Dear ELSAs!

Happy New Year! Hope you are keeping your hopes high for 2021.

After that cold winter, beautiful Basant is here when nature echoes her loveliness through flowers, birds and soft cool breeze! The sun warms up our hearts after months of cold and once again fills us up with hope & positivity. After all, hope is that beautiful string which lifts up our spirit and tells us that every night is followed by a lovely morning! Hope all you lovelies are spending your days beautifully!

And they are finally here!!! The ELSA Jackets and masks! Beautiful full sleeves and sleeveless jackets to be bought quickly, before we bid this winter a farewell. Of course, masks are here to stay, so more of those, merrier it is. Have you got yours? If not, get it now! Click on the link below for details. Hurry!!!

Right now, we have only jackets (sleeveless & with sleeves) and masks. Going forward we would engage more entrepreneurs through the ELSA hub and come up with more memorabilia items. So do get in touch if you have any ideas.

To know more about the ELSA Memorabilia Products : Click here

Huge health benefits heighten the need to make sure all live in walkable communities. Our bodies are made for walking (I may add our boots too). For us ELSAs in Delhi NCR, it happened more as a spontaneous act of escaping the long WFH, post Covid lockdown, a response to someone’s query about who all would be interested in going to Aravalli Diversity park, and astonishingly a whole lot of ELSAs jumped and took up the chance to be out in the sun!

Few things in life relieve stress, instil creativity and boost health, more than taking a stroll. What started as a stroll has become an informal Elsa activity, and a dedicated group called WalkAlong has been formed. The venues so far covered are Lodhi Gardens and Aravalli biodiversity park Gurgaon. We hope to cover most of Delhi’s parks and heritage sights.

That walks bring together ELSAs, bonding across courses and years and profession. New names and faces keep joining, but the characteristic Elsa flair and confidence , makes new members easily recognisable in a crowd. ELSAs you sure do rock. May our tribe grow!!

Talk with Dr Aparna Jaswal on “Sudden Cardiac Deaths”:


Health is such a concern, now, more than ever. Questions abound. In such a scenario, to be able to be a part of a talk on “Sudden Cardiac Deaths” by Dr. Aparna Jaswal, Director, Cardiac Electrophysiology, Fortis Escorts Health Institute, Okhla, New Delhi, is just what the doctored prescribed! She addressed the recent spate of sudden cardiac deaths that had stunned the world, and then went on to explain the workings of the heart, the possible problems that might arise, such as clogged arteries and how we can pre-empt the same. She addressed queries and concerns of all those who attended and answered questions on healthy lifestyles, from pros and cons of eating ghee to healthy lifestyle changes to adopt. It was a very informative session, and simplified the complex world of heart care to some extent for us. Many of us were left with a firmer resolve to exercise and adopt healthy lifestyle after the talk. Hopefully some of us have maintained those even now!

For all those who missed the talk can view it on: https://youtu.be/m0tcfsoX1oQ


Conversation between Sonali Amla and Jyotsna Mohan Bhargava on her book “Stoned, Shamed, Depressed”:

In January, ELSA Talks brought and insightful conversation between Jyotsna Mohan Bhargava & Sonali Amla on Jyotsna’s book – Stoned, Shamed, Depressed – An explosive account of the secret lives of India’s teens. Jyotsna shared with us, her research and exploration into the secret world and lives of the teens of our country, her introduction into their secret networks, the conversations she has had with many of the teens, the reality of substance abuse and the real and present danger that social media poses, especially for this age group, when they feel misunderstood and isolated. The discussions explored possible ways in which we could engage with the teens in our lives, how we could provide a safe space for them. The lines between fiction and reality were blurred, as we heard incidents that till now we could have only imagined reading about in books. teachers and parents among those attending the talk, were left with lots of food for thought, about how we could engage with our children from as early as possible, communicate with them, give them time, so that we are better prepared for the teen years when they come.



For all those who missed the talk can view it on: https://youtu.be/zhn-dRb6Cgw

We started the year with a Reflection Session on Key Learnings from last year. It was wonderful to hear many of us cite the support of the sisterhood, through our ELSAConnect and ELSATable sessions, as well as the Kannada classes and active whatsapp hobby groups. ELSA Connect continued to bring together riveting women. This included a panel on Women in the Workplace in a Post-COVID World with Dimple Agarwal, Deputy CEO (UK) & Managing Partner Deloitte, Priyanka Sudarshan, Global HR VP, Capgemini India and moderated by Jaya Jyoti, HR Business Partner Flipkart. Shubha Sarma shared her life and its governing philosophies that help her balance her bureaucratic career, her writing career and her family life. Deepika Deshpande Amin brought to vivid life her theatre and film life anecdotes, replete with photographs of young compatriots such as Shah Rukh Khan. Roopsi brought her inimitable self to the table and inspired us all with her go-getter approach to life.

Sessions can be caught up with here: https://bit.ly/ELSAblrYT

ELSA Reels' January movie, was not one, but six films ~ Abhimaan, Chupke Chupke, Mili, GolMaal, Anand and Guddi, as a Retrospective on Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

ELSA Reads opened our first Book Club meeting on a high note with Amor Towles 'A Gentleman in Moscow. Several of the book club members are currently reading already well into the pages of our selected book for the next meeting. Our girls continue their Kannada practice with conversational Kannada get-togethers, where they exercise their vocabulary and keep their camaraderie going.

Elsa Table kicked off its 3rd cook-along with Nevedita Kharbanda. Olfactory senses. Check. The whiff of steaming Bhalla to be dunked in chilled sweet curd, browning of kebabs as they cooked slowly on a tawa and the visuals of the green Kofta curry reminding us of the impending Republic Day celebrations.

Armed with enthusiasm and hunger, creativity, crockery and cutlery - observers and doers - took part in the delectables dished out by Neve. She gave us a lot of tips and interesting ideas to experiment with in the kitchen.

The cook-along was our first event, where we experimented opening up to a few non-Bengaluru members. Next event will be in February, and, we hope, all Elsas and chapters can join us in the culinary journey! Do visit the blog www.elsatable.com

ELSA, the official association of Ex-students of Lady Sri Ram College, is committed to transforming lives through sustainable support and action. During the lockdown, ELSA EC rose to the crisis of access to technology, that LSR students were facing, by initiating the ‘Dil Se’ fund, 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 continuation of its efforts, ELSA EC has provided more laptops to the students of LSR. This endeavour shall continue. We are grateful to all those who contributed to the fund, Dil Se, and made this small step possible. We also urge you to keep contributing, so that we may address any requirement that may arise in the future.



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

The world is opening up gradually. We are meeting up with each other in small groups and planning to do more activities. 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. And yeah, do join in, in the events that are being organised in various cities, wherever you are. And of course, 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!

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. The year stretches before us with promises. Let’s be kind to one another and make the world a better, gentler place.