Womanation april

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Love& ompa ssion C Dr.Maria Zeena Johnson is the Managing Director of Satyabhama university, which she heads from 2001, when she took over from her father, the legendary Dr.Jeppiar.

She constantly strives to be a better person spreading love and doing more where needed and that’s what gets her up every morning. This has made her stronger as a decision maker as she needs to make decisions every moment across the table. This has made her patient and strong based on the lakhs of decisions that she needs to take in her leadership role.

Recently on Dec 31st 2015 Dr.Maria was awarded the prestigious “100 Women Achievers of India Award” by the President of India which she considers a New Year Gift. While the award is just recognition for all her good work, it was also an emotional moment for her. She realizes that this recognition also brings up more responsibility and feels that this will be a landmark award as she completes her thirties and moves to the next decade.

The present education pattern in schools she feels is examination oriented and highly competitive. So students coming to the university, while adapt at gadgets, are not fully prepared to cope with the realities of life and hence they lack the confidence to face the environment and future. This is where she has made a difference in equipping the students in her university to build that self -confidence and become responsible citizens of the country.

So it will not be wrong to say that Dr.Maria is doing her bit in nation building and preparing the youth to better face challenges.

To this end one of her first contributions has been to remove the word ‘failure” from the mark-sheet and replace it with the word “Reappeared”!! This has motivated her students to really build their confidence instead of feeling demotivated .She followed this up with several innovative ideas. Students in her university can choose their own professors like universities abroad, a semester break where students can study abroad and several environment related activities .Students are also encouraged to join various clubs like robotics ,community development, literary club and be part of the NSS, NCC, blood donation drives etc .This trains students to not only bring out their passions but also as responsible citizens. The university gives weightage for these participations by marks in the mark-sheet.

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She rues the fact the university although has excellent infrastructure facilities ,it is often ranked based on placements.

As a private university she has the flexibility of forming her own syllabus and so has adopted several initiatives like universities abroad she says. In this she takes pains to see that not only are student’s needs taken into account but also the parents in order to make them happy as to how their children turn out, She has often set bench marks and constantly raised the bar so much so that other institutions have been forced to follow suit.

All of the above don’t come about without challenges. Being a second generation Entrepreneur Dr,Maria has faced several challenges ,some very different from her illustrious father’s time.

Students and parents expect to be placed in good companies and often gauge the university on 100% placements. With this in mind she has emphasized the need for research based education and this has placed her university on par with several universities abroad. She feels that the Government can aid this by being more generous with funds for private institutions like the Government and affiliated ones.

The Government’s startup initiative, she feels, is a step in the right direction. Students who are innovative can start their own ventures and contribute to nation building .Although the majority of students prefer to join IT companies many of them after 3 years of employment, where they build up some assets, come out to start on their own and this Dr.Maria says will foster innovation.

More government schemes without any discrimination will only add to this momentum. She feels that if students are allowed to follow their passion instead of living their parent’s dreams many good things will happen. To support her thought she has introduced a dual degree program where a student can do a engineering course at the same time also do a Arts course of their passion.

She has also encouraged students in building community by encouraging them to work amongst the 7 government schools, the nearby slums and a village that she has adopted. Students doing this can also earn a stipend. This inculcates in them a dignity of labor besides giving them great satisfaction. Many students doing this then aspire for IAS and IPS jobs as they want to take best decisions for the nation. She feels that a lot of innovation and good ideas are coming out because of these initiatives.

Dr.Maria’s philanthropy may not be known widely as she strongly feels that the left hand should not know what the right hand is doing, in keeping with her beliefs, but the impact that her work has spawned is very often breathtaking. In 2008 she first adopted 20 children giving her personal time to their development. She has scant respect for living her life to the compliance or satisfaction of others or their views. She followed up that with adopting 60 HIV positive children and teaching them skills to survive. This has given her immense satisfaction and the hope that all these children will live their lives like us as this planet is theirs as well.

To Contact Dr.Maria Zeena Johnson mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 9176812377 Citing Code: WN01 001

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&Committment

Challenges

Madhu Saran Vel, popularly known as MSV is the Managing Director of STC Technologies,a Software testing company which she CoFounded in the year 2000. This was a time when the IT industry was going through a slump following the Y2K.It was to test her mettle, but determined to foray into the Testing Domain even though it was a recession time, she ventured into starting STC Technologies. The last 15 years has been a testing time for Madhu Saran in the testing field but she has come out winners. Today STC technologies boasts of 40 branches all across Pan Asia, a testimony to Madhu Saran’s grit and determination. Today STC Concentrates of Testing projects from the US and of late from Australia.

This resulted in her being attracted to the fashion industry which in turn resulted in her setting up the saloons. From a trio of unisex saloons it was only a natural progression to the current fashion trend of Cosmetic Industry.

Madhu Saran cofounded ABC –Advanced Beauty Cosmetic Clinic six months ago. ABC has grown to three branches within this short time in Velachery,Tnagar and Annanagar which explains the huge demand for this service although compared to Mumbai, this industry in Chennai is still in its nascent stage. ABC caters to treatments in Skin, air transplants and weight reduction. Here again Madhu Saran’s emphasis on team work has paid rich dividends and ABC is poised to grow further.

The last 15 years hasn’t been smooth sailing but full of challenges and ups and downs .Madhu Saran credits the success to her Core team and her employees who have weathered many a storm under the strong leadership that she has been able to provide. She has led from the front often as an example to her entire team.

She lays high emphasis on team work and this she feels is the secret that helped the company sustain in the rather competitive market. STC today has been recognized globally as a market leader in the testing domain. STC partners with several leading firms across US and Australia in IT testing.

Having exhibited admirable leadership qualities in her business efforts, Madhu Saran has strong conviction that education is the most effective transformational tool and her unshakable belief in scalable and sustainable practices for social inclusion to champion the cause of academic – industry linkage led her to start a NGO for empowering women under the name River.

The many awards that Madhu Saran has been awarded speaks volumes of her leadership qualities and her strong commitment to team effort.

To Contact Madhu Saran Vel mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 9176812377 Citing Code: WN01 002 4 |4WOMANATION | March 20162016 | WOMANATION | March

With a Masters Degree from Madras University and a first generation Entrepreneur Madhu Saran has scaled new heights in the IT industry which to her was more of a career. But having a passion for fashion it was only a matter of time before her passion would lead her to the fashion industry. Many of the lessons learnt in the IT industry helped Madhu Saran weather many a storms as she ventured into setting up A La Change ,a Unisex saloon. A la change also grew from strength to strength and today has 3 branches in Chennai. The passion for fashion started quite early in Madhu Saran’s life .As a young girl she always groomed herself meticulously as she liked to look good.

River commenced operations in 2009 and in these last 6 years has made a difference in the lives of over 800 women mostly rural women and girls. This was a result of a comprehensive education,employability skills and molding such rural women. Many of the women so empowered are Entrepreneurs today!!This has been a dream come true for Madhu Saran,who says that she has always put the negatives and failures in her life behind and only focused on the positives.

Madhu Saran talks passionately about Leadership and how it can help transform the lives of many women who can be empowered to continue this ripple effect. She feels that women are better equipped to face challenges and are more committed to what they do .In fact these are the qualities that is helping her provide the strong leadership in all her ventures .

She is challenging herself to start more branches of her companies not only here but globally and pass on the benefits to empowering more women.

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The Womanation Team Kasirajan Siva Kasar Pix +91 9884315163 | www.kasarpix.com

Vivanta by Taj, Connemara Swathi Ashok

I first came across this concept in the US. I took it, tweaked it and named it Womanation India, just as I introduced many other successful ideas from the US. I shared the concept with many of my friends who opined that it was a great idea. Womanation is a very different kind of idea in magazines, maybe the first such magazine in India which offers a platform to empowered women to showcase and market their businesses.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you some of the most amazing, talented women I have ever met. You will meet these women on the following pages, giving you some good advice, spiritual mentoring, intelligent resources, human compassion, healing words, gracious enthusiasm for your enjoyment and well-being. You will fall in love with what these ladies do, as I have. They are such an inspiration to every reader, men and women alike.

Womanation Chennai Magazine allows these women to build a relationship with you. And it’s all about relationships….

Trazar Studios +91 9884279307 | www.trazarstudios.com

Dhanasekhar

Its been an amazing journey for me to have personally got to know all of them and build a relationship.

I found that these were empowered women who wanted to make a difference. As we went along I found that these women had some common characteristics. They were passionate about what they did, they are all successful in what they do and they want to share their success with the world, they all give back manifold to society. And they are all hungry for more!!

The personal testimonies of these women gives me the confidence that we are onto something good, that in a small way we can provide a platform for them to network, share and grow not only among themselves but also inspire others to aspire to be part of this community of empowered women from all over.

Samuel Eddy

SAMS +91 9790814844 | www.samglobal.org

Chetna Bafna

We are therefore on the lookout for franchisees and partners to spread Womanation in their respective cities. We have in fact already franchised it out to some cities and even some countries!!

Mr.Abdul

Monocrafts +91 9003086157

Womanation the yearly magazine is Published and owned by Womanation Media LLP ., 109 Pursawalkam, Chennai 600084.and Printed at Monocraft thousand light chennai 600006. www.womanationmedia.com E-mail contact@womanationindia.com DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed or implied by writers do not neccessarily reflect the publishers or the magazines. Unsolicited articles and transparencies are sent in at the owners risk and publisher accepts no liability for loss or damage. Material in this publication may not be reproduced, whether in part or in whole, without the consent of Womanation media LLP

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Editor’s Note

You will want to do business with them, because they are hardworking, successful women who want to see you succeed in your endeavors, as well as their own. Using their resources, products and services allow you the benefit of their expertise. Women love to share and help each other. I challenge you to contact these women and get to know who they are.

Womanation India is a SAM EVE initiative and we invite you to join our online membership. You’ll get lessons from the best and most successful leaders in all industries, and a chance to market your products and services to other members. You’ll receive exclusive discounts, promotions and specials for members only. Gain credibility and recognition, and become the go-to person in your industry. You have the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and much more….

Log onto http://sameve.strikingly.com Womanition India would like to thank the women who helped make this publication the finest ever.

sam@womanationindia.com | www.womanationmedia.com

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O f

Pursuit Excellence True to her name, which means someone who does not have a leader, Anita Ratnam is a loner and a dreamer! Anita is very often a bundle of contradictions with her frequent bout of doubts, vulnerability and the fear that she may not give the best to herself and the world but uses these contradictions to wear many masks which she is able to peel away depending on who she interacts with. Multitasking at many activities, her restlessness and fierce focus and commitment stems from the doubt as to whether she should follow her gut instincts or just pause, take a breath and introspect.

Today Anita feels she is a much better person cause of her two children who she says were better for her than she was to them. She is like a person who is thrown into a pool of water and has to keep her face calm but kick and thrash like hell below the surface to even stay afloat as she prefers people to see her as an artist-Independent, confident, successful, articulate and who is able to engage, travel and communicate through her art. But the creative life is a lonely and a doubt ridden one. It’s like rolling a stone up a hill. You have to hold that stone otherwise it will crush you.

And therefore she is always attempting to initiate new ideas, new ways of professionalism brought about by the fact that she grew up in a business environment that her father brought her up in. This has helped her keep one hand on the stone and use the other to reach out to the community and the world.

Anita lived in New York for several years doing a gamut of different things including producing a TV series. Both her children were also born in New York but in time Anita decided to come back to India.

But she shares her knowledge of classical dance by teaching in 3 universities in the United States where she travels quite frequently.

Anita stands today in the cusp of change in a country like India that is going through enormous upheavals but she believes that as an artist that can multitask, be flexible and reinvent every five to seven years she can find ways of engaging. India is the only country where a mature artist even at the age of 70 and 80 is still respected whereas in the west a dancer stops dancing by 40 years!!

In spite of the increasing manufacturing and technological based world that we live in Anita believes that the LIVE human body presence is still powerful. She therefore celebrates this through music, dance and theatre as they bring the arts to us.

Anita has several unanswered questions but she hopes that they never get answered because she will have new questions and a bubble within her and so wakes every day (at 5 am) with several questions, waiting to end the day either with a WOW or a ahah moment. This is what excites her each and every day.

Anita has learnt to hide her wounds very effectively. Getting out of marriage was a wound but she went through with it as she did not want to diminish herself. The wounds have healed but the scars still remain. She is clear that she will not shy away from wounds.

Anita has always striven to be ahead of the curve, envisioning things that have not been done before.

This hunger to grow, this pursuit for excellence has kept her ahead of the curve.

Laying much emphasis on the care of her body which is “the machine that manufactures the output of the dance” Anita rehearses rigorously often pushing boundaries to maintain her body and mind for optimum results. She mentors urban young artists in this aspect and in the fact that a dancer cannot be unidimensional but must also be adept in other creative arts like painting, writing, poetry, pottery, sculpture etc. She feels that a dancer should cross pollinate between the visual, the plastic and the performing arts. So being a polymath she is able to multitask to bring in that professionalism in her field. She stresses the point that a person should not just learn to dance but should learn to let the art enrich the individuals to become better human beings. But she again emphasizes her loneliness in the pursuit of excellence as one also opens oneself to be a target of arrows, slingshots and all kinds of opinions.

As an artist she has to also be a prophet often foreseeing and prophesizing through her art a message, if even for a moment, that there is a potential and a horizon far beyond the next million dollars or the next physical material acquisition because that is what ART means –this indefinable intangible heritage.

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To Contact Anita Ratnam mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 003 9 | WOMANATION | March 2016

T he

‘NOBLE’

Novelis t

Arya Rajam is an author/novelist who was born in New York and brought up in Chennai in her grandmother’s house along with her brother. The name Arya means “noble” and true to her name she carries herself like a princess. Having grown up in an artistic family and environment it was no wonder that Arya was bitten by the creative bug when a teenager.

Arya always loved books from a young age, entranced with the idea of creating characters and stories and mold them into a novel. This fascination led her to some creative writing courses in Boston ,Iowa and other places where she fell in love with writing and the idea of becoming a writer. She does love this artistic place, seeking to write more novels in the future.

It’s the love for the art of writing and not money that drives Arya and she immerses herself in it .This resulted in Arya writing and publishing her first novel “Blood, Sweat and Tears “. Before this Arya wrote her first short story while still in College at the age of 19 when the passion of reading and the literary world shaped her. This habit formed early resulted in her first book where she loved writing the story and story line. The fact that one could create one’s own world with just a pen and paper and laptop fascinated her. This excitement comes from the fact that she feels she can keep doing it for the rest of her life.

Being in touch with creative people, Entrepreneurs with a creative bend and thinking about creative pursuits fills her with happiness and she often mingles with such people to keep her own creative juices flowing. This she feels enhances her life.She is emphatic when she states that true fulfillment comes from pursuing any kind of art be it painting, singing, dancing as its very relaxing irrespective of whatever work one does. She considers herself very lucky that coming from an artistic family she had the necessary backing to pursue her passion, something that not every young person can pursue as

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a career. She however would not advice any young person to pursue a full time vocation to be an author unless and otherwise one has the luxury of being born into a good family, where you don’t have to take up a routine job to sustain oneself. Her passion has however led her to pursue a simple life although she considers the fact that she does not have to struggle through life like many youngsters whose family invariably consider their wards useless unless they are able to monetize what they do and discourage them from pursuing an artistic life.

Arya remanences that although we live in a country that boasts of heritage and culture it’s sad that we don’t have a society that encourages people, often discouraging people who want to take up things like photography, art , music or other arts but herding them into engineering courses or medicine.

This is a far cry from countries like the US where you see people leading complete lives by being a juggler, painter of say graffiti art or making handmade jewelry .There, such people are accepted and applauded .There are also amazing courses abroad that you don’t hear of here in India for the arts ,like the Iowa creative writing workshop that she did. So she concludes that one can still make it if one is very passionate about their passions.

Arya hopes that one day she will teach her own courses in creative writing here in Chennai. She is proud of the fact of what she is and what she does as that is an important part of being an artist and she is particularly proud of the fact that she made a brave decision to be a novelist and taking the road less travelled and that she followed her heart., She is confident of facing what the future holds.

Arya wants to continue writing, she wants to grow as a human being, learn new languages and learn new things about the writing process itself and feels that unless she writes about five or six books she can’t say that she has mastered the art of writing. Arya also writes a regular column for the international luxury magazine called ‘Most Fabullous’.She wants to travel to many more countries to get inspiration for more books. Her first book has been received well by her readers and has garnered very positive feedback. The story is very different and is about a ballerina who is partly Russian and partly Indian and many young people were able to relate to it.

Arya is definitely hungry for more as she is often gripped with an obsessive passion to write more. Being a loner, she does enjoy her solitude, often shutting herself in her room and dreaming with her eyes open. She actually travelled to Russia where the story is set and she is so drawn to that country that some people even said that she probably had a past life there.

Arya also loves to speak to children and she has spent time speaking to school children and doing workshops. She also has an idea to do other things but prefers to keep that close to her chest as of now. One idea of course is that she has this great interest in organic farming and grows her own vegetables.

To Contact Arya Rajam mail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 004 11 | WOMANATION | March 2016

Amanda Selin Louis is youth power all the way and of course a woman never ceases to be on the top! Chennai has its ‘youngest leadership strategist’ at 25 years and her start up is breaking barriers with its unique approach to leadership.

Amanda set up ‘Persona’ in 2015, along with Jhon with an aim to help individuals and institutions that lack a competitive edge; accomplish a distinctive recognition combining the power of strategy, coaching and branding.

It was a little spark from a brainstorming session that led to the inception of Persona- India’s first Leadership Strategy firm.

The two communication strategy experts were about to give up on their efforts to help a startup be positioned as a Leader.

Little did they know that this very mandate would be the seed for their own start-up? In a world full of people where very few have the chance to become leaders, the basic recognition instinct for the rest was a million dollar question. Persona was formed as an answer. For, the art of leadership lies in the science of managing recognition.

Conventional leadership is defined within the boundaries of financial growth vertically. On the contrary, horizontal leadership brings in a radical approach that defines leadership in perception on par with vertical accomplishments.

You could be a professional or an entrepreneur, a socialite or a politician; with a need to be projected and perceived a Leader.

Persona will help identify, coach, brand and communicate your strategic intent in your leadership pursuit. With a heart full of passion to realize their clients dreams of becoming leadership brands, Persona has devised a distinctive framework ‘ The Persona Way’ that charts the journey of a brand from leadership recognition to leadership reputation.

Within months of being founded, the startup had garnered tremendous response leading the founders to consult with prominent brands and personalities both in India and abroad.

Strategy being their core skillset, Amanda and Jhon today are the city’s most sought after communication strategists.

Horizontal

Leadership To Contact Amanda Selin mail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 005

According to Amanda, The need for recognition is huge amongst both individuals and institutions and this is the market Persona would want to reach out to. Anyone with an aspiration to identify their leadership persona and communicate their leadership potential; is a prospect.

The company that currently combines the power of strategy with coaching and branding soon plans to integrate technology as well for the purpose of monitoring and analytics to make its service more efficient for its clients.

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Anjali Rajagopal grew up very impressed with the people successful in the social economic and political worlds as was her Dad. She was a very curious, competitive and outgoing and life was rosy. She never took No for an answer from anyone not even from God. She was adaptive, she was resilient always kept the eyes on the ball and reached her goals. She treasured her life, got the education she wanted.

She connected well with people and lots of people gravitated towards her. Anjali grew up in a very close knit family consisting of her Dad, Mum and a brother.

But in the middle of all this life punched out a few years of her life when she met with a dilapidating car accident on the Chennai-Bangalore highway in 2002. Anjali was 19. Her mother, hurt badly was in the orthopedic

Anjali started off heading the PR division in her dads company, Indian Terrain, as PR Director. Anjali then got an opportunity to host a show on NDTV Hindu as also be a RJ with Chennailive.

She then joined a course in New York University on PR and Corporate Communication and she realized that there was a lot of scope for PR in India and convincing people through credibility. She got picked out by one of her professors who was a partner in one of the biggest agencies in New York called partners. This was a grueling experience but she was glad that she could marry both her employment experience and education .Anjali then came back to India in 2013 to do a dissertation on ‘PR in India’. During the course of this research it dawned on Anjali that the time was right for her to start her own enterprise and so Touche PR (pronounced Too Shay) was born about a year and a half ago. Her goal here is to be a thought leader in this field besides money, fame etc. Touché is a creative PR agency that works hand in hand with clients to fulfill their brand vision. Due to her foreign exposure Anjali has her fingers on global PR trends and this helps her be ahead of the curve.

ICU as Anjali was flown to the US for extensive surgery each lasting an average 23 hours and with excruciating pain. Anjali had to draw on all her inner strength hoping that the doctors would do their best. While lot of people talk of an outer body experience, for Anjali it was an inner body experience. At that point Anjali had lost her vision and she had to keep telling her mind, as advised by her doctors who said that they could only fight the backend whereas she had to fight her body and mind to avoid going to sleep. So the challenge was to keep her mind awake while it and the body wanted to sleep. Added to that since her jaw had splintered in several places the whole jaw had to be restructured. It had to be kept without moving till it completely healed and that was 8 months and so a period of absolute silence where she

Rising Like A Phoneix

Having narrowed the sectors that she would work with Anjali found her greatest traction in the Hotel and Restaurant industry and there are very many success stories that she has carved in this sector. Anjali explains that Touche PR is not like the run of the mill PR agency but very different in keeping with her American sensibilities and her Chennai base.

saw humanity at its best and at its worst. More than the physical pain the emotional pain was even worse as she could not talk to her own mother for more than 2 years Added to this Anjali contracted meningitis as she was prone to falling sick after the accident. She resented life, she resented the fact that she went on that trip to Bangalore and her mother felt guilty taking her on that trip. Also after the accident Anjali needed a whole lot of validation to come to terms with life. She felt irrelevant. She felt fat and ugly as the disfigurement was real and people reacted when they saw her face.

During all that trauma Anjali just prayed for strength and in every fiber of her being she pulled herself from the brink so to say, but her mind and body came together to face new life. She definitely believes in a higher power and that regulates her life. Initially there was a lot of anger in her but she realized that if she were to regain the energy to live her life she could not afford to expend that energy with such negative thoughts. She refused to self-sabotage her life by taking the pity path. Anjali is proud of the fact that she clawed her way back to life. She completed her degree, started a company on her own. Her goals have remained constant in spite of these impediments and the higher the challenges the higher her goals but her resilience kept her moving on after the accident. She used to be more of a risk taker then but a lot of effort went into getting her life back together.

People come to her now for help, as a person Anjali likes to plan her life but the key thing is that her experiences have taught her that it’s always good to have a ‘plan b’ as I learnt that anything can happen tomorrow. So she is a lot more careful and she considers several outcomes without taking anything for granted.

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To Contact Anjali Rajagopalimail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 006

Her plans for the future is to take Touche PR national but also in different sectors. She rues the fact that there is not a quality talent pool available. Since many people come to Anjali for help she is also planning to start a Trauma counselling Company called Face It. She would also do one on one counselling in a structured, cent percent confidential program and is working on several modules. This should bring solace to a lot of people.

