CLAP, CHEER, ENCOURAGE…….EMPATHISE, FEEL, HELPING

HAND……ONLY YOU, SILENT, INDIFFERENT

 

Today on this historic day, two Indian archers Jyothi Surekha Vennam from Vijayawada and Ojas Pravin Deotale from Nagpur won the hattrick of golds in Archery event of Hangzhou 2023 Asian games. Immediately I remembered another Sarat Kamal Achanta at the age of 41 won three gold medals in Birmingham CWG 2022 games.

                       Perhaps these are the only events when we Indian won 3 gold medalsin single edition of any international sports events.

Then I searched Google and found that these sports persons won many other medals and sometimes various state and central governments recognized them with awards like Padmasri, Arjuna and cash awards. But these people are little known even in their own states, never mentioned in even regional newspapers and in Jyothi’s case she changed her field from swimming to archery for the lack of support and encouragement.

     

 

We generally often blame the government and sports authorities for the state of affairs of Indian sports and we discuss in despair about our performance in Olympics or other sports events. But we never bother about contribution we can make just by praising, clapping, viewing their performances and encouraging them. This will make media to discuss them, TV channel to air their matches, industry to sponsor them and achievements and finances naturally follow as widely seen in cricket and of late seen in Badminton.

 

            Noted Telugu commentator on mythological texts Sri Malladi Chandrasekhar Sastry once told that as a society we transformed from a whole village celebrating one good achievement of one boy to scolding our child for not matching with the performance of a neighbor’s child. This shows that  we are either jealous or only bothered about our achievements and have forgotten to cheer.

 

But unfortunately still worse things are seen that is not empathizing, feel about even big problems and giving a helping hand is a rare commodity as can be seen from a plight of 12 year old in Indore. She had to walk alone for 12 KM for getting a piece of cloth and similarly in Delhi a man stabbed a woman in a very busy street and could walk away freely. No one even bothered to inform police.

 

JUST PONDER OVER THESE. IF YOU AGREE, NO NEED TO CHEER ME.

         BUT NEXT TIME, PLEASE REACT FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR AND FOR GOD’S SAKE “ DON’T BE INDIFFERENT “ AND FOR YOUR SAKE DON’T BE INDIFFERENT “ AND FOR YOUR SAKE “ JUST DON’T BOTHER ALWAYS ABOUT YOURSELF “. CHEER, CLAP AND ENCOURAGE TO MAKE YOURS AND YOUR SURROUNDINGS LIVELY.

 

OUTCOME, GOOD OR BAD

                                                    Only time will tell      

 

1 ) DR A P J ABDUL KALAM

2 ) ABRAHAM LINCOLN

3 ) RAMAYAN

4 ) AMITABH BACHAN

5 ) HEMA MALINIe

6 ) DR SANKURATHRI CHANDRASEKHAR

7 ) ARVIND KEJRIWAL

8 ) RAMDEV BABA

 

Abdul Kalam Sir writes in his Wings of Fire “ After completing Aeronautical Engineering bachelor degree attended for the interview for his dream job Airforce Pilot. I was number 10 where 9 candidates were selected. In my desperate moment I visited Sivanand Ashram in Rishikesh. Swamiji consoled me with the following words. “ You might have been destined to do bigger things. That may be the reason why God didn’t allow you to write your own script “”. The rest is history which all of us are well aware of.

Abraham Lincoln’s travel from local councilor to President of the United States of America is a legend for it’s disproportionate number of successes and failures in quick succession on  which many books are written. It led to his mental breakdown at one time speaks volumes about this.

Our own Ramayana and Rama and Sita’s life are full of twist and turns which made them eternal figures of worship in India if not the world.

Amitabh Bachan was rejected  by Akashvani for his voice. Not only his screen presence but also his voice is the main attraction of his Kaun Banega Karodpati. His celluloid life is a legend by itself.

Hema Malini was considered with Jayalalitha as a co star for a tamil film and screen test was conducted by the then famous director Sridhar. She was rejected. This made her will and efforts strong. Every cinemagoer in India knows that later on she became a “ Dream girl of India “. Even at 75 years she is called like that.

