My journey of growth

Honesty, dedication, enthusiasm and charisma- these are the real tools for success and I pursue them with total commitment. I was born in a joint family in New Delhi. I enjoy talking to new people, that’s why I like travelling. Sports bring out the fighter in me. I do not like losing but do not believe in winning at all costs- a true sportsman plays for the love of the game, not just for the glory of it. I love playing Basketball, Volleyball, and Badminton. Music is another aspect I consider myself decently good at. I love singing and can play a few instruments like guitar and keyboard. In 2007, I was roped in by a school back home in Delhi to train its girls’ volleyball team for an inter school tournament. The tough part was – BalBhavan School had never had a team before and I only had a week to get a team together. I was given no clear objectives, just asked to do as much as I could. But I had a clear vision , vivid picture of where to go, as well as a firm grasp on what success looks like and how to achieve it. Not just that I shared it and acted upon it.I myself defined my objective which was to create a pool of talent that would serve the school better in the years to come and also perform decently in the tournament a week later.

I decided to focus more on building the confidence of the team apart from making them train really hard. They were a bunch of dedicated kids who followed every instruction without a word, and were ready for it in just 6 days. In the tournament, they played each game with the passion I had tried so hard to build in them. They played out of their skins, losing three very tight matches. But their heads were never down and in their final match, they caused the biggest upset by beating one of the strongest teams in the tournament. To be very honest, I had never been a genuine believer in the “nothing is impossible” theory but all that changed after this experience. It gave me greater belief in my own abilities of leadership skills and I stopped limiting myself because I knew that anything was indeed possible. Secondly, I realized that hard work and dedication always yields positive results and working in a team multiplies your efforts.

It was a combined effort on the part of the team and my guidance that made the almost impossible possible. I also realized that I have the discipline to work toward a vision single-mindedly, as well as to direct my actions and those of the team towards the goal. I led a team of 60 volunteers as Chief Student Coordinator in organizing an inter college science fest in 2008. I was the captain of my school for two consecutive years, the first and the only one in the 30 year long history of Modern School, Delhi. I was entrusted with the job of directing my fellow student officials day in and day out to maintain discipline in school and also to organize cultural and sports events. I was also the captain of the school volleyball and basketball teams and led the teams in inter school tournaments. Assertiveness and fairness are also an important aspect of being a good leader. In my journey I experienced it when, I had to select the college basketball team for an All India level tournament. I was assertive to get the desired results.

I knew that along with assertiveness comes the responsibility to clearly understand what my team expects from me.I never treated my friends differently as the captain of any team. I had to make a choice between my friend, a good player but out of confidence then and a newcomer, good but who had no match experience. I put the college’s interest ahead of everyone else’s. Though my friend was the better player, I selected the newcomer I knew the team would need him in the coming years, and for that he needed exposure. A leader also inspires the team through dedication for task .During the cultural fest Unify in my undergraduate college,Symbiosis University, we were facing a potential problem of not being able to attract enough people for our Pronite featuring Shankhar-Ehsan-Loy. Ticket sales had been sluggish up till one week before the show.

Then I decided on putting up a ticketing kiosk at a mall, where we would ourselves sell tickets and create a buzz about the event. The task wasn’t as easy as we had thought it would be. People would just wave us away, not even giving a thought to us. But I motivated the team, potential future salesmen, stuck to the task and completely ignored the uneasy factor. I myself did a couple of shifts of 5 hours each. Though we managed to sell only about a 100 tickets during the week, we knew we had succeeded in getting the people to note. Luckily the rains kept away and hundreds of people flocked to the show, buying tickets on the spot. My perseverance had paid off. The show was a huge hit. And I was happy that my hard work finally paid off.