Tarun Getting his MBA Degree

 Today is really a very happy day for us for my elder twin Dr. Tarun Pande who had done an MBA degree from ASCI, Administrative Staff College of India, in Health and Hospital Management got his degree in a convocation. It was a beautiful ceremony, which started dot on  time announced. There were really very short, sweet and crisp speeches and degrees awarded. Today, I realised that though, I have seen so many convocations and my various students getting their  degrees, this is the first time that I saw my son getting a degree in a convocation. The truth hit me today that I have never seen my children get their MS or MBBS degrees in a convocation. Suresh has attended the convocation of my sons in the US and when they got their degrees but due to mid semester I could never go to see them receive their degrees. Met Professor Kakarla Subba Rao a doyen of Hyderabad in Medicine and Health care who is now ninety four. My three children had finished their schooling in a School established by him, International School. All the graduates who got their degree are already working in hospitals, Corporates and other Health sectors. Of the batch of forty in my sons class there were few doctors, many Dental professionals and many with experience in IT sector.There was a Colonel also in their course. Hence the course is for serious professionals and ASCI is doing a good job as far as their placement record is concerned. I found the course to be very practical oriented rather than theoretical.

Tej Deep Kaur Menon

 I was very happy to meet Tejdeep Kaur Menon, a friend whom I have known for some time. Tejdeep is the  current DGP of the special Protection Force in Telengana. We have had many conversations when I was doing the book on Gender issues in Police back then in the late 1990's.Tejdeep and I had also been part of the many meetings with women police constables and I am not sure if Tejdeep you  remember now but we were in for a shock, when we advocated for paternity leave then in the 1990,and we had got so much opposition from the women themselves and we realised the social reality that the men would take leave and stay at home and it would be a double burden on women to take care of the child and serve the husband too and hence women constables  were not at all in favour and we had to suggest the reduction the period as per their wishes. We had Aruna Bahuguna and many others women police officers whose names I now forget and  who were part of this. In fact I had narrated this experience to Kiran Bedi when we had the first meeting of All India  Police women  at Vigyan Bhawan  in Delhi. Today things are different, I hope but paternity leave is a reality. Tejdeep is a very sensitive police officer and has published four anthologies of her poems, Unfortunately, I have only read the first two, Caught in a Stampede(1995),Five and Seven a half inches(1997).I have yet to read her other two, Minnaminni(2001)and Oyster in pain(2004).After meeting her yesterday, I plan to get these books and read them. This  National Conference being organised by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Oriental Research Institute and Sikh Heritage Foundation, Telangana, was on the 550,years of the revelation of Guru Nanak Devji. I spoke on women in  Medieval times and the views of Nanak and other sants on women and how there is a divergence between theory and practice today. Met many scholars of Sikhism here and discovered many new issues and the relationship between Guru and Islam and their  teachings. Tejdeep has written a lot on  Women's Issues, social evils, Mother earth, violence. She has also come to the University and read some of her poems. Your poem on mensturation really stuck a chord with me. She is very much now involved with conservation issues, creating water bodies and saving the environment besides her invilvenent and commitment to gender issues.  Great  to meet you Tejdeep after so many years and will get back to you after I finish reading your other two volumes. You must now get these poems published in Hindi, Urdu, Gurumukhi and other languages. Thanks Sajjan Singh for inviting us and it was a very fruitful day with many new learnings. It was a real pleasure to  listen to  the childten who had got prizes in the elocution competitions speak aboutGuru Nanak and see the beautiful paintings made by the firs three prize winners. Congratulations to the Sikh heritage foundation. You all are doing wonderful work of binding the present generation to the Philosophies of the past and teaching their relevance, today for these Philosophies are beyond narrow understandings of sectarian differences and religions divisions. The talk by SOCH on connecting  Guru Nank's philosophy with present days issues of climate change, violence, poverty and  hunger and help eradicate them was so beautiful and so relevant in today's world. My congratulations to all the speakers and you all for organising this.

Second lecture HN Bahugubna University

 My second lecture in the Refresher course at HNB Garhwal University was on the Early environment movements in India and the role of women.There have been a number of environment movements in India but due to paucity of time I focused only on the two, The Bisnoi movement in Rajasthan and the Chipko Movement in Uttarakhand. Last year(2018), Lexington published a book, Narratives of environmental  Challenges  in Brazil and India-loosing nature, Ed by Zeila M. Bora and Murali Shiv Kumar and my paper on Environment movements in India, was published in this and I spoke primarily from this. As we bade our good byes and came down the mountains, again one cannot but be mesmerised with the Ganga flowing down the mountains. It reminded me of William Wordsworth poems on Daffodils, that even later when he lies on his couch and looks through his inward eyes, he can see these daffodils dancing in front of him.'Often in my couch I lie, 

in vacant  and pensive mood, they

flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils'. Back in Hyderabad, I  can just close my eyes and see these scenes, the mountain breeze, the long winding river as it flows down the mountains, the Ganga in its different moods,a little laid back at some places, very volatile at some, gushing forth with all its energy  at another and often in a calm meditative mood, as it takes its long journey from the Himalayas down to the plains.

