Thirty ninth wedding anniversary on 28th february, 2018

 A beautifully and lovely end to the thirty ninth wedding anniversary on 28th february, 2018,   with a surprise party planned by Tarun and input from Varun in Stamford. Both my twins  planned a surprise dinner and invited few of our young friends, with out our  knowledge. Thanks Tarun and Varun for all the efforts that you both  put in, with the long distance calls in different time zones to plan this and  make this a very special and memorable day for us. Thanks for inviting Khusboo, Swastik, Dhondu, Umar and Hameeda to share this day with us.

Lecture at MANUU

 On 27th february, 2018, delivered a lecture on, Development and Empowerment - a historical perspective at Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Department of Women's Education and Centre of Women's Studies in the School of Social Sciences. A very lively discussion followed  and a day spent well.

At NIRD, Development of a Gender Matrix for the Panchayats

 Spent a very interesting day on 14th February, 2018, at NIRD discussing the development of a Gender Matrix for the Panchayats in order to evaluate them. The   icing on the cake was  meeting  many old friends. Thanks Madhavi for putting this group together. I am very happy to see you in charge of the Centre for Gender studies and development and I am sure the Centre will do some wonderful work under your leadership.

Day three of the National Women's Summit.

 Day three of the National Women's Summit. A  round of many beautiful talks and the highlight being Ananda Shankar sharing her personal journey and experiences. The highlight was a beautiful dance Gotipua from Odhisa done by young boys who dress up like girls. What  grace, what acrobatics. Amazing experience seeing these young kids. The She team demonstrated self defence for girls. Finally a conclusion and back to my normal life from tomorrow.

Day two of the National Women's Summit.

 Day two of the National Women's Summit. This day was organised like the Ted Talks. Very interesting  talks by Sangita Reddy from Apollo hospitals, Amitabh Kasbekar from Deloitte, Kiranmai Pedyala from AMD. Shefali Vidya, freelance columnist. There were many stalls set up for sale of goods. It was really nice to catch up with old acquaintances, Karuna Gopal and Ananda Shankar. Evening was followed with Magic show by a woman artist and the folk dance Gotipua from Odhisa. The Minister for  women and Child welfare from Uttar Pradesh made some very interesting comments with regards to Empowerment of women. Although a very tiring day  it was nevertheless filled with lot of energy.

National Women's Summit- First day

 On 1st February, 2018, was the Day one of the National Women's Summit. Meeting old  friends, networking with new ones, listening to some wonderful  papers by young scholars  and of course the very interesting  talks by Chitra Mahadevan, Suresh Pande and Madhu Kishwar. The day passed very quickly.