'Laws are a springboard' - FORMER JUSTICE LEILA SETH

''First - there is a law, then there is awareness, then comes assertion and then action,'' says Leila Seth, former Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh and first woman judge at the Delhi High Court.

16 October 2010 - ‘Mother in Law’ – was how a London newspaper described Leila Seth – the first Indian woman to top the Bar exams in England, in 1957. The newspaper carried a picture of the beautiful, young woman holding her infant son, born a few months before the exams. Another newspaper "lamented" the death of "the ideal of womanhood" in an editorial. "Of five hundred and eight students who wrote the Bar exam, one hundred and fifty two passed, ten gained distinctions… and a woman – a married woman – topped," it sighed.  

 Leila Seth.

About 21 years later, a High Court Judge was intently studying a judgement cited by a lawyer in an Indian courtroom, when a mob of farmers dropped by. The reader explained that the farmers were in Delhi on the Prime Minister’s invitation, "to see the sights." "They’ve been to the zoo and now they have come to see the (sole) woman judge in the Delhi High Court." Leila Seth retired at sixty two, as the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh, in October 1992. 

In late July, Leila Seth was in Bangalore to release her book We, the Children of India - The Preamble to our Constitution at a Crossword Book Store. She struck an immediate rapport with the children in the audience. 

Disturbed by "the lack of focus" among young children and worried by how "consumerism, communalism and corruption…" were impacting children, Leila Seth decided to write We, the Children of India - The Preamble to our Constitution. 

The book is her effort to raise "awareness and consciousness" about the values that the country is rooted in, especially among children. "The Constitution is the most important book in the country. I hope every Indian child will know the essence of the Preamble. It must become part of them, part of their daily living," she said. Children will be receptive to such ideas as they have an innate sense of fairness and justice, she said. "We have the freedom to think and choose in our country," she pointed out. "This is not so in all countries. We need to use this right. You have to speak up, not only for your rights but also for that of others." 

Yet, it was not easy to transpose the Preamble and the Constitution to a child’s context. "What is a citizen?" asked her granddaughter, when Leila spoke of being a "good citizen." "I used my granddaughter as a sounding board as I wrote this book," Leila Seth shared. 

The result of this collaboration and some beautiful illustrations by Bindia Thapar is a very significant and readable Puffin book priced at Rs. 150. 

Leila has already written her candid and rich autobiography On Balance. In that book, she speaks intimately to the reader, of her life’s journey. A strong thread of humour runs right through the story in which she shares how she overcame her fears, grew in a nourishing marriage, raised three remarkable children and juggled court struggles with personal dilemmas. Interweaving the personal with the political, her account brings alive events and people that younger persons may have encountered in history books. On Balance is packed with insights on life, non-discrimination, religion, history, marriage, parenting, travel and law, among other things.

She showed none of the strain of having had to be "equal plus" to be taken seriously, during her long, legal career. She’s serene, smiles spontaneously and speaks from a depth of understanding. 

Excerpts from an interview - 

Is it someone’s birthday today? You have a family history of releasing books on birthdays…

(Laughs) You’re right. ‘On Balance’ was released on Premo, my husband’s, 80th birthday and Vikram (Seth) released his book ‘Two Lives’ on my 75th birthday. You’re right but today is not anyone’s birthday. I am in Bangalore to attend an event organised by Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA). They’re turning 10 tomorrow and wanted me to be part of the celebration. They read my book ‘We, the Children…" and said this is exactly what we are talking about too. Linking birthdays with book releases gives us a deadline to finish the book. Unless you set a date, nothing happens. You won’t write. 

Being a lawyer by profession, what kind of writer are you? Are you disciplined?

 As I said, unless you set a deadline, nothing happens. I should have written this book four years ago. I was thinking about it and talking about it and once Vikram said to me, "why don’t you just start writing?" And then I started. When I did, I had all those difficulties in adapting the language and content for children… I’m not a disciplined writer in the sense that I write everyday for a few hours. There are days when I don’t write. But I set myself a deadline and finish by then. 

As a legal expert, what do you think can pave the way to a just and equitable society? Laws barely protect; have a backlash and are even misused. The Domestic Violence Act, Anti-Dowry Laws, Decriminalising of consensual homosexual behaviour… have hardly been able to change societal attitudes. So what do you think will?

I don’t agree. Laws are a springboard. They set you a way, a vision, a target. Implementation takes time. Today, if you’re talking about domestic violence… of course, domestic violence is taking place but there is something that is working on people’s minds. I’ll tell you an instance. The law has changed for women to have equal rights in their father’s property in 1955-56. Yet, there are many brothers and sisters who don’t share the property. In 1986, 30 years after the change in the law, I saw a case in the court when the brothers brought me affidavits and said our sisters have signed and said they do not want a share in the property. I met the sisters separately and asked them why they were signing away their property. They said they come from lower middle class families. "If we want to go on a holiday with our children, we can only come to our brothers’ house as our father is dead. We can’t afford to antagonise them." The women were aware of their rights but not willing to assert. Yet, there were many other brothers and sisters who were sharing property. Some sisters were fighting cases. Some brothers were sharing the property even if the parents had willed the property to them exclusively. 

