She Walks, She Leads; Gunjan Jain Profiles India’s 24 Feisty Women

Gunjan Jain debut book is an authorised anthology of India’s most dynamic women leaders, it profiles life stories of 24 prolific women at the acme of their careers. The book features Nita Ambani, Indra Nooyi, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Mira Nair, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Mary Kom, Sania Mirza, Rajshree Birla, Shobhana Bhartiya, Chanda Kochhar, Anamika Khanna amongst others.

Instead of profiling the ladies alone, Gunjan has closely interacted with their inner coterie, thus delving deeper into the persona behind the achievers. So you have India’s much admired icons like Shah Rukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar decoding the multifaceted perfectionist, Nita Ambani.

At the launch, she has got Bengaluru’s bio-technology czarina, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (who is featured too) sharing candid moments of her friendship with philanthropists Yasmeen Premji and Sudha Murty.

This book is not just a revelation about the lives of these famous women, but more like a Bible on India’s high profile personalities and their hoi polloi friends too. So, don’t be surprised to read about Hollywood’s legendary star Goldie Hawn 20-year-old friendship with Parameshwar Godrej.

Gunjan, in her quest for ‘growth” and  desire to delve deeper into the lives of her subjects has even managed to conduct, snappy interviews with the low profile but high net worth husbands or children of these women of substance. From Kumarmangalam Birla to Tanya Godrej and Akash Ambani, these children with a golden spoon reveal fascinating aspects of their mother’s lives.

The author, who visited Bengaluru to launch her book, talks highly about the local power women she has handpicked for her book.

Another lady to have made it to this coveted list is Sudha Murty, whom Gunjan hails as a trendsetter. “Imagine, she was the only girl amongst 300 male students in an engineering college, and was a topper too. That takes a lot of courage,” she says with obvious admiration.

So, it is a tough call, to ask her to name her personal favourites. But, she sportingly chooses Nita Ambani’s name from the pick, after making it clear that all 24 ladies are special to her.

Speaking about Nita, Gunjan admits, “Her quest for accomplishment and sense of service is unparalled. She is compassionate and wants to genuinely contribute to society. I have never seen this in anyone before,” reveals Gunjan who was obviously thrilled to have Nita as the host of her first book launch in Mumbai.

Gunjan’s personal record is pretty impressive. She has a degree in economics and finance from Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, besides a masters in wealth management from Cass Business School, UK. Gunjan is currently enrolled in a general management programme from Harvard Business School.

Gunjan holds a diploma in image management from the London Image Institute as well as the Academy of Image Mastery in Singapore. And if all this not enough to overwhelm you, she also has a diploma in international etiquette and protocol from the Institut Villa Pierrefeu in Switzerland. Ask her if she constantly seeks challenges, and she simply states, “I constantly seek growth to better myself. And this quest got stronger when I was working on this book.”