Rukhmabai

#61/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Google dedicated a doodle to Rukhmabai today. “Today’s Doodle by illustrator Shreya Gupta shows the courageous doctor among her patients, doing the dedicated work of a skilled physician,” said Google’s blog post on its doodles.

Rukhmabai, is often credited as the first Indian woman to practice medicine in colonial India. However, that is not true. First practicing lady doctor in India was Dr. Kadambini Ganguly and first non practicing lady physician of India was Dr. Anandi Gopal Joshi, who got their degree in 1886. Rukhmabai joined her medical course in 1889 and returned to India in 1894. But Rukhmabai has another feather in her cap. She not only fought patriarchal mindset to become a physician but also fought for other social causes. If women in modern India can assert their rights of consent, it is due to Rukhmabai refusing to recognise her marriage and the case filed by her husband thereafter. 

Born in 1864 to Janardhan Pandurang and Jayantibai in the present-day Mumbai, she lost her father at the age of eight. Jayantibai transferred her property to Rukhmabai after her father’s death. Her parents were from a community of carpenters. Among the many social evils prevailing at that time was child marriage and Rukhmabai was also married at the age of 11 to Dadaji Bhikaji, then aged nineteen. Her mother later married a widower, Dr. Sakharam Arjun, an eminent physician and the founding member of Bombay Natural History Society. 

Rukhmabai continued to stay with her mother and step-father in the family home even after marriage and studied at home using books from a Free Church Mission library. Rukhmabai and her mother were regulars at the weekly meetings of the Prarthanä Samäj and the Arya Mahilä Samäj. Meanwhile, Dadaji lost his mother and took to living with his maternal uncle Narayan Dhurmaji. The environment of Dhurmaji’s home pushed Dadaji into a life of indolence and waywardness. Dhurmaji had a mistress at home and his wife attempted suicide. Rukhmabai at the age of twelve refused to move to the household of Dhurmaji to live with Dadaji and Sakharam Arjun supported her decision. Seven years later, Dadaji moved court seeking it to order his wife to live with him. In March 1884, Dadaji sent a letter, through his lawyers Chalk and Walker, to Sakharam Arjun asking him to stop preventing Rukhmabai from joining him. Sakharam Arjun responded through civil letters that he was not preventing her but soon he too was forced to obtain legal . Through lawyers Payne, Gilbert, and Sayani, Rukhmabai provided grounds for refusing to join Dadaji. Dadaji claimed that Rukhmabai was being kept away because she could assert the rights to the property of her father’s. Rukhmabai refused to move in with her husband stating that a woman cannot be compelled to stay in a wedlock when she is not interested. 

The Dadaji vs. Rukhmabai case that went on for three years triggered a debate in both England and India. Dadaji Bhikaji vs. Rukhmabai, 1885 with Bhikaji seeking “restitution of conjugal rights” came up for hearing and the judgement was passed by Justice Robert Hill Pinhey. Pinhey stated that English precedents on restitution did not apply here as the English law was meant to be applied to consenting mature adults. He found fault with the English law cases and found no precedent in Hindu law. He declared that Rukhmabai had been wed in her “helpless infancy” and that he could not compel a young lady. Pinhey retired after this last case and in 1886 the case came up for retrial. Rukhmabai’s counsels included J.D. Inverarity Jr. and Telang. There were outcries from various sections of society while it was praised by others. Some Hindus claimed that the law did not respect the sanctity of Hindu customs when in fact Pinhey did. Strong criticism of Pinhey’s decision came from the Native Opinion, an Anglo-Marathi weekly run by Vishwanath Narayan Mandlik (1833–89) who supported Dadaji. A Pune weekly run by Balgangadhar Tilak, the Mahratta, wrote that Justice Pinhey did not understand the spirit of Hindu laws and that he sought reform by “violent means”. In the meantime, a series of articles in the Times of India written under the pen-name of a Hindu Lady had through the course of the case (and before it) caused public reactions and it was revealed that the author was none other than Rukhmabai. One of the witnesses in the case, K.R. Kirtikar (1847-1919), formerly a student of Sakharam Arjun (and a fellow founding Indian member of the Bombay Natural History Society), claimed that the identity did not matter in the case. Kirtikar however was in support of Dadaji. The public debate revolved around multiple points of contention - Hindu versus English Law, reform from the inside versus outside, whether ancient customs deserved respect or not and so on. An appeal against the first case was made on 18 March 1886 and it was upheld by Chief Justice Sir Charles Sargent and Justice. The case was handled by Justice Farran on 4 March 1887 made using interpretations of Hindu laws went in the other direction and Rukhmabai was ordered to go to live with her husband or face six months of imprisonment. Rukhmabai bravely wrote that she would rather have the maximum penalty than obey the verdict. This caused further upheaval and debate. Balgangadhar Tilak wrote in the Kesari that Rukhmabai’s defiance was the result of an English education and declared that Hinduism was in danger. Max Müller wrote that the legal route was not the solution to the problem shown by Rukhmabai’s case and stated that it was Rukhmabai’s education that had made her the best judge of her own choices.

After the series of court cases which resulted in the affirmation of the marriage, she wrote to Queen Victoria who overruled the court and dissolved the marriage. In July 1888, a settlement was reached with Dadaji and he relinquished his claim on Rukhmabai for a payment of two thousand rupees. The case greatly influenced reformers like Behramji Malabari (1853-1912) who wrote extensively on the topic. It was also followed with great interest in Britain which included broader feminist discussions in women’s magazines there. The publicity of this case helped influence the passage of the Age of Consent Act, 1891 which outlawed child marriages across the British Empire, despite opposition from conservative Indians. 

Rukhmabai then set sail to study in England to study medicine. Dr. Edith Pechey at the Cama Hospital encouraged Rukhmabai, helping to raise funds for her education. Rukhmabai went to England in 1889 to study at the London School of Medicine for Women. Rukhmabai was supported by suffrage activist Eva McLaren and Walter McLaren, and the Countess of Dufferin’s Fund for Supplying Medical Aid to the Women of India. Adelaide Manning and several others helped establish a fund, the Rukhmabai Defence Committee. Contributors included Shivajirao Holkar who donated 500 Rupees, “demonstrating courage to intervene against traditions”. Rukhmabai then wore white sari of widows in the Hindu tradition. In 1918 Rukhmabai rejected an offer to join the Women’s Medical Service and joined a state hospital for women in Rajkot. She served as the chief medical officer for a total of thirty-five years before retiring to Bombay in 1929 or 1930. She passed away on September 25, 1955.

Apart from practicing medicine, she continued to work for social causes and was a founding member of Bombay Natural History Society along with her step-father, a 133-year-old pan-India wildlife research organization. As part of her continuous work for reform, she published a pamphlet “Purdah-the need for its abolition.” Even in the present day, women are fighting for the right to consent amid a shocking spike in the crimes against women. Rukhmabai’s fight serves as an inspiration to all the women struggling for their rights. 

Source: Wikipedia and Google search.

Jnanadanandini Devi Tagore

#60/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Jnanadanandini Tagore was a social reformer who pioneered various cultural innovations and influenced the earliest phase of women’s empowerment in 19th century Bengal. She was married to Satyendranath Tagore, a scion of the Jorasanko Tagore Family, and the elder brother of Rabindranath Tagore.

