Celebrating Life
Opening Doorz celebrates four, everyday extra-ordinary women!
Opening Doorz celebrates four, extra-ordinary women! Roshni D’Souza, Rashi Parasrampuria, Jiya Chawla and Shatakshi Kiran. Women who make a difference.
By Our Correspondent | Opening Doorz Editorial | March 08, 2021
International Women’s Day Special
Roshni D’Souza: I’m glad I married a clown!
Roshni D’Souza, a Chartered Accountant by profession, decided to laugh all the way into her marriage when she married Martin D’Souza, an International Clown.
On International Women’s Day, Roshni throws light (pun intended) on the man who also messes up her kitchen when he is not juggling the many hats he wears. She talks about her life, her dreams and her business with her ‘Clown’.
Martin, her husband, was already juggling a couple of hats before they got married. He was an established wedding compere, Editor and publisher of the only Catholic Wedding Directory in Mumbai, Silver Pages, and was also running an advertising and branding agency, ‘Pierce Communications’. Apart from this, he was managing one of Mumbai’s leading kids entertainment and party planning company, ‘Mad Hatters’ and of course clowning around professionally.
Rashi Parasrampuria: The beauty queen who is working with HIV affected girls!
Bagging a title at a Beauty Pageant enables a winner to make a career in Bollywood. And that is what most Beauty Contest winners aspire for. Nothing wrong in that. But Rashi Parasrampuria is different. “A lot many girls would want to get into acting, but this is just me. I don’t want to venture there,” says the recently crowned Miss Teen International India.
On January 25, 2021, Rashi was crowned a winner at The Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon, New Delhi. Gregarious and diligent is how this 18-year-old from the suburbs of Mumbai describes herself as. She swears by hard work and dedication and loves interacting with people and learning about new cultures, which keeps her perspective of life wholesome. A girl of many passions, Rashi refuses to box herself into one single category.
Having had the chance to grow up around parents who have inculcated the right values in her, Rashi connects deeply with those around her and empathizes with their sorrows and hardships. “The much you have, the much is expected from you’,” is her life motto.
14-year-old Jiya Chawla shows us how to fight the good fight
At first glance, Jiya Chawla from Tagore International School, New Delhi, is just an ordinary girl. Once you get to know her, however, you realize that this 14-year-old is no ordinary teen. The maturity she displays is rare. When you probe the source of her maturity, unlike anyone her age, you realize that she has Celiac disease!
So what does it mean to have Celiac disease? For the uninitiated, this Grade IX student who likes Rock Music, Chocolate and writing short stories, makes light of her trauma by show us how to live life to the fullest despite the ‘restrictions’ in diet.
On International Women’s day, Jiya talks about her life, Celiac disease and how she has found a way around gluten to enjoy delicious meals. Of course there are restrictions. Of course there are temptations. But that is what has matured her beyond her age.
Shatakshi Kiran: My father disowned me, my mother embraced me
I was two years old when my parents separated. Her only fault: I was born a girl! My dad wanted a boy. My mother had to face the abominable difficulties of life, having to raise a ‘girl child’ in a mostly conservative society and also to work for a living. She decided to complete her B.Ed degree so that she would be able to help everyone by giving them the gift of knowledge. She became a teacher. My maternal grandmother has always been there to support her and took care of me while she was working. They are my pillars of support, the two most important women in my life. It is because of their love, care and affection that I never felt the absence of my father.
Despite all adversities at the hands of our conservative community, my mother did not debilitate but supported and inspired me to chase my dreams. She is an independent woman who raised me single-handedly and taught me the significance of learning and education. She taught me that the biggest wealth and weapon is knowledge itself and it can never be taken away from us. It was because of her education that she has her individual identity and was able to give me the best life that I could ever ask for.
