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Meet the Muslims who make ‘Holikas’ for Holi eve
Meerut:
Nine months ago, Teer Gran in Meerut was in the news for all the wrong reasons – communal clashes had broken out, claiming one life. Several people were injured. Few are aware, however, that Teer Gran is home to the Muslim families that make the colourful Holikas that Hindu communities traditionally burn on Holi eve. This locality is also called ‘Holi Mohalla’.
Around 25 Muslim families here make more than a 1,000 Holikas which find their way to various west UP cities besides Meerut. Mohd Yunus, 50, has a small shop near the lane leading to Bhairon Temple. On Tuesday, there were numerous life-size effigies, decked up and colourful, with feminine features, lining his shop.
“Holika symbolizes victory of good over evil. Hindu legend has it that after demon king Hiranyakashipu demanded that he be worshipped, his son Prahlad remained defiant, and said he would only worship Lord Vishnu. The king’s sister Holika, on instructions from her brother, attempted to burn Prahlad alive by taking him in her lap and sitting on a pyre. Holika had a magic shawl with which she could save herself from burning. She hoped her nephew would be reduced to cinders. When the fire was set, however, the shawl flew and enveloped Prahlad instead. Holika was burnt to death. Prahlad escaped unhurt,” Yunus explains.
For generations, Yunus’ family has been making effigies of Holika that are burnt on the eve of Holi festivities.
“We have no records, but for hundreds of years our family has been making these effigies.” There are about 25 Muslim families that make Holikas in Holi Mohalla. The effigies are made with waste paper, masks and colours.
Shaukat Ali, another resident of the area, said, “We need to make about 1,000 Holikas every year. These travel to Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat and Muradnagar.”
The Holika effigies are the work of entire families. With time, interestingly, volumes have grown. Mohd Wasim, an effigy maker, said, “Earlier, communities would select one place to burn the Holika, which was made on order, and would be quite tall and expensive – we have made effigies 20 feet tall, costing about Rs 2,000, at least. Now, as cities have expanded, even small colonies have their own Holika burning ceremony. Volumes have grown, but the size of each Holikas has shrunk. These days, we make Holikas about five feet tall, costing about Rs 250 each, at most.”
While the Muslim families here make Holikas ahead of Holi, they also make effigies of Ravana ahead of Dusshera. “The Ravanas are rather more difficult to make. For the rest of the year, we make decorations for temples and mosques,” Wasim said.
Asked of his experience during the riots last year, Yunus said, “Buddhi bhrasht ho jaati hai logon ki (people go out of their minds) in time of riots. No one wants riots. These are all politically motivated, and everyone only suffers a loss. Thankfully for us, every time communal tension happens here, Hindu friends ask me to move to a safer place and take responsibility for my shop.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Meerut / by Sandeep Rai / March 03rd, 2015
Online booking for huts started in Katarniya Ghats
Giving an impetus to eco tourism Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has asked officials to start online booking of huts in Katarniya ghats and Kakraha with immediate effect so that wildlife lovers can visit these places.
“The way online booking of huts in Motipur has started similarly online booking for katarniya ghat should start,” Yadav said in a statement issued here on Tuesday.
Kakraha and Motipur are part of Katarniya ghat wild resort. He also gave a direction to Principal Secretary Forest asking him to implement policies that can make a balance between Tourism and wildlife. “The visitors should also be shown a picture highlighting ecology and wild life,” he said.
source: http://www.dailypioneer.com / The Pioneer / Home> State Editions> Lucknow / by Biswajeet – PNS / Wednesday – December 17th, 2014
Muzzafar Ali and Dimple Yadav attend Oudh Fashion Summit in Lucknow
Pehnawa – The Oudh Fashion Summit-2014, was organized by CII-Yi, Lucknow Chapter, in the city recently.
Muzzafar Ali, who was the guest of honour for the event, earned many wah-wahs for his lines on Lucknow: “Nazakat aur nafasat tujhe virasat mein mili hai, naaz hai humein tujhpe pe ae Lucknow.”
The chief guest on the occasion, MP Dimple Yadav took note of the suggestions made by panelists to improve the work conditions for craftsmen working in the fashion industry, and promised to bring them to her husband and UP CM Akhilesh Yadav’s notice. “Work has already started on courses to train workers in chikankari,” she said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Akash Wadhwa, TNN / December 14th, 2014
In a first, book fair at Lucknow Mahotsava
Lucknow :
Denizens would see the confluence of Book Fair and Lucknow Mahotsava this year. The Book Fair titled ‘Gaagar mein Saagar’ will have books written by national and international authors and span across 3,000 square feet in the Mahotsava venue.
Lucknowites can expect to witness a blend of technology and culture at the Mahotsava which begins on October 25.