Recently I came across a person from our home town Kakinada, Padmasri Sankurathri Chandrasekhar. His foundation is running a super speciality eye hospital and a school for the poor. Till now it carried two lakh eye operations for the poor apart from regular eye care to around two million people of the Godavari districts. A chemical engineering doctorate NRI working in Canada lost his wife and children in the unfortunate ghastly Kanishka air crash in 1985. When he felt that his life suddenly turned purposeless, he took a different direction. I could only feel that God is very unkind to some good people.

Now take the case of Mr Aravind Kejriwal. A successful IIT graduate, then an IRS career, giving it up for taking up social causes, succeeding in great constitutional act of Right To Information, winning a prestigious Raman Magasasay Award, Fighting against corruption along with a noted Gandhian Anna Hazare, shifting the nation’s focus on corruption and then getting elected as the Chief Minister of Delhi 3 times. But ultimately it culminated into his arrest in the alleged liquor scam. Apart from the physical problems, his hard build reputation is at stake. The truth behind the scam will come out in due course of time. But for the person like him on introspection it will be very difficult to decide whether good resulted in bad or bad resulted in good as far as outcomes are concerned.

Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali competing with multi nationals is a corporate case study for budding entrepreneurs apart from his iconic image in propagating Yoga all over the world. It is not exaggeration to say that due to Patanjali Indian medicine and therapy took a rebirth. But recently Supreme Court not only made scathing comments on the false claims, advertisements  and statements on the other forms of medicine but not even ready to accept his apologies. Again the conclusion is same as in Kejriwal’s case.

All these will show that today’s failure may lead to tomorrow’s success and vice versa. Hence it is justified to celebrate or disappoint at that moment as a natural process. But it’s ridiculous to be either become arrogant and proud or depressed, mental breakdowns and thinking about suicide.

Keeping the above, I would like to talk about the some life events. There may be some points in my childhood which really didn’t count as they didn’t affect the major outcomes. But the first thing that filled with joy not only for me but also for our entire family when I secured 163^rd rank in the Common engineering entrance test of combined state of AP. It ensured a seat in any of the only 7 to 8 engineering colleges existing at that time in the state. In those days getting a seat in any professional college almost guarantee a good stable future career which were very rare. Securing a job was vital in those days for our family. But it permanently shut the door on my profession Law. Technical subjects were never my first interest.

6 months before completing my engineering degree I secured an excellent 98.49 percentile score in the all India GATE exam. It could have fetched a seat in any IIT or IISc. But it did not result that way because our exams were not finished in time due to the then prevailing condition created by my favorite actor turned politician NTR. It created such a situation that I had to be idle for one year to study further. It was very difficult with the circumstances prevailing at our home. But that gave an opportunity for me to meet Bharat Ratna Dr C N R Rao, a noted soil scientist the then Director of IISc. He consoled me with the words that my skill, intelligence, capability and hard work would not go waste and result in future success if not now. These words from a great person  filled me with hope. Apart from this I could observe his simplicity and modesty during this brief meet. It transformed me.

Just before my final year theory exams are finished I got an offer letter as an executive trainee in NTPC. On the scheduled date I could not go because it clashed with the my final viva exam which is a prerequisite to get the engineering degree. I was disappointed. My letter of request for change of date did not elicit any response. But as a God sent opportunity, my elder brother had to go to Delhi in one of his trivial business trips. I asked him to enquire personally in the NTPC Corporate                   headquarters. To our utter surprise and delight, they informed him for me to report in two three days. Without wasting time I and my father immediately started for Delhi in the next available train. Thus started a great career of 37 years in a Maharatna company which made me the person what I am today. I can say I also contributed a little in making this company from 3000 to around 73000 MW and backbone to a developing country like India. But on the flop side it permanently shut the door on my dream career of business administration or management. Again as I said earlier technical field was never my first preference though I worked tirelessly throughout. It again proved that the opening of a big seemingly important door may shut other doors to places which you would really like to enter.

