Mehra chirps in, “By borrowing a dress, one can save a tremendous amount of money, have access to good quality of clothes, flaunt a ‘designer’ label and never have to worry about being seen in the same dress twice”. She further adds, “The idea of Dial-A-Dress came to me after watching my younger sister worry about buying an expensive outfit for a wedding. Here was this girl who was willing to spend a good portion of her salary on a dress which she was going to wear just once or twice and I thought there has to be a solution to this dilemma. The idea of this concept is to not spend thousands on something you probably will never wear again. You can simply rent a designer dress, wear it, return it and you are all set to rent something new for the next event. Even better, you still have plenty of money left in your pocket,” grins Mehra.

And the uniqueness of the idea doesn’t end there. It takes an almost unthinkable humanitarian turn! She makes it a point to make a contribution of a sum of Rs.500 for every dress that she rents out to the customers which goes towards research on breast cancer. Following the sad demise of her mother after a harrowing battle with the deadly disease, Soniya was more than willing to extend her support and reach out to those cancer- affected women in the city who go through the same ordeal as her mother did. Keeping this in mind, she took it in her hands to hear out their sorrows & make a difference to their lives by allocating a regular contribution towards their betterment, both personally & monetarily.

Way to go, Dial-A-Dress!!

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Shobha Murthy

With a story that would inspire people to do their bit for the underprivileged section of the society, this Vashi -resident played the good Samaritan, who took it in her hands to bring about a change in the lives of slum children and women by imparting education and computer training to over 1,200 slum children and making provisions for education and empowerment of women.

The drive to play the role of a responsible citizen was always persistent when she worked as a Cost Accountant for a span of 12 years with big names in the corporate world. However, it took her some time to realise that there was something amiss.

It all started with her getting the much – awaited opportunity of joining a US-based funding agency as a project officer on a social service project, which brought out in the open the plight of the tribal living in the rural areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, UP, MP, Bihar.

After the jumpstart in the social sector, she joined CRY as a finance manager and quit in 1997 in order to set up ‘Aarambh’ for the upliftment of slum dwellers.

With no proper qualification in social work and just a little experience to guide her in the new arena, she commenced work in the urban slums and is proud to be associated with six centres of Aarambh operating in various slum areas and also imparting education and computer training to over 1,200 slum children from Navi Mumbai.

Not only this, Murthy is also playing her part in providing tailoring classes to women hailing from financially weak background through Aarambh.

Shobha Murthy is now a happy and content woman with all the satisfaction she had ever strived for!

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