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Anuradha Bisani is an Arts Graduate, with a passion for painting, drawing and creating fine lines. She was inspired by her mother who taught and encouraged her. Without any formal training in designing, she did what came to her naturally, and that was putting all those ideas and beautiful thoughts in designing clothes initially for her friends and extending the same to varied clientele for the past 23years where she started from scratch to where the fashion industry recognizes her for the work she does.

Anuradha was just eighteen and in the second year of College in UP when her parents decided to get her married. The fact that her place was not safe and that her very first proposal was a good one prompted her parents to persuade her to make the transition from a college student to a housewife.

PASSION FOR FASHION Anuradha came to Chennai to her husband’s home and found herself very lonely when her husband and in laws left for work. Soon her first daughter arrived in this world and kept her busy. It was at this time that Anu’s mom kept sending her stuff for her first grandchild, unique stuff which you don’t see or find in the market.

Since Anuradha wanted to do something instead of sitting simply and her husband suggested to her as to why she could not start making such stuff for others also. And this her passion for designing and sewing took wings. This she started making ‘just born’ stuff for other moms.

With the support of her husband Krishna and Childreen she has never looked back.

There was a great demand for the things that she made and very soon Anu started retailing them in shops in Patni plaza ,Naidu hall etc who often mistook it for imported stuff!! So good was the quality of the things she made.

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As her child grew she started stitching beautiful clothes for her and Anus friends requested her to make clothes for their kids as well.

So she whole - heartedly got into designing and stitching clothes for kids.In her early days Anu used to make skirts out of her dads trousers which would otherwise be given away and Anu’s mom seeing her design abilities honed her skills in stitching and sewing.

Anu’s artist and painting abilities also helped her design sensibilities in terms of color choice and fabric choice and thus was born the fashion designer Anuradha.

Anu now has a boutique on the first floor of her house and a tailoring unit on the second floor. Many visit her to choose her clothes fdor occasions like weddings, engagements and also for photoshoots.

Anu’s passion for fashion designing has often times made her give it away for free as some people have exploited her to take things away without paying when she was new and naïve in the business .

A lot of people also used her outfits for photoshoots for magazines etc without giving her credit for her creations. She is now definitely older and wiser in her dealings now.

Anuradhaa believes that fashion is what makes a person feel comfortable and confident about themselves. Being an artist as well as a designer, her eye for color can be seen in her clothes. With Indian festive wear being her area of expertise, she fuses traditional handwork with rich, ethnic colors to create opulent saris, ghagracholis and salary suits under her label called Anuradhaa.

Anu is now proud of the fact that she is a recognizable face in the fashion industry in Chennai now. She is a sought after designer for several stage shows. She remembers the first ever show she had committed to and was very excited about it. But as fate would have it she lost her mother suddenly and lost about 15 days or so. The organizer of the show anxiously wondered if Anu could complete the work and at that time Anu had just 2 machines. But again her people came to her rescue bringing in their own machines and completed the work well on time. She was invited to the show and she was even apprehensive of seeing the show cause in her mind she had these doubts if she had done full justice to the clothes. But as it turned out the show was a huge success and the organizer invited her on stage and honored her. Even her Mother in law who often critiqued her clapped her hands to show her genuine appreciation for Anu who in spite of difficult times had some out winners!

Today many celebrities even wear her creations although they may not acknowledge it openly but Anu is happy that she has found her calling. She relies on word of mouth endorsement for her clothes and that seems to be the most effective marketing strategy for her.

She has done some high profile fashion shows with her creations the recent one being the navy ball. She has also done the fashion styling for some high profile magazine covers. She has showcased her work in 3 seasons of Chennai International Fashion Week, Coast Guard Ballroom 2012 and 2016 and various jewelry shows.

Anuradha is also invited to Judge many fashion shows including by Colleges like IIT for their Saarang festival.

To Contact Anuradha Bisanimail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 007 17 | WOMANATION | March 2016

Chhavi was born and brought up in Meerut in UP along with her 4 sisters and brother who till date are a close knit family. After marriage Chhavi relocated to Chennai as her husband was from here. Many things changed after marriage but she had an extremely supportive husband who constantly encouraged her to pursue her passions.

This resulted in her taking painting classes for ladies and students for about 3 to 4 years. Many of her students won awards and got their paintings in newspapers and magazines often attributing their success to her teachings.

Celebrating

Positivity

Chhavi kalra is a multifaceted person who wears many hats. She is a professional artist, a Reiki Grand Master, a Counselor, a Healer, a Musician and singer.

She has also run marathons, walked the ramp and is a Brand Ambassador for Chennai turns Pink.

The first thing you notice about Chhavi, other than the radiant smile, is her ankle length hair which really is her crowning glory! She is modest enough to say that all her talents are God given but when you probe you find that she has been passionate in pursuing her talents and her love for whatever she chooses to do. Her motivation to pursue the above comes from the peace and satisfaction she gets from pursuing what she does.

To Contact Chhavi Kalra mail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 008 1818 | WOMANATION | March 20162016 | WOMANATION | March

She started painting at a very early age with the staunch support of her parents and more so an uncle who, surprised at her affinity to art, motivated her to hold her own art exhibitions. The people just lapped it up and many exhibitions followed. She would paint day and night to complete the paintings for the exhibitions and the pride of her parents often got her going. Most of her paintings were based on current topics and events that touched her, to bring awareness in people. Many awards followed which helped build her self-confidence even more.

The proceeds from her paintings were invariably donated to charities.

Wanting to share her success with others Chhavi started bringing out the best in others, recognizing the talents that others possess but realizing that they needed someone to guide them. This prompted her to study Reiki and healing techniques as she could use these to heal people without even touching them and by distant healing. Somehow Chhavi is able to get people to open up to her and share their problems and she in turn gets her satisfaction by helping them get rid of their problems and depression.

People connect with her to share their problems and call her constantly but she is happy when they don’t call as that would mean that she has helped them solve their problems.

When questioned about how Chhavi maintains her flowing hair she smiles and says a lot of effort goes into it as she knows that nothing comes easy. She loves her uniqueness and passion in all that she does not really bothering what others think or coping anyone else. This is how one can build their own identity.

Her husband and her two sons have been a real blessing to her. Her husband ,who is extremely proud of her, and she give space for each other but are there when they need each other and her two sons move with her like friends, often spending time with them when they need her.

Chhavi has a Facebook page in which she posts quotations from many famous people often in poetic form. People seeing these are invariably drawn to her and she is able to counsel them effectively. She does this to ensure that people are happy and always have a smile on their faces.

Being an expressive and open person she is able to express many such happy thoughts in words and people benefit and it’s a ripple effect from then on.

Music is again God’s gift to her. Ever since she was a small child Chhavi started writing poetry in Urdu much to the pride of her parents. Often singing and painting to music she decided to pursue this talent by getting a key board and also learnt to play the sitar in which she got distinction. She used to play the sitar till her fingers bled but she would still continue with a band aid on her fingers.Such was the passion with which she learnt her new skills. Her dream of owning a piano is a reality with a grand piano in her drawing room on which she plays for hours.

She strongly encourages people to try out new things as she feels that she would never have discovered her talents if she has not tried. That’s how everyone can bring out their best qualities.

Then satisfaction and happiness follows.

People should think about themselves instead of keeping idle and talking about others she feels.

This will keep them positive rather than being negative. She loves to see the positive side of people and the good in people as this helps to also learn from others. The more you learn the more you are at peace and satisfied with yourself and happy is her philosophy.

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Motion Creates EMOTION

To Contact Andrea Jacob mail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 009 Andrea Jacob, is a performing artist, fitness enthusiast, creative movement specialist. Her areas of expertise include dance, choreography, direction, movement therapy, theatre, well being and spreading the joy of movement.She has worked with neonates as well as octogenarians.

Apart from her passion, she spends 50 percent of her time with NGO’s spreading the power of movement and it’s impact on the body as a healing tool. The places she works are orphanages, old age homes, prison and juvenile homes. She is married to a loving husband. She is an avid animal lover too.

The thought of waking up each morning and making a difference using her talents and inborn strengths, has brought Andrea to this place in her life. She made it a point that every 2 years in her career she would explore one aspect that makes her more unique and approachable. Loving her family, animals and sharing the joy of life with every person that comes her way are the most important things to her. The fact that no one can replace her ideals, methods and the manner in which she represents herself will always be unique and this she considers to be her personal victory. The need to share her inner knowing of understanding movement is her motivation.

There was a phase in her life, when she was trying to set limitations on herself by trying to become something that didn’t represent her identity. As a result of which she was becoming negative and

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was choosing negative options in her personal relationships too. Yet, the one good thing that came out from all of this was that Andrea gained an eternal truth that she can handle any tough situation thrown at her and was mentally and physically prepared for the same.

Andrea’s mentors include her father, who taught her the art of structure, systematic approach. Her mother, who instilled in her the need for inner strength and determination her Kindergarten teacher, who taught her that learning can be fun and her grandmother, who taught her to celebrate life. Her entire profession has grown because of self worth. She has learnt 70 percent of her skill through self discovery and innovation and 30 percent from training and associating with different performing artists. Andrea’s main strength is that she understand energy of a person and groups really well. She has worked at TISS, Mumbai along with Banyan, creative movement workshop for corporation schools comprising of 6000 kids organized by AISEC, Chennai at St, George’s School grounds, Movement therapy at Puzhal Prison, Chennai for wardens across Tamilnadu and counsellors. Andrea’s theatre experiments include original scripts on social messages at American International School, Chennai and Sunshine School (70 member cast) Chennai. Andrea’s dance workshops at Saarang, IIT and NIT, Suratkal- Mangalore. (300 numbers).

Her dance workshops were covered by NDTV good times, radio networks Chennailive104.8 fm and Mirchi 94.3fm. She also performed Salsa to Tamil music for Chennai Sangamam festival to an audience of 7000 people, She also has performed with Cine stars in Malaysia and Singapore. She also performed contemporary dance festivals at Europe, Germany, Italy and Netherlands.

Andrea’s biggest business success is that she hasn’t advertised about her line of business.

People have understood her value and have recommended her business. Andrea says that people want to do business with her because her ideals have an essence that will have a positive impact on society. Five years from now, Andrea hopes that her online forum will serve a platform where people can contribute globally towards changing ideals.

She strongly believes that we really have to keep our eyes open and discover new meanings for life and learn to share the same, as the more we do, the more we leave room for exploration from within.

Acceptance My life is a simple one, just like each one of yours, except for the fact that I feel it is weird! Why do I call it ‘weird’, you will know as you read through.

I remember the nights I have forced myself to fall asleep without realizing when the tears had dried up. It is said that all human beings have been given this life unto them to meet a purpose. I was fortunate enough for having known the purpose of life, well ahead. My Brother, his disabilities with which he entered this world proved to be the purpose of my existence.

To Contact Chetna Bafna mail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0010 He is 16 years old now (2 years younger to me) who was diagnosed to have a very rare syndrome in this country, called the DAMP syndrome (Deficit in Attention Motor and Perception) when he was 8 months old. He has no physical disabilities, though his cognition is poor. He wasn’t able to walk, speak , was literally not able to do anything earlier. At present, He is able to walk, He speaks in 3-4 word phrase level. He eats by himself, He performs his ADL’S with a little assistance, He is hypersensitive to loud sounds, He has sensory

I had always wanted to write, since I have a strong passion towards writing. For a long time I would think what to write, but it always had a pause, a weird thought of ‘what to write’, which would end the process. But today, when I had experienced a pleasant feel, I decided to give this feel of mine “a form”, through words, that is this very first story of mine! and motor issues , He also has behavioral issues at present.All these issues have made his life tough . The society tags him mad, since they are unaware of the underlying medical cause. My Mother, is more than what you call an inspiration.

She had no clue she would have a child with multiple disabilities when she was 23. She geared up herself, started taking my little brother to all possible therapies. She volunteered for 8 years at the special school , which my brother attended.

She was a 10th pass out , and so in 2012 she did her 12th grade at NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) she then pursued her course Diploma in Autism Spectrum Disorder and has proved herself to be a professionally trained special educator . Though she is not working currently, she helps other parent’s by giving them counseling, strategies and ideas to make their children better in all aspects. Dad, a business man, is a calm composed introvert. He has been the constant source of support.

There was this phase of time when my mother fell sick, and I had to be more responsible, rather be more like a mother to my brother. I did everything which my mother did for the past 28 years being constantly with him giving both physical and verbal support the whole time. Till this point of life, I kept criticizing my life, complaining about the things which weren’t going right. Perhaps today , I ACCEPTED, accepted that my life isn’t like others, life isn’t easy, life isn’t that bad. I realized that hanging out with friends every weekend is not life, having perfect hair is not life, having a normal life is not a big deal. I realized that everyone has problems in life, everyone. Today my brother is my inspiration, for me to join a paramedical course BASLP (Bachelor in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology), which deals with persons having hearing and speech disabilities.

My personal cause has now become a social cause, to create awareness and serve people with disabilities.

Chetna also wrote most of the copy in this magazine!!

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Harini Ramachandran, popularly known as ‘Singer Megha’ in the Film Industry, is also the Co-creator of Technology of Excellence Installations and endorsed to be one of the Finest in Neuro Linguistic Programming in the world, today. Through her powerful work, she has transformed the lives of Thousands of people from over 10 countries who have come all the way to go through Complete Transformation.

She has worked with Padma Bhushan Awardees, Sports professionals, Chairman and Directors of the Fortune 500 companies, Entrepreneurs, Students, Teachers etc. to help them Evolve their Personal Excellence and achieve much more, in the shortest time. Some of her most incredible work include medically impossible cases such as rare forms of Paralysis, where the patients have regained movements, that has been considered a medical marvel.

Harini is also a renowned playback singer who has worked with legendary music directors like A R Rahman, Ilayaraja, Harris Jayaraj and G V Prakash, having over 75 songs to her credit across languages with 500 ad jingles and counting! She has recently taken to songwriting and composing as well, and will be releasing her own productions, soon.

To Contact Harini mail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0011 2222 | WOMANATION | March 20162016 | WOMANATION | March

Harini discovered her passion for music at a very young age and nurtured it all the way with formal training in Carnatic Classical music in Bangalore, where she did all of her schooling. As the great grand daughter of the legendary carnatic composer Late Papanasam Sivan, music came to her as a blessing, quite naturally. Composer Ilayaraja’s

lead guitarist Sadanandam, under whose tutelage she was learning to play the guitar, discovered her singing abilities and invited her to sing in documentaries and ad jingles. On his encouragement, Harini gave her childhood dream a shot - playback singing! Her first break happened with 2 songs in the film Naan Avan Illai for music director Vijay Antony in 2007. From then on, she has gone onto singing a variety of different genres in films across all South Indian Languages. She’s also an able Western Classical vocalist and has performed as a soloist for the 116-year old Chennai choir called the Madras Musical Association in numerous concerts.

Alongside her pursuits in music, Harini also worked with event management companies and then had a brief stint in Corporate Human Resources and Learning Management where she explored various roles and rose to the top quickly. In one of these interactions, she met with Antano Solar John, now an International thought leader in Neuro Linguistic Programming and also the Co-Founder of the Group of companies that Antano & Harini have ventured into, together. He helped her in a single session, overcome her inability to remember song lyrics! She usually performed with a lyrics book on stage. In one session, when she overcame this challenge, it liberated her in totality! Surprisingly, it had a profound impact in other aspects of her life as well to the extent famous music directors who did not know that she had gone through an Excellence Installation experience like this, actually made comments on how her singing has gotten superior now. Even at work, all the way from an intern, she rose to doing High-end Consultative selling of Learning Management products. The speed at which she grew was phenomenal. Curious as to how one session of 45 minutes can having such a powerful impact, she explored further, the art of identifying what Changes in an Individual can have a Butterfly effect in their life. And then onto, actually making those changes using the fastest and most effective technology of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). Harini & Antano in the early days, practiced together, obsessively and compulsively, to Master the art of Identifying unconscious internal processes that had to be changed and actually making the change. They are personally mentored by Dr. John Grinder, Co-creator of NLP, who has also earlier mentored people like Tony Robbins. Harini & Antano experimented working with several individuals and eventually Co-founded ‘School of Excellence’ with the quest to make Excellence Installations available to people at large, and now have several other ventures for helping people Overcome Limitations, go beyond their current best, and Evolve their Personal Excellence.

Music with NLP. One of the Signature offerings of Harini & Antano is called uP! - where they do a Consultation with the Individual to discover where they are, what they want and specifically identify what Changes will enable them to make a Big Leap in their Life. Post the Consultation, they are invited to a 6-day Event delivered by the duo where they perform personalized and targeted Excellence Installations.

Installations are where Changes are happening, and most times the individual does not exactly know what is changing but the consequence of these changes for years is them being able to Perform like never before - where they are building powerful relationships, becoming powerful communicators, charismatic personalities, with peak-performance states on-demand, naturally. Post the 6-days, Antano & Harini’s team deliver support for the next three years. Each of these individuals also have an open invitation to attend the 6-day Installations event again, in the next 3 years, each time benefitting from personalized Installations from Harini & Antano. The effectiveness of the uP! Program is unparalleled.

There has been heavy demand for making uP! Available across the world. They have just made their launch in Dubai and Thailand, and towards late 2016, they will be touring all over USA as well.

Saving Time, Living a meaningfully active & happy life, Achieving miles and miles fast seems to be the Mantra of Harini’s life. She believes, don’t take 10 years to achieve something you can in 4. Evolving Personal Excellence, getting over limiting beliefs and habits, living with emotional mastery, is the Key to Quick, Sustainable and Fulfilling growth, she affirms. All her ventures today do just this - Excellence Installations for a Superior Life. Together, Harini & Antano are building a base to make Excellence Installations available to Millions of people across the world using Technology at it’s best. Several Venture Capitalists are eyeing investments in this billion-dollar opportunity.

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from

Insights Cooking Hazeena Seyad feels that there is nothing much out of the box to say about herself but that only goes to prove how much down to earth she is and her humbleness. She would just like to be known as the girl next door who is passionate about cooking. Coming for a Muslim family she is attentive to the needs of her husband and her two children and her traditional values.

Cooking excites her and food cheers her up with joy ,not the eating but the cooking and seeing others enjoy what she cooks. She therefore craves to learn more and more about cooking. While her family is her first priority she is proud that the world has recognized her cooking abilities. If she had any limitations she has channelized it through the right way. This she will credit her children as they motivated her to realize to stop wishing and start doing.

With her daughter being married off and her son becoming independent Hazeena had a lot of free time on her hands. The urge to keep herself busy led her to pursue her passion for cooking. She started a blog Saute, Fry and bake with the help of her son and his friend. There was a huge response to this from family, friends and even strangers and there was no looking back.

Hazeena was a young wife at the age of 14 and 25 years of married life and the experiments in her kitchen turned her into a self-taught passionate cook focused into food and cooking.

The memorable meals that she provided to her family and friends for 25 years propelled her to share the secrets of her cooking skills with great apprehension in her mind. Thus was started the Facebook page Sauté, Fry n Bake. Seeing the response from my cousins , relatives , friends and their friends and the encouragement given by the followers of this Facebook page she was persuaded to start her own cooking classes about four years ago under the name Sauté , Fry n Bake which resulted in a Tamil cook book .

Apart from conducting cooking classes she kept herself busy by sharing recipes on her web site www. sautefrynbake.com , face book page Sauté , Fry n Bake and Tamil monthly magazine Pothigai Saaral . Recently Hazeena also started a YouTube channel. She started writing anecdotes in her web site for each recipe she shared. Besides this she does Recipe development for restaurants as well and last but not least she is on a mission to keep lesser known “Ravuthar” traditional recipes from slipping into food oblivion.

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Not Looking outside of herself for value Hazeena has been able to gain confidence to write her first cook book even though she is a school dropout. This has given her self-respect, self-worth and selflove and this is a important take away that she wishes to share with others.

A dedicated person Hazeena is grateful to her husband and her family for the facilities at home in terms of space and time to pursue her dream. Therefore she does not consider this as a business but her immense passion towards food and cooking .The hardships and challenges she faced when releasing her cook book sure made life interesting and overcoming them made life meaningful and taught her some important life lessons.

Hazeena is full of insights and learning from pursuing her passion for food and cooking.

She says with pride that “self-worth is achieved through ourselves, Impact follows when you understand you’re potential and bring it to light by putting in maximum and sincere hard work”.

Her mother - in - law from whom she learnt the basics of cooking , her father who taught her the art of being patient and her mother from whom she learnt the art of being sophisticated .She learnt that unless it’s mad, extra ordinary and passionate love in what you do it’s a waste of time as there are too many mediocre things around in life .

The important things like abundance she explains is not something she acquired but tuned into with an open mind and attracted it through visualization and affirmations. Hazeena is now giving back, sharing naturally her knowledge of food and cooking and receiving unconditional love and appreciation. Her advice is therefore to give without expectations.

Cooking or food is not a business for Hazeena as she is certain that gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. Sales may go up and down. Service stays forever that’s her motto as a satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.

Hazeena’s never ending lifelong learning thus proves to be a rich source of Knowledge to others and you wonder if there can be so much learning from simply cooking !!

To Contact Hazeena Seyad mail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0012

25 | WOMANATION | March 2016

Gayathri Krishnamoorthy has several sides to her personality. On one side she loves to be a leader and strategize and take her company forward meticulously, having all systems in order and on the other, she wants to chase her passions as a dancer, artist and creative person. Her husband a well-known Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Ennapadam S. Krishnamoorthy has often suggested to her that she is more right brained; she often retorts by saying that he hasn’t tapped her left-brain effectively!

Gayathri loves to think, strategize and be intuitive in the sense that she is often able to predict where things should be in the future. But most of her principles and core values come from her childhood, which was spent predominantly in Alleppey & Coimbatore.

Her parents who lived in tea plantations did not want to put her in a hostel; so she grew up with her grandparents and (then) very young aunt and maternal uncle who inculcated many of her core values. Being a people’s person, she loved the joint family system and the Tambrahm background she grew up in.

Ancient Wisdom, Redefined!

Marriage followed soon after she graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, at a time when she was planning to pursue the MBA. Her hobby astrologist uncle sealed the deal. Blessed with a baby boy Aditya within a year of her marriage, she moved to the UK to join her husband who was pursuing his higher studies there. The family lived in Newcastle upon Tyne for a year before they moved to London for four more. At her mother and toddler group in London, she met a senior lady executive who persuaded her to join Northern Telecom (Nortel) as her marketing intern. This led her to enroll in the Masters in Marketing Management program at the Middlesex University Business School in North London. Her dissertation was with WorldTel UK and explored the potential of Internet marketing for small businesses in India.

The family moved from London to Singapore in 2000 where her husband took on a short

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assignment. Returning to India in the year 2001, she carried out market research for Reliance Industries, generating considerable and useful feedback on their polyester fiberfill for pillows and upholstery. In Chennai, Gayathri also helped set up their multidisciplinary neuropsychiatry center and foundation, eventually to become NEUROKRISH www.neurokrish.com a well recognized national brand for brain and mind disorders, specializing in patient care innovations, education and research. Their second son Yajur was born during this period.

