Latest news with #Alamgir
Express Tribune
a day ago
- Health
- Express Tribune
Surging plastic pollution poses environmental crisis
World Environment Day is observed globally on June 5, with this year's theme, "Beat Plastic Pollution," drawing attention to the growing crisis of plastic waste. Environmental experts have warned that without immediate intervention, the consequences of unchecked pollution could be catastrophic for both human health and the ecosystem. While speaking to The Express Tribune, Dr Amir Alamgir, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Karachi, said that plastic pollution has emerged as one of the most serious environmental challenges in recent decades. "Plastic products are inexpensive and widely available, which encourages excessive use without regard for their harmful effects," he added. Dr Alamgir stressed the health hazards posed by plastic use, particularly during the summer. "Storing drinking water in plastic bottles and refrigerating them can release microplastics that enter the human body," he said. "These microscopic particles can severely damage the respiratory and digestive systems, blood vessels, and other vital organs. Prolonged exposure may even lead to fatal diseases such as cancer." He also warned against the widespread practice of waste burning, particularly plastic waste, which releases toxic gases into the atmosphere. "These gases are absorbed into the lungs and bloodstream, affecting human health in ways that are still being understood - but we know they pose grave risks," he said. Karachi, one of the most densely populated cities in the country, is at the centre of Pakistan's environmental crisis. The city generates an estimated 14,712 tons of solid waste daily, of which only 50 per cent is transported to landfill sites. The remainder is discarded in open spaces, water bodies, and streets, polluting both air and water sources. According to Dr Alamgir, 60 per cent of Karachi's solid waste is composed of plastic, much of which ends up in the Arabian Sea, endangering marine life. "If the current trend continues, Karachi could face irreversible ecological damage within the next 15 years," he warned.
Scroll.in
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
Translated historical fiction: Shivaji and Aurangzeb's bloody battle for the control of the Deccan
'Emperor Aurangzeb has departed for the house of Allah. But internal squabbles, fear of enemy attack and other such worries have tied the hands of the administrators. Which is why the passing away of Alamgir after his illness is not being made public.' This gossip doing the rounds, along with the other drops of secret news leaking out, had robbed the denizens of the Yamuna bank of their sleep. However, Aurangzeb gave them all a rude shock by presenting himself in the flesh in a durbar organised specially for the occasion. Bearing all the marks of wear and tear that his long illness had wrought upon his person, he declared in the Deewaan-e-Aam, the hall of public audience, 'All those who were celebrating the news of my passing away will doubtless be grieved to see me here in flesh and blood. I am one with them in their grief; but the point is, why should I be in a hurry to cross over to the other world? I have already sent three of my dear brothers there with all due honour, while my ailing Abba Huzoor is conveniently living out his worldly days in incarceration at the Agra palace. Indeed, it is rightly said that there is no early relief from this world for evil people like me.' Muhi-ud-din Mohammad Aurangzeb, who had assumed the regnal title of Alamgir, was forty-four years of age. His huge empire stretched from Afghanistan in the north to Burma in the east. His durbar was bustling with envoys from Bukhara, Persia and the Arab lands, standing before him in abject servility. Aurangzeb's strict and tyrannical rule had created an atmosphere of terror across the realm. Courtesans and dancers had fled Delhi and Agra in fear for their lives. The slightest sound of music or merrymaking emerging from any locality in these cities would immediately invite a raid by the emperor's police force. Artists were belaboured like thieves, and singers had been reduced to beggary. There was strict prohibition throughout the empire and imbibers ran the risk of having their limbs chopped off. The lamp of religious tolerance and freedom of belief that Akbar had lit a generation earlier was ruthlessly snuffed out. Most of the Hindu grandees, particularly the Rajputs whom the Great Mughal had bound close to his heart, had now become objects of hate and derision. Equal hate and derision was mandated for the Shi'a, the dissident sect that had broken away from the main body of orthodox Sunni Muslims. As pious as he was fanatical, Aurangzeb would lead the recitation of the Qur'an immediately after the fast was broken in the evenings during the holy month of Ramzan, and continue with the recitation for nine hours at a stretch. A few months back, he had fallen seriously ill and would often sink into delirium. But he was alert enough to register that his beloved sister Roshanara had begun to look for a successor to his throne and had immediately tossed her out of his affections. Aurangzeb was the fourth son of emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. His subjects would often express astonishment in private, of course – that a person