Saturday, August 20, 2022

Girija Raghavan- the one woman army

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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