NEWS - TODAY'S HEADLINES

MARITAL RAPES

Today's topic of discussion is nothing but, marital rapes. To put it plainly, rape is the most brutal violence, one can do to a woman. According to the statistics, published by Dailyhunt in 2013, "With an estimated of 500,000 rape cases every year, ... [South Africa] has one of the highest rate of Rape Crimes in the world. It is estimated that more than 40% of South African women will be raped in their lifetime." (1) In the case of India, "The number of reported rapes in India, a country of over 1.2 billion people, has gone up to 33,707 in 2013 ... In India, a woman is being raped after every 20 minutes. ... 93 women are being raped in the country every day." (1) All these show the case of women, who got rapped by strangers or by ones who were less known to the victims. Then, what about the marital rapes, happened so far and happening at present. Until a while, no one was even bothered of this beastly crimes. Thus they went on and on and on. Can't help, but say, it's the truth.

Marital rape means the unnecessary sexual acts committed by husband upon his wife without her consent. An article titled, "Data On Sexual Violence In Marriages Shows Why India Should Progress Towards Criminalising Marital Rape", it is stated, "According to the UN Women's 2011 report, out of 179 countries ... 52 had amended their legislation to explicitly make marital rape a criminal offence. India is one such country where marital rape is yet to be even recognized ... Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which defines rape, makes an exception for marital rape by stating, "Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape."" (2) The article continues, "At an all India level, 9 out of every 100 men, agree to the fact that a husband has the right to use force and have sex with his wife even if she doesn't want to." (2) To brief, what does it show ? ... The reality. ... Yes, the face of truth. ... But I pray, not let that fact get mugged up in the shabby skin-torn files, only to get dusty, just as other files got.

In this situation, what we have to do is, we have to take immediate action against these crimes and check all sorts of violence, both sexual and asexual, upon our daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, aunt, niece, and even our friend. Remember, ... if we shut our eyes towards these crimes, one day we too may fall as victims of such crimes. So, think. ... Sorry, we barely have time to think. Thus, we should start working to eliminate the crime even from the corners of the world of mankind.

Another aspect of this case is, though at one side, there is a category of people, like us, who continuously urges the world not to commit such crimes, in the other side, there are people, both educated and uneducated, who forcefully push their own children to married lives, at very young age. As the article, "India Has the Highest Number of Child Brides in the World: How Do We Deal With It", says, "Child marriage remains a social evil that India has seemingly had a hard time eradicating. ... Despite all the ... conversation about protecting our young girls ... certain influential politicians and lawmakers in Madhya Pradesh continue to condone and support such the pernicious practice of child marriage. According to a recent report by the Dainik Bhaskar Post, hundreds of young girls were married off across mass wedding ceremonies in the Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh, on the occasion of Akshay Tritiya ... What was even more shocking was the presence of leaders from both the ruling and opposition parties at these mass wedding ceremonies. These leaders reportedly even blessed the couples. The district administration estimates that nearly 1000 minor couples were married off on [that single day]." (3)

By deviating from the crisis of 'child marriage', if we move to the case of matured women, it is not better enough, and more pathetic, i would say. In a country named Kyrgyzstan, in a native community, there is a custom of 'bride kidnapping'. In the details section of a YouTube video titled, "Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan", it is mentioned, "In rural Kyrgyzstan men still marry their women the old-fashioned way: by abducting them off the street and forcing them to be their wife." (4) According to the video, due to that weird custom of bride kidnapping, lots of young women, soon after their forced marriages, committed suicide.

In short, all these data show that marriage has become a sort of curse in the life of every woman. At this time, one must remember, whatever action, if it is forcefully done upon someone without the person's consent, then it is a crime. This is a fact, known to all. But no one is ready to take a chance to keep things in order. Then what to do??

