According to key nominations for the Department of State announced by Biden, Uzra Zeya has been nominated to be Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights
An Indian-American diplomat Uzra Zeya, who had quit the foreign service in 2018 in protest against the policies of US President Donald Trump was nominated on Saturday to a key State Department position by President-elect Joe Biden.
According to key nominations for the Department of State announced by Biden, Uzra Zeya has been nominated to be Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.
Sharing the news on Twitter, Uzra Zeya wrote, “In my 25+years as a diplomat, I learned that America’s greatest strength is the power of our example, diversity & democratic ideals. I will uphold & defend these values, if confirmed, as Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.”
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Uzra Zeya @UzraZeya
In my 25+years as a diplomat, I learned that America’s greatest strength is the power of our example, diversity & democratic ideals. I will uphold & defend these values, if confirmed, as Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.
President-elect Biden Announces Key Nominations for the Department of State / President-Elect Joe…. www.buildbackbetter.gov
Twitter
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Wendy R. Sherman has been nominated to be Deputy Secretary of State, Brian McKeon as Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, Bonnie Jenkins to be Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs and Victoria Nuland to be Under Secretary for Political Affairs.
“This diverse and accomplished team, led by Secretary of State-designate Tony Blinken, embodies my core belief that America is strongest when it works with our allies,” Biden said.
“Collectively, they have secured some of the most defining national security and diplomatic achievements in recent memory — and I am confident that they will use their diplomatic experience and skill to restore America’s global and moral leadership. America is back,” he said.
Uzra Zeya served most recently as CEO and President of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, where she drew on over two decades of diplomatic experience in Near East, South Asian, European, human rights, and multilateral affairs.
As Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Paris from 2014 to 2017, she oversaw the day-to-day operations of the Embassy, six constituent posts, and 50 offices and agencies engaged in U.S. government work. She quit against Trump’s policies in September 2018.
“Up to now, Foggy Bottom’s upper echelons are looking whiter, more male and less like America,” Zeya wrote in Politico in September 2018 alleging that the State Department under the Trump Administration was facing racial and gender bias.
“In my own case, I hit the buzz saw that Team Trump wielded against career professionals after leading the US Embassy in Paris through three major terrorist attacks over three years and after planning President Trump’s Bastille Day visit,” she wrote.
She said that upon returning to Washington, she was blocked from a series of senior-level jobs with no explanation. “In two separate incidents, however, colleagues told me that a senior State official opposed candidates for leadership positions — myself and an African-American female officer — on the basis that we would not pass the ‘Breitbart test’,” she wrote in Politico.
From 2012 to 2014, Zeya served as Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour.
She joined the Foreign Service in 1990, serving in New Delhi, Muscat, Damascus, Cairo, and Kingston. From 2011 to 2012, she was Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State and helped shape the U.S. response to the Arab Spring and worked to deepen U.S. engagement with emerging powers.
Zeya has also served as Deputy Executive Secretary to the Secretary of State, Director of the Executive Secretariat Staff, and as UN General Assembly Coordinator.
She is a recipient of the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest civilian honour, a Presidential Rank Award, and 15 Superior Honour and Senior Performance Awards.
She is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
On the key State Department nominations announced by Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said, “This remarkable team of distinguished diplomats and seasoned leaders reflects the very best of our nation”.
Secretary of State-designate Tony Blinken said, “To meet this moment, we need a Department of State that looks like America, led by diverse women and men who will be unafraid to challenge the status quo.
“That is this team. America at its best still has a greater capacity than any other country on earth to mobilize others to meet the challenges of our time. These passionate, energetic, deeply experienced nominees will help keep our people and our country safe, secure, and prosperous”.
With agency inputs
source: http://www.livemint.com / Mint / Home> News> India / by Staff Writer / January 17th, 2021
Dr. Maryam Afifa Ansari, who has secured admission for a postgraduate course in neurosurgery at Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad, is set to become the youngest neurosurgeon from India’s Muslim community following completion of her degree in three years.
She had gotten 137th rank in the All India NEET SS exams held in 2020.
Interestingly, Ms. Ansari, who has left many amazed with continuous successes, has been educated in Urdu medium schools till 10th class.
She studied till seventh class in the Tahzeen High School in Malegaon, Maharashtra. Then, she moved to Hyderabad and took admission to Princess Durrushawar Girls High School. She was a topper in her school in the 10th class examination and also a gold medalist.
After completing intermediate from MS Junior College, Hyderabad with the top rank, Afifa managed to take admission in MBBS at Osmania Medical College free of cost.
She received five gold medals during her MBBS course. After completing her course in 2017, she succeeded to get admission for a masters course in general surgery in the same college for free.
In 2019, she completed a postgraduate degree, MRCS, from Royal College of Surgeon, England.
In 2020, she did the Diplomate of National Board course. This is a special postgraduate degree awarded to the Specialist Doctors in India. After scoring high in the 2020 NEET SS exams, she was granted free admission in MCH at the Osmania Medical College.
