India’s women power (Part 2)

She sashays into the hall and people take a second look because she comes in with flair and style. That’s my counterpart at the INDIA-ASEAN Women Business Forum (IAWBF), Vinita Bimbhet. We put up the forum back in 2017 to keep relations between India and the ASEAN member-states alive over entrepreneurship, fashion, food and even spiritual activities. To this day, Vinita and I continue to think of how our two countries (plus whoever in ASEAN would like to join) can keep the friendship going.

Under the current  leadership of Ficci-FLO (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce) Ladies Organization or simply FLO, Joyshree Das Verma, we organized two trips to India over the last six months. In September we were received in Hyderabad and Delhi and in February we had just come from Mumbai and Bangalore. What do we do on these trips? We network, we find business connections and we make friends that will last a lifetime.

The ASEAN Committee of FLO and IAWBF is the core group that has also visited the Philippines back in 2017 for an ASEAN Business and Investment Summit and joined us in a meeting in Bangkok the following year. So it has been a back and forth of cultural and business visits that our groups have been doing, much to the delight of our members who experience VIP treatment, whether in India or in Manila.

Spiritual India

On the recent trip we had to the south of India, we  had a sprinkling of spiritual visits – one was to Ishkon,  the birthplace of  the Hare Krishna movement which I was exposed to in the ’70s when I first learned about vegetarianism and the Krishna consciousness or beliefs as I had a friend who joined the movement. The late Gina Lopez was also a member of this group. We went to see where the founder lived, prayed and gathered his followers in the heart of Mumbai.

Another unique visit we did was with the Dahwoodi Bohras – a sect of the Moslem faith which has community work at the center of their practices and who also believe that one should never go hungry. They also relieve women from cooking chores by having a community kitchen where every family can get food for the day. This way, women are able to work for a living, not bogged down by daily chores at home. They had other unique features such as having women wear special clothes for their services and having the men wear three-piece white suits and a white cap adorned with gold threads. They also showed us their social enterprise of Happy Threads, using crocheting as a way for girls to have extra income making toys and flowers, among others.

I cannot forget the food spread we were served by the chef of the Dawoodi Bohras – biryani, lamb and samosas – which they managed to serve in a private “members only” club. Another special treat from FLO chapter chair Aarmeen Mogul Dordi, who is a member of the group and is called a Bohri.

A special audience was also arranged for us by FLO to the Art of Living headquarters  in Bangalore. This spiritual movement was founded by SriSri Gurudev Ravi Shankar and is in about 100-plus countries. We had the rare chance of coming to the ashram just for a day trip while others would have to take three-day or six-day spiritual retreats at the 100-acre facility. We started with a vegetarian breakfast before getting a meditation session. Then we finally got to meet the founder, Gurudev for short, who told us about his recent ASEAN trip and how he also met General Brawner and other members of the Philippine Army in Manila.  The rest of the day was spent having another vegetarian meal at lunch and visiting a Gaushala, the home for cows, animals they consider special because at every special occasion in one’s life, an Indian must visit a Gaushala to thank the cows for the products they give – butter, milk and curd – which feed all families from childhood to adulthood. Before one gets married, or on a birthday, an Indian practice is to go to a Gaushala, pet the cows, pray and donate for their care, too. It is important to honor the cows who, by the way, are all local or native varieties that India is very proud of.

The other highlight of our visit to Art of Living, besides the shopping inside the ashram grounds, was a visit to a panchakarma or a wellness facility. We all queued up to get a special treat like a head massage, a foot massage and corrective treatments for the spine. The whole group went into separate rooms as our therapists or healers accompanied each of us for our preferred treatment. One can do this every day if you stay at the ashram for a weekend or even a whole week of meditation, vegetarian meals and yoga sessions called pooja.

All these “eat pray love” sessions could not have been possible without the help of FLO’s women of substance. They arranged that we get to visit these special places which a regular tourist may not be able to do, given that each group has their own rules for “outsiders” or non-members to visit, if they even allow such trips. We feel so privileged to have visited and learned about their different ways of life and spiritual beliefs. After all, religion is a way of life. And what they do to make everyone feel whole or complete.

A side note: across our hotel was a Sikh temple which also has a community kitchen where anyone, regardless of faith, can partake of a meal, 24 hours a day, because the Sikhs believe “no one should ever be hungry.” It’s a good idea for us, too, don’t you think?

Vinita and I pledged to continue to plan these trips between India and ASEAN in the years to come.