International Women's Day: Women who made a change

On ‘International Women’s Day’ DC reporters Jose Kurian and Pooja Nair pick up some amazing young city women who made a change by venturing into less-trodden annals. They include an adventure biker, one who heads an IT company at an age of 21, a woman who left her IT job to begin a homemade creamery in city, a lady advocate who dedicated her life for fellow women and an attakkadha scriptwriter (musical script for Kadhakali, the traditional art-form).

The woman bike rider

It was three years back that this girl-next-door from Kozhikode working as a Manager at Federal bank decided to accept the challenge of her friend to ride a Harley Davidson bike. 

Merilyn Hamlet, from Chevayur near here started riding the Harley Davidson street 750 version and took out several long and short rides. Later she became part of the Harley family and the club named ‘Harley Owners Group (HOG). Now she is among the many riders from the country honoured by Harley for completing the Big Five Patch of Harley, where one has to ride to five different places suggested by Harley. 

She was the only Keralite to accept this challenge and among the 6 women riders from the country. “Each of the rides was an experience in itself. People say women riders are never appreciated. I disagree because I was respected, cared for and also given equal prominence by my co-riders in all the trips I took in all these years”, said Merilyn, who recently bought a Ducati, the super bike, by taking a bank loan.

Two friends with a creamery of homemade ice-creams

Two friends working in the Gulf had a series of brainstorming sessions about launching a unique business venture back home. Later, they zeroed in on opening a creamery that sells a traditional hand-churned ice cream at Gujarati Street, an emerging business hub, by transforming the abandoned storehouses close to the beach. 

Thus the long pending dream of Divya Sreejith and Vineetha Sajeev turned into reality a few months back. The Yumlab Creamery, started in June, and these women are the icons of change in Gujarati Street.
While Divya still holds her job as a business development manager in the shipping industry, Vineetha, a product manager in the IT industry, Dubai, left her job to look after the business back home.  

Vineetha told DC that they had chosen the food industry as they had hit upon the right entrepreneur, one who produces hand-churned ice creams. “The woman, Sujala Parekh, who is Bangalore-based, has been bringing out amazing taste combinations in ice cream without using any artificial colours or substances. She makes them the old fashioned way, but conquered us with her variety of tastes”, she said. “Even before the launch we had decided to start something safe, one we can offer to our children,that is truly different and genuine. So we felt this is the right one”, she added.

The only lady scripting for Kathakali

Aattakatha is a literary genre in Malayalam language consisting of the libretto used for the Indian classical dance drama Kathakali, or in short the text of Kathakali songs is known as Attakatha. 

Radha Madhavan from Kozhikode is the only woman who is pursuing Aattakatha for several decades. She has scripted nearly 15 Aattakatha’s, of which10 have been directed and staged by various noted Kathakali artists. “The literature and art background of the family has been a major influence for me to pick this passion seriously,” said Radha Madhavan, wife of noted Carnatic music scholar late AD Madhavan. “Even though all the stories I pick are inspired from great epics, they still have relevance in our society,” she added.

Pooja, the theme cake expert

Cake decoration or theme cakes have recently gained wide popularity. Meet Pooja Raj from Malaparamba in Kozhikode, who decided to quit her job in a school just to pursue her passion for  baking. 

Now this self taught cake artist is the proud owner of a home baking venture ‘Batterstory’. 

This post graduate in Commerce is a cake designer who specializes in theme cakes for birthdays and weddings and she has baked and designed beautiful cakes for a lot of celebrities and other prominent personalities at this young age. 

“People’s need is gradually changing and all I did was to move with the demand. People didn’t have an idea about theme cakes when I started my venture, but where amazed them was seeing my creations on cake. Eventually the demand for theme cakes increased and people now give me idea on what kind of cakes they need”, said Pooja Raj.

Anjali, the lady entrepreneur at 21

At 21, she proves that entrepreneurship is just a matter of hard work and dedication. Meet Anjali Reema Dev, the co-founder of Behance on entrepreneurship, the first young lady entrepreneur working in the IT sector in Malabar region. 

“It’s not about ideas, it’s about making ideas happen,” said Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance on entrepreneurship.  

Anjali Reema Dev is the Founder and CEO of Corentive Digital Solutions Pvt ltd, a company devoted to bringing innovation in the field of online branding and marketing. 

Anjali comes from a family of physicians who believed she would join the same career. Though she succumbed to the pressure and opted for the science group in secondary school, she realized it was not her domain at all. 

So, she decided to pursue her passion and graduated in business. She made a success of it even though her family was unfamiliar with the whole business world.