Dear ELSAs!

We have been going through times of great introspection, thinking, connecting, gathering. The world has moved more inwards. There is anticipation, expectation and trepidation in the air. In times like these, kindness and hope have to be nurtured. We are in this together, and together we can and we will cross these times too. Hope you are still wearing your masks whenever you step out, hope you are stepping out only when needed and are practicing social distancing. Do remember to also give yourself time to relax, to meditate, to generally create opportunities to feel happy.

Reaching out, connecting, we carry on. Here’s what has been happening.

The 7th Annual general body meeting of the Lady Shri Ram Alumni body (ELSA) was held on the 12th of September 2020 and was attended by a large number of ELSA members. Infact, this was the best attended AGM so far! As it was an online event, ELSAs from everywhere could attend it. More than 70 ELSAs attended the AGM! The AGM was crisply moderated by Neera Chopra, the Hon Sec, ELSA EC, who welcomed the members. The Annual Report, presented by Parool Trehan, President, ELSA EC, showcased the activities and achievements and involvement of ELSA members across the globe, inspite of it being a year of unprecedented difficulties and WFH due to COVID-19. The audited accounts presented by Malini Dhir, the Hon Treasurer, ELSA EC, showed a very healthy fiscal balance. The extensively engaging AGM was brought to an end with a vote of thanks by Sunetra Sil Vijaykar, the Vice President, ELSA EC.

The discussions were engaging & many points emerged. The concerns that were raised, were noted, enquired about and information shared with all those who had expressed their concern, whether with respect to the scholarship fund which lies with the college or with respect to membership. All suggestions were also duly noted and efforts are ongoing to include all suggestions made. We thank all ELSAs for taking out time from their busy schedules to support the ELSA Community in such large numbers.

The Executive Committee is gearing up for more exciting talks, webinars, a vibrant hub and a grand revival of the GMN. However, we will need you to spread the enthusiasm and energy in ELSA and help us reach more alumni to embrace them into the association and make us stronger. We invite all ELSAs to also come forward with whatever they feel they can work with the EC on. We are only too happy to work with you on all your suggestions.

The Annual Report can be viewed at
http://lsralumna.org/ELSA-Annual-Report-2019-2020.pdf

The audited accounts presented at the AGM can be accessed at
http://www.lsralumna.org/elsa-agm2019.php

ELSA, the association of Ex-students of Lady Sri Ram College, is committed to transforming lives through sustainable support and action. In the course of this pandemic, access to basic technology is proving to be a hindrance in the pursuit of knowledge and education for the EWS students of the college. Last month, the ELSA executive committee initiated ‘Dil Se’, a fund which would be used primarily to provide digital support to the students. It will also supplement the college’s need based scholarship program.

In coordination with our alma mater, the ELSA EC has purchased and dispatched twenty five (25) laptops from our dilse fund to students identified by the college, as a small first step towards bridging the digital divide faced by students during these turbulent times, especially with exams round the corner. Tragedies are moments of awakening that require a coming together beyond doubts and certainly above divisiveness, because we are always the sum of our parts and stronger the parts that stick together, the stronger is the association. We are grateful to all those who contributed to the fund, dil se, and made this small step possible.

Ranjana Agarwal:

We had a fabulous online session with Ranjana Agarwal, expert in Wills & Trusts and succession planning; a session which answered so many of the questions that rest in our minds. She simplified the Indian Succession act, the Special Marriage Act, and other legal mazes and talked of inheritance under different acts. She clarified the meaning and the implications of Supreme Court judgements relevant to inheritance, past and present and insisted on the importance of making a will, given that getting succession certificates was a big hassle and a costly proposition. Questions regarding HUF property, equal rights of daughters on property, natural rights for women, made the session interactive.

Ranjana answered queries, asked and unasked, of all, gave good advice on wills, sharing details of how to write a will, the importance of taking good advice to write one, of being specific and detailing out who gets what, of video recording the registration of the will, of type writing the will for legibility, of nominations. She shared tips on how and who, to appoint as an executor of the will, making a list of assets, nominating nominees and ensuring joint accounts. And why it is imperative to get the will vetted by a professional who may be able to give valuable suggestions to improve on it. All in all, she made us realise how important it was to make a will and just how we could begin to go about it. Thank you Ranjana for this brilliant informative session!

