 A very warm welcome to everyone present over here. This is Upma. So yeah, we'll be starting with the panel discussion today, Women in Design. UX India 2016 celebrates women in design to mark a decade of UX in India. This features inspirational women who are leading the design profession in various streams like UX, design, architecture, art, social impact, business, and innovation. In this panel, we have a diverse array of women professionals to share insights about their achievement in art and design, as well as a greater understanding of the challenges they have in leading design-driven business and attracting and retaining talent. We have architect Aparna Bidhakar as a moderator for the panel. So can we give a big round of applause for all the smart, intelligent women sitting among us? We really need to cherish them up. Architect Aparna Bidhakar, graduate of architecture with master in interior design, practicing in Hyderabad by the name of Hugh Designs. Hugh Designs work in various category of projects from budget homes to hospitality and corporate. She's also visiting faculty in various schools of design and conduct workshop in creative thinking. Currently, the chairperson elect for the chapter of Hyderabad Institute of Indian Interior Designers, which is around a 500 member organization. We welcome you, ma'am, and this is a great opportunity to have you here. Yeah. I'll just hand over the panel to the moderator. Good morning and apologies that I got here late. We have one of the speakers of the panel, Mrs. Lakshmi Devi Raj with us. She's 80 plus. I'd like to please you all to welcome her with a round of applause. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for taking the time and just a phone call request. Mrs. Lakshmi Devi Raj was nominated in 1964 on the board of Lepakshi. Then Urdu Academy of almost three times, followed by Thrice as a board member in the Tourism Department of Andhra Pradesh. She was also the audition committee for two terms in the All India Radio. With a graduation in 1953, I'm not sure how many of us were born, but from the Mabubiya school, she has to her credit, the revival of Kalamkari. Can I ask how many of you know about Kalamkari or at least heard, I'm glad you're. So she is the first one to introduce the silk, crepe, jute cotton and jute silk in the Kalamkari. She was going to Machli Patnam, working with the artisans, and then today we see every person trying to sport a Kalamkari patchwork or a saree. You can see that she's carrying the saree that she has designed on herself. So welcome, ma'am. I'd like to call our panelists of the evening. All women achievers, I request Ms. Raki Kankaria from Rachnotsev Private Limited, an event manager who designs and plans weddings, who also runs an academy of event management. Welcome, Raki. I request Ms. Vanita Surana to please join me on stage and also Ms. Madhuri Kolhatkar from Pune, from the California, sorry. So this is the second day of the conference. I hope all of you are enjoying it. It's probably getting here itself was a deliberate and a conscious effort in order to choose to do something better with yourself. I think the definition of design for me lies there. As you know, I'm in the field of design in a different way that deals with space. I will try and bring some experience from these eminent spokespersons on the panel from my end. I request Ms. Raki to please introduce herself to the gathering. Event management and wedding planning is the passion that I live every moment of my life. Managing people, managing networks, and enjoying the exhilaration of a well-planned moment is the way I live every moment of my life. And I believe that an interaction of myself would be that, yes, I have seen event management since childhood and I'm an intermediate student from Sacred Heart Convent School, Chennai, born and brought up in Chennai, and I've been in the business for 20 years. I believe that whatever I have done this far has been so fulfilling and so experientially beautiful that I would totally believe that passion is the best way and has been the crucial USP of what leads to my success. Thank you. Hi, everyone, I'm Vanita Sarana. I come from a group of businesses. We have a group started with the telecom business 40 years back and moved into real estate and metals. Six to seven years back when I joined business, we started an alternate energy sector in our group. It's primarily solar energy and what I really like about this business is that we can create impact not only in the rural areas, but also do our little bit for the environment. I graduated from Wharton. I've done my MBA and I've come back to India because I really believe that India is the best place to, especially in the recent times, it's the best place to have your own business and create a great startup ecosystem. Thank you. My name is Madhuri Kolhatkar and I'm a user experience director in Oracle USA. I live in California, San Mateo and I've been in design management now almost 20 years. Before that, a practitioner, human factors engineer once upon a time and then graduated to usability, user researcher, I've done the whole gamut. What I enjoy now in my career is really mentoring and coaching young people. I do that in US and really share my experiences throughout my years. I work for Oracle, but I work for many other companies and I've seen how UX has evolved and I'm really, really delighted to see the presence of UX here in India grow at such a rapid pace. So you all are doing a wonderful job, in my opinion, contributing tremendously to an area that hasn't been touched, was very much in development and engineering focus. So I'm really, really happy to see so many people grow and flourish in this field. Thank you. Thank you so much, Madhuri. I'd like to ask Lakshmiji, can you just tell us a little bit about the challenges that you might have encountered when you started off in the field that you were reviving Kalamkari? You see, basically the thing is, I think when I