First - there is a law, then there is awareness, then comes assertion and then action. It takes time and different amounts of time among different categories of people. In some cases it is the more educated and more affluent who assert, but in some cases they are the worst – like in female foeticide, the more affluent are doing the worst. It’s about tipping the scales. The more people who object, the more people who are conscious and particular about getting things the right way, they push the others into a corner. 

In your autobiography, you described yourself as having grown from a "shy and frightened girl" to someone who is "willing to fight for change, though in a quiet manner." How did that change come about and how did you cope with gender bias which must have been a very real thing in the times that you were starting practice? 

 I was shy and frightened when I was in school and little later. I got bolder after I got married. My husband is a great source of strength. He is a very open person, very different from me. He pushed me. He is the one who made me bold. That’s not always the case. In my generation, how many men had the courage to see their wives being better known or supposedly doing better than them? It might hurt their pride. My husband was always proud of me. That gave me the courage to fight the bias in the courts. 

In the Patna High Court, clients and lawyers would ask - "Unko kyon case de rahe hain? Ye ladies kya karenge?" ("Why are you giving her the case? What can these women do?") There were lots of people to pull me down. You had to be "equal plus". You had to be better than the men to get the case. 

Once, a solicitor sent me a brief for an opinion which I gave. I never heard from him and was unsure of whether I would get paid. When I met him at a party he said his client had sent back the opinion asking for "a male opinion." The solicitor had tried convincing the client that I was a "young, intelligent lawyer who’d worked hard on the case". The client would have none of it. So he sent the brief, with my opinion, to a senior lawyer, who kept it for months and then wrote in that he endorses every word of my opinion. I knew that the solicitor would have hesitated to send me more work if the senior lawyer had not endorsed my opinion, knowing that all his clients would want "male" opinions. Things have changed quite a bit now, I would say. 

Your mother put her foot down and said you can’t be a nun. You seem to have been a very different kind of a parent.

That’s to a great extent because of my husband. He was always bolder than me. When Vikram said he wanted to be a poet, I said he should take up a World Bank job and work for at least 5 years so he can earn a pension and support himself later. Vikram felt his creativity will wane by then. My husband pointed out that Vikram had been getting such prestigious scholarships. "If other people can have faith in him, why can’t we?"

My second son, Shanthum, learnt boot and shoe manufacture and later decided that was not what he wanted to do. He pursued Development Studies and is a Buddhist teacher now. Daughter Aradhana is a film art director. You must give your children the space to grow. We all need space to grow in our lives, whether we’re adults or children.

In north Karnataka, dried banana bits are a hit

For the last one year, Parameshwara Hegde Tumbemane hasn’t taken his banana crop to the market. He has instead used it to make sukeli, a delicious dried version and that is getting popular in the Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka.

22 September 2010 - Parameshwara Hegde Tumbemane has reasons to be happy. They sell it in a value added form by making sukeli – dehydrated banana bits. One of their neighbourhood farmers buys this in bulk and does the marketing. 

“This requires good amount of labour”, adds his wife Vinutha. But she enjoys it because “This is a work that doesn’t require us to go out of our houses. Quite suitable for housewives like me.”

 

Banana is an important intercrop amidst arecanut (supari) in this part of Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. Since the beginning of nineties, this crop was totally ravaged due to katte roga - the viral disease called bunchy top. It is only since the last 5 years, banana crop has slowly come out of that viral attack. 

Sukeli, the dehydrated banana . 

Sukeli, suka keli or dehydrated banana isn’t a new product for the district. In earlier decades it was produced in a crude form for household consumption. Recent introduction of dryers in the district has facilitated sukeli production in a methodic way for the market. 

Farmers Shripad G Hegde Uratota and Mahesh Hegde Tumbemane were the first to get a drier installed four years ago. Their experiments with sukeli production and trial marketing have given confidence to the neighbors. Now, five families of this area are producing sukeli using their home grown banana. 

Two self help groups Prerana Svasahaya Sangha comprising of Mahesh Hegde, Parameshwar Hegde, Narasimha Bhat, Manjunath Hegde and S G Hegde and Shrimatha Svasahaya Sangha comprising of their wives are utilizing their spare time for sukeli production. Well ripened banana fruits are peeled and dried in the drier for two days. After two days drying, it is neatly cut into pieces using a small manual gadget. One round of production totally takes 4-5 days. In a month, four rounds of production are generally done. 

Though as banana fresh fruit is widely available, the dry banana is a new product at the market. Grown by and large organically, it is quite nutritious. “It is easy to carry while traveling and is good for providing quick energy”, claims Shripad Hegde. Each 100 grams of sukeli has 83.7 gram of carbohydrates, 3.56 gms of Protein, 170 mg Calcium, 90 mg of Phosphorous in addition to a dash of iron. Without adding any chemical or other preservatives, sukeli has a shelf-life of eight months. 

