Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Problems of Fellowship Awardees of the Latest Batches: Request Regarding: A Letter to UGC

Date: 27/04/2016

Dr. Sunita Siwach

Deputy Secretary, SA-III

University Grants Commission (UGC)

Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi – 110002


Sub: Problems of Fellowship Awardees of the Latest Batches: Request Regarding

Dear Madam,


My name is Abu Saleh. I am a research scholar at the University of Hyderabad. Since there are many problems regarding fellowships I have decided that every week I will write a letter to you. These are pertinent issues regarding fellowships which scholars of various schemes are facing. Last week, I wrote to you about the Gap Period in between M. Phil and PhD. I hope you took a note of that and work accordingly. This week I seek your attention towards the problems of researchers of the newly selected batches.


It's been months that the results 2015-16 and 2016-17 batches of RGNF, MANF, NFST and so on are declared. Following it, the selected scholars are supposed to submit the required documents in the nearest Canara Bank. It has been reported that many branches of the Canara Bank are not accepting documents from the scholars.


We fear that probably the UGC Fellowship Section has not sent the selected lists of students to the Canara Bank. If that is so then please send the lists to the Bank as early as possible and order them to process fellowships for the new batches. Please instruct that all the branches to start accepting documents, upload them and release the fellowships soon.


Further, in the award letter of 2016-17 batch of MANF, it has been indicated that fellowship will be from April 2016 whereas in the case of some other schemes, for the same batch it is/was different. This has created confusion among the scholars. Thus, please clarify that from when fellowship of 2016-17 batch will start.


I am sure you are aware of this. I am hopeful that you will surely do something positive regarding the problems of the students of the newly selected batches.


Thank you.


Abu Saleh

CCL, University of Hyderabad

Gachibowli, Hyderabad – 500046

abusaleh@uohyd.ac.in/ 09494242645


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Thanks & Regards:

Abu Saleh
PhD Research Scholar @ Centre for Comparative Literature (CCL)
School of Humanities, University of Hyderabad (UoH), India.
Mobile: +91 94 94 24 26 45

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Indian Ladies of ‘Muslim’ Origion Married with People of ‘Other Religions’

Found this in Facebook and thought to share. Because many a time, people try to communalise inter religion marriages saying only 'Hindu' girls are married to 'Muslim' men and 'Muslim' girls do not marry 'Hindu' boys. They keep referring marriages of SRK, Amir and Saif.
So, here is a list which might break the general understanding. And I am sure there will be hundreds more. These are the names of only popular figures and the elite class. This shows it's just not an issue about men of this side or women of that side. It's about choice. They aren't fools unlike many narrow-minded. They chose it because they liked it. So, it's time to overcome all the stupid arguments and just appreciate these courageous acts.
1. Actor Sunil Dutt married Nargis, a Muslim. Their son Sanjay is now married to Dilnawaz Sheikh (screen name Manyata).
2. Actor Hritik Roshan married Suzanne Khan, daughter of actor Sanjay Khan (Actual name Abbas Khan).
3. Actor Atul Agnihotri married Alvira Khan, actor Salman Khan's Sister and Salim Khan's daughter.
4. Actor Feroz Khan's daughter Laila Khan Rajpal married Rohit Rajpal.
5. Urdu author Krishan Chander married Salma Siddiqui.
6. One of the three daughters of politician Najma Heptullah (niece of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad) is married to a Hindu.
7. Former Sheriff of Mumbai, Nana Chudasama is a Hindu Gujarati Rajput married Munaira Jasdanvala, a Muslim . They have two children- Akshay and Shaina, both of whom are married to Hindus. Shaina (popularly known as Shaina NC) is national spokesperson BJP .
8. Actor Sanjay Khan's daughter Simone Khan is married to Ajay Arora (and other daughter Suzanne to Hritik Roshan)
9. Actor Aditya Pancholi is married to actor Zarina Wahab.
10. Cricketer Ajit Agarkar, a Maharashtrian Brahmin, is married to Fatima Ghadially.
11. Actor Sunil Shetty is married to Mana Qadri, daughter of a reputed Muslim architect of Mumbai.
12. Congress MP Sachin Pilot, son of Late Rajesh Pilot is married to Sarah Abdullah, Daughter of Former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah.
13. Actor Govinda's father, small time actor Arun Ahuja married Nazeem, later known as Nirmala Devi (Govinda's mother).
14. Zubeida, a Muslim girl from a prominent Mumbai family was pushed into marrying a Muslim youth in 1947. The husband divorced her when she refused to migrate to Pakistan with him. She later married Hanuwant Singh, the then Maharaja of Jodhpur. Both later died in an unexplained air crash. She was the mother of film critic-turned director Khalid Mohammed ('Fizaa', 'Tehzeeb', 'Silsilay'). Khalid wrote the script of film 'Zubeida' which was directed by Shyam Benegal with Karishma Kapur in the title role.
15. Director/Choreographer Farah Khan married director-editor Shirish Kunder.
16. Gangster turned Politician Arun Gawli from Mumbai married a Muslim lady named Ayesha who later took up the name Asha.
17. Manoj Bajpai married actor Shabana Raza whose screen name was Neha. She made her debut in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 'Kareeb' opposite Bobby Deol.
18. Nayyara Mirza, Miss India finalist of 1967, was the first Muslim to participate in the pageant. She converted to Hinduism after marriage and became Nalini Patel. She is settled in the USA.
19. Noted English writer Anil Dharkar is married to Imtiaz, a Pakistani Muslim. Their daughter Ayesha is an actor who came to limelight with Santosh Sivan's film 'The Terrorist' where she played a suicide bomber.
20. Legendary actor Waheeda Rahman married Shashi Rekhi, the Punjabi Hindu actor who acted opposite her in the film 'Shagun'. (His screen name was Kamaljeet).
21. Choreographer Saroj Khan got married at young age to bollywood dance master B Sohanlal. They had 2 kids, Kuku and Choreographer Raju Khan (also director of the film 'Showbiz').
22. Raj Babbar married stage actress Nadira Zaheer, daughter of Communist parents.
23. Actress – activist Nafisa Ali, a former Miss India, is married to Colonel (retired) Sodhi, a Sikh .
24. Hindi writer Nasira Sharma is a Muslim married to a Hindu.
25. Yesteryear's actor Mumtaz married Mayur Madhvani, a businessman. Mumtaz's sister, Mallika married Dara Singh's brother, Randhawa who featured in many stunt films of 60′s.
26. The ex Naval Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat is married to Niloufer .
27. Actor-singer Kishore Kumar married Madhubala (real name Mumtaz Begum) in 1960. Madhubala's sister Zahida married music director Brij Bhushan Sahni .
28. Sir VS Naipaul, Trinidad based writer of International reputation, is a Hindu (of Indian origin) married to a Pakistani Muslim called Nadia.
29. Actor Asha Parekh's father was a Gujarati Hindu and mother, a Muslim.
30. The niece of actor Raza Murad, Sonam (actual name Bakhtawar), best known as the 'Tridev' girl, married Rajeev Rai, producer and director of that film.
31. Soha Ali Khan is married to Kunal Khemu.

