In 2004, she completed her PhD from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on “Central Asians in Mughal India: Migration, Settlement and Impact on North Indian Culture”.
Prof Tasneem Suhrawardy (Photo | Twitter)
New Delhi :
Tasneem Suhrawardy, a well-known Indian medieval history academic who was teaching at the Delhi University’s St Stephen’s college , died at the Fortis hospital in Gurugram on Tuesday. She was 58.
Suhrawardy passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest in the morning. She was ailing for some time and was being treated at the hospital for pneumonia.
Suhrawardy graduated with an Honours in History from the St Stephen’s college in 1986.
In 2004, she completed her PhD from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on “Central Asians in Mughal India: Migration, Settlement and Impact on North Indian Culture”.
Besides teaching at the St Stephen’s college, she was also invited as a guest teacher in prestigious American and Indian educational institutions.
Suhrawardy was an associate professor at the St Stephen’s college and was well known academically for her specialisation in Indian medieval history.
She was the daughter of late Syed Saeedul Haq and late Shahida Suhrawardy.
Her brother Anis Suhrawardy was a noted lawyer who died in 2012.
She is survived by her sister Nilofar Suhrawardy, a senior journalist, and other relatives.
Her demise was described as a great loss to the academic world by her students and colleagues.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Delhi / by PTI / December 26th, 2023
Rukhsar Sayeed wishes to see a lot more young Kashmiri girls and boys in MasterChef India.
Kashmir’s Rukhsar Sayeed.
A 34-year-old woman food entrepreneur has become the first contestant from Kashmir to participate in MasterChef India, a cooking reality show which is being broadcasted on SonyLIV.
Hailing from south Kashmir’s Pampore, where India’s 90 per cent saffron is cultivated, Rukhsar Sayeed has shown a tremendous culinary passion and determination by reaching among the top 12 contestants of the show.
“Breaking barriers and stereotypes I have finally made it to MasterChef India to fulfil my dream. I no doubt had culinary passion since I was a teenager, then the food-specialised education was also at my back but on top of all the support shown by my family was unwavering,” says Sayeed who is currently in Mumbai for the shooting of the show.”
Born and brought up in Srinagar’s Hyderpora, in the year 2010 Sayeed was watching the shows of MasterChef Australia from which she developed the culinary passion and decided to study food technology. “I am on the top of the world to see myself among the top 12 contestants of MasterChef India, the country’s favourite cooking reality show. I am really proud of where I am standing today. I am also overwhelmed to find the support of my family including my husband, parents and in-laws, ” Sayeed tells Moneycontrol.
Calling herself an avid foodie Sayeed has two children while her husband Saqib Javaid Qadri is an assistant executive engineer.
After completing B.Tech in food technology from Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora Sayeed did M.Tech in food technology from Amity University and finally completed her PhD in food technology in 2020.
Sayeed has not only made J&K Union Territory proud by being selected to compete in the prestigious MasterChef India but also expressed her feelings through Kashmiri cuisine and eventually impressed the judges. “So far I had a roller-coaster ride with ups and downs in the kitchen like other contestants but I have made some very good dishes which impressed the judges sitting in the show. I am confident to become the winner of the show because for the first time Kashmiri food is being presented on a large platform. I am trying my best to innovate something with our Kashmiri food. For example, I made Rogan Josh, (mutton dish with red gravy) which apparently does not look Rogan Josh but it does taste like Rogan Josh.”
So far in 11 episodes Sayeed says she made mouth watering cuisines like Babri Boul Falouda (basil seeds drink) usually served during Ramadan in Kashmir, Kashmiri Dhaniwal Korma (lamb curry bursting with coriander) and Kashmiri Dodhe Aal (pumpkin chutney), mesmerizing the judges and celebrity chefs like Vikas Khanna, Ranveer Brar, and Pooja Dhingra.”
Her father M Sayeed Shah says, “It is a dream come true for the whole family. It is a great honour to see her in Masterchef India. I don’t have words to express my happiness. I wish a great future and good luck to my darling daughter.”
