Naresh Karmalker https://theteenagertoday.com/author/nkarmalker/ Loved by youth since 1963 Wed, 25 Oct 2023 04:44:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://theteenagertoday.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/cropped-the-teenager-today-favicon-32x32.png Naresh Karmalker https://theteenagertoday.com/author/nkarmalker/ 32 32 Parth Nachane: The Education Disruptor https://theteenagertoday.com/parth-nachane-the-education-disruptor/ Thu, 06 Jul 2023 10:51:32 +0000 https://theteenagertoday.com/?p=25419 Young serial entrepreneur, Parth Nachane's venture, The Robobox, is poised to disrupt the education scenario and make learning fun!

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Parth Nachane, creator of The Robobox

Naresh Karmalker caught up with young serial entrepreneur, Parth Nachane, whose venture, The Robobox, is poised to disrupt the education scenario and make learning fun!

The Teenager Today: Hi Parth. Welcome to The Teenager Today. Would love our readers to get to know you more, so let me get straight down to it. You started your first company at the age of 17. At the age of 21, you have launched The Robobox! What fuels Parth Nachane’s drive for innovation and entrepreneurship?
Parth Nachane: At 17, I only had big dreams, a world to win and nothing to lose. With this motivation, I went to Lovely Professional University (LPU) with the sole purpose of being a part of its happening practical campus with over 1,00,000 students and teachers. I thought it might just be easier to start any business with people my age.
My drive has always been to learn, dream big and achieve it, not just for myself but for my company, team, vendors, students, schools and society as well. I always wanted to do business and create something of value to society that will leave my mark and legacy.

TTT: How did the idea of The Robobox emerge?
PN: Back in my school days, I used to search for good robotics and science kits. Till date, students are stuck with options like robotics only in practical education and the robot kits available are, sadly, nothing but toys and not actual robotics kits.
With the rapid sophisticated technological revolutions that are a hallmark of the 21st century, students should be innovators and not consumers. When our government came up with the National Education Policy (NEP), I thought it might just be the right time for me, personally, to make that shift and start The Robobox as it also connected with my childhood pain and my desire to do more, using technology. We are now doing that with The Robobox in the education sector.

Cover of the July 2023 issue of The Teenager Today featuring International Tigers Day.

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The Year of Kindness: Introducing the KINDER app https://theteenagertoday.com/the-year-of-kindness-introducing-the-kinder-app/ Tue, 29 Mar 2022 05:23:46 +0000 https://theteenagertoday.com/?p=21967 The Kinder app will identify, track and acknowledge acts of kindness across the world.

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Young woman holding out smartphone with kinder app open on-screen

We’re all excited to bring in the Year of Kindness, a unique initiative launched by the Rotary and Rotaract Clubs of Mumbai Bravehearts, The Teenager Today, Kindness Unlimited and the World Kindness Movement, this month!

A vital aspect of this movement is the mobile and web app that will drive this initiative to identify, track and acknowledge acts of kindness across the world.

The Kinder Logo
Designed by Think Creative, Mumbai, the KINDER logo plays on the top bar of the E. It is transformed into a hand moving upwards. Three similar hands lead the way, signifying ‘helping hands’ and symbolizing acts of kindness. They are shaped like birds giving the impression of birds taking flight. This is to depict the ‘Pay It Forward’ principle — many kind acts being paid forward gives the movement wings to encompass the world. The orange colour signifies fire, the energy that comes from a movement of this kind, where every person and every hand strengthens the cause of creating a kinder world.

The KINDER App

What does the KINDER App do?
The KINDER app, developed by Inventeam Solutions Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, enables you to record instances of kindness, enter details of the beneficiary of the kindness and track your web of kindness as it spreads, one act at a kind.

What are the features of the KINDER App?
The Android and iOS versions of the app will be available for download from 27 March when we launch the movement.

