SO. FAREWELL THEN, SUGHRA AHMED

At the Bombay Pavilion, Victoria Park, for a surprise going-away party in honour of Sughra Ahmed. Sughra has been a stalwart of Leicester Council of Faiths all the years I've been in post. She has recently resigned from the Board of Directors as she is leaving Leicester to take up a post with the Woolf Institute, based at Cambridge University. That's her cake in the photo above, with her edible face on it.

Sughra has worked as a Research Fellow in the Islamic Foundation’s Policy Research Centre, based at Markfield Institute of Higher Education. She remains a Trustee of the Interfaith Network UK. She published Seen and Not Heard: Voices of Young British Muslims. She organised flashmob iftar during Ramadan and “Picnic in the Park” thereafter, feeding homeless people and refugees, coordinated through Facebook. She has been of considerable help to me in my post, most notably when she came forward to be one of a panel of speakers at the Amplified Leicester event I hosted at Phoenix Square in March 2011, Amplified Communities of Faith or Belief. I also recall, in particular, how she lit up our display in Highcross on a busy Saturday afternoon during Inter Faith Week 2010, like a flame attracting moths, at ease with the crowds that busy day, able to persuade people to stop and talk or to to take literature as they passed by. She did that gig better than just about anyone else ever involved in it. Not what I expected from someone whom I had thought of up till then as being something of a dry, closeted academic. How wrong could I be about a person, faithful reader? Seeing her in action that one afternoon completely rewrote the script. She also organised a successful seminar for Leicester Council of Faiths during Inter Faith Week 2012, under the title, Faith in Family.

There's a good turnout in her honour this evening and it's clearly been kept secret, to judge by the look on Sughra's face when she arrives.

Several friends and colleagues say their bit about how they got to know Sughra, what she means to them and how they're going to miss her. In the photo above, Rupal Rajani (from BBC Radio Leicester) is doing just that.

We all wish Sughra well in her new role and in her future. Personally, I'll miss her calling me "Georgie". I can't imagine anyone else doing that until I'm sitting all day in a high-backed leather chair, wearing a drool bib and being told to eat up while being fed Ready Brek by means of a plastic spoon. I'll be staring into the distance, trying to recall ... someone ... or something ... Anyway: good luck Sughra! Keep in touch.

BBC RADIO LEICESTER'S UGANDA 40 SEASON: CLOSING RECEPTION

I've accepted an invitation to attend a reception at BBC Radio Leicester this evening, to celebrate the conclusion of their Uganda 40 season, that has been running for the past couple of months.

There are about 60 guests gathered in the foyer. I've not seen this used for such a purpose before, but its a very good setting for this kind of thing. For part of the reception, Kamlesh Purohit is broadcasting live from the foyer, interviewing some of the attendees. After all, this is taking place during his time slot.

Speakers include Jane Hill (Editor of BBC Radio Leicester), Rupal Rajani (BBC Radio Leicester presenter, who travelled to Uganda to record several programmes broadcast during this celebratory season) and Sir Peter Soulsby (City Mayor). Sir Peter offers a brief overview of the ways in which the arrival and settlement of Ugandan Asians has transformed the nature of Leicester in business, civic, commercial, culinary, cultural, demographic, economic, political, religious and social terms over the past four decades.

In the photo above, Jane Hill presents Rupal and her producer, Namrata Varia, with a gift expressing the station's thanks for the work they put into making the Uganda 40 season such a success.

As part of the entertainment this evening, Rishi Tavare plays tabla and there's a performance by Kesha Raithatha (photo above), from Leicester's Centre for Indian Classical Dance. There's an exhibition about the Centre on the first floor here, which I get an opportunity to look at (photo below).

It is announced this evening, to general acclaim, that the exhibition, "From Kampala to Leicester" which ran for three months at New Walk Museum and Art Gallery will be given a permanent home at Newarke Houses Museum. I've blogged a couple of times about that, particularly the closing reception (24 September) and about a lecture I heard there entitled, Ugandan Asians in Leicester: From Refugees to Citizens (7 August). I also took part in a live phone-in radio show, last in a week-long series with Jim Davis, entitled "Immigration and Integration: What is the Future for Leicester?"

This is a very congenial occasion which says good things about our city. I'm privileged to have been invited and glad to have attended.

Of the six photos included here, the first, second and fourth are courtesy of Dimple Patel, producer at BBC Radio Leicster. There's also a nice gallery of photos from this evening's event on the website of Pukaar News.

FESTIVAL PROMISES TASTE OF ASIAN LIFE

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Festival promises taste of Asian life

The tastes, sights and sounds of Asia will take over the city centre this weekend for the annual Mela festival.

On Sunday, two stages in the city centre will host dance and music while the market place sizzles with the finest curries, bhajis and samosas.

The organisers of the Leicester Belgrave Mela promise it will be "a glittering mix of live music, dance, fashion and food".

Festival director Sanjib Singh Sahota said: "It promises to be bigger and better than ever before.

"This summer, we are inviting the whole of the UK to experience our famous Mela Shopping Bazaar, a whole host of free South Asian arts activities, delightful dance, music, electrifying entertainment – and a few celebrity guests.

"It's going to be a great day out for the whole family."

Special guests flying in from India especially for the event will include Rucha Hasabnis and Vishal Singh, who play the characters Rashi and Jigar in the popular Star Plus series, Saath Nidhana Saathiya.

BBC Asian Network, which helps organise the Mela, has invited performers including Navin Kundra, the Stranger Family, Foji and Mobo award-winner Raghav.

Hosts on the stages will include Leicester-born Star TV presenter Nishil Saujani and BBC Radio Leicester's Rupal Rajani.

Other fun will include a climbing tower and sports activities.

Pradip Popat, of Mirch Masla restaurant, which will have two stalls at the Mela this year selling food, said: "There's always an amazing atmosphere with brilliant music and culture and there are always more people than ever in the city centre when the Mela's on.

"I've got my fingers crossed for good weather and I think it will be the best and the biggest ever."

About 25 youngsters from Kuntal's School of Bollywood Dancing will be performing on the main stage in Humberstone Gate and on the smaller stage near the Clock Tower.

Kuntal Indulkar, who runs the school, said: "We have dancers aged from six to 25 who will be performing and they're very excited.

"It will be our third year taking part. We had rehearsals at the weekend with the costumes all the parents helped make and we can't wait for Sunday."

The Mela was first held in 1982 on Cossington Recreation Ground, Belgrave, as the Belgrave Festival before moving to Abbey Park, and then the city centre. It became the model for similar summer festivals in Manchester, London, Cambridge and Newcastle.

This year's event, which will be broadcast on BBC Asian Network, starts at 11am and finishes at 6pm.

Photo from 2011 Leicester Mela sourced from Kiran Parmar, with permission.