They were adventurous, ambitious, fought battles and lawsuits, won elections, climbed mountains and became masters of science, and most importantly never stopped chasing their dreams.
Aparna Jain in her book titled "Like A Girl" talks about the stories of 56 women who broke the mould and forged new paths.
This is an excerpt from ‘Like A Girl’, published by Westland Books, and has been taken with permission from the author Aparna Jain. Oxfam India is the art patron for this book.
Twelve-year-old Ritu was listening to her teacher talk about apartheid in South Africa. “There were the fair people,” the teacher said, pointing to herself. “And there were the dark people,” she continued, pointing at the class. "The English-speaking ones – and the natives. There was discrimination against the dark, native people.”
The irony of the statement hurt Ritu and her classmates, and Ritu started giggling.
Unfortunately, giggling always made her snort. As she started to snort loudly, the rest of the students joined her. The teacher was furious at the disruption.
As a punishment, Ritu was made to climb into a large dustbin till the period was over. It was a spot she found herself in many times over the next few years!
Ritu’s parents travelled a great deal on work. While her three siblings would ask them to bring back all sorts of toys, Ritu asked for blocks of cheese.
As a child, she enjoyed reading cookbooks and looking at pictures of food. Every time she tried her hand at cooking, her older brother would give her a bit of his pocket money.
Ritu discovered quite early that she loved food and cooking and, best of all, that she could actually make money from it!
Ritu also knew early that she wanted to be her own boss. Whenever she went to visit her grandfather, she would swivel in his big chair and pretend to be ‘boss-boss’.
She attended college for exactly one day before deciding that it was not for her. She joined her father’s business and, at 16, insisted on being sent on business trips all over the world.
She went alone to buy machinery, sell marble, and explore the local
cuisines on the side. She loved travelling and especially loved Italy and Italian food. Fresh basil, olive oil, pasta – she delighted in their flavours.
Ritu quit the business when she was 21, following a disagreement with her father, and confided in her mother about wanting to open an Italian restaurant in Delhi. They knew her father would be appalled.
A Marwari girl from a traditional family starting a restaurant, one that served non-vegetarian food? It was unheard of.
Ritu’s first restaurant, Mezzaluna, opened in Delhi when most people didn’t know what Italian food was. The few who did come to her restaurant wanted to know why the smoked salmon was cold.
They asked for spicy pickled onions with their main course. Ritu was furious and refused to serve them. She decided to leave India and open a restaurant in London instead.
The restaurant, Vama, was a great success, but Ritu was in love with a woman in India. So she moved back to Delhi and set up the now popular Diva.
Ritu realised that while her dreams were big, there were very few people in India who were qualified to work in her restaurant. She has since trained over 500 young underprivileged people and has opened more restaurants in Delhi and Milan.
Ritu caters for high-profile events in the country and abroad, and is the author of three bestselling Italian cookbooks for the Indian market. She is, without doubt, the first Indian chef-entrepreneur to be so successful. Today, most of her senior management and head chefs are women.
Ritu credits her success to her ability to learn from failure. Each time she makes a mistake, she picks herself up and becomes better at what she does.
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