“Hailing from an orthodox village in Kerala, almost everyone had an idea of how a girl like me should be leading her life. Shortly after my graduation in the sciences, I wanted to pursue an MBA. We had relocated to North India due to his transferable job so when I had asked to do an MBA, he came to our hometown Kerala to do the paperwork. And almost every single person in the vicinity had a thing or two to say to my dad about how he should be prudent as educating a girl child is not going to give him any returns.

However, he turned a deaf ear to all those queries and I went ahead to finish my MBA like I always wanted. But the timing was such that the whole job market was undergoing a huge recession by the time I was out as a fresh MBA grad. But it never deterred me. I pulled my socks and jumped into the job market to find whatever I could get – I was determined that I did want to support my family and prove a point to all those people who wanted to deny me education.

I did a couple of odd jobs like selling encyclopedias to different houses and eventually, with the universe’s blessings, came into the banking sector. With time marriage came into the picture and I relocated to another country and found work to help sustain my family once again. But when the kids made their entry, I realised that I couldn’t keep up with the job. I had to take a break then as the kids needed my attention completely.

With time, they were grown enough to be let into schools. It was only after they were gone that I realised the loneliness of motherhood. Sure the kids would come back later in the day but I couldn’t bear the thought of being alone in the time between their leaving and arrival. A woman is always told how much she is capable of dreaming. All of us come into this world with so many dreams but they are all slowly given away with the time that includes marriage and kids. I knew that I had to go back to studying to complete my education and get back into the job market.

With some convincing, I was able to secure a PhD research project in the same college where I did my MBA. In between, I also completed M.Com and learnt NLP. Currently, I am in the process of understanding how I can use my story and my skills to help people discover their true potential. If I can encourage even a single person with my story, I believe my work here is done.”