Annu Kalra:

Each faith talks about fasting and feasting. Is there a science to it? A reason to it? Were our fasts and feasts coded according to the seasons? Is there more to it than meets the eye…or the tongue...we discussed all this and much more with the Spiritually Inspired Author, Artist & Guide Annu Kalra. Talking about the concepts of Fasting & Feasting and their connection with various Faiths, she directed our attention and our thoughts towards understanding fasting as balancing, as searching for an equilibrium which was good for each one of us, different for each one of us. The looking inwards, which is facilitated by fasting, was the main aim of fasting, in any faith. We also understood fasting from the point of empathy, that fasting enabled one to understand the pain of hunger and therefore more empathy towards those who don't have. fasting from the point of gratitude, for after fasting, when we eat, our sense of gratitude for what we are eating is heightened. The session brought about introspection, a certain going within, which was so calming.



Mira Gupta:

Mira Gupta, is a curator as well as designer and in her talk she spoke about the History of Indian Textiles, as it has evolved over the ages. It was a delightful session to say the least. Mira's deep interest and engagement with the topic flowed through as stories which held each of us enthralled. The stories took us to the fields of Indigo and Madder, another plant which has traditionally been used for dyeing. It took us to the streets of England, where workers protested the introduction of chintz from India to their women, a fabric so light and colourful, that they became favourites over drab and heavy linen and wool. India's colorful textiles and weaves were centre stage in today's ELSA Talks, as time and game changers. The coming of the Industrial revolution in order to mass produce out the exquisite weaves of our country.

We saw paintings and photographs of Mughal expresses in indigo jeans! in those times! And the detail that Akbar liked to wear two Kashmiri shawls - the concept behind the do shala. Stories of beetle wing embroidery the resurrection of the Yale University, connected to the Madras checks. Of the cross influence of Madras checks and Scottish tartans. Of Indian ikkats and Cambodian ikkats. The discussion after the talk was just as enriching, with questions about how heirlooms like shawls can be preserved and the role that weaves play in our lives in connecting us to our histories.

Eshna Kutty:

We also had ELSA Eshna Kutty hula hooping with us in one of the ELSA Talks. This 24 year old ELSA is taking hula hooping to a whole new level and letting the world realise that this piece of plastic can be magic in her hands. We had a refreshingly honest and delightfully candid ELSA Talks with this self-taught hooper, about her ‘flow art’, which is what she calls this form of dancing with the hula hoop. The conversation touched upon her hesitation with dancing, her initial discomfort with movement and then the eventual evolution to adopting the hula as an extension of her body, the absence of which makes her feel almost naked.

We explored with her as she explored hula during her college years, saw her as she transitioned from a performer to also a teacher of hula hooping, travelled with her as she delved into movement therapy. and what we saw, was a confident yet shy, happy in her own space, young girl, far beyond her years, wondering at her own sudden popularity. and then, all diffidence dropped away, as she did an impromptu performance, with the hula hoop, WHILE SINGING CARNATIC CLASSICAL MUSIC!! we were all awestruck & immediately requested her for a session or workshop on hula hooping for ELSAs! She is even making her own hula hoops! Here's to this girl moving and flowing and more energies helping her flow as she wants. Her ultimate blessing came from Dr Gopinath, who also attended the session briefly and blessed her! Eshna, one lucky girl!

Shri A.N.D Haskar:

We also had the good fortune of hearing Shri A.N.D Haskar in the topic of “200 year old heritage of Sanskrit Literature in Kashmir”, who traced the history and influence of Sanskrit literature across the country. He spoke about his years of serving in the Indian Foreign Service, and his amazement at discovering that many mottos of the government institutions in Indonesia were in Sanskrit, even that of their National Airlines. Talking about his desire to rekindle his pursuit of Sanskrit, he said that he realized that the best way for him to do so, would be by doing translations and it was in doing so, that his knowledge grew.

He said that his translations were different from the Sanskrit taught in schools, which were more designed for scoring, whereas his translations sought to catch and flavour and nuances of the texts. He drew our attention also to how literature was reflective of the society we live in. He also reminded us that many communities made up Kashmir, and its rich heritage of literature and art. It is not possible to recapture the session in limited words. It left all of us richer with understanding and wonder. And with a want to know more.

