Think – Woman is Power
This was a thought provoking forum organised at Renaissance Powai on 28th September ’18, where I had the opportunity to be a speaker at an interesting panel discussion.
The topic was ‘ The foundation for strong woman lies in creating confident girls. ‘ I introduced my views on the topic, by saying that many women go through a lot of restrictions during their growing years, yet when they become parents they ensure that the next generation daughters have more confidence and freedom than what they had.
I also recollected how I had taken the responsibility for creating a confident girl when I ensured in 1998 that my maid servants daughter got admission in a good college, and a year later I was happily surprised to see her working with her coloured hair at the L’Oreal showroom at a mall. We can all contribute to a changing India by ensuring that our maid servants daughters do not become maid servants again.
A co-panelist woman spoke on the importance of being financially independent and the union of Shiva (male) and Shakthi(female) energies. A Polish co-panellist gave her view of seeing strong women in India.
We also had two gentlemen on our panel discussion, one spoke about strong women wanting freedom of choice for her decisions in life, the other was a CEO of a large MNC who spoke on the huge influence of three women his life.
When I was asked who according to me was a strong woman, the first name that came to my mind was my mother Janaki Kanemar, who inspite of the dominating circumstances of her generation, ensured that she brought up confident children. Her internal quality of positive attitude and ability to have great relationships is more important to be considered a strong woman than the so called external parameters of career or educational qualifications!
It was an evening spent on the company of strong women from everyday life. Though we may not have the so called celebrity quotient, we were still considered celebrities in our own way. I was especially thrilled with my group of girl friends, who had come to hear me speak, especially one friend who had came all the way from Nasik.
There were other thought provoking discussions on topics ranging from women who break the glass ceiling, women who take risks to start unusual professions, a teenagers idea of being pretty in a non conformist way, women in the technology world etc.
It was a pleasure to see both women and men in the packed hall, followed by high tea and more rounds of networking with interesting women of substance. All in all it was a time well spent in the company of the many thinking powerful women around me that evening!
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