Meet our featured beauty with brains Malti Kumar, a beautician and event organiser based in Sydney, Australia. Here is her story.
“Hi, I am Malti. I am from Chandigarh, India. I had a really good upbringing and was taught culture and dicipline. I never thought I would migrate to a place so far away from India (a country I still refer to as home). I was very social in India and organised many parties with friends. Life gave me an opportunity to migrate to this beautiful place Sydney and start a business that I was already working on, when living in India. In the last 21 years of my career as a trained professional beautician and event organiser, I have met so many different and diverse people in my community as well as outside my community.
Every year, I organise an event called ‘Sakhi Celebration’. The event was originally designed and created for ladies of all ages and eras. It’s about enjoying and celebrating beauty with friendship. It is a place where once a year ladies can keep all their worries at home and be there at the event to enjoy the moment and bask in sheer happiness. It’s an one stop shop for fun, games, dance, raffles, prizes, competitions, shopping, photo booths and a dance floor to get all your energy out. The ladies who attend feel refreshed and energized at the end of the day. The remnants of this fun filled day remains in your soul for a long time. Come along with your girlfriends, neighbours, sisters, mums, aunties, daughters etc, and you would be re-living those fun and happy moments with them again and again.
Growing up, I never faced any discrimination due to my gender. People talk about Gender Discrimination in India especially from where I come from, but I was raised by a man who loved his daughters way too much to even let us know that women are not the preferred gender in our area. I never faced any roadblocks as I grew up, learning to respect the oposite sex and vice versa. I have learnt to be independent and have my own voice and opinion. Women empowerment is a very broad term. It has its own meaning to every woman and its definition varies according to one’s perception. For me it is about being independent, having my own opinion and choice in everything and having control over things in my life. Giving my daughter the same upbringing is what I feel is truly respecting womanhood. As girls we all compete with each other but as women we empower each other. That is what I see in my daughter who seems to be growing up to be my reflection and is empowering others. That does give me the satisfaction of being a good parent.
I would like to conclude by telling all the women around me: ‘Love and respect yourself for who and what you are.’
My definition of Women Empowerment is:
‘A strong woman stands up for herself. A stronger woman stands up for everybody else’.”
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