Illegal Hall Dues charged by the Sulaiman Hall Administration

These days exams are going on in full swing. I often visit the Sulaiman Hall Canteen to have a cup of tea and a French( Fren Tost pronounced by the workers there) Toast to take a break from my studies.

Recently I met this guy from the Faculty of Engineering Syed Md. Jawed Husain, B.Tech II, of En No-GC7049 at the same place who was ruminating about something which literally shocked me to the core. I asked myself, is this possible? Has the Hall Administration forgotten all its power and duties? If in such way Hall Administration at AMU would deal with the students then it may always led to another Bab-E-Syed revolt.

As told me by Jawed, when he applied for the Central Minority Scholarship last year he was not receiving any other scholarship at that moment. However when Rs.19,702 was sanctioned to him this year from Central Minority Scholarship Programme at that moment he has already been awarded Sultana Jahan Scholarship( Washington D.C) of Rs.5000 and Krishna Engineering Schoolarship Rs.3000.

So the Scholarship advisor wrote in his Scholarship claim paper to surrender both the last two scholarships in order to receive the Central Minority Scholarship he has already been awarded.

As the Office of the Provost also send a copy of Hall Dues imposed upon any student if any Hall Fees remain, as the Scholarship Section get it subtracted from the Scholarship the student receiving that moment. So Sulaiman Hall administration claimed in the performa that this student is not receiving any Scholarship at that moment but have his due Hall Fees of a vast amount of Rs.8000 that he has to submit before Semester exam.

Now the interesting point is that the Hall Administration has filled the column of Hall Amenities with the Fee Amount Rs. 7000( against the Rs.70 fixed by AMU authority) and C&G/RR as Rs.1000( against Rs.35 fixed by AMU authority) and also we can see they were going to charge the student Rs.3000 more as Unforeseen but later stepped back( cutting marks we can see).

Now the basic question is this whatever the case is there-

Whether the Provost has any authority to charge any student Hall Amenities Fee or C&G/RR Fee of his choice rather than what is fixed by the University itself?

As per my experience I know, even the Vice-Chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University cant increase this Hall Amenities from Rs.70 to Rs.71 without the approval of Admission Committee or Academic Council or unless the use of special power attributed to him under 19(3) on behalf of the AC. So there is least doubt about the fact that this act by the Sulaiman Hall administration is an illegal one and overlooking such gross misconduct on their part would led to a bad precedent for other Hall administration.

Therefore, I earnestly request the AMU authority to put an inquiry to find out how many such cases happened in AMU where Hall Administration did such illegal act and harassed innocent students and give exemplary punishment to the persons who are behind such violation of the AMU laid Rules and Regulation.

Justice should not be compromised at any cost.

Shahrukh Mania at AMU and the fear of crowd management

Do we really want to know how Michael Jackson makes his music? No. We want to understand why he needs the bones of the Elephant Man -- and, until he tells us, it doesn't make too much difference whether or not he really is bad.- Frank zappa

Well in the comedy film HUNGAMA made by Priyadarshan there was a dialogue uttered by Paresh Rawal , It was like he exclaimed to know the name of this star first time from his excited wife's mouth. He questioned, "Shahrukh! Kiski Bhukh?"..Well if i look at AMU now..I know the answer.

I think on the yahoo groups now there is too much brouhaha over this visit of King Khan. Many justified, many are from a different context where such angle are unnecessary. I never consider film only as entertainment. Film can be as academic as any other subject of the world and it is proved with the introduction of the Film Studies in reputed universities like Oxford, Harvard etc. Star system in Indian Cinema gradually developed as a result of changing traditions in Indian Film Industry. Through this mass media the public transferred its aspirations and nostalgia to the stars who, in their eyes were the worthy objects of admiration and imitation. In India star system existed since the Silent Era and became even stronger when the studious were at their height. Fundamentally the main objective of the main conception of the hero is to make the audience dream.

