After the glorious victory of obtaining a dignified professional qualification, I was super thrilled to step into the aspirational corporate world. But life has its own ways of surprising us, pleasantly or unpleasantly. Just when I thought that I had conquered the world, some unexpected experiences reiterated that the finish line was yet far off. The world outside the warm shelter of family and ever loving teachers was not so cozy. Emotions like compassion, empathy, objectivity were just a few words in the dictionary which had lost their presence in the brutal corporate environment.
One of the top names in the CA merit list resulted in interview calls flowing from all directions. I received interview calls from every top financial advisory firm as well big MNCs in India. But, just my one clarification question from the calling recruiter asking, if the office premises had a lift as I was on a wheelchair, was enough to disqualify me from the list of eligible candidates. I got standard responses from everywhere; “I am sorry to hear this Ma’am, I shall check and get back to you soon’. Unfortunately, the “soon” never came. The word “wheelchair” triggered a lot of prejudices in their mind and no one really cared to waste time sorting out trivial logistics issue for a potential candidate. I was very disheartened. But I still didn’t want to give up. So I stopped sharing facts about my physical condition with the recruiter calling me and decided to face the hurdles as they came.
I met quite a few high profile senior executives in the industry for interviews. But sadly, their eyes could never look anything beyond the big wheels in my chair. Somehow, my wheelchair was a representation of my professional incompetency and inability in their staring eyes. I still remember a very sympathetic remark of a Director level professional of a top most advisory firm saying “they will try and carve out a special position for me in their organisation”. Probably he was trying to offer me a consolation in disguise. Another professional asked if I could stand up to reach out to a book shelf. In his mind, ability to pull out a physical book from a book shelf was a pre requisite for an Accounting processional.
Facing rejections from all corners, my endurance started testing me. I started losing confidence in my own abilities. I was shattered and strong grief had started to settle in. But I was still not ready to give up. Fortunately, with everyones blessings, my struggle did not have a sad ending. As I earlier said that I wanted this badly, the universe was actually conspiring to help me achieve my dreams. A very senior professional in the Industry offered me to join his firm and gave me an opportunity to carve my path. Under his mentor ship, I started developming my skills in a very specialised niche area of International Taxation. Unending hours of daunting efforts, I did not want to leave any lose ends. Soon I had gathered knowledge of tax laws of more than 15 countries in the world. It was this power of knowledge that within a span of one year, I graduated from an intern to a Partner in the firm. I was appreciated and acknowledged for my good work by all the clients I served.
I regained my losing confidence in myself and this was my second step in my journey of thousand miles. I was high on life and everything seemed perfect. Good work, good salary, amazing colleagues. Now my eyes started dreaming beyond this perfect state. I wanted to do more. I wanted to build something myself. I wanted be an Entrepreneur. After three years, I decided to move on from my job and set up my own advisory firm. This decision of mine again faced a lot of skepticism. Giving up a handsome and stable job in a physically disabled state was not a wise move from perspective of lot of wise men. But I had made up my mind. I successfully ventured my own advisory firm with two of my old colleagues. The feeling of being an entrepreneur, the joy of building something all by self from scratch was unmatchable and incomparable with any other pleasures of life. We were doing fairly well and growing fast. Alongside my dreams and ambitions were also getting bigger and bigger.
As I was running fast on my journey, along with my advisory business, I assisted my brother and co founded the biggest Eyewear Company of India today, Lenskart.com. Ever since then, there has been just no looking back. The name of this brand itself today doesn’t need any description. Lenskart today is the fastest growing start up in India having a so called physically disabled woman in the top management driving most critical business decisions.
Ability is not about picking up books from the shelf by self, walking on own feet, climbing staircase, typing or writing with own hands. Ability is beyond these and many other physical attributes that one possesses. Our thoughts, our knowledge, our actions to find solution to every problem define our Abilities.
At the end I would conclude that despite of being a roller coaster journey, it has been one the most satisfying and fulfilling journey where I realised my own inner strengths at every step and understood true meaning of Ability. I am even thankful to all those whose prejudices and rejections made me a much stronger person and only reinforced my zest to continue to fight.