Speaking to Muslim Mirror, she said ” my success is a gift from Allah and a responsibility’ .
She would try to serve the community through her profession, she added.
‘Don’t give up, never let anyone say you can’t do it… Prove them wrong, by achieving it, she said in her message to Muslim girls.
Ms. Ansari’s continuous hard work has helped her cross every hurdle on the path of success. She is an inspiration for the young generation in India.
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Featured / by Muslim Mirror Special Correspondent / January 11th, 2021
File image of Sameera Fazili, Deputy Director, National Economic Council at the White House| Twitter/ Sameera Fazili
‘Sameera Fazili has been named as Deputy Director, National Economic Council at the White House, the Biden-Harris Transition announced on Friday.
US President-elect Joe Biden has appointed Indian-American Sameera Fazili to a key White House position related to economy.
Sameera Fazili has been named as Deputy Director, National Economic Council at the White House, the Biden-Harris Transition announced on Friday.
The National Economic Council coordinates the economic policy making process and provide economic policy advice to the US president.
Fazili is currently the Economic Agency lead on the Biden-Harris Transition. She was earlier posted at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta where she served as the Director of Engagement for Community and Economic Development.
Fazili is the second Kashmiri-origin Indian-American appointed to a key position in the incoming Biden administration.
In December, Aisha Shah was named as Partnerships Manager at the White House Office of Digital Strategy.
In the Obama-Biden administration, Fazili served as a senior policy advisor on the White House’s National Economic Council and as a senior advisor at the US Treasury Department in both Domestic Finance and International Affairs.
Prior to that she was a clinical lecturer of law at Yale Law School. Originally from Buffalo, she now lives in Georgia with her husband and three children. Fazili is a graduate of Yale Law School and Harvard College.
Before her time in government, Fazili was a clinical lecturer at Yale Law School’s community and economic development clinic, where she helped start a CDFI bank and a local anti-foreclosure initiative, and expanded the clinic’s work to international microfinance.
She also worked at ShoreBank, the nation’s first CDFI (community development financial institution) bank. Her work in finance has spanned consumer, housing, small business and microfinance.
She received her law degree from Yale Law School and her bachelor of arts in social studies from Harvard College.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> World / by PTI / Washington – January 16th, 2021
Delhi-based poet Shalim M. Hussain’s Miyah poetry provides the metaphorical loudspeaker to the long-ignored voices of the Bengali-Muslim migrants living in the riverine plains of the Brahmaputra by documenting their stories of love, loss, celebration and injustice
Nana I have written attested countersigned And been verified by a public notary That I am a Miyah Now see me rise From flood waters Float over landslides March through sand and marsh and snakes Break the earth’s will draw trenches with spades Crawl through fields of rice and diarrhea and sugarcane And a 10% literacy rate See me shrug my shoulders curl my hair Read two lines of poetry one formula of math Read confusion when the bullies call me Bangladeshi And tell my revolutionary heart But I am a Miyah See me hold by my side the Constitution Point a finger to Delhi Walk to my Parliament my Supreme Court my Connaught Place And tell the MPs the esteemed judges and the lady selling Trinkets and her charm on Janpath Well I am Miyah. Visit me in Kolkatta in Nagpur in the Seemapuri slums See me suited in Silicon Valley suited at McDonalds Enslaved in Beerwa bride-trafficked in Mewat See the stains on my childhood The gold medals on my PhD certificate Then call me Salma call me Aman call me Abdul call me Bahaton Nessa Or call me Gulam. See me catch a plane get a Visa catch a bullet train Catch a bullet Catch your drift Catch a rocket Wear a lungi to space And there where no one can hear you scream, Thunder I am Miyah I am Proud.
Shalim Muktadir Hussain is not an easy man to get a hold of. He belongs to the long tradition of Bengali-Muslims who have been sharing their lived experiences through the genre of Miyah poetry. The genre originates from the Bengal Partition-era migrants residing in Lower Assam, locally known as Char-Chapori. With stories of love, loss, celebration and injustice, it has historically served to lift up the long-ignored voices of the Bengali-Muslim migrants living in the riverine plains of the Brahmaputra and document their interactions with the world outside the region. But Hussain’s activism isn’t limited to the written word – the first time that I’m able to get in touch with him, he is attempting to rescue his fellow Miyah poets, who have been arrested on account of their ‘divisive’ poetry. I try again, and this time, I catch him in the middle of helping the victims of a bus accident. This humanitarian spirit shines through in his poetry, which I was first acquainted with at Godrej Culture Lab’s Migration Museum, a one-day pop-up that shed light on partition-era struggles. Months later, he shares his views on the Miyah genre, the under-representation of Assamese voices, and more.
