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SPREADING THE WORD

July 18 - 24, 2018
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Gulf Weekly SPREADING THE WORD

Gulf Weekly Kristian Harrison
By Kristian Harrison

Writer Sufyan bin Uzayr is helping to spread goodwill to the world’s students in need by distributing books from classical authors, helping them with their studies and providing materials on Quranic verse to eliminate misconceptions and stereotypes.

The Indian native, who moved to Bahrain in December after a family tragedy, is involved in numerous entrepreneurial endeavours and wants to make the kingdom his home base as he travels the globe.

Sufyan, 27, has travelled back to India this week to set up a publishing company. Zeba Books will distribute classic works from the likes of Aristotle, Shakespeare and Plato, plus texts from iconic poets such as Rumi and Hafiz. He explained: “I want to produce these works and offer them to young students at discounted rates. They will all feature commentaries and notes included in the text to help with studies and examinations.

“I’ve had this idea for some time. Back when I was in India, I offered classes to students, wrote study materials and my door was always open to help. In fact, my mum always hated it because from 6am until 10pm there was always a student at our house because so many people wanted assistance.

“I think the system there is a little unfair. English is not the mother tongue of anyone in India, no matter where you go. However, 15-year-olds have to study Shakespeare and it’s compulsory in any English-curriculum schools. So basically, the teachers will give you a play – from Merchant of Venice, Macbeth or whatever – and you have to study for exams on it. This is incredibly challenging, as many of these students can’t converse in normal English, never mind Shakespearean English!”

“Not only this, but at the same time, their parents will be concerned with how they’re doing in maths, physics, chemistry, etc., which are seen as ‘more important’ than English, so the students are pushed more towards those subjects.”

Sufyan, who works from a swish office at the grand United Tower in Bahrain Bay boasting mesmerising scenic views, prefers to be acknowledged as a writer, although truth be told, he could adopt a number of monikers. He is currently undertaking his fourth Master’s degree, this time in political science, having already obtained ones in the fields of history, English and information technology.

He has written a number of textbooks, has been the editor of various journals and magazines, and even published his first science-fiction novel, The Apocalypse, in 2015.

Furthermore, he is a self-taught programmer, having sneaked into his school’s computer room and taught himself. What first started as content writing and tutoring to earn some extra pocket money whilst at school soon exploded into a full-time, seven-days-a-week dedication to providing services and education to people across the world.

However, it was only in December that he decided to make Bahrain his home after his father, Uzayr Mustafa, passed away after a sudden illness.

“It was an absolutely terrible experience,” Sufyan explained. “One day we were together chatting, him drinking tea which was his favourite pastime, and then the next he was suddenly on a ventilator and never recovered.

“I was very attached to him and suddenly, the idea of staying in India meant that memories kept coming back, so I wanted to venture elsewhere and clear my mind.

“I had decided to set up my own software development company, Parakozm, which would focus on web development, mobile apps and games, plus digital content like web magazines. The next step was to choose where I’d establish it.

“The world was my oyster, but I chose Bahrain because it’s somewhere in the middle. I can’t forget or delete India and my history there; my mum, family and other businesses are still there, so it’s close enough to visit when I need to. Not only that, Bahrain is very friendly for business people with its open economy.

“I’m delighted I chose here as I love the place. I’ve always been a fan of islands and I like how small it is because in India, it’s massive and crowded and takes a lot of time to get anywhere.”

Sufyan travels as often as he can, being a victim of ‘an annoying nomadic trait’ as he calls it, and reckons he has spent as little as 30 days actually in Bahrain since December. He takes frequent trips to the rest of the Gulf, India and Tbilisi, Georgia, a country he also loves after writing university papers on countries once under the Soviet umbrella.

One of his initiatives he is most proud of is being the editor-in-chief of Muslim Memo, an e-magazine that serves as the ‘mouth-piece of the contemporary Muslim’. With this, he runs a photo-blog titled Quranic Quotes, which is a series of tutorials about the Quran and Islamic literature.

He said: “Quranic Quotes is a sort of ‘myth-busters’ exercise. I aim to eliminate misconceptions and stereotypes people have about Islam and the Quranic verse.

“So with this, I’ll take a specific quote or verse and impose it on an image to show people what it is saying, without any commentary, paraphrasing or emphasis put on it, which might confuse people or give them the wrong idea about what is actually being said. It’s particularly useful for non-Arabic students as the quotes are in English and Spanish, and I’m hoping to branch into German later this year.”

His latest project, arguably his biggest one yet, is establishing the Uzayr Foundation. This will be an educational facility and studio, which will offer classes without tuition fees or any financial burden. The overall aim will be to provide job-ready training for youngsters, especially the disabled and girls, and will be multi-national with a presence in India, Africa, Madagascar, Cambodia and Central Asia.

“Overall, my end goal is to create a circle to bring together the three main prongs of my work; writing, coding and educating,” he said.

For more information on Sufyan’s work, visit www.sufyanism.com, www.quranicquotes.com and www.uzayr.org, or email him at sufyan@parakozm.com







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