COVER STORY
25
MAYA
SHAHANI
“MINE IS A RAGS TO RICHES STORY, WHICH AGAIN TOOK A MIRACULOUS
TURN TO CATAPULT ME INTO THE LIVES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS.
DESTINY PLACED ME THROUGH MARRIAGE INTO A FAMILY KNOWN FOR ITS
PHILANTHROPY. TODAY I LIVE IN A BEAUTIFUL APARTMENT BY THE SEA
AND HOLD MANY RESPONSIBLE POSITIONS.”
INTERVIEW
A
A Hindu, born in a Muslim country
and brought up by Christian nuns.
Maya Shahani’s family fled from
Pakistan to India during the par-
tition of Pakistan when she was
barely 2 years old and settled
in India as refugees. Her rags to
riches story makes for fascinating
reading.
Can you tell us more about yourself?
I am the Chairperson of the Shahani
Group which has a vision of building
educational institutes of repute in
India and globally, and a Trustee of
the Thadomal Shahani Trust, the CSR
arm of the Shahani Group. I am also
the Governing Member of the HSNC
Board running 27 prime educational
institutes in Mumbai with over 50,000
students graduating every year. Even
though I work on several initiatives,
the one I am primarily focused on is
the Thadomal Shahani Centre for
Management (TSCFM) founded by
my son Akhil Shahani, a graduate of
the Kellogg School of Management.
TSCFM imparts global quality man-
agement education to create indus-
try ready, heart centric, ethical busi-
ness leaders. ordinary person living an extraor-
dinary life. I was a motivational
speaker at the Celebrity Cruise
of “Dreamcatchers” and am now
working with Mike Handcock’s
team on “Arjuna”, an International
Film based on the teachings of the
Bhagavad Gita.
As the Founder Chairperson of the
SAGE Foundation the CSR arm of
TSCFM which educates and empow-
ers the under resourced, I work
closely with the Clinton Global
Initiative with a commitment to build
model villages which could be rep-
licated globally. In this initiative I
am helped by Mike Handcock’s Rock
Your Life Group which has promised
to raise five million dollars for the
project. How has your background influ-
enced who you are today?
“Dreamcatchers” a film by Mike
Handcock showcases me as an
I led a traumatic childhood because
of war and the partition of our
country. Wars are one of the great-
est tragedies of human kind, simply
because they need not happen at all.
If you analyse the situation, all the
wars and upheavals that take place,
are hinged on economy. Where there
is poverty, there is dissatisfaction. It
is not a fight between religions, it is
a fight between the ‘Have’s’ and the
‘Have Not’s’. Religion is just a factor
LEAD | January 2018