Beauty in business

By the age of 21, I had already travelled to Europe and USA and decided on a career in Bombay, the place of my birth, since opportunities to pursue a career were not present for educated young ladies in Nagpur where I grew up at the family home.
Bombay boasted a strong Parsi network. A Parsi friend introduced me to the owners of the first and largest travel agency in India, Jeena and Company, who immediately offered me a job. At that time, in 1959, Bombay seemed to have Parsis in every field and it was easy for me to make a success in my travel career.
It seemed to me that all well to do Parsis travelled through Jeena and Company. This was a good opportunity for me to learn the business and later open my own travel agency Diners World Travel, an affiliate of Diners Club which was the first credit card company to operate in India and which my husband and I bought from Kali Mody, a friend of the family.
Parsis were fewer in numbers compared to the rest of the population in Bombay, but they seemed to be in all the important places specially in the medical and legal professions.

Two Parsi sisters, Sylla and Nergesh Spencer were very enterprising in 1959 and were the first to organize fashion shows in Singapore, African countries and Moscow to promote Indian textiles for the Government of India Export Promotion Councils. I was thrilled to travel to these countries as a fashion model.
For the last 20 years, one of my interests is a small company "My Beautiful Embroideries” that specializes in Parsi style hand embroidery. Earlier, I had Parsi ladies coming to buy these embroideries. Now the ladies who come to order typical Parsi designs are few and far between, but many well-to-do families of other communities like my embroideries and choose at least one garment for their daughter’s trousseau.
Our business also operates a network of Business Centers in all major cities of India. When we started 20 years ago, we had many Parsi entrepreneurs using our DBS Centers. Now we have only one or two at each of our seven centers.
Since Parsi immigrants launch businesses abroad, perhaps we need to focus and publicize the advantages of opening new enterprises in our own country.
Entrepreneurship used to be the strength of the Parsi community. At the moment India is considered to be a huge opportunity for start-ups in view of our big domestic market. India also offers incubators and provides access to markets here. "Starting a business on their own is very difficult and incubators/accelerators are great partners as they help at various stages, including incorporation, market access, connecting with clients and investors and hiring staff” says an article published in Mint.
There have been efforts to promote entrepreneurship in our community, but what is required is a focused strategy to do this in a big way. Our efforts have to be long term starting with training for entrepreneurship and support from our community leaders and successful established entrepreneurs.