Her mother Naseema Kirmani while expressing her happiness says that she is the happiest person to see her daughter in MasterChef India and wishes her best of luck for the show.
Before reaching the MasterChef India show in 2019, Sayeed emerged as the first woman from the Valley to start a frozen food venture — Khalis Foods. “After doing my PhD I was not interested in conventional jobs and therefore I opened a startup to provide people with unadulterated snacks and other healthy foods mainly for children. I along with my six employees are operating from my home in Pampore.”
The young food technologist explains that she is getting to see some of the ingredients for the first time in her life. “I am using some ingredients which are new to me in various foods. For instance, I use some of the popular food ingredients from down south with Kashmiri food.”
Sayeed maintains that being a mother of two children the decision to become a part of Masterchef India show was not easy. “It was a big sacrifice to leave behind my two children at home and participate in the show in Mumbai. I miss my children a lot but I am confident that I will return home as the winner of the show.”
Before getting selected for Masterchef India, Sayeed had participated in the state-level culinary competition and bagged second position in the competition.
She had also served her homemade snacks at an exhibition held at Sheri Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) Srinagar, tickling the taste buds of people around.
In June this year, Rukhsar went through a rigorous audition process before being among the 12 contestants.
For young techie, the MasterChef India journey is a stepping stone in realising her dream of setting up a culinary school in the Valley and creating a chain of restaurants to provide healthy food for the food lovers. “I hope this show can give me limelight and help to boost my food business venture, currently operating in Srinagar. I am also thinking of creating a chain of restaurants in the Valley to provide healthy dishes to people. As a food technologist I am fully conscious of the hazardous preservatives, taste enhancers and food colours that go into our daily food and which is why I lay emphasis on healthy, pure and safe food.”
Regarding her favourite food Sayeed names Hakh (collard green; the staple diet of Kashmir) and Wazwan, (Kashmir’s famous multi-course meal). “Every dish is special but I am in love with Kashmiri food, mainly Hakh especially prepared by my mother and Wazwan prepared by our amazing cook locally known as Waza. From the beginning of my childhood the dishes prepared by my mother in the kitchen have been unmatched.”
Sayeed wishes to see a lot more young Kashmiri girls and boys in MasterChef India. “Since I am the first Kashmiri woman who has reached the famous cooking reality show I would want more people from my homeland to come here and show their food skills.”
She also claims that despite facing criticism from the people in Kashmir she managed to participate in the show to represent the Kashmiri cuisine and culture to a larger audience.
source: http://www.moneycontrol.com / Money Control / Home> News> Trends> Lifestyle / by Irfan Amin Malik / November 05th, 2023
“Asma Banu, collector of seeds of various paddy breeds, helping in social and farming activities will be felicitated with B Appanna Hegde agriculture award during an award program on the birthday of religious leader and former MLA B Appanna Hegde on December 24,” said trust president B Rama Kishan Hegde.
He further said, “Asma who works saying that work is worship is collecting various paddy breeds that are on the verge of extinction from various states. She has collected and grown more than 840 varieties of paddy this year. She is conducting a study about those seeds and creating awareness about their benefits to health. She has been selected for the award considering her rare achievements.
“The award programme will be held by Basrur Appanna Hegde Prathistana in the premises of Sharada college, Basrur. Monetary help will be distributed to students, the sick and weak during the program.
“The award will be presented by Ishapriya Theertha Swamiji of Adamar math. Karnataka backward class commission president K Jayaprakash Hegde will preside over the programme,” he said.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Karnataka / by Silveste D’Souza / Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (EP) / December 20th, 2023
On Thursday, the Secretary-General at a press conference announced the creation of a new Artificial Intelligence Advisory Body on risks, opportunities and international governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) . That body will support the international community’s efforts to govern artificial intelligence.
Among the members of AI Advisory Body, two are from India — Sharad Sharma (iSPIRT) and Nazneen Rajani (Hugging Face).
Sharad Sharma is a co-founder of iSPIRT, a non-profit think tank that wants India to be a product nation. He was the CEO of Yahoo India R&D and dubbed as the architect of Indian software products ecosystem.
