large number of historical documents from different periods, including stone age and middle ages.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala / by Staff Reporter / Malappuram – November 10th, 2016
Dr. Mohammed Haziq Nadvi, Director of Darul Umoor and Research Centre, Srirangapatna, offers to donate blood to needy
Sitting from left: Abdul Khader Sait, President, MESCO & Managing Director, AANCO Industries; Khaleel Ur Rahman Waseem, Jamath-e-Islami Hind; Dr. B. Sheik Ali, former Vice- Chancellor, Mangalore and Goa Universities; Dr. Mohammed Haziq Nadvi, Director of Darul Umoor and Research Centre, Srirangapatna and Prof. Noor Ahmed Khan of Universal Guidance Centre for Education, seen during the Lecture Series at MESCO Education Complex in N.R.Mohalla on Friday last.
Mysuru :
(Afsar Pasha)- Dr. Mohammed Haziq Nadvi, Director of Darul Umoor and Research Centre, Srirangapatna, has called upon managements of Mosques to throw open their doors for social and educational causes including starting of blood banks and study centres.
Speaking at the inaugural function of the Lecture Series on “Islamic history, thoughts and its impact on the world” organised by Universal Guidance Centre for Education and MESCO, Mysuru, on Friday last at MESCO Education Complex in Subashnagar, N.R.Mohalla, Dr. Nadvi said Mosques, which are generally restricted to Muslims offering prayers, can endear themselves to the general public in a pluralistic society by taking up social and educational causes.
He even declared his blood group and offered to be available for donating blood to the needy.
Similarly, he said Mosques should promote education by offering free coaching classes to the needy students without religious discrimination. These efforts will go a long way in promoting amity among different communities in a climate of hostility.
Dr. Nadvi regretted that Islamic history had been distorted and Islamic culture had been misinterpreted, leading to a wrong impression of Islam in the eyes of the world.
With passage of time, Muslims have moved away from the basic Islamic doctrines that had won the world’s adulation centuries ago. There is a dire need for Muslims to correct their course by pursuing the way of life as shown by Islam and undo the harm that time has inflicted upon it.
He emphasised the need for fresh efforts in the direction like the Lecture Series so that the coming generations abandon the false legacy and pursue Islam in the true sense.
Noted historian and former Vice-Chancellor of Goa and Mangalore Universities Prof. B. Sheikh Ali focussed on the Almighty’s creations and the path upon which the humanity should follow.
Secretary of the Universal Guidance Centre for Education Prof. Noor Ahmed Khan said the Centre took the initiative to hold such Lecture Series as it felt necessary to guide the youth and connect them to their roots so that they can take the right course.
Former Vice-Chancellor of Yenepoya University Prof. Syed Akheel Ahmed, who was also present on the occasion, welcomed the initiative to hold the lectures.
The Universal Guidance Centre for Education will hold lectures on “Islamic history, thoughts and its impact” by Dr. Nadvi on the first and third Friday of every month at the Lecture Hall at MESCO Mosque.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / November 04th, 2016
Viral guys:Syed Viquaruddin, Mohd Abdul Samad, Mizbahuddin and Syed Atif teamed up as Kantriguyz and started making videos in 2013.-Photo: By arrangement
They are now recognised in public places
A few random concepts and some funny videos later, these content creators from twin cities are now the brand ambassadors of YouTube. Life has changed all of a sudden for these Hyderabadis who are now recognised in public places and pressured to come up with better videos. Jahnavi Dasetty, who runs her own channel ‘Mahathalli’ and Syed Viquar Mohiuddin of ‘Kantriguyz’ were speakers at the YouTube ‘Happy Hour’ event organised in the city recently.
Less than a year after she uploaded her first video, Jahnavi has now more than one lakh subscribers to her credit. Till date, she has made close to 30 videos in which she essays different characters. “I play simple characters which everyone relates to. I think that clicked well with the viewers,” says Jahnavi who played a middle-class youngster troubled by her mother to get married. Jahnavi, who is interested direction as well, also landed up a role in a Telugu movie after her videos went viral. She also went on to collaborate with other popular creators like Chicago Subbarao.
With their signature Hyderabadi lingo and style, four youngsters, Syed Viquaruddin, Mohd Abdul Samad, Mizbahuddin and Syed Atif teamed up as Kantriguyz and started making videos in 2013.
“There was only one content provider making funny videos in the language that Hyderabadis speak but they were not our inspiration. We followed The Viral Fever channel closely and made Hyderabadi version of a spoof which went viral,” said Mr. Mohiuddin, who is pursuing BBA degree. “We are recognised wherever we go. We are asked by people to make more videos because of which we plan to upload at least three videos a month.”
