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ABOUT ME: I was born in a Zamindar (landlord) family in a village in the State of Uttar Pradesh in India in 1938. My father passed away when I was only 4 ½ years old leaving me without any brother or sister. We were living in a joint family with my uncles who were very loving. My noble mother, who was widowed at a very young age, raised me. My early life has been that of struggle with no one to advise me. My mother was indeed an enlightened lady who sent me to Lucknow where I had all my early education. I had my B.Sc. degree from Lucknow University. It was Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India, which played the paramount role in shaping my future life and career. I am highly indebted to AMU. I had my M.Sc. Engineering degree in Hydraulic Structures from AMU in First Division standing first in order of merit. I started my teaching career also there when I joined the Civil Engineering Department as a mere Demonstrator and subsequently got promotions in open all India competitions until the rank of Reader. It was here that my loving and caring wife, Rafia Sultana Alvi joined me and gave me three lovely kids, by the grace of God, daughter Arshia, son Tariq and another daughter Sabiha. I later got the opportunity of being sponsored by the University to pursue my Ph.D. at the most reputed institution of India and world ranked, the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. It was the best experience of my life as a student there. I was very lucky to have very good and world renowned professors as my supervisors and finished my research work just in 3 ½ years, getting the Ph.D. degree in 1975. I left India to join University of Alfateh Tripoli, Libya, in 1978. I do not consider my stay there very happy or eventful. In 1980, on getting an offer, I joined King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as Assistant Professor where I worked for four years. It was a happy stay, but I was very worried about my children’s education. It was indeed a right decision when I accepted the offer from University of Bahrain, then Gulf Polytechnic, primarily in the interest of my children’s education, and joined as Assistant Professor. In due course I got the promotions as Associate Professor and Professor. I have spent the best part of my life here. All along I have been enjoying not only the respect but love of my students, colleagues and the administration alike. Bahrain is a wonderful country indeed. In addition to my professional contributions, I have been involved in community service as well. I was a founder member of Ibn al Haythem Islamic School, Bahrain, a member of the Board of Trustees and Chairman of the Educational Committee. I left this school after acquiring Pakistani citizenship. I am now involved with Pakistan Urdu School, as its Trustee and Head of the School Management Committee. While still keeping my Pakistani nationality, I am a Permanent Resident of United States. In recognition of my community service, I was given the Award of Excellence for Community Service by the Alsaqfa Pakistani Association, Bahrain. I have also been participating in many literary gatherings. I can only call it a love of the community that they have been asking me to preside over such gatherings or inviting as chief guest or the guest of honor. I also got the opportunity meeting many eminent personalities of Pakistan. I have been given good coverage by the print and electronic media of Bahrain, perhaps more than I deserve. Although we as a family traveled quite a lot, but it was basically the international conferences I attended to present my research contributions that I got the opportunity to see many parts of the world. I presented research papers in, to site some, in The Netherlands, Germany, Sudan, UK, USA, Japan, China, Austria, Saudi Arabia, India, Oman, Bahrain etc. I am indeed thankful to God Almighty for bestowing me with his bounties. |