Success Stories of My Students

 Very regularly now, I see success stories of many students who choose to share them over the media. Some don't share them here, but one gets to hear them through a common friend, or somebody else.

Some that are on Social Media include Aditi Atre, Swati Sinha, Abhinav Kamal, Priyadarshi Matruprasad, Shrishail Deshnur, Padmapriya Janakiraman, Tanya Jakhar, Nikita Ray, Divya Singh, Shatakshi Tripathi, Savitha NK, Sunil Kataria, Ananya Nandi De, Ishita Modi, Sheetal Saxena, Shreya Sengupta, Shreyashi Chakraborty, Sandeep Das, Nishka Rathi, Bharath Shenoy, Sudeshna, Roopsha, ...

Some who I found out about indirectly or directly include Anupama Vadnagra, who I understand is with a fragrances company, based on her uncanny ability to spot fragrances of different kinds..like a wine taster or tea taster, in a way.

Makes me very happy, that they are doing well in their chosen fields.

Womens' Day

 Continuing on the theme, I continue to meet a lot of women who are women of substance, to borrow a well-known phrase, from diverse fields, at work or on visits to various places- these include visiting faculty or guests who visit our institutions. I recently met a lady who lives in Lagos, and had attended a Harvard course -she's a consultant. By the way, she also met a classmate of mine there-Narayan Das.

A few women, like the founder of Bandhej, and the Dean of NIFT Delhi, I happened to meet at the NIFT event in Gandhinagar recently, where I shared the stage with them briefly. I similarly happened to meet Rama Bijapurkar who is from the Marketing Research industry, a few years ago when we shared the stage at an event in Jaipuria Institute at NOIDA, I believe.

Of course, there are a lot of non-celebrity colleagues who I enjoy meeting every now and then, and many students too. I met Ananya Nandi De from IMT recently, after 2010 maybe. She works in sourcing (for an MNC), which not many do, at least among women. Here she is, with Raka, her hubby.

In Bangalore, I met Pooja Varun after many years, and found she runs a Food Park. Also has started a new business. Chatted with Swati Sinha, who runs Neerya, an online seller of sarees and other garments. She was in a class of mine. Aditi Atre, who runs Rajasthani Rangrez, I haven't been able to meet in person. Remember awarding her a prize at IMT Nagpur though.

Divya Sharma, Divya Singh, are in radio anchoring and digital marketing, respectively. Shatakshi is into her own digital agency too. Shraddha Nigdikar, who I haven't met in a while, for a good reason. She was doing a Master's in Psychology. After her MBA, that is. 

There are also authors, like Khyati Jha, and budding authors, like Anushka Mishra. And poets, like Anuja Anand. And musicians like Shruti Sharma and Shweta Sinha. And people with great taste in dinners- like Tosha Dubey, Meghana Joshi, Abha Kulkarni. And those who are like pure sunshine- like Sheetal Garg and Shweta Kushal. And some who are just special for a variety of reasons- Prachi Jain, Anusha Soni for example. Some bankers like Ankita Joshi and Swati Jain-coincidentally, both from BoB.

And next gen. friends like Rimjhim Verma, who don't mind being friends with oldies. 

Women Entrepreneurs

Had a chance to speak to a group of women entrepreneurs about Digital Marketing recently. Their enthusiasm was infectious, and it was great to see them trying their hand at every conceivable kind of business-from furniture to fashion, and hi-tech businesses. I think in general, women have more energy and passion, and can pull off a lot of things if they get a chance.

More opportunities to them automatically have a positive spinoff on the family. From what I have observed of women in the professional space (starting with my mother who was a doctor and also an administrator later), most of them are highly dedicated, and bring in some intangible plus points to a workplace.

Most of my women students are doing well for themselves too, in their workplaces or in entrepreneurial ventures- including some in digital marketing!

For She Cabs

Taxi cabs driven by women, for women. Sounds like the by the people, democracy slogan? In a way, it is. Last week, the founder of this unique cab service-For She Cabs (in Mumbai and Delhi), came to IMT Nagpur to share her experience as part of our guest lecture series. And the students were overwhelmed with this brave entrepreneur, and her story.

In a totally male-dominated industry, to set up a niche-segment company required guts, vision and perseverance. All that came across in the vivacious Revathi Roy, the founder. Her biggest challenge, once the idea came to her, was to find adequate women willing to drive cabs. She finally started her own academy to train willing women, and ended up starting a second business which produced trained drivers for her own needs.

Even today, with expansion in more cities planned, she sees drivers as one potential bottleneck. But that is not going to stop her from going full steam ahead. She has a lot of other ideas too, and will drive them into reality when the time is right. Bravo!