Mumbai: Today, women are breaking the glass ceiling in every sector. Beyond all this, there still exists a patriarchal mindset. Not many women are in the C-suite taking important decisions. And, of course, there still exists pay parity. 

This Women’s Day, we, at Indiantelevision.com, are acknowledging some women leaders of the media, marketing, and advertising fraternity and also from other professions, who have given more than expected.

Her journey

My journey has been fun, eye-opening, and intellectually enriching at many levels. Three big transformations that I reflect upon today.

a.    Being the younger of two sisters, I subconsciously wanted to be a son to my parents and tried to model my behaviour accourdingly. In our society the gender roles are so well defined that it didn’t occur to my child’s brain that I could be a woman and do all that I wanted to do – be ambitious, be financially independent, be fearless and bold and take responsibility for myself and my loved ones. Kathak helped me get in touch with and revel in my feminine side.

Aside from a thoroughly satisfying professional corporate role, I run a Kathak school called Marigold Society of Performing Arts to make this beautiful art form accessible to many young women and children.

b.    Being a single woman, I was conscious of my vulnerability: when you are buying a house, does the broker swindle you, when you are buying a car, does the salesman try to get the better of you? Do you get overlooked for a pay increase, or for a difficult assignment. The list is endless. Over time I caught myself operating out of anxiety rather than confidence. I was astute enough to realise that it could make me a bitter and insecure person constantly looking over my back. The love of my family, friends and colleagues helped me make this transition from being a victim to feeling empowered

c.    The third transformation is more recent. The pandemic helped transition me from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. In the midst of chaos, loss and grief all around and the outpouring of humanity and selflessness by strangers, I discovered the power of gratitude.

Her inspiration and inspiring the team

Difficult to name any one person, my mother has been a source of strength. Sounds trivial but Amitabh Bachchan and his struggles, his fight back from bankruptcy, from various accidents and his ability to reinvent himself with the changing times have been life lessons. The amazing quality of always looking at the positive side and from Piyush Pandey. The ambition to escape your circumstances from my father. The power to touch, selflessly, the lives of other women from Neela Kaushik (founder of Gurgaon Moms). There are many many inspirations all around.

You live the life you do and hope that the lessons you learn are not just yours. In addition, I try and build a culture where everyone has an equal voice. You don’t have to be loud to be heard. We celebrate and recognize personal wins and support each other through personal difficult times. 

Empowerment of Women

This is a topic that is close to my heart. I feel a lot of women are stuck in a victim mindset. Many a time, it requires us to change our perspective to change our circumstance. I am a great believer and practitioner of this. 

I also believe that women do not have to give up on their femininity to be empowered or for the sake of feminism. 

Personally, I have seen the power of sisterhood come alive in ‘Subah’, the support group I started (with my friends, namely, Yoshita Swarup and Sarita Digumarti) for women who lost their partners to Covid. We saw so many women volunteer to share the grief of women they did not know, we saw women be each other’s cheerleaders through their own dark phase. We facilitated the creation of a safe space for these women and supported them with grief and trauma handling, Parenting, Career counselling, legal and financial literacy. We are now helping them with entrepreneurship.

Today, I mentor women formally and informally.