Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, the largest city in the Swat Valley in what is now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. She is the daughter of Ziauddin and Tor Pekai Yousafzai and has two younger brothers.

At a very young age, Malala developed a thirst for knowledge. For years her father, a passionate education advocate himself, ran a learning institution in the city, and school was a big part of Malala’s family. She later wrote that her father told her stories about how she would toddle into classes even before she could talk and acted as if she were the teacher.

In 2007, when Malala was ten years old, the situation in the Swat Valley rapidly changed for her family and community. The Taliban began to control the Swat Valley and quickly became the dominant socio-political force throughout much of northwestern Pakistan. Girls were banned from attending school, and cultural activities like dancing and watching television were prohibited. Suicide attacks were widespread, and the group made its opposition to a proper education for girls a cornerstone of its terror campaign. By the end of 2008, the Taliban had destroyed some 400 schools.

Determined to go to school and with a firm belief in her right to an education, Malala stood up to the Taliban. Alongside her father, Malala quickly became a critic of their tactics. “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” she once said on Pakistani TV.

In early 2009, Malala started to blog anonymously on the Urdu language site of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). She wrote about life in the Swat Valley under Taliban rule, and about her desire to go to school. Using the name “Gul Makai,” she described being forced to stay at home, and she questioned the motives of the Taliban.

Malala was 11 years old when she wrote her first BBC diary entry. Under the blog heading “I am afraid,” she described her fear of a full-blown war in her beautiful Swat Valley, and her nightmares about being afraid to go to school because of the Taliban.

Much of the world's population, especially in poor countries, is made up of children and young people. To achieve a peaceful world, it is crucial that the rights of children and young people be respected. Injustices perpetrated against children contribute to the spread of conflicts to future generations. Already at eleven years of age Malala Yousafzai fought for girls' right to education. After having suffered an attack on her life by Taliban gunmen in 2012, she has continued her struggle and become a leading advocate of girls' rights.

Pakistan’s war with the Taliban was fast approaching, and on May 5, 2009, Malala became an internally displaced person (IDP), after having been forced to leave her home and seek safety hundreds of miles away.

On her return, after weeks of being away from Swat, Malala once again used the media and continued her public campaign for her right to go to school. Her voice grew louder, and over the course of the next three years, she and her father became known throughout Pakistan for their determination to give Pakistani girls access to a free quality education. Her activism resulted in a nomination for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011. That same year, she was awarded Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize. But, not everyone supported and welcomed her campaign to bring about change in Swat. On the morning of October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban.

Seated on a bus heading home from school, Malala was talking with her friends about schoolwork. Two members of the Taliban stopped the bus. A young bearded Talib asked for Malala by name, and fired three shots at her. One of the bullets entered and exited her head and lodged in her shoulder. Malala was seriously wounded. That same day, she was airlifted to a Pakistani military hospital in Peshawar and four days later to an intensive care unit in Birmingham, England.

Once she was in the United Kingdom, Malala was taken out of a medically induced coma. Though she would require multiple surgeries, including repair of a facial nerve to fix the paralyzed left side of her face, she had suffered no major brain damage. In March 2013, after weeks of treatment and therapy, Malala was able to begin attending school in Birmingham.

After the shooting, her incredible recovery and return to school resulted in a global outpouring of support for Malala. On July 12, 2013, her 16th birthday, Malala visited New York and spoke at the United Nations. Later that year, she published her first book, an autobiography entitled “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban.” On October 10, 2013, in acknowledgement of her work, the European Parliament awarded Malala the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

In 2014, through the Malala Fund, the organization she co-founded with her father, Malala traveled to Jordan to meet Syrian refugees, to Kenya to meet young female students, and finally to northern Nigeria for her 17th birthday. In Nigeria, she spoke out in support of the abducted girls who were kidnapped earlier that year by Boko Haram, a terrorist group
which, like the Taliban, tries to stop girls from going to school.

