Outlook Business | WoW 2017 - Lata Bajoria
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!
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
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
Transcript
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