"Growing up I didn’t know that finances were divided into men’s forte and women’s forte. This was thanks to my mother. My parents till date maintain separate accounts. There is obviously a joint account that is used for general expenses, but my mum always looked after investments while dad took over daily expenses. Growing up I never knew about this inequality in finance between men and women."

"For me, the wake-up call came when one day my very close friend’s father passed away. His mother was clueless about money and since the father had left behind a lot of debt, she found herself having to start from the very beginning on all this. What was even more shocking for me was the fact that she had been working for over 30 years, is a post-graduate and very well educated and was contributing to family finances. But when it actually came down to managing money, she had no clue."

"Another incident was when I was studying for my part-time MBA, I wasn’t married back then, but a lot of my batch-mates were. I remember this incident. My colleague used to come by bus to college and she had a monthly pass that she used. Once she had to buy a ticket and had to ask her husband for Rs.5 for that ticket. This is a woman who manages lakhs for her office but when it came to household finances, she had to ask her husband for money; even a small amount like Rs. 5."

"I later moved on to finish my second MBA from IIM-A and this was when I came across a very different socio-economic clique. But I wasn’t surprised to see the situation leaning towards the same side of the pendulum here as well. While many women were financially independent, a lot of the others believed that it was ‘okay’ for their husbands to manage money."

"This was something that I was personally not okay with. I wanted to be financially literate, I wanted to be financially independent and there was no other option that I wanted. This is when I started researching a lot more about finances - the various online and offline channels available to me. This was important to me, more than important, it was crucial.

"My parents have brought me up to be independent and that was something I did not want to lose. Becoming financially independent is independence to me, true independence and something we all must strive towards."Kayalvizhi, today, is one of Basis' active customers.

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