The world famous ‘Tunday Kebab’ of Lucknow has been caught in Rs 50 crore lawsuit over trade infringement.
Mohammad Muslim, who runs the ‘Lucknow Wale Tunday Kebabi’ chain of restaurants in Lucknow and beyond and is maternal grandson of the legendary one armed chef, late Haji Murad Ali ‘Tunday’, has sued the food chain’s current owner Mohammad Usman for trade infringement staking claim over the popular brand.
The Civil Judge (Senior Division) Ashok Kumar has asked Usman who runs restaurants in the name of ‘Tunday Kababi’ to come with his reply into the matter. The next hearing is on September 27.
Muslim has alleged that Usman has created the controversy over the inheritance of the chain of restaurants famous for melt-in-the-mouth Kebabs and other non-vegetarian delicacies. He said being the relative of the late Haji Murad Ali Tunday, he had every right to be part of the business.
“I am the real kin of Haji Murad Ali. We are running Lucknow Wale Tundey in Lucknow and outside for quite some time now,” Muslim said.
Contradicting Muslim’s claim, Usman said that the former was not directly related to Lucknow Wale Tunday. He said he came from Saudi Arabia and fraudulently used the brand name of Tunday Kebabs in Lucknow with his partner.
“He has no blood relation with use. I will fight it in court,” he added.
What started with a small shop in the old Lucknow city, Tunday is now a huge business empire with outlets in several parts of the city and outside.
source: http://www.news18.com / News18 / Home> English> News> Uttar Pradesh / by Gulam Jeelani / Monday – September 22nd, 2014
As part of its initiative to revive its lost glory, Hindustani Academy has started publishing rare out of print Hindi and Urdu literary books of the pre-Independence era. The first in the series is a book on legendry king Raja Bhoj.
Raja Bhoj’s ‘Coronation millennium year’ was celebrated in 2011 in Madhya Pradesh for one year. A book, ‘Raja Bhoj’ written by Ramagya Dwivedi ‘Sameer’ was published once in 1932. It was selected to be published.
The publication of two other rare books of the third decade of last century, ‘Awadh Kosh’ (1934) and ‘Prayag Pradeep’ (1937) have also started rolling and are expected to hit book shelves.
Prayag Pradeep was stated to be an exhaustive description of the socio-political history of Allahabad, documented by Shaligram Srivastava in 1937.
Sunil Jogi, chairman of the academy said the books would provide a good reading material for the readers as well as research scholars.
“The ‘Awadh Kosh’ published once in 1934 and written by Ramagya Dwivedi ‘Sameer’ is another book worth reading and incorporates the socio-geographic status of regions coming under the then Awadh, the districts of Faizabad, Lucknow, Pratapgarh, Allahabad, Shravasti, Sultanpur, Unnao and Kanpur,” Jogi added.
It may be mentioned here that Hindustani Academy, established in January 1927, publishes, promotes books in Hindi and Urdu. Till 80s, the academy used to buzz with literary discussions with stalwarts like Mahadevi Verma, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Jagdish Gupta and others regularly participating in debate. The Academy also holds seminars, talks and lectures for the promotion of the two languages.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Allahabad / by Vinod Khanal, TNN / September 18th, 2014
Jitu Rai gestures after winning the men’s 50m pistol individual final of the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon on September 20, 2014. (AFP Photo)
Incheon :
India’s most in-form shooter Jitu Rai gave the country its first gold medal in the 17th Asian Games, cutting through a tough field to finish on top in the 50m pistol event on Saturday.
Medal Tally
The world number five showed tremendous grit and concentration to beat back the challenge from strong contenders like Wang Zhiwei of China and South Korea’s two-time Olympic champion and reigning world champion Jongoh to win the gold.
In fact both Zhiwei and Jongoh were eliminated in the race early on leaving only the Indian ace and unheralded Vietnamese Hoang Phuong Nguyen fighting for the gold.
It needed the last set of shots to decide the issue in favour of Rai. He shot 8.4 after the nervous Vietnamese was way off the mark to fire a poor 5.8 to win the gold.
