Endowment lecture at South Indian History Congress and Pichavaram.

 

I was invited by South Indian History Congress, on 31^st January, 2020.to deliver the   Endowment Lecture: Prof. Peddarapu Chenna Reddy & Dr. Subhashiniin the  40^th Session being held at the University of AnnaMalai. My endowment kecture was on, ,  Rethinking Women’s history and women in the margins.  It was such a great joy to see my earlier studetn of the 1990's now a Professor in the department of History. After the  address we  found time to go to Pichavaram Mangrove near Chidambaram along with two of my students Jeevanandam and Rizwan. Spread over one thousand one hundred kilo meters this mangrove joing the Bay of Bengal and has a large variety of flaura and fauna. This is regarded as one of the largest forest mangroves along with Sunderban. One could see few species of birds too. Many films are shot in these mangroves. It is a beautiful experience, boating under the mangroves, ducking your head often to avoid hitting it with the overgrowth and the thick sticks growing downwards, the cool breeze blowing into your face and the vast and enormous panoramic view of the sea. We found a very interesting boatman who gave us a lot of history of the place and told us about the films being shot here.