The salient features of the app are as follows:

1. An easy-to-use interface that makes it very simple for anyone to navigate through.

2. You will need to register yourself on the app with your mobile number and other basic details.

3. Begin your Kindness journey by recording a kind act that you have done or a kind act that has been done to you.

4. Acts of Kindness have been broadly classified as done to: Oneself, another person, another living being (plants, animals, birds, etc.) and the environment.

5. Specify the type of act, the time involved in the act as well as the monetary value as applicable. Describing the act in detail will give us a repository of inspiring stories which we hope to feature in The Teenager Today, month after month!

6. If you are recording a kind act, provide the name of the beneficiary of the act or the initiator, depending on whether you are a giver or receiver, and a mobile number for the same. If no mobile number is provided, the Act of Kindness will still be recorded against the name of the initiator; unfortunately, it won’t be able to track it any further.

7. The app will generate a message for the persons who received the kind acts, asking them to spread the movement by doing a kind act to somebody else, downloading the app and begin recording their own journey of kindness.

8. Participate in the campaign as an individual and/or as part of your school, college, company or any other organization, if your organization decides to participate as a unit.

9. The app will display your history of kind acts, initiated by you and received by you, which you can access at any time.

10. At the back end, the app will track the length of the kindness chain for each individual and organization, entities with the kindest acts, entities inviting maximum people and organizations to the cause, the geographical spread of the movement and many such parameters.

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A Year of Kindness https://theteenagertoday.com/a-year-of-kindness/ Thu, 17 Mar 2022 08:31:17 +0000 https://theteenagertoday.com/?p=21594 The Year of Kindness is an attempt to highlight acts of kindness which we keep performing on a regular basis in our lives.

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Doodle of hands holding hearts
Photo: © Macrovector / Freepik.com

A movement by The Teenager Today, Rotary and Rotaract Clubs of Mumbai Bravehearts, Kindness Unlimited and the World Kindness Movement

The world has seen nearly two years of uncertainty, hardships, untold misery and grievous loss as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, even through this trying period, what has shone through and endured have been the stories of indomitable courage, compassion and humanity — not only from the medical fraternity and the frontline workers to whom we owe so much, but from the common man on the street, our friends, our relatives, our neighbours and even complete strangers.

The Year of Kindness is an attempt to highlight these acts of kindness which we keep performing on a regular basis in our lives, and even more so in troubled times, and create a movement wherein every such act gets felicitated and encouraged in such a way that ‘being kind’ and ‘doing good’ becomes a habit and a way of life for every human being on the planet.

A Year of Kindness will roll out from 1 March 2022, exactly two years after the first official declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, and run through 28 February 2023, in its first phase.

The initiators and drivers of this project are the Rotary and Rotaractor Clubs of Mumbai Bravehearts, Kindness Unlimited, the World Kindness Movement and The Teenager Today. Through its tenure, more organizations and individuals, across India and the world, will be encouraged to join the movement.

How will this work?

♥ All founder organizations, including the readers of The Teenager Today, will reach out to individuals and organizations in their network to participate.

♥ The basic idea is for everybody to do at least one kind act a day — this could be an act of kindness to oneself, to others (friends, family, strangers), to animals and birds or even to the environment.

♥ The project will be supported by an app and a web-based programme, developed by our technology partner, Inventeam, which will be used to facilitate and track every act of kindness.

♥ Every participant will need to record her/his act of kindness on the app giving details of the person the act has been done to and the story behind it.

♥ The spread of the idea will be based on the ‘Pay It Forward’ principle — instead of the recipient of the kind act saying “thank you” and moving on or doing something good in return to the initiator of the kind act, s/he will carry on the chain by doing an act of kindness to another person.

♥ The app will gently trigger the recipient of the kind act to ‘pay it forward’ and thus continue the chain.

♥ The app will not only record these acts of kindness but also track the spread of the same in terms of geography as well as timelines.

♥ The Teenager Today will feature each month the initiatives which will cover the latest statistics, inspiring stories of kindness coming in through the app as well as updating readers on all the partner organizations that have come in through the month. This will also be done in greater depth on the website and social media channels of the magazine as also the other founding organizations.

