UAE captain Alishan Sharafu in action against Pakistan during the Under 19 Asian Cup at the ICC Academy, Dubai, in December. Chris Whiteoak/ The National
The Covid-enforced dearth of international cricket in 2021 was keenly felt by all of UAE’s leading players, but none more so than CP Rizwan.
The Kerala-born batsman must have thought he had finally cracked international cricket when he scored an uplifting century in a one-day international against Ireland a year ago.
Kerala / UAE
The 19-year-old from Toronto has experience at the competition, scoring a notable 90 off 105 balls in a loss to the United Arab Emirates at the 2020 Under-19 World Cup where the young Canadians finished 13th.
Dec 2021
An Indian artist entered the Guinness World Records’ book with massive portraits of UAE Rulers. Sarans K.K. won the ‘largest professional oil painting by a single artist’ title for his 166.03sq.m artwork created in the main hall of the India Social and Cultural Centre (ISC) in Abu Dhabi
Kerala / UAE
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.