International Seminar on Cities in History

 The Department if History is organising an International Seminar on Cities in History on 16th and 17th December, 2014. The distinguished scholars who are presenting papers include Prof Jim Masselos, Prof Miki Desai, Prof.Parween Hassan,Prof Ishrat Alam,Radhika Sesan,Dr.Sajjad Shahid,Prof Stephen Blake,Prof Lalit Joshi, Shireen Moosvi and many more.The first day was an interesting day with papers from all over.

The first Ph.d Degree of Women's Studies at the University of Hyderabad

 Today, the 12th December, 2014, was a very important day for me. We had the viva for the first Ph.d degree in Women's Studies. This was a dream come true. Since 1984 we were hoping to have a Centre for Women's. Studies in our University and we had only a Cell.Inspite of various attempts to upgrade it to a Centre we could never do it.Finally in 2008 this Centre was started and now officially we could teach an M.Phil and Ph.d programme. I had three students who had submitted their thesis together and it was just a matter of luck whose reports could come in first and this was of a Chinese student Han who worked on a comparative study of career women in India and China.She became the first student to get a Ph.d in this Centre.

As a Chairperson of the History committee there was another viva today for a History student and we had a lunch together to commemorate this with our students Han from Women' s Studies and Sabita kumar from history along with the two experts Prof Kiran kumari from Tirupati and Prof.Vibha Tirpathi from Benaras Hindu University and Prof.K.P.Rao and Rajesh our History faculty.

Meeting an old School friend

 Thanks to face book I could meet an old school friend Sarala who has now settled in U.K. We had studied together in school and after ninth class drifted away. Luckily she had come to Hyderabad for a wedding and we could meet at home on 3rd December, 2014 and revive so many memories of the earlier days. After she left, I spent the whole evening looking for old photographs and searching for her photo and could locate one in which we were in Girls Guides dress. We were all so passionate about being Guides. We took active part in it and also went on Camping and participated in a number of activities. Prior to 1909, Scouting was only for boys but when  Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting,  found that a large number of girls were also interested in  Scouting, he  decided that girls should have their own separate movement, and the Girl Guides were founded in the UK in 1910. Hence we got the benefit of this and could become a part of this movement through our school. We wore our dress with such pride, along with the shoulder knot, of the Group colour on the left shoulder and the  Badges, same as the Boy Scouts. The girls were often adorned with badges indicating a Guide's achievements and responsibilities. Both Sarala and I were just the beginners and Saroj Bala was the one who had the maximum number of badges. I hope we are able to locate her also one of these days. Sarala thanks for finding the time to come over.

Orange the world in 16 days campaign

 All around the world from 25th Nov, the International day for the Elimination of Violence to 10th December, the Human Rights day we celebrate16 days of activism against Gender based violence.

I was invited as a key note speaker in a programe on How safe are young girls in Telangana on 3rd DECEMBER, 2014, organised by Shaheen and Action Aid at Woodbridge hotel.The other participants included Tripurana Venkataratnam the Chairperson of the State Commission for women, Ameena Tahseen faculty of Women' s Studies at Maulana Azad National University and Mrs.Ruchika Sharma the Mrs.South Asia International, 2014 and od course Jameela Nishat of Shaheen. There was also a lovely Kawwali on Violence against women.In all a day well spent.

About Smokey Pande

Yesterday our dog Smokey Pande died.The children are inconsolable.He was a street dog that was hurt very badly and was nursed back by Suresh and  my children.He refused to leave the house after this.I did not allow him inside but he stayed in the verandah.He was with us for nearly eight to nine years and was getting old.When ever Bittu , Tarun or Varun would come back from abroad there would be a gift for him in the form of a shampoo, soap or collar . When Tarun came back from China he told me Smokey is looking weak and I said that I was feeding him.He then told me you need to also talk to him with love affection which you never do and spend time with him. I really do not know if this is true but Smokey became healthy after Tarun shifted to Hyderabad. During the eighth navaratri on 1st October he just disappeared and we could not trace him for 

the last three days and we kept searching.Finally the watchman came and told he was dead since few days in the open space behind the colony.As soon as my car would turn in the colony he would come running and I was so afraid he will come under the car. Though I am not such a great dog lover like my husband and children it was difficult not to like Smokey.Now I can understand why people love dogs.They just give you all the love and affection with out expecting any thing in return.

Who is a teacher?

 My students are going to love this.

News Paper Coverage of 12th Women's World Congress

 The University of Hyderabad is hosting 12th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women from August 17-22, 2014.  This is the first time that this Congress is being held in India and the University had won the bid in 2010. The theme of the Congress is “Gender in a changing world”. About 850 panels and abstracts have been brought in from Brazil, USA, UK, France, Germany, Korea, Nepal, Bangladesh, Canada, Israel and across the county on varied themes such as gender and culture, gender and history, gender and management, violence, digital divide, globalisation, women and work and gender and law. Workshops will be held on topics like trafficking of women, new reproductive technologies, role of education in empowerment of women, feminist research and empowerment of women and the Women’s World Congress –impacts and lessons learnt during the last 33 years of its history. Esther Eillam, from ‘The Hebrew University in Jerusalem’ is the oldest participant at 75 and who has not missed a single congress till now. The scholars will share their research, learn some new approaches, hear about others' experiences and pass on their knowledge and experience on to others. Government officials and policy makers will learn about the best practices, policy frameworks from across the globe; network with other policy makers and NGOs working in the field of supporting and enhancing gender (the mission). NGOs will network with other international NGOs, get through possible donors and colleagues from around the world and share achievements and strategies with others. Students will get to meet fellow students around the world, learn about how gender issues are dealt with across the world and how to make a contribution. Company representatives will get a chance to learn more about the importance of permanent education in achieving the high performances of their organisation, meet other colleagues, exchange ideas and establish new connections and partnerships. The congress will provide unlimited resources and opportunities to interact with prominent leaders in the field of leadership and women studies and greatly expand global network of scholars and professionals.

