Category Archives: World Opinion

Indian doctor helped a ‘critical’ Rizwan recover in time for semi-final

Amazing Feats, NRI's / PIO's, Science & Technology, Sports, World Opinion, , , , , , ,

Thiruvananthapuram, KERALA / Dubai, UAE :

Dr Saheer Sainalabdeen posing with Mohammad Rizwan’s jersey. (Special Arrangement, Twitter/ShoaibAkhtar)

The attending pulmonologist, Dr Saheer Sainalabdeen, originally from Thiruvananthapuram, said Mohammad Rizwan was critical at the time he was admitted in Dubai’s Medeor Hospital.

It was a race against time. Two days before his team’s T20 World Cup semifinal against Australia, Pakistan’s wicket-keeper opener Mohammad Rizwan, after complaining of severe chest pain, was in the ICU unit of Medeor Hospital near Burjuman in Dubai.

The attending pulmonologist, Dr Saheer Sainalabdeen, originally from Thiruvananthapuram, says Rizwan was critical at the time he was admitted. Under the Indian doctor’s care, Pakistan’s key player recovered in time for the game.

He didn’t just make it to the playing XI, he also made a gritty 67, helping his team post a formidable score in the match that Australia narrowly won. Despite the heartbreaking loss, Rizwan, 29, remembered to acknowledge the efforts put in by the good doctor. As a token of gratitude, he sent across a team shirt, autographed by the Pakistan players.

Speaking to The Sunday Express at his chambers, Dr Saheer credited the quick recovery to Rizwan’s “willpower”.

In ICU for 35 hours

“He was in the ICU for 35 hours. He had a fever for three-four days, but he was Covid negative. Then (two days before the match), he had severe chest pain, enough to make him gasp,” Dr Saheer said.

The 40-year-old doctor said he initially suspected a heart problem, but tests ruled that out. “Actually, due to infection, spasms had blocked Rizwan’s esophagus (food pipe) and trachea (windpipe), resulting in chest pain. His condition was critical.”

Going into the match, Rizwan was not 100%, but managed to score 67 in 52 balls, getting out only in the 18th over of the Pakistan innings. He returned to keep the wickets and took a sharp catch of the in-form Australian opener David Warner, who seemed to be running away with the game.

During a break in the game, Pakistan’s batting coach, former Aussie batsman Mathew Hayden, had revealed to the host broadcaster that Rizwan had been in hospital a day earlier.

“I am a big fan of this batting line-up, they have performed superbly right through with the bat all along, and tonight is no exception. Rizwan was in hospital a night ago, suffering from a bronchitis condition, but this is a warrior… He has great courage, so has Babar (Azam), fantastic to see them combine so well,” Hayden said.

Among those who applauded Rizwan’s drive and commitment was Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin . “Can you imagine this guy played for his country today & gave his best. He was in the hospital last two days. Massive respect @iMRizwanPak. Hero,” posted Pakistan great Shoaib Akhtar.

Dr Saheer recalled Rizwan was desperate to play. “Whenever we spoke, he told me, ‘Play I must, I have to be with the team’. He was given an injection before leaving the hospital (a day before the game) and then, two hours before the start of the match, he took medicines. I allowed him to play only because he was medically fit to play,” the doctor said.

Dr Saheer said, Rizwan and his Pakistani teammates wanted to visit him personally to thank him, but biosecurity protocol didn’t allow them to do so. “He said, ‘Ek shirt bhej rahe hain aapko (Sending you an autographed team shirt)’.”

While happy at the gift, Dr Saheer said he was happier at Rizwan’s recovery. “It was down to his willpower. I have never seen a person with such strong willpower. He was weak but his willpower trumped the illness.”

Recalling the challenge, he added: “An illness that usually takes about a week to heal was taken care of inside two days… He had a big game coming up, so it was my duty to walk the extra mile, leave no stone unturned and then see how it goes. When he was admitted to the ICU, I never thought it would be possible. But he responded very well to the treatment, followed our advice in toto and pulled off something unreal.”