graduated, I think most of you were not even born in the 50s and at that point of time, we did not have any NIFT or any other organization which could help me graduate in my field of work. And I'm so happy that these young girls have qualified themselves with better background than better training. My interest in natural dyes was because in my own home, we used to play wholly with the color made with tesuke pool from the Karawat from where my land was. I mean, we had some lands there also. And also my grandmother, for Basant Pankhmi, would dye the silk fabric to make clothes for the Bhagwan Kimurti with kesar, with saffron and things like that. So natural dyes was always here. And also what had happened, Dr. Mulkraj Anand had brought an exhibition here in the early 70s. I think it was 72 or something like that. And Nelly Setna designed by Nelly Setna, bed covers were being displayed. And the sad part was when he said that such a beautiful craft of Andhra Pradesh is dying. That really made my heart break. And he said that it should be revived. That word of revival got stuck here. And that is how I started working on this. And other than God, nobody has helped me do what I was doing. I didn't take any government help or anything. The first thing I did was I resigned from the Lepakshi Board because I didn't want people to feel that I'm taking advantage of being a Lepakshi Board member. And I went on my own. And I met Mr. Vankar Swami Naidu who was a national awardee in Karamkari with Dr. Mulkraj Anand. And I begged of him. I said, I want to be your, I want you to be my guru. He just smiled and kept quiet but he thought I was just taking a conversation kind of thing. But I did go back to Masli Bhattam to meet him. And I wonder how many understand Telugu here. He said, I mean, you go. So many people come here to buy things. If you want to buy something, buy and please get out kind of thing. So I came back disappointed. Second time again I went. I with folded hands to him. I said, I want you to be my guru. Teach me your technique, your karmic saying and everything and what all you use as ingredients. So that is how I started my work with him. Unfortunately he was ailing and he was a very old member. So after his death, the local politician started a major disaster step. He wanted to take over the center because he wanted to add on to his glorification. And things were not going right. So I went to another place about 15 kilometers from Masli Bhattam called Pola Varun where the work was really being done very well. Very highly organized and very systematically working. So I started working there. And in the beginning when I used to go to Masli Bhattam to meet Mr. Naidu, I would go in the morning, come back the same night. But after that, I started going back, staying in Masli Bhattam for a week, 10 days, to do my work and stay in the iron biggest house. Go every day to Pola Varun, come back. And in Pola Varun, I used to spend a whole day looking at the beautiful blocks, collecting them, what would so, by the grace of God, I would close my eyes and see what I wanted to do. Then I would arrange a block and keep them ready. And the next day I would start working. I lived in that village. I was to carry my own food, my own bedding, sleep on the floor. And I never asked for a chair or anything. I wanted them to feel that I'm a part and parcel of their kind of life. I'm a part and parcel of their family. And by the grace of God, even today, the family in Pola Varun still thinks I'm a part of their family. The way they invite me for their wedding then other thing than that. So I'm very, very grateful to God that I could start my work in a good way with good hands. Thank you so much, ma'am. It has to be that you had to put your hands and be one amongst them to start working with them. Thank you so much for sharing that. Rakhi, I would like you to speak a little bit about the way, as you stand today, how you started and the challenges that you had to overcome all the way. And please brief us about that. Event management was something that was not known at all as a subject or wedding planning 20 years ago. It was a caterer's job, a light-waller's job and a full-waller's job to put an event together. And that's how it worked. I have seen from my cradle days my father being a great planner, hosting the best of the parties at home and they used to be the best social doos in the city in Chennai. Since I have seen all of that from childhood, when I was at a crossroad, where I had to decide with a young child in my hand who was about one year old and one and a half years old, and I was just about carrying my second child too, there was a crossroad in my life where I had to begin life all over again due to the various disruptions on the business of my husband. There was a moment where I had to think what I could do because in his state of mind, he needed some time to revive the huge situation in his life and that's when I put my synergies together and thought, what should I do? And the best thing that came to my mind because I'm a very creative person and I'm a people's person, I can easily mold my thoughts, understand people and create synergies that are remarkable to the extent of satisfaction that I have been able to design for people all across the 20 years. Yes, 20 years ago when I started, I didn't know what I was getting into and all of the people who would connect to me whenever I said that I'm doing event management would ask, what do you do? So the challenges were huge. I started the company with 600 rupees, an intermediate student and a husband who probably didn't know what I was planning to do but had the only one thing which was trust between both of us. We're great partners, great friends and we make a great team. I think that was something that is USP of my success. It's a man's world even today but yes, I was married to a man who believed in a woman and that made the difference. And from the word go, I always believed in one thing, the