Tell us about your personal journey as a poet. My journey with Miyah poetry, or the current phase of assertive Char Chapori poetry, started in 2016. Prior to it, I had been publishing poems for more than a decade. My first book of poems was published in 2017. Poetry as an art form came organically to me; I was looking at the world through a unique lens and had the ability to present this vision through carefully chosen words. Over the past few years, there has been a steady flow of literature from the Chars. This includes a strong collection of poems which depict the lived experiences of residents. Miyah poetry, in my opinion, is a continuation of the genre of Char Chapori poetry and its evolution. When the president of Char Chapori Sahitya Parishad, Hafiz Ahmed published the poem Write Down I am a Miyah on Facebook in April 2016, I responded to it with my composition titled Nana I have Written. Other poems were written in response to our poems and a small body of poetry emerged within a week. I realized that these were written primarily in Assamese and our local dialects which had to be translated to English so I started translating them and sent them out to literary journals and blogs. In the last couple of years, I have been writing poems in both English and the local dialect and translating both my own and works of other poets. Since then more translators have also emerged and by translating their works into other widely read languages such as English and Hindi, we have been able to reach wider audiences.
Do you think stories from Assam are under-represented? The national media focuses only on certain parts of the country. However, if the maximum potential of social media is harnessed, stories from not just Assam but other states too can find representation. Poetry is very personal for me, when I write about the land I was born and other fiction, the stories come from my personal experiences. The documentary films I have been involved in spotlight the performing arts of the Char Chaporis. According to me, all narratives – creative, journalistic, archival and academic are equally important. Miyah poetry gives a holistic view of life in Assam and the Chars.
How has digital media been helpful in popularising Miyah poetry? Digital media has aided in increasing reach and accessibility. For instance, one the offshoots of Miyah poetry is music videos and audio-visual recording of the poems. In August 2016, three poets started Itamugur, a YouTube channel named after a hammer-like instrument used to break hard clumps of earth before preparing the fields for sowing. That it is less aggressive and has a more meaningful purpose than a regular hammer is a telling quality of what they stand for. Their Bhatiyali music videos which have drawn great attention to the stories of the Char-Chaporis.
Do you think spoken word is more powerful to bring attention to the art form? I am just getting acquainted with spoken word but yes, it has played a huge role in the spread of Miyah poetry. We have read our poems at different venues and received great response from the audience.
Have you been able to change people’s perception about the community through this device? We have been able to change the perception of many people — even the residents of Assam — who didn’t know much about life in the Chars. Since Miyah poetry talks about lived experiences of love, loss, and celebration, it has been successful in bringing the ordinary life in the Chars to light. Until a couple of months ago, the representation of the Bengal-origin Assamese Muslims in media wasn’t positive; they were portrayed as thieves, dacoits and rapists. Today, we are representing ourselves appropriately through poetry regardless of others’ opinions. The narrative has definitely shifted.
You have explored various fields as a writer, poet, professor and filmmaker. Which one do you prefer? I like being a professor. One can communicate in real-time with their audience, which puts a lot of responsibility to be careful with the selection of material that should be used in the class and the language of communication. Writing allows me to tell my own stories, so there’s more freedom. As far as film-making is concerned, I wouldn’t call myself as a filmmaker. There are some art forms I think should be documented, and I do my best.
What is the future of Miyah poetry, according to you? As long as Miyah poems are written, the tradition will remain alive. In the absence of organisational structure, independent poets write poems and share them on social media platforms. There isn’t a formal definition of ‘Miyah Poetry’ which we abide by; poets themselves decide if their work qualifies to be termed in this genre. It is democratic, as no one decides if a work is a ‘real’ poem or critiques it as a good or bad poem. Every Miyah poet is an individual and each voice is precious for us.
*To reproduce the above poem in any form, copyright permission must be sought from Shalim.
source: http://www.vervemagazine.in / Verve / Home> Arts & Culture> Library / by Ojas Kolvankar / August 28th, 2019
When Suvendu Adhikari crossed over to the BJP, it was said there’s no reason to fuss over the desertion of Mir Jafars. Now actor Rudranil Ghosh has earned the sobriquet of Mir Jafar 2.0. But what is it to be the progeny of a man-turned-pejorative?
The setting of this story is Lalbagh, a locality in Murshidabad, erstwhile capital of Subah Bengal or present-day Bangladesh, Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. According to the book The Musnud of Murshidabad (1704-1904), “Being more conveniently situated than Dacca for the collection of revenue and the supervision of trade… Murshed Kuli Khan, the Great Dewan of Bengal, selected it as his headquarters and embellished it, giving it its present name after his own.” This was in the early 1700s.
Thirty kilometres away from Lalbagh is Plassey, and Calcutta is 200 kilometres away. The nawab’s estate here has an enormous entrance; it was designed such that stately elephants could saunter through. To its left there is a two-storey stretch limo of a building punctured with countless square windows. “It is the house of the Bade Nawab and the Chhote Nawab,” says local guide Swapan Chowdhury. Yes, the Government of India abolished the princely order in 1971, which means titles are not recognised; but the usage endures in various orbits of society to suggest legacy, status or power, oftentimes as veneer on a less grand present.