Shripada has shouldered the responsibility of marketing this value added product. Since he has been producing sukeli off and on from two years, he was able to identify some buyers. He buys sukeli in bulk from other households keeping a margin. Apart from 100 gram packets, one Kg packs are done for distant markets like Hubli, Tumkur, Shimoga and Bangalore. The 100 gram packets are sold for Rs 20. Sales at local Sirsi town are only name-sake. 

Sukeli production itself doesn’t keep the driers busy all the time. There is sufficient spare time left. One additional product these families have producing during last few months is jackfruit bits. 

Flakes of the soft fleshed jackfruit times – locally called as ambali – generally doesn’t have much use. It is not preferred for table purpose. More than often these type of fruits go wasted.

‘Trupti’ has got an indent for bulk jackfruit bit production from a sweet-meat shop owner of Tumkur. Flakes of jackfruits made into a pulp and dried in the drier. Later, using a cutting device, the jackfruit mats are cut into small pieces.

Unripe banana pappad is another product these housewives are now producing – using the spare capacity of the drier. 

A kg of sukeli is sold for 150 Rs. “At an average, this brings us an added income of 30%” points out Mahesh Hegde. Of course, the percentage will vary depending on the variety of banana fruit used for drying. Of late, a slightly different type of product is made for the distant consumers. It is called ‘Masala Sukeli’. To make this, a dash of few spices are applied to the regular product. 

Another new experiment is making sukeli available in small 200 gram Polypropylene packets under the brand name – Trupti. Being sold at Rs.40, this, according to Shripad Hegde, has good take-home demand in Sirsi town itself. After the introduction of these professional looking packets, selected hotels, bakeries and sweet-marts sell this. According to Hegde, “most of the customers buy sukeli as a time-pass product.” 

Shripada Hegde Urathota showing the products.

The drier runs on agriculture waste that is abundantly available in supari gardens. Depending on their requirements, these families have bought 25 or 50 Kg capacity driers. For example, Mahesh Hegde has bought the bigger drier for Rs 43,000. Syndicate Bank has given a loan of Rs 2 lakh Rs that includes cost of driers and working capital. 

One Kg of ripe fruit makes 250 grams of sukeli. Being farm families, this value addition activity is done using only family labour and spare time. As such, this is a limitation. On a few occasions, these families had brought banana from wholesale market. In the last one year, all the five families put together have produced six quintals of sukeli. “The demand is good. We wanted to produce one tonne. But could make only 60% of our target”, says Shripada Hegde. 

Dehydrated banana is a new product for rest of Karnataka state. As such, ‘Trupti’ is getting more and more trade inquiries. Being a side-profession, this small group is not able to promote sukeli in a big way. In fact, it can be a god additive for dry fruit salad. With demonstrations and proper product promotion, it can be used to make payasa and deserts like banana burfi. In fact, “Trupti’ makes sukeli in a diamond shape for supplying to Tumkur sweet meat shop for the preparation of banana burfi. 

“Sukeli is a well-known household product in our district now. The raw material – banana is grown everywhere. Since dry banana is popular with children, many farmer families are regularly producing it”, says Arunkumar Joshi whose Joshi and Company of Sirsi is making dryers. In the last one decade, this company has installed around 500 driers in the nook and corner of Uttara Kannada district. According to Joshi, apart from ‘Trupti’, there are half a dozen farming families who are regularly producing sukeli for the market. 

Points out Shivananda Dikshit, Senior Manager, Syndicate Bank Regional Office at Karwar, “It is really a product with much more scope. There is very good demand. But the shelf life has to be improved.” Adds he, “Now that the farming sector is in great crisis, this side-profession that can be run by family labour can be a good model for Uttara Kannada.” 

Shivanand’s observation is right. Most of the arecanut farmers in Uttara Kannada grow bananas as intercrop. Hundreds of agricultural driers are installed at arecanut farms for different purposes. As such, production of sukeli is only two steps away from many households. 

Farmers themselves adding value to the crop they have grown. ‘Trupti’s small success can be an inspiration and a trend-setter to whole of Uttara Kannada district in the years to come.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT - Testimonies of harassment

Blank Noise, begun as Jasmeen Patheja's personal reaction to street sexual harassment, has grown to record women's experiences in creative ways. The latest of these is a clothes collection effort to tackle the misconception that women's attire invites harassment. 

22 December 2005 - Jasmeen Patheja, a fine arts graduate from the Srishti School of Art and Design Technology, Bangalore, is collecting old clothes from across the country for her project. Not just any clothes. Clothes that carry with them tales of harassment. Named Blank Noise, Patheja's is a participatory project that addresses the issue of sexual harassment on the streets, or "eve teasing". "It started off as a project when I was in my final year. The project was conceived as a personal reaction to street sexual harassment," the artist says. 

Clothes as testimonies

The latest stage of this project is "Did you ask for it?". Patheja has asked people to send her clothes that they were wearing when they were sexually harassed or threatened on the streets. "Since the common perception is that women 'ask for it on account of the clothing they wear', I want to confront this justification for sexual offence. The clothes will take the form of testimonies that have been witness to an incident. When clothes from different parts of the world are put together, the question can be asked again. This is an ongoing project and I am still waiting for clothes to reach me," she says. 

