When Dreams Have Wings: Believe in Yourself, Follow Your Passion, Realize Your Dreams

By Shoma Bakre

This book features seven outstanding women who have incredible stories of grit, determination, and perseverance in following their passion, doing what they believe in, and realizing their dreams. The authors interactions with them and experiences with some of their organizations inspired her to write this book. The stories of these seven women are simply amazing and can benefit and inspire a lot of women to pursue their passion, follow their dreams, do what they believe in, and never give up despite all odds.

The book highlights the dreams, struggles, efforts, and achievements of these highly inspirational women through miniature biographies of each one of them. Hopefully, their stories will help empower many women to shed their fears, inhibitions, hesitations, and inertia and inspire them to venture out where they dreamt to go but dared not go before. A big takeaway from the stories of these admirable women is the message that nothing is impossible if one sets ones heart on a goal. A very inspirational book for all.

Proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the organizations founded by these remarkable women who have inspired the author to write their stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Jul 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482822625

Shoma Bakre

Shoma Bakre was co-founder of the erstwhile company, EmPower Research, now a part of a large global MNC. EmPower was started by Shoma and three other partners from scratch and grown to a multi-million dollar, offshore media research and analytics company. A year and a half after the acquisition of EmPower, Shoma voluntarily retired from corporate life in December 2012 to pursue her passion for social development and to help make a difference to the under-served in India. In her personal capacity she has been actively involved in helping, both at the grassroots and strategic level, various organizations that work for the welfare of underprivileged women and children. She has recently founded Let's Do Some Good Foundation, a platform for all stakeholders - NGOs, Corporates, and Individuals, who would like to come together to bring about positive social change in the areas of Education for Underprivileged Children; Vocational Training and Employability; Education, Life-skills, Vocational Training, Employment for the Differently-abled; Health & Sanitation; Poverty Eradication; Women Empowerment. Shoma has over 20 years of experience in diverse areas including CSR, entrepreneurship, media, human resources management, business development, corporate training and teaching. Shoma was featured in the “My Mentor” series launched by Emberin Australia at a NASSCOM, Bangalore event, which shared the stories of some very successful Indian women achievers, whose stories are meant to inspire and motivate upcoming women leaders. She was the first woman entrepreneur to be featured in the Indian Startup EMERGEOUT initiative by NASSCOM. She was one of 60 women who were nominated as Women Achievers by CII Southern Region’s Women’s Empowerment Task Force for “making an important contribution for enhancing the status of women in the workplace and also nurturing an ecosystem that respects diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity for all segments of business and society.” She has also delivered her leadership story at the inclusivity initiatives in NASSCOM, AVATAR-IWIN and other forums. Shoma is on the Board of and advices several organizations. She also mentors women entrepreneurs and various start-ups.

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Copyright © 2014 by Shoma Bakre.

Cover Design Concept: Sanjana Bakre

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-4828-2263-2

                eBook           978-1-4828-2262-5

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Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Shukla Bose

About Shukla Bose

Shukla’s Story

Malathi Krishnamurthy Holla

About Malathi Holla

Malathi’s Story

Rashmi Misra

About Rashmi Misra

Rashmi’s Story

Usha Mohandas

About Dr. Usha Mohandas

Ushy’s Story

Zulfia Shaikh

About Dr. Zulfia Shaikh

Zulfia’s Story

Neha Singh

About Neha Singh

Neha’s Story

Madhu Singhal

About Madhu Singhal

Madhu’s Story

Acknowledgments

References

This book is dedicated to:

My mother, who had a lot of dreams that she could not fulfil but made sure she gave me the education, the strength, and courage to follow my dreams.

My father who taught me humility and goodness.

My husband, Ajay, who changed my life and has unconditionally supported me in everything that I have ever wanted to do.

My children, Aniruddh and Sanjana, who make my life complete.

And finally, the thousands of women who have a dream but either think they can’t or don’t know where to begin.

Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

Always remember, you have within you the strength,

the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars

to change the world.

—Harriet Tubman

FOREWORD

Every human society in history has been found to be faulty. It is iniquitous and, therefore, needs to be changed for the better. The process of change can be sudden and violent as is brought upon the society by a revolution, or it could be gentle and gradual as is initiated by social reforms through legislation and opinion formation by its leaders. The debate of reforms versus revolution is almost as ancient as time itself. There are votaries of both sides. There is also great dichotomy between the inherent strength of women and the stature assigned to them in our society.