In 2009, excited by the positive feedback from their patients, about the benefit of traditional systems of medicine like Ayurveda & Yoga, they established a pilot project, an integrative family health center, Tejas in Chennai. Over time, the Krishnamoorthys’ together with another couple Dr. Rema Raghu & Raghu V (a business professional) have grown this into TRIMED www.trimedtherapy.com India’s first

chain of integrative medical therapy centers that combine modern medical science with the wisdom of ancient medical systems. So named because every patient experiences a combination of at least three therapeutic systems, TRIMED now offers 10 treatment verticals: Acupressure, Acupuncture, Ayurveda, Hydrotherapy, Mud Therapy, Naturopathy, Physiotherapy, Psychological counseling, Reflexology & Yoga.

Constantly innovating, Gayathri , a fitness enthusiast herself, is now leading the introduction of Pilates, a Western mindbody-movement technique into TRIMED and has partnered with a European expert, Maria Larsen, in this quest. Efforts are thus continually ongoing in TRIMED to integrate a range of traditions and systems as part of the therapy offered.

Passionate about interiors, Gayathri devotes considerable time and effort to ensure that their centers are designed to be warm, welcoming and patient friendly, representing wellness rather than illness to those who visit. TRIMED has grown organically from its pilot center in 2009 to become a multi-locational chain in Chennai. Indeed, having received its first round of formal angel investment, TRIMED is set to go beyond Chennai in the forthcoming fiscal. Gayathri also shares proudly TRIMED’s success in becoming paperless by developing its own electronic health record (EHR) that is meticulously maintained by their staff, for clients. “Everyone in our team carries a tablet with them 24X7”. With social concern for the differently abled child and elderly in mind, NEUROKRISH & TRIMED have joined hands to launch India’s first mobile integrative therapy unit. An ambulance donated to them by Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance Ltd. part of the company’s CSR efforts, has been converted into a airconditioned mobile unit that will take care and therapy to the doorstep of those who find mobility a challenge.

Gayathri rues the skepticism about the so-called alternate systems of medicine. While these systems may not have been adequately researched, she points out that they have existed for centuries and there exists considerable experiential proof of their efficacy. TRIMED with its detailed assessment and process-based approach to integrative therapy does hope to bridge this knowledge gap. Gayathri also feels that it is important to create awareness about integrative medicine and its huge potential for those with pain, medical disability, mental health and lifestyle issues. To this end both NEUROKRISH & TRIMED organize a range of “raising awareness” activities.

Lectures by experts, workshops, health camps; and two regular newsletters, Neurolinks & TriMed Thoughts that reach as many as 20000 doctors and eminent people in society are part of these efforts. Indeed, they are now chronicling range of success stories in a soon to be published coffee table book “Beyond Medication”. Disability and ill health, get back on their feet. Emerging medical entrepreneur, interior decorator, fitness enthusiast with a passion of Zumba and now Pilates, social enthusiast with a large circle of friends, she however is clear that her greatest pride and joy comes from “being mom” to two lovely boys.

To Contact Gayathri Krishnamoorthy mail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0013 27 | WOMANATION | March 2016

The CEO of her company is clearly her mentor, an example of a person constantly going out and doing new things. Her parent company, the Muthoot group has always been very supportive and helping everyone at the station grow, experiment with new formats and what keeps people active and alive. They have also recently gone online The CEO has definitely motivated and inspired her and the people that she meets every day. As the name of the station chennailive states, every city comes alive with its people and so the people constantly inspire her to go out there and do more.

YOUR DAILY BREAKFAST VOICE Jane Jeyakumar is the voice that makes your commute every morning tolerable. Interspacing music with some lively talk. Jane makes sure that you enjoy your morning rides rather than resenting it by the kind of sometime inspiring, sometime informative tit bits that she keeps telling you. She is an RJ with Chennailive 104.8 FM Chennai’s only talk radio station in fact India’s only talk radio station and it’s all English with a little bit of Tamil thrown in now and then. So you can say that Chennailive is a bi lingual talk radio station. Jane just can’t stop loving what she does!! She has been with Chennailive the last 7 years from its inception.

Having been stressed out in a 9 to God knows what time corporate Job, Jane knew it was time to bust the stress. A friend’s “Hey check out this job” turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Jane fell for the radio station lock stock and barrel as it looked like a modern space station which was cool and found herself in with a guest coordination where it was her job to get interesting people into the studio to share their experiences. This was followed by a stint in programming and then into marketing and finally a part of the sales team selling the business of radio.

Jane remembers with immense pride as to how all the RJs along with her put up a brave front and stayed at the station for over 100 hours connecting people of TN with all across the world to their loved ones during the recent Chennai floods. In short they helped the city come back and it was good to see the spirit of Chennai outshine everything else.

She loves to say that she is from this city which is resilient, beautiful and full of culture and lots of happiness Jane loves to talk and so whether its hosting events or hosting a radio show or doing interviews of people who are off beat, who are popular and who are famous. Whenever it is necessary for a human being to communicate to another person some people can do it effortlessly, some people just love doing it. That’s why she is where she is. And overall in life she likes that motto to be kept on and she loves to make people happy and be happy herself as she realizes that the person with happiness is more and is the simple reason we all exist. That’s what makes her wake up every day and say hey you know what, I am going to be happy, make someone else happy and that’s what it’s all about.

So in the last seven years jane has understood what it is to successfully run a local community radio station and that has kept her going and alive. She is happy shew started at the lowest level and has climbed the rungs to really understand and run a local community radio station. Jane is emphatic that it’s the people in the community who run the content and also derive the benefits as well. So for Jane life has been an endless lovely music, some great talk and lots of laughs and that’s why she loves her job.

Jane is passionate about people whether its kids or young adults or established men and women and whether its art or literature or music. It is such a fabulous story. Everyone has a new story to tell. She knows she cannot lead multiple lives but she can live through others. Its beautiful to meet new people and she gets to meet people of all kinds and all walks of life and that gives her immense pleasure. She loves live radio as she gets to talk to people, she gets to hear their stories and everyday when she hits the bed she knows she has read a new chapter in her own life and that’s why she does what she does.

She is passionate about it and she continues to do radio.

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To Contact Jane Jeyakumar mail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0014

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Dr. Johara Cruz is a dental surgeon and prosthodontist, who is currently working as a professor in Sathyabama Dental University. She loves teaching, and the passion towards teaching the art of dentistry has brought her to this position in her professional life. Johara regards her daughter, students, and the passion to succeed as her motivation.

Jayashree Lakshmi Narayanan is a production designer also known as an Art Director, born and brought up in Chennai. She didn’t start off with art direction but in Broadcasting and Communications since she loved films and art, she was able to combine both. Her first tryst with art direction started when she worked with Rajeevan Nambiar in a movie called Yezham Arivu. She has as on date done 14 films as an Assistant art director and independently she has worked as Art Director in 5 films.

It has taken a while for Jayshree to reach where she is today but she feels that if one is passionate about what one does you ultimately reach where you want to be.

Johara considers her seven year old daughter, who is nonverbal as the most important person in her personal life. Johara says, her greatest personal victory is to be a single parent, raising her child on her own as well as being successful in her professional life.

According to Johara, self-worth is achieved by dedication, honesty and the willingness to work hard, because she believes that anything that is good does not come easy. She confesses that her self-worth is defined by the people around her, because she is constantly faced with opportunity where she reaches out to help people and people reach out to her.

Johara states that her dad was her first mentor. Johara tags her strong passion to be a very essential factor, since her passion has led her to meet different mentors at different points of time in her life.

While it’s not easy to be a women in a very male dominated industry down south. Jayashree says that the ratio of men and women in a place like Mumbai is pretty even and that made her go to Mumbai to pursue her profession as she was probably the only one here in Chennai. She feels that being the only women is both an advantage and a disadvantage, the advantage being that it could be the USP when she is the only women Art director and people are pretty much open to ideas from women and the disadvantage is that people do take their time to get used to the idea of a woman Art director as it’s something new. This is not like a regular 9 to 5 job as most movies have budget constraints and are time specific. So there are many a time when she had to work long and arduous hours to complete projects on time.

Jayashree has stuck to her regular team of carpenters, molders and painters and this has made the task a bit easier. But it’s not as if that her workers work full time with her as they all need to come under the film union and most of them are freelancers working with several art directors simultaneously.

Johara’s daughter Nessa, being diagnosed with learning disorder was her life-altering event. That event in Johara’s life made her accept that each individual has different abilities and just because there are not good at things others do, does not mean that they are no good at all.

She says that her daughter, Nessa has also taught her to be a better teacher. This also resulted in Johara starting a school for children with learning challenges as her firsthand experience helps her to emphasize with other parents.

During Johara’s childhood, her parents supported her immensely and hence she was able to complete her education successfully. Simultaneously, her parents also encouraged her to be independent in her profession .So becoming a professional today and living life as a single parent are the greatest challenge that she is overcoming at present.

Johara states that gratitude is a very humbling experience that makes one realize the value of people, opportunities and brings one to the realization of reality. Johara says that people should do business with her, because she is honest and she believes in giving her best.

Johara strongly believes that everyone is capable of doing more than they think and she says that she does not really know what she would do five years later, because she believes in living one day at a time. But none the less, Johara says, it is only the willingness and determination that can make anything and everything possible in the world.

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SMILE ENHANCING TEACHER To Contact Dr. Johara Cruz mail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0015

Jayshree is of course proud of the fact that she was one of the first women Art Directors down south. She started off with Directors Mysskin’s Pissasu. Right now Jayashree has being doing a few Malayalam films. Her work involves first designing the sets and that means giving about 8 to 10 designs for the set. As a designer Jayshree also does conceptual design for restaurants etc Jayshree has started her own design studio –STUDIO TAKSHAN. The dream is real now. She would like to work on upcycling materials. While Jayshree relies upon word of mouth references to get more jobs, it is also important to build ones contacts in the industry. As of now Jayashree only works on one movie at a time giving her full attention and concentration but with the experience gained she is confident of taking on two movies at a time. Since a lot of creativity is involved she wants to give her 100% , doesn’t wants to lose that if she works on multiple movies at a time .

It is also important to work with the script in mind and the visualization of the Director. That involves going

&

ART DIRECTION DESIGN

into the period the movie is set as well as the characters depicted in the film.

Also a certain amount of fantasying takes place when designing the sets as if it’s too realistic it tends to become like a documentary. While most movies prefer to shoot outdoors in countries abroad as its difficult to duplicate the light, color and climatic conditions, which also makes it a very costly affair, most interiors are always a set.

Jayashree dreams of someday going to Hollywood and apprenticing with some famous art director there and although she wanted to go abroad and do a course as well she feels that the time is not right as she is in the growth stage here and an absence from here now may be detrimental to her overall growth. But she hopes that she can learn far better by interning with someone there which is very much possible cause of the cross cultural movies that are being produced now. Jayshree recently won the “best Art Direction for Kerala stat award” for her work in the Malayalam movie “Charlie” which was a huge hit. This has given her not only recognition but a lot of exposure and many people in the industry have started approaching her.

To Contact Jayashree mail to ccontact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0016 31 | WOMANATION | March 2016

ONE PASSION TWO ROLES

Kavitha Ramu, is a passionate Bharatanatyam artist and a District Revenue officer with the Govt of Tamil Nadu. Her childhood was typical of an Officer’s daughter having studied in several schools as her father moved to several places, she has studied in 8 schools in total. She was an outlier and her interests were in sports / athletics and dance. She graduated in Economics and pursued Public Administration for her post-graduation and came out as a University topper. As a child she wanted to get into the Indian Foreign Service, but later after she started performing more, she wanted to remain in the State to pursue her dance interest alongside and took up the State Civil services.

Kavitha is a person who likes to start early! Her dance training under SmtJayalakshmi and Shri Narayanan at Salem started when she was only 5 years old and completed her first solo performance when only 7.Shifting to Madurai she was tutored by Smt Neela krishnamoorthy and later on by the legendary guru Smt.Sarasa in Chennai. Dancing at the World Tamil Conference held in Madurai and later in Tanjore was a high point of her dancing passion. Her typical day also starts early at 5.45 am when she leaves for yoga or functional fitness classes on alternate days.

Then she gets back home and practices dance depending on her time. She leaves home for work by 9.15 a.m. Thus she straddles both worlds of passion and profession with poise and with a sense of purpose.

To Contact Kavitha Ramu mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0017 3232 | WOMANATION | March 20162016 | WOMANATION | March

Kavitha has been a solo dance artist for over two decades and so obviously her dancing started much before joining the services. Kavitha also runs a dance institution where she takes up advanced classes and choreographs for senior students and there is a senior teacher who handle classes for the beginners. Kavitha was also the cultural coordinator for the SAF games held in Chennai during 1995. There were several folk dance groups from all over the country and her role was to give them some formations and guiding them in such a manner that the flow was not interrupted. This experience will always remain close to her heart.

A lot of research, lot of thinking, and good deal of effort go into a project that Kavitha conceives and not just talking just about innovative and contemporary themes, also about their choreography! She always thinks that water tight compartmentalization of styles should not be stressed upon. Many accolades have come to this talented artiste bureaucrat’s way — from Yuva Kala Bharati to Nadanamamani to the Balasaraswati Endowment. So what about dance does she love the most? “The tranquillity it gives me while I am in abandon!” She has performed widely in India and abroad with over 625 solo presentations.

During weekends, she unwinds in her neighborhood park .Other than work and dance, Kavitha’s hobbies include reading books, writing, watching comedy flicks, a walk in the nearby park, and spending time on multiple windows on the internet. Kavitha feels that it is only the trust, mutual respect and understanding that matters in any relationship and not things like religion, age or language. She follows a functional fitness regime at ‘The Unit’ under an acclaimed trainer Jyotsna John and also does ashtanga yoga.

Kavitha’s choreographic venture, Kadhalagi Kasindhu, a critically acclaimed dance production produced by actor/dancer Aparna pillai won wide appreciation. She has also choreographed several contemporary themes like, The Peacock, Idhuvum Adhuvum, Kadhambam- A mélange of poetry,and SPACE. According to Kavitha, only when a person enters a professional field, the system and the environment prepare them to become more competent. Kavitha regards sincerity as the most important quality a person should possess to create history, irrespective of any field or profession they are in.

This is what the world famous critic Thiru Subbudu had to say about Kavitha many years back. “As to dance, a star has been sighted-She is Kavitha Ramu, a disciple of the great guru, K.J.Sarasa.

There is no doubt that she will make a mark as a Bharatanatyam dancer.”

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CRUSADER FOR SOLACE Kavitha Dhanasekaran, a renowned Corporate Trainer, Counselling Psychologist and NLP Master Practitioner found her calling in training and counselling people after a long successful run of over 12 years with the corporate world as Delivery Manager and Project Management.

She is also a successful entrepreneur and ventured out to start the SHAPERS Dance and Leadership Academy to contribute her passion towards Dance and Leadership She found her core calling in training people after realizing that her core strength lies in her abili to empathize and respond to people’s needs.

Her passion to connect and empower people is what instantly connects her to her clients.

Kavitha holds a dual degree, M.C.A with Bharathidasan University and M.Sc Applied Psychology in Annamalai University and has started to do her research combining NLP and Psychology and Pursue one of her dreams to becoming a doctorate in her field of passion.

She is also a certified NLP Master Practitioner@ High Performance Life Coach and is offering coaching, counseling & consulting to renowned schools, colleges and corporates.

She has worked with numerous people across the last 6 years, from children, to teenagers, from adults to the elderly, from clients with anxiety to depression, from suicidal tendencies to work related stress management and she has helped them with empathy, patience and care.

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In the process, she has not only strengthened her own counseling skills and understanding human behavior much better. She regularly attends various workshops, courses and programs to equip herself with the latest in the ‘helping field’ for her own self growth &awareness .

She has her own private practice at Kotturpuram and works with Chennai’s leading psychologists.

She practices humanistic and cognitivebehavioral approaches of counseling to enable and empower her clients over their various interpersonal, intrapersonal and emotional issues to attain better psychological health and wellbeing. Some of her key areas include marital, relationship counseling, depression, suicide counseling, workplace challenges and issues, stress and burn-out, parental counseling, conflict resolution etc…

She specializes in NLP change work /Patterning and Installations.Her strength lies in the fact that she is an extrovert, people oriented enthusiast, completely self motivated and a cheerful person who loves life, and loves to help people live their own lives, a little better, too.

As a woman, Striking a balance in all the roles she plays is important to her and she feels that talent and potential in any woman should be recognized and given worth. Her greatest personal victory lies in her ability to look at life as a game and handle all the challenges sportively enjoying every moment of life and being positive no matter whatever the circumstances are. Yet when she had to undergo a spine surgery, when she was in a crucial stage of her married life with 2 kids and being the bread winner of her family, she was so insecure holding on to her IT job, but then times changed and thanks to her habit

of reading books, she took a u-turn in her life to become an Entrepreneur starting it all again in a new field. Today she is proud to say that she is a successful entrepreneur and has 10 employees under her who are part of her Shapers dance and Leadership Academy and other Entrepreneurial ventures.

Kavitha, has always branded her business with unique concepts standing out of the crowd instead of competing with anyone and the result was unique companies like “Shapers Dance & Leadership Academy”, “Shapers-Lights On Events”, “Mind Masters” - Leadership Academy , “ZEN Interiors- Designs & Concepts”, “IAH”- I am Happy - NLP Patterning & Development.

The heart of her business is to extend her knowledge and support to people out there who need help in terms of Coaching, Counseling and Consulting using her NLP and Counseling skills and help them to live a happy and healthy life.

Kavitha has great mentors who have shaped her life and taught her the art of leadership and helped shape her talents. They mentor and guide her life and help her groom her entrepreneurship journey and give her the platform to network with renowned personalities to broaden the scope of business and to network with clients.

Priya, Kavitha’s sister an IT professional is all set to join hands with her to mark her presence in the field of training and counseling. Kavitha’s sister has always been her backbone and of great support to her in all her endeavors. The sisters have set their minds to reach out to a billion lives and leave a dent in the Universe;they have miles to go before they sleep and promises to keep.

To Contact Kavitha and Priya mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0018

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Vasundra Sekar and Kaavya Sekar are mother and daughter respectively and they manage Kitchen Concepts a company which specializes in modular kitchens. Started 15 years by Vasundra Sekar ago the company has become synonymous with kitchen interiors.

Vasundra did her Masters in Economics from the Madras University and waited for her 2 children to grow up before venturing out as an Entrepreneur. She was ably supported by her husband and her dynamic leadership has built the company to where it is now. Now they are also into making cabinets and woodwork for the entire house.

They have established their own manufacturing unit in Vellore.

Kitchen Concepts Explaned

Both Vasundra and Kaavya are proud of their quality ,service and the dedication of their staff and team.

They have really not had the need to advertise but have relied on word of mouth publicity offered by their happy customers who invariable refer them to two or three others. This they consider as a real achievement and so there has really been no competition as such as most customers who come to them have already decided that they want Kitchen Concepts to service them.

But this has not just come easily. They follow very strict quality and service parameters and they have been able to set bench marks which the others including their competitors try and emulate.

Testimonials and appreciation letters from satisfied and happy customers is an energy boost to them and this helps them stay motivated and happy. They have feedback systems in place at every interaction with the customer. This helps them realize if at all they lag behind or where they are doing well.

After completing her management studies kaavya joined the family business as she showed inclination to it,starting of as a trainee and today handling the marketing for Kitchen concepts. Having always grown up in a business family it was only natural for kaavya to take up the reins of the family business.Her grand dad was probably one of the first in the country to take up manufacturing ceramics.

Modular Kitchens as a concept originated from Italy and they get their inspiration from these countries and they also source their hardware from various countries in Europe. But most design ideas come from putting themselves in the shoes of the women they cater to and the understanding comes from being women themselves and thus most of the kitchens they work on is customized to the needs of the customers.The kitchens are also practical in the sense that sometimes the kitchens look great on paper but they may not suit the individual preferences of the women who actually use them.

The designing always starts with a one on one sitting with the client to understand their individual preferences and their needs. Then the site is photographed and the planning and design process happens on the drawing board. Fifteen years back

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To Contact Vasundra & Kaavya Sekar mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0019 when they started modular kitchens was a new concept and hence customers required a lot of hand holding but today thanks to the awareness and the internet ,customer do know what they want.Since latest technologies facilitate the fact that customers can actually see what the final output will be there are no surprises when the kitchen is ultimately installed.So there is a lot of interaction and they actually show themwhat the kitchen will look like when completed.

Kitchen concepts works with individual customers as also with builders where the design may predominantly be standardized with a certain amount of flexibility for customization.

For Kaavya the entrepreneurial journey has been a great journey in all aspects of business right from getting a customer to the completion of the project.

The last 15 years has been a great learning experience interacting with a wide spectrum of customers and over 7000 of them. So they have rich experience in the business they are in.

Kitchen concepts has two show rooms in Chennai and currently they do work in South India but would look to expanding Pan India soon.

They now want to tap into the power of the internet and take the ecommerce route and also be a one stop shop offering end to end solutions for interiors in terms of woodwork or cabinets or whatever.

They would also offer an Annual Maintenance Contract to make sure that everything is working fine and that there are no service issues and this makes sense especially in a country like India where it’s becoming difficult to get reliable service personnel.

Kaavya’s love for exploring new things and trying out new things and her love for challenges and for meeting new people would be an ideal perquisites to take kitchen concepts to a new level and ahead of the curve.

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IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT CORK

Shivani Patel is a graduate from The National institute of Fashion Technology, studied leather goods and footwear designing completing her Bachelor of Design in 2013 and her specialization was in Accessory design .Her interest in painting and arts and craft led her to join NIFT. Shivani’s Dad was an exporter of leather goods and as a kid shivani hung around his factory making clothes for her dolls with the scraps lying around the factory. Her parents were very supportive of what she wanted to do and let her choose the NIFT course rather than become an Engineer. So SRMs loss became NIFTs gain so to say!!

Keshsa Vasant did her under graduation in MOP Vaishnav College for women completing her B.com in marketing management. Here again her dad guided her in her choice. An opportunity to go to the US and got an opportunity to do marketing for an IT department for the internal customers and an internship ensued. She then applied to the University of Denver in Colorado and got an MS in marketing with specialization in communication and branding.

Shivani and keshsa had met during school days at the Abacus classes when they were both in the 8th std and became the best of friends. They lost touch but got back in touch thanks to Facebook without much interaction. Then after each one of them had completed their studies got in touch again through a mutual friend.

Shivanis quest for an alternative to leather and chanced on cork fabrics and realized that it had scope and she had this urge to do something with cork. So when she wanted to start a company she looked around for someone with a marketing background and who else but Keshsa ,who had just then returned from the US , should fit the bill and thus ARTURE was born.

