thane they could easily be protagonists of a shyam benegal film women of indefatigable courage overcoming adversity and successfully juggling personal pressures and professional priorities these women in thane are role models of exemplary grit and grace having turned the tide in their favour life gave a rude jolt to sucheta khot after her husbands flourishing business went bust overnight in 2007 and the family stared in the face of bankruptcy as their earnings dipped to an all time low we were living in the lap of luxury a sprawling home in vasant vihar car jewellery and best of lifes comforts and suddenly the party came to an end we were not prepared for this our children were growing we had to sell off the flat and buy a smaller tenement as it was a struggle to make ends meet said khot who was a homemaker till the tide turned rough it was then that the mother of two children decided to roll up her sleeves and take things headon khot who holds a masters degree in industry psychology from mumbai university was eager to put her academic qualifications to best use in these times of difficulty initially i took up assignments with the hr division in companies here but my overprotective husband disliked the idea of me stepping out on a daily grind so i took up teaching assignments in school and also trained girls in classical dance however my true calling was psychology and so i teamed up with a friend a clinical psychologist and together we decided to setup our own centre khot said going by normal standards the timing was deeply inauspicious for any business venture given the series of personal tragedies to add to her troubles her friend abruptly called off the partnership leaving her alone to try her entrepreneurial skills i could not practice as a counselor as i was not a clinical psychologist moreover i was saddled additional bills for the rented commercial space it was then that i chanced upon phonetics and decided to take up classes for the children training them in speaking skills and introducing them to the world of books using the timetested technique of story telling and songs khot told toi with an initial enrollment of four children who were just about adequate to clear her rental bill khot now heads a fullfledged institute knowledge corner offering a bouquet of courses for the impressionable minds from improving vocabulary skills to holding an artists brush and playing with colours the roundtheyear programmes for children conducted by khot are popular in suburban thane going by the swelling enrollment numbers for medha deshpande once a sobo resident life came a full circle when her husband lost a highpaying job way back in 2000 trust the hopelessly optimistic deshpande to turn it the tables and display her skills as a multitasking businesswomen the resident of garden enclave here decided to try her culinary skills to keep the home fires burning it