Jnanadanandini was born to parents Abhaycharan Mukhopadhyay and Nistarini Devi of Narendrapur village in Jessore, Bengal Presidency in 1850. Abhaycharan, a Kulin Brahmin, had become an out-caste by marrying into a Pirali family and was disinherited by his father. In accordance to the prevalent custom, Jnanadanandini was married at the young age of seven or eight to Debendranath Tagore’s second son, Satyendranath in 1857. In contrast to her idyllic life in Jessore, she found herself confined behind the strict purdah of the Tagore household at Jorasanko. At the time of her marriage, Jnanadanandini was illiterate and too young to understand the significance of marriage; on the contrary, her husband believed in romance and personal choice. After marriage, he, therefore, started to educate and westernise his child-wife. In 1862, while pursuing his probationary training for the Indian Civil Service (ICS), when Satyendranath went to England to compete for ICS, he even asked his father, Devendranath Tagore, to send her to London so that he could educate and modernise her suitably and turn her into his able companion. He also wrote that until she was educated and old enough to take him as her husband, he would not enter into a husband-wife relationship with her. His father considered his request to be grotesque and did not naturally send his daughter-in-law to England. Around this time, Jnanadanandini’s brother-in-law Hemendranath Tagore took charge of her education. She was also tutored briefly by the famous Brahmo educationist Ayodhyanath Pakrashi. However, when Satyendranath returned to Kolkata as an ICS in 1864 as the first Indian member of the Civil Service, he took her to the place of his work in Ahmedabad in western India, and thus violated the social norm of keeping one’s wife at the parental home. On her way to Ahmedabad, they stayed as houseguests at a Parsi house in Bombay for three months.

While in Bombay, Jnanadanandini socialized in the European circles and partly adapted to English customs. It was in Bombay that she saw Parsi women in the house wearing saris along with bodices, petticoats, blouses and shoes. But, the shift in social role required her to dress appropriately, for which the traditional Bengali style of wearing the sari became too unwieldy. During a tour of Gujarat with her husband, Jnanadanandini improvised upon the sari worn by Parsi women. She created her own style of draping the aanchal/pallu over the left shoulder – as opposed to the Parsi style – so that the right hand remained free for courtesies. In order to make this style popular, she later wrote an article in the women’s monthly, Bamabodhini Patrika and advertised that she would give a set of this dress free to anyone who would like to have it. She thus offered Bengali women a dress which was both polite and fashionable. One of her first pupils in Calcutta was Mrs. Soudamini Gupta, the wife of Behari Lal Gupta, ICS. The style soon became popular among the Brahmo women of Calcutta developing the eponym Brahmika Sari. 

She also became the first lady to wear an Oriental dress — a Mughal style kurta and voluminous pants — when she was out with her husband. The dress was said to be devised by none other than Satyendranath himself for her who had it made by a French tailor in Kolkata. While in Calcutta, Jnanadanandini, breaking the customs of the upper-caste household, accompanied her husband to a Christmas party thrown by the Viceroy, Lord Lawrence in 1866. Prasanna Coomar Tagore of Pathuriaghata, who was also among the invitees was deeply outraged by Jnanadanandini’s boldness and left the viceregal palace in shock. Her father-in-law, Debendranath Tagore, did not take kindly to her independent spirit either. It is speculated that this caused much discord in the Tagore household.

Jnanadanandini played a key role in the opening of the “zenana” (an area where women were kept in seclusion) in the elite households of the 19th century in Bengal? The woman was touted to be much ahead of her times, and also introduced the concept of “nuclear family” within the walls of Jorasanko, Tagore’s ancestral house. She left Jorasanko in 1868 to live by herself in a mansion on Park Street, adjacent to Debendranath’s residence. In spite of this proximity, the two of them never interacted. However, around this time she developed a fondness for her younger brother-in-law, Rabindranath Tagore, who became a frequent visitor in her Park Street house. Jnanadanandini returned to Bombay with her husband in 1869. The same year she lost her first child within a few days of birth. Her son, Surendranath was born in 1872 while the couple was living in Poona and the following year, her daughter Indira Devi was born in Bijapur. In yet another undaunted act of courage, Jnanadanandini appointed a Muslim woman as wet nurse for her children. Leaving newborns to the care of a wet nurse or a governess — always belonging to some Hindu castes — was common practice in affluent Indian families of the day. However, Jnanadanandini resented leaving her children in the custody of servants — often against the wishes of her own husband — making evident the emotional contours of a nuclear family that were already beginning to evolve in her mind. Her third son Kabindranath was born in 1876 during the family’s brief sojourn in Hyderabad, Sindh.

In 1877, a heavily pregnant Jnanadanandini Devi set sail for England with her three children, while her husband lived in India. Such a separation was incredible for the contemporary society, but she never yielded to tradition. At a time when an Indian woman crossing the seas was unheard of — let alone without a male companion — her fortitude created a social sensation. She was received in London by her husband’s uncle Gnanendramohan Tagore who, in spite of being the first Asian barrister and a Christian convert, shared in the shock. After briefly residing at Gnanendramohan Tagore’s house in Kensington Gardens, Jnanadanandini moved into a house on Medina Villas in the seaside town of Brighton, Sussex. Satyendranath joined her in England with the onset of his furlough in October 1878, along with his younger brother Rabindranath Tagore. Her initial year in England was marked by grief with the birth of a stillborn child, and the demise of her youngest son Kabindranath. She arranged for Kabindranath to be buried beside Dwarakanath Tagore’s grave at Kensal Green Cemetery in London. However, she and her children soon developed an intimate friendship with Rabindranath. Her daughter Indira would eventually become Rabindranath’s lifelong confidante. Upon the completion of Satyendranath’s furlough, he took up a post in Surat while Jnanadanandini returned to Calcutta with her children.

In Calcutta, Jnanadanandini took up residence in a bungalow on Lower Circular Road. Yet, from the memoirs of her daughter Indira and niece Sarala, we learn that Jnanadanandini never relinquished her attachment with Jorasanko. She took an active role in Rabindranath’s marriage and even mentored the young bride, Mrinalini. With time, her relationship with Rabindranath permeated into the domain of his creativity. Jnanadanandini started assisting him with the performance of his plays, often encouraging other women of the household to participate. Thus came: Valmiki-Pratibha, Kaalmrigaya, Raja O Rani, Mayar Khela and Bisarjan. From Indira Devi’s recollection we also learn that in spite of her high standing, Jnanadanandini did not socialize with the Calcutta glitterati of her time. That Calcutta society was not favourably disposed towards Jnanadanandini either is evident form an article in the October 1889 issue of the popular Bengali journal Bangabasi, which slandered her for acting in the play Raja O Rani. Ironically, the Tagore house at Birjitalao where the performance took place is today occupied by a ritzy gentlemen’s club.

In 1890, Jnanadanandini moved in with Jyotirindranath Tagore who had lost his wife Kadambari Devi in 1884. In 1891, Jnanadanandini Devi introduced her nephew Abanindranath Tagore to E.B. Havell who at the time was the principal of Government College of Art. The collaboration between these two artists would eventually lead to the development of the Bengal School of Art. Jnanadanandini’s position in the Tagore family is difficult to situate. On the one hand, she is among the few women who presided over the Maghotsav celebrations at the Brahmo Samaj, while on the other she is known to have advocated marriage with the non-Brahmin Cooch-Behar royal family which brought her at loggerheads, yet again, with Debendranath Tagore. Ironically, a woman who once went to England just by herself did not allow her son Surendranath to go to England for higher studies. Despite that and her maternal anxieties notwithstanding, she never objected to Surendranath’s many radical misadventures. While she single-handedly nursed Rabindranath’s daughter Meera Devi through her difficult pregnancy in 1911, she also fell out with him over the issue of withdrawing her grandson Subirendranath from Santiniketan ashram in 1921. Yet, her relationship with Rabindranath remained untarnished all her life. In the words of her daughter Indira Devi, “my mother had ... a quality of centrality, that is the power of attracting people around her, owing to her hospitable and hearty nature”.

In 1907, Jnanadanandini and Satyendranath visited Jyotirindranath Tagore in his house at Morabadi Hill in Ranchi and started living there permanently from 1911. She died in 1941.