There are people who speak and write about the want of stopping all those crimes, but they themselves lag behind when they deal their own family matters. For instance, we all say it is one's freedom to choose whether to marry and a lead a responsible family life or to remain as singleton and lead a carefree life. But when this perspective moves to the wing of family, or society at large, the so-called morality holders or keepers insist the poor girls to marry at a certain age even though the girls really don't want. ... Here, where is the morality and where is the freedom?? In a comment written beneath a YouTube video titled, "Fighting forced marriages and honour based abuse | Jasvinder Sanghera | TEDxGöteborg", Afifa Iran notes,

"I'm 26 and my parents somehow just want me to be married off. They think I'll not survive without a man. I am a dentist currently working to take an exam that will lead to specialization. I am not ready or interested in marriage. And i can honestly relate to her. My dad does pressure me but he doesn't throw a tantrum. My mom loses her calm over my marriage. Worst part is when all these families come in to 'see' you to get you into an arranged marriage. This is quite screwed up. Mostly female peers question me and pressure me into settling down. I am not ready for marriage and i don't want it anytime soon. But my parents ignore it like it's a pointless thing. They say "oh she'll be fine once married". Well hello no i won't be! If I'm not ready and you marry me off even to the best guy in the whole wide world, i won't be able to appreciate him and just walk out of it! I wish our mothers could break free of their own fears!" (5)

As a girl or a woman, I felt empathy towards the girl, who posted the comment. Her words stand for the voice of the entire womenfolk. Her words give voice to the voiceless.

To conclude, if we keep on voicing our rights and establishing our status of being human rather than a piece of flesh to chew upon, one day the graph of the above statistics falls down to the level of zero. And I strongly believe, that day is not so far. The count down started. ... (rape, violence, abuse, discrimination, injustice, ......... 3, 2, 1, 0 ......)

1. https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/east+coast+daily+eng-epaper-eeastco/here+s+the+list+of+countries+with+highest+rape+crime+rate+in+the+world-newsid-90811949
2. https://www.huffingtonpost.in/kumar-rajesh/latest-data-on-sexual-violence-in-marriages-shows-why-india-should-progress-towards-criminalising-marital-rape_a_23367102/
3. https://www.thebetterindia.com/138496/india-child-brides-marriage-law-posco/
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKAusMNTNnk
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Xh5MXA7yY&list=WL&index=178&t=294s

Penned by,

      Ms. Greshma Clement

(I apologize, if anyone gets hurt due to this write-up.)

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MALAYALAM - "TALE OF FUTURE"

ഞാനും ... ഞങ്ങളും ...


ഇറ്റലിയിലെ മിലാനിൽ, ഒരു രാത്രി ...

27 ഫെബ്രുവരി 2020

എല്ലാവരും (രണ്ടു പെൺകൂട്ടുകാരും, രണ്ടു ആൺകൂട്ടുകാരും, ബാപ്പയും, പിന്നെ ഞാനും) ഒരു ഫ്ലാറ്റിലെ സ്വീകരണമുറിയിൽ ഒന്നിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു. മുറിയിൽ ഒരു ടേബിൾ ലാമ്പിൻ്റെ നേരീയ മഞ്ഞ വെളിച്ചം മാത്രം. ബാപ്പ ചാരുകസേരയിലും, ഞങ്ങൾ നിലത്തും ഇരിക്കുന്നു. എല്ലാവരും ഒരു ചെറിയ ചില്ലു മേശയുടെ ചുറ്റും. ആ മേശയിൽ നിരത്തിവച്ചിരിക്കുന്ന ആറു വൈയിൻ ഗ്ലാസുകളിൽ മുന്തിരി വീഞ്ഞ് നിറച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു.

പൊടുന്നനെ എല്ലാവരും മുമ്പോട്ടു ചാഞ്ഞുകൊണ്ട് ആ മെല്ലിച്ച കാലുള്ള ചില്ല് ഗ്ലാസുകൾ ഉയർത്തി "ചിയേർസ്" എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞുകൊണ്ട് ആനന്ദം പങ്കിട്ടു. തെല്ലിട വൈകാതെ ഏവർക്കും 27 ഫെബ്രുവരിയുടെ ദിനാശംസകൾ എന്നുപറഞ്ഞുകൊണ്ടു ബാപ്പ ആ ഇരിട്ടുമുറിയിൽ പൊട്ടിച്ചിരിയുടെ വിളക്ക് തെളിച്ചു. എന്നാൽ ഇത് കേൾക്കേണ്ട താമസം, ഞാൻ ബാപ്പയോട് ആരാഞ്ഞു,

"അതിനിപ്പോൾ, 27 ഫെബ്രുവരിക്ക് എന്താ ഇത്ര പ്രിത്യേകത ??"

