Speaking out for change

WOMEN@WORK

They see life from the perspective of a glass half full. They work and play on their own terms. They are talented, they are ambitious and they march to a different drummer. It’s time we welcomed the growing number of women, in their thirties and forties, who rubbish the term ‘mid-life crisis’. They believe that no mountain is too tall to scale or no challenge too big to surmount. Confident and capable, they are in a happy place, professionally and personally.

New-Delhi based Rakhi Sehgal (40), a respected trade union leader, is on the ‘Asia-to-Gaza Solidarity Caravan’ in a bid to reach out to besieged  Palestinians.

Over the next few weeks, the caravan will cross the Wagah  border into  Pakistan  and  then travel through Iran, Turkey, Syria and Egypt to reach Gaza on December 27. Single, daring and committed to a plethora of causes, Rakhi says: “If you can go to sleep at night without being bothered about what’s happening to others in this world, then there’s something really wrong with you.”

Having studied and worked in the United States for a decade, Rakhi returned to Delhi because she found life in America “very sterile”.

“I knew that I would always be an outsider there,” she observes, but is quick to add that life as a student in America taught her to be self-reliant and independent. It also introduced her to Marxist literature and taught her to “look for the correct questions not answers, because the answer is embedded in the way in which you frame the question”.

 A lot of situations back home make her angry and emotional, but she says she is using her emotional energy towards something constructive. Her work as a trade union leader leaves her with very little time to consider marriage.

“Marriage does not top my agenda right now. Let’s not overlook the fact that in our society marriage places most of the  responsibility on the  woman/wife’s  shoulders. This  could becomes a  burden as I value my freedom, my  space, and my commitment to work,” she says.

Lathika Regunathan (32), executive director of Mann-India Technologies, says: “I have been working for almost 10 years now. Marriage has not made any difference to my work schedule or my travel. My husband Sushil is happy to help with the chores. If I’m tired, he cooks dinner. If   both of us are busy, we are happy eating a sandwich or a salad.”

 Natasha Nair-Gupta (35) is a psychotherapist who sees, day-after-busy-day, what pressure-cooker situations can do to the human psyche. A firm believer that women are the stronger sex, she says her grandmother and her mother, both working women all their lives, are her role  models. “Women who make unconventional choices are made of a different mettle,” she says.

Like Chennai-based writer Tulsi Badrinath (43), who had a great career in banking but gave it up to pursue the arts.

“I had learnt dance from the age of eight and wanted to be a dancer. I was also drawn to writing, but my mother felt I ought to get a professional degree that would make me financially independent. So, I did my MBA at Ohio University and then worked for four years with a big bank. It was not very creative work and I kept up with both my dancing and writing. I reminded myself that TS Eliot and PG Wodehouse and Rohinton Mistry had all worked in banks! But I soon gave up the comfort of a large salary in order to devote myself to the creative arts. Most people did not understand this decision of mine just as they wondered why I had returned from America to live in India,” she says.  Tulsi is happy with her choice. Not because she has won awards and literary prizes, but because she believes she has found her true calling. “I am working on my third novel now. I am also focusing on completing my father’s unfinished autobiography,” she says. 

If Tulsi is glad to pursue her creative interests, 43-year-old Nasreen Khan is happy to run her own company which deals withe executive placements. “Who said it’s hard for a woman to run a business? As long as your fundamentals and ethics are strong, running a professional company is easy,” she says, pointing out that setbacks are all part of the game. And, being  single doesn’t bother Nasreen.

“Friends and family are always there, but most importantly I have learned to rely on myself in a crisis,” she says with a smile.