{PS: This note is not mine. I just added one or two. Neither, I claim that all facts will be right. There might be one or two mistakes but since the names are of popular domains, it seems mostly we know and might be correct}

--
Thanks & Regards:

Abu Saleh
PhD Research Scholar @ Centre for Comparative Literature (CCL)
School of Humanities, University of Hyderabad (UoH), India.
Mobile: +91 94 94 24 26 45

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Rule Regarding the Gap Period in Between M. Phil and PhD: Request to Scrap It

Date: 21/04/2016

Dr. Sunita Siwach

Deputy Secretary, SA-III

University Grants Commission (UGC)

Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi – 110002


Sub: Rule Regarding the Gap Period in Between M. Phil and PhD: Request to Scrap It


Dear Madam,


My name is Abu Saleh. I am a research scholar at the University of Hyderabad. I am writing to you about the Rule Regarding the Gap Period in between M. Phil and PhD for the researchers. It has been in practice throughout last few years. On 08th January 2015, you have issued a fresh circular for the same (No. 17-1/2011(SA-III/Policy/Pt. File). Even though the notice indicates that the rule is for RGNF SC/ST, it has been applied to scholars of many other schemes funded by different funding bodies. This is quite surprising.


Anyway, I would like to inform you that this particular rule is very much problematic since it is exclusionary. Many scholars are victim of this because getting PhD admission within one academic year after M. Phil is quite challenging. Some universities ask for M. Phil result to get into PhD. In such scenario it becomes pathetic. I know many scholars who are facing this problem and losing their fellowship since they are not able to join PhD within the stipulated time. For the sake of admission, many students move to state and small universities or even private universities to save their fellowship. So they are forced to compromise with their choice of workplace and quality education.


Moreover, I found that women scholars are the main victim of this problematic rule. By the time of M. Phil many get married. Many families do not allow their daughters/daughters in-laws/ wives to move to another place to do research. Many become mother by this age. They keep waiting to get into their nearby institution and lose their fellowship because of this rule. The recent announcement by the HRM regarding flexibility towards women and differently abled candidates contradicts this rule.

In these contexts, I request you to please take back the rule since it is exclusionary in nature and also against the objectives of these fellowship schemes. Securing a PhD seat for a SC, ST, Minority or a disabled student is not an easy task.


Please give enough time to the scholars, at least 2 to 3 years minimum in between M. Phil and PhD. Please don't compel them to compromise in their choices of workplace. Please do not deduct the gap period time from the total fellowship time of 5 years. Please make sure that they do not lose their fellowship which they got in much difficulty.

I hope you keep getting requests for the gap extensions and know all these problems well. I am hopeful that a person like you will surely do something positive regarding this.


Eagerly waiting for a fresh notice for the same.


Thank you.


Abu Saleh

CCL, University of Hyderabad

Gachibowli, Hyderabad – 500046

abusaleh@uohyd.ac.in/ 09494242645


--
Thanks & Regards:

Abu Saleh
PhD Research Scholar @ Centre for Comparative Literature (CCL)
School of Humanities, University of Hyderabad (UoH), India.
Mobile: +91 94 94 24 26 45