ഞൊടിയിടയിൽ, ബാപ്പയുടെ മറുപടി,

"എല്ലാ ദിവസവും മറ്റു ദിവസങ്ങളിൽ നിന്ന് വിത്യസ്തപ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുന്നു."

"അതിനിപ്പോൾ...?"

"27 ഫെബ്രുവരി 2020, നാളെ ആഘോഷിക്കാൻ പറ്റുമോ ??"

"ഇതിനിപ്പോൾ, ആഘോഷിക്കാൻ എന്തിരിക്കുന്നു ?"

"സന്തോഷമുള്ളപ്പോൾ അതാഘോഷിക്കണം. അതുപോലെ, സന്തോഷമില്ലങ്കിൽ ക്രിസ്തുമസായാലെന്തു പുതുവർഷമായാലെന്തു, യാതൊരു കാര്യവുമില്ല."

"ഉം... അതു സത്യം."

എൻ്റെ ആ സമ്മതം ബാപ്പയ്ക്കു ഇച്ഛ പിടിച്ചു. എന്നാൽ, ഒരു ദീർക്കശാസം വിട്ടുകൊണ്ട് ബാപ്പ തുടർന്നു,

"നീ ഓർക്കുന്നുണ്ടോ..."

"ഞാൻ ഓർക്കുന്നില്ല... ഒന്ന് നിർത്തു ബാപ്പ... ഹും !!"

പെട്ടന്ന്, ബാപ്പയുടെ അടുത്തിരുന്ന എൻ്റെ സുഹൃത്ത് പുഞ്ചിരിയോടെ അടക്കം പറഞ്ഞു,

"ഉം... ബാപ്പക്ക് വൈയിൻ തലയ്ക്കുപിടിച്ചെന്നു തോന്നുന്നു."

ഇതുകേട്ടതാമസം, ബാപ്പ കൈയിലിരുന്ന വൈൻ ഗ്ലാസ് ഇടത്തോട്ടും വലത്തോട്ടും ചെറുതായൊന്നു ചുറ്റിച്ചുകൊണ്ടു പറഞ്ഞു,

"ഇതു വൈനാണന്നു ആരുപറഞ്ഞു ? ... ഇതുവെറും കട്ടൻ ചായയല്ലേ !!"

ഞൊടിയിടയിൽ, നിലത്തു ചമ്പ്രം പടിഞ്ഞിരുന്നിരുന്ന ഞാൻ, ചാടിയെഴുന്നേറ്റിട്ടു പറഞ്ഞു,

"ഇനി ഞാനിവിടെയിരുന്നാൽ ശരിയാകില്ല... ഞാനതുകൊണ്ടു പോകുവാ... അപ്പോൾ, ബൈ, ബൈ."

അതുകേട്ടപ്പോൾ, എന്നോടുരുമ്മിയിരുന്നിരുന്ന എൻ്റെ സുഹൃത്ത് എൻ്റെ കൈയിൽ പിടിച്ചുകൊണ്ട് എന്നോടാരാഞ്ഞു,

"നിനക്കെന്താ ഒരു ഹൃദയവുമില്ലാത്തതുപോലെ ! ... Hum, you are truly a heartless creature!! ... വേണ്ടാ, നീ ഇനി ഇവിടെ ഇരിയ്ക്കണ്ടാ. നീ നിൻ്റെ വഴിക്ക്‌ പൊക്കോ... പോ..."