♥ The initiative is open to individuals as well as organizations to participate in.

♥ No act of kindness will be deemed too small or insignificant. All participants are free to record as many acts of kindness as possible at whatever frequency. Organizations and companies are free to participate as a unit as well.

♥ A number of recognitions are being planned for star individual performers, kindest organization, longest and broadest chains, individuals inviting the highest number of participants to join in and many other.

♥ The campaign will kick off in March with the launch of the app. Please follow updates on the website and social media channels of The Teenager Today. Immediately after the app goes live, each one of you can register on the same and start recording your acts of kindness and share this with your contact sphere across the world. With all our efforts, this campaign can go viral globally in no time!

We are setting out on a historic mission here — a mission to create a kinder world that will be beneficial to every living and non-living being on this planet! Be an Ambassador of Kindness this year!

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Imagining ‘K’India: Transforming the Nation, One Kind Act at a Time https://theteenagertoday.com/imagining-kindia-transforming-the-nation-one-kind-act-at-a-time/ Mon, 31 Jan 2022 09:04:45 +0000 https://theteenagertoday.com/?p=21025 Nirmala Peters-Mehendale tells us why she believes that kindness will be the one habit that will transform this country.

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Nirmala Peters-Mehendale (center), Founder - Kindness Unlimited and Global President - World Kindness Movement
Nirmala Peters-Mehendale (center), Founder – Kindness Unlimited and Global President – World Kindness Movement

Nirmala Peters-Mehendale, a human resources professional by vocation, is also the founder of Kindness Unlimited and the Global President of the World Kindness Movement. In this free-wheeling interview with TTT’s NARESH KARMALKER, she tells us why she believes that widespread kindness will be the one habit that will transform this country and, through it, the world.

NK: What is it about kindness that attracts you?
NPM: I believe kindness is connected to success. Success is possible only when you get something done through others. It is a myth that one can achieve success by oneself.

Growing up, in my extended family, everybody needed to be ready to dialogue and work towards a common goal at all times. For example, if you were not coming to dinner, you needed to call and inform that you were not going to be there. Why was this an act of kindness? Because that would free others from worrying, especially the seniors. This notion, of treating others like you would like them to treat you, was a belief ingrained in us from childhood.

I got married into a community with seemingly nothing in common. Again, I found myself in a joint family where, along with my husband and in-laws, I also had my brother-in-law living with us. My brother-in-law was differently-abled and looking after him became the one common point that brought everybody together. Loving him unconditionally was the differential factor for all of us, another example of how we learnt to collaborate for the common good, joyfully.

Professionally, I come from a corporate background and work in the field of human resources. There again, I was fascinated to explore how collaboration and interdependence can be fostered amongst employees. Kindness was the underlying motive.

Cover of the February 2022 issue of The Teenager Today

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How cool is that?: Darshan Kaur Khalsa https://theteenagertoday.com/how-cool-is-that-darshan-kaur-khalsa/ Fri, 20 Jul 2018 06:21:07 +0000 http://theteenagertoday.com/?p=10896 India is the world's 3rd largest producer of ice cream, just behind the US and Japan. So what inspired Darshan Kaur Khalsa to venture into this industry?

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Darshan feeds Tyra Waggy Zone’s frozen yogurt in Honey flavour

Starting with International Women’s Day in March, THE TEENAGER TODAY has been bringing you a series ‘Women Mean Business’. Each article profiles an inspiring woman entrepreneur or professional, insights into what shaped them and their experience of entrepreneurship.

The sweltering heat is finally behind us and one thing that must surely have helped in getting through the summer is that favourite of young and old alike — a cold, refreshing ice cream!