Shahrukh Khan is the product of the same star system where his characters, be it in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kal Ho Na Ho, or in Rab Ne Bana De Jodi successfully led the Indian Youth Community in an unseen way and style to dream that the most mysterious thing “love” is achievable in life even after all the odds. Culture always works in a complex framework and nobody can deny Shahrukh with his stardom (I have serious problem with his monotonous acting however) contributed in the post LPG (Liberalization-Privatization-Globalization) era to create a unique culture of entertainment (good bad we don’t know) which is changing its shape at the end of the decade. So he is a film megastar & we have to judge him only through the lenses of cinema only.

His latest film My Name Is Khan has so much to do with the Muslim Identity, a Muslim character with Asperger Syndrome which led him to trouble in the post 9/11 America. Promotion of a film now holds an important role in the post-production stage of the film especially in this market driven economy. Amir Khan travelled across Varanasi, small village in Madhya Pradesh and other 6 places in disguise in order to promote the film “3 Idiots”. My Name Is Khan is awaiting release and so the name of Aligarh Muslim University (Still a name which strengthen the Muslim Identity in India & the world) is definitely going to increase the rating of the promotional caravan of this film dealing with Muslim Identity.

As being at the helm of affairs of the University Film Club I have organized many film festivals and called many established actors, directors etc at the Kennedy Auditorium and they also delivered some of the best lectures I have ever heard. However we at the Film Club always try to call the less known yet critically acclaimed actors with the fear of crowd whereas we always had option to call the best shots(however the budget restrain us also because maximum we can afford the economy class). Tom Alter was the Chief Guest at the First National Film Festival FILMSAAZ-08 at AMU and spoke at large about the medium of cinema, Farooq Shaikh delivered an awesome lecture on” Degradation of Content in Indian Cinema in spite of Technological Advancement” in July, 2008, National Award Winning film-maker AMU old boy Muzaffar Ali delivered a lecture on the “ Parallel Film and pioneer filmmakers in India” in the second National Film Festival Filmsaaz-09. However Film Club always calls these actors, directors and attaches a programme of workshop for its members or for GEC fraternity along their interaction with the AMU students. Such lectures should have been organized this time also by at least Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi for the UFC members which gave them an outlook which is very important. In any academic institution they serve a great purpose.

I am not much cynical about the visit of Shahrukh Khan at AMU, I am mainly critical about the possible management of the interactive programme at the Kennedy Auditorium. Film Club members under me has always taken the charge of Hall Management of most of the programmes held at the Kennedy Auditorium during 2007-09. Be it the play Ismat Apa ke Naam by Nasiruddin Shah by IG Memorial Trust( along with SPM team whose inexperience at the Kennedy we blame for the mismanagement of that programme), or International World Alumni Summit 2008( Along with OSD Prof Javed Musarrat, I and Dr.F.S.Sherani planned the sitting arrangement at the Kennedy and Film Club boys handled the guests there), and the usual Sir Syed Memorial Debates. We can proudly say that UFC members know the psychology of the AMU students and best because during the film screening we naturally handle 1500-2000 students. So with certain authority I am apprehensive on the management issue at such a closed space where we wont be able to provide not more than 600 seats to student who will be Hall Post Holders, GEC Members and Grievance Committee members & rest may be Teachers, AC, EC, Court Members, Press, District Administration would occupy. How we are going to control all the students?

During the Nasiruddin Shah programme even lecturers, Readers with no pass but with Aligarhi attitude( they found their students as UFC volunteers at the gate and asked them to let them in to be on the safe side for their attendance or sesional marks) entered and created huge problem for us. SSP along with their force could not stop students barging in. The case with Rahul Gandhi was something different. But the case of the most sought celebrity in India is going to be else. 3-Tier security system will work a little for sure but its true all the 25000 students (I heard some girls already started crying with the fear not to see him, some boys ready to cross any barricade, everyone has gone crazy what I can see!)want a glimpse of him and we are not comprehending the situation properly. From Firozabad to Bulandshahar all the old students are calling their friends that they may come. People from surrounding places may disturb the campus also. Recently during a promotional tour of Salmaan Khan’s Veer, police had to lathicharge which wounded 200 audiences in Hydrabad.