ഒന്നു കുലുങ്ങിചിരിച്ചുകൊണ്ടു ബാപ്പ പറഞ്ഞു,

"താനെന്താ പറഞ്ഞേ, അവൾക്കു ഹൃദയമില്ലെന്നോ !! ... ഹും, താൻ പറഞ്ഞതു സത്യമാ, അവൾക്കു ഹൃദയമില്ല. കാരണം, അതു പണ്ടേ മറ്റുള്ളവർക്കു പങ്കുവച്ചുകൊടുത്തതല്ലേ... ഇനി അവൾക്കെവിടുന്ന ഹൃദയം !! ... ഇപ്പോൾപോലും, ഈ സന്തോഷത്തിനു കാരണം അവളുതന്നെയാണ്. ... ഹും, അവളെൻ്റെ വിളക്കാണന്നു ഞാൻ പറഞ്ഞാൽ അതൊരു കുറച്ചിലാവും, കാരണം അവളെപ്പോലുള്ളവർ ഈ ലോകം മുഴുവൻ്റെയും വിളക്കാണ്. ആ ദീപത്തിൻ പ്രകാശത്താൽ നയിക്കപ്പെടുന്ന ജീവിതങ്ങളിൽ ഒന്നു മാത്രമാണ് എൻ്റെതു..."

ആ വാക്കുകൾ കേട്ടനിമിഷം, എൻ്റെ മിഴികളിൽനിന്നുതിർന്ന അശ്രുക്കൾ എൻ്റെ കവിൾത്തടങ്ങളെ ഈറനണിയിച്ചു. ... കൂടെ, എൻ്റെ കൂട്ടുകാരുടേയും, ... ഇപ്പോൾ, നിങ്ങൾ വായനക്കാരുടേയും... .


.... തുടരും ....

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THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Why do the writers write and the orators orate ?? Because, either they observe some fault within the society or they witness some proud moments solely created by the society. But I wonder, then why do they point out the faults all the time. Is it because, the balance is overloaded with weights of faults ??

Think ...!!

👀

QUESTIONS ON TITANIC AS LITERATURE

Am I Drowning with ‘Titanic’ ??

 

Here is a list of a few questions upon the movie “Titanic” (1997), which gives an idea how an English Literature student deals with a work or any academic subject matter.

   1.  Interpret Jack Dawson, the protagonist, as a tragic hero.
   2.  Discuss the false superiority complex prevailing in the aristocratic society, with reference to both the families of Rose DeWitt Bukater, the female protagonist, and Cal Hockley, the antagonist.
   3.  Study about the class system and class-discrimination portrayed in the movie.
   4.  Find out the gender stereotypes depicted in the movie.
   5.  Comment upon the double standards shown in the movie, according to various aspects like culture, gender, wealth, power, class and so on.
   6.  Apply Freud’s psychoanalytic theory on the movie, with reference to the mental trauma of Rose DeWitt Bukater.
   7.  Explain how stream of consciousness works in the case of Rose, the grandma figure who reflects on her early life.
   8.  Interpret the movie as a romantic tragedy.
   9.  Figure out the factors that influenced James Cameron, the director, to knit a tragic love story along with a historical incident.
  10.  Compare and contrast the movie, “Titanic” of 1997 with that of 1953.

Submitted by,

         Greshma Clement

ARTICLE ON TIME MANAGEMENT

Critical Factor for Success

     Everybody from nursery kids to PG student, business magnet to CEO, from homemaker to receptionist complaints “no time”. Have you ever thought of it why?.... Why people lack time? Let’s think.

        Baltasar Gracián said, “Nothing really belongs to us but time, which even he has who has nothing else”. Yes! We are endowed with the free gift of time. Still we say ‘No time’ because we don’t know how to spend this precious commodity carefully, effectively and wisely.

         Of course we need time for our daily routine- say study for a student. Besides this we need time to spend with families and friends, in creative and re-creative activities and so on. And so you can see why the management of time becomes such a critical factor in your life.

What is time management?

        A few minutes of reflection will tell you that the quality of your attention varies at different times. If you are tired, you can’t concentrate. On the other hand, at certain times of the day you are habitually more alert. In this context we can remember the Pareto principle or 80:20 rule. It states that “the significant items of a given group form a relatively small part of the total” for example:

   20: of your time produces,

   80: of your high quality output.

For simplicity, I shall elaborate this as: while you do something without time management your work is 80% and the result is only 20%. Instead, if you are successful in time management you can achieve 80% with an effort of 20%!!!

    So, you can succeed in your life if you can succeed in your personal time management.