The origins of ice-cream have never been clearly established with some accounts tracing it to China in 7 A.D. to even 200 B.C. It was only in 1956 that ice-cream machinery was imported to India by Kwality Ice Creams, and operations began on a commercial scale at their New Delhi factory. Presently, India is the third largest producer of ice cream in the world, close on the heels of the USA and Japan. So what inspired Darshan Kaur Khalsa to venture into this industry?

Mumbai-based Darshan’s family was already in the ice-cream business as distributors for Kwality Ice Cream. When Kwality was bought by Walls, they disbanded the existing distributors. Darshan’s father had an extremely good relationship with the team members who had left Kwality, who encouraged him to start manufacturing on his own, helping him with machinery and know-how. Thus Darshan Milk Food Products was born, concentrating on ice-cream and kulfis. Their USP was that they only used fresh cream and natural flavouring and no vegetable oils.

As a young girl, Darshan never wanted to join the family business. “I hated that my parents made ice-cream. We never got a proper family vacation. When we had our summer vacation, my parents would be busy with their season time. During Diwali and Christmas vacations, my parents were busy with the marriage season. Even at the dinner table, my parents would only discuss the ice-cream factory.”

Darshan’s mother always dreamed of her becoming a doctor and so she took up Science in college. After her 12th Boards, she began helping her father in the factory. Darshan started taking a liking to the line so much so that a week before her CET exams, she sold all her 12th standard books and went away to Sidhbari to study the Bhagvad Gita! That’s how she skipped her CET entrance exam and ventured into a Bachelor’s in Management Studies (BMS) instead.

Post her graduation, Darshan interned with Zee News who offered her a job in Zee Business. Her father saw her slogging for 15-16 hours for peanuts so he offered her a job at his factory. But six months later she married her sweetheart, Kshitij Kulkarni, and left for Dubai. Two months later, she realised that the time spent at her father’s office was the most productive of her life and decided to return. Her friend offered her a consultant position with their organic A2 milk supply brand Praakritik. Seeing Darshan work for Praakritik, her father realised that she had a lot more potential than he had thought and offered her a partnership in the business.

Read the full article by subscribing to the print magazine or the digital edition.

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Amareen Khurana: The cup that cheers… with a difference! https://theteenagertoday.com/amareen-khurana-the-cup-that-cheers-with-a-difference/ Wed, 30 May 2018 10:16:29 +0000 http://theteenagertoday.com/?p=10657 Enter Amareen Khuraana, a diminutive lady with a gigantic vision — converting India into a nation of flavoured tea connoisseurs! Amareen, with her brand Brewlette, has been redefining how Indians prefer their favourite brew for the past few years now.

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Amareen Khurana, founder of Brewlette, a line of flavoured teas

Starting with International Women’s Day in March, THE TEENAGER TODAY has been bringing you a series on women entrepreneurs, ‘Women Mean Business’. Each article introduces our readers to an inspiring woman entrepreneur or professional, insights into what shaped them and their experience of entrepreneurship.

With the rains almost here, already wistful visions of cool showers, wet greenery and sloshing about in puddles crowd the mind. And the one image that completes this entire pastiche is that of curling up with a hot cuppa tea!

India and tea have been synonymous since time immemorial. An Indian morning without that steaming hot brew is unimaginable as is that evening ritual with a cup of the best and snacks. But flavoured teas? This has not really been a part of the Indian landscape and more an ‘imported foreign’ experience.

Enter Amareen Khuraana, a diminutive lady with a gigantic vision — converting India into a nation of flavoured tea connoisseurs! Amareen, with her brand Brewlette, has been redefining how Indians prefer their favourite brew for the past few years now. As she puts it, “Even on the worst day, a cup of tea can turn it around. You may not be able to buy happiness but can surely brew happiness!”

Amareen comes from a family of entrepreneurs; her father owns a chain of restaurant, hotel and superstore in Mussoorie, her brother has his own venture called ‘Kullcha King’ and her mother is a noted numerologist and Vaastu consultant. Amareen says that she has inherited her impeccable work ethic from her father from whom she learnt the true essence of sportsmanship, teamwork and the rewards of hard work and dedication. From her mother, Amareen picked up her academic focus, the confidence to perform on stage and build her outgoing personality through extra-curricular activities.

