KatysBlog

It has been interesting to be in India on International Women’s Day.
There certainly seems to be more awareness and serious attention
paid to the event than I have ever seen in the US. The Economic
Times daily paper was particularly committed to honoring women:
it invited three women CEOs to be its guest
editors for the day and devoted about half of its page space to
relevant articles. Below is what I found in just the first section.
The second section of The Economic Times was just as rich.
The Times of India and Bangalore Times also devoted a
large amount of space to articles by and about women (most were
serious but as usual there was a generous mix of sexy photos, fashion
tips, and movie star gossip).

Today, too, Air Deccan gave women priority boarding on its
flights to honor International Women’s Day. I even had one of the
women Engineers here at Sun shake my hand and say “Happy International
Women’s Day!”. That has never happened before. I am saving these
three papers to take home to my daughter. They are downright encouraging!

• page one
  • “Women at Work – an ET special”
  • “ET Guest Editors Have the First Laugh – How news & views
    tangoed”

  • “Her Economic March – 16.6% of Urban Women in Employment;
    Highest Number in 25 Yrs”
• page two – The Political Theatre
  • “Anti-women provisions likely to go – Ninth Schedule Changes
    Were Endorsed by Indira Ghandi When She Was Chairperson of NAC”

  • “Women at Work – As a writer, I had to work for peace”
    by Indira Goswami (Jnanpeeth Award Winner)
• page three – The Political Theatre
  • “Working women add to nation’s GDP growth”
  • “Serious Business, After All”
• page four – Business of Brands
  • “What is a Great Brand?” Editor’s Line by
    Vinita Bali, MG Brittania

  • “Women at Work – The consumer isn’t stupid, she’s the boss”
    by Pranesh Nusra, President & COO, Lowe Lintas India

  • “A New dimension to marketing products – Traditional View that
    the Indian Woman is Family-Oriented is Not Always Valid, Especially
    in Urban India, says Kala Vijayaraghavan”
• page five – Emerging Business & IT
  • “Through the Glass Ceiling” Editor’s Line by Kiran Muzumdar-Shaw,
    CMD, Biocon

  • “Women at Work – Boardroom pin-up girls making waves” by
    Padma Ravichander, MD Perot Systems
• page six – Career & Business Life
  • “Invest in intuitive power of women” by Sangita Reddy, MD, Apollo
    Health Street

  • “When Sita finally trumped Rama” by Kiran Bedi, IPS Officer
  • “Women at Work – Exceptional women make it to the top” by
    Ketaki Gupta, Partner Korn Ferry International

  • “No more gender discrimination” by Chanda Kochhar, DMD ICICI Bank
  • “Beating male bastion, women fashion success stories – At
    Intimate Fashions Employement Means Self-Reliance and Empowerment
    for Women Hailing from Rural India”

  • “More women tune into core R&D IT activity”
  • “Women at Work – Music Strikes a Chord with IIM-B Grad”
• page eight – International
  • “Women at Work – Indian women’s train hits ideological
    tunnel”
• page nine – Women at Work
  • “India Inc’s Angels – Twin Wonders – Sharifa, India’s first woman
    qazi from
    Midnapore, and Shabnam Begum, organizer of Tamil Nadu’s first
    women’s Jamaat, have achieved the impossible. Championing
    the rights of women who live on the fringes, they have stormed religious
    bastions, overturned centuries of purdah and have carved out a
    place for themselves as change-makers in their communities”

  • “Family Strength” by Jayashree Venkatraman, Director TAFE
    
  • “Princess and the P: Rajasthan’s first woman CM takes a bow –
    woman, politician, mother… Vasundhara Raje Dons her roles with grace”

  • “Breaking their Shells” by Rohini Nilekani, Chief Akshara Foundation
  • “I was the only woman in law class – Retired Supreme Court Judge
    Ruma Pal speaks about her illustrious legal career”

  • “It’s one long jump indeed” by Anju Boby George, Athlete
• page ten – Women at Work
  • “Goddess of small things & driving force of Avvai”
  • “Mothering the homeless”
  • “Does gender matter?” by Ingrid Srinath, CEO Cry
  • “The face of a woman”
  • “Portals of science open for women” by Geeta Varadan, Project
    Director ISRO

  • “Paper dreams”
  • “It’s full marks for education”
• page eleven – Women at Work
  • “Crouching tigress in men’s own bastion”
  • “No gender bias in corporates” by Ekta Kapoor, CD, Balaji Telefilms
  • “I was at the right place at the right time”
  • “Star Troika who blazed the ’06 trail – Aruna Jayanthi,
    Vishakha Mulye and Roopa Purushothanam are three forces that emerged
    last year”

