Brief AutoBiography
Of
Er.Ahmad Rais Siddiqi (Alig)
International Radio/TV Commentator & Quiz master
Born at Sir Syed House( Bangaliya, a Guest House in Sir Syed House where our great grand father late Sheikh Kareem Uddin, father of late Prof.Omar Ali Siddiqi,first head of the Deptt.Applied Sciences, ZCOEAT,AMU, came along with Sir Ross Masood from Delhi as his Personal Manager, so my father late Mr.Rais Uddin was put into that guest house . Ahmad Rais Siddiqi, was born on 31st Dec 1950.Passed High School from Minto Circle School, AMUA, Aligarh, in sixtees.Mechanical Engg Course, from AMUA in 1970. Became the youngest ever till date, Senior School TT Champion, while in fifth class in Bachcha School, only. This is also a record till date. Became the youngest ever till date, University TT Champion while just in 8th Class defeating all my very senior and prominent players like AMU Champion, Shamim Riaz, Zamir Uddin Alvi, Sabih Uddin Alvi and all others. Became the youngest ever till date the University Captain of TT Club, of all games, which is still a record .Prof.Fakhruddin Ahmad had appointed me . First person till date to represent UP State team in the All India TT Championships held at Madras in 1966.I was the Captain of the UP TT team . Became, AMUA TT Champion, Aligarh Distt.Champion and then Agra Region Champion and Captain also and then went to represent UP Team in the Nationals. Represented AMU in several all India Inter-Varsity TT Championships and won many all India level titles and brought the laurels for the University. It is still a record. My co-players were,Akbar Rashid Siddiqi(later on became Film hero),Buland Iqbal,Shuja Uddin Alvi,Jamshed Khan Sherwani,K.K.Mehta,Sudhir Raaj Vanshi,Daryush Salary of Iran and my juniors were, Avon Kumar Sharma,Ajit Sharma,Jaspal Singh,Bharat Ranjan,Vishva Ranjan,,Rajan Bajaj,K.K.Handa,Abdul Rauf Siddiqi,Arif Hameed,Dr.Riaz Mehdi,Habib un Nabi(Zaman) and Saleem Sherwani(MP and former External affairs minister GO India) etc.My seniors were Shamim Riaz,Prof.Zamir Alvi,Prof.Sabih Alvi,Moin Alvi,Amir Alvi(who later on became Pakistan National TT Champion), Sharfuddin Alvi,Prof.Hashim Rizvi,Waseem Khan(he is the first ever University TT colours holder and is a USA Citizen now), Abdul Rehman Khan, Rizwan Khan,Khalid Sherwani,Mehboob Khan,Haris Sherwani, Rais Athar,Harris Ansari(younger brother of Mohd. Hamid Ansari, VP of India).My other TT fans who practiced with me at AMY include,Prof.Mehdi Hasan,Prof.Mubashhir,Prof.Mohammad Ahmad,Prof.M.B.Khan,Prof.Abu Bakar,Dr.Athar Ansari,Dr.Ashraf Ahmad,Dr.Riaz Mehdi(all from JLNMC,AMUA), Prof.Zia Uddin Ahmad(Botany Deptt.) and many more I don’t remember them today and my students included,Vivek Bansal(MLA of Aligarh),Bharat Ranjan and Abdul Rauf Siddiqi and many others). Nawab Safdar Hassan, Moin Alvi and Waseem khan had taught me the abcd of the game. Sardaar Balbir Singh, former India No; 1 and Tapan Bose Chief Coach of NIS, India were my prominent TT coaches. Our prominent female players were, Naseem Firdause, Salma Iqbal, Shama Iqbal, Shaheen Iqbal, Saimena Khan, Rita Pasricha, Yasmin Qasim, and Parveen Ahmad, Perveen Tarque, Rana Tarque and others. Represented Senior UP State TT team in the all India TT National Championships held in Hyderabad in 1971.Upset the then India No;1 and the then current Commonwealth TT No.2 Mir Qasim Ali of Hyderabad. Reached Quarter finals in the same championships of Mixed Double event in partner ship of UP Champion, India No.1 and the then only ever Indian player to become Asia no.3, Miss .Veenu Bhushan of Dehradoon.We lost to the ultimate National Champions Farrukh Khudaiji and Kaity Chargeman of Bombay I had joined Kasimpur Power House, Aligarh as Junior Engineer (Operations) in 1975. I represented Up State Electricity