As a girl grows up, her introduction to the world and its ways are not gentle, but are often rude instead. She realises that her body is changing not when she outgrows the previous summer's frocks, but when someone gropes her in a crowded bus. This is at an age when she does not know what lust is or what pleasure a pervert gets pawing her as she walks by (which no woman will probably understand). Sexual harassment pervades the roads, disguised as "eve teasing". And Patheja is out to confront it, head on. Patheja, who is from Kolkata, moved to Bangalore when she was 19. "The threat of being sexually harassed every time I was out of home and then labelling this invasion of my privacy with an innocuous term 'eve teasing* made me realise that this is an offence that has often been ignored or trivialised. Being in a new city made me feel more vulnerable to the situation where there was no 'home' to run back to," she recalls. 

Picture: An auto-rickshaw hosts an opinion poll conducted by the Blank Noise group in Bangalore. It led to discussions and debate, treating "eve-teasing" as an issue.
 

While it is bad enough that sexual harassment gets labeled the trivial pastime of roadside Romeos, the reaction that Patheja got from her peers was worse. A casual "yes, it happens everyday" or "it's normal". Or more horrifyingly, complete denial: "How come this happens only to you?" 

Nevertheless, realising that it was not just her problem, Patheja asked a group of over 60 girls from Srishti to make a mind map with the phrase "public space". "In three minutes, words such as 'groping', 'fear', 'Vulnerable', 'weak', 'staring' and 'feeling sick' appeared. Then I proposed the project" she says. While 24 of the group members responded positively, the others found the issue "no big deal". In most situations, it is a form of 'wooing', but when does this wooing become offensive and aggressive? When is it not accepted? Who is drawing the line? Do you expect it, therefore accept it?" These are some of the questions Patheja fires back. 

Initial stage of the project

The first phase of the Blank Noise project dealt with victimhood. Patheja began with a series of workshops that explored the public and private identities of nine women. This collective participatory experience evolved into an installation that included video, sound and photographs. With this installation I tried to address the victim, the perpetrator and the silent spectator, Patheja explains. 

After graduating from Srishti the youngster decided to take the project to the next level, namely that of public confrontation. "With a grant from Sarai and support from Srishti, I envisioned Blank Noise as a participatory, public art project where I could take the issue to the streets while including a wider base of participants," she says. In its current stage, the project has a diverse set of participants that includes college students, members of theatre groups and the general public. "We are currently working on public interventions that are performative in nature. This stage of the project has us disseminating and questioning the law — Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with outraging the 'modesty' of a woman," Patheja says. 

Communication for social change

Patheja is also tapping technology to her advantage. Another ongoing experiment deals with the reversal of power where the perpetrator is shot on film with a camera and the pictures are posted on a blog. The blog has also brought together a number of people from across the world, who have prposed to carry out the project in their cities. 

 A demonstration on Bangalore streets by Jasmeen Patheja and her group; the women stood at traffic signals wearing letters on them that spelt out "Y R U LOOKIN AT ME". 

Though activism seems to have come to Patheja as a natural reaction, she chooses not to get labeled an activist, feminist or public artist "I feel that as an artist, one has to play all these roles. I would also like to emphasise that none of these roles can be played in isolation. There are many kinds of artists, and each one of us has something to say, to express. The form and space in which things are addressed leads to its impact," she reasons. 

Also a student of "communication for social change", Patheja stresses that art does indeed play a role in social change. She says, "Artists such as the Guerilla Girls, Peggy Diggs and Gran Fury have been responsible in bringing about a change in societal attitudes through their art. Their art appeared on billboards, posters, milk cartons, wherever it was appropriate. Peggy Diggs was concerned about domestic violence. She printed her message on milk cartons and since all women bought milk for their families, it reached out to them. Gran Fury collaborated with activist groups and created billboards, confronting public with the social stigma attached to AIDS." 

In the future, Patheja says, Blank Noise will be working with more groups, people who function as key authority figures in public spaces. "The idea is not only to get an 'angry' response but to tackle the issue from different dimensions. Who is the victim, who is the spectator, who is the perpetrator?" she asks.

 

Wipe Off The Monster

Street harassment, eve teasing and sexual harassment are the signposts of a cultured society, definitely not …but we can see, hear and feel about the spread of these dreaded tentacles in our day to day life.

Across boundaries of age, sex and locality, crime seems to be penetrating into the veins of my City (the pensioner’s paradise), or at least, that is what the ordinary Pondycherian, who is unaware of the geopolitics of crime and terror, feels. People seem to have become jittery about the happenings. The city news sheet of “The Hindu” or “The Times of India” or any newspaper abounds with reports relating to crime/assault/abuse/theft. Slots on prime time in TV channels have added to the mayhem. Police blame "sensationalism" and "excessive" coverage by media as the reasons for fear psychosis among people. Media seems to focus only on crime because it makes interesting reading and viewing, complain many.

But then there can’t be smoke without fire. I do agree that media makes the presentation a bit more exaggerated but then these incidents of wrong doings do happen and that’s a fact.