About Nazneen Rajani, she is a Research Lead at Hugging Face, which is building an open-source alternative to ChatGPT called H4, a powerful LLM, “aligning language models to be helpful, honest, harmless, and huggy”.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday launched this 39-member advisory body of tech company executives, government officials and academics from countries spanning 6 continents.
The panel aims to issue preliminary recommendations on AI governance by the end of the year and finalize them before the U.N. Summit of the Future next September.
The full members list are as below:
Anna Abramova, Director of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations-University AI Centre, Russian Federation
Omar Sultan al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence of the United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates
Latifa al-Abdulkarim, Member of the Shura Council (Saudi Parliament), Assistant Professor of Computer Science at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Estela Aranha, Special Advisor to the Minister for Justice and Public Security, Federal Government of Brazil, Brazil
Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence of Spain, Spain
Ran Balicer, Chief Innovation Officer and Deputy Director General at Clalit Health Services Israel, Israel
Paolo Benanti, Third Order Regular Franciscan, Lecturer at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Italy
Abeba Birhane, Senior Advisor in AI Accountability at Mozilla Foundation, Ethiopia
Ian Bremmer, President and Founder of Eurasia Group, United States
Anna Christmann, Aerospace Coordinator of the German Federal Government, Germany
Natasha Crampton, Chief Responsible AI Officer at Microsoft, New Zealand
Nighat Dad, Executive Director of the Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan, Pakistan
Vilas Dhar, President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, United States
Virginia Dignum, Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at Umeå University, Portugal/Netherlands
Arisa Ema, Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan
Mohamed Farahat, Legal Consultant and Vice-Chair of MAG of North Africa IGF, Egypt
Amandeep Singh Gill, Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology
Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom
Rahaf Harfoush, Digital Anthropologist, France
Hiroaki Kitano, Chief Technology Officer of Sony Group Corporation, Japan
Haksoo Ko, Chair of Republic of Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission, Republic of Korea
Andreas Krause, Professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland
James Manyika, Senior Vice-President of Google-Alphabet, President for Research, Technology and Society, Zimbabwe
Maria Vanina Martinez Posse, Ramon and Cajal Fellow at the Artificial Research Institute, Argentina
Seydina Moussa Ndiaye, Lecturer at Cheikh Hamidou Kane Digital University, Senegal
Mira Murati, Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI, Albania
Petri Myllymaki, Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science of University of Helsinki, Finland
Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, United States
Nazneen Rajani, Lead Researcher at Hugging Face, India
Craig Ramlal, Head of the Control Systems Group at the University of The West Indies at St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
He Ruimin, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Deputy Chief Digital Technology Officer, Government of Singapore, Singapore
Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem, Professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa
Sharad Sharma, Co-founder iSPIRT Foundation, India
Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director at Stanford University Cyber Policy Center, Netherlands
Jaan Tallinn, Co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Estonia
Philip Thigo, Adviser at the Government of Kenya, Kenya
Jimena Sofia Viveros Alvarez, Chief of Staff and Head Legal Advisor to Justice Loretta Ortiz at the Mexican Supreme Court, Mexico
Yi Zeng, Professor and Director of Brain-inspired Cognitive AI Lab, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Zhang Linghan, Professor at the Institute of Data Law, China University of Political Science and Law, China
“The transformative potential of AI for good is difficult even to grasp,” Guterres said. He pointed to possible uses including predicting crises, improving public health and education, and tackling the climate crisis.
However, the UN Secretary-General cautioned, “It is already clear that the malicious use of AI could undermine trust in institutions, weaken social cohesion and threaten democracy itself.”
source: http://www.indianweb2.com / Indian Web2 / Home> AI Governance / by Indian Web2 / October 27th, 2023
Mumbai based Hamid Farooqui , is a serial entrepreneur who is the CEO of a fast growing SaaS (Software as a Service) company called SoGoSurvey that he co-founded in 2012. SoGoSurvey offers powerful, user-friendly, and affordable online survey software. SoGoSurvey is changing how feedback is collected in a secure, collaborative setting, and moving forward the process of understanding the feedback gathered from customers, employees, and other stakeholders.
