Category Archives: Community Involvement / Social Issues

I will remove politics from education, if I become Minister, says Bengal headmaster

January 21, 2016Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Uncategorizedmpositiveone@gmail.com

Murshidabad, WEST BENGAL :

“I will remove politics from education, if I become the Minister for Education,” said Babar Ali, who is said to be youngest headmaster in the world, here on Monday.

Mr. Ali, who runs a free-school at Murshidabad in West Bengal for poor students, was participating in an interactive session with the students of BGS PU College here.

During the interactive session, one of the students asked Mr. Ali what he would like to do if he were to become a Minister for Education. Welcoming the question with a smile, Mr. Ali said, “First thing I want to do is to remove politics from educational sector. Nowadays, if a person wants to get appointed as a teacher in a primary school in my State, he or she does not require merit. The applicant should have political influence and money,” he said.

At the college level, students were involved in activities of various unions that were affiliated to different political parties. “Intervention of politics dilutes the essence of education. The second area I will stress on will be to make the teachers responsible for the growth of their students,” he said.

Medium of isntruction

To another question on the medium of instruction in primary schools, Mr. Ali said that children should be taught in their mother tongue. “In West Bengal, children should be taught in Bengali and similarly, in Karnataka the medium of instruction should be Kannada. Children understand the lessons better if they are taught in their mother tongue. I have understood this through my experience,” he said.

In response to another question, Mr. Ali said that all government officials should send their children to government schools so that government schools could improve.

G. Chandrashekhar, principal of the college, told The Hindu, “We are all impressed by Mr. Ali’s achievements. At a young age, he started his own school and has been teaching poor students for free. For students, it is a rare experience to meet such a great person.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Staff Correspondent / Hassan – January 19th, 2016

Seer seeks stronger ties between Hindus, Muslims

January 20, 2016Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, Uncategorizedmpositiveone@gmail.com

People donating blood at the camp organised by the Pejawar Blood Donating Team and the District Muslim Paryaya Souharda Samiti in Udupi on Sunday.

Udupi, KARNATAKA :

Blood donation camp organized by Pejawar Blood Donating Team, District Muslim Paryaya Souharda Samiti

A large number of people participated in the voluntary blood donation camp organised by the Pejawar Blood Donating team and Udupi District Muslim Paryaya Souharda Samiti on the SMSP Sanskrit College premises here on Sunday.

The camp had been organised as a mark of respect to Vishwesha Tirtha Swami of Pejawar Mutt, who will be ascending the Paryayat Peetha for a record fifth time on Monday.

Inaugurating the camp, Vishwesha Tirtha Swami of Pejawar Mutt said that the bonds between the Hindu and Muslim communities should become stronger.

The Muslim community had fully co-operated in the run up to his fifth Paryaya, he said.

Members of the District Muslim Paryaya Souharda Samiti had supplied buttermilk to his devotees on his “Pura Pravesha” (entry to the city) on January 4.

The samiti had also donated foodgrains and vegetables as “horekanike” a few days ago.

Now, they had organised a blood donation camp on the eve of Paryaya. This showed their harmonious nature.

“The spirit of cooperation between Hindus and Muslims should increase. This should become a model to the country” he said.

He recalled that his preceptor’s guru, that is his guru’s guru, Vishwajna Tirtha, had accepted ‘horekanike’ from the philanthropist Haji Abdullah Saheb, also the founder of Corporation Bank, during his Paryaya in 1904.

Haji Abubakar Parkala, president of the samiti, Mohammed Arif, secretary, and others were present.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Udupi – January 18th, 2016

Chennai floods: 14 heroes honoured

January 19, 2016Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, Uncategorizedmpositiveone@gmail.com

Chennai, TAMIL NADU :

Chennai :

They have no cutouts in cinema theatres. They have no big fan following. They led a simple life just like anybody else until the rain gods lashed their fury on Chennai in December.

They rose to the occasion. They saved lives and brought smiles to many others. “We had to make a choice. Whether to sit at home or get out there and save people,” they said. They then became real heroes.

On Monday, 14 people, who volunteered in flood relief work and did a heroic job, were honoured with awards at the Adding Smiles Ambassador Awards 2016 organised by Adding Smiles Foundation.

