Good afternoon, and thank you and, wow. I am so privileged and so honored to be sharingthis afternoon with all of you and these incredibly amazing women that are being honored today. I'd like to extend my congratulations to eachone of you, Octavia, Michelle, Kelly, Patty, and all fifty women that have been includedin the impact report.
Your achievements not just inspire me butalso so many others to work harder to be better and to make a dent wherever we can. So, I'm very, very proud to be standing alongsideyou. So, in life you know there are moments whenyou stop and ask yourself: “How did I get here?” Like: “Why am I standing here?” Well, this is definitely one of those momentsfor me and I find myself going back to the beginning, back to my roots.
I was born to incredible parents, amazingparents who served as doctors in the Indian Army.
I was the first born and as far back as Ican remember I made my parents very proud and happy 99% of the time. Okay, slight exaggerations of personal achievementsare allowed from time to time, don't you think? My brother was born a few years later andeven then, nothing changed for me.
We were both given equal opportunities, andI want to emphasize this, I want to really emphasize this for you because I don't thinka lot of people might understand that being equal might seem very normal but where I comefrom India and a lot of developing countries around the world more of not this is an exception. It's actually a privilege.
My first of the glaring disparitybetween boys and girls came at a very, very young age. I grew up in a middle-class family with extremelyphilanthropic parents who constantly reminded me and my brother how lucky we were and howgiving back to those who were less fortunate was not a choice it was a way of life.
Simple. I was seven or eight years old when my parentsstarted taking me on these visits in a traveling clinic to developing communities around andvillages around the city that we lived in called Bareilly. We were packed into this ambulance and wouldmy parents would provide free medical care to people who couldn't afford it. My job at the age of eight was an assistantpharmacist.
Your achievements not just inspire me butalso so many others to work harder to be better and to make a dent wherever we can. So, I'm very, very proud to be standing alongsideyou. So, in life you know there are moments whenyou stop and ask yourself: “How did I get here?” Like: “Why am I standing here?” Well, this is definitely one of those momentsfor me and I find myself going back to the beginning, back to my roots.
I was born to incredible parents, amazingparents who served as doctors in the Indian Army.
I was the first born and as far back as Ican remember I made my parents very proud and happy 99% of the time. Okay, slight exaggerations of personal achievementsare allowed from time to time, don't you think? My brother was born a few years later andeven then, nothing changed for me.
We were both given equal opportunities, andI want to emphasize this, I want to really emphasize this for you because I don't thinka lot of people might understand that being equal might seem very normal but where I comefrom India and a lot of developing countries around the world more of not this is an exception. It's actually a privilege.
My first of the glaring disparitybetween boys and girls came at a very, very young age. I grew up in a middle-class family with extremelyphilanthropic parents who constantly reminded me and my brother how lucky we were and howgiving back to those who were less fortunate was not a choice it was a way of life.
Simple. I was seven or eight years old when my parentsstarted taking me on these visits in a traveling clinic to developing communities around andvillages around the city that we lived in called Bareilly. We were packed into this ambulance and wouldmy parents would provide free medical care to people who couldn't afford it. My job at the age of eight was an assistantpharmacist.
