Growing up from small town Dewas of Madhya Pradesh in India, Shruti Pandit was an average student during school days. Her life was pretty normal like other kids that revolved mostly around friends, family and school. She didn’t have any desire to excel in studies or in any other field.
Still remembers ‘the Annual Day in school that I attended in 6th Standard that changed my life forever. There I happened to see students getting awarded and felicitated in various categories for sports, academics and extra-curricular activities. That day was a turning point in my life. Next day she woke up and life had a completely different meaning for me’, she recalls.
She woke up with courage , faith in God and an aim to excel in whatever she does. She started taking her studies and extra-curricular activities quite seriously. All she had with her to change her life was courage to be bold, and an aim to excel. Her courage has rewarded as she started seeing improvements in her life. Her grades started to improve. She started to win prizes in debates and elocution competitions. She started to take up leadership positions of that of House Captain and Vice Captains in school. “Every experience has molded me into what I am today.” She Says.
She has come a long way from desire to win awards and accolades. Since childhood her Spiritual Master has taught her to work for humanity and love and help poor people in need. With her Master’s guidance and family’s support she completed her Engineering in Information Technology from BharatiVidyapeeth University,Pune and got placed in TCS Mumbai.
She was always focused on her career and believed that women should work hard to carve a niche for themselves and should build a career to become financially independent. This belief and courageous heart helped her in being a constant topper during her school and college days right from 6th Standard. She was awarded many awards for academic proficiency from her School,CBSE Board,Sahodaya Group of Schools and her College. She was among the 0.02% of Indians in her 12th Standard to score 98% marks in English CBSE Boards. In college she won National Level Paper Presentation Competition when she presented a paper on “Piconet:Bluetooth”.
‘I too had own trials and tribulations in life. On the surface it all looks so smooth but I have gone through lot of sacrifices to achieve. Only my classmates would know that Shruti was a very shy girl in school and college and didn’t had many friends’, Shruti recalls. Pune is known to be a happening city for its pubs and clubs. But it was a different case for Shruti while she was pursuing her engineering in Pune. Her life revolved only around her college, studies and hostel. Her Spiritual Master advised her that “Make friendship with books”, and that’s what she did.
I wants to give one message to all the working professionals- “Always work with honesty towards your company and try to add value to your work.” — She says.
Shruti’s contribution so far –
She was associated with a non-profit public speaking and leadership organization “Toastmasters International” for 4 years.
- She also served as President of Mumbai Toastmasters Club-one of the largest clubs in Mumbai.During her stint she won 6 awards for her club and currently she is a Certified Advanced Communicator Gold speaker and Advanced Leadership Silver leader.
- She implements her love for communication by hosting various national and international conferences and by running her own Interview Video Log on YouTube.
- She has hosted conferences like Agile India-2016, Entrepreneurship Summit 2015 at IIT Mumbai,Women Power 2017 at IIT Mumbai again, Entrepreneurship Summit,India Leadership Conclave and Awards 2016 and many more.
- She is a marathon runner, a bharatnatyam dancer, a blogger and an interviewer who captures stories through her YouTube Channel.
- In March 2017, she won the award of “Women of Substance-Corporate” from Indo Global SME Chamber.This award was awarded to her for being an inspiring woman in her profession from pan-India.
Sufi Mystic — Afzal Warsi aka Baba Sahab, has inculcated values in my life and one of such values that I have learnt from him is “To help poor and needy and give back to the society what you got from it.” — Shruti recalls.
With this aim she goes and take sessions on communication and vocational training skills for students from economically weak section of the society. When she sees smiles on their faces and joy of teaching something new to these kids, she feels that this is what real award and reward is.
She signs off with the message-“ You can achieve anything that you want in life if you have courage and faith in Almighty God.”
Originally published at medium.com