TT and Tennis teams in many All India Electricity Board’s Tournaments and won many tittles. I joined as assistant engineer (O&M), in NTPC Co. in New Delhi in 1984 on sports quota. I became all India NTSC’s TT and tennis teams and won many tittles. I became the first All India Power Sector TT Champion which is the biggest record so far. I am still representing my NTPC TT team in various All India level tournaments winning tittles. I became International Radio Commentator in 1987 while doing the running commentary of the World TT Championships held in New Delhi in India.Jasdev Singh was my first co-commentator and appreciated my voice and performance. I am doing Radio/TV commentary and am also a quiz master of DD Sports and AIR, since 1987 till date, covering many national and international events of Cricket, Hockey, Football, TT and Tennis etc. Covered Indo-Pak Cricket test match at New Delhi, many Davis Cup ties, World Doubles Tennis event in Bangalore, Tata Open in Chennai, First Afro-Asian Games Hyderabad, and World and Commonwealth TT championships in Delhi. My prominent co-commentators are,Sardar Jasdev Singh,Chetan Sharma,Maninder Singh,Surender Khanna,Mahender Amarnath(s/o late Lala Amarnath an Alig),Milan Vagle,late Gujral,Maj.Gen.Utpal Bhattacharya,S.Raghavan(former Chief of CBI of India), Vijay Amrithraj,Anand Amrithraj,Akhtar Ali,Gaurav Seth, Mir Qasim Ali,Kamlesh Mehta,Manjit Dua,Shubankar Mukherji,G.S Marar and many other prominent national champions and sports icons. It is really a very very rare experience as a player cum commentator . I am the very very first person from AMU to reach this level doing the radio and TV commentaries till date. I also write in English, Hindi and Urdu in many Dailies/Magazines, Web Magazines etc on Science, Environment, Political, Spiritual, Cultural, Sports and Features, and I am a Quiz master also. I am senior talker of All India Radio and incidentally, I am going to give a talk on “Air Pollution,” from AIR on 4th of June2008. I always write free of cost/fees and call “A Spade a Spade,” so many people are may enemies. I got seven promotions in NTPC from Assistant Engineer to Chief Engineer/Senior Manager (New Business Development) NTPC Ltd., a multi Billion Dollars Co. and posted in New Delhi. My hobbies include, painting, swimming, organizing free medical camps for my poor brothers and sisters irrespective of caste, creed and colours and I distribute free spectacles to them, and poetry writing and mushairas etc. and adventure. I wrote my first poem “Wafa” in 8th class at the age of 12 yrs only. I write poetry in Urdu Hindi and English I had made one “World record as the longest on road Roller Skating Goodwill tour” from AMUA to Lahore in 1978, as the leader of the adventure cum-Goodwill tour. Late Prof A.M.KLhusro, the then VC of AMUA, had given us a send off from his house in AMUA and later on, the then PM of India late Mrs.Indira Gandhi, had also given us a good luck send off from her house in Delhi in January 1978. Tow young boys of 14 are us years age, Kunwar Arif Ali Khan and Kunwar Israr Ali Khan had done so.Arif was on Skates and Israr was on Bicycle. It is still a World record. No body has done more than this till date, to the best of my knowledge. I believe that AMUA has been the main and most instrumental in helping, developing and giving me free education and Scholarships of Sports. I am also grateful to teachers, and extremely supportive friends and the lovely atmosphere of AMUAnd I believe that it is just because of the special Institution established by late Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. I believe in the Holy Quran in which Allah says that; Wato Izzo Mantashao Wato Zillo Mantashao; This is all what I could say in short about myself, till today Sir |
