Power To Empower

NITA MUKESH AMBANI IS A WOMAN OF IMPACT. TRUE TO FORM, ON HER PACKED AGENDA SITS THE MISSION TO HELP INDIA OWN THE CURRENT CENTURY. SHE REVEALS HER TOUCHDOWN STRATEGY TO FEMINA EDITOR, TANYA CHAITANYA, IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW.

- TANYA CHAITANYA

Stack up the odds. Eleven girls from a far-flung village in the boondocks called Umthli in Shillong have a dream to play football on the national stage. There is no fulltime coach, kits, or even a proper field. The girls rely on the village folks (1,300 total population) to sometimes cook for them, provide support, and fund basic requirements. It’s a region where it rains incessantly for nine months straight and the ground is water-logged for most of the year; there is no internet and barely any road connectivity. The Umthli girls believe in their mission and make it to the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS) football tournament, win the city championships, the national qualifiers, and eventually become the National Champions at the RFYS National Championship in 2017 in Mumbai. All under 14, they break into their school anthem, ‘Like a light on a hill…’ and their faces beam as they take the victory lap.

Moments like these make one believe in the power of persistence. As I talk to Nita Mukesh Ambani on her reasons for reaching out to remote areas for sports tournaments, she scopes out this gem. That, in a nutshell, is her persona. A larger-than-life business name; a multitasker with a plethora of passion projects ranging from education to healthcare, sports to arts; a go-getter who packs in as much at home as at work. At our shoot in her headliner of a home, Antilia, she interacted with the crew and interns checking if they are being well looked after; enthusiastically experimenting with her hairdo and being the hostess who truly cared.

For my interview with her a day prior, she’d just returned post a long-haul flight and was in the midst of receiving a flurry of congratulatory messages for being selected as the first Indian trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), New York. Exclusive excerpts from our conversation below.