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Sports> Cricket / by Shamik Chakrabarty, Dubai / November 14th, 2021

Aster Hospitals to offer free surgery for 100 underprivileged children

Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, FREE : Healthcare / Assistance, Karnataka (under research project), Leaders, NRI's / PIO's, Science & Technology, Useful / HEALTHCARE, World Opinion, , , , , , , ,

Dubai, UAE / Kerala / Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :

The ‘Second Life – Because Little Lives Matter’ initiative was launched in Bengaluru on November 15 by Dr. Nitish Shetty, Regional Director, Karnataka and Maharashtra Cluster; Farhan Yasin, Regional Director, Kerala and Oman Cluster; and Devanand K.T., Regional CEO, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Cluster

A 24X7 multi-lingual helpline has been set up to manage enquiries

To mark Children’s Day, Aster Hospitals in India launched the ‘Second Life – Because Little Lives Matter’ initiative.

The year-long initiative is aimed at supporting the medical treatment of disadvantaged children. The aim is to facilitate free paediatric surgery for at least 100 children below the age of 12 years.

Throught this initiative of Aster Volunteers Global CSR, the company wants to extend help to deserving children who are being treated across Aster Hospitals based in five States in India. This includes common childhood illnesses, such as appendicitis, intussusception, empyema and paediatric urology surgery, as well as complex clinical surgeries, including bone marrow transplant, liver transplant and heart surgery.

The initiative was launched in Bengaluru on November 15 by Dr. Nitish Shetty, Regional Director, Karnataka and Maharashtra Cluster; Farhan Yasin, Regional Director, Kerala and Oman Cluster; and Devanand K.T., Regional CEO, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Cluster.

The treatment will be funded either by Aster DM Foundation, philanthropists or NGOs.

The foundation has established the criteria to identify eligible cases for the program. Applications will be assessed on the socio-economic status, BPL category, medical outcome of the child prior to commencement of selection and subsequent treatment.

A 24X7 multi-lingual helpline (+91 9633620660) has been set up in Kozhikode in Kerala to manage enquiries.

Tongue of pearls: Mutribi al-Asamm Samarqandi’s ‘Conversations with Emperor Jahangir’

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DELHI :

Emperor Jahangir’s inquisitive mind is revealed in his conversations with Mutribi al-Asamm Samarqandi

The 18 decades of the Great Mughals (1526-1707) produced some first-rate literature.

Many fine books came from the rulers themselves, steeped in a tradition of high culture that required them to be literate. The Baburnama, the first memoir/ autobiography of the subcontinent, is as readable today and as modestly written as Julius Caesar’s books (Cicero said of Caesar’s prose that it is unadorned, like a classical statue). The Tuzuk of Jahangir is filled with bombast, vanity and anger, but it is so honest and has so much detail, particularly on the side of his interests as a naturalist, that it is a work of the highest order.

And then there are the works that are smaller but sparkling, like little jewels. One such is the life of Humayun by his sister, Babur’s daughter and Akbar’s aunt, Gulbadan Begum. Written in Persian, as opposed to the Chagatai Turk that Babur wrote in, it is clear and direct, and as thorough a portrayal of Babur and Humayun as what they produced themselves. The story we know of Babur circumambulating the bed of a very ill Humayun and asking, in pagan fashion, to be taken instead of him, is from her book.

Courtly manners

The work we are looking at this time is from a lesser noble, a traveller from Samarqand called Mutribi al-Asamm, who spent time in Jahangir’s court. It is available in translation as Conversations with Emperor Jahangir. The Mughals loved having people over from their ancestral lands, which they would never see again, and lavished them with gifts and honours. Mutribi came to India (Jahangir was based in Lahore) roughly 400 years ago in 1627, when he was 70 and the emperor 58, only a few months away from his death.

Mutribi’s writing reveals a lot about the flowery manner of the court. He visits Jahangir a month after arriving in India and the emperor asks why he has waited this long. Mutribi refers to himself in the text as the “incompetent narrator” and Jahangir as possessing “a tongue of pearls”. At that first meeting, Jahangir gives him a thousand rupees and Noor Jahan (“may her chastity be preserved”) another five hundred, possibly the equivalent of crores in our time.

At their next meeting, Jahangir inquires about the hue of the black stone from which his ancestor Timur’s sepulchre is made in Samarqand. The emperor produces stones which Mutribi compares unfavourably to the original (“it is so bright you can see your face in it”).

