First woman employee

While delving into the role played by women in the company on the occasion of International Women’s Day which falls on March 8, Sanghamitra Sen of Godrej Archives came across the name of Mani Thakur (née Sorabji). Employed by the Delhi branch, she "not only holds the title of the first woman employee but also the first salesperson of the company,” writes Sen in the March-April 2011 issue of Change, the Godrej house magazine.

Joining the company in 1956 as receptionist-cum-secretary to the then branch manager, Dr K. R Hathi, the 1930 born Mani Sorabji’s duties included attending to visitors, phone calls, filing and managing Hathi’s correspondence. As the first and only woman in the branch, she faced a number of awkward situations. For instance, the branch had only one common washroom! But a major problem arose when Thakur was expecting her first child and approached her employer to ask about maternity leave rules. Perplexed, Hathi sought guidance from the general manager in Bombay, but no one had a clue! A series of visits to the Delhi Labor Court followed, to ascertain what the maternity rules and benefits were, Sen notes.

Years later, when Godrej Bhavan, the massive new office in Okhla became functional, everything shifted there except the showroom. Unwilling to travel so far, Thakur opted to become a salesperson at the Delhi showroom. When asked whether sales was difficult to handle, she emphatically replied: "No! I had sales experience on the telephone... it (sales) was a matter of how you talk. Besides, when I first joined Godrej, Dr Hathi handed over a copy of every product catalog and asked me to learn its features by heart.” Hathi believed that every receptionist and telephone operator should be proficient in product knowledge to handle questions from customers. This stood Thakur in good stead when she took over charge of the showroom.

Thakur, now over 80, retired in 1991. She recalls well to this day the years she spent selling Godrej products in Delhi.