After one year training I had the opportunity to choose the location of posting and the department. In 1987, there was only one NTPC plant in South India at Ramagundam. In those days transportation and communication facilities were big bottlenecks in the country. Hence it was natural for everyone to prefer to get a job nearer to their homes and home towns in a big and diversified country. Added to this at that time, my father was posted to a place just 20KM from Ramagundam. Because of all these I made up my mind to prefer Ramagundam. I got it. For this I had to chose a department in which you have to work three shifts in monotonous job. In the process I had to work for 13 years in that department.

Ultimately after 13 years I was posted in another department where there was no shift duty. But this department was accompanied with many emergencies and any time work which includes not only mental but physical pressure. It was always bouquets and brickbats in quick succession and sometimes even simultaneously. But in the process, I could stay for more than 27 years in the same place which very few people did in NTPC. But long stay resulted in some other problems like jealousy and suspicion among some colleagues and seniors. It ultimately culminated into a vigilance case which  is a nightmare for any public servant in India. As was the case it permanently threatened and affected my career. But anyway immediately this hurdle had to be faced head on and crossed. There was no second choice as pending enquiry; one is not even allowed to leave the job. Coming out of this case was a big challenge and we had to cross many hurdles and it took more than than four years. In between one of the colleagues involved died as he was not able to withstand the pressure shows the magnitude of the problem.   

Due to the above case, I was given a transfer order to Vindhyachal. This order came like a bolt from the blue. At that time, both my parents were old and need attention. My elder daughter just completed her engineering and got an offer from TCS. In one or two years we were planning to marry her and start searching a groom. It is really a very wrong time to shift to remote North Indian place after spending these many years in our area. As some good people helped, it was changed to Vallur near Chennai after six months on a Diwali day. Our family was really happy and relieved. However, everyone in the company including our Regional Director, Executive Director, all well-wishers and friends told that it was difficult place to work with lot of problems. In fact many sympathized with me. Our RED personally showed me that present generation is zero for a 1500 MW capacity plant and looking forward for desperate improvement to keep up the reputation of the company with the JV partner. Being a joint venture itself is a big problem without any financial support from parent NTPC. I also could actually sense the magnitude as soon as I landed there. But I can say without doubt that this was a glorious period in my entire career. Facing the problems, solving them and getting recognition gave immense personal and professional satisfaction. Apart from that one of my suggestion on CSR, not my field was awarded, appreciated by CMD and implemented in many plants of NTPC. Personally also I could perform marriages of my brother’s son and my daughter. As this is a part of metro city with lot of medical facilities we could take care of my mother’s health emergencies.

Then came Covid in 2020 which shook all over the world. It was particularly more threatening because power is an essential requirement and power plants had to be run at any cost and this particular plant is nearer to metro and many workers to attend commute to attend daily work. Within three months of covid spread in India two important people died in our plant. Due to prevailing cirmstances I was made Covid committee chairman. It was really a tight rope walk being a in charge of vital maintenance department and conflicting post of in charge of preventing covid spread and limiting it’s impact. But this post really fulfilled my life long desire of managing people, crises and service to the people. Even a world crisis may turn out to be an opportunity for you if you try to face head on. However I pray god that this planet should never face this type of problem again in future.

After lot of hard work and crossing whole lot of hurdles, I could get what I felt I really deserve much before. Ultimately I was promoted and posted to Farakka near Bangladesh border. Before we were really started swallowing the news and get excited I received two three phone calls warning me that It is a difficult place to work due to legacy problems. But what worried us more was lack of proper medical facilities and it was not possible to take my mother with us. Though she was happy about my promotion she was disappointed about this fact. She died within five months. Keeping up it’s reputation,  the project had lot of problems technical and administrative. One by one we could come out and trying to stabilize. But some unexpected problems  continued to crop up and I was boldly facing them using my experience and as usual with family support. Meanwhile we were able to find a groom for our second daughter. It is no mean achievement staying very from our home state. We were preparing for marriage arrangements apart from my office work. Then again there was another big shock. This time in the mode of an Industrial accident and a an unfortunate contract worker’s death. Contrary to all norms and prevailing practice I, a general manager was suspended leaving my subordinates. I was not even allowed to leave the station. It was exactly only one month for our daughter’s marriage and performing a traditional marriage need our presence. It created lot of tension. My elder daughter and Son in Law came to our rescue and did all the arrangements. My suspension was revoked after ten days and we were allowed to go with the condition that I should reply for the charges within 15 days. Though I gave a suitable reply in my perception, I was punished with an increment cut and the circumstances surrounding this disturbed my wife also in fact more than me this time. We both thought enough is enough after all these years of service and took premature retirement after 3 month notice period.

