It's never too late to find your true calling. Lata Bajoria of The Hooghly Mills and NGO, Apne Aap discovered her potential at 57!
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Music: Vodovoz Music Productions
#LataBajoria #WOW2017 #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
Read the stories of all the 17 women achievers profiled this year https://www.outlookbusiness.com/speci...
You can also find the edition on the Outlook Group app or buy a digital copy from Magzter
Download Outlook Group: http://app.outlookindia.com/
Digital copy: http://subscription.outlookindia.com/...
Music: Vodovoz Music Productions
#LataBajoria #WOW2017 #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
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NewsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Well, coming from the same city as Miss Monica Liu,
00:07 we have with us Miss Lata Bajoria
00:10 of the Hooghly Mills Company.
00:12 Coming from a conservative Marwadi household,
00:16 Miss Lata Bajoria had to take over the jute business
00:19 of her late husband, Arun Bajoria,
00:22 in the most challenging circumstances you can think of.
00:26 And in doing so,
00:27 not only did she discover her true self,
00:30 but also learned the art of being selfless
00:34 through her philanthropic venture, Apne Aap.
00:38 (upbeat music)
00:46 Born and brought up in a liberal family in Mumbai,
00:50 Lata Bajoria was the typical city girl
00:52 who loved her freedom.
00:54 At 20, she was married into a conservative Marwadi family
00:58 and moved to Kolkata.
01:00 Her life became all about rules and customs.
01:03 Her husband, Arun Bajoria, was known as the jute baron
01:08 who controlled much of India's jute production then.
01:12 But Lata Bajoria had to spend the next few decades
01:15 living under his shadow
01:17 with no voice on anything consequential,
01:20 let alone business.
01:22 (upbeat music)
01:24 When her husband died in 2008,
01:27 Lata finally came face to face with the huge jute empire
01:31 that he had left behind.
01:32 But she had absolutely no clue about anything business.
01:39 She was 57 then.
01:41 That was when she rediscovered herself,
01:45 taking independent charge of both her business and life.
01:50 Today, Lata Bajoria single-handedly manages
01:53 her family's business under Hooghly Mills Company.
01:57 But more importantly, she has charted her own path,
02:00 immersing herself in social work
02:02 with Kolkata-based NGO Apne Aap
02:05 and is championing the cause of organic living.
02:08 Lata Bajoria personifies the life lesson
02:13 that it's never too late.
02:15 (upbeat music)
02:18 (upbeat music)
02:21 - So, hello everyone.
02:37 As you have seen, my name is Lata Bajoria.
02:41 I was born in Bombay.
02:43 I'm a Bombay girl.
02:45 I studied here.
02:47 I'm an economics graduate from the Bombay University,
02:49 studied in Sophia.
02:51 And I had a very, very carefree life
02:53 till I got married.
02:55 I was driving a car, I was swimming,
02:58 I was also bicycling that time.
03:01 And all the life, too many friends,
03:04 and life was really good.
03:06 And my parents are quite reformist.
03:09 (speaking in foreign language)
03:12 At the age of 18, like traditional Marwari girls,
03:14 I got married to a very conservative family in Kolkata.
03:17 And it was a very kind of a cultural shock
03:22 because coming from here and then staying in Parda
03:26 and from that lifestyle,
03:29 to not to be able to do anything,
03:32 but a very conservative family,
03:35 the first day of my marriage, my mother-in-law tells me,
03:38 "Go around and (speaking in foreign language)
03:41 "and go around so many times and this way and that way."
03:43 And I said, "My God, (speaking in foreign language)
03:46 "how do I deal with these things?"
03:48 So it was, such incidents were happening every day.
03:54 No friends.
03:55 (speaking in foreign language)
03:59 Pooja, path, rituals, rituals,
04:02 there were millions of rituals which we had to follow.
04:05 And I was the only daughter-in-law, the more so.
04:08 So, you know, (speaking in foreign language)
04:13 It was so free, but (speaking in foreign language)
04:18 the car has to go around.
04:20 You could, such simple things also,
04:22 you needed an escort to go everywhere.