satisfaction that I would give to a client without writing my name everywhere and talking about myself and if he would say that this event was done by so and so to a friend in reference, that was the best way I could earn my journey forward. And believe me, as a company from day one, we've only believed in great service, great client satisfaction and giving beyond expectations. Benchmarking, experiential events. Yes, the journey has been beautiful. Challenges was that we had to make people understand what is event management? What is wedding planning? What do you do? Why should we give you that percentage of being a professional that extra edge? So I think with times in the first two, three years, I believe that the nuclear family system and the corporate world which believed in professionalism, both of these were the reasons that event management as well as wedding planning got its way forward and in the last 10 years we've been very, very fortunate that event management and wedding planning has become the password for any event anybody plans. They look for professionals and therefore I think the challenges was making people understand what we do and that came about with every satisfied client. Hard work only is what we do. Managing several people in our team and vendors and managing the client and the client's group to be able to satisfy them is a challenge we face every day, even today. The challenges are unsurmountable but can be well achieved with commitment, high definition of understanding and the belief that we create dreams and experiences but we deliver. Thank you, Raki. Thank you. That was wonderful. The path-breaking journey into events. Thank you so much. Puneet, I would like you to share your journey and the challenges that you have faced. Thanks. So, like I said, I come from a family business. 40 years back, we were in the telecom business and when the world went from the underground wires to wireless, we lost out because we couldn't foresee future and in that we shifted to real estate. In 2000, when there was a real estate bust, our company was struggling and that is when we were looking out for a vertical which would be robust, which would be where we could have a growth story, where we could envision the future and also a big thing that we wanted to incorporate this time was to create an impact, either in people's lives or the environment or create some kind of sustainable social impact. So, this is when we came up with the whole alternate energy idea. The brain behind this would definitely be my dad but it was a very interesting time for me because that's when I had just joined business. So, I can say that I was there from the initial days of the business and one of the biggest challenges we had was we wanted to differentiate, we wanted some kind of innovation that could really make us as a solar energy company because all this while we were either known as a telecom company or a metal company. So, the only thing we could differentiate ourselves was to create something which would stand apart and we did intense research and one of the things that we did was we started taking C-grade or like very discarded raw materials and we created A-grade products and in 2012, I'm happy to share that we were the lowest solar manufacturers for panel and that really gave us a boost to the group, to the company and we went public listed and then there was no looking back. Within the group itself, everybody was a little confused because we were just changing industries from one to another so everybody was really scared about their own transition. That was another challenge that we faced but one of the other things I'm really proud about is that we have an attrition rate of less than 10%. So, all the people who are there with us in the telecom company, most of them are there with us right now. Of course, we have industry experts from the solar energy but it really personifies family business because all our employees are like our family. Thank you, Anita. It's about bringing something new to the business and sustaining the change. I guess that was the biggest challenge. Over to Madhuri, please. Can you please share your journey with us? Thank you. So my journey and challenges, goodness. Born in early fifties, I grew up in a family where there were six girls, two brothers. I can say what defines me really is I had a very rebellious nature. I've rebelled against a lot of norms and traditions what girls and growing up in that time had to do but I had a very encouraging father who really inspired me. He died young but he really inspired me to pursue education and I think that's what I reward him and throughout my design career because really that was my grounding. When I was growing up, women growing up to go into further higher education didn't really seem to have purpose. We were supposed to get married, have children, go into that track. Following the non-traditional path was not really looked upon by the rest of my family except my father and mother. So I'm very grateful to them till today even though they're not here, they have made me who I am. And so as I grew up, studying and I went to Convin schools and went on to do higher education and grew up in North India and then went on to higher education in Mumbai, went to non-traditional track like sociology, anthropology, and then into journalism. I was one of the first journalists in Indian Express as a woman. We weren't, there weren't very many women covering night stories. It was a challenging time. So I see that rebellious part of me. Maybe I was rebelling against the arranged marriage part of the whole thing. I left India very early in my 70s and transitioned from journalism, technical writing, moved from India to UK, Canada and US. I've made my home in US now for the past 26 years plus. And the interesting thing that has guided me throughout and I've been practicing in the design field for almost 25 years. And I've seen the field grow, the awareness. First it was, I don't know