Hamid started his tech career as a geeky programmer during the dot com boom and has expertise in all its related technologies, from Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud computing and mobile applications. He was an early member of the technology team that designed, built, and launched Oracle’s e-Travel’s corporate travel tool using C++ and the then brand-new WAP.
In recognition of his strong performance and technology management skills, Hamid rose through successive promotions to serve as the division’s Director of Engineering. After e-Travel was acquired by Amadeus, Hamid led the integration of two complex technology platforms in both the U.S. and Europe.
Hamid is co-founder, CTO of K12Insight, which offers cloud-based solutions to enhance communication between educators and community members. K12Insight’s tools are helping school leaders build stronger relationships among parents, teachers, students, and staff. He also co-founded India’s most successful consumer review site mouthshut.com, considered a pioneer of the Internet revolution in India.
Hamid is a frequent speaker at technology conferences and startup events. Among his favorite topics are the startup scene in emerging markets and the future of autonomous cars.
Besides technology, Hamid is very actively involved in philanthropic work. He and his family runs and funds a school for poor children in a remote part of India, where more than 500 children study for free.
Hamid earned an engineering degree from Bombay University in India and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from State University of New York, Binghamton.
Mr. Farooqui believes that Indian organizations just like their global counterparts need a strong survey tool in order to understand the pulse of their audience. Companies have to ensure that they know their customers so they can rectify or retain the quality of services or products. Also, for retention of employees, companies must conduct Employee Satisfaction Survey that helps in creating a suitable work environment that meets and exceeds their expectations.
About SogoSurvey:
When it came to online survey software, users have had two difficult options:
the affordable, low-end, low-power solution, and
the more powerful solution that breaks the bank
This world has just been disrupted: you can now have really powerful, highly user-friendly online survey software at a super-low cost. And it comes with training and support that existing customers are raving about. We’re changing not just how you collect feedback in a secure, collaborative setting, but also how you fundamentally view feedback from customers, employees and other stakeholders. Our solution is easy for the beginner and powerful for the expert.
SoGoSurvey is a software company which provides one of the best enterprise feedback system/ survey tool as SaaS model. SoGoSurvey was founded by Hamid Farooqui and Suhail Farooqui in beta/stealth mode in 2012. The company came out in its full existence in the year 2013. It is a USA based company with the offices in India and UAE. Target market for SoGoSurvey is all small, medium and large businesses who need to conduct different types of surveys such as Employee satisfaction Survey, Customer Satisfaction Survey, Employee Engagement Survey and others.
Marketing Strategy of SogoSurvey is to have an awesome product and website which is appealing to the user. They also offer a free version of our tool so that users who want to use the tool for basic purpose can also access the same. The freemium model gives the access to a great amount of people who turn into loyal users eventually.
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Indian Muslim> Positive Story> Sci-Tech> Youth / by Muslim Mirror Special Correspondent / January 04th, 2019
In an event held at the Highland Islamic Forum (HIF) Auditorium in the city, the Highland Islamic Forum (HIF) unveiled a new book titled ‘Big B,’ a tribute to the late SM Basheer.
Subtitled ‘A Bond Beyond Brotherhood,’ the book is centered around the inspirational thoughts and life of Late SM Basheer.
Addressing the gathering at the book launch, NA Muneer, Ex-Chairman of the Kuwait Kerala Muslim Association (KKMA), shared memories of his association with SM Basheer. Muneer spoke about the charismatic personality and powerful aura that SM Basheer possessed, leaving a lasting impact on everyone who met him.
Recalling his memories, Muneer emphasized that even a year after SM Basheer’s passing, he continues to remember and honor the late leader. He praised SM Basheer’s instrumental role in organizing significant events at KKMA and acknowledged his invaluable contributions to the organization while serving as its chief.
Fatah Tayyil, Ex-President of KKMA, also paid tribute to SM Basheer, acknowledging his substantial contributions to the KKMA.
SM Rasheed, Chairman of Bearys Chamber of Commerce and Industries (BCCI), spoke about SM Basheer’s profound influence on people’s lives and commended his contributions to the BCCI.
