Mumbai University

The other day I was trying to locate my university degrees and transcripts and I realised that it was not in the box marked as important papers. Perhaps since no one ever asked for them in the last 25 years they are probably packed along with other papers in one of the large cartons, about 60 of them which contain books, folder boxes, papers etc.. Since I have only unpacked afew of them it is going to be a huge task hunting them.

So I thought why not try the University of Mumbai from where I have graduated. I thought it should be simple - give them the year I passed out and with my name they could trace my records and issue the duplicate certificates. Well I did go to he university. I spoke to some friends who are faculty there and they warned me that it would not be easy and that I should be ready to grease palms to get things moving - as a human rights activist something very difficult for me to do! Nevertheless I went to the Examination Building and after afew pillar to post searching reached the correct desk officer and was told - do I have a FIR from the police station, have I made an affidavit on a Rs. 50 non-judicial stamp paper? Well ofcourse I had not done that. And if I had done that then how long would it take? Well pop came up another question? Do you remember your exam seat number? They must be kidding - 1978 BA and 1980 MA and they wanted me to recall my seat number. I am no Shakuntala devi!

They suggested that I should contact the college and department to get that number and only then would it be possible and in case I was able to do that then it could take 3 to 6 months to process my application - I think it would be easier doing another MA to get the degree and marksheets! OOps I forgot I dont have my BA degree too so I would not be admitted to MA.

Well this is the state of the oldest and the most well known university of India - excellent place for historical research I guess! Anyway I think I have a greater chance of getting my certificates by unpacking the boxes and this time I will scan them and store them digitally.

Pictures of the Leopard sighted near Sillari

Here are the pictures which Lubna has extracted from the video I took on the mobile - the only evidence we have of our meeting with the Leopard....

Amazing Events.....

Today was indeed an amazing day. Well it was cloudy and cool weather with every possibility of rain and we decided to go out for a drive towards the Pench forest (Sillary side). Though the forest reserve area is closed  during the monsoon we nevertheless decided to go as the drive itself is through fairly thick forest even outside the reserve area. On the way, on the Nagpur-Jabalpur highway itself we saw a man who had parked his vehicle taking pictures and we slowed down to see what it was he was happily clicking away and we found a herd of deers rejoicing in the rain, literally jumping around in someones paddy field. The farmer was chasing them out. We tried to click pictures from our mobile but the distance was too great to capture a decent picture. This was indeed extraordinary and refreshing sight.

We next went to Sillari where there is a MTDC resort and restaurant and had pakodas and tea and later walked around in the forest near the entrance of the reserve. The sun had now set and it was getting dark and we decided to drive back home. Well here comes the real excitement.

Within two kilometers drive from the resort our vehicle lights found some shining eyes of a large animal. On first thoughts it appeared to be a cow but as we slowed down and came nearer we were in for a surprize of a lifetime. It was a LEOPARD. Unbelievable but true. We stopped the vehicle and in the head lights of the car we tried to snap pictures on our mobile phones. My brother in law had a camera but as it happens at such sudden moments it malfucntioned and did not work. In the headlight of the vehicle we could clearly see the leopard but because all our windows were shut the flash from the mobile phones were ineffectve and created a reflection from the glass of the windshield. So the photos were a flop. But our eyes and brains recorded one of the most amazing sights for over 15 minutes as we kept tracking the movement of the leopard with the car's lights. I tried the video mode of the mobile and we did finally capture some blurred images which we will try and edit and post it in a couple of days.

This was once in a lifetime kind of event and reminded me of two other similar experiences I had many years back. Once on a college study tour to the Tadoba Tiger reserve late eveninng as we landed in the forest, right at the entrance of the Tiger reserve, all of us in a bus, we sighted a tiger for half a minute or so as though he was there on the reception committee waiting to welcome us. Those days (1976) there were no mobiles and our khatak cameras were in our bags, so no photos. Then over the next two days in the forest we never saw our friend again. 

Then again in 1997 on a visit to some partner organisation in Raigad district (was working in Swissaid then) we were driving back to our hotel in the nearby town from a village visit and what we see on the bends of the ghat we were on a leopard climbinng down the hill towards the road we were on. The driver suddenly applied brakes and the leopard sped like lightning.

These sudden sightings are really breathtaking and become pleasant memories and against these my recent tiger sighting in June when we visited Kanha reserve where we were directed to a site on elephant back where a tiger had been cornered by a 3 elephants for tourists to come and view this, the excitement wasnt as great because somewhere it gave a feeling of stage management by the forest staff to please tourists so that they can spread the message that we had spotted a tiger at Kanha which would lead to more tourists going there and help the business of tourism. Do await photos in the next couple of days.

e-Corner for random thoughts...

So many people I know have got into blogging so why not me.  So on this long Independence Day weekend the bug caught me and I ended up creating two blogs. The present one which would have personal and general thoughts and another one http://righttohealthcare.blogspot.com which would contain stuff on the issue of right to healthcare.

The good news I want to share is (actually I dont know if it is good or bad or otherwise) that I am back in Mumbai from September 2009. Have just bought a place at Mira Road and would be busy setting up things in this cosy 3BHK aprtment. Satjot too will be back in Mumbai after her many experiments at working from Bangkok to Ghassu ka Bas in Laxmangarh of Sikar district (the sasural of President partibha Patil). Since I left CEHAT in the X'Mas week of 2005 I have somewhere got grooved into doing a lot of work on budgets, governance and accountability, mainly capacity building across 12 countries in Asia from Afghanistan to China. For two years I did this with Action Aid International and since last year for the International Budget Partnership (IBP). From October this year I would be working for IBP on a fulltime basis out of Mumbai. So I am whole hog into budget and accountability for the next couple of years, this would ofcourse include the health sector as I have  helped IBP develop a Health and Budgets Training module which we piloted in July 2009 at Kumarakkom in Kerala with 30 trainees from 12 countries across the world.

Ofcourse I do continue to be associated with broad health issues, especially right to healthcare, health systems reform and financing, regulation and the private health sector etc..

So do keep peeping into this blog site for my random thoughts if they interest you....