The Devis

Chitra Vishwanath

Hemamalini Maiya

Life is easy when you’re born with a silver spoon in your month. But if that silver spoon is also needed to beat dosa batter, or stir sugar into bitter cups of filter coffee, it may not be exactly that easy. Ask Hemamalini Maiya, the third-generation, managing partner of the 91-year-old Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR), a Bangalore landmark. The 43-year-old was thrown into the restaurant business a day after her father Harishchandra Maiya died in 1999. “I had to step into my father’s large shoes. Without the benefit of his knowledge and expertise, I had to learn—from firsthand experience—every aspect of the business, from knowing the customer to handling the finances,” she says.
Maiya remembers spending hours in the crowded humid kitchen, manning cash counters and dealing with troublesome staff. “I realized very quickly that women at the top were not taken seriously, and men certainly didn’t want to take orders from them. But I was committed to the organisation and, despite moments of despair and the occasional urge to give it all up, I was determined to continue the legacy borne out of the sacrifice and perseverance of the generations that had come before me. I hung on, at times by a thread.”
In 2000, she was joined by her younger brother Vikram, who till then was unsure about getting into the family business, and later by the youngest sibling Arvind. The brand grew significantly under the siblings, with new outlets coming up across Bangalore. In 2013, MTR opened its first overseas restaurant in Singapore, followed by one in Dubai. Many more are in the pipeline.
Progress comes at a price. “Leave alone the flavour, even if we try changing the cutlery and crockery, our long-time patrons express their disapproval. There is pressure on us to constantly innovate while maintaining the experience that people are familiar with,” says the lady, who keeps the brand’s aromas fresh.

Jayna Kothari

Nemichandra

Rohini Godbole

R Susheela

Shilo Shiv Suleman

What is the difference between science and art? Why can’t technology be put into paintings, alongside colour and sketches? Is the romance of paper and oil so exclusive that technology is mere anomaly? Shilo Shiv Suleman might have changed that, for good. The 26-year-old is a visual artist who focuses on the intersection of magical realism, art for social change and technology. In recent years, she’s been engaging with biofeedback technology, and the interaction between the body and art. She has created large-scale installations that beat with your heart, apps that react to your brainwaves and sculptures that glow with your breath. She has also designed stages for some of the world’s biggest festivals and conferences. She is the founder and director of the ‘Fearless Collective’ that engages with gender issues and art for social change in India.
As an INK fellow, her work became known when her talk made it to TED.com, and got over a million views in 2012. Post that, she was chosen as one of the three pioneering Indian women at TEDGlobal, and spoke at conferences such as WIRED, DLD in London and Munich. More recently, she founded a collective of over 400 artists in India using community art to protest against gender violence and was featured in a host of documentaries including Rebel Music by MTV. She won the Femina Woman of Worth award for her work with art and gender violence and the Futurebooks Digital Innovation award in London. In 2014, her collaboration with a neuroscientist on creating art that interacts with brainwaves and other biofeedback sensors made her the recipient of several grants and residencies, including an honorarium grant from Burning Man for the interactive project Pulse and Bloom. The biofeedback installation brought together artists, architects, entrepreneurs and ‘neurotechnologists’. Does she live to create, or create to live? Dispel clichés, we say, just create all the time!

