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Sunday, 1 October 2023

14. A BLEND OF BEAUTY AND BRAINS (YEAR 1972)

STRESS, SUCCESS AND EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN

The Highs and Lows of A Woman’s Journey in the Corporate World

CARE: This is Chapter 14 of my book Stress, Success and Everything In-Between. These are individual anecdotes but to understand the professional journey in totality, I would recommend reading the book from Chapter 01 onwards.

Enough of mundane banking! Let me share some interesting trivia from my work life.

In November 1971, Bank's Lucknow Circle welcomed five women to its fold. Having known all of them from close quarters, I can say with surety that they (except myself) were remarkable women. These highly talented women had impeccable academic credentials as well as impressive personalities. They embodied a rare combination of beauty and brains and left a lasting impression on anyone they met.


During that era, the esteemed Miss Femina India Beauty Pageant had begun to organise its regional rounds before culminating in the grand finale in either Delhi or Bombay (now Mumbai). Lucknow was one such regional centre for this prestigious event. Two of our batchmates, posted in a different branch in the city for their on-the-job training, secretly decided to participate in this beauty contest.

Their decision remained a closely guarded secret until the local newspapers covered the event and reported the results of the prestigious beauty contest. We were utterly surprised to read in the morning paper that two of them had taken to the glamorous ramp. Typically, the pageant would crown Miss Femina Lucknow and the First and Second Runners-up after judging their beauty brain quotients. Yet, in this particular instance, the jury found itself in a unique predicament as they could not decide between our two beautiful batch mates. Consequently, both were awarded the joint runner-up title. This was a delightful surprise highlighted in the pages of the local newspapers.

As the competition moved to the national level in Delhi, speculation ran high among us in Lucknow. We placed bets on which of the two would emerge as Miss Femina India. However, in a twist of fate, both were eliminated in the penultimate round. The judges could not rank-order them. Their beauty and talent remained evenly matched during multiple rounds of the contest.

To this day, I ponder whether any subsequent batches of women officers ever dared to venture into the world of beauty contests. In hindsight, it is evident that our 1971 batch was unique in many respects, including participation in a beauty contest.

(To be continued.....)


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great story. My take is that it should get included in the Community Activities section of Bank's history.
Once again kudos to the two gumnaam ladies.
(Krishna Mohan Trivedi)