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To Contact Shivani and Keshsa imail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0020

The name ARTURE was a combination of Art and Nature. In other words creating artistic stuff from nature. An innovative approach to funding led them to Indigogo and they crowdsourced their initial funding of 12000 dollars which also reinforced their belief that they were onto something good and they had the backing of over 100 supporters who preordered their cork goods.

The learnings from this experience gave them the moral boost and they were able to not only produce the goods that they shipped out but also helped them structure the company. The feedback from prospective customers during the campaign also got them to narrow down on their focus and

concentrate on their USP. That resulted in their tag line which said that you don’t have to kill any animal to look fashionable which resonated with a lot of people.

Both Shivani and Keshsa would like cork to become synonymous with ARTURE and this is their brand strategy. They are united in their dream of really growing the brand long term and build an aspirational brand.

The main drawback as of now is the limited resources which is a fact for many startups, but there is a lot of pride every time one of their product sells and these feel good moments are always celebrated. They are also extremely grateful for the help from friends and well-wishers.

Keshsa pipes in to say that ARTURE was a stumble upon .She had no idea of starting a company.in fact her dream was to work for Walt Disney as the excitement, happiness, the experience that the brand conveys, excited her .and it was at that time that Shivani approached her with the idea of ARTURE. This got her thinking on a new angle and ARTURE gave her the confidence that it is possible to do something different. This adventure got her to channelize her thinking and visualize the possibilities.

Shivani pitches into to say that although she was a bright student she did not sit for placements, much to the disappointment of her professors, as she felt a regular job would curb her creativity.

The fact that many people wanted an alternative to leather got her thinking and after some considerable research she came to the conclusion that cork was a good alternative. Cork in fact is called Nature’s leather.

The recent recognition that ARTURE got from PETA that it was a VEGAN product has both of them pretty excited as they feel that this is a step in the right direction.

They hope that celebrities both in India and abroad will see value in their products and actually endorse them as it can be very beneficial to them and to the fact that animals don’t have to be slaughtered for leather.

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Kadambari, is the founder of The Women Entrepreneurship Development Organization (WEDO). She conceptualized the signature product called SHE. Her vision is her motivation, which is to globally present the organization, financially empower the women community, to create happy families and a world that shares. When she sees her life with this enormous vision, all her small hurdles become manageable and fade away. Her sincere interest towards creating financial empowerment for women has got her to this place in her professional life. Her abundant energy keeps her going often working odd hours to cater to the interests of her members.

A SHE Membership give her members several value- adds and the network helps her members with many opportunities.

No Limits

She regards her values, company and her family as the most important things in her life. She says at an earlier point in life, she limited herself to her husband’s photography business, thinking that she would have objections from her family to venture all alone again after her first business partnership breakup in 2008. But she realized that, it was only her mind that limited her. “Respectful dis –obedience” (for all right reasons) was a key that made her take a chance to prove herself.

The partnership breakup of her HR Company after 7 years of investing her time and efforts, was her life-altering event. This moment in her life taught her how tough it was to do business and at the same time showed her what it means to have a family that supported her all through her hardships.

She feels that self -worth is one of those rare things that no one can own or contribute a portion to you, because “SELF” means “You”-and it is something that an individual owns. She emphasizes that one has to own it 100%. According to her, self-worth is achieved when one’s mind and heart functions together. Money has nothing to do with it.

According to her, abundance is one’s birth right. Why should one settle for less when they could ask for more. She strongly feels that every single time is a time to give back. She feels that one has to give back, whenever they get a chance to give back, in money or effort.

She says that she would be grateful to everyone but will not expect gratitude, in return.

Kadambari states that she has had a couple of mentors for different aspects in life at different stages. Her mentors are her reality check meters, since they make her stay grounded. She says people should do business with her, because they get a chance to contribute to her vision. Her clients include people who harmoniously work along with her to realize the mutual goals.

Kadambari feels that at present she is on the right track to achieve her life goals. And five years later, she would be in the same track but with greater experience. Her mission is to constantly identify, create and introduce avenues that generate “more revenue and respect” for the women members through breakthrough products, strategic alliances, visibility platform and credibility showcase and to create highest holistic ROI

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To Contact Kadambari mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0021

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Madhuvanthi Arun is an Edutainer who Educates through Entertainment and Entertains through Education. Madhuvanti is an open book who wears her heart on her sleeve and speaks her mind. She believes in positivity and does not believe in negativity at all. She is a person who is extremely honest never faking anything and this results in her having few friends!!

Madhuvanthi wakes up to an absolutely new day everyday as she rarely follows the same routine. She is blessed to do different things One day a school meet,the next day a play, the third day she has a dance performance, the fourth day she may just prefer to chill at home or go for a movie Its a never a dull 9 to 5 routine for her where she has to go through the humdrum of life.

Her main challenge is that she feels that she does not always have the time to pursue all that she wants to do in both her careers of education and theatre. But she is enjoying each new bright day and having fun. She keeps pushing herself to give as much time as possible to both her professions.

She prides herself in the smiles of the children in her school every time she walks into it where her children are so happy and this she feels is her greatest achievement. On the other side her pride is the wow factor arising out of her audience response to some dialogues in her play, the instant reciprocation and the recognition that she gets is a moment of pride to her.

That she was born into a family that has been in the arts and education has worked wonders for her. In education her grandmother the legendary Ms.Y.G.Parthasarathy has mentored her to take the bull by its horns and in theatre it’s her dad, the evergreen Mr.Y.G.Mahendra Theatre came naturally to Madhuvanthi as she was exposed to it even when she was in her mother’s stomach, she says with a smile, and this has had a very positive influence and a great advantage as she found enough inspiration right inside the house .That she also got married into an artistic family, she considers a great blessing, as for a working woman it is very important that her in-laws support her especially in the Indian scenario.

Madhuvanthi has learnt to balance between her two fields by prioritizing at a particular point in time instead of allotting a set amount of time to each field.

So if the school needs 8 hours she is there and if the theatre needs 14 hours she is there.

Her husban Arun and son Ritwik are the understanding people in her life always offering amazing support as well the members of her theatre group and the teachers in her school. This has given her the confidence to delegate most of the routine work to devout time to her creative pursuits.

The balance in her life has come about by observing the men and women in her family who have balanced their lives so beautifully between work and life and giving quality time when required to the family. She also does not believe in empowerment from outside as empowerment comes from within.

Passion to Edutain To Contact Madhuvanthi Arun mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0022

Her dream is to develop her school Calibre Academy to a full-fledged university with all streams of education and where children can study what they want and not just Engineering, medicine or IT which seems to be the three IN streams these days. With regard to her Art and Media CompanyMaham Enterprises, she wants to build a full facilities Auditorium for theatre exclusively like you see abroad and even cities like Mumbai or Bangalore. Here she would like to focus on Tamil theatre as it’s an ancient, beautiful and respected language which brought out many of our cinema stars and politicians literally. So this auditorium, complete with stage ,sound and lights and facilities to build sets , will cater to all theatre groups including her own who want a space to perform as this is one of the challenges that she faces now in booking auditoriums for her plays as they perform throughout the year on weekends.

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Madhuvanthi also believes in giving back to the community and society. Every member of her troupe set aside money from their salaries and donate to NGOs. They permit people who can’t afford to come and watch their plays for free and in School she supports economically backward children with their tuition fees.

Talking specifically about her runaway hit play ‘Perumale” Madhuvanthi looks back with gratitude at the huge success that the play garnered both here and in the US. Thanking her writer and her director Sureshwar for this success while downplaying her role in bringing out all kinds of emotions amongst the audience who watched the play, the very fact that play did a 100 shows bears testimony to the fact that Tamil theatre is alive and breathing life into audiences.

She hopes to take the play to Malaysia, Singapore and the Middle East this year.

Madhuvanthi explains that it is the script that determines the quality of a play and so she is open to looking at scripts from anyone and anywhere. On the process involved in a play she passionately expresses that it always starts with a Pooja in a particular temple in Egmore which has served as a starting point right from her grandfather’s time and continues from her father’s till date. Then there is a script reading session which becomes movement rehearsals .A date is then fixed for the inaugural, venues booked and the marketing ,planning and the funding of the productions starts. This is a crucial step and Madhuvanthi would like to professionalize this with a marketing team although until now the family lineage has ensured that she has attracted the right sponsors.

Madhuvanthi also reveals that she has just debuted in her first full length feature film, Dharma Durai-directed by Seenu Ramaswamy, where she plays a cop. She wants to follow up this with interesting roles at a time when Hollywood is also looking here for many cross cultural movies and hence she feels that she is at the right place at the right time

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SELF DISCOVERY THROUGH MINDFULNESS AND YOGA Yogacharini Maitreyi, is a Practical Mystic and an International Body, Emotion and Mind Trainer. She is the Founder of Arkaya Yoga. Maitreyi consults on Wellness Issues, Holistic Health and Organic Management. She de-mystifies spirituality and shares her wisdom in down to earth ways. Maitreyi is originally from Chennai, India but lives and teaches in Vancouver in the summers.

Maitreyi’s quest for self discovery and harmony has brought her to this place in her professional life.

Harmony is most important to her in personal life.

Knowing that one can rise above circumstances with effort and grace is Maitreyi’s motivation. She says that self-worth is feeling that we are loved and are safe. The capacity to explore the external and internal worlds rises out of that safety and deeper love. According to her life philosophy, self-worth is achieved by realizing that one does not have to compromise on one’s core values.

To Contact Yogacharini Maitreyimail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0023 4444 | WOMANATION | March 20162016 | WOMANATION | March

In Vancouver, Maitreyi conducts Arkaya Yoga, Healing and Mindfulness Teacher trainings and retreats. She conducts sessions at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition on Yogic Nourishment and is also a visiting professor for the Langara College for their Yoga Teacher training program. She has systematized Arkaya yoga. It is mindful, gentle, deep, transformational and rooted in Classical yoga, Tanthra and subtler healing principles. It helps one connect to different dimensions of oneself and all of life to embrace life with grace. It also naturally enables one to lead an organic life.

Maitreyi has also trained many corporate heads in the art and science of self-management. Her one day workshop “The Magick of Mindfulness” is a comprehensive bliss-shop for working on many dimensions of one’s existence and also helps deal with stress. She beautifully brings the depth of yoga philosophy and psychology and how to apply it for a more fulfilled life. It helps one deal with the body, emotions and mind as well as tap into universal wisdom.

Yogacharini Maitreyi runs a foundation for children who live in the slums in Chennai, India, for the last ten years. The foundation has been supported by her and another Trustee, Paul James. The children have been taught yoga and self-management and exposed to various other positive activities. Some of the children’s education is also funded by Maitreyi. The foundation also organises programs for empowerment of men and women.

Maitreyi was awarded many titles such as Yogacharini (Guide and visionary), Yoga Chemmal (Expert) and Yoga Shiromani (gem) in India since 1997. She inspires Yoga teachers to become a connoisseur of yoga and life. Individual mindfulness and holistic life coaching sessions are also facilitated by her.

She has trained many people from prisoners in Sweden to CEO’s in India, seekers in Vancouver to those in Srilanka during war times. Maitreyi has been invited to share her wisdom to Yoga teachers, give satsanghs and speak at various conferences around the world, in Dubai, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, U.S.A and Sweden over the last 18 years. Yogacharini Maitreyi has published over 100 articles on Yoga and Holistic living in various journals like Life Positive, Yoga Life, Times Wellness and Heritage Healing in India, Asana Journal in Hong Kong, the Agora and Common Ground in Vancouver. Initially, she wrote a yoga column for the Economic Times. Since 2006, Maitreyi is a regular columnist for South India’s largest news daily called The Hindu on Yoga and Holistic Health. She is a pioneer in breaking down many complex concepts in Yoga Psychology and Tantra into simple and digestible bits for the regular readers. Her more in-depth articles were also listed by Motilal Banarsidas, one of India’s oldest Publishers as recommended readings for deepening ones Yogic knowledge in 2002.

Maitreyi and Arkaya Corporate solutions which has a team of trainers have trained innumerable top companies, universities and organizations like Ford India, Unilever in Bangladesh, Visteon India, CTS, Satyam, Radisson GRT, Entrepreneurs Organization, Young presidents organization, Symbiosis institute of management, etc. Her trainers have also trained various companies like Daimler, Scientific publishing, Vellore institute of management, Emily Carr school Vancouver etc.

Maitreyi’s first guru and mentor, was her grandfather.

Being able to have healthier boundaries with family is her personal victory. She studied in the Shivananda ashram. She also studied and was an acharini in the Ananda ashram.

The business successes she is proud of is being able to establish a base teaching Arkaya yoga/ mindfulness with integrity in a foreign country and in one’s own homeland. She feels being grateful every day is one of the elixirs for a life that brings in abundance. Every business needs abundance, not just money. Maitreyi feels people should do business with her organisation, because she can empower them to live their fullest life. According to her, any person who truly wants evolution and is willing to spend the time and energy for it is her client.

Maitreyi teaches a unique set of source inspired kriya called the Jyothi Kriya which is used to harmonize all areas of one’s life. Yogacharini Maitreyi is a visionary who has built Evolutionaries around the world. She aims to co-create ease, abundance and beauty in all areas and collaborations. She is looking for those who want to become Arkaya Mindfulness/ Yoga teachers and corporate trainers. www.arkaya.net

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Malini Kalyanam, a multi-faceted personality, dons many versatile roles - Social activist, Pottery artiste, Holistic healer, HR Consultant, Soft Skills trainer, Yoga therapist, Environmentalist, Freelance writer and Health Insurance Advisor. She started her career as HR head in a multinational company.

But she soon discovered that her passion was with artistic pottery. Although her tryst with pottery started in her 40’s the yearning commenced as early as when she was 5 years old. Clay, as a part of Mother Earth is a powerful medium of expression and her very fascinating journey unfolded to supplement her environmental and social activities using the same.

She commenced a WhatsApp group called Plant Green Vistas which teaches people everything on gardening and conservation of nature, including ABC of Composting where one can make their own manure and recycle organic wastes. One saves money in the process apart from going organically selfreliant. Needless to add, be energetic and confident too. It teaches one to be self-sufficient. When you teach others to be self-sufficient one changes oneself and subsequently the world.

Malini gave up a lucrative job where she earned a lot of money which many people including her family and friends thought was a ridiculous idea, not understanding her passion for clay that sprang inside of her. Her inner voice which prompted her to give up her job has guided her ever since. She has no regrets whatsoever as pottery has taken her places. Art is not what you see but what you make others see and she hopes Indians will look at art the way the Westerners do.

Her art has taken her close to people including several celebrities in various fields and she realizes that her inner voice or higher self can never go wrong.

Malini as a Reiki Grand Master uses this knowledge to even decide on the kind of people she meets.

She says, “Rely and tune in through your heart always and never with your mind, for your heart tells you honestly what to do, whereas your mind is forever wavering, akin to a mad monkey possibly making wrong decisions.” She quickly cautions: “Listen to your body signals. If your stomach churns, it is an indication to you that certain people are to be avoided.” She goes with the flow that nothing is difficult or impossible and allows Divine will to prevail over hers.

Malini feels that she has learnt ample in life by sculpting with clay. She learnt that it is possible to mould people like molding clay and as a soft-skills trainer, imparts programs using pottery as a ‘Therapy and an Art’. But this is a continuous process. It has to be ingrained in people, but unfortunately most soft skill trainers bake the clay before molding, thus resulting in half-baked individuals!! She however

MOULDING WITH CLAY To Contact Malini Kalyanam mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0024

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feels it is easier to mould children and give them the education that is needed to live life. Life is a gift made more precious when shared with others and she shares hers.

Coping with clay is an art. Mashing it is not easy, but it’s worth the effort as it brings out different dimensions in a person. Perseverance, Patience, concentration power, focus at work, dedication, experiential learning and skill are the outcome of clay-play.

One learns Time Management as clay becomes brittle and difficult to mould, if time exceeds. Pottery teaches eye-hand coordination, as also dexterity. Although she was born left-handed, she is now ambidextrous, thanks to pottery. One’s creativity is enhanced as with one’s imagination and ingenuity, it can work wonders and sustain one to be self-motivated. Pottery being a great stress buster, should be included in the curriculum in educational institutions and the corporate, opines Malini.

Obese people can also use clay to keep trim. It has no side effects as it is a natural resource. She says that she was obese after she conceived, but working with clay helped her reduce and keep fit.

As a holistic healer, Malini uses clay to heal. Diarrhea can be stopped in just 20 minutes by applying processed clay on one’s stomach as it removes all toxins and impurities from the body. High quality processed clay can also be used as an alternate to soap while bathing as it cleanses the skin and makes it glossy, being pure without any chemicals. It is nature at its best. Malini considers this natural resource as precious as gold but unfortunately, it is taken for granted.

Most of Malini’s intuitions come from her study of Reiki and she has opened up to several avenues when in the flow with Reiki.

It is worth mentioning that she has formed a Public Charitable Trust: ‘The PALM’. The Trust plans a facility for special children, the purpose being to give their parents some solace such that they die in peace with the hope that there is someone to look after their wards after their death.

To take care of these special children, the Trust needs a piece of land where they can be housed and taken care of for their lifetime. She is hopeful that some kind-hearted soul will reach out and provide this much needed resource. She has offers from friends to erect structures and volunteers to help.

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CHAMPIONING MENTAL HEALTH

Dr.Mini has a high sense of self-worth. Besides being a psychologist, she keeps re-inventing herself. She has been everything from a boxer, karaoke jockey, disc jockey, panellist, chief guest, speaker, writer, model, cover girl, judge and an ambassador for many social causes. She gets never loses an opportunity to experiment with whatever comes her way with limitations of course. Recently she was offered a lot of money to do an advertisement for an alcoholic brand which she refused because it didn’t feel right for her ...To promote alcohol.

Dr Mini Rao, is a Chennai based Psychologist. She has a private practice and counsel’s people on various mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, anger, relationship issues, substance abuse, eating and sleeping disorders etc.

She does a lot of counselling for free for people who can’t afford her fees. She doubles her fees for the rich patients (who come from abroad and who have to pay up to 300 dollars an hour for sessions in the US) and don’t take money from the poor. So her job entails her both financial and emotional gratification.

Her mother’s death when she was just 19 changed her life forever. She was a spoilt brat as the youngest of four daughters. She had no responsibilities and led an indulgent life. This incident made her grow up overnight. She became a more mature and responsible person.

Her husband has been a friend, philosopher and guide throughout her marital life mentoring her in every way to project herself as a psychologist to the world, what opportunities were good for her to pursue, what kind of people to avoid, how best to manage her time and family......His mentoring has worked well she says.

This was a turning point in her life .Stepping in to take charge in a situation where her father was devastated and her elder sister sank into a deep depression Mini realized that she had the inherent skill to make people feel better by counselling her sister come to terms with her mother’s passing on.

Her love for Psychology came about when she was doing her B.A Sociology and she went on to complete her MA, M.Phil and PhD in Psychology.

Mini has received several awards for her contribution to society as a psychologist. She did not expect to receive this much recognition. Her self-worth comes from within. It is internal and no awards or accolades can equal that. Her high self-worth, has impacted her and the people around her positively.

“If you are happy on the inside, you will make people happy on the outside” she says. According to Dr.Mini Material Abundance is a luxury. Emotional Abundance is a necessity. The more love, care, respect, sympathy, empathy, kindness, affection one has , the better person one is . Material Abundance is temporary, once wealth is gone so are significant ones. But having an abundance of positive qualities will ensures that one is surrounded by significant people permanently. “Emotionally make time for people who need you and give back to them anytime. Financially one should contribute when earning well enough and can afford to give back . When you give, you get.”

Getting her PhD was her greatest personal victory as it was one of the toughest phases in her life. Her hard work, perseverance and patience from total support from her family were the ones that got her the doctorate and so her family is the most important thing in her personal life. In her profession where she counsel patients day in and day out I do tend it is my family that supports her and gives the courage and motivation to carry on helping people. Her family is her sanity that prevents a burnout.

In her career, she is thankful every single day that she is normal human being. When she sees the agony and suffering that patients undergo, it breaks her heart on one hand but also immensely grateful that she doesn’t go through what they are going through. Gratitude works as a motivator for her and makes her work harder offering solace to the people who suffer.

Mini is good at what she does, but wants to get better. She wants to learn more, acquire more skills and knowledge perhaps go abroad for some courses and the learning should never stop. She updates herself with the latest therapies and behaviour modification techniques so she can help a wide variety of mental illnesses.

She balances both work and family and sets limitations as to not go overboard when it comes to work and has realized that her family is equally important. Weekends are spent happily with the family.

Her family and friends being so proud of her achievements motivates her to do more and do better. Also when patients walk into her clinic without any hope and walk out literally like they are on a high makes her feel so motivated to help more and more people get rid of their worries and be happy. Dr.Mini’s motto is “it’s one life, don’t worry... be happy.

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Mini offers not only counselling and therapy but also physical health like exercise and diet. A lot of people are unaware that physical health and mental health are related significantly. And that many ailments have physical causes which can be remedied through exercise and diet as well as therapy.

She is a “holistic healer” which other psychologists are not. So that’s why patients come to me........

As long as her patients take her advice seriously regarding the relaxation techniques she has taught them, regularly do the exercises taught them and follow the diet prescribed, patients are bound to see a tremendous improvement in their physical and mental health. A satisfied patient makes a perfect patient.

To Contact Dr.Mini Rao mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0025

Dr.Mini is planning on taking Mental Health to the next level in India and is looking forward to the challenges

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Mahalakshmi Saravanan is a very simple person who strives to add value to the lives of the needy.

As a woman, she has faced many challenges and truly believe that women in the current generation deserve a much better livelihood. Simplicity ,patience, compassion are her assets This underlying passion for the enrichment of women and to facilitate women empowerment and to bring about a diversification in the lives of women she founded WEI –Women Entrepreneurs India –an organization that empowers women to start their own enterprise.

Mahalakshmi has a passion to create better opportunities for women and she has been encouraging budding entrepreneurs. With her indomitable optimism and can-do spirit, she has become a role model for thousands of aspiring women entrepreneurs today. Her vision is to create opportunities for the under-privileged in the field of education in particular, and in the overall society as well. On the personal side, she juggles being a wife, mother and proactive thinker, along with her professional roles.

Mahalakshmi Saravanan started her career as a lecturer in the SRM College of hotel management, Kattankulathur and worked for more than 4 years during which she was a teacher and mentor to several batches of students. As an academically inclined person, she has cleared the state and national level exams and was certified as an assistant professor.

She is an SEO specialist and digital marketing strategist and has been instrumental in guiding several businesses to acquire high rankings online. She has taught this technique to nearly hundred women entrepreneurs.

She is also the Founder of Kidzmasterpiece, a unique online art gallery to showcase kids art work. She is also supporting underprivileged children in their education. Mahalakshmi knows that happiness is a choice and hence, she chooses to be happy at all times and spread the happiness to people around her. She has thus mastered the work life balance and emerged victorious. Mahalakshmi is clear that there is no such thing as a “perfect life”. Everything is under your control and you just have to make the right decisions she states. A general rule of thumb is not be bothered about the outcome of the results but to pursue ones goals without expectations.

