A documentary film depicting the lives of the descendants of India's last Moghul emperor has been released in India.

This is the first time that the emperor's descendants, who had been living in complete anonymity, decided to disclose their identity.

The film-maker, Arijit Gupta, says his film is an attempt to make the people aware of the struggles of this surviving Moghul family.

The Moghuls ruled India for more than 300 years starting from 1526. The film entitled, "The Living Moghuls", is based on the family history of 80-year-old Begum Laila Umahani, the fourth generation direct descendant of Bahadur Shah Zafar and his first wife, Ashraf Mahal.

The palaces have receded into a forgotten past and the Moghuls of today live in a rented house in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, far away from their ancestral home of Delhi.

The half-an-hour documentary film traces the family history of the Moghuls after the exile of Bahadur Shah Zafar to Burma in 1857 by the British. Arijit Gupta told the BBC that he met Begum Laila Umahani five years ago and after detailed research shot the film early this year. "My film is a story of the three missing generations after Bahadur Shah Zafar,- the period which saw the disappearance of the Moghuls from the historical centre stage to complete anonymity."

The film has one English narrative and several interviews of the descendants of Bahadur Shah Zafar in Urdu, which are sub-titled. The film has been shot in Delhi, Hyderabad and Agra.

The film narrates how after Bahadur Shah Zafar's exile to Burma in 1857, Mirza Quaiush, who was his only son, managed to escape from the British army and fled to Kathmandu in Nepal. However, Quaiush secretly came back to India and was given shelter in Rajasthan by its ruler. Quaiush's son - Mirza Abdullah - also migrated from one place to another and finally went to Hyderabad, where his son Mirza Pyare was born. Begum Laila Umhani, the daughter of Mirza Pyare was also born in Hyderabad.

Speaking to the BBC, Begum Laila Umahani - said she had not disclosed her identity because some people made a mockery out of it. "In the film, I narrate how our lives changed, my childhood memories and how we lost everything we owned," she said. Her two sons - Ziauddin Tucy is a retired government employee and Masiuddin Tucy is a food consultant.

One of the shots in the film show how this family now has to stand in queue to get a ticket and enter Red Fort - built by one of their predecessors. 

Source: Ayanjit Sen BBC 
Saturday, 10 August, 2002

Research psychologist and psychotherapist Elaine Aron's book, 'The Highly Sensitive Person : How to Thrive when the World Overwhelms You’ details her research findings, which include:

• The brains of highly sensitive people have more activity and blood flow in the right hemisphere, indicating an internal rather than an external focus. 
  
• What is moderately arousing to most people is overwhelming to HSPs. 
  
• HSPs often have decreased serotonin levels resulting from the repeated stress of over arousal. 
  
• Likewise, they have more reactive immune systems (allergies) and more sensitive nervous systems. 
  
• The sensitivity trait is just as likely among men as among women; both represent about 20 percent of the population.

The Asian Brown Cloud – the cloud of pollution

A three-kilometre thick layer of haze hangs over a wide expanse covering South Asia to South East Asia. Known as the "Asian Brown Cloud," the haze is comprised of particulate matter from various aerosols, most caused by burning fossil fuels and is causing lower temperatures and changing precipitation patterns, including floods and droughts.

"This cloud of pollution is a direct consequence of the unsustainable use of energy in the region," Desai said. "It causes respiratory disease and it wreaks havoc on agriculture. And it is also something we can do something about, if we are committed."

"The Brown Cloud does not recognize borders, and it indiscriminately hurts people, in their health and in their livelihoods, wherever they live."

Source: The Guardian