Their channel has more than 20,000 subscribers.
The youngster has set himself a target too. “If my channel gets more than one lakh subscribers within two years, I will pursue a career in this field.” David Powell, Online Partner Operations efforts across Asia-Pacific, YouTube said that the traditional media content uploaded in India is increasing by 75% every year. He said that a number of events are being conducted by them across the country to encourage regional content providers and provide a platform for them to network and collaborate.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Rahul Devulapalli / Hyderabad – November 02nd, 2016
An extract from Kate Brittlebank’s Tiger: The Life of Tipu Sultan.
Tipu Sultan. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Karnataka government’s decision to celebrate the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan has once against created a controversy, with the BJP and the RSS as well as local groups in Kodagu district opposing the move. A rally against the proposed celebration is planned in Bangalore on Tuesday. Last year, the government’s decision led to large-scale violence; this year, a case was filed against the move, but the court’s declined to interfere, calling it a policy decision. At the same time, the judges asked what the rationale was to hold such a celebration.
Was Tipu Sultan (1750-1799) a hero or a villain and was he, as is claimed, against Hindus? Some scholars have contested these views. In this excerpt from her book Tiger: The Life of Tipu Sultan, historian Kate Brittlebank gives a more nuanced and holistic view of the man and the monarch, who, she says, was a product of his times.
Kate Brittlebank Tiger: The Life of Tipu Sultan Juggernaut, 2016
It was also important, if Tipu were to retain power, that he tap into the south’s shared sacred landscape, and it is in this light that we should read his patronage of religious institutions, which was widespread. For centuries, kings had associated themselves with the sacred sites of the region, the most significant being the river Kaveri, the Ganges of the south. Rising in the hills of Kodagu, the river wends its way across the Mysore plateau and down onto the plains of Tamil Nadu. Its entire length is dotted with religious landmarks, small and large. For south Indian kings the Kaveri was not only the source of life-giving water but also of divine power. Along the river are three islands, formed where the water divides: from east to west, they are Srirangam, Sivasamudram and Srirangapattana. These are the places where Vishnu sleeps upon the great serpent Sesha, when he is known as Sri Ranganatha, and on the islands are temples dedicated to the deity. The most magnificent is at Srirangam but all were recipients of past royal patronage; in 1610, Raja Wodeyar transferred his capital to Srirangapattana from Mysore after seizing the island from the Vijayanagara viceroy, Tirumala.
Given that the island of Srirangapattana was such a significant repository of divine power, Tipu would have been foolhardy to transfer his capital elsewhere. He continued the Wodeyars’ patronage of the Sri Ranganatha temple, alongside which stood his main palace, and erected a Friday mosque. Haidar’s tomb stood at the other end of the island, near the sangam, next to which Tipu built another, smaller mosque. Put simply, lordly benefaction, one of the defining characteristics of Indian kingship, was pragmatic in purpose. Along with their magnificent displays of power and wealth, kings were expected to be conspicuously pious. They made land grants, donated precious artefacts and mediated in religious disputes. In return, they could expect support for the legitimacy of their rule and prayers for the security and prosperity of the realm. Tipu behaved no differently: his generosity to temples, Sufi dargahs and mosques, as well as the great Math at Sringeri, are well documented, primarily through inscriptions and institutional records.
An idea of the number of Tipu’s religious endowments across his realm can be gained by looking at in‘am registers held in the Kozhikode Archives in Kerala. The records show that Tipu authorised sixty-seven grants of rent-free land, primarily to temples and mosques, solely for the taluks of Calicut, Ernad, Bettathnad and Chowghat. If we extrapolate that figure across the entire realm, it is clear that his patronage of such institutions was extensive. We know of several temples that hold objects donated by Tipu – the Sri Ranganatha temple at the capital received silver vessels, the Nanjundeshwara temple at Nanjangud has a jadeite linga said to have been installed on Tipu’s orders, and inscriptions record that he gave elephants and silver vessels to the Narayanaswami temple in Melukote.
The Sringeri Math, with which Tipu maintained a close relationship, received gifts of valuable cloths and shawls, a silver palanquin and a pair of silver fly whisks. The importance of the Math to south Indian and Deccani rulers – both Hindu and Muslim – since its foundation in the eighth century, is demonstrated by the fact that it holds more than 200 copperplate grants and sanads, the earliest dating from the Ganga dynasty (c. 250–1000 ce). Tipu referred to the Math’s Swami as the Jagadguru and, after the Marathas had raided the Math in 1792, he wrote in a letter that the culprits would ‘suffer the consequences of their misdeeds at no distant date in the Kali age’, concluding that ‘treachery to gurus will undoubtedly result in the destruction of the line of descent’.
