THE COMMUNITY CAME TOGETHER TO CELEBRATE THE PLATINUM JUBILEE OF THE MALABAR MUSLIMS ASSOCIATION

Reshma S Nair and Kiran KumarBANGALORE

Malabar Muslims of Bangalore-celebrated the platinum jubilee oftheir association in a glitteringfunction last Friday. At the event,chief minister BS Yeddyurappa an-nounced a Rs5 crore building fundto much applause and gratitude.With the fund, the Bangalore Mal-abar Muslims Association(BMMA) will construct a schooland a Karnataka Malabar Centre.

The association of the MalabarMuslims in Karnataka was formedin 1935, even before India becameindependent. The purpose of form-ing the association was to aidmembers of the community to stayin touch, bond and share their con-cerns and aspirations.

Their presence is everywhere,you just need to look around. Theoriginal chain of the friendly MKAhmed store is owned by this com-munity. In fact, the BMMA wasfounded by MK Ahmed. They havealso started many educational in-stitutions in and around the city tosupport education for not justyoungsters in their community,but for everyone else.

If one had to put a face to thiscommunity, the first name thatcomes to mind is MLA NA Haris.He is the current managing direc-tor of BMMA and also MLA of theShantinagar constituency. “Mal-abar Muslims are a group of busi-nessmen who havemigrated from thecoastal areas of Ker-ala. We are scatteredacross Karnataka,including Chikma-galur, Hassan,Madikeri, Dharwadand Davangere,” hesays. “We are differ-ent from the local Muslims, be-cause the local Muslims commu-nicate in Urdu, but we speak inMalayalam with a hint of Kanna-da,” claims Haris.

“There are also some differ-ences in the way we pray and in the

rituals we follow. We are MapallaMuslims, who are lovingly calledkaka (maternal uncle). In Kanna-da, that translates as maava.

“Our commitment is towardshumanitarian services, and wewill achieve this through educa-tion. Our association is actively in-volved in providing education tothe backward classes and to thosewho cannot afford it,” he says.

Most membersof the communityare into business.They run hotels,super-marketsand groceryshops. The gro-cery shops set upby Malayalees canbe seen at every

junction in Bangalore and are fa-mous as the neighbourhoodMalayalee store.

Seventy five is a milestone, butthe Malabar Muslims believe thereis a long road ahead. “By the timeour association turns 100, we ex-

pect to set up some engineeringand medical colleges. I go by APJAbdul Kalam’s words, ‘A dreammust be a dream that spoils yoursleep, and not what you see whileyou are asleep.’ I’m only trying toconvert my dreams into reality,”says Haris.

Even 40 years ago, not manyin this community were educat-ed. But today, most youngstersof Malbar Muslims are well edu-cated and can fit into the urbancontext with ease. Kerala Mus-lims follow their religious prac-tices stringently. Belief in oneGod, prayers five times a day,

Ramzan fast, Sakkath and Hajjare some of the traditional ob-servances of their culture.Prayers are usually held inmosques. “We also celebrateOnam every year,” Haris says.

The women in the communitywear mundu with a coloured bor-der, blouses with long sleeves anda head gear called thattam. In ad-dition to ordinary jewellery,women wear gold or silver waistbands. Men usually wear munduwith jubbahs and accessorise itwith a thick waist belt and a toppi.But comfort has over taken tradi-tion today.

FAMILY ALBUM: Shantinagar MLA NA Haris poses with his family. He says that you can tell a MalabarMuslim who has lived in Karnataka long—the Kannada is spiced with Malayalam

Shilpa CB. BANGALORE

Can you take a dying language, re-vive it and make it mainstreamagain? The Welsh (native languageof Wales) could. So can we, believes,Roshan Ramesh Pai, a Bangalore-bred and UK-based IT consultant,who is on a mission to save his na-tive tongue, Konkani. He and histeam of 60 volunteers from all overthe world have been working on theKonkani Dictionary Project, Save-mylanguage.org, which kicked off inOxford, UK, in 2005.

“It fascinated me that people ofWales could revive their language.They started at the core, beginningwith documentation and consolida-

tion.We follow the same process,”Paisaid.