Street harassment has become a common activity here these days. The soft targets are college girls, working women, elderly people, call centre and IT/Tech firm employees. For females it is generally mobile phone/chain snatching, which was unheard of a few years ago, now tops the list of crimes reported in the UT. This incident happened with one of my friend’s brother on the night of 25th Nov’10 in Dumas Street. My friend’s brother who works for Wipro was returning late that night from office. He was stopped by a three-member gang who first hit him and then robbed him of all his money and other valuables. The miscreants had covered their faces with masks and were carrying iron rods and crude knives. They threatened of dreadful consequences if he lodged a police complaint and then left the place driving the fellow’s bike. My friend’s brother had cuts and bruises all over his arms and legs, some parts of them swollen. (Note: This was later informed to the police and it had come in the local city edition of TOI. )

The powerlessness to deal with the situation had pushed the individual over the edge. He is a strong man but this incident traumatized him to the extent that he was planning to move out of Pondy and re-locate somewhere else. I could understand the rationale behind his decision as of late his wife, a workingwoman had delivered a baby and for any person the security of his/her family members and near and dear ones is of utmost priority. After going through long hours of thought process he decided to move out and has shifted to Coimbatore.

There's something really scary about the state of public transport here. Few of the bus conductors are also totally evil. The reason this is unnerving is because Pondy offers two modes of public transport to the common man - auto rickshaws, and buses.

Few auto rickshaw drivers are totally evil down to the bottom of their soul, with their primary mission to cheat and loot every customer. Among the many interesting experiences I often have after work-hours, the most intriguing ones are my interactions with the famed auto-wallas. Intriguing because it is kind of a love hate feeling that I have developed towards them. And they represent, to a good measure, of what defines us as human beings as well as proves how we are still a part of the animal kingdom. I had missed to drive back home with my colleague and hired an auto agreeing to "10 rupees extra" for no apparent reason whatsoever. OK, so far so good, mind it,its only 8:30PM now and I am heading towards my house in a locality which auto wallas are fussy to drive to, so the I agreed for the extra amount. On the way I spotted another hapless colleague and asked him to get in as he lives near to my place. We reached our destination and the driver asks double of what I had agreed upon – a part from me and the other part from the colleague. “Bull Shit”, absurd reasoning, now there were two passengers but when we made the deal there was only one, that's me. But my colleague whom I had invited for the ride gave what was demanded from him and left me to deal with the idiot.

There are various incidents that can be cited to make the points as above. All their unethical charges above the meter, absurd, doctored meter readings, the fleecing of newcomers by taking a longer route, asking for one half/double before/after the appointed hour, have grown like horns on their heads shadowing the occasional halo. My point is not all auto wallas behave in that note, but the actions of few leaves an impression in our minds that all belong to the same cadre.

On crowded buses, women are subject to every kind of indignity and invasion of their personal space. And if the numbers of such cases on the city's transport system is low, that is probably because Pondy lacks an effective public transport system like it is in Mumbai and Chennai, forcing regular commuters to depend on two-wheelers or three-wheeled auto rickshaws. A small number use cars to move around. On Dec 13th, 2009, the rape and murder of a call centre employee, a 24-year-old woman Prabha, by a person pretending to be the late night driver of her company transport has sent a chill down the spine of the BPO industry here.

Eve teasing is a term that refers largely to sexual harassment of women in public spaces, thereby constituting women as 'eves', temptresses who provoke men into states of sexual titillation. Considered a growing problem, eve teasing ranges in severity from sexually colored remarks to outright groping. In India, people say that the way a girl/woman dresses is to an extend responsible for drawing the attention good or bad. I feel this is crap reasoning as like males, females do have the right to dress the way they want. More so the females whom I have met and interacted so far in life, all dress sensibly and smartly and feel more than 80% of Pondy does that. I can’t brand a female colleague of mine who comes to office in pants and suit as doing something to grab attention. I had read this article last month as to how Jasmeen, a graduate from B’lore, is collecting old clothes from across the country for her project. Not just any clothes. Clothes that carry with them tales of harassment. 

I feel one of the causes of this horrific behavior is the images being splashed across the media. Indian Movies play an important role in propagating this behavior. Many Bollywood movies depict scenes of eve teasing showing this behavior as a way to win a "mehbooba's" heart. Others show this as a behavior for men to indulge in some 'fun' at a woman’s expense of course.

Many psychologists believe that sex, love or fun is not the only motive that men indulge in this behavior. Eve teasing is closely related to the patriarchal mindset of Indian male. Men are raised to believe that they are more powerful- physically and emotionally than women. They feel that they are doing nothing wrong - having some fun! Women on the other hand are made to feel vulnerable and as the ‘weaker sex’. It sounds so cheap and at times I feel shame that I am part of the same society and what have I done so far to wipe off this malice.

I think the Indian society will be looked upon with skepticism, one with fake values, and highly hypocrytic, if we don’t take corrective steps. India is a place where women are worshipped (in theory) and women don’t have enough security to be on her own (in practice). So how can this change happen? Is it through laws/rules, etc etc, can any law cause a change in mindset? Men have to be sensitized into respecting women as individuals in their own right with the freedom to live on their own terms, earn, be educated and enjoy an existence without fear.