AMU is not a civil area so I just fear no such untoward incident happens here. The Kennedy Hall Administration can’t be sure all will be safe inside leaving things on the Proctor Office with little force because even if a single moment any crowd gather and breaks any barricade its going to diminish the concept of outside and inside so there must be an emergency plan also to cover the guest of first rows and stage.

However we at the film club always keep the name of any celebrity visitor secret even from Press to avoid any problem( Though it get leaked most of the time but that among AMU fraternity), the PRO should not have published it to inform even the locals. Today with all these apprehension which shared by some other Film Club members, I along with them visited Proctors Office and raised these issues. We who are associated with Kennedy for many years loves each of its brick and its stage is so much pious to us, such is our emotional bondage which other Old Boy may feel alongwith. Any damage to this precinct building will hurt us most for sure.

Right now I am also apprehensive about my entry with the pass and get a seat peacefully as in the history of AMU rarely people with pass entered such programme of celebrities. I know at the last moment even anybody can snatch this from their senior Adil Bhai( I wont be surprised as I can see the excitement all around from today). I wish all the luck to the AMU administration and pray that their plan yield success in the end and nothing happens to my beloved Kennedy Auditorium.

Alig who first brought Indian Cinema at the World's Centre Stage

Recently Janab Razi Raziuddin Sb, moderator of The Aligarh Network( Yahoo group of AMU Alumni) posted an article on the highest grosser film of Bollywood “3 Idiots” which was released recently and commented about the augmenting popularity of this Indian film from Bollywood in the world, especially in the United States in the recent times. India is in news time and again. And this time thanks to the Bollywood industry.

However there are many interesting facts that we can ponder upon when judging the popularity of the Indian Films in general in the west. Film was a phenomenon of the west and oriental nations adopted it later with its own taste and style and that led it to emerge as the most popular mass media. However Indian Films never got that respect in the west in the way it has been always welcomed boisterously among the populace of India. Indian Films were and still are shrugged off as far away from “reality”, aesthetically of poor taste and with no such complexity in its film text and narration which is an important element of cinema. France on the other side witnessed the emergence of the French New Wave in the end of the 50's . Italian Films with its revolutionary neorealism and German films with its expressionism earned a great respect from the serious film viewers around the world.

However few films from India has always tried to stand away from the crowd and reached to the world audience with its head high and thus creating the sense of awe among them. Needless to say this has never been a regular phenomenon as in the case of France, Italy, Germany or other countries that emerged in the later decades.

The first film which got huge popularity among the people of the west was “Neecha Nagar”, made in 1946, scripted beautifully by an Alig, a great socialist writer of his time Janab Khwaja Ahmad Abbas sb.( completed his B.A in 1933 and L.L.B in 1935 from A.M.U), directed by talented film-maker Chetan Anand( Brother of Actor Dev Anand). So, all Aligs can feel proud of the fact that the first film which brought recognition to the Indian Cinema came from the pen of this great Alig K A Abbas. Today when for decades Indian Films vying to get any award or special recognition at the Cannes Film Festival (highly respected Film Festival of the world), Neecha Nagar in the first Cannes Film Festival went on to won the highest award Palme d’Or in 1946.

Though even today the film researchers and generally in the media famous Bengali film director Satyajit Ray get the credit for lifting Indian Cinema first time in the world’s centre stage with his "Apu Triology", but K A Abbas should get his due for the same. I am writing this article to popularize this ‘least known’ great information about an Alig among the fellow Aligs which I have acquired being a novice film researcher.

