Graduation: Fatima

 

Syeda Fatima Chowdhury daughter Syeda Zartaj Kabir (GDO of S.K.Shamsul Hassan & Shaista Begum) graduated from The Newtown High School in Queens. She is joining City College of the City University of New York this fall.

Congratulations Fatima.

Syed Ali Madni completed his residency

From left to right S.K.Yawer Hassan, Syed Ali Madni & Rushda Hassan

Syed Ali Madni received a certificate for completing his Residency in Internal Medicine from the Robert Packer Hospital in PA, this June, at a graduation awards ceremony.

He is a graduate of the Aga Khan Medical University in Karachi, from where he earned his MBBS degree. After graduating from medical school he did an internship year at the Civil Hospital Karachi & was working at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases before he came to the US to train in Internal Medicine.
He will join Holyoke Medical Center in Holyoke, MA as Staff Physician later this year.

Syed Ali Madni is the eldest son of Khwaja Mohammed Amer and Syeda Ulfat Hassan. He is married to Rushda. Please click the link below to see Syed Ali Madni on the family tree: http://gupshup1.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?view=0&rand=889028806&pid=492&userid=gupshup1

Obituary: Sajeda Begum

Sajeda Begum daughter of K.M.Nasir and wife of Habibur Rahman Bepari died of diabetes. Inna lillahe wa inna ilaihe rajeun. She was residing in Maghbazaar and left behind one daughter. She will be buried in Shah Shaheb Bari graveyard. 

Please click the link below to see Sajeda Begum’s family tree:http://gupshup1.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=gupshup1&view=50&pid=2455&rand=161720928

Ahsan Manzil at Heritage Restaurant

Heritage Restaurant: Heritage is an upscale restaurant in Gulshan Dhaka owned by  Tommy Miah. One of the sections (sitting arrangement) of this restaurant has been named after heritage site Ahsan Manzil. The restaurant aims to project the rich diversity of Bangladesh heritage, art, craft and exquisite food. The gates, doors, the reception table, are antique bought from the local market. Here Shindhuks have been turned into door panels and historical documents are encapsulated in photographs.

Who is Tommy Miah: Popularly known as ‘Curry King’, Tommy Miah is the famous Bangladeshi-born British chef. Miah bagged a place in the Guinness Book of Records for cooking the world’s biggest curry big enough to feed 10,000, while his International Indian Chef of the Year competition is now in its 14th year. Amongst his achievements is the delivery of a curry lunch-box to 10 Downing Street for Prime Minister John Major’s 50th birthday Author of several recipe books. Queen Elizabeth-II wrote foreword for Tommy’s book ‘Favorite Recipes of the Raj’. In 2004 Tommy Miah was elected a Fellow of Britain’s prestigious Royal Society of Arts.

Decor: The nicely decorated restaurant has paintings, photographs, terracotta and artworks on its walls and at entrance. Artist Jamal Ahmed’s 28-foot long painting on the Buriganga for the restaurant is the largest painting in Bangladesh. Former international fashion model Bibi Russell designed dresses for the restaurant staff.

Sitting Capacity: 200 +. The restaurant’s has a very elaborate and glamorous setup in the lawn and alongside a rooftop area with a splendid view.

Location: House-10, road-109 in Gulshan section 2 Dhaka. Open for lunch from 12-3 pm and for dinner from 6-11 pm.

Food: Home of fusion food that explores mostly the indigenous cuisine. Gourmets can enjoy Tommy’s signature mouth-watering dishes and ‘Bangla fusion cuisine’. Diners keep coming back to savor dishes like Chicken Loroial and smoked hilsa and sip at the house drink jira pani

Cost: Heritage has a lunch buffet with 35 items for Tk 300 per + Vat .

Tommy Miah’s website: http://www.tommymiah.com/Biography.html

Tips: In Ramadan Tommy Miah’s Heritage restaurant offers Old Dhaka’s delicacies (Dhakaiya iftari from Chowk). Iftari and dinner at the buffet table cost Tk 350 in 2005.

Edited by Anas Khwaja

Nawab Begum Ayesha Passes Away

Nawab Begum Ayesha with Nawab Khwaja Habibullah (1920)

Nawab AYESHA BEGUM of Dhaka, wife of the late Nawab Khwaja Habibullah Bahadur, passed away in Karachi, in the early hours today, 21st June 2008. She was burried next to her son-in-law Khawaja Omar.

She was the daughter-in-law of the late Nawab Sir Khwaja Sir Salimullah who had proposed the founding of the All India Muslim League, when he hosted, in Dhaka in December 1906 a gathering of prominent Muslims from all over India. 

The late Nawab Begum had been very ill for a number of years. She was 92, and was living in Karachi with her granddaughter, Anita Rashid Hussain. 

May her soul rest in eternal heavenly peace, and may God grant patience and courage to all members of her family to bear this irreparable loss with faith and fortitude.

- Sayeed Shahabuddin

For condolence please call her great granddaughter Anita (di/o Late Khwaja Umer Hichoo) ,
Karachi Phone Nos:
(9221) 827-7854 RES
(92300) 210-4330 (Mobile)

 

Flight from Dubai

Khwaja Zakeruddin arrived in Dhaka on June 1 for a month-long family trip. He was accompanied by his wife Yasmeen Ahmed and two daughters, Zaima  and Zara (1 ½). Zakeruddin is settled in U.A.E and is an Assistant Manager at DEWA (Dubai Electricity & Water Authority).  

He is the eldest son of Meherun Begum and DCP Khwaja Nuruddin. Khwaja Zakeruddin grew up in Nawabbari. After obtaining a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rajshahi Engineering College (RU) in 1980, he started his career with Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) as a Sub-Divisional Engineer (Operations). While working for PDB he was posted in Ghorashal — Ghorashal Power Station (210MW), as well as, in Siddhirganj — Siddhirganj Power Plant (240MG).

