Monthly Archives: December 2017

From Varanasi to Canada

(L-R) Shivalika Agrawal, Neha Arora and Ritika Shani (BCCL/ Unmesh Pandey

Celebrating their foundation day in a rather hatt ke way, Urban Swag club organised a party with a Chalo Canada theme.

It was peekaboo in the life of Indians who live in that country through the eyes of Santa and Banta, enacted by Pooja Tandon and Shweta Chakravorty.

Even the anchors of the show was based on the character of Lalli and Preeto played by Neha Arora and Pari Beri, that added to the fun element. Their one liners led to loads of laughter. The humour was interspersed with some engaging dance performances.

Sangeeta Mehra, Rashmi Sahani, Alka Beri and Asha Dhawan danced to retro number Sainya Dil Mein Aana Re. Nancy Batra, Shama Sahani, Vanshika danced to Chak De Phatte while Shivalika, Neha Arora and Ritika Sahni danced to the pacy number Lean On. Pooja Madhok, Ekta Kapoor, Shweta Chakravorty, Sonia Bhasin, Pooja Tandon and Sakshi Kapoor danced to Tenu Suit Suit Karda.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Varanasi News / by Meera Vohra / TNN / December 30th, 2017

Kakori memorial to be tourist attraction

Lucknow :

The Kakori memorial has finally found a place on Lucknow tourism map. The memorial is set to become one of the must-visits for tourists with the state government developing it into a tourist destination.

A grant of Rs 2.5 crore has been sanctioned by the UP tourism department for the purpose recently. Granting additional funds, UP State Tourism Development Corporation chief AP Singh has fixed a deadline of July 2018 for the renovation so that the project can be dedicated to people in August, the month in which the Kakori train robbery took place.

Regional tourist officer, PK Singh said: “We have planned overall development of Kakori Smarak area as tourism destination.”

The plan includes setting up a library at Kakori Smarak with books dedicated to freedom struggle, particularly the Kakori train robbery, history and tourist places of Lucknow.

The auditorium will be used for screening 10-minute documentary films in English and Hindi on Kakori incident.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News / TNN / December 31st, 2017

The story of the Englishman who stayed back as a judge in India (and what it tells us about Nehru)

Having come to India in the service of an imperial power, William Broome died an Indian.

Justice William Broome is not a well-known figure today. But he lived an exciting and inspiring life.

He came to India as an imperial official, but defied British prejudices by marrying an Indian woman and devoting his life to India. He received Indian citizenship with the assistance of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and heard the early stages of Raj Narain’s challenge to Indira Gandhi’s 1971 election victory. He was unusual even among those British officials who stayed on in India after Independence. But his life still contains important lessons about what it can mean to be Indian.

William Broome was born in 1910 in London. He was appointed to the Indian Civil Service in 1932. He served in what was then the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). In 1937, he married Swaroop Kumari Gour, the daughter of the lawyer, politician and academic Sir Hari Singh Gour.

This marriage was remarkable. Even though Broome served in the Indian Civil Service during a period of Indianisation, British rule in India was still characterised by racial hierarchies and segregation. The maintenance of colonial control involved the preservation of racial divides, aloofness and detachment from the Indian populace. Even India’s Anglo-Indian population was stigmatised and excluded by the English-born.

In marrying Gour, Broome defied these prejudices. He raised his children as Hindus (Broome was an atheist), learned numerous Indian languages and developed a strong interest in Indian culture.

Being Indian
Broome was appointed as a district and sessions judge in 1941. His independence in that role was legendary. When the chief secretary of the United Provinces declared that too many detainees under the Defence of India Rules were receiving bail, Broome responded by threatening the chief secretary with contempt of court.

Unlike most British judges and civil servants, Broome stayed in India as a judge after Independence. By 1958, Nehru was able to write of Broome that “I have seldom known any Englishman who has so Indianized himself in various ways as he has”, and that “he is as much as Indian as anybody can be who is not born in India and indeed probably more so than many people born in India”.

