Hajj 2009

Khwaja Shahabuddin performing hajj- half a century ago

The following fortunate family members will be performing Hajj this year. May Allah make hajj easy for them and accept their Hajj.

New York
S. Khwaja Anjum is performing hajj for the 3rd time. He is going to dedicate this one to his grandfather Syed Khwaja Najmuddin Ahmed. Younger brother S.Khwaja Omayer a high ranking officer at the New York City government is also doing pilgrimage this year. His third hajj is for his nana. S. Khwaja Hamza son of S.Anjum -a sophomore of Stuyvesant will be accompanying his dad. The family will be leaving for the holy land this Saturday the 21st.

Dhaka
Khwaja Nowshad son of K.M.Gafoor is doing badli Hajj for late industrialist Javed Hassan (grand son of K.M.Ahad).

K.M.Zahed eldest (son of late magistrate Khwaja Abdul Halim and Mahejabeen Begum (tel 8126009) had arrived in the port city of Jeddah last Thursday to perform Hajj. He is in a group with seasoned Haji and veteran tablig activist Syed Sarwar Hussain and his wife.

Keshawar Jabeen (daughter of Khwaja M Ahsan and Mahmoodi Begum and great grand daughter of nawabzada K.M.Ajmal) and her husband Abdul Wadud Bhuiya from Armanitola (tel 7318815) are to be new Hajjan/Haji this year.

K.M.Sayeed (son of K.M.Shahed and Rafat Begum) the newly elected treasurer of the Trust along with his wife Shahriar Begum (daughter of K.M.Ahmed) are also performing hajj. The family landed in the kingdom on the 17th.

London
Saman Begum daughter of jeweler Khwaja Rezaul Huq will be leaving for Jeddah with her husband on the 20th.

M.A.W.T honors DNF website

Moulvi Abdullah Welfare Trust (M.A.W.T) has honored the official website of the Dhaka Nawab Family by presenting a special award in October 2009. A dinner party was held at the office premises. The party was attended by M.A.W.T office bearers. Among others the party was attended by former Trust secretary K.M. Halim and K.M.Aziz.

Trust secretary Najmul Hussain lauded the role of the website team and handed over a plaque to Anas Khwaja. A hard copy of the genealogy of beneficiaries and a poetry book composed by the secretary was also presented to him.

In the meeting Anas Khwaja on behalf of the website team proposed to collect vote from the North American trust beneficiaries for future election. Trust secretary assured him that he will follow up on this issue In response to his query Anas was notified that assets of non resident beneficiaries will be safeguarded.

The family website was launched back in April 2005 and has been since managed by Anas Khwaja (multimedia, historical research), S.K. Belal Hassan(web design/development), Khwaja Arshad Abdullah(web hosting) and Saniya Sajed(multimedia, historical research).

The website has connected the family through get connected section, interactive family tree and photo album. DNF newsletter and multimedia gupshup section has been updating family members with latest news and views concerning the family. The DNF newsletter is prepared monthly with contributions from family members by its founder/editor, Mr. Sayeed Shahabuddin, in Karachi. Occasionally, special features with videos clips have played an important role in maintaining our rich cultural heritage.

The biography, history and digital library have sparked interest among historians, researchers as well as the general mass. On an average the website is browsed by 80,000 monthly visitors.

12 more days for DV 2001

Bangladesh is the top number of winners receiving country in the Asia region for the DV Lottery as they has sent less than 50,000 people to the USA within the last 5 years. In the recent past plenty of Bangladesh born people got the diversity visa and entered in to the USA.

The online entry registration period for the DV-2011 Diversity Visa lottery will end on Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), Monday, November 30, 2009. For instructions please visit the following site:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html
Instructions in Bengali:
http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/DV-2011-Bangla.pdf

Home of the brave and land of the free is calling you. All you need is a dream and a ccomputer. Hey you never know-Jodi laigga jay?

Photos of Ahsan Manzil

A total of 265 photos in fourteen different albums have been complied in our DNF photo gallery. Please clickthe link below to view the pictures. You can also view the albums by clicking the PHOTO ALBUMS link on the Gupshup tab (upper right hand side). Please make sure to view the albums in slide show mode.
Link: http://community.webshots.com/user/DNFWEB
AM by night- editor’s choice (4 pictures)
AM 19th Century (17 pictures)
AM Interior by Fritz Kapp 1904 (9 pictures)
AM 1970-1980 before reconstruction (18 pictures)
AM from Buriganga (10 pictures)
AM- outside boundary (11 pictures)
AM 1980-2009 (95 pictures)
AM – Dhaka turned 400 years…(32 pictures)
AM Museum Displays (46 pictures)
AM filigree in gold & silver (2 pictures)
AM in Stamp (1 picture)
AM- a decoration piece (1 picture)
AM-Concord Theme Park (1picture)
AM 3D (18 pictures)

Two other new folders are Twin House (1 picture) Jewelry (3 pictures).

Thanks,
Anas Khwaja

Khwaja Mizan is honored by MAS

3rd from the left on the pictureMuslim American Society (www.MASnet.Org) held a community civic participation dinner ceremony honoring Khwaja Mizan Hassan, President Jamaica Muslim Center, Fatima Shama, commisssioner of immigrant affairs, and George Delis, District Leader for Astoria at Hellenic Societies of Greater New York on 10/30/09. This event was attended by elected officials, high level government officials and community leaders. Khwaja Mizan Hassan was presented an ‘award of excellence’ for his community service in the metropolitan New York.
The Muslim American Society (MAS) is a charitable, religious, social, cultural, and educational, not-for-profit organization. It is a pioneering Islamic organization, an Islamic revival, and reform movement that uplifts the individual, family, and society.

Security of Ahsan Manzil Museum

by Jahangir Hussain
Security means protection against theft, fraud and vandalism. However, a good security system is concerned with all types of risk. Museums and other cultural heritage organizations and sites are threatened with robbery, vandalism and burglary, bombing, arson, accidental explosions, earthquake, tornado, floods, fire and other similar occurrences.
Gary Edson and David Dean in their influential book The Handbook for Museums discussed museum security thus: “Museum security is the philosophy and activity of providing an environment in which people and objects may be as free from threat of harm or damage as possible”. Using this as a broad definition, there are several elements involved in such security. These include: staff, barriers, signage, collection management practices, housekeeping activities, environmental monitoring, alarms and surveillances and security plan.

Ahsan Manzil museum is one of the 140 museums in Bangladesh. A part-time security officer under the supervision of Deputy-Keeper is in-charge of the security system of Ahsan Manzil Museum. There are 1 Security Supervisor, 20 Security Guards and 2 other support staffs in the security section.

The existing security system of the Museum embodies the following tools/ methods:
1. Security personnel; 2. Fire extinguisher; 3. Water line, water and sand in separate containers;
4. Security locking; 5. Sealing system in the locks; 6. Roaster committee; 7. Metal Detector;
8. Walkie talkie; 9. Ansar/Ansar with arms; 10. Gate passes for objects; 11. Gate passes for non-object materials; 12. Emergency electric supply (Electric Generator); 13. Charge light, torchlight, etc; 14. First Aid Box; 15. Left luggage counter.