Lord bountiful

The transactional manner of the exchanges is apparent from another meeting in which Jahangir asks Mutribi which of the Iraqi thoroughbred horses on display he would like to be given. Mutribi says, “whichever is more expensive,” possibly to make the emperor feel that he is being generous rather than his supplicant greedy. Again, when Jahangir offers him a choice of saddle — velvet or broadcloth — the answer is velvet, because it is more expensive. Jahangir says velvet gets wet easily, to which Mutribi says that the monsoon is far off. The two meet 24 times in two months before Mutribi returns. Towards the end, the following conversation is held:

“The pleasantness of Samarqand was being discussed. The Emperor asked me, ‘Is Samarqand spelled with a ‘q’ or with a ‘k’?’

‘Either way is correct,’ I replied. ‘In Tabari’s history and several other books it is referred to as Samarkand, but in popular usage it has become known as Samarqand. Some say that the name comes from Samar and Qamar, two slaves of Alexander the Great who built the city which was then named for them. Their graves are situated in the main market square of Samarqand.”’

Then Jahangir inquires about an ancestral tomb, asking how much it requires to be maintained. ‘“If you want to do it properly, 10,000 rupees,’ I [Mutribi] said, ‘otherwise 5,000 rupees just to keep it going.’

‘If 10,000 rupees will maintain it,’ he said, ‘then we have decided that in accordance with your information we will send 10,000 rupees, in order that that blessed station be maintained.’

I said, ‘O God, as long as the Sun and the Moon shall be, may Jahangir son of Akbar remain King.’”

Aakar Patel is a columnist and translator of Urdu and Gujarati non-fiction works.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books / by Aakar Patel / November 13th, 2021

Ornithologist Salim Ali’s Forgotten Radio-casts Now Come ‘Alive’ in Book

Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Green Products, Leaders, Travel & Tourism, World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA :

Ornithologist Dr. Salim Ali’s forgotten radio-casts now come ‘alive’ in a book. /
In memory of Ornithologist Dr Salim Moizuddin Ali.

Dr Salim Moizuddin A. Ali (November 12, 1896-June 20, 1987) was the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across undivided India and even later, and then penned several bird books which popularised ornithology in the sub-continent.

Mumbai :

In a unique initiative, the forgotten radio broadcasts of legendary ornithologist, the late Dr Salim Ali have been compiled and brought ‘alive’ in a book form, which will be released on November 12, marking the 125th birth anniversary of the ‘Birdman of India’.

Dr Salim Moizuddin A. Ali (November 12, 1896-June 20, 1987) was the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across undivided India and even later, and then penned several bird books which popularised ornithology in the sub-continent.

The book — “Words For Birds” — edited by renowned author Tara Gandhi, comprises all the 35 broadcasts of Dr Ali on All India Radio (AIR) — from British India to Independent 1980s — probably unheard of by most people in the current century.

“I had worked with Dr Salim Ali for long… I have even worked on his other papers and documents and I came across these broadcasts that are well-preserved by BNHS,” the book editor Gandhi told IANS briefly, as the book awaits official release.

It will be unveiled as part of the ongoing 125th birth anniversary celebrations of the great ornithologist conferred with the Padma Vibhushan (1976), at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS, founded 1883), said Education Officer Raju Kasambe.

The 35 talks that comprise “Words For Birds” were broadcast over 45 years, between 1941-1985, revealing Dr Ali’s exceptional skills both as an oral communicator and a passionate bird propagandist.

“The object of these talks is really to interest listeners, in the first instance for the healthy pleasure and satisfaction bird watching affords rather than for its intrinsic scientific possibilities,” the ornithologist had said of his radio transmissions.

The enthralling radiocasts, in a story-telling style, cover a wide range — bird habits and habitats, risks they face, the crucial role of avian in nature’s cyclic processes, how they benefit agriculture, unseen or little understood contributions to the economy, etc.

On his passion, Dr Ali said how 50 years ago bird watching in India was nowhere as popular, or indeed respectable, as it has become now, and in his younger days he would time and again fall in with persons who left him with a feeling, as they withdrew, that they were inwardly tapping a pitying finger on their foreheads.

“Their first glimpse of me very often was, it is true, of a distinctly shabby khaki-clad individual of the garage mechanic type, wandering leisurely and rather aimlessly about the countryside and surreptitiously peeping into bushes, and holes in tree-trunks and earth banks…” said the legend modestly.

Though he had focussed mainly on birds in his radio talks, it is evident that he was interested in all forms of wildlife and contemporary conservation issues, too, with each talk reading like a short essay, and the reader can even glance randomly through it to be immensely educated and entertained.

