Two Women I have Admired and Looked Up To

The aim of life is to live and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.

Henry Miller

Some people walk into your life by accident and when you look back long after you’ve met them, you feel like life took an unexpected turn never to be the same again. This is the story of two incredible women who I deeply admire and look up to.

I’ve known both of them for a little over two years but it’s like I’ve known them forever. Outwardly they are very different, but deep within they share very similar values and traits. Both of them are bold, ambitious, and persevering founders who believed in their passion despite the constant cynicism and discouragement they faced along their arduous journey of ten years.

And, whenever I think of these two wonderful women entrepreneurs and their accomplishments, I can’t help feeling very proud that they thought it worth their while to know me!

Shradha Sharma

Shradha grew up in Patna in a typical middle class family. Her mother was a simple woman who wanted the best for her girls. For reasons that Shradha did not fully understand at that time, her mother wanted her children to study in a convent. Parent-teacher meetings were moments of embarrassment for Shradha because her mother could not converse in English (straight out of the movie “English-Vinglish”)! Her mother taught her the biggest lesson in her life when she told her:

“Shradha, don’t ever feel ashamed of who you are or where you come from. When you remember this and take pride in it, there will be nothing stopping you”.

This lesson remained with her for life. At St. Stephen’s college, when some people mocked her “Bihari style” Hindi (known for being spoken in a sing-song tone and the universal usage of the plural “Hum”), she wasn’t apologetic. She used the lesson her mother had taught her to take the high ground and explain confidently that “Hum” was about team and “Mai” was about I/me! Shradha was deeply attached to her mother and lost her under some very unfortunate circumstances. The wound of this loss has not healed completely.

The first time I came in touch with Shradha was when she reached out to me on LinkedIn with a request to post a couple of my articles on “YourStory”. I was delighted. I had just started writing on LinkedIn and she was the diva of online media by then. As I got to know Shradha better, and whenever I met her in person, I realized that behind the occasional thoughtful expression lay some hidden mischief, and tucked away beyond her hallmark exuberance there was some old melancholy. She had the unique ability of making people she interacted with believe in themselves. At the end of every meeting, your ambition and belief in your own abilities grew stronger. Inspirational, visionary, tenacious, down to earth, and large-hearted are words and phrases that come to mind when you describe Shradha. Of all these, large-hearted is what touched me the most. I am under oath not to share instances of her large-heartedness, so I would respect that.

Shradha had the burning desire to tell the world stories of people who tried really hard but whose lives did not have a fairy tale ending. She wanted to be the unofficial biographer to the hundreds of these individuals who no one wanted to write about! She decided to write about the unsung entrepreneurs who were trying to make the world a better place.

In August 2008, she decided to take the plunge, turn into an entrepreneur herself, and become that storyteller! She clearly remembers the day. It was an unusually sunny morning in the peak of the monsoons in rain torn Mumbai. She was standing in front of a gathering of entrepreneurs telling them that she would be starting a venture that would tell the stories of entrepreneurs who were not stars but had the spark, drive and hope. A few entrepreneurs said, ‘DO IT’! The rest were mostly like, ‘IT WON’T WORK’. It’s unlikely to be anything more than a social hobby they said. “How can stories of unknown entrepreneurs make commercial sense” was their point. They said it won’t last more than six months! She has always listened to her heart. And, on 16th September 2008 she started YourStory.

There were some personally humiliating moments in her journey. At one time during the fund-raise process a lawyer told her, “Women like you make so much of an issue about everything. It’s so much easier dealing with the young boys; they are so flexible and accommodating” And that stuck with her for a long time. But she has gone past all this and knows how to deal with such sexist comments and innuendos.

Shradha’s decision to start YourStory found the biggest endorsement when Mr. Tata decided to invest in YourStory. She cherishes that moment deeply and whenever she is down and low, she looks back to that short meeting and feels rejuvenated!

Shradha has received a lot of awards and accolades, both within India and internationally. When governments of other countries consider building startup partnerships with India, they invariably seek her guidance and support. She has not allowed fame, following, or proximity to influential personalities to get to her head; and she wears her influencer status lightly.

Shradha believes that every day in the last ten years, she and her team have done what they set out to do: to tell stories. The only thing she says she had on her side was an abundance of passion and self-belief. And today when I see some online publications that claim to provide deep insights into the startup space mocking at entrepreneurs and finding reasons why a startup would fail, I can understand the full import of Shradha’s contribution to creating the vibrant startup ecosystem in the country by constantly cheering budding entrepreneurs from the sidelines. No wonder that the Indian start up ecosystem matured in the last ten years. It is no coincidence that YourStory is also ten years old!