I started with the incidents of some famous people. This is not for comparing myself with them. I am not that naïve. It is only for emphasizing my logic. Not only life is a mixed bag but also every major event is a mixed bag. Good is shadowed by bad and bad is coupled with good. It’s not for creating a dilemma in the decision making process. It’s only proper to take a rational decision with proper SWOT analysis. Not taking decision is a failure before starting. It is for taking the outcome with more equanimity. Don’t get heavily depressed or excited for any outcome as it may turn out to be otherwise later on.

KARMANYE VADHIKARASTE MAFALESHU KADHACHANA

MAA KARMA FALAYESHU BHUTE MAATO SANGOSTYA KARMANI

 

 

                

      

                        

   

 

 

 

      NAATU NAATU THAT WON OSCAR IS NOT SO RAW

 

A Telugu song is making international waves winning Golden Globe, New York Critics and ultimately Oscar award. It was picturized in front of Ukraine presidential palace that is in the news in recent past only for the ugly Russian invasion. But in this movie, it looks stunning with the creativity of Rajamouli, a director now a household name in India for making big budget movies. Even South Koreans, Chinese and Japanese not known for enjoyment are dancing to the hook steps of Ramcharan and NTR choreographed by Premrakshit. Even sportsmen and ambassadors are chanting and shouting the not so musical or classical words even without understanding the meaning “NAATU NAATU” ( RAW RAW ) sung by Galli ( Street ) singer till recently Rahul Sipligunj and a little known Kalabhairava , son of the music director of this song M M Keeravani. Ultimately the 95^th Academy award better known as Oscar award was received by M M Keeravani and Chandra Bose, the lyricist making India proud for winning this award for the first time by an Indian language film made in India by Indians.

But my main intention is describing this song. It is not so raw or mass song as it was made out to be or looks like if the words are not understood. This song is the result of excellent creativity and hard work of many days using the words of two dialects of a language mixing in such a way to suit two historical characters belonging to two regions and backgrounds with an imaginary friendship and written to suit the situation. These raw words simply eclipse the so called rich and powerful Europeans at that time. It could not have been done by any other except Chandra Bose who lives and loves to write songs for the common man.

If I describe all the sentences, it may be boring to the people. But I will explain some meanings to give the taste of it. But to understand the full depth and the deeper meaning, each and every sentence to be understood in toto. For example first sentence in the text tells “ A bull jumping into the dusts of agricultural field “, next one “ Doing Stick fight, the age old Indian skill for protection wearing the old footwear which makes typical noise “ and “ Mixing Red Sorghum ( a type of millet that was widely eaten by poor before independence ) roti with mirchi powder “ demonstrates the guts of rural India in those times in front of three piece suit wearing Europeans proud of their heritage and culture belittling Indians treating them as animal like.

After hearing this song I recall an eternal Telugu Kavitha written by Mahakavi Sri Sri in his all-time great book “ Mahaprasthanam” using the words like Puppy, Match stick, Soap piece, Door piece, aarti plate , bread piece etc. In this he tells that no word or material is unsuitable for writing and only the creativity and emotional intelligence of the writer matters. Similarly, another great singer               Sri S P Balasubramaniam who sang more than 50000 songs in 16 different languages and an undisputed number one for three decades in three different languages: Telugu, Kannada and Tamil never sang a single song without understanding the meaning and never misspelt a single word. He was giving credit for the success of any song to the writer, music director, singers, director, story writer only in that order and choreographer and actors for the visual effects.