Other speakers, including Mohammed Ali Uchchil and Rizwan Pandeshwar, shared their views on the life and impact of SM Basheer during the event.
The book ‘Big B’ was released by AK Niyaz, MD of AK Group of Companies, along with HIF India President Adil Parvez, and other guests present at the event.
Hussain Shafi, the author of the book, was felicitated by HIF for his contributions.
HIF also presented a documentary-style short video introducing SM Basheer and showcasing his life.
Prominent figures such as SM Basha, MD of SM Group of Companies, SM Farooq, KK Abdullah, officials, and executive members of KKMA and BCCI graced the occasion.
The event, hosted by AK Shaaz, concluded with supplications led by Moulana Tayyub, Khateeb Ehsan Masjid.
source: http://www.varthabharati.in / Vartha Bharati / Home> Karavali / by Vartha Bharati / December 01st, 2023
Syed Bismah and Syed Sabiya, twin daughters of an Imam from Damhal Hanjipora in Kulgam district, south Kashmir, have achieved success by qualifying the Undergraduate National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) in their first attempt.
The NEET results for 2023 were recently announced, and Bismah and Sabiya secured impressive marks of 625 and 570, respectively.
When asked about their achievement, the siblings expressed their gratitude towards their parents, highlighting their unwavering support throughout their journey to qualify for this prestigious examination. Their parents played a vital role in encouraging and guiding them, making it possible for Bismah and Sabiya to achieve this notable milestone.
“They provided us with whatever we needed to study from childhood. They made a big sacrifice for our future”, Sabiya told local media.
Twin sisters, Daughters of local Masjid Imam from Watto Kulgam Qualified NEET 2023 in their first attempt with flying colors.#NEETUG2023pic.twitter.com/X5ZLjkJGvU
— Meer Irfan ( میر عرفان ) (@JournoIrfan) June 14, 2023
She emphasized the importance of focus in order to qualify for the NEET examination.
“If you want to appear in NEET, you should first check your level and identify your weaknesses. You should discuss your weaknesses with your teachers and also take help from internet to overcome them,” she said.
The father of Bismah and Sabiya, an Imam from Damhal Hanjipora, expressed his immense pride in his daughters’ accomplishment. He acknowledged that he had faced struggles and worked tirelessly to provide support to his daughters throughout their journey. His dedication and hard work were aimed at ensuring that his daughters had the necessary resources, guidance, and encouragement to pursue their dreams of qualifying for the NEET examination. The father’s commitment and efforts played a significant role in enabling Bismah and Sabiya to achieve their goals, and he takes great pride in their success.
“My advice to every parent is that you should provide the best opportunities to your wards for their better future,” he said.
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Education> Indian Muslim> Positive Story / by Muslim Mirror Staff / June 14th, 2023
Mohammad Naushad, a retired man from Bengaluru had plans to travel the world after completing his tenure in the steel industry. He landed as a tourist in Samarkand a year ago and his quest for his morning masala tea and paratha prompted him to settle here and open the only Indian restaurant in the second-largest city of Uzbekistan.
Called “The Indian Kitchen”, the restaurant came as a respite to Indian students who are studying medicine here and used to miss Indian food. The locals here also fancy the wide-ranging menu from lip dosas to chicken biryani.
“I had no plans to work post-retirement and had no experience of working at a restaurant let alone running one. When I came here as a tourist, I headed out to have my usual breakfast of masala tea and paratha.
“I have travelled to so many countries and have always found some or the other place where Indian food is available. I was surprised to find out that there is not a single eatery or restaurant which serves Indian meals,” 61-year-old Naushad told PTI.
“A week more and the vibrant culture and simplicity of people here, prompted me to give it a shot and now Samarkand is my permanent home,” he added.
According to Naushad, the restaurant receives around 350-400 visitors per day and there are catering orders for weddings and events where having Indian cuisine as an option is a hit here.
His day starts with going to the “bazaar” with his staff to buy groceries as he prefers everything to be cooked afresh at the restaurant.
