Monthly Archives: September 2014

Jhansi celebrates Dadda’s b’th anniv with sports meet

Sports

Several events were held in the city to mark 109th birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand in his hometown Jhansi. The day is observed as National Sports Day.

District Athletic Association organized a 21-km half marathon which witnessed participation of more than 500 girls and boys from different parts of the state. Jhansi SSP Shivsagar Singh flagged off the event at Bundelkhand University. Prizes were distributed by varsity’s vice-chancellor Avinash Chandra Pandey.

Ravindra Kumar of Lucknow won the half-marathon, while Sugriv Gupta of Ballia stood second. Muzaffarnagar’s Sunil Kumar came third. International athlete and organizer of the event Arjun Singh said that it was the sixth consecutive half-marathon organized to commemorate the day. Special prizes and gift coupons were also given away to attract local students.

Finals of two different groups (14 years and 18 years) of ongoing hockey tournament were played at Senior Railway Institute. Secretary, railway institute, Brijendra Yadav said that a sports fortnight is organized every year to commemorate the day. Chess, hockey, boxing, cross-country race, billiards and football tournaments are also organized.

Tribute was also paid to hockey wizard by various social organizations. Social worker Neeti Shastri and other persons garlanded Major Dhyan Chand’s statue at his favourite Heros Ground, the place where he used to practice in his younger days.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Allahabad / by Arindam Ghosh, TNN / August 30th, 2014

LMGC moves alumnae to restore Khursheed Manzil

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All

Lucknow :

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

Gateway to ancient wisdom on verge of closing

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All

Lucknow:

Hindutva may be the flavour of the day, but there are no takers for Hindu mathematics in Lucknow University. This section of the Mathematics department of Lucknow University is virtually closed. It neither has expert faculty, nor students to carry forward research on invaluable transcripts on Astronomy and Algebra authored by great Hindu mathematicians till 1800 AD, which the world recognizes as masterpieces. Major reason for the faculty’s closure is that to study these documents one has to be well-versed in Sanskrit as well as a master of mathematics, which is a rare combination. Paucity of funds has just added to the woes.

Former section in charge Aruna Nigam who headed the department till 2009 says “the section has rare collection of work in mathematics. A lot of awareness is needed to revive the section.” She adds the last student of this department was Japanese national T Ohashi, who came a decade ago to study Indian astronomy. On how Hindu mathematics differs from Vedic mathematics, she said the former has been practiced from 2nd century AD while the latter dates only around 5,000 years Before Christ.

Present caretaker Poonam Sharma who took charge six months back said “these days nobody opts for Hindu mathematics because it does not fetch the kind of money other careers do.”

The section has a unique distinction in that it possesses around 52 priceless transcripts of original manuscripts written by Hindu mathematicians. There are three photocopies of the original work penned by Brahmagupta, ‘Sput Siddhanta’, in 620AD, brought from England and three microfilms in Bengali on algebra and mathematics. Formed in 1939 by A N Singh, the first Indian LU head of the math department, the section does not receive any grant, neither from the University Grants Commission nor state government.

Most transcripts are in Sanskrit and regional languages and they are on astronomy. “This was basically because the people then were particularly fascinated by Astrology and Astronomical wonders,” said Nigam. “That’s why we were world leaders in Astronomy till 1500AD, she said, adding arithmetic, algebra and geometry developed as byproducts of astronomy.

Some of the rare collections here are: ‘Aryabhattiyan’ by Aryabhatt (495 AD), Bahad Jatak by Varahmihir (6th century AD) and Sridharacharya’s Pati Ganit and Dholi Karma. Nigam said very few know there were two Bhaskaracharyas. Bhaskaracharya I (620 AD) was the astronomer and Bhaskaracharya II (1156 AD) the author of ‘Leelavati’. This was brought to light by English mathematician Colebrooke in the 18th century, she informed. She also challenged the popular belief that Leelavati was daughter of Bhaskaracharya II. “Bhaskaracharya used the name Leelavati for explaining mathematical problems, we have no proof weather she was an imaginary figure, disciple or daughter of the scholar”, she added.

