Women have played a very important role in my life. My Mom who gave birth to me, my Aunt, who brought me up, My wife who is my pillar of my success and my two little girls who always, always bring a cheer on my face. So on Women's day this year, I wanted to extend gratitude to ordinary women who are doing extraordinary service in the society that we live. As part of an intitiative from my startup OyeThere.com. I identified eight women of yore who are self made, successful and have brought cheer to the society. I prepared the list and reached out to them in the first week of March and all of them agreed to meet me. So, I went to their respective places on Tuesday, 8 the March 2016 and handed over a small momento from our side.
My first visit was to meet Ms. Kamakshi Subramaniam, She is an Octogenarian and an active social worker. She was responsible for reviving the Schmidt Memorial at the Besant Nagar beach among other things in the city. She is a great inspiration for people like us to take an active part in the society and help the less fortunate ones.
Next I met Ms. Mathangi Srinivasamurthy, one of the ace Entrepreneurs from Chennai who set up and runs the iconic Anokhi Cafe and Retail Store in Chennai (at Alwarpet). The cafe is a popular hangout in the city and is rated among the top 10 must visit retail outlets in Chennai. Her team is doing a commendable job in keeping their customers elated.
Ms. Veena Kumaravel, along with her husband Mr. CK Kumaravel runs the country's largest and most respected salon chain, Naturals. What started as a company owned outlet in Chennai at Khader Nawaz Khan Road more than a decade back is now spread across the country and is mostly run by Franchisees across the age groups and gender. She is credited with empowering home makers turn powerful Entrepreneurs.
Next, I visited Ms. Shoba raman, principal of Vidya Mandir School, Mylapore. She has been with the school for over 20 years and has grown the ranks. She is credited with imparting high quality education with an extremely hardworking and sincere group of teachers who work tirelessly for the welfare of the students.
Ms. Sridevi Raghavan was pursuing her MBA at Harvard Business School and identified "on-site child care" as an extremely useful idea for women to get back to their workplace after delivering their baby. She and her husband Mr. Raghavan run the most respected Amelio Play School which has a dozen centres across Chennai and Bangalore.
Dr. Rekha Sudarshan is a wellness and lactation consultant. She helps new mothers and trains them in the process of breastfeeding their little ones while also imparting the importance of mother's milk to the babies. She is a demi-god to thousands of mothers and their little ones.
Dr. Sharada Srinivas is a Paediatrician who has been saving lives of little kids for over 28 years now. Among the most popular and trusted doctors in Chennai, she is known for her straight forward approach towards treating little kids. She consults at Seethapathy Clinic as well as at Apollo Speciality Clinics at Alwarpet and Kotturpuram
Ms. Shaktisree Gopalan is an Architect from Anna university, Chennai and is a popular singer, who has pelted some very molodious and memorable numbers for various music directors. She was responsible for designing the KM Conservatory, the music shool run by Oscar Winner and Mozart of Madras, AR Rahman.
It was quite humbling to meet these women in a single day and spending a few minutes with them. I wish and pray that these women keep doing their selfless service to the society in times to come. And I also sincerely hope that this Oyethere.com Women's Day felicitation grows in size year after year.
