Is Mumtaz Mahal’s body mummified in Taj Mahal?

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

TajMahalMPOs30jan2015

The mystery surrounding Mumtaz Mahal’s burial at the Taj Mahal has deepened with a book claiming that her body was mummified.

Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built the 17th century Taj Mahal here in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz who died while giving birth to their 14th child in Burhanpur, a town in what is now Maharashtra.

“The real truth about Taj Mahal was suppressed. If the truth had been revealed when Taj Mahal was being built, it would have become almost impossible to construct the monument,” Afsar Ahmad, author of the controversial e-book “Taj Mahal or Mummy Mahal” (Self-published, 200 pp, Rs.150), told IANS.

The journalist-turned-writer has also disclosed in the book what he claims are several unknown facts related to Mumtaz’s death.

The book has details about Mumtaz’s death and her last few days – and details the mummification of her body. Mumtaz was buried thrice – twice in a depository and then the final one.

But how was her body preserved during the period? Did the Mughals use the method of the ancient Egypt or was it some other procedure? Did the Mughal have a ritual of preserving dead bodies? But the biggest question the book tries to answer is if Mumtaz’s body is still preserved.

Ahmed said he wants to lift the veil and mystery surrounding the death and subsequent burial of Mumtaz.

Shah Jahan’s court writers could have shed light on the entire incident, but they could not do so as they were under instructions not to reveal anything which showed the emperor in poor light.

The author said the reader has the right to know the truth behind Mumtaz’s death and burial.

The e-book also tries to find answers if the Mughal only followed Islamic rituals and the different methods of burial. The book is available on Amazon in the Kindle format.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> National / IANS / Agra – January 28th, 2015

Bravehearts of police force to receive gallantry award today

Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All

Lucknow :

Six personnel of the Uttar Pradesh Police were shortlisted for gallantry award on the occasion of Republic Day. The highest police honor for bravery in the course of duty has been awarded to these personnel in three different cases of counters held in the recent past.

The most publicised encounter of the three was incidentally captured live by news crews in Allahabad in which a criminal who had come to gun down a rival ended up blowing the head of a police head constable with a hand grenade when the latter tried stop him during a routine vehicle checking drive near district court in civil lines area on September 18, 2006.

One of them, Pintoo Misra, was chased and gunned down after a fierce gun battle and another associate was arrested while kingpin Babloo Misra fled from the spot along with others and planned to kill Dy SP Rahul Srivastav but was gunned down in exchange of fire with police three months later.

The footage of the encounter which showed an accused waving his hands to surrender when he was gunned down raked up a controversy and the incident was debated on all news channels at the national level for about a week. It was only after independent inquiries from CB CID and NHRC gave a clean chit to the police that the gallantry awards were recommended.

With 40 encounters to his credit, DySP Rahul is presently posted with chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s security details.

Inspector general Bareilly Zone Vijay Singh Meena, Superintendent of police (SP) Varanasi Joginder Singh, Sub Inspectors Bind Kumar and Shashi Bhushan Rai along with Head Constable Ashok Kumar Singh were awarded for their role in an encounter in Mau in which crimimals have taken a family hostage to evade police but were gunned down.

Inspector SKS Pratap has been awarded for gallantry he displayed in an encounter in Noida.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / January 26th, 2015

Dreams take wings at IIT-Kanpur workshop

Education, Science & Technology

Kanpur :

The two-day free aero-modelling workshop, organised by international aerospace company Boeing, in association with Techkriti 2015 of IIT-Kanpur concluded at the airstrip of the institute on Sunday. The focus of the workshop was to introduce students to the exciting field of aero-modelling.

Senior executive of Techkriti, the annual technical festival of IIT-K and secretary of Aero-modelling Club of the institute, Shubham Mittal, said that the workshop was divided in two parts: Basic trainer aircraft and aerobatic aircraft (advanced). Teams with some experience in aero-modelling were allowed to participate in advanced workshop but no experience was required for the basic workshop, he said.

Boeing National Aero-modelling Competition comprises a workshop and a zonal competition followed by a national championship among winners from all four zones of India, he added.

Shubham said that this was a golden opportunity for students from all fields of engineering to work on real-life challenges, develop new ideas, manage a full scale engineering project and finally manufacture it as per personal design.

