Now, �footie' is �her' green valley | The Asian Age

Now, �footie' is �her' green valley | The Asian Age: On a late peak summer afternoon in 2007, Nadiya Nighat walked into the sprawling lawns of ...





http://www.deccanchronicle.com/sunday-chronicle/headliners/260616/now-footie-is-her-green-valley.html

'Na Pir Anzus, Na Pir Manzus'  


The supporters of Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq clashed with those of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah in downtown Srinagar on 'Martyrs' Day' (July 13). We, journalists, went to cover it and also the rally that was subsequently held beside the 'Mazaar-e-Shohda' at Khawaja Bazaar and addressed by the Mirwaiz. 

In the evening, a similar rally that of the National Conference (NC) was being held at the venue and was to be addressed by the Sheikh and others. On seeing us sitting in a corner of the dais, a NC activist yelled "Ye'em hehar (I beg a pardon) aeassi subus homiss seeth. Waen chhi yete'h balaye lagmith." Being young and new to the profession, I angrily looked towards him but senior journalist (Late) JN Sathu asked to ignore him. 'Ma sun ath, wot'ch bronth kun,' came the counselling. Smiles on the faces of the Sheikh and other NC leaders. That should sum up the role we scribes do play although there are exceptions there. You have good, honest and professional people here and you have bad, dishonest and unprofessional too. Even worse.

A Page From My Diary

Sardarji jokes

1974: I was a student at Srinagar’s Sri Pratap Higher Secondary School and had gone to Delhi on a combined study and pleasure trip. While returning home, I boarded a ‘chalo’ coach of a Jammu-bound train. On board and sitting next to me on a side lower berth was an elderly Sikh; his long white and unfastened beard hanging down his wrinkled face. Soon the coach became crowded and when it left Delhi’s old railway station it had already turned cramped. Seeing a lady standing near us, the old man gave up his seat to her. After stopping at a few of stations en route, the remaining passengers could have more legroom and feel less cramped. Sardarji got his seat back but soon surrendered it to a woman as the coach became crowded again at Panipat. He repeated the gesture of respect and courtesy twice more before getting down at a station in Punjab. On one such occasion, getting motivated rather feeling embarrassed, I offered up my seat to Sardarji as he got up to surrender his own to a woman. He, however, declined saying, “You may remain seated. It gives me pleasure.”
A few years after this inspirational experience, I had another one during a visit to Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk area. After returning from the main prayer hall, I found a Sikh gentleman polishing my shoes in the shoe-stand area. The reporter in me couldn’t resist asking him who he was. He turned out to be one of the top industrialists from Punjab (we continue to be in touch with each other since). He said cleaning shoes of the worshippers gives him “great pleasure” and “humbling experience” he can’t have any other way.
Post-September 2014 floods back home, I saw Sikh volunteers and philanthropists from Jammu, Punjab and some other parts of India deeply moved and intensely and whole-heartedly involved in relief work. I’ve the experiences of and am witness to the Sikhs being busy in charity and humanitarian works elsewhere.
When the situation demands, Sikhs are some of the most gracious, bighearted and gregarious people on the planet. They are also one of the hardest working prosperous and diversified communities in the world. And people still crack jokes to make fun of them. I hate this pastime.

P.S.: Societies throughout history have each had their share of bad, unlawful and out-of-control people.

Big hearts, small hearts

We were meeting face-to-face for the first time. As my editor emerged of the arrival lounge at the Srinagar airport, I offered to carry his bag. He responded by saying ‘Don’t be stupid. We are equals’. A year or so later, while I was sitting in the solitary guest chair in front of my news editor’s desk, the editor arrived to discuss some issue with him. I offered my chair to him but he declined asking ‘Didn’t I tell you we are equals?’

A colleague wanted to join a British newspaper as one of its India correspondents. Our editor rang up his counterpart in London, strongly recommending him for the assignment. I too wanted to earn a few extra bucks and asked my editor if he could suggest some foreign publication I may work for simultaneously. He gladly did it and even spoke to a friend in Jeddah asking him to help me.