About the film “3 Idiots”, I must say that though this is a well made film touching the proper strings of the Indian Audience but somehow it has superficially dealt with the emotions of the 3 “Idiots” Characters ( played by Amir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi). Talented Australian director Peter Weir in his “Dead Poets Society” dealt with the same kind of issues portrayed in the film “3 Idiots”, and the complex yet poetic narration style of the film with a brilliant performance by Robin Williams earned Academy Award recognition for Best Picture Category. “3 Idiots” can never achieve any such great status in any Film Festivals of the West where it has to undergo clinical analysis of the judges.

Film matter tends to be affirmed in one or two ways: the formal-aesthetic and the socio-ideological. The first argues for, or assumes, the importance of film in terms of its intrinsic worth, whereas the latter focuses on film’s position as symptom or influence in social processes. “3 Idiots” as a film may gain popularity everywhere but it would be short-lived as its lack both the ways. I know I am brave enough to comment that.

AMU students distribute blankets

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”- Mahatma Gandhi

Dear Friends,

Long time back the Father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi said those words to inspire the entire humanity to find the true oneself in serving the 'have nots' lot in the world. And what is the best time than the youthful moments of student days when one should instill such high values in order to attain the true understanding of what it meant to be human.

Recently the Northern India faced one of the worst cold waves which resulted more than 200 untimely death. Most of the dead persons are from poor community and specially slum dwellers or street sleepers who doesn't even posses a cover to put on. With the state apathy and lack of care from people who "have" till now no steps has been taken to provide any sort of help to such distress lot of the society.

AMU students are not in the same coterie and they proved it recent by collecting money among themselves and distributing blanket, quilt etc among such street sleepers and slum dwellers around the campus area.

Residents of Sir Ziauddin Hall can feel proud of the fact that residents of their Hall started this initiative. Students like Mushtaq Ahmad M.Com( F), Naseer Ahmad Rana B.Sc(F), Mohd Suhail B.Sc (F), Mohd Gufran Khan B.Sc(F), Mohd Ikram Khan B.Sc(F) led by the President, AMU Students Struggle Committee Md. Faizan Khan, M.A.E.B.M of the same Hall started to collect money from every Halls of Residence with minimum Rs.10 and raised a fund of Rs. 24,400. Students from various Halls of Residences including I.G.Hall and Abdullah contributed in it with so much enthusiasm. Some students from every Halls volunteered in collecting this amount as it could not be done so by few initiators.

Faizan Khan and his team bought 150 blankets with this amount and distributed them among the street sleepers at Kathpula, Shamshad, Tasveer Mahal and among the slum dwellers near Chunghi, behind the Sultan Jahan Hall, near Bhambola fatak and other adjoining areas around the campus from 11 Jan to 13 Jan.

SSP, Aligarh Mr. Asim Arun participated in the first day among this distribution programme and praised such social service from the sides of the AMU students. Dean, Faculty of Commerce Prof. Ziauddin Khairoowala also joined these students in their noble effort on 12th Jan and advised students to serve the needy and poor right from the beginning.

However media looked disinterested to cover the philanthropic activities by AMU students when informed as Faizan Khan said.

First semester exam of Mass Comm and some interesting facts

"Satya Seleucus! Ki Bichitro ei Desh!( True Selukus! What a strange country it is!)... " A play written by Rabindranath Tagore( May be as far as I can remember. I have not read Bengali literature since long)

In this play Tagore wrote a particular moment where Alexandr the Great gave expression of exclamation at the peculiar things of India to his Commander in Chief Seleucus.

I think he would have added more sentences to this statement had he ever visited AMU.

Well today I appeared for my first semester exam of Mass Communication. The paper was "Principles of the Mass Communication", which is usually taught by the Chairman of our Department, Professor Nur Ahmad Khan Durrani( His full name become famous after the BAB-Syed revolution for the sincere effort by the research scholar of the same dept the great Irfan Khan)alias Prof.NAK Durrani. Well the paper went well and I at the difficult moments when I could not remember the notes of our Chairman sir took help of all my readings earlier esp. on the subjects of Media and Culture, Social Responsibility Theory of the Press and etc.

