WOMEN SPECIAL ......Standing their ground, MAKING A STATEMENT

Standing their ground, MAKING A STATEMENT

From ensuring work-life balance to breaking the glass ceiling, these women questioned convention, no matter what curveball life or society threw at them

EXPECTATION

Vani Kola

MD, Kalaari Capital

“Most women try to be superheroes at home and work and put a lot of pressure on themselves. There is this notion of Supermom, but I’d always say that I’m not a Supermom, I’m just a mom. I’m flawed. Take it or leave it. I don’t want to have it all. I can only have a few things that I want. [The notion] that I must be Martha Stewart, a domestic goddess, break glass ceilings at work and roll out hot samosas in the evening [is unreasonable]. I have two daughters, and if there’s anything I can pass on [to them and other women], is that I don’t want to put themselves through the stress of wanting to be all. It’s ok if you are focussed on just a few things.”

BALANCE

Sharmila Tagore

Veteran actor

“I was never ready to give up work, but I wanted a family and children. For me, it was about the division of 24 hours. You have to find time for everything. It’s not difficult; if you really want something, you manage to do it. I don’t think I ever felt guilt for working. In fact, I tried to teach my children the worth of a woman’s work. Although the children were central to our lives, they also had to respect our time, which I was able to manage. They were proud of the fact that their mother was going out to work.”

BREAKTHROUGH

Shobana Kamineni

President, Confederation of Indian Industry

“I became the first woman president [of Confederation of Indian Industry or CII] in 120 years. My acceptance speech was four words, ‘It’s about time, boys’. I think they took it with good humour, mostly because they all had white hair. So, when I called them boys they were just pleased. I knew how to play that up.”

GUTS

Supriya Devgun

Badminton player

“From being a sportswoman [badminton player] to an administrator to an entrepreneur in the space of sports, I have been facing patriarchy my entire life. It starts from practice games in home clubs, where the boys say, ‘I don’t want to play with a girl, she is not good enough?’ Are they really not good enough or are they afraid to lose to a woman? From competition to institutions, gender always comes in the way. It was challenging. Decision-makers were men. They always felt you got the project because you were good-looking or you were somebody’s pet. It was never about how good you are. You always have to perform extraordinarily to even exist. There are many times you get demotivated and ask yourself, ‘What am I doing here?’ But you are a sportsman — you have never learnt to lose. You are strong-willed, you need to be in the system to make a difference. It was people like Gopichand, a dear friend, who was my rock-solid support.

He always said, ‘Supriya, the story is on your side. It is never on the other side’.”

CHANGE

Ekta Kapoor

Film and television producer

“Films are films, you know. You don’t have to get gender specific about it. We somewhere create that mindset ourselves…we have an industry that works on old formulas. This is ‘that’ type of film. It will do well if it has ‘that’ element in it. But those elements have changed, we have changed, generations have changed... everything has changed.”

CONQUEST

Ananda Shankar Jayant

Indian classical dancer, and Padma Shri

“I made three life affirmations. I will ride this out. I won’t let cancer ride me out. I will not say why me. I did not say why me when I got the Padma Shri, so why should I say why me now? The third decision that I made was that cancer is one page in my life. It’s not the book. These early affirmations helped me dance through cancer.”.

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ET19MAR18