That is the importance of lyrics. Inculcate interest in literature, lyrics, language to preserve the culture, diversity, unity, nation, world and orderly living of mankind.

 

SARASWATHI – GODDESS OF GYAN

 

Tomorrow, we are celebrating Saraswathi Puja. Saraswathi is worshipped as “Goddess of Gyan “. Nowadays, we are teaching our children that she is a “Goddess of Education “. This is mainly due to transformation of society and perception of the society about education. We reduced the value of education from path to knowledge to path to livelihood. We are more bothered about comfortable and well settled life. Accordingly, knowledge and Gyan have taken a back seat and success in examinations and interviews are a priority. Education is a steppingstone to reach the ultimate aim of Gyan (Much more than knowledge perceived by us). Due to this we are making our gods also into stones rather than the knowing the real purpose behind Bhakti and worship.

In our locality, one religious teacher was explaining the meaning of all familiar story of Tiger and Cow. One person in the crowd raised a doubt whether tiger will agree for cow to leave to feed her calf even if it begs for it. The teacher did not mock at him. Instead, he appreciated the person for being attentive and thinking about the story rather than listening, agreeing and simply ignoring the moral. Then the teacher asked him whether he is believing that tiger and cow will actually speak, talk and negotiate with each other when they come face to face. If he believes that, then believing other things is very easy. The essence of that answer is if you start questioning from the beginning to end, you will understand the triviality of this questioning and the main aim of the importance of speaking the truth. That is why Indian philosophy never discouraged questioning and in fact all Upanishads are the results of debate between different people of all genders, castes and professionals. Nobel  Laurette Amartya Sen also writes in his famous book “Argumentative Indian” that in India an atheist is born the day god is born and no Galileo was ever poisoned in India like western countries for questioning the traditional beliefs. At the same time, we should not start debating whether this Sri Lanka or Ram Setu or Kurukshetra are same as described in great epics  Ramayana and Mahabharat. Instead of that we should try to understand the messages they convey to the whole world.

Another great interpretation of education and gyan are explained by the two verses written by great telugu poet Pothana in Bhagavatham . These verses are conveyed through Prahlad to his father Hiranyakasipa when he was asked by him how the learning is  going on in grukul and what he learnt. For the first question he answers that he was taught well by gurus and he read many shastras and apart from that he read many things and in one sentence he read all the intricacies in learning. For the second question he answers that hands,legs,eyes,mind,head,ears,the tongue which are used for the service and praise of god are only can be called as such. The first one is education and second one is gyan and the synthesis of both only can create a scientistlike Kalam or Jagadish Chandra Bose or a politician like A B Vajpayee or P V Narasimha Rao or an industrialst like N R Narayana Murthy or Ratan Tata or a bureaucrat like T N Seshan and a judge like P N Bhagawathi 

TRANSFORMATION OF VALLUR

 

TRANSFORMATION OF VALLUR

 

On a Diwali day in October 2014 I received a transfer order from NTPC Ramagundam to NTECL Vallur. Immediately afterwards I had to go to Delhi on an official tour to attend customer meet arranged by BHEL and discussion with Corporate OS an issue related to Ramagundam boiler. I was advised by ED (R) R K Srivastav sir  to meet  RED (S) R Venkateswaran sir on my way back at SRHQ.

During my Delhi trip I met ED (OS) Y V Rao Sir. He told me that it would be very difficult to work in Vallur and condition of the plant and township are really testing for anyone. At BHEL customer meet I met Sri NIzamuddin  AGM contracts who was already known to me and Sri R Bharadwaj AGM CCD. When asked they  told me that problems of Vallur are only to be seen to be believed. As had been advised , I went to SRHQ office to meet Venkateswaran Sir. After seeing me he had showed the MW reading of Southern Region in which all three units of NTECL were reading “0”,”0” and “0”. Sir had explained that one unit was having tube leakage for last three days , the other unit which was just synchronized after overhaul also had BTL on that day and 3^rd unit commercial operation was getting delayed due to various reasons. He had told me that he wishes to see 1500 MW like Ramagundam.

