Academics
Obliterated from the pages of history, as women often are, Odisha’s first woman Chief Minister, Nandini Satpathy, known also as the Iron Lady of Orissa, was born to a family of revolutionaries and intellectuals. During her teenage years in the ‘40s, this petite girl in a starchy cotton saree was jailed for pulling down the Union Jack from atop the edifice of Ravenshaw College. \n\nThus began the makings of a force to be reckoned with. \n\nComing up through the ranks to ultimately reach the hallowed halls of the Rajya Sabha at the mere age of 31, this grassroots student politician went on to become the I&B minister in Indira Gandhi’s first government, where she facilitated the working of the Free Bangla Radio that played a key role in the information war that was ’71. She hobnobbed with the likes of Raj Kapoor, Nargis, and Meena Kumari as India produced films around socialist films and warmed up to Russia. And still, in Delhi circles, she is best remembered as ‘Indira Gandhi’s friend’.
Pallavi Rebbapragada is a journalist and public policy consultant based in Delhi. She started her career at India Today as a features writer and journeyed through Europe, the Middle East and the Far East capturing life and culture in her stories. She then worked with Forbes and Firstpost, at times dipping into the dark depths of the economy of death workers, prison reforms and India's drug crisis. On other days, she interviewed the strongest voices across politics, business and cinema. Her first book, Upon a Bright Red Bench, was assessed at the Yale Writers' Conference in 2014.
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