Women achievers of India - 2

Padma Bandopadhyay

First woman Air Marshal

The Indian Air Force (IAF) today got its first woman Air Marshal, with Padmavathy Bandopadhyay taking over as Director General Medical Services (Air) at the Air Headquarters here.



Sixty-year-old Bandhopadhyay, who joined the IAF in 1968, also has to her credit the distinction of being the first woman officer to become an aviation medicine specialist. Prior to taking over as DGMS (Air), she was handling the charge of Additional Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services. Decorated with the Ativisisht Seva Medal and the Visisht Seva Medal, Bandhopadhyay has also been the Air Officer Commanding of Air Force Central Medical Establishment, New Delhi. She was awarded the Visisht Seva Medal for her meritorious service during the 1971 Indo-Pak conflict. A member of the Indian Society of Aerospace Medicines, International Medical Society and New York Academy of Sciences, Bandhopadhyay has also been a member of a research expedition to the Arctic.

In 2002, Padma Bandopadhyay became the first woman officer of the Indian Air Force to be promoted to the rank of Air Vice Marshal. That, however, is not the only first she has against her name in her career of 33 years in the IAF.

Bandhopadhyay, 55, is the first woman Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Society of India and the first Indian woman to have conducted scientific research at the North Pole. As if that's not enough, she is also the first woman officer to have completed the Defence Service Staff College course - in 1978 - and to command the IAF's Central Medical Establishment (CME).

Admitting that women in the armed forces faced a few problems, Bandhopadhyay said such problems were "social issues that were not insurmountable."

"In Indian society, women are either revered or they had treated very badly. They should be treated as equal partners and individuals," she said. And, as for the future, Bandhopadhyay said she would like to repay a debt to society by joining an organisation that helps the visually challenged or the elderly after she retires from service. "I feel for the old and the blind and I would like to do something to help them," she said.

My salutes to a brave lady :hatsoff

 

Thanks, sriniketan for joining me in saluting the brave lady.

Regards,

TDU

 

Leila Seth

The first woman chief justice to High Court of India

The first woman Chief Justice to the High Court in India, the first woman Judge of the Delhi High Court, the first woman to top the Bar examinations in London: seventy-three-year-old Leila Seth has led a full life.



Leila was born on 20th October 1930 in Lucknow, India. She studied law with her husband and young children in England, and later practiced in Patna, Calcutta and Delhi. Leila is the mother of three remarkable children – the writer Vikram, whose novel A Suitable Boy captivated the world; Zen Buddhist dharmnacharya, Shantum and film-maker, Aradhana. Leila recently authored her memoirs in On Balance.

Retired as Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh in 1992, Leila was appointed in 1995 as the one-member commission to examine the death in custody of Rajan Pillai, and from 1997 to 2000 was a member of the 15th Law Commission of India. She does arbitration work and is involved in human rights activities. She lives in Noida with her husband Premo, son Shantum, daughter-in-law Gitanjali and granddauther Nandini.

 

Anjum Anand

Celebirity Chef

It was all headed for this—that an Indian cookbook should one day outsell Harry Potter in Britain.



And it's not just because Indian food has now well and truly 'colonised' the British palate. It's because an Indian woman "with Angelina Jolie-lips, a cutglass accent and glossy hair" (to quote the London Times) has just become Britain's biggest TV celebrity chef. Move over Nigella Lawson, Anjum Anand is the new 'Domestic Goddess'.

Like most successful ideas, Anjum's is really quite simple. And it succeeded first because it came from her, the woman who dropped more than 30 kgs of weight not by gym sweat but through eating Indian curries—or so she claimed in her earlier book, Indian Every Day: Light, Healthy Indian Food, which came out in 2003 and sold 30,000 copies. Follow that up with Indian Food Made Easy, which makes whipping up a curry seem as easy as slapping together a sandwich, and it's not surprising that it has quickly become a bestseller.

Backed by a picture of her own before-and-after transformation to near-catwalk statistics, Anjum was on her way to stardom before she even sat down to write her first recipe. As she takes the mystique out of Indian cooking on her BBC Television show, she also comes across as someone who finds cooking and eating an unabashedly sensual experience, and who, to quote The Guardian, "can ooze sex into a cucumber raita". Today, presenting a food show on TV has so much to do with how you present yourself.

Stints at Café Spice in New York, the Mondrian hotel in Los Angeles and the Park Royal in New Delhi clearly taught her something about cooking, and about presentation of food. But Anjum has brought something else to her food—the idea of Indian food that is very much in tune with the times. Her food has a "genuinely modern feel," says The Times. Of course, there's only so much you can do to food in a pan, to separate the ancient from the modern. And in most of her recipes that comes down to using minimal oil in a non-stick pan, cooking dal and meat slowly for a long time, and vegetables lightly for a short time. Nothing that an Indian home cook does not already know or do; except that Anjum has been able to turn this into a marketing triumph.

