50 Inspiring Women (Gujarat)- KD Blossom

Anjali Desai Anjali Desai is a polymath. Originally from Houston, Texas, she landed in Kutch as a 2003 Indicorps Fellow to run a rural design school with partner NGO Gramshree to empower women artisans. Her experience with the people and land inspired her to co-found India Guide Publishing, through which she authored several guidebooks on Gujarat (India Guide: Gujarat) to encourage meaningful and culturally- sensitive travel and exploration. She also helped establishing Seva Café, a gift economy experiment that has inspired similar experiments worldwide. In 2005, Anjali founded Patangyu, an alternative grassroots education initiative for children in one of Ahmedabad’s marginalized communities. She is also an active cornerstone in the NGO Manav Sadhna, and its values-based education program, serving children across several of Ahmedabad’s low-income communities. Q. What is your favourite word? A. I love the word Empathy. When we practice empathy, there is no right or wrong, just a deeper understanding of one another. Through this understanding a lot of barriers we face as humans stand broken. Q. What was the moment in your life that made you Blossom into the person you are today? A. There is not a single turning point for me, but many influences. One of the most profound have been my parents. Their love for India, even after heading to the US to give our family a better future, was seeded in me. Their values of simplicity, service and spirituality also shaped me significantly. I wanted to try to pay forward some of what they have given me in life. Growing up, I had often heard people talk about settling in life and then serving later. But I wanted to start while I was still young and had nothing to lose. So, after finishing college, I came to Gujarat to volunteer for a year. I had no idea one year would turn into two decades and completely shift the direction of my life’s journey. Q. What would you want the young boys & girls to learn from your journey? A. Find a way, no matter how small, to give back to the world. Do this without expectation and with as much humility as possible. And try to give through whatever opens your heart and excites you. 89

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“MADNESS” 91

Kumudini Lakhia Kumudini Lakhia is an Indian Kathak dancer and choreographer based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where she founded Kadamb School of Dance and Music, an institute of Indian dance and music in 1964. Lakhia is a pioneer in contemporary Kathak dance and is credited for moving away from the solo form of Kathak starting in the 1960s, by turning it into a group spectacle. She is responsible for innovations like taking away traditional stories and adding contemporary storylines into Kathak's repertoire. She is also conferred with Padma Shri (1987) and Padma Bhushan (2010). Q. What is your favourite word? However, I had encouragement from our troop and Ram Gopal. Encouragement makes you feel A. Madness. Along with \"passion\", I believe a better. Slowly, I became the main dancer in our little bit of madness is required too. Passion is like troop and Ram's partner too. hunger. It isn't something that you constantly feel in your gut to drive forward your craft to the next level. There's a saying, \"All the right things happen for all Sometimes you are hungry, sometimes you aren't. the wrong reasons\". I chose dance first because I Whenever you are hungry though, whenever you do wasn't sure of any other job. Then I had self-doubt feel passionate about your work, madness is what but slowly I found my way to my passion. If this feeds that hunger. If passion is the desire to reach wasn't what I was meant to do, if this wasn't the sky, madness is the energy that enables you something I love doing, I wouldn't be doing it for 74 to pursue it. Madness is what makes you overdo years now, would I? For me, the turning points in it. You need to overdo it, to find your passion at a life happen in the moments when you consciously deeper level. They both go hand-in-hand. choose to do what your heart tells you. Q. What was the moment in your life that made Q. What would you want the young boys & you Blossom into the person you are today? girls to learn from your journey? A. When I was 18 years old, I chose to go to A. Passion. You need to have the will to do it. \"No, London to join Ram Gopal's troop because I I can't do this today. I will do it tomorrow..\" No! wasn't sure if I'd get any job here. I was a girl who Do it today. You have to do it when you have the just finished college studying agriculture. Who'd will to do it. I have been in the profession of dance give me a job? Especially in an industry that was for 74 years today. When I started my journey in filled with men. So, I thought I will be able to do dance, it wasn't even accepted as a profession something in dance and took the opportunity. I was in the country quite like how it is now. It wasn't always ready to take on new challenges. an education qualification back then. Today, a university is calling me to give a doctorate, when When I did start my journey in London, I had several I have started working towards my passion while points of time that made me question myself. Self- nobody gave importance to it. When you want to doubt is something that always waits for you just do it, you need to do it irrespective of any odds. around the corner to creep into your thoughts. 92