born to the most beautiful (and presumably kind) woman in the world should have turned out to be so hard-hearted and bigoted. When Aurangzeb was still a boy, a soothsayer had alerted Shah Jahan, 'The most renegade of all your princes is this Aurangzeb. One day he is going to be the cause not only of your destruction, but that of your entire lineage.' The emperor had taken this warning to heart. This boy Aurang was the fairest in complexion among the Mughal princes. The emperor would often tell his eldest son Dara Shikoh, 'Never show any mercy to this rascal. He is a white snake that has sprung from my loins. One of these days he is going to bite you and spread his poison in your blood.' The soothsayer's prophecy came true. Aurangzeb had not only enthusiastically hounded, imprisoned, tortured and finally slaughtered all three of his elder brothers, but even celebrated the event as Shabe-baaraat, the evening of joy. He had not even spared his own father, a person of no less eminence than Shah Jahan. He had disrupted the water supply to the palace in the Agra fort where he held him prisoner. He had even schemed to have him secretly eliminated. These blood-curdling deeds had created a dark aura around him and made him a dreaded figure, in whose presence the stoutest heart quaked with fear. In spite of all this, his maternal uncle Shaista Khan had managed to acquire for himself the privilege of being the emperor's close friend and confidante. Obviously, it was a colourful series of events that had earned him this entitlement. It was Uncle Shaista who had conveyed verbatim to Aurangzeb his father's message, 'Don't you ever forget, boy, that your old age will bring you more misery than you have brought into mine. Despite being a prince of the realm, you have converted the last days of your old father and king into hell on earth. This act of yours can never find favour with Allahta'ala. Even while you have the throne of the empire under your buttocks, you will wander through jungle and heath like the bears that the dervishes drag behind them by their nose-rings.' 'This is wonderful, Maamoojaan,' Aurangzeb happily confessed. 'Whenever I hear my father cursing in bitterness and frustration, when he tears his hair in anger and desperation, I swear, I feel that my day is made.' To ensure that he would not be obliged to visit his incarcerated father every now and then, he had ensconced himself at Red Fort in Delhi, far enough away from Agra. A pleasant, cool wind was blowing through the palace in the fort on the banks of the Yamuna. The reddish rays of the setting sun had bathed the garden behind the palace in surreal hues. The trees were laden with flowers and fruit. Deer and peacock leapt and strutted everywhere. Skillfully constructed waterfalls and gushing fountains created little streams and rivulets that gurgled pleasantly as they flowed by. The evening air was a heady mix of colour, sound and fragrance. Uncle and nephew were soaking in the atmosphere as they sat chatting under a bower. 'Shall I tell you something, Maamoojaan?' 'By all means, Alam-panaah.' 'A good four or five years have passed since I took over the reins of the empire. The heaven on earth that people call Kashmir is very much a part of our empire, but I have not been able to pay a visit to that land of roses. I have not even been able to indulge in the little bit of hunting that I enjoy so much.' 'Without a doubt, my liege, Kashmir is our own land.' For Shaista Khan, this growing intimacy with the emperor was nothing less than a blessing from Allah. When the battle for succession had flared up in Delhi during Shah Jahan's reign, it was Shaista Khan who had sent this nephew of his an urgent message, advising him to rush to the capital and jump into the fray, manoeuvre his way past his older siblings by hook or by crook, and snatch the crown for himself. Quite against character, Aurangzeb had lately been taken over by a strange whim to rebuild his bond with his old father. Not liking what he saw, Shaista Khan sidled up to his nephew and said, 'In my last meeting with Shahjahan sahib, I had told him that trying to snap the bond between father and son is like trying to bisect flowing water with a word. It can never happen.' 'So, what did Abbajaan say?' 'He said that he didn't care that Aurangzeb had caused rivers of blood to flow, but he couldn't forgive him for that one demoniacal deed –' 'Which one?' 'The sheer viciousness of sending to him, wrapped in a kerchief, the severed head of his darling son Dara Shikoh. The humiliation to which the young prince's body had been subjected, and the wicked, black-hearted joke that had been played upon a loving father! He said he would have been eternally thankful if, instead, you had blown him up with a cannon.' As Shaista spoke on, Aurangzeb's annoyance waxed. The very utterance of his father's name was now sending him into a paroxysm of rage. He had always detested the old man for his philandering nature. Jahaanara Begum, his sister who had inherited the fabled beauty of their mother Mumtaz Mahal, had remained unmarried despite being the daughter of the most powerful person of his time. Aurangzeb's grouse was that it was their father who had scuttled her prospects of marriage. The gossip doing the rounds in Delhi and other cities along the Yamuna was that the father himself had been preying upon his daughter's beauty like a wild beast. Such rumours would incense Aurangzeb beyond endurance. 