Among the Tagore family women, after Swarnakumari Devi, Jnanadanandini participated most actively in the rich literary ambiance of the family. Upon her return from England in 1880, Jnanadanandini began writing articles in the Bengali journal Bharati. Her flair was soon noticed by the intelligentsia. In 1881 - four years before the establishment of the Indian National Congress - Jnanadanandini published an article titled Ingrajninda O Deshanurag (Criticism of the British and Patriotism), in which she called for the establishment of a nationwide organization which would have branches in the remote district towns. She argued “every benefit that the British have bestowed upon us is a blow to our mission of national liberation”. In 1885, Jnanadanandini Devi established Balak, the first children’s literary magazine in Bengali. Rabindranath contributed a number of short stories, poems and plays to Balak. She wrote two plays for children - Takdumadum and Saat Bhai Champa - both of which were highly appreciated in the literary circles. In spite of her many literary achievements, Jnanadanandini Devi did not write her autobiography. Only a couple of years before her death, Pulinbihari Sen persuaded her to write a set of memoirs, later published as Smritikatha O Puratani.

Jnanadanandini Devi Tagore was an example of how an illiterate girl could educate herself with the help of her husband and become competent to live in the society as an equal member. In addition to Bangla and English, she learnt French, Gujarati and Marathi; and turned herself into an accomplished woman mastering English manners and etiquette. A time came soon, when other women of the upper class also followed her style.

Source: Wikipedia and Google search.

Anna Murray-Douglass

#59/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Anna Murray Douglass is best known as the first wife of black abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Her life was immensely overshadowed by her husband who was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, and statesman gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writings; and illustrates the challenges facing women who were married to famous men.

Anna Murray was born in Denton, Maryland, to Bambarra and Mary Murray. Unlike her seven older brothers and sisters, who were born in slavery, Anna Murray and her younger four siblings were born emancipated, her parents having been manumitted just a month before her birth. A resourceful young woman, by the age of 17 she had established herself as a laundress and housekeeper and later became very wealthy. Her laundry work took her to the docks, where she met Frederick Douglass, then known as Frederick Washington Bailey, a slave working as a caulker. He was six years her junior. (Because I’m focusing on his wife, I’m not going to talk in detail about Frederick’s truly amazing and influential life and work on behalf of abolition, women’s suffrage, and civil rights. However, if you aren’t familiar with his life, please check out his page on Wikipedia. He was a powerful, eloquent writer and speaker who could cut straight to the heart of a matter without hyperbole one minute and wax lyrically eloquent the next. It was truly amazing how he had educated himself while being a slave.)

Anna’s freedom made Frederick believe in the possibility of his own. When he decided to escape slavery again in 1838 (his third attempt after two failed ones), Anna encouraged and helped him by providing him with some sailor’s clothing her laundry work gave her access to. She also gave him part of her savings, which she augmented by selling one of her feather beds. After Frederick had made his way to Philadelphia and then New York, he wrote to Anna to join him. Anna did follow him, bringing enough goods with her to be able to start a household. They were married on September 15, 1838. At first they took Johnson as their name, but upon moving to New Bedford, Massachusetts, they adopted Douglass as their married name.

Over the remaining years of her life, Anna Murray-Douglass helped support the family financially, working as a laundress and learning to make shoes, as Douglass’s income from his speeches was sporadic and the family was struggling. She also took an active role in the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and later prevailed upon her husband to train their sons as typesetters for his abolitionist newspaper, North Star. After the family moved to Rochester, New York, she established a headquarters for the Underground Railroad* from her home, providing food, board and clean linen for fugitive slaves on their way to Canada.

The first years of the marriage appear to have been congenial. Anna bore four children—Rosetta, Lewis Henry, Charles Remond, and Frederick Douglass Jr.—during their residence in New Bedford. While Douglass searched for jobs on the city’s docks, Anna kept house on a small budget. When the family moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, she also took in piecework from the local shoe factories and saved everything that her husband sent to her while he toured for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Strain began to manifest in the Douglass marriage once Frederick became involved in the abolitionist movement. He spent a good deal of time away from home giving lectures, including two years in Europe. Most of his white associates expressed disdain for his wife, at their most generous referring to Anna as a poor intellectual match for her husband, and treated her like a servant in her own home. They, like historians, had focused on Anna’s illiteracy and stoicism to bolster their arguments. Anna, however, had little time for intellectual pursuits while running a household and raising a family with little help from her husband.

By the late 1840s Anna lost much of her emotional support system. Her daughter, Rosetta, was away at school in Albany, New York; and her friend and household helper, Harriet Bailey, had married and moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, her husband toured England, where rumors spread about the attention lavished on him by the English ladies. After his return in 1847 Douglass moved the family to Rochester, New York, taking Anna away from the small but active black community of which she had been a part in Lynn. Shortly thereafter she suffered the indignity of having the British reformer Julia Griffiths move into the Douglass home, which caused a storm of controversy alleging Frederick’s infidelity with Griffiths. The departure of Griffiths was followed by the arrival of Ottilie Assing, who installed herself in the Douglass home for several months out of the year over the next twenty years. For much of her life Anna lived isolated from supportive African American companionship while hosting a string of white abolitionists who could barely conceal their disdain for her. Only the extended stays of Rosetta and her children and the companionship of Louisa Sprague, Rosetta’s sister-in-law who lived in the Douglass home as a housekeeper, relieved Anna’s loneliness.

Nevertheless, Anna understood her husband’s role in fighting slavery and her role as his helpmate. She took pride in her husband’s appearance and accomplishments and in keeping a well-ordered home. She continued to take an active part in operation of the household, even after Douglass had become wealthy enough to hire servants. After Anna’s death her work was informally recognized by black women, who continued to refer to the home at Cedar Hill, Uniontown, D.C., as her home, and by Rosetta, who wrote a memoir of Anna’s life and named her eldest daughter Annie. 

Rosetta’s memoir, “My Mother as I Recall Her”, deserves particular attention as one of the only surviving documents about Anna Murray Douglass. Rosetta celebrated Anna’s work, placing her mother squarely within the nineteenth-century “cult of domesticity”. Rosetta used Anna as a symbol of the equality of black women within that sphere during an era in which black women were portrayed as either the sexually promiscuous “Jezebel” or the maternal caretaker “Mammy” of white families. On the other hand, not only did Anna actively support the end of slavery by aiding her husband’s flight to freedom and allowing him to pursue antislavery work but also she maintained an impeccable home and preserved her own dignity and that of her marriage in the face of white assault. In Rosetta’s narrative Anna emerges as a model of middle-class womanhood.

Frederick Douglass, for his part, recognized the role that Anna played in his life. During his first visit to England he maintained a cordial distance from his enthusiastic female admirers, and he defended his wife when anyone suggested that she was not a fit mate for him. After his return home in 1847 Anna conceived their last child, Annie, and Douglass risked his own arrest to reenter the United States to comfort Anna in the wake of that child’s death ten years later. When Anna died in 1882, he fell into a depression that he described as being the darkest moment of his life. Nevertheless, he seemed less than concerned for Anna’s feelings in bringing into their home two white women with whom he was rumored to be sexually involved. He also married a younger white woman within a year of Anna’s death, much to the chagrin of his family and both the black and white communities.

For much of her life, Anna suffered from various ailments, particularly headaches that made her ill. In her later years she suffered from a stroke that confined her to a wheelchair and her bedroom. In August 1882 she died shortly after having a second stroke. One year after Anna’s death, Frederick remarried. His second wife was Helen Pitts. Their marriage was quite a scandal. Helen was white and twenty years younger than Frederick. His children felt the marriage disrespected their mother. Frederick and Helen’s friends were shocked because they felt the marriage was too sudden and because they were worried about the race and age differences. Helen’s family cut off contact with her altogether, and their local society was appalled that a black man and white woman were married at all. But, to give her her due, without Helen’s emotional support and energy, he might not have escaped the depression that haunted him after Anna’s death.

Anna was initially buried at Graceland Cemetery in Washington, D.C. But the cemetery closed in 1894, and on February 22, 1895, she was moved to Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York. Frederick Douglass was buried next to her after his death on February 20, 1895. They were later joined by Helen there.

