Hyderabad : YFLO Chairperson Apurva Jain and executive committee invited the esteemed Ms. Sandhya Suri for a motivational event and her journey on the warship! The event started on a religious note with the lighting of a digital lamp and Chairperson Apurva Jain took over the screen saying, “Learning is our reason for being and its truly admirable to meet someone who has made her living as a ‘change enabler’!”
Ms. Suri is well known as an ex-naval officer, a TED-x Speaker, mentor, an author, a corporate powerhouse, and a poet. Ms. Suri symbolizes evolution and growth in diverse fields!
An alumnus of St. Joseph’s Convent, Lt. SandhyaSuri is a first generation Navy Officer and among the few to have served on a warship nearly 21 years ago. She moved on to a corporate career across various functions in India and Nigeria, to finally establish her firm in Media, Publishing, Consulting and Events,her firm also has a separate division called WEPA India for Women Empowerment Project Awareness. MsSuri has been recognised and awarded for “woman of worth 2019” award by Pinkishe foundation, felicitation for poetry at global literary festival Noida in 2019, inspiring women of the year 2020 by Assocham.
Her life philosophy is based on Ikigai (reason for being), Meraki (putting soul into one’s work) and insists, “life is a constant evolving process and learning never ends. Gratitude in attitude is important.” She started the session with a trip down memory lane with certain images and a presentation that she shared with the audience. She narrated incidents from her childhood, school days pointing out “she tackled bullying by taking a job at the age of thirteen.” Ms. Suri’s bohemian soul was evident in her passion for travel and writing. She made a special note of her teachers mentioning them by name and in fond memories saying, “they were the reason I fell in love with writing and maps.”
Her journey with the Indian Navy highlighted “the good, the bad and the Ugly” like any other life experiences. She went from being part of an “Absentee batch” to serving in INS Jyoti and INS Vikrant. The navy motto “ShamnohVarunah” summarizes her time with “sailing in INS Jyoti” being her most cherished memory. She still meets her course mates in reunions and relived the special rendezvous at sea!
She is currently juggling between diverse activities including a few other book projects, hosting conversations on taboo topics and literary events online. She spoke about the tough situations in life, “when she had iron chapatis due to no gas or earning Rs 250 in the whole year” and her relentless struggle to “keep swimming through life” which became the topic of 3 TED-X talks. She shed light on her publications and explained each with immense passion, and also mentioned a few in the pipeline.
Ms. Suri is an excellent orator and had the members spellbound with her brilliant narration. She answered queries from members with equal diligence and patience! Change is inevitable and today we had the opportunity to accept the same from a woman who took the fight beyond her warship!
