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ARRESTED AGAIN: IT’S FOUR FOR FONDA, NOW >>P4
S Farah Rizvi
“Kami kami si thi kuch rang-ebue gulshan mein, lab-e-bahar se nikli hui dua tum ho...” his couplet by famous Urdu poet Ali Sardar Jafri written specially for her epitomises the persona of scientist, lecturer, researcher and social worker Prof (Dr) Qamar Rahman.
Sitting in the backyard on her grandfather’s antique armchair and working on a laptop, Rahman is a perfect blend of past and present.
She has been relentlessly working not only in her professional field but also in diverse areas of her interests for the past many years and wishes to continue doing so. “Whatever little I have achieved doesn’t satiate the researcher in me and I feel a lot more can be done.”
TEARLY DAYS
Born in Shahjahanpur, prof Rahman emotionally recalls her earlier days.
“Those were the days when life was not at all tech-friendly like today’s but definitely less complicated. I was born in the mid 40s in an old reputed ‘Purdah’ observing family. My grandfather Khan Bahadur Habibur Rahman Khan was an ICS officer and his brother Khan Bahadur Fazlur-Rahman Khan, a member of the Legislative Assembly, established Gandhi Faiz-e-Aam College in Shahjahanpur in 1947.
“During that time, women from our families observed ‘purdah’ (in veil) and were not allowed to attend school or college. As a result they received their education at home. Thankfully, my mother wanted all her daughters to get educated. So it was because of her that we four sisters were able to achieve something in life. It was because of my parents’ inclination towards education I was admitted to the Aligarh Muslim University for high school and intermediate classes,” she shares.
“Those were beautiful days as I also had a chance to meet and listen to great poets like Padma Shri Ali Sardar Jafri along with his daughter who later become our family friend. As my father was a government servant, when he got transferred to Bareilly it was from there I completed my BSc and then from Agra St. Johns College I did my masters in chemistry.”
FIRST WORKING WOMAN IN FAMILY
“I remember I came to Lucknow to meet my sister and it was at her place that I met the then principal of Karamat Husain Muslim Girls’ College, who was looking for a chemistry teacher and asked me to take up a job at her college. But my mother downright refused saying, “Hamare ghar ladkiyaan naukri nai karti .... ”
“However, the principal convinced her saying this will not be a literal ‘naukari’ as I was more like a daughter to her so it I will be like being with a family. Here I would like to mention that my parents did marry me off but it didn’t work and soon my father got me separated and brought me home. I had a daughter too who remained with me. She is a doctor of internal medicine in the US,” she adds.
Talking about her taking up the job, she says, “And then I completed my bachelors and masters and got a job. See ‘Ek baar paair bahar par jata hai toh aadmi sab seekh jata hai’. Same happened with me. So I was teaching and residing with my sister. That’s how I became the first working woman in my family.”
BECOMING A SCIENTIST
“After taking up teaching, I realised that I should also complete my PhD and so I joined the biochemistry department of Lucknow University and worked under prof PS Krishnan, a known scientist. It was during that time I got to know about a vacancy at the Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC) now known as Indian Institute for Toxicological Research (IITR), one of the leading national laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It was there I completed my PhD with director of ITRC Dr Sibte Hasan Zaidi and Dr Vishwanathan in ‘chemical aspects of the toxicity of mineral fibre,’ with my turf being ‘asbestos’ a magic mineral fibre the prolonged use of which leads to lung cancer and fibrosis. It is banned everywhere except a few countries in Asia including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. My team and I worked extensively on the usage of this mineral fibre and got shocking results. And soon my work started getting acknowledgement and also got printed,” she says.
Later, during her scientific career, she was awarded merit promotion by CSIR,
Government of India in 1984 and was promoted to a higher grade due to excellence in her work.
“At the ITRC, I established the fibre toxicology division and developed numerous international research linkages. I superannuated from the ITRC as deputy director and area leader of inhalation toxicology and human risk assessment in August 2003,” prof Rahman adds.
“A project sponsored by the Commonwealth Science Council, UK, 1990 on the topic, “women and their occupational hazards” was very close to my heart. I also got a documentary made along with the Mass Com students of Jamia Millia Islamia. The film also won the best video film award from the government of India in 1990s. The main motive of the film was to highlight the plight of women who are working in various chemical factories in our country.”
GETTING HONORARY DOCTORATE FROM ROSTOCK UNIVERSITY
“In 2009, I was honoured and felt very proud that a university that completed 600 years and had given doctorate to legendary scientist Albert Einstein honoured me too. This made me the first Indian to have received this honour. And I am associated with Rostock for the last 22 years as a visiting professor. Also, I have delivered lectures in 26 universities spread across the world.”
PROUD PROFESSOR
A septuagenarian today, the scientist and social worker in her refuse to slow down.
“Even after my retirement, my love for education once again motivated me to join the Integral University as dean for research and development. Later, I joined as distinguished professor & dean of research at the Amity University, Lucknow.
I am also a research professor at the University of Louisiana, USA and visiting faculty at Rostock University & University of Duisburg, Germany,” she further shares.
“Being an external advisor on the safety of Nano material with WHO (Geneva) is something that also keeps me busy.”
Winner of numerous awards including the Yash Bharti, Rahman was recently appointed as external advisor of a new project—RISKGONE.
It is a new European Union initiative for risk governance of nanotechnology and will comprise approximately 23 partners from European and other countries. It will run for about 50 months.
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In 2009, I was honoured and felt very proud that a university that completed 600 years and had given doctorate to legendary scientist Albert Einstein honoured me too
PROF QAMAR RAHMAN SCIENTIST