This congress was well covered by the localnewspapers .

My student Ashita

On 21 st June, 2014 evening my Ph.d student  Ashita invited me and Suresh for dinner.We all celebrated three happy events and had a lovely evening together.Ashita got married, her husband an old student of our University has joined our University as a faculty in regional studies and soon Ashita will be submitting her Ph.d.

About Birthdays:

On 6th June, I celebrated my birthday. I would like to thank my children, students, friends, relatives for making my birthday a very special one. Today due to face book, Google, Linked in  and the different kinds of networks that we have I had so many people wishing me a Happy birthday that I am very touched. The celebrations started at midnight when my son and daughter in law and my younger son called from the US and wished me a happy birthday at 12.00 mid night. I was woken from my sleep and told them could you not wait till morning. Why did you have to disturb my sleep. At this age who wants to get up at mid night . But the sad part was they told my other son to wait for their call and they will connect him and they will all wish me together at midnight. In their excitement of wishing me they completely forgot what instructions they had given him. So Maryland, Bridgeport got connected but my son in Delhi stayed awake till 1.00 at night. When I told him he could have called me he said he was not sure if I would get up at this hour to answer him. Then I got a call from a friend Manjeet  in Japan, then Aneeta rang up from US and she makes it a point to sing the Happy birthday song in full over the phone. She has such a lovely voice that one would want to keep hearing her sing for ever. The whole day I had so many calls from friends, Jayant, Neeru, Chavi, Renu,Heramb   and students who I thought would not remember me.

Birth days were so much fun in school especially till your primary school and I always regretted it that my birthday would come in summer holidays, when the school would be closed. On the day of the birthday the birthday girl would wear a civil dress. She would be called in front of the assembly and the whole school would sing a birthday song for her. She would then distribute sweets, toffees or chocolates to the class and go around to different teachers giving them sweets. She would have two or three friend who would hang around with her throughout the day making her feel very important. At that age one did not even think much of the fact that these friends would then hang out with another birthday girl the next day. I like to think that almost every child loves celebrating their birthday at school. They enjoy bringing treats to class, handing them out to their classmates and taking “extras” to the other teachers. Their teacher would make them  a paper crown or give a small gift and make every one in the class sing  happy birthday and somehow they always manage to be the “class leader” for the day. Indeed, it is a very special day for them. So today as I got so many wishes , I went down my archives a picked out few photos

With Mother Teresa and others

When I was a student of the Undergraduate at Allahabad University the ,   Gandhi Bhawan had organised a n International Essay Competition. I won this and got a gold medal. This was given by mother Teresa and after this I got to spend three days with Mother Teresa. This was before she had received the noble prize. From Allahabad , in a car I traveled with Mother Teresa to Lucknow, Kanpur, Benares. The  Principal and  a Father from San Joseph some Father John Dsouza also accompanied us. I was very much touched by Mother Teresa and her concern for people. In our journey we visited many orphanages, schools, homes and in between in an orphanage  a couple was married and blessed by mother Teresa. We spent a lot of time chatting in the car and mother Teresa wrote on my scrap book her address and asked me to come to Calcutta.Those days photographs were so precious that I only have the ones which were published in different magazines and news papers.   I published an article in the daily Newspaper, Northern India Patrika on my trip with mother Teresa. She touched me so much that I came home and told my mother that I wanted to go and join her. Meeting her will always stand in my mind though later on in life I interacted with many other celebrities like Tony Blaire, Magret Alwa and Amol Palekar. Tony  Blaire and his wife came to   Hyderabad and wanted to meet some feminists  and we all met them amidst a lot of drama concerning security.  But  my prized moment was when I met my teenage Idol Amol Palekar in Poona for a seminar and could chat with him one a one to one basis.

 

Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg is famous for two things, the house of Mozrat and the Julie Andrews film, Sound of Music, the well known film of 1965 on the life of the Von Trapp singing family, Thousands of tourists visit this beautiful place surrounded by green valleys and snow covered mountains. The city is selling the Sound of Music in a big way and there are various tours organised to take you to places where the film is shot. Everyone tries to take a shot in the grden where Do re me was shot or I am 16 going on 17 or these are a few of my beautiful things. The hotels also show the film Sound of Music and if one stays in Salzburg there are weekly tours organised in the outskirts where the other scenes of the film were shot. Some of the famous locations include,
• Mirabell Gardens and Pegasus Fountain (dancing scene with Maria and the children)
• Leopoldskron Palace ( The residence of the family in the film)
• Hellbrunn Palace (I am 16 going on 17 song scenes)
• Nonnberg Convent (where Maria lived as a young novice)
• St. Gilgen / Wolfgangsee (opening scene in the movie)
• Mondsee Church ( Julia’s wedding scene )