What I think is that, women cannot expect anything from society. Our society is both blind and deaf but is vocally extravagant. The emancipation of women lies among the people itself. The guts and the will power to stand up for one self. Do not even dream of being bestowed with independence, freedom and respect by men. You have to fight and earn for yourself and at the same time support your fellow people, not bowing to society at large. Well society matters, but what if the values held by the society are fake and is practiced hypocrisy.

Make this world a safe place for my mother, my sister, my co-worker, my friend, my colleague, my wife, my daughter, my sister-in-law or for that matter any woman.

Kal Rahe Yah Na Rahe Kal, Pal Yaad Aaayenge Yeh Pal

Today as I sit to post and am doing this during the working hours as I am in no mood to work. More so got lot many calls and mail replies from my school days friends and my college mates as the New Year dawned. Even to the extent that one called while partying and said even though he had seen a fair bit of world and had interacted with so many people at work and in social life, there was a different spark with those with whom he had spent his school and college days. So I feel in this 32 years of my existence, these few moments make me nostalgic and give a kick in the normal so called city life with dosages of modernism and fast paced life. Since this post is for all my schoolmates and for my home town “Udaipur”, the lake city in the western part of India.

When we were back from school in the noons, it used to be so dull especially home work after lunch. The city is well planned and is divided into galis and mohallas and the streets were pretty broad to showcase the children's cricketing skills. We always had friends to play aais-paais (I Spy) anytime. We desperately waited for 'Yeh jo hai Zindagi', 'Chitrahaar','Vikram-Betaal', 'Spiderman', 'Street Hawk' and my favourite was “Malgudi Days”. Even today I don’t miss the episodes in POGO, they are so fulfilling. I was in my twelveth standard, when with great difficulty and in absence of my parents or when there was none in the neighbour’s house we used to see “Bold and Beautiful” and feel we belonged to the western world.

My father being a thorough and fundu teacher was true to his class of ethics. So one can imagine how those moments would have been. Stealth was a part of life.

Christmas meant mostly hand-made cakes and sweets and my mother and neighbourhood aunties sought each other’s help while preparing them. My teachers were not worried of my mummy and pappa, (although being colleagues in the same school) while slapping/beating me, but for your information I was never naughty. We were exchanging comics and stamps and Chacha Chaudaris and Billus were our heroes. I had a stock of “Hardy Boys”,"Enid Blyton” and even to this day I have preserved them in my house in my room’s rack. We had one movie every Sunday evening on television. When we had ten rupees in our pockets we used to become the talk of the school when we marched towards the school canteen. When the books used by me were passed on to others as CBSE board never changed the syllabus drastically to go for new ones. When “Chelpark” and “Natraj” were encouraged against “Reynolds” as parents used to say using ink pen improves handwriting.

The first rain meant getting drenched and playing in water and mud and making 'kaagaj ki kashtis' and the best part was declaration of leave from school as “Rainy Day”. Even though, there were no mobiles (we all remained connected), friends used to reach at the playground at sharp 5PM to play football in the rain.

The list is endless. I have seen a fair bit of the world by now and to me those were and will remain “The Best Days of my Life”.

On a serious note, I would like to summarise it as we were using our hearts more than our brains, even for scientifically brainy activities like 'thinking' and 'deciding'. But became a bit serious when we reached standard twelve and wanted to make to the best of schools in engineering/medical/commerce. I have fulfilled a part of it till now and as they say the thirst continues so is mine and want to do something else now.

We were crying and laughing more often, more openly and more sincerely. We were enjoying our present more than worrying about our future. We being emotional were not synonymous to being weak as it is today, males do cry and cry loud and what if they don’t display it. Life was a passenger's sleeper giving enough time and opportunity to enjoy the sceneries from its open and transparent glass windows instead of some crowded shopping mall with loads of people each taking pride in worldly pleasures and enjoying the “Moh and Maya” the world throws for each swipe of a card or a cheque.

I really miss you all.

International Women's Day

March 8th is marked as International Women's Day (IWD) every year and marks the occasion of women all over the world coming together to look at a tradition that marks the struggle for equality, justice and development. Though I have not read many books on this topic but from what I know, this IWD is the story of ordinary women as makers of history and the idea of celebrating such a day first arose at the turn of the century, in which the expansion and booming population growth brought about radical changes in women's lives.

As I scribble this, many high sounding terms such as 'free market', 'globalisation', 'liberalisation' and 'new economic policy' come to my mind which echo in the newspaper and media of the day. Being the IT capital of India, Bengalooru has a large influx of people all round the year. As a natural extension, newer homes are set up in the city and people look for domestic help in the form of cooks, housemaids, drivers etc. This has blossomed into a full-fledged business over the past few years. But one woman with whom I have interaction everyday morning is my landlord's house maid and I call her "Amma". To me she is the true symbol of the rise of Indian women. Everyday morning she cleans the house, washes clothes, and hangs them on the washing line in the terrace, clipping them with plastic hooks so they do not fall when the weight of water has left. At times I discuss with her how things are moving in her life. Her husband works in restaurant and she says their only aim is to educate the two kids they have. At times she is worried as the kids don’t study and freak out with the other junta who live near their the chawl (slum). Her reasoning is sound which is if the kids study the bare minimal they can at least join factory or an office and not end up doing routine mundane tasks.