For the first time in the history of the festival, drones would maintain a close watch on the Mahotsava venue and its adjacent localities.
The 2014 edition of Lucknow Mahotsava is also likely to have online ticketing for the visitors, a facility, which would help citizens to book their tickets in advance from their homes or offices. District administration officials say that the online ticketing system may resemble the online ticket booking system of cinema halls, and is likely have different payment options.
The organisers this time are also planning to introduce a system of punching the passes that are issued for the entire duration of the Lucknow Mahotsava.
“In order to stop the blatant misuse of single pass by many persons, we are planning to put in place a mechanism by which the passes would be punched at the time of arrival at the entry points, so that the same pass cannot be used on the same day by different persons,” DM Rajshekhar said.
In the previous editions of the Lucknow Mahotsava, people who had managed to get a vehicle pass instead of pasting it on the vehicle used to flash it at the entry point to the cops to gain entry into the Mahotsava venue.
Arunav.Sinha@timesgroup.com
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Arunav Sinha, TNN / October 24th, 2014
Keeping alive the memory of Begum Akhtar
As the Centre rolled out a year-long commemoration of the birth centenary year of ghazal queen Begum Akhtar on Tuesday, the lament of her disciples and close confidantes is that Uttar Pradesh – the State where she was born and lies buried – has shown no interest in keeping her legacy alive.
Coins released
The official launch of the birth centenary commemoration with the release of commemorative coins at National Museum here saw another disciple Rita Ganguly enthral the houseful gathering with a rendition of her teacher’s aye mohabbat tere anjaam pe rona aaya…’’
But for recent efforts by individuals to salvage what remains of `Pasanda Bagh’ in Lucknow – where Begum Akhtar was buried in October 1974 – even her grave would have been lost to encroachers. Now, the space around her grave and that of her mother’s has been restored — courtesy a grant from the Department of Archaeology of the Government of India – and this evening resonated with the voice of Shubha Mudgal.
“But not many people will be able to attend Shubha’s musical offering as `Pasanda Bagh’ has shrunk to almost the size of a room where not more than 40 people can be accommodated. Our effort is to have an annual ‘Urs’ on her ‘barsi’ but we need a bigger venue so that the public can participate in larger numbers. But this is not something that the few of us can do on our own,’’ said Salim Kidwai, founder-member of Sadbhavna Trust.
“We maintain the mazaar from our own pocket,’’ Mr. Kidwai said; adding that successive Uttar Pradesh governments ignored efforts to get some local governmental support. “We are hoping that the State Government will at least include her mazaar in the tourism map as people have begun visiting it ever since we redid the place two years ago.”
Website soon
Vocalist Shanti Hiranand – a disciple of Begum Akhtar who along with Mr. Kidwai drove the effort to restore the mazaar — told The Hindu that one of the pressing tasks ahead is the setting up of a website on the ghazal queen who was equally accomplished in the `dadra’ and `thumri’ genres of Hindustani classical music. The website will be set up as part of a project of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts which will also organise a three-city showcase of Begum Akhtar as part of the commemoration.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Anita Joshua / New Delhi, October 08th, 2014
Needed in Aligarh, bookstores
Aligarh :
Reading The Fault in Our Stars, now that social media is abuzz with talks of the film adaptation of the book, maybe a tad difficult if you live in Aligarh. Despite the city being home to one of the country’s most prestigious educational institutions – Aligarh Muslim University – the absence of a good bookshops selling fiction, non-fiction or, for that matter, anything beyond prescribed reading material for students is quite a telling let-down.
“The city has somehow never really felt the need to have the kind of arrangement where you can go and buy fiction in a store that’s well-furnished with eclectic literary offerings,” says Shubhangini, a CAT aspirant. “Although there is not much of a choice when it comes to book shopping, it doesn’t mean people in Aligarh are not aware of the current scenario in the world of literature. Popular books can be procured through some of the stores by placing an order and paying a commission.”
There are nearly 100 bookshops functioning for decades in Aligarh, but they mostly cater to the madrassa-going students and sell Urdu literature. And almost all stores stock reading material that help in preparations for competitive examinations. This leaves the lover of fiction/non-fiction with little choice but to tap online sources or place an order at a bookshop, which may take anywhere between a week and 10 days (depending on availability) to deliver. The other option is to travel down to Delhi or the National Capital Region and go on a book shopping spree or, if one is a student, rely on AMU libraries to satiate the inner bibliophile.
Though education fairs are common in Aligarh, book fairs are few and far between. “It is a small city without much tourist inflow. So, there are not many stores that sell popular books. There are far more education fairs than book fairs here,” says Sandeep Choudhury, who recently organized an education fair in the city.