In that year, with Nehru’s assistance, Broome renounced his British citizenship and became an Indian citizen. He was appointed to the Allahabad High Court, where he served until his retirement in 1972. His judgments in this role demonstrated a strong concern for civil liberties, even going further than the Supreme Court of that time.

One of Broome’s final cases as a judge was to hear the early stages of Raj Narain’s challenge to Indira Gandhi’s 1971 election from Rae Bareli – the challenge that ultimately led to the Emergency. Broome had known Nehru and had once enjoyed a friendly relationship with Indira – he and his wife were even invited to Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi’s wedding reception. But he nonetheless made important procedural rulings in Narain’s favour. (Although Broome’s friendship with Indira Gandhi seems to have ended after this case, it is striking that no effort was made to delegitimise his decisions by referring to his foreign birth.)

Broome died in Bengaluru in 1988. Having come to India in the service of an imperial power, he died an Indian.

A noteworthy life
Broome was unusual. Although thousands of British citizens remained in India after Independence, few British officials or judges did so. Of those officials, Broome was one of the few who devoted himself to India not just as an administrator, judge or scholar but as a citizen. The fact that he embraced India until his death, and was embraced in turn, must be weighed against the departure of so many other British citizens, whether at Independence or upon their retirement, and the alienation of many Anglo-Indians from the new independent nation. His life was not necessarily representative of how other people of British descent in India felt or acted after Independence.

But Broome’s life is still noteworthy.

He was retained as a judge by the independent Indian government partially through pragmatism: despite the long struggle for independence, free India kept many of the institutions and officials that had governed (even subjugated) colonial India. But his life also reflected important, idealistic aspects of the new Indian state.

Broome came to India as an official of an occupying colonial power. He served as an official and a judge in a regime that imposed various rigid classifications: between races, between religions, between governors and governed. Broome rejected these classifications. After achieving Independence, the government of India did so too.

In the current age of escalating intolerance and xenophobic nationalism, Jawaharlal Nehru’s idea of India remains a powerful alternative to those who would make the nation great again by slicing away undesired pieces of it. Nehru refused, as Ramachandra Guha puts it, to “reduce India or ‘Indianness’ to a dominant religious or linguistic ethos”. Nehru himself described Indian unity as encompassing “the widest tolerance of belief and custom…every variety acknowledged and even encouraged”. Nehru’s idea of India was, as he put it, a nation of “enduring capacity to absorb other people and their cultural accomplishments”, drawing upon and enriched by ideas and faiths and traditions from around the world. Even though this vision failed to attract or keep many, even most, of the British people who had lived and worked in India under the colonial regime, it did allow Broome to be accepted as an Indian.

The fact that Broome was seemingly one of a kind demonstrates that this vision has not been completely honoured in practice. Broome was married to the daughter of a very distinguished Indian, held important offices and was seen to have “Indianized himself”. He may have been easier to accept as an Indian than someone without these characteristics, thus demonstrating limits to Indian tolerance.

There is hence a gulf between Nehru’s vision of India and how that dream has been fulfilled. But the vision is still important and still inspiring today.

Douglas McDonald-Norman is a researcher in Indian law, politics and history and a contributor to Law and Other Things.

For more information on William Broome, see Douglas’s article for the Indian Historical Review, “Becoming Indian: William Broome and Colonial Continuity in Post-Independence India”.

source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Magazine> History Revisited / by Douglas McDonald-Norman / December 26th, 2017

Allahabad University team finds cure to skin ailment, gets patent

Allahabad :

In a major breakthrough that would help experts find a treatment for ‘Pityriasis versicolor’, popularly known as ‘sehua’, a team of researchers from Allahabad University have developed a liquid medium for harvesting Malassezia fungus, which causes the disease.

