The final Journey http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2008/05/profile-of-najma-ghouse.html
Najma's Funeral Prayer was held at 2:30 PM Friday, May 23, 2008 in the Multi-purpose hall at Richardson Mosque. Nearly 2000 people attended the prayers and many were not able to enter the hall due to capacity limitations, we apologize for the same. I am thankful to God for showering so much love and mercy, and we are grateful to you for attending the event. Here is some information about Najma.
Najma was born in Hyderabad, India on November 18, 1947. She was raised in Karachi, Pakistan and has spent all her adult life (35 Years) in Dallas area. She is survived by her Mother, who is 80 now, three daughters, a grand daughter, four grand sons, four brothers, three sisters and a husband. A total family of 57 members, all but nine live in Carrollton.
She was diagnosed for ovarian cancer on August 14, 2007 and the surgery was performed for Peritoneal Cancer on August 29, 2008. The Chemo Therapy began on September 24th and after the fourth session on January 29th she took a break, the tests indicated no signs of tumors. Again on April 24th her hip bone got dislocated while taking a shower. After the release from the hospital, she was taken right back in for abdominal pain from ascites. On May 6th another dose of Chemo therapy was given and it simply did not work, the intravenous food intake was converting into fluid in the lungs.
The family agreed to the in home hospice program on May 8th and after two weeks at home, on Thursday, May 22nd at 7:20 PM, she peacefully took her last breath and embarked on her eternal Journey.
Najma had prepared herself for this journey, she had jettisoned the anxiety, and cleared her mind from desiring to do a few more things or touch a few more lives. She accepted her role in the world and was content with what she had done. She was grateful to the creator for enriching her with a full spectrum of life experiences from serene bliss to utter sadness, loneliness to being loved, bad times to good times and fun times to seriousness of life. She was ready to go. No wonder she had that smile on her face, as if saying, I have successfully completed my life as an individual, as a woman, mother, sister, daughter, aunt, grand ma and a wife and now I need to experience the eternal life.
Najma and husband Mike have lived in Carrollton since 1999. Najma's daughter Farah lives in New York, Uzma with her husband Sultan and two kids live in Dubai and Erum and her husband Sabir live with their three kids in Lewisville. Mike’s son Jeff goes to the Law school at SMU and daughter Jazzie is looking to make a decision between UTD and UNT.
Najma’s legacy – the spirit of volunteerism
She is (was?) committed to developing a shelter for the disadvantaged and distressed women, particularly those immigrants who are yet to integrate in to the society. The process had just begun and a meeting was held at her house in Carrollton in March this year. God willing, I am plannig to continue with the committment.
Her joy was setting up the free Medical clinic for the ones who did not have insurance. She managed the clinic in getting the doctors to volunteer and setting up appointments for the patients, today it is a clinic that opens three days a week and serves --------- patients a month. The clinic is located at the IANT premises in Richardson and is open to all. It is a service of the Islamic Association of North Texas for every person who has no insurance.
She is fondly remembered for organizing free health clinics, about 30 in the last ten years.
Once you learn the joy of serving others, you will be showered with boundless joys. Serving others must be pure and to keep it pure, you have to be blind, blind to serve anyone with a need regardless of race, color, religion, age or any other discriminatory factor. I encourage you to give that time and watch the bliss that begets you.
Najma had developed an open mind and an open heart towards fellow beings. She is proud to have served the Annual Spelling bee conducted by the DFW Hindu Temple, Qaid Mela’s of Pakistan Society, Dinner evens of Chambers of Commerce, The Lions Club, The Muslim Community Center, Red Cross and other organizations. She is a proud United Way Leadership Graduate. To her every human being deserved caring and she was ready to serve where needed.
Najma won the hearts of thousands of Dallas Desi Americans, i.e., the people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka through her radio programs since 1996. Her program “Yadien aur Choti Choti Batien” was hugely popular. She weaved beautiful songs with life’s little things that make life worth living.