The political nature of religious patronage was also the rationale behind acts of destruction. All across India, whenever a king conquered another, he signalled his victory by either seizing or destroying the religious sites with close ties to his victim – and it made no difference if conqueror and conquered were co-religionists. Just as Shaivite and Vaishnava dynasties in south India patronised mosques, dargahs and churches, they did not hesitate to capture the temples of their enemies and seize or destroy the images. The Cholas seized temple images from the Calukyas; and Vijayanagara’s Krishnadevaraya, to celebrate his defeat of the Gajapati king, removed an image of Balakrishna from Udayagiri to the capital. We can see this process in operation with Tipu’s demolition of the Varahaswami temple at Srirangapattana; after his death, the Wodeyars, in a statement of their own ‘victory’, relocated the ruined temple’s image to Mysore town, which once again was serving as their capital. If Tipu’s actions had been driven by religious rather than political motivation, he would not have allowed the Sri Ranganatha temple to continue to flourish within sight of his palace. It was the Wodeyars’ direct association with Vishnu’s boar incarnation that led to Tipu’s demolition of the Varaha temple. Nor were Christians exempt from such treatment – the Venkataramana temple in Nagar (formerly Haidarnagar/Bednur) possesses a bell cast in Amsterdam in 1713. The presence of this oddity in a Hindu place of worship is due to Tipu’s removal of it from a church in Malabar.
Similarly, Tipu did not discriminate against particular religious groups on the basis of their faith – indeed, his diwan or chief minister, Purnaiya, was a Hindu. As we have already seen, Tipu suspected the Kanara Christians of treachery and being in league with the British; the Nairs and the Kodavas, too, were punished for intriguing against him. And if there should be any doubt about what lay behind the treatment of such groups, the expulsion of the Mahdevis from Mysore in 1794 confirms the political character of such acts. This tight-knit Muslim community of several thousand mainly served in Tipu’s army as horse soldiers, under the command of their own officers. That Tipu was in no way prejudiced against this sect is demonstrated by the fact that one of his four vakils to Istanbul, Ja‘far Khan, was a Mahdevi; even so, he too was expelled in 1794. The stated reason for the community’s expulsion was their refusal to obey Tipu’s command to keep certain celebrations low-key – they were prone to noisy bouts of praying – as the festivities that year coincided with the return of the hostage princes from Madras. The more likely reason, however, was that Tipu suspected the Mahdevis of treason, with their festival disobedience merely the trigger for the order that they leave the kingdom. Interestingly, during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, many of them served under Arthur Wellesley as irregular horse, although it is not clear if this was a consequence of Tipu’s treatment of them, or if Tipu had been correct in his original assumption of their disloyalty.
Excerpted with the permission of Juggernaut Books from Tiger: The Life of Tipu Sultan by Kate Brittlebank, available in bookstores and on the Juggernaut app
A Malayali Muslim bride demanded 50 books as part of a custom in Muslim weddings, only that the custom has mostly seen woman’s family demanding gold or money.
This Malayali Muslim bride decided to break stereotypes, the religious way, on the day of her marriage! (Source: Sahla Nechiyil)
How often do you see a woman demand books as mehr, and not the customary jewellery or gold. In Kerala’s Malappuram district, a woman set an example for her community. A post graduate in political science from the Hyderabad University, Sahla Nechiyil never dreamt of a perfect, fairytale wedding. But when she decided to get married, she also sent across a social message to the “gold-obsessed” Muslims in Malappuram.
Nechiyil decided to demand 50 books from her fiancé as mehr, a mandatory payment in the form of money or possessions paid or promised to be paid by the groom to the bride at the time of marriage. She asked for books as mehr because of two reasons. “One, because according to the religious texts, a girl can demand anything she wants and the groom cannot disagree. And second, because I wanted to show the Malappuram Muslims that a wedding can take place without obsessing over the amount of gold transacted between both parties,” she said.
(Source: Sahla Nechiyil)
Her husband (they got married on August 11) cannot agree more with Sahla and supported her stand wholeheartedly. “Mehr is the right of the woman, not the generosity of the man,” he said. Anees Nadodi was promptly handed a list of 50 books by Nechiyil, and he went all the way to Bangalore to find all the books that she wanted. All this amidst much disapproval from both the families. In Nechiyil’s case, however, more than her parents, her relatives disagreed. “They could not argue for long, because we were not doing anything against the religious texts,” said Nechiyil.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Lifestyle> Life-Style / by Soumya Mathew / New Delhi / October 29th, 2016
Begum, who gave scores of Hindi film songs and ghazals, mainly between 1950s and 70s, was not keeping well for the last few years.
