A modern matriarch with a pioneering career in medicine passed on her passion to two generations of strong women—one an acclaimed architect, the other a budding photographer. Meet the close-knit family of women achievers.
“I was very clear that I won’t marry till I had completed my MD.” Though Sumitra Javeri’s voice has a slight quaver as she looks back at her once-formidable career goals, the pride and conviction in her words are as unmistakable now as they were back in the 1940s, when she was pursuing a degree in medicine. Sumitra is 93 today and, though no longer the busy gynaecologist and obstetrician, she is deeply aware— now more than ever—that her story could have been dismally different if she had not stood up for her dreams. “I grew up in a large, traditional Gujarati Jain family in Ahmedabad where girls had never aspired for advanced education, let alone a career,” she says. “They were married off in their teens. My elder sister got married at 17.” However, Sumitra’s father could not help but support her dreams when he saw her scoring excellent grades all through school. “I had to be a little stubborn about what I wanted, but I had to make sure he had reasons to believe that I would go the distance,” says Sumitra. “I worked really hard to score the best grades.”
In 1946, she moved to Mumbai to pursue her MBBS from KEM Medical College. For the khadi-wearing, sitar-playing, Gandhi-following, ball dance-loving Sumitra, her quest to assert her multi-hyphenate passions and individual freedom was no less significant than the larger Independence movement that dominated her youth and our nation at that time. Fortunately, she soon found a life partner who was unfailingly supportive of her choices. “I met my husband, a London-returned chartered accountant, through common friends. We both shared a passion for ball dancing, and by the time we got married after four years of dating, I was 28. I know… rather late by the standards of those times,” Sumitra says with a chuckle.
GENE POOL
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