As a child, Surbhi was shy and did not speak much. “People thought that I kept to myself, and I sometimes merged into oblivion,” she reminisces and laughs gregariously as she says that her voice was so soft, that folks struggled to hear her.
When Surbhi was in the third grade, a bunch of boys nagged her incessantly. She ignored them for a while, and when she could take no more, she screamed at them in anguish and anger. She had not noticed her class teacher standing a stone’s throw away. The teacher stood in awe as she watched the quietest element in class raise her voice, both literally and metaphorically.
The teacher escorted 8-year-old Surbhi to the staff room, sat her down, and incentivized her that if she partook in the school poetry recitation competition and won, she’d be up for a big prize for the interschool contests. Was she happy!
Surbhi, of the moment, thinks this subtle mentoring is where her life turned around. Her teacher had seen her potential, which she was now determined to realize. She participated and won in many elocution competitions after that, which did wonders for her confidence. In a particular junior school incident, she fondly narrates that the organizers inadvertently fiddled with the mic placement. This little girl, whom people struggled to hear earlier, stood in front of an audience seated in an open sports ground and delivered her performance without the mic. Respect and appreciation flowed her way, making her mark on the map and her grittier to take on new challenges.
Today, she has established herself as a successful professional both as a mentor and solution provider. Surbhi realizes the value of speaking up for what she believes to be the right solution at the right time. Through her own journey, she realizes that everyone is capable of being a better version of themselves, and that diamonds just need a bit of polish.
