When I met Naina Lal Kidwai
It was at a parking lot in a south Mumbai mall at a fest that I had no intentions of going to
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Naina Lal Kidwai is a woman of many firsts: The first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School; the first woman to be employed by Price Waterhouse Coopers in India; the first woman president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the first woman to guide the functioning of a foreign bank (HSBC) in India. But Naina Lal Kidwai, the person, is far more memorable for her spirit and energy. Instead of priding herself on these firsts, she has questioned why other women didn’t accomplish them before her.
That my interview with her was scheduled over seven times is a different story altogether. Let’s keep that for later. It was my first meeting with her that I will never forget: I met Naina Lal Kidwai at a parking lot in a south Mumbai mall at a fest that I had no intentions of going to.
My colleague had got some passes and it was a Friday. Why not, I thought. A woman, vaguely familiar, was sitting at the table opposite ours. While I socialised with my colleague’s friends, I kept darting looks at her. One of them said, “That’s the head of HSBC, right?”. “Of course, but it can’t be her. What would she be doing here?” added another one.
And that’s when it struck me: Naina Lal Kidwai was sitting right in front of me. Of course, we had been wanting to interview her for many many years (no hyperbole here) and here I had found her at the most random, obscure location in a city where she did not even live.
I am usually borderline-confident but that particular night, I felt as though I was held in these shackles of self-doubt. None the less, I ambled towards her table. What happened next was a true blue Bombay story…
To be continued…
Great post!