many of you know about the ergonomics of design, the ergonomics of hardware design where pilots were making mistakes. And that's where the origin of many of our profession was. So it's very inspired by that. How does design impact life? You know, a little mistake, you know, pressing the wrong button can cost life. And that human error, what makes us human, the human error is really used to attract me. So I pursued career in HCI. And then surviving and working as a woman in this industry, especially surrounded by engineers, very talented engineers and managers was not easy. And growing in that field into leadership roles is a humbling experience actually because you learn from the people that kind of want to keep you in the position that you wanna be. But actually you learn from them. They are your best mentors. So I've learned a lot from my tough managers who would kind of question women and why we wanted to pursue you, why we wanted to do. And I've stood that rebellious part of me has always stood up and challenged. And I challenged them to delivering. Delivering solutions, which we women are very capable of. You know, we stick through the end and that's something that defines us. You know, in all our roles as mothers, wives, children, I am a grandmother, believe it or not, a very proud one. But I think sticking through that whole process in our families, raising our children, working, I've been a full-time mother, I'm still full-time working, a grandmother. So sticking through life in all these challenges requires, you know, strength. I think women bring that strength to the table and I'm happy to share and... Wow, thank you so much. I think on the lighter road, it's probably good to have tough managers, right? Just stick through the thing and plan to deliver. That's her message for us. Lakshmi Ma, Deviji, I want to come to you, where I just would like to understand the impact that you created in the domain while you were working with the artisans. And the part two of the question, which I would be asking everybody also, is how you managed to sustain and retain talent in the process? I told you earlier, I didn't have any guidance from any organization and I'm so glad to hear these girls talking about... I wish they were with me when I was a little younger so that we could have taken it far ahead. Because in Masli Potem, I had also taught another thing that at that point of time, Indio work was not being really taken over. So I knew Mr. Agnihotri, who worked with APCO here and luckily for me, he had gone off to Delhi as a person he chose. So with his help, I started the work there but then unfortunately the political scenario changed so I couldn't continue. And I was looking for girls here who would come with me, work with me, learn and continue with that work. It would have really gone far ahead. But the thing is that I feel my aim of bringing out Kalamkari out of its nutshell has come to an extent where I now see that young girls going buying fabric, Kalamkari fabric, making dresses out of it. It has become what Multraj had said, it should become a household word and I have achieved that. I'm grateful to God for that. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, ma'am. Raki, the question is the impact that you have created which is really very obvious. We heard it in the earlier introduction but a deliberate thought on that and also how you are grooming and retaining talent while you're in the process. Design is about the beauty that one can create or the experiential to the eye as well as to the soul in my industry. So I believe that beauty does not lie in the looks the way you walk and the way you talk. It lies in the love, care and the share that you do through your work. And I believe as a woman, loving, caring and sharing, I have always done from the beginning of my life and I've invested in my relationships in every way. Aparna and me know each other since about 15 years and I think we are meeting today almost after six or seven years but I think the relationship has lasted and has an impact which retains that you can connect even after six or seven years on a platform like this and be together. I believe that the impact that we create to sustain the work that we do, the designs, the variations and the experiences and stories we create for every moment of life through event management and wedding planning is immensely by learning from the world and from learning from our clients and sustaining the design with a change because we are change makers. I can't do something that's my USP. I can't do something what I did yesterday today. My design has to change. My whole experience of an event has to change. The moment I start thinking along with my client I always think about what difference am I going to make and none of my clients should say yes, she did this for us also. No, every experience has to be different. So therefore every moment of life we are creating impact through our minds learning all the time and trying to create those impressions at our work. And I think the change that we bring at work is what influences the growth where no advertising is done, no marketing. There's no marketing department in my company. It's only word of mouth business that has helped us sustain and be where we are. So I believe good work, extremely different work and commitment and delivery is what makes us what we are. And the event industry is all about the latest, the best, the most different. How difficult or challenging it is to sustain and retain talent and groom? I would say in my company I have about almost 60% of people who are working more than 15 years with me. Great. So sustaining associates and my family at work has not been so difficult because I think we give as much as we can and that's why we get our best. I don't stand everywhere for my work. My team does everything. We just sit on a table for discussion and the execution happens with a proper plan. We spend probably 18 hours for planning and just about eight