Whilst in college, Amareen worked with actress-entrepreneur Sushmita Sen at the ‘I am She, Miss Universe India’ pageant as a contestant manager. After graduation, she worked with Mahesh Bhupathi’s sports, talent and celebrity management company, Globosport, for a year and then pursued her Masters in Management and Marketing at Birmingham City University (U.K.). She represented 15,000 students across 7 campuses and worked at the students’ union, also topping her course among 2,000 students across the management, marketing and HR streams in the process! Once she returned home, she worked at ad agency TBWA India before giving in to her entrepreneurial calling and starting Brewlette.

Amareen truly loved tea even as a teenager but it was in the U.K. that she was exposed to the world of flavoured teas. Being on a campus with students from across the world, Amareen was exposed to unique flavours and blends from virtually every corner of the globe — apple, cranberry, pear, jasmine, pineapple, grapefruit and many others! Her addiction to teas only grew here, so much that she came to be referred to as ‘the exotic tea girl’! An incident that underscores her obsession with teas took place at the airport when she was returning to India. She had excess baggage what with the tons of tea samples she was carrying with her. She chose to dump her clothes and return with her suitcases crammed with the teas of the world!

During her stint with TBWA, Amareen studied the Indian tea market and realized that there was a huge market gap in flavoured teas. India is one of the world’s leading exporters of traditional tea but is not known for the production or consumption of flavoured teas except for the ubiquitous ‘masala tea’. The market leaders in this segment are the U.K., Japan and Sri Lanka. The original business plan for Brewlette was actually etched out on a tissue and arose out of a conversation with a friend at a Domino’s Pizza outlet in Mumbai!

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Rise like a phoenix, soar like an eagle: Leena Juvekar Duttagupta https://theteenagertoday.com/rise-like-a-phoenix-soar-like-an-eagle-leena-juvekar-duttagupta/ Thu, 26 Apr 2018 09:41:12 +0000 http://theteenagertoday.com/?p=10485 Since time immemorial, man has looked to the skies for inspiration. We meet one such wonder woman, whose quest for adventure made her reach for the skies! Meet Leena Juvekar Duttagupta, partner in Adonis Aviation Enterprises, an integrated aviation company providing aviation charter services pan India and overseas.

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Leena Juvekar Duttagupta near Adonis Aviation helicopter

Starting with International Women’s Day last month, The Teenager Today has been bringing you a series on women entrepreneurs, ‘Women Mean Business’. Each article will introduce to our readers an inspiring woman entrepreneur or professional and give us an insight into what shaped them and their experience of entrepreneurship.

Since time immemorial, man has looked to the skies for inspiration. In this issue we meet one such wonder woman, whose quest for adventure made her reach for the skies, literally and figuratively!

Meet Leena Juvekar Duttagupta, entrepreneur and partner in Adonis Aviation Enterprises, an integrated aviation company in the business of providing aviation charter services pan India and overseas.

Adonis Aviation’s services cover a wide spectrum right from executive and business charters, aircraft for product launches and promotional events, film shoots, sports charters as well as for aerial surveys to medical evacuation! Their fleet of flying machines include executive business jets, turbo propeller aircraft, helicopters and drones. They also provide sales and purchase as well as organize aviation-related permissions making them a one-stop solution for clients’ flying needs. The aircrafts are flown by the most experienced pilots and are maintained by a professional engineering staff with flight safety and good engineering practices as the main objective.

India aims to become the third-largest aviation market by 2020 and the largest by 2030. Today, affluent individuals, VIPs and corporates are increasingly turning to private charter services for their travel needs due to the flexibility that such services offer at a comparatively reasonable cost.

This is the story of a woman entrepreneur who stormed this male-dominated field and is now recognised as one of the premier aviation service providers in the country.