Her entire life, Anna Murray was overshadowed by the enormous personality of Frederick Douglass. Yet, it is doubtful that Frederick Douglass could have been as successful in his work as he was without the assistance of this feisty woman in his life, his first wife and biggest support for 44 years. She played more of a supporting role in his life than an egalitarian one. Yet, in many ways her role was essential to his success. Without Anna’s financial and homemaking support, he might never have escaped from slavery and he probably would not have been able to pursue his career as a writer and orator. Even though his name is the name history remembers, it’s in part because of Anna that he was able to persevere. Yet, it’s ironical that the most talked about fact about their relationship is the white woman he married after she died.

* The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early-to-mid 19th century, and used by African-American slaves to escape into free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. 

Source: Google search and Wikipedia.

Prem Mathur

#58/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Long ago there were not that many pilots in India, the reason being women were not encouraged to get in to that field, which was considered as male's domain. But, nowadays numerous Indian women work as pilots both in the private and public airline companies. Initially women were working in the cabin, taking care of the passenger's needs. Today they made a big jump from the cabin to the cockpit. It all started with one Prem Mathur whose continued efforts and passion made her become the first Indian woman commercial pilot in 1951, exactly 4 years after India's freedom from the British. Indeed a great feat in those years of conservatism and restricted movements for Indian women. Above in the Indian sky, woman in the cockpit was unthinkable in the 1940s and 1950s. Certainly in the area of commercial flying Prem Mathur was a trailblazer.

After receiving the pilot's flying license in 1947 from Allahabad Flying Club, her ambition was to join a commercial airliner as a pilot. Incidentally, she was first Indian woman to have received a commercial pilot's license in India. In the initial stages, the results were not encouraging, she kept receiving a barrage of regret letters from the commercial airline companies. The commercial airliners, it is said, did not want to take risk by employing women pilots. Their excuse was the passengers won't be comfortable sitting in the airliner with women in the cockpit. This kind of misconception was very much there and it was rooted in the fact that women won't as quickly respond to emergency situation as men would do. Simply speaking, women pilots were not good enough to handle a real emergency situation that might develop while flying as it was different from handling emergency situation in a simulated environment on the ground.

As for Prem, that was not the end of the world. Now she became even more serious about joining a commercial airliner at any cost and her positive approach coupled with sincere efforts, at last, paid off. Deccan Airways of Hyderabad at the interview asked her all kinds of questions about sophisticated electronic and mechanical control and being knowledgeable as she was, initially she was hired as a co-pilot in 1951; after having won the air race in 1949 conducted by the Aero Club. 

However, the company was reluctant to giver her full command of the cockpit even after fulfillment of the required hours of flying by her. While with Deccan, she had the opportunity to fly distinguished personalities like Lal Bahadur Shastry, Indira Gandhi, Lady Mountbatten etc. A disappointed Prem left the job and later became a pilot of well-known industrialist G. D. Birla's private aircraft and was stationed in Delhi. After a short stint with Mr. Birla, she joined the joined Indian Airlines as a pilot in 1953, the National Domestic Airline came into operation with the amalgamation of many private airlines. On 2nd October 1953, Capt. Prem Mathur started flying as Co-pilot with Indian Airlines and India became the first country in the world to employ a woman as a pilot in their IATA Airline Ltd. Till retirement she had a distinguished carrier with the Indian Airlines.

As a courageous woman, she chased her dream and accomplished her passion.

Source: Google search.

Dr. T. S. Kanaka

#57/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

When Thanjavur Santhanakrishnan Kanaka, more popularly known as T.S. Kanaka, opted for a career in neurosurgery way back in the 1960s, little did she realise that she was embarking on a challenging journey. It was a struggle back then as she broke the male bastion several times over, first as a student and later as a surgeon. “Getting a master's degree in general surgery was not easy for me,” Dr. Kanaka recalls with a sparkle in her eyes. “Women were never admitted to master's programme in general surgery. Two other women had been admitted to the M.S. general surgery simply because they had won the Johnson Medal (the highest recognition for a student at Madras Medical College). While one went on to become an anatomy professor, the other never practised. When I applied for the MS programme, I was told I would never be accepted.”

Kanaka was one of eight children born to Santhanakrishna and Padmavathi in Madras on March 31, 1932. Her father was the Deputy Director of Public Instruction and Principal of Madras Teachers College. Despite an urge to pursue spiritual studies in her early years, she went on to study medicine. Born in an era when women were not even allowed to pursue their studies, the young doctor was taking the bold steps towards getting a master’s degree in surgery. No words can explain her struggle to make her mark in this highly male dominated profession.She once explained in an interview, “I was born along with four sisters and three brothers of which only one sister is alive, apart from me. All of them were highly educated. Given that we belonged to 40s and 50s, it’s a huge thing. My youngest sibling was Amarnath who died at a very young age. He, being the last one, was the dearest to the family. So, I have named this house after him. I didn’t want to get married because I wanted to involve myself completely into my profession. My mother understood my situation and accepted it. But my father, like any other father, wanted to get me married. But you see, back then the crucial decisions of the family belonged to the woman of the family. They appeared as subordinates but always the woman’s words went in the house. These days we are talking about female equality, but back then there was female superiority (she laughed) though it’s all changed now.” 

Known for her passion for academics, Dr. Kanaka embarked on research even as a medical student at MMC. She undertook several research projects during the third and fourth year of MBBS, a rare feat for an undergraduate student. But that did not make her journey any easy. She finally got her way and was admitted to the MS course as the only woman among the eight students. 

Even post her admission into the degree course, she was not given the permission to watch emergencies and her teachers where highly skeptical of giving her the knife or scalpel. The agony did not end there. Every time she wrote the exam the examiner failed her. But she not give up. She passed the MS examination on her sixth attempt by fighting every possible tooth and nail. From here young Dr. Kanaka’s journey took her to serve the Indian Army as an officer-surgical specialist. But unfortunately, due to a prolonged lingering illness she could not pursue the post for long. After her health improvement, she returned back to Madras Medical College and joined the neurosurgical wing, dreaming to become a neurosurgeon. The post of an assistant to a surgeon did not come easily either. She turned lucky when an assistant surgeon had to go on leave for training and she was posted in his place. It was under Dr. A. Venugopal that she formally became a surgeon. Later neurosurgeon Dr. B. Ramamurthy's tutorship helped her hone her skills. Under the guidance and teachings of a few esteemed surgeons who sharpen her skills and knowledge, helped her become the first few women neurosurgeons of the world.

Struggles were aplenty even after this. Her academic papers were scrutinised by fellow researchers in the United States. Today, Dr. Kanaka is among the handful of women neurosurgeons who have set an example for other women. Her favourite subject is deep brain stimulation, and she has presented several papers on it. During her several lecture tours in India, she has impressed upon scientists to develop deep brain stimulation kits locally, but says she has not succeeded. The kit is used in stereotaxic surgeries. “My job is not done until India develops its own kit for cost-effective treatment,” says Dr. Kanaka, who remained single to devote herself to medicine. 

Over the years, her zeal and thirst for the subject have inspired her to conduct comprehensive research in the field of neurosurgery. An expert in the field of brain simulation, Dr. Kanaka has dedicated her entire life to the field of medicine. With many accolades to her credit, the one striking one, is that , she is known to be an active blood donor all her life. She was formerly listed in the Limca Book of Records for the highest number of blood donations by an individual. As of 2004 she was noted to have donated blood 139 times.

By the way, she doesn’t stop there . Her hands are currently full with a pet project of designing an implantable deep brain stimulation kit that would act like a boon for cerebral palsy patients. A humanist at heart, she is also quiet active at Sri Santhanakrishna Padmavathi Health Care & Research Centre, which stands tall on a plot adjoining her home. Named after her parents, the center conducts various talks on health thereby creating awareness on medical problems.

