On December 18 at The Park, we witnessed one empowering discussion follow another at the TEDxChowringhee Women. The all-day event was an affair to remember as discourse ensued and thoughts were provoked. The event brought together powerful talks from 14 speakers from diverse walks of life, united by the solitary motive to motivate. The erudite list of speakers included Lt. Gen Madhuri Kanitkar, Aarti V. Raman, Shivani Agarwalla, Gaurav Khanna, Shalini Kochharr, Kavita Agarwal, Era Dutta, Rajesh Bhatt and more.
Lokesh Nathany, licensee, curator and host of TEDxChowringhee, kickstarted the morning by ceremonially draping a sari. “My realisation is I can’t do justice to the six-yard sari. Women carry so much of love, care, warmth, pain, togetherness and much more that my shoulders are too weak to carry them.”
Lokesh Nathany.
The primary theme of the day was ‘What Now’, bringing to light an existential question that many have been avoiding following the upheaval that the pandemic has thrown us into. Shedding light on how detached one has become from the social, environmental and even personal aspects around us, the session aimed to put things into perspective by piecing together activities, experiences and sessions of success that were reassuring and purposeful for many.
Among the profile of speakers, Gaurav Khanna, national head coach for para-badminton, elucidated the importance of perseverance and determination. He emphasised the philosophy of: “It’s not important how many times you fall in life, it is more important how many times you rise in life”. With respect to mental health and battling the stigma around it, Era Dutta, who firmly believes that life “is a balance of holding on and letting go”, discussed the rising state of anxiety disorders and depression in the present time and the power of intentional living.
Highlighting one of the themes of the day that involved not withholding one’s emotions, energy and passion, the occasion also celebrated the launch of the book Magical 40 @ Forty published by Career After Family Enterprise. The book is an anthology coalescing the extraordinary stories of 40 women who have battled the odds to survive and thrive and leave a distinguishing mark. Breaking the barriers of discrimination, restriction, prejudices and more, the book serves to celebrate the success stories of these women and in turn, aims to inspire its readers. The audience accepted the book warmly.
Following a storming discussion and hearty conversations over hot beverages and biscuits, the event arrived at its final two talks. Aarti V Raman, among Amazon International’s Top 100 bestselling author, took to stage with an enthusiastic leap. Discussing her trajectory as an author, she talked about her highs and lows, battling discouragement and finding her purpose and calling once again. “Writing is a skill and storytelling is an art. One can be mastered and the other can be nurtured. The trick is knowing which is which on a daily basis,” she added with a smile. Adding humour to the mix, Raman also had the audience rolling over her comments on the importance of social media in today’s marketing and getting on with the times.
In a talk delivered by Shivani Agarwalla, world champion in kettlebell sports, Agarwalla shared with the audience a touching story of how she combated all obstacles in her path to achieving all that she has today. She attributes her success to the four wheels of her life that have brought about the balance that she needed to keep persevering: the professional, the familial, the social and the personal wheel. Agarwalla recounted multiple occasions where she had been the only woman present at sporting events, board room meets and more, but graciously admitted that it never deterred her.
As the day progressed, so did the number of lovely stickers on the wall under each speaker’s column. The audiences marked most of the speeches with words such as “powerful”, “courageous”, ‘passionate”, “inspiring”, “emotional” and “magical”, which also summed up the experience of the lovely Saturday.