Fresh from his 50m Pistol silver in the World Championships, the Lucknow-based marksman completed a grand double as he had won a gold in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow earlier this year.
He thus became only the second Indian pistol shooter to clinch an Asian Games title after Jaspal Rana and the fourth shooter overall after shotgun experts Randhir Singh in 1978 and Ronjan Sodhi in 2010.
Rai said he badly wanted to win the gold here. “I wanted to win this gold badly and was under a lot of pressure. The competition here was even more than in the Commonwealth Games or the World Championship. I am happy that I could fulfill my wish,” he said.
He qualified seventh for the final with a tally of 559. National pistol coach Pavel Smirnov later praised Rai, describing him as a very strong character.
“He’s very strong mentally. There had been lot of competitions this year leading into the Games, the CWG, the world championships. He’s mentally strong and that’s why he could do it,” he said.
The shooting and archery team’s mental trainer Vaibhav Agashe said the fact that 27-year-old Rai is from the army is of tremendous help and said he was among the fittest in the shooting fraternity.
“He’s physically very fit. Muscle control is important,” said Agashe pointing out to the back-to-back competitions for Rai.
In the edge of the seat thriller that the final proved to be, Rai had to climb from the lower order to get into the medal round. When 14 shots were completed only four were left standing for the count: Rai, Nguyen, his compatriot Hoang Xuan Vien and China’s Wang Zhiwei.
This was the time the Indian ace showed his true colours by shooting 9.9 and 10.7 to keep himself in medal contention. Hoang and Zhiwei got successively eliminated by the end of the 16th and 18th shots leaving Rai to fight for the gold with Nguyen.
Nguyen, in fact, led the Indian by 0.7 points after the 18th shot, but in the last series of two shots, lost his nerves and the chance for the title.
While the Vietnamese came up with scores of 8.7 and a shocking 5.8, a clear case of nerves, the steely-handed Indian brought off a stunning 9.6 and then sealed the gold with an 8.4.
This was his sixth medal on the trot in international competitions this year, including the gold medal in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and silver in the Granada World Championship — in the 50m range.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Sports> Tournaments> Asian Games 2014 / PTI / September 20th, 2014
She broke the glass ceiling many a time, from being the first woman to enter any Class-I civil service to becoming the first IRS officer to be appointed as a UPSC member, to being the only woman to have worked in the Central Narcotics Department.
After donning multiple hats during her long career, it was another proud moment for Parveen Talha, when she was conferred the Padma Shri award on Saturday for her contribution to the Civil Services.
But the road to success wasn’t easy for Talha and her biggest hurdle was to overcome the anti-women mindset of her bosses at the initial stages of her career.
“It is indeed a proud moment for me but I am grateful to my bosses too. Though I had to initially deal with their anti-women mindset when I joined services 45 years ago, after a few years I was able to prove that I could handle the tricky jobs as efficiently as my male colleagues,” Talha told PTI.
70-year-old Talha joined the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) in 1969 where she worked for 35 years and was then picked up as a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in 2004.
“Once my bosses began to trust in my capabilities, I started getting challenging assignments including posting as Deputy Narcotics Commissioner in Uttar Pradesh,” she said.
“There was a large-scale leakage of opium going on in UP then. While I tried my best to play a stringent officer dealing with certain illegal channels, poppy cultivators were surprised too because they had never seen a woman at that level,” she added.
By halting for days in the cultivation areas and delving deep into the processes of poppy cultivation from sowing to lancing and harvesting, she gathered foolproof intelligence which was put to good use by her hand-picked preventive parties.
During her posting in UP and Bihar in 1990s, she attached illegally acquired property worth millions of rupees belonging to smugglers and drug traffickers, risking her life.
While she was posted as the Director General Training in 2002, Talha provided strategic vision to the Department of Customs and Central Excise in evolving comprehensive packages of programmers for technical capacity building of all cadres and service providers.