Later, he went to work for Jambul Power Station in Kazakhastan in1988 and obtained further training there. 

Khwaja Zakeruddin’s family tree:

http://gupshup1.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=gupshup1&view=50&pid=429&rand=735798550 

“Dhaka Amar Dhaka”: Aiming at a brighter future (Edited)

Written by Fayza Haq for Daily Star

Published On: 2008-06-19

Rabiul Hossain, poet and architect, speaking at the programme “Dhaka Amar Dhaka”, held on June 17 at Bengal Gallery Café, said, “Dhaka as a capital city was established in 1610, to protect Bengal from the invading Portuguese pirates.” He said that our different traditional melas could be celebrated with more fervor in the following two years as Dhaka turns 400 years old. He added that our problems should be pointed out to the city’s policy makers.

Sagor Lohani said, “Dhaka definitely needs to be improved. We should take pride in it as people have done while celebrating 300 years of Kolkata. Local poets and artists have been drawn to help in this project.” “The celebrations,” Lohani said, “will begin in July this year with a carnival that will begin from Bahadur Shah Park and end at the Parliament building premises. This will include palanquins, horse-drawn carriages and traditional costumes. There will also be elephants, bajra (large boats) and a railway engine model.”

Lohani said the project hoped to print books on poems, paintings, photographs and other aspects of lifestyle pertaining to Dhaka. They also plan to have painting, fashion and photographic exhibitions along with a book fair and food festival.

Another noted artist, Murtaja Baseer said that he has been in Dhaka since his birth, like many others, and misses the beauty that he saw around him in his childhood. “In his youth,” Baseer said, “Dholaikhal was like some canal in Venice. Places like Noyabazar and Bangshal were once places of leisure. Dhaka, to me, is dying.”

Faiz Ahmed, journalist and writer, said, “To me Dhaka is more beautiful than Kolkata, London or San Francisco. However, it has not flourished, as it should have due to political reasons, in my belief. There have been people in the past like individuals from the Dhaka Nawab Bari who have contributed to its expansion.” “The British set up some schools and places of education but little else; after Partition, the growth in Dhaka was only at a provincial level,” said Faiz Ahmed.

 

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=41741    

Maggi Kite Festival 2008:’Uphold Dhaka’s heritage’ (Edited)

Daily Star Staff Correspondent

Published On: 2008-03-01

The skyline over Dhaka University (DU) campus changed its color with the glitter of colorful kites named as Prajapati, Pankhiraj, Chumki, Churidar, Lalpahar and Kalapahar.

This was part of the kite festival organized jointly by Dhakabasi, a socio-cultural organization of Old Dhaka, and Dhaka Mohanagarir Charshata Bachhar Udjapan Committee (Committee to observe 400 years of Dhaka City).

Bangladesh Ghuri (Kite) Federation of Hazaribagh and Kayethtuli Ghuri Club took part in the competition.

The visitors enjoyed different cultural programs including songs of Old Dhaka’s famous Kalachand Band Party, bugle playing of Abdul Kader and riding in horse-driven carts.

Earlier, Cultural Affairs Adviser Rasheda K Chowdhury inaugurated the festival which was attended by among other Dhakabasi President Shukur Saleq, Canadian HC Barbara Richardson, Malaysian HC Abdul Maleque Bin Abdul Aziz & DU Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof AFM Yusuf Haider.

Prof Yusuf Haider said Bangladesh is a country of festivals, and 400-year-old Dhaka city is famous for its rich culture and heritage. The traditional Nawab families of Dhaka was the patron of kite flying which is one of the traditional games of our country, he said urging all to work together to uphold the old heritage of Dhaka.   

To read the interesting article more in detail please click the link below:
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=25583

Bands hard hit by hardships (Edited version)

Written by Durdana Ghias for The Daily Star

Published On: 2008-04-21 

     Walking by the narrow lane of Haji Osman Gani Road in old Dhaka one will spot a few shops displaying an array of cornets, trumpets and rattles hanging from the walls. These shops belong to the few remaining bands still representing the regal past of Dhaka.

     During the days of the Nawabs  bands were a customary feature in the wedding parties and other royal occasions. But with the advent of modern ways to celebrate weddings, like video camera and jam session by local groups, the tradition of arranging bands is on the wane.However, some quaint traditions of old Dhaka still demand the existence of these bands. The players are still seen accompanying the bridal party during wedding ceremony and celebrating circumcision or Musalmani.

     Manjur Hossain, owner of Dhaka Band Party, one of the oldest bands in the city, is in this profession for the last thirty years. His shop once belonged to his grandfather Band Master Lalu Mia during the Nawab’s period, to his father in the Pakistan period and now to him after the independence.
     According to the tradition, the circumcised boy’s maternal grandfather presents him yogurt and fishes for the occasion while a band from his paternal grandfather’s house goes to the place to bring the boy home performing loud music all the way.Abul Hossain, a resident of Lalbagh and an old customer of bands, came to a shop to hire a team for the circumcision ceremony of his grandson.“As a paternal grandfather it is my status symbol and matter of pride to send a band to the maternal grandfather’s place,” said Abul, who still strives to uphold the cherished traditions of old Dhaka. …….. 

To read the interesting article more in detail please click the link below:
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=33001

SGK Chowdhury in NY City Hall

SGK Chowdhury attended a Pahela Boisakh ceremony held at NY city hall in May 2008. He also attended a fund raising ceremony for the Queens Democratic party. SGK Chowdhury wants to share pictures from the parties with the rest of the family.