Coming of age!

I attended the SiliconIndia International Women’s Leadership Summit that was held simultaneously in all the Metros of the country. It was ideally for women in technology, but I was invited, so I attended nevertheless. And was it an eye opener! Most of the fantastic ladies present had been at the helm of affairs for decades and longer. Some of the younger ones were really peppy and brimming with ideas and promises of a better future.

The first session was clearly the best in which speakers put forth their ideas on ascending the corporate ladder. The speakers, especially Anita Guha, IBM, was enthusiastic from the word go and she held the discussion together with aplomb. Rita Soni, Yes Bank, Minal Deshpande, Deloitte and Chitra Vishwanathan, Syntel, gave their individual insights into what goes into making a successful career. And all of them had one common trend. They were all long timers in their companies, which goes to show that the traditional model of staying at a job for many years still holds true.

The next session was even better with Manisha Velankar ,Tech Mahindra and Vidhi Desai, Allied Digital talking about ‘Achieving success and turning every adversity into an advantage. Many members attending the meet asked both Manisha and Vidhi a lot of questions and the discussion seemed never to end. From this discussion, I realized that adversities will definitely come, but how you turn them into stepping stones of success depends on you.

The third session was probably the most insightful one with Christine Pereira, Aegis Limited, reiterating the importance of a work life balance. It was a personal revelation to me that we have to strike a balance between work, life and relationships and hold a centre place in the midst of all these, if we are to self actualize. In other words, the speakers urged women participants to strike a work life balance, instead of just being workaholics and neglecting the personal and social aspects of the individual.

The last session saw Papiya Banerjee, Avyudaya and Abha Banerjee, Thought Leader speak on the topic ‘From success to empowerment’, in which both Papiya and Abha gave us meaningful insights on self analysis and betterment of the individual. Papiya reiterated the stand that most women literally wear the pants in the house, leading to an increased masculinity in their personalities and Abha went on to dissect the several aspects of the human personality that need equal attention and nurturing. Many participants had personal and general ideas to keep the debate engaging and inspiring.

At the end of the session, we left feeling enriched and with many thoughts still buzzing in our minds. To put it succinctly, I really felt elated that the Indian corporate woman had finally arrived!