Talha, who was honoured with the President Award for “Specially Distinguished Record of Service” in 2000, also has a penchant for writing.
She has written ‘Fida-e-Lucknow’, a collection of 22 short stories, besides writing the script for the serial ‘Husn-e-Jana’ directed by Muzaffar Ali.
“I find there are stories in every nook and corner that are waiting to be told. So I will pursue my passion for writing now that I am a retired person,” she said.
source: http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook / Home> News / New Delhi – April 27th, 2014
The house in which founder of Kathak Kendra of UP and winner President’s award Pandit Lachchhu Maharaj was born lies in a state of shocking neglect. Famous as Kalka Bindadin Maharaj ji ki Dyodi (Jhaulal ka Pul), the house where the legendary Kathak dancer and choreographer was born is in a miserable state, though the government once promised to turn it into a museum.
He hailed from an illustrious family of Kathak exponents in Lucknow (1907-1978), recipient of the prestigious President’s and Sangeet Natak Akademi award Lachhu Maharaj and also the founder director of the Kathak Kendra of Uttar Pradesh, the government of Uttar Pradesh has done absolutely nothing to keep his memories alive. Even the promise of turning his house into a museum made by the state government remains unfulfilled.
Kathak doyen’s nephew Pandit Birju Maharaj too said he had been trying hard to get the house converted into a tourist place but so far he has only received false promises from the parties in power.
“This year, I have requested the Chief Minister to consider with priority the proposal of preserving the house as a museum. I hope some positive results come out soon,” said Pandit Birju Maharaj.
Lachhu Maharaj’s first disciple in Lucknow, Kumkum Adarsh, a popular city-based Kathak dancer and the maestro’s niece Rameshwari Mishra too have been championing the cause. Speaking to TOI, Rameshwari Mishra, who lives in another portion of the same house, said “It gives me immense pain to see the pathetic condition of the house of the legendary artiste who contributed so much to the field of Awadh’s culture.”
She said around 15 years back, during its previous regime, Samajwadi Party mooted the idea of creating a museum in his name but nothing has been done so far.
“If you visit the government flat of Gulistan colony in which Lachchhu Maharaj breathed his last, you will find a rusted ‘sarkari taala’ on the door,” she added.
Kumkum Adarsh, who has been organising an award function in memory of her favorite mentor on his birth anniversary September 1 since 1998, feels her ustad has not been given the recognition he deserved in his home state.
“I am disappointed that no one has actually done anything to keep his memories alive and the pitiable state of the portion of the house he was born and lived in shows the government’s callous attitude,” she rued.
Besides his family and disciples, city-based historian Yogesh Pravin and short-story writer Aisha Siddiqui are also of the view that it is high time people came forward and took up the issue. “Even today there are hundreds of fans of Lachchhu Maharaj across the globe. I still recall how students who came from all over the country would say ‘hum maharaj ji ki dyodi ko choomna chahte hain”, said Yogesh Pravin. “The government must preserve the memories of legendary artists not only as a form of honour to the person but also so that the future generation remains attached to the city’s rich culture and heritage,” said Aisha Siddiqui.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> India / by Uzma Talha, TNN / September 01st, 2014
A total of sixty-one Mughal-era silver coins with Arabic inscriptions imprinted on them have been found from an earthen pot near the bank of river Ganga in Cantonment area in Kanpur.
The coins were found last evening when a few kids had gone to the river Ganga’s wharf in Cantonment area to take bath where they found an earthen pot filled with shining coins in it, police said.
Ram Kishan Das, a priest at the wharf, after knowing the incident, informed police and Army officials which then took the relics under its authority and has informed Archaeological Survey of India about the coins, Major CP Bhadola said.
ASI has conducted a search at the site and sent a preliminary report to their Lucknow office, an official said.
