Girija Raghavan has been single handedly, bringing out a Tamil monthly for women called Ladies Special which is celebrating its Silver jubilee this year. She is both the editor and the publisher of the magazine. In the context of the print media seeing the demise of some popular Tamil weeklies and monthlies, to bring out a magazine without fail for the last 25 years is a remarkable achievement indeed.
Apart from
being a successful editor/publisher Girija also wears several other hats which
make her a unique personality. She is an entrepreneur who helps other women
become entrepreneurs. She is an activist who champions many women centric
causes. She is a business consultant to women who need advice for their new business ventures. Besides she is
also a philanthropist and an active Rotarian. In her mid sixties Girija
packs a lot of energy in her short frame
and is full of new ideas to help women in need of any kind of help. To call her
a dynamic person will be an under statement.
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Girija did her schooling in MCT
Muthiah Chettiar School, a Tamil medium school in Chennai and got a B.Sc degree from the Vaishnava college in Chrompet.
Though she wanted to study
further, her conservative family decided that it was time for her to get married
and settle down in life. In November 1976 she got married to Raghavan, a distant relative
based in Bangalore.
“Chennai to Bangalore was a big transition for me. A girl from a
conservative family, I became a modern
woman thanks to the encouragement I got from my husband. Raghavan was a fine
human being. He saw a lot of potential in me to achieve big things in life. He
opened up a lot of new windows for me.”
When life was cruising along beautifully with a loving husband, a
decent job in a bank and a baby boy to
dote over, disaster stuck the family. Her husband died of a massive heart
attack in 1981. Numbed by shock, she was frightened beyond words. However, she
was determined to make her husband`s dream about her and her son come true.
At the bank, while she was earning a good name for her efficiency, she
also began to take active interest in
the sports, literary and cultural
activities of the bank.
As the Secretary of the
Cultural Club of the bank she staged `Panchali Sabadham` as a musical play for which she not only wrote the script, but also directed and donned the main role of
Panchali ( Droupathi). The play was a resounding success. Artist Madan of Ananda Vikatan (AV), who was
the chief guest, while appreciating the play remarked , “This is the first time
that I saw Panchali with spectacles”.
Every one laughed. Girija had forgotten to remove her glasses while going on
the stage. But Madan did not fail to notice the immense talent of Girija. On
his return, he invited Girija to write for Junior Vikatan, the sister
publication of Ananda Vikatan, during her free time. Her very first assignment
was a weekly column devoted to local shopping. Later she was even allowed to
write on subjects of her choice. Girija as a writer/ journalist had arrived.
After two years, she decided to
become a freelance journalist working for other publications like Mangayar
Malar, Kalki, Mangai and even Bommai, a film magazine which gave her access to
all famous studios and film stars of the time. It is the association with
Mangayar Malar(a monthly targeted at women), which planted the dream of starting a magazine
of her own for ladies later.
When All India Radio was looking for a youth to anchor their youth
centric programme Girija was invited to
anchor the programme. AIR found her presentations to be very good. She started
participating in Radio plays, became an announcer and eventually was made to
read the News in Tamil- the ultimate recognition from AIR.
“All these I did during the free time I managed to get from the bank
for the extra income that it brought me, so that I could give the best of
everything for my only son. My dual role as a writer and radio artist brought me close to several
celebrities. By now I had built a reputation for my ability to take on any
challenges posed to me.”
The television industry soon decided to use the talents of Girija. Doordarshan invited her to
anchor programmes aimed at house wives
during the afternoons. When demand for her time from the press and radio
media started to grow Girija resigned from the job to become an
entrepreneur in 1991.
Her first venture was called `Gayathri Cassettes` started in 1991. Under this banner she pioneered the concept of converting stage
plays into audio cassettes. All famous stage plays of the time of almost all famous troupes were recorded
and sold as cassettes by her firm. Within a few years, however, piracy menace
made her quit this business after incurring huge losses.
In 1995 she started another
company called `Gayathri Creations` which started producing in house programmes for Doordarshan & SUN TV. Over the years she has
also produced programmes for channels like Raj TV, Raj Digital plus, Vijay TV, Podhigai and Win TV. Gayathri creations was also
involved in the production of advertising commercials. She has also lent her
voice to hundreds of commercials produced by other producers.
“One of my most popular programmes was the one titled `Ladies
Special` which I did for Raj TV. In this weekly talk show, which ran for 52 weeks I dealt with several topics dealing with problems faced by youth, house wives and working women,. The success of this programme
made me very popular among women. I saw an opportunity to start a ladies
magazine dealing with similar topics. Thus was born a `Ladies Special`- a
women`s magazine in Tamil with English title.”
Simultaneously she was also using the
opportunities she got in the TV medium to promote the magazine. Her single
biggest appeal to women was that they should learn to be independent and stand
on their own legs. This led to the `Women Enterprise Cell` of the State
Government inviting her to conduct seminars on various topics aimed at women in
all important cities and towns of Tamil Nadu. She even helped NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and
rural development) in designing and implementing a programme of exhibitions to market the products of the
Self help groups funded by them. Since 2000, she has conducted
more than 500 events in all parts of TamilNadu, Bangalore, Mumbai & even Kuwait.
Girija the media personality had also become
an effective event organizer.
All this led to Girija Raghavan becoming a social entrepreneur focusing on women with Women Empowerment as her mission in
life. She is being helped in this by a
large army of committed ladies who have benefited from her advice and guidance. She
runs an organization called BRAWE (Business
Related Advice for Women Entrepreneurs )
and an NGO called WISE TRUST through which women entrepreneurs are being
helped with individual attention. So far she has helped create several thousand women entrepreneurs.
No wonder she is known as the `One Woman Army` in the Tamil literary
world for her multiple talents and multi-tasking abilities.
(This article has appeared in the latest issue of Vidhura, quarterly magazine published by Press Institute of India).
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