Dr Ali’s best-sellers from his massive collection include “Book Of Indian Birds” and the monumental 10-volume “Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan” (co-authored with S. Dillon Ripley), “The Birds of Kutch”, “Indian Hill Birds”, “Birds of Kerala”, “The Birds of Sikkim”, and his autobiography, “The Fall of a Sparrow”.

The book editor Gandhi was guided by Dr Ali for MSc (Field Ornithology), and she works for biodiversity conservation, conducts surveys to document birds and other wildlife in India.

Besides scientific and popular articles on nature and ecology, she has penned several books like “Birds, Wild Animals and Agriculture: Conflict and Coexistence in India” and edited the two-volume “A Bird’s Eye View: The Collected Essays and Shorter Writings of Salim Ali”.

Published by Black Kite and Hachette, “Words For Birds” (256 pg/Rs.599) will soon be available from BNHS and Amazon platforms. — IANS

source: http://www.clarionindia.net / Clarion India / Home> India> Life> Books / November 05th, 2021

Kozhikode boy shortlisted for International Children’s Peace Prize

Amazing Feats, Education, World Opinion, , , ,

Kozhikode, KERALA :

Aasim was born without both hands

Kozhikode : 

Muhammad Aasim , a 15-year-old disabled boy who had been waging a battle to get his village school at Velimanna upgraded to a high school, has been shortlisted as one of the three finalists for this year’s International Children’s Peace Prize awarded by Kids-Rights Foundation, an international children’s right organisation based in Amsterdam.

The other two finalists are teen brothers from Delhi Vihaan and Nav Agarwal who had been working towards tackling the waste menace in the national capital through their NGO One Step Greener and Christina Adane, an 18-year-old girl born in the Netherlands and now living in the UK, who had led a campaign for free school meal provision to be extended through the holidays.

The finalists were announced by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is a patron of the prize. In his message, Tutu said the finalists show, through their values and determination, just what children can achieve in campaigning to improve the rights of others worldwide.

The International Children’s Peace Prize is annually awarded to a child who has made a special effort to promote children’s rights and better the situation of vulnerable children.

The three finalists were selected from 169 nominations received from 39 countries.

Aasim was born without both hands

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi will award the prize to this year’s winner on November 13 during a hybrid ceremony to be held at The Hague.

Aasim, who was born without both hands and has 90% disability, has been spearheading the campaign to upgrade the Government Mappila UP School at Velimanna to a high school.

Acting on a letter written by Aasim, then chief minister Oommen Chandy had issued an order to upgrade his school to a UP school in 2014.

But after he reached seventh standard in 2018, wheelchairbound Aasim took up the fight to upgrade the school, which is just 250 metres away from his house, to a high school as it was difficult for him to travel to faraway schools. After his repeated pleas and even protests failed to evoke a positive  response, Aasim filed a petition in the Kerala high court which directed the education department to upgrade the UP school to a high school.

But the state government challenged the order and now his petition is before the consideration of the Supreme Court.

“Aasim has been continuing his studies privately at home for the last two years and has not enrolled in any other school. He hopes that his fight to uphold the basic right of education will succeed and will help and inspire all other children,” his father Mohammed Saeed said.

Aasim, who writes with his leg, is a recipient of the Ujjwala Balvam award initiated by the state women and child development department.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Kozhikode News / TNN / November 06th, 2021

The Handsomest Star We Never Knew

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Peshawar / Calcutta (now Kolkata), BRITISH INDIA :

The Telegraph tells the story of another Pathan from Peshawar who galloped his way into Indian cinema, and then galloped away much too soon.

Gul Hamid / Courtesy, Film Heritage Foundation

Let’s start from the very beginning, a time when celluloid was just opening up to the light of day. And in those first few pages of the history of Indian cinema, one place finds mention again and again — Peshawar.

The city, some say, derives its name from the Sanskrit Purushapura, meaning the City of Men. Perhaps by divine direction, it truly went on to gain a reputation as the city of stars. Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Vinod Khanna… were all born in Peshawar or nearabouts. Shah Rukh Khan’s clan too belongs there. It was also home to Gul Hamid, a Pathan who shone bright on the silver screen like few stars did.

