Jashuben has a date with Bill

From wielding a mallet and chisel to shape her sculptures or brandishing a Rampuri in desperation to obtain her hard-earned payment, to bearing the baton of honour for India, Jashuben Shilpi has come a long way.

Jashuben is the first Indian woman to have been named the Millennium Woman by the American Congress. She will be a guest of the White House from July 2 and 9 during the 27th International Congress on Arts and Communications as an ambassador of India and will rub shoulders with the likes of the Nightingale of India, Lata Mangeshkar, and other achievers in the field of art and culture. Jashuben will be presented with a gold medal and a certificate. She will also be granted a 30-minute audience by American president Bill Clinton, wherein she will be displaying transparencies of her work and career achievements accompanied by a speech. Besides that, she will also be displaying some of her works and photographs of others for the duration of the Congress.

Awards and honours though are not a new thing for Jashuben. She is a member of the Gujarat Lalit Kala Academy, awarded the Jyoti Sangh Award for Sculpture in 1990 and has been nominated for the Limca Book of Records for holding the heaviest and highest statue - that of Rani Laxmibhai of Jhansi perched atop a rearing mount wielding her sword in defiance, and has been named Woman of the year 2000 by the American Biographical Institute (ABI) besides being featured in the International Who’s Who of Professional and Business Women (seventh edition) published by the ABI.

A 100 page book on her life and career achievements is in the making, being written by Professor Vihang Naik.

For Jashuben, 51, the road to recognition has; however, been a roller coaster ride - an attempt to make a place for herself in a male dominated society, a struggle to make a living for herself and her now deceased husband Manhar Shilpi, and her two children, son Dhruv and daughter Dhara.

She has survived all the hardships, the tragic loss of her husband, and a near fatal vehicle accident herself, to reach the pride of place today.

However Jashuben’s mission is far from over. The Bronze Woman of India, declares, "I want to make a 150-200 feet tall statue. I don’t know when I will be able to do it, but I know I can do it and later if not sooner, I will be successful," she says with quiet confidence.

"My husband taught me to aim high and I want that I leave my mark on the sands of time, for long even after I am gone," she concludes.

Compiled from local news media