A 33-year-old Kerala businesswoman in Dubai has an unending passion for collecting Disney plush toys and holds a Limca book of records for her hobby.
Rizwana Ghori, who hails from Thrissur and has been living in Dubai for 28 years with her parents, Razack Khan Ghori and Shahida Bhanu, and eight-year-old daughter, Daanya, said that there is nothing that interests her more than her growing collection of Disney toys.
At 95, Mathematician Dr Ghasiram Verma is full of enthusiasm. The nonagenarian, originally hailing from Sidi village of Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, is called a ‘crorepati fakir’ because he spent almost everything on girl child education.
Today, thousands of girls have access to good education with his help and many school buildings have come up with his donations. Dr Ghasiram Verma has settled in America, but visits India for three months every year and spends Rs 50 lakh — half of his pension funds—on educating girls. So far, he has spent over Rs 10 crore on educating girls in his area.
Rajasthan / USA
Dr S Balachandran, a native of Uthukuli, was conferred an MBE (Member of the British Empire) on Monday. Along with two other doctors, Balachandran was given the honour for services to the nation during the pandemic.
peaking to TNIE, Balachandran’s brother-in-law M Ravi said, “Balachandran studied at the Uthukuli Government High Secondary, and joined Thanjavur Medical College. He completed MD and Diploma in Anaesthesia there in 1989. He served in Karur Government Hospital and Ramanathapuram Government Hospital for several years before moving to the UK.” Now, he leads the board for infection control at the same university.
In his 24 years, Yadukrishnan Presheed from Palarivattom probably has had more adventures than an average man could possibly dream of during a lifetime.
For the youngster doing his journalism course in the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, also known as RUDN University, in Moscow, 2021 turned out to be one of the most memorable years in his already action-packed life.
The hub was inaugurated by Bill Foster, Congressman-IL, together with AAEIO President Gladson Varghese, President-Elect Ajit Pant, Vice President Nitin Maheshwari, and other board members.
Nostalgia, a contemporary ghazal album, was released by a 59-year-old Indian American professor, Susmita Datta. It brings forth the appeal of a genre noted for showing an astonishing range of expression around its basic themes of love and separation.
Data, currently a professor at the University of Florida is a prominent biostatistics scholar from Kolkata.
“There is no stronger or more important ‘living bridge’ than what the United Kingdom shares with India, and especially Bengal. It has been fantastic to see how the Bengal Heritage Foundation (BHF) has been nourishing and developing this unique bond over the years,” said Nick Low, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata, at The Bengal Club on December 27.
Low was speaking at the Bengal Heritage Dinner organised by the BHF — set up by a group of Bengali families in London in 2009 — to shed light on the wide-ranging work that the Foundation does to bolster Indo-British ties, apart from promoting the distinctive qualities of Bengal and Bengalis in the UK.
West Bengal
U.S. official Uzra Zeya has been appointed the country’s new Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues. She will hold the position concurrently with her current role as Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said via a statement.
In a twist to that claim, Portugal is now led by people of Indian descent with family ties to the former colony: Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Finance Minister Joao Leao and Planning Minister Nelson de Sousa.
“I am very proud of visiting my father’s land as prime minister, and especially the first prime minister of Indian origin in the European Union. This visit has a strong emotional side in the personal motivation,” Costa said during a visit to India in 2017.
Costa’s grandfather Luis Afonso Maria da Costa was from Margao, where his relatives still live and his 200-year-old ancestral home is located, according to the Portuguese American Journal.
Luis Costa emigrated to what was then another Portuguese colony, Mozambique, where the prime minister’s father Orlando da Costa was born in the capital Maputo.
The elder Costa was a writer and his son released an English translation of his book, Sem Flores Nem Coroas (Without Flowers or Wreaths) while visiting India.