In October 2014, Malala, along with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, was named a Nobel Peace Prize winner. At age 17, she became the youngest person to receive this prize. Accepting the award, Malala reaffirmed that “This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.”

Today, the Malala Fund has become an organization that, through education, empowers girls to achieve their potential and become confident and strong leaders in their own countries. Funding education projects in six countries and working with international leaders, the Malala Fund joins with local partners to invest in innovative solutions on the ground and advocates globally for quality secondary education for all girls.

Currently residing in Birmingham, Malala is an active proponent of education as a fundamental social and economic right. Through the Malala Fund and with her own voice, Malala Yousafzai remains a staunch advocate for the power of education and for girls to become agents of change in their communities.

 

I think of it often and imagine the scene clearly. Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.

Malala Yousafzai envisioning a confrontation with the Taliban

 

Ellora Caves

Ellora Caves

 

Introduction about the Ellora Caves

The Ellora Caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra and consist of a vast complex of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist temple monuments. This series of magnificent rock-cut monastery temple caves, numbering over a hundred, is one of the largest in the world; with currently about thirty four open to the general public. One of them is the Kailash temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva and in the shape of a chariot. This imposing structure is the largest rock excavation in the world and made of a single block of stone. The panels in the temple feature various Hindu Gods and Goddesses of the Vaishnav and Shaiva sect. The presence of diverse monuments and artwork depicting the major Indian religious identities prevalent in that era, also indicate the religious harmony which was widespread across most of ancient India. The complex was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site from 1983 and a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India. The Ellora caves, along with the Ajanta caves are a major tourist destination and attract visitors from all over the Globe.

History of the Ellora Caves

Work on The Ellora Caves is believed to have been taken up during the 6th and 10th centuries, sometime after the Ajanta caves which are located about 100 km away, were abandoned. Carved out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills; this impressive complex was built when Hinduism was on a resurgent mode and Buddhism was on the decline. Most of the work was carried out under the patronage of the Chalukya and Rashtrakuta kings who are credited with building the spectacular Kailasa Temple. Gradually, the focus shifted to the Digambara Jain style sometime in the 10th century, which explains the multifarious nature of the complex. The caves were regularly frequented by Buddhist monks and served as an important religious and commercial center in the Deccan region, prominently located on an ancient trade route.

Significance of the Ellora Caves

The presence of Buddhist, Jain and Hindu artwork overlapping each other obscures the fact of which structures were sculpted first. However, chronological evidence indicates that the caves were built in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain styles in the sequence mentioned. The Hindu caves were built by the Traikutakas and Kalachuri Chalukya dynasties, the Buddhist caves by the Chalukyas and the Jain caves by the Rashtrakutas and the Yadavas in later days.

Architecture of the Ellora Caves

Out of the 12 Buddhist caves, eleven, feature Viharas or monasteries with carvings of Gautama Buddha, Bodhisattvas and saints. There are also living quarters and sleeping quarters, kitchens and other rooms.

This cave complex features a Buddha statue in an expansive hall which also has refectory benches. The Kanheri Caves are unique and the only kind which exist in India. The Visvakarma Cave features a Buddhist prayer hall and is also referred to as the ‘Carpenters Cave’. It features a Stupa hall and a 15-foot statue of Buddha seated in a preaching pose.

The Hindu Caves in the complex are dedicated to Lord Shiva, but also feature several other shrines. All the caves feature a Lingam cut out of rock and the Dhumar Lena cave also has a natural waterfall which symbolizes the River Ganga. The Rameshwar Lena Cave was one of the earliest to be excavated and has several carved panels and artwork. Shiva and Parvati, along with Kartikeya and Ganesh are depicted in this cave.

The Kailash temple is a marvel of architecture and carved out of a single block of rock. It features a gateway, an assembly hall and a Sanctum Santorum, along with several other shrines. This vast multi-storied temple complex was painstakingly carved out of 200,000 tonnes of basalt rock.