Legendary singer Mubarak Begum, best known for crooning the title track of 1961 romantic-drama
Hamari Yaad Aayegi, has passed away after prolonged illness.
She was 80.
She died on Monday at her residence in suburban Jogeshwari here.
“Mubarak Begum is no more with us. She passed away at 9.30 pm at her residence in Jogeshwari. She was unwell from quite sometime,” a family member told PTI.
Begum, who gave scores of Hindi film songs and ghazals, mainly between the 1950s and 70s, had not been keeping well for the last few years.
She made her Bollywood singing debut with 1949 film Aiye in which she had a solo track, Mohe Aane Lagi Angdai Aaja Aaja, and Aao Chale Sakhi Wahan with melody queen Lata Mangeshkar.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, Begum worked with the best music directors in the film industry — S D Burman, Shankar Jaikishan and Khayyam— on movies that starred screen legends like Sunil Dutt, Nargis and Rajendra Kumar.
She sang Woh Na Aayenge Palat Kar in Bimal Roy’s Devdas with music by Burman. Roy used her voice once again in Madhumati (1958), where she sang Hum Haal E Dil Sunaenge for music composer Salil Choudhury.
Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein Hamari Yaad Aayegi, the title song of Tanuja-starrer Hamari Yaad Aayegi, remains one of Begum’s most remembered tracks.
Neend Ud Jaaye Teri, Mujh ko Apne Gale Lagalo and Humein Dum Daike with Asha Bhosle are among her other known songs.
Saanwariya Teri Yaad Mein from 1980 comedy Ramu To Diwana Hai was one of her last tracks.
In 2011, the Maharashtra government had sanctioned financial aidof one lakh for treatment of the singer.
Her last rites will take place on Tuesday, family sources said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Cinema / PTI / Mumbai – July 19th, 2016
ACHIEVERS:Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda and his wife, Datty, sharing a light moment with winners of the Kittur Rani Chennamma Award in Bangalore on Thursday.— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda on Thursday presented the Kittur Rani Chennamma and other awards instituted by the Women and Child Development Department to six women organisations and 16 women for their achievements in different fields of women development on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
Adarsha Stree Shakti group of Mysore, adjudged as the best got Rs. 50,000 cash prize, a rolling shield and award. Nandini Stree Shakti Group of Davangere and Yashasvini Stree Shakti Group of Kolar were given Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 25,000 cash prizes respectively.
The organisations honoured with Rs. 25,000 cash prize each for their role in the development of women are: CICOPA, Bangalore; Paripoorna Grameenabhivrudhi Mahila Seva Samsthe, Dharwad; Yashasvini Mahila Mandali, Kolar; Basaveshwara Vidya Samsthe, Chitrudurga; Krishi and Grameena Yuvajana Abhivrudhi Samsthe, Haveri; and Grameena Abhyudaya Seva Samsthe, Doddaballapur.
Leela Krishnamurthy and K.B. Sarvamangala Sastry of Bangalore, Kudikandi Kaveramma Somanna of Madikeri, Rekha Patil of Bijapur, Pushpa Ramachandra Pathar of Gadag, Annapoorna Nirvani of Belgaum, Nirmala Jodappa of Koppal in women development; Shilpa Nanjappa of Kodagu, A. Rukmini of Chamarajanaagar, Nagaratna Nagaraja Hadagali of Dharwad, Naseebanu Abdul Ghani of Bagalkot and Lakshmi Mahadeva of Belgaum in arts; Pramila Karnad of Mangalore and Vimala Inamdar of Koppal in literature; A. Shaheenaof Bangalore and Vijayakumari of Hassan in sports were also honoured on the occasion.
Three district awards of Rs. 80,000, Rs. 70,000 and Rs. 60,000 were given to stree shakti okkoota of Sullia, Chikkanayakana Halli taluk stree shakti okkoota and Mysore taluk stree shakti okkoota, respectively.
Mothers-in-law plea
Karnataka Mothers-in-law Association president Shilaja Hiremath and general secretary Rani Nagaraj wanted to present a memorandum to the Chief Minister complaining of harassment by the daughters-in-law and their relatives misusing Section of 498 A of IPC. But, Mr. Gowda asked them to meet him in Vidhana Soudha to discuss the issue.
