Awaz the voice

  Nakul Shivani / New Delhi Tucked away in the scenic district of Mallapuram in Kerala is Perinthalmanna. The capital of the erstwhile Princely state of Valluvanad, it is a major commercial hub and was, till not very long ago known as the Hospital city of the district for its medical services. But the identity is slowly changing. This small town is today pioneering a mini-revolution in ushering education as a tool to uplift the lives of people belonging to the marginalised sections of society. The credit for allowing the young and their parents to dream big here goes to the first-time MLA from this constituency, Najeeb Kanthapuram of the Indian Union Muslim League. A former journalist, this young member of the Legislative Assembly was moved by stories of children being forced to given up their education due to lack of financial resources. “I wanted to ensure no one was left behind in getting proper education because of little or no money,” he says. As an active politician since his col

    Ghaus Siwani/ Varansi Haji Irshad Ali Banarsi, a 53-year-old businessman from Benaras, has written Shrimad Bhagavad Gita in calligraphy using Ganga’s soil and water on large sheets of white cotton cloth and he wants this to be displayed in the Parliament. Irshad Ali, a devout Muslim, who had earlier similarly scripted Quran, wants to gift his artworks to celebrities including President Draupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Amid the media-led controversy over Ramcharitmanas written by Goswami Tulsidas, Haji Irshad Ali's devotion to Hanuman is a point of discussion among the locals in Benaras. Haji Irshad Ali Banars lives in the Bhilopur area of ​​the city and is an established Saree trader. He has earlier written the Hanuman Chalisa on a cloth with the soil of the Ganges on a two-meter cloth. Irshad wants also wants to gift Hanuman Chalisa to President Draupadi Murmu. He finished Hanuman Chalisa, an ode to Lord Hanuman, in about fou

  Daulat Rahman/Guwahati Bangladeshi economist and author Dr. Abdun Noor continues his search for the lost Princess of the Ahom Kingdom that ruled Assam for 600 years. The Princess was given away to the Mughals as a ransom for war and was married to a Mughal Prince. After some time, the history goes silent on the Princess. In 2007, the 83-year-old Dr. Noor wrote about the lost Princess in his novel  Bisholito Samay  (Uncertain Times) depicting her journey to Dhaka after getting married to Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s third son Ajam Shah.   The USA-based Dr. Noor is visiting Assam in his search of the lost trail of the Ahom Princess. He wonders why Ahom and Mughal histories are silent on the latter part of her life. The play based on the lost Ahom Princess In a conversation with Awaz-The Voice, Dr. Noor said the lost Princess was Ramani Gabharu, the only daughter of the Ahom King Jayadhaj Singha (1648-1663). She said since King Jayadhaj Singha had no son he wanted to organize a coronation

  Aasha Khosa/New Delhi Saying goodbyes is always tough and that is what the residents of Iskenderun, a port town in Turkey, felt as the Indian Army medical team closed its field hospital where the locals had found live savers and 'Industani' angels who were heading home after 12 days. The locals expressed their gratitude to the Indians by shaking hands with them, clapping for them, and hugging the doctors and paramedics in olive green as India wound up Operation Dost aimed at providing relief and rescue to the quake-affected Turkish people. Emotional scenes were witnessed at the times the officers and the staff of the 56 Para Field hospital units left the place. Indian Army posted the images and videos of the Field hospital Staff being accorded the farewell at Iskenderun on Twitter:   Earlier, the members of the men and women of the NDRF headed home after joining a massive rescue operation with their two dogs and received an emotional farewell at the Adana airport from the Air

  Shabir Hussain/Dehradun If you thought Balti people live only in Baltistan of the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir you are wrong. The people with a distinct Himalayan culture, language and traditions also live in the Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in India. Recently, the community’s organized its congregation at Dehradun, Uttarakhand called the “Confluence of Balti community in India,'with the collaboration of the Himalayan Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Balti Welfare Association of Uttarakhand. Prominent Balti community members and renowned folk singers discussed the Balti culture and history of migration of the Balti community in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and their connection with Ladakh and Baltistan. Speakers reading papers on Balti people's migration in India at the Dehradun conference Leading academics, community leaders, and Baltis living in and around Uttarakhand attended the confluence. The Speakers from Turtuk, Kargil, Jammu, Kashmir, and Uttarakhand