Five years since the project start-ed, the online dictionary has 6,000words. The estimate is that there are10,000 to 12,000 words in Konkani, thetongue spoken by Konkanis in SouthCanara. The next batch of 200 wordswill be added in July.

But will populating an online dic-tionary actually help the cause of re-viving a language? “There is nopoint in having a dictionary that sitsin a University library gatheringdust. The masses need to have accessto it, as much as the academics,”says Pai, who is chief editor of thedictionary. Along with words, onecan also access proverbs, metaphors,

idioms, euphemisms and even re-search papers on the language.

“The project has a Facebook ap-plication called ‘Konkani Word Ofthe Day’ which gives users a randomKonkani word and its English mean-ing sourced from this dictionary.The ‘Google Word of the Day’ appli-cation when added to the Googlehome page gives users a random newKonkani word and its English mean-ing on the iGoogle home page. Also,the project has its own Facebookpage and Orkut group. We tweet ontwitter as well,” he says. What’smore, a Konkani to German diction-ary is also available; non-Englishspeaking Europeans too can learnKonkani. b_shilpa@dnaindia.net

Building Konkani vocabulary, word by wordHow they do itThe team of 60 volunteers ofSavemylanguage.org workson excel spread sheets, putting in words they comeacross. “The documentationis taken up in a scientificmanner and follows the principles of ‘practical lexicography’ (the art/scienceof creating/maintaining a dictionary). Each word iscarefully catalogued and ifpossible, categorised on theirsemantics, explains RoshanPai, chief editor,Savemylanguage.org

You know them by their food

Anantha Krishnan M. BANGALORE

Twenty-six thousand! That was the last count when TeamDNA stepped out of Command Hospital of Indian AirForce (IAF) on Old Airport Road. A silent revolutionlaunched by the hospital along with a handful of volun-teers in 2007, has now healed the hearts of about 26,000 pa-tients in three years. Welcome to the aviation capital ofIndia and you are on board “operation e-support”. Themission of this initiative is surgery without fears andtears.

“All patients who are undergoing surgery have got hun-dreds of doubts in their minds. The patients demand toomuch of time from sur-geons. So, we formed anemotional-supportgroup to pluck the fearout of their minds,” saysAir Vice Marshal AKBehl, commandant,Command Hospital.

The volunteers don’tspeak about the techni-cal aspects of the sur-gery, but offer informa-tion and mitigate fears,phobias and anxiety.“Patients who got e-sup-port from us went on tobecome members of our tele-support helpline team andtoday we have 71 of them. We are now extending the e-sup-port to OPD as well,” adds Behl, who is also a plastic sur-geon.

The hospital serves as a vital facility for serving andretired armed forces personnel and their dependents. Thisis the only IAF hospital in India. It was abuzz with activ-ities during the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) oper-ations in Sri Lanka, with most casualties being treatedhere. Even during the Kargil conflict, the hospital playeda key role in treating jawans from South India.

The e-support group volunteers comprise of profes-sionals, event managers and home-makers. “They do theirwork free of cost. We have even started group counsellingat the Radio Therapy Centre. Many of our volunteers wereonce patients at this hospital. When they counsel others,sharing their experience, it has a magical effect,” says Vas-anta Kishore, the lead counsellor with the e-support group.

The initiative wasstarted to mitigatethe fears of patientswaiting for surgery

This operation has won over26,000 hearts

Traditional food items of theMalabar Muslims consist of delicacies like Thalasherrybiriyani, Ghee-rice, Puttu, Kappa-meen curry, Pathiri, Appam,mutton and chicken curries ofdifferent types and Pal addapayasam. But they seem to havegotten used to living inKarnataka. Among theirfavourites now are Raagi mudde,Soppu saaru and otherKannadiga dishes.

The Malabar Muslims inBangalore own several hotelschains and restaurants likeBangalore International, Kadal,Empire, Imperial and Paramount.