How do we manage our time?

       Time management is not a very complex affair, but it is the unavoidable path to simplify our numerous big and small problems we come across.

The fundamental steps of time management are:

*Identify long term goals

A goal is a deliberately selected result that can be won by dedicated and prolonged effort. Example: “My goal is to become a member of the editorial board of THE HINDU” or “My goal is to become an exemplary English professor”

*Find out short term goals

Short term goals are results to be achieved within a short period. Example: “I should complete my PG course in flying colours” or “I should secure an admission for research in oxford”

*Identify the objective

An objective is something tangible, specific and immediately attainable. Example: “I should pass the next semester examinations in O level”

*Make use of your best time

Program your day so that “best time” is given to the highest grade activities such as learning poetry.

*Avoid procrastination

If you plan to do something in a particular time, do it in the appointed time, without postponement. Remember “Procrastination is the thief of time”.

*Plan the day

The longest journey begins with a single step. You will never achieve an objective if you do not break it down into manageable steps. So it is necessary to remind you “do not leave any day without planning”. It is an essential discipline to compile a programme for the day. The daily plan likely to take 15 minutes. In return for this investment, you gain a sense of control, direction and freedom which is otherwise impossible. Set limits for all tasks. Get into the way of always estimating the amount of time required to do each job, such as preparing a project work or writing assignment. Do not extend the time limit set for the tasks. Otherwise work expands and time is lost according to Parkinson’s law-namely that works expand to fill the time available for it.

*Establish your priorities

Make out a list of what you want to do each day. Mark time in the order of priority. If you have worked according to your sense of priorities, you will have done the important jobs and that are what managing your time is about.

*Review

Review each day briefly. Identify the success and analyse the reason for failures. If you couldn’t complete the given task within the allotted time, analyse the reasons for the lack of time and ask yourself “What were you busy about?”

A final word

              The wonderful thing is that tomorrow’s 24 hours now await you untouched and unused. You are now in a position to make more effective use of your time. The end result of organizing or managing yourself and time properly is that you should be in good order. The end result of being in good order is that you are able to use your energies, talents and time more effectively on the things that matter to you and to start linking your daily planning to longer-term goals and objectives and finally leads to success.

Submitted by,

     Greshma Clement

                MA English Literature

                First Year

ECHOES OF CANT OF DUDES

                                FRIENDS

     The seven letters, that bring the whole new world.

     These seven love hands, are hues of rainbow.
     We shared smiles, and we wiped the tears.
     Our friendship had grown, along with us.
     We are one, from the beginning of our lives.
     The love bonds tie, the bestie lot like a chain.
     These buddies are, stars on the crown of earth.
     And these polished gems, are precious forever.

JAUNT TO HYDERABAD

HYDERABAD CEBUTUNDI(tells)

A Travelogue of Golden Jubilee Trip of Newmanites

    

The driver was behind the wheel, the engine started roaring, and our group was in great silence, with load noises from the heavily beating hearts. The pulses pounded as we saw our principal Dr. T. M. Joseph, the vice Principal Dr. K. J. John, and the bursar Rev. Fr. Francis Kannadan strolling towards us. For showering wishes and bidding goodbye they got into the bus. We welcomed them warmly with a loud applause and great joy.  Our bursar, prayed to the God almighty, and blessed us and our trip. They stepped down the bus, we waved goodbye, and our long journey started by a single rolling of the wheel. Atlast! “It comes true”, my cherished wish to visit Hyderabad, the city of lakes and pearls. My dreams soared higher and higher as the wheel rolled and rolled.

We were twenty, teaching, and non-teaching staffs of Chemistry department, their spouses and children. We arrived at Nedumbassery airport by 8 o’clock in Embees mini bus. Amidst our supper a text message arrived to Prof. Jose Mathew, which reads “Due to some technical problems, flight (SG 1052) COK to HYD, departure time rescheduled to 11:45 pm”. So we could not but simply lounge in the airport lounge. Every single minute felt like days for me. I wandered here and there resembling a civet cat till the announcement: “Passengers of Cochin-Hyderabad flight should board immediately”. Yes! We boarded the flight for Hyderabad, as clock chimed midnight.

