Global Indianstory Global Indian ExclusiveGolfing trailblazer: Aditi Ashok’s journey in golf and triumphs in 2023

Golfing trailblazer: Aditi Ashok’s journey in golf and triumphs in 2023

Written by: Amrita Priya

(December 3, 2023)The 2023 Ladies European Tour (LET) was a series of golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world held at multiple locations around the world. India’s Aditi Ashok competed with golfers from France, Spain, Thailand, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic and many other countries in the race to the Costa del Sol rankings – a season-long competition to crown the LET’s number one player. The Indian professional golfer who recently bagged silver at the Asian Games 2023, won both the opening and closing tournaments of the season at Kenya and Spain respectively. With these significant wins she made 2023 the best-ever year for Indian women golfers at the LET.

“It was a great battle,” said Aditi after winning the closing tournament of LET at Spain. In May this year, Aditi had achieved a ground-breaking milestone as the first Indian female golfer to break into the top 50 in the world rankings following her T5 finish at the LPGA Founders Cup. “I have grown up with golf being a part of my life. It means a lot. A few days without golf and I start feeling a void. It is an ingrained aspect of my life,” she had remarked in a previous interview.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ladies European Tour (@letgolf)

Aditi clinched the fourth position in the tournament, whereas her counterpart Diksha Dagar attained the third spot, marking the first time in history when two Indian golfers achieved top-five rankings in the LET season.

Starting young

The 25-year-old had started playing golf when she was merely five. Born and brought up in Bengaluru, the golfer made her Olympic Games debut at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Later, she also qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, representing India, finishing fourth.

Although she was unhappy about the result, the Global Indian said, “So many people in India are writing and talking about golf, and even watching it. I am looking at the positive side. The fact that my Olympic performance has generated more interest is great.”

Indian Sportsperson | Aditi Ashok | Global Indian

Aditi Ashok with budding golfers

Finding support in parents

The golfer’s parents supported her dreams from the beginning. At the age of five when she expressed interest in the sport, her father took her to the Karnataka Golf Association driving range. So invested were her parents in Aditi’s goals of life that her father Ashok became her caddie in the 2016 Olympics, while her mother Maheshwari Ashok was her caddie at the Olympics of 2020 in Tokyo.

“Both my parents supported me a lot when I was young. My dad would take me to the golf course every day and teach me how to manage my game. My mom has been a pillar of strength. From her, I have learnt how to create a positive environment around oneself,” she remarked.

Aditi Ashok with her father as caddie in 2016 Olympics

Turning heads

When Aditi was still a teenager, she was the lone Indian golfer participating in the Asian Youth Games of 2013, the Youth Olympics, and the Asian Games in 2014. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she emerged as the youngest competitor among all golfers, securing the 41st position, not a bright spot yet a milestone of sorts for the youngster who was trying hard to make a mark internationally.

She had got successful in clinching the National Junior Championship consecutively in 2012, 2013, and 2014, holding both junior and senior titles simultaneously in 2014. Following her victory in the Ladies British Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 2015, she had transitioned to the professional circuit the following year.

The golfer made history by becoming the youngest and the first Indian to triumph in the Lalla Aicha Qualifying School, earning her Ladies European Tour card for the 2016 season. This achievement marked her as the youngest victor of a Q School for an international tour.

Aditi Ashok

She secured her landmark win at the 2016 Hero Women’s Indian Open, carding an impressive 3-under-par 213. This victory established her as the first Indian winner of a Ladies European Tour (LET) title. Her success in a country traditionally fixated on cricket brought exceptional attention to the sport of golf.

International triumphs

Since then Aditi has been performing consistently well at major international golf tournaments creating a mark for herself. The dedicated player remarked, “I think the game itself is pretty motivating. Every day is different. Just having played well yesterday or last week does not guarantee anything this week. You are always on your toes to improve every aspect of your game.”

In a remarkable year for Indian women golfers, Aditi Ashok’s 2023 triumphs, securing victories and marking history alongside Diksha Dagar has contributed to India’s glory in the global stage of golf.