04:25 So, like once I made just an innocent remark
04:29 which I learned in Bombay that,
04:30 the God made friends and the devil made the relatives.
04:34 And all hell broke loose.
04:36 (audience applauding)
04:37 Oh my goodness.
04:39 (speaking in foreign language)
04:44 Go out with your sister-in-law and all that.
04:48 Things were so funny also now when I look back.
04:52 So, (speaking in foreign language)
04:56 Then tragically, I lost my first child who was a son.
04:59 (speaking in foreign language)
05:01 There was a kind of a moral pressure.
05:04 You must have sons now.
05:07 And (speaking in foreign language)
05:10 As a result, that culminated into four daughters,
05:15 one by one.
05:15 (audience laughing)
05:16 With a lot of, (laughing)
05:18 so much of, (audience applauding)
05:21 so much of (speaking in foreign language)
05:23 And, you know, every day it was a different story.
05:26 (speaking in foreign language)
05:28 I would be taken aside to the pundit
05:30 and (speaking in foreign language)
05:31 Oh, give her an apple.
05:33 You know, all the prashad.
05:34 And I don't know how many sons I was supposed to get
05:37 by doing that.
05:38 So, that was there and I had no clue about the business.
05:42 Though it was such a huge, I mean, industry,
05:47 I never entered the office.
05:48 I'd never even been to inside a jute mill,
05:50 though I live bank opposite, ironically.
05:53 So, it was a very restricted life.
05:55 My husband was very proud.
05:56 He would say, "Oh, you know, my wife doesn't know
05:58 "anything about business.
06:00 "She doesn't even know how many jute mills I have."
06:03 So, that was the kind of typical life which I led.
06:07 And business-wise, let's say I was not even allowed
06:10 to enter the jute mill for 40 years of a married life.
06:14 So, that was quite something.
06:17 And he was dealing, he had so many jute mills,
06:21 he had financial dealings with so much properties.
06:24 He was a genius man.
06:26 He had a very high IQ.
06:27 He was a one-man show.
06:29 But I had, I was not aware of anything.
06:32 I mean, his business dealings,
06:34 he was meeting so many people, what was going on,
06:37 as far as the business was concerned, nothing.
06:39 Just sleep, one ritual after another, and no friends.
06:44 And very, very restricted.
06:48 So, I even used to call him the,
06:50 you're a seventh century man, that I'm married to that.
06:55 But I was only one, at least, there was a big house,
06:57 no financial problems.
06:59 Well, then my, actually, my story actually started
07:02 when my husband died.
07:04 So, I was 57 at that time.
07:07 And ironically, all the signs of emancipation,
07:12 I took, and there was no time also for me to mourn.
07:17 Because within three days of him dying,
07:20 and because there was no mill member, so I had to take over.
07:24 Take over means I had to face all my employees,
07:27 and I had to face them and tell them that,
07:29 look, as long as I'm here,
07:31 you don't have to worry about anything.
07:33 And I take over, and I promise,
07:35 not only to them, I promise to myself also,
07:38 that I'm going to give my 100%.
07:43 Whatever it is, whatever I am.
07:45 And that is where my actual journey started.
07:49 So, that is not doing the, and then, you know,
07:52 not doing the word of F in finance.
07:54 People will say, "Finance, (speaks in foreign language)."
07:56 How do I do it?
07:57 On what basis do I decide what is to be sold,
08:01 what is to be looked after, and how do I do it?
08:03 I've never even entered the office.
08:05 So, it was, then suddenly I'm thrust upon everything
08:09 I have to look after.
08:10 So anyway, I started.
08:13 The first thing I did, I bought a laptop.
08:15 And I thought that I may illiterate without my own identity.
08:20 And also, then my first email ID was Lata Arun Bajoria.
08:26 Because I wanted to, you know,
08:28 have the name also with me, and that is still there.
08:31 I kept a proper tutor.
08:32 Not (speaks in foreign language)
08:34 because then that won't matter.
08:36 The second thing I started,
08:38 I started going to the office, I had to.
08:40 And then I started reading the Economic Times,
08:44 which for us, nothing.
