Congratulations to Vimalahthavi Gopalan or Vimalah Nair, KMN for being recognised as Women’s Institute of Management (WIM) Woman of the Year 2008.

She attributes her grandfather for her success:

G. Vimalah Nair has her grandfather to thank for telling her to look at the pictures of great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru adorned on the walls of their home in Gemas.
Last night, she received the Women’s Institute of Management’s (WIM) Woman of the Year Award 2008.

She attributed her string of successes to her late grandfather. “He kept telling me that I can be a leader and advised me that leadershipknows no gender,” she said after receiving the award from WIM honorary life member Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali.

Vimalah won RM30,000, a trophy, a RM30,000 watch, RM15,000 worth of jewellery and hampers.

A bit on her background:

FROM her third day of marriage, Vimalahthavi Gopalan, also known as G. Vimalah Nair wanted out. Married off after Form 5, Vimalah suffered five years of emotional and verbal by abuse her husband, who was excessively jealous and possessive.

G. Vimalah Nair: ‘If you think you can, you will.’

Vimalah,
56, from Gemas, Negri Sembilan, stayed married because her mother believed if it failed, Vimalah’s younger sisters would have difficulty getting married.

However, the last straw was when her ex-husband threatened her mother with a stick.

“I realised then that I needed to do something about my marriage,” says Vimalah amidst sobs.  Vimalah took her son and lived with her grandfather near Gemas after the divorce.

However, her ex-husband showed up and took their four-year-old son away.

Only after over a year, she found her son in Malacca. Eighteen months, a court case and much anguish later, Vimalah managed to get him back.

When Vimalah reached her late 20s, she was saddled with the heavy responsibility of looking after her seven younger siblings after her mother died of stomach cancer and her stepfather decided to go back to India for good.

As a temporary teacher, Vimalah earned a mere RM270 a month but she managed to bu y a house by sewing, giving tuition and making muruku to earn extra income.

She eventually managed to enrol in university and obtain a Bachelor of Education from Universiti Putra Malaysia in 1991. Later, she moved with her siblings and son to Kuala Lumpur.

From 1991, she taught at Damansara Jaya Secondary School in Petaling Jaya for 15 years. She later secured a scholarship to do her Masters in Educational Management in Bristol, Britain.

Vimalah opted out of teaching at 48, and did freelance teaching and lecturing. Currently, she is in the midst of studying and pursuing a PhD in urban poverty.

Recently, Vimalah was appointed special adviser on Indian issues by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry.

In addition, she is MIC’s women development bureau chairperson and counsels abused women and single mothers.

She was also deputy president of the Malaysian Hindu Youth Council from 1984 to 1996.

For her contributions to society, Vimalah received the Tokoh Belia Wanita (Jabatan Belia Wilayah Persekutuan) in 2006. She was also awarded the KMN title by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong last year.

Vimalah hopes to inspire other women to be strong and hold to values in life.

“If you think you can, you will. Every woman has her inner strength. They should be like lotus flowers which float when the water level rises,” she says philosophically.