The team is led by faculty member of AU’s botany department Anupam Dikshit. The team has also got the method patented (Indian Patent No. 290771) by the Technology, Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) of the department of science and technology (DST).

Dikshit said, “Sehua is a skin disease which causes hypopigmentation of the skin resulting in the loss of its natural texture. The condition is accompanied by the occurrence of small white spots on face and other parts of the body.

“The disease is caused by fungus. The foremost challenge in developing an antidote was to first grow the fungus in a lab.”

Dikshit said that his team’s objective was to develop a medium suitable for the Indian environment and skin. He added that the medium available in the market was too costly and had other limitations as well. “The medium developed by us will be very useful for diagnosis of diseases and in finding a cure for the disease. Besides, the modified medium would also be of great help for various researches,” he added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Allahabad News / by Rajeev Mani / TNN / December 29th, 2017

Lucknow guava thriving in Arunanchal Pradesh

The local guava that starts fruiting here in two years has started yielding fruit in Arunachal Pradesh in only nine months, much to the amazement of the local administration, district horticulture officer and others.

“Commercial guava cultivation is new to this state and it is not a common crop for cultivation.” (HT Photo)

Believe it or not, the local guava that starts fruiting here in two years has started yielding fruit in Arunachal Pradesh in only nine months, much to the amazement of the local administration, district horticulture officer and others.

More than one lakh guava grafts of ICAR-CISH developed varieties reached Yachuli, 80 km away from Arunachal capital Itanagar, during the rainy season this year. Flowers and fruit could be seen on these plants this month, claimed Shailendra Rajan, director, Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture.

Rajan credited this to the efforts made by progressive farmer Likha Maj by supporting tribal organizations Agro Gramin Limited (AGUN) and Green Gold, Naharlagun (Arunanchal Pradesh) in collaboration with ICAR-CISH, Lucknow for establishing guava industry in the north-eastern region for the benefit of farming communities comprising mostly of tribals.

Likha Maj took the initiative to transport grafts from Lucknow during the rainy season, when it was difficult to reach there by truck due to landslides and damaged slippery roads, he said.

A team of 10 youngsters took to planting and rearing these grafts in more than 100 hectares and made all efforts for their survival under highly difficult conditions.

“Commercial guava cultivation is new to this state and it is not a common crop for cultivation,” said Rajan.

After seeing such a huge plantation, about one hundred farmers were interested and started planting guava varieties transported from Lucknow.

“Maj has not only planted guava grafts but also motivated several farmers for starting its cultivation so that a sizable production takes place and the produce can be utilized for processing as a food park is in the process of approval,” director CISH said.

ICAR-Lalit, a variety developed from Lucknow, can play an important role in this area when the processing unit is ready, as it is a prime variety being used for making pink pulp from guava further used for different products as well as export.

Thousands of hectares under Lalit have come up in AP, Maharashtra and Karnataka and other states but for the first time this effort was made in the extreme North-East conditions.

The farmers regularly exchange views with scientists using plant photos taken in the field. Smartphone has played an important role in establishing linkage between the scientists from CISH-Lucknow and tribals in a remote area of Arunachal Pradesh.

CISH Lucknow has not only provided grafts but is also helping in establishment of a modern guava nursery in Arunanchal so that problems faced in graft transportation are eliminated and the good quality grafted material is available at a reasonable cost to be distributed to different parts of the north-eastern region.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Cities> Lucknow / by HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times,Lucknow / December 28th, 2017

Stoke Row’s Maharajah’s Well undergoes £25K revamp

Stoke Row’s Maharajah’s Well undergoes £25K revamp / ALAN MURRAY-RUST

A Victorian well that was funded by an Indian maharajah has undergone £25,000 refurbishment works.

Maharajah’s Well was gifted to the residents of Stoke Row, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, by the Maharajah of Benares in the mid-1800s.

He was moved by stories of water shortage in the area told to him by local landowner Edward Reade who worked in India for many years sinking wells.