A total of 108 participants from 30 different colleges of the country participated in this workshop, forming 28 teams. The teams had come from institutions like Kanpur Institute of Technology, BBD Lucknow, United College of Allahabad, Amity University of Lucknow, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum, Maharaja College of Tamil Nadu, etc.

Shubham said that a lecture session was held to give some basic knowledge of aero-modelling by the IIT Kanpur professors Shantanu Bhattacharya and Sudhir Kamle. After the lecture, students were brought to OAT, New Sac to build their planes. The teams were provided mentors to help them in fabricating the planes. The mentors were the members of Aero-modelling Club, IIT-Kanpur. There were around 13 mentors including three coordinators of the club.

On Sunday after the completion of planes, they were brought to the airstrip of IIT-Kanpur where they were tested for flying. Every plane was successfully flown. The flyer was Chirag Jha, Coordinator Aero-modelling Club, IIT Kanpur.

Certificates were provided to all the teams after the workshop. The teams also utilised this opportunity by visiting advanced facilities of IIT-Kanpur like Flight Lab, Airstrip, etc. The workshop was a huge success, claimed the organizer.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kanpur / by Abhinav Malhotra, TNN / January 13th, 2015

Arts College exhibition a treat to behold

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

Lucknow :

Peeping from behind the colourful kites a single leaf enclosed in a fish bowl put up amidst the dried burnt out soil subtly exhorts spectators to think hard over the rampant deforestation. Somewhere near the entrance of the Kala Mela, a poster read, ‘Say it loud even if your voice shakes’ referring to crimes against women. With all things artsy and introspective, the three-day Kala Mela at Arts College began, organised under the Lucknow University’s convocation week.

“We wanted the viewers to not just experience art but also think about issues that govern all our lives, which was the concept we followed in our installation too,” shared Ria Ghosh whose four-member team had set up one of the installation.

With the inauguration of the fair cum exhibit, as many as 2,000 art works of students from both bachelors and masters degree have been put up on display that can be procured too. “The exhibits are in a way to provide the young artists a platform and suitable exposure to find their creative heights,” informed Principal P Rajivnayan.

Kala Mela has an exhaustive amount of artwork and installation ranging from earth work to drawing, painting, sketching, textile design, sculpture, pottery, commercial art, photography, wash painting, ceramic, digital print, jewelry amongst others. The fair will be running till January 20 for all residents to have a piece of art in the city.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / January 19th, 2015

UP’s woman IPS scales S American peak

Leaders, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

Lucknow :

Aparna Kumar is the first woman IPS officer from Uttar Pradesh to scale Mount Aconcagua, the highest mountain peak of South American.

Aparna, who had earlier scaled Carstensz, the highest peak in Indonesia, achieved this feat on January 15, inspector general (law and order) A Satish Ganesh said on Tuesday.

At the height of 23,000 feet, Mount Aconcagua is considered the most difficult to scale, he said, adding that Kumar unfurled the Indian and UP Police flag on the peak. Kumar has also successfully scaled Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, said the IG, adding that Aparna’s achievements will encourage more, especially girls, to take up adventure sports.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / January 21st, 2015

IIT-K 1980 batch reunion begins

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Leaders

Kanpur :

The three-day reunion will end on Sunday. The former students turned up to take part in the alumni meet.

Immediately after their arrival, these IITians shifted focus and moved on the campus which had undergone a major change. Later, they assembled for lunch where they recalled the good old days and shared the memories. They also narrated their experiences of life after IIT.

Ravindra Prakash Dubey, MD of private company, who passed out from mechanical engineering department, spoke about the future of solar energy for drawing power. His company deals in renewable energy. He said that by 2022, the country will be generating 20,000 megawatts of solar power. At present, Gujarat is the only state which is producing 1,000 megawatts of power, followed by Rajasthan. He said that Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh has a capacity to generate solar power, keeping in view the maximum sunlight this area receives. He said that solar energy is the future of the country.

Pradeep D Praiskh, who also passed out from mechanical engineering department, said that he liked PM’s ‘Make In India’ slogan but this could succeed only when the government machinery is made to function properly. He mentioned that no major government project could be a hit unless the government machinery is on right track. He said that PM seems to have a vision for the country.