The two “nawabs” are among the living descendants — eighth generation to be specific — of Syed Mir Jafar Ali Khan Bahadur, commander of the Bengal army under Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah. He whom we today know as Mir Jafar, shorn of all gallantry, accomplishments and grandeur he might have been associated with once. The same who is synonymous with the betrayal he perpetrated on the young Siraj in Plassey in 1757.
And so you have — mir jafar (n) once man, now pejorative; most commonly used Indianism for traitor or turncoat.
***
Syed Mohammad Reza Ali Meerza or Chhote Nawab greets me as he hurriedly picks a white kurta from the clothesline and slips it over his head. “This is the building that housed the sentries during Mir Jafar’s time,” says the 79-year-old.
Reza Ali has worked as a state government employee all his life. “My tenure as a permanent employee fell short by a few days and that’s why I do not get any pension, etc.,” he lets slip a crib and thereafter quickly arranges some plastic chairs, and with a wave of his hand and a “tashreef rakhiye” continues his narration.
Pointing to the recently installed statue of Siraj ud-Daulah bang opposite his house he says, “Siraj ke aami khoob bhalobashi… I love Siraj very much. People say Mir Jafar betrayed him. Bhul bole… that’s wrong.”
And yet from what he says, it is clear this is one “wrong” he and his kin have trouble living down even today. Tourists, visitors, researchers, all continue to raise eyebrows when they learn about the family tree. What about locals? He replies, “Oh! People here love me. They say: ‘We do not care about Mir Jafar. We know you are a good human being’.”
He offers a quick tour of the andarmahal. There are pictures and memorabilia aplenty littered all over. Is any of this Mir Jafar’s?
No. Most of the belongings of the nawabs are kept in the museum inside Hazarduari Palace. That collection includes Mir Jafar’s sword, shield and dagger, his footwear, the cutlery he used.
The Hazarduari Palace, Wasif Manzil, and Begum Manzil are all part of the nawab’s estate. Reza Ali offers to take us around. On our way out, we meet Syed Mohammed Abbas Ali Meerza, or Bade Nawab.
Abbas Ali has a persona quite distinct from his younger brother’s. He is of reserved bearing and stands on ceremony. He is quick to inform that, in 2013, he won “the case” in the Supreme Court and since then he and his brother have been recognised as genuine claimants to the title of the Nawab of Murshidabad.
Without the prodding, Abbas Ali starts talking about his ancestor. “Who says Mir Jafar was a traitor? Mir Jafar hails from the Najafi dynasty. We are the direct descendants of Prophet Hazrat Mohammad.”
The Najafi dynasty was born when the Prophet’s grandchildren Hasan and Husyain’s children married. Abbas Ali explains, “Hasan’s son Hassan e Mussanah and Husyain’s daughter Hazrat Fatimah Sughra married. And then the Najafi dynasty was born. We are the descendants of Husyain Najafi. His son Ahmad Najafi was married to Zinnat-un-Nissa, daughter of Shah Jahan’s son Dara Shikoh. Mir Jafar was their son.” He adds, “Mir Jafar was much higher in status to Siraj ud-Daulah, both by bloodline and given that he was the son-in-law of Alivardi Khan, the nawab of Bengal and grandfather of Siraj.”
Says Abbas Ali, “Had he wan-ted to kill Siraj, he wouldn’t have had to go through all the drama of Plassey. He could have got the musnud (throne) from the Mughal emperor himself.”
Dr S.M. Reza Ali Khan is another descendant of Mir Jafar. The Telegraph had interviewed him in January 2020; months later he died. Khan was a professor of history and had done a lot of research on the Battle of Plassey and Mir Jafar. He had said over phone from Hyderabad, “The ignominy attached to this name does not give us a good feeling.”
Dr Khan believed it is not quite right to judge Mir Jafar by cutting him away from the age he belonged to, the environment and those circumstances. He had said, “It was the 18th century and there was no concept of nationalism. And even if there was, let me tell you Siraj was not a great nationalist either. Besides, he had killed his own brother, his uncle and even the husband of Alivardi Khan’s eldest daughter, Ghaseti Begum, to get the musnud.”
Through the lockdown Dr Khan would call many a time with this reference and that reference from history texts. He spoke about the Sheths of Murshidabad, a very powerful community in the 18th century. They did business with French and British traders. Jagat Sheth Mehtab Chand, one of the most prominent businessmen of Murshidabad, used to lend money to the British at a steep interest. Dr Khan had said, “When Siraj declared the British as his enemy, Mehtab Chand could not have been very pleased. His business would have been hampered.” It seems a fair number of Sheths had stood up against Siraj.
Abbas Ali too spoke about Siraj’s unpopularity. Siraj had planned to kidnap the daughter of Rani Bhabani, the queen of Nator. “This was not well received by the Hindu nobility… Siraj had insulted Mir Jafar once in the durbar by having his beard shaved off.”