After 90 minutes of eagerness, we landed at Novatel Hyderabad Airport. Then we hiked to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport terminal. We hired three prepaid cabs to Don Bosco Nagar, our place of lodging. It was an eight lane express highway with a speed limit of 120 Km/h, where our cars dashed. Once or twice or more our cab touched 150 km/h mark. Even at this speed some premier segment cars overtook us to my amazement!!! Even then it took nearly an hour to reach Don Bosco Nagar,

BIRDY

Don Bosco Nagar Post

Bandlaguda Jagir

Himayat sagar Road

Hyderabad – 500086

Telangana

Mail ID: birdyinstitute@gmail.com

BIRDY is a training-cum-research center, which reaches out to the youth, youth workers and youth policy makers for the holistic development of youth in Telangana especially the marginalized youth. The acronym stands for ‘Bosco Institute of Research and Development for Youth’. BIRDY is a serene campus with an excellent ambience for lodging. Fr. C. T. Jose from Manimala, Kerala, is the Director of the House. He entrusted Mr Rajan, a teacher of a school nearby, as our trip guide. So, Rajan sir and his son Roshan led us all through the excursion.

Hyderabad was the capital city of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh and now is the capital of Telangana. Hyderabad is the fourth most populous city and sixth most populous urban agglomeration in India. The cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad are known as the “Twin Cities”. The newer twin city of Secunderabad is situated north of Hyderabad on the shores of Hussain Sagar Lake. Hyderabad is also growing as a famous information technology center and is also referred to as “Cyberabad” nowadays.

DAY ONE

In the pleasant morning of the first day of our trip, some of us attended English Holy Mass in the church. We had a splendid breakfast of poori with boiled eggs. BIRDY turned out as our first photo point in our dream journey. The photo session was little long and lasted till our senior members started scolding us.

We departed to Ramoji Film City, our first destination. It is certified, the World’s Largest Film Studio Complex by the Guinness World Records. It is amazingly vast, a campus of 1666 acres! The film city is 32 km from Hyderabad center, via Vijayawada route. It was a drive of thirty minutes.

In Ramoji Film City, many theatres or mini auditoriums arranged in series for the demonstration of film shooting techniques. Here in these theatres about 200–250 people can comfortably sit and watch different programmes. In front of the theatre series there is a roofed open space. There the people are informed about the plays and shows and about the arrangements inside. Here mob was overcrowding eagerly waiting to know what is happening. When the entrance door was unbolted after this announcement, there was a huge rush to the first theatre.

The theatres are semicircular with rising gallery to sit and watch. The programmes are conducted on the podium made at the center of the floor in front. In the first theatre, we were welcomed with ‘Vande Madaram’ dance show followed by circus show. In the second theatre real fighting scenes were enacted. The trickery behind fighting in films can be understood if we once see this realistic stunt show.

Then we were taken to the next theatre to show the film making magic. In this movie magic, they demonstrated how the scene of Hema Malini riding a tonga in ‘SHOLAY’ had been shot by calling one fair lady from the audience. The lady was given a whip in one hand and ends of two ropes in the other hand. The lady was asked to sit on a tonga and told to whip at times on an imaginary horse. And also told her to pull the rope ends often just like the outer ends of reins to control horse. One boy attendant shook the tonga by using a lever under the whole setting. Camera videographed the whole event of whipping and pulling reins while shaking the tonga. Then computer mixed this video with pre-shot road scenes. Then this movie was displayed in a big screen. What we saw then was that the lady was riding the tonga along a muddy road just like Hema Malini rode the tonga in Sholay!!

Then they demonstrated how sound was given to the above film. In front of a microphone a bunch of key was shaken which gave the sound effect of a moving tonga. We all were enthralled by the exciting story of film making. They also showed how dripping of water from a cup makes the required sound effect of bathing heroine.

Then we had a wonderful lunch viz. fried rice, poori, Curd rice, Baji and Gulav with an Ice cream from the Ramoji food house. After that, we started our trip into the depth of beauty of Ramoji Film City. An open windowed red bus no: 27 took us into the movie world.