Mahalakshmi is motivated by the fact that she can add value to the lives of other people and bring about a social reform and this she pursues with all her heart. Her belief that “Marriages are made in heaven” is undoubtedly true in her case. Marriage has brought about a complete transformation in her where from being a soft, fearing and dependent women, she has transformed to a bold, confident and independent entrepreneur. It was marriage to her beloved husband that made her realize her selfworth and capabilities. She also considers him to be her mentor who has guided her and supported her in whatever she does.

Mahalakshmi strives to create an identity and individuality for women. She works towards their betterment of livelihood thereby, creating a positive impact in their lives. She empowers and guides them to emerge as respectful members in the society. Mahalakshmi’s greatest and most cherished accomplishment as a successful entrepreneur was acquiring the number 1 ranking position for her portal - Women Entrepreneurs India. Her other accomplishments include the following: She has recently been selected by Chennai Turns Pink as the Pink Ambassador for a social cause - "Breast Cancer Awareness". She was a panelist at the International Women’s Day Celebration(March,2015) at World Trade Centre,Mumbai. Applauding her enterprising feat, Mahalakshmi Saravanan, has been conferred with the “BEST WOMAN ENTREPRENEUR AWARD' by SSM Educational Institutions, Komarapalayam. Tamil Cineworld stalwart ‘Illaya Thilagam’ Dr.G.Prabhu gave away the award crowning her on the eve of the International Conference on Women Entrepreneurship. She motivated more than hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs at Coromandel International Limited.(March, 2016) She had an opportunity to interact with employees of Coca-Cola on "Work-life balance" during Coke International Women's Day Celebration at LeRoyal Meridien,Chennai(March, 2016) She was a speaker at the “International Conference on Innovative Trends in Business Practices for Sustainable Development” organized by University of Madras, on 4th March, 2016 at The Savera She was a guest speaker at RYLA event for Ethiraj College girls conducted by Rotary Club of Madras Chenna Patna held at 465 acre campus of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Avadi

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ENCOURAGING ENTREPRENEURS She was a speaker at Franchise India's 84th summit at ITC Grand Chola, She has conducted a Brain-storming session for employees' spouses at Coromandel-Murugappa group, Ennore.

She was the moderator for Organizational Skills workshop organized by Business Standard in association with Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) set up

by Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India. She was the Chief Guest at Saveetha Engineering College during Entrepreneurship-week 2015. Her interviews have been featured in Kalaignar TV, SUN news live show & other local channels.

There have been many challenges but the most important among them was the financial crunches which she successfully tackled and vanquished.

Her advice to aspiring women entrepreneurs is “First and foremost, believe in yourself, be confident and have the right attitude. In addition to these traits, how you react and manage situations also plays a vital role.”

Gratitude will come a long way in your life as it will attract people from a diversified ranges of backgrounds to you. It will also enable you to expand your network base. Mahalakshmi feels that she has mastered the art to understand people and herself in all aspects. Her roadmap for the next 5 years is to work towards the expansion of Women Entrepreneurs India and make it prominent and visible all over India.

To Contact Mahalakshmi Saravanan mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0026 51 | WOMANATION | March 2016

Niloufer Seth, of parsi-zorastrian heritage, a sculptor by profession, now a corporate businesswoman is a creative, kind and a sensitive person who continually strives for perfection, both professionally and personally. Her humorous, eccentric side and her versatile, magnetic personality make her a warm people’s person.

She began as an artist (painter/sculptor), which she says will always be the core of her being. Her greatest achievement has been growing as an artist as well as being successful in the area of business development in the corporate sector. She initially handled real estate requirements for multinational company’s heading IOS Relocations for Chennai, but soon moved to luxury retail. Here, she assisted in the grand opening of the Montblanc Store at Bergamo, Chennai, increasing its brand visibility, exceeding sales targets and making it a great success. Her ability to motivate, nurture teamwork, and build good relations with clientele and corporates are her strengths and a crucial part of growing the business. Customer satisfaction is her ultimate objective.

Currently, Niloufer continues to work with the Entrak family now with Leica Cameras in India. She heads South India, taking care of Bangalore & Chennai. Leica Camera AG is a German company and manufacturers of digital & analogue cameras, lenses, sport optics and other accessories. Leica is known for its tradition, excellence and modernity, of perfect picture quality and superior lenses. She works towards development of the brand, handling administration, overseeing operations and managing personnel. Her customer profile is photography professionals, enthusiasts and hobbyists and those who appreciate image quality, perfection and service of this renowned and historic brand.

Melding

&

the Art Corporate Worlds

To Contact Niloufer Seth mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0027

She regards her family as the most important source of motivation and feels that they have provided her with all the happiness in her life. Managing her work and family life, simultaneously is her personal victory. When asked how she can move from her lofty artist mind to a serious business persona, she says, this comes easy as her creative thinking is utilized in the corporate world as well. Learning new things, thriving on self-development and being engaged has always been her motivation. Niloufer trusts her instincts and believes in her self. She says there is no giving up even at the toughest of times. This attitude has stood her in good stead. Personal events through her life have shaped the way she thinks and see things today. She continually reflects and believes that this has made her grow to become a wholesome and a better human being.

She has had many mentors at different stages of her life. On the work front, the company & people she works for have been a great source of inspiration for her and her art connoisseurs have given her much creative confidence. Her parents, husband and children too have taught her a lot and have helped shape the person she is today.

Niloufer looks forward to using her creative skills at the Leica stores sharing the Leica vision.

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Endeavor Pooja always thinks Big and does big as she is of the opinion that nothing ventured nothing gained. Pooja thinks and does events very differently and she would also like to share her experiences in how events ought to be done. Pooja also believes in doing everything like the production, marketing, back stage, publicity and all aspects of the event herself as she is very much a hands on person. This has taught her how to go about doing Big and successful events. Her experiences in dealing with artists and their managements and sponsors has given her the uncanny knack of literally thinking on her feet.

Pooja realizes that organizing events is a high tension job but she does not visibly show any emotions being at the helm of affairs. She projects a very calm exterior often always looking at various options when things go wrong. This has given the people working with her a level of comfort not seen with many event organizers.

As a national and regional promoter, Pooja Malhotra showcases the rich and diverse mosaic of Indian theatre by promoting artists like Naseeruddin Shah, Vinay Pathak, Paritosh Painter, Rajat Kapoor, Benjamin Gilani Chef Sanjeev Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar. The comfort and confidence level these artists have with Pooja always gets them to come back to her whenever they come up with a new play or act. Thus Pooja is their go to person in Chennai and they always give her the first right of refusal.

Of her works, one of her most acclaimed productions included the musical theatre orchestrated by Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar and the “Prince and Princess of Chennai” which was aired on Sun Network and was rated as one of the most successful reality shows.

Pooja Malhotra started her journey in 2001 with the main aim of bringing about awareness and appreciation of Indian performing arts and culture to more audiences in Chennai.

Since then she has developed a reputation of a premium promoter of Indian theatre and performing arts amongst audiences and artists alike.

Pooja is a very confident person and the first thing she does in the morning is to look at herself in the mirror and she tells herself that she is the best and by telling herself that she is able to give the best of herself to others and expend her energy to others. She takes one day at a time as each day is a new day.

To Contact Pooja Malhotra mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0028 5454 | WOMANATION | March 20162016 | WOMANATION | March

Today, she is committed to presenting the most accomplished artists in high caliber drama, dance, and musical performances and strives to showcase the audience with richness of various cultures to inspire human spirit. And in this

Culture Ambassador She was also awarded the “Women’s Achiever Award” by Sun Network in 2014.

Pooja is really proud of the fact that In 2014 she founded a social organization called Vajra, with the key motive of empowering women of the economically weak background was In the past two years, Pooja had started Vajra’s journey with teaching women of government and corporation schools, selfdefense. Now, in 2016, Vajra has a total of 25,000 girls all over our city from various schools being taught the importance of self-defense and self-protection. Pooja feels very strongly that all women and girls should have at least some basic awareness about how they can defend themselves and that if they love themselves and their family they should learn self-defense. She has single handedly pooled her resources to evangelize this concept with obsessive perseverance to create the awareness. And her vision is to reach the whole of Tamilnadu and states like Bihar, UP etc with the awareness that every woman and girl should know how to defend themselves.

Pooja would like many more women to join her in her quest to make her dream a reality.

She pursues the mega events in order to raise resources and funds for her charity work and for good causes. This is what drives her. This is what gives her the motivation and the energy to pursue what she does. Looking at the slender Pooja, one wonders from where her energy comes from and you realize the passion burning bright within her and in her eyes, the passion to make a difference, the passion for the safety of every woman and child.

Pooja has also immersed herself in Brand consultancy helping brands to maximize their potential. She does have some high profile clients for whom she has been able to help raise their brand image and make them famous.

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Prajanya Anand, is a Chennai and Bangalore based Stylist, who has been working as a designer, stylist and fashion consultant for the past 6 years. She has been working as a freelancer and has a working studio boutique/office in Chennai, under the name Studio Prajanyaa. This is a design space where she plans shoot production and also uses it as a warehouse for their products. They also rent and style various projects here. Her, Multi designer store is in Annanagar, retailing Indian, western fashion and accessories for women, and customized tailoring for any given project.

Prajanya Anand started her entrepreneurial career in 2011, after graduating from Pearl Academy of fashion in 2010. She got her degree B.A Honours in Fashion Design Technology from Nottingham Trent University. (2006-10). She worked for a year as a stylist at a multi designer luxury store Collage. Post that as a designer and store manager for Gatsby, she worked on a collection for the international market which did very well overseas. This gave her confidence to start supplying her own label to various stores in Chennai and Bangalore. Making more innovative exclusive styles, she was asked to start styling for local magazines in 2011, this brought out in her the styling for various fashion editorials, e-com portals, catalogues, marketing campaigns, creative shoots, concept shoots and calendars.

She has been awarded the most promising stylist award by cinema spice magazine, Upcoming Fashion Entrepreneur, Best Fashion Personality Award 2014, Lectures at INIFD Chennai & Bangalore, External Jury Member for NIFT Chennai. Prajanya Anand’s editorials of fashion styling have been featured in top newspaper and magazines. Prajanya works as a freelance design consultant creating tech packs and consulting on fabrics and trims for various local stores and also launched her own independent label retailing out of various different boutiques in Chennai, doing fusion, resort and casual and customized evening and bridal clothing.

A Star

Stylist To Contact Prajanya Anand mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0029 5656 | WOMANATION | March 20162016 | WOMANATION | March

She works as a freelance fashion stylist and fashion shoot and show producer (2011-2016). Her areas of expertise include Creative Fashion shoots, Advertising Campaigns, Marketing Campaigns E commerce and Cataloguing, Product shoots, Active wear Shoots, Editorial Shoots, Celebrity Shoots, Fashion Portfolios, Fashion Calendars, Concept Shoots, TVCs (print and Video), Movies, Music Videos. She has created her own label and has a studio boutique “Studio Prajanyaa”. This label does women’s clothing such as tunics, dresses, tops and customized Indian wear and tee shirts. It has also been exported on order basis to Malaysia, KL for sales (2011-12) Prajanya currently has her own multi-designer boutique, and she has styled and designed for several celebrities and showcased at more than 20 fashion shows across the country in the last 2 years, styling more than 100 shoots and shows and doing backstage and shoot coordination for more than 200 of the same. She has Styled for yester year actress Ramya Krishnan, to the most happening Shruthi Hassan, Shreya Saran, Amy Jackson, Kavya Shetty, Bindhu Madhavi, Sakshi Agarwal, Erika Fernandas, Naren karthik ( singer), sports men- Somdev mahadevan, Arman ibrahim, for fashion shows, shoots and movies. Her objective is to play a prominent role, in the world of Fashion Styling.

A list of companies where Prajanya Anand works as a freelance stylist for fashion shoots and show include the Indian Terrain, Max fashions, Vera moda, Kenith Cole, Phoenix market city, Marks and Spencer’s, Eva design studio, Lion dates, Kalanikethan , Kiahs Boutique,Anita boutique, Go coop, C bazzar, Triumph bikes, Touch gym, Palam Silks, RMKV, Radisson blu, Double deer basmati Reliance trends, Chennai Diamonds and TVJ Jewelry Prajanya Anand has worked with a pan Indian Lingerie Brand Amante, Bangalore in their product development team. She has also worked as a stylist, fashion consultant & asst Store Manager at a High fashion boutique, Collage Chennai .She also worked as a sourcing agent, product developer, co-head designer & store manager for Gatsby Collection. Prajanya Anand has also worked as a stylist and back stage manager for hi end fashion events & shows on styling, choreography, model co-ordination and event co ordination. Some Projects undertaken by her were Wendell rodrics opening of Vivanta taj, Mr & Miss Chennai, Miss india south beauty pageant, Ritu kumar, Wills fashion week backstage, World Craft Council, Amarapali Jwellary, Crimson House of fFashion, Manish Malhothra for Eveluzion, are a few to name. She was part of a 2 member team that designed a 3 way color, Kalamkari printing blocks for Fabindia. She has conducted a solo exhibition called “louvered Expressions” in June 2007 on hand painted wooden wall hangings under the guidance of the artist A.V.Ilango, a Professional mural Artist that has undertaken many Thematic, or non conceptual interior projects and she also worked as assistant stylist at Mr & Miss Chennai pageant 2007,The style one premiere fashion show at Adyar in 2008, the S.S Sidney Fashion show in 2009 at Fishermans cove .

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Wonderful Moms Preetha Nagarajan is a multi-faceted home maker and a mother of two adorable boys. She was born and brought up in Chennai and juggles various roles in life. She actively preaches healthy living to friends and family and sets a healthy example to future generations’ .In 2010, Preetha Co-founded “Wondermoms” an online community for moms across the globe, as a support group on Facebook and meetups. Motherhood, Life experiences, will power and support from family and friends induced her to start “Wondermoms”. Children are her priority and her greatest personal victory comes from her parents when they proudly announce themselves as Preetha’s Mom and Dad. Her motivation comes from her children, the desire to provide a better life to them.

There are times when she did set limitations on herself but she is glad that she did not fall into a pit.

Life altering events in her life gave her the courage to believe in herself and realize that she was worth more than she thought. Her sense of self- worth gave her the learning that she is capable off inspiring many lives. Many women have entrusted their lives with her and believed in her more than what she believed in herself.

At the heart of her business philosophy is the support and encouragement that she received from many women and this enabled her to add smiles to many lives. She considers the fact that she has been able to sustain a Mom’s support group for almost 6 years as her greatest business success and her biggest challenge has been to gain people’s trust.

Her life philosophy has been that self- worth is achieved when you practice what you preach and this has had a positive impact in her life and has boosted her confidence. She has learnt a lot from her parents who she considers as her mentors besides others, as they have tirelessly stood by her and encouraged her during her low points of her life. Abundance in her life has meant abundance of friends ,love ,laughter and ideas. This has been of importance both in a positive and negative way but it’s what keeps her going. It’s this abundance that helps her to give back to other moms and society in general.

Buzzrepreneurs Enlisting housewives to create a market Buzz http://buzzrepreneur.strikingly.com

Hobby Holidayz Teach a hobby. Learn a hooby. By taking a weekend holiday. http://hobbyholidayz.strikingly.com

The womens wing of SAM Global http://sameve.strikingly.com To Contact Preetha Nagarajan mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0030

She has the firm belief that gratitude is a very important constituent of business as it builds long bonds and trust and a trustworthy network of friends and acquaintances. This has led to her building a beautiful community of ‘wondermoms” which she feels the need to nurture and take care of and she is optimistic of the future, knowing that her decisions were right and she worked towards achieving it.

Today Preetha believes that she has an audience favorable to many business ventures and a lot of mutual benefit can accrue to businesses wanting to do business with “Wondermoms”. She would like “wondermoms” to integrate with people providing life changing and value added services, woman and kid related ventures, education, sports, health, food, fitness and beauty products and services.

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Other SAM Initiatives

QuerayTED The speaker coaching company that helps you become a better http://querayted.strikingly.com

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Magic Ayurveda

of

Racheal Rebecca is a person who wants to explore so many things.

She feels she is nothing in particular but someone who is ready to be a change.

Her Dad was a social worker who was not very happy with the Allopathy system of medicine and who felt that we have given up our traditional system of medicine and so in her house she was only given local concoctions and fruits for breakfast right from the time she was in 6th or 7th standard and only given herbal medicines .Her dad a voracious reader had picked up his knowledge from reading several books.

To Contact Racheal Rebecca mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0031 6060 | WOMANATION | March 20162016 | WOMANATION | March

Racheal was not a big planner of her life, she took things as they came along up to when she was in her 10th std. She was happy to be let to do her own thing. Her thinking was shaped by her mother who had grown up in an orphanage and her dad being a social worker married her. Racheal had the freedom to pursue whatever she wanted to do and gradually the interest in Ayurveda dawned on her and her dad fanned those desires.

She was impressed with the fact that he did not take her to hospitals when she fell sick but cured her with many home remedies. He let her talk to many Siddha doctors and home remedy experts that she finally felt she found her calling and by her 10th standard had decided to pursue Ayurveda and she applied and got admitted to Dharma College of Ayurveda in Sriperambadur.

When she had completed her first year which went without much ado, she participated in a dance competition where she met her mentor. When she landed up at the dance competition with her mates she was surprised to find that every other participant had come to perform traditional dances whereas she and her friends had practiced for a folk dance .Everyone was dressed in traditional dance costumes whereas they were in Jeans and T shirts. They were apprehensive if they should even take part when this gentleman who seemed very different from the others encouraged to go ahead with the dance.

After the dance when everyone was looking at them in a different way this person came and praised and congratulated them and this raised her curiosity about him. When she enquired about him she was told that he was a madman of Ayurveda who followed the many norms of Ayurveda .This raised her curiosity even more and she discovered that he was Dr.Rajasekhar. So the very next day she met him and he encouraged her to pursue Ayurveda with even more vigor stating that Ayurveda is for her and her family and even if she does not end up practicing it she should learn it for the health and happiness of her and her family. So this was the turning point.

Racheal realized that Ayurveda was for her and it was worth dedicating 5 years of her life to it and so it opened up a new dimension in her life and even if she wanted to change her profession later it was still worth it. She continued this interaction with her mentor and started following several Ayurveda rituals and she started losing weight etc which turned out to be a matter of concern to her parents but she assured them that she knew what she was doing and increased her quest for this unique knowledge.

After completing her undergraduate studies in Ayurveda ,Racheal wanted to do her MD and Dr.Rajasekhar advised her to study Mouliga Siddantha or the Basic Principles of Ayurveda rather than any clinical subject and so Racheal studied this with single minded devotion.

Today Racheal runs her own unique ethnic Ayurveda hospital in T’nagar and one is struck with the simple and neat way the hospital is run. But she is wary of the way other forms of medicine try to put down our old heritage medicine systems .There is a lot of misinformation about our systems of medicine, that it contains mercury and other metals. This false propaganda is ruining our systems and our health. Life she says is very uncertain but there is magic in this uncertainty.

Other forms of medicine use the love parents have for children and the fear to propagate that system .It is unfortunate that there is no pride in doctors practicing Siddha or Ayurveda compared to the dominant form of present day medicine and it is even more unfortunate that the government does nothing substantial to project our traditional medicine she rues. Today our main system of medicine has become an alternate system of medicine. Racheal is proud of the fact that she is a very strict doctor in the sense that she is able to turn down requests for treatment from patients who don’t come to her with an open mind. This is a far cry from doctors who wait for patients to come to them, Racheal says with a smile stating that she does not run around for patients or money.

It is Racheal’s wish to disseminate the Knowledge of Ayurveda to the world and she wants to educate people in the basic principles of health. She also want to meet and encourage students and young Ayurveda doctors.

One cannot but appreciate the knowledge of this ancient philosophical science of Ayurveda in someone so young and that is where her passion shines through.

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Rama Ravee Titti, is a top trainer associated in changing and enhancing lives of many in the society..She has done her under graduate and post graduate studies in Commerce from Madras University and MBA in HR from Madras University. Her additional qualifications include the Regulation 8 Holder under CHA Regulation 2004 of Customs Act 1962. Rama possesses an extensive experience in public speaking, skill for adolescence youth empowerment workshops, women empowerment programs, motivational sessions, and counseling classes. She is a well trained Master NLP Practitioner, and has gathered skills in organizing individual and group workshops and possesses proven ability in innovating new trends to optimize resources for increasing profits in the corporate sector. Her motto is ‘Let the problems be from anywhere and the solutions be from Me’. Rama has 14+ years of progressive experience within the Training and Educational Sector. She is running a play school, successfully for over 12 years. She has gained expertise in implementing new ways of organizing workshops in public speaking .She has defined QRG, roles and responsibilities for each operational group to improve company processes and strengthen communication channels. She has motivated staff to exceed in all expectations of all key parameters, established goals and objectives by developing effective incentives. Rama Ravee’s mission is ‘If I Can, You Too Can’.

Multifaceted Multitalented Motivation

She is also the Founder Director at Thee Shiksha Sishya Bhawan, play school and pre Kg, since 2004. She is also the Director of The shiksha Academics Private Limited, who owns the brand “Thee ShikshaSishyaBhawan” an Gurukul based Montessori Play School and Pre KG running successfully for over 10 year and recently aligned with Franchise India Limited for expansion of the brand in other areas. She is the Director of Thee shiksha Logistic Private Limited, a startup company planning to venture into setting up and managing of warehouses and freight stations.

Rama’s present occupations include, Navaneet Agency – Partner – 2002 to 2005 : Established CFS in Chennai for ICBC Limited and ICD in Coimbatore for Chettinad Logistics Private Limited which is a part of the “MAM Ramaswamy Group”. Continental Warehousing Corporation Ltd. – Manager Marketing: 1998 –2000: The first Inland Container Depot with the railway siding developed with the alliance of Container Corporation of India in Northern India. This USD 6.5 Million project was completed in 2 years and later was acquired by Gateway Distriparks, Singapore. Rama also handled the Post production unit at LV Prasad Studios, Chennai in the period 1992-1993.

She also joined the Lions Movement in 2009 holding the posts of Treasurer, Secretary and President of the Lions Club of Darshan. At the District level she held the posts of DC Women Empowerment, DC Personality Enhancement Program and DC Designate – Governor’s News Letter.

According to Rama , both success and failure can be difficult to define. She says success , is based on one’s mindset, experiences, and perception. Perhaps, in business the transformation she brings to her clients, the smile and confidence she sees on the faces of people who come to her makes her feel the essence of success. Rama regards motivation to be the reason for her to excel in life.

The best motivation she gets is by seeing herself in the mirror and pampering herself, which keeps her positive no matter what the situation be.

Rama Ravi says that she feels the self-worth, when people believe that she can bring a positive change in their lives. Any human being who wants to be happy and successful in life are her clients.