On November 7^th NTPC raising day I got down from suburban train in Attipattupudunagar station after around 12 hour journey in GT express. My friend Sri Sarat Babu sent a vehicle for me. Driver Mr Mohan with a broken telugu wished me and uttered this “ Sir, I heard that you are coming as boiler  pressure parts incharge. One boiler is having tube leakage and every alternate day there will be tube leakage”. Initially I had wondered how even a driver was so well informed but later on I came to know that he is a driver for BMD vehicle. After reaching township and taking bath , I went for ICH breakfast as usual everywhere in NTPC. There I met Sri K Satyanarayana Engineer operation who closely worked with me earlier at Ramagundam. During conversation he told me this “ Sir, don’t compare Vallur with Ramagundam. Here no unit runs continuously for 10 days. It trips or is stopped for various reasons. There is no system that runs trouble free”. With these type of feedback, On the same day I joined here with the cooperation of Sri Ponnambalam DGM HR and reported to Narendra Sir GM O&M. Within one week I had realised that none of them exaggerated.

After 7 years I could see a lot of change though there are still lot of problems and still lot of work to be done. I will not tell all but some representative things. The company declared dividend two times in a row , declaring full DC consecutively two years, Unit 1 running continuously for more than 150 days two times, station running for 46 days, Ash utilisation of more than 100% for last two years and many more.

Still there are lot of challenges associated with man power optimization, corrosion related issues, environmental obligations being nearer to metro city, coal transportation, coal availability and pending receivables from beneficiaries to name a few.

BUT WITH LAST 7 YEARS EXPERIENCE, NOW I AM MORE CONFIDENT THAT NTECL TEAM CAN DELIVER.

ACTING AS A SMALL LADDER- DAYS AT SAI SEVA SAMITHI NTPC RAMAGUNDAM – MY WIFE PADMA

ACHIEVEMENT OF A PEARL IN COMMON SAND- GAYATHRI

It is said that when you wish for something wholeheartedly, the whole universe conspires to make it happen.

Such is the wish of one of the students of Sai Seva Samithi Elementary school run by  employees of NTPC Ramagundam - Miss Gayathri. My wife P L Padmavathi M.A. B.Ed worked as honorary Principal of this school from 2008 to 2014. Because of her efforts and qualification, the school could get recognition from state authorities. Mr K S N Raju, Mr P Ramdoss , Mr Narendra, Mr P V B Raju and many other employees under the leadership of Mrs Sasmitha Dash CMO madam are doing yeomen service in running Sai Seva Samithi with the donations of NTPC Employees,  other local residents with continuous help from NTPC and Deepthi Mahila Samithi . Apart from running this school and providing free mid- day meal to around 100 children, samithi is running free hospital, TB centre and many others for the nearby labor colonies’ residents. I am happy to inform that recently Samithi celebrated 2 decades of noble service and it is a showpiece in CSR activities of NTPC Ramagundam.

Gayathri was a little girl with a bright future which was reflected in her eyes when I had first met her. She was introduced by my wife. She joined this school for the same reason as all the wonderful students there – an yearning for learning! Her dedication and hard work  paid off with the help of the teachers and staff of the school who recognized her potential. During one of the visits of  Mrs Padma Y V Rao in 2011 ( The then president of Deepthi Mahila Samithi, Ladies club of NTPC Ramagundam ) to the school, my wife mentioned about this child to her. Without second thought Madam through Sai Seva Samithi adopted her along with two others through ladies club to send them to Sachdeva school for better and higher education. Mrs Sapna Mishra , the Principal of Sachdeva School provided them utmost support and free books .

After seven years she secured grade point average of 9.7 out of 10 in her 10th class exam and joined Karimnagar residential college for Intermediate, equivalent of +2. She is continuing to flourish for the last two years and scored 918/1000 marks, another remarkable achievement and proves the point Nobel laureates Mr Abhijit Banarjee and Mrs Esther Duffelo describes in their most acclaimed  book                        “ POOR ECONOMICS “,  the possibility of the poverty making pearls to remain in the earth and coming out in the open with only a little support they get. They may even become future scientists, nation’s saviors or billionaires. I am sure about her bright future if everything goes well. A ladder is only starting point to build big buildings.

