“Justu-ju jiski thi usko toa na paaya hamne, is bahane se magar dekh li duniya hamne...” (What I longed for, was never mine, but on this pretext, I beheld the world...)”
These spine-tingling lines from the movie Umrao Jaan by Muzaffar Ali in 1981 still cut through to both heart and soul of a listener. The writer of these living lines — Akhlaq Mohammad Khan Shahryar — has unleashed his formidable power and control over words all through his life as an Urdu writer, a lyricist and an academician.
Mr Shahryar, who was awarded the 44th Jnanpith Award for the year 2008 in the national capital on Sunday by superstar Amitabh Bachchan, lyricist Gulzar and Cabinet minister M. Veerappa Moily, has maintained a conscious balance between tradition and modernity. “He expresses modern thought...with a new style but maintains a continuity of tradition.,” Dr Moily said. Mr Shahryar said, “Humans always try to maintain a balance between material and spiritual progress. Thank God we live in a world which at least as of now values emotions... there still exists a bond between humans. Art has a role to play in this world and I am glad to be part of it.” Born on June 16, 1936 in Anwala, Bareilly, he obtained his Ph.D in Urdu from AMU.
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Pregnant women to be advised free
New Delhi, Sept. 18: The government is roping in medical experts to offer free advice to expectant mothers who will be tracked for their immunisation status under the Mother and Child Tracking scheme launched here recently.
The health ministry will appoint a panel of doctors in its Central Monitoring Cell under the scheme, which seeks to track down every single pregnant woman and new-born for progress on vaccination.
It will help the government examine veracity of claims made by state governments about achievement under the National Immunisation Programme.
So far, the ministry’s help desk, which is part of the Central monitoring mechanism under the scheme, has received state-wide data pertaining to 80 lakh mothers and 30 lakh new-borns, who have already been registered across the country.
This comprises just 27 per cent of total estimated 293.28 lakh pregnant women annually and only 12 per cent of the estimated 253.21 lakh newborns a year in the country. — PTI