“There are over 3,000 Indian students in Samarkand and they tell me often that they used to miss Indian meals. The shahi paneer and naan and the rotis used to be a rare sight here. I expected the Indians to love the restaurant but the response I have received from Uzbeks is phenomenal,” he said.
Behind the lip-smacking dishes available at the restaurant is Ashok Kalidasa, a chef who hails from Madras. He earlier used to live in Uzbekistan’s Tashkent and is now settled in Samarkand.
“We enquire from each customer about the kind of spices they like us to use, whether they want it less spicy or tangy because Uzbek food is very different. The effort to customise the popular Indian dishes to their taste is what attracts the local crowd here. Indian students come here because they get their home food and the meals are not expensive,” he said.
Kalidasa says the most popular dishes at the restaurant are “masala dosa” and “chicken biryani” which is much different from the Uzbek “Pilaf”.
Asked about her favourite pick at the restaurant, Zarina, an Uzbek woman, said “I love masala chai”.
While right now the Indian Kitchen offers meals at the restaurant, Naushad has expansion plans.
“We are also thinking of starting a tiffin service for Indian students. Also, we get a lot of tourists. So I am contemplating opening similar setups in Bukhara and Khiva which are popular tourist destinations in Uzbekistan but do not have any Indian restaurants,” he said.
According to the Uzbekistan Embassy in New Delhi, the Indian diaspora in Uzbekistan has more than 5,000 people. In pre-Covid year 2019, over 28,000 Indian tourists visited Uzbekistan. However, the number has crossed over 30,000 this year so far.
source: http://www.english.varthabharati.in / Vartha Bharati / Home> World / November 19th, 2023
In a sweep of the University of Hyderabad’s student union elections, an alliance comprising the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA), and the Tribal Students Forum (TSF) won all six elected positions. The official announcement of the election results came late on Friday night, following the polls on Thursday.
Elected Student Leaders
Mohammed Ateeq Ahmed of SFI, who is a student at the School of Humanities, was elected as the president of the students’ union with 1,880 votes.
Ahmed beat Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) candidate Shaik Aayesha by over 470 votes. Aayesha was the first Muslim candidate of ABVP, which is affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in University of Hyderabad (UoH) elections.
Jalli Akash of ASA-SFI alliance was elected as the vice president with 1,671 votes. Deepak Kumar Arya of ASA-SFI was elected as the general secretary with 1,765 votes. Lavudi Bala Anjaneyulu of SFI-TSF was elected as the joint secretary with 1,775 votes.
Samim Akter Sheikh of ASA-SFI and Athul of SFI were elected as the cultural secretary and the sports secretary respectively.
Several colleges have not held student elections since the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused disruptions to the academic calendar until 2022.
But UoH elections for the previous academic year, which the SFI-ASA-Dalit Students Union alliance had won, were held in February 2023.
(With inputs from PTI)
source: http: //www.freepressjournal.in / The Free Press Journal / Home> Education / by PTI / November 11th, 2023
At the age of two and a half years, Swaleha Naaz Khan fell down the stairs while playing and broke her hand. This incident marked the first time she visited a hospital. However, for Khan, a patient of Sickle cell disease, it set off a cycle of sickness, incorrect medications, hospital visits, and unsuccessful treatment. Now at 26, she recently completed her M.Sc (Masters in Science) in Computer Science from a private institute in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh and helps people fight suffering from Sickle cell disease in this small town of Madhya Pradesh.
Facing Problems in Identifying the Disease
Growing up, she constantly experienced severe body pain. Due to a limited medical infrastructure in the city at that time, doctors were unable to identify the source of her pain. Her body would frequently stiffen, prompting her father to assume she was possessed by a spirit or djinn. They sought help from hakims and babas in hopes of finding an explanation for her pain but to no avail. Khan and her family went from city to city in order to get her treated. They even travelled to Nagpur in Maharashtra for this purpose.
Dr. Shrivastav, a doctor at the city government hospital, finally diagnosed Khan with sickle cell disease while she was in 10th grade, after she was brought to the hospital the night before her board exams. “It was for the first time that I received correct treatment,” she went on to say.
