She came across as an unassuming urban housewife as I met Ruchi Bawa at her Gurdev Nagar residence, a posh Ludhiana locality a little less than a month after she ended the male dominion in the affairs of the Sutlej Club, considered to be one of the elitist in the region. She created history by becoming the first woman ever to be elected to the coveted post of its general secretary after defeating a strong male rival by a convincing margin of votes.
The deep-rooted societal bias against women was quite in display during the entire campaigning; the common refrain drummed up in both public and private was that how could a woman run affairs of the club. Her rival candidate had even brought in Bollywood’s veteran comedian Asrani to reinforce this but this gutsy woman proved all subscribing to this regressive thought wrong.
Putting all this behind as she goes about setting her agenda, Ruchi appears as a woman whose way of work is predominantly guided by virtues of womanly care and sensitivity. The conversation with her shows she is also firm but in an unoffending way. The unpretentious streak of her character is self-explained as she says, “I am what I am. I don’t do things merely to please people. I am guided by natural conviction when I do anything and the motive is well-being of all inside or outside the club,”.
Probably it is due to the confidence that comes with her unpretentious nature that she thinks managing the affairs of the club, having who’s who of Ludhiana’s rich and influential as its members, does not seem to pose any challenge to her. Her past stint as cultural secretary of the club adds to her confidence. She does not forget to tell me that having two other women colleagues Monika Aggarwal as mess secretary and Rita Jain as cultural secretary is an advantage that is sure going to make her job a lot easier. Notably, this is also the first time in the club’s history that women are on its three key posts.
When she says she believes in carrying everybody along without any hint of abrasive, bitter thought of settling score with her poll-time adversaries, she only uncovers her maturity to deal with the challenges ahead. “I will be reaching out to all; no personal issues. I want to convey the message: come forward to help me,”, she says while adding quickly that she would not like to be seen as driven by any feminist ideas since a woman is the helm of club’s affairs now.
( Ruchi Bawa: The First Ever Woman General Secretary of Ludhiana’s Sutlej Club )
And help in what? “In taking the facilities in the club to a level where it could be truly considered as luxurious and elitist for the members but at the same time it is sensitive to its social responsibility as well,” she says with inimitable streak of optimism which has drawn appreciation and support first of all from the club’s president and Ludhiana DC Ravi Bhagat.
“She has taken up the idea of Club Social Responsibility under which a get-together was hosted for about 130 members of its staff for the first time in the club’s history on the Labour Day. Her determination to focus on social causes like welfare of senior citizens, poor students, differently-abled kids or women safety is really praiseworthy,” DC Ravi Bhagat tells babushahi.com.
It is a measure of her commitment that she has decided to devote even her usual summer holidays with her family to the betterment of the club. “This time I am not going for holidaying but if at all I go it will be with the purpose of studying other top-notch clubs in the country so that we can imbibe things which are not available here,” she says while acknowledging the efforts of her predecessor Dr.Rohit Dutta in running the club affairs before handing the baton to her.
Contact Email Adresses :
bawa_ruchi@yahoo.com
sutlejclub@yahoo.com
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Raju William is Associate Editor, www.babushahi.com
Email: raju.william@gmail.com, contact: +91-98551-01121