Follow Aditi Ashok on Instagram

Name*

Email*

Name*

Email*

0 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Published on 03, Dec 2023

Share with

ALSO READ

Footprints in the sand: UN Young Leader Udit Singhal breaks the ‘glass’ ceiling

(February 3, 2022) “Be mindful,” Udit Singhal implores in a TedX Talk. It is that same mindfulness that saw him solve the glass menace in Delhi. The UN Young Leader for sustainable development goals is a sum of many parts - social entrepreneur, youth leader, finance and tech enthusiast, artist and golfer. Primarily, though, he is a student at University College London (BSc in management science), and proactive on world issues. The 20-year-old was one among 17 selected by the United Nations for his contributions in 2020. Udit now hopes to galvanise the youth to work towards SDGs. The UN Young Leader, Udit founded Glass2Sand at 16 to address the glass dumping problem – it was the result of the glass bottles he encountered piling up at his home. “I asked why. I found that the collection of glass bottles for recycling is unviable due to dropping demand, large storage space requirements and high transport costs. Empty glass bottles are not segregated anymore, and have started to be dumped in landfills,” reveals Udit Singhal in an exclusive to Global Indian. The then enterprising teen uncovered the silent glass waste crisis, channelising his solution-driven mindset. “I founded Glass2Sand, an environment-friendly zero-waste

isis, channelising his solution-driven mindset. “I founded Glass2Sand, an environment-friendly zero-waste ecosystem and ‘no glass to landfills movement’ which stops glass bottles from being dumped in landfills by crushing them into commercially valuable sand, and repurposing it for sustainable construction. It is plugging a major gap identified in recycling of such materials,” says the young visionary.

Singhal also got a special grant from the New Zealand high commissioner in India, which aided in formalising an understanding with Kiwi patent-holders, “This helped me import technology from New Zealand that crushed glass bottles in under a minute,” smiles the university student.

The boy who saw too much waste

What gives Udit a decisively better understanding about problem solving evolved from a “family of trailblazing entrepreneurs.”

“My parents pioneered in setting up the market for international wine in India 25 years ago, when wine was relatively unknown. My father (Rajiv Singhal) was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Merite by the President of France – the second highest civilian honour. My brother, a wealth manager, was inducted into the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne,” Udit reveals. Not giving up in the face of adversity, and to think about the bigger picture is what his family has ingrained in him.

One can easily picture Udit as a child looking for places to hide and seek, and encountering heaps of bottles - wondering where he and the bottles could hide in tandem. “When I stumbled on the menace, it birthed the concept of Glass2Sand,” says the entrepreneur who hopes to leverage the Kiwi technology to continue the good work.

The former IB student at the British School, New Delhi, threw himself into learning with a two-week programme within sustainable development and social entrepreneurship at Yale in 2019. Incidentally, his father is also a Yale alum.

Emulating a family of achievers

Having role models at home, he has taken the learning a notch higher as a UN Young Leader. For the young preppy youngster, serious mindedness and self-belief are key, and now he wants the youth to muster the courage to manoeuvre through hurdles. “Seeking support is a step in that direction and finding a ‘good’ mentor will leave you in good stead,” smiles Udit. His most memorable experience was, “A meeting with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in November 2020 which left a lasting impact. The opportunity to present Glass2Sand and mobilise strategies to drive the SDG’s forward offered me new perspectives.”

Turning glass to sand, responsibly

Seeing wine being swirled and its terroir as a normal conversation at home was undoubtedly a push to launch the “Drink responsibly, dispose responsibly” campaign to raise awareness about the silent glass waste crisis, in association with the ambassador of Hungary to India in 2019. “Till date, Glass2Sand has crushed 25,600+ bottles into 15,300+ kilograms of sand, and we now have over 350 volunteers and 18 partners (institutions and diplomatic missions) active on the Glass2Sand network,” says the proud UN young leader.

Young people are calling to be able to #LearnForOurPlanet!