08:46 (speaks in foreign language)
08:47 I see the picture thing, or just fashion,
08:49 but now I realize that I had to read it.
08:52 And then sooner, all the words start making sense to you,
08:55 all this business sense.
08:58 So, a lot of things, the changes that happened to me
09:01 were quite unique, in the sense that
09:04 I started finding myself gravitating towards the men.
09:07 When I would go out to anywhere,
09:09 because I wanted to learn so much,
09:12 especially if I went to a jute party,
09:14 I would just automatically watch the scene,
09:16 like (speaks in foreign language)
09:18 and all that, and then I would,
09:19 suddenly I would be, you know,
09:21 you really would find that the women
09:22 are staring at me, their wives.
09:24 Because at the age of even this,
09:29 I was starting to be threatened, my goodness.
09:32 And then I realized that I have to have a balance.
09:37 (speaks in foreign language)
09:38 I can ask questions discreetly,
09:42 or learn from the paper, or something like that.
09:44 So, these are very funny, funny things also that happen.
09:46 You don't realize it, that automatically,
09:49 you are not segregated, and you want to go
09:51 to a different level.
09:52 So, I started not even recognizing my own self.
09:55 The changes happened so much.
09:59 And so, this is the basic story.
10:04 And then, of course, I had to handle
10:10 the day-to-day operations.
10:11 And then one day I started, I thought that,
10:15 I've never been inside the jute mill.
10:16 I used to hear so much about that.
10:18 My life was, for 40 years I had heard of all that.
10:21 Let me try and go.
10:23 I asked one of my managers that can I,
10:25 I would like to visit.
10:26 He said, "No, no, no.
10:27 "Don't even think of it, madam."
10:29 I said, "Why?"
10:30 He said, "If you go, the production will come down."
10:33 I said, "Am I a mannequin or a man?
10:34 "What, (speaks in foreign language)
10:36 "No, no, no, (speaks in foreign language)
10:38 "Then I said, (speaks in foreign language)
10:39 "That time, I didn't."
10:41 But then suddenly, a few days later, I said, "Let me go."
10:45 I didn't ask anyone this time.
10:47 I just went.
10:49 And that was such a turning point in my life,
10:52 because 3,000 workers, and of course,
10:56 when they saw, they were all shocked,
10:58 including the guy who told me not to come,
11:00 the manager and all, and all these people,
11:03 they almost fell at my feet,
11:04 because for them, then I realized
11:07 that there was respect in their eyes.
11:09 And then I realized that they are,
11:13 you know, they have a respect,
11:15 and for them, I was the (speaks in foreign language)
11:19 because I had taken the place of Mr. Bajoria.
11:22 So they only recognized me as his widow,
11:25 and they said, "Okay, she is what,"
11:27 (speaks in foreign language)
11:28 "was for them."
11:29 And so then I decided, and they only told me one thing,
11:32 that, "Please, please, please keep on coming."
11:34 (speaks in foreign language)
11:36 And that gave me such a boost, that even as a woman,
11:39 and as a widow of such a man,
11:41 which I've never even met them, I've never even,
11:43 they know that I am behind,
11:44 and yet they are respecting me so much,
11:46 and they want me to come.
11:47 They want to interact with me.
11:48 They want to tell me their things and all.
11:50 So that was very nice.
11:53 And then, of course, I started consolidating,
11:58 because there were so many things to do,
12:00 so many mills to look after,
12:02 and I thought that is what I have to do.
12:04 So we sold off some of them,
12:06 and started learning, managing a lot of things.
12:09 And then, of course, I started a musical.
12:16 I mean, we had the jute mill,
12:18 something which never happened
12:19 in the 200 years of a jute industry.
12:22 Some German person came to me and said,
12:23 "We want to have a musical program here."
12:25 Again, I asked our people, they said,
12:27 "Oh my God, you can't even think of what will happen."
12:30 You know, (speaks in foreign language)
12:31 The workers.
12:33 (speaks in foreign language)
12:34 Then the next day, I thought that, why am I asking them?
12:37 I'm supposed to be the owner.
12:39 Then let me tell them.
12:40 The desk will go ahead, rather than asking them.