In October 1993, I quit The Telegraph (Calcutta) to join The Asian Age. The parting was quiet and friendly. Not only that, my previous employer told me ‘you can come back any time if you wish to’. Not so long ago, a colleague quit the organization we were working at to join another newspaper as it offered him a better package. He, however, didn’t like his new job and returned in less than one month. He was received back only with open arms by the employers and his colleagues at the newspaper. There are several other such instances which I’ve come across and wherein editors showed benevolence towards their juniors and employers at news organizations too were but big-hearted. With present and past employees/ colleagues alike! However, we mostly lack such munificence back home.

All these anecdotes were called to mind after being to the release of the annual issue of Belaag Sahafat at a glittering ceremony held in Srinagar a day ago. Come-on! Ours is a different profession and we have to behave differently with one another-with love, caring, sharing, passionate benevolence and togetherness. The Creator has bestowed us with beautiful hearts. Let us make them as big as an ocean too.

Changes in traditional building styles of mosques, shrines transform Kashmir's architectural landscape

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/151005/lifestyle-travel/article/changes-traditional-building-styles-mosques-shrines-transform

YUSUF JAMEEL

SRINAGAR

Oct. 5: Kashmir is the land of saints and Sufis, brimming with monuments that represent its diverse cultural heritage. There are numerous shrines and other places of worship in the picturesque Valley which enjoy reverence and allegiance of people professing different faiths and which add grandeur to its architectural landscape.

Most of the shrines and other places of worship are traditionally built in the typically pagoda style, reminiscent of Buddhist influence. However, the design and construction of mosques, shrines and other places of worship which came up in the Muslim majority Valley in recent years have been built on the pattern of Islamic architecture overshadowing the pagoda and other typically indigenous styles of edifice.

Buddhism, followed by a vast section of population in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, has its origin in the Valley where it was preached and disseminated by the Kashmiri scholars in its earlier days but is generally believed to have become dominant in the time of Emperor Ashoka. It soon spread to Ladakh.

Apart from Buddhist, Persian, Mughal and Sikh influences are also discernible on Kashmir’s architectural landscape. The use of wood and its conversion, stylization in combination with rocks, stones and tiles into elements of building technology as well as craft forms are typical of this style. This indigenous style of architecture has also contributed a distinct stream of woodwork known as Khatamband or mosaic of beautiful geometric patterns joined together to create an aesthetic effect used for embellishing mainly the interiors.

However, the ‘shooting flute spires’ on most old shrines and major mosques in the Valley is mainly similar to Buddhist and other architectural styles in shrines the world over. Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid or Grand Mosque and nearby Khankah-e-Moulla are among the major places of Muslim worship which can be called truly Kashmiri as these are built in the traditional pagoda style, reflecting the real and authentic spirit of beauty of the place.

Yet the division of roofs as different from a steady circumambulation flow of the roof around the central structure, as seen in most pagoda style of layering, and the exquisite style and the combination of word carving and Papier-mâché, the matchless ornamental cornices and corbels, cresting and crockets-and absence of any inlay work-is indeed unique. Like these, many other mosques, hospices and shrines across the Valley have one or more domes under the layered pagoda style structure.

The Valley also has few monuments which give an excellent representation of a typical Shahmiri style of architectural brilliance yet to be seen elsewhere in South Asia. The main such structure is Srinagar’s Budshah Tomb, the octagonal dome constructed in 1465 AD over the grave of famous Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin Budshah’s mother. It has been laid down with bricks and hence is a brick structure antonymous to the traditional wooden architecture found in the Valley. The tomb has also unique blue tiles embedded in the brick masonry that give this domed structure a distinctive look.

But the traditional architectural style has been followed in the construction of only few mosques and shrines that came up during the past three decades. One of these is the mausoleum of Kashmir’s patron saint Sheikh Nooruddin Wali in the town of Charar-e-Sharief which was along with nearby Khankah or hospice and surrounding settlement razed to ground during a prolonged fire fight between holed up militants and Army in May 1995. The mausoleum has since been rebuilt in grandeur yet retaining its original architectural style.