She is the one of first Asian Radio talk show hosts in Dallas; the program was called Asian News Radio in 1996 on AM Radio 1150. She also co-anchored the first Desi TV program in 1995 on TV 52 in the Dallas/ Fort Worth Market.
Najma was a big part of the Cricket scene in Dallas. She had co-sponsored several tournatments and was the co-commentator at the first largest Cricket tournament "The MG Gold cup" in 1996. Which boosted Cricket in Dallas area and gave birth to North Texas Cricket Association.
The Golden Oldies and Golden Melodies was a memorable program that Najma and I shared with some 200 of our friends enjoyed the program as much as we did, several times in the late Nineties. It was down the memory lane living in the imaginary past for a few pleasant hours.
Najma is a legendary compere and has emceed several major events in the Metroplex.
She was deeply involved in “Bazm-e-Urdu” a literary poets group her Dad started in Dallas. It is Urdu poetry, the popular movie language of the Indian Subcontinent. It is alternatively called Hindi. Thus she has participated in 35 International “Musha-Era’s” (Poetry recitation sessions) with some of the most celebrated poets in the language from across the globe.
She was a master of ceremonies for many of the biggest Bollywood concerts in town, especially with Lata Mangeshkar, Shahrukh Khan, Aishwariya Rai, Aamir Khan, Amit Kumar, Salman Khan, Asha Bhosle, Kumar Sanu, Sonu Nigam and just about every big star. The most cherished moment for Najma was when Lataji praised her emceeing, her command on the language and her voice to the point that Farida Jalal, the international emcee stepped back and gave the Microphone to Najma to continue emceeing. Asha Bhosle repeatedly admired Najma’s manner of speaking.
She was the master of Ceremonies at the annual thanksgiving celebrations and has presided over many of the annual events for the Foundation for Pluralism, Pakistan Society, Muslim Community Center and other organizations.
Najma had an eternal reverence for her teacher Ms. Safia Khan at Newtown High School in Karachi. She always talked about her encouragement and her influence, Najma credits her leadership skills, discipline and determination to to her teacher Ms. Safia Khan. She must be have been a great inspirer.
Najma Ghouse was a committed Citizen of Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex since 1973. Since then, she has extensively volunteered her time and efforts in community services. She ran for the Carrollton City council -at- large position and would have probably made it, had her supporters not assume that she will win and stayed home instead of going to polling booth on the final Voting day.
She was a Medical technologist by profession and switched to serving the real estate industry in the last decade of her life as it allowed her to be a Volunteer she wanted to be.
She was one of the founding members of the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation; she has served on the boards of Red Cross, Pakistan Society and the Muslim Community Center for human services.
She has a green thumb; the summer of 2007 provided the family with fresh Tomatoes, Okra, Egg Plants, Dill, green peppers, coriander leaves, mint, green onions, peaches, figs, beans and much more. You are welcome to the figs, the sweetest things I have ever had.
Gardening was her joy and she enjoyed her visits to Dallas Arboretum.
Visiting a running creek in Salado had become a sacred trip to us. Driving to Tyler and singing along the Golden Oldies was her way of enjoying life.
She performed Hajj, one of the duties of a Muslim to perform once in a life time. She also recited the Shahadah, the pledge that God alone is worthy of worship and Prophet Muhammad was God’s messenger several times in her last few days and particularly on the last day. It is considered a purifying statement before one's soul departs the body.
She let go of things in her last two weeks of life and attained her salvation, freedom, Nijaat, mukti, moksha and Nirvana. May God bestow his mercy on her. Amen.
As her partner in life, I have shared the good and bad times, sadness and happiness, nothingness to bountifulness, turbulence to serenity and coldness to refreshing jubilant romance. It was a full life lived tying all the loose ends. On Wednesday, as I was getting ready to step out to attend to a busines call, she called my name aloud, daughter Uzma affirmed that it was a call for me, I turn around and looked at her; she said “I love you”. Heck, she made me want her more.
Mike Ghouse
http://www.mikeghouse.net/
