Students taking Action

The last few weeks there has been an increase of violence against women in India. It may just be the media is being more aware of it, but either way the students at University of Hyderabad have noticed. Yesterday, I went with some friends to an open discussion on women’s rights in India. There were about forty students who gathered and just talked about the issues. We discussed different cases of violence, even the slight harassment that all women face from time to time. We talked about the public’s duty and the consequences both of speaking out and not speaking out.

One student spoke of this time when she had been grabbed in the ass and she actually acted out and hit the guy and then ran onto the train. She was proud that she had stood up for herself, but when she told her mom about what she had done her mother scolded her and was concerned if the guy were to see her again what he may do. As a whole women are encouraged to not let things like this pass, but then when it actually happens to them their families don't want them to be the ones to do something, because that could bring problems to the family and possibly further endanger themselves. So it because a "you should do this, but I am not willing to take the same risks." So who actually acts againsts these acts? What is the appropriate response? 

The discussion went on for two hours and afterwards we all walked down to shopcom, which is a student hang out place and people recited poetry, read stories, and sang songs in memory of women victims. It was amazing to see students passionate about an issue and to hear the thoughts fromstudents on a controversial issue which is present in India at the moment.

Football Tournament

The Tournament

Two weeks ago was the big football tournament for the University. It went for three days and each day games were going from 5:30pm-1:00am. It was fun to just find a spot and sit and watch the games for a while, kick the ball around on the practice field, or even go and get some tea at the nearby student canteen. In our final match we tied and had to do Penalty Kicks to break the tie. For the PKs about a hundred people formed an arch on the field cheering for the players and giving advice. It was a crazy experience. It was the first time I have played a match where afterwards the best player of the opposing team actually hugged me and said she enjoyed playing with me. Everyone was quite happy and just glad that it was an exciting match that people enjoyed watching.



This is our team before the first match.




Above is Aswani our team captain and a Yasef, who played with us and gave some tips.



One of the students from the US loves to play frisbee so we taught them how to throw. They really liked it and decided we needed to have a picture with the frisbee.

This was what it looked like from the goalies stand point during our penalty kicks. Everyone gathered on to the field and circled around the perimeter.

After the final games they had an award ceremony for the 1st and 2nd place teams in the tournament. It took about 30 minutes to get everything ready. During that time the teams who won were celebrating and singing songs from their region of India. It was fun to hear the speeches and I even won a trophy for being the lady of the match. It is funny because now whenever somebody I don't know comes up to me they always ask if I was the person who plays football. I guess it works for starting up random conversations.

Hope all is well back in the states.

Judith

My Apologies

So I have decided that one profession I will not seek in the future is that of a blogger. I have failed in every aspect during my trip and I apologize. However, since today is February 7th and since that happens to be my mother's birthday I have decided to submit some posts and update everyone on some random stories of my life here in India. I may even have some pictures however surprising that may be. So Happy Birthday Mother I hope you enjoy the reading.

The following is something I wrote about three weeks ago but never posted. This is how ridiculous I am I guess....

Kites, Cows, and Football

For the last week (turned into last month) I have enjoyed playing soccer almost every evening with a group of students at the University. It is really laid back and a lot of fun. There are four Indian students from Kerala who have started this team so we can play in the upcoming tournament. In India girls do not play sports very often so while there are 50 guys playing soccer all of whom are good and have been playing for some time the girls I play with have very little experience. The interesting thing is though that unlike in the USA here people of varying expertise play together. The guys will play with us and pass, we will play with 8 year old boys and although there is the point of winning it is all for fun and it is the kind of soccer that I have missed.

There are two things one must look out for while on the field besides the soccer ball. It is kite flying season and there are many people who fly kites on the field. The only problem is when the kite goes down the line that happens to be cutting across the field goes down with it. There have been three or four times where I have narrowly missed tripping over this almost invisible kite line and not to mention the times that my foot has gotten tied up in the string. The next things are cows. Yes I have almost run into a cow that just happened to be grazing in the middle of the field. No one besides us foreigners seemed to think any of this was strange.

Saturday I went with our group to Golconda Fort and to some ancient burials. There are I guess over 200 burials in this area of the Kings and their family who once ruled this area of Hyderabad. It was a beautiful area and just fun to roam around, and sit and think for awhile. Just being outside and enjoy the sunshine was lovely. Below are some pictures that I took of the burials and fort.



This is the oldest Boab tree in India. The person who was giving us the tour was an old historian and he said when he was younger him and his friends would go to this tree and drink their chai in the center of it. So it is actually hollow in the trunk and they would get four or five people down there and just enjoy the afternoon where it was cooler.





This is a picture taken from the top of Charminar. It is a busy shopping area and it is insane to walk around and the amount people is just crazy to think about. A friend and I went here with a person we met through Couch Surfing and had a great experience getting know her and letting her show us around the city.