Currently, Dr Kanaka, under her parents’ name, also runs a trust and a healthcare wellness cum research centre near her house at Chromepet in Chennai. When she retired, she wanted to build an old age home with her retirement money. She went for help to HelpAge India. The person said, “You were literally living in your office at the hospital for 40 years now; you cannot run a home. Think of something else.” She kept thinking throughout her train journey back home and that was what served as her Bodhi tree. She established a ‘wellness centre’. She has a clinic where she listens to the problems of the elderly. They have simple problems like memory defects, insomnia, drowsiness, giddiness, fatigue, tremors, unsteady gait, falls, pain, urinary incontinence etc, which seem very unnoticeable problems to the youngsters in their family and the young doctors. They need someone they could talk to about their problems. She’s doing that. Now that she’s in their age she can understand their problems.

Undoubtedly, she is an aspiration for every person and holds a special place in the heart of womanhood. 

Source: Google search and Wikipedia.

Maryam Mirzakhani

#56/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani, then 37-years-old, a mathematician working at Stanford University, became the first woman, and only woman till date, as well as the first Iranian to win the Fields Medal since its inception in 1936. The Fields Medal is awarded to mathematicians under 40 who have made outstanding contributions to mathematics that hold future promise. She was one of four winners of the Fields medal, which is considered the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel prize. She was named for her work on complex geometry and dynamic systems. Her death, on July 14, 2017, due to breast cancer when she was only 40, saddened the entire mathematics community.

Maryam’s work straddled several branches of mathematics. She was intuitive and persistent. She would often take large sheets of paper and draw geometric patterns on them as she thought of the problem, prompting her daughter to think she was “painting again.” Manjul Bhargava of Princeton University remembers that Maryam was a “master of curved spaces.” As he explained in an email, “Everyone knows that the shortest distance between two points on a flat surface is a straight line. But if the surface is curved — for example, the surface of a ball or a doughnut — then the shortest distance [along the surface] between two points will also be along a curved path, and can thus be more complicated. Maryam proved many amazing theorems about such shortest paths — called geodesics — on curved surfaces, among many other remarkable results in geometry and beyond. Her work, and the research programmes she started, will have an impact on mathematics and physics for years to come.”

She had an uncanny intuition for geometric problems, Professor Bhargava said, which she would solve through drawings that looked like beautiful doodles “but were in fact profound geometric insights that she would then make rigorous later on.” Maryam was interested in complicated curved surfaces or hyperbolic geometry: for example, studying loops that don’t intersect; probing deeper to answer how many loops, which don’t intersect, are there of less than a given length on a curved surface. She worked with Alex Eskin to find a solution to the problem of understanding the trajectory of a billiard ball as it bounces around a table. In this, she generalised a work done by her doctoral adviser Curtis McMullen of Harvard University, also a Fields medallist.

A consequence of her work was to give an entirely new proof of a conjecture made by leading string theorist Edward Witten (a 1990 Fields medallist). The first proof of this conjecture was given by Maxim Kontsevich in 1992; it was such a difficult thing to prove that this work itself, in part, won him the Fields Medal in 1998. Maryam Mirzakhani’s proof of Witten’s conjecture was by relating it to an “elementary problem of counting the number of geodesics on individual surfaces.” She worked aggressively and went for deep and fundamental problems, never reaching for the “low-hanging fruit.” It was her strong geometric intuition and her fluency in a range of diverse techniques that made it possible for her to tackle these problems. In the words of Professor McMullen, “Maryam was a brilliant mathematician who has left us far too soon, and who will continue to inspire others to follow in her path.”

A tribute on the Stanford University website says she specialised in an area of mathematics that “read like a foreign language to those outside mathematics — moduli spaces, Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, Ergodic theory and symplectic geometry.” Each of these terms comes with a well-developed theory backing it and Maryam’s work was both breaking new ground and building a bridge across these areas. In an interview to Quanta magazine, her collaborator Professor Eskin said her doctoral thesis was such that you could immediately recognise that it belonged in a textbook.

An Iranian citizen, Maryam Mirzakhani was born on on May 3, 1977 in Tehran where she grew up in the post Iran-Iraq war period, “the lucky generation,” she said in a rare interview she gave to Quanta magazine. Her father Ahmad is an electrical engineer. She attended Farzanegan School there, part of the National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents. In 1994, Maryam achieved the gold medal level in the International Mathematical Olympiad, the first female Iranian student to do so. In the 1995 International Mathematical Olympiad, she became the first Iranian student to achieve a perfect score and to win two gold medals. She obtained her B.Sc. in mathematics in 1999 from the Sharif University of Technology. She then went to the United States for graduate work, earning her Ph.D. in 2004 from Harvard University, where she worked under the supervision of the Fields Medalist Curtis T. McMullen. Maryam was a 2004 research fellow of the Clay Mathematics Institute and a professor at Princeton University. In 2008, she became a professor at Stanford University.

In 2005, Maryam married Jan Vondrák, a Czech theoretical computer scientist and applied mathematician who currently is an associate professor at Stanford University. They have a daughter named Anahita. Maryam was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013. In 2016 the cancer spread to her bone and liver, and she died on July 14, 2017 at the age of 40 at Stanford hospital in Palo Alto, California where she lived with her family. During her lifetime, she had been celebrated with many awards and honours, like, AMS Blumenthal Award 2009; the 2013 AMS Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics (which is presented every two years by the American Mathematical Society and recognizes an outstanding contribution to mathematics research by a woman in the preceding six years); the Clay Research Award 2014; and of course the Fields Medal 2014. She was named one of Nature magazine's ten "people who mattered" of 2014. She was invited to be the plenary speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2014 and was elected as the foreign associate to the French Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society in 2015; to the National Academy of Sciences in 2016; and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017.

A private person, she was known to be humble and creative. Maryam originally dreamed of becoming a writer but then shifted to mathematics. When she was working, she would doodle on sheets of paper and scribble formulas on the edges of her drawings, leading her daughter to describe the work as painting. “We overlapped at Harvard University early in our careers, and became instant friends then… Her work has just been so remarkable then and ever since; it was indeed a great honour for me to receive [the Fields Medal] together with her,” said Professor Bhargava. 

Source: Google search and Wikipedia.

Rupan Deol Bajaj

#55/100 in #100extraordinarypeople

KPS Gill, often described as the “Supercop”, passed away recently and all newspapers ran pages and pages of accolades for Mr. Gill, very conveniently ignoring his conviction for sexual harassment in 2005. Rupan Deol Bajaj, a senior IAS officer and his victim, who was the first woman to take a case of sexual harassment to the court in India, was very conveniently forgotten.

While it might be one perspective that women at the highest positions of the bureaucracy are immune from the general drudgery of the Indian legal system, retired senior IAS officer Rupan Deol Bajaj argues that the institutional exploitation is as casual even for women who comprise the topmost gentry. She emphasizes that a woman could be at any position but she still remains a woman. Her story is both of courage and despair. However the bottomline remains that she refused to give up and fought for her dignity till she regained it. On one hand it was a restoration of dignity and justice for Bajaj, on the other hand it was also pivotal in framing of jurisprudence on outraging the modesty of women under the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Something rather unusual happened in the July of 1988. A high profile case was lodged with the police under the dormant sections 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. It was a unique case with no precedent.

As the story goes – Ms. Bajaj and her husband, both senior IAS officers, went to a dinner party at one of their colleagues’ place where the hero cop of Punjab insurgency, the Director General of Police, KPS Gill was also present. Now, as was the norm back in the eighties, men and women sat separately in respective semi-circles facing each other.

All of a sudden KPS Gill, unacquainted with the concepts of decency and consent, came to Ms. Bajaj’s seat and put up a finger on her face ordering her to come along. She told him that he was misbehaving but only if he could hear the warning. She stood up to leave and then he slapped on her posterior. All the guests were shocked but Ms. Bajaj was traumatised. And then she realized that the only way of leading a respectable life was to fight against the society where violation of dignity of women was casual.

Thus she filed an FIR with the police. Of course no investigation took place. She then approached the Judicial Magistrate along with her husband Mr.. B.R. Bajaj, a senior I.A.S. officer of the Punjab Cadre, who had filed a complaint in the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate for the same offenses, described above against KPS Gill and was a party to the case. The magistrate ordered the investigation against these complaints and Mr. Gill approached the High Court. The High Court quashed the complaints because the Honourable Court thought that it was a trivial offence under Section 95 of the Indian Penal Code not worthy of any prosecution. Woman’s dignity, always trivial! The court also said the offence was unnatural and improbable. What?! Anyway, despite these very interesting observations by the High Court, Ms. Bajaj decided to take the matter to Supreme Court. But she had already lost hope now. Then something extraordinary happened.