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To Contact

Rama Ravee mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0032

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Reni completed her law from the Coimbatore Law College in 2000. She moved on to pursue her studies in Psychology, Entrepreneurship and Event Management. She was engaged with various MNC companies and grasps a total work experience of 15 years in the field of Education and Life Insurance. Before starting her own venture, she was handling the L&D division of HSBC in Tamil Nadu Born in an intermediate profile, Reni Auxiliya is a first time entrepreneur in her family.

She currently handles the Head Secretariat position in Native Angels Network, which is India’s first native region focused Angel Investor Network promoted by Nativelead Foundation.

She is the Founder & CEO of iGURU Academy of Excellence with a Vision – To make every child “Life Ready” She also handles the responsibilities as Joint Secretary Projects of WE SEED NGO and as an active member of the Women Entrepreneurs Club of the Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce.

To Contact Reni mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0033

FRANCHISE

COIMBATORE

She was awarded the prestigious Life time Achievement Award for her Contributions to Education and Entrepreneurship by the National Foundation of Entrepreneurship Development (NFED) Chennai and the Social Scientist Award from Dr. G.V Health and Education Foundation for her Contributions to teaching community She had been the creative director and host of “Anandham Vilayaadum Veedu,” a reality chat show on Positive Parenting and Child Psychology on Makkal TV which is still telecast on Sundays. She is also the official Master trainer for Tiruchirappalli Elite Rotary Club & the RYLA programs conducted by the Club She is a proud mother of two amazing children. Unwavering about her virtues, an excellent communicator, highly positive, smart in people management, committed and inspiring, and comfortably laces a good sense of humor. When not engaged with her kids, she finds escape in car racing, rallying, music, reading, movies and travelling. Born on 19th September 1977, a native of Cochin, She can speak fluently in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi apart from English

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Rokhini is a person who thinks very differently, judging from the fact that she even spells her name differently!! Coming from a middle class family her wish is to become a renowned person through her business which she wants to promote in the whole of South India Her first franchise is opening in Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad. The idea is called an add on franchise or a spa within a spa and therefore Rokhini looks for franchisees who already have a spa for hair ,skin etc .The products ,employees and the business is managed by her.

Rokhini further wishes to have own forward and backward integration and make this a holistic business where she wants to be a market leader. She is interested in franchising both her nail spa and the nail Academy where specialised courses from Entity will be taught. Students enrolling will have good demand for their skills and placement opportunities as they get the certification from Entity. They will however be under her payroll as the technicians are the core of the business.

There are more than 45 different types of manicure and pedicure which none of the parlours in India has .She met many manufactures of specific manicure and pedicure products like BEAR and others abroad and did her research testing the products thru various skin types

To Contact Rokhini Rajkumar mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0034

NAILING A NEW CONCEPT

Rokhini Rajkumar is from Kuala Lumpur, where in her spare time and as a house wife she indulged in fine arts and drawing. Encouraged by her husband to go out and do something she started working in a nail spa as an amateur. Soon an idea to open a nail spa came to her and so to professionalize the idea she went to the US and joined in a PG course in OPI, the world leader in the nail care industry, with specialisation in nails. She graduated in this in six months’ time and then came back to KL to finish a course on Chinese folk art in three months’ time. She followed this up with more than fifteen certifications and decided to open a nail spa in KL. But seeing more than 3 to 4 saloons in every street she decided that it did not make sense to start another one there.

Basically being from Chennai ,where her Mother in law and other relatives resided, she proceeded to Chennai where for more than two years she did a market survey ,visiting many saloon and realising that there was nothing professional in the way nails were done.

She therefore decided to start a nail spa in Chennai.

Knowing the importance of nails in terms of health and the way a person is judged, six months ago she relocated to Chennai and opened a nail spa, the first of its kind in the country,where it was a new concept. She started promoting the concept that nail care is very important and that different kinds of nail treatments rather than just pedicure and manicure was the key.

This involves a consultation for 15 minutes like in a clinic where they decide what kind of nails one has, do they have nail fungus ,ones skin type, if they have callouses or cracked heals etc. Based on this analysis a particular service is suggested and the treatment delivered. The response for this kind of service is getting good response and testimonials.

Since the concept was totally new and due to the burgeoning demand and the fact that this was a very niche market and the need for quality personnel, Rokhini started her own nail Academy. This resulted in her being the sole distributer of the US based company Entity who are again leaders in this niche market.

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The last six months has seen many ups and downs and she regrets that the mindset of people here is very different than those living abroad, She feels raising awareness about the care of nails and the educating people about it are the key to her business. To do this she organised a fashion show,the first of its kind in India, where models showcased their nails. But this awareness that she promoted also resulted in many people going out and starting their own nail bars instead of reaching out to her!!

She also feels that people don’t realise the value of brands often comparing her services with the common and cheaper pedicure and manicure procedures offered by many spas. She takes pains to point out that her products are organic, imported and without harmful chemicals but she finds that people in general are cost conscious. This is a barrier that she seeks to break as time goes by with the results and her target are niche clients who will enjoy the brand and be part of her own conceptualised special events . She will also promote this awareness in Colleges catering to those who will enter the corporate world.

She takes pride in the fact that she has been the first mover in a new concept and is thankful to her husband who runs an International trading business in minerals in countries like Honk Kong, Malaysia and other port countries.

Rokhini plans to standardise the franchise right from interior décor and products etc and a person wanting to start a franchise should think of investing 5 to 10 lakhs for 2 chairs. Other saloons can also use the products for their treatments Rokhini’s target are women who are passionate about taking care of their nails and who are willing to pay the price for it. Her market research did bring out the fact that there is a market for services like hers..Rokhini does has a lot of enquiries for franchise options, which she is screening now as she is not in a mad rush to expand but would look for people who want to do something new and are willing to put in the effort to make it a success. She has many women who have saloons contacting her to set up a professional nail bar.

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Ruby Ann is a voracious reader, and an accomplished artist who specializes in oils. She loves spending time with her partner, 2 kids, and 2 dogs doing fun stuff. She is also an RJ, a social activist and someone who’s traveled the length and breadth of four different continents, Ruby Ann’s life is a repository of inspiring stories

Ann Of All Trades

While it might not be easy for most people to accept injustice, Ruby truly believes that everything has a purpose. And her purpose in life is to empathize with and help others. In 2011, she started an NGO called BEAR India - an acronym for Being There, Engaging, Aiding and Reaching Out - especially to the underprivileged and destitute people, focusing mainly on women and children, that’s what BEAR stands for and that’s what we do!

Ruby Ann, is a highly motivated Management consultant and a passionate people trainer, executive coach with over 16 years of training experience. In her quest for always pursuing excellence, POSTAR, an acronym for People Oriented Skill Training And Recruitment was born in 2007 after a brief stint as training manager at Apple Inc. She has proven to be a reputable leader and strategic developer with a successful background orchestrating start-ups as well as elevating organizational performance through skillful restructuring.

She has the ability to effectively boost sales revenues and impact unit recognition, productivity, and membership through advanced leadership and creative implementations. A natural expert in the identification-analysis-resolution process of diverse operational issues, while continuously maintaining top performance through her superior programs/services. When asked , why someone should choose POSTAR over other training companies, she is quick to respond with, “Anyone can provide off-theshelf leadership development. If, however, you’re looking for someone to help you create new

BEAR India empowers women to face the present challenges by • teaching them skills that will help to sustain themselves financially • by providing medical & legal advice and counseling services • by providing Micro loans • Our main objective is to create a platform around issues of common interest of women welfare for the betterment of society. We encourage women to find practical solutions to their challenges so that each one becomes selfdependent in their own right.

developmental solutions to meet your unique needs in your unique situation, and partner in a process that can span many years of business growth, then POSTAR is for you.

At POSTAR, we work as an extension of your company ,and not as a vendor. We know your business is unique. That’s why we work with you to understand your specific issues, your organization, your offering, and your customers before we suggest a solution. Once we’ve agreed on the right approach, we have the resources and flexibility to make sure every aspect -- from content through delivery, follow-up coaching, and evaluation -- is tailored to your organization’s learning needs, your time frame, and your budget.

She and her small team including her kids and two other volunteers reach out to destitute women with no financial capability. They teach them candle making, crochet, tailoring, quilled jewelry,terracotta jewelry, hand & machine embroidery and soap making for free. “If they get good at it, we send them to people who can hire them. And because I enjoy fashion designing, I employ some of them for myself. For those who can’t be taught any of these skills, we help them set up micro businesses ranging from selling flowers, fruits, vegetables to setting up a mobile eatery.”

We continue to build on our brand by developing and offering new services and programs to meet our client’s needs for fun, innovative and life changing learning experiences. A Skilled presenter, communicator and trainer with success whose main focus has been to target large community groups and thereby impacting organizational performance and reputation.

As a Management Trainer two of her Signature bestseller programs are • Motivate and Stay Motivated – A program that helps young managers not only stay motivated but also motivate their team to reach new heights • Me, Myself and My Team - A new leader/ manager guide to “Managing teams by example” An individual highly focused on adhering to organizational missions and philosophy while positively impacting bottom line and daily performance.

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To Contact Ruby Ann mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0034

A jack of all trades, RJ Ruby Ann who hosts the ‘Night Train’ (retro music) show on 104.8 FM, is now on a break, but she has her hands full. Every weekend, she gathers street children and tells them stories with the intention of making them better human beings. And who could have better stories to tell than someone who’s traveled as much as she has. From landing in Abidjan, Ivory Coast during the war and seeing nothing but bloodshed all around to watching the local tribes in Africa perform Vodoo to sleeping in the wide open in Kenya with friends from the Matai tribe with wild animals all around, one wouldn’t want to miss her stories. “No amount of education can teach you what you learn when you travel. It’s nothing like what you see in the media or read in books. You have to experience it.”

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Design Passion Sadhana Srinivasan is an interior designer, who has carved a niche in the real estate industry with her signature style of designing interiors.

her master’s degree which she completed with flying colors. She then pursued a second master’s degree and came out successful in that as well.

She is a hard working person who believes that nothing is impossible, a never say die person who believes in putting out her best, always strives to be positive and a person full of life and energy.

She does not give up easily and believes that there is no short cut to success and has slogged it out to reach the top.

In the meantime her grandmother passed away and since it was always her wish that Sadhana become a Interior Designer, and so in her memory, Sadhana combined her name with her grandfathers and Neeras Design Studio opened shop on April 17th which was her birthdate in the year 2013. Her first project was a 4000 sqft apartment in Cochin and there was no looking back. Today, Sadhana’s signature style is evident in many constructions for a whole lot of builders in villas, spas, beauty parlors and hotels.

Life has not been easy for Sadhana but the fighter that she is, she has conquered several challenges both in her personal and professional life. She has pursued her passion with single minded devotion and perseverance, often working 13 hours a day even on weekends and holidays but is quick to add that since design is her passion and she loves what she does it is not at all stressful.

Sadhana has been designing interiors from the age of 20 and started as a freelance designer and it all began when she started designing her father’s house, having a keen eye for color.

Many of her father’s friends who saw her work insisted that she design their homes as well and the experience gained helped her design the residence of Ms.Nallini Chidambaram in 1999, who recognizing Sadhana’s talent persuaded her to make design a career.

To Contact Sadhana Srinivasan mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0035 7070 | WOMANATION | March 20162016 | WOMANATION | March

So research into the field convinced Sadhana that the Inchbald School of Design, the world’s no 1 for interior design, in London was the best and she decided to go and study there. Fortunately this coincided with her son’s desire to also pursue his under grad studies in London and so in 2000 Sadhana enrolled in Inchbald for her graduate in Design course. She completed her course with high grades, came back to Chennai and after a short break went back to London to do

Sadhana’s work has been applauded and recognized by having been chosen for several awards but the glow on the faces of her clients is what gives her the greatest satisfaction. Most of her projects have come from word of mouth referrals from satisfied clients who have come from all over Tamilnadu as also from Bangalore, Cochin etc.

Every year on April 17th on the Anniversary of Neeras, Sadhana has a grand celebration to celebrate her success, inviting most of her clients and suppliers and well-wishers. This has endeared her to the people who matter in the industry and they openly endorse her work and testify to their good experiences.

Sadhana looks to speed up the growth of Neeras both by forward and backward integration. So a logical step was Neeras Real estate, another wing of the Neeras group. Here she lists high net worth properties for both buying and selling. This has again taken off really well. Efforts are on to also open up overseas and take Neeras International.

Sadhana’s many awards include: will list awards here .

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Sharadha Gopalakrishnan is someone who takes you back in time. Not a time machine, but a passionate photographer. She started her firm SMILEYMEDIA in 2011 even while she was in College .After completing her UG in visual communication in the year 2012 her firm became a part of her and now she is completely committed to SMILEYMEDIA Sharadha’s support base consists of her Dad, Gopalakrishnan who taught her values of life, her Mom Balameenakshi who boosted her up every time when someone criticized me, her brother Gokul who is her biggest strength , who supported her from day one and Mani Kandan, her business partner who plays a major role in the success of her profession. It’s the love and encouragement of her friends and family that helped her start Smileymedia.

True to the spirit of her firm, Sharadha puts out a smile and walks forward no matter how hard the situation and keeps herself and her clients happy and makes sure that any client who walks into her company always take away happiness and smiles.

As an entrepreneur Sharadha has learnt the importance of delegation and this has freed time for her to focus on new opportunities,plans and set goals and this she believes as her greatest victory. Sharadha has always learnt from her experiences never limiting herself but often exploring how strong she can become through it and learning how not to repeat any mistakes. She never sits back but sets herself lofty goals which drives her forward.

Sharadha’s parents wanted her to be an engineer but having acceded she quit within a year realizing that it was not her cup of tea but her parents stood by her decision and she pursued her passion for photography. “Two roads diverged and I took the one less travelled by and that has made all the difference” – It’s is being a photographer that has made all the difference.

Her self- worth comes from having a positive environment around her and she is able to create ample opportunities for herself as she also believes she deserves the best of everything.

The smiles of the people she captures, smile of her team, smile of her partner, and of course her own smile is what is satisfying her. There are a lot of challenges. To withstand those challenges itself is a great success. Every time she delivers the end products to the client, the smile that she puts on their face is worth any challenge and that’s the success she is extremely proud of.

Her wisdom comes from the fact that she is happy doing the job she loves. While money is important she has not let it stress her even though she did not make much money in the initial stages but the fact that her life has turned out beautiful and happy has been worth the effort.

Director Nandhini, who is a film maker and a strong woman taught her to be a learner. She taught Sharadha how important it was to learn. She taught her to lead, to be strong always. She is my best teacher ever – says Sharadha

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To Contact Sharadha Goplakrishnan mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0036

For Sharadha abundance is an attitude. It keeps her optimistic both in her personal and professional life and this is extremely important because when one starts to think about limits, an endless cycle of scarcity sets in motion where everybody loses. On the other hand abundance satisfies her needs, the needs of her employees, her customers and even competitors. The universe is vast beyond our imagination with endless bounty for all of us to enjoy together she says.

She is grateful for her sustainable growth, for her clients who chose her over others and her team who is the reason for her success. Genuine appreciation for her employees inspires them to engage fully and produce more work and she extremely thankful to them for they are the reason for her success.

She wishes to learn more and more everyday and create more opportunities for herself and her team.

Working on the scalability of her business she sees Smileymedia bigger and better in all aspects being more happy and content as a business owner and as a person.

Smileymedia is not just a business but a relationship .It is not just pictures she clicks but the story, the emotion, and the life. It’s a win-win for both her clients and her for whom Smiles guaranteed.

Sharadha does candid wedding photography and handles corporate films. And they are a team that specialises in corporate photography, wedding cinema, events, product shoot, food and Industrial photography.

Any happy individual is her client. He / She can be working in a corporate, can be someone who’s getting married shortly, who can be a business owner or an aspiring model. She has done 200+ weddings and hence have a strong portfolio in wedding. If you are person who is getting married shortly and want your wedding to be an extremely happy experience, you know whom to contact.

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Sheetal Jain started her career with a small stint in marketing with Cadburys just after college. She is a post graduate in Computers and also a university rank holder. Being married in conservative Jaipur family did not give her much time to pursue her career. In 2008 with kids bit grown up she resettled in Chennai and started her career in the plywood industry, where she was involved in various departments of one of the leading Company in the Industry. She also credits the staft of her creative and professional growth from here on, where she also pursued her course of CS while working. Being a science student, getting a Finance Degree was a farfetched idea but she always was good with numbers and encouragement by her colleagues made her take the plunge. It was a huge challenge and that was what excited her too, she cleared various levels of the exam in her first attempt and is really proud of the same , she moved on from the Company to pursue her Finance career .The position she last held there was the CEO of the Retail division of the Company.

The Finance Degree opened a whole new world of opportunities to her. She was the Compliance manager for two listed Companies, which is also a very critical position. She has had the privilege of working with the biggest names in the Corporate Lending and Finance Sector. She has worked closely with the all the Leading Banks in India and the Stock Market regulator. She was involved in fund raising of over 10 million.

Today after just 8 short years Sheetal is a finance professional, and actively involved with startups and also consults Private and Public Companies on various compliances. She owns a brand in the style industry as well and that didn’t come easy. It was with single minded focus and literally living a life of a recluse that she was able to reach this position. She credits all of this to the support she received from her family, without which it would have been only a dream.

Sheetal’s sister Priyanka who had an Advertising agency in Delhi started involving her in small events that she took up in Chennai and Sheetal was happy to be of assistance as she was learning new skills which would later be of great help to her when she started Style Bazaar, the premier lifestyle exhibition that Sheetal now organizes every quarter at the Hyatt. She followed this up with organizing a huge event on behalf of her sister which helped her get good contacts and a huge database.

Finance and Style Bazzar

With this experience Sheetal was able to organize some weddings and other events gaining valuable experience in this sunrise industry which was just evolving.

Sheetal started her own brand of style exhibition STYLE BAZAAR and the show was a rocking success.

And all this she did with a parallel career in finance and that gives glimpses on the steel like resolve that Sheetal exhibited in several aspects of her life. Sheetal introduced several new concepts to the exhibition and it soon metamorphed into a style celebration.

Sheetal herself transformed herself to a one man army, meticulously working on all aspects of what it took to build a brand.

Sheetal also plans to teach herself even more by signing up for a course on wealth management in Singapore.

She is following her gut instincts and her will power to make it big in this industry. She plans to build Style Bazaar into a national brand as well.But she has also no

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To Contact Sheetal Jain mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0037 intension of giving up on the finance side as that gives her a lot of excitement and satisfaction.She would also like to take up some creative pursuits in finance especially in the CSR domain. Sheetal is also expanding the Style Bazaar experience to other cities in India. She has also constituted the Style Icon awards to recognize and honor the style icons of the city.

There is little doubt then, that this rare combination of beauty and brains, the one woman army called Sheetal, training her guns on several initiatives is bound to make a killing!!

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Sreeja Raaj holds a degree in Visual Communication and Business Administration with specialization in marketing and HR. Her experience comes from having worked for leading corporates in the areas of sales and marketing.

She is also enterprising and has great creativity.

Shabana Nazar holds a degree in Business Administration and has excellent leadership qualities, administrative and marketing skills.

When these two onetime colleagues came together and pooled their strengths with a common dream, EVENT GLITZ was born in 2013.

The urge to start something new prompted them to start and after considering several options decided to venture into events. Initially they started with planning birthday parties.

At Event Glitz, they provide customized approach as every client and their needs are different. They develop and execute event with care, precision and love to ensure that you can actually enjoy your event rather than worry about it. Every event they create is a unique experience and their mission is to evoke emotion and excitement that leaves a lasting impression. Above all, they always maintain exemplary standards of professional conduct at all times.

Their Parents and bosses have contributed a lot in terms of motivation, self-confidence, positive attitude, work life balance and most important the “I” factor without arrogance.

Gratitude plays a vital role in their business as EVENT GLITZ clients come to them 60% through word of mouth from the customers who have experienced their work. This is how a customer shows her/his gratitude to them and they are proud of the fact that many clients have stuck with them for all these years.

They have established EVENT GLITZ as event planners in the market now and five years from now they want to expand their services to make EVENT GLITZ a house hold name for any event.

Learning and knowing new things is an ongoing process and is always required to evolve & grow in whatever we do they exclaim and add that • •

EVENT GLITZ is always Available – Reliable and on Budget.

EVENT GLITZ – event planners caters to all kinds of personal and corporate

Event Glitz provides end to end services from initial concept design to collating final guest lists to ultimate execution on your special day.

Planning Glittering

Events

While Sreeja handles the Creativity and Conceptualization, Shabana concentrates on Administration. They have never ever set limitations as they believe that when thoughts and actions are open the result is always positive.

Customer satisfaction is always in the heart of their business and in whatever they do in Event Glitz. There is always this urge for perfection and this has served them well judging by the impressive list of clients that they can boast of..

They realize that every client is a new challenge as their work with them engages varied cultures, emotions and ideas. Customer Happiness is their success measure and they proudly claim that EVENT GLITZ achieves it every time.

Self-worth is achieved only if we respect our self and also follow basic ethics in whatever we do says Sreeja and it makes a lot of difference as we stand as a mirror in front of others, showcasing only what we think of our self from inside out adds Shabana.

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To Contact Event Glitz mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0038 77 | WOMANATION | March 2016

Sridevi Ramesh, is a Chennai based makeup artist and a hairstylist with 14 years of experience. She is also a former alumna of London Makeup Institute, Dubai. Her own drive to become an internationally recognized makeup artist has been her motivation. She strongly feels that her passion and interest in makeup has made her look for opportunities to develop herself as a makeup artist which in turn has helped her to become the entrepreneur she is, today. She also admits that being a mother, a entrepreneur and a respected makeup artist is her personal victory. Her makeup studio Shree Bridal Creations in AnnaNagar, is an acclaimed destination for Bridal Makeup.

Moving to Chennai from Muscat to be with her parents and to establish a career in a new city with the support of her husband in 2002 was a life-altering event for her. Her husband who worked abroad made her self-dependent to manage business and family by herself. She also feels that it is essential to have a balance between the work life, family life and her children.

ot

Perk Up Make Up

This year 2015 was especially significant for Sridevi as her work spoke for her and she was recognized to be one of the leading makeup artists in Chennai.

This recognition soon turned into many awards. She was awarded the “Best Makeup Artist 2014” by Synergy Fashions, Bangalore , “Women's entrepreneur International association by Rokittwei”, “Born to lead", award for Makeup artist

by Trinity International 2015”, Face of Madras - “Popular Makeup Artist of the year 2015”- By the Madras events Idea showers. The “ Beauty polis south India Award for Emerging artiste of the year 2015”, in Makeup was the crowning glory of her achievements as it recognized her not only in Chennai but all over South India. She says that these awards had given her the drive and encouragement to be more creative and confident with her work.

She is known for her creativity, interpersonal skills, and personal attention to details when dealing with clients. Her domains of expertise include bridal makeup, portfolio shoots and styling for fashion magazines and designers.