Indian society is no exception to the rule of every society being unjust and imbalanced. The divide between the haves and the have-nots is seemingly unbridgeable. There have been great social reformers in India as well as great revolutionaries. I would say there is a niche for both in the social milieu of our country. This book is about some contemporary reformers, if you want to call them that, in India. They are all women, very talented, committed to their cause, and very successful in achieving the goals that they set for themselves. They have dreams not only for themselves but also for the world around them. They have pursued their dreams relentlessly to make a difference and to change, not only their own world, but also the world of many more.

Shoma has written this fascinating book of miniature biographies, or what I would prefer to call thumbnail sketches rather than biographies. Reading her book was an exciting experience. It was as if she was a magician who gently lifted her top hat and let the hidden fireflies out in the air. All these luminous fireflies have plenty in common. They are all very well-educated women, coming from traditional Indian middle-class families. They are fired by the spark of repaying to society the debt of gratitude for what they have received from society in such abundance. It is as if they all have intimations of their own mortality and want to leave their footprints on the shifting sands of time. They will be remembered for the deeds of transformation and altruism that they embarked upon, often giving up lucrative careers and the courage with which they followed their passions. They broke away from the comfort of well-settled careers and family life to answer the call of their inner voice.

Seven extraordinary women from different walks of life, who epitomize strength and courage to stand up for what they believe in, feature in this book. They all hail from different parts of India, but with the exception of one, all of them eventually gravitated toward Bangalore where they are carrying on their exceptional work. Ushy Mohandas hails from Trichur, Kerala; Madhu Singhal from Rohtak, Haryana; Shukla Bose and Neha Singh from Kolkata; Zulfia Shaikh from Mumbai; Rashmi Misra from Delhi; and the outstanding para-athlete Malathi Holla from Bangalore. They all, with the exception of Neha Singh, who lives in the UK, currently live in Bangalore.

They are passionate about achieving the goals that they have set for themselves. Behind the success of all these women are extremely supportive families, spouses, and children. But above all, their conviction in themselves and their dreams have enabled them to achieve what they have in their respective fields.

They all work for empowering children, women, and/or youth in our country. All these change agents have invested their lives, energies, careers, and in some cases, their hard-earned personal savings in shaping the future generations of bourgeoning India. The multiplier effect of these success stories is bound to be phenomenal. To women like them, the nation owes great appreciation. After all, every drop of effort in the sea of social change and development counts.

Shukla Bose set up Parikrma Foundation, which runs best-in-class English-medium schools for the very poor and gives them the opportunity to realize their potential to the fullest. At the peak of her corporate career, she abandoned a very prestigious and lucrative position in the hospitality industry to do something more meaningful to help others. She then went on to invest all her life’s savings and started Parikrma schools for underprivileged slum children.

Ushy Mohandas, who hails from a matriarchal family of Kerala, known for its tradition of very strong women heading households, is a crusader against any kind of injustice that she comes across. She has chosen the thorny path of fighting against corruption at the highest levels, for which she pays a price but still does not give up. She juggles multiple careers successfully and still has time to help all who need her support. She also helps her uncle run a school for special children in Calicut, Kerala.

Zulfia Shaikh is the founder of the Bangalore School of Speech and Drama (BSSD). Although by training, she is a medical doctor, a nutritionist, and a lactation expert and counselor, drama and theater are her first love. She believes theater is a great medium for teaching communication skills to children and shaping them to be confident, articulate leaders. She teaches communications skills to corporate bosses as well as to children so that they can stand tall anywhere in the world. She now dreams of working with policy makers on making communications a compulsory subject in the school curriculum so that all children can benefit from formal training in this undeniably important area.

Madhu Singhal, herself visually impaired, has set up and runs an NGO called Mitra Jyothi, which works on educating and mainstreaming visually impaired people and people with other disabilities. She has been working relentlessly for her fraternity of differently abled people so that they can become independent and lead a productive life with dignity. To this end, she has set up many programs to enable differently abled people to get access to education and training so that they can get jobs and become socially, physically, and financially self-sufficient.

Rashmi Misra, married to an IIT Delhi professor, while living in the beautiful gated community of the lush green IIT campus, was appalled by the poverty and desperation in the lives of children living just on the other side of the wall. She was determined to do something about this almost obscene disparity and started a school right inside the IIT campus, taking help from other faculty wives and student volunteers, instead of pursuing her career. From the first school that started on her verandah till date, she has dedicated her life to the education and empowerment of women, children, and youth and transformed many lives. Today, she has volunteers from all over the world, and in the twenty-nine years since the inception of the first school, her organization, VIDYA, has touched hundreds of thousands of lives for the better.

