BHUBANESWAR: ‘She Rocks’, a three-day entrepreneur fair, was inaugurated at Esplanade One here Friday to commemorate International Women’s Day. The event was aimed to inspire aspiring entrepreneurs and was marked by intuitive events for people of all ages.
Padma Shri, Italian Odissi and Chau dancer Ilena Sitarist, chief executive of English and Odia dailies Orissa Post and Dharitri Adyasha Satpathy, former additional development commissioner, MSME, Govt of India Samarendra Sahoo, managing director, HTPL Sanjay Mishra, marketing head, Esplanade One Shyama Jha, women entrepreneurs Chaitali Mishra and Seema Tiwari graced the occasion as guests.
Followed by the lamp lighting ceremony, Satpathy, in her speech, said, “The women entrepreneurship fair is a unique and great effort by Esplanade One. Hobbies are where one’s passion lies and there is no perfect time to start as perfection is an illusion. Just start something and keep taking small steps every day. These steps would fulfill your dream later. One has to face both highs and lows in entrepreneurship. Discipline and dedication has to be incorporated in every step.”
Explaining the true meaning of empowerment, she further stated, “Empowerment is enjoying whatever you do. It’s like choice sans judgment. Women should support and connect with each other. They should possess empathy and be fearless to succeed as an entrepreneur. One shouldn’t carry guilt of overlooking family while at work and vice versa.”
Sitarist stated that the ‘Bra Burning’ culture of the West took a backstage when she came to India. “I adored whatever I discarded in the west in the name of feminism in Odisha as I realised the true value of women. Women are tolerant, elegant, soft and patient. I discovered these traits during my fight for feminism in the west,” she said.
The event was marked by a glass painting workshop conducted by designer Reemly Mohanty. Around twenty students learned the craft enthusiastically. The venue also housed stalls of handmade chocolates, radio chocolate app and a SHG urban group. Radio Chocolates RJs Nibedita and Komal kept the crowd engrossed with their anchoring. The programme was a brain child of Shyama Jha who wanted to give women entrepreneurs a platform to share their experience.
A conch shell play was conducted by Sanjay Mishra later in the evening. Young entrepreneurs like Reemly Mohanty, Tanya Pattnaik, Bhawan Gupta and Swasti Mishra spoke about their entrepreneurial journey. This was followed by Gotipua, Odissi and Tabla acts by Indian Dance Academy.
Tanya Patnaik, CEO, Radio Chocolate and Tarang TV, organised an open-mike session ‘Unzip’ where women registered their names and revealed their success stories. A social awareness programme ‘Save the Girl Child’ was presented by Nivedita Satpathy of NGO WCSM. This was followed by ‘Art with Music’ by poet, painter and choreographer Gayatri Mavuru and a women hygiene programme by social activist Kasturi Bhardwaj.
Patnaik said, “Unzip is a women-centric programme based on taboo topics. It’s important for women to share their failures and successes through this programme.”