A smart young fellow, our guide who accompanied us the entire film city, described everything with at most passion. He made us laugh many a time by saying, “Here you can reach Buckingham Palace from Taj Mahal in two minute walk”, “Outside the wall, there is central jail, but inside it is a beauty parlour”, “This is a famous hospital but life is not guaranteed”, “Here, left side is a metro railway station, but right side is a suburban station” and so on….

There we saw, Karishma garden, Limelight garden, Kerala boundary, Majestic garden, Japanese garden, Gate Way of India, Helipad, Women jail, South Indian town, Police station, Bus station, Railway station, Village, Mud village with mud road, ATV China building, Enadu Press building, Central Jail Mumbai, Court of Emperors, Mummy fort, Princess Street of Scotland, Houses of European culture, Classic coffee shop, Hospital, Hyderabad International Airport, Temple, Island of Churches, Lake garden, Arizona garden famous for sad scenes, Butterfly museum, Bird sanctuary, Kripalu caves, Sun foundation and Bonsai garden models and elevations of famous buildings.

There where, colour mixing building, multi-purpose building which can be made into college or school, straight roads which can be shown as national highway or state highway or any other road which is going to any other place by placing various milestones and so on. They mentioned about hundreds of films shot there, such as, Chennai Express, Jilla, Singam Returns, Malayalam movies like CID Moosa, Left Right Left, Rajadhi Raja, Udayananu Tharam, Kalyanaraman etc.

About 5 o’clock, we returned from Ramoji Film City. On the way, Roshan, our guiding teacher’s son, who was studying in eighth standard, explained many things to us. Chomala palace, Salar Jung museum, NTR gardens, Jalavihar amusement park, City central shopping complex, Hussain Sagar dam are few among them. On the way back we came across RTC bus stand. Some road-side vendors, selling sheep where another surprising sight for us. Muslims bought these sheep for their festival. They cut their sheep into three portions. First part for God, second for poor and the rest for themselves. Roshan also described about Haleem, the special food in the Ramsan season.

We had our supper in Dwaraka, a multi-cuisine restaurant. We had, veg fried rice, butter naan, butter chicken, ice cream and gulab jamun for dinner. After dinnertimes, we got a notice having a beautiful picture named “Bathukamma”. We didn’t have an idea about it. Roshan explained, “Bathukamma is Telangana’s floral festival celebrated by Hindu women,for nine days during Durga Navarathri. During the festival beautiful flowers are arranged in seven concentric layers in the shape of temple gopuram”. We returned to our lodge, conducted a rosary, wished goodnight each other and went bed.

DAY TWO

The next day, we woke up early and had our breakfast upma, vada with Dal. That day we were eager to visit Charminar.

We visited the architecture of Quli Qutab Shah built in 1591. This square edifice in the heart of the city was constructed with lime and stone. It is a monument of fine decoration and professional craft works. Eye-catching aesthetic beauty of Hyderabad is visible to all after climbing the celebrated 149 steps of Charminar. The renowned 149 steps where so narrow that a fatty will find it difficult to slip through.

Our next destination was snow world. Amidst our drive to the snow world we came across PVNR Flyover (P. V. Narasimha Rao Elevated Expressway), which connects Mehdipatnam and Hyderabad airport. It is 11.6 km long and is one of the longest flyovers in the Asia. Metro rails construction sites where also visible in the way.

The city was filthy, polluted and dirty. The soil type is a mixture of black and red soil. We also passed legislative assembly building, situated in the renowned place ‘Public gardens’. Our bus also passed Namballi railway station, Telugu University, Industrial exhibition ground and finally we reached an amusement park, ‘snow world’.

Snow world is a different world in the hot Hyderabad. It is a large auditorium sized airtight chamber, where the temperature is maintained below 0⁰C. It was freezing, our body started to shiver.  In no time we were provided with warm clothes, gloves and water proof shoes to protect us from this extreme climate. It was an awesome experience that we felt like standing in Manali. We threw ice balls over each other. We played basketball and volleyball, used snow-slides to make fun and danced with the music. Not only the youngsters but also the HOD, M. T. John sir also rode from the top of a snow hill. He too tried hill climbing. We didn’t ruined the chance to click photos with man-made polar bears and penguins.