Sukanya Ramgopal

Vidya Kolyur

What is it like to be a woman playing a man’s role in a segment of culture usually dominated by women? If there’s anybody who can answer the question within the question, it’s Vidya Kolyur. Only a handful of women have taken up Yakshagana, the male-dominated dance drama form, through its 700-year-old history. Vidya is perhaps the first woman to not only take it up as a profession but to perform it in 22 Indian states every year. Not to mention her performances in 12 American states and the UK. Born to veteran Yakshagana exponent, Dr Kolyur Ramachandra Rao, in 1977 in Mangalore, she imbibed the rich tradition right from her childhood. In fact, from the age of 7, she says.
Her critics say she has the ability to summon emotions without stimulus. She prefers to play more emotional roles and her emotions have a direct effect on her success as a performer. They also say that she has brought freshness into the dance form with her logical approach towards tradition, her in-depth study of character, commitment, untiring efforts, spirit of enquiry and experiment. With immense grace, Vidya portrays leading ladies from Hindu epics, such as Sita, Damayanti, Chandramati, Subhadra and Draupadi. She also plays complex roles like Ambe, Dakshayini and Maya Shoorpanakha, Maya Pootani and Ajamukhu that reveal her versatility and artistic prowess. Interestingly, she is equally at ease while performing male roles like Krishna, Sudhanva, Babruvahana and Arjuna.
Originally, Yakshagana used to be performed largely for rural audiences. But, with her command, Vidya has changed history and given a new dimension to Yakshagana theatre so it can be appreciated by urban audiences as well. She has popularised the dance-drama form among children all over India. She is the only artiste to receive the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar from Sangeet Natak Akademy for Yakshagana.

Dr Vijayalaxmi Deshmane

Social scientists, journalists and novelists have authored many theories on India’s caste system. Some have called it a necessary structure, others have shunned its premise, and some have expressed its misery in verse. The truth is, every society is stratified in its own ways. It is up to us to accept the divisions or to rise above them. Dr Vijayalaxmi Deshmane chose to do the latter.
“I come from one of Karnataka’s most backward areas, Gulbarga, and belong to the Madiga community, which repairs and sells used footwear. My father, Baburao, broke the caste barrier and studied Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and English on his own,” says the lady who was the first of eight children and grew up in a slum. Memories abound, of her parents taking up part-time jobs like cutting and sawing wood and selling vegetables to make extra money, and Deshmane is proud of each one of them. “When most Dalit women couldn’t dream of going to school, my parents encouraged me to become a doctor. My mother gave her only ornament, her mangalsutra, to my father so that he could get the money to pay the fees for my MBBS at Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubli,” she remembers.
It’s been a fabulous journey. In 1984, Deshmane joined Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology as a Senior Resident and went on to serve the institute in various capacities for the next three decades. She worked as Professor and Head of the Department of Surgical Oncology from 2005 to 2015. The American Biographical Institute declared her Woman of the Year in 1999. In 2004, the Government of Karnataka honoured her with the Rajyotsava Award and the Karnataka State Women’s University honoured with a degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) at a convocation in Bijapur.
Her biggest reward, however, was closer home. Four of her sisters went on to get PhDs and her brother became a famous lawyer in Gulbarga.

ABOUT DEVI AWARDS

CELEBRATING WOMEN'S AWARDS FOR
DYNAMISM & INNOVATION

The Devis

Chitra Vishwanath

Chitra Vishwanath

Hemamalini Maiya

Hemamalini Maiya

Jayna Kothari

Jayna Kothari

Nemichandra

Nemichandra

Rohini Godbole

Rohini Godbole

R Susheela

R Susheela

Shilo Shiv Suleman

Shilo Shiv Suleman

Sukanya Ramgopal

Sukanya Ramgopal

Vidya Kolyur

Vidya Kolyur

Dr Vijayalaxmi Deshmane

Dr Vijayalaxmi Deshmane

Photo Gallery

Videos

Reports

CONTACT US

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS

ABOUT DEVI AWARDS

CELEBRATING WOMEN'S AWARDS FORDYNAMISM & INNOVATION

The Devis

Chitra Vishwanath

Chitra Vishwanath

Hemamalini Maiya

Hemamalini Maiya

Jayna Kothari

Jayna Kothari

Nemichandra

Nemichandra

Rohini Godbole

Rohini Godbole

R Susheela

R Susheela

Shilo Shiv Suleman

Shilo Shiv Suleman

Sukanya Ramgopal

Sukanya Ramgopal

Vidya Kolyur

Vidya Kolyur

Dr Vijayalaxmi Deshmane

Dr Vijayalaxmi Deshmane

Photo Gallery

Videos

Reports

CONTACT US

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS

CELEBRATING WOMEN'S AWARDS FOR
DYNAMISM & INNOVATION