PEAKLIFE

Aishwarya Bhende is behind building India’s first floating restaurant. Indeed, never give up on your dreams.

Exposed to European waterfronts from an early age, Aishwarya Bhende realized how they boosted tourism in those countries. Back home at the commercial capital, Mumbai, she saw a huge opportunity on its seaside which could add jewels to the crown of the city–Mumbai Skyline. This vision gave birth to an extensive 3-year process of building India’s first floating restaurant in a revenue-sharing partnership with the government. Setting up AB Celestial through 108 government permissions, establishing and sourcing interiors for the 4 themed layers of the restaurant to recruiting all staff for operations, Aishwarya has set the backbone for each process. But the task wasn’t an easy one. “I have had people take me casually at work because I’m a woman handling operations of the boat on my own and I have overcome that only through my performance and work ethic,” she shares. “I think women have come a long way with respect to having their own place in a boardroom. I have seen that happen before only in a family run business. Women weren’t considered to have a sound financial opinion and now it’s a completely different ballgame. Studies have shown that diversity in leadership enables innovation by translating new thinking into the business. With a balance in gender, a business can thrive on analytical and rational thinkers in the boardroom, she adds. Having been a victim of bullying, Aishwarya says that it only made her stronger with time. She shares, “My message to new-age women would be that as long as you can dream it, you can do it. I think it’s only important to believe in yourself because in the end it’s YOU who runs the show. I’ve fallen a hundred times just for this one project but got up, bruised only to a better tomorrow. What kept me going was my zeal to achieve this in any way possible and when I look back now, I realize I can overcome any hurdle in my life.”

(As told to Anuradha Kaul)