The Supreme Court overturned the decision of the lower Court and ruled that the offence of outraging the modesty of women was committed under Sections 354 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code. The problem that occurred was regarding the definition of modesty. The Apex Court referred to various dictionaries where modesty was defined as ‘womanly propriety of behaviour; scrupulous chastity of thought, speech and conduct’ and ‘decorous in manner and conduct; not forward or lewd; shamefast’. Another important case that was referred was State of Punjab v. Major Singh where the accused had fingered a seven and a half month old child and the question was whether she possessed modesty. Here the court held that any act done committed on women which is suggestive of sex would fall under the definition of modesty. Thus the ultimate test for ascertaining whether modesty has been outraged is, is the action of the offender such as could be perceived as one which is capable of shocking the sense of decency of a woman. Thus, in the instant case, because slapping on the posterior has sexual overtones, it clearly falls under the mischief of section 354 of the Indian Penal Code.

The Supreme Court thus ordered the lower court to dispose of the case as per the procedure prescribed by law. And thus started one of the most publicized, high-profile legal cases in India that remained in the media limelight for many years. The case, Rupan Deol Bajaj case or Rupan Deol Bajaj vs KPS Gill case, controvertially came to be known as “The Butt-Slapping Case”. Mr. Gill was convicted in 2005 after seventeen years of the commission of the offence. He was awarded the imprisonment of three months and a fine of Rs. 2,00,000. Ms. Bajaj refused to take the compensation as it cannot recompense her for the ignominy and the trauma she underwent for so much for her life. The imprisonment was subsequently converted into probation. Rupen Deol Bajaj was highly praised in the media for both filing a case against such a powerful officer of police and for refusing to be intimidated. 

Mr. Gill had been awarded Padma Shri in 1989. He was given the award even when he had been booked for trying to outrage her modesty. This was done despite more than 90 IAS officers petitioning the government not to honour a person involved in a molestation case. But then our society has certain criteria for greatness and being a respecter of the rights of their fellow beings is definitely not one of them. In 2010, after the Government's decision to strip police officers convicted of 'moral turpitude' of medals and awards, she demanded that the Government take back the Padma Shri award given to KPS Gill. She wanted the Government to move against Gill in the same manner as it was proceeding against ex-Haryana top cop SPS Rathore, to strip him of his police medal in the aftermath of the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case. Of course, that never happened in the case of the celebrated “Supercop”.

Ms. Bajaj, now retired, recalls her struggle as to how the drawing room discussions were around why a woman would trouble a man for this stature for such a trivial thing. Outraging the modesty of women is one of the most forgivable and forgettable offences in India. Women, be afraid for your modesty, not everyone can keep the courage living for seventeen years. Also rest in peace, Mr. KPS Gill! 

Source: Google search and Wikipedia.

Chhavi Rajawat

#54/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

While most of us lament about the corrupt system and its loopholes impeding our country’s growth, how many of us actually think about taking a lead and dare to give it all up to work at the grass-root level?

Among those few faces who lead our society by example, Chhavi Rajawat, the Sarpanch of Soda village in Rajasthan is a woman who has indeed made a difference. With an excellent academic background including a management degree, Chhavi worked for leading companies but left it all to serve her village. Giving up a promising corporate career, she chose to go back to her ancestral village and run for the election of village Sarpanch.

Chhavi was born in 1977 in Jaipur, Rajasthan. She hails from a small village called Soda in Malpura tehsil, Tonk district. She is an alumnus of Rishi Valley School (Andhra Pradesh), Mayo College Girls School (Ajmer), Lady Shri Ram College (University of Delhi) and has completed her MBA from Balaji Institute Of Modern Management, Pune. After doing her MBA, Chhavi worked for companies such as Times of India, Carlson Group of Hotels, and Airtel, before she realised the need to bring about a change in the grass-root level, if she wants to bring about a real difference. Her decision to contest elections was made after a group of people from her village approached and requested her. Quite naturally, the education and exposure that Chhavi brought along, caught the attention of village residents who voted in her favour. In 2011, all in her early 30s, she went back to her village, Soda, in Rajashthan’s Tonk district to become India’s youngest Sarpanch, the first woman Sarpanch and the only Sarpanch to hold an MBA degree. “As the post of Sarpanch at Soda was reserved for women in 2010, villagers wanted me to contest elections. Since I was regularly visiting Soda, I developed a special affection for them. Owing to my upbringing, I always wanted to payback something to the society. As I decided to leave my corporate career, my parents backed my decision to pursue social work,” she said. She now divides her time between her village, Soda, and Jaipur where she lives with her parents. Since her election as Sarpanch, she has been working to bring better water, solar power, paved roads, toilets and a bank to her village. She rues that the modern-day education system is pushing youngsters towards a rat race, leaving them hardly concerned about the society.

Soda is in a remote corner of Rajasthan where the houses are made of mud, electricity supplies are erratic, literacy levels are below 50 per cent and the fear of drought is never far away. The villagers said there had been no progress since Chhavi's brigadier grandfather, now in his 90s, had served as Sarpanch two decades ago and they wanted someone else in the family to take on the role.

In a span of 4 years since she got elected, Chhavi has worked to ensure regular supply of drinking water in the village households and construction of more than 40 roads. In the small village of the desert state, toilets have been constructed in 800 houses out of the total 900 that exist. She claims to have worked for enhancing electricity supply from four hours in a day in 2010 to 22 hours now. She also got a soft drink company to invest into cleaning a pond, the only source of drinking water in the village. The village of Soda has undergone a radical transformation under her leadership and is popular as one of the finest villages in India. But change did not come easily and she faced many challenges, including no support from the government at times. Despite being an elected representative, Chhavi is not affiliated to any political party. “If India continues to make progress at the same pace as it has for the past 65 years since independence, it just won’t be good enough. We’ll be failing people who dream about having water, electricity, toilets, schools and jobs. I am convinced we can do it differently and do it faster,” Chhavi said in an interview with NDTV.

She is swarmed by villagers as she walks down the road and she greets them by name as they share family news and pepper her with questions about progress on various projects. “Nobody has been able to do what she has done - no other Sarpanch has done as much,” said 30-year-old farmer Jai Singh. “I didn't have a choice,” said a smiling Chhavi, who represented India at a recent UN poverty summit. “The villagers broke all caste, gender and religious barriers to elect me,” she adds, a glamorous 33-year-old whose 10,000 constituents are mostly farmers and labourers largely untouched by the country’s economic boom. Her story reveals the potential of good grassroots leadership in making a difference in a country plagued by corruption and inefficiency.

As she planned an IT centre on the common land of Soda by utilising the central funds, few land grabbers who were eyeing the land, allegedly attacked Chhavi, her father and few others with sticks, iron rods and stones, after which she suffered a fracture and other injuries. However, the entire official machinery did not come to her support here as she was not affiliated to any political party, she says. “Even as I was an elected representative, the previous (Congress) regime did not support my ideas of social welfare and empowering ruralites. Development plans were stalled and the then establishment turned a blind eye on our woes. When I was attacked twice by the unsocial elements who were unhappy by my kind of transparent governance, the police officials did not act on my complaints. As I suffered a fracture, doctors at the local government hospitals refused to issue a medico-legal report (MLR),” she said while alleging that people at various levels connived with those who wanted to encroach land. Chhavi said that she faced the hardships with the active support of her parents and the villagers. However, she said that the support of her village made the government authorities realise the activities of the erring officials and support of the authorities. “It’s a huge opportunity for them to get some skills - there was nothing before,” said teacher Mohammed Sadeek, 25, about the youngsters who are all out in support of the IT centre.