“The coins have some inscriptions on it in Arabic script, we are guessing that these might belong to the Mughal era,” ASI officer Manoj Verma said.
source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> News> India / Place: Kanpur, Agency: PTI / Saturday – September 13th, 2014
The G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, today honored its former student, United States Chief Agricultural Negotiator Ambassador Islam A. Siddiqui, with an honorary degree of Doctor of Science. The degree was conferred upon Ambassador Siddiqui in recognition of his contributions to agricultural research and development, as well as agricultural trade policy development and his work’s influence on world agriculture.
“I feel humbled and honored at the same time to be receiving this honorary degree of Doctor of Science. Thousands of agricultural scientists, engineers, and veterinarians graduating from Pantnagar and sister universities provided the foot soldiers to make the Green Revolution a reality. This massive technology transfer of modern agricultural practices – combining education, research, and extension — turned India from a net food importing country to a food exporting nation. As a student of the first batch of this great institution when it opened its doors 51 years ago, I had not imagined in my wildest dreams that one day I would receive this prestigious award.”
Ambassador Siddiqui was born in Haldwani, Uttar Pradesh and attended G.B. Pant University before taking a scholarship at the University of Illinois in the United States. Throughout his career, he has advocated for international cooperation, technology transfer, capacity building, and new technology development to achieve food security in the 21st century.
source: http://www.newdelhi.usembassy.gov / Embassy of the United States, New Delhi, India / Home> News & Events> Press Releases / New Delhi – May 20th, 2011
Centuries before Peter Stillman the elder, the eccentric/insane professor in the first part of Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy, had conducted a ghastly linguistic experiment on his son by locking him up in a dark, empty room from birth to find out his ‘natural’ language, a famous Indian emperor had supervised a similar research in real life. In the outskirts of Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar kept a ‘dumb house’, where babies were reared by dumb wet nurses: the emperor wanted to ascertain what language they would speak once they grew up under these laboratory conditions. Disappointingly, the experiment failed, and the children were found to have acquired no god-given or natural language when they were visited a few years later.
This incident may suggest that Akbar was a cruel man but the moral judgment would overlook his keen scientific temperament — this disposition had also led him to order the mating of a goat and a deer. The same urge to look beyond the given and to find out what happens when boundaries are crossed must have inspired him to create Din-i-Ilahi, the syncretic religion that still speaks volumes for that progressive man who could think of a faith combining elements from several existing religions in the 16th century. Akbar’s character, as analysed by Lucy Peck in FATEHPUR SIKRI: REVISITING AKBAR’S MASTERPIECE (Roli, Rs 795), is as intriguing as this palace complex built by the emperor over years and then, suddenly abandoned. Peck revisits the old mystery surrounding Akbar’s unexpected moving of court from Fatehpur Sikri, and although she doesn’t join the dots, the solution seems to lurk somewhere in the emperor’s character rather than in material causes, like the alleged shortage of water there.
Peck’s Akbar is an artist, with all the attendant symptoms and characteristics of artisthood. He seems perfectly capabale of believing six contradictory things before breakfast. However, that may well be because the Akbar about whom we read now is a construct of texts by three different people with different agendas — Abul Fazl, who is all-praise for the emperor; Badauni, who, displeased by Akbar’s religious tolerance and out of favour in the court as a result, is embittered; and the Jesuit priest, Monserrate, whose account is seemingly unbiased because it is by an outsider. Sifting through their stories, Peck presents a flamboyant Akbar whose interests range from block-printing, carpet-weaving, taming elephants, flying pigeons to settling his subjects’ disputes hands-on, debating tirelessly on religious issues, sometimes throughout the night. He is possibly an epileptic — given his frequent trances — a dyslexic and an opium eater, subject to bingeing bouts. He spends nights meditating alone on a rock, seeking answers to life’s questions. Add to this driven, excessive nature the emperor’s prerogative, and one can begin to fathom why, for instance, he ordered the dumb house experiment or built a place like Fatehpur Sikri, with its eccentric blend of varied styles, its mix of austerity and extravagance. As Peck writes of the buildings of Fatehpur: “[They] reveal themselves to be remarkably disparate. One can well imagine Akbar hearing about or seeing an unusual building and saying, ‘I’ll have one of those.’”
