Sunday 23 October 2011

A definition to courageousness

She looks like one of the women-next-door types, but it is stunning to know her achievements. Having got a chance to listen to a motiviational and spellbounding speech by Mrs.Girija Raghavan, I felt privileged and very much inspired. What I knew of her earlier is that she is a television host generally for women-based programmes and I hardly remember her running a magazine targeted at women. The EDP session, however, revealed that this is just one amongst her many facets.

It was during my high schooling that I happened to watch her afternoon programme 'Pengal ulagam', if I remember the name correctly. Time never permitted me to fully watch it as I would be rushing to get ready to school. We had only half-day classes those months, thanks to the twelfth board exam arrangements in our campus. That was the time we had only a handful of private channels and her programmes used to be very simple, yet interesting. And this is how and what I came to know of this lady.

Back to the EDP, she was to give a speech to a heterogeneous group on successful entrepreneurship. And she spoke of herself, the challenges she had to overcome, failures and of course, hitting the peak of success mountain. A lady of total courageousness, who quitted a lucrative bank job to follow her passion founded 'Ladies Special' magazine which today has around 50,000 subscribers to its credit. She shared her first-hand good and bad experiences that she had had with her initial venture of releasing audio casettes. Even with big losses and repeated failures, she never moved away from her passion! And her secret to success is that she made mistakes but never repeated it! It is wonderful to hear that this lady has headed towards social service too. A successful entrepreneur, she leads and guides budding self-employed women, cares for them and for the society. Mindblowing!

To add more to my experience, it was delighting to shake firm hands with this interesting lady. She too was glad to know that I had become a fan of hers :). My respect for this woman increased in folds when she confessed that she has been a single woman for almost two decades! Her point was that if a struggling single woman can achieve this much, why can't the youngsters of today?! Point accepted. Youngsters today have much opportunities and nothing can obstruct if one has the guts to exercise dreams into reality! On the whole, a cherishable event. I hope to follow her footsteps.

The saddest part is that, while she finished her speech and before she prepared to leave, almost 75% of our educated audiences were busy moving out. See how much respect one demonstrates for a chief-guest in our nation. Terrible for the aspiring entrepreneurs to have behaved that way! A high-profiled woman, she didn't mind it, but the attitude of the attendees wasn't a good sign. I think it is high time we learned good behaviours and social gestures.

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