August 2015 Woman At Work Digital

SPECIAL FEATURE
SIMPLY SUCCESSFUL
This monthly series endeavours to showcase and applaud the focus and
passion of professional women leaders who have pursued successful
professions and lived life on their terms. Meet these four fantastic women
who are simply successful.
BY SUCHISMITA PAI
kabaddi champion for a mother and a cricket
champion for a father, life was full of sports
talk and sports personalities.
GAYATRI VARTAK
SPORTSWOMAN. PSYCHOLOGIST
G
ayatri Vartak has done what very few
attempt. She has switched courses
midway and succeeded in great
measure. Born into a family of sports fans,
Gayatri was exposed to all different sports
from the very beginning. With a national
“My parents never ever told me what to do
but I had watched almost every sport possible
with the exception of golf by the time I
decided to swim competitively”. She took
to water like fish and even started winning
competitions when she took a second look at
badminton. A chance event where her cousin
played badminton drew her to the sport. “It
was probably the sight of the beautiful shuttle
cock, so light and yet so strong flying through
the air that mesmerised me”, she says. Some
around her advised her not to upset the
apple cart and quit swimming at which she
was already doing so well and enter a sport at
eleven and a half years of age.
Again her parents were fully supportive and
so badminton it was. “I never had to work on
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