Contest winners: 8 compelling stories of India's self-made women, against the odds
Forbes India readers pointed us to a group of incredible women, who have succeeded despite the harshest adversities
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‘I had to learn to fend for myself from birth’
Rita Jairath, 51, Bodybuilder
My mother was schizophrenic, and my father, an air force officer, wasn't always in the right frame of mind under the immense pressure of looking after her. At the slightest trigger, they would hit me black and blue. I grew up mostly at neighbours’ homes—they would feed me and take care of me. At that time, there was little awareness about mental illness and our family was branded ‘mad’; I had no friends as a result. My only escape was school and co-curricular activities, and I excelled there.I used to help my neighbour's son in studies, and to get away from the beatings and work towards becoming a doctor, I married his brother, a merchant navy officer. But it turned out to be more of the same. My in-laws taunted me and, through my pregnancy, treated me like a maid. They initially refused to pay for a caesarean delivery, but when the foetus’s heartbeat went very low, they were forced to. My son, Anish, was born autistic and couldn’t speak in his initial years.
Anish fell ill after a few months, but they refused to take him to a doctor. That’s when I went back to living with my parents, which was equally unhappy.
I consulted various doctors for Anish and all of them said I was wasting time and money; that he would never speak. But, by then, I had lost everything, and my only mission was to make him as normal as possible. There was limited knowledge about autism in India then, in the 80s, so I wrote to a relative in the US. He sent me literature on autism, which helped me create flash cards and therapy strategies. When Anish was about five or six, he started to speak; he couldn’t make meaningful conversations, but it was a start.
A neuropsychiatrist suggested enrolling him in sport. In Class 10, he wanted to emulate Hrithik Roshan’s six-pack abs. I enrolled him into a gym and started training alongside. I began enjoying it, and participated in local fitness competitions, slowly leading up to national and international contests. I was perhaps a natural—in one competition, I did 500 squats; the next best was a national-level runner who did 75.
Of course, there was criticism. But staying in near-isolation all these years helped me blank out that noise. Once I started winning, I found more supporters than detractors. I am now a three-time national bodylifting champion, and the only woman pro-league international bodybuilding judge from Asia for the IFBB (International Federation of Bodybuilding). I also consult athletes and trainers for their diets and sports nutrition.
Meanwhile, I sent my son to college in the UK to study computing. There, he was housed with a compassionate Portuguese family and I would visit every month. Once he completed his education, I set out to complete mine. I did my graduation and post-graduation degrees from Delhi University and eventually got an honorary doctorate from the American University, affiliated to the United Nations University. Life, indeed, has come a full circle
(As told to Kathakali Chanda)
'I learned this the hard way: Every woman should find ways to earn her own money’
Reeta Khandelwal, 51, jeweller
I grew up in a very modest family in Bareilly, and married into a rich home in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani. I have a BA degree but focused all my time on raising my two children—until one evening in January 2006, when my husband was shot dead from the back. He was locking up his jewellery store as he did every day, and dropped dead right before my eyes, and those of my son, then 17.
My husband and his brother would run the business together until a separation in 2002. When my husband died, with motivation from my sister-in-law, I firmly decided that I would take over the business. Months later, the police came to us with evidence that my a close relative was behind the murder.
