Six months back, three women from different walks of life and respective professions; Rashi G.Menda(Founder of Zapyle and ISU), Mannat Kharbanda(Founder of Bug Eyes Design), and Medha Mukherjee(Founder of Feministaa Media), sat down together to discuss their issues. They all realized that as a woman in India, there is a painstaking gap wherein there is no space for women to support women and empower them to take the next big step. And so ROAR – Rise of a Rebel was born.
For the longest time, women rights have been about going out of the societal norms, doing something not thought of, doing something ‘unladylike’ and if we were to give a word to it, it would be being a Rebel.
But what is a Rebel?
Medha Mukherjee
As Medha explains, “Rebelling is not going against somebody or fighting against someone but rebelling is bringing out the strongest, fiercest form inside of you to achieve your maximum.”
Rashi Menda, the Founder of Zapyle, believes that they found common ground in their struggles to gather all their resources for their startup and their belief to continue working even after a sabbatical leave. They found a common voice and heart and decided to roar together to be heard to the society. They knew they had the support and experience and thus decided to extend that support to women who were looking for one.
Mannat Kharbanda and Rashi Menda
“We’re outspoken, we have done this, so we thought let’s do it together! And I think that was the need and that’s where it started.”
Medha Mukherjee who now runs her Media Company comes from a background where she was supported with good education and an even better exposure and yet she faced obstacles to make her mark in the business world. Her drive to start this community was to simply make sure that others too can get an equal opportunity.
She explains that whenever the trio met, they discussed the same problems over and over again of their struggles of having to prove themselves at every step, with showing their capabilities to value their company and handling bigger groups and proving themselves to their investors.
Mannat Kharbanda
“When we started discussing we saw that it all comes down to gender and we all, in a way, were rebelling against so many things and we didn’t even realize it. So, from there we said, let’s create this platform where we are just talking about how women are rebelling and it’s great to rebel and it’s absolutely amazing and the right thing to do that you have a voice and you’re speaking up!”
Going back and forth from Delhi to Bangalore, and Pune, to finally landing on Mumbai, Mannat Kharbanda explains she had too many reasons to have such an event in Mumbai; one of them being that Bombay is a city that welcomes new idea with open minds. They also wanted to test the waters before going on a national scale, for the audience here is more open to new ideas and gives their opinions without any hesitation. They all wanted to challenge themselves with the struggles they would face in a new city with all three Founder’s being from Delhi. They believe in Bombay their struggles were real and each of them had to put in extra effort while managing their time in their everyday work life.
There are many great speakers and talented people in Mumbai and the Founders knew that was no better place to launch the community.
However this is just the start, As Rashi says, “ROAR is just beginning with Bombay, we are taking this further to other cities as well. We have Delhi, Bangalore, all of these cities on our cards coming forward but we wanted to start from Bombay specifically because we wanted to reach the right audience before we moved on.”
And that it was! Over 200 entrepreneurs, women running family businesses, artists, entertainers and homemakers marked the launch of ROAR 2019.
The only conversation that ROAR wants to start in 2019 is #DoYourThing. Medha explains with her own personal experience that the moment you start on a new idea or business startup, you most definitely start getting doubts in your head. But ROAR wants to show that you need to go beyond those doubts and do your thing. ROAR wants to put forth all those women who went past all their doubts and executed their very creative ideas with success and made a mark for themselves in the world.
Seconding her Mannat says, “For me, ROAR is a feeling of belonging to a community, a place, it could have any gender involved in that but it’s just a feeling of belonging, that’s it.”
To sum it together in a nutshell, ROAR is a platform of possibilities where everyone comes together to find new opportunities, collaborate, learn, network and meet new people so they can excel together and keep growing together.
And the very first event on the 09th of March 2019, turned these three women’s brainchild into a star-struck reality.
You can reach them at info@riseofarebel.com
Priti Bhengra
We are like books, we wait for someone to find us and open us to see what’s inside.
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