“She took the path less trodden.
Lo and behold!
She made it a blazing trail!!”
Sanghamitra Jena’s inspirational story is one which everyone
in this world must be told. Starting from just Rs.40, 000 capital in 2004,
today her travel firm “Eastern Treasure India Tours” has a turnover of a
whopping Rs. 1 Crore! She has recently been awarded with “Prerana Award” by OTV
(Orissa Television), was featured in Forbes India magazine and also won “Woman
Entrepreneur for Tourism” Award by TiE. I was first introduced to her incredible
story by Mr. Subroto Bagchi, Co-Founder of Mindtree, who was speaking to enthusiastic
MBA students at XIMB in 2010.
In his own inimitable style, Mr.Bagchi enraptured the
audience with her story. Inspite of having gone through an immensely troubled
private life and having battled a hostile ex-employer’s team, she gathered
unimaginable courage with rock-solid family and good colleagues’ support and
went ahead with her own enterprise as a 35-year-old single woman. Later I searched
all internet links about her, talked to my school-friend Gopal over Facebook
and found to my greatest surprise, that SHE was his eldest sister! From him, I
learnt still more about her! Yet I learnt the most from the Lady herself, who
is today a woman entrepreneur par-excellence!
Sanghamitra’s journey in the hospitality industry started in
the year 1992 after joining a ‘Guide Training Programme’ by Tourism Ministry.
Though she favoured assignments like her 35 male colleagues, she was refused.
Alongwith her four female colleagues, she was told that since it was a
male-dominated society, men would only become guides. The feisty lady took it
in her stride. After getting guide license, she joined a Bhubaneswar-based tour
company. Sanghamitra was the guide for an American lady Lyle Lawson, who after
standard Bhubaneswar-Puri-Konark guided tour, asked for more. Sanghamitra
described all the breathtaking mountains, rivers, beaches, forests, rich tribal-areas
that Odisha proudly comprised of.
She asked-“Mitra, have you gone to these
places?” Sanghamitra replied-“No Ma’am. In our office, they say- U are a lady
and U can’t go far on tours. Respect society’s opinion.” Ms.Lawson said-“Let’s
go to your office”. There she said-“I’m excited to hear of Odisha’s beauty. Now
I need to go on a totally different tour”. So the higher-ups made a costing of
an 8-day-programme. Ms.Lawson insisted on adding another person’s cost to the
programme. Sanghamitra’s bosses were aghast that she wanted “Mitra” to accompany
her! They obviously contested this. So, Ms.Lawson extended her business-card
and said-“I run a tour company in America. If I could come all the way from
America to a small part of India on my own, why can’t Mitra be the guide INSIDE
HER OWN COUNTRY? You are insulting me by saying she is a woman and cannot
handle difficulties. Mitra will be my guide, else I’ll have no business with
U”. Later on the journey, she said- “Mitra, all men will suppress U. Do ONLY whatever
U want to do. Don’t listen to anyone.” Ms.Lawson has till-date been Mitra’s
strong pillar. Sanghamitra has recently returned from a one-and-half-month stay
at UK, hosted by Ms.Lawson! An invite to America for 2014 has already been
extended! And accepted!
After this, Mitra’s wings opened. She travelled far and
wide- all alone, to expand her company’s business right upto the North-East, Gujarat etc. She was made the Tour Division Head and established company offices in
Calcutta, Delhi and Chennai. For the next decade, she slogged hard creating
programmes, collecting worldwide travel agents’ info, coordinating among
hotels, ticketing, passport provision etc.
However, in 2000, her immediate boss
left. Then she had to face several problems with management. When she decided
to leave the job, they tried to malign her by sending an e-mail containing
false information. After learning of it, Sanghamitra asked the management to
forward the same to her. The condescending men said- “This’ll hurt you. Why you
want it? Go home and relax.” The daring woman replied-“Sir, you only see hurt
for me. But I can see only business in this e-mail- I will use the 3000 e-mail contacts
to make my own empire stand.” Her strong words echo- “Thanks to my ex-employer
who gave a blow on my face. Without that, I may’ve taken life easily. But now,
let me prove that I can give a blow back to him.” My Salute to the spirit of
this truly brave Lady.
As she resigned from
her job in July 2004 on the one hand, on the other, the ONE MAN whose support
she wanted most at this trying time, her husband of fifteen years, decided to
leave her to her own life. This was a turning point. In her own words
today-“Marriage is an achievement, and divorce is a second achievement”. Having
spent almost all her savings for her erstwhile family life, she was left with
only Rs 40,000. Sanghamitra had stubbornly rejected dowry property during
marriage. So now Sanghamitra’s parents blessed her with Rs.30, 000 for her new
venture. She spent all this money in travelling to Delhi and other places and
rebuilding contacts. Ms.Lawson wrote a strongly-worded letter to Mitra’s ex-employer-“I’m
cancelling contracts with U. Wherever Mitra goes, my company goes with her.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by several world-tour operators. Her sister
provided a printer-cum-scanner-cum-fax-cum-phone. Another sister kept her
cyber-cafe open throughout the nights encouraging her to re-network. There’s
been no looking back since she registered her company in 2005.
She recognised that tourists found something wanting in most
conventional tours. So, she started with camping accommodation near Bhitarkanika
National Park by leasing land from a poor villager, who encouraged her saying-“Daughter,
do good for my village”.
As a woman in tourism, she has got more support from
people wherever she goes. People worldwide automatically trust her, as they
confide that women will never cheat in business. She says-“Mine is not a
commercial venture- this is a rural tourism project. A thousand rupees more
will only go towards enhancing villagers’ life”.
Story of a woman who turned all odds against her AND came out trumps. Noble entrepreneurship. From a very noble woman indeed.
Story of a woman who turned all odds against her AND came out trumps. Noble entrepreneurship. From a very noble woman indeed.
http://www.odishareporter.in/top_news/otv-felicitates-women-with-substance-for-womens-day
**This post is a part of #UseYourAnd activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette Venus
**This post is a part of #UseYourAnd activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette Venus
