Realtor Helps Others on a Global Scale

Meera Banta, a real estate agent with Century 21 Connect in Stamford, is a giver. She loves to help people. “If I see someone in the street who needs help, I do it,” she says. “Human beings need to help each other.”

Among the people Meera helps are first-time homebuyers. Often they are young families moving to Stamford from New York City. Meera also helps people find rental and commercial properties. “I sell it all,” she says.

Meera and her husband, Bohm Banta, were a young couple themselves when they moved to Stamford in 1984. Bohm, who came to the U.S. from India to study for two master’s in business administration, met Meera when he returned home to find a wife. Meera, who has a master’s in economics, sales and marketing, says she has been extremely happy in their arranged marriage. Even though their families were friends going back four or five generations, Meera had never met Bohm. Two weeks after meeting for the first time, they were married.

In 1989, tired of commuting to his business in the city, Bohm, a gifted cook, opened an Indian restaurant in downtown Stamford, named for his wife. The real Meera stayed home to take care of their two young children, but missed a career of her own. When an adult education brochure came through the mail, she leafed through it and a course on real estate caught her eye. She wondered if she would be able to work and take care of her children. “I didn’t want to leave the kids with a babysitter,” she says.

Speaking of kids, Meera is a proud advocate for the Stamford school system. Her daughter and son both attended Stamford public schools before getting degrees from Michigan and Harvard Universities.

Meera loves being involved in her global community. She’s a member of the Mayor’s Multicultural Council in Stamford, and is active in the Global Organization of the People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) and Asha for Education, an organization that provides education to underprivileged children in remote areas in India. In 2008 and 2009 she was president of the Miss India Connecticut beauty pageant. The theme was "Beauty from the Heart."  Meera says the message is that health is more important than beauty. “People sometimes ask me if I’m a Hindu, a Muslim or a Sikh,” she says. “I tell them that I am a human being.”

Click here to follow Daily Voice Norwalk and receive free news updates.