February 2016 Woman At Work Digital
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IN CONVERSATION<br />
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During the years of your education, not many women would have looked<br />
at a career in law as an option. What inspired you to do so?<br />
My mother had always harboured a dream of being a lawyer. During her years,<br />
women were not accepted as professionals, so being a lawyer for her was<br />
impossible. I wanted to fulfil her dream and that motivated me to study law.<br />
That was the inspiration for me as I grew up. After graduating from Lady<br />
Shriram College (LSR) in English Honours, I decided to study law<br />
from Delhi University.<br />
How were the first few years as a lawyer?<br />
Right after I secured a degree in Law, I joined a private law firm. The initial<br />
years were more of settling down, where our seniors let us get acclimatized to<br />
the legal fraternity. Over a period of time, I realised that my inclination was<br />
more towards corporate law. With a lot of hard work and guidance from seniors,<br />
my career was moving in the right direction.<br />
How was it to take a sabbatical after a tenure of being professionally active<br />
and successful?<br />
I took a 5-year sabbatical to take care of my two children. Of course now<br />
they are grown up and are musicians by profession. Though I have the most<br />
beautiful memories of my life during this time, I must confess that I missed<br />
going to work. I loved spending time with my children, but I also wanted to<br />
be a part of the workforce sooner or later.<br />
When did you move back to an active career?<br />
It was in 1996 when I joined a law firm. I spent ten years with the organization.<br />
While it was a fulfilling experience to be back in professional action, the<br />
comeback had its own challenges. In those days, a career break meant that one<br />
would need to start afresh. One’s prior experience was not considered relevant.<br />
Though the top management was very supportive, transitioning into professional<br />
life wasn’t easy.<br />
Could you tell us about your shift towards a Corporate role?<br />
Yes, it was a big leap of faith. I am a person who likes taking up challenges,<br />
and knew that my prior work experience had laid a strong foundation for me.<br />
I wanted to pursue something new and explore how it is to be on the other side<br />
of the fence i.e. from being a private counsel to an in-house counsel. Thus I<br />
moved into my first corporate role as General Counsel with GE Money Financial<br />
Services. Post that, I moved to Airtel and then finally joined Dell India.<br />
Could you tell us about your current role and responsibilities at Dell India?<br />
I lead the Legal and Ethics team for Dell in India and am also the lead for the<br />
Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region Employment Counsel. I have additional<br />
responsibility as the APJ Regional leader for WISE (Women in Search of<br />
Excellence) - an Employee Resource Group for women at Dell and a member<br />
of the APJ Diversity & Inclusion Council. Dell has a huge focus on gender<br />
balance at work and my role is help enhance that.<br />
<strong>February</strong> <strong>2016</strong> | 11