Another alumnus Pankaj Jalote and his friends had a good time together. Many ex-IITians giggled and had fun. They made the most of their time in enjoying the reunion.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kanpur / TNN / January 10th, 2015

Mughal era museum near Taj soon

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

Agra:

A museum dedicated to the Mughal era will come up in the vicinity of the Taj Mahal at an estimated cost of Rs 10 crore, and the construction work is likely to begin next year.

The proposed museum will be built near Shilpagram parking on the East Gate side of the monument. The land currently belongs to the state electricity department.

According to information, the project’s funding will be partly taken from the corpus granted by the World Bank under the pro-poor tourism development program. The program is aimed at improving infrastructure for tourists in order to generate revenue and employment in the state. The World Bank (WB) has reportedly loaned out Rs 1,800 crore to the country for the development of the Agra-Braj corridor. Rs 10 crore, amount needed for the building of the museum, will be taken from that amount.

Director general (DG) tourism Amrit Abhijat said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) would most likely be signed by the WB, the Central government and the UP government by September 2015. Construction work will start within a year after that. The state cabinet has reportedly given its approval fro the project in principle.

“The museum will have Mughal-era artefacts, armours, textiles and arms on display. The WB wants it to be developed on the lines of international museums. A detail project report (DPR) is under process,” Abhijat said, adding that foreign expertise will be sought to develop the museum.

The DG informed that besides the museum, there is also a plan to create an art gallery to promote trademark products of the city. Stone works, carpets and sweets, especially petha, will be on display at the gallery. There will also be a section from where tourists can buy finished products.

The centre will be built on the lines of Swiss museums, wherein they showcase the intricacies of cheese manufacturing. Similarly, tourists visiting the centre can learn about how carpets have been woven since the time of the Mughals. Petha production will be explained too.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Agra / by Aditya Dev, TNN / January 13th, 2015

Now, get your photo on postal stamp

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Allahabad :

The Department of Post is all set to allow people to have their photograph on postage stamp meant for official use. This facility will be available at the upcoming two-day Allahabad Philatelic Exhibition (Allaphilex-2015) starting this Friday.

People keen to use the ‘My Stamp’ will have to fill a form and submit it which his/her photograph along with Rs 300. The department will scan the photograph and prepare a postal stamp of Rs 5 denomination. The department will also offer ‘spot clicking’ facility. Later, the applicant would be provided with a sheet containing 12 photographed postal stamps

These stamps could be used to send mail anywhere in the country. However, the facility will be available for living persons only.

Allahabad region’s postal service director Krishna Kumar Yadav said, “Postal department will organize the exhibition at the Art Gallery of North Central Zone Cultural Centre where this facility will be made available.” He further said that this facility is already available in four cities of the state — Lucknow, Agra, Varanasi and Fatehpur Sikri.

He said a number of valuable stamps from around the world will also be displayed in the exhibition. City-based philatelists and those from across the country would showcase their collection of postage stamps and other philatelic materials.

Yadav said that people would also get acquainted with the story behind various stamps. Further youth would be encouraged to develop interest in philately.

During the exhibition philatelic workshops, letter writing, stamp design and quiz competitions would be organized to attract youth and schoolchildren.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Allahabad / TNN /January 08th, 2015

Surgery for epilepsy now available in city

Records, All, Science & Technology

Lucknow :

A team of doctors at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences has undertaken surgery to help a patient get rid of epilepsy. So far, epileptic surgery has been limited to only a few centers in the country including Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvanthanapuram, and National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru.

Secretary of Indian Epilepsy Association’s UP chapter, Prof Atul Aggarwal said that surgical intervention for management of epilepsy in patients who have not responded to medication is an upcoming area of neurology in India. “Only a few centers in the country attempted this because it involves high-level of coordination between neurologist, neurosurgeon, radiologist, anesthetist and psychologist. A facility in Lucknow will surely help patients in the state,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of the team, neurosurgeon Dr Arun Srivastava said, “The surgery was undertaken on a 25-year-old girl who came to us with complaints of partial seizures that could not be controlled by four epilepsy-control drugs.”

He added that the head of neurology Dr UK Mishra and his team examined the patient and referred her for surgery to Dr Sanjay Behari and team. They in turn roped in neuro-radiologist Dr Shashi Srivstava to study the patient’s brain and identify the epilepsy trigger point.