'Lecherous old bastard,' he raged, 'smutty old goat! I've been seeing him from my earliest days. Who did he appoint to guard his palace? Strong, robust young soldiers? No! He had these long-legged beauties specially imported from Iran and Turan orbiting around him, so that he could lust after them. Wanton, filthy man of the first water!' 'Yes, well, there are other things I could say, but I had better hold my tongue,' Shaista muttered. 'No, no, Maamoojaan, come out with it. There's little that can shock me!' 'Well, Alam-panaah, I want to thank you.' 'What for?' 'For not missing a single opportunity to seek your revenge.' 'Why do you say that?' 'I hear that you had once tried to get a firangi doctor to administer poison to the emperor?' 'Yes, I did, but did it help? The old sinner wanted to place that apostate Dara Shikoh on the throne of Hindustan – the dream scenario of our foolish subjects, these infidel Hindus and my senile father! How could a god-fearing Muslim like me let such a catastrophe come to pass? It was my mission to exterminate my heretic brothers, eliminate my wretched father and save the empire from disaster.' Aurangzeb had proceeded to do exactly that. He had brought peace of a sort upon his empire. All internal squabbles, intrigues and rebellion had been put down with an iron hand. Across the realm, he had whipped the administration into shape and improved security arrangements. In the cities, the old narrow lanes and arches of the cities had been demolished while new battlements and gates were constructed. Protective boundary walls were built on the emperor's orders around the city of Lahore. Excerpted with permission from The Wild Warfront: Shivaji Mahasamrat – Volume 2,
Indian Express
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Soumitra Chatterjee is a legend, by no means forgotten
I was a child when I witnessed the phenomenon known as Soumitra Chatterjee by watching his movies. It has remained a mystery to me how or why he was not that well-known outside Bengal, especially in today's world dominated by Bollywood stars. Sanghamitra Chakraborty's detailed and well-researched biography, Soumitra Chatterjee and His World, explores this, and like the eponymous character of Feluda, once played by the actor, tries to solve this mystery. Chakraborty went through the actor's writings — essays, diaries, letters, plays and poetry — and his interviews, as well as interviewed his children, and the people who knew him, to systematically put together his life story. As she mentions in the Introduction chapter, she was inspired by the message that actor-director Sisir Bhadhuri, one of Chatterjee's mentors, had told him: 'Read your lines like a detective'. The book starts with Chatterjee's birth in a north Calcutta home to a mother who is obsessed with Rabindranath Tagore, which influences Chatterjee's interest in Tagore and Bengali literature. As he wrote, 'My own heart and mind, in some way, have also been shaped by him.' The family moved to Krishnanagar later, and Chatterjee was entranced by the writing of his grandfather, Lalit Kumar, and the tales of his uncle and grandfather being jailed, and met various freedom fighters who would drop into their home. This made the young boy crave adventure and he got the acting bug at a young age. After matriculation, Chatterjee moved back to Calcutta. He became the ringleader of a group of students and frequently visited the bookshops on College Street as well as the Coffee House. Reading, meeting with friends, debating and reciting poetry, he soon became a part of a vibrant group of like-minded people, one of whom took him to watch the play Alamgir. That play and its producer and director Bhaduri inspired him to the extent that Chatterjee started learning the theory of theatre as well. It was in the mid-1950s that he started a theatre group, Chhayanot, and started acting in plays, including in one that Bhaduri staged Prafulla. He also worked at All India Radio and during that period auditioned for a lead in a Bengali film,only to be rejected. Despite the rejection, Chatterjee didn't give up and when a friend asked him if he wanted to audition for the role of Apu in Aparajito (1956), the sequel to Pather Panchali (1955), Soumitra agreed to meet with the director, Satyajit Ray. Though he was again not chosen for that role, that meeting was pivotal because the legendary filmmaker remembered him and did eventually cast him for Apur Sansar (1959), changing the course of his life. Apur Sansar was a box-office hit and generated rave reviews for its actors. Chatterjee had by then started getting recognised on the streets and in Coffee House, a sure sign of being a celebrity! He went on to collaborate with Ray on many other memorable movies, including Devi (1960), Samapti (1961), Kapurush (1965), Charulata (1964), Ghare Baire (1984), to name a few. The later sections of the book describe Chatterjee's breakthrough into commercial cinema through Jhinder Bondi (1961), his forays into a diverse roles with parallel cinema directors and his return to the theatre. He was steadfast in wanting to stay in Kolkata, and thus, the city is sometimes as much a character in this book as the actor. He stayed resilient and creative until the end. In fact, in 2020, seven of his new films were released. He remained an icon of Bengali culture and that is why there was an outpouring of grief and obituaries at a global scale on his demise in November 2020. Soumitra Chatterjee and His World is a delight to read for cinema and history lovers. There were many aspects of his life that had stayed unknown, and reading this book gave me insight into those as well as a world that is fast-disappearing, and therefore must be remembered.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Broadband boss not expecting more masts after deal
