37th Wedding Anniversary.

 

Spent the thirty seventh wedding anniversary on 28th February,2016, in the city of Nizam and in the Nizam's palace at Falaknuma. The falakhnuma palace, originally belonged to the Paigah family, and was later owned by the Nizam of Hyderabad. It is on a hillock and covers a 13-hectare (32-acre) area in Falaknuma, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from Charminar. It was built by Nawab Sir Viqar-ul-Umra, Prime Minister of Hyderabad and the uncle & brother-in-law of the sixth Nizam. Falak-numa means "Like the Sky" or "Mirror of Sky" in Urdu. An English architect William Ward Marret designed the palace. Sir Vicar's monogram "VO" is on the furniture, walls and ceiling of the palace. It is made completely with Italian marble with stained-glass windows. One of the highlights of the palace is the state reception room, where the ceiling is decorated with frescoes. The ball room contains a two-ton manually operated organ said to be the only one of its kind in the world. The palace has 60 rooms and 22 halls. It has considerable collections of the Nizams artifacts including paintings, statues, furniture, manuscripts, books, an extensive Jade collection, and Venetian chandeliers. It has a library with a carved walnut roof, a replica of the one at Windsor Castle. The library houses more than five thousand books. It has an extensive collection of English, Urdu and Persian books as well as copies of the Quran and rare 1^st Editions.  The dining hall can seat 101 guests. The chairs are made of carved rosewood with green leather upholstery. Burroughs and Watts from England designed two identical billiards tables, one of which is in Buckingham Palace and the other in the palace's billiards room. The palace was the private property of the Nizam family, and not normally open to the public, until 2000. The hotel now has a dinning of only 35 guests, and we have to book in advance. After the lunch they take you around and explain the history of the palace. The food served was out of the world and had recipes from the times of the Nizam and not generally available in the market. 

A wonderful way to celebrate the 37^th wedding anniversary. . I still cannot believe so many years have gone by as we stood together with each other, being the pillar of strength for the other.

 

Meeting with Directors of Women's Studies in Chennai

    I reached Chennai on 17th February, 2016,   for a southern regional workshop of Women's Studies in the University of Madras on documenting the Women's  movement. In the two day Conference on 18th and 19th February, 2016, I met all the Directors of the Women's Studies  past and present and felt very happy to connect with a large number of old friends. It is a wonderful workshop with many activists also attending and a lot of energy is flowing through in the sessions.

Sankarsan Mallik

 I am very happy to report that my student Sankarsan Mallik has joined as an Assistant Professor in Department of History  at Behrampur University on 5th February, 2016. Congratulations Sankarsan. i  now only hope you finish your Ph.D.  too and in time. It is a very happy moment for a teacher to see their  student settle well.  I wish you all the best for a bright future in academics.

International Conference on Pre Colonial Deccan

 It was a hectic two day  International Conference on Pre Colonial Deccan, history, culture and literature at Karnataka Central University, Kaalburgi, Gulburga on 14th and 15th January, 2016.

Met lot of Scholars working on this region and in this period from USA, Sri Lanka. Slovakia, U. K and of course in different parts of India. The quality of papers was very good . This was a good combination of some senior and few junior level Scholars.

Catching up with School friends

  it is always wonderful to cath up with school friends. One of the advantages of Internet is the connectivity. As students we all studied together at Kendriya Vidayalaya in class 9th and 10th in 1970's and 1971  In Secunderabad. Most of us were children of Army Officers or Railway officers and we're in constant motion in new places  when our parents got transferred. We kept in touch with close friends for a year or two and then moved on. It is interesting that many of us got together through the Internet after more than 40years. Most of us are placed in different parts of India and some in US, Canada and U. K. We try to meet once a year and hardly feel that time has passed by. We still feel the 15 year or 16year old at heart. Now we will be celebrating our 60th year and four of us in the core committee went around the town on 28th December, 2015, looking for a place to meet and had lot of fun just being together in each others company.

Talk at Maulana Azad National Urdu University on Muslim women and Girls education

 On 11th December, 2015, I was invited talk on Muslim Women's and girls  education. Had a talk on Muslim Women's and girls education at Maulana Azad National University. I get a chance to practice my Urdu in these lectures. Thank you Prof. Kanchana Illiaha for inviting me. Met my old students Taha, Faiz who are faculty there. I was very happy to see the whole of History Department with Prof Kaw, Danish being present. Met many old friends Shahida and others.

Connecting with Ranjit and Rita bandopadhyay

 On 10th December, 2015, we were able to connecting with old friends.at the wedding of the son of Biltu.   It is really great to connect with old friends and though we were meeting Ranjit and Rita after many many years  probably thirty, we could just connect and start talking as if we had met last week. Indeed a great evening.