The Hindu complex also includes a Dashavatara Cave dedicated to Lord Vishnu and depicts him in his various incarnations.

The Ravan Ki Khai, and the Nilkantha caves are the other prominent Hindu caves in the Ellora complex.

The Jain Caves are smaller in size to the others and dedicated to the Digambara sect. Exquisitely detailed artwork is prevalent in all the Caves which feature panels and artwork from the Jain sect.

The Indra Sabha, Chhota Kailasha and The Jagannatha Sabha Caves are the other prominent structures in this complex.

Location 

The Ellora Caves in the state of Maharashtra are about 29 km away from Aurangabad, 300 km from Mumbai and around 100 km from the Ajanta caves.

Qutub Minar

                                                              The Qutub Minar

The Qutb Minar, also spelled as Qutub Minar and Qutab Minar, is a minaret and "victory tower" that forms part of the Qutb complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mehrauli area of New Delhi, India.The height of Qutb Minar is 72.5 meters, making it the tallest minaret in the world built of bricks. The tower tapers, and has a 14.3 metres (47 feet) base diameter, reducing to 2.7 metres (9 feet) at the top of the peak.It contains a spiral staircase of 379 steps.

Its closest comparator is the 62-metre all-brick Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan, of c.1190, a decade or so before the probable start of the Delhi tower. The surfaces of both are elaborately decorated with inscriptions and geometric patterns; in Delhi the shaft is fluted with "superb stalactite bracketing under the balconies" at the top of each stage. In general minarets were slow to be used in India, and are often detached from the main mosque where they exist.

It was built over the ruins of the Lal Kot, the citadel of Dhillika.Qutb-ud-din Aibak, a deputy of Muhammad of Ghor, who founded the Delhi Sultanate after Muhammad of Ghor's death, started construction of the Qutb Minar's first storey in 1199. This level has inscriptions praising Muhammad of Ghor. Aibak's successor and son-in-law Shamsuddin Iltutmish completed a further three storeys.

After a lightning strike in 1369 damaged the then top storey, the ruler at the time, Firuz Shah Tughlaq, replaced the damaged storey, and added one more. Sher Shah Suri also added an entrance while he was ruling and the Mughal emperor Humayun was in exile.The Minar is surrounded by several historically significant monuments of the 

Qutb complex. Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, to the north-east of the Minar was built by Qutub-ud-Din Aibak in A.D. 1198. It is the earliest extant - mosque built by the Delhi Sultans. It consists of a rectangular courtyard enclosed by cloisters, erected with the carved columns and architectural members of 27 Hindu and Jaina temples, which were demolished by Qutub-ud-Din Aibak as recorded in his inscription on the main eastern entrance. Later, a lofty arched screen was erected and the mosque was enlarged, by Shams-ud- Din Itutmish (A.D. 1210-35) and Ala-ud-Din Khalji. The Iron Pillar in the courtyard bears an inscription in Sanskrit in Brahmi script of fourth century A.D., according to which the pillar was set up as a Vishnudhvaja (standard of god Vishnu) on the hill known as Vishnupada in memory of a mighty king named Chandra.

Qutub Minar was begun after the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, which was started around 1192 by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, first ruler of the Delhi Sultanate. 

 

"It was added to the list of World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1993. It is one of most visited tourist spots in Delhi."

Taj Mahal

                                                    The Taj Mahal, Agra, India

The Taj Mahal, 'Crown of the Palace', is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the southern bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (reigned from 1628 to 1658) to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre) complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.

Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643, but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees, which in 2020 would be approximately 70 billion rupees (about U.S. $956 million). The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.

The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage". It is regarded by many as the best example of Mughal architecture and a symbol of India's rich history. The Taj Mahal attracts 7–8 million visitors a year and in 2007, it was declared a winner of the New 7 Wonders of the World (2000–2007) initiative.