The Art Of Balancing

With her pathbreaking initiatives in arts, sports, education and health, Nita Ambani is changing the public perception of the Ambani empire

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

Nita Ambani once famously said, “As Indian women, we are always balancing work, life, home, etc. It is important to know that while juggling rubber balls and glass balls, the former may bounce back when you miss, but the glass balls crack if you let them fall. So prioritise, prioritise, prioritise.”

In the last three years, she has been aggressively playing the prioritising game, often trading her “quiet and leisurely life” in Gujarat’s Jamnagar with Mumbai’s fast life, while overseeing the launch of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) even as she manages motherly and grandmotherly duties.

“Add to that, I am also a dog mother,” she says with a glint in her eyes as we meet her at the NMACC for an interview. “My son Anant rescues dogs; he has 5,000 stray dogs, but I have only one who is my family and we call him Happy.”

Happy is the golden retriever who was the ring-bearer when Ambani’s younger son Anant got engaged to Radhika Merchant earlier this year at the family’s residence, Antilia, in South Bombay. In Jamnagar, Anant is involved in running the Elephant Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, a zoo that will be built on around 280 acres close to the company’s refinery and petrochemicals project.

“I always feel children learn from whatever they observe around them, and given that both Mukesh and I share the same values, I think our children have imbibed these values and continue to live by them, which is very important,” says Nita.