It was a pleasant day when I walked into my office in a renowned organization on 15th December 2003, it was a familiar routine for me, and after all, I was a Human Resource professional working with the company for over 4 years. I was proud of what I did. I was responsible for ensuring deserving candidates got jobs with one of the largest telecom companies at the time. There were eager engineers who had just passed out of college, experienced professionals who were looking for a career change and then there were the ‘temp’ workers who just needed a job that helped them put bread on the table.
Every time I handed over an appointment letter, I felt I had made a difference to somebody. Yet, deep within, I was yearning to do more. I wanted to help not just a few, but thousands of people who needed help. I knew I had to look beyond office spaces, beyond business boundaries. I knew I had to look at improving lives of people at large. And what better way to do that than aspire to be an elected representative of the people?
While working as a local BJP unit representative in Lallubhai park area & Juhu lane, I decided that I would play a larger role in community / socio – political activities.
I decided to take up politics full time. It was not an easy decision to make. Coming from a middle-class family, I knew I had a tough task to convince my parents. My father is a retired banker and my mother, a retired state government official. Why would a post graduate in management want to join politics? However I was determined, because I firmly believe there is no better platform to make a meaningful difference to the lives of people from all walks of life, cutting across caste, creed and religion and since then my journey has begun….The fear of my parents’ gradually changed to support when they saw me turn path breaking ideas into reality. My documentary on global warming, ‘VASUNDHARA’ found support from civic activists, celebrities and common people alike. It was appreciated by the United Nations and I was selected for International Visitors Leadership Program of the U.S. Government.
An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises. I worked tirelessly to as a Municipal councillor of ward no 62 which resulted in Mumbai’s first vertical garden at public place, Mumbai’s first advanced street lights project, chequered pots on the lines of those of the ones in Interlaken, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel garden converted into theme garden which resulted in 18 ALMs endorsing my candidature for assembly elections. They supported me wholeheartedly resulting in victory by a huge margin of 25,000 votes.
I continued to work tirelessness with sincerity, honesty and transparency in my assembly resulting in visible changes in a short span of 1 year. The most important achievement being of demolishing all illegal encroachments and structures and taking police action against history sheeters.