Revamp work has included refurbishing the well’s gilded elephant statue.

The restoration of the 368ft-deep (112m) well – which began in April – also involved repainting the well and its canopy using Victorian methods, the Maharajah’s Well Trust charity, which has funded the work, said.

Chair of the trust, Catherine Hale, described it as a “unique structure”.

“It’s also an amazing story of this connection between a landowner in the Chilterns and a maharaja.”

Maharajah’s Well was officially opened on 24 May 1864 and cost £353.

source: http://www.bbc.om / BBC News / Home> News> England> Oxford / December 16th, 2017

Armenian X’mas link

This Christmas, let’s rewind to the times when the cross and the crescent met in the Capital

Christmas is much the same everywhere but the medieval Armenian one was different. Even the Cross (that proclaims Christ’s crucifixion) had its own peculiar shape, hardly seen in Catholic and Protestant churches, except in old cemeteries, like the one in Agra which was once a Mughal orchard gifted to an Armenian lady by Akbar in the 17th Century. In Armenian celebrations, cakes were there, of course, but the emphasis was on animal sacrifices. The cakes and sweet breads were embellished with raisins (kishmish). No wonder non-Christians started calling Christmas “Kishmish”.

The visit of the former Armenian President, Levon Der Petrossian during Indira Gandhi’s time was a reminder of the age-old ties between India and Armenia, two countries where the Aryan influence predominated. The visit of Vice-President Hamid Ansari earlier this year was a follow-up to the one by Mrs Gandhi’s to Yeravan.

Armenia is an ancient country which has been regarded as “the doorway between East and West.” Mount Ararat, where Noah’s Ark rested after the Deluge, was in the present Turkish part of Armenia and it was there that those who were saved from the great flood along with the patriarch settled down to create a new world. It was, therefore, natural for Christianity to take root there in its initial days. It is worth mentioning, however, that the old beliefs of the Armenians were incorporated into the Church for quite a long time. Animals were sacrificed in the church porch before the celebration of the Eucharest, especially at X’mas and Easter. The Armenians had started coming to the Mughal Empire some years before the invasion of their country by Turkey. They found the hospitality that they needed and built churches in Delhi, which, however, do not exist now.

At Agra also they built a chapel and the son of a nobleman, Mirza Zulquarnain, was brought up by Akbar. He was later to become the head of the salt works at Sambar. The Mirza is known as the Father of Christianity in North India because it was during his time that the cross and the crescent met in the Mughal Capital.

Mirza Zulquarnain’s palace occupied the land where the British later built the Agra Central Prison, which in recent times has made way for the ambitious shopping project known as Sanjay Place. It was on this piece of land that a cathedral was erected by the Capuchins 200 years later. The Armenians planted olive trees, one of which still survives near Akbar’s church. The mystical cross was used as an emblem on even residential buildings. It is said that during Akbar’s time after Christmas Mass the sick members of the congregation drank of the water in which earlier a crucifix had been bathed. It was supposed to cure patients, or so the belief went. In the Martyrs’ Cemetry at Agra are the graves of many Armenians which look like Muslim graves with Persian inscriptions. One of the graves, that of the saintly Armenian merchant, Khwaja Mortiniphas is still venerated, along with that of Fr. Santus. Some say he was related to the Bishop of Tabriz and became a hermit in later life after giving all his wealth to the poor.

In Delhi, the most famous Armenian tomb is that of Sarmad Shaheed at the foot of the Jama Masjid. Kishanganj, between old Delhi and Sarai Rohila stations, also has some Armenian graves, besides those of Dutch nationals some connected to the Mughal Court like Bibi Juliana. Incidentally, the Chief Justice in Akbar’s reign was Abdul Hayee, an Armenian Christian.

