Rama Khandwala

Rama Satyendra Khandwala (born 1926) is India's oldest tour guide and the oldest living member of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment formed by Subhas Chandra Bose during India's freedom movement.

Khandwala was born in 1926 to an affluent family in Burma (now, Myanmar) as the fifth of seven siblings. Her grandfather was a doctor and a lawyer. Her mother, Lilavati Chhaganlal Mehta, was the recruiting officer at the Rani of Jhansi Regiment and a part of the Indian Independence League. At the age of 17, Khandwala and her sister Neelam joined the Regiment as sepoys after hearing Bose's speech in Rangoon. She attended a private school where the popular refrain was: "Britain shall always rule the waves".

Joining as a Sepoy, Khandwala soon became the Second Lieutenant at the Regiment and led 30 Ranis for two years in Rangoon (now, Yangon). Speaking about her experience with Conde Nast Traveller, she said:

My years in the INA were the most precious ones. The training was tough. I was promoted to be a Second Lieutenant and led 30 Ranis. That training still keeps me going. They aren’t going to make any freedom fighter-tour guides anymore, are they?

As a part of the Regiment, she was trained to be a soldier and a nurse. Military training included rifle and bayonet practice, handling machine guns and STEN guns, and defense and attack maneuvers. Medical training included working in general wards and operating rooms.

In 1944, she worked as a nurse in a hospital located in Maymyo (now, Pyin Oo Lwin) and almost died in an air raid. After World War II, she and family was put under house-arrest for six months and later moved to Bombay (now, Mumbai) in 1946. In the initial year, she worked as a secretary in a trading firm, nurse, and a Japanese language translation but she was not much keen on desk jobs. Later, she spotted an advertisement for becoming trained tourist guides and decided to pursue it. She had learned Japanese during their occupation of Burma between 1942 and 1945. She has worked as a translator for documentaries created by Japanese television channels and many corporate. During her stint as an interpreter for a Japanese documentary, she met Dalai Lama and accompanied the King of Bhutan on a hike to Elephanta's Buddhist caves as a guide.

Presently, she is an active tourist guide and popular with Japanese tourists in India. Fondly called Rama Ben, she has been a tourist guide for over 50 years. In 2019, she became a TEDx speaker.

She got married in Bombay in 1949 and her husband died in 1982, and she has one daughter.

In 2017, President Ram Nath Kovind felicitated Khandwala with the Best Tourist Guide Award at the National Tourism Awards. On India's 72nd Independence Day, Khandwala inaugurated and was the chief guest at the Indian Film Festival organised by the Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.