Anjali - Couple of Articles for DU Beat

 Here are a couple of articles Anjali wrote for DU Beat recently - one co-authored.

Anjali - A Prefect!

This is an old blog, a few years ago...

...

I could see from the smile on her face when she got off the school van that something had happened. Then she shyly pointed to the badge on her shirt. 'Prefect' it said. I made a song and dance about it but she was like - no big deal, almost everyone in 6th and 7th are Prefects.


So what?

After a short and uncomfortable stint as class monitor in class IV and then classs VI where the unruly Lloyd and his pals ended all further dreams of monitoring the class, I never was in for leadership positions until I led college, University and club side. So I have great respect for Prefects.

Thought for the Day - Perfection is the enemy of Self-Esteem

We are never perfect, so we will never be enough.

When we are never enough in our eyes, our self-esteem falls.

The idea is to know that we are always striving for something greater, something closer to perfection and in that, we are perfect as we are.

Keep self-esteem high!

Anjali - Miranda House Wins Second Prize

So the Miranda House Western Music Society of which A is now a member, won the second prize at the St Stephen's music festival. Here's a video of their Acapella group in action. 

Thought for the Day - Dealing With Our Pain

Quite clearly we are the ones who are creating pain for ourselves - by giving others too much importance and control over us with their words and actions. Can we ignore them and move on, happily? Yes we can. But we choose to suffer, bound by their words and actions. 

So, we are the ones who are are creating the pain so we are the ones who can rid ourselves of our pain as well. When there's pain, look within. And drop it. 

Find something more interesting to do. Nobody's watching you suffer and nobody's interested either.

Hyderabad by Walk - Golconda Remains

Deccan Archives announced this walk on their website so I decided to go. I don't think I'll ever have enough of Golconda so I took off in Carlos at 715 to get there by 8. I parked near the fort and walked to Fateh Darwaza.

Fateh Darwaza - Machilipatnam Darwaza  

Gajnarsimha from Kakatiyas

Interestingly a large group joined up today - close to 30 they said. Sibgat gave an intro in the little cricket ground which is probably the only one to have two cannons in it.

The idea was to climb up the Fateh Darwaza which is a bit dicey because there were so many of us. 

Up there we saw the motifs of Gajnarasimha which were part of Kakatiya lore, another of a fish with three bodies, an old Kota Maisamma temple, couple of cannons - one Qutb Shahi era over and another newer (green).

Then we slowly climbed down and saw a plaque which named the person who built the shops on Bada Bazaar. This street was the one where diamonds were heaped - the diamond market of Golconda. Parts of it can still be seen.

Fish head with three bodies

Diamond market

 Then we passed Shamsheer Kothi or something like that.

 

The plaque

Shamsheer Kothi - Manjit watching me

On to the place called Khazana where we saw a well kept Yali, some Telugu and Urdu inscriptions, hero stones with self sacrifice depicted. 

Yali from the side

Mahavira statue found near Patancheru

And then onwards to the Habshi Gates near the fort - Habshi for Abissinian with very intricate designs that we do not notice unless we zoom in.

Self sacrifice 

Habshi gate

Detailed inscriptions

It was a long walk in terms of time and energy and I headed back with my young pal who has an incredible knowledge of cricket history, more so Hyderabad cricket history. Caught a late breakfast with Ehtesham at Taj and headed home. Good fun.

Hyderabad by Walk - Churches in Secunderabad

Tops aka Sunil Jyoti and I have been planning a walk in Secunderabad where he said he would show me some nice old churches. It finally materialised today and I set off at dawn to meet him at his house in Marredpally. Tops was walking his dog Rossi and was followed by a posse of dogs he has adopted - he does that on a regular basis - rescues dogs. Anyway, off we went to St John's Church near Sangeet theatre (no more of course) which was our first stop. It was shut as expected at 645 am so we got a couple of pictures and walked towards St An's High School. The traffic and noise was crazy though surprisingly at that early hour.

St John's Church

Me and the chuch

We walked to St Ann's High School and peeped into the grounds. Its such a beautiful school and Tops sisters studied here he said. One building was the boarding school earlier, now converted into classes. You could see the old arches of a bygone era. St. Ann's was established in 1871.

Then we walked around St. Ann's HS and into the St. Mary's Basilica behind St Ann's High School

St Mary's Basilica

Then, across the road and into the Centenary Baptist Church (1875) where some women's conference was going on. We walked in and were told that the old church was by the side and not in the main building. 

Me checking out the main building

Old church

Then, we walked a bit more and came upon the Wesley Church (1911), a little further down the road. 

Wesley Church (1911)

A short walk down and we end up at the road that meets the Secunderabad Clock Tower. There was this huge labour market theere. We walked past and made a pit stop at the legendary Hotel Rio where we had a lukmi and chai. Naresh Sharma my old pal from my cricketing days was there and we caught up for a bit.

Me near Rio

Now Rio operates in a 150 sft type of an area and is clean and organised despite the huge crowd there (always). It has a small menu which it specialises in and everyone vouches for its lukmi and samosa and chai!

We walked back past Garden Restaurant and past the Millenium Methodist Church (new but still a church)

Back past Sangeet (always) to the car and we drove on to the magnificent All Saints Church in the army area. 

All Saints Church

Another view

A short drive and we arrived at the Garrison Wesley Church, 1881, near Lal Bazaar

Then an ancient Wesleyan cemetery with graves of British soldiers aged 22, 23, 24 and many newer ones too. We saw a couple of German Shepherds and a Great Dane which seemed to be the watchmen's pets. Crazy!

Wesleyan Cemetery

Another old church, the Holy Trinity Church near Bollarum

The Holy Trinity Church, Bollarum

Tops and a canine friend

That was a nice walk-drive and Tops was more than happy to show me around. We stopped for breakfast and coffee at Udipi Upahar and ended a fine morning. It was nice catching up as well. Thanks a ton Tops. Until the next one.