'Touched and humbled by things written about me'- Dravid

A fortnight into retirement — or to paraphrase brother Vijay, the rest of his life — and he had been racked by no introspection or bothered by no rethought over his decision to quit international cricket, Rahul Dravid assured the gathering. “It's slowly sinking in,” he said.



“Like I said on the day of my PC, it's a big relief in some ways. I don't have to worry about getting bowled again.”


Thankfully, with IPL commitments still on his plate, he hadn't yet been forced into going grocery shopping, Dravid joked. “Anyway, the idea is to make such a mess of it the first few times that you aren't asked again.”


On Wednesday at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, with a star-cast of other celebrated sons in attendance, the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) honoured Dravid.

African students seek education in India

LUDHIANA: Dulce Vania from Mozambique is studying for a management degree in India and is also a budding entrepreneur - she exports human hair to her homeland.

"I have stated a small-scale human hair export business. Back home, it is used for making various accessories," Vania told IANS.

Studying for a management course in finance from the Punjab College of Technical Education (PCTE) at Baddowal, close to the industrial hub of Ludhiana, Vania says that African students studying in India are trying to pick up entrepreneurial skills.

"Things back in our country have started to get better, but it still needs a lot of improvement. Some students here have started to work on small-scale," she said.

80 years of musical journey

The mildly overcast sky on Monday left very little scope for the usual shadows to play on the corridors leading towards the Department of Indian Music at the University of Madras.

In between the venerable walls stood a door with a brand-new signage --‘TAG Digital Listening Archives'. A signboard asks visitors to leave their footwear outside.
On Monday, on its 80 birthday, the department that was headed by Tiger Varadachariar when it was established in 1932, was given a special gift: 1000 hours of live concerts from music connoisseur R.T.Chari's personal collection. In a room decorated with pencil sketches of music maestros drawn by Sankara Narayana, music lovers can listen to the music of any artist, from any year, sung in any composition or raga of their choice.



“The archive has a collection of songs by veterans such as G.N. Balasubramaniam, M.S. Subbalakshmi, M.L. Vasanthakumari and Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar,” said Premeela Gurumurthy, professor and head of the department. Then there is also Musiri Subramania Iyer, D.K. Pattamal, D.K. Jayaraman and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.”

And, the list does go on, spanning illustrious vocalists between the 1940s and 1990s – teachers and disciples, senior and junior artists, all sharing space on a user-friendly software.
Talking about his collection to a group that had gathered to celebrate their department's birthday, Mr .Chari said that visits to collectors' homes made him establish a music archive at The Music Academy.

“I found one thing that was common in the houses of collectors that I visited. The collection was pushed to a corner and was decaying. Even their children did not take much interest in preserving it.”


For posterity

Dreading such a fate for his own collection, he established the archives at the Academy in 2008.
“Through the interactions at the Academy, we realised why not create smaller archives in music colleges?” he said about the birth of the first such collection on the University's premises.


Older students who were part of the gathering craned their necks to see the presentations on the digital archives, fascinated that such an archive was never known when they were students. “Back then, me and my batchmates used to go to concerts together,” said Padmaja Parameshwaran from the 1982 batch.

“Not many people opted to go for the music line then. Nowadays, more people opt for the subject,” she said before joining a group performing a Thillana composed by the current head of the department.

Inspiring Track Record

A trained engineer, an entrepreneur, a triathlete and the first and the only Asian to compete at the Ultraman (endurance race) held in Canada in 2009, Anu Vaidyanathan believes that life is about endurance. She talks to Madhavi Gosukonda about her passion in sports

From being a student who cycled to school, Anu Vaidyanathan has come a long way, both professionally and personally. She currently runs a company, PatNMarks, which specialises in Intellectual Property Consulting. Vaidyanathan did a PhD in record time of 26 months from the University of Canterbury in Electrical Engineering. She has served as a member of faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar and Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. She talks about her passion in sports

Q- How did you make the transition into endurance sports?

Making the transition has to be gradual. I spent hours playing outdoors in school and participated in swimming, running and cycling in college. My transition into endurance sports has been over a period of 10 years. One needs dedication and intensive training before joining marathon events. The duration varies from person to person. You need to respect what your body is telling you and not push it beyond its limit.

Q- What was the biggest difficulty you faced as a sportswoman?

I think the biggest challenge is the stereotypes that sportswomen face. A swimming coach once told me to get married when I raised concerns about partitioning the length of a swimming pool to segregate men and women. We need to be able to step out of stereotypes which is entirely upto us.

Q- What does your typical day look like?

I wake up by 6 am and do a short workout. After that I eat and then do some work, or prepare for my classes. Then I do the second workout after which I eat again if I feel like. Then I take some rest or work. My third workout is in the evening before 7.30 especially if there is a competition coming up. I sleep early.

Q- What is the next competition you intend to participate in?
The next competition is in May in racing and then the Ironman in July.

Q- Athletics is a costly passion. How does the common man fund it?

Ultimately, our dreams are what we are and we must find a way to support it. One must get a job - one that you enjoy and which can fund your passion. I know there are those who are worse off than I am, but even those athletes will tell you that things turn up --- races, competitions and jobs that helped them to keep going. Let your track record speak for you. Money and funding will come afterwards. Aspiring athletes need to get rid of excuses.

Q- What can be done to nurture more athletics?

Lesser autos to encourage people to walk, clearing traffic from some roads for two hours in the early morning for walkers, no parking zones so people get an afternoon workout. But you cannot impose it on everyone. People need to make healthy choices on their own; nobody can do it for them.

Women studies or studying women

Women Studies in Academia

The SNDT Women's University pioneered the entry of Women's Studies into the Indian university system. The university, established in 1916, aimed at the establishment of gender equality through education. It established the Research Centre for Women's Studies (RCWS) in 1974 to undertake research, teaching, documentation, publication and community outreach activities aimed at gender equity. The RCWS soon became the model adopted by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi, for the development of Women's Studies centres within Indian universities.

Apart from policy, theoretical and field action research, the RCWS has contributed significantly to the publication of teachinglearning materials and the training of college/university teachers in Women's Studies. It conducts a postgraduate certificate and PhD courses in Women's Studies and will initiate an MA course in the coming academic year.

Women's Studies teaching programmes have developed only in the past five to seven years. Until recently, there was a debate whether this newly emergent area of study should be taught as a separate discipline or if it should become an integral part of other disciplines. However, in response to student demand, universities across the country have introduced both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Women's Studies. Despite variations, many of the courses on Women's Studies offered by Indian universities have certain common units of study. These include: feminism, feminist research methods, women's movement and participation in the larger socio-political process, women's writings, sexuality, family and kinship, legal status of women, issues of violence, citizenship, communalism, etc. Encoded in these courses is a critique of the gender-blindness of mainstream theories. Women Studies or Gender Studies? Another contentious debate has been the nomenclature of the discipline - should it be called Women's Studies or by a more inclusive terminology of Gender Studies? The argument for calling the discipline 'Women's Studies' is from the recognition that the discipline enquires into women's lived experiences and privilege women's voices. In contrast, the argument for terming the discipline 'Gender Studies' is because it is a more inclusive term, accommodating men, masculinity and other sexual minorities. These differences, however, do not change the theoretical frames of the discipline.

Indian scholars have produced some of the most exciting and innovative research in Women's Studies. The many Women's Studies courses offered in the Indian university system are located in the ground realities of Indian and other Third World countries. A student opting for Women's Studies in India will not lose out on the intellectual excitement. The job opportunities for students of Women's Studies are similar to those that are available to students with a liberal arts degree. Additionally, there are openings in research and development agencies as well as NGOs.