JEDDAH – Indian Deputy Consul General and Haj Consul Mohammed Noor Rahman Sheikh is leaving the Kingdom next month. He will be leaving behind an impressive legacy of serving hundreds of thousands of Haj pilgrims during a period of three and a half years. He will be joining the Permanent Mission of India at the United Nations in New York as first secretary. Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Sheikh said that it was an amazing and unique experience for him to have an opportunity to play a leading role at the Indian Haj Mission in the Kingdom for four Haj seasons. He thanked the entire Haj mission team as well as the members of the Saudi and Indian community for lending a helping hand to improve significantly the facilities and services rendered to the Haj pilgrims. “When I joined the Consulate General, I saw there were lots of scope for improvement and was confident that we could make wonders through team work. Here, team work is excellent, and the entire team, especially the Haj mission staff in Makkah and Madinah as well as the community members, have contributed tremendously so as to score outstanding performance results,” he said. Sheikh thanked Consul General B.S. Mubarak and his predecessor Faiz Ahmad Kidwai for giving him their full support to make significant qualitative leap in the Haj services. “Without the tremendous support of Mubarak saab and Kidwai saab nothing would have been possible. “If you want to do something, and if your boss is not supportive, you may not be able to achieve what you want to. Together, we put in our thoughts and exerted efforts to achieve ambitious goals in bettering services and facilities for pilgrims,” he said while citing the high tech services made available to the pilgrims. Wishing every success to his deputy, Mubarak lauded the great efforts made by Sheikh in streamlining the entire Haj operation. “We have compartmentalized the entire Haj operation. Wherever we felt there is a scope for improvement, we have done it.” “We made a system under which no individual is indispensable by giving paramount stress on institution. If the system works well, everything goes well. The system is not based on individual but on institution. So we have put institution first and individuals second.” Mubarak said, without the efforts of Sheikh, it was very difficult for him to lead the Haj operation. “Anywhere we saw an issue, we went deep into it and addressed it. Without his efforts, it would have been a very difficult task.” Commending Sheikh, Mubarak said: “The element of commitment to serve the society abounds in him and this will help him to scale new heights of professional excellence. Ours is a round the clock job, dealing with thousands of pilgrims without happening anything that offend them. We receive so many calls and we, as diplomats, have to respond to them in an elegant way,” he said while describing the nature of the Haj mission job, which is a mix of material and spiritual life. Mubarak earlier served as Deputy Consul General and Haj Consul in Jeddah for four years. Sheikh, who took over as Haj Consul as Mubarak's successor in April 2012, said: “We have made improvements in a very systematic way. We institutionalized the system by applying highly advanced technology including Indian Haji Accommodation Locator, Facebook, WhatsApp and toll free number.” This year, we have upgraded the Locator through introducing an emergency button for complaint registration in the home page of the application whereby a pilgrim can register his complaint with the Indian Haj Pilgrims' Office as well as he can track the status of his complaint from time to time. A pilgrim can contact the Pilgrims' Office through its toll free number (8002477786). The pilgrims can contact the Haj mission and concerned offices through WhatsApp number (00966 543891481). An SMS alert system has also been introduced. The Indian Haj Mission is the first foreign mission in the Kingdom to come up with the innovative Global Positioning System (GPS) application last year. There is also mobile recharge facility plus watching translation of Friday sermon from Haram in English and Urdu languages by using the Haj mission's application. The soft-spoken Sheikh was sad when he spoke about the prospect of missing the great Saudi and Indian communities. “The very sight of Hajis expressing their delight over the services and facilities given to them by the Haj mission is extremely joyous and giving self realization,” he added. Sheikh earlier worked as undersecretary (West Asia and North Africa) at the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi from June 2009 until March 2012 before taking over as deputy consul general. He also served as second secretary and head of chancery at Indian Embassy in Amman from June 2006 to June 2009. A postgraduate in political science from Hindu College of Delhi, Sheikh is holder of PG diploma in management. Sheikh who withdrew from training as an army cadet midway at National Defense Academy of Pune on medical grounds, underwent training at Foreign Service Institute, Bangalore, and trained as assistant commissioner of income tax at National Academy of Direct Taxes, Nagpur. Dr. Nazneen Rahman is his wife. The couple has two sons and two daughters. Muhammad Shahid Alam is new Haj Consul. Now second secretary at UAE embassy in Abu Dhabi. He is from Danbad Jharkhand
