Women’s success glorified, struggles ignored: Journalist Shereen Banu

Bengaluru: “We glorify success, but we rarely talk about the struggle involved,” said journalist Shereen Banu, at the launch of 30 Women in Power, a book by Naina Lal Kidwai, Group General Manager and Country Head, HSBC.

A panel discussion conducted by Biocon MD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Shaheen Mistry, Founder, Akanksha Foundation and Nirupama Rao, former Ambassador to the US, outlined the struggles that four powerful women have faced in their journeys to success and the influences that shaped them.

“When I wanted to start Biocon, there wasn’t a single bank willing to give me a loan,” said Shaw. “There was one man who worked at Canara Bank, who took a chance on me. I still bank with them!” In the beginning, when she started Biocon out of a shed because that was all she could afford, nobody was even willing to work for her, because she was a woman, she explained. “My parents stood by me. They were not very wealthy, but they gave me the moral support I needed,” she said.

When Nirupama Rao was 15 years old, she told her parents that she wanted to be in the Foreign Service. “They wanted me to be a doctor, but they completely supported my decision. It was my father who gave me my love for history and politics. My mother was a very strong woman too, the first girl in her family to go to college,” said Rao. “My father taught me about ambition, who spoke of it in a positive light. It’s about determination but not to the point of ruthlessness,” she added.

“Shereen works so hard that she has no friends anymore. They have stopped calling her,” said Shaw about Shereen Banu, to a ripple of laughter from the audience. “Things aren't as bad as that,” Banu responded at once.

“But yes, I start my day at 7 am and get home at 10.30 pm, every day. I’m a creature of the news, that’s how we are,” she added. 30 Women in Power is a compilation of up-close and personal narratives of thirty of India's greatest women achievers.

They talked about the principles that held them in good stead, the people who shaped them and their priorities. “Ambition and failure are two things that nearly every testimony has in common,” said Kidwai. “Only those who fail greatly can achieve greatly,” she added.