Leena was a typical school-going child when, at the age of 7, her life changed dramatically. Her father met with an accident at the mill where he was working. He was bedridden for a year, and received no compensation from the company. Somehow they pulled through this difficult period, but a few years later when union problems erupted at the mill, things became tough once again.

Leena Juvekar Duttagupta with actor Akshay Kumar

Leena’s mother took on odd jobs like cooking, selling vegetables and sarees and picking up and dropping children from school to support the family. Leena helped in whatever way she could at her tender age. When she reached the 9th standard, she took up part-time jobs. She completed her graduation in Arts but chose not to study further due to financial constraints. To add to the pressure, her father’s mill closed down and, since both her younger sister and brother were studying, Leena joined hands with her mother to take on the responsibility for the family’s needs.

Aviation had always been Leena’s passion and she convinced her father’s friend, who ran an aircraft Maintenance & Repair Organisation (MRO), to give her a job, thus beginning her journey in this sector. Her salary of Rs 1,750 per month was not enough to support her family, and so she simultaneously took up tuitions for students to augment her income.

Leena thereafter worked in seven different aviation companies in different departments, thus gaining the knowledge she would need to set up her own business. In 2011, Leena and her brother Rahul started their partnership aviation company, Adonis Aviation, with barely Rs 60,000 as seed funding.

Read the full article by subscribing to the print magazine or the digital edition.

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Weaving style, tradition and hope: Mrunmayi Avachat https://theteenagertoday.com/weaving-style-tradition-hope-mrunmayi-avachat/ Sat, 24 Mar 2018 06:26:27 +0000 http://theteenagertoday.com/?p=10222 Mrunmayi Avachat, a fashion designer and entrepreneur, took it upon herself to revive the dying handloom industry and ensure that weavers were given a fair deal.

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Mrunmayi Avachat (right) with a handloom weaver

Starting with International Women’s Day last month, The Teenager Today has been bringing you a series on women entrepreneurs, ‘Women Mean Business’. Each article will introduce to our readers an inspiring woman entrepreneur or professional and give us an insight into what shaped them and their experience of entrepreneurship.

India has long been known for its glorious traditions in textiles and fabric design. And among its most loved are its handloom creations. Alas, these works of art, painstakingly crafted by hand, are seeing a slow death, taken over by power looms and modern automated processes, thus putting at risk the livelihood of these traditional weavers.

Enter Mrunmayi Avachat, a fashion designer and entrepreneur who took it upon herself to revive the dying handloom industry and ensure that weavers were given a fair deal.

Mrunmayi grew up in Nashik where she completed her education in the science stream. Her father is an architect and her mother owned a small tailoring workshop, both of whose skills are beautifully woven into what Mrunmayi chose as a career later on.

Mrunmayi was drawn to art forms at an early age, participating in and winning numerous inter-school drawing competitions and also being trained in Kathak under Guru Rekha Nadgauda, under whose tutelage she performed on stage and even won a prize at the all-India level. Right through childhood, she was greatly influenced by personalities who came from smaller towns and made it big. She used to read about designers and how the fashion industry was shaping up as a formidable sector in India and this instilled in her a desire to contribute to this growth story.

Fashion design was not considered a wise decision back then given its association with glamour and hence a most definite no-no for academically bright students. However, Mrunmayi chose to follow her heart and study fashion designing at the PV Polytechnic of SNDT, Juhu. Fashion greats such as Neeta Lulla, Hemant Trivedi, Wendell Rodricks and Priyadarshani Rao were her teachers, and doyens of the fashion world such as Manish Malhotra, Meher Castelino, Sabira Merchant, etc., mentored the students. In their graduating collection displayed at a fashion show sponsored by Femina with professional models walking the ramp, Mrunmayi’s collection won the award for the best outfit of the year! A placement with a fashion house followed immediately and Mrunmayi’s professional career took off. Luckily, all her jobs from then on required her to take decisions on product development and that gave her the confidence to launch off on her own a few years later.

