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I used to travel to Mumbai Central Railway Station every evening to sell dinner packets made by my mother to consumers traveling in trains. On the very first day of business, we made 50 packets and I went to the station to sell them. I was there for three hours but sold only two packets. It was my decision to make so many packets on the first day itself as I felt that I could sell them. It was a big setback for me emotionally. Not only did we lose money that day but I also felt underconfident. It took me some time to gain some momentum before I could sell all that we produced for any given day.
I have acted in a feature film, Tennis Buddies. It was shot in 2016 and is now available on Hotstar. I played the role of the antagonist in the film. The protagonist's parents are played by legendary actors, Ranvir Shorey and Divya Dutta. As the name suggests, the film is based on Tennis and has many scenes in it where the characters are playing the sport. The producers wanted to cast tennis players to make the scenes look authentic. That is how I got this opportunity. I have very fond memories of the entire experience. I explored a new industry, met dozens of talented people, improved my communication skills, and developed confidence in myself by facing the camera.
The first would be building a home-cooked food business along with my mother from scratch and making it profitable. We started it under extremely tough personal circumstances, but we were able to focus on the business. It did not take long before we were flooded with orders, and we were spending 12+ hours every day to fulfil them. The second would be completing a three-month professional tennis training camp at Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France and achieving a French Tennis Ranking of 15/5. I was training eight hours every day and playing tournaments every week. Going through the rigour in an unknown place made me discover myself and I ended up learning as much about life as I did about Tennis.
I see myself working as an HR Manager in a company that has strong values and believes in doing good while being profitable. I envision myself to be approachable, open to change, a risk-taker, and not one to shy away from responsibilities. I want to be coachable while still taking decisions while trusting my gut, and I look to move up the ladder while mentoring and guiding the ones that will come after me.
I am very proud of my indefatigable spirit. I have been in situations in the past that seemed out of control and impossible to come out of. I never lost my spirit and never looked down on self-pity. I am what I am because of my family, and I know that they have put enough strength in me to endure all types of problems in life. So whether it was intensive Tennis training in France, surviving on rice and boiled vegetables, or whether it was selling food packets at a railway station, I have always kept my head held high.
A successful manager is one for whom the team and the result are more important than individual accomplishments. She is someone who gives credit when it's due and accepts criticism graciously. A successful manager is one who takes care of her own physical and mental health because only if one can take care of themselves will they be able to take care of others. She can differentiate between right and wrong and knows how to say yes and no even without involving emotions. She is always on the lookout for new learnings, either from her superiors or her subordinates. A successful manager is grateful and recognizes the value and makes sure to appreciate and reward it.
I was appointed as the School Captain in my boarding school and that one year of responsibility gave me a lot of ethical dilemmas. I had to choose between fulfilling my responsibility by reporting and disciplining my friends or being soft and letting some situations pass by. Considering the situation, I was in at that time where I had faced criticism for being appointed as it was only my second year in school, I chose to keep some people happy by overlooking some of their unwelcome actions. Being a boarding school, there were guidelines in place to not allow any sort of parties in dorms. However, students would arrange soft drinks and snacks to have late-night parties. I did not have the courage to stop them as I felt that it would only make me more aloof, and I would not only lose support from them but also lose friends. Looking back, I was too worried about the personal consequences and I just failed to follow the responsibilities that I had to shoulder. It was a tough learning experience but I got a flavour of how leadership positions can be full of such situations and how to make decisions when faced with them.