Hoping that the section would be revived, former head of maths department, Ram Nivas informed “we had zero, decimal system concept of ‘infinity’ much before the world came to know about it.” Bodhayan derived Pythagoras theorem and calculated the value of pie in 800 BC. Through ‘Surya Siddhanta’ they had calculated distance of sun from earth. They knew about number of planets, their motions, causes of eclipses and trigonometry. ‘Theory of Indeterminants’ was in Indian mathematics since 5th century, while the world developed it after 13th century.

Aryabhatt (495 AD) was the first to discover that earth moves round the sun (west to east) by observing movements of boats. These scholars could read time accurately by measuring inclination of sun rays. They also knew about ‘principal governing observatories’, informed experts. Geometry was known as Dholi Sutra (since it was measured by threads) and arithmetic as ‘Dhool Karma’ and ‘Pati Ganit’ (since calculations were done on sand and wooden planks).

Nigam during her term took up the arduous task to translate these in English. Five books are already available in the department. “It’s unfortunately that the section is now closed,” she added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Isha Jain, TNN / September 01st, 2014

‘Ballia independence’ commemorated

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All

Varanasi :

In order to commemorate the historic event when ‘Baghi Ballia’ had declared Independence from British rule in 1942, hundreds of local residents assembled at the district jail on Tuesday. The gate of jail was opened for a while. A procession was taken out across the town.

On August 19, 1942, thousands of people of Ballia proceeded to jail to free their leaders imprisoned during Quit India movement. They were armed with guns, lathis and spears. The gate of the jail was opened and the political prisoners were freed. It was the historic victory of Ballia. People had taken control of the town and they declared ‘Independence’ for Ballia on August 20, 1942. A government headed by Chittu Pandey was formed. Every year, on August 19, people carry out procession from the district jail and hold meeting at Bapu Bhawan to celebrate the victory.

People uprising in Ballia began soon after the arrest of Congress leaders taking part in Quit India movement. On August 10, 1942, all the schools were closed and people continued to take out processions. On August 13, Bilthara Road railway station was attacked and the building was burnt. On August 16, Rasra treasury was attacked and two days later the police station at Bairia was attacked. The station officer had removed the Tricolour, which the freedom fighters hoisted on August 15. At least 20 persons were killed and several others injured in police firing.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Varanasi / TNN / August 19th, 2014

1000-year-old palm leaf manuscripts on Buddha’s life yet to be deciphered

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All

Allahabad :

A treasure trove of 1000-year-old palm leaves manuscripts related to the life of Lord Gautam Buddha and around two lakh documents revealing 180 years of history of erstwhile princely Rampur State are still awaiting to get deciphered here at regional archive office (RAO) even after a gap of 60 years.

The palm leaves and hand-made paper manuscripts around 200 in numbers were recently put in an exhibition at a school here by the RAO but their contents could not be known as the visitors did not know about the language of the manuscripts.

“Efforts on the part of the government to decipher the language are lacking. Neither the officials nor academicians visiting here had any knowledge of the contents put on the display. If deciphered, the manuscripts may threw light on the life thousands of years back,” said one of the event organiser.

Amit Agnihotri, Regional Archive Officer said, “We came to know about the manuscripts related to Lord Buddha after seeing his picture on the leaves. The writing resembles with those that are prevalent in coastal India. So, we assumed it to be 1000-year-old. We do not know much more than that as only scholars can decipher the writing”. Similar is in the case of two lakh documents of erstwhile RampurState.

In the beginning of 2013, Regional Archive Office here had forwarded a proposal to the state government demanding recruitment of at least four Persian and English scholars who could read and decipher the files of Rampur state in its possession.

RAO already suffering from staff crunch, became active only after Rampur’s Raza Library—autonomous body of the Central government, wrote to the then governor BL Joshi for taking the documents in its possession for making them available for readers after deciphering them. But no progress has been made till date.

Amit Agnihotri said, “Very little is known about the Rampur state which had represented the Indian states in three Round Table conferences, Khilafat Movement and had maintained a close relationship with the Britishers. A deep study of the documents can reveal more about the socio-political, military and cultural aspects of the state which actively took part in the First War of Independence in 1857 and later continued to support the British during the Indian freedom movement.”

He further said Rampur state had represented other princely states on various occasions so the outcome from the study of the files would have definitely helped in putting the things in sequence in the history of Northern India.

Rampur princely state came into being in 1770 and was merged in India after independence in 1947. Its rulers had been the stooge of Britishers and did not play any role in the Indian freedom movements in the 20th century.