Refresher Course HN Bahuguna University

 The HN Bahuguna University organised a Refresher course on, A multidisciplinary approaches to address environmental issues. The participants here are from different Universities and colleges from Uttarakhand, U. P, Himachal, Karnataka and Maharashtra. I spoke on Eco Feminism, its philosophy, principles and making a comparison of  this philosophy with feminism, it's understanding of environmental issues in the context of women. This was the first lecture on Gender in this fifteen days course  as mentioned by the participants to me later and as always happens the participants brought out so many issues starting with environment, to gender, to Women's work, status of women and a comparison on women in our culture and others. I am very fascinated with Sherry Ortners piece, Is female to male as nature  is to culture and I had circulated this to the participants beforehand and  there was a discussion on this too. A very enjoyable experience no doubt. The advantage which the HNBahuguna University has unlike many other Universities is that the participants stay in the same guest house as you and hence the discussion gets carried over, dinner and breakfast and extends outside the class room too which is a big advantage.

Prof. Annpurna Nautiyal, Vice Chancellor of the H.N. Bahuguna University

 Very happy to meet a dear friend, Prof. Annpurna Nautiyal, now the Vice Chancellor of the H.N. Bahuguna University, Srinagar. Being a serious academician  and much committed to gender studies, she is making various changes in the academic environment of the University and preparing it for a globalised world. The problems and issues in the Hill region are various, with more than 121colleges under it as Constituent Colleges, three different campus spread over different places, lack of connectivity, many things which we take for granted in a metropolitan area. However, inspite of these constraints she is making a great headway with her thinking  and vision for higher education in general and the university in particular.  More and more power to you Annapurna.

Rishikesh

 A travel in the Himalayan region and the state of Uttarakhand is a pilgrimage in itself. As we stop at Rishikesh, we admire the beauty of the night, the stilllness, the quiet, the unpolluted air and the sounds of silence. The hotel Ganga resort is divinity personified for we can see the Ganga flowing by from our window and its different moods as the evening  goes by. This is at the other end of the town and one can see a very clean Ganga flowing by. As per legends, it was at Rishikesh that Ram had done penance and meditated after killing Ravan. It was here that  Lakshman had crossed the Ganges with a jute rope where the present bridge, the Lakshman jhula stands. As we travel by road and reach Devprayag, one can see the three rivers that later become Ganga. It is at Devprayag that, Alakhnanda, Mandakini and Bhagirathi meet and flow as one. From here the river flows as one and is known as Ganga. One  can see the light green of Bhagirathi, coming from Kedarnath and the dark water of Alakhnanda, coming from Badrinath and Mandakini a tributary of Alakhnanda. Massive road widening projects are being carried out in the mountains and while the traffic is much eased at few places, others are still filled with a lot of dust, stones and ruble as the mountains are cut  for road widening. A lovely drive through the lush green mountains on the road side. A definite treat to the eye. When I come to this region, I am tempted to once again start for the pilgrimage to Yamnotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, which I have done once few years back and not sure if I can do it again.

A write up in the Press

 Sharing a write up with well wishers, family, students  and friends.

Rajesh Tedia, Growth Strategies of Girls & Women

 A half day workshop on, Growth Strategies of Girls & Women was organised by the Centre for women's studies on 20th September, 2019. The keynote speaker Mr Rajesh Tedla,  the Executive Director of the VRT Management Group, USA.  is currently an Executive Director, a certified coach, trainer and speaker with the “The John Maxwell Team”.  Mr. Raj is also very active with Marshal Goldsmith Coaching and is part of MG NYC 50 coaches. He is also the founder and chairman of the ICAN Foundation, which is dedicated to helping underprivileged children in rural India to gain access to higher education. Raj received TTI’s Chairman’s award in Jan 2010 for his outstanding services to the community. In 2006, Raj was awarded GE’s most prestigious “Gerald L. Phillippe Award,” for his outstanding social contributions and community leadership.

Mr Rajesh Tedla began the session on a lively note and raised certain key issues and what one must do in order to realise their goal.   His emphasised as to how one can achieve the goal by putting the right amount of time and effort into it.  It is for an individual to decide what success is and no one else can  tell them  what it is. To get to success- Persistence, clarity and what one  wants to work with is important. He stated that, IQ does not define success but focusing on the  goal is more important.

Mr Tedla listed how certain key issues which have always been a hurdle in realising one’s goal and moving  forward in their life, which he headlined as “Behaviours that Keep Women Stuck”. The session was followed by a lively Q&A session in which certain issues such as the importance of a female role model, the idea of working as a team and also what if one stranded in their field all by oneself. These issues though addressed to Mr Rajesh Tedla were answered by many, something which the workshop has focussed upon; bringing out the confidence and ability to ask questions. The discussions was very lively and some of the  conclusions that were reached were as follows. 

Everyone has a different journey and thus it is very hard to find someone to help in your journey. That’s when one  realises that we  need to be persistent and determined to reach our goals. And there emerges the need for a mentor who makes one  realise their  position and give  helping hand.  How necessary is it for a girl to have a role model for women? Well, it wouldn’t really matter what is the  sex of a role model, the thing that matters is how you look up to him/her. Change is scary due to uncertainty of what you really want in your life. Be consistent with your life and always ask what new you can learn from this new change. Positive thinking is not only thinking everything will be fine and but also to do something about it. Positive thinking should not be confused with Wishful thinking i.e. sitting idle and expecting that something goodwill happen.

In the end Mr. Raj Tedla gave away two prizes, in the form of the  book, Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith ( 1988), How women rise , Penguin Random  House, U.K. to two students who had actively participated in this workshop and had asked various questions which were very important.  The prize winners included, Dr. Manu Jayas,  a post Doctoral student from History and Maria Lisbeth Antony from MA History.  This was a very interactive workshop which made the students think about issues of leadership, their future goals, define success and  how to achieve it.Thanks Rizwan for the pictures.