At Birkbeck, The University of London

I had received a fellowship to Birkbeck and hence visited the Birkbeck Institute at the University of London fronm 28th May, 2019. I met Rebecca Darley from the History Department who is organising my Program here. Suresh Gopati who has lived in London from ages and is from Hyderabad came to receive me at the airport and took us around London and was, very helpful in getting us familiarised with London. We all had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Central London. With Suresh Gopati we could just go across the counter and get a SIM for my mobile and now I have a London mobile number. I could not help but think how cumbersome it is in India to get a SIM and we need an Adhar card, a pan card to get a new SIM.

I am coming to London after nevarly ten to twelve years but some how every thing looked the same. I could hardly find any crowds. I was not in the Tube during rush hours. In India our population increases so much in a decade that every town looks over crowded. I could recollect all the stations, Hounslow west, central, Hounslow East, Picadelli line, Russel Square. Travel in London is so easy and the public transport excellent. One does not have to depend on any one. This is a place so filled with history and I can really see all of this. I count London as one of my favorite tourist destinations.

Taking over as Head Cerntre for Women's Studies for the second time in 2018

 Taking over as the haed of the Centre for Women's Studies again on 2nd April, 2018. Women's Studies is interdisciplinary in nature and when we started the program in the University of Hyderabad in 2007, I was very proud of the fact that our centre was the only centre that had faculty from Literature, Sociology, History, sciences, physics and Life sciences and they were teaching courses and guiding Ph. D students. Some of these members came to meet me and we hope to have interdisciplinary studies as a prominent feature of our Centre. Prof. Anita Jagota from Life sciences, Prof. Bindu Bambah, Dean of Physics school, Dr. Tutun Mukherjee from Comparative Literature, Prof. Ajailiu Niumai from Centre for Social Exclusion and a Prof. Sita from the School of Management Studies. These members were with the Centre from 2007 and I will continue to bank on them for support.

A heart touching letter from my youngest twin on my retirement

 A letter from Varun my youngest twin on my retirement. When so many of my students are sharing their experience and emotions on Facebook, I thought I should also share this letter, which I had kept close to my heart. I had come back from my morning walk on 30th June and when I opened my phone, I saw a mail from my youngest twin and I shed a tear or two. As the most mischevious and a very independent person with a mind of his own, he had troubled me a lot for he refused to toe the line. I still remember that in class one or two, when he would learn out loud a wrong spelling and I would correct him and ask him to learn the correct spelling, he would tell me go and teach this in your University to your students. This is what my teacher taught me and this is what I will learn and kept repeating out loudly the wrong spellings, much to my great dismay and agony.

Dear Mummy,

I was composing this email for a while in my head. I did not know where to start. But they say its best to start at the beginning. I can’t tell where the story of your career begins. But for me, you were always a teacher before a mother.

You have had a brilliant career, with all of its most significant challenges obliterated. I cannot speak for Bittu and Tarun much but out of my own experiences. I still remember the days when you used to carry me to your office when I was sick or had a fever, and I lay down on two chairs pulled together. I still remember playing with the water kettle in your office and looking at all the fancy stationery in your office with curiosity as if it was some new technology. The most pungent memory is the one of that stinking men’s bathroom that was a few doors away from your office in the old historic building. I remember you running to the bus station, to the auto stand, to Abids, to my school, to the top of the slope near the main road when I didn’t come home on time:(. I made you run so much you had to get your knees replaced (Sorry, but I am a good kid now).

Good Times, huh!... Any way Mummy, I am trying to keep this short, but

congratulations

on this lifetime achievements. I don’t have the exact numbers, but with close to 20 books published and numerous other publications, you are a true epitome of a small-town girl who made it big in this wide world.

If a feminist is someone who supports equal rights to women, then you are an epitome of I-Feminism. I hope you inspire countless girls and women in India and around the world like you have inspired me, your own son. Maybe I got the competitive nature to be the best of the best from papa, but it was chivalry and panache I believe I got from you. The real purpose of life is to pass on knowledge and experiences since you have been in academia all your life I would recommend you write your own memoir and to help you start here is a title Rekha: A-line between career, motherhood, and feminism. (We will talk about this I have a software I will install that will type as you speak)

Anyways, I know you might feel nervous or scared (maybe a wrong choice of words). But as always, you have papa by your side through thick and thin and all the noise he makes (LOL). You have three brilliant sons. Who are steadfast and strong? Congratulation on your retirement. We all love you.