“The documents mainly comprising of correspondence with the Britishers, the princely states among others would give a detailed view on the political and military relationship it shared with them. The students, scholars and historians will be benefited a lot if the files gets catalogued,” added Agnihotri.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Allahabad / by Vinod Khanal, TNN / September 02nd, 2014

Too many people visit Meerut’s govt libraries, but not for books

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Meerut:

It was dark in the middle of the afternoon, the fans weren’t moving. Despite soaring temperatures, there was no drinking water. The fear of losing her vehicle was running at the back of her mind. Akanksha Verma, 22 finally decided to get out of one of the four government libraries in the city.

“One of my friends told me about this place (Raajkiya Swatantrata Sangraam Sangrahlaya). She said there was a library here. I visited it a couple of times with my friends for group studies but later gave up the idea as this place does not have electricity most of the time. It even lacks basic facilities such as clean drinking water and parking space,” she says.

The city has four government libraries: District library, Cantt library, Tilak library and the one in Raajkiya Swatantra Sangraam Sangrahlaya. All four lack basic infrastructure and facilities, and give you a feel of ancient times.

Interestingly, the bookshelves in these reading rooms look old and untouched. “That’s because the collection here hasn’t been updated for decades. It seems that the authorities don’t want people to read beyond freedom struggle and independence. I have also visited Tilak library, but only to prepare for CA and not for reading books,” says Akanksha.

A random visit to one of these libraries suggests that there is no dearth of students coming here. But very few of them actually get books issued or check out the collection. Achin Kumar, an SSC aspirant, who has been coming to Raajkiya Swatantra Sangraam Sangrahlaya for the last one and a half years, says, “The only reading material I require are competition books, which I have purchased already. The library has old books and I am not interested in them. So I bring my own books each time I come here.”

RK Chauhan, who is the librarian at Tilak library, which was established 128 years ago, claims that as many as 500 books come to the library every year. “But all of them are sent by the Nagar Nigam. Only a few of them interest today’s youngsters. The Nigam spends around Rs 80,000 for these books each year.”

However, there are some good private libraries in the city that are flocked by people from all age groups on a daily basis. “I have been a member here since I was eight years old. It has books for all sorts of people. I see a lot of kids and senior citizens coming and spending hours here,” says 22 years old Isha Tyagi at one of the popular private libraries.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Meerut / Ishita Bhatia / August 31st, 2014

100 grand years of glory

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence

Lucknow :

The premises of Bengali Club are blessed. This Durga puja, the Club will mark 100 years of its association with the deity.

Elaborate celebrations would mark the momentous occasion for the Club which is the most sought after in the city during puja celebrations. One of the things that make Bengali Club unique is the platform over which Goddess Durga’s deity is installed.

“The kathamo (base) to install the deity has been here since 1914, when the tradition of puja started here,” says Arun Banerjee, the club’s general secretary. The kathamo is made of sakhu wood and has been repaired only twice in the past 100 years. Due to this connection, people feel the deity’s presence throughout the year.

Besides, this is the only pandal where the Durga idol is made on the same premises. From the bamboo skeleton to the clay structure to chiselling of contours and filling the idol with colourful expressions and draping the deity in accessories, the soil of Bengali Club sees the deity coming alive.

“The work begins about two months before the Puja and we work for more than eight hours every day,” says Niloy Pal, the chief artist who has been making idols for Bengali Club for 10 years.

Mother Durga never comes alone. Her children, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartikeya always accompany her. In most pandals, the idols are made separately and then brought together on the day of praan pratishtha.

“On our premises, they come and go together. Only a few puja samitis have kept this tradition alive till now,” says Manindra Nath Pal (Mantu Dada), the eldest and oldest member of Bengali Club.

The puja samiti has kept some age-old traditions such as sindur khela and darpan visarjan alive even now. One of the most interesting ones includes making the idol with a portion of clay from the doorstep of a prostitute. “Our artisans ensure that this message of social inclusion continues to be given even now,” claims Banerjee.

