Chicago: It was the rare occasion an assemblage of alumnus ASAANA ‘All Saints’ Alumni Association of North America’ was seen as the talk of town in Chicago, IL recently. The ASAANA working committee members braved the pandemic situations throughout this event planning stages to maintain the euphoria of organizing its annual Reunion Day of togetherness followed by an awards show, seated dinner, and cultural extravaganzas at Shalimar Banquet, Chicago. It was a great achievement to say the least.
Many alumni and their families along with community leaders across the continent graced the occasion in their personal regalia’s. After the entrance registrations, a brief social hour of connectivity’s took place among the participants. The audience later was brought to attention by the eloquent Dr Shah Khan the alumni’s ‘Master of Ceremony’ who took the stage to inform the audience with the modalities of the evening’s program.
The Reunion 2021 commemoration was commenced with the honorable Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White in the lead as Chief Guest followed by the ASAANA Board Working Committee headed by its President Mr. Ameer Khan and his team.
ASAANA 2021 – Board & Working Committee Members
- Founder & President: Ameer M Khan
- Vice President: Dinesh Mahendra
- Vice President: Basith Baig
- Secretary: Mohammed Ali
- Joint Secretary: Abdul Basith
- Joint Secretary: Salahuddin Muzaffer
- Joint Secretary: Wajahat Khan
- Treasurer: M Azeem Khan
- General Coordinator: M Osman Ali
- Coordinator: Parshuram Reddy
- Editor-in-Chief: Ar. Zahyr Siddiqi
- Editor: Dr. Shah Khan
- Sub-Editor: Syed Sirajuddin Ali
- IT Manager: Sanjay Srivastava
In the welcome address Mr. Ameer Khan, the president ASAANA, eulogized ‘All Saints’ High School’ in Hyderabad, India, as among the top ten and the oldest educational institutions producing pristine graduates year after year. Hereafter, the graduates move on to their advanced studies. Many of them made a distinguished mark in their national and International arenas.
Mr. Ameer Khan also tallied in his speech the goals and objectives of ASAANA which is registered as non-profit organization in the State of Illinois, operating in its own Board working committee membership with the cream of the crop. The audience was presented with a free copy of the ASAANA 2021 Magazine especially prepared by the Board & Working Committee Members for the occasion including availability of professionally prepared DVD recording of events at a nominal price.
Any mention of All Saint’s High School, a Catholic Missionary School founded in the erstwhile Kingdom of Hyderabad – once the independent nation, which was forcibly usurped by India in 1946, would not be complete without a brief historical description of this famously elite school.
Reverend Daniel Murphy founded the school in 1855 after his alma mater in Ireland, at the request of the then King Asaf Nasirud Dowla of Hyderabad. In 1932, the school was betrothed over to the Montfort Brothers of St. Gabriel epitome with Latin motto “Virtus Sola Nobilitat” meaning Virtue Alone Ennobles.
The School’s high academic standards, secular character, dedicated staff focused on human development of good values where the life philosophies and personality groundings took roots. As a result, this school has been the production house with numerously successful graduates over the past 165 years. The night’s participants’ alumni list includes batch graduates as old as 1960 and as young as 2018 graduates.
The reunion celebration took off when the honorable Jesse White was presented with a ASAANA 2021 memento by Mr. Ameer Khan President ASAANA on behalf of its Board working committee members. The honorable Jesse White in his presiding speech appreciated the ASAANA Membership for bringing their alumnus for Reunion 2021 togetherness and share the nostalgic moment of history in the fraternity’s platform.
The award ceremony got started and the honorable Jesse White distributed the awardees with the appreciation plaques and certificates. The awards were grouped in two forms based on the lifelong achievement ‘Honor Award’ and the other ‘Extraordinary High Achievement Award’ recognizing the individual merits of universal excellence in their respective professional field of activities.
All the awardees walked up to the stage and received their honor awards from the Chief Guest adeptly assisted by Mr. Ameer Khan. This was proceeded by ASAANA 2021 –Board & Working Committee Members being awarded for their diligence in achieving the Reunion 2021 realization. The awardees were then ushered into a photography session on the stage with the Chief Guest. At the closing of this session, Dr Dinesh Mahendra, VP ASAANA 2021 gave the vote of thanks prior to the departure of the Chief Guest.
HONOR AWARDS NOMINEES
- Dr.Abdul Hai: Medicine
- Dr. Srinivas Jairam: Medicine
- Khurram Nawab: Entrepreneur
- Ar. Yusuf Aidroos: Architecture
- Aswaq Sajjad: Philanthropy
- Mohammed Faheem: Socio Politics
- Jameel Husain: Literature
- Dr. Mohammed Thair: Education
- Dr. Abdul Majid: Medicine
- Rashid Ali Khan: Entrepreneur
- Syed Munawarullah Hussaini: Engineering
- Dr.Gulam Akther Noorani: Medicine/ Research
- Mohammed Abdul Basith: Administration
- G.M. Kazim: Entrepreneur
- Mohammed Khaleel Ahmed: Engineering & Entrepreneur
- PrestaShop Naga: Entrepreneur
EXTRA ORDINARY HIGH ACHIEVEMENT AWARD NOMINEES
- Dr. Mohiuddin Ali Khan: Engineering & Research
- Mr. Syed Abid Ali: Sports
- Dr. Abdul Hai: Sports
- Mr. Sultan Saleem: Sports (Posthumous Award )
- Mr. Vaseem Iftekhar: Socio Politics
- Ar. Zahyr Siddiqi: Architecture & Urban Planning
- Dr. Mir Imran: Medicine & Research
- Dr. Raj Pratap Mathur: Medicine
- Mr. Mahesh Singh: Entrepreneur
- Mr. Khalid Abdul Qayyum: Sports
- Mr. Abdul Azeem Khan: Sports
- Mr. Mohammed Azharuddin: Sports
- Mr. Abid Mustafa Abidi: Entrepreneur
- Mr. S I Venkatpati Raju: Sports
- Mr. Noel David: Sports
- Mr. Syed M Ali Faheem:Entrepreneur
Certificates of appreciation were also presented to the collaborative technical team of experts who played a vital role in making the event successful.
After the awards ceremony, the audience was feted to the most anticipated moment of night, an authentic Hyderabadi cuisine. This was followed by a musical extravaganza of popular Bollywood Sur Sargam orchestra. Special credit goes to the management of the entire concert, by our own alumni Mr. Vaseem Iftiqar, an extremely popular Chicagoland music personality, well supported by alumni Mr. Manoj an all-rounder singer who sings with passion, alumni Mr. Irshad Ansari a versatile young heart throb vocalist, Ms. Farah Salam a popular and versatile guest singer and the Sound Engineer Ali Saad without whose technical skills the concert entertainment could not have been possible.