These hotels are famous fortheir Keralite dishes, sea food,biriyani and kebabs. “We go tovarious restaurants to eat. Butmost times we cook and callfriends over and sometimes theycook and we go there. My personal favourite is Raagimudde, Soppu saaru and fish.We have more of the Karnatakaculture in the ways we cook,dress and live,” says MLA Harris.The BMMA are associated withthe KNSS, ECA, Kerala Samajamand various other associations.“It is the Malayalam languagethat binds us together,” he says

Malabar Muslims have five tosix mosques in and aroundBangalore. On Double Road,there is a mosque that belongsentirely to them. “There is noimportance attached to whichmosque you go to, as long asyou do your namaz on time.There are two types of MalabarMuslims — Shafi and the Anafi.There is not much of a differ-ence between the two sects. Wehave a namaz before sunseteveryday. For that prayer, wehave a difference of about anhour. Otherwise, our customsare similar,” he says.

FOOD BOND

Origin, culture and traditionsKerala had connections with Arabia from the time of KingSolomon. Muslims of Kerala have always believed that their origins in Kerala date back to 7th century AD, when Islam originated in Arabia. There are a multitude of organisationsworking in the social, educational, cultural and religiousspheres. One such organisation is the Malabar MuslimsAssociation, bringing together Mapalla Muslims in Karnataka.

SELVAPRAKASH L

TO SAVE KONKANI: A team of 60people have been working on theonline dictionary since 2005

www.dnaindia.com

epaper.dnaindia.com 6TOP NEWSCITY Bangalore, Monday, July 5, 2010

TEMPLE TRIP: Governor HR Bhardwaj and his dearones visited Sri Chennakesava temple at Belur inHassan district on Sunday

briefcase

Water adalat inBanagiri todayThe Water Supply and Sew-erage Board (BWSSB) ofsouth 1 and 2 sub-division isorganising a water adalat forresidents of Devagiri,Kathriguppe, Banashankari,Kumaraswamy Layout andPoorna Pragna Layout serv-ice station limits. The adalatwill be held at the office ofassistant executive engineerof south 1 at Banagiri onfrom 9.30 am to 11 am Mon-day. It is being held to settledisputes connected to waterbilling, delay in giving watersupply and sanitary connec-tion, delay in conversionfrom non-domestic to domes-tic connection and other re-lated problems. Customerscan use the IVRS number155313 for lodging their com-plaints round-the-clock.

Guest facultyvacancies at BUBangalore University hasinvited applications for theappointment of guest facul-ty (full or part-time) in thevarsity’s department ofelectronic science. The se-lected candidates have tohandle both theory andpractical classes and will bepaid an honorarium. Aspir-ing candidates should havesecured at least 55 per centmarks in the master’s de-gree level in the relevantsubject. Preference will begiven to the candidates whohave cleared the NationalEligibility Test conductedby the UGC and CSIR. Inter-ested candidates may mailtheir applications alongwith bio data and the attest-ed copy of the certificates tothe department office.

“I am very happy to hear thatLokayukta N Santosh Hegdehas taken back his resigna-tion. We will render our sup-port to him,” said additionaldirector of forests, ecologyand wildlife Meera Saxena.She was speaking on the side-lines of the release of Vanya-jeevigala Jaadu Hididu, abook written by Sanjay Gub-bi on Sunday. “What is crick-et’s loss is wildlife’s gain,’’said vice-chairperson of statewildlife board and ace crick-eter Anil Kumble at the re-lease of the book. Gubbi hadplayed as a batsman cumwicket-keeper in Tumkur

zone. The 125-page book has16 chapters detailing topicslike elephant behaviour andhow highways destroyforests. “I took a year to writethe book. I wrote aboutthings that I got to knowthrough my experiences of20 years. This is my firstbook. I had earlier co-editedone book,” said Sanjay.“There is a similarity be-tween cricket and wildlife:both fields have experts.Wildlife experts should domore to conserve and protectthe environment, and not justspeak like experts,” saidKumble.

Cricket’s loss is wildlife’s gain: Kumble

Yoga classes from today

Swami VivekanandaYoga Kendra is

organising yoga class-es in Yogasana andPranayama fromMonday. The durationof the course is threemonths. The classeswill be conductedfrom 6 am to 7 am atMLA school,

Malleswaram. For more details, you can contact theinstitute at 23346609 or 9448466037.