Neha Singh is a cancer survivor, twice over, who has bravely faced the accidental death of her firstborn son with unbelievable calm courage. After successfully working for many years in the hospitality industry and in the banking sector, Neha entered the new field of print media where she launched a magazine for women entrepreneurs, called Fab. Through this, she tries to help women entrepreneurs to scale up their businesses. The magazine is now accessible in twenty-two countries around the world. Helping women entrepreneurs is her passion, and she has been working tirelessly to establish a platform to help the women of India to achieve their entrepreneurial goals, both in the urban and rural sectors. Having seen death at close quarters, both through the sudden demise of her son and her own severe health issues, she never takes life for granted and counts her blessings to be able to do something for others each day.

Malathi Holla is a para-athlete par excellence who has made winning a habit. She has won an incredible 318 gold medals in an assortment of sports events such as shot put, javelin, and discus throws and 100 meters and 200 meters wheelchair racing, in both the national and international sports arena. She has participated in sporting events in South Korea, China, USA, UK, and Europe. For her efforts and achievements, she has been honored with the Arjuna Award and the Padma Shri besides numerous other awards, including the Ekalavya Award, Aryabhatta Award, Karmaveer Puraskar, Manava Ratna Award, to name a few. However, she never rested on her laurels and instead wanted to use her name and fame to help others like her. She runs an NGO called Mathru Foundation, which provides shelter, education, and medical help to poor children from rural areas who suffer from debilities caused by polio, spasticity, paraplegia, muscular dystrophy, and mental retardation.

Shoma’s style of writing is straightforward and the narrative is very objective and unsentimental. She has seen the work of all these admirable women from very close quarters, and the finer details in these stories are a testimony to that fact. This is a very inspirational book for all women who, through the life stories of these seven incredibly strong women, can see that anything is possible if they set their heart on it.

Latika Padalkar (IAS)

Retired Vigilance Commissioner

Government of Tamilnadu

INTRODUCTION

Over the last few years I have been blessed to cross paths with some outstanding women who have incredible stories of grit, determination, perseverance in following their passion, doing what they believe in, and realizing their dreams. My encounters with them have inspired me to write this book about seven incredible women whom I have had the good fortune to meet, interact with, and learn about. The stories of these seven women that I have featured in this book are simply amazing and, I think, can benefit and inspire a lot of women to pursue their passion, follow their dreams, do what they believe in, and never give up despite all odds.

I met Shukla Bose through a common friend, Sucharita Easwar, managing director, WEConnect International, India, who introduced me to her. I had just retired from corporate life and was trying to figure out what I could do to help in the social development sector. When Sucharita heard about my desire to contribute to the social sector, she told me that I must meet Shukla and see what she is doing for underprivileged children and their families. Thus, I went and met Shukla and was completely inspired by what she has done with Parikrma Foundation. As I toured one of the schools with her, I was very impressed to see how she was completely at ease in the kindergarten class teaching a nursery rhyme just as she was comfortable in making strategic decisions on the fly and in interacting with high-profile visitors — all with so much zeal and a radiant smile.

I owe a lot to Sucharita for helping me embark on my journey in the social sector because she is also responsible for connecting me to Rashmi Misra through another friend of hers. When I first met Rashmi, I was dazzled by the warmth, aura of goodness, and positivity that she exudes. It was like I had known her for a long time. She embraced me with open arms and invited me to be a part of her organization, VIDYA, in whatever way I wanted to be involved. This is the kind of openness that Rashmi always demonstrates, which inspires people to want to join hands and do something for others. Ever since that first meeting, I have been very proud to be a part of VIDYA as a volunteer and have been helping them at both the grassroots as well as strategic levels.

I first saw Madhu Singhal at a fundraiser concert a few years back, organized by Mitra Jyothi. I decided to go because I wanted to help the organization by buying a few tickets although I knew nothing about them. What was most impressive was that, unlike most events, the concert started and ended exactly on time, not a minute here or there. At the end of the program, Madhu came on stage, a tiny woman brimming with confidence and gave the vote of thanks. Despite being visually impaired, she did not seek the help of anyone to climb on stage and did not falter at all while giving her beautiful speech. I met her several times after that, and each time I was amazed by her high spirits, confidence, energy, and the discipline with which she runs her personal and professional life.

I met Ushy Mohandas at a women’s professional development forum called Chai Pe where she gave a talk. I was mesmerized by the way words seemed to just effortlessly slide out of her mouth, loaded with a lot of meaning. She captivated all the attendees with her amazing speech, not only because the message was great, but also because the delivery was so smooth and interesting. That is where I saw how seriously funny she is. Her boundless energy seemed to permeate the room, and her sense of humor, while addressing serious social issues, kept the audience enthralled. The first impression I formed of her was that she is the embodiment of courage and strength.

