Rashi Kishore

I know this is a common answer, but I think it is my parents. Coming from a very middle-class Indian family, it's very difficult to think about going to a foreign country for a master's, not only the financial burden, but also not having any support system here. Letting me take that much risk, I think my parents contributed a lot to it. It came from their strength in me, where they believed that I can do it. Back in India, I had a very stable career, everything was stable, and when I made that decision, obviously there was some pushback from everyone who didn't understand why I needed to do a master's and basically uproot my life and go all the way here and do it from scratch. But the strength which my parents gave me actually helped me here a lot, even if I didn't have anyone physically present as a support system here. The support they provided back home was a lot. Even my siblings play a great role in that. The fact that I can be peacefully doing what I want to do here is because they are managing certain aspects. My parents are getting older, but my siblings are helping them out, they are there for them. So I think my siblings also play a great role in whatever they are doing. I owe it all to my family.

I would say just don't hesitate to take any risk, because when you are young, you don't have as much things holding you down. Explore as much as you can, try to get out of your comfort zone, because that's the only way to know what you enjoy doing and what you don't, and what you can do and what you can't. So it's very important that you take risk on whatever you are doing, rather than playing it safe. And even if you don't think that you would like that thing, you might surprise yourself. So just take as much risk as possible. And also start getting disciplined very early in life, because I think that being disciplined and having a routine is very important, no matter what stage of life you are in. If you develop those values and discipline very early on in life, I think it will help you throughout, in every part, whether it is career-wise or personally. So I think these are the two things I do want everyone to follow, especially young people.

Challenge-wise, I would say that being a young female person in construction is still a little difficult. One is the age factor, the other is the gender factor. But I think the best way to get over it is just developing that relationship with people, because I do get where they are coming from, that as long as they can't trust me, they won't respect me. So I just go on building that relationship with them. Once they start trusting me, obviously they'll try to be more communicative and everything. That's a big challenge. And other things I would feel that, coming globally, in a more global sense, there is a lot of cultural differences, language difference. People obviously prefer when you speak in their language, know a little bit about their culture, so that is one thing I am constantly trying to develop. If I meet people from different cultures, different lines, I try to get a little bit of knowledge about their culture. If I can speak even two, three lines in their language, or show them that I know their culture, I understand it, so I think that is also a challenge, but I'm trying my best to overcome it.

Value-wise, I would say that for me, my topmost priority is how sincere I am, because if I'm not sincere people can't depend on me. So for me, being sincere and punctual is very important. I always make sure that whatever time it is, I am available. If I have committed to something, I'm available for that, so I think sincerity and punctuality is my topmost value, which I actually admire in the people who have that also, professionally. Secondly, I would say the continuous improvement thing. I try to do whatever I can to make myself still up to the game, basically. I do appreciate it when people are always trying their best to be up-to-date in whatever field they are, so I think continuous improvement is something I value a lot. And I would say apart from these, professionally, safety is very, very important to me. Whatever work I do, whoever works with me, I make sure that everyone is safe and everybody goes safe at the end of the day's work. That is something very important to me.