Octogenarian Baquir Ali Meerza is yet another descendant; he too is based in Lalbagh, but in Kella Nizamat. He says, “It is true we have to suffer the ire of people because the history books say Mir Jafar did not fight in the Battle of Plassey. But these books do not say why he did not fight.”
In The Black Hole of Empire, Partha Chatterjee cites from the Fort William Select Committee Proceedings of May 1, 1757. It reads, “The Committee then took into consideration, whether they could (consistently with the Peace made with the Nabob) concur in the measures proposed by Meer Jaffir of taking the Government from Souragud Dowla, and setting himself up…” Sometime end-June, the British won Plassey. In the same book, Chatterjee writes, “The battle was over by the fall of dusk. The next day, Clive wrote to Mir Jafar: ‘I congratulate you on the victory, which is yours not mine…’”
Baquir Ali’s version differs. He says, “Mir Jafar’s tent was closest to the British forces. The British had come to fight the French, not Siraj ud-Daulah. Armed with only 2,000 soldiers, they came to Plassey and found that Siraj was waiting there with an army of 20,000. The French army stood in front of Siraj’s camp. Mir Jafar’s camp was far away.”
According to him, the British approached Mir Jafar and asked him to mediate with the nawab. Mir Jafar sent a messenger to Siraj but it would have taken a day to cover the distance. In the meantime, the French army opened fire. The British mistook it as Siraj’s rejection of their proposal and retaliated. “Mir Jafar was confused and did not know what to do… What happened at the battlefield of Plassey is a case of misunderstanding and not betrayal,” says Baquir Ali.
The Telegraph asked Abu Taher Khan, the Trinamul MP from Murshidabad, his views on Mir Jafar. A guarded Khan replied, “In this atmosphere it is best I don’t comment on Mir Jafar… But it was because of Mir Jafar that our country lost its independence. Many people say, ‘These people come from the land of Mir Jafar’. Anyone can understand in what context it is being said.”
Grave Truths : Mir Jafar’s tomb in Murshidabad / Picture by Moumita Chaudhuri
On my way back from Murshidabad, I make two more stops — Mir Jafar’s palace and his tomb. As it turns out, there is no trace of the palace, only remains of what used to be its gates. The place is still referred to as nimakharam deuri or traitor’s gate. The Jafarganj cemetery that houses the tomb is also closed that day. The auto-rickshaw driver who has driven me around says, “Earlier it was always open, but then tourists would come and spit on it, kick it. That is when the local administration had it walled; a gate was installed.”
Locked too behind that gate are the graves of Heera and Panna, actors of the era’s dubious games of estate and empire. Falcons both, Heera and Panna flew spying sorties for the house of Mir Jafar — to the Siraj camp or, some say, to the British battlements, who knows? They were both killed in the line of duty, shot out of the skies — some say by Siraj’s marksmen, others that it was actually the British, who knows? Both were dear enough to be accorded resting places at the back of where Mir Jafar lies — to that there is sacrophagal evidence. The rest is contrary apocrypha, pick your version. That’s often the case with history too, narratives compete, interpretations duel.
I remembered what Abbas Ali had told me, “The British wrote our history. What I don’t understand is why the nawabs after Mir Jafar did not take it upon themselves to put out their version. If only…,” his voice had trailed off.Bloodline
Mir Jafar had three wives
Shahkhanum Begum
Offspring:
Fatima Begum and Mir Miran
Mir’s son is Murtaza Khan
Murtaza’s son is Mustafa Khan
Mustafa’s son is Asadullah Khan
Asadullah’s son is Azam Ali Khan
Azam’s son is Faiyaz Ali Khan
Faiyaz’s son is Jafar Ali Khan
Jafar’s son is *Dr S.M. Reza Ali Khan
Munni Begum
Offspring:
Nazam ud-Daulah
Saif ud-Daulah
Both died young
Babbo Begum
Offspring:
Mubarak ud-Daulah
Mubarak’s son is Babar Jung
Babar Jung had two sons, Ali Jaj and Wala Jah
Wala Jah’s son is Humayun Jah
Humayun’s son is Firadun Jah
Firadun’s son is Hassan Ali Meerza
Hassan Ali’s son is Wasif Ali Meerza
Wasif Ali’s daughter, Sahibzadi Hasmat-un-Nissa, married Sadiq Ali Meerza
Sahibzadi’s sons are
*Syed Mohammed Abbas Ali Meerza and
*Syed Reza Ali Meerza
*Descendants quoted in the story
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> Big Story / by Moumita Chaudhuri / January 17th, 2021
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1991, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2003, Padma Bhushan in 2006 and Padma Vibhushan in 2018.
Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan
In Umrao Jaan (1980), filmmaker Muzaffar Ali’s seminal film, a five-minute melody manages to put life’s ebb and flow in perspective. The raagmala Pratham dhar dhyaan dinesh illustrates the induction of the protagonist, Ameeran, into classical music and dance and showcases her metamorphosis into Lucknow’s fanciful courtesan, Umrao Jaan.