Bijal Brahmbhatt Bijal Brahmbhatt is the Director of Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT). She is a civil engineer by training and is a recognized expert in habitat improvement - through women’s empowerment, community development, and housing finance. She supervises the MHT’s operations at the national level and has proven experience in conceptualizing and managing slum up-gradation programs across India. Her professional experience has focused on poverty alleviation issues (especially with women), Entrepreneurship, Slum up-gradation, Water & Sanitation, Urban planning, Housing finance, Housing technology, etc. She is on board for SEWA Grih Rin, a housing finance company for poor women. She also works as an advisor to poor women's credit cooperatives. Q. What is your favourite word? \"Mahila Housing Trust” which focused not only on women empowerment but also A. “Leadership” Most women on helping them technically by educating empowerment programs are geared on housing finance and about what the towards subjects like domestic violence, word “Empowerment” meant. Also, how financial aid for shelters, etc. All those things worked on the ground was a part are valid but, women's participation in of the project. These two things led me public matters is being missed out by to where I am today. society. They have no voice. Women need to take leadership in public engagement. Q. What would you want the young That is the right essence of women's boys & girls to learn from your empowerment to me. journey? Q. What was the moment in your A. It’s all about passion. One needs to life that made you Blossom into the be passionate about what one does. person you are today? When I say passion, I don't mean finding one true purpose in life. We must first A. I was born into a Gujarati \"Brahmin\" understand that one can be passionate family. My father was a professor at IIM. about many things in life. But giving the He connected himself with most of the best of yourself reflects the passion voluntary organizations to help people for the work. Factors like dedication, in all possible ways. And growing up, commitment, and whole-heartedness I have seen people come to our home get the work done. Being passionate is with varied issues. It didn’t matter what about curiosity, questioning things, the caste, religion, and place they belonged desire to make people understand and to. Being a curious child, I always involved be understood by them. Passion is when myself in these discussions and noticed you look forward to learning. Whatever a pattern of patriarchy and questioned you do, find your passion, and pursue it. the ways of life. Then I got introduced to 93

“LE A DERSHIP” 94

Kaajal Oza Vaidya “ME” 95

A brand name in Gujarati literature. Widely read and translated in many languages. she is an author residing in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. She is a youth icon and an inspiration for thousands of women across the world. A prolific author with 85 publications on shelves including novels, short stories, essays. She is a screen writer in Hindi and Gujarati OTT, Cinema and television, actor, model and popular RJ. She is a motivational speaker who has travelled the world. Q. What is your favourite word? name. I still feel humbled, need to learn and wish to make difference in society A. Me. The first and the last. I am a through my thoughts, words and work. complete person with several layers, faces, emotions, experiences and Q. What would you want the young expressions within. Just a single word boys & girls to learn from your cannot be enough to describe me. I am a journey? person of many moods and many colours. A. Work hard. Don't quit. Be organised. Q. What was the moment in your Learn time management. Decide what you life that made you Blossom into the want, and what you can let go. I have seen person you are today? very often that the younger generation is very random. Life is not randomness; life A. There cannot be one moment. There is about precision. There is an abundance has to be many moments in life which of information in the world. We need make you realize where you really wish to to acquire the ability to find the useful be. I believe one should always know what information and discard the unnecessary. one does not want, and what one needs. We need to find answers. Life is full of Once we know that, the alternatives surprises and questions. We must learn become clear. Choices become easy. to answer those questions and absorb the No one can take credit to make or break surprises. But I must admit that the GenZ THE PERSON. I can't give credit to any are very honest and pure. They are not one person or moment to bring me hear. hypocrites. I sincerely trust the dreams of It's been a long road. I am a multifaceted GenZ. They are technocrats and smart. individual with multiple careers to my The nation is looking up to them. 96