On Friday, tune into #COP26 as @UNESCO puts #ClimateEducation in the spotlight 📚
@YAGClimate member @pcopaloma & 1 of our #SDGYoungLeaders @_uditsinghal will also join 🙌

🕐 12 pm EDT
➡️ https://t.co/dyeYadI8bv pic.twitter.com/QEGVwWVFPz

— UN Youth Envoy (@UNYouthEnvoy) November 4, 2021

The learning continues even as he juggles classes, connects with the other young leaders, and finds impressive solutions to global challenges. “Covid has made collaboration difficult, but we have come together at speaking engagements,” he adds.

Singhal also worked closely with Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-General’s envoy at the youth office. “The best part of my appointment as a UN Young Leader for SDGs was being able to synergise and strategise closely with various UN organisations for effective youth climate action – a key learning was in taking initiative to create impact, rather than waiting for things to happen,” says the boy who is at heart a forward thinker.

A UN youth leader who is artsy too

Not many know that Udit is an artist, a gene he admits having inherited from his mother. “ I have been creating art since I was incredibly young. Despite being colour blind, I express myself through my artworks – paintings, sculptures and sketches. My passion for art got intertwined with my interest in the ever-evolving world of technology, manifesting in my first ever NFT Collection, Fabled Minds,” says the creator, revealing that it was a vividly curated collection of mystique paintings, photographs and sketches - powered by blockchain.

The UN young leader also loves to code and develop websites, in fact, he is most excited about a bid-based e-art gallery he developed to empower budding artists by monetising their artworks.

‘Putting’ the responsible forward!

On a sunny day when London weather complies, a bit of golf can do Udit a world of good. He calls himself a “scratch player” who started training formally at eight, having gone to the golf course as a tiny two-year-old.

Having delivered 25 plus keynote addresses so far (G20 side-event, UNRIC, UNITAR, UN75, etc.) and a sustainability podcast for Dell India in January 2021, the UN young leader looks for inspiration in life, music and golf, of course.

Art is a self-expression which Singhal has over the years embraced. His studio stems from this urge to create, “USStudio is a creative I founded that focuses on uplifting and enhancing the image and presence of brands through web development. It also spotlights creative portfolios - initiatives, photographs and artworks,” he adds.

His philosophy in life is about being initiative-taking, and he spurs others on, “You can’t just wait for something to happen – take a proactive stance – because unless you’re Newton, it’s unlikely that an apple is going to fall on your head. Opportunities don’t appear magically. You have to lead them your way,” avers the UN young leader.

Urging humans to address climate change as a collective problem, Udit says this is a make-or-break decade for the planet and instead of imagining a mythical entity to solve problems, get a solution-driven mindset.

Working from the ground up, Udit’s activism is real, not just “about optics and acoustics.” Not wanting to be another “nodding head in a numbered strike or draw attention through ‘blank’ signposts,” he wants to afford real solutions. And in that regard, he has already made great strides in cleaning the world of waste glass.

Follow Udit Singhal on Twitter and Linkedin
Follow Glass2Sand on Instagram

Reading Time: 6 min

Project Smile AZ and little acts of kindness by Pravneet and Hurshneet Chadha

(January 18, 2024) 'Anyone can be a smilemaker', believe Pravneet and Hurshneet Chadha, two teen brothers from Phoenix, Arizona. They are the founders of Project Smile AZ and as the name suggests, their aim is simple - spread some joy, which they have done over 80,000 people so far. The idea came to them in 2020 during the pandemic, as the brothers, who were 12 and 15 years old then, watched their parents, both of whom were doctors, fight the disease on the frontlines. They wanted to do something positive too, which led to the start of Project Smile Az. In 2023, their efforts fetched them a Diana Award. Pravneet and Hurshneet were born in New York City and later moved with their family to Phoenix, Arizona. A sense of service had been ingrained in the boys at a very young age. "When I was five, my mother took us to the community kitchen and we would help hand out meals, pack food and cook. It made me feel great," said Pravneet, the younger of the two, who is currently in high school. "We were young and didn't know much about what we were doing but we just knew we

but we just knew we were doing something good."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ProjectSmileAZ (@projectsmileaz)