hours to execute it. So I think it's all about a plan and a great team and the team equation that works best for me is love, care and share. The rest will happen. Thank you, Raki. That's about building trust and trusting and entrusting. Vinita, can you please share the impact that you've created and how you sustain and retain talent? So in terms of impact, because we are in the alternate energy business, the first obvious impact is we are generating power while saving the environment. We are saving carbon footprints and doing our part in the global warming situation. Also, another impact that we as a company look forward to is the rural impact. So rural areas are not so well connected with the conventional power right now and alternate energy such as wind, hydro and solar are being taken up and India as right now under the Modi government, we've been given a lot of initiatives as an industry to be part of these rural electrification processes. So that is the kind of impact we create as a company. In terms of retaining talent, like I said, we have a very low attrition rate but working in a company of a family business is like going to bat after Sachin has hit a century. So like your dad's already set such a high benchmark so for the employees to take you seriously, you really need to up your game. People think that family business is like born with a silver spoon. I think we have more disadvantage than a person who is not born with a family business. A, because we are so comfort, there's so much of comfort that we don't have hunger. People who are hungry are going to definitely win. So I'm just gonna share a small anecdote. If a cat and a dog is running, the dog is running for its food but the cat is running for its life and when those kind of people are competing with you, we really need to, and this I have learned very later in my career that people have just exponentially grown while I was like growing very slowly. So in terms of retaining talent, what I brought to the company is taking an autocratic company to more like a multinational corporation level. So first it was like very hierarchical but now we are more as a flat organization, taking the more human aspect of a person, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries which is a common norm in a multinational corporation but from a manufacturing perspective, it is something unheard of. So doing these small things, celebrating functions, we also started a women forum in our company and that really took the company by storm because people could see change happening and that really brought us to retain talent not only the older ones but also like the new interns and new talent that wants to join our company for our innovative ways. Oh, thank you so much. Trying to stand amongst the already achieved and trying to create a new culture, that's amazing. Thank you. How about you, Madhuri? Can you just share a little bit? So in terms of impact, I think in order to make impact in my design field, coming from a humanities background, coming from the art science, of course I had to equip myself with the technologies. I went in US, I went to school back again in Canada and US to learn some of the tricks of the trade, so to speak. So I had to up my own skills in HCI. I did HCI studying HCI and really learned the fundamentals and so equipped myself with the fundamentals that I needed to survive and then making an impact was really by doing. Stepping into roles that other people were not comfortable in. So I worked in telecommunications and in Canada, I worked in aerospace industry and now in enterprise software. Each of these domains was so alien to me. I mean, I didn't know anything about telecommunications, least of all powers, but learning and understanding humans and their jobs. I think that's what drove me. How do people work? How do we get a dial tone? At that time dial tone was, we couldn't take a dial tone for granted. Services would get cut and things like that. So really understanding how does that dial tone, what we take for granted and cell phone today, many a decade or few ago, it wasn't possible. So really understanding how these technologies have evolved and really taking that to, like what you mentioned, that you have to continue upping your skills. Even in the design field, our designs, we can't really rest upon knowing how to design better because technologies keep changing. You know, you design for windows, you learn how to design for windows and the web comes on. The web comes on and we have the mobile technologies. The mobile comes the responsive and the responsive and the variables. So you have to keep up your skills no matter what, as design managers, in order to be able to mentor, coach and really kind of get people involved and produce the designs. Some of the challenges that in mentoring and sustaining people in our field, I mean, I came here almost in late 90s when Y2K was beginning, tried to hire UX people. At that time, there were barely any UX teams, but certainly IITs had started. I went to an idea, I would go to IITs to hire this young talent. And I've had the best teams coming up and mentoring and coaching them in India. I've really enjoyed them. Many of them have now led startup organizations. I'm really proud of what they've encountered. So what I have found in sustaining them is that I could expect a certain level of loyalty up to say three, four years. And then they wanted to move on. They wanted to move on, create their own companies and you can't stop growth. You really can't hold on. I just kind of feel proud that I was part of their lives in terms of their development, but engaging them. I think they come back and what I hear from them is that the foundation, what they learned, I mean Oracle probably is not somebody's a top company in terms of user experience, but yet user experience have survived over there for past 16, 18 years. We do something right. There is user experience field we have. And so as we've brought on designers and researchers and mentored and coached them and sustained them, it's been a challenge. And I think what I've found is the motivation. The motivation of these young minds to really make a difference, to make a difference even if it takes long in our production cycles to really make sure that you are producing something that will help somebody's job do better, that job better. I think that motivation has sustained a lot of young minds to stay on in this field. Thank you, Madhuri. I'd like to ask you to hold the mic so I'll come back the other way. Sure. So I think it's being equipped with fundamentals, keeping people engaged, a lot of empathy and having sustaining the motivation in the group that might help retain the talent. So briefly if you can tell me what design has, what role design has played in your career. You know, design is such a universal term. It starts with really, you know, knowing the business, understanding the domain, who are you really designing for? What's the problem you're solving? So really understanding what's the, who's the audience? You know, what are they, you know, what are you designing for? And then coming up with solutions that meet those needs and then iterating. Design to me is not a science as so written. It's also an art. And the reason why I say it's art is because there's no perfect, it's not like an algorithm. You know, you've got a design, you follow a methodology and it works. We all do user-centered design. Many of you have heard of this term over and over. What is that? Really design is all about iteration. An artist works on the painting, refines, defines, till you get it right. Till he's feel, you know, the pleasure in it. It's the same thing. It's the iterate, design to me is an iteration till you get it right. Iteration doesn't have to be long or whatever, but it has to be iteration because it's an evolution. So until design becomes an evolution, until you really go through that whole evolution cycle, learn from it, you really don't deliver the solution that solves the problem that you're trying to do. So I was talking to Kaladhar Bapu a little before the event and he told me that the door knob, when you're trying to open a door, the push and pull. And sometimes you do it the opposite way or you're not able to do it and people around you are laughing. That is not your fault. That is the person who's designed it. It's his fault. So in that, and that really got me thinking about design, you know, because so many times when we are using bad products, we are maybe like less efficient products, we doubt ourselves or we are, you know, blame ourselves for not getting it. But if you can, you know, throw the ball back at the designers as the innovative companies that are coming out, that if you can as a consumer push them to make better designs and as a manufacturer, if we can create, like you said, just efficient designs by every iteration, we are giving you a better product. I think that is design for me. So design is a deliberate efficiency that you want to bring in. Raki, the role of design in your career so far. For us, design is about concepts. For the moment or the celebration that we are doing, whether it's a corporate event or a wedding, the whole mood starts from the occasion. And from there on, your design has to define the whole experience of the event and it has to fall in sync with your client. So therefore, I think design for us remains a rather origins from the occasion that we are planning for. And as much as creativity as you do, for us, design comes in form of fabrication, different materials, different kind of colors, different kind of impact of 3Ds, 2Ds and things like that. So I think design is totally defined by the event that we are doing it for. And as much as creativity, and as much as experience that we can add, because it's about the feel for your eyes and your mind and for your experience for the soul. So it comes in so many definitions for us. So I think the success of an event lies in understanding the moment and designing for it. So it starts right from the idea of having an event, more experiential. Thank you, Raki. Lakshmiji, I would like you to speak a little about the role of design and how impactful it has been for you. What these young girls have just spoken about is very technically high for me. For me, my kind of work doesn't need any technical designing, but what I taught my printers how to make a layout for a sari or what to do for a dupatta piece or for a kurta piece, that was my designing. And also, because Kalamkari was a very old art and craft of anthropology, I wanted to design my sari in such a way that they look like complete sari, not like what people wear today, half chiffon and half net and half this and half that. I think a sari has to be a total sari with a border with a palla and everything in all in one solid piece. So I designed my sari like that. As I said earlier that God was very kind to me, he's always been kind to me, that when I used to arrange all my blocks on a whole morning I would spend collecting my blocks and then I would take each piece and place in front of me and then see what would go with what and then that is how I used to design my clothes. So I think one of the printers there has mentioned it to me. Madam, we have learned so much from you. So that is very important. And another thing which occurs here is I was in Munnar for a summer holiday and there I was working with their unit where they use natural dyes. And I think they have come up with such beautiful dyes there, the Tata, they're doing a very good work there. I don't think anyone has heard of a color which comes out from eucalyptus leaves. Fantastic color, but that would suit more, I think the very fair skinned people like foreigners and very fair girls would look very good in that color, but it's a beautiful color. There also, the Tata's employ children who are not physically, well physically disabled children and they take them to work in their factories