Composer Khayyam’s composition is ambitious and arduous—based on seven ragas each of which defines time, mood and colour of varied moments in life. To sing this, Ali chose Ut Ghulam Mustafa Khan—the Hindustani classical giant whose deep and dazzling voice was representative of not just an iconic lineage but also a rigorous riyaaz and years spent teaching some of the greatest musicians of our time.
Opening with an alaap that chimes with the word Allah, the melody merges into Brahma, giving a glimpse into the Awadh of the 19th century, when the syncretic fusion of cultures in music was a norm. But a more remembered piece is perhaps Jhoola kinne daala re amaraiyan in raag Desh, the story of a bedecked swing on which two lovers sway together.
Ut Ghulam Mustafa, one of the finest Hindustani classical vocalists and torchbearer of the Rampur Sahaswan gharana, died at his home in Mumbai on Sunday. He was 89.
Expressing his condolences, PM Narendra Modi tweeted, “The passing away of Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan Sahab leaves our cultural world poorer. He was a doyen of music, a stalwart of creativity whose works endeared him to people across generations. I have fond memories of interacting with him. Condolences…”
President Ram Nath Kovind tweeted, “…In his passing, music world has lost not only a doyen but also a mentor for young generation…”.
Ut Ghulam Mustafa was born and raised in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh. His mother was the daughter of the legendary vocalist Ut Inayat Hussain Khan, the court musician in Nawab Wajid Ali Khan’s court. He learned from his father Warish Hussain Khan, followed by tutelage under other family members, including Ut Fida Hussain Khan, court singer of Baroda’s royal durbar and then his cousin, Ut Nissar Hussain Khan.
His first performance was at a Janmashtami concert at the age of eight, where he was hailed as a child prodigy. What was also interesting about Ut Ghulam Mustafa was his openness to all forms of music, a rarity in classical maestros of his time. So when most classical singers were banishing Hindi film music, he found it easier to adapt.
According to Pune-based dhrupad maestro Uday Bhawalkar, Ut Ghulam Mustafa changed the colour and tone of how music in Rampur Sahaswan gharana sounded. “Someone like the great Ut Nissar Hussain had an aggression in the tone. Ut Ghulam Mustafa toned it down and made it softer,” says Bhawalkar.
The musician also sang in Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome (1969), and Badnam Basti (1969) among others. Another significant performance was a part of Coke Studio @MTV where composer and Ut Ghulam Mustafa’s student AR Rahman presented his guru on stage. The musician sang a composition in raag Yaman alongside guitars and drums.
Ut Ghulam Mustafa, till he died, remained an eminent guru to many leading musicians including Asha Bhosle, Manna Dey, Ut Rashid Khan (also his nephew), Waheeda Rehman, Geeta Dutt, Hariharan, Sonu Nigam, Alisha Chinoy and Shilpa Rao.
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1991, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2003, Padma Bhushan in 2006 and Padma Vibhushan in 2018.
Once at a concert in Mumbai, Ut Ghulam Mustafa sang a thumri in Pilu, and got Ut Bade Ghulam Ali Khan on his feet. “Iitne dooble patle ho, kahan se gaate ho?” asked the musician. Ut Ghulam Mustafa Khan’s music, his bracing voice, its irrepressible vigour, probably came from his strict training. But also, from the joy he got from the seven notes that represented life for him.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Lifestyle> Art and Culture / by Suanshu Khurana, New Delhi / January 18th, 2021
Expatriate businessman C P Salih had a happy reunion recently after 60 years — with a gleaming Studebaker car that had left his home in 1960.
Salih’s father Chandanaparambil C P Mohammad had bought this American car from Delhi. It is estimated that the car, manufactured in 1947, arrived in India in 1949.
It was in this car that the wedding party of the mother-in-law of prominent businessman Galfar Mohamed Ali had travelled to the wedding.
C P Mohammad sold the car in the 1960s. After changing several hands, it finally reached Delhi again. What’s more, it had the same old number — DBG 8213. Mohammad had written in his diary that he had bought the car for Rs 2,400. The car was tracked in Delhi with the help of the old number.
Salih purchased the car and brought it to his Valappad home to give it to his son Anhar Salih as a wedding gift. The car was originally red in colour. It has now turned blue. The top was lost due to age. But the engine is still the old one.
C P Salih with his family.
On seeing its return, many elders shared their memories of having seen the car in the past. All this was recorded and kept by Salih’s family. Many were not even allowed to touch the car. But C P Mohammad took everyone in the area in the car.
While the old car has been found, one puzzle related to it remains. CP Mohammad had written in his diary that an Ezhuthachan in Thrissur had helped him buy the car. Salih has not yet been able to find out who that was.
source: http://www.onmanorama.com / OnManorama / Home> News> Business / by OnManorama Correspondent / January 17th, 2021
How Azim Premji expanded his business from vegetable oils to info-tech and put his money where his heart is
The story of a person can be inspiring. The authors have chosen their subject well, for, everyone knows of Azim Premji, but few truly know what makes the man.
