MOHAMMED RAFI

 

The amazingly versatile singer, Mohammed Rafi was born on 24 December 1924.

He was born in Kotla Sultan Singh village, Punjab. His nickname was Pheeko began singing by imitating chants of a fakir who roamed the streets. His father moved to Lahore in 1935, where he ran a men's barbershop.

He learnt classical music from Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Pandit Jiwan Lal Mattoo and Firoze Nizami. His first public performance came at age of 13.

In 1941, he made debut as playback singer in duet 'Soniye Nee, Heeriye Nee' with Zeenat Begum in Punjabi film Gul Baloch under music director Shyam Sunder. In that same year, he was invited by All India Radio Lahore station to sing. He made Hindi film debut in Gaon Ki Gori in 1945.

He was known for his ability to mould voice to persona and style of the actor lip-syncing the song on screen. He recorded over 7,000 songs in a career, in Hindi, Punjabi, Konkani, Assamese, Bhojpuri, Odia, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili and more. He also sang in English, Farsi, Arabic, Sinhala, Mauritian Creole and Dutch.

He was of a gentle calm demeanour and a humble, selfless, God-fearing and family loving gentleman. He was noted to never send anyone back empty-handed and generously helped many. He made an early exit at 55 years.

His recognitions include four Filmfare Awards, a National Film Award, Padma Shri and the list goes on.

Books on him include Sujata Dev's Mohammed Rafi – Golden Voice of the Silver Screen and Mohammed Rafi Voice of a Nation, a book authorised by his son Shahid.

Award winning documentary Dastaan-E-Rafi directed by Rajni Acharya and Vinay Patel featured over 60 interviews of various Bollywood personas.

He died on 31 Jul 1980.

23 DECEMBER

 National Farmer’s Day / Kisan Divas

 The National Farmers Day in India is also known as Kisan Divas in Hindi. Kisan Divas is celebrated every year on 23 December on the birthday of 5th Prime Minister of India, Choudhary Charan Singh, also a farmer's leader, who introduced many policies to improve the lives of the Indian farmers. It is celebrated by organising various programs, debates, seminars, quiz competitions, discussions, workshops, exhibitions, essays writing competitions and functions.

Chaudhary Charan Singh is credited with inventing and implementing the well-known Zamindari Abolition Act. He united all peasants against landlords and moneylenders. He was a very efficient writer and expressed his feelings about farmers and their problems and solutions.

 

22nd December

 National Mathematics Day

December 22^nd is National Mathematics Day, the birth anniversary of India’s famous Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Ramanujan’s genius has been considered by mathematicians since the 18^th and 19^th centuries to be on par with Euler and Jacobi.

His work in number theory is considered special.

Since 2012, India’s National Day has been marked every year on December 22 with numerous educational programmes organised in schools and universities across the country.

In 2017, the significance of the day increased with the inauguration of the Ramanujan Math Udyan at Kuppam in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh.

Ramanujan was born in 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu.

At the age of 12, despite no formal education, he mastered trigonometry and developed several theorems for himself.

Living in extreme poverty, Ramanujan did independent research in Mathematics.

In 1912, Ramaswamy Iyer, the founder of the Indian Mathematical Society, helped him get a clerkship in the Madras Port Trust.

His breakthrough came in 1913 when Ramanujan’s theorems were impressed by Cambridge-based GH Hardy and invited him to London. He died in 1920 at the age of 32.

However his achievements in the field of Mathematics are still regarded worldwide.

In 2012, former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh announced that December 22, Ramanujan’s birthday would be celebrated as National Mathematics Day across the country.

The mathematical genius

 Srinivasa Ramanujan

22 Dec 1887 ~ 26 Apr 1920

He was born in Erode, Madras Presidency. By age 11, he exhausted mathematical knowledge of two college students who were lodgers at his home. By age 13, he mastered book written by S. L. Loney on advanced trigonometry and discovered sophisticated theorems on his own.

At 16, he studied A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure & Applied Mathematics, G. S. Carr's collection of 5,000 theorems. The book is acknowledged as a key element in awakening his genius.

He developed and investigated Bernoulli numbers & calculated Euler–Mascheroni constant up to 15 decimal places. He received a scholarship to study but lost it as he neglected other subjects

After marrying in 1909 he began a search for employment & met Ramachandra Rao who supported his research for a time, but Ramanujan, unwilling to exist on charity, obtained a clerical post with Madras Port Trust

In 1911 he published papers in Journal of Indian Mathematical Society. In 1913 he began a correspondence with British mathematician Godfrey H. Hardy that led to a grant from Trinity College, Cambridge

Overcoming religious objections, he traveled to England in 1914, where Hardy tutored him & collaborated with him in research.

He worked out Riemann series, elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series, functional equations of zeta function and his theory of divergent series, in which he found a value for the sum of such series using a technique that came to be called Ramanujan summation

He made advances in partition of numbers (the number of ways that a positive integer can be expressed as the sum of positive integers). His papers were published in English & European journals and in 1918 he was elected to Royal Society of London. In 1917 he had contracted tuberculosis & returned to India in 1919

He died leaving behind 3 notebooks and a sheaf of pages containing many unpublished results that mathematicians continued to verify long after his death.

21 DECEMBER

 National Crossword Puzzle Day, U.S.

The first crossword puzzle was created by Arthur Wynne and published on December 21, 1913 in the New York World Newspaper. Wynne’s puzzle was diamond shaped and contained no internal black squares.

