Saturday, October 31, 2020

Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh

 A National Symposium at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh on, Working Women's issues.It was a really wonderful and interesting interaction with Prof. Ipshita Bansal and myself as two academicians, Vimla Mehra a very senior  IPS office who was an IG and Dr. Ahluwalia, Stuti Kackar Ashima Singh from the  IAS .Many of these women had headed many positions. These  officers  brought in a lot of experience from the field with regards to women and work issues. Thanks Dr. Khan and Faiza Abbasi for inviting me to this symposium. I could connect to old friends. I was very happy to see Ashima Singh who has been the Director in the Railways there.  Ashima and I are friends and we were neighbours and as students in the 1970's we would roam around in our cycles  discussing and debating on every thing under the sky, thinking  about what future had in store for us. Today we were discussing in a formal setting and I felt very nostalgic.













Friday, October 30, 2020

TAFFD interview

TAFFD is conducting an interview with me. TAFFD, a magazine in the USA has selected me  from among the few who are shortlisted around the world for the award of a Certificate of excellence. After few rounds of interview with the  US group, this interview was conducted by Dr. Mehzabeen Sadriwala from Saudi Arabia. Though the award is not yet announce, I would like to share this interview about my life with my family, friends and students.  It was great going back into a review of my life and work




Wednesday, October 28, 2020

New book, Gender and Globalization

 Today morning, I received a copy of the book, Gender and Globalization edited by myself, Sita Vanka and Jeevanandam. It took us six long years, mails being sent up and down to authors, lots of corrections and the lockdowns and the Carona virus, closing the press.Finally this book in the series of the Women's World Congress, has seen the light of the day. Doing an edited book is not an easy task and every time, I tell myself this is my last one for it is easier to write my own book than dealing with a multitude of authors. Many authors never respond to mails on time, carry out the revisions in a timely fashion and one has to deal with many issues.  Finally, all this is behind me and I am happy to see the book in my hand. I keep telling my students that holding my own book in my hands is akin to the thrill and excitement of holding my new born child for the first time in my hands. Indeed a great feeling.







Thursday, October 22, 2020

Mizoram Uni9versity

 Delivered two lectures from ten to one , in the refresher course on Cultural Studies organised by the Mizoram University. I spoke on how India's culture has been shaped by our history, geography, religion, art, architecture, sculpture and painting in the first part. In the second part, I spoke of the intangible heritage through Ramlila performances through out the country, music both Carnatic based on Kriti and Hindustani based on raga, classical dance, folk dances, and food. The underlying theme of both these talks was that Indian culture has been shaped over five thousand years and there is no one monolithic hegemonic culture but there is a lot of diversity in it. Yet underlying this diversity is a unity which connects  India.  There were about seventy participants and it gave me immense joy to see some of my former students,who are now teaching in different Universities attending this.










Thursday, October 15, 2020

Indian Council of World affairs

 A two day webinar on Women and power organised by the Indian Council of World affairs. There are some  interesting papers that have been lined up.













Tuesday, October 13, 2020

St. Anns College

 A two day virtual Conference on Women migrant workers, being organised by the Centre for Women's Studies, St. Ann's College on 14 th and 15 th. They have got some interesting papers.



Monday, October 12, 2020

Talk on Gender gaps at IMPRI

 A talk on Gender gaps and gender equality;why it matters at 5.00 P. M. Delhi.https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nPQW9NXDRrGOjVEMdQHJPA


*Gender Impact Studies Center (GISC), Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI)*, New Delhi invites you to

_The State of Gender Equality- #GenderGaps with Dr Indu Prakash Singh_


*Gender Gaps and Gender Equality: Why it Matters?*


_*Speaker*_

*Prof Rekha Pande,* _Director, SEED, Society for Empowerment through Environment Development; Professor of History_











Thursday, October 8, 2020

Dr. Alka Rani memorial lecture in Delhi University

 Dr. Alka Rani memorial lecture  in Delhi University, Vivekananda College, on Women in the Bhakti movement on 8 th October at 10.30.










Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Badi making

Badi is a traditional preparation made in Uttrakhand where urad dal is mixed with some vegetables like arabi stems called naal badi, radish, Pumpkin, Pethas and dried up in the sun during the winter seasons.

I know for  sure that this is also made in Uttar Pradesh, Himanchal,Punjab and Rajasthan too. This becomes a good preservative of the dal and vegetables and it is then fried and made into a curry eaten with chappatis or rice. May be in the winters when nothing much was available in the hills this was the items to which housewives turned for their  cooking and it is often cooked at home in the hills. However this has become a delicacy for us. When ever we travel to the hills our baggage consists of a lot of variety of these and the hill dals of beans,soya and the masalas and what not. In fact many times at the airport, I had to pay excess baggage charge, much to the annoyance  of my husband and children, but the joy of getting this stuff home to Hyderabad was unmatched. My mother always supplied us with a variety of badi and mungodis, moong dal preparation, year after year for many years and now when she is not able to do this due to her age, we get this from the cooperative stores of the hills of Nainital, Haldwani and Almora.This year there was no travel to home town or any other place due to carona. I tried my hands at making these petha badi  at home. It was a sheer joy of achieving some thing great. My memory of childhood is of lines and lines of these being made for days together in my grandparents home and other friends homes. My small effort, the  time and labour spent with some inputs from Suresh Pande too in the background preparstion, made me appreciate the labour of the housewives, un recognised and unsung that was used to make such a vast amount of these and some thing which is taken for granted by many and the famillies. It was sheer joy looking at my achievement.









Monday, October 5, 2020

Vijaywada Webinar

 Participated in a seminar on Migrant women-issues and challenges organised by KBN College Vijaywada in collaboration with the National commission of women. I was asked to speak on the historical aspect of Gender and migration. It was nice to get connected to old friends like Molly Kuruvilla, Manimekhalai, Usha and Ajiliu Numai, all Women's Studies friends. It was a little hectic with so many speakers but it was nice listening  to every one.