"Amma" works in four homes. All her employers are working women who have given her a spare key to the house so that she can come any time and do all the work required. Since working employers are so rushed in the morning, they prefer not to have anyone come in the morning to clean the house. "Amma" is relieved she has no one sitting on her head and her employers are happy that they come to a clean house. "Amma" receives Rs 300-Rs 450 every month from each of her four employers, higher than the market rate as everyone trusts her.

Change tracks now....

While the news-stands are flooded with the likes of Business Maharajas and Business Guru speak, there has hitherto been no book exclusively featuring women entrepreneurs and business tycoons with a profound insight into their learnings and strategies. The Indian working woman, with her resilience and intellect, balances her family and career judiciously – especially when she leads a domain as challenging as business. As a tribute to Indian women in business, there was a need for a long time to bring out their successes and challenges through a series of personalised stories. This job was done with great maturity by Debashish, an MBA student at, IIT Chennai and Nischinta who is pursuing her degree in Economics from Stella Maris College, Chennai. (Read more here)

The list of women interviewed in the book include Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Shahnaz Hussain, Naina Lal Kidwai, Simone Tata, Priya Paul, Ritu Nanda, Ravina Raj Kohli, Ekta Kapoor, and Sharan Apparao all shining stars of the new age Indian women.

When the first American music videos and popular TV shows began appearing in Indian homes in the early 80s thanks to satellite and cable, many pundits predicted Indian society would never be the same. For the first time, young Indian women saw a regular dose of sexy, scantily clad divas shimmying. Female viewers also saw independent, successful women -- think Ally McBeal -and fun, sensitive guys in Friends. Sex and divorce were openly discussed in these TV imports and couples kissed passionately, then still a taboo in Indian TV shows and movies.

Indeed, the impact on younger generations of Indian women has been profound. Whereas Indian women traditionally have been submissive to parents and husbands and valued frugality and modesty, a number of sociological studies show that young Indian females now prize financial independence, freedom to decide when to marry and have children, and glamorous careers.

A generation back, women would sacrifice themselves and believed in saving. Today, it is spend, spend, and spend. It is O.K. for a woman to want something for herself, and people will accept it if she goes out into a man's world making a statement. Because today's young women are the key consumer groups of tomorrow, these shifts have big implications for marketing companies. This is a phenomenon, which started in big cities/metros and with time is spreading to small towns and villages.

The success of "the new Indian woman" in sports is a story waiting to be told. And as much as the marketing men make it appear that the main character in this story is a fair-skinned, confident daughter of a builder born in Mumbai and brought up in Hyderabad, and is now among the top 40 tennis players of the world. That’s the Sania Mirza chapter. Another one is something we know well, though not as well as the Sania Mirza coverage. It is the success of a 28-year-old champion brought up in a town named Kottayam in Kerala — who is currently world number four in her chosen sport (long jump), Anju Bobby George.

Amidst all these stories of success and celebration are some facts, which are scary to look at. Since I live in a city and meet people who are all doing good in life. There is an air of goodness everywhere, but the entire India doesn’t reside in B’lore, Delhi, Pune or Mumbai. Still we Indians rank very high when it comes to rape, child molestation, dowry case death and a big list of horrifying wrong deeds. I don’t want to get into all those here.

Keep reading and remain connected.

Power women

Business Today magazine published its annual list of 25 most powerful women in Indian business. Rather than individual names, the trends thrown up by the listing are interesting:

1) 14 of the 25 women featured are between 41-50
Says Swati Piramal,"Women typically peak after the age of 40 because they lose time in bringing up children."

Many of the high flying corporate women echoed the same sentiment. While there were some who managed to have kids and get back to work with no interruption to their careers, others did take a break or slow down for a couple of years. But they had no regrets or sense of 'loss'.

Because whether you become a CEO at 37 or 43 does not really make a difference.

Although as per BT statistics, the 'average age' of its list is declining every year.

2) 11 of the 25 women on the BT list are from the banking industry

Yes, ICICI Bank contributes 4 out of the 25 (5 if you count ICICI Pru Life), but clearly women are making a mark in banking. There are a few other names which I think could have made the list but perhaps BT wanted to give representation to more industries.

Interestingly, Media, Entertainment and Advertising - which are perceived as being sectors where women dominate/ are very visible/ 'have lots of opportunity' - actually account for just 4 out of the 25.

And in all cases the women are owner-entrepreneurs - Radhika Roy (NDTV), Ekta Kapoor (Balaji), Preeti Vyas Giannetti (Vyas Giannetti Creative), Shobhana Bhartia (Hindustan Times).

Remember the furore remarks made by Neil French created in 2005?

3) 12 of the women on the BT list are MBAs.