Born in 1905 in Pirpai village, Hamid was known for his handsome looks. Nasir Shah, whose great grandmother was the actor’s sibling, reveals how a young Hamid galloped into the movies, quite literally. “He was a constable with the British police in Peshawar and was sent to Lahore as part of a contingent to manage a political event — a public address by Gandhiji. This was around 1928-29,” Shah tells The Telegraph over phone from Australia, where he works as an engineer. 

A member of the mounted police, Hamid was ambling on horseback after work when he came upon a film shoot. The director of the unit was the famous A.R. Kardar, and the scene that of an abduction — of the heroine by the villain, also on horseback. Seeing a helpless woman being chased, Hamid — unaware of what shooting really meant — rode his horse straight into it and brought the villain down. “Kardar was struck by the handsome Pathan and talked him into working in his film,” Shah says.

That’s how he debuted in Sarfarosh, a silent film made in 1930. Hamid was also part of the first Punjabi feature film, Heer Ranjha (1932). After working in several films in Lahore, he followed Kardar to Calcutta, which was then one of cinema’s biggest laboratories. He acted in Debaki Bose’s Bengali film Seeta (1934), which became the first Indian talkie to receive international recognition, at the Venice Film Festival. He was also part of Yahudi ki Ladki (1933), directed by Premankur Atorthy. And then, Hamid made his way to Bombay, to another budding industry for some more action.

“I would call him the first real stud of Indian cinema; his appearance was just so perfect,” says Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, filmmaker, archivist and restorer, “…the kind of star, say, John Wayne was in the Westerns of Hollywood.” Dungarpur shares an anecdote from those times. “When Bose saw the astonishingly good-looking man from Peshawar, he wondered what kind of a role would suit him… and thus Hamid got to play the character of a god, as if to justify his looks.”

The film also featured Prithviraj Kapoor as Rama and Durga Khote as Sita.

In fact, the entire story of Hamid’s career — and untimely death — is in many ways quite incredible. The actor died when he was all of 31, after battling Hodgkin’s disease for a few months. But by then he had acted in 14 films, earning for himself the title of Sitar-e-Hind or Star of Hindustan.

Hamid fell in love with and married the Calcutta-born Patience Cooper, his co-star in many films. But he had to keep it a secret from his family back in Peshawar for obvious reasons.

“He was even engaged to a simple, traditional girl of his mother’s choice,” says Shah. His family came to know about the marriage only after Hamid’s death, when his brothers broke open a chest full of letters shared between the two. It was almost like he was living a double life, feels Shah, “His family clearly had no idea of his stature or the big picture.”

The film world in those days was ruled by the trinity of Prithviraj Kapoor, K.L. Saigal and Hamid. “The scenario would be much altered if Hamid hadn’t died so young,” says Dungarpur. And although very little documentation survives, Hamid — given his pairing up with Cooper — was quite the star people were talking about. “I recall seeing magazines from the era with photographs of couples such as them, and Devika Rani and Himangshu Rai,” says he.

Perhaps the most significant of all of Hamid’s films was Khyber Pass (1936), which he also scripted and directed. “It was made in Peshawar; it was his effort to showcase Pashtun culture,” says Shah.

In an interview reminiscing those days — it is available on YouTube — Prithviraj Kapoor talks about Hamid, “Badi khoobiyat thhi usme, bahut pyara admi thha… Woh mujhey bade bhaiyya pukarte thhe (Hamid was a talented man and lovable man, he would address me as big brother).”

As a very sick Hamid lay on his deathbed, Kapoor went to visit his friend one last time. Shah’s grandfather, who was then a little boy, witnessed a conversation between the two that could very well have been lifted straight out of a script.

Kapoor asked, “Gul Hamid, kaise ho… how are you?”

And Hamid answered, “Andar se aag ki tarah garam aur bahar se barf ki tarah thanda (Burning like fire itself from within and as cold as ice on the outside).”

It is said that cinema never again saw an actor with Gul Hamid’s looks.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> Culture / by Paromita Kar / October 31st, 2021

Kashmiri teen brings gold for India in World Kickboxing Championship

Amazing Feats, Education, Sports, Women/Girls(since May26-2021), World Opinion, , , , , , , , ,

Tarkpora (Bandipora District), JAMMU & KASHMIR / Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA :

My next aim is to win gold medal for my country in Olympics, Tajamul Islam said.

