Last week, a large number of women achievers gathered for a daylong conference at Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research by National Human Resource Development Network (NHRDN). The theme of the conference 'Womentoring' was well in sync with Women's Day Celebrations worldwide.  The participants included women professionals from diverse backgrounds.

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Tarjani Vakil, former Chairperson, Exim Bank, reflected on the decades of her professional journey and expressed satisfaction on leaving her mark in a domain, which was then considered to be a male territory. She attributed her success to hard work and declared there was no alternative to it.

Dr Uday Salunkhe, President, Mumbai Chapter, NHRDN and Group Director Welingkar Education, said, "Women play a phenomenal role in the nation's work force. They are masters in multi-tasking with their multi faceted personae; they bring in not only talent but also precious intangibles like positivity, trust engagement and the power to empathise that helps them conjure up pragmatic solutions."

Neelima Mishra, last year's Magsaysay awardee, a known face among the poor of Jalgaon, Dhule and Nashik districts of Maharashtra, was recognised for her purpose-driven zeal to work tirelessly with villagers in the districts. 

Another panelist, Bhavna G Doshi, a senior partner in KPMG and President, Indian Merchants' Chamber, shared that her out and out male territory could be easily sailed through only with hard work, support from different quarters including a strong family support and bosses who took care to make things feasible without compromising on the quality of the work. She reminisced having many role models and as of gaining acceptance only time and hard work beget you these. 

Talking of challenges and mistakes Revathi Roy, founder of Viira Cabs, cab service that hires only female drivers and is  exclusively for women, candidly admitted she made plenty of them but was never cowed down. She did everything from training the girls as drivers to counseling their families to let them continue; since the moment they started earning they would become very sought after brides in their community.

Flavia Agnes a legal scholar and feminist activist and director of Majlis, said that the desire to make the world a better and safer place to live in for her daughters and herself and later for all those she connected with were the biggest motivators and kept her going. It was her intense desire to fight domestic violence and the anguish which a battered woman feels.

Sister Maria,  a senior nurse supervisor at  Hinduja Hospital, accredits it all to God, her mother, and her confidence in self that guided her through her long journey where she got immense love and respect from all she came in contact with and her bosses. And as of her success mantra: 'Do not look back, walk forward, shut the door behind and go ahead'

Muge Yuzuak lent a truly international face to the gathering coming up from a diverse background growing up in Turkey in an orthodox setting and then taking over the world as her corporate experience span over around 42 countries spread over three continents. Yuzuak is managing director and country head Credit Cards, Citibank India. Talking on role models, she said that these can be more than one; these are essentially people we talk and relate to and not people who are far too distant to associate one with.

Vandana B Waval, Branch Manager Mumbai, Family Planning Association India, shared her concern over the HIV positive patients, emphasizing it was really difficult to live in a family where you are denied love because of no fault of yours.

The common traits that all of them shared were steely determination, commitment to the purpose and then definitely there are individual approaches that work out best in a given set of conditions… one has to judiciously decide upon these after an incisive analysis of the situation.

Instead of bouquets and mementos, the NHRD Network gifted education scholarships in the name of the women achievers to eight girl students. Marcel Parker, Chairman, organizing Committee of International Women's Day Conference, Chairman, Ikya Human Capital Solutions Pvt Ltd felicitated the dignitaries at the end of the session.

The panel discussion was followed by a session on HR practices. The finale of the day was the Womentoring session where the participants had chosen their mentors and discussed their problems with them to find out workable solutions.  The session debated some very issues including career advice, mid career choices; job switches and work life balance, managing one's boss.