Padmini Shankar:

What do you get when two authors get into a discussion with each other? We’ll tell you. you get a wonderfully scintillating conversation like the one we got when ELSATalks had Niharika Gupta in conversation with Padmini Sankar, author of “Mother of All Parties”. It was like we were eavesdropping as Niharika & Padmini wove their way through discussions on social satires and social realities. They introduced us to the brand conscious party circles in Dubai, to the search for an identity by the protagonists.

We felt we know Pam (and maybe we do!) and the other wonderful characters who came to life in the course of the conversation. Neharika Gupta (ELSA batch of 2012) holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and her novel Adulting made it to the Nielsen top ten and Amazon bestseller lists in the month of its launch in August 2019. We also got a little peak into Neharika's book in the course of the conversation. All in all, we can’t wait to get our hands on both these interesting books and delving into them at the earliest. Thank you Neharika and Padmini Sankar for a wonderful talk!

Ashima Agarwal:

On 9th of December, a very interesting talk on ‘unlocking the entrepreneurial mindset’ was with ELSA Ashima Aggarwal, batch of 1984, Maths Hons. This talk was part of the Global mentors network initiative and hosted by Sunetra Vijaykar. Ashima, who is also the director for a start-up - Skilleit spoke about the importance of developing an entrepreneurial mindset at a grassroots level, within schools and institutions and how we as parents, mentors and teachers can help develop this. She gave tips and ways of how we should approach developing a mindset and also shared some anecdotes from her training and coaching experience of various start-ups and young minds wanting to start their entrepreneurial journey. The talk was very well received and several ELSAs attending found some wonderful learning from the various points shared by Ashima during the talk.

Preeti Reddy:

We had an interesting conversation between Media, Marketing & Advertising expert Preeti Reddy and media academic and commentator Gayatri Srivastava. Their conversation on Women in Corporate India & Consumers in the New Normal' covered many interesting perspectives on sectors and buying patterns as well as those on perspectives on diversity and gender.

They addressed various issues such as how the pandemic has affected consumer behavior in India, generally known to be overtly optimistic and whether the pandemic had changed that. Whether the trend of premiumisation had stopped and whether "Vocal for Local" was resonating with Indian consumers. Gayatri also touched upon what it meant for Preeti to be regularly featured in the Impact List of 50 Most Influential Women in Media, Marketing & Advertising and what as the current Chairperson of CII-IWN’s (Indian Women’s Network) Maharashtra chapter, what she thought of the popular corporate myth that women make bad bosses. It was a discussion in keeping with the rising percentage (hopefully!) of women in the work force and deeply interested all.

Uma Magal:

Have you ever looks at the rocks around you carefully? And wondered what they would say if they could tell you the stories that they carry within themselves? Because they do, you know. A fact that we were introduced to by Uma Magal, in her ELSATalks “Other Kohinoors: The Rocks of Hyderabad”, which is also the title of her documentary. Rocks, as part of not just our cities’ landscapes, but also a part of each city’s sensibilities, culture and identity, were introduced to us in this talk. She talked about how it all started for her – the eco grief or the solastalgia that happened, when large scale destruction of the rocks that marked Hyderabad as home for her. In the course of the talk, she introduced us the ways in which rocks are woven into the culture and identity of the city.

The stories and lores, the art, the craft, the songs, the cuisine, all carry the rocks of the city in them. Like the stories of Yellamma Rekumma and Amir Ali and Kagazi Burj of Golconda. She felt that the more the viewers of the documentary, more shall be the awareness about rocks and their pricelessness and therefore more sensitivity to doing something to take care of that which is left. The audience also contributed to the discussion with thoughts about how buildings and constructions should actually be made to blend into nature, rather than at the cost of it, to be sustainable. And introducing us to the interesting concept of pan-psychism. We wish Uma all the very best in her journey.

We invite you to be a part of these talks. Look out for the links on your local WhatsApp groups, LSR alumna chapters on Facebook and Instagram handles. Each PAN ELSA session requires registration, so sign up early to guarantee a place in the room. Do remember, if our meeting room is full, you can watch us live on YouTube. All ELSAs, friends and family are welcome to peruse our sessions here at their leisure.