The Disease Affected Khan’s Education
Previously, whenever Khan’s condition deteriorated, she was given injections to soothe her unbearable pain. “The injections were given every 8 days, causing me so much pain that I could only sleep on one side. I couldn’t sit down properly. My education was also greatly affected. I often had to miss school,” she explained. Due to being admitted a day before exams, she flunked in 10th grade.
Sickle cell disease [SCD] is a hereditary medical condition that persists throughout a person’s life and affects red blood cells, which in turn impacts hemoglobin – the carrier of oxygen in the body.
Unlike the typical disc-shaped red blood cells found in a healthy person, in SCD, these cells take on a crescent or “sickle” shape. The alteration affects their manoeuvrability in blood vessels, leading to a range of complications such as strokes, vision issues, infections, and bouts of intense pain known as pain crises.
According to Gautam Dongre, Secretary of National Alliance of Sickle Cell Organisations (NASCO), sickle cell disease can cause great damage to people’s lives. “Without accurate diagnosis, individuals with this condition may not live more than 4 years. They can be affected by organ damage within 20 years. Their joints may stop functioning properly, potentially leading to disability. In the absence of proper treatment, it can result in premature death. Otherwise, their entire life may be centered around going between the hospital and home,” said Dongre stressing that timely treatment of the disease is extremely critical.
Creating a WhatsApp Group of Sickle Cell Patients To Help Them
Khan was admitted in 2016, along with two other SCD patients, Deepika and Aishwarya. She had previously thought she was the lone patient suffering from the disease. However, she began to meet more people suffering from the disease. “Aishwarya formed a group of all Chhindwara’s sickle cell patients. We discovered that there are numerous patients with SCD in that district. At the time, we were only 15-16 years old,” she explained.
After she discovered more than 500 SCD patients in Chhindwara, Khan decided to visit the District Magistrate’s office in order to demand a separate hospital ward for them. She says that when she used to visit the government hospital, they had to purchase everything from outside. The only thing they provided was a bed, which was free. She observed that patients coming from remote villages faced several difficulties in accessing proper healthcare due to this.
“We demanded for all patients to get access to Dr. Shrivastav. After that, we asked for the availability of medicines. The whole process was really taxing. After going through several offices and facing rejections, medicines were finally made available in the hospital for free. Rarely does anyone need to purchase something from their own pockets,” Khan stated, proudly.
‘Cared for Me as if I Were Her Own Sister’: A Sickle Patient
22-year-old Nazrana Mansuri, a patient suffering from Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in Chhindwara, recounted her first meeting with Khan at the hospital. Upon learning that Mansuri is an orphan, Khan assumed full responsibility for her operation. “I used to live with my khala (aunt), who worked as a daily wage earner and didn’t have the means to look after me. Swaleha took all my responsibilities. Despite being unwell herself, she stayed with me throughout the night of the operation. She not only brought me food but also cared for me as if I were her own sister. It’s been two years since my operation, and she still feels like family to me,” Mansuri said.
How Extreme Weather Made Khan’s Condition Worse
Khan said that during wintertime, her blood vessels used to thicken causing her extreme pain.
Dr. Gaurav Kharya, the clinical lead at the Centre for Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, explained that under normal circumstances, sickle cell disease may not pose a problem. However, during hot weather when dehydration occurs, and in extremely cold temperatures when small blood vessels constrict, a crisis can occur. During these episodes, the shape of sickle-shaped cells can become further distorted and obstruct various blood vessels, resulting in the typical symptoms of sickle cell disease.
In 2020, Khan joined the National Alliance of Sickle Cell Organisations (NASCO), after meeting Gautam Dongre. Today, she manages all of NASCO’s work in Madhya Pradesh and helps out hundreds of patients of the sickle cell disease with getting them treatment, diagnosis and recovery.
Shaba Manzoor and Nuzhat Khan are independent reporters based in New Delhi, India.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Indian Muslim> Lead Story> Science-Health> TCN Positive / by Shaba Manzoor & Nuzhat Khan / October 31st, 2023