Manisha Lavkumar Shah The High Court of Gujarat designated Manisha Lavkumar Shah as a senior advocate in 2018. She is only the second woman lawyer in the history of the High Court to be recognized in the last three decades. She has long represented the state government, various boards, and public businesses in numerous litigations before the Hon'ble Supreme Court and other High Courts as an Additional Public Prosecutor, Assistant Government Pleader, Senior Standing Counsel Customs, and Excise. Manisha was the first woman in the state of Gujarat to be appointed as the Government Pleader, in charge of a team of 60 law officers handling the state civil litigation in the High Court, in 2015. She was admitted to the Bar in 1993. Her spectacular rise can be attributed to hard effort and determination. Q. What is your favourite word? your capabilities and beliefs. Sometimes, even your fundamentals are challenged. A. Sincerity. What you call success was The journey of overcoming all such days a result of my sincerity towards work. made me who I am today. Discipline is also equally important, so irrespective of whether it is a weekday or Q. What would you want the young a weekend, setting a routine, researching boys & girls to learn from your thoroughly is something you cannot give journey? up. I believe that my sincerity is my USP, and I expect the same from my colleagues A. Perseverance and courage can take and team members. you anywhere. Do not give up, especially in the phases of life where you will face Q. What was the moment in your challenges. Remember, every career has life that made you Blossom into the its own challenges. Listen to that small person you are today? voice in your head that tells you that you are worth it, that you need to push harder A. There wasn't one moment or one and put in more effort, the voice that tells challenge that changed everything. Life you to keep trying to move forward. You rarely turns out like that. It is the process don't even have to keep moving forward, of overcoming the small but significant the process of trying to move forward is daily challenges that help one turn the enough. So long as you are trying, you corner. Like in every career, one goes will be there. through highs and lows that challenge 97

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PARUL ZAVERI Parul Zaveri is a graduate of MIT in Cambridge, USA, with a focus on Urban Settlement Design in Developing Countries. As a sustainable architect, she focuses on Settlement Design, Institutional Complexes, Conservation, and Adaptive Re-use of Historic Buildings, as well as innovative interior design, to maximize the use of natural materials and traditional arts & crafts and handmade textiles & furniture, products & accessories. Through her work, she ensures the use of traditional decision-making processes, materials, and technology, with an emphasis on the restoration of dying arts and crafts, to optimize employment generation for artisans. Q. What is your favourite word? A. \"Om\". The word just gives me peace and I feel a sense of connection to it. I am a very spiritual person and I believe by just chanting \"Om\" in different variations gives you a very different feeling. It has a vibration to it that is felt throughout your whole body. Whenever I begin to write something, it starts with OM, further I write. I practice this even for the small notes for myself. Q. What was the moment in your life that made you Blossom into the person you are today? A. Several factors contributed to who I am today. One of the first things has to be my attitude. I was always a \"bindas\" person. I used to love exploring. Everyone in Palitana would travel to the main temple. As a child, I liked to wander around and visit temples where no one was present. I always used to do what I wanted to do, but the convent education kind of made me close my expression away from the world. When I joined Shreyas, I began opening up again. That also contributed to my desire to be expressive about who I am. The architect part came out fully when I moved abroad after studying at CEPT. All the traveling and exposure to cultures across the world made one thing clearer to us - we don't want to work towards western architecture. So, we began experimenting with our concepts, erecting a mud house & constructing a school with many entrances - through doors, slides, and other unique means. One of our friends contacted me and Nimesh one day to ask if they should buy a \"Haveli\" by a lake or land. We told them they had to have the \"haveli.\" That is when our conservation relationship started. We realized there were skills that we needed while working on that haveli for our friends. Q. What would you want the young boys & girls to learn from your journey? A. Throw away all your mobile phones, all your computers, tablets, TVs and go out to explore. Go into the wilderness, go to the villages, and learn with the people there. Learn to farm with them. You must learn hands-on, you know? All of what we are taught in an air-conditioned classroom isn't going to teach us anything. Are you using your hands to do something? Are you employing physical activities? 99

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