World YWCA Day
World YWCA Day
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The YWCA has gained a reputation for fostering sisterhood across the globe. When women have needed help, financially, spiritually and emotionally, this is the organization that has always stepped in.
Bangalore City’s own Infantry Road YWCA was set up in 1892 and is one of the oldest Ys in India.
To celebrate World YWCA Day, we have profiled six extraordinary women who have broken through the power structures they were confined in and redefined it for themselves, thereby also acting as an example for others. For many of us groping in the dark, the strength and resilience in their stories are like beacons guiding the way.
Silva Storai came to India when she was 17 years old via, of all places, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Passing through the Wagah Border, she has said she felt like she was coming home. Home welcomed her. Currently Director, EIRS (Embassy International Riding School), Silva is India’s first professional woman jockey and the only woman in the world to have won two Derbys.
Judith Roby Bidapa is a teacher, actor, director, mother of two and wife of designer Prasad Bidapa. She has been part of Bangalore’s landscape since the city first peeked through the curtain and then climbed onto the world stage. Friends would say she encapsulates the city beautifully; she has carved a niche for herself through talent, hard work and a joie de vivre that refuses to be hidden.
Marjorie Mary Gama is not just the EA to the Chief Quality Officer at Syngene International Limited; she’s a single mother of four and a fund-raiser for charitable works. She was the first person to receive the Dr TMA Pai Award for Social Responsibility in 2013, and again in 2018. She has stood strong in the face of adversity, working from the time she was a teenager to the place she stands tall today.
Mishta Roy is someone who inspires. She is not just a creative powerhouse, but is experiencing a harrowing health crisis that instead of shattering her, has merely tweaked her artistic sensibilities in new directions. Life throwing a curve ball or two at you? Mishta shows you how a woman of substance throws it back.
Scared of flying in a plane piloted by a woman? Then you probably haven’t heard of Tammie Jo Shults who showed “nerves of steel” when landing a commercial plane last year belonging to the American airliner Southwest, after an engine blew out. Shults is also a former Navy fighter pilot. What powers Captain Indra Gandhi Mohan, Air Asia India, to take her place in an area so male-dominated that Pilot and Sir are breathed in the same sentence? Read on about breaking stereotypes.
Priya Ashok is chef-owner of The Yellow Tree kitchen and patisserie. She has grappled with naysayers and come out on top in the male-saturated world of professional kitchens. Her charming space is run on the lines of a well-oiled piece of carefully-chosen equipment, and she has a surprising, and surprisingly honest, take on how women find it hard to navigate some work areas. Although it goes without saying that her own success shows that if you understand what is required, gender is not an issue.
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