Author, Poet, Microbiologist, Farmer, Entrepreneur, Mumbai, India

Like many WOW Women featured here, Ms. Medha Bhaskaran is a multifaceted constellation of opalescence. She is an accomplished author, a microbiologist with an experience in food and pharmaceutical world, she worked in marketing as well as business development in Germany, India and the United Arab Emirates. She is also a poet with a skill to weave stories, fluent in both Marathi and English. Medha’s books have been translated into many languages and her vocal contributions to India’s newspapers have been praised and appreciated. In this interview, Medha deconstructs the steps from an idea to reaching the goal (whether it was keeping outdoor construction workers in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa from dying of dehydration, or pursuing an obsession of writing a book about a historical figure in India). Her tale and attention to detail satisfy the “but how did you really do it?” level of curiosity.

I was also determined to highlight (as seen in the title to this piece) that Medha is a knowledgeable farmer and earth cultivator. She has been developing a plot of land in rural India in the recent years, adding this new skill to her already expansive repertoire. I met Ms. Bhaskaran in Mumbai and her generosity was striking. She was kind, hospitable, and we had a conversation about her work, family and her beautiful mother.

I would like to dedicate this feature to Medha’s Mother, who passed away shortly after our interview. I am certain that she was prideful and cherished her daughter’s spirit and achievements, a WOW Woman’s spirit manifesting itself in all its might and magnificence.

1. Name.

Medha Bhaskaran but as an author I use my maiden surname in the middle – Medha Deshmukh Bhaskaran.

2. Where is your hometown?

Hometown is Ahmednagar. It is 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Mumbai in the state of Maharashtra in India.

3. What is your profession/career/title/self-label/designation? What does your average day look like?

My life has been fluid, plunging from various cliffs and then flowing in different directions. I never planned in terms of career or finances. Being adventurous in nature I like it that way, so I could expect the unexpected or the least expected and the element of surprise always fascinated me. I am a microbiologist and have worked in the healthcare and food industry in Germany, India and United Arab Emirates. I was a lab assistant in a beverage manufacturing company called ‘Eckes’ in a quaint little village called Nieder-Olm in Germany but I realised that I am a people's person and 'marketing' job would suit me better.

After returning to India I joined healthcare industry and worked at a pharmaceutical company. First in the capacity of a product executive, then a product manager and then a marketing executive that included business development. I traveled across India to conduct training programs for the sales-force, sometimes tagging my toddler son along with me. He must have flown a hundred times before he turned two. 

Within few years we, my husband, two boys and I shifted to the United Arab Emirates. In the beginning I found it tough to get a job of my liking so I started as a freelance health columnist for the ‘Weekend’ magazine of the Khaleej Times, the then bestselling newspaper in the Gulf.  In my columns I wrote more about allopathic medicines and what a patient must tell their doctors and also ask them before mutely accepting the diagnosis and the treatment. The Weekend magazine was then available on the Emirates airline flights and hence I used to get letters from many countries. The healthcare industry in Dubai started inviting me to give talks at their conferences.  With the little money I earned as a columnist I invested in getting a UAE driving licence which was a must for any marketing job.

Finally I got an interesting job as a Technical Manager for ‘Pocari Sweat’ a sports drink made by world famous Otsuka pharmaceuticals from Japan.  Then my average day was truly average with a day job and managing two growing boys.

But as you read on I have a totally different career now. Am a published author of three books that have been translated in other languages.

4. What did you study in school?

In school I was keen on science, I took microbiology major when I joined Bombay University. 

5. What was the journey like to get where you are (in life and career-wise)? What are some accomplishments you’re most proud of, and what was the turning point to set you on a current path in life?

To explain one of my delightful achievements we will have to take a detour into the science of hydration. Developing sports drink market in the UAE was one of the highlights of my life. I was working as a technical manager for Pocari Sweat, a sports drink made by Japanese pharmaceutical giant, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. Though sports drinks contain electrolytes and sugar, like Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT), they have a slightly different formula. They have less concentration of the electrolytes (sodium, potassium, etc.) and a slightly higher concentration of glucose (4–6% as compared to 2% in ORT and far less than cola and other soft drinks – 10 to 12%). ORT is a treatment for dehydration, while sports drinks are used for maintaining hydration and to counter the fast disappearing body fluids, especially in sweat.  

