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| Manju Sheth's Journey As 2011 Woman Of The Year |
Dr. Manju Seth
07/11/2012
I have often been asked three questions this year and I would like to answer them today....
The first one is...How has WOY helped your or changed your life?
I found that when you get an award like woman of the year it gives you a platform, visibility and brings you enormous opportunities to follow your passions and touch people's lives in many different ways. For me, personally it helped me connect various causes that I believed in.
I have always had tremendous passion for women’s causes and believed in empowerment of women. I have been blessed to be able to work with some wonderful people and organizations like Saheli and Asian task force for women.
I have also been fortunate to serve on the committee of political forum and honored to be the President-Elect of Indian Medical Association of New England. Adding the visibility and platform of WOY helped me connect so many people, groups and organizations. I felt that sometimes I became like a 'Go to person' as WOY.
It has been fairly common for me to get calls from people all over NE who wanted to be connected to a women’s group for domestic violence or even to find a right doctor who spoke their language, or who wanted to serve in political forum just to name a few things.
It has truly been an enormous privilege for me to be able to do these things. It has also given me opportunities to meet some wonderful people, write about them and truly expanded my horizons and helped me grow as a person.
Second question I am often asked is how do I do it all?
I always said that if someone like me, a simple working mom in the community with all the responsibilities of marriage, kids, elderly parents and in-laws and social obligations, could do it then anyone can do it. Interestingly, as the year has gone by, I now get approached by so many women who said that it is THIS simple statement which helped them identify with me and made an enormous difference for them and encouraged them to pursue their dreams
This brings me to the third question. What I have learnt and my message is that I have learnt that most important thing in life is to know what You truly want in life .. not your family, not your husband or your wife or your friends.. just you. So first define your passions and dreams, not just know yourself as they say...create the person that you want to be. Be positive.
For me personally, it is very important not to have any negative energy around me ..connect and network with like minded people and work hard..as Oprah says that the big secret of life is that there is no secret ..you can get there if you are willing to work hard. We get lucky in life when we do all these things. Of course luck is truly about preparation and meeting opportunity..
Lastly what is my message
On that note I want to thank all my friends and well wishers who have always supported me, my family and above all my husband Dipak, who has always been my rock and my conscience, my teenage daughter Shaleen who always keeps me very grounded. Upendra Mishra-I am very honored to support and sponsor this wonderful brand of yours, thanks for letting me part of this. Martin and INEN team for their faith in me and all of you for patiently listening to me. Thank you so much for being a part of my life ..
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