and there was one unit where they were doing this dyeing and printing. The poor boys were taught only how to do a tablecloth and napkins with tea cups and things like that. So I said, no, this is not the way. So I taught them how to design sarees, how to design pieces. And now the big, that has become a very big business there in Munnar also. The designing is totally different, I think from what these girls have spoken is totally different to my kind of thinking of designing. That is very technical. I don't think I can really comprehend much of it. You're probably saying it's more intuitive, it's a mindful engagement with a purpose, a mindful engagement with having the purpose in mind if I can sum it up for you. A quick word of advice for all the audience here for success in their careers, each of you can share. I think whatever you are doing, whatever field you're working in, you should be passionate about what you are doing. That is very, very important. And you must take up something at your line of work where you are passionately involved with. Now I know of another girl whom I put her on to do catering more or less because she was passionately fond of cooking. So, but she's not very capable of organizing things or anything like that. But then she's so good at her cooking that it is her passion. Like me, I mean, I was passionately fond of natural dye so I took it up seriously and I'm still with it. So whatever you do in life, please make it a point that don't do it per force. My father asked me to do it. My mother asked me to do it. Take it up seriously and you'll be very, very successful in your life. Thank you. Raki, can you please share? Passion is great for an entrepreneur. Passion is the base to be a success. Believing in yourself, in your dreams and your team. I think that's the equation. And believing in the people you invest with, whether it's your client or your team, is the best way to be able to get the right support when you're designing, when you're creating moments and when you're executing events. So I think it's a completely teamwork. Nothing can happen alone. And I think what you can do is be the best leader and be able to define your relationships with a lot of healthy, progressive positivity. Thank you, Raki. I think failure and rejection teaches more than success. I have learned much more. I have been humbled much more. I have been more stronger from failure and rejection rather than success. So if you are working on something and it is not happening, my first advice would be don't give up because what you're learning in your, the small failures or the small things which are not happening are really like pushing you towards something greater. You are not meant for the small successes. You're meant for the bigger ones. And that's why the small ones don't work out. Thank you. I think you've heard some great advice. By the way, I'm a great fan of the Kalankari Saris, ma'am. I think you've given us such beauty to last us a lifetime. I hope all of you kind of go and get them because I definitely own Kalankari Saris. Success, success really is like defined. Everybody has a personal meaning of success. Do you mean success in terms of money? Do you mean success in terms of title? Do you mean success in terms of satisfaction? To me, success really boils down to are you getting satisfaction? Are you enjoying the work you're doing? If you're enjoying the work you're doing, stick with it. If you're really, if you're not, move on. And that will define your success because throughout my career and some tough companies and things, if I wasn't enjoying, even if it was the most challenging project, there was something in it that was kind of part of, kept me going. And it was the pleasure, whatever I was doing, I was doing it for the purpose. So, I've always enjoyed, I may have gripes along the way with different people, social, organizational impact, how long it takes to get things done. Some of those frustrations are part of our lives, but I never let those kind of, I start off my morning with a happy face, making sure my day goes well and make sure that I enjoy my day, no matter what I do. So, thank you so much. Before we open for the question and answers, I just want to some passion, teamwork, believe in yourself, doing the best and of course, enjoy what you're doing and start the day with a smile. While I was asked to do this moderation, I thought I'll just bring a small tweak of my little contribution to this in terms of, we just concluded a design awareness campaign in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. So, I would like you to just look at the slides. Looking at all these women, this is what is coming to my mind. No success will happen unless you start off with a great thought. I think since we have finished Navratri also, it is about the ashta shakti. So, the power to emerge, you start with an idea. The power to discern, to know what to eliminate, to what to take, the power to judge, to make decisions. You need the power to cooperate, to work as a team. The power to tolerate, coordinate with each other, be a little tolerant about the other people's ideas, be open-minded, followed by the power to face. So, if you have a challenge, you need to draw yourself, to strengthen yourself and have the power to face, followed by, at times, it's just good to be withdrawn, get silent, let others do the things. That's the power of delegation. And then once you're done with it, wrap it up with the experience it's called power to pack up and withdraw. And I think the success wheel is just us, the next. Thank you so much. And I now open the forum for question and answers to these successful women. So, I really experienced women in design. I would like to share one simple example to you. Thanks. One example to you. I was working on a project called Velocit. It is a small tool that women can understand whether they are pregnant or not. To launch this product, the job has been given to one Bombay agency where they