India's First Woman Polo Player: Rinaa Shah On Breaking Stereotypes

She was the first female polo player in India, breaking age prejudices by starting this journey at the age of 40. However, she first fell in love with footwear design. Rinaa Shah accomplished many other amazing feats in the interim, including skydiving, participating in perilous excursions, driving a little bit, mountain climbing, and more.

For Rinaa, from 25 years ago India has evolved a lot. At  22, people around her were shocked and did not approve of her working or breaking barriers. “But now times have changed and women have come ahead a lot and not viewed the way once they were viewed. Women are balancing their work and home and don’t need to be all the time home if they want to work.” Indeed, it is interesting that the concept of a “homely” woman has evolved over the years, still having many more miles to go. 

Rinaa Shah On Breaking Stereotypes

Speaking to SheThePeople, Rinaa confessed she looks up to the creator and CEO of the beauty and lifestyle retail brand Nykaa the billionaire Indian businesswoman Falguni Nayar. Rinaa says, “I think what she has done for the make-up industry and stood out for being different and being a leader.”

Rinaa's childhood dream was to be an athlete even though she did not get that support from her family. “When the opportunity came at 39, I took it with both hands and knew that I wanted to own my team and fulfil my dream. So for two years I worked hard, went to Argentina, England and Santa Barbara to learn polo and then after playing my first game in Jodhpur I launched my polo team RINALDI polo,” she says. Notwithstanding the perpetual discrimination she faced whether it was shoe industry, polo or DJ in India, she is certain that women do not participate in these industries as much and they are always given a hard time or judged or put down. “But I wanted to be the first one to pave the path for other women,” Rinaa adds.

Rinaa Shah

There are not many women Indian DJs but things are changing and more schools help women to be better DJs. But as Rinaa says, one has to create a niche, otherwise, people will not see them as equally capable. 

Love For Polo

Drawing inspiration from Mary Kom and Serena Williams, Rinaa recalls that it was polo which chose her. “I had never seen the game but when I saw the horses and Adrenaline I could not resist,” she says. Once she had started riding, she got the joy of uniting with the majestic animal. “The peace and rush I got from that were incomparable,” she adds. 

Following her next passion, Rinaa, right now, is working on her restaurant with lots to do before she can say she is successful. With music and her restaurant, she cannot think of anything else. 

Hoping to write her book in two years, she says, “I don’t think one should take a profession without passion. You can never give your best and with passion, you can’t be successful as to be at the top you have to love what you do and be passionate.”

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Today, Rinaa Shah owns the RINALDI POLO Polo team, which includes seasoned players like Samir Suhag, Chirag Parekh, Gaurav Seghal, and HH Maharaja Padmanabh Singh. “I think you can be passionate in different areas as long as you are ready to give your best and work hard,” she adds.

For her, everything came one after the other and at an older age. She does not think about age and finds it an overrated factor to reach milestones. I go for it and believe you have one life and one shot,” she says, adding that one must take that chance and not worry about anything else at all.