Picture a young girl, the youngest of eight siblings, born with physical challenges that would deter many. With her arms half-formed and her elbow joint missing, Babli could have easily become a victim of circumstance. Thanks to her father’s immense support, who recognised her potential and encouraged her to embrace her uniqueness, Babli was able to overcome the challenges she faced.

Over the years, she has won more than 15 awards, both national and international, honouring her unbreakable spirit and dedication to work. Additionally, she has been honoured by President Pranab Mukherjee and received the Dr. Sarojini Naidu International Award in 2023. Here is the inspirational story of a Yodha named ‘Babli Gambhir,’ where she talks about her struggles and the achievements that she received in the Makeup industry.

The Test & Survival

When a baby is born, everyone around them is usually filled with joy. But for Babli, things were different. Her mother fainted when she saw Babli because she had deformed hands. Even her father’s friend suggested killing the baby rather than taking care of her. But for little Babli, her guardian angel was her father, who was ready to take care of her and he without any hesitation ended his friendship with the person who wanted to harm his little girl.

For Babli, her father was her inspiration, he had taken care of her since she was a little kid. He brought a small toy dholak and helped her play so that there was movement in her hands. Similarly, he would also give her a pencil and make her write on the paper. He used to sing the song, ‘Tujhe Suraj kahoon ya Chanda, Tujhe Deep kahoon ya Tara.’ He was her whole life and she didn’t have any friends other than her father.

However, on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, little Babli lost her father to a heart attack. Being a little girl, she didn’t know the meaning of death. At night, she even slept next to her father’s dead body and in the morning she was sent away so that her family could complete the final rituals. After her father’s death, she was sent to Bilaspur, where her brother worked as a junior engineer in BALCO (Bharat Aluminium Company), to study further.

But being from a Hindi medium school, Babli found it difficult to adjust to Central school because of three reasons. First was because she couldn’t speak English, Second because of her financial conditions she didn’t have the same things as her classmates and third was her physical disability. For Babli, studying in that school was akin to a nightmare, as the students behaved very weirdly with her and would hit her or push her like she was some sort of an animal. There was only one teacher in the school who was nice to her and encouraged her to focus her attention towards learning skills like dancing, painting, drawing and more. She started learning all those skills, but as a child, she was still scared of her classmates and other people and would often hide her hands, which led to her becoming an introvert.

After her brother had a daughter, she was sent back to Jaora, Ratlam, where her big sister Baljeet confronted her about changed behaviour and Babli told her everything. It was her big sister who made a deal with her that she would have everything like good clothes, and accessories if she topped all the classes and she did.

After topping all the classes and higher English, she completed her Bachelor’s in English and got a job as a teacher, but on the first day, she realised that she didn’t want to work, she wanted to do something of her own. Even when the family was against her decision, she was adamant. While she was pondering upon, what her life path would be, she went to a parlour with her Bhabi and some girls were doing the client’s makeup, facial and threading.

She looked at how the girl was doing the threading and once she returned home, she practised the same steps on her leg, and finally, she realised that she too wanted to run her own beauty parlour. Yet, again her family and her society stood against her, but she didn’t back down and decided to pursue her passion.

Becoming A Beautician

Since her family was against her, Babli started taking art lessons in her small room in Jaora and collected money to attend a beautician’s course. She was so good at taking those art lessons that people would pay her whatever she asked, after she collected some money through her classes, she went to Indore to take classes. But here also she had difficulty getting into the course, so she gave demo lessons related to everything and she even practised cutting with scissors and doing makeup.

After completing her first course, she came back to Jaora and started her parlour with a single chair and mirror. However, her first customer ran away, after seeing her hands. But she didn’t give up and thought of an ingenious way to attract customers. She would wear different styles and do different makeup daily and walk around the city, to attract customers.

Gradually, customers started pouring in and with all the money she would collect, she would learn new skills. There was another person who had helped Babli a lot, and she called him Dadaji, and he was from the Bohra caste, who had built a hall for her in 2 months so that she could get adequate space for her parlour. With her hard work, today she is the owner of Queen of Sheen Beauty Clinic.

She has won several awards, but her first award was from Dainik Bhaskar Ability, Mastery Award. But the award that is close to her heart is when she won a Prashasti Patra from the late Pranab Mukherjee on 3rd December 2013. Till now, she has won 15 national and 1 International award. Furthermore, in her beauty clinic, she teaches 25 to 30 girls from economically weaker sections of the society.

A Message For Audience

According to Babli, whenever, we are feeling low or feel that we have nothing in life, think about her, who is nothing but a Warrior, who has shaped her own life. She emphasises that it is important to never give up in life.