She Takes on the World

“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.” ~ Louisa May Alcott

Quoted above are some words that Team Panthera lives by. Even as we are cruising through the 21^st century, being a woman in mechanical engineering continues to be a source of constant “concern” for people we don’t even know. Girls have always been taught to act a certain way. Almost everyone’s definition of a pretty girl goes the same- shiny, beautiful hair with big eyes, long nails. We, at Team Panthera have redefined beautiful. For us, a girl with grease on her face and a spanner in her hand looks equally, if not more, beautiful. Women have always been taught to act a certain way, but we question that “way”. For us, there is not better representation of beauty than a woman who is unafraid to be herself. We might have broken these chains and bondages of the society, but the society continues to grab onto us. It just wont let us FLY. 

In conversation with the ex- Team Manager, Divya Dhankhar, we got to know about the various problems our girls faced while working on this project. Their fault? They were a girl.

“The first problem of many problems that we faced was during the market surveys. The shopkeepers tend to quote a very high price for any material seeing girls. They generally didn’t entertain us and got very irritated if we asked them about stuff. On the other hand, if a male person was in the same shop, buying the same material, the irritation and rudeness would just vanish!”

Someone once said ,“Not knowing you can’t do something, is sometimes all it takes to do it.” Keeping this attitude in our mind, we kept our head straight and our chins up, because we couldn’t afford to let even a single factor let us down.

Even though India is said to be “modernized”, what we fail to understand is, why are boys constantly trying to pull us down? Their condescending nature is what demotivates us.

“Let us carry that for you, that must be heavy”  or  “Let us cut that for you, you would not be able to do it. “ 
Thank you so much for that sir, but what do you think we have been doing in that machine shop for almost 12 hours a day? Painting our nails? We have had enough of “You are girl” being thrown around as almost an insult. Team Panthera is all for making it a compliment, that too, the most special one. 
 “ Male mechanical engineers in India always try to show themselves in a better light. They always try to make us feel as if they know better and that they are doing something more extraordinary. They underestimate us. While we faced no such problems in the completion in US, in India we constantly faced such problems.”, says Divya.

Parents are supposed to be one’s constant source of guidance and inspiration and our parents have truly supported us in every way they could, but, being a “girl”, there were many problems and issues that our parents faced as well.

“We had to run home by 9 everyday or we would be continuously bugged by their phone calls. Had it been a guy, he wouldn’t have faced the same problem. That is a big hindrance for us. There have been days when I have come back home at 12 and its very difficult for parents to understand and not worry. That adds on to one of the challenges that we have faced. " , says Divya.

Being constantly hit on by these problems, Team Panthera still  continues to be a source of happiness for the 20 team members working in the team. True, these problems have made us weak, they have made us fall; but we have risen up, STRONGER. We work as a family, we are each others support and trust us, you don’t need anything else in life if you have the support of 19 highly inspiring and strong women. We are a source of motivation for each other and that’s what makes Team Panthera special. We are harnessing our power into our passion. Our passion for our dreams. Our passion to build something that we can proudly call ours.

This is a shoutout to all the beautiful ladies out their- don’t let them weaken you darling, that’s what they really want. Let the world be in awe of you. Let them wonder the secret to your success.

And this is for all the guys out there thinking that we are not “manly”enough to be doing such a project. Yes, gentlemen, we are not manly enough for this, we will work as women. We will go ahead and reach to our dreams and fulfill them. We will never look back.