Some broke glass ceilings, others refused to toe the line. The eighth edition of Aparajita: Saluting Womanhood hailed the spirit of woman who are an embodiment of courage and determination - at Kuch Ansuni Kahaniya, a pre-cursor to Aparajita.
Held at The Oberoi Grand, the event introduced the nominees under five categories – Sports, Literature, Fashion and Lifestyle, Gourmet, and Business and Entrepreneurship. The nominees in the Fashion and Lifestyle category included Poonam Kasera, Divya Seth and Debashri Samanta. In Sports, Tanya M Parekh, a squash player and in Music, singer Maaruti Mohta has been nominated. In Gourmet, Monika Dasani and Sachiko Seth are in contention, while in the Literary category, the nominees include Anjum Kaytal, Ratnottama Sengupta, Nandita Acharya Chakraborty and Sreemoyee Piu Kundu. The last category, Business and Entrepreneurship saw five contenders Alka Bangur, Lakshmi Nayar, Manoshi Roy Chowdhury, Devanshi Rungta and Drishleen Seth in the league.
Amidst the nominees of 2019, the past year's nominees were also present. This included the likes of designer Sarbari Dutta, Principal Sangeeta Tandon, and Mrs India International Richa Sharma, among others. Also present amidst them all was Sudipa Sengupta, a retired professor of Jadavpur University, who is the only woman to have captured the picturesque Antarctica when she was 32.
Talking about the theme of Aparajita – Nadi (river), Ruchika Gupta, curator Aparajita said, “When we started we were a little unsure, rocky and then we went to high tide and low - and now, we have matured a little, just like a river. Nothing in Aparajita is stereotypical. We have gone back to our roots this year. Substance is what matters.”
The main event will be held on March 15 at ITC Sonar.