A word on these women

As a polytechnic in the city committed to women's education turns 50, its media students document the lives of five women integral to the institute, in a new book

One of Auguste Renoir's most impressive paintings is titled The Daughters of Catulle Mendès. It is, well, a portrait of his friend and prolific French poet's three daughters in oil — conveniently omitting in its title the name of their mother, Augusta Holmès, virtuoso pianist and one of the most important composers of the 19th century. This phenomenon is no stranger to the 21st century, but it's what the students at the Social Communications Media (SCM) department at Sophia Shri B K Somani Polytechnic are striving to change.

The polytechnic, which has empowered the first generation of women born in independent India, is celebrating its golden anniversary. SCMSophia, as it is known, launched a project called Lives Of The Women in 2014 helmed by visiting faculty member and award-winning author Jerry Pinto where students document the lives of women who have done ground-breaking work in various fields through a series of 10,000-word biographies. The fourth volume that was released last month is centred on five women who have played an integral role for the institute: historian and polytechnic director Dr Sr Anila Verghese; former head of department at SCM Jeroo Mulla; advertising veteran Elsie Nanji; fashion designer Krishna Mehta and restaurateur Pinky Chandan-Dixit of the popular Babulnath restaurant Soam.

Nirmita Gupta, HOD of SCMSophia, states that the idea of the series stems from the fact that an Internet search for books featuring the lives of women throws up no real statistics. "They talk about women authors and fictional characters and their relationship with men. No one seems to have noticed that in real life, women are increasingly looking for more than a man to validate their existence." Mulla, who has been teaching at the institute for over 30 years, reflects on how she has shaped the students. "What I have tried hard to do is instil in the students two things: a strong sense of feminism and a concern about those less privileged than themselves or more disadvantaged in one way or another. Most of my lectures in Fundamental Concepts in Communications were geared to this."

Krishna Mehta, Nirmita Gupta and Sakshi Sharma

The book follows a lucid narrative with anecdotes from people close to each protagonist that unveil facets of their existence that certainly wouldn't show up on Google — Mehta, for instance, can remember every colour she wore, and the time when slacks came into fashion, too. Speaking about her protagonist Sr Verghese, student Sakshi Sharma says that when she embarked on the project, she received a bio-data spanning 43 pages, which proved to be rather helpful. "I always took her for being a director or a nun, like someone authoritative, but she turned out to be quite an inspiration. We got to know her as a woman of substance, admired by all; a person who wears multiple hats and is not afraid to take a stand," she says.

Jeroo Mulla

As per the course structure, the students graduate from writing 500-word pieces to those around a word limit of 10,000, in an age focused on short-form content. "The students may find the numbers looming over them but they must also learn that in the real world, those numbers will always loom," Pinto says. The key to long-form writing, he adds, is the belief that there is a story worth telling and there are readers who want to spend time on the subject — a belief that this 170-odd page document reflects.

Life lessons from a polytechnic

Pinky Chandan-Dixit

'It has been a very big part of my growth not only professionally but also personally. My biggest takeaway has been honesty, integrity, hard work and a positive attitude.'

Elsie Nanji

'For me, it was a foundation for learning skills we could experiment with and learn, in the company of like-minded, creative people. Everything was new and exciting and more importantly I realised that there is always something more to learn — another point of view, another interpretation of the same subject; it never ends.'

Dr Sr Anila Verghese

'My training and much of my working life has been in academics as a teacher of history and a historian. My six and half years as director of Sophia Polytechnic have broadened and widened my knowledge and horizons since now, I am interacting closely with professionals and students in creative fields such as art, media, fashion, textiles and hospitality.'

LOG ON TO scmsophia.com/books (to read the Lives Of The Women series)

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