Addressing the gathering Mr. Gowda said that there was a need for ending female foeticide for maintaining the male-female ratio. He called upon women to strive for achieving self respect and expressed happiness over the achievement made by 1.40 lakh stree shakti self-help groups by saving Rs. 1,040 crore. His wife Datty Sadananda Gowda was also present.
The former Union Minister M.V. Rajasekharan gave away cash prize of Rs. 25,000 each to Bhoomika Stree Shakti group of Bangalore, Dyamavva SSG of Hassan, Maheswari SSG of Haveri, Jija Matha Mailara SSG of Bidar. He released a book-Yashodhara Gathe and Karnatakada Saadhakiyaru to mark the birth centenary of the former Minister Yashodharamma Dasappa. The State Planning Board Vice Chairman Ramachandra Gowda released Antarala Sanchike-7 book.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / March 09th, 2012
Akhlaq Mohammed Khan, better known as Shahryar, who breathed his last in Aligarh on Monday following a prolonged battle with cancer, straddled the worlds of pure and popular poetry with equal ease
Akhlaq Mohammed Khan, better known as Shahryar, who breathed his last in Aligarh on Monday following a prolonged battle with cancer, straddled the worlds of pure and popular poetry with equal ease. As a lyricist, he courted fame and riches with the unforgettable lyrics of Umrao Jaan. As a poet, he catered to connoisseurs of the Urdu language. He served both from his perch at Aligarh Muslim University, where he was a widely respected academic. He did not need to change his address to taste success in Hindi films as filmmakers approached him in Aligarh with their stories. A much sought after name in mushairas – poetic soirees – Shahryar was conferred the Jnanpith award in 2008 and the Sahitya Akademi Award for “Khwab ka Dar Band Hai”.
Shahryar got success on his own terms. Eminent filmmaker Yash Chopra offered him three films after Faasle. However, Shahryar turned down the proposal as he did not want to be reduced to a “song shop” ready with wares according to the demands of the consumer. He preferred leisure and solitude for his work, something he got in Aligarh. In his poetry, he preferred to talk of the pain of the deprived, the social concerns of the man on the street. The feeling came out most aptly in the ghazal, “Seene mein jalan aankhon mein toofan sa kyun hai” which became part of Muzaffar Ali’s film Gaman in 1978.
Ali and Shahryar were friends from the student days. It so happened that Ali was a painter and once Shahryar went to show him some of the ghazals he had composed. Later, when Ali became a filmmaker, he used them in Gaman. They again worked together in Umrao Jaan. Incidentally, Asha Bhonsle got the National Award for rendering the ghazal, “Dil cheez kya hai” in the film.
However, Shahryar almost did not become a poet. In his younger days, he wanted to be an athlete. His father wanted him to join the police. Shahryar, though, ran away from his home and honed his craft under the watchful eye of Khalil-ur Rehman. To earn a living, he ended up teaching Urdu fiction in AMU, from where he retired as chairman of the Department of Urdu. He never taught poetry in the university as he believed poetry could never be taught. His first poetry collection, Ism-e-Azam was released in 1965 and he used to co-edit a literary journal Sher-o-Hikmat. He also composed songs for Ali’s forthcoming project Noorjehan.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Arts / by Ziya Us Salam / New Delhi – February 14th, 2012
Rummana Hussain, a painter and conceptual artist who was also active in Indian politics, died on July 5 at her home in Bombay. She was 47.
The cause was cancer, said the photographer Ram Rahman, a friend.
Ms. Hussain, who came from a prominent Muslim family in Bombay, was for much of her career a painter of allegorical figurative subjects. But political events in India, particularly the destruction of a mosque by Hindu militants in the city of Ayodhya in 1992 and the subsequent attacks on Muslims, spurred her into political action and changed the direction of her work.
She participated in demonstrations protesting both the Ayodhya incident and growing religious nationalism in India. She developed a photo-based feminist art that brought images of ruined architecture, land and the female body together in pointed combinations.
As an artist in residence at Art in General, an alternative space in Manhattan, she created a video-based installation last fall. Titled ”In Between,” the video combined images of Bombay with others of South Asian immigrant life in New York and alternated shots of the artist under treatment in a Manhattan hospital with others of her walking across the Queensboro Bridge wearing the tinkling ankle bells of an Indian classical dancer.
Ms. Hussain showed widely in India and in Europe
She is survived by her husband, Ishaat, and a daughter, Shazmin.
source: http://www.nytimes.com / The New York Times / Home> N.Y./ Region / by Holland Cotter / July 18th, 1999