However today I witnessed one of the strange cheating techniques by one of my fellow classmates whom we generally call PAA( He is 78 born) which even the invigilator could not identify and let him write with that piece of paper. In a chit, he wrote some words in Hindi to memorize the terms of the HUB model of communication. They are the Codes, Content, Communicator, Gatekeeper, Mass Media, Regulator, Filter etc etc. He wrote on a chit in sequential order these words in hindi- Tambu, Bakri, M.M.Hall....Adhikari.

Now its very natural one can get confused what the heck it is! But see this genius( We all friends said later in unison that if would have used this mind in proper study of the same topic he could have scored highest). Tambu which "Tent" in English codified for "Content", Bakri is Goat which he codified for "Code" , M.M.Hall for Mass Media and Adhikari for Authoratorian Theory of the Press. Wow! We were all amazed at such exemplary invention of cheating technique. I never cheated in my life and its abhorrent to me but I am in awe for this invention I must say.

Today Arts Faculty was my exam center.It looked strange to me that Boys have been given Arts Faculty and Girls as Minto Circle as their exam center. I mean MA people study together, give their sessionals together, cheat from each other pages( common at Mass Comm) then why giving the semester exam at different places? When I told it to one of my feminist friend she said its the "Regulation of Sexuality" which is commonplace at a patriarch institution like AMU.

Satya Seleucus! Ki Bichitro ei desh!.

Who create these Irfans and Rahuls in India

A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

--Jack London (1876 - 1916)

We live in a world which is unequal, where the world around ourselves teach us the basic tenets of morality and immorality, where the shades of plutocracy is everywhere and definitely it’s the same world, the same life which infuse the zeal amongst us to see the unseen, to hear the unheard and to feel what can’t be felt. But many amongst us has accepted the world as it is and lost the passion to inquire about it even. However there is always light at the end of the tunnel that the human instinct rise from within time and again and search for the border of illusion.

Charity is a buzzword in the modern world. Especially in the wealthy west along with many evils this noble fashion also exist which fund many humanistic projects in the third world. Microsoft owner Bill Gates can be slammed for not following business ethics in many of his ventures and get punished by the Court too but we can’t deny that hundreds of Crores of Rupees he invested here in India for philanthropist activities along with his wife Melinda Gates. Famous musician from the band U2 BONO has given away millions of Dollars collected from his concerts for the hunger ridden people of the Third World. Same goes for the bad boy of the Music world Justine Timberlake who recently topped among the charity list. But in the end they are doing something good and have to be appreciated.

The situation in India is not quite satisfactory. The Big Business Houses here are least interested in all these philanthropist activities and more engaged in acquiring land from the poor farmers. The record of Bollywood in the charitable affairs is not quite good in comparison to the magnitude of the industry. Here Shahrukh Khan can be seen in all the promotional events of his Team Kolkata in IPL 20-20 where he happily invested 200 crores, Some others can be seen clicking photographs with some cancer or AIDS patient time to time but a culture of forming Charitable Trust which significantly manages and cater to huge needy people lack shamelessly here.

I have no words to praise for the Aligarh Project initiated by some enthusiastic people like Janab Razi Raziuddin Sb. , Dr. Kashif Razi Sb, Shakeel Sb and all others at the Aligarh Forum which will definitely show the way and call for a new era to serve the needy ones. Definitely already many organizations are working for such noble cause but the critical situation of the Muslims in India caused from a systematic state apathy and the narrow outlook of the community need more attention.