Now come to Connecticut and stay in your house, your room is ready.

Regards,

Chotu

An online good bye due to the pandemic

Due to the pandemic, I had a good bye from the department online. The plus part of this was that a nuber of studetns of mine from different parts of the country and the world could join, including my two sons, Sankalp and Varun and my beautiful  daughter in law Nidhi  in the US.  

Looking back, Looking beyond: My histories, my Journeys. 

Sharing my talk on the last day of working officially in the University of Hyderabad.

Saying good bye to my office staff

 As I  retired and was rready to leave on the last working day on 30th June, 2020, the most difficult moment to say good bye was to my office staff. I owe so much to Prasad, Dharavath Yugandhar  and Kotiah. What ever little I could achieve,a major share if the credit goes to these three. Prasad has been with me in this Journey for Women's Studies right from its inception. Prasad had joined my Centre for Women's Studies in the office in 2007 and I was not even having a room for the Centre. My history office worked as an office for the Centre too. Slowly, I could get a small room and Prasad, put a table and chair and we could get a desktop. Slowly we started admitting students into the Ph. D program and I could see how students flocked to him for all their work.What ever seminars and Conferences we organised he was central to the organisation of logistics from booking the Conference hall, making arrangements for tea, lunch etc. Then we moved to a bigger space and Prasad continued to be an asset for he did not shirk work and did what ever was told with a lot if sincerity. He had no hickups of even bringing tea cups inside and serving and I had to tell him not to do this for that is not his job and the canteen person can serve it. Prasad was in the journey when we got money to have our own building and finally have a separate Centre , the Malladi Subamna Centre for Women's Studies. In my forty years of experience in three Universities, Allahabad University, Maulana Azad National Urdu University and Hyderabad University, I have found him to be the best office staff one can dream of. Slowly in 2013 Yugandhar and Kotiah joined and even today most of my history students come to the Women's Studies office to get clarity. In the pandemic many call them too when they have an administrative roadblock and yesterday a history student called me from Jammu on some issue and said, Mam, I have spoken to Prasad Bhaiya and this is what he said.....Yesterday, they refused to leave me, they were so emotional, followed me to the Deans office and while I sat inside for more than half an hour taking to him, they waited outside. They were in tears and came to see me off near my car. I was very normal but you three moved me to tears and I finally realised that this inning has come to an end. They gifted me a beautiful Ganesh statue, knowing my fondness for Ganesh. I owe a lot to you three in all the administrative work that you carried out so efficiently and especially Prasad, words fail me. We as Heads and in other high positions get all the laurels and we hardly give credit to the people who help us from behind. You all are the silent workers and we cannot achieve much with out the force and support that you provide silently.Prasad, I will always remember with fondness your contribution to the Centre for Women's Studies in the University of Hyderabad. Yugandhar was posted to the main administrative building to work and Prasad,you were alone out here. You were my one man army.

My Last day at work in the University

 Some how  one gets so caaried away in this daily business of life  that many things get left over. The same happened with my blog. Finally I decided that now in 2021, I am again going to get back to my blog and start writing it. I will catch up on many of my earlier writings which are there on Facebook for it was easy to post on Facebook. Many developments occured in 2020. First of all, I retired on 30th June, after an academic career of 40 years in three Universities, Allahabad University,  Maulana Azad national Urdu University and Hyderabad University. As I started packing my books and emptying my cuboards from 1984, th most destreesed people were my students and the office staff. Little did I imagine then that life will cone to a standstill in march due to the pandemic. Hence, the day, i retired it was a quiet day and the University was closed due to the lockdown. 

T

My, my, what a day, it was. The last day of my official duty and due to the pandemic, I thought, I will go quietly sign few papers and return home to get ready for the evening webinar at four. But, my students , Rizwan Ahmad,Pavithra Molugu, and Manu Jayas  had different plans. Pandemic or no pandemic, they were not going to let me have a quiet exit. I do not know, how the students manage to organise but they were able to get a cake, cold drinks some eatables and a big bouquet to the Centre for Women's studies. I really did not want them to waste their money but I knew there was no point telling them any thing for they will never listen to this. We had a grand party and I could see the history department also come and join. My Colleagues, Mnrajesh Mnrajesh Rajesh,Bhangya Bhukya,V.J. Varghese,, Anindita were all there. My students made me so emotional. I am so touched and, really it is moments like these that make me proud that I am a teacher and have been able to touch few lives.