Tajamul Islam, 13, from Tarkpora in Bandipora defeated Argentina’s Lalina in the under-14 finals. Credit: Tajamul Islam

A teenage girl from a remote village in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district recently scripted history by winning a second gold medal in World Kickboxing Championship held in Egypt’s Cairo on October 22.

Tajamul Islam, 13, from Tarkpora in Bandipora defeated Argentina’s Lalina in the under-14 finals. “I had represented India in Italy in 2016 too, in the under-9 category in which players from 90 other countries had participated. I won gold in that event also,” she told DH.

A class 7 student of Army Goodwill School in Bandipora, Tajamul won national recognition when she bagged the gold medal in the sub-junior category at the 2015 National Kickboxing Championship in New Delhi. Her achievement at the national level got her an entry to the World events.

A six-year-old Tajamul started her kickboxing journey in 2014 from a local martial arts academy for young boys and girls. “I was watching kickboxing on TV and decided that one day I too will do something big in this sport. And when I saw young boys and girls training, punching, I told my father that I want to join them,” she said.

But the initial journey was not so easy for the little girl. “I faced a lot of taunts from my relatives and neighbors initially when I started practicing the game. But my mom supported me and somehow persuaded my dad to allow me to continue my practice. Martial art was also the passion of my elder siblings and their support was crucial,” she said.

Daughter of a businessman based in Mumbai, the gold-medalist has a word of advice for parents and children. “Parents should understand that sports keep children away from negativity like drug addiction and other activities and allow them to participate. Kids should also not hide anything from parents and take their consent before choosing any game,” she said.

Asked how difficult her journey was being a girl, she replied, “Girls can do better than boys if they are given equal opportunities.  My next aim is to win a gold medal for my country in the World Olympics.”

Tajamul is also a brand ambassador of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme. She also concentrates on her studies and wants to become an orthopedic surgeon. “I want to break as well as join the bones by becoming an orthopedic surgeon,” she said laughingly.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> National> North and Central / by Zulfikar Majid, DHNS / November 01st, 2021

Leander Paes and Nafisa Ali join Trinamul Congress in Goa

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, Sports, Women/Girls(since May26-2021), World Opinion, ,

Kolkata, WEST BENGAL :

While the names of swimmer and activist Ali and Deshprabhu had been doing the rounds, the tennis icon was a surprise for most.

Mamata Banerjee with Leander Paes in Dona Paula, Goa / Telegraph picture

Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday inducted celebrities such as Leander Paes and Nafisa Ali and entrepreneur Mrinalini Deshprabhu into her party for its Goa foray, which she formally launched over the course of a busy day of political and PR exercises.

While the names of swimmer and activist Ali and Deshprabhu had been doing the rounds, tennis icon Paes was a surprise for most.

“When, at the age of 14, I went to play tennis for India, Didi (Mamata) was the (junior) Union sports minister. She used to always encourage, always support…. Now, after three decades of tennis, I would like to support the lady who has been going forward with immense courage. She is a real champion to me,” said Paes, 48, a Calcutta boy and now a resident of Goa.

Regarded as one of the greatest players in doubles, he won 18 Grand Slams in men’s and mixed doubles, and a bronze for India in men’s singles at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

“I would like to serve the people by means of politics. I would like to serve the youth of the nation. That is why I have joined Didi,” said Paes. “India is the world’s largest democracy. There cannot be division here on the basis of caste, creed, or religion,” he added.

Now 64, Ali was a Congress candidate against Mamata in Calcutta South in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. She lost. Ali also had a brief stint with Samajwadi Party before returning to the Congress in 2009.

Mamata Banerjee with Nafisa Ali in Goa / Telegraph picture

“She (Mamata) is such a champion for the cause of protecting the inclusive ethos of India…. It is important, now more than ever, to close the ranks on forces that seek to divide this great nation,” said Ali, a Calcutta girl who was the national swimming champion in the early 1970s, was crowned Miss India in 1976, and went on to act in films.

Sources in Trinamul said Mamata was keen on engaging civil society members in politics in Goa, something she did successfully in Bengal.

The BJP’s Pramod Sawant-led government would seek re-election to the 40-seat Goa Assembly in  February 2022.

The principal Opposition there is the Congress, with the AAP testing waters there for some time.

Last month, Mamata inducted Goa’s former chief minister Luizinho Faleiro, with four decades in the Congress. He is now a national vice-president of Trinamul, helping it not only in Goa but also in several states of the Northeast, which he handled organisationally for the Grand Old Party.