A book about such a person, if well-written, may possibly inspire the reader into action. In this case, soon after you read the book, it’s difficult not to look up the Azim Premji Foundation website, to see if it had any volunteering opportunities, even if you have done nothing like it before!
In chronicling any life, it is easy to get mired down with mind-numbing detail that comes your way if you are sifting through 50-odd years’ worth of the protagonist’s hits and misses. The authors have done well to stick to the most interesting parts of Premji’s life. Two things stand out across events and across time: his integrity and a penchant for frugality.
Zest for austerity
His insistence on paying for personal calls made on his office phone is legendary. His friends know of his love for cars but also about his unwillingness to spend fanciful amounts on one.
He once wanted to buy a Fiat that was registered in Wipro’s name. He got the finance department involved in the discussion as he wanted to play by the rules and pay for the purchase. But with depreciation, the car’s value was zero to the company. The transaction did not go through.
At one point, his friends were agog with excitement at his purchase of a Mercedes, but it was… hold your breath… a second-hand one!
At another time, when his team was preparing to welcome clients on a visit to headquarters, and took Premji over the arrangements that included meals from a five-star hotel, he quipped, “If our cafeteria is good enough for our employees, it should be good enough for clients too!”
It’s probably the same zest for austerity that had him pleased while on a U.S. visit, when two of his senior-most executives bought lunch for the three of them at a Burger King outlet for less than $7.50! And, this was a man who didn’t bat an eyelid when an employee of the vegetable oils business lost ₹25 lakh in a year in a trading position.
A long journey
The book chronicles the journey of Wipro from the time the Premjis put down roots in Mumbai. It throws light on the man’s spirit of entrepreneurship, as the company cautiously experimented with opportunities — expanding from vegetable oils to engineering products, computer hardware, tech services and consumer care and lighting. It also does not shy away from some of Wipro’s missteps such as the investment in financial services, a business which withered away despite the group’s entry into the space after much thought and preparation.
His management style
While doing justice to the man’s talent for perseverance, the authors have touched upon his management style that many say cramped some CEOs under his chairmanship. His taking over as CEO in 2005 after the abrupt exit of Vivek Paul, said to have been primed for the post, or his decision to have a joint CEO structure soon after, at a time when competitors were blazing ahead, had raised eyebrows in the world of IT services at the time.
The reader may get the sense that the authors occasionally sound deferential when talking about the man or his family. But, it’s difficult not to be overawed by someone who has never sold a single share in his company but who chose to give away $21 billion worth of wealth to his foundation, leaving his two sons with shares valued at about ₹65 crore. How can one give away so much wealth and still, on the morning the news about the latest transfer to the foundation breaks, irritably ask an employee — who speaks of congratulatory messages overwhelming social media — “What’s all the fuss about?” ?
This book is a must-read for anyone who can read English.
Azim Premji: The Man Beyond the Billions; Sundeep Khanna, Varun Sood, HarperCollins, ₹699.
bharatkumar.k@thehindu.co.in
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> Reviews> Profile / by K Bharat Kumar / January 16th, 2021
Resplendent: ‘Babur receives a courtier’ (1589) by Farrukh Baig. | Photo Credit: Wiki Commons
Babur was a sensitive memoirist with the rare ability to distance himself from his writing
Babur’s memoir did not have a name but is referred to as Baburnama or Tuzuk-e-Baburi. It is the first autobiography from the subcontinent and one of the first in the world. Babur came from two different cultures, of which one was literate and aspired to high culture. This was his father’s ancestral family, which was Timurid. His mother came from the nomadic Mongols, who weren’t literate. Babur describes his maternal uncles in his memoir.
The Timurids had a tradition of poetry, hawking, music, and, of course, war. Babur was from a family of minor nobles who had inherited the governorship of Ferghana. His autobiography begins with a description of the geography and tells us that his father, Umar Shaikh Mirza, died in an accident when he was 39 and Babur 12. The young Babur struggled to hold on to his inheritance, losing several battles, including one in Ferghana, which he had to give up to the victor.
Babur describes these decades of his life in an unemotional and direct way: he hardly valorises his own achievements. Like the great Caesar, whose books on his wars in Gaul and against Pompey may as well have been written by a non-partisan observer, Babur has the ability to distance himself from his life.
Keen naturalist
Babur’s life turns when he is found to be the only living heir to the throne of Kabul. He takes it and turns his eyes to India. For 20 years, he campaigns against India, being held back at the borders each time.
Then, as we know, he defeated the Lodi dynasty (introducing firearms to the subcontinent for the first time) and captured north India in 1526 after a decisive battle at Panipat. Babur died four years later, spending much of this time travelling across India and writing his memoir in the afternoons.
