In Brij Dham

 On 12th december, 2015, reached Brindavan. We are on a holiday to Brij dham. The flight at Delhi kept hovering in air for more than an hour for it could not land due to thick fog. Then we came by road  to Vrindavan. Today we visited Mathura, Gokul, Goverdhan, Nandagaon and Barsana. There were many temples including the one where Krishna was put in prison. A mosque built with the same material stands next to it. I kept going back to bhakti poetry and the descriptions of Gokul, Goverdhan, Nandgaon and Vrindavan. Today the lush green forests are missing though there is still a lot of open spaces. The Yamuna appears polluted. But in the Goverdhan area people still do the 21km parikrama and it is still a forest . I saw a sadhu who was doing parikrama by turning over 108 times in one place. The Faith of the people moves one. In Gokul  there are five thousand families that live there and four thousand of these are Brahman and there is no garlic or onions that is eaten. I found a lot of milk, rabbi, pedal being sold. There is plenty of milk and butter still available in this area. A great trip.

Turkish and Kerala Food festival

 Today evening on 28th February, 2015, was an evening worth remembering. We first attended the Turkish cultural  food festival.They had put up stalls of various Turkish food and snacks for sale and most of these were very delicious especially the Baklawa sweet.Then we sat through the cultural programme but were disappointed that we did not see  the sufi dance of the whirling darvesh.They had invited a minister and though the programme was to start at 6.30 it did not begin till 8.30 for they kept waiting for the minister to arrive and after some time we did not feel that it was worth waitingand left at 9.00.

Then we came to our University where the Kerala students were celebrating a Kerala food and cultural festival.Suresh saw the crowd and got very worried saying let us go back for there is so much crowd but he too was very impressed with the discipline of our students.They did things in such an organised fashion and with such dedication and discipline that I felt very happy.The students stood patiently in a que for their turn to have food and there was a perfect organisation and food was served to 300 people at one go in a seating fashion.The kerala food was very good and I met many of my students. The girls looked so beautiful in the Kerala and other sarees.

Well done students and I am  very proud of you.

An Iranian Dinner

 On 19th November, 2014, my Ph.d student from Iran, Atoosa invited us for dinner and laid beautiful preparations  of Irani dishes.It was a riot of colours and a beautiful spread. We discovered that there was a commonality in some things for they also dry a lot of fruits and vegetables like mint, spinach and other greens and use them through out the year.This is also done in the hills from which we hail and during winters when there is snow and cold people make vegetables of these dried things.Atoosa's mother had sent her so many things from  Iran and she showed them all to us and we had a taste of all the fruits, cheese and dried fruits.A lovely evening and thanks Atoosa and Mohisin.

Visiting the crafts Market at Bugunda Road

 

Ended the day with the Dean of Gender studies Consolata. Also visited the loval market in the evening.

African Arts, Crafts and Souvenirsiare  very well know. Most of the items  that we  find on display and for sale are created by hand. There are handmade drums, of various sizes, weapons such as spears, (some can be taken apart to put into a suitcase), carved items, items using bark cloth, banana leaves shaped into Christmas crèches to Greetings Cards – items made of gourds, African musical instruments, paintings batiks, one could go on – explore for yourself and enjoy. Exposure Africa is the craft market next to Daisy’s Arcade in Kampala on Buganda Road its the city’s biggest, with over 30 stalls and with almost every items found here is shipped from Kenya but not many Ugandan sellers would want you to know about that. You will find different prices for the same or similar items and the best thing is to bargain.

 

In the Gender Studies School of Merkerere University

 The rest of the day was in meetings,interacting, sharing and networking.I took a photo with the male faculty of Women and Gender studies.In their school they have 18 women and 5 male faculty.

In the History Department of Merkere University, kampala

 After my lecture in the School of Women and Gender Studies I went to the History Department and met their Head whom they call Chair, Dr.Katono Nzarwa.Here they have this Dept.in the School of Social Science and it is called rhe Department of History,Archeology and Organizational Studies.We discussed a lot about our Courses , students and they are very worried that their President is against teaching History to students.I also had a long chat with the only women faculty in the History Dept.Dr.Pamela Khanakwa and she was a young scholar and very enthusistic about history.We hit off very well and had a lot to talk about for she is also interested in women's History but feels she can never teach this for there is nothing like Women's History here and she was very much aware of the fact that their history teaching is very male centric and has nothing on women.

Adressing a class on gender in kampala, Merkerere University

On 7th Novemeber, 2014, morning,  I went into a class and addressed the students.This was an undergraduate class and I was surprised at the number of boys in a class on gender.Here they have to take up two papers on Gender and there are many boys at  the post graduate level too. I discussed about the Women's issues in india and there was alot of interest among the studetns who had never visited India. They were very fasciated with Bollywood films and wanted me to answer some questions related to the films too in the discussions and I did this very happily.