Physical work and exercise produce heat. Prevention of overheating occurs by transfer of heat to the skin by vasodilatation (expansion of blood vessels that supply blood, especially to the skin and millions of sweat glands to produce sweat). Sweat leads to cooling effect by evaporation but this results in body’s water loss. Exercise causes body fluid losses from moisture in exhaled air, as well as from sweating. Sweat rates are highest under conditions of high-intensity physical work in heat and high humidity. Unless fluid loss is replaced by drinks, sweating causes progressive depletion of circulating blood volume, leading to hypohydration (commonly called dehydration) and a thickening of blood. This places a strain on the cardiovascular system, with a rise in heart rate in order to maintain adequate blood flow to exercising muscles and vital organs. As blood volume depletes, blood flow to the skin is reduced. As a result, sweating decreases and heat dissipation from the skin is impaired, causing core body temperature to rise, potentially leading to heat stress, collapse and even death (heatstroke).  Even low levels of dehydration have physiological consequences. A loss of 2% bodyweight (just 1kg for a 50kg person) causes an increase in perceived effort and is claimed to reduce performance by 10–20%. A fluid loss exceeding 3–5% bodyweight reduces aerobic exercise performance noticeably and impairs reaction time, judgment, concentration and decision making – vital elements in dangerous construction work, as well as sports. A particular issue for boxers is that dehydration increases the risk of brain injury. 

Coming back to the sport drink, Pocari Sweat was then only available in very attractive blue Cans in Dubai and costing double that of the same quantity of any cola drinks. It was popular in the Arabic sports clubs where they played football, at the gyms, golf clubs and such elite places. Our team was involved in promoting it at various marathons and we made sure that people thought it was fashionable to be seen with the ‘blue Can‘ and make a lifestyle‘ statement. Our team also conducted  ‘high-end‘ seminars for doctors and pharmacists on sub-clinical dehydration and its long term effects on life, for example, kidney stones, etc. We had also tied up with various ladies’ clubs, inviting their (Richie Rich) members in (not less than) five star hotels for lectures on lifestyle and to tell them why they must pick up the blue Can for their families. They would go back with our fully loaded goodie bags to stuff their fridges with our Pocari Cans. Life was charmed, life was fantastic. I would speed off in my lovely Mazda 6 and later in my brand new Outlander to various clubs for product presentation – some were done in oil and gas companies at Abu Dhabi for their employees who worked outdoors. I remember one such seminar for managers from various companies, where every attendee got a Rolex!  We also would visit night clubs to promote Pocari Sweat as an answer to the next day‘ hangover that happens due to dehydration caused by alcohol (since alcohol is also a diuretic). But all that was about to change.   

The distribution company ordered shiploads of sachets of Pocari Sweat (to be reconstituted to a drink). If you have ever lived in Dubai you will know you are spoilt for choice as far as soft drinks, sport drinks, fruits juices, energy drinks (caffeinated), cold coffees and teas, to name a few, available in myriad brands from all over the world, in very attractive glass and plastic bottles, cans, cartons, pouches, etc. Once you enter the food section of any hypermarket you can see all these products chilled and waiting to be picked up. Who would have the time and the patience to reconstitute a drink in such a competitive and handsome market?

So the shiploads of Pocari sachets (even though it was much cheaper than buying the same in a blue Can) kept lying in the warehouse, with the expiry date approaching faster than a falling star! The responsibility of selling those sachets fell on the technical manager – that was I. So I thought and thought. Summer was approaching and about a hundred days of high temperature and high humidity were looming large on the horizon (more than 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 Fahrenheit and 100% humidity) and so was the expiry date – just a few months left. I had a brainwave: what if we targeted the safety managers of various construction companies where a million or more workers (from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines and China) worked outdoors? 

People laughed at my idea. The stakes were high. If a construction company has 10,000 workers, even to give a glassful of reconstituted rehydrating drink would cost them a minimum of 10,000 UAE Dirham per day (more than 2000 USD per day). The logistics of serving such a drink was altogether a subject one could do a PhD on, since the construction sites were huge, and sometimes the workers spread across the kilometres long areas. I started studying the subject of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and to my astonishment I found that the outdoor workers in the above mentioned conditions can lose up to 1–2 litres of sweat an hour!

I made a presentation showing how 6% glucose and sodium in the sports drink enter the body through the small intestine and how water piggybacks and enters the bloodstream via sodium potassium pumps present on the cells of the small intestine. How more water was pushed in the body a how the drink reduced dehydration possibilities leading to heat exhaustion, thereby reducing the risk of heat exhaustion and hospitalization in the workers. The first presentation was done to one Mr Steve Munn, a British national, who was the safety head of a huge construction company where 25,000 workers slogged in summer. The rest is history – Munn was convinced and bought all the shiploads of Pocari sachets. His workers survived the harsh summer and I could keep my job (as my company had said sell or else‘)!