After Faleiro came a number of political leaders from Goa, from various parties there. From the civil society, Trinamul has already managed to get the likes of poet N. Shivdas, filmmaker Tony Dias, environmentalist Rajendra Shivaji Kakodkar, footballer Denzil Franco, and boxer Lenny Da Gama.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> West Bengal / by Meghdeep Bhattacharrya, Calcutta / October 30th, 2021

Independent journalist Mohammad Ali wins Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting on South Asia 2021

Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, World Opinion

New York, USA :

Mohammad Ali is an independent journalist based in New York.

Independent journalist Mohammad Ali was announced as the winner of this year’s Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting on South Asia by the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) for his report on right-wing vigilantes’ radicalization of India’s Hindus. The past winners of the award include Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist Dexter Filkins and renowned investigative journalist Azmat Zahra. 

New Delhi : 

Independent journalist Mohammad Ali was last week announced as the winner of the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting on South Asia 2021 by the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), a journalism organization based in the U.S. and Canada. 

Ali was awarded for his investigative piece on the Hindu vigilante’s radicalization of India’s Hindu’s by “using a dangerous cocktail of social media and Hindutva.” The 10,000-word long piece titled ‘The Rise of a Hindu Vigilante in the Age of WhatsApp and Modi’ appeared in the American magazine WIRED, well known for its focus on “how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics.” The piece appeared as a cover story in May 2020 of WIRED magazine. 

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Ali announced, “I am grateful to @sajahq for the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting on South Asia 2021 for my profile of a Hindu vigilante in @WIRED. It was an investigation into the process of radicalization of India’s Hindus using a dangerous cocktail of social media & Hindutva.”

Picture: Mohammad Ali Twitter

The Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting on South Asia is awarded yearly by SAJA. Named after American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was killed in Pakistan in 2002, the past winners of the award include Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Dexter Filkins, and renowned investigative journalist Azmat Zahra. 

Ali said that he is elated at the award. “Besides helping my career, the award will draw more attention to the rise of Hindu extremism in India,” Ali told TwoCircles.net. 

Ali said the idea for the WIRED story on the rise of Hindu vigilante in India, especially after right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in India in 2014, was spawned as he “didn’t like the liberal media coverage of Hindutva in India.”

Ali said for the story he spent a lot of time with the foot soldiers Hindutva, who would carry out the task of propaganda for “India’s slide towards right-wing Hindu extremism.”

“I didn’t want to demonize them (the workers of right-wing parties in India) but instead to humanize them and tell their story,” Ali said, adding, “With all being said, these workers and the work they do is historically significant as it is changing the course of India’s fate as a democracy.”

Ali’s has been reporting and writing on the rise of Hindu nationalism and violence against Muslims in India for over twelve years.

A post-graduate in literature, Ali started his journalism career with TwoCircles.net in 2008 before joining The Hindu in 2012.

“I belong to the generation of Indian Muslims who witnessed the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat and became conscious of the oppression against the community,” Ali said. 

Ali said his foray into journalism came naturally as “becoming conscious of the issues facing Indian Muslims lead me to write about it.”

TwoCircles.net, Ali said, gave him a platform to write about these issues. 

“At TCN, the reportage on Muslims was a priority. It was not done before in any other mainstream publication. Working at TCN provided me with a great experience in understanding the issues facing the Muslim community in India beyond what was being written about them in the mainstream press,” Ali said. 

It was at TwoCircles.net, Ali said that he did his best stories. His series of stories on the wrongful incarceration of Mohammad Amir brought the focus on the impact of the war on terror on India’s marginalized Muslim community. 

Mohammad Amir, a resident of Azad Market in Old Delhi, was falsely charged in 20 cases of bomb blasts in and around Delhi in 1998. He was finally released in January 2012, after 14 year long wrongful incarceration.

TwoCircles.net was the first news portal to break the sad story of Aamir. 

Ali detailed the plight of Aamir and his family in a 2010 article titled ‘12 yrs in jail and counting: Story of Amir – a victim of war on terror,’ after he met briefly met Aamir by chance at Teeshazari Court in Delhi.

“Aamir’s story is the defining story of my career. The story brought focus on him and he was eventually released. I still keep in touch with him,” Ali said. 

Currently based in New York, Ali’s work has been featured in WIRED, Al Jazeera and The Hindu, among others. 

