NAAC Visit Gorakhpur Second day

 Second day at the NAAC Visit was spent in visiting other departments and Centres. Many girls from the College have received gold medals and have represented in the Republic Day Parade. In the evening went to visit the land mark of Gorakhpur, the Gorakhnath Temple. This is the Centre of the Nath cult but during the freedom struggle this also became a centre of the freedom struggle. Gorakhpur region is the heart of the Ishvaku Ayodhya and has deep connection with Ram. It finds mention in Buddhist chronicles, Chandragupta Maurya. Around 1680 it became a part of the Mughal empire and around 1801of the East India Company. There is a beautiful light and sound show at Gorakhnath with water fountains in the centre. The bhandara of the temple feeds thousand of people day and night  and it has a akhand Jyoti, a perpetual light made of wick burning. The people offer Khichidi that is rice and lentils in Magh month of Ja uary and there is so much collection that it feeds the many students through out the year who stay in the campus itself and learn the ancient philosophy and Sanskrit language.

NAAC Visit Gorakhpur

 On 28th April, 2019, in  Gorakhpur for a NAAC visit. I never felt it was a Sunday, for the whole College was there ready for the NAAC Visit. The Chandrakanti Ramawati Devi Arya Mahila PG College is one of the first Degree College in the region established for women in 1990. It has a strong Fine Arts, Home Science B. Ed and M. Ed programmes. Every one we met, faculty, students, Alumni spoke with a lot of emotion and feelings  about their founder Ram Raksha Pandey who is refereed to as Guruji and passed away recently  in January of 2019 at the age of 84. He was a teacher in an  Intermediate College which was a coeducational College but felt the need to have a college for girls and started  this College with seven girls in his home in a room. Soon with his  meagre resources he was able to have  two small rooms and the College started in   1990 and  kept adding to it and  today it has grown by leaps and bonds. Guruji came from a very humble family and saw his first slippers when he was doing his graduation for it was a luxury. Though not a Tata, Birla, Adani or Ambani he could dream big and create this institution for girls. He did his MA and Ph. D in Sanskrit along with teaching and he girls. He has influenced all the students and was personally involved with them on a  day to day basis. The alumni also spoke about him in glowing terms. He seems to have touched many lives. Though I have never met this gentleman and never knew any thing  about him, I could sense his presence in the campus and the strong impact he has had on so many lives and the motivation he has provided to the girls to become independent, think of themselves and grow up  as individuals with strong personality. In the daily assembly that they have he was present regularly and came occasionally only towards his last day's when he was sick. He would narrate an incident that was reported in that days paper and ask the girls to explain where it occurred and what were the other details. He wanted the girls to be update with world affairs. He comes across as one very sensitive to gender issues. Listening to many of them talking about him with incidents in their lives    and the sense of loss that they feel now left a lump in my throat many a  times. I am glad that the College is planning to convert his room into a museum with his belongings and they want to have his statue installed in the college. It is a very noble gesture and one really worth implementing. In my parting remarks I told the College to publish the life story of Guruji and bring out his biography. They have promised that I will get the first copy. The College also has a Fashion design department and in the evening in the cultural programme they showed us a fashion show where the girls wore and did a cat walk with  dresses designed by them. The dresses were very much Indian in design and style. I could never imagine a fashion show in Gorakhpur of all the places. Day one was very interesting though very tiring from morning, seven to eight at night and then after a quick dinner another round of meetings and writings till eleven thirty at night. I loved the dress of the B. Ed and MEd girls who all wear saress and looked liked Air hostesses, for they wore their sarees so neatly and beautifully, tucked and pinned so professionally. A great experience.

Rajani Rao Palleti

 Today, 0n 26th April, 2019, I had a very interesting morning when I got a call from  Rajani Rao Palleti and she came to visit me in the University. Rajani was one of the  first Research assistant who was appointed in the Women's Studies Cell along with another girl Aruna,  back then  in  1984. We had no money but huge plans and a lot of ambitions and  enthusiasm. Thete were so many young faculty who were involved with the Cell, Santa Sinha, Pradipto Chowdhry, Marathe, Mithilesh, Aloka Sen, Minakshi Mukherjee, Kameshwari and myself. Rajani  had helped in organising few seminars and workshops that we conducted. She also coordinated the first Project that we did in the Cell on Creches in the  Organised and Unorganised sectors in Hyderabad.  It was a long journey down memory lane when she told me that back then we did not even have a proper room to sit and the room was so dark that we could not even see each others  face. This was the Cell that we had at Golden Threshold. She was very happy to see our own building and I told her this was all thanks to Malladi Subamma Garu who donated money for our building. Rajani has now migrated to the US. I felt very happy to be connected to a piece of our history as we struggled and developed the Cell into a Centre and hopefully into a Department in future.

The Mango Tress outside my Home

 Today, on 17th April, 2019, as I look at my  two mango trees planted in front of my boundary outside the gate, filled with mangoes, I am reminded of the Chinese proverb that the best time to plant a tree is twenty years back and the second best time is now. These mango trees planted in 1993, when my twins were in third class and my elder son in tenth, have given so many fruits down the line. Trees teach us so much, to give with out expecting any thing in return except a bare minimum for their survival. They teach me to remain grounded on earth, no matter what heights one might scale. Our colony has a lot of mango trees and no body plucks them. Most of the summers we are out and it is the birds that eat them. The children used to be so excited climbing the trees and plucking the mangoes. Today, most of these are eaten by the birds and parrots and we get to pluck few which are at a reachable distance. Besides providing the much needed shade they provide the much needed green cover. I agree with Kahlil Gibran, when he writes that trees are poems  written by the earth in the sky.

Mari Chenna Reddy HRD Lecture

 The beginning of my summer holidays saw a series of lectures at the Mari Channa Reddy Human Resource Developement  Institute on Indian history and culture. This was a course from 15th April to 20th July, 2019. This was a group of sixty three Group A officers from the Military Engineering Services, mostly boys and only about three to four girls. They were from all over India. None had paid any attention to history for they were all from engineering background. My lecture was on 21st May, 2019. It was fun discussing about Indian Cultural heritage and the officers made beautiful presentation on different aspects. Shri A. K Goel, the Special Chief Secretary, Shri B. P. Acharya, the Director General, Sri Harpreet Singh, Additional Director General, Dr. Mohammad Abbas Ali, Ms. Sridevi Ayaluri, the Director of IT are all taking so much interest in Indian History and culture that it brings a great joy to me. Suresh and I had a lovely time meeting every one and interacting with the young officers.

Capacity Building programme at ASCI

 On 12th April, 2019, addressed the senior level women Mangers from City and Industrial Development Corporations ( CIDCO), Navi Mumbai, in the Capacity Building Programme organised by Administrative staff College of India (ASCI),. The women very proudly told me madam what ever you see in Navi Mumbai today is because of us and introduced themselves as Head of Transport department, Gardens, Administration, Airports. They were all heads of the different departments. My heart fills with joy when, I see so many women in top positions and coming for a management capacity Building training. Pictures courtesy my daughter in law Nidhi who accompanied me for the lecture.