The birth anniversary of Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III is being observed todaym November 2, 2012. Sir Aga Khan III was the 48th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, He was born in Karachi in 1877 and dedicated his entire life to the cause of Islam. He will always be remembered as one of the most distinguished and well-reputed leaders and diplomats during Pakistan`s freedom movement. Sir Aga Khan, with his vast experience and personality of an international stature, proved to be a responsible and productive mediator between the western world and the leaders of the subcontinent.
From every platform, he advocated free, universal, practically oriented primary education; improved secondary schools for Muslims, and a generous provision of government and private scholarships to enable talented Muslim students to study abroad. During the 20thcentury, he established more than 200 schools in Asia and Africa. The first Aga Khan School was established by Sir Aga Khan in 1905 in Gwadar. Today, there are over 182 Aga Khan Schools all across Pakistan catering to more than 38,000 students.
via Nov 2: Birth anniversary of sir Aga Khan IIIPAMIR TIMES | Voices of the Mountain Communities.
Ismailimail 
In November 1977 in Toronto, Canada a group of around twelve university students, under the guidance of the then Ismailia Association for Eastern Canada, prepared and presented presentations at a symposium to celebrate the Centenary of the birth of His Highness Aga Khan III(born 1877). The symposium was held at the University of Toronto. One of the presenters was a young, exquisitely beautiful woman named Rumina Velji. She was a Civil Engineering student at the time, had served as the very first Kamadiani Saheba appointed to any Canadian university Jamatkhana and was originally a refugee kicked out of Uganda by
the dictator Idi Amin. I(Nasser Velshi) was one of the other presenters and was about to enter medical school at the University of Toronto. The Symposium was very well received by the Ontario jamat but for me that was not the end of it. I took a real fancy to this woman Rumina Velji, pulled out all the tricks in my arsenal, cajolled her, extolled her, dated her, proposed to her and eventually married her in the presence and with the physical blessing of our present Imam at the Toronto Mulaqat in November 1978. Today, 34 years later, we are both retired and have two beautiful grown up children. It all began with this Symposium to celebrate the Centenary of the birth of Aga Khan III. Religion, Romance and the music of the BeeGees(Saturday Night Fever): a potent combination as it turned out!
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You are truly blessed, Nash. Really interesting, I believe retirement allows you to travel a lot and see the world, how fortunate.
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