17th day of October, 1959, Nimita was born to the Malhotra family in Banaras, India. Nimi (let us take some liberty to call her Nimi here onwards) did her schooling at Central Hindu Girls School under Uttar Pradesh State Board. Her mother was a housewife and father was a lecturer in metallurgical department. With two younger siblings, Nimi had a wonderful childhood in Banaras. Her favorite subject was Maths and Science and she idolized Jhansi Ki Rani (i.e the brave queen who fought against the British rule for Jhansi - a territory in India). Summer holidays were spent reading novels, playing with friends, painting, cooking, phew! Nimi was also taught a few lessons in tailoring and embroidery work - a must for every Indian women since it was believed that knowing this household stuff will impress the groom who will marry her.
Days passed by and when Nimi was 10, her family moved to London for the next three years for her Dad was pursuing his PhD. degree.
First few days in London were difficult for her due to the language barrier. She felt dumb during all other classes except for Mathematics class. Her teacher was amazed to see that she was the first one to solve each and every problem given in that class.
After they returned from London, Nimi joined ICSE school board in sixth grade.
On completion of her higher secondary school, sharp girl that our Nimi was, cleared the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE- a very difficult and competitive exam) and got admitted to Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University.
She was the ONLY girl in the metallurgical as well as other branches of that university. It was very commendable for a girl to be in the technical field. So now, here was our Nimi, enrolled in a 5-year B.Tech course along with hundreds of other sharp but mischievous boys. Recalling the memory of those days, Nimi agrees that things weren't at all easy as they seemed. She was troubled by the mischievous boys who had their share of fun by throwing chalks at her between lectures and bullying her. One day when she had enough of it, she walked furiously into the Dean's office and logged a formal complain about these troublesome boys. The Dean promised to handle this and threatened the students to cancel their scholarships if the behavior continued. And bingo! it worked. From then onwards, Nimi was called Rani of Jhansi of BHU.
The Lesson learnt - Never tolerate nuisance for a long. Face it and dare to stand against it. You will never regret being bold.
So now our Nimi was in her fifth and final year of her graduation when the leading metallurgical companies plunged in to pick the best brains for their firm. Nimi was hired by the first company that came on-campus. Reason - they made an offer to the first three toppers of metallurgical branch and undoubtedly, Nimi was amongst them. She recalls that the HR, General Manager and Managing Director had come for the final interview and complimented her for being the first lady ever to join their company. Her parents must have been so proud.
So Nimi's first posting was in Faridabad with few days of training in Jaipur. She stayed with her grandfather and traveled to Faridabad everyday. Although she was hired as an engineer to work in metallurgical shops, Nimi was transferred to the R&D department to have a desk job considering that a lady would be more comfortable working in relaxed atmosphere. She could not find this job as enjoyable as working on a shop-floor and expressed her displeasure. Within two months, they brought her back to the shop to work with metals and furnaces where Nimi found what we call "job-satisfaction".
Now what kept me wondering in all this discussion was, that when did the love bug bit our Nimi. Being the only girl in her university, she must have enjoyed all the attention of the boys and most of them would have had crush on her. But then who was the lucky one to whom our Nimi reciprocated? How did they date in those days with strict parents and even stricter culture?
Well, lets wait to hear who was the charming prince of Nimi's life in the next part ..