She admits that looking for opportunities made her come across different clients with different requirements which in turn made her the entrepreneur that she is, today. She has dealt with different types of clients ranging from celebrities, professional models, college students and brides. She works on creative concepts with Indian themes like goddesses, nature, ethnic, retro using techniques such as special airbrushing techniques, 3D makeup, and contouring and eye makeup. She is specialized in airbrush makeup, innovative eye makeup and hairstyling. She draws her inspiration from the ancient mythology from India, Egypt, Middle East and nature. She has worked for Synergy Fashion show -Bangalore, Madras Couture Fashion Week, Aval Vikadan Cover page and articles, Mehendi wedding magazine cover page. She feels that her versatility and adaptability to the requirements of different clients has helped her get different opportunities in the fashion industry. The versatility in her work and ability to adapt to different clients requirements has helped her get different opportunities in different sectors

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of the fashion industry. She feels that her work is liked by the people, because she gives personal attention to every client and uses her creativity and interpersonal skills to provide the client with customized unique look, which would make them shine on their special day or occasion. She says that the ultimate challenge is to meet the client’s expectations and at the same time maintain the quality of work and she regards that to be the best way to get feedbacks from the clients.

Makeup artist’s such as UzmaYakoob, OjasRajani, Bharat and Doris, Urvasi Dave and Samantha Kochar, are her mentors and they have helped her develop the versatility in her work. She’s currently working with different magazines for cover page shoots and is also excited to go on a business study trip to London, to one of the ‘Big Four’ Fashion Capital to observe and learn current trends in the London fashion.

Initially, she was interested in becoming an artist. Perhaps, later on she discovered that she also likes to travel and she gets inspired from different cultures, art and incorporates that into her makeup works.

She confesses that she loves to shop for cosmetics and follow the latest international products like Makeup Forever, Chanel, Dior and Bobby Brown.

Her hobbies include watching movies with amazing makeup work like in Maleficent, Lord of the Rings and TV series like Game of Thrones and Once Upon a Time.

According to her, an efficient artist should possess the profound knowledge about makeu, the skill to work with products that are safe, and the ability to cater the best look possible to showcase the client’s beauty.

She regards punctuality and attention to detail and organized work schedule as her ways to reach success in her work-life. In the coming years, she aspires to work with the leading peers in the fashion industry both in India and internationally and then train the upcoming young aspirants in the art of makeup.

Sridevi invites “any woman who wants to look beautiful” to reach out to her and be groomed by her.

To Contact Sridevi Ramesh mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0039 79 | WOMANATION | March 2016

handing a “meritorious certificate”. Recently, Space Kidz India partnered with a pilot training school (Phoenix East Aviation) in Florida (USA) to provide a Launchpad for young Indian aviators.

SKI is the first Indian entity to offer this unique training program.

o t

SUPERMOM SPACE KIDZ

Dr. Srimathy Kesan, is an educational, cultural and travel ambassador for kids evangelizing a new medium of education. This is an amalgamation that is propelled by “Education, Travel, Honor, Innovation and Culture”, presenting the young mind with a many options. She founded Space Kidz India, to propagate this new ETHIC!! Srimathy, has been honored with a doctorate by the Cosmopolitan University for exemplary work in the field of education. She is also one among the 1000 Women entrepreneurs from around the World selected to participate in a collaborative management workshop funded by Goldman Sachs and held at the Indian School of Business, September 2012.Through Space Kidz India she manifests her thoughts on ETHIC; travelling to the pinnacle of space education, performing at the Olympics or spotting a young Scientist; her brainchild has created a unique identity.

Srimathy, conceived the idea of “Education Through Travel” - NASA to create a platform for Indian students to explore the pinnacle of Space Education (NASA). Through this program she motivated 1100 young inquisitive minds on a life changing journey. Started out as an idea for kids, this concept also became an opportunity for industry partners like airlines, travel companies in the US and local restaurants. The State of Florida also recognized this as an income generating model. The U.S Commercial service – Washington DC, had appreciated this unique work by

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To Contact Dr. Srimathy Kesan mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0040

Ms. Srimathy perceived the idea of “Education Through Culture” Olympics-London 2012 and created history by providing a platform for kids to perform at the 2012 Olympics. Her Indian contingent of cultural artists secured a place for the performance at the London Olympics 2012.

This was the 1st ever time an Indian student group had an opportunity to perform in any Olympics.

Smitten by the Cultural team, the Indian High Commission (London) hosted an Olympic fest during the same time at the Royal Hall, (South Bank,London). The Indian contingent had a special invitation to perform at this fest to showcase our Culture to the international audience. Srimathy’s idea of “Education through Innovation”, Space Kidz India embarked on a unique mission to find the future scientist within the schools of India.

This competition brought scientists, scholars and educationalists under one roof with a common objective; to select the Young Scientist. 2013 Young Scientist Tamil Nadu – Inception of the Young Scientist program, 2014 Young Scientist South India – Partnered with The Hindu and Hindustan University to crown the Young Scientist of South India, February 2014. 2015 Young Scientist India – All India event to crown the Young Scientist of India. As an extension of Young Scientist India 2015 program, she is working on setting up a research and development organization to nurture the scientific instincts of children. Space Kidz India collaborates with future scientists to design and launch “NSLV – Kalam 1”, first private institution ever to launch a “Near Space Vehicle” in India. 2015 Launch of “NSLV – Kalam 1” – SKI is the first private institution in the country to harness the natural talents of budding scientists to assemble and launch a “Near Space Vehicle”.

Her idea of “Education Through Social Awareness” include,“Why Be Born” – a campaign to save the Girl Child, a music video with a powerful message was encapsulated by Space Kidz India with significant contributions from several under privileged children portraying different roles in the video. Breast Cancer Awareness is again penned and directed by Srimathy Kesan, a music video produced by Space Kidz India that portrays the impact of Breast Cancer through an emotional melody and chords that are strikingly thought provoking. Srimathy Kesan is the Pink

Ambassador of “Working for cancer awareness”, Ambassador for “The World Peace” organization.

She is working on motivating children affected by AIDS. She scripted and directed her debut, music video for Breast Cancer Awareness. She created the concept of saving the Girl Child, a music video produced by SKI “Why Be Born”.

Srimathy has bagged a huge number of awards such as the Social Entrepreneur of the Year awarded by the Rotary Club port city, Social Entrepreneur award by Lions Club, Social Entrepreneur of the year2013, awarded by SDCRF and Indian Sustainability Congress. She also received Indian Icon-2015 awarded by Times India News and Meheir News, Poomagal Award for the best woman entrepreneur of the year by Parijadham Foundation, Doctorate in education conferred by Cosmopolitan University, “Woman Achiever of the Year 2014 -2015”, extended

by National Entrepreneurs Network (NEN)and Saveetha Entrepreneurs Cell (NEST), “Leading Women Entrepreneur”, was awarded by II Global , “Naari Shakthi” awarded by Seemapuri Times, The Centre for Media & Public Affairs (CMPA) announced ‘Space Kidz India’ as the Outstanding Institution of the Year (2013) in promoting children’s education. She also received The Cavin Kare Chinnikrishna Innovation Award. She also got the Young Women Achiever by Guild of Women Achievers, Chennai Super Mom by The Hindu..She received the title “Sirandha Pennmani” by Madha Trust and Kavi Oviya. Srimathy has presented papers at 2 International Tourism Conferences on “Education Through Travel” and have Won Commendations. She has received numerous accolades received during her school and Srimathy has presented papers at 2 International Tourism Conferences on “Education Through Travel” and have Won Commendations. The Accolades received during her school and graduation include All Rounder Title for 3 consecutive years at her undergraduate level. In the National Cadet Corps, NCC Srimathy won the Gold Medal at the State and National level for Word Of Command Competition, she also won the Silver Medal at the All India Firing Competition.

She represented Andhra Pradesh in 10 Basket Ball Nationals , State level athlete in Javelin, Shotput and Relay and she won 3 Mixed Doubles titles for Badminton, Inter Club’s 2010/11/12.She was chosen for the Prestigious Prime Minister’s Rally at Delhi Republic Day, awarded the All Round Best Cadet of Andhra Pradesh, awarded the Best Para Trooper of Andhra Pradesh.

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Bamboola. Happy cent percent satisfied parents who have seen growth in their children have been more than happy to share their experiences of the positive impact that Bamboola and Sujata have had on their children to other prospective parents. Past students have also been happy to return to the school for summer /winter camps and other activities.

Passionate About Children Sujata Vijay is the Founder/Director of Bamboola, the number one play school in Chennai and the 10th nationally. You approach Sujata thinking that she is a bit of an enigma but find yourself consumed by the fire of her passion for children and everything else that she does, as it is infectious. The animated way she speaks and the pride in what she has started and built simply blows you away. She does what she does not because she has to but because she wants to and that is the difference!!

When Sujata returned from the US in 2002 with a 6 month and a 4 year old she really did not know how to spend the time on a typical Monday or Tuesday. Other than the Marina beach or The Snake park there was nothing much to do in Chennai. She was aghast at the number of crèches that flourished in Chennai often manned by Grandmas and Grandpas which was unstructured and unprofessionally run.

She therefore saw the need for a structured and professional paly school and Bamboola, meaning Indoor fun was born. A place where children come together, play, learn and interact. Not just children but their parents as well. So Bamboola came out of a need and now satisfies that need for providing quality day care and has extended into a play school and an after school program.

Bamboola has become a boon for working mothers who don’t have to leave their kids with an uneducated maid for over 10 hours at home but rest assured of a fun learning environment where safety and security is utmost. The after school

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program especially has made sure that children complete their homework, be taught new things and interact with other children instead of being cooped in a flat without interaction with other kids.

Now in its 13 year Bamboola has been a great learning for Sujata herself unlike a 9 to 5 job where she would have probably done the same thing over and over again. Each day here is an adventure where kids and she learn something new. The fact that mothers can go to work knowing that their children are safe gives them complete freedom of thought,clarity and give something back to their work. Sujata feels that this is a huge win win for all. This she explains is the reason for her overwhelming passion.

The fact that mothers can also interact with other mothers, compare notes about how their kids are growing up is another huge benefit of the system that Sujata has founded.

Sujata also makes sure that she keeps in touch with the kids who have passed out of her school and their parents by conducting a yearly carnival where most return. The kids at the inception of Bamboola are now in their teens in 10th std and above and its always a joy for her to welcome them back to their first school and she is excited when she is recognized and swarmed at Malls and shopping centers or other public places by her ex students and their parents.

Sujata does such a good job of what she does that she has never felt the need to advertise

But not everything is hunky dory and Sujatha has had her fair share of ups and downs like any other growing enterprise. Infrastructure costs have gone up necessitating the need to push revenues up but that is not always possible with resistance from parents who shy away from paying more for quality service but are nevertheless very demanding of the facilities provided. They want the latest technology for the kids but she reminds them that the kids are one and a half and two and a half and kids will learn more when they touch and feel and that’s why Bamboola follows a methodology called PLAYWAY methodology. .Children today are tech savvy and so they have to also constantly train themselves and be not only innovative but also be ahead of the curve.

starting ECA Early Childhood Association 8 years ago inviting all pre- schools so that they could have guide lines for preschools. The government is now waking up and setting norms in place.

Sujata realizes that all work and no play would make her dull. She therefore runs marathons, cycles, bikes,attends boot camps treks ,surfs and needs to be outdoors as part of nature. She has also participated in a 15 day trek in the Himalayas.

She has thus stuck off quite a few items off her bucket list. The petite Sujata is a bundle of energy who sure is a role model for the children who pass through her school.

Bamboola also involves parents almost every month by doing some activity or the other as it’s important to involve the family. This is lacking in the education system in India. She constantly updates the parents on the progress of their wards and they are free to meet the teachers anytime .

Bamboola also boasts of 18000 sq feet of space to run and play and explore. Sujata feels that parents are a great influence in the child’s life Parents want the best for the child .Parents try to encourage their children to try out various things like theatre, roller skating etc and so she tries to offer everything under one roof.

Sujata used to work for a Corporation in the US, first as a teacher and then as a manager and also completed her post graduate diploma in Business Administration. On her return to India Sujata put her experiences and her qualifications but when she started she just had 4 enrollments .But due to the demand the 4 increased to 80 in 2 month’s time, Lots of schools take in her students as they have recognized the curriculum taught at Bamboola. Sujata also felt it was her responsibility to not only document but also share her experiences and knowledge with other women who start paly schools This has resulted in her starting a consulting business and taking the after schools program to other schools in their own premises.She was also instrumental in

To Contact Sujata Vijay mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0041 83 | WOMANATION | March 2016

Sujatha Giri’s mantra in dressing up a home is simple - affordable, accessible but totally, 100% stylish.

‘A house should look organically put together, not ordered off a catalogue’, is her oft-repeated slogan.

It is this belief that forms the basis of her stylist persona and that of the owner of Chennai’s only standalone store for home décor and accents, Home & Style. Situated in the leafy suburb of R.A.Puram in South Chennai, Sujatha Giri’s store is a treasure trove of unusual wares, such as those not found usually in the regular home décor stores.

A trio of rock animals greet you as you step foot inside the store – a tall and wise-looking owl, a sleepyeyed cat and a colourful parrot... A few metres away is a tall and rather Mughal-looking lampshade throwing out patterned light, bringing in some old world charm. Kitchy décor items abound and the

To Contact Sujatha Giri mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0042 whole place has the feel of Aladdin’s cave, where coming upon an exotic item or two is a definite possibility. Always at hand, Sujatha Giri is willing to swap her shop owner’s hat for that of a home stylist’s and offer you her expert views on what you should go home with, based on what you are and what you would like.

So where does Sujatha get her stock from? And more importantly, how does she make them so affordable? It is a matter of great pride to Sujatha that none of the items in her store carry a price tag of more than Rs 5000. By sourcing the items herself and by vetting the vendors directly, she has cut out the middlemen and the countless intermediary steps that adversely affect the price of an item.

A patron can walk in and walk away with an item they will not find in very many places. Sujatha’s price points mean that even if the object no longer is interesting after month or five, or doesn’t go with the new décor, it can just be put aside without the price tag sending one on a guilt trip.

Therein lies another tenet of Sujatha Giri’s life – that the décor you surround yourself with needn’t be a lifetime investment, it can just be something you picked up without going into palpitations. “It’s just stuff!” is another of her oft-repeated phrases and she would like every shopper to remember that as they browse through her store and just shop with abandon.

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What got her started on this journey? Sujatha credits her mother’s job at the ITC group of hotels and the resultant association with beautifully decorated spaces, the expanse of light and all the drama that comes with it. Thereafter, her own work in hospitality and the travel industries, and the many, many experiences that came with it – of different cultures, flavours, colour and ideas, that became a palette for her to imagine and dip into.

Apart from giving Sujatha a unique eye when it comes to curating the products for her store, this rich palette comes in handy in her home stylist avatar too. Whilst working with her clients, she prefers to rework some of their existing items to suit the new colour scheme or base the new theme around a piece currently in their possession. Colours, textures, accents all of these are put to use expertly to

Interior Styling transform someone’s tired and dated surroundings into something sumptuous and welcoming.

It is Sujatha’s belief that a piece of décor must be flexible. A change here, a swap there and with a choice accent piece or two, the look of any space can be changed very quickly, to suit seasons or festivals, or any other occasion.

Sujatha, a self-confessed curator of fine things and a friendly-neighbourhood stylist genie rolled into one, was actually a part of the prestigious 10K Women Entrepreneurs Drive by Goldman Sachs, in association with ISB! To add yet another feather to her cap, she is currently pursuing a TAFE certification as an Interior Stylist from the acclaimed Coco Republic Design School of Australia.

Sujatha Giri considers herself a tool in the architecture of a person’s minds and dreams and her job is to channel her clients’ thought process, to bring about their ideas and hopes into an everyday reality.

She is like a mentalist armed with a magic mirror. She can get into her clients’ heads and show them what they really want to live with and make it happen for them. If a new item of décor to jazz up their house is all that a patron is after, well, she has a whole store for just that!

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Sukanya Saleem is an Associate Vice President at a premier IT major where she heads the Transition function. She is also the Founder of WOMENSPIRE a platform for women to empower each other and network amongst themselves.

She is representing the corporate woman here. Recently when reading some statistics she discovered that women in the corporate sector account for 14.2% in urban India and only 2.2 % are in leadership positions, which is abysmally low. One of Sukanya’s goal in life is to share, coach, foster and encourage women to take up challenges and opportunities and enable them to have a fulfilling career. So what does it take for a Woman to go have a fulfilling and rewarding career – one in which growth is attained professionally and personally? Sukanya cities a few steps that she hopes would motivate and encourage women in corporates.

Women Empowerment Today there is a dearth of woman leadership due to a lack of preparedness, lack of confidence and skill deficit .Skill deficit is easy to plug as that can be achieved by skill upgradation. But what is important is for women to be prepped and groomed to go over and beyond day to day deliverables and become thought leaders. To go beyond appraisal mechanisms and to infuse Entrepreneurship. It can be done at the workplace by making a shift in the thought process in day to day work. These are the acumen that one needs to build oneself but this is where women stop themselves.

• Stop Overanalyzing: Women tend to over analyze, I have done it and I know so many of them who continue to over analyze…have we done the right thing, did I say the right thing, I should ve done this and not that? There is a thin line between reflection and overanalyzing. I’ve come to realize that the moment one stops over analyzing one automatically does better. Reflect, learn, Move on.

• Collaborate and Communicate: In today’s dynamic world, It is important to work in a collaborative way in spite of the fact that there will be people who will be supportive or they may wait for you to fail. But one needs to find a way to work across and with people as extreme collaboration and communication is the key. There is no point in doing everything by yourself. It is Ok to ask for help instead of trying to be a super girl.

• Working with people is a whole different dimension. You will come across all kinds of people, you will find people mature but young, old but not wise, The secret is to tap into the strengths of people around you.

• Filter out Negativity: You need to find a mechanism to filter out the negativity. Such negativity can come from peers, Colleagues, close friends or even the immediate family and not only in corporate life but also in one’s personal life. Identify, process, remove.

• Grab Opportunities: When an opportunity presents itself, Grab it and then figure out the dynamics. Dynamics at home, with your spouse, kids, your social and personal life will need to be worked out. Be realistic and pragmatic but do not let the dynamics around you overrule what you want to achieve.

• Live in the moment: The next thing is to live in the moment. When you do that you are processing right now. When you think of what you would do after going home or do two hours later, you have lost the moment and with it, you lose the clarity and presence when you are right there physically, emotionally and mentally. Living in the moment ensures that your decisions, command and the reach you have with others is much better and this makes a world of difference. You need to make a conscious effort to practice this.

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Sukanya has been passionate about women empowerment. When an idea presented itself, she started Womenspire. The purpose of Womenspire is to bring women together to help them do more than what they can or will do normally. These women can be in the corporate segment, business owners or housewives. Women who have taken a break from corporate life and who do a great job of being homemakers or who have grown up kids are often left wondering what to do.The idea is to encourage women to do more, be a change catalyst and invest in themselves for a better tomorrow.

Changes can be in small things like a fitness regime, learning something new maybe a new language ,a musical instrument or doing a Masters .In a technological world so much is possible but she realizes that women have to be nudged ,helped and sometimes pushed to better themselves without any compromise. One needs to define what having it all means to each individual.

The reality is that we cannot ace in everything and hence prioritizing is important. Spending an extra two hours at work does not mean that one loves the family any less and vice versa. The idea is to rise to one’s full potential and if this happens then she believes that the 2.2 % can go far and beyond. And so Sukanya is committed to making this happen.

Sukanya is a mom to a toddler. She has invested in her personal fitness - waking up at 5.30 am, going to a gym, investing in a personal trainer and pushing her limits with results that go beyond a fit persona, She is able to start and end the day with a high.

‘That is priceless ! ‘she says. A happier me means a happy mom to my daughter and a happy wife to my husband, she adds.

Sukanya models herself after and is inspired by everyday people who have worked their way up and have stories to share of the odds they beat to just get to work. She is very thankful to her parents and her husband as it’s not easy without the support of either of them. So her advice to all women out there is to Make an effort and make a difference!

To Contact Sukanaya Saleem mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0043 87 | WOMANATION | March 2016

Grit &

Ditermination

Sumithra is an example of the spirit of humanity rising above challenges to overcome all odds.

Shonaleei Somnath Datta is a Learning Evangelist, Leadership & Executive Coach, PCC-ICF Specialized coaching and training in areas of Leadership, performance excellence, team building, life style and relationship management. Shonaleei has almost two decades of experience in Teaching, HROD, Employee engagement, Talent Management, Inclusivity and Knowledge management across various verticals like Finance & Accounting, IT, ITES, Banking capital market, Knowledge Services, Customer Service, Hospitality, Healthcare, FMCG, Retail, Publishing and also Academia. She has specialized skills in managing strategy planning, employee engagement, human resource, learning and development, project management, 6six sigma methodology, program implementation across various domains supporting 1500 -10,000 people.

She has worked with business and operations teams to translate business strategy and tactical imperatives into employee initiatives and executed them in a participative and engaging manner.

She has also partnered with business leaders and their leadership teams to drive their priorities and handled global projects successfully.

Sumithra’s journey began as a Journalist evolving into a filmmaker. Having a son with special needs gave an added dimension to her existing conviction of societal imbalances & the change that was required. She reinvented herself as a change agent reprising her role as a Media Activist.

She has scripted & directed more that hundred documentaries on various social issues. The sector uses them as effective tools for creating much needed awareness on various issues.

Not limiting to making films of social significance, Sumithra tirelessly immersed herself in field work that touched hundreds of lives & made a difference.

To Contact Sumithra mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0044

The past decade saw her leave footprints across the length & breadth of the country. She conducted Capacity Building Programs, Life Skills Training in Urban & Rural areas, Disaster Management & Relief work, Advocacy, Access, Neighborhood initiatives & Counselling among other efforts that empowered individuals & community as a whole.

Sumithra is also a symbol of thought leadership in the development sector. She’s constantly consulted in the areas of Media Advocacy, Self-Advocacy, Multiple Intelligences & Life Span Approach.

Working in the development sector demands infinite energy which she draws from her everencouraging Mother, Son who constantly preps her, wonderful Daughter who is her best friend and the unwavering support of her Husband.

During this stellar journey, the world has recognized Sumithra’s efforts through Awards & Citations.

International Award for Humanitarian Service, The ‘Karmaveer Puraskar’ for Lifelong Fight for Social Justice, Golden Candle Global Award, Human Rights Award, Mother Teresa State Award for Best Social Service & Sadguru Ganananda Award are a few from the eclectic list. Among all she savors the feature in Better India where she is acknowledged as a Special Mother who helped realize the dream of her son with Autism to set up a bakery. Today SAI (Society All Inclusive) Bakery is a thriving neighborhood initiative for Adults with special needs.

She has learnt to believe that she should never give up, no matter what be geared up for long hauls and remain positive and believe in overcoming the challenges of life. Charisma, conviction & courage moved hearts & hands. Supplies poured from different parts of the country. Mobilizing the power of youth she was able to receive, sort, pack & distribute more than 35 tons of relief material.

