This is one lady whose career is “on the rocks” and she isn’t unhappy about it. Meet feisty Manju Sharma Chitnis, one of the few women mountaineering and rock climbing trainers in India, who teaches rock climbing in Mumbai. “My father died when I was in school in 1990 and being the eldest, the responsibility of maintaining the family fell upon me,” she explains. “I began working immediately after completing class X and could not complete my education.”

Chitnis began her working career with a chemicals marketing company — Stoplic Services India Pvt Ltd, where she served for six years (1990-1996) before signing up with Citibank’s debt collection service as the only woman in the bank’s field work team. “However, even though I was doing very well in my career, I was more interested in sports than anything else, including studies,” says  Chitnis.

Sports in particular meant mountaineering and rock climbing which had prompted her to enroll for a basic mountaineering course in 1994. This was followed by an advanced programme at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, Uttaranchal.

She got her first break in 1999, when construction tycoon Surendra Hiranandani, promoter of the Hiranandani group offered her a job to teach rock climbing. “Mr. Hiranandani set up the first successful sport climbing wall in Mumbai, — the Hakone Wall — located within the Hiranandani complex in Powai,” she says. Though the job paid a meagre Rs.5,000, Chitnis seized the opportunity to convert her passion into her profession.

Chitnis has been teaching rock climbing at Hiranandani Gardens ever since. In 2003, she also signed up as an instructor with Gold’s Gym, a network of plush gymnasiums spread throughout Mumbai. “These are the only gyms in India offering walls for sport and rock climbing,” says Chitnis, who teaches participants aged four to 60 years.

“A growing number of parents are encouraging their children to learn rock climbing,” claims Chitnis. “With sedentary activities such as television watching and net surfing causing obesity problems in middle class India, some progressive parents are actually gifting rock climbing courses to their children. Schools should also include this exhilarating activity in their curriculums for the same reason,” she advises.

Next on this go-getting outdoor education enthusiast’s agenda are the growth and development of Xventures, an adventure sports company promoted in 2003 and an adventure sports magazine. Says Chitnis, “I believe there are others who share my passion for sports and outdoor learning. I want to form a community of such like-minded people.”

Way to go girl!

Mona Barbhaya (Mumbai)

 

Nandana Bose

What is life without love, and what worth living and loving without laughter? Like many 20-something members of gennext with more than their share of sensitivity, Nandana Bose asked herself questions such as these while an honours student of English literature at Presidency College, Kolkata. A keen observer of human foibles, she would watch figures scampering in the corridors of her college and noted how their moods and facial expressions kept changing. One night — on the stroke of midnight, recalls Bose — in a moment of inspiration, she put pen to paper. And the gallimaufry of verse that followed was in the great tradition of limericks — verse poking poetic fun at human foibles and eccentricities.

After graduating from Presidency College in 1998, Bose won a Chevening scholarship for postgraduate study at the University of Leeds, England. By now, her repertoire of limericks covered a wide gamut including malapropisms, sexual exhibitionism, bearded weirdos, drug addicts and drinkers, snail-lovers and provocative ladies. All these subjects were grist for her productive mill.

Indeed, her random targets and idiosyncrasies fitted so well with the genre pioneered by ‘limerickcist’ Edward Lear, that Bose attracted the attention of a publisher for her output. The denouement is a slim, elegant compilation of 60 limericks titled Life, Love and Laughter with Limericks, published this year by Athena Press, UK. The mayor of Leeds, in full regalia, found time to congratulate Bose for her delightful verse.

With her “limericks writing phase” behind her, Bose intends to move on. “I’d love to write a novel some day. But may be I’ll begin with a collection of short stories,” she says.

All set to travel to the UK once again this autumn to pursue her Ph D, Bose is resolved to keep putting pen to paper even as she deepens her acquaintance with the vast treasure trove of English literature. “It’s the best catharsis,” she says adding that developing powers of observation is the prerequisite of penning quality prose. Down the line Bose aspires to write film scripts. Her subject — the complexities of matrimony in Indian films.

Sujoy Gupta (Kolkata)