“We were doing our duty to help someone who is in need,” said Blue Cross general manager Dawn Williams, one of the awardees, in a video on the awardees.

All the 14 volunteers, including Peter Van Geit, Chennai Trekking Club founder and senior citizens of Anandam Homes, were presented with ‘Real Hero Awards’.

Awards were also given to celebrities, who were active during flood relief. The team ‘Mana Madras Kosam’ with Telugu film actors including Navdeep, Kajal Agarwal and Samantha , Sathyam Cinemas and Tamil actor Parthepan were presented awards.

“I am doing whatever little I can do. I have changed myself. As you grow older, you get fearless and want to do things before you go away,” the award winning composer said.

Activist and founder of NGO Prajwala Sunitha Krishnan, team from National Award winning Tamil film Kaaka Muttai, former RBI governor C Rangarajan, national paralympic swimming champion Madhavi Latha, founder and dean of Great Lakes Institute of Management Prof Bala V Balachandran, acid attack survivor Soniya Choudhary were some of the awardees in the ‘ambassador awards’ category.

The highlight of the evening was music composer AR Rahman, who was one of the awardees in ‘Adding Smiles Ambassador Awards’ category. The category included people, who have come the hard way to live a dream and spread smiles in the life of others by way of help.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / by V. Tejonmayan, TNN / January 19th, 2016

Urdu fest to promote communal harmony

January 10, 2016Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Travel & Tourismmpositiveone@gmail.com

Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA :

A senior professor and his student occupy a table at Wazir Hotel, off the busy Mohammed Ali Road at crowded Bhendi Bazaar. Over endless cups of tea the professor, a sort of walking encyclopedia on people he met in the past, reminisces about Wazir Hotel’s heyday when it was a favourite haunt of poets, lyricists, musicians, singers and qawwals. Lyricists like Shakil Badayuni, Sahir Ludhianvi and Majrooh Sultanpuri chatted up the music maestro Naushad even as legendary qawwal Aziz Nazan discussed details of his delightful mehfils. And then the professor orders tea yet again but the waiter places two empty cups on the table announcing that the tea is over and the hotel is downing shutters forever. That was in 1986.

This scene from senior Urdu journalist-playwright Saeed Hameed-penned and Mujeeb Khan-directed play ‘Wazir Hotel’ after the long vanished famous eatery is part of Imambada-based Urdu Markaz’s second Bhendi Bazaar Urdu Festival (Jan 8-10). Aimed to revive that fast fading flavor of an era when shairi thrived and culture flourished, the festival celebrates a spirit which today lives in tales and memories.

Many memories will come alive when television actor Neha Sharad reads letters of Safia Akhtar (poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar’s mother) to her husband Jan Nisar Akhtar while ghazal exponent Pooja Gaitonde sings some of Jan Nisar Akhtar’s famous film songs, including the immensely romantic Main tumhi se poochhti hoon mujhe tumse pyaar kyun hai (Black Cat). “This festival dispels many myths and one of them is that Urdu belongs to Muslims alone,” explains Gaitonde.

“The idea is to tell people what Bhendi Bazaar symbolized and can still offer if earnest efforts are made,” says Zubair Azmi, director of Urdu Markaz and the festival. The festival maintains its “secular” character. So, apart from a mushaira featuring non-Muslim poets of Urdu, a discussion titled “Celebrating Urdu” will see non-Muslim intellectuals like Jnanpith Awardee novelist Bhalchandra Nemade and Sudheendra Kulkarni talk about Urdu’s contributions to our celebrated composite culture. “The festival is fast becoming a platform to showcase Bhendi Bazaar’s cultural ethos and promote communal harmony,” says local MLA Amin Patel. While admitting Patel’s “critical facilitation” to host the fest, Azmi agrees with him that the fest needs to be held on a larger scale.

It is not the old-timers alone who will get their antennae recharged through a medley of plays, soirees and singing of Sufi kalams and old Bollywood numbers, but even the young and restless can look forward to fun-filled sessions. “Workshops on drama, fiction, scriptwriting and poetry will engage college students to learning the finer points of these arts,” informs the festival’s reception committee chairman Farid Khan.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Mumbai / by Mohammed Wajihuddin / January 03rd, 2016