Onward and upward!

I cherish the few instances when I met strong yet feminine women, who are self-assured enough to support others — men as well as women

Business schools make a big deal about mentorship. They ‘assign’ mentors from industry to students, coach them on how to be ‘good’ mentees, and explain the difference between bosses, mentors, and sponsors. A few years ago, I too went through this ordeal during a three-year Masters programme at the World Economic Forum. It was a pain because it was so unnecessary, so staged. At that time, I had already been fortunate to have had a few staunch supporters (which just might be a better word to replace the B-school jargon) and I had not gone looking out for any of them.

When I had first arrived in Paris as a student on a meagre fellowship, I was all but 21 years of age. Professor Christophe Jaffrelot — now known for some of the finest academic research on the Hindutva movement — had offered me a spot at Paris’ top school for political sciences and he thereafter had taken it upon himself to get me on to every opportunity that would help me develop further. Around 17 years later, when he visits me in India, he still sits me down with the best advice and an occasional introduction to people within his networks.

It was Jaffrelot who had introduced me to Jerome Monod, 20 years the CEO of Suez and chief counsellor to President Jacques Chirac at that time. With a reputation of being politically astute and shrewd, Monod was better known as France’s ‘shadow President’.

Initially, I worked as an intern at a think tank founded by Monod, but soon he had taken me under his wings, putting me on to projects at the Elysee. None of these projects would come easy. He would throw them at me as challenges. For example, he would put me in competition with the official speech writer at the Elysee to write for him a speech, with a warning to us both that he would chose the best of the two. I was 23, enthusiastic, and completely unintimidated by the congregation of French Ministers and VIPs that I would encounter at the Elysees every day as these were not names and faces I had grown up learning about. He would chide me on my mannerisms of speaking, and take an interest in meeting my friends and family. I worked with him for three years, quitting because Jaffrelot decided that I was far too excited with the work I was doing with Monod and therefore terribly distracted from my PhD research. He then sent me off for the latter to the US on research fellowships. As for Monod, until his death two years ago, he continued to send me reports, notes, and books to each of the subsequent seven countries I lived in.

There were some bad experiences too. A senior academic misused the trust I had put in him. There was also an ‘assigned’ mentor by the World Economic Forum who was supportive and indeed incredibly helpful, but only as long as his assignment lasted. There were some relationships I wish had lasted longer — for example with the deceased Arindam Sengupta, Chief Editor of The Times of India, who had given me the encouragement and chance to regularly contribute with travel pieces and opinion editorials for over a decade.

Craving to return to India after having lived abroad too long, I joined the top management of Jindal Steel and Power headquartered in New Delhi. Here, I found unwavering support from the owner Naveen Jindal, who I had known for some years as a friend, as well as from CEO Ravi Uppal, who I had met upon my employment by the company. Much of the positive changes I was able to bring at this company of about 15,000 sluggish ‘yes men’ was because of the solid support and trust from the two men at the top. 

I am grateful to all these supportive men, but I wonder where are the women? Indeed, I have spent most of my years in spaces dominated by men and I cherish the few instances when I have met with strong yet feminine women who are self-assured enough to support others (men and women). These qualities are not necessarily ‘ideal’ or need to be considered worthy by all, but these are the ones that I relate to the most, have thus worked to nurture within myself, and so I look out for these in others. Pakistan’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar; Saudi Arabia’s television star, Muna Abu Sulaiman; the former Danish Minister of Environment, Ida Auken are such women I know and I greatly admire them. They have raised children (Hina gave birth to hers during her tenure as an elected politician!), are uncompromisingly their natural self no matter what the context, and are sharp as nails in what they do.

In the past, there have been remarkable Indian women who have given others — men and women — strength. And we would expect economic growth to go hand in hand with some sort of a movement where greater numbers of confident women pave the way for others to march ahead. But in India, between 2004 and 2011, when the Indian economy grew at a healthy average of about 7 per cent, there was a devastating decline in female participation in the country’s labour force from over 35 per cent to 25 per cent. The reasons for this are varied, and include the lack of role models for women at the workplace.

One of my earliest published writings was a piece I wrote when I was 19, picked by Shobori Ganguli, who later went on to be Editor the Sunday edition of The Pioneer newspaper. Steadfastly supportive towards me for almost 20 years, I have watched her battle personal challenges with grit and grace, emerging each time a winner while keeping her cool and bringing out the best in others around her. She is the kind of woman I would like to be.

More recently, I shared a panel with writer Shobhaa De, whose work few from my generation would have missed reading. When I met her on stage, I was more in awe of her than I had been of the French President at the Elysee. I was in admiration of De because of her talent and her humility; the depth in her words yet her light-hearted and unassuming demeanour; her courage to speak her mind and heart as well as generosity to lend a hand in support to others. May this tribe flourish.

Miniya is the author of Indian Instincts: Essays on Freedom and Equality in India, Penguin Random House (2018), and the CEO of Sustain Labs Paris, the world’s first sustainability incubator. miniya@labsparis.com