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In today’s podcast we will get an insight into how life was for our fathers and forefathers living in Colonial times in Kenya Colony, as our guest today is Mr Haq-Nawaz Khan, father of Sadaqat, Ferhat and their three sisters, Safina, Iffat and Razwana.  We will also briefly discuss the political history of Kenya and the impact it had upon the Asian community during the transition into independence in 1963.  Mr Haq-Nawaz himself was born in Nairobi in 1931 and lived there for 45 years, describing those years as “the best years of his life“. He left the African soil for London in the mid-1970’s, like many of our families. His own father, Mehdi Khan, emigrated from India and arrived in Kenya exactly 100 years ago in 1920 as a 19-year-old lad seeking employment. 

This podcast is with Mr Ismail Sheikh who 89 years old. He emigrated to Kenya in 1948 at the age of 17 and went on to become a journalist in Kenya in the early 1960s. He covered all the major sports for the East African Standard, as well as writing articles for Sportime magazine in Lahore. He also wrote Urdu scripts for The Voice of Kenya for their sports programme called KHEL KE MAIDAN SE. His story should remind us of the sacrifices our parents made when they emigrated from India/Pakistan for a better life. Without their sacrifices we would not have the opportunities we have today. In this podcast he talks about his struggles and life growing up in Kenya.    Over the years his three loves have been Sir Ali Muslim Club, a passion to serve his  community the Kokni Muslims and Urdu literature. He went on to fulfil his ambition of writing books in Urdu and has had 2 publications,  first book, a collection of short stories called DHALTA SOORAJ published in 1987, and another collection of short stories titled NAMAKDAAN was published in 2006.His stories titled Pichla Darwaza and Mama Bogo can be listened to using these links:Pichla Darwazahttps://soundcloud.com/shahid67/pichla-darwaza-author-ismail-sheikhMama Bogohttps://soundcloud.com/shahid67/mama-bogo-author-ismail-sheikh We hope you like the podcast.

Today’s guest is Ehsan Shahid Choudary, also known as Bari Saab. It is not often that you meet an individual who has accomplished so much in a relatively short period. His accomplishments leave you in awe and humbled. He is the brains and inspiration behind The Open Kitchen in Hounslow. The idea being that 2 hot meals per day are served to homeless and needy but also to anybody that wants to eat there.  He was recognised by the Queens office for his philanthropy. If that wasn’t enough, he is a well-known poet in Urdu literary circles and has had eight volumes of poetry that have been published.Bari Saab is highly regarded and respected by all those who come into contact with him. He has been involved in political circles, does other charity work, he is a businessman, is actively involved with Pakistan Welfare Association, a school governor and a community worker. Hope you enjoy the podcast!

Welcome to the part 2 of the Podcast with Rajab Ali. In part 1, we discussed Rajab’s journey up to the 1996 world cup and the seminal moment when Kenya beat West Indies and he took 3/17. Unfortunately we ran out time and didn’t discuss the rest of the tournament, their return to Kenya, the remainder of this career and the demise of Cricket in Kenya as well as the downturn in the fortunes of Sir Ali sports club.We hope you enjoy the podcast.

This podcast is with  Zamir Hyder. He started his retail business (specializing in Jeans) from scratch to nationwide stores across the country. His passion and drive to succeed made him reach the very top. A person who is always giving to others and willing to help in line with our Islamic values. He has been at the fore front of numerous charities, helping launch the Imran Khan Cancer Appeal, being one of many. Apart from his hard working ethics, he enjoys his sports and was a very good footballer playing at University level. In this podcast he talks about his passions and lessons from business and personal life which have stood him in good stead. Hope you enjoy the podcast.

Sister Salma Mehar is a consultant dietitian working in the field of Diabetes care for over 15 years. She is currently working on a National Diabetes Transformation program in London where she is introducing a new model of care through digital diabetes intervention and a new remission program for Type II diabetes. She has been working on improving knowledge and wellbeing with diabetics during Ramadan. Her role has extended working across the globe with various communities teaching and developing educational tools and developing digital resources to improve health literacy in people living with diabetes. She is also the co-author of the World Foods book from Carbs & Cals, which is the first ever visual carbohydrate awareness resource for the BAME [Black, Asian and minority ethnic ] communities. Her work on developing resources has been presented at many national and international conferences. She continues to develop her passion of improving health literacy through digital platforms. Hope you enjoy the podcast.

Today;s special guest is Rajab Ali who joined an exclusive club of only 3 other players from Sir Ali to play in the world cup. The other players are his uncle Zulfiqar Ali a true legend of Kenya Cricket, Mehmood Qureshi (Rest his soul in peace) a wonderful man who was much respected and my brother Frasat Ali. Knowing the challenges in Kenya Cricket, I can only imagine how difficult his journey must have been to represent Kenya and play in the world cup. The images of him getting Lara out in the 1996 world cup are etched in our minds. But I imagine it was a long journey getting there. At around 8 min we lost contact with Rajab for 30 seconds, so please continue listening. Hope you enjoy the podcast.

This podcast is with Frasat Ali who who played hockey and cricket for Sir Ali Sports Club. A genuine all-rounder who went on to play at the highest level, representing East Africa in the first Cricket World Cup in England in 1975. A cricketer, highly respected by his fellow team mates and opposition, and regarded by many as the finest of his generation. Later on in his career he excelled in English Club cricket with Surrey and Middlesex.He is modest man and took much convincing to record the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.

This podcast is on Bob Musa who was somewhat of a teenage cricket prodigy,  an outstanding batsmen for his age, who went onto to play cricket at a very high level in Kenya for Sir Ali, as well as club and minor county cricket in UK. He also captained Sir Ali. Having given up cricket Bob is now a keen golfer whose golfing style is similar to his batting which is steady and straight. I have had the good fortune of spending a lot of time with Bob on the golf course and he is one of the kindest and good hearted human beings I have met. He is liked and respected by all especially team mates from Sir Ali. Apart from that he is also good company with great stories about his cricketing days.I hope you enjoy this podcast.

Anwar Khan is not only an outstanding sportsman who excelled at Cricket and Hockey and played both at a high level, but he is also a very successful business man who set-up an industrial hardware & tools business from scratch. In addition, he has a passion for literate especially Urdu poetry, Islamic history, hadith's and has a deep knowledge of Islam’s golden era. Not many will know this but he has actually authored a book on Islam.In this podcast he shares some of his passions. Hope you enjoy this podcast.

Saleem Mehar reflects on a career that spans 45 years. He started playing cricket on the streets of Pangani, Nairobi like so many from that era and quickly went on to represent Sir Ali as a 16 year old and soon after played for Kenya. In UK he played in the Middlesex league where his career went from strength to strength. He played minor county cricket as well as conference cricket which took him all over the world playing cricket at the highest level. He has played against some of the greats in the cricket world. We hope you enjoy the podcast.