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One of the tallest buildings of the world is “Petronas Twin Tower”, situated in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. The design of the building was conceived by TARIQUE AZAM, an Indian from Azamgarh, now a Malaysian citizen. He desires that the tallest building of the world should be built in India. He wants to design and draw the map of that building himself.The height of Petronas Tower is 450 metres. The construction of the building started in 1992 and completed in 1996. Azam also designed the Tele Communications Building of Singapore which is considered one of the most beautiful buildings of the world. It has 77 floors. He also designed the bridge connecting Singapore and Malaysia. The building of Singapore’s Reserve Bank was also designed by Azam.

Music is something from one’s heart. The more one visualizes the sound of heart, the better one performs on an instrument. Spirit dances on instrument. Indian violin artist JOHAR ALI KHAN who performed together with David Ianni and Mariette Lentz at Luxembourg in February 2002, has specially composed a few pieces — friendship, love, Ram and a Gandhi song. He says that India is the only country which has two classical systems —Hindustani and Carnatic. That’s what helps make it compatible with Western music. It goes without saying that we must ensure that the original beauty is not lost. The Gandhi composition was based on raga ‘Khambaja — a Vaishnava raga used for religious compositions. He sees in the fusion (music) a way to encourage young people’s interest in Indian classical. He is fascinated with the Indian classical and says that there is so much power in them (tabla etc.) that Europeans and Americans are ready to help us financially and invite us for concerts.

Youngsters SIRAJ AHMAD (17) and FARAZ AHMAD (14) sang the concluding concert of the Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Yaadgar Sabha recently held at New Delhi’s India International Centre. They are the grandsons of late Ustad Siddiqui Ahmad Khan of the Moradabad gharana, an exponent of the sarangi as well as vocal music. Initially they learnt from their grandfather and later, were trained by their maternal uncle Ghulam Sabir Khan. They had a chance to perform in the Khajuraho music festival as well as in France. In their early ages, they have learnt the grammar of the ragas, the basics of laya, tala and technique together with a few patterns of tana. Their voices are steady and the swara unflinching. It is the outcome of their hard-work that tanas and sargams are expertly and gently fitted into the rhythm. 

MOINUDDIN, assistant secretary Home (police) Department, Reuters Building, Kolkata has been promoted to Deputy Secretary for Home Department. Now he will look after police, defence and press affairs at the same time. People have congratulated Moinuddin over his promotion.

KHALID MOHAMED is a versatile figure. He is a writer, a journalist with more than 30 years of experience, a film critic for many years, a scriptwriter of handful of films, a director of a couple of films and also a filmmaker. His name will always be clung to, Tahzeeb, Fiza and to Zubeidaa as a scriptwriter. About filmmaking and journalism he says that filmmaking is easier in comparison to journalism. In journalism one has to keep reinventing oneself otherwise one gets into a rut. Over the years there have been many occasions when he had not known how to give a new heading, a new caption. In journalism one has to dish out something new in every issue. In cinema, one is free, there is one subject, it is your ‘baby’. Also, in scriptwriting one does not have to worry about the commas, the punctuations. For script writing is somewhat of an autobiographical exercise, he says.

The competence or skill expected of a professional is sometimes on the blink if not regular. Creativity is somewhat different. Suave ABBAS is a Bangalore dude who appeared with a bag of success after Kadir’s Kadal Desam. He also did a music video produced by Rajshri Productions and certain Hindi film producers showed interest in him. Kannada film Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi, and dubbed Hindi version of Kadal Desam chilled his fate for a while. He did some popular films like Padeyappa with Rajnikanth, Pammal K. Sambadham with Kamal Hasan, Anandam with Mammooty and Malabar Police with Sathyaraj. In Shwetha Naga his role is with actress Soundarya. Unfortunately Tamil film Three Roses did not prove well at the box office.

RAHIL AZAM, the young actor who acted in many advertising films and TV serials is uncertain about his career. He believes that given the unstable condition of the film industry, it is difficult to plan one’s career. Azam who acted in the TV serials Kahin Kisi Roz, Bhabhi, Achanak, Saintis Saal Baad, will also be seen in the Hatimtai, directed by Ramanand Sagar. Basically, he is a software engineer from Bangalore. In his childhood he dreamt of making a career in acting.

Jamia Millia Islamia has conferred PhD degree on SHANAZ BEGUM, daughter of Abdul Jabbar, on her thesis 'History of Urdu historiography, beginning and evaluation; sine 18th century to 1947.' She completed her thesis under the supervision of Dr Nishat Manzar, a senior lecturer at the Department of History and Culture, JMI.
To be proud on being a lakhpati is now a thing of past. But the time has not changed enough to say a lakhpati a faqir. There is a faqir who has more than one lakh rupees in Delhi. ZAHIR KHAN, a crane operator, has been collecting notes with 786 numbers for the last forty years. He has notes from Rs 2 to Rs 1,000 amounting to Rs 1,00052. He wants his name to be registered in the Guinness Book of World Records for collecting largest number of such notes. But he does not know the procedure of getting names registered in the Guinness Book. Khan never spends from his collected money. He has had quarrel with his wife when his family faced utterly difficult situations, but he never spent the money.

HISHAM SHAIKH, a Delhi Public School student, represents his school world cup tournament in Sharjah. The 18-year-old Hisham who has been living in Dubai for the last 17 years wants to join Indian cricket team and dreams of becoming Sachin Tendulkar. A successful bowler, Hisham has been playing cricket in UAE sine his childhood. If everything works well, I will one day play cricket for my country and earn a name like Sachin Tendulkar, Hisham says. Tendulkar, who is out of for some days has found a great cricketing fan. May Hisham's dream come true! q