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BITSIAN WOMEN - YOU GO GIRL!
BY
Himabindu Chitta ('02), Krithika Kalyan ('00), Bharathi Balakrishnan
('00), Deeptha Ganapathy ('95), Aditi Pany ('00) and Dileepan Narayanan
('00)
Several
generations of women have passed through the hallowed portals of BITS
Pilani and they have steadily, often inconspicuously, carved out a
niche for themselves in the world. These BITSian Women boast impressive
academic, professional and social credentials. They have neither shied
away from taking risks nor bucked an at-times stagnant social system.
And, most importantly, they have persevered relentlessly, sometimes in
the face of significant cultural and attitudinal challenges.
Sandpaper’s Cover Story produced in collaboration with the BITSAA
Women’s Council is a celebration of the achievements of every
single member of this community
Introduction
Entrepreneurs
Business Leaders
Academia
Community and Public Service
Creative Arts
Engineering and Technology
Prominent BITSian Women
What You Can Do to Help
We would encourage all BITSian Women to share their stories and
successes with us. Your adoption of and active engagement in the BITSAA
Women’s Council is vital to the success of this networking
community and will go a long way in replicating your successes among
future women leaders from all campuses of BITS Pilani.
You can email your comments etc. to bitsaa.woc@gmail.com.
To subscribe to BITSAA WoC, please visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bitsaa-woc
About the Authors
Deeptha Ganapathy
(95B5A8) was part of the BITS basketball team and captain of the
basketball team in 1997. She holds an MS degree in Computer Science
from Northeastern University, Boston. She loves to travel (defined as
to take a solo backpacking trip) and is always planning her next
vacation. Deeptha now lives
and works in New York city.
Krithika Kalyan
('00). currenty based out of Bombay, works in the area of product
development of retail insurance products in Reliance General Insurance.
At BITS, she was a member of the Department of Controlz and was the
Co-ordinator the Engineering Technology Association for Apogee 2003.
She has also been a cultural secretary of Meera Bhawan. She has also
tried her hands at managing a couple of bands in the Mumbai/Pune rock
circuit and writing for local music magazines/webzines. These days, she
is busy collecting long lost vinyl records in between reading,
travelling and experimental cooking/cocktail mixing!
Aditi Pany
(’00) works for a social enterprise in Delhi and is trying to
figure if it is indeed possible to balance social objectives and
business principles. She graduated from BITS in 2005 with MSc.
Economics and B.E. E&E. She loves the sea, has an interest in
handlooms and handicrafts and enjoys driving. Aditi aspires to
contribute to Orissa's development as a social entrepreneur.
Bharati Balakrishnan
graduated in Chemical Engineering from BITS in 2004. At Pilani, she was
an active member of DOPY and was its coordinator for Apogee 2003.
Enthusiastic about writing and debating, she was also lead vocalist at
the Music Club for four years and part of six English Drama crew teams
while dabbling in acting in street plays. She followed this up with an
MBA from IIM Ahmedabad from where she graduated this April. She is now
all set to join Bain and Company as Associate Consultant, in June 2006.
Himabindu Chitta
(’02 Chemistry-Computer Science) is a laid-back Hyderabadi!
Himabindu is a member of the Dept of Controlz and the Cactus Flower
editorial team on campus. She likes to read classics and has a
new-found interest in poetry. Photography is a hobby.
Dileepan Narayanan
('00) He's currently doing his Masters in Industrial Engineering at the
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He joined BITS in 2000 for an MSc
in Physics but transferred to a BE in Mechanical Engineering after a
year. At BITS he was the captain of the BITS Cricket team and won the
Best Player award in BOSM 2k2. He was also the Sports Secretary of BITS
and organised BOSM 2003, the Joint Secretary of ELAS in 2002 and
organised Wordstock in OASIS 2002 and 2003. He wrote and directed a
play for the English Drama Club, which was staged in OASIS 2003, a
member of the Poetry Club for a brief while. He continues to
engage in quite a bit of reading and writing. Wilde, Saki, R.K
Narayan, Hardy, and Tennyson are among his favourite authors. His
brother, Sriram, is currently pursuing an MSc in Information Systems
also at BITS.
Acknowledgements
Mrs. Meera Banerjee, Dr. Daga, Dr. Raghunath, Dilip D’Souza, Dr.
Raj Singh, Sanketh, Swati Satpathy, Sangeeta Patni, Vandana Malaiya,
Gayathri Viswanathan, all the women profiled, Srivaths, Padmini Misra
for the amazing photographs, BITSAA Women’s Council, SWD Staff,
Mr. Nasir Memon, Mr. Shashi Warrier, Mythreyee, Kavya, Meena
Ramakrishnan, Pushkala Venkataraman, Punita Pandey, Vidya Raman,
Anupendra Sharma, Ashish Garg, Sandeep Mukherjee, Nandini Agarwal.
Disclaimer
This article and the list of Most Prominent BITSian Women (see next
page) was created by the BITSAA Women’s Council. Both sets of
data are not meant to be comprehensive in that they do not include the
accomplishments of many exemplary BITSian Women. Rather, they provide a
snapshot based on the information to us at the time of writing the
article.
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