A young entrepreneur who prefers action to words, Pavithra Y.S. (27) is the managing director of Vindhya E-Infomedia Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore — a business process outsourcing company offering IT and IT-enabled services — which gives employment preference to differently-abled people (orthopaedically challen-ged, hearing impaired and dyslexics). A commerce graduate of the garden city’s KLE College, since promoting Vindhya E-Infomedia in 2006 with a workforce of five differently-abled people, Pavithra has grown the company’s workforce to 200.
Vindhya E-Infomedia was launched with an initial investment of Rs.500,000 which Pavithra sourced from family and through personal loans. “With the support of my family and husband Ashok Giri who quit his job in Trivium Inc — an Intel-funded company — we have combined operational excellence with lending a helping hand to the differently-abled who are often regarded as a burden by their families, especially in socio-economically backward sections of society. However I believe that if placed in appropriate jobs, differently-abled people with basic education can be more productive than abled workers because they are determined to succeed. Despite initial hiccups, my belief in the determination of the differently-abled has been vindicated. Now we service clients who are among the top in their respective domains — Wipro, Mindtree and Infosys, to name a few,” says Pavithra with evident satisfaction.
Born into a middle class family headed by her late banker father Sundareshan Y.V. and mother Dr. Radhika Sundareshan, a general physician, Pavithra became conscious of the widespread societal and official neglect of challenged and differently-abled people from a young age as she witnessed a stream of them visiting her mother who usually treated them free of charge. “Most differently-abled people have minor disabilities and are able to work quite effectively in a wide variety of fields. Despite this, they suffer severe job discrimination. I was determined to prove that the differently-abled don’t need charity and pity but suitable jobs in which they can be as productive as anyone else,” says Pavithra.
Despite the success of Vindhya E-Infomedia, Pavithra is not content to rest on her laurels. “We are working towards increasing our headcount to 5,000 differently-abled employees by 2015. And now that I have proved the poten-tial of this minority, my dream is to promote an inclusive vocational school. I intend to prove that together we can rise to greater heights,” she says.
Right on, sister!
Swati Roy (Bangalore)
Haris Khan
When President Pratibha Patil visited Pune in December 2010, one person who got to spend quality time with the country’s first citizen was Haris Imtiyaz Khan (13), a class VIII student of Pune’s Sinhagad City School. Not only was Haris granted special audience, he was also asked to sketch a charcoal portrait of the President. Nor was this a chance meeting. Haris has a unique talent and growing reputation. In 2008, he was adjudged the youngest speed-sketch artist in an online competition conducted by the World Academy of Records, USA, chosen from among 5,000-plus competitors worldwide.
A veteran of several solo exhibitions, Haris has also speed-sketched former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, cine actors Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Aamir Khan, politician Priya Dutt, and film director Ram Gopal Verma, among others. On November 20 last year, Haris completed a live portrait in just 24 minutes. “We have sent a recording of this feat to the World Academy of Records and are awaiting their confirmation about whether this qualifies as a world record,” says his mother Huma.
Haris’ penchant for speed-sketching charcoal portraits began to manifest when he was just three years of age. “We realised he could draw well without any formal training and therefore encouraged him to pursue this hobby. He would listen to his grandfather narrating stories of freedom fighters and that would inspire him to sketch their portraits,” recalls Huma, a professional interior designer.
Unusually intense for a 13-year-old, Haris infuses a mixture of pain and hope in the expressions of his subjects. This characteristic flows from his listening to recitations of Mirza Ghalib’s poetry rendered by his father, a poet in his own right. Residents of Burhanpur (Madhya Pradesh) for four years, the Khan family moved to Pune in 2003 when Haris’ father Imtiyaz, a marketing executive with a private firm, was transferred to the city.
“Pune has a cultural vibrancy which inspired Haris. From a young age he has been visiting exhibitions of renowned artists to learn about technique and style. Apart from portraits, he also loves to do landscapes,” says Huma.
Obviously Haris exhibits no hesitation in stating that he aspires to become a full-time artist, in the footsteps of the late M.F. Husain. With nine solo exhibitions in Pune and Mumbai to his credit already and a ‘Pride of Pune’ title, he seems set on his course.
Huned Contractor (Pune)