To quote her, “That worthiness and trust in what I say with so much of conviction comes from having experienced bitter episodes and coming out of it with greater determination. There’s no alternative to do our best in whatever we do. And for me it’s like pursuing the emotions of what my heart commands.

And it incessantly yearns to reach out & deliver the best to create a social ripple. A ripple that grows in momentum to have a defining impact on the society. There is no greater or bigger enterprise than ‘Social Change ‘. And this is what I specialize in.” Said from the heart. And we salute it.

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To Contact Shonalee mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0045

FRANCHISE Bangalore

Before the inception of Success Studios earlier known as 1ETS, she was VP- Head-L&D at 247 inc. Shonaleei has worked and consulted with organizations like -Hewlett Packard, Infosys, Macmillan, Dell,Cbay, Mindtree, Accenture, Taj Hotels, Mahindra Holidays, Leelas, Mercedes Benz, TCS, Sapient, Siemens,Walmart, NIIT in various avatars of Department Head, Leadership trainer, Mentor,Human Resource Expert, consultant, Coach, KM Specialist, teacher, researcher, content specialist etc. Shonaleei founded Success Studios with a strategic intent to be a one-stop-skill development & business-consulting firm. She also specializes on coaching and certifications.

With SS she works with fortune 500s, Hospitality, Academia and SME organizations. Assisting with the identification of the best strategies, executive

coaching, handling culture change initiatives, behavioral competency development and leadership and team development. She has a broad and varied experience base that equips her with the knowledge, experience, business acumen and capability to understand how organizations function.

She has special expertise in Executive & Leadership Training, Executive Coaching, psychometric assessments, setting up learning and talent management organization. She is certified from ISTD, NFLP, BSI, Harrisons, Psytech, British Council and ICF on specialized training/coaching techniques.

A 6sigma black belt trained, ISO LA certified she ensures a smooth knowledge transfer and ROI for any program she runs. She specializes on leadership training, OBTs, behavioral, experiential, team building, NLP, communication and Behavioral Labs for all levels of management. She also coaches senior professionals with ICF (US) & ABC Consultants. She aspires to awaken the inherent talents and Leadership potential of every individual she works with!!

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Image Consultancy Sulakshana Badani is a pioneer in a very nascent niche segment in India, Image Consultancy! She has progressed from being a daughter, wife, mother and after a challenging past year an inspiration to many. Her early childhood days were spent in the tea plantations in the Nilgiris where her Dad was posted.

Schooling took her to Bangalore to stay with her grandparents. She then moved to Chennai where she first studied in Bains School for a year and ultimately joined Ewarts. Sulakshana joined Ethiraj College where she did her bachelors degree in Computer Science and backed it up with a management degree at LIBA. She worked briefly at an advertising agency, got married to Indian cricketer Hemang Badani and had a son taking a break in her career to bring up her son.

After a 8 year hiatus, she then got back to working for a Brand consulting company for 4 years. The entrepreuner bug eventually bit her and she was keen on doing something on her own. Her passion for fashion drew her to Delhi to pursue a course in Image consultancy – a field that required one to be well groomed; something that she believed in all her life. She was one of the first few independent consultants in the city and considers her early entry into the market as a definite advantage. It’s been a slow and steady growth and she has no regrets getting into this field. She has had the opportunity to meet interesting people through her consultancy. She also conducts etiquette classes for children during the vacation time. This too has been very well received and parents are happier to have well mannered children.

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Sulakshana’s Image consultancy is more of a one on one where she spends a week with a particular client. Basically Image consultancy is A-B-C-Appearance, Behavior and Communication and Sulakshana does a lot of the A, which is Appearance. A typical consultation involves a color consultation, figure and style analysis, a wardrobe plan and personal shopping. The entire process takes about a week. The group workshops are very interesting as it teaches one a lot of things we normally don’t think about when it comes to personal grooming. People can get a whole lot of insights on the subject by attending these workshops.

Image consultancy especially makes a lot of sense to corporates as most employees don’t have much of a dress sense.Since this is a new field as far as India is concerned Sulakshana realizes that she needs to be a lot more visible and create the need and awareness required .She is happy that she has helped a lot of people in their appearance and her numerous testimonials bear testimony to this fact.

Sulakshana would now like to take what she does to the next level by doing more corporate workshops. Parents also want the etiquette program to be more continuous and at regular intervals so that the kids can grow up to be well mannered adults.She would also like to extend this program to more schools as an after school class.

Image consultancy as a concept is still not fully understood by most people but it can have a tremendous impact on the growth of a professional, giving the image that they need to project and go up the corporate ladder. This is true especially if one is in an industry where there is a lot of interaction with people abroad where image consultancy is well understood.

It is said that clothes make a man or a woman for that matter, and it is of utmost importance for a person to be groomed and attired properly to make a mark especially in present times where ,thanks to social media, each individual themselves are part of the brand building process. People who realize this are bound to make use of professionals like Sulakshana who can make a lot of difference to people’s lives.

To Contact Sulakshana Badani mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0046 91 | WOMANATION | March 2016

PASSION FOR EXCELLENCE Sunita Peter, is a confident and competent woman of integrity with a passion for excellence and zero tolerance for mediocrity, an obedient daughter, caring wife, and a lovable mother.

Moreover she has adopted over a hundred kids and provides for their needs. This aspect alone has been a personal victory for her. Her abundance mentality comes from her belief in the law of attraction and its power to manifest.

Her belief in God stems from the belief in herself and her dreams, her passion to achieve goals, the unwavering love, tremendous support and trust from her family. She says that her husband and daughters are the most important element of her life. She strives to achieve her goals so that she may set a good example to her daughters in order to be able to teach them the importance of self worth.

To Contact Sunita Peter mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0047 9292 | WOMANATION | March 20162016 | WOMANATION | March

Sunita discovered that if she sets limitations on herself, she wouldn’t reach her potential. She learnt that one just needs to believe and to focus on the vision. Following her dreams and enjoying the incredible journey of turning them into reality, has always been the source of her motivation. She strives to achieve every goal she sets for herself by going beyond her comfort zone. Very often this results in a roller coaster ride with challenges and delights besides the humdrum of everyday life. Sunita’s sense of self-worth is the fuel that keeps her going and gives her the confidence to believe in herself and to turn her goals into reality.

Believing in herself and her dreams, has led to the opportunity to meet the most amazing people who have provided her wisdom , guidance and encouragement through the years.

When it comes to work, Sunita views that happy staff and satisfied customers are the ‘heart’ of her business. Her business successes include building her event business in her home country Malaysia, and 5 years later thinking of going international

with it. She adds that today Regal Events has more than 20 branches and 17 franchisees globally. She says, people should do business with her, since she can turn dreams into reality and problems into solutions based on her own experiences.

Many mentors throughout her career, in both her personal and professional life , saw in her the capability and have inspired her to go after what she wanted in life. Today Sunita mentors others and inspires them based on her own experience.

Her mentors include her first employer, her business partners and colleagues. Sunita is guided by her husband and her 3 daughters who keep her spirits high all the time Sunita feels it is now time to give back. She freely gives of her time, money, possessions and is attentive to others. She feels that there are enough opportunities if one is sensitive to others needs.If one can take the time to realize the importance of having a positive attitude in life, and giving back to the community, friends, family and the needy, they will see that the same is reciprocated resulting in the ripple effect.

Gratitude has played a large part in her daily life as an entrepreneur and in her personal life, as well. She adds that being an entrepreneur can certainly be challenging at times and it is important to not let these things consume and overpower one’s life.

Sunita is aware that learning is a lifelong process and that life gives us back, what we give it. Louise McKinney once said “The purpose of a woman’s life is just the same as the purpose of a man’s life: that she may make the best possible contribution to her generation.” Without doubt, she believes, that she can do the same , She can live up to her potential and make the best possible contribution to this generation.

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Multitasking a way of life.

Swathi Ashok is a freelance graphic designer with specialization in 3D animation. A professional print publication designer, she is also a homemaker, mother of two lovely children, all this at a tender age of 29. As the saying goes, “all big things comes in small packages” – aptly describes Swathi, a bundle of social energy with professional pursuits.

Balancing her multifaceted roles in life judiciously has been the hallmark of Swathi’s personality.

She draws her inspiration from her lifetime role model, her mother, from whom she draws her energy, zest and passion in pursuing all her interest social and professional ie. Wife, mother, compassionate daughter in-law and a budding freelance entrepreneur.

Swathi believes that everything in life is possible with a sense of discipline, which is the core value of life she derived from her grandfathers, both from the Armed Forces who are still independent, energetic and active at the age of 80 plus.

To Contact Swathi Ashok mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0048 9494 | WOMANATION | March 20162016 | WOMANATION | March

Coming from a strong academic family (father a double IIT’ian, a project consultant and mother a professional Educationist / Rotarian) a sense of self independence was inculcated in her as a child with the parents having to travel most of the time.

Swathi and her younger sister (today a successful jewelry designe), had to prioritize their academic

obligations independently from a tender age.

These values have stood her in good stead in balancing all her life’s various roles independently and judiciously even today.

Swathi still finds time to continue her passion for western dancing which she believes has ensured in keeping her fit and energy levels very high. She is also an avid reader.

Swathi today has created a niche for herself as a recognized freelance graphic designer. She has worked with Rane group of companies, social media firms, various small standalone firms and has also coordinated various event management programs. She was the creative head for a publication and event management company in Chennai.

Swathi always recollects her father’s gospel for success in life “no gain without pain” and whatever you do in life do it with passion as being the inspiration for her life’s pursuits.She has been extremely lucky to have a supportive husband who encourages her in all her pursuits, and a supportive family who are her emotional backbone.

“Swathi” as per Hindu custom literally means a star and “Star” is what Swathi hopes to be in all fields of life.

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Sunitha Raaj is a tooth Implantologist who is into Baking and Yoga. She is a feminist who has always worked towards empowering women but fully realizes that empowerment comes from within and cannot be forced by an external stimuli.

Sunitha is very passionate about her profession which is dentistry! The deeper aspiration is to make people smile better by getting them to have better teeth and therefore proud of exhibiting it. After completing her under graduation at Raaga’s Dental College here in Chennai, Sunitha moved to the US to do her post-graduation in Public Health at the University of Texas. There as part of her studies she was involved in a lot of diabetic awareness and risk assessment and other community programs .These were outreach programs. She has been practicing for the last 15 years. She is basically an Implantologist which means replacing people’s teeth. Implants she explains are basically made of titanium which are implanted into a person Jaw over which the tooth is built with ceramic etc. This requires real dexterity of the fingers and great eye hand coordination.

Sunitha aspired to be a pediatrician but somehow that didn’t happen but dentistry for children was a possibility. She says that our jaw sizes are shrinking but the number of teeth remain the same. This is part of the evolutionary process as our diets are changing as we are eating less of fibrous foods.

Implants are a fixed remedy for teeth but it surely does not have a lot of properties that a natural tooth would have .It is also important to look after oral health as the teeth are connected to all vital parts of the body. Dentures like our finger prints are unique to each and every one.

Sunitha also states that the awareness about flossing and the fact that one needs to visit a dentist at least twice a year to check up and clean the teeth are not followed here the way it is in the west.

We don’t focus on primary protection but wait till something goes wrong. Sunitha emphasizes the importance of flossing with regard to overall dental hygiene.

Sunitha has always been into healthy eating and is a fitness enthusiast and this led her to healthy baking with gluten free flour, nut flour and using jaggary instead of refined sugar. She has been baking right from her childhood.

Being a health conscious person she then went into practicing Yoga. Yoga she feels can tackle a lot of health problems. Yoga if practiced the right way gives the alignment for mind ,body and soul. There is no other therapy that can bring peace to the soul and the mind and align the body at the same time. If done with the right knowledge it is the solution to a lot of new age problems which are prevalent now.

We have to approach Yoga as a healing therapy. Sunitha had injured her back many times by indulging in weight training and Yoga helped her to heal herself.

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So whatever sunitha is doing has got something to do with health. She wants to use her knowledge and experience into community and outreach programs that can benefit many people as a way of giving back to society. She feels that life is not just about earning money. She says that this is lacking in her and she would like to fulfill that void.

Sunitha is proud of the fact that her work has been recognized in the dental community and for this she is thankful to her mentor Dr.Muniratnam Naidu who was the Vice Chancellor of Meenakshi University and with whom Sunitha has been associated for the last 22 years since her second year BDS .He has been instrumental in imbibing in her the talents and she has grown in confidence over the years.

And so Sunitha would also like to give back by mentoring other young people as she feels that they can be guided and nurtured and this will result in the ripple effect of them doing and repeating the same. This is something that she would like to do very consciously and she is sure that she will succeed in that endeavor.

To Contact Sunitha Raaj mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0049

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Natural Passion Beauty

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Veena K is the Co founder of Naturals,the most successful spa and beauty Salon in the country which she founded along with her husband C.k.Kumaravel. She is extremely simple at heart and so the image of a successful woman Entrepreneur does not affect her in any way. It all started when Veena decided to start something to keep herself self-employed. And even the opportunity of starting a salon is an opportunity which came by. Initially she had no idea of getting into the beauty business. She contemplated the idea of starting a play school or a boutique .In those days one had to go to places like the Taj Coromandal for a makeup session or go to small parlors usually manned by Chinese women whose makeup really did not suit the Indian skin.

So the opportunity came in the way of a technician from the Taj who was planning to move out and was looking for better opportunities and this was an opportunity that Veena grabbed with both hands. And Veena’s own experience as a housewife turned entrepreneur grew the dream that her experience could be duplicated to other housewives who wanted to do something meaningful.

So it made sense to franchise the model and framework to other aspiring Entrepreneurs who wanted a quick start and wanted it on a platter. So a conscious effort went into identifying women who had the money and who would take care of the business. Marketing, Finding the team and products was standardized and taken care of by Veena’s Naturals.

In a salon the customers are like guests and since this comes naturally to women they took to it like a fish takes to water. So women who wanted do something after their marriage or who wanted a break from a monotonous corporate job or a women who had grown up children took this opportunity. The hand holding that Naturals does till the business stabilizes was another thing that worked in her favor.

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To Contact Veena K mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0050 99 | WOMANATION | March 2016

But this success story was not without its share of challenges as the first few years was a huge struggle.

But the marketing skills of her husband coupled with his experience in the FMCG industry did help overcome the struggles. Getting the right or trained manpower was another challenge that had to be overcome. Also getting finance was a huge challenge as this was not an organized industry at that time So finance was largely got from the three Fs as Kumaravel puts it –from friends ,family and fools!!

Although naturals initially concentrated on natural products for grooming, the demand from the market was for new products that were standardized as the volumes and lack of standardized natural local products made it difficult to scale up.

Veena’s pride in this journey is the number of people they have brought into the system and a lot of them are from the North East where there are not much of opportunity and Veena has brought such people here, trained them and given them a decent livelihood and this has given her a lot of satisfaction. She has seen them grow, become financially independent and even start their own salons. The fact that she has facilitated such growth has sure given a sense of pride to her.

Veena, being basically in charge of training and employee engagement, would like to train more manpower so that they will have adequate staff to man the roles that their scorching pace is bringing up.

Veena has lots of interesting and innovative plans to grow the Naturals brand and chain which she would not like to divulge at the moment. She also does not believe in competition, creating new streams of income which is unique to Naturals.

Naturals today has grown to over 500 outlets and adding more every other day. They have roped in popular stars to be brand Ambassadors and are also coming up with innovative outlets leaving others in the industry far behind. Naturals as a business has evolved and the target or goal is to have 3000 outlets all over the country by 31st December 2018.

Veena is a person of a few words, extremely down to earth and easily approachable to both her employees and others. But the ‘Mona Lisa ‘ smile that she sports most of the time, effectively hides the effort that it takes to run a massive chain of outlets all over the country.

Naturals is also going International with sights on the Middle East. This ‘Made in India’ chain is sure to be a jewel in the crown of the country.

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PASSIONATE

BAKING Zenobia Farzana.I.Currimbhoy also called Zen by her loved ones, was born and brought up in Bangalore. She shifted to Chennai after she got married in the year 1993.

Starting her career as a teacher, Farzana loved the feeling of empowering others, and no sooner she realized her passion for retail as she helped her husband in their crockery business. Farzana set up Currimbhoys Marketing Pvt Limited in Annanagar in the year 1998. During this time her passion for baking also developed making her aware of the gap that existed in bake ware and baking products that could make this passion come alive. So with the backing of her retail experience and the passion for baking came the birth of “Passionate Baking”, a store to make every bakers dream a reality. She now hosts the widest range of bakeware products catering to a large market all over India. Watching the happiness on the faces of the customers and amazing young bakers keeps Farzana motivated. She says that life is beautiful when it is filled with passion.

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Farzana says that Zen is all about passionately living each moment of her life..

Her journey in Spirituality makes her who she is. Farzana is a strong believer of good life work balance. A normal day for her would begin with meditation, before she begins work. She is also a strong believer in maintaining a healthy soul and heals others through various therapy forms like Pranic healing. She is a child at heart, bubbling with energy to any new opportunity that comes her way.

“You are what you think” & “what you sow so shall you reap” are some of the most important beliefs she has held on to very strongly in her life. Through the years she has learnt one most important life lesson, that people see you as you see yourself. A person is worth as much as you give yourself credit for. Farzana says, that today people recognize her as a successful entrepreneur with a passion for what she does. The heart of her business is sharing of joy, love and celebration. Cakes and chocolates are the first things that come to anyone’s mind when we think of celebration and nothing is more special when these are made with love especially for the customers. It’s all about the passion of baking at Passionate Baking. Starting a new business concept is the success she is most proud of.

The most important factor of Farzana’s life is her family. Her husband is the pillar of support and confidant, whereas her son is the dearest to her heart.

Farzana’s family has always been a big part of her success and happiness. Her friends complete her beautiful world that means the most to her.

Every evening, she cooks or bakes for her family and also spends some quality time with her husband and son.

Farzana’s personal victory is her fight with cancer. Chemo therapy struck her with a new challenge not only in physical strength but also emotionally and mentally. It was at this time that Farzana felt that it was a chance to become more aware of herself and her strength to fight back and surface as a conqueror and not just a survivor. Her friends and family helped her through this patch, and today she is a lot more stronger and eager to take on the new opportunities of life. Farzana says that it is a beautiful life and she needs to make the best of it.

Life is ever changing and it goes through varied turns and at each point there is always someone who stands out and guides one through. Farzana has had many such brilliant mentors in her life and each one has been very special.

Farzana says that the most important ones are her parents for the values they have taught her and the “never give up” attitude .She is a strong believer of the principle “ live and help live” . She says life is more about giving as it always comes back in more ways than one and that there is no better time than now to give it back to society.

According to Farzana , people should do business with her, because they supply people with the largest range of quality bakeware products , both edible and non edible under one roof which is carefully sourced by a team of experts to ensure quality baking. Anyone who loves to bake and feed are her clients.

To Contact Zenobia mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0051

She says if there is no gratitude, there is no success. She expresses gratitude to all her suppliers, customers and family for their unconditional love and support .Farzana believes that the future can be better than the present, and five years from now she would be richer in thought and experiences from the past.

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r o PassionF Excellence

GeethaNagu is a Promoter and Builder, heading Sales and Marketing of her business across the globe. The passion for excellence has enabled her to find herself and express it in her work. An extremely self- confident individual, Geetha has scaled peaks and valleys on her journey to where she is nowcoming about by her guiding principles of selfconfidence, attitude, skill and her networking abilities.This has enabled her to grab opportunities and turn them into successful business ventures.

Her attitude is manifested in her never say die attitude wherein failures have been a stepping stones to success. Her experiences have enriched her.

Geetha is a 5th generation Entrepreneur from a family of Entrepreneurs with multiple business interests in Entertainment,Hospitality, Automobile Manufacturing, Real Estate and Construction of housing projects ranging from high end designer to affordable housing. The core principle and success of her business is not just passion but also ethics and principles, passed down from the last 5 generations.This is what drives her and will drive her always as she strives her nature to excel and go global.

Her companies are VNCT Ventures, Green White House Developers, St.Angelos VNCT Ventures, Golden green real estate dev.LLC, based out of Chennai, Mumbai and Dubai.

Her willingness to go wherever opportunities beckon without limitations to geographical location has made her a Global Entrepreneur. Because of her learning mindset and what she calls Collaborative Commerce, a coming together of strengths and integrating it to get into the dynamics of the market and building a business model and seeing it through collaboratively. This according to her creates a larger pie or a new pie.This abundant mentality has enabled her to care and share with others the fruits of success. This model pools together strengths,experiences,contacts,strategy and resources subscribing to her Co-principle of Management.

Geetha comes from an affluent business family and was expected to support her husband in his automobile manufacturing business but the restless soul that she is, she was not completely fulfilled in her role and thus after much soul searching and introspection decided to venture out into unchartered waters. So 15 years ago she decided to start out on her own and she founded a software development company.She started without any experience and without

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any qualification in software and on the assumed orders from the US and much resistance from the family. But the fighter she is, she got her family to not only accede but also put in capital. But to test her resolve,recession hit and the business and the capital,according to her “went down the drain”.

A weaker human being would have given up,accepted her failure to her family and swore never to venture into business again. But not Geetha who resolved that she would right the wrong and thus went into her second venture as a means of moving forward and not looking back.She started a training company. Of course this meant downsizing everything from a snazzy office to a one room office and taking in part time employees and trainers.So between her and another person, who was everything from a security guard to all kinds of odd jobs, she went full throttle turning losses into profits and building up huge infrastructures in Bangalore and Chennai and competing with established training companies. A huge order from Elcot established her firmly amidst stiff competition.Along with that came the experiences of learning,innovation and Entrepreneurship.Her forward thinking ways helped her fearlessly through the school of hard knocks which she describes as “deep sea diving”,lonely with none to help and where she had to figure out and resolve the challenges herself.

Her confidence came from the fact that from a young age she was always surrounded by accomplished women who she observed and whose were her role models and so it was etched in her mind that she one day will be like them.

Her energies were spent in belief that she needed to be somebody if she had to help make a difference in the lives of many.And this she has done with her message to other women that if she could conquer so could they and selfmotivate themselves like her.

She also credits her success to her family,her husband and her children with whom she spends quality time and who respect her for what she is added to the love that they have for her.She opines that mutual respect is important for a wonderful relationship and it cannot be demanded but earned as your family are watching you as a role model.

Work life balance is important for her and she gives her time both to her family and work often prioritizing and managing time as that is what she has learnt from being an entrepreneur.

She has taught her family to think and Do independently and has used open communication and friendship in her interactions with her family.So the bye product of that is, her very driven daughter who at the age of 12 wrote her first teenage fiction and prepares to pursue her higher education abroad.

She believes in holistic growth and achievement and living life by the moment.

To Contact Geetha Nagu mail to contact@womanationindia.com or call 91768 12377 Citing Code: WN01 0052 105 | WOMANATION | March 2016

kryolan city chennai Please visit us at Citi Centre Mall, Shop No.5 Ground Floor, No. 10 & 11 Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004 Tel: +91 73583 87513

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