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Nirwan Ansari received the B.S.E.E. (summa cum laude) from NJIT, Newark, in 1982, the M.S.E.E. from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1983, and the the Ph.D. degree from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, in 1988, respectively.
He joined NJIT's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as Assistant Professor in 1988, and has been Full Professor since 1997. He has also assumed various administrative positions including the NJIT Newark College of Engineering's Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies. He visited the Department of Information Engineering of the Chinese University of Hong Kong during the 98/99 academic year, and Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University, Japan, in Fall 2006.
He authored with E.S.H. Hou Computational Intelligence for Optimization (1997), and edited with B. Yuhas Neural Networks in Telecommunications (1994), both published by Springer (formerly Kluwer Academic Publishers). His current research focuses on various aspects of broadband networks and multimedia communications. He has contributed over 300 technical papers, over one third in refereed journals/magazines.
He is a Senior Technical Editor of the IEEE Communications Magazine, and also serves on the editorial board of Computer Communications, ETRI Journal, Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, and Journal of Computing and Information Technology.
Source : The Hindu
The Ansari family received a cruel blow in the recent terror attacks. They lost six family members in the massacre at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) on November 26. Rakhila Abbas Ansari, 40, her husband Abbas Razab Ansari, 40, her brother Mohammed Illias Ansari, 40, her nephews Sarfaraz Salauddin Ansari, 17, and Murtuza Ansari Salauddin, 17, and the couple’s son-in-law Mohammed Arif Mohammed Islam, 27, were struck down by the terrorists. The couple’s two children, Afroj, 12 and Mehboob, 18, were injured.
At 9.30 p.m., the Ansaris were waiting near platform 13 for the 11.25 p.m. Rajendra Nagar Express. Five of them were set to go to their village Mananpur in Navada district in Patna, for Bakrid, which falls on December 9.
Sagir, who had accompanied his parents, had gone to the toilet. When he came out a few minutes later, his family was no more. He saw his brother Mehboob injured on the ground. He took him to the hospital. Some people helped Afroj. Sagir learnt about Afroj’s hospitalisation only the next day.
Another kin was in for a shock like Sagir. Taxi driver Israil Ansari, another brother of Rakhila’s, had reached the family to the station in his taxi. He left them at the entrance and went to park his vehicle before planning to join them. That was the last he saw of his sister and the rest of his kin. “I reached the gate and heard the firing,” he says.
Afroj is just about reconciling with the horror and the loss of his parents. “I came to Mumbai a year ago from my village. I will go to school there. In Mumbai, I took Urdu lessons. I will go back to my village and to my school,” he says. There was no time for the family to seek succour that night. “We had no time to run. My uncle was shot; he fell on me,” says Afroj.
Like Firoze, Afroj and Mehboob also learnt of their parents’ death only recently. “Afroj kept asking why Mummy and Daddy had not come to see him at the hospital,” says Sagir.
Like the Ansari children, four of Arif’s children aged below ten are also going through the pain of losing a parent at a tender age. They are with their mother in their village.
The Ansari family lived in Mumbra, Thane, and earned a living by making bags, purses, doing zari work and selling perfumes. “They are a poor family. They spent what they earned during the day,” says Pappuraj Nayeem Khan, president of Nagina Masjid, where Israil lives.
Mr. Khan remembers Illias as a devout Muslim who always wore his cap and kurta pyjama and sported a beard. He was in the traditional attire even on the night of the attack unlike others. Mr. Khan says Illias was disturbed by the troubled times in Mumbai, especially after the attacks on north Indians.
Ansari (Arabic: انصاری) is a Nesbat in Middle East and South Asia. It originates from Ansar (Arabic: انصار) the Medinan people that helped Islamic prophet Muhammad when he migrated from Mecca to Medina. The literal meaning of Ansar is supporters.
Arabic Usage
The name itself is not used as a surname among Arabs, patronymics is used instead. The word is added as a title to the end of the name, if one has an ancestor who was an Ansar. This kind of use of a name is called "Nesbat" in Arabic, meaning "relation". In modern times, however, the surname Al-Ansari is widely used in many Persian Gulf and Arab nations.
Iranian Usage
In contrast, Iranians use surnames instead of Patronymics. In Iran, it has become a a Surname, since Iranian use surnames. This has also happened with the "Tabatabai", also originally a Nesbat.
Pakistani and Indian Usage
The Ansari surname goes as far as being used in Pakistan, northern India and Bangladesh, to show a lineage or ancestral link to the Ansar of Medina. Through the various waves of migration from the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Central Asia, and Afghanistan, descendants of the Ansar tribes arrived in the Indian Subcontinent. These families, mainly came either as scholars, government administrators and functionaries, soldiers or officers. Ansaris in the Indian Subcontinent hail both from the Shi'a and Sunni Muslim schools of thought.
The main original settlements and concentrations of Ansaris on the Indian Subcontinent, were in Multan, Pakistan; the Sindh province, Pakistan; Lilla, in western Punjab, Pakistan; Panipat, India; Saharanpur, India; Gorakhpur, India; and Lucknow, India - see,Firangi Mahal.
It seems that over a period of time, others, and many of the new Muslim converts, in India also identified themselves as Ansari, to show reverence to their Islamic faith. Many of these in northern India and Pakistan were involved in fabric manufacturing i.e. weavers (Urdu: julahay). Often, but not necessarily, Ansari is used to identify a caste, as well. In the Indian Hindu Caste System and in the (Urdu: baradari) system traditionally, different cast were involved or associated with different trades or professions. See also, Islam in India.
Hello Friends,
Finally I have been created a blog for our Indian Ansari community. Now we are having a strong platform to share our ideas for the development of Ansari community in India.
Regards,
Mohd Shahanshah Ansari
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