Destroyed by Nadir Shah

There were two Armenian churches in Delhi, one near the slaughter house, beyond the old Sabzi Mandi, another in Sarai Rohilla; though accounts of their exact location differ. According to Sir Edward Maclagan, there were 120 catholics in Delhi during Shah Jahan’s reign in 1650. Their number went upto 300 by 1686, when Aurangzeb was on the throne. Two priests looked after them. A Catholic cemetery was also in existence from 1656. Father Desideri, who came to the city from Tibet, found the churches in ruins in 1732 (Mohd Shah’s reign). He stayed on for three years and built a new Armenian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and blessed on All Souls’ Day, Nov 2, 1723. In 1739, this church and another Armenian one were destroyed by the Persian invader, Nadir Shah during the massacre of Delhi. One of the churches was rebuilt in 1746, and blessed on Christmas Eve. Later another Armenian church came up, but both seem to have been razed in the early 19th century.

When the Armenians held X’mas celebrations, boys and girls dressed as angels greeted Akbar and later Jahangir at their church in Agra which still exists. After that the two emperors watched the Christmas play and later sent the ladies of the harem to see the crib depicting Christ’s truth in a manger. Armenian X’mas is now a nostalgic memory but when the church bells peal for midnight Mass at Christmas in the Cathedral near Akbar’s church, the Armenian spirit is revived as the local Padritolians pull the ropes of the five huge bells imported from Belgium by the Italian Capuchin fathers. This tradition dates back to Armenian times, when one of the bells broke and could be lifted with great difficulty by two elephants, who deposited it in the Mughal Kotwali till Jahangir had it repaired and restored to the old church.

Probably the most famous Armenian in Indian history was Shah Nazar Khan who cast the Zamzamah gun for the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) on the orders of Ahmed Shah Abdali and about which Kipling wrote: “Who hold Zam-Zamah, that fire-breathing dragon, hold the Punjab”. The giant on wheels, gun is now parked in front of the Lahore Museum, while Nazar Khan rests in Agra where father discovered the nearly-obliterated Persian inscription on his tomb in December 1935, almost two years before one was born. Merry Christmas!

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Miscellaenous> Othes / by R.V. Smith / December 26th, 2017

Ten-day long Hot Air Balloon festival begins in Varanasi

Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) :

Ten-day long Hot Air Balloon festival started on the bank of River Ganga in the spiritual city of Varanasi, on Sunday.

A private tour operator – Tour Assistant India – in collaboration with the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Tourism department has taken the initiative in order to explore the scope of adventure tourism in the city.

According to Vikas Narayan, Assistant Tourism Officer at UP Tourism, the project is on a ten-day test as a pilot project to check the feasibility to make it a permanent adventure to attract more tourists to the city.

“Varanasi has a large scope of adventure tourism and despite having river and many landscapes, it has not been explored yet. The Hot Air Balloon service is an initiative in this direction. It is on a ten-day trial as of now and after examining the response, it can be made permanent,” said Narayan.

“It is very affordable and reasonable as the ticket is Rs 500 per head during the trial period. The Hot Air Balloon involves a lot of cost along with several limitations such as weather,” he added, while talking about the cost and affordability.

The flying balloons created a big buzz among the tourists and the local residents pulling them to the river bank.

A local resident, Sarika, told ANI, “This is a very new thing for all of us and everybody, especially kids, are very excited about it.”

“Banaras is already a very beautiful city and the view will be more beautiful from the top of it,” she added. (ANI)

source: http://www.aninews.in / ANI / December 24th, 2017

Six-day Lucknow Mahotsav from January 24

Lucknow (UNI) :

The much-awaited Lucknow Mahotsav, which was scheduled to be held from November 25 to December 4, will now be held in the last week of January.

The event had been deferred due to elections to urban local bodies in three phases in the state.

Officials here said on Sunday that Lucknow Mahotsav would kick off on January 24, the day Uttar Pradesh will celebrate first foundation day, or UP Diwas.