 With the encouraging results, Deepthi Mahila Samithi is continuously sponsoring two to three children every year and till now 20 to 25 children got benefitted.             

     

PROMINENT WOMEN OF  INDIA’S FREEDOM STRUGGLE (1880-1947)

Gender equality is much talked about subject by feminists. In UN human development index gender equality is one of the factors. But in India, from vedic times it was natural phenomenon. Maitreyi’s debate with sage Yajnavalkya resulted in great Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. In that the debate between Yajnavalkya and Gargi is very insightful among all the debates. Similarly in 8^th century for the famous debate between Adisankara and northern scholar Mandana Mishra, Mandana Mishra’s wife acted as referee. Rajiya Sultana in 13^th century is the first female ruler of Asia. Molla in 15^th century wrote Ramayana in Telugu.  This shows how women are seen in Indian history. However in the middle ages there was deterioration in values of India which resulted in exploitation of the many weaker sections, not particularly women. This essay on women freedom fighters is only to reemphasize this point. I hope this will inspire all modern women not to debate on this and simply feel it as natural right. 

Coming to fighting for rights again Indian women are second to none from ancient times. Kannagi is arguably  the first and Silappathikaram is the first epic in world history with woman centric character. As per this epic, she not only reformed her husband but fought against injustice meted out to her husband by Pandyan King of Madurai. But there was reluctance in including women in freedom struggle of India. However these 7 women are certainly the most famous women who  actively participated in struggle at different times in different ways and proved second to none.

1 BHIKAJI CAMA :  Born in rich Bombay Parsee family and married to a supporter of Britishraj,  influenced by Grand Old Man of India Dadhabhai Nauroji and London Hyde park addresses of famous Indians she actively worked with revolutionary Shyamaji Krishnavarma  and even tried to help V D Savarkar. Even Lenin got impressed by her . Like Nauroji she can be called “GRAND OLD LADY OF INDIA”. However Dadhabhai opposed british policies only in Parliament and press and never in extremist way like Madam Cama.

2 ANNIE BESANT: Though Born Irish, influenced by Indian theology she is one of the illustrious women of freedom struggle and worked as Congress President. Along with Tilak she advocated and led Indian Home Rule movement. Later years she was involved more in Theosophical Society and tutored illustrious and unique philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthy. She was role model for many freedom fighters.

3 KASTURBA GANDHI : Though innocent, married to Mahatma at an young age she equally suffered and sometimes more than Mahatma being a woman during struggles in both South Africa and India. Even her health failed during frequent imprisonment and satyagraha leading to her death. Mahatma regretted for not giving proper recognition to her in his political and personal life.

  

4 SAROJINI NAIDU : Daughter of Bengal and Daughter-in- law of AP, poetess, courageous to even criticize Gandhi is undoubtedly  a role model for modern women. Her statement during salt march “The time has come when women can no longer hide behind, under the shelter of men but equally should face the perils and sacrifice for the liberation of the country”. She walked this talk.

5 LAKSHMI SEHGAL : Alumni of Madras Medical College, treated Indian National Army soldiers in Singapore , Captain Lakshmi a follower of Subhas Chandra Bose actively worked for INA, was Minister for women affairs of Azad Hind Government in exile, can be truly described as Modern Rani Laxmibhai

6 Aruna Asaf Ali : Thrown out of the family for marrying a muslim Asaf Ali, a freedom fighter she was the woman who hoisted the national flag during 1942 Quit India movement when all other leaders were arrested by British. Defying Mahatma she actively supported mutiny of INA soldiers in 1946 which is considered as the last straw for declaration of Indian independence by British.

7 DURGABHAI DESHMUKH : Founder of Andhra Mahila Sabha , known for discipline and commitment , she stopped even Jawahar Lal for attending Indian National Congress meeting without taking mandatory ticket. She was imprisoned many times and drove many common women into movement.