While working with Walt Disney as Creative Head, Disney Consumer Products (Fashion), Mrunmayi felt that there was so much more in product development that she could do which was not possible in her corporate job profile. She had always had an inclination towards ethnic wear and hand embroideries. So, with her friend Nikita, she decided to explore some art and crafts and adapt them to more urban wear outfits. They started with the phulkari embroidery of Punjab and to preserve the authenticity, sourced it from village women near Patiala. They thought of giving a name to their creations and came up with NIKAYI which means ’A small (rare) collection’ in the ancient Pali language. Additionally, it also had their names (NIK – Nikita & AYI – Mrunmayi) in it and they started selling under the label. It was fun and they created a small range which got a welcome response from people and got sold instantly among their friends and colleagues.

Phulkari bridal saree, veg-dyed khan tunic and pink gajji bandhani

Mrunmayi and Nikita then went to Madhya Pradesh and met some handloom weavers. This trip changed their lives. They realized that the younger generation in the weavers’ families were not interested in weaving. Most had taken up odd jobs and migrated to cities to make their living. It hit the duo hard; they realized if this continued our children would never ever see handloom products in their lifetime.

They also discovered other facets to the weavers’ existence — that they were not paid well, that they lacked sophistication in their techniques and that it included a lot of manual hard work which the meagre remuneration they received for the same simply did not justify.

NIKAYI began working with a few top weavers to make fabrics/sarees and dupattas to suit urban preferences.

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Life Coach, Author, Speaker, Fighter: The Inspiring Story of Nidhika Bahl https://theteenagertoday.com/life-coach-author-speaker-fighter-nidhika-bahl/ Thu, 01 Mar 2018 09:45:26 +0000 http://theteenagertoday.com/?p=10069 What many do not know is that the person behind the confidence and poise and, indeed, Miss World 2017 Manushi Chillar’s life-view, was a diminutive young lady by the name of Nidhika Bahl.

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To commemorate International Women’s Day this month, THE TEENAGER TODAY brings you a series on women entrepreneurs, ‘Women Mean Business’. Each article will introduce to our readers an inspiring woman entrepreneur or professional and give us an insight into what shaped them and their experience of entrepreneurship.

Nidhika Bahl seated in front of her book The Queen Of The Comeback

A couple of months ago, Manushi Chillar was the toast of the nation, indeed the world, as she confidently won the Miss World title in China. However, what many do not know is that the person behind the confidence and poise and, indeed, Manushi’s life-view, was a diminutive young lady by the name of Nidhika Bahl.

Nidhika hails from a middle-class family of entrepreneurs and was born and brought up in Delhi. After securing a B.Com. (Hons) degree from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Nidhika went on to do an M.Sc. in Finance from Lancaster University (UK). Over the next 7 years, Nidhika held positions in companies across the U.S., U.K. and India.

Finance and numbers came easily to Nidhika; however, that did not mean that a lifetime spent in doing just that held great attraction for her. She decided to take a sabbatical and joined a popular theatre group called ‘Ank’, spending the next two years doing theatre. It was at the end of this period that she was picked up by Marching Ants Advertising Pvt Ltd. as a freelance Creative Director.

In 2005, Nidhika moved to Mumbai with her husband. Her family had always encouraged her to start out on her own and in 2006, Nidhika set up Parallel Circles Entertainment, a media firm. As the founder and creative director of PCE, she had the privilege of working with some of the best names in the corporate world such as P&G, Gillette, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Akzo Nobel, CRY Shiksha, ZOYA by Tata and many more.

However, not all was well on her personal front. Nidhika’s marriage was failing and this had a tremendous impact on her health and self-esteem. In 2008, she was diagnosed with major clinical depression which even caused her to make two unsuccessful attempts to take her life. Thus began a long journey with several doctors and specialists — she had to undergo sedation three times a day and therapy three times a week! This lasted for six long years. In the midst of this, Nidhika and her husband decided to separate.