Later, the idea of a water station was born and I went on doing 125 seminars over the next few years at various construction sites, airports, shipyards, and even courier companies, where people needed to work outdoors. One of the sites I enjoyed the most was the construction site of Burj Khalifa, the tallest and celebrated skyscraper till date in Dubai. I have seen that structure when it was shorter than me. At times my audience was no longer the elite, but the humble impoverished worker. I must have met thousands of them in that period and for the first time in my life I was not feeling guilty for doing aggressive marketing.   

While working for the healthcare industry I was also continuing to be a health columnist. After publishing more than three hundred articles on ‘health and disease’ in the Weekend Magazine of the Khaleej Times, I realized that people appreciated what I wrote. In that small little and cosy world of United Arab Emirates, I got some recognition and it was followed by big dreams. Soon I wanted to write a book on something not related to medicine. It took me a while to find that ‘something’ which turned out to be an uphill task.

I realized that there are hardly any books written on Chhatrapati Shivaji in English, a Hindu king who saved India from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, a tyrant and a jihadist.

It was year 2000 and at that time I had a very demanding schedule. My boys were growing up and soon I would also have a high pressure marketing job in the healthcare industry in Dubai. Nonetheless I announced my desire on impulse and my parents bought about fifty reference as well as fiction books written on that part of History (mostly in Marathi) and presented to me. The impulse soon became a passion and passion soon turned into madness! Those books became my time-machine to travel into the past. Since then every holiday in India meant visiting mountain forts. Little did I know at that time that writing articles in a magazine is totally different from writing a book, especially a historical fiction.

First it looked like a foolish waste of time. Many wondered who would read a historical novel written by a microbiologist who had failed in ‘English’ and ‘History’ in school with remarkable consistency? Only my closest family, my parents, brother and husband stood by me at the time, as I mostly lived in the 17th century!

Battle scenes were the most difficult part when it came to descriptions.  Here I got help from the non-fiction books written by military men throughout history. A famous weapon (17th century) collector, too came to my rescue. I met him when he had held an exhibition in Ahmednagar. He demonstrated how sword fights were fought. I met people who have written biographies of Mughal emperors. I discussed with them how men of power ruthlessly played political games.

From then I started hitting the keyboard whenever I had the time. When I look at the initial manuscript now, I realize that I did need years (more than ten to be precise) just to get the story together. A single conversation would take months and then I would scrap it.

Having lived in three places on the planet earth, India, Europe and the Middle East, life has taught me that there is good as well as bad in people, irrespective of their religion. It helped me as an author to be totally and completely unbiased as far as religions and castes were concerned.

It was 2011, time to come back to India to take care of my aging parents. My boys were grown up and were independent.  I had quit my job and was back in Mumbai with a bag, baggage and my manuscript. But the real problem was getting a publisher or an agent.  A hundred emails containing query letters, sample chapters, synopsis and a blurb were sent. Since the story was vast (1656 to 1680), I thought it would best be told in a trilogy – with each book ending with a shocking event. One thing was clear – I would not self or vanity-publish my work.

After many rejections and heartbreaks, one publisher in Kolkata offered to publish in parts, one and two. And as any new author I jumped at that chance. They did a fairly good job in editing and Part 1 was published – under the name ‘Frontiers of Karma – The Counterstroke’. There was a problem though; the distribution was extremely weak. It was then I had taken a copy to Crossword Bookstores head office requesting them if they could distribute ‘The Counterstroke’. They agreed and more. Anup Jerajani asked me to write a 300-page biography of Chhatrapati Shivaji –thus ‘Challenging Destiny’ was born in 2016. The biography turned out to be Crossword Bookstores bestseller and was nominated in two categories for Raymond Crossword book awards 2017. It is translated in Marathi (Zunz Niyatishi) and in Hindi (Niyati ko Chunauti). Audible edition is available on Amazon’s audible.in.

My heart was still pining for historical fiction. It was early 2017 and I received the most important call from Vaishali Mathur, Editor in Chief of Language Publishing at Penguin India. She found my manuscript in her old mails and was interested in taking up the project. She said Penguin will publish both parts in one book – that would end with Raja Shivaji’s escape from Agra. Then the editing warpath commenced. The name was decided on: ‘FRONTIERS’. An attractive cover was designed. The final product is in the bookstores, with great reviews on Amazon as well as Goodreads.