Small acts of kindness during the pandemic

So, when the opportunity presented itself in 2020, the Global Indians took it without hesitation. With both parents so actively involved during the pandemic, the situation was often the subject of dinner table conversations. "We had heard on the news how isolated people were, and we were talking about it with our parents," Pravneet told The Pollination Project. Things were shutting down and patients couldn't even meet their own families. "We wanted to make them feel that someone was there for them, that someone cared for them." That's when Hurshneet suggested making some get-well cards for them. It was a simple idea, but as we know, a little kindness can make all the difference.

Over the next two weeks, Pravneet and Hurshneet Chadha worked everyday to make around 200 motivational cards for Covid patients. They designed and drew everyone, and composed the messages themselves. "I remember vividly the first batch of cards we gave was to the hospital, Banner Estrella." They reached out to the CEO asking if it was okay to send cards to the patients and he agreed. "They till have some cards hanging there, which is pretty awesome to see."

It was meant to be a one-off project but when thank you notes started pouring in, they realised they were actually making a difference. "We realised small acts of kindness can have a meaningful impact." They kept at making cards, going on to establish their non-profit with three additional board members and over 1000 volunteers across the US, Canada, Europe and India. Now, the cards go to hospitals, homeless shelters, veterans and cancer centres. They also mobilized young volunteers across the world to join in and do small acts of kindness once in a way. In fact, the movement took off so much that people began donating art supplies to them from around the world.

[caption id="attachment_35302" align="aligncenter" width="411"] Pravneet and Hurshneet Chadha now also do book donation drives, and distribute art supplies, sports equipment and dental hygiene kits to young people in need.[/caption]

Working with foster children

When Pravneet was in elementary school, a classmate, who was a foster child, didn't have art supplies to do a class project. Pravneet shared his things with the boy and returned the next day with a bag of art supplies. "I can never forget the smile on my friend's face," he recalls.

Volunteers who wanted to join but couldn't afford art supplies also contacted them. They coordinated with various organisations in Arizona to share the art kits they received through donations. Now, donating art kits to foster children is a regular part of what they do, and each kit includes cardstock, crayons, colour pencils, stickers, markers, and of course, a message on the box. The children now pitch in to make cards that are donated to senior citizens' homes in Arizona State.

Branching out

Project Smile AZ has expanded from handmade cards to a host of other things. As part of their literacy drive, they collect "gently-used books" to donate to kids in need. Anyone can join in by doing a drive in their neighbourhoods, schools or churches, or simply gather the books they have at home. They also conduct snack drives for at-risk teens that need snacks at school, and distribute dental hygiene kits and sports equipment to underprivileged youth.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ProjectSmileAZ (@projectsmileaz)

Challenges

Even a project as noble as spreading kindness is not easy to accomplish. "One of the biggest lessons we had to unlearn was that you are too young to do anything on your own," the brothers said in an interview. "We were only 12 and 14 when we started this project." At the start, people didn't believe the boys were doing the work themselves, but they persisted. They built a webpage, opened social media accounts and reached out to clubs and organisations. They connected with youth entrepreneurs around the globe as well.

The idea is to keep it simple and make a change. "These acts don't require much funds or skills, making them inclusive for anyone, anywhere," they say. "We have even worked with children with disabilities who enjoy making cards from our smile art kits. The goal is to create smile makers doing acts of kindness to bring smiles for all."

Follow Project Smile AZ on Instagram and their website

Kirtikumar Anandrao Ramchandani: The ethical hacker representing India in international championships

(March 20, 2024) For someone who has been interested in cybersecurity since a young age, representing India at international championships in new-age Information Technology platforms was a surreal experience. The past few months have been very fruitful for Ahmedabad's Kirtikumar Anandrao Ramchandani. At the High Technology Championship held in Veliky Novgorod, Russia, in September 2023, