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The day just went by like all the other days, struggling to get up from the bed, half asleep as she did the morning chores and prepared to leave for the temple. In Seoni (a small town between Jabalpur and Nagpur; Mowgli Land), two communities try to coexist in harmony, the Jains, and the Muslims. While the Muslims with their morning Namaz, most of the Jains visit their temple daily and I did the same religiously. There are periods and days in your life, which in corporate parlance is called “honeymoon period”, the 2^nd rank in college entitled me my brief honeymoon period while I waited to enter the Corporate World.  Dancing Kathak through the days at home, teaching students, playing lawn tennis and with kids in my neighborhood, were my typical days since the time I came back from my Engineering College from Nagpur.

They say when one part of your life starts going ok, another part falls spectacularly to pieces. The letter came that day. The organization that had hired the 1^st & 2^nd rank holders through campus placements and had decided to retain only one. The campus placement season was over and a sincere apology and best wishes were not enough for the 21-year-old to fathom the devastation I had right in front of me and it was the beginning of my career, which was still yet to begin.

At an early age, when kids dabble with an attempt to speak, I used to dabble my luck the pencil and paper …. not to write but to draw, and brother’s note books were my favorite haunt. The good news was that I learned to write alphabets, before knowing what they were or sounded like. While I was just turning 3, I had become adept in packing my own school bags and used to follow my brother to the school next door and ended up attending the classes even before I came off age – I guess I was a nerd from the early years of my life. They say life doesn’t give up on those who don’t give up to continue to walk, knowingly or unknowingly this resonated with my life. While the walk was slow, the chores continued as I prepared for Post-Graduation (MBA). As thorough and technically sound I was, English was always a weakness – Poetry and Shakespeare were tougher than Trigonometry and Differentiation. My belief for ‘Life is a stage’ remained but only for dance performances and not speeches, carefree as I was while expressing through dance, elocutions and debates were not my cup of tea. As would life have it today – marketing, sales and client relationship are what I thrive on today. The dance moves have changed to strategic conversations and the ‘Mudras’ translate to RoI for businesses – and while I still manage to catch-up with my passion for dancing, I get my adrenaline rush with a Client acquisition. I guess I do have the Gift of the Gab.

Professional coaching for MBA was challenging in Seoni, however, this was never a road block. I ended up scoring an 87 percentile in CAT but missed out on a Tier 1 MBA college while deciding between a job and an MBA course. Looks like – I was hungry for education and I had my way. My next years were in Jaypee Business School in Noida, which I now called home.

When the naïve came to terms with life, the road was not the one desired to travel, yet I made my moves. Treading carefully, knowing my weakness and instead of stopping I relied on my strengths, I chose to jump the trenches, even though the fall after the jump was hard, I got up and took the leap again and again…

Five years later at a Start up convention representing iKeva, I shared s stage with Investors, VCs and Entrepreneurs. This is where I dwelled about iKeva while delivering my Second speech – like I said – may be I always had the ‘gift of the Gab’. Each one of us makes and paves their own ways in their own time. Yes, five years was a long time and encompassed an MBA, 2 career moves – residential real estate, credit rating and financial firm and a start-up in co-working spaces. There is more to my adventure – love, marriage (and that story is for another time) and relocation from Delhi to Bangalore where she went the iKeva way. Attending an event, addressing a gathering of high profile individuals still needs a lot of preparation, however, neither have I given up nor ever stopped trying, cause destiny and luck favors those who never give up.

Well, this is my journey – and I have just gotten started. I am currently the Area Manager at iKeva, Bangalore and Chennai –  juggling and managing P&L, sales, operations and more importantly customer service. If you are a member at our Bangalore center – you have just learned a few things about me and the rest over coffee. If you are visiting Bangalore anytime soon, I hope to catch-up on your story.