In case you missed any of the talks, you can watch them on YouTube. The YouTube links of these talks are :
https://youtu.be/Sr-YI3dsCfg

Some are also available on our fb page

ELSA Bangalore is pleased and proud to share that ELSAConnect has been consistently growing. Our sessions were held every Tuesday and Saturday throughout October, November and December until the holidays.

We connected in October with Ritu Beri, Suki Iyer, Ishita Ghosh Datta, Indira Sridharan, Pinky Anand, Revathi Suresh, Rimjhim Roy and Samira Bhargava. We connected with Shalini Sethi, Lady Kishwar Desai, Shweta Taneja, Gayatri Raghavan, Geeta Chandran, Vimla Sikand, Geeta Verghese and Ramma Shiv Kumar during November. In December, we were coached by Gulshan Walia, had cards read with Bindu Maira, and continued learning through connecting with Aarti Byce Rathour, Aarti Singh and Neha Bansal.

In the lead-up to our session on the Partition Museum, we invited intimate stories of Partition from ELSAs, which were featured with the #ELSAPartitionStories. You can still participate in this initiative.

We also held a session with ELSA Practitioners in the Mental Health Space featuring Kiran Bhatia, Maullika Sharma, Anindita Bhattacharya and Farah Tasneem on the World Mental Health Day. We celebrated the Child In Me in November too.

We welcome you to engage with us, either live or on our YouTube platform at
https://bit.ly/ELSAblrYT


The Bengaluru chapter recently launched the ElsaTable, a food blog, as a platform to connect with Elsas from near and far. ET is a public blog, with content sourced from Elsas. At the moment, we publish content weekly on www.elsatable.com

Idea behind ET was to help build and sustain our community through chronicles of journeys and memories around food. ET brings a variety of such curated experiences without having to travel. As we open up to a wider audience, participation from Elsas globally will truly empower ET. Our Bengaluru Elsas have contributed recipes/stories, quizzes/crosswords and conducted cookouts, and much more. ET has helped us collect flavours from different regions and for different palates keeping us intimately engaged and growing the community.

Cook along sessions such as A Kartik month special - Bihari Nashta with Kaveri and Pet Pujo with Sahana Das, have been a great hit.

We request your participation as we slowly open up to a larger audience.

ELSA Bangalore is also running ELSAReels, a monthly Fillum with Chillum Club, which has featured Shakuntala Devi, Imitation Game, Raat Akeli Hai, Trial of the Chicago 7 and a retrospective of Hrishikesh Mukherjee with the films of Abhimaan, Chupke Chupke, Mili, GolMaal, Anand and Guddi.

ELSA Bangalore has completed a Kannada Class which enrolled 30 ELSAs and included 25 sessions. We are now running practice sessions in which 9 ELSAs are enrolled.

Some ELSAs met up in Hyderabad in September 2020, to keep the connections going, keeping the rules of "Meeting during times of Corona" in mind.

We are extremely grateful to all our fellow ELSAs and also non ELSAs who responded immediately to our call, contributing generously to the Dil Se fund. To all those who are still waiting to become part of this pay forward drive, the DIL SE Fund is still open and accepting contributions, should you or any one amongst your circle, including non ELSAs, wish to chip in towards building a corpus. This would help institutionalize our humble efforts to support our college and students for all times to come. The link and all necessary details, including the bank account for the same are as follows -
https://lsralumna.org/elsa-dil-se.php

Besides this, we will keep our webinars and other virtual interactions going, so keep a look out for those. Look out for our announcements on Facebook and Instagram, about ELSA Talks.

To keep us all connected and together, we are trying to figure out how we can make things happen, using the social media to connect. If you have ideas, send them to us. We would love to hear from you.

ELSA also welcomes its new members! Here’s to growing from strength to strength and forming a network of powerful, positive women across the country!

Sasha Kumar
Ritika Thole
Sonali Singh
Sonia Kakkar
Vidya Srinivasan
Devika Menon
Himali Mirchandani
Mitali Chopra
Monica Vohra
Aditi Amit
Uma Magal
Lakshmy Venkatesh

On behalf of the ELSA family we warmly welcome our new members

The season past and the season future, are both times to be grateful, for the sorority that we are a part of. Together, we shall rise. Higher and stronger. ELSA EC wishes all ELSA sisters a peaceful and happy new year!