On Monday March 4 Anja, Ilse and I continued our documentation of heritage buildings in Bhimunipatnam.
I also marched forth into my 56th year. Anja and Ilse wanted to arrange a surprise, but a couple of the younger school girls had asked me earlier if today would be my birthday, so I suspected something was afoot. That was confirmed when I arrived in the dining hall for breakfast and the students sang Happy Birthday. In the course of the day quite a few of the students personally wished me a Happy Birthday.
In the morning we arrived at Samuel’s house to find his daughter buying some vegetables, a scene that was begging to be photographed.
Samuel went with Anja and Ilse to the DIET Institute to see if they could photograph all of the 90 or so old photographs that the Institute had, but which I had been unable to finish photographing on Saturday. Meanwhile I went to the nearby town of Tagarapuvalasa to use the internet and find a USB stick to store a copy of the project photographs.
We met back at the St Ann’s Home for lunch with the sisters. They had prepared a birthday cake for me.
After the usual nap and further chatting with the sisters, at 2:15 we returned to the school with Samuel to get ready for a meeting of heritage enthusiasts at 4:00. At 3:30 Rani came from Visakhapatnam and I was presented with a second birthday cake. There was enough cake left over to last me as night-time snacks for the remaining days at the school.
Then at 4:00 we all went to the meeting at the home of the retired banker and civic leader Bala Subrahmanyam. The meeting was attended by a couple dozen people, including a delegation of the sisters from St Ann’s and some newspaper reporters.
The interest in a meeting arose out of our having met Bala Subrahmanyam on 25 February. Our being around for our project had aroused an interest in the heritage of the town among the locals that had been latent since a workshop about heritage that had been held in Bhimunipatnam in 2002; Bala Subrahmanyam had been one of the participants then.
Rani spoke at length about heritage and the value of the locals establishing a chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage; she had been until recently the convener of the Visakhapatnam INTACH chapter. I also spoke about our project.
The meeting ended at 6:00 and Anja, Ilse and I went with Samuel, Lawrence Nathaniel and a third class mate of theirs to the home of Mallikarjuna Rao, another participant in the meeting, for drinks. Lawrence spoke about his career as a ship captain and the system of light houses along the coast line.
Back at the school at 8:30, I chatted at length with the school director, Tulasi, who happened to be monitoring the evening study time for the students that day. The school maintains a strict schedule for classes and study time.
I also marched forth into my 56th year. Anja and Ilse wanted to arrange a surprise, but a couple of the younger school girls had asked me earlier if today would be my birthday, so I suspected something was afoot. That was confirmed when I arrived in the dining hall for breakfast and the students sang Happy Birthday. In the course of the day quite a few of the students personally wished me a Happy Birthday.
In the morning we arrived at Samuel’s house to find his daughter buying some vegetables, a scene that was begging to be photographed.
The vegetable sale
Samuel went with Anja and Ilse to the DIET Institute to see if they could photograph all of the 90 or so old photographs that the Institute had, but which I had been unable to finish photographing on Saturday. Meanwhile I went to the nearby town of Tagarapuvalasa to use the internet and find a USB stick to store a copy of the project photographs.
We met back at the St Ann’s Home for lunch with the sisters. They had prepared a birthday cake for me.
The sisters and their birthday cake
One of the sisters feeding me the cake
After the usual nap and further chatting with the sisters, at 2:15 we returned to the school with Samuel to get ready for a meeting of heritage enthusiasts at 4:00. At 3:30 Rani came from Visakhapatnam and I was presented with a second birthday cake. There was enough cake left over to last me as night-time snacks for the remaining days at the school.
The team and the second birthday cake
The cake
Then at 4:00 we all went to the meeting at the home of the retired banker and civic leader Bala Subrahmanyam. The meeting was attended by a couple dozen people, including a delegation of the sisters from St Ann’s and some newspaper reporters.
The meeting
Rani speaking at the meeting
The interest in a meeting arose out of our having met Bala Subrahmanyam on 25 February. Our being around for our project had aroused an interest in the heritage of the town among the locals that had been latent since a workshop about heritage that had been held in Bhimunipatnam in 2002; Bala Subrahmanyam had been one of the participants then.
Rani spoke at length about heritage and the value of the locals establishing a chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage; she had been until recently the convener of the Visakhapatnam INTACH chapter. I also spoke about our project.
The newspaper articles about the heritage meeting
The meeting ended at 6:00 and Anja, Ilse and I went with Samuel, Lawrence Nathaniel and a third class mate of theirs to the home of Mallikarjuna Rao, another participant in the meeting, for drinks. Lawrence spoke about his career as a ship captain and the system of light houses along the coast line.
Samuel and Lawrence Nathaniel flanking a third school mate of theirs at the heritage meeting
Back at the school at 8:30, I chatted at length with the school director, Tulasi, who happened to be monitoring the evening study time for the students that day. The school maintains a strict schedule for classes and study time.
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