Top right is an illustration of the diverse designs that come together in Fatehpur Sikri. The grapevines look European while the pattern on the right panel resembles the stringed decorations that Hindus hang from the top of door frames on festive occasions. Left shows Akbar in the Ibadat Khana, where he held the discussions with people of other faiths that eventually resulted in Din-i-Ilahi. Bottom left is the tank on the banks of which Akbar’s courtiers had met on the emperor’s birthday in 1582 to celebrate the occasion with games of chaupar, chess and cards. Akbar had looked on with mixed feelings at such frivolities until disaster struck: a side of the tank collapsed and the water swept downhill, washing away settlements. The breathtaking ceiling of the Royal Baths is on bottom right.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> Opinion> Story / by Anusua Mukherjee / Friday – September 05th, 2014
Atul Verma won India its first Olympic archery medal — a bronze — at the Youth Olympic Games at Nanjing on Tuesday.
The boy from Barabanki (Uttar Pradesh) downed Turkey’s Mete Gozoz 6-4 (29-28, 30-29, 27-27, 29-30, 29-29) in the play-off. Ranked No. 2 in the qualification round, Atul was 4-2 ahead in the semifinals against eventual silver medallist, Marcus D’Almeida of Brazil. The Indian, however, failed to hold his nerve and went on to lose 4-6 (28-28, 30-28, 28-28, 27-29, 27-28).
The gold went to Korean Lee Woo Seok, who got the better of D’Almeida 7-3 in the final.
Verma will be joining the Pune-based Army Sports Institute on his return, said India coach Ravi Shankar, who spotted his talent. “We are very proud of his achievement,” said National coaches, Shankar and Dharmendra Tiwari.
The sport’s first Dronacharya, Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, echoed the sentiment. “We have won medals at the World, Asian and Commonwealth levels, but an Olympic medal kept eluding us. Atul’s bronze is a great achievement and should go a long way in motivating youngsters to take up the sport,” he said.
Unbelievable
“It is a fantastic achievement,” said the former secretary-general of the Archery Association of India, P.N. Mukherjee. “I just can’t believe that India has won an Olympic medal in archery.”
Coach Ashok Kumar Yadav, who transformed the youngster into an Olympic medal winner, said Verma was one of the 20 boys at the UP Sports Hostel in Sonbhadra, a town 108 km away from Banaras.
“But for the contribution of District Magistrate Pandari Yadav and sports officer Atul Sinha, it wouldn’t have been possible for us to produce an Olympic medallist,” said Yadav.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sports> Other Sports / by Special Correspondent / Kolkata – August 26th, 2014
After financial assistance from Ministry of Culture towards conservation of the magnificent Khursheed Manzil, the La Martiniere Girls’ College looks up to its alumni to contribute towards converting the historical structure into a museum. The conservation work began in mid-June.
In the general body meeting of the La Martiniere Girls’ Alumni Association held recently, the school management had asked alumni to contribute towards renovation of Khursheed Manzil.
Principal Farida Abraham said “a museum is being prepared to preserve all old records and documents so that students present and past can relate more closely with the college’s glorious past.” Public will get a closer look at the antique remnants of this 200-year-old landmark, she added.
The grand museum will spread across three rooms comprising staff dining hall, drawing room and verandah, and would be adjacent to the principal’s office. The museum will exhibit the treasure trove of the historic college.
In an attempt to restore the pristine glory, the college had approached Union ministry of culture with a proposal. In May, the ministry sanctioned Rs 48 lakh. The total project outlay is around Rs 3 crore.
Conservation architect Ashish Srivastava said “the building was in a shambles. During excavation work, the college found pottery, good collection of books and paintings, picture plates dating back to pre-Independence years and other documents like shield, comments by old Martinians, etc.”
The college also plans to set the clock back. A drawbridge that led to the building in the past will be put in place so that visitors get a feel of the 18th century castle. This structure was witness to some stubborn fighting during the first War of Independence in 1857.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Isha Jain, TNN / September 09th, 2014