Students being on the look-out for better opportunities and job prospects have prompted even the oldest bookstore in the city – Malviya Pustakalaya – to stock books for competitive exams and recruitment tests. Malviya Pustakalaya, incidentally, has one of the most valuable collections of literature, religion, philosophy and Hindi novels.
“These were ordered, so we got them,” says Sanjeev Agarwal of Vimal Book Store, pointing to a stack of popular fiction and non-fiction reading material. It was only recently that 1 % of the shop’s stocks began comprising authors like Arundhati Roy and William Dalrymple. “Earlier, there used to be a store selling fiction but now it has shut down, probably because of dipping sales.”
However, what makes Aligarh unique to bookworms is its repository of Urdu literature. Home to a substantial number of madrassa and AMU students, the city’s stores have an enviable collection of fiction and non-fiction by Faiz, Firaq and Ghalib. “Urdu works are most popular as a lot of retired professors or students from madrassas or AMU reside here,” says Asad Faisal Farooqui, who frequents the Education BookHouse established in 1927.
“It is interesting to see modern English literature being translated into Urdu for them,” he says, adding, “Students have bought Urdu translations of books by Jaswant Singh, Irfan Habib and also religious texts, including translations of the Bhagvad Gita.”
However, the trend does not go beyond prescribed reading material or books talked about in popular media. As Ashok Kuckreja of Aligarh Law Books, says, “Students buy what their professors recommend, which may be pertinent to one’s course but may not help build a larger reading repertoire.”
The experienced bookseller rues never being asked for books by, say, legal humourist Marc Galanter or by the likes of AP Herbert. “Not even 1% of that genre is ordered here, I have tried so many times to bring to their notice the works of Edward Heward on Lord Denning, John Mortimer’s ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ and Krishna Swamy’s work on V R Krishna Iyer, but there is no interest,” Kuckreja says.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Agra / by Eram Agha, TNN / September 22nd, 2014
Carpet weavers want Sant Ravi Das Nagar reverted to old name Bhadohi, cite GI tag
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SUMMARY
The place, meanwhile, has retained its earlier name in popular lingo and commonplace scenarios.
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The carpet manufacturers of Sant Ravi Das Nagar have met Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, demanding that the district’s name be reverted to its old name — Bhadohi. They have pointed out the difficulties in doing business owing to their product — carpets — being more famously associated with the district’s former name.
“The Geographical Indication tag accorded to our products is ‘hand-made carpets of Bhadohi’. The Intellectual Property rights are also in the name of Bhadohi. (Both these facilities protect and help develop a brand for the flagging carpet industry). It is Bhadohi carpets that are famous worldwide. So it makes sense to retain the old name of the place,” Secretary of All-India Carpet Manufacturers’ Association (AICMA), Tanvir Hussain told The Indian Express over phone.
Sant Ravi Das Nagar, before being carved out as the 65th district of UP on June 30, 1994, used to be part of Varanasi as Bhadohi. The then BSP government of Mayawati named the new district, which has since remained an issue for the carpet weavers who, in 2010, had their GI tag issued, too, under the old name.
“A delegation of our association, led by president Vinay Kapoor, met the CM on July 7 in Lucknow. Bhadohi MLA (from Samajwadi Party) Zahid Beg was also with us. We demanded that the district be named back to what it was before as it is causing problems in our businesses,” Hussain said.
The place, meanwhile, has retained its earlier name in popular lingo and commonplace scenarios. In official communications, however, it finds mention as SRD Nagar.
“Old timers still use Bhadohi in daily communications. But it is new entrants to our business base, particularly those outside the country, who tend to get confused. Also, GI tag is an official initiative. Therefore, a different name leads to confusion or even disputes,” Hussain said. He claimed that Akhilesh, during the meeting, has assured that he will promptly consider the matter.
When the ruling SP government took charge in 2012, it renamed eight districts that the Mayawati government had changed during its regime. Interestingly, SRD Nagar, too, was on the list along with other eight – Amethi (BSP had named it Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar), Kanpur Dehat (Ramabai Nagar), Sambhal (Bheem Nagar), Shamli (Prabuddha Nagar) and Hapur (Panchsheel Nagar).
“Somehow, things did not work out for Bhadohi (SRD Nagar) then. We are hopeful that the change will now be brought soon,” said Hussain. While district magistrate N S Pandey could not be contacted, a spokesperson said that any official communication in this regard is awaited.
Former president of AICMA, Omkar Nath Mishra, who quit recently after completing his two terms, said: “This issue (of name change) was earlier discussed with local representatives. A few letters, too, were written to the government. Nothing much happened though.”
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Cities> Lucknow / by Prashant Pandey / Lucknow – July 16th, 2014