February, 16-17, 2019, New Delhi
A unique collaboration between Dastkar and ELSA, The Basant Bazaar successfully celebrated the spirit of entrepreneurship under ELSA HUB that showcased women led businesses, design entrepreneurs and start ups across diverse products that included textiles, apparel, home furnishings, lifestyle and design products, wellness and accessories.

The program started with our heart-felt Shradhanjali to the brave martyrs of the Pulwama attack. Students of Vidya and Samaparan School-Kishanganj both empowering underpriviliged children, gave invigorating performances highlighting gender issues.

Cultural performances marked the arrival of spring and projected India's rich heritage through performances such as Natya Vriksha by Padma Shri Geeta Chandran's disciples, Basant Pallavi curated by the multi-faceted Sharon Lowen to Ashim Bery's percussion, and Dhun Dhaara's "musical river of joy' by Chandrika & Malvika.

Basant Bazaar had excellent footfalls. ELSA envisions organising similar event to promote women entrepreneurship in its other chapters across India.

Photo Gallery Basant Bazaar : click here

Sheroes ELSA collaboration went a step further with ELSAs interacting on SHEROES app on themes of leadership and getting back to work after a sabbatical under Ask Me Anything (AMA) platform provided by SHEROES. The AMA session was open to all

March 6, 2019
ELSAs were invited to LSR to interact with the all women sailors of Tarini. And join the exclusive screening of ‘Tarini’, National Geographic’s documentary based on the historic journey of the Indian Navy’s sailing vessel. Set to premiere on March 8, 2019, ‘Tarini’ narrates the adventures of INSV Tarini at the sea and chronicles every difficulty that the vessel faced during the expedition.

National Geographic also announced a unique Women’s Day campaign, #GirlsWhoSailed to recognize and honour the extraordinary accomplishments of women across the country.

Select ELSAs were conferred the NatGeo women achievers' award by the Chief of the Naval Staff- Admiral Sunil Lanba.

DGS Associates successfully culminated the course concerning Laws relating to Women at Lady Shri Ram College this month. The short-term course commenced on 5th February 2019 and concluded on 12th March 2019 (2 classes a week spanning over 6 weeks). It covered topics including employment laws with special focus on sexual harassment of women at workplace, family laws, property laws and crime laws concerning women. The sessions were conducted by Niti Sudhakar, Advocate (Founding Partner, DGS Associates) with assistance from Ms. Aditi Warrier, Advocate; Mr. Prosenjeet Banerjee, Advocate (family law specialist) and Mr. Puneet Mittal, Senior Advocate (Crime law specialist).

Students gained a lot of practical experience throughout the course, with mock trials which included scenarios concerning legal redressal of sexual harassment at workplace under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and dowry prohibition under the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 and the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The audience was interactive, well informed and attentive. A certification ceremony will be held in a few weeks.

For the third year in a row, ELSA organised the Global Mentoring Walk, New Delhi in partnership with Vital Voices, FICCI FLO, Women Mentors Forum and the Arch Academy of Design to commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8, 2019.

The Global Mentoring Walk convenes established women leaders and emerging women leaders to walk together in their community. As they walk, they discuss their professional challenges and successes to establish a mentoring relationship, in which the established leader guides, advises and supports an emerging leader. Held around International Women’s Day in countries across the world, the Mentoring Walk unifies the Vital Voices Global Leadership Network. A historic 174 Global Mentoring Walks took place in over 62 countries around the world this year.

The Global Mentoring Walk is an opportunity to highlight the importance of women’s leadership, and to accelerate the impact of women leaders through mentoring. Mentoring is proven to be one of the most important steps to a successful career; it opens doors to new networks, collaboration, and opportunities. Mentoring is a particularly effective support system for meeting challenges that women face in common or that affect women in particular. Women who are mentored are more likely to become mentors themselves and “pay it forward.”

A strong group of 70 Mentors and Mentees came together on March 8th at the Garden of Five Senses in Delhi to connect, share and inspire with the maximum number from ELSA! Strong bonds were built over the walk in the beautiful garden bursting with flowers, and the scrumptious breakfast afterwards – bonds that promise to continue through the year and ahead!