I met Neha Singh at her first women’s forum in Bangalore. I owe this meeting to my ex-employee, Geeta Arya. She had met Neha when she had happened to stop by at Geeta’s art exhibition. When she found out what Neha was doing in Bangalore, she told her to contact me and invite me to the event. I went without really knowing exactly what to expect but was very glad that I did when I met Neha and came to know her vision for supporting women entrepreneurs. She seemed absolutely sure about what she wanted to do and exuded quiet confidence as she conducted the event. I was very impressed with her approach, and being a woman entrepreneur myself, I could relate completely with her vision. Her friend and colleague Nimrit Gill was also part of the forum, and I was truly inspired when she narrated how Neha had persevered and so successfully launched Fab magazine despite everyone turning her idea down.

A few years back, my children started pestering me about wanting to join Bangalore School of Speech and Drama. Many of their friends were enrolled there, and all of them constantly talked about BSSD and how amazing it was. I kept on brushing it off as my children were anyway enrolled in too many extracurricular activities. Seeing their pleas falling on deaf ears, they recruited their friends to try to convince me to enroll them too. What I noticed among all these children was the level of confidence, high self-esteem, excellent communication skills, and a deep love for BSSD and Zulfi aunty. I finally saw Zulfia Shaikh at BSSD’s annual production in which my friend’s daughter was performing. After the curtain call, she stepped on the stage and made her closing speech. I then understood why her students were the way they were. Zulfia stood tall and was the embodiment of grace, poise, confidence, and articulation on stage. As she spoke about her school, her students, the importance of communications and theater, I could see her undiluted passion for what she does coming through, and the next thing I knew, I had enrolled my children into BSSD.

About four years back, I met Malathi Holla for the first time during the Independence Day celebrations in the community where I lived. She was the chief guest at the occasion and gave one of the most inspiring speeches that I have heard in all my life. Seeing her on the podium addressing the audience in the most vibrant, confident, and positive manner made it very difficult for any of us to even notice that she was differently abled. Her zest for life was reflected in her radiant smile and beautiful words, which flowed out of her with ease and conviction. Her pulsating energy rippled through the audience as she addressed us and inspired us to believe that nothing is impossible. She left us all completely awed and changed our mind-sets about differently abled people. She aptly conveyed the message that differently abled people do not need pity and condescension from society. What they need is an equal footing and opportunities because they have the same desire to live, dream, aspire as the rest of us.

I sincerely hope that I am able to do justice to the efforts and achievements of these highly inspirational women through my narrative in this book. Proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the organizations founded by these remarkable women who have inspired me to make my humble attempt at writing it. Hopefully their stories will help empower many women to shed their fears, inhibitions, hesitation, and inertia, and inspire them to venture out where they dreamt to go but dared not before.

shukla%20bose%20photo.JPG

SHUKLA BOSE

Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

—Goethe

ABOUT SHUKLA BOSE

Shukla Bose is founder and CEO of Parikrma Humanity Foundation, an eleven-year-old nonprofit organization, which strives to provide high-quality English-medium education to children from slums and orphanages to bridge the gap that currently exists in our society. Shukla has over two decades of rich corporate experience in the hospitality industry. She was with the Oberoi Hospitality Group for thirteen years, following which she was CEO of RCI for eleven years. She was the first to launch the time-share industry in India.

In 2000 she gave up her high-profile corporate position and started the India operations of a multinational NGO working with underprivileged children. She had volunteered with Mother Teresa’s organization for seven years. Her experience with slum and street children greatly encouraged her to make the development of underserved children her mission in life. She therefore started Parikrma Humanity Foundation, an NGO that runs four schools and one junior college that provides quality English-medium education to 1,400 orphaned, abandoned, slum, and street children. The success of Parikrma is reflected in the level of success that its children are achieving. Fifty-two of Parikrma’s children, who come from very disadvantaged backgrounds, are now placed in high-valued jobs. One hundred and eighty-three of its students are studying in good colleges, including the National Law School. Parikrma children have started representing the country internationally in both leadership summits and sports. They are already integrating with mainstream society, which was the primary objective of setting up Parikrma. The communities that they come from are also being transformed through Parikrma’s 360-degree approach to social change. Parikrma has also partnered with Bangalore Corporation to enhance the quality of education of eighteen government schools.

Besides doing her master’s in comparative literature and a MBA specializing in marketing, Shukla has also done a management program on social entrepreneurship. She has been invited to speak at several Indian and international conferences on social entrepreneurship and global education. She is also a TED speaker.