Ali said that due to threats to his life in 2017 from extremist Hindu groups he had to move to the US in 2018 when Columbia Journalism School offered him a fellowship. 

Ali has been interviewed by The NewYorker (in a piece on the lynching of Muslims in India), Al-Jazeera (The Listening Post episode on use of WhatsApp in spreading violence and propaganda in India), Harper’s Magazine (on the lynching of Muslims in India), Guardian, (on murders triggered by fake news on WhatsApp), and dozen other Indian publications.

His WIRED piece, which won him the Daniel Pearl Award, which was over a year-long investigation into the functioning of the foot soldiers of RSS, is a powerful account of “how Modi’s rise has unleashed an army of violent Hindu extremists on India’s minority communities pushing them to the possibility of second-class citizenship.” 

To report for the story, Ali spent months with workers of Bajrang Dal which is part of a larger ideological fraternity patronized by BJP and Modi. 

“The WIRED piece is one of the very few instances of reporting in American magazines on Bajrang Dal’s functioning on a day-to-day basis, and demonstrated how politics transforms a society, how hatred is created between communities in the name of ancient wounds and how it is deployed to control power in the present,” Ali said. 

Ali said that his WIRED piece documents “how the most commonplace and most humane things like eating a meal or falling in love can be politicized and turned into sources of majoritarian rage and violence against minorities.”

Ali is currently working on a book on India. 

source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Lead Story / by Irfan Mehraj, TwoCirlces.net / October 29th, 2021

Wipro’s Azim Premji donated Rs 27 crore per day in FY21, retains top giver rank

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Karnataka (under research project), Leaders, World Opinion, , , , ,

Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :

Wipro’s Azim Premji donated Rs 9,713 crore or Rs 27 crore a day to retain his top rank among Indian philanthropists in FY21.

Indian business tycoon Azim Premji
Indian business tycoon Azim Premji (Photo | PTI)

Mumbai :

Software exporter Wipro’s Azim Premji donated Rs 9,713 crore or Rs 27 crore a day to retain his top rank among Indian philanthropists in FY21.

Premji, the founder chairman of the company, increased his donation by nearly a fourth during the pandemic year, as per the Edelgive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2021, which had HCL’s Shiv Nadar at second place with contributions of Rs 1,263 crore towards upliftment causes.

Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, India’s richest man by a distance, came third on the list with a Rs 577 crore contribution and was succeeded by Kumar Mangalam Birla with Rs 377 crore.

The second richest Indian Gautam Adani is eighth on the givers’ list with a donation of Rs 130 crore towards disaster relief.

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani’s ranking improved to fifth with a Rs 183 crore donation with “societal thinking” being identified as the primary cause.

“At present, most of the money is going to fundamental aspects like education and healthcare because of the requirements on the ground. Nilekani has indeed made interesting contributions, and in 10 years, we will have broader civil society issues feature as primary causes,” Hurun India’s managing director and chief researcher Anas Rahman Junaid said.

He said as the age profile of the givers shifts to those under-40, and many of them being self-made ones also presents a hopeful picture.

There are a few new entrants into the list, including the largest stocks investor Rakesh Jhunjunwala, who donated a fourth of his overall earnings or Rs 50 crore in FY21 with efforts on education.

hunjunwala, who recently had a private meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is among the backers of Ashoka University, as per a statement.

Brothers Nithin and Nikhil Kamath committed USD 100 million (Rs 750 crore) over the next few years to support individuals, organisations and companies working on solutions for climate change and are 35th on the list.

Former chairman of engineering major Larsen & Toubro, A M Naik, is 11th on the list with a donation of Rs 112 crore, it said, adding that he has pledged to give away 75 per cent of his income for charitable purposes.

Others in the top ten givers include the Hinduja Family, Bajaj Family, Anil Agarwal and the Burman family.

Nine women find their place in the list led by a Rs 69 crore donation by Rohini Nilekani of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and, followed by Leena Gandhi Tewari of USV who donated Rs 24 crore, and Anu Aga of Thermax donated Rs 20 crore.

Based on the place of residence, Mumbai led with 31 per cent of the list and was followed by New Delhi 17 per cent and Bengaluru 10 per cent.

The pharma industry has the largest number of philanthropists followed by automobile and auto components and software and services.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Business / by PTI / October 28th, 2021