Another is the shrine of Pir Dastageer in Srinagar’s Khanyar locality. Originally built in 1767 in honour and memory of the 11^thcentury Sunni saint Sheikh Syed Abd al-Qadir Jeelani who is buried in Baghdad, Iraq, the shrine which had several resemblances with Khankah-e-Moulla and Charar-e-Sharief mausoleum was along with adjacent Khankah gutted in a devastating fire on June 24, 2012. These too have also been restored “on the basis of their original structural characteristic” and are, once again, donning ceiling made of Khatamband woodwork and stained glass windows, Chandeliers, magnificent ‘Dubs’ or Jharokas, the trellis work or Pinjarkaari in wood on the windows.

This assimilation of ancient Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Central Asian, particularly Uzbek, Tajik, Turkmen and local traditions is also witnessed in the construction of some other places of Muslim worship in the Valley. But many recently constructed mosques have been built mainly on the pattern of completely Islamic architecture, giving a new look to the Valley’s architectural landscaping. Yet while the exterior design and construction do break away from traditional style, the interiors adhere to typical woodwork and Papier-mâché adaptation.

The tone for turning away from the traditional style was set by Kashmir’s legendary leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah who as head of the Muslim Auquaf Trust started the construction work on a new shrine at Hazratbal in Srinagar to house the holy relic believed to be a hair from the beard of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (saw). The work on this single domed and single minaret white marble shrine started in 1968 and was completed in 1979. It is said that the then Governor of the State had voiced his reservations over the Sheikh’s choice. Hazratbal was until recently the only domed mosque in the Valley. 

World's 500 influential Muslims; Mufti Akhtar Raza, Moulana Madani, Mirwaiz Umar,Asaduddin Owaisi make to the top

http://www.asianage.com/india/two-indians-50-influential-muslims-list-930

YUSUF JAMEEL

SRINAGAR

Oct. 4: A Jordan-based Islamic research centre has put two Indians Mufti Muhammad Akhtar Raza Khan Qadiri Al-Azhari and Moulana Mahmood Madani among the top 50 influential Muslims of the world.

Mufti Al-Azhari is the great grandson of Ahmed Raza Khan who founded the Barelwi movement in the India and the present leader of the Barelwi Muslims. Moulana Madani is the leader and executive member of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind. 

Some others who figure in the list of top 50 are Jordan’s King Abdullah II ibn Al-Hussein, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Al-Azhar University’s Grand Imam Prof. Dr. Sheikh Ahmed Muhammad Al-Tayyeb, Egypt’s military ruler Abdel Fatteh Al-Sisi, Oman’s ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al-Said, President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas and Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hasan Nasrallah.

Several other Indians have also been mentioned among the remaining 450 most influential Muslims of the world in the 7^th annual issue of ‘The Muslim 500-the World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims’ released by Amman-based Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (RISSC) recently. They are; Dr. Zakir Naik, Alama Zia Al-Mustafa, Moulana Wahiduddin Khan, Rabey Hasani Nadvi, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Sheikh Abobacker Ahmed, Syed Ibrahimul Khaled Al-Bukhari, Moulana Sheikh Ali Noorid, Asaduddin Owaisi, Moulana Qamaruzaman Azmi, Arsad Madni, Syed Amin Mian Qadir, Bohra leader Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin and Sheikh Shuab Thika.

Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric and chairman of his faction of Hurriyat Conference alliance Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Asaduddin Owaisi are the only two prominent Muslim politicians from India who figure in the list of remaining 450. In the art and culture category, Bollywood actors Shabana Azmi and Amir Khan and music director and composer Allah-Rakha  Rahman (A.R.Rahman) have also been  mentioned as being influential Muslims of the world.

The RISSC survey says it focused on any person who has the power, be it spiritual, cultural, political, ideological, financial or otherwise to make a change that will have a significant impact-positive or negative- on the Muslim world. In the obituary section, the report pays tribute to former President APJ Abdul Kalam after placing him in ‘science and technology’ category.  

Cow slaughter ban inflames regional, religious tension in J

Cow slaughter ban inflames regional, religious tension in J