“It suggests inclusion of otherwise ostracised members of society. It is believed that this soil is virtuous because people visiting ‘houses of vice’ leave their virtues outside the door, making the soil here pure. Besides being a fertility ritual, the tradition is seen as a way to purge prostitutes of their “sins”. Finally, it is a way to honour ‘courtesans’ traditionally famed for their proficiency in the arts,” describes, Swapan Paul, an artisan who has closely studied puja and its rituals.

The Bengali Club has also picked up the best thing from Lucknow – its Ganga-Jamuni tehzib. Muslims play an important role in organizing the puja.

Journey of faith:

1901: Atul Krishna Sinha comes to Lucknow for a job and sets up an institution promoting Bengali art and culture. It was called Bengali Youngmen’s Association and operated as a small group of like-minded people from a house in Sundarbagh and then from Shivaji Marg.

1914: The club procures the Hewett Road property and formally starts The Bengali Club. The association started organizing Durga Puja and other cultural events there.

1929: The Bengali Club and Bengali Youngmen’s Association merge and get registered under the Societies Act.

1938: Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose comes to the club and expresses happiness over the effort.

1964: The Club Starts the tradition of Mahalaya, the characteristic singing of Chandipaath.

Immortal stories

THE TOUCH OF TAGORE: In the early 1930s, Rabindranath Tagore came to Lucknow and visited his friend AP Sen, the president of Bengali Club. Poetry was the common thread between them. Tagore, who was slated to visit the Bengali Club but could not, also wrote a poem called Ashirwad for his friend.

BLESSED BY BOSE: The place has been touched by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. He visited the club as president of the Congress Committee in 1938. He spoke to them about the freedom struggle and appreciated the effort of the locals in preserving cultural roots.

TAKING PUJA TO COMMON DOMAIN: The city owes the tradition of Durga puja to Bengali Club. The present committees may be seen as offshoots of the Club. Till 1980, idols for all puja samitis were made on the premises of the Bengali Club. “It was an awesome sight to see dozens of Durga idols incarnating for a mega celebration,” recalls, Arup Sanyal, one of the oldest Club members.

THE DEVOUT PM: Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee regularly visited Bengali Club including the time when he was PM. “When his security started clearing the crowd as per protocol, Vajpayee intervened and said everyone was equal in the eyes of the deity and went in as a commoner,” recalls, Arun Banerjee, who escorted him as general secretary.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Shailvee Sharda, TNN / September 04th, 2014

Going Green’ to benefit weavers

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, World Opinion

Varanasi:

In order to promote eco-friendly textile, particularly in handloom sector, ‘Green Textile Consultation’ has been started by Human Welfare Association, in collaboration with European Commission, Trade-Craft and All India Artisans Craft Welfare Association (AIACWA), New Delhi. The first consultation, under the banner of ‘Going Green’ was held on Thursday.

According to organisers, most weavers are not getting true value of their labour due to lack of specific branding. The weavers can get benefit in global market because of the concept of green textile, which was based on organic and natural colours and hand embroidery. They are demanding to link it with ‘Green Mark’ as a symbol of authenticity of the Indian handloom products.

“Chinese handloom machines are capturing the market and snatching the livelihood of traditional weavers, but if Green Mark is considered by the government, it will prove to be beneficial for weavers,” said Rajni Kant of HWA. Another aspect of ‘Going Green’ is that the artisans and weavers, who are involved in the handloom and craft sectors, also get attached with carbon credit. The use of natural things will not cause harm to the environment and through it, weavers can increase their financial stability. The powerlooms, using electricity and fuels for machines, pollute the environment by emitting carbon, while handloom sector does not use such polluting elements so they must be paid for saving the environment. He said that the Going Green concept has been launched in Lucknow, which is widely known for chikan embroidery and Varanasi known for its silk sarees. This programme already exists in Rajasthan.

According to Ravi Karka of AIACWA, Going Green project is a new initiative in Varanasi that will help the Banarasi handloom weavers in international market. Mayank Trivedi, research coordinator of AIACWA said that in the first phase, 5,000 weavers and craftsmen would be linked directly with the project.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Varanasi / August 21st, 2014

Firag Gorakhpuri remembered

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Gorakhpur:

Birth anniversary celebrations of Urdu poet Firaq Gorakhpuri were held at several places in the city on Thursday.

Members of Chitragupt Sabha garlanded the statue of Firaq Gorakhpuri in Daudpur and also organized a seminar in the evening in the conference hall of Chitragupt Mandir.