12:43 And I did that, and it was one of the most successful
12:46 presentation, it went off so well.
12:49 Can you imagine in such a warehouse thing,
12:51 all the CC cars, and all the diplomats,
12:53 and everybody was there from Calcutta.
12:56 And then, these things start giving you the power,
12:59 that, okay, I can decide, I can do things the way I want.
13:02 So, this is actually,
13:07 so then I also started discovering the Lata in me,
13:12 'cause all this while, it was just Mrs. Arun Bajoria.
13:15 There was no name.
13:16 So after this consolidation, then I decided
13:21 that I need to do something more, the social service.
13:25 So I became a part of Apnea Women's Worldwide.
13:28 That's a grassroot movement to end sex trafficking.
13:32 So I became a trusting that,
13:34 it was started by my niece anyway.
13:35 So I was the masi to her, and I became masi
13:38 to almost every prostitute in Sonagachi.
13:42 And I also learned a lot from their stories,
13:46 that they are women like me, and you know,
13:50 one was Uma, just to give you one instance.
13:52 She was a Hindu married to a Muslim,
13:54 was a pimp after getting married.
13:57 You know how they lure them and they get them married,
13:59 and then when she has a child,
14:02 she just wanted her to come in the business.
14:04 She refused.
14:06 She came to us.
14:08 So we not only got her the custody of her child,
14:11 we empowered her, and today she's running
14:13 a very successful, one of our very successful
14:17 income generating program, which is century travel making.
14:20 She's leading that.
14:21 There's another girl called Payal,
14:23 who was trafficked from Bangladesh.
14:25 So she took her name, I mean,
14:28 Payal of course is not a real name.
14:30 And then she also told me, she actually took me
14:32 to her working place, where she services.
14:34 That is a part of Sonagachi, which is the,
14:36 I don't know whether, how many of you know,
14:38 is Asia's largest red light district.
14:41 There are more than 30,000 women there, trapped.
14:46 And none of them are there of their own choice.
14:49 Almost all have been trafficked,
14:51 the age seven, eight, they have no homes,
14:54 and that is their only comfort place.
14:56 They can't even get out.
14:57 So then she literally took me to her working place also.
15:02 And can you imagine offering me
15:03 in that kind of atmosphere a Coca-Cola?
15:06 Asking a guy who was, you know, a kind of pimp,
15:09 that you can get Coca-Cola.
15:10 I said, I feel like matching you up
15:11 when you are offering me a Coke.
15:13 But then, (speaking in foreign language)
15:14 that also went on.
15:15 So we are doing serious work with them.
15:17 We have put the children into Ram Krishna Mission there.
15:20 They're getting educated.
15:22 And then, of course, I am a nature freak.
15:25 I think my blood must be green.
15:26 So I believe in organic farming.
15:29 I do classes of that.
15:31 I teach about Ayurvedic medicines there.
15:33 I have a spice baghichha in Calcutta.
15:35 So all of this, all of you are welcome
15:38 to come whenever you want.
15:41 So that's about it.
15:44 My message would be that,
15:46 (audience applauding)
15:47 my message would be that I started late,
15:52 and I really had a sense of breaking away my shackles
15:55 at the age of 57.
15:56 It was like, really as if I came out of a cocoon.
16:00 And then doing so many things,
16:03 not being answerable to anyone.
16:06 So it was ironical for me.
16:08 But I would say nobody has to wait
16:10 till these kind of circumstances.
16:13 I think people can do it.
16:14 Women can definitely do it even before that.
16:18 Why should you wait for that long?
16:19 So one can do so much, so much potential is there.
16:22 So I wish all of you what I have been through.
16:26 And of course, with four daughters,
16:27 I'm totally feminist.
16:29 That you can understand.
16:31 So that's what.
16:33 (audience applauding)
16:37 - Ms. Vijoria, thank you so much
16:42 for that very encouraging words,
16:45 and your very encouraging address and story.
16:47 Thank you very much.
16:48 (upbeat music)
16:51 (upbeat music)
16:54 (upbeat music)
16:56 (upbeat music)
16:59 (upbeat music)
17:01 you