failed. Another agency in Bombay, they failed again. Client said to the advertising agency, if you are unable to handle, please leave it. Somehow they heard about me. The job came from Bombay to Hyderabad. It's a simple translation that you only can know whether you are pregnant or not alone. It involves a lot of cultural things and language barrier to do that job. So, I called my all translation team, given the task to them and requested them to before submitting this translation to me, please discuss with your wives and daughters. Because ours is a country where every woman feels joy to express it, whether I have to say faster to my husband, my aunt. Finally, all of the translations were approved first time, except one, because he ignored my request. Please show this to your wife. So, the translation or the communication are in design. A woman can understand better. Even any advanced countries allow husbands in the theaters while the wife is delivering. Even then, a man can't understand the real pain. So, I really appreciate women in design, women in activity. Thank you for the appreciation. Do we have any questions from the audience please? Yes, we have from behind. Can you please pass on the mic? Can you hear me? Yeah, I have two questions here. One question is if a woman comes after a break, like she has been in house for some period and when she comes after a break and she has studied something and now she wants to study something else. Like, so how does she start with it or how do that, she brings a transition it? I understand it's a process of, you know, you have to really work, work and then you have to follow your passion. But how do you make that understand to your person? As simple as that, like your manager. Like, I have come after a break and I have the skill sets and I want to do this. So, yeah. So, if I can submit, are you saying if you have taken a break and restarting probably with a new field or re-est? So, what is it that one of you... So, anybody of you has gone through these challenges and how have you managed to cope with the situation? So, I think one of the things, so I had a similar situation. I was working and then I went for my higher studies and I came back. So, and I wanted to transition. So, I also work very closely with startups and I wanted to start an entertainment design company. So, one of the things that, two, three things actually, one is the research. You need to do your research because you're transitioning. So, you have Google, you have the industry experts go to expose. So, suppose if you're interested in design come to something like this, but if you can really get your foothold with the research, whatever field you want to transition in, if you are A, well connected with the network, if you have some mentors over there and if you do your research, the transition, I wouldn't say it'll be easier, but at least you're very well equipped to make that transition. So, I can totally understand where your question comes from. I've had two breaks in my careers. One when I had my daughter and then I had my son. I had to take some time off. Certainly, I couldn't, I mean, I was in UK when I had my daughter and it was impractical to work and pay for babysitting care. I just couldn't afford it. So, I took a break and then in Canada I had the same challenge. I think you're absolutely right. The time that I was at home, the value of that period, what a woman brings, raising a child, raising, you know, and then going back to work, somehow your confidence is undermined. I have to say that was definitely true. Even my family or friends who visited, they say, oh, you're at home. You don't do, you know, that perception that women at home do not do anything. I think that is still endemic. Our laws about how long a woman can take time off after she has had a baby are still very archaic, even in US, I think, you know, we're far behind. And it's a challenge for women to come back. You know, all the law protects us and gives our jobs back where we are. I think that confidence of how you build that confidence back to come back into the job workforce with equal passion is a challenge. What I did was I used, when my son was born, I went back to school. So I went back and I did my master's, my second master's, to qualify and get my degree. It was tough, you know, you're kind of doing, but I was young then, I could do it. And I think that's the spirit. To go back and learn, retool yourself, re-skill yourself. If you're changing career path, do it, retool yourself, come back on time. There's nothing, whatever the period of gap that you have done, you are doing something. Whether it be managing home, raising your child, you're doing something. That skill alone is a driver strong enough to bring you back into the workforce with the strength that you need. So don't give up. Just maintain that confidence. Thank you. So I get the hint that we are a little short of time. Kindly take your questions over the tea break. I would like to conclude by thanking each of the panelists here. Lakshmiji, even just a notice of not even 30 hours, I would say, she said, yes, I would like to come. And given her age, I think she's taken it, taken a lot of effort to come here. Can I give a round of applause for her, please? Also, Rakhi, she was traveling and I caught her when she was just getting onto the plane. So thank you, Rakhi, so much for coming. Thank you so much, Vinita. And it's been a pleasure meeting and hearing you. Thank you so much, Madhuri. You brought a lot onto the table here. Thank you. And I would like to thank from my side the organizers, Kaladar Babu and Shyam Sundar, whom I know from my school days. And thank you so much for having me here. It's been a pleasure. I would just like Shyam to give the token of appreciation. This was a wonderful panel over here. And we really learned a lot. A lot of strength coming in. I'm sure we have a lot of questions to ask them and we can surely catch up over the coffee break with them.