on 30th January, 2019, I was invited to the Institute of Tribal studies and Research at Chethlayam in Wayanad District, to give the special valedictory address on the last day of the Three day National Seminar on, Politics of Representation, Dalits, Adivasis and minorities from 28th to 30th January. I also had to Chair a session, on, Exploring Representations in Historical writings. I was happy to meet many young history scholars from Kerala such as K. S. Madhavan, P. P. Abdul Razak,, M. D. Manoj and E. K. Rajan and enjoyed the session and learnt many new things about Kerala history. We started from Calicut at six in the morning and the journey to Wayanad was amidst lush green forested region. Waynad District is in the North East of Kerala. Waynad means village of paddy fields but now I could see that all the paddy fields are replaced by spice, plantains and rubber trees. From Sultan Bayhery we travelled to a region of high altitude for Chethlayam in about 12 to 13k.m.from here. This is a college for tribal boys and girls and a young dedicated staff stays here and they stay in the same hostels as students and do not have any separate housing. Many girls came up on the dias to speak and I found them very bold and confident, unlike the other tribal girls that I had interacted with in other parts of the country the North East being another exception. Thanks Molly Kuruvilla for taking me here and we enjoyed the journey too with so much to talk and share with Women's Studies being the bridge that connects us.
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