Name an instance where you wanted something and went out of your comfort zone to achieve it OR Tell us the biggest risk you have taken so far in your life.
My minor in college was Industrial Engineering. I enjoyed the courses I'd taken and my internship at an FMCG firm. To pursue this further, I joined Wipro Consumer Care after graduation. I was the first woman hired for that role. I heard from numerous people about how a plant job was unsuitable and unsafe for women. Additionally, less than 30% of my department at IIT Madras had opted for a core engineering job. Yet, I was determined to work in my field of interest, and took the job. This was my first job out of college, and my first time living alone. I was working for 6 days a week and managing everything on my own. There was a very steep learning curve, both professionally and otherwise.I worked in the Wipro plant in Haridwar for over a year. I dealt with people across the hierarchy from plant operators to the CEO. This greatly improved my ability to connect and communicate with people. I led projects across all Wipro plants in India and worked with numerous cross-functional teams. All in all, it was a great learning experience.
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
The five of us helped aspirants in the GDPI phase of the journey through multiple sessions and 90 minutes long individual mock interviews. Each person benefiting from the program donated to the NGOs - Goonj and Hemkunt Foundation. We spent more than 100 hours in creating and delivering these mentoring sessions. We also onboarded other PGP2s from IIM Bangalore to guide the aspirants by providing relevant advice based on aspirants backgrounds. The total contribution from them was about 25 hours.MockUp helped 150+ aspirants across India through these specially curated sessions. 88% of them joined a business School as part of the Batch of 2023.Later, we also conducted a session for incoming PGP1s about how to make the best of their first year. Recently, IIM Bangalore awarded us with a letter of appreciation for our efforts.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
During my time as an undergraduate at IIT Madras, I attended a workshop on Krav Maga conducted by the institute. The workshop only lasted for a few hours, but it had a huge impact on me. Previously, I would have simply frozen in any dangerous situation. Of course, this did not guarantee that I would be able to escape. However now, while I would at least react and make some attempt to escape. This was something that I felt was very important for everyone, not just women, because unfortunately, we all face this possibility. Given the low turnout at these workshops, everyone assumed that this was not something that was useful to students. Clearly, I disagreed.I worked with the Dean of Students and the course faculty of the Life Skills course at IIT Madras to incorporate this in the curriculum. They also saw the value this would add to students, and this was added as part of the Life Skills course for freshmen at IIT Madras. Im happy to share that the offline sessions before the pandemic received a good response from students.
What is the one thing you can claim to have some level of expertise or depth of knowledge in - it could be anything - a subject, a sport, a hobby, a venture, an initiative which has led you to do deep work in that field?
I love reading. This was instilled in me by my parents I would go to Crossword every weekend and I fondly remember bookstore crawls with my father. I have read a few thousand books by now. I can read about 850 words per minute.I have often had people reach out to me ask for advice on building a reading habit. Last year, during the lockdown, I started a series of posts on social media with the #trishnagyan, to share interesting information about various topics that I had read about. Post this, a lot more people reached out to me for tips on reading. I started writing an article on my advice for the same, but it grew too long. So. I made it into a course on Udemy! The name of the course is How to Build a Reading Habit. Over 160 people have benefited from it already.
If 10 Million Dollars (approximately INR 75 Crores) is given to you to use it any way you deem fit what would you do with this corpus?
First, I will pay off the bank loan I have taken for my MBA. Then I will want to buy something for my parents. They have supported me unconditionally and have always stood by me. Then, I would like to set up a home for women survivors of abuse and violence. I had first conceptualised this in the Life Skills course in the first year of my B.Tech. Id like to establish one in a Tier 2 city first, because of the lack of options there for women survivors. Apart from a place to stay, I will provide them with counselling and legal support. I will also provide education and training, to enable them to earn independently. I will invest part of the money to ensure that this is financially sustainable for a longer period, and look for donors as well. I will also look to alumni of the institution to help mentor current residents. After this center has been functioning well for a while, I will look for other cities to expand to. I think each center will take at least 2-3 years to be properly established. I want to expand it slowly, to ensure the best possible growth and development.
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