Parikrma Humanity Foundation has been awarded the Derozio Award for excellence in special education and social commitment. Parikrma also received the governor’s award for exemplary social work in 2007. Shukla herself is the recipient of many national and international awards. She was nominated as a Bangalore Hero in a recent Bangalore Mirror campaign. She was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1995, the Bharat Gaurav Award in 2004, the Woman of the Year Award in 2000, and the Gandhi Sadbhavana Award in 2014.

SHUKLA’S STORY

Shukla Bose was born in 1956 in Kolkata. She comes from a modest middle-class Bengali family. Although not affected directly, she always felt somehow affected by some events in history such as the partition of India and the great Bengal famine—events that had touched and changed the course of the lives of many Bengalis. She grew up hearing stories about both these catastrophic events from her parents. She believes that collective unconscious is very important in the making of an individual, and these events and their ramifications did have a role to play in shaping her as a person.

Her mother was born in Rajshahi, Bangladesh. She was told that her mother and her mother’s five siblings came from a very affluent family. But they had lost their father when they were very young and saw, as a result, their social standing being heavily impacted by this unfortunate event. Their financial security crumbled as relatives, who they had not even known existed, usurped and plundered all their wealth because Shukla’s grandmother was very ill and could not take care of the family or its possessions. The family went through a great amount of trauma, and for Shukla’s mother, moving away from a great amount of wealth and becoming dependent on relatives, with her mother being in hospital and father no more, was quite devastating. She was the second oldest child in the family, and therefore, she had to take care of her younger siblings. She narrated agonizing stories to Shukla about how she had to manage her little siblings and herself while undergoing a dramatic change in situation and circumstances after her father’s death.

Growing up, Shukla’s mother had a comfortable life and studied in an English-medium school—a very big thing in the pre-independence days because, first, she was an Indian and, second, she was a girl child. But things changed drastically after her father’s death. As Shukla says, her mother, if her grandfather were alive and if they continued to enjoy the same financial status that they had while he was living, may not have been married to her father. She was married off to her father because he and his family wanted a simple wedding with no dowry. Thus, the marriage was almost like a coming down in social standing for her mother in some ways. But on the other hand, it elevated her intellectual and thinking side to a great extent because of the influence of her husband’s intellect, values, and personality. She got married at the age of fourteen to Shukla’s father who was many years older than her. She was married into a joint-business family, and her husband was the only male in the family who held a government job. Since he was in the government service, despite being a senior government official, he brought in less money into the family as compared to his other siblings. Respect and stature one enjoyed within the family was dependent on the amount of money one contributed to the collective kitty. Shukla’s mother understood this and tried to compensate for her husband’s lack of significant monetary contribution to the family with her hard work in the joint household.

Having gone through a very rough childhood and an early marriage, Shukla’s mother had bottled within her all the aspirations of her unfulfilled dreams that she wanted to pass on and live through someone else—a child of her own. But this was not to be for a while. Her mother had four miscarriages before Shukla was born. Medical care and treatment options in those days being not very sophisticated, her mother had almost given up hope that she would ever have a child. For a long time, she went through the traumatic emotional journey of wanting to be a mother but not being able to carry and give birth to a healthy child. Eventually Shukla was born, a premature child at eight months. Shukla’s father was in Darjeeling at that time while her mother was with her grandmother to have the baby in Kolkata. One day, he dreamt that his wife had delivered a baby girl, and he was so happy that he took the next train available and rushed to Kolkata to be with her even before he got the actual news of the birth of his daughter. Her parents could not contain their joy on having Shukla in their lives—her arrival was the happiest event in their life, and she was the most valuable addition to their family.

Since her childhood, Shukla has heard this story many times and believes that maybe it has got a little embellished over time. What was important though was that having lost many babies, the fact that they finally had a healthy child was a source of extreme joy to her parents. It did not matter to them at all whether the child was a girl or a boy—they were simply delighted to have her in their lives. Although she was the first girl child in the entire extended family, she was never made to feel inadequate or not good enough or second to anyone just because she was a girl. This has been the biggest differentiating factor for Shukla all her life. The fact that there was always this sense of great joy at just having a child at home gave Shukla a sense of personhood rather than of womanhood as she grew up—and gender did not play much of a role in shaping her personality. Therefore, as she was growing up, she could never understand why so many girls held themselves back on many fronts just because they were female.

Shukla’s parents, particularly her mother, were very progressive in their thinking. They belonged to a very strict Brahmin household that believed in traditional, conservative religious rituals, prayers, and customs that Shukla was exposed to. But she saw her mother take stands that emanated from rational thinking rather than blind faith and superstitions. This broadmindedness of her mother also had a significant impact on her life.

Shukla’s mother was a very good student, but she could barely manage to complete her high school because of the change in their fortunes following her father’s death. So there were all these regrets that she