I’m writing this post for Jo’s Monday Walk challenge and Dan’s Thursday Doors challenge.
This week, I’m writing about my walk around Melbourne University. Two years after my daughter entered the institution, did I finally get to see it. One thing and another, our travel to Australia had been postponed- first, my older daughter’s exams, then Covid and then our move to Bangladesh. Unwilling to push it any further, we decided to travel down under, despite just moving to Kenya. Two flights totalling to twenty hours, a layover in Malaysia and I landed, exhausted but excited, in the city where my daughter had been managing on her own. Needless to say, I looked forward to seeing everything that was in some way connected to her life there- where she lived, studied, shopped for groceries etc.

On one of the rare days that the sun made an appearance during my first week there, we walked to the University from where we were staying. Walking on streets lined with homes with slant roofs, picket fences and small front gardens, it was an effort not to stop and take pictures of every colourful door, window and rose bush.

Ranked as one of Australia’s top institution for education and research, the University is steeped in history. I remember my dad had dreamed for me to study in a university like this, but for various reasons that dream had not materialised. It had not hurt me that I hadn’t been able to go because I wasn’t much of a dreamer. I’ve always been the kind who’s gone with the flow. However, walking through the campus grounds and seeing what my dad had dreamed for me, filled my heart with the kind of love (for him) that’s hard to explain in words. I imagines studying there and as I explored the grounds with my daughter showing me around, my heart was filled with gratitude that she had had the opportunity.

The university is an open campus that sprawls in all directions with individual buildings for each discipline, cafes, teachers quarters, clubs, lawns, sports ground and swimming pool. The old and the new meet seemlessly on the grounds- with colonial and modern style buildings, stone walls draped in climbers, stone statues gifted to the University by famous scultors, stretches of green grass, benches and chairs to sit on, libraries to get lost or find yourself in, path paved with names of people who made their mark in Australia’s history or were responsible for the glory of this institution.

Founded in 1853, the institution is one of Australia’s six sandstone universities (buildings during the colonial era using sandstone), is a member of the Group of eight universities (research intensive), is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in the State of Victoria.

These are pictures of the old quadrangle and some of the buildings on the campus.

The old quad is so beautiful that it’s used by couples for wedding shoots. The university is also a place that tourists visit. There were several who were there when we went. Here are few more pictures of the place. I’ll share the rest next week.

I end this with a syllabic poetry for the Tanka Tuesday challenge. The prompt is ‘ This week, create an experimental tanka form of your choice, remembering to write your tanka in the first person on the theme of your choice.’ To know more about it and to submit to the Sunflower Tanka Anthology, which Colleen Chesebro and Robbie Cheadle are working on, you can check this link.

This is the first time I’m trying it. I wrote it on a photo taken at the University.

Last but not the least, we ended our walk with coffee, matcha latte and sandwiches at a restaurant called, ‘Palette’.

That’s all I have for this week. Hope you enjoyed the tour around the university.
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