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#MY30Under30: Amrita Saigal: Friend & Mentor


On my fifth birthday, we had only been in the United States for barely 2 and half months. Our big party for me was an undertaking, inviting all the Indian families in the apartment complex and friends of my father’s from work. There were only a few kids, and they were all a few years older than me, and palling around with my brother while I struggled to blow out my reigniting candles for the wishes, not for the act of wishing, not realizing my deepest desires were just about to come true.

After my party, my parents packed me and my brother up in the car. We headed to the “nice” suburban part of town, where the apartment complexes turned into two-story colonials, and every tree hummed with the energy of summer birdsongs. We turned into the parking lot of one Ranjani Saigal, a classical Indian dance (Bharatanatyam) teacher recommended by one of the family’s new Amreekan friends.

And though it started out as dance, the four within their Saigal clan have taught me more than they can imagine about life, family, sacrifice, and the power of hard work and dedication. That hazy July day, I met a family that changed my history forevermore. And though I don’t remember meeting her that day, Amrita Saigal did leave an impression on me from that year on.

The next year, our family had enough funds to purchase our own home in that neighborhood we so admired. And quickly, quickly, our home was the after school spot for those two precocious siblings who fit so well between my brother and me. Arun and Aditya had only a month age difference, while I who had so longed for an older sibling was granted one by the powers that be. Amrita showed me how to be “cool”, how to be “American”. She taught me about what the cool 5th graders were doing when I was in the 1st grade, and later when she was in high school and I was in middle school she kept doing the same.

In dance classes, I would be on the lookout for glimpses of her as I entered or left. Because unlike some of our naturally talented counterparts, “Amrit” and I had to work really hard to learn and to express and to become good dancers. I admired her work ethic, and hoped that someday I would be as well known and well liked as a hardworking dancing scientist as she.

As Amrita went on through high school and college at MIT, she became my parents silent benchmark and lithmus test for my achievements. “What would Amrita do?” suddenly became a natural refrain for me in regards to dance, school, and career. Though I am happy that I have veered slightly off course by choosing USC instead of MIT for undergrad, and becoming Maithreyi, rather than Amrita 2.0, having her as my first and truest role model had served me so well.




From Left to Right: Ranjani Saigal & Amrita Saigal. In back: Maithreyi Shankar.

When Amrita initially started Saathi through a D-Lab project, I was so excited. I had never once heard the term social entrepreneurship until she and her mother explained en route to a Sunday dance rehearsal one summer, but the words stuck out in my memory as ones to hold onto and remember. Saathi means friendship in Hindi, and any person near or far who is a friend to Amrita and to the Saigals can count themselves blessed. When she went on to Harvard Business School, with venture competition successes in hand, where many are questioned, "How?", in my mind, that precocious 10-year-old with the compassion to share and educate, even after school sticks out. She was born for this, no questions asked.

The serving of others through one’s personal skills and interests is what my life’s calling is, but I think that without Amrita Saigal’s constant presence and influence in my life, I would not be who I am today: a dancer, a scientist, and an entrepreneur-in-training. She is the definition of up-and-coming, and deserves to be not only outright nominated, but also inducted into the 2015 class of Forbes #30Under30.

Warmly,
Maithreyi

Maithreyi 'Ray' Shankar
http://raysofsunshine.me
reyisofsunshine@ icloud.com

peace, love, sunshine. x


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