New Year parties begin. A lovely evening with music and great food at Oakwood Residency Kapil Towers. Great hospitality with a wide spread of different kinds of food and it was fun interacting with many others. Tarun also accompanied us for a change.Thanks a lot Sakul and Subham for being the great host that you are. Nice to see the old year slipping by giving way to the new.
Very happy to share my new book Gender and History. It is such a pleasure holding a book of your own in your hands and I can only compare this to the joy and feeling of holding my new borns for the first time in my hands. Finally, we will now have a series of books from the Women's World Congress come out. Thanks to every one who participated in the Congress and had the patience to bear with us.The review process, the corrections, along with our other responsibilities in University took a long time and indeed there was a long wait. A long wait no doubt but a wait worth its while. Also thanks to my University for giving me leave. Indeed very proud of the fact that it was a sabbatical well spent.
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Family get together: Day two on 29th December, 2018 The fun and frolic of the family get together continued for the second day. The highlight of the evening was that many old pictures were projected on screen and every one had fun recognising the people in the old family pictures. There were pictures of picnics, visits to different places, marriages, birthdays etc. This was followed by a, bonfire which was very comfortable in the chilly temperatures of Jaipur. Most of the people shook a leg to the Bollywood and Kumaoni songs and finally around 10.30, we all came for dinner and bid our good byes. A very enjoyable two days and now tomorrow each and every one will proceed towards their destination. I really feel very happy to see this connect between the older and new generation and the bonding between different members and the distant cousins and such reunion only further strengthen these bonds.
As the curtain falls on 2018, I am very happy to share another article of mine being published in the Journal, Revista Estudos Feminista, Vol. 26, No.3, 2018 from Brazil.
https://www.scielo.br/j/ref/a/8P9WsYWjNVs4VDnMrhVqmcs/?lang=en
On 27th december, 2017, I had my quota of spirituality as this year ended, by spending an evening at the Art of Living Foundation in Bangalore. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has a large number of followers and we had gone to invite him to the National Women's Summit in Hyderabad. We were blessed by him and presented prasad and a long scarf. After meeting him and sharing in the aura that surrounds him we attended the one hour satsang that he holds. There was a crowd of four and a half to five thousand people waiting patiently for him to come. Some were seated on grounds, some on chairs and it was a great feeling being there and the evening in the lawns with the chirping of the birds, the setting of the sun added a mystical aura to the evening. Beautiful hindi bhajans of Shiv were sung by devotes and the whole atmosphere was serene and calm. Guru dev came around seven in the evening and he made the group do meditation for nearly twenty to twenty five minutes and after this he answered many questions raised by the people present. There were a large number of foreigners present. Questions were asked by the Forest Department people on environment, and others groups wanted to know about his activities and some asked about Yoga. It was a very nice feeling to see a large number of youngsters and students present at this meeting and as the session ended around eight thirty, food was served in the kitchen to all. We decided to take a room and stay in the Ashram itself and around ten at night we could see a large number of youngsters waiting on the road to catch a glimpse of Guru dev for he had to leave for the airport as he had to take a flight to Germany. I marvel at the energy Guru dev has for carrying out each day filled with so many activities and yet be so much at peace with him self and be so soft spoken. A large number of engineering students were working there and many had left their plum jobs abroad to carry out his social service activities. It is exhilarating to see so many youth being attached to his philosophy and following him.
Landing in Jaipur on 27th December, 2018, for a extended family reunion and vacation. I had earlier visited Jaipur in 2010, if my memory serves me right. I feel very happy in seeing the modern airports in all the cities including Jaipur and the whole city looked very neat and clean with broad roads. My earlier memory is of a Jaipur is of a city rich in its cultural heritage but not very neat and clean with modern amenities.
Meeting a very dear old friend, Renu from College and University days at the wedding reception.
At the reception in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. This is the function from the grooms side where again family, friends and well wishers come together in celebration and wishing the newly wed couple with their blessings. This is the last function of the wedding and after a week of fun and frolic each one is back home continuing with the daily business of life.
The phase two of the wedding now shifts from Uttarakhand in Dehradun to Gujarat in Ahmedabad. So now enjoying the Gujarat food and nashto and the ambiance of the place. Meeting and eating continues with friends, relatives.
