Muskan Sethi Shares Her Experience of Receiving The ‘First Ladies’ Award From President Ram Nath Kovind

Muskan Sethi
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  • PG News January 24, 2018
  • 3 Minutes Read

Despite the strides women have made towards equality, there are a lot of career paths that are still male dominated. Women who break stereotypes and carve their way to success in unconventional fields give courage to those who are dreaming of similar careers. Honorable President Ram Nath Kovind felicitated 112 such women on January 20, with the “First Ladies” award for being the first to dominate their respective fields.

In a proud moment for the entire poker community, professional poker player Muskan Sethi (cover image) was among the 112 felicitated. Sethi was awarded for being the first Indian woman to play professional poker.

For those unaware, Sethi has been a regular face in the Indian poker circuit for many years now and has also made giant strides in international poker tournaments. She visited Las Vegas to attend the World Series of Poker (WSOP) for the sixth time in 2017. In the past, Sethi also qualified for the PokerStars sponsored Shark Cage event in 2014 where she eventually finished runner-up. The Global Player League India’s Delhi Diehards captain Sethi has been coached for poker by Grayson Nichols and has received mental coaching from Elliot Roe.

Sethi is also a very active social worker and animal lover who contributes her winnings, resources and time to Muskan, an NGO started by her mother after her name. She has also launched an app named ‘Doggydoo’ that helps dog-owners address various pet related issues.

The 112 women facilitated were selected by the Ministry of Women & Child Development and its union cabinet minister Maneka Sanjay Gandhi. In the official press release Gandhi said, “Keeping up with the solemn spirit of Empowered Nari, the Ministry conceptualised ‘First Ladies’. These First Ladies rose through barriers, standards and oppressive notions to become the first women to excel in the fields which were thought to be beyond them.”

Apart from Sethi, the President felicitated other women achievers namely Bachendri Pal (first Indian woman to reach the Mount Everest summit), Deepa Malik (first woman to win a medal at the Paralympics), Priya Jhingan (first woman cadet to join the Indian Army), P V Sindhu (Olympic silver medalist), Nicole Faria (winner of the Miss earth title), Karnam Malleswari (Olympic medal winning weightlifter), Anshu Jamsenpa (First Indian woman to scale Mt Everest for fifth time) and Chhavi Rajawat (India’s first woman Sarpanch) alongside many other exceptional women achievers. Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai was among the list of winners too and received the award for becoming the first Indian actress to act as a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sethi met and conversed with several women achievers at the awards ceremony and shared a few moments on social media via a series of posts –

PokerGuru reached out to Sethi post the ceremony and the elated Delhi pro shared her feelings, experience and a few details about the ceremony. Here are the excerpts –

 

Hello Muskan, congratulations on receiving the First Ladies award from the President. How was the experience?

Thank you so much. It’s a feeling of pride and honour. I am completely overwhelmed by the whole experience. It means a lot to me to be a part of “First Ladies” & be counted amongst these strong, beautiful and accomplished women.

Our honourable President Ram Nath Kovind, Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi and Union Cabinet Minister of Food Processing, Harsimrat Kaur Badal showered us with encouraging golden words. It was a very special day for me and my family.

 

Can you share the complete details of the ceremony with us?

We started our day quite early for a press conference at Ashok Hotel, New Delhi followed by a luncheon with the ministers and senior delegates.

We were presented with our awards and a coffee table book which features all the “First Ladies”, most of the names in this book are women that I idolize. It was such a proud moment for me as a poker player to represent my sport and get counted amongst these established women. We were informed how we were all handpicked by the government and how important it is for us to keep inspiring others from now on.

Soon after, we were systematically escorted to the Rashtrapati Bhavan and got an exclusive tour of the exquisite house. Each room had some incredible history attached to it. The genius architecture by Edwin Lutyens, the priceless art collection and the Mughal gardens were just magnificent!

Later, we joined our honourable President and his First Lady. Some of the awardees shared their experiences and key lessons from their journey followed by our honourable president’s speech addressing “First Ladies” and the nation. We took a group photograph, personal interaction and high tea. It was a really big day for all of us and I feel blessed and responsible 🙂

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