Vaahini - the beautiful flow of events

"Be a soul sister... give three tips to a working mother to balance her work life", read the invite for a contest, Me having too many things already on my mind thought of revisiting the website later, then immediately changing my mind I thought of attempting the contest. This One Act from my side led to a flow of beautiful events that I would nurture for a while.

I received a call announcing I was one of the winners who had won the contest and that I was invited to the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace to receive my prize. I couldn't believe what I heard, "was it Hotel Taj Mahal Palace she mentioned??" Though I had high hopes of winning the contest and getting my name and entry published on their website -https://microsite.accenture.com/vaahini/Pages/default.aspx;

I never imagined I would be felicitated for the same :))) and that to in a Grand event organized by Accenture in collaboration with the Economic Times.

I sought the permission from my manager, to leave an hour early in order to attend the event , instead of granting me the same my manager encouragingly asked to take leave a lot earlier in order to make in time and be dressed appropriately for the event. Wow!!

Tagged along my friend, Tanuja - my well wisher and motivator, I reached the event just in time. The event came across to be remarkable - well organized, focused, and informative. Did you know? "out of the 11,000 seats on the boards of Indian companies, only 5 per cent are occupied by women and this is consistent with global figures, where among the Fortune 500 companies, only 15 have women in top positions"

The event was graced by Managing Director & CEO, ICICI, Chanda Kochhar, author and columnist Shobhaa De, Managing Partner, AZB & Partners Zia Mody, and Executive Director, Accenture India, Rekha Menon. The men were represented by Chairman, Accenture India, Harsh Manglik, Resident Editor of the Economic Times, Bodhisatva Ganguli and Managing Director & CEO, Future Brands, Santosh Desai.

And what an honor to receive my prize from the hands of Ms. Chanda Kochhar, winner of Padma Bhusan - one of our country's highest civilian award.

And a heartiest THANK YOU to all my friends who supported and sent me their wishes. :) :)

PS: Visit the link to hear my sound byte and read my publlished entryhttps://microsite.accenture.com/vaahini/iwd-2011/Pages/international-womens-day-2011.aspx?tab=4