“The patient benefited significantly from the procedure called selective amygdalohippocampectomy which means removal of the problem-causing portions in areas of the inner brain. At the time of discharge, the number of epileptic episodes reduced to just one from 4-5 per day,” he said.

Doctors in SGPGI also believe that patients heading to their center will have to spend 25-30% less than what they would have to pay at the other centers. Head of neurosurgery department, King George’s Medical University, Prof BK Ojha said that their department too was in the process of developing surgical facilities for epilepsy at their center. “Our doctors are undergoing the required training for this,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Shailvee Sharda, TNN / January 05th, 2015

Our name and recipe was patented in 1995

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Records, All, Travel

Tunday kababi wins trademark infringement case

The most popular pit stop for all visitors to Lucknow, be it film stars, politicians or even tourists, is the Tunday Kabab shop. But not just for the outsiders, but for the city folk too, it had become increasingly difficult to differentiate the real from the copies, with kebab shops by the name of Tunday mushrooming all over the city in the last few years. But after Mohd Usman, grandson of the legendary Tunday or Haji Murad Ali won a case filed against him for infringement of trademark by his khala’s (paternal aunt) son, Mohd Muslim, who owns Lucknow Wale Tunday Kababi’s chain of restaurants, all shops bearing the name Tunday and not belonging to Usman had to take their signs down on Monday . They will now have to change the names of their outlets.

Muslim claimed that the name ‘Tunday’ belonged to him and his family and they were the rightful owners of it and anyone else using the name was doing so illegally . But in December 2014, the Delhi High Court declared Usman the rightful owner of the name ‘Tunday’.

The lineage

Haji Murad Ali, a one-handed royal khansama from Bhopal made the Galwati kababs and paranthas world famous and several shops in his name had sprung up in Lucknow and outside of it. Mohd Usman, who holds the patent of Tunday , is Murad’s brother’s son, as Ali himself had no children.

“It was our grandfather who started Tunday . Although I don’t remember much of him but my father tells us tales of how he used to work with one hand. The 109-year-old legacy of our grandfather was being misused and maligned. We had to put a stop to that. Allah has bestowed his blessings on us as we have won the case.It’s nothing else but the blessings of our dada jaan,” says Usman.

The patent and the problem

“We had got the name’Tunday’ patented in 1995, so no one could use the name without our permission or without our franchise. We had also got the secret recipe patented a decade back,” he says, adding, “Mere dada jaan ne, unke baad mere walid saab ne itni mehnat se yeh naam aur iski shaan banayi thi. Hamari origi nal dukaan Chowk mein Akbari Gate ke paas hai, aur 1996 main humne Aminabad wali dukaan shuru ki.”

Not happy with the circumstances that led to this lawsuit, Usman says, “It’s not nice when people within the family fight but I was forced to take this step as it was affecting the reputation of my forefathers. People would come up to me and complain about bad quality food being served at these outlets in our name. Ab main kitne logon ko batata ki yeh asli Tunday Kababi nahi hai?” says he. What also irked Usman was that tourists and celebrities were often taken for a ride, and led to the fake Tunday kabab outlets instead of the original ones.”Kitni baar hum akhbaar mein hi padhte thay ki falan-falan celebrity Faizabad Road ya Gomti Nagar gaya.Yeh log toh tourists ko bhi mislead kar rahe thay,” says Usman. He’s right on the mark. In November 2012, celebrity chef Vikas Khanna had promoted a TV show at the Faizabad Road outlet, which had to remove the Tunday signage on Monday .

Apart from Chowk and Aminabad, the other original Tunday outlets are at Kapoorthala, Alambagh, Kanpur Road, Telibagh, Rahim Nagar and Sahara Ganj.

In August 2014, Usman filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court to prevent anyone from using his grandfather’s name. “Those people – my khala’s family, went to court last year and filed a case against us for trademark infringement and demanded a compensation of 50 lakh from us, but now that they have lost the case, we are demanding a compensation of `20 lakh from them for misusing our grandfather’s name and bringing it ill repute,” says Usman, “Now it’s time for them to get worried,” says he with a smile.

Board of contention

The restaurants in Lucknow that had to take down their signboards displaying the name of Tunday are those in Vivek Khand, Gomti Nagar, Sapru Marg, Faizabad Road, Aashiana, apart from the one in Kanpur and in Raebareli.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Itishree Misra, TNN / January 07th, 2015