After the snow world, we left to hotel Paradise. Sree Budha statue in Hussain Sagar Lake, was situated on the way. The 16 m tall, 350 ton monolithic colossus rise high from the placid waters of the lake. It is placed in the middle of the lake and we can reach this statue by boat from Lumbini Park. We had a splendid lunch with dum biryani and coca cola in the hotel Paradise.

Birla Mandir another tourist spot of Hyderabad, where we visited next. The all marble Birla Mandir was constructed by B. M. Birla.  None is permitted to use foot wears inside and outside the temple including the pavements to the Mandir. The belief says that if we use foot wares then, the sanctity of the temple is lost. So we could not fully enjoy the beauty of the temple because, under the scorching sun, pavement stones were so hot that we could not stand barefoot on it more than a fraction of a second!! Not a wonder that, everybody reached the foot of the hill temple, within minutes without calling or texting!!

In front of the Birla Mandir, we saw Birla Science Museum and Planetarium, but we could not visit them due to the paucity of time. After that we spend an hour in shopping in Shilparamam which is an arts and crafts mini village located in the IT hub areas of Hi-Tech city, Hyderabad.

On the way to visit Golconda fort we visited Qutub Shahi tombs. The tombs of seven Qutub Shahi rulers are located close to Golconda fort. The ambience of this area is good and so it is a good place to visit.

Then we moved to Golconda fort. The fort was built a 1000 years back. It was built on a granite hill. The region where the fort is situated is famous for mines that produced coveted gems, including Hope diamond and Nassak diamond. We climbed the hill and then returned and assembled in the patio to enjoy the light and sound show. The show was mind blowing. They explained the wars fought by the kings and romantic affairs of the princess.

 Especially certain dialogues thrilled us, the youngsters. A small portion is..... “Oh! My Lord, in this stormy weather… How do you come in this dark night without a lantern…” uttered by the love to her lover, the prince. And he replied, “Oh! ... No need darling... My heart is burning like a lantern with love…” Just hearing that, it gave me goose bumps!

You will be amazed to hear that when somebody claps from particular points of a fort you can hear it from top of the fort. When somebody whispers near a wall and that is heard on another wall. That was really cool, an amble example for the engineering and skills of our ancestors.

Then we returned to the bus and went to a bakery for buying sweets, and chocolates. There, we, the five fingers, Anju, Annuja, Alen, Bibin and I ate Pani poori, Fruit punch bar, Sugar gel peda, Onion baji and Mixed nut halwa balls. We drank Sprite, Limca, Thumps up, Fanta and Mineral water. Then we returned to our lodge.

But one beloved old student of Chemistry department, Mrs. Ancy Sebastian (B.Sc. Chemistry, 1981-1984) and her husband Mr. Mathew Kurushummoottil were waiting with sweets for our arrival. They are running a school in Telangana. Teachers in our group talked with Mrs. Ancy for a long time and expressed their gratitude towards her for arranging everything in Hyderabad for our trip. And also, we were actually surprised to hear that she came to visit her teachers by driving 70 km! Then we left to sleep, to leave BIRDY next day.

Yes, we left BIRDY exactly at 7:00 am and reached Rajiv Gandhi International Airport by 7:15 am. After checking in, we got enough time to see the shops. Some of us purchased pearls for which Hyderabad is famous for. Anyway, we left Hyderabad at exactly 9:00 am on fourth October on flight no: SG.236. In the flight, we bought some snacks and juice. After one and a half hours, we landed Cochin International Airport.

We were taken by Empees travellers to Newman College courtyard. In between we had oue splendid lunch from Aryas hotel at Muvatupuzha. While coming from Muvatupuzha to Thodupuzha, we evaluated our tour programme. All of us unanimously opined that the tour was successful. Also, some of us got chance to sing songs. Then we thanked God Almighty for all His blessings.

Dear HYDERABAD, you gave us a visual feast!

END

Penned By:

Greshma Clement

D/o Asso. Prof. Clement T. G, Dept. of Chemistry

Student, B.A. English

Newman College Thodupuzha

Kerala, India