(Thanks to Sanjay Suri, Outlook India)

 

Preethi Nair, London

Fashion Designer/Management Consultat/Award winning writer

Preethi Nair was born in Kerala, Southern India, but raised in London, where she now lives.Following a career as a management consultant, she gave it all up to self-publish her first novel, Gypsy Masala, which received tremendous publicity. She now writes full time.



First she was a singer. Walked everywhere with her microphone hairbrush. Then, she was a fashion designer. Snipped at everything in sight; saris, bed sheets, curtains.... In the late 70's, her Red Doll was the The Fashion Diva, wearing all the latest creations. Then, she became a foreign correspondent. Cutting out the newspaper, modifying only slightly, putting together a newsletter which she posted to her neighbours, threatening them with more products unless they supported her in her endeavour (some would say that nothing has changed that much).

Following a career as management consultant she started writting books. Her first novel Gypsy masala was first published in 2000. In the novel, Evita (real name Molu, but she’s always had a tendency towards the theatrical) is stuck in a 9-to-5 job until she hears the irresistible beat of a drum, summoning her to follow her dream. It takes her to faraway places and people, from remote villages in Kerala to the heart of contemporary London, but the rhythm of change is also to be found closer to home. Some of the comments about her novel are:

‘She is dynamite.’ Bookseller
‘A little gem... a mystical and beautifully lyrical book’ New Woman

Her other novels are 100 shades of white, Colour of love and Kiss the frog.

She has won the Young Achiever prize at London’s annual Asian Women of Achievement Awards.

 

Madi Sharma

Award winning enterpruner, U.K

Madi Sharma, is the Managing Director of Original Eastern Foods in Nottingham, U.K. As a single working parent, Madi encourages flexible working so people can cover their elder and childcare responsibilities.



She says: "I find staggered working patterns benefit my business and I see people as my most valuable asset. The people in my company are the ones who hand produce our food products and without exceptional and dedicated staff, I would have no business."

Thirtyseven-year-old Madi Sharma, whose Nottingham food business turns out 14,000 bhajis, naans and samosas every week, was named Entrepreneur of the Year in U.K in 2003. She was the runner-up in the Best Boss in U.K, 2002. She is also a member in several national bodies of U.K.

 

Marisha Malik

Captain, U.S Air Force

Captain Marisha Malik, of Potomac, Maryland, was among the Ten Outstanding Young Americans selected nationally by the United States Junior Chamber (Jaycees).
The TOYA program, established in 1938, is one of the oldest recognition events in America. The Jaycees recognise 10 young men and women who best exemplify the finest attributes of America's youthful achievers.



Earlier award winners include US Presidents John F Kennedy, Richard M Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Bill Clinton , and US Vice-Presidents Nelson Rockefeller, Dan Quayle, Al Gore and Richard Cheney. Also honoured in the past were billionaire Howard Hughes and US Senator Ted Kennedy, Elvis Presley and actors Orson Welles, Christopher Reeve and Shannon Reed.

Captain Malik, 27, is currently the officer in charge of the 18th Aircraft Maintenance Unit at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. She leads teams delivering combat-ready aircraft, equipment and people.

She directs and implements maintenance plans supporting more than 3,000 sorties and 5,000 flying hours annually, and is responsible for the morale, training, discipline, and management of 230 personnel in nine Air Force specialties.

The captain was born of an Indian father and a Burmese mother. She was a student at The Holton-Arms School in Bethesda and graduated in 1998. She obtained her bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 2002 from the University of Arizona and joined the US Air Force as a second lieutenant.

In 2004, she was deployed to the 379th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron in Qatar, where she served as the Assistant OIC of the 335th Expeditionary AMU, producing more than 1,148 combat sorties and delivering 16,000 pounds of munitions. In 2005 she moved to Eielson Air Force Base where she led 87 military and civilian personnel performing maintenance on 43 F-16 and A-10 aircraft. In 2006, she once again deployed, this time to Afghanistan, where she served as the maintenance flight commander for the 451st Air Expeditionary Group.

She has been recognised for significant military and personal achievements. She has received the Air Force Commendation Medal twice, for meritorious service at the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and for outstanding achievement while deployed in Afghanistan, the Air Force Achievement Medal for outstanding achievement while deployed to Qatar; the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award twice; and the National Defense Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

( Thanks to Rediff.com)

 

Dear AC,

Thanks for visiting the thread and posting your appreciation. I am glad to note that your kid is going to be benefitted by going through these profiles of great women of India.

Regards,

TDU