The boss of a broadband company says he is not expecting more telegraph poles to be installed in East Yorkshire. Furqan Alamgir, chief executive of Connexin, spoke to the BBC after his business was acquired by CityFibre - one of the UK's largest network providers. He said: "We don't expect there to be more poles. CityFibre have traditionally been trench diggers but it will come down to what their build plans are in the future." Connexin has previously been urged by campaigners and MPs to share infrastructure with KCOM, which owns the majority of the area's underground network. Mr Alamgir said talks with KCOM about sharing its network infrastructure were "ongoing" and the acquisition by CityFibre would not stop it from "progressing". He said: "I'd hate to have poles outside my own house and it's silly how this has played out. "We've paused our builds over the last few months. We've been working with KCOM and had a lot of support from local politicians. "We'll be working to firm up agreements and we absolutely want to share infrastructure to build our network." However, residents in Beverley, East Yorkshire, who saw poles installed near the homes, said they are "worried" by the CityFibre-Connexin deal. Paul Brayford, from the Beverley and Molescroft Against Broadband Poles campaign group, said: "We're worried the streets where Connexin couldn't install poles will get them and the streets that did will now see fibre optic cables strung across. "It's really frustrating, we don't want clutter and it could get worse." Mr Alamgir said the agreement between Connexin and CityFibre would give households and businesses a wider range of options for internet services. He said: "Hull and East Yorkshire should have the same offering as any other place in the UK and we've always wanted to bring more choice to the area. "CityFibre have plans to reach 8m homes over the next couple of years and we'll be able to offer more services on the back of their investment. "It should bring more competition, improve speeds and driver better products. It's a really exciting deal." Under the deal, CityFibre will also take on the Connexin contract for Project Gigabit, a government scheme to roll out high-speed broadband to over 34,000 premises in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Call to speed up broadband infrastructure sharing Broadband firm pauses pole installations KCOM announces plan to end telegraph pole row MPs meet broadband CEOs about telephone poles Connexin CityFibre
BBC News
26-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Connexin boss 'doesn't expect' more telegraph poles after CityFibre deal
The boss of a broadband company says he "doesn't expect" more telegraph poles to be installed in East Alamgir, chief executive of Connexin, spoke to the BBC after his business was acquired by CityFibre - one of the UK's largest network said: "We don't expect there to be more poles. CityFibre have traditionally been trench diggers but it will come down to what their build plans are in the future."Connexin has previously been urged by campaigners and MPs to share infrastructure with KCOM, which owns the majority of the area's underground network. Mr Alamgir said talks with KCOM about sharing its network infrastructure were "ongoing" and the acquisition by CityFibre would not stop it from "progressing".He said: "I'd hate to have poles outside my own house and it's silly how this has played out."We've paused our builds over the last few months. We've been working with KCOM and had a lot of support from local politicians. "We'll be working to firm up agreements and we absolutely want to share infrastructure to build our network."However, residents in Beverley, East Yorkshire, who saw poles installed near the homes, said they are "worried" by the CityFibre-Connexin Brayford, from the Beverley and Molescroft Against Broadband Poles campaign group, said: "We're worried the streets where Connexin couldn't install poles will get them and the streets that did will now see fibre optic cables strung across."It's really frustrating, we don't want clutter and it could get worse." 'More choice' Mr Alamgir said the agreement between Connexin and CityFibre would give households and businesses a wider range of options for internet said: "Hull and East Yorkshire should have the same offering as any other place in the UK and we've always wanted to bring more choice to the area."CityFibre have plans to reach 8m homes over the next couple of years and we'll be able to offer more services on the back of their investment."It should bring more competition, improve speeds and driver better products. It's a really exciting deal."Under the deal, CityFibre will also take on the Connexin contract for Project Gigabit, a government scheme to roll out high-speed broadband to over 34,000 premises in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