  Rana Siddiqui Zaman/Noida (UP) It is not rare to find Muslims doing social work silently, unwilling to promote themselves. One such person is Dr. Sarfarazuddin, a homeopath who lives in sector 105, Noida, Uttar Pradesh. He has been feeding 100 deprived people every day for the past five years and teaches students free. He brings ill and unknown covid-dead patients home bathes and buries them, all by himself and even marries off daughters of destitute families. Dr Sarfaraz, as he is popularly known, does good work at various levels. He has been feeding one meal (lunch) to 100 deprived daily for the last five years. He made that arrangement in a school he had opened in 2009 for the underprivileged children in a village nearby called Gejha, with his own money. Dr.Sarfaraz with his patients  The school has 20 rooms on two floors. The students, who have lost either of their parents or are orphans, bright and have more siblings, children of domestic helpers, daily wagers, guards, gardeners

Aasha Khosa /New Delhi Do Hindus think of Muslims as jihadis? Do the Muslims call Hindus Kafir? Do Muslims want to slaughter cows when it is sacred to Hindus? Do Hindus think Muslims are not patriots enough? These were some of the issues before the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Muslim representatives when they sat down for the first round of structured dialogue aimed at bridging the growing differences and misunderstandings between the followers of India’s two major religions in November. This was disclosed by Najeeb Jung, a former civil servant, to Dr. Prof Muqtedar Khan on the latter’s YouTube channel  Khanversations . Jung said he along with a “motley group of concerned citizens and Muslims” approached the RSS leadership in 2019.  The Hyderabad-born Dr. Muqtedar Khan is a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Delaware University in the USA. His YouTube Channel  Khanversations  is popular for its high standards of debate on international relations

  Nakul Shivani / New Delhi It is 10 am on a sunny winter day in Jammu. Soham Kamotra looks out of the window to soak in the fine weather before settling down to master his moves on a board of Chess. With a book in hand that details strategic moves, he shuts himself from the world to practice moving the pawns and the Knights and Bishops in an effort to master the process that will one day help him scale grand heights in the one of the oldest of sport in the world. Soham Kamotra, the Under-18 Commonwealth champion, is not alone juggling his brain on this quiet sport in Jammu and Kashmir. He is one among the thousands of youngsters who have taken a liking for Chess “When I started there were very few players here, but today I see the game has become very popular with many people aspiring to become chess players,” he says. The six-time state level champion, started playing the game when he was nine years old, practicing with his elder brother and father. “The intensity of the game kicked

  Saquib Salim “The condemned men, 22 in number, were placed against the stakes, at intervals of about 4 feet apart at 5:25. The order to fire was given at 5:30, after the reading of the sentence, and the man fell. Captain Fraser, R.A.M.C, examined the bodies and it was found necessary in several cases to give the final despatch with revolver shots. The stretcher party was composed of Mohammedan prisoners from the jail. The bodies having been removed, the parade was March off and the large crowd dispersed in good order." Read a government report released to the press on 25 March 1915 in Singapore.  The gory description of the public executions of 22 Indian Sepoys of the British Army during the First World War is a glorious chapter of the Indian Freedom Struggle which has largely remained untold.  On 15 February 1915, Ismail Khan, an Indian Sepoy of the 5th Light Infantry Native Battalion, shot at a British officer declaring rebellion against the British command at Singapore. India

  Sheikh Muhammad Yunus/ Hyderabad Jameela Nishat was born in 1955 to Syed Bin Mohammad, a portrait artist, and Fatima Sayeed. Her father was an excellent painter. A Nawab in Hyderabad spotted Syed’s artistic skills and sponsored his education in fine arts. Syed Bin Mohammad went on to become a professor of painting at the College of Fine Arts and Architecture in Hyderabad. M F Husain, India’s best-known artist, was a close friend of Syed Bin Mohammad. Jameela has vivid childhood memories of Husain spreading out a canvas or a chart paper on the floor of her house and painting on it. With such inspirations around her and having inherited her father’s creative genes, Jameela showed interest in painting at a young age. However, her conservative Muslim family discouraged her from taking up painting even as a hobby Not being able to pursue her passion, Jameela took to Poetry. With her newfound passion, she started writing poems right from the age of 12. Her poems were considered radical. Th