Saira Menezes, from the Media World Shines Among 'The 50 Emerging Stars of India'

On the 56th anniversary of India's Independence, 'The Week' a leading Indian English Weekly magazine hails the achievement 50 exceptionally gifted  young men and women, all of whom are below the age of 40
years These gifted people have not only shown enormous promise in their respective fields of arts, science, sports, corporate world, the voluntary sector but they have also made a mark and revealed a  great potential for achievements of higher magnitude in the years ahead. The idea of 'The Week' is to introduce them to a wider world. 

The current issue of 'The Week' carries out 50 talents from the fields of music, dance, cinema, literature, theatre, the media, painting, science, business, social work and sports and one amongst these selected few is our very own konkani community young lady hailing from Bombay. . Saira Menezes a talented, gifted and writer beyond compare  has been choosen for her contribution to the Media world.
She is the proud daughter of Bernard Menezes hailing from Bolkunje and Eliza Menezes (Rodrigues) hailing from Gurpur parishes, and now residing in Andheri, Mumbai.

When contacted  by the Daijidubai.com correspondent, over the phone, at her residence in Bombay today she gladly agreed to have her achievement featured on daijidubai.com.
Following is the the exceprt from the THE WEEK weekly for your reading pleasure.

SAIRA MENEZES - Grand passionShe is an all-rounder. She has written on subjects ranging from films and fashion to the travails of ordinary folk. "Writing keeps me going," says Saira Menezes, 32, the
executive editor of Sunday Mid Day. She started out in The Times of India ten years ago. The sprightly graduate in English then shifted to Savvy and later to The Sunday Observer. She then joined a news-magazine as special correspondent.

At 28, she returned to 'Savvy', as editor, the youngest to head a women's magazine in India. The next move was to Mid Day Saira's father, former chief librarian of Blitz encouraged her love for the written word. Her first feature article was on Kavita Paudwal, singer Anuradha Paudwal's daughter, who was coming out with her maiden album. "I went to interview her and she was as nervous as I was," says Saira. "But we had this comfort zone of being first-timers." "I revised
the piece again and again as my editor Ingrid Albuquerque was a very demanding boss. There was no way I could offer her shoddy work," she says.

Saira, however, is not a demanding boss. "I have been a reporter and understand the difficulties." She is married to Sishir Joshi, the chief of the Mumbai bureau of Aaj Tak. She had met him while on a reporting
assignment in Nagpur, where he was a reporter with The Indian Express.
Having achieved it all so soon in life, where does she go from here?
"You burn out only if you are looking for vertical or structured growth," says Saira. "You need to keep your options open, and keep on reinventing yourself." It helps to have a spouse from the same profession. "We feed on each other for ideas and suggestions," says Saira, who reads a lot and tries to spend as much time as possible with her close-knit family.

Saira is quite proud of her achievement. But she believes her biggest reward came through an article she wrote on the plight of workers in Khambat. Soon after it was published, one worker called her and said  , "I don't know English but your article made a big difference." That is what she always wanted to do-make a big difference.