When she constructed a drinking water reservoir that has created a shimmering blue lake in the middle of the village, she got her first taste of the bureaucratic hurdles that have repeatedly thwarted her. “I was told we could not use government machinery to clean up reservoirs. Finally, they (the government) told me to do it on my own,” she said. And that’s what she did - raising money from friends, family and companies to fund many of her projects. A soft drinks company invested Rs. 20 Lakhs in the project.

The Times of India, a leading English newspaper in India, credits her as the changing face of rural Rajasthan. On 25 March 2011, Chhavi Rajawat made a well-received address to delegates at the 11th Infopoverty World Conference held at the United Nations. Chhavi was also honoured by the late President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at the Technology Day function at New Delhi. She was also honoured “Young Indian Leader” by IBNLive.

Determined to bring about a faster and sustainable growth in the society, the young Sarpanch believes that a technology-driven system can be used to the advantage of common people in curbing corruption and maintaining transparency. She has not decided whether she will continue in development work once her five-year terms ends, but she is hoping her example will inspire other educated young people to take time out to serve their communities. “Your roots are your foundation. You have to start at the bottom to make a difference -- and there is so much left to do.”

Chhavi Rajawat is a one-woman whirlwind as she seeks to drag her impoverished ancestral village in the desert state of Rajasthan into the 21st Century. The fact that the denim-clad lady of urban India has heartily been welcomed and accepted at a village where women still veiled their faces in ghoonghat says a lot about our country’s people’s will to walk the path of development. 

Source: Google search and Wikipedia.

Note: For an interesting side read, click here.

Dr. Tahani Amer

#53/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Tahani Amer discovered her natural passion and inclination for engineering while watching her father fixing his car’s engine as she sat inside her small Egyptian apartment. While her love of math created a clear path for a mechanical and aerospace engineering future, it was great teachers and her father that encouraged and guided Dr. Amer. In return, she spends a great deal of her time to inspire and challenge young women to reach their potential. Dr. Amer started working at NASA in the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Branch. By working in this branch, she gained valuable experience and fulfilled her dream to work with scientists and researchers in solving real-life problems. She recalls, “It was a real privilege to work with state-of-the-art technology and with researchers who love their work.” Then, she landed an opportunity in one of NASA’s wind tunnels to conduct pressure and thermal sensitive paint experiments in support of the NASA’s aeronautical research efforts. This proved to be a valuable experience from both a theoretical and practical point of view. She has experienced the excitement of working with large CFD computer codes and climbing up the ceiling of a wind tunnel to install a velocity probe. Dr. Amer has invented and patented a system to measure the thermal conductivity of a thin film. This measurement is used in the thermal modeling of several techniques for determining boundary layer transition location on models being tested in wind tunnels. Dr. Amer holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, a master’s in aerospace engineering, and a doctoral of engineering from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Tahani Amer is an American Muslim NASA employee who grew up in a suburb of Cairo, Egypt. She had always strived to live by three simple principles: Please God and you will please all. Education is the key to opportunity. Serve others with compassion and kindness. She believd that if one thinks about these principles, it is very simple. You have general guidance about values and ethics from God and his books, self-determination by education, and a sense of social responsibility. She planned on going to medical school in Cairo, Egypt, but changed my major to engineering before starting college because of her life choices. She had gotten married at age 17 and moved to the United States.

Math was her favorite subject. She recognized early on that math provided an opportunity to find new methods for solving problems by using math models. When she came to the U.S. in 1983 and took her first calculus class, she could not speak a word in English, but she still achieved an A in the course. It was then that she knew an engineering career would be an awarding one. She obtained a two-year associate degree in science while taking care of two lovely children. Then, she went back to school to finish her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and went on to earn her master’s in aerospace engineering. Recently, she earned her doctoral in engineering.

She believes that NASA is a soft ‘pillow’ that allows you to dream of the impossible and then work hard to make it a reality. In 1992, during her senior year of college, she started working at NASA on the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) project. By working on this project, she gained valuable experience and fulfilled her dream to work with scientists and researchers solving real-life problems! It was a privilege to work with state-of-the-art technology and with researchers who love their work. Then, she earned the opportunity to work in one of NASA’s wind tunnels to conduct pressure and thermal sensitive paint experiments for NASA’s Aeronautic Research efforts. This proved to be a valuable experience from both a theoretical and practical point of view. She experienced the excitement of working with large CFD computer codes and climbing up the ceiling of a wind tunnel to install a velocity probe. It was great; she felt like a little girl in the ‘candy store’ of NASA. Everything seemed possible. She believes that working at NASA is never boring. She invented and patented a system to measure the thermal conductivity of a thin film. This measurement is used in the thermal modeling of several techniques for determining boundary layer transition location on models being tested in wind tunnels. Currently, she contribute to NASA’s independent assessment process of the Agency’s Programs and Projects by working as a member of the Independent Program Assessment Office (IPAO), part of the Agency’s Office of Evaluation. She works very hard to skillfully execute my assignments and demonstrate managerial skills.

She strives to help and educate others by volunteering my time in community service through NASA programs, such as the “Day of Caring”, Engineering Week, the Speakers Bureau, Diversity Day, and after school science clubs. She spoke on the topic of Women in Islam during the Peace week at Old Dominion University in 2011, and was a guest speaker at the Annual Luncheon for the Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) to state representatives, university presidents, and new students. She also chaired the Applied Science Session for the VSGC and the IPAO NASA Program Management Challenge 2011. Her profile is included on one of the NASA Posters for outreach activity for Woman in Aerospace and in a college calculus book. She is also involved in mosque programs for teaching Islamic rules and Arabic to young children. After September 11, she contributed to her community in Hampton Roads, Va., by helping to educate and fill the gap that many Americans have in understanding the religion of Islam. She has given lectures in many churches, universities, and local school systems. She was even interviewed by the local newspaper on this topic. By living according to the aforementioned three principles, she tries to set a daily standard to challenge herself. In the same way, she challenges herself by her work with NASA, stretching her understanding and seeking to improve herself and others through helping NASA.

Source: https://women.nasa.gov/tahani-amer/

Deena Mehta

#52/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Source: Google image search

Deena Mehta, India's first female stockbroker, was a lone woman in a male-dominated industry who stayed the course, battling sexism along the way, to became the Bombay Stock Exchange's first female president.

Born on February 18, 1961, Deena is an Indian businesswoman, broker, investor, financial adviser, chartered accountant, and social activist. Deena completed her schooling from Mary Immaculate Girls' High School in Mumbai. She is a commerce graduate and a chartered accountant. She has completed a Post Graduate degree in Management Studies (Finance) from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and has also completed a Diploma in Stock Exchange studies from BSE Training Institute and a Post Graduate Diploma in Securities Law conducted by Government Law College, Mumbai.

Deena Mehta is married to Asit Mehta since 1984 and has two sons, Aditya and Aakash. Deena and Asit set up a Mumbai-based brokerage firm by the name of Nucleus Securities in 1986. This firm eventually became the Nucleus Group of Companies. Asit C. Mehta Investment Interrmediates Limited is a part of this Nucleus Group of Companies. "Our's is an arranged marriage, fixed by us. For, unlike the usual lovey-dovey couples, we did not go around. He has been my best teacher, philosopher and, guide. It was thanks to him that I became a broker in the first place,"she says, her voice getting a tad husky. Sixteen years ago, she created history once again, with her becoming the highest income-tax payee among Indian women. It seems, she knows as much finance as time-management, when she maintains that she always makes time for things she wants to do. She is a voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction. Mills & Boons are her 'stress busters'. But unlike the characters in the mushy romantic novelettes, she has created history for herself on her own steam.