However, it was so popular with readers that within a decade crossword puzzles were featured in almost all American newspapers. Crossword lovers get the newspaper for the sole purpose of doing the crossword. So on December 21 let’s celebrate National Crossword Puzzle Day the best way we know how … find one you like and start filling in those squares!

 

20 DECEMBER

 

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN SOLIDARITY DAY

Every year on December 20th, International Human Solidarity Day seeks to celebrate the world’s unity in diversity. It’s also a day to raise awareness about the importance of solidarity.
Solidarity is defined as an awareness of shared interests and objectives that create a psychological sense of unity. Solidarity also refers to the ties in a society that bind people together as one.

According to the United Nations Millennium Declaration, solidarity is among the fundamental values that are essential to international relations. The Declaration also states that global challenges must be managed so that costs and burdens are distributed fairly. This is in accordance with the basic principles of equity and social justice. Additionally, those who suffer the least should help those who suffer the most.

The UN is convinced that solidarity creates a spirit of sharing, which is essential for eradicating poverty.

 

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN SOLIDARITY DAY HISTORY

On December 20, 2002, the UN General Assembly established the World Solidarity Fund. The Fund was set up in February 2003 as a trust fund of the United Nations Development Programme. Its objective is to eradicate poverty. It’s also to be used to promote human and social development in developing countries, especially among the poorest segments of their populations.

On December 22, 2005, the UN General Assembly identified solidarity as a universal value. This solidarity should underlie relations between peoples in the twenty-first century. In that regard, the UN proclaimed December 20th of each year International Human Solidarity Day. The date commemorates the establishment of the World Solidarity Fund.

 

19th December, Goa Liberation Day

A golden phase in the freedom struggle

Goa liberation struggle:

19^th December, Goa Liberation Day. On this day, the Portuguese left Goa. Indian army was successful. The small but important state of Goa was liberated. Tricolour hoisted over Goa. The destruction of Goan people, which started from the time the Portuguese set foot on the land of Goa in 1510, ended on December 19, 1961, after almost four and a half hundred (450) years.

Goa is the smallest state in case of area and the fourth smallest state in terms of population. Goa is famous all over the world for its beautiful beaches and folk culture. Goa was a Portuguese colony.

Portuguese entered Goa in 1510:

Goa has always attracted everyone since it is bestowed with natural beauty. The Portuguese were similarly attracted. They entered Goa in 1510 with the intention of establishing a trading colony. 

At that time Adil Shah of Bijapur ruled Goa. After overthrowing the power of Adil Shah, the Portuguese established their power in Goa. India was ruled by British and Goa, Daman and Diu by the Portuguese. On 15^th August 1947, the British lost power in India. But the liberation of Goa was delayed. When the rest of the people of the country were breathing the air of freedom, Goans were still facing the atrocities.

First spark of Goa Liberation struggle:

Although countless activists were working underground to free Goa from the yoke of Portuguese, the first spark was ignited by Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya.

Dr. Lohiya was invited by his friend Juliao Menezes to rest for a few days; when he got to see the restrictions imposed by the Portuguese on the Goans.

 He was disturbed to see the exploitation of the Goans and violation of basic rights of Goans by the Portuguese government. He raised his voice against the Portuguese by holding a public meeting at Madgaon on 18 June 1946. This meeting got an unprecedented response. On this occasion, the citizens felt that there is someone who listens to the clamour of Goan people. This was the first spark of the Goa Liberation struggle.

Participation of those who took the path of armed revolution:

During this period, a new generation emerged from Goan soil. In this, many youths like Prabhakar Sinari, Mohan Ranade, Bala Mapari, Vishwanath Lawande came forward. Youth from villages along with these freedom fighters took the path of armed revolution. Armed forces like Azad Gomantak Dal were formed, many youths participated in it. This team was led by Prabhakar Sinari. This armed force successfully carried out many small and big attacks against the Portuguese. Maharashtra also gave valuable support in this struggle. Moreover, people of different views had gathered in this. Many activists from different ideologists united with the consensus that Goa should get independence and conducted themselves in their own way.

Dr. Cunha, the father of the nationalist movement in Goa:

Many freedom fighters participated in this struggle through Satyagraha, among them were Dr. T.B. Cunha, Purushottam Kakodkar, Dr. Juliao Menezes and others. Dr. T.B. Cunha is considered as the father of nationalist movement in Goa. He was sentenced to jail for eight years in Portugal. He was released from there in 1953. After that he started two newspapers named Azad Goa and Swatantra Goa. But unfortunately he died before seeing Goa Liberated.

The Liberation war of 1961 was a very important stage:

The freedom fighters continued their fight without waiting for the orders of the Indian Government. Finally on 18 December 1961, the Indian Government ordered the army to take action through “Operation Vijay”. The Indian army and the freedom fighters were successful in confounding the Portuguese government. The Portuguese army opened heavy fire on freedom fighters at Patradevi, many of them lost their lives.

Finally on 19 December 1961 at ten o’clock in the night, Portuguese Governor Vasal da Silva signed the surrender document and handed it over to the Indian Army chief. Goa was finally freed from 450 years of Portuguese slavery.

After the war of 1961, Portuguese rule in India came to an end. The region of Goa, Daman and Diu was completely freed. The 1961 war or Operation Vijay thus was the last and most important phase of the process of Liberation of Goa. This operation was a decisive part of the Goa Liberation movement.