6. How is your life different from what you pictured at 20?

At the age of twenty I was in Germany, in those days it was West Germany. We had no mobile phones then. That was another world, in another time. Also I was not so driven by career even though I loved to work and was glad to earn my own money. At the age twenty I was busy as an apprentice and backpacking throughout Europe with other young people. I used to be terribly homesick and missed my mom, so all I wanted was to get back to India as soon as possible.

7. Was there a time when life knocked you down or out and how did you get back up on your feet?

After Germany I lived in India for few years, married the man I loved and had two boys. We lived in Bangalore in the state of Karnataka in India before we relocated to the United Arab Emirates. We have gone through some terrible financial situations but we remained above the water without drowning.

What hit me hard was much later in life when cousins whom I loved betrayed me. It happened after I came back from the UAE in 2011 to look after my parents. My father passed away early 2012 and I discovered that he owns some land near our home town in Ahmednagar. I had no idea that the first cousins (one of them is an officer of law) whome I loved like my own were trying to usurp my father’s land. I discovered it slowly but what I did, it hit my mom and me hard. My brother who teaches at the ‘Penn State’ university in the USA also had no clue.

Being absolutely law illiterate I went to my second cousin who is a lawyer and practiced in Ahmednagar. She helped me to rightfully, legally transfer the land on our names (my mother, brother and I) the rightful heirs of my father. The first ‘cousins’ whom my father had helped throughout their life promptly filed two lawsuits against us. To make long story short even the second ‘cousin’ who is the lawyer tried to take over our other properties (one residential and one commercial). She claimed that she had ‘possession’ of those properties. So I was and still am fighting legal battles with one law official and one lawyer.

Thankfully at this point in time all the properties are with us but my mother suffered through this ordeal. The lawyer cousin not only charged us ten times more fees but also put a criminal case on my mom and me. I tackled it all by reading/studying the law and collecting papers and information. Fortunately I have all the right papers and documents do not lie. I just lost my mom on October 30th 2019. She died smiling in my arms for she knew that I am a fighter. I am still not back on my feet after she has gone.

8. Advice for other women?

Acquire some skills and be an earning hand. Confidence will follow.

9. Knowing what we know now in a current political climate, can women be "all that we can be" in today's world? What is the way forward, as you see it, for "feminist values"?

I have seen that women torment other women more than men do. Passive aggression hurts the soul. My idea of feminism is try to be empathetic to women in the family and in the community who are helpless and weak. Empower them.

10. Where in the world do you feel “tallest” (i.e. where is your happy place)?

When I was with my mom and when I am working on my next fiction.

11.  What extra-curricular activities/hobbies are you most proud of? Why?

I love cooking and keeping the home cosy and clean. I am just happy doing that and not too proud to admit it.

12. What do you want to be when you grow up? Future goals/challenges?

I am a senior citizen but my goal is to write one book a year as long as I live. Challenges could be keeping my health but I am an avid walker so hopefully I will remain okay.

13. What fears are you still hoping to overcome?

My boy’s travel. I worry if they do not call me and say that they are safe.

14. Anything you'd do differently, if you had another go at life?

Would love to be a criminal investigator in another life.

15. What inspires you?

Life around me.

16. What are you hopeful about?

That I will be happy when death beckons.

17. What are some ingredients to a good life?

Five ingredients. Keep your needs simple. Seek pleasure in small things. Be financially independent. Try and keep good health. Do all that you can do for your family even if that means major sacrifices.

18.  What are (at least) three qualities you most love about yourself and why?

I am honest and have not betrayed anyone in life. But if anyone betrays me, I fight for justice. I love this quality in me because some women are afraid of fighting back. I have also taken risks in life. The biggest risk is not taking any risk at all!

19.   What advice would you give your 14-year-old self?

‘Watch while crossing the road.’

20.  What are you reading now? (what books do you gift most and what are your favorite reads?)

I am actually writing books. Just finished another historical fiction for Penguin Random House. Have two projects at hand.

21.  Who is a WOW Woman in your world who inspires you and why? Can you nominate three (or more) women you know who perfectly fit WOW WOMAN description? What would you tell them, if you had an opportunity, why you admire them?

There are many women whom I admire. The list is pretty long. This question will be difficult to answer. For me every woman who treats other women with respect irrespective of their social status, is a WOW Woman.

22. Where can others find you/your work (links to websites, blogs, etc.)?

Latest book: Challenging Destiny: A Biography of Chhatrapati Shivaji and an audio book. Bio on Penguin India, Goodreads Profile, Amazon Store, Indian Express profile.