ABSTRACT
Renu Mistry has spent 30 years in Bengaluru. Both her parents were doctors. Her father was a Maratha and her mother a Tamilian, who were originally family friends in Chennai. Her father treated girls equally and emphasized education as well as career development for them. Mistry was strong in mathematics, got good grades and took up architecture at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kharagpur. There were about 25 women in the undergraduate programmes in IIT with 3,000 boys. The students were housed in about ten boys’ hostels and one small girls’ hostel. So for all inter-hostel competitions for sports or cultural events, it was the 25 girls participating. It gave the girls tremendous opportunity to develop known and unknown talents. In academics also the girls were generally the class toppers. Overall, her experiences at the college of architecture were rather empowering for Mistry.