Deena Mehta was one of the first few woman members of Bombay Stock Exchange, Mumbai, was the first woman director on the board of the Bombay Stock Exchange, elected with the highest number of votes secured by any member in its history in 1997. She was Vice-President for two years and she eventually went on to be elected as the President of the Bombay Stock Exchange prior to corporatisation in 2001. That was a first in 125 years of the exchange's existence. Her tenure with the Bombay Stock Exchange lasted a total of 6 years from April 1996 to March 2002. She has rendered valuable services to the Exchange by serving as an active participant member on various committees. She is a member on various SEBI committees related to the Secondary Stock Market. In past, she has served as a Director on the Board of Central Depository Services (India) Limited, Cotton Association of India, National Payment Corporation of India and on the Board of BOI Shareholding Limited - a joint venture of BSE with Bank of India.

She is an Executive Member of South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE), a Federation of Stock Exchanges in SAARC Region. She is also a visiting faculty on "stock markets" at leading Institutes like IIM (Ahmedabad). She has vast experience in specific functional areas of Banking, Finance and Capital Markets. She is a Managing Director of Asit C.Mehta Investment Interrmediates Limited (Trading Member of the Exchange) since January, 1998. She was appointed as a Director on the Board on 7th August, 2009. 

Deena Mehta was awarded for outstanding contribution in the field of Banking and Financial services by Ladies Wing, Indian Merchant Chamber and as outstanding Young Indian in Business Category by Indian Jaycees in 1998. She was also honored by Cosmos Bank for outstanding contribution in the field of Finance in December, 2005. She was conferred the Exceptional Women Achiever Awards by FICCI in 2014. She actively supports investor education and awareness initiatives. 

Does she enjoy power? "It is quite a feeling, though I have never used it for myself," she maintains. What about the heady feeling of bossing over so many powerful people? "It is, as you said, heady," she agrees.

Source: Wikipedia and Google search.

R. Sivabhogam

#51/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

To adopt and conquer a profession, considered a male bastion in the times when women hardly had access to higher education, is a task of both immense courage and talent. R Sivabhogam lacked neither when she stepped out in pursuit of her dream.

R Sivabhogam, born on 23rd July, 1907 in India, was a professional accountant and the first woman Chartered Accountant of India. She had studied at the Lady Willingdon School in Triplicane where her thinking was deeply influenced by Sister R.S. Subbalakshmi, the pioneering reformer of widows’ lives. She then graduated from Queen Mary’s College and became an active freedom fighter, a satyagrahi. She was an active participant in the Youth League headed by Rukmini Lakshmipathy that served as a propaganda vehicle for the Congress in the 1920s. Later, when the women of Madras formed a Swadesi League, Sivabhogam became a member. The organisation, which was meant initially to teach Hindi, block printing on khadi and the popularising of nationalist songs soon became a vehicle for boycotting British goods and picketing of liquor shops. The members also sold swadesi products at public meetings. Sivabhogam took part in all of these activities. She, along with her compatriots that included formidable personalities like Krishnabai Nimbkar, Ambujammal and her aunt Janammal, the multi-faceted Vai Mu Kothainayaki and Margaret Cousins, were all sentenced to a year’s imprisonment at Vellore gaol. She was imprisoned in 1931 and it was while there that Sivabhogam decided on her career — she would become an auditor.

After her release Sivabhogam registered for Government Diploma in Accountancy (GDA). She was successful in the GDA exam, becoming in 1933 India’s first woman accountant. She enrolled as an articled assistant with C.S. Sastry an auditor, whose firm of Sastri & Shah still functions from Armenian Street. Having completed her tenure there she planned to set up an independent practice only to be thwarted by a legislation that disallowed those who had undergone a prison sentence from registering themselves as accountants. But Sivabhogam was not one to give up. She filed a writ questioning the logic behind such an Act and pursued the case tenaciously. The verdict was in her favour and she was allowed to set up her independent practice.

Shivabhogam started her independent practice in 1937 and was also a part-time assistant with M/s. Sastri and Shah. On the formation of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in 1949 Sivabhogam was enrolled as a member and became a fellow on 17th June, 1950. Sivabhogam became the Chairperson of the Southern India Regional Council (SIRC) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (the then Madras Council). She is the only woman so far to have held this position, for a continuous period of three years from 1955 to 1958. It was during this period that she instituted an award for the best lady candidate in the CA examinations. The R. Sivabhogam Prize continues to be awarded year after year. She was also a senate member of the University of Madras.

Sivabhogam had been very active in social service and primarily for the cause of women’s education. She was a believer in Gandhian principles. Having been rejected from marriage proposals due to a physical disability, she decided not to get married at all. Remaining single, wearing only khadi and travelling everywhere by bus, Sivabhogam chose to take up the audit of several social welfare organisations in particular. This feisty lady passed away on 14th June, 1966. 

Women auditors are now in plenty but in many ways it was because of what Sivabhogam decided to do, while imprisoned in a cell in Vellore. 

Source: Google search and Wikipedia.

Shanti Devi

#50/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

I am completing the half-century of this pact on International Women’s Day today and yet it is completely coincidental. So, I share today the story of a very ordinary woman who is absolutely extraordinary though, much like all of us.

In Asia's largest truck halt point - Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar (SGTN) - lies a small tea shop, alongside which is an automobile workshop. Shanti Devi, a 55-year-old woman is the one who co-owns both the shops with her husband. Working about 12 hours a day, she is one of the mechanics for the trucks that pile outside their workshop waiting to get a puncture fixed. Shanti Devi is the very first truck mechanic in India and has been working for over 20 years now! "I learnt all about automobiles and changing tyres by watching my husband and other mechanics while they were working. Today, I know that I am a better mechanic than many men and prove it through my work every day. I believe a woman can do any job if she has a passion for it. Men still look at me with surprise and interest as I go about my job." 

Originally from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh Shanti Devi now resides at Delhi, in a “50 Gaj” house made by her and her husband. Along with her husband – Ram Bahadur she works at Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar Depot as a truck mechanic. Both in their mid fifty, they first started a tea stall for their livelihood. Unable to meet ends, Ram started working as a truck mechanic, repairing tyres, changing tyres and fixing punctures. This is Shanti Devi’s second marriage and they have eight children. To feed the family she joined the works of repairing and fixing tyres. She did not take any formal training on this but just by seeing her husband and other workers learned all this.

On the first instance she seems to be a saree clad, simple village woman, but when she starts operating with heavy tools and tyres weighing almost 50kg, it seems that she is a specialist in it. When she started this “man dominated” job nobody believed that she will be able to continue. SGTN is spread over an area of more than 75 acres and is reportedly the largest trucking stopover point in Asia. Over 70,000 trucks are parked here at any given time and around 20,000 trucks pass by every day. After so many years, and so much media attention now, she’s been taken seriously and their workshop gets good customers.

Despite her proficiency, there are times when she is not considered good enough for the job. Drivers often hesitate in trusting her, but her work dispels all their doubts. “They believe that I will not be able to do it. Some even offer to lend a helping hand. When they see that I am quite capable at lifting and moving heavy tyres with ease on my own, they give me a reassuring, although perhaps slightly sheepish smile. I have earned their respect and have developed a healthy relationship with regular customers,” she says. 

Born to poor parents in Madhya Pradesh, Shanti Devi had always taken up odd jobs to support herself and her family. So, being recognised as India's only female truck mechanic is a matter of pride for her. She claims that her husband is very friendly with her and they work cordially to earn their family’s livelihood. Though she has a feminine heart, she loves wearing Saree and matching blouse, glass bangles and loves to put nail polish as well, but she is a tough lady and has that mettle. This toughness has given her the name and fame and off course added the source of income. "I love my job. It's hard, but I'd be bored if I sat at home and did nothing," Shanti explained in an interview with Gulf News. "Looking back, I can say that it has been an absolutely worthwhile experience. It does not bother me when people say that I must be one of the only female truck mechanics in India - I am proud of this," she added.

To choose this career was her own choice, so that she could be a breadwinner for her family. But this unique choice of hers has made her win tonnes of appreciation from across the country. Females like Shanti Devi are an inspiration and are the “torch bearers”. They tell us that anything and everything is possible irrespective of gender. Society has to accept this fact and, as individuals, one need to take this responsibility to make a change.

Source: Google search