Nidhika feels that what aggravated her condition was her playing ‘the victim’, blaming the world for what was happening to her and looking for solutions outside and trying to change others instead of looking into herself. One day, after almost 4 years of treatment and medication had caused other innumerable related health issues she was introduced by a friend to a multi-level health products company. These products helped her a great deal and she was invited to share her success stories with the group.

This early success made Nidhika determined to bounce back from this situation in her life. It took her six long years of relentless determination and undying faith in herself to deal with all that life threw at her during that period. She started meeting inspirational people and got addicted to reading, especially self-help books. She read nearly 300 books, and this addiction to reading slowly reduced her dependence on medication. One day, she came upon a book that changed her life forever — Joyce Meyer’s The Battlefield of the Mind.

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“Beti ne Bharat ka naam roshan kiya hai (Our daughter has made India proud).” https://theteenagertoday.com/beti-ne-bharat-ka-naam-roshan-kiya-hai/ Sat, 30 Dec 2017 04:30:55 +0000 http://theteenagertoday.com/?p=9693 These were the words used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he met with newly-crowned Miss World, Manushi Chhillar. And make us proud she has indeed done.

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Manushi Chhillar, Miss World 2017

These were the words used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he met with newly-crowned Miss World, Manushi Chhillar.

And make us proud she has indeed done. Hailing from Haryana, which has not been really in the forefront of women’s empowerment and on issues relating to the girl-child, Manushi brought back the Miss World title to India after a long drought of 17 years and became the sixth Indian to do so.

But has winning a beauty pageant, albeit at the international level, been the only reason that the PM sought to laud Manushi? Not really. Manushi is truly a woman of substance. We have seen countless beauty pageant winners mouth platitudes to world peace and several ‘good’ causes but Manushi was walking the talk long before Miss World got added to her name.

Early days

Manushi was born in Rohtak, Haryana, on 14 May 1997. Her father, Dr Mitra Basu Chhillar, is a scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) while her mother, Dr Neelam Chhillar, is an Associate Professor and Department Head of Neurochemistry at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences.

Manushi studied at St Thomas’ School in New Delhi and is pursuing a medical degree at Bhagat Phool Singh Medical College in Sonipat, Haryana. She is also a trained Kuchipudi dancer and has trained under legendary dancers Raja and Radha Reddy and Kaushalya Reddy. She has also attended the National School of Drama. She also loves to write poetry and paint whenever she is free.

Manushi is currently studying for a Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine and Surgery. She has ambitions to be a cardiac surgeon and would like to open a chain of non-profitable hospitals based in rural areas. Manushi has a passion for outdoor sports and actively participates in paragliding, bungee jumping, snorkelling and scuba diving.

Her personal motto is: ‘When you cease to dream you cease to live. Courage to give flight to your dreams and the ability to believe in yourself makes life worth living.’

The way to the top of the world

On 25 June 2017, Manushi represented Haryana at the Femina Miss India 2017 competition. During the competition, she was crowned Miss Photogenic, and went on to win the competition as well, earning the right to represent India at the Miss World 2017 competition.

At Miss World 2017, Manushi became a semi-finalist in the Top Model, People’s Choice, and Multimedia competitions, and was the winner of the Head-to-Head Challenge from Group Nine and co-winner of the Beauty with a Purpose competition.

On 18 November 2017, Manushi was crowned Miss World 2017 in the finals in Sanya, China, competing against 122 participants from across the world. She became the sixth Indian woman to win the crown, and the first since Priyanka Chopra won Miss World 2000.

In a moment that has now become history, when asked which profession in the world deserves the highest salary and why, she replied, “My mother has been my biggest inspiration, so I have to say, a mother’s job. It is not always about cash, but love and respect as well. A mother deserves that the most.” In that one statement which clinched the title for her, Manushi laid bare to the world the special relationship she shared with her mother and the respect she has for mothers across the world!

Read the full article by subscribing to the print magazine or the digital edition.

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