The announcement came after a high-level meeting here on Saturday chaired by Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Anil Garg. As part of the event, kite-flying competition would be held on January 26 and Vintage Car rally on January 28.

District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma confirmed that the Lucknow Mahatsov would be organised along with the UP-Diwas from January 24.

Both Lucknow Mahotsav and UP Diwas would be celebrated at one place — Awadh Shilp Gram — in Gomti Nagar Extension.

However, the duration of Lucknow Mahotsav has been restricted to six days. This time, greater number of renowned artistes are likely to participate as the event has been coupled with UP Diwas.

Lucknow Mahotsav is organised every year to showcase the state’s art and culture, in particular ‘Lukhnavi tehzeeb’.

UNI MB RS 1140

source: http://www.uniindia.com/ United News of India / Home> States / December 24th, 2017

Diagnosing early-stage cervical cancer using artificial intelligence

New approach: “The change in tissue morphology as the disease progresses can be picked up by light scattering,” say Prof. Prasanta K. Panigrahi (right) and Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay

The AI identifies precancerous tissue, and also the stage of progression in minutes

The morphology of healthy and precancerous cervical tissue sites are quite different, and light that gets scattered from these tissues varies accordingly. Yet, it is difficult to discern with naked eyes the subtle differences in the scattered light characteristics of normal and precancerous tissue. Now, an artificial intelligence-based algorithm developed by a team of researchers from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata and Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur makes this possible.

The algorithm developed by the team not only differentiates normal and precancerous tissue but also makes it possible to tell different stages of progression of the disease within a few minutes and with accuracy exceeding 95%. This becomes possible as the refractive index of the tissue is different in the case of healthy and precancerous cells, and this keeps varying as the disease progresses.

“The microstructure of normal tissue is uniform but as disease progresses the tissue microstructure becomes complex and different. Based on this correlation, we created a novel light scattering-based method to identify these unique microstructures for detecting cancer progression,” says Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay from IISER Kolkata and first author of a paper published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics.

Elaborating on this further, Prof. Prasanta K. Panigrahi from IISER Kolkata and corresponding author of the paper says: “The collagen network is more ordered in normal tissues but breaks down progressively as cancer progresses. This kind of change in tissue morphology can be picked up by light scattering.” White light spectroscopy (340-800nm) was used for the study.

Statistical biomarker

The change in scattered light as disease progresses is marked by a change in tissue refractive index. The team has quantified the changes in tissue refractive index using a statistical biomarker — multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MFDFA). The statistical biomarker has two parameters (Hurst exponent and width of singularity spectrum) that help in quantifying the spectroscopy dataset.

While MFDFA provides quantification of light scattered from the tissues, artificial intelligence-based algorithms such as hidden Markov model (HMM) and support vector machine (SVM) help in discriminating the data and classifying healthy and different grades of cancer tissues.

“The classification of healthy and precancerous cells becomes robust by converting the information obtained from the scattered light into characteristic tissue-specific signature. The signature captures the variations in tissue morphology,” says Prof. Panigrahi.

“The MFDFA-HMM integrated algorithm performed better than the MFDFA-SVM algorithm for detection of early-stage cancer,” says Mukhopadhyay. “The algorithms were tested on in vitro cancer samples.”

In vivo samples

The team is expanding the investigations to study in vivo samples for precancer detection. While the accuracy achieved using in vitro samples was over 95%, based on a study of a few in vivo samples the accuracy is over 90%.

“In the case of in vitro samples we were able to discriminate between grade 1 and grade 2 cancer,” says Prof. Nirmalya Ghosh from IISER Kolkata and one of the authors of the paper. “More testing is needed using in vivo samples.”

“Superficial cancers such as oral and cervical cancers can be studied using this technique. And by integrating it with an endoscopic probe that uses optical fibre to deliver white light and surrounding fibres to collect the scattered light we can study cancers inside the body,” says Prof. Ghosh.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Science / by R. Prasad / December 23rd, 2017