Gayathri Vasudevan

Once we were both speaking at a conference at Hotel Lalit Ashok. It was a bit late in the night when it got over and we were walking towards the lobby. I was looking into my phone trying to book a cab. She had a concerned expression on her face wondering if I would get a cab so late in the night. It wasn’t very late but she wasn’t used to taking cabs at night! She repeatedly asked me to take her car and driver! While I was sure my Uber was just around the corner, I asked her out of curiosity as to how she would go home if I took her car. Her response was she would take an auto-rickshaw! For me Gayathri’s generosity has defined who she is!

Since her childhood, Gayathri was always touched by the challenges the underprivileged in India had to go through just to eke out a living. Her determination not to be a passive observer was evident from her first year in college. As an under-grad student, she lived in the up-market diplomatic enclave. However, Delhi’s under-belly, where people who had lost their homes lived, was close by. Children from these areas often did not complete school and did not have access to government schemes as they did not have the necessary documentation to avail the schemes. Gayathri started a remedial center in her college campus which she along with a few volunteer friends ran post college hours and on Saturdays and Sundays. Running this school made her acutely aware of the polarized community that we inhabit. The foundation for everything she did in life subsequently was laid here!

Right from the beginning of her career, her focus has always been to make a difference in the lives of the underprivileged by bringing a holistic change in their livelihoods. She knew she neither had the knowledge nor the credibility for driving this change. Therefore she first decided to do a PhD thesis to study rural communities in India. For the PhD, she took the bold step of living in a real village like a real inhabitant of the village. Unlike those who relocate to a village for short periods, but replicate urban comforts within the confines of their rural dwelling, she chose to go through the complete grind. Her daughter was just six months old at that time. Some wondered if her husband had deserted her and some others wondered what her real motive was. Living alone with a small child and learning to live a life of a poor woman – small house, no gas stove, and water from a hand pump – changed her world view of how hard a woman works, and how powerless she is in her interaction with her family and community.

Gayathri believes in a model that integrates education & health with employment & entrepreneurship to ensure lifelong livelihoods through sustainable growth. She is using this holistic approach to empowering the youth of India. She co-founded LabourNet a decade ago and LabourNet has in this period grown to be one of India's largest integrated livelihood players. As an example of what they do, two brothers Praveen and Naveen learnt the skills needed to service vehicles with the support of LabourNet. They rented out a garage, earning about 2500 rupees a day. Making small savings on a regular basis, they hope to have a business of their own some day. Coming from a very poor family, barely making ends meet, today they are standing on their own feet. With the help of LabourNet’s skill development centre and the mentorship program, they are well on their way to self-sufficiency. LabourNet has created thousands of such micro-entrepreneurs.

As one might imagine, everything wasn’t hunky-dory all the way. There were some near-death moments. She had to pledge her home to keep LabourNet afloat. She had an extremely supportive family who stood by her during these difficult days.

She says that her goal is to reach 10 million livelihoods by the year 2020 with special focus on women. She hopes to establish close to 2 million enterprises for women. She says that, “it’s high time that a woman’s dream is also given the wings it rightfully deserves.”

Gayathri feels that when we think of entrepreneurship, our mind seems to be mostly tuned to the urban tech entrepreneurs who have both skills and resources. She believes it is time we also understand and encourage entrepreneurs who are displaying the zeal and drive needed to help everyone make sustainable livelihoods.

The last decade has also seen her receive many national and international awards and accolades for her innovative and pioneering work. She is also poised to take this approach, and the expertise she has built along the way, to the international arena through meaningful partnerships.

Most large scale change requires one to work collaboratively with Governments. Gayathri has learnt the art of collaborating with the Government and Government agencies, both in India and outside. She has held several advisory positions with various Governments and Government bodies. The list of such positions is a long one. Like Shradha, Gayathri too wears her influence lightly!

In conclusion:

One powerful test of people’s character is the way they treat those that don’t matter when nobody is watching. Both these women pass this test with flying colors. They are genuinely warm while dealing with junior office staff. Character defines a person. Irrespective of the path to success, some traits are always common.

Both Shradha and Gayathri cannot imagine doing anything other than doing what they are doing, or wanting to be anywhere else. They have both chased their passions and lived their dreams!

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Coming soon: "Cutting the Gordian Knot - India's Journey Towards Good Days"