The Delhi ELSAs gathered for an informal get together and lunch at Santushti on a lovely spring Saturday. The winter flowers are still in full bloom all across New Delhi, and the weather still not too hot, making it the perfect time to be outdoors. The little garden coutryard at Diggin was taken over by chattering ELSAs, many of whom met each other for the first time. A round of introductions revealed many connections that had been lost! Common interests were discovered, bonds created and faces put to names. ELSA love was definitely in the air! Plans were enthusiastically hatched for the next get together, travel and trips together, talks by some and even an exhibition by all the artists amongst us – painters, sculptors, photographers. The importance of becoming a member and building up the ELSA network was reiterated for us to grow from strength to strength.

BA (Honours) in English, batch of 1993

Malavika Banerjee is the founder director of Gameplan, a sports marketing company that she co-founded in 1998. The company is today one of the foremost names in its field and has worked at World Cups the world over as well as with some of the most incredible sportspersons of our times. In 2011 Malavika audaciously stepped out of this world to launch Byloom. Along with designers of the label bailou, she created a store that interpreted the age-old weaves of Bengal in contemporary ways. It is now a cult brand and a must-visit destination in Kolkata.

In 2012, she launched the Kolkata Literary Meet. After eight editions it is one of the most attended and regarded festivals in India, having hosted Gloria Steinem, Yann Martel, Vikram Seth, Ruskin Bond and several others.

At present Malavika works on all three brands and hopes that the bug to launch another initiative does not bite her soon. She is now in her late 40s and hopes to move to pro bono work and a project on daylight saving in a few years from now. She says there are several fond memories, lifelong friends and life lessons that LSR gifted me — far too many to list here.

The lessons that have held me good stead are to never feel ‘inferior’ at a number crunching business meeting because of my Arts/English Literature education. To always ensure ethics are part of whatever I do, and to support and celebrate women colleagues and employees.

As part of the ELSA Wellness series, Maullika Sharma, a counsellor and founder of Personal Orbit Change conducted a workshop on Building Resilience on March 10th. The workshop was designed to provide an understanding of the importance of Resilience - our ability to adapt and bounce back when things don't go as planned.


Resilience is a skill one can learn and cultivate, stressed Maullika as she shared an array of tools and tips to manage stresses and setbacks in our lives. Mindfulness, gratitude, humility, personal control and understanding oneself were key elements that the workshop dwelt upon, and Maullika’s power point and handouts provided a framework for attending ELSAs to look inside themselves, explore their character strengths and discover their 'resilience muscle’. The food for thought was matched with food for tummy, brought together potluck style, and graciously hosted by Elsa Jaya Kumar.

Elsas in Gurgaon hosted a talk on 'Patriarchal Paradigms in Bollywood,' with Dr. Nirupama Singh Dhar, an ELSA and PhD scholar from JNU. The talk laid emphasis on the fact that both Bollywood and the modelling industry work on a system of deifying the feminine face of beauty as the embodiment of the fashion and spirit of a time, and then castigating it soon after. Starlets and models are treated as 'Props' or 'Fashionable Objects': in today, out tomorrow.

Heroes retain their marketability right into their sixties while Bollywood Heroines are seen as "Has- beens" at the age of 30 or certainly after they get married.

The talk laid emphasis on the fact that these patriarchal paradigms exist as a templates for gender performance for both men and women across the country. For women to be able to carve out more powerful trajectories, these patriarchal paradigms in Bollywood need to change too.

Basant Baithak
13 April, 2019

ELSA Bangalore chapter is hosting Basant Baithak, an evening of musical appreciation with very talented Chandrima Sanyal Dutta and Malvika Niranjan on April 13th at 4 PM at The Embassy, Ali Asker Road Near Raj Bhavan.

Our ELSAs will be singing old and new songs through the evening. They will also throw open the stage for other ELSA's to join in





ELSA UK
Coming up next for ElsaUK!
26th March 7:30-9pm- Taj St James coffee chat session with Atul Pathak OBE. One of UK’s most successful business persons of Indian origin in business, leading franchise owner of McDonalds, philanthropist. A man of humble beginnings who now owns 30 McDonald’s restaurants across UK which employ 3000 people and feed 30 million customers per year!

He’s got many lessons on #Entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility to share- hope to see many of you at this great networking opportunity!

The KUMBH Experience

Kumbh teaches one to coexist. Everyone's welcome from the Nagas to the Kinnars, from the young to the old. From the rural folk to urban dwellers, from Bharat and from the diaspora. Everyone is united in their faith and spiritualism. Coexistence is the key and today's troubled times Kumbh holds a lesson for us all!

Thats my take on this incredible experience ELSA Gayatri Srivastava from Mumbai

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