We know true democracy is the one where everyone will enjoy the equal opportunity from the state in terms of social, economical, political and definitely educational perspectives. However the gap between Rahuls and Irfans always let us bow in shame of what we promised to this nation on January 26, 1950. And the case with the Muslims is even the worst. The UPA government can give 700 Crore tax exemptions, duty & levies exemptions to all the Big Business Houses per day( Imagine what it will be in a year) but it has not yet increased the funding of Moulana Azad Foundation( to be invested in minority education and scholarships) Rs.1000 Crore from mere 100 Crore this time. This UPA govt. introduced a special amendment in the section 36 of the Income Tax Act in the Finance Bill 2009( Any one can google) which ultimately gave a profit hefty 20000 crore to Ambani family only in the end of the year. It is often said that “redistribution” is an illusory word and can only exist in mind, but we have never seen any attempt as such so. But okay that Ambani family has contributed to Indian economy and should have special privilege, but what about these Irfans whose dreams are shattered by the state apathy even before the beginning. We don’t talk of E for Education but E for economics now. Raising the tuition fees are explained as ‘education as investment’ by the parents. We say everyone is free to eat from Macdonald but we never ask how many can afford so here in India.

I was very pained to see when no “true” questions were asked to Mr. Rahul Gandhi and entire AMU was busy in stooping so low before him. But when we know that these people always come here with an interest why we didn’t ask for some favours directly from him during these visits? He is the member of Parliamentary Committee on HRD. Why a noble initiative taken by Students Union back in 60’s to establish a school for the wards of 4^thGrade employees has not extended its facilities time to time and incorporated such Irfans naturally. Why such principles such visions are not in place? Why we could not ask Mr. Rahul Gandhi, M.P to make policies to make the education completely free for such institutions maintained by AMU for the wards of low scale earners.

The reality is we are blind in our own world.

Let’s see the light of the day with the projects like “Aligarh Project”.

My online journalism from AMU

"….. a free press has never yet caused a revolution in any part of the world …….. whereas, where no freedom of the press existed and grievances consequently remained unrepresented, innumerable revolutions have taken place in all parts of the globe."

-- Raja Rammohan Roy..

Why I have created this blog? Why I am talking about online journalism at AMU?

The answer is simple. The functions that a serious mass media can perform with benefit to society are the credible-informational, the critical-investigative-‘ watchdog’, the educational, and the agenda-building functions. But when I look around the New Media Technology like Blogs, Internet Groups, Web portals etc related to AMU somehow they look so "touch-me-not"( some though played significant role during the sine die this year I must say)towards all the true and serious issues of AMU. However I mainly like to deal with the student causes that seriously require attention.

Unfortunately, a propaganda or ‘manufacture of consent’ role is also played from time to time by some vested interest groups, a negative function that harms society and the people’s interests which I always abhor.

So my blog is the answer towards these self interest groups and all those lobbyist who wish that the darkness under the lamp get never exposed. Those who believe that AMU should be run by the whims and fancies of them and it does not matter whatever it cost to the student fraternity, I think they should rethink again.

When I started to write at the yahoo groups on Internet and advocated on many things including the restoration of AMU Students Union I received a little bit indirect backlash from the AMU administration. On my article called " Heaters Heat and the Heat is on" after a raid by AMU adm. at Habib Hall in the month of October I even got indirect threatening from the AMU administration. I know AMU don't have any law to convict students for writing on the internet but here there are many indirect measures.However I wear that as a crown, for the fact I felt that at least my writing has some substance to be felt threaten of. I know I am too idealistic at times, but above all I don't compromise with anything unjustified.

Yes there is a lack of space here for open discussion and fierce criticism of the policies of the state(AMU) which should be the very basis of a democracy to strengthen it. Its kiddish to say that it tarnish the image of AMU. There is more act with responsibility than to criticize with responsibility.

The quotation of Raja Rammohan Roy is very apt to whatever happened to AMU after the sad demise of Mr.Shahnawaz on October 25, 2009. My initiative at the yahoo networks as a mode of online journalism was attacked on many fronts. Another November revolution or 'Bab-e-Syed revolt' as may one call it happened at the AMU campus.

This blog will be entirely my space.I love open discussion and I love debates. So lets start......