Look more closely and 8 of the women in banking are MBAs while 2 are from Delhi School of Economics (Renu Karnad of HDFC and Manisha Girotra of UBS). Kalpana Morparia is the only non-MBA, non-eco grad (she holds a law degree and had joined the bank's legal dept back in 1975).

While these statistics do not mean that all women MBAs who enter finance will scale heights, they do point to an environment which is more enabling and offers more equality of opportunity than industries like consulting or marketing.

Is this becoming an influencing factor in the kind of career women graduating from B school are choosing? I'd certainly like to know from some of you!

If image is everything...
Here is a statistic which the magazine did not compile: 15 of the 25 women featured are wearing saris. That includes all the women in banking except for J P Morgan's Vedika Bhandarkar in salwar kameez.

The only two women who have chosen distinctly Western clothing are Pepsi'sPunita Lal who appears in semi casual and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw who is photographed in a proper business suit in the 5 page spread devoted to her.

I have nothing against the sari - it is a very elegant dress. However, fewer and fewer women below 35 are opting to wear saris to work on a daily basis.

So I wonder if, say 5 years from now, 60% of the women on the BT list would be seen in saris. And if not, would they opt for salwar kameezes or Western style business suits? And if salwar kameez will it be the traditional style, dupatta et al or something more on Indo-Western lines??

Meanwhile brands like Allen Solly have launched women's Western wear formals and these are becoming popular with younger women.

But a well designed range of no-fuss salwar kameezes (less ornate and flowy) could give Western formals a run for its money. It's more comfortable - and suited to the average Indian woman's less-than-perfect body shape.

I know there are brands like W but we need more.

A couple of observations
If you are asked to pose for the cover of Business Today magazine, would you choose to wear the kind of clothes you regularly wear to work (printed or plain sari with border), or 'dress up' (sari with embroidery etc)?

This time, all 3 of the amazing women on the BT cover kind of looked like they were ready to leave for a party. Personally, I think they look far more elegant in the more sober clothes they have been photographed in, inside the magazine.

However one could argue the flamboyance on display just shows that they are secure enough to show off their feminine side. But yeah, quite different from Naina Lal or the ICICI women who (after years of gracing these covers) make way for a new set of faces.

Speaking of which, there are apparently 8 new names on BT's list. Which is great but as a reader you can't help wondering how these additions and deletions are made... 

I mean sure, it's a 'subjective' list ( based on 'informal polling of consultants, headhunters, analysts, know-it-all corporate types' - says the magazine). But a small 'kahan gaye woh log' section might be of help in putting the disappeared names into perspective.

For example, Hema Ravichander quit as the HR head of Infosys to become an independent consultant. But what happened to some of the others? Did their companies go downhill, or did the editor just say, "Yaar wahi chehre dekh dekh kar bore ho gaye hain."

Either of which I guess is a valid enough reason...

With International Women's Day being celebrated, you see and hear more about these women. But as Britannia CEO Vinita Bali said to BT, after visiting villages around Muzaffarnagar in UP where she saw as many girls enrolled in school as boys,"You can talk about women in powerful positions in business but the real changes are things like this, which didn't happen 50 years ago."

Very well said.

P.S. All pics used here for purpose of illustration only - they are copyright Business Today. I would gladly link to their website but it happens to be password protected.

Thus, management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit - in search of excellence. Major functions of a manager are planning, organizing, leading and coordinating activities -- they put different emphasis and suggest different natures of activities in the following four major functions..

The critical question in all managers' minds is how to be effective in their job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in the Bhagavad Gita, which repeatedly proclaims that "you must try to manage yourself." The reason is that unless a manager reaches a level of excellence and effectiveness, he or she will be merely a face in the crowd.

In this modern world the art of Management has become a part and parcel of everyday life, be it at home, in the office or factory and in Government. In all organizations, where a group of human beings assemble for a common purpose irrespective of caste, creed, and religion, management principles come into play through the management of resources, finance and planning, priorities, policies and practice. Management is a systematic way of carrying out activities in any field of human effort.

Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their weaknesses irrelevant, says the Management Guru Peter Drucker. It creates harmony in working together - equilibrium in thoughts and actions, goals and achievements, plans and performance, products and markets. It resolves situations of scarcity, be they in the physical, technical or human fields, through maximum utilization with the minimum available processes to achieve the goal. Lack of management causes disorder, confusion, wastage, delay, destruction and even depression. Managing men, money and materials in the best possible way, according to circumstances and environment, is the most important and essential factor for a successful management.

Management guidelines from the Bhagavad Gita
There is an important distinction between effectiveness and efficiency in managing.

Effectiveness is doing the right things.
Efficiency is doing things right.
The general principles of effective management can be applied in every field, the differences being more in application than in principle. The Manager's functions can be summed up as:

Forming a vision
Planning the strategy to realize the vision.
Cultivating the art of leadership.
Establishing institutional excellence.
Building an innovative organization.
Developing human resources.
Building teams and teamwork.
Delegation, motivation, and communication.
Reviewing performance and taking corrective steps when called for.
Thus, management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit - in search of excellence.