Shreya Ukil’s South Point friends hail her as a fighter

KOLKATA: The batch of 1992 from South Point who knew Shreya Ukil are happy with a landmark court judgment that catapulted this 40-year-old to limelight recently. Internationally, Ukil’s gender discrimination case had been headlined as: ‘IT executive who was forced into sleeping with her boss and was paid half the salary of her predatory and misogynist male colleagues wins discrimination case’.While some of Ukil’s friends have hailed her as a ‘fighter’, others congratulated her for continuing with her struggle against misogyny.
Her batchmatch, Subhajit Chatterjee, is happy with Ukil’s achievement. “It’s encouraging to know Shreya has won the lawsuit against gender discrimination and harassment against Wipro. It must have been a difficult struggle since misogynist attitudes have often been normalized by those in positions of power,” said Chatterjee, who is now an assistant professor of Jadavpur University’s Film Studies department. Chatterjee has memories of innumerable occasions of going over to Ukil’s Salt Lake residence. “We were among a group of close friends two decades back during the South Point days. So many times over, my friends and I would drop by at her residence near Laboni in Salt Lake. But I lost contact with her after leaving school. I wish the very best for her,” Chatterjee said.
London-based Arjun Chakladar and Shreya have studied in Section B. “Subhajit Chatterjee, Sujata Nandi, Siddhartha Banerjee, Piyali Basu, Ananya Basu and Animita Roy, Shreya and I were really close from Class III till Class VI. Then, our sections changed. She was a good person at heart, had leadership qualities and was helpful.”
Another batchmate - Agni Dutta - was happy too. “We were a big group of friends in school. She was a very interesting person to talk to. Shreya had a great sense of humour and was smart. Even in school, she used to hold her own ground.”