Social worker Ashok Srivastava garlanded the statue of Firaq. A seminar and a mushaira were also held.

Raghupati Sahai, known by his pen name, Firaq Gorakhpuri, was born on August 28, 1896 in Miyan Bazaar area in Gorakhpur. Azim Farooqi, a research scholar of Urdu, said: “People remember Firaq as a great Urdu poet but very few know that he was a freedom fighter too. He left his position of deputy collector and became member of Congress and went jail in 1920 along with Jawaharlal Nehru. He also contested in election with Shibbon Lal Saxena Party in 1952 against Mahant Digvijay Nath, the then head priest of Gorakhnath temple.”

Chitragupt Sabha president Atul Srivastava said: “Bahut pehle se un qadmon ki ahat jaan lete hain, Tujhe ai zindagi hum door se pehchan lete hain. Firaq Gorakhpur was a genius and great poet. Firaq Sahab is known for Urdu poetry but he was also English lecturer in Allahabad University. He passed ICS examination but resigned and joined freedom struggle. He was awarded Gyanpeeth Award, Sahitya Academy Award and Padam Bhushan Award in 1969 for his creation ‘Gule Nagma’.”

Pravir Arya of Madan Mohan Malviya Technical University said: “He was a prolific writer of Urdu and English. He added Gorakhpur in his name. We can proudly say that we belong to the place where Firaq used to live. He gave an international recognition to Gorakhpur.”

Speaking on the style of Firaq’s writing, poet Mohammad Husain Qayal said: “Firaq was an institution in himself. He has command over Urdu, Persian, Hindi and English. He was a great poet but a loner as his personal grief is reflected in his poetries. He had a troubled married life and his children also died.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Varanasi / by Arjumand Bano, TNN / August 28th, 2014

Octogenarian makes dictionary of bacronyms

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All, World Opinion

Agra :

For octogenarian BD Bhargava, playing with words is a passion. This toothless and frail, yet dynamic man has created what he calls the world’s first and only dictionary of bacronyms. According to Wikipedia, a bacronym is “a specially constructed acronym created to fit an existing word.”

Bhargava, who is a resident of Kamla Nagar, has more than 4,000 bacronyms in his collection. The man who runs several blogs which are being followed by many teachers and students, is now planning to take his magical world of ‘words’ a step ahead.

“After playing much with words, I am playing with pictures these days. I think picture speak much more than words. This is the reason why I am inculcating graphics and pictures in my bacronyms blog and it is more attractive and easy to grasp now,” he added.

Talking about the term backronym, Bhargava said it comes from a combination of the words “back” and “acronym,” because bacronyms are essentially acronyms in reverse. While acronyms list just the initial letter of a word phrase (e.g., “FBI”), a bacronym takes the letters of a word, and makes a word phrase using those letters.

“There are two necessary things about bacronyms. The first is that the word phrase should explain the meaning of the original word. The second is that the words must start with the letters of the original word in a sequential order. For example, EAR = Earliest Audio Receiver,” he said.

Talking about the idea behind creation of his bacronym dictionary, Bhargava said he got this idea from a book ‘crazy english’ by Richard Ledrerand. “The book was magical and hit my heart. It made me think that we have a lot to play with words. And I started playing with them. Initially, I worked on small sentences but my wife and kids motivated me to go ahead with what I started, somewhere in 1996 and since then I am making bacronyms,” he added.

His son-in-law created websites for Bhargawa and later, he also started writing his own blog which has caught the attention of academicians.

The octogenarian said he had delivered special lectures in schools and institutes based in New Delhi and even abroad, but has not yet been approached by schools of his own town. “I want to share this with school kids, its fun and easy to learn,” said Bhargava.

Commenting on the hard work needed in making up bacronyms, he said it takes him three to four days to select the best possible words to form one such acronym. Adding relevant pictures is also an uphill task for Bhargava, who is unable to concentrate on computer screen due to his old age.

“Nothing is said now that hath not been said before. I am not being modest. Most of what we say (or write) has been said (or written) before. The only claim to originality that I would like to make is about bacronyms. They are my idea and my creation. I can claim that my dictionary with more than 4000 bacronyms is the world’s first and only dictionary of its kind,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Agra / Ishita Mishra, TNN / August 31st, 2014