  • “Empowerment or exclusion – what lies ahead?” by Poojita Chowdhury,
    Docu Film Maker
• page twelve – Freedom from Economics
  • “First woman in space dreams of flying to Mars”

For the first time since our arrival here in Bangalore, India, today my
husband John and I walked to lunch outside of the DivyaSree Chambers
building where Sun has its offices. We went to Aromas of China
(#19 Richmond Circle,
Bangalore), a good Chinese restaurant 3 blocks away. I know it does not
sound like much to walk three blocks but until now, we have eaten in the
hotel or at the DivyaSree Chambers cafeteria or hired a car and driver
to go to a restaurant. We were beginning to feel cooped up, so we
made the experiment of walking to lunch.

At home, we frequently go for long walks and we walk to lunch outside
of Sun’s campus at least once a week, but we have been a little worried about
walking around Bangalore, partly because of the wild traffic (crossing the
street can be very exciting),
and partly because of what our guide book calls touts. Touts are the
men who lurk in wait for us all-to-obvious foreign visitors to
sell us something (“Sir! Madam! Soapstone elephant – I carved it myself! – only
Rs. 100!”), show us something (“Where you from?” “What your name?” “Need
guide?”), drive us somewhere (“Where you from?” “What your name?” “Where
you going?” “Get in!”), or ask for baksheesh (money, tips, gratuities,
charitable donations). It gets very wearing to develop a small crowd of
needy people yelling at us every time we walk out of the front door or
get out of a car.

Aromas of China offered good food, a pleasant presentation, and good
service. I don’t recall going a Chinese restaurant before where the
menu was divided into Veg and Non-Veg options. We ordered the Rs. 150
lunch plates (I had Veg and John ordered Non-Veg). We selected a soup,
2 entrees, noodles or rice, and a dessert. As has often been the case
this trip, we were presented with both the bill
and a multiple-choice restaurant review form at the end of the meal.
We only had one person offer us a ride on the walk back and we managed to dodge
across several busy streets in relative safety, if not in dignity.

John and I are making arrangements to go to Delhi and Agra this weekend.
We particularly want to visit the Taj Majal and see a tiny bit of northern
India. There has been much back and forth discussion with the travel agent
and consulting of hotel listings and choices in our
Lonely
Planet guidebook (double checked against entries in
Trip Advisor). We hope to
have all of the reservations done tomorrow morning so we can fly
north Friday evening, to return Monday morning.

When I came to Bangalore in 2003, my visit was so short I saw very
little outside of my hotel and Sun’s offices. I also did not allow time
for the IEC (India Engineering Center) staff to ask as many questions
as they clearly wanted to.

Having been born and raised in San Francisco (a much-visited
city) and believing firmly that the Bay Area in particular and
California in general are both fascinating and beautiful, I always get
a little irritated when someone visits (for the first time or over and over) but does not see anything. To fly thousands of miles to one of the
loveliest places on Earth (think of standing on Pacific Heights
and looking down at the Golden Gate Bridge and sailboats around Alcatraz
in San Francisco Bay, or looking up at El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley,
or walking through the wave foam on the Mendocino Coast) and then to spend
all of your time in a conference room or heads down at a keyboard seems
foolish, if sometimes necessary.

To avoid further foolishness of my own, this visit to India is longer.
With the kind and wise advice of Venkatesh (a SEED alumnus), my husband John
and I hired a car and driver and went on a road trip. Driving through the
cities, towns, villages, and countryside of southern Karnataka was as fascinating as any of the official sights. We have so far been to Sravanabelagola to see the 50′ tall
stone thousand-year-old Gomateshvara statue (a Jain pilgrimage center),
to the Hoysala temples at Belur and Halebid (although started in the
year 1116, the Channekeshava Temple
at Belur is still in daily use), to Tipu Sultan’s summer palace (the
Daria Daulat Bagh on an island in the Cauvery River), and to the
Maharaja’s palace in the city of Mysore. We have also eaten much
excellent food and done some shopping.

This Sunday morning, we are off to services at St. Mark’s Cathedral,
the oldest Anglican Church in Bangalore. We are taking lots of pictures
and, now that we understand that the High Speed Internet Access wifi
service offered by the hotel only works in theory (that is, it works
well if you use the Ethernet cable and port on the desk), it should be
easier to write more and share some images too.