These paragraphs show how much of a keen naturalist he was. “The elephant, which the Hindustanis call hathi, is one of the wild animals peculiar to Hindustan. It inhabits the western borders of the Kalpi country… the elephant is an immense animal and very sagacious. If people speak to it, it understands. If they command anything from it, it does it. Its value is according to its size — the larger it is, the higher the price. On some islands an elephant is rumoured to be as tall as 20 or 30 feet, but here it is not more than 10 feet. It eats and drinks entirely with its trunk. If it loses the trunk, it cannot live. It has two great teeth (tusks) in its upper jaw, one on each side of the trunk. By setting these against trees and walls, it is able to bring them down; with these it fights and does whatever hard tasks fall to it. These teeth are called ivory and are highly valued by Hindustanis.’
‘Like a goat, the elephant has no skin hair. It is relied on to accompany every troop of their armies. It crosses rivers with great ease, carrying a mass of baggage, and three or four can drag without trouble a special piece of artillery that takes four or five hundred men to haul. But its stomach is large. One elephant eats as much as a dozen camels.
Elegant and clean
Babur’s book was not freely available till a British amateur linguist named Annette Susannah Beveridge translated it. She taught herself the particular version of Turkish that Babur wrote in (later Mughals wrote in Farsi) and published it in four volumes from 1912 to 1922.
At the time of the first British census a century and a quarter ago, India was 4% literate. Most Indians even today don’t have four generations of literacy: in fact, the proportion of those of us who can claim to have had great-grandparents who could write is tiny. Babur came from a tradition that already had centuries of literacy.
His is elegant and clean writing of the sort that one would expect from a very literate and sensitive person. Babur’s daughter, Gulbadan Begum, sister of Humayun and aunt of Akbar, also wrote a lovely memoir in which she describes her father’s attention to detail which he passed on to his family.
These two works, along with Jahangir’s autobiography, are some of the best material available on the Mughals. It’s a shame that these books are not taught in India’s schools today.
Aakar Patel is a columnist and translator of Urdu and Gujarati non-fiction works.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books – Leather Bound / by Aakar Patel / January 16th, 2020
The Punjab Cabinet had given its nod for the acquisition, conservation and use of the palace for tourism on Monday.
Begum Munawwar-ul-Nisa. (Express Photo)
After decades of neglect, 150-year-old Mubarak Manzil Palace of Malerkotla will soon be a protected monument and restored and renovated by the Punjab government, thanks to Begum Munawwar-ul-Nisa, the wife of last Nawab of Malerkotla, who has handed over the private property to the government.
The Punjab Cabinet had given its nod for the acquisition, conservation and use of the palace for tourism on Monday.
Begum Nisa, a princess, is the successor of Nawab Sher Mohammad Khan of Malerkotla, who holds a special place in Punjab’s history. He had vehemently raised his voice against the execution of the younger Sahibzadas of Guru Gobind Singh, Baba Zorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh, in the court of the Subedar of Sirhind, Wazir Khan, in 1705.
The 97-year-old Begum Nisa, speaking to The Indian Express on a conference phone call through former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arshad Dali, said, I have handed over the palace to the government. Meri akhiri ichchha, aap keh sakte ho, yahi hai ke main iss mahal ko pehle ki tarah jagmagata chorr kar jayun. (My last wish, you can say, is to see the palace return to its pristine glory before I die).” Begum Nisa has no child or legal heir.
Dali has become a bridge between the government and the Begum, who wanted the government to acquire the palace. “She was worried that after her the palace would be usurped by private parties. Now it will become a government’s possession. After all, there is the important history of this place. Guru Gobind Singh had presented a sword to Nawab Sher Mohammad Sahib as a mark of honour for his support for his sons.”
Sanjay Kumar, Administrative Secretary, Tourism Government of Punjab, told The Indian Express that the government would soon initiate the process of declaring the palace a protected monument of the state. “We will declare it a protected monument after inviting objections. It will be a protected monument under the state’s Act. After that, we will start conserving and renovating the palace. We have accepted the Begum’s precondition that we should allow her to stay in the palace during her lifetime. After that, none of her successors will be allowed to stake claim on the property. It will be Punjab government’s property.”
He said that the government had offered Rs 3 crore to the Begum, “She had been apprehensive that the palace of such historical importance would be lost if there is no taker.”
About the condition of the palace, Sanjay Kumar said, “I can say it is not good. Roof of several rooms has collapsed and the entrance is also in bad shape.”
Begum Nisa had been living in penury for many years. The valuables in the palace were sold off over the years. Former Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had once visited her and presented her with some pieces of furniture.
Begum Nisa had written to the state government that she is the sole owner, and has absolute rights to alienate the property to any person, including state or Tourism & Cultural Affairs Department.
The palace is spread over an area of 32,400 sq ft. There are several cases involving it going on in several courts.
The expected financial liability involved in purchase of this proposed protected monument and likely financial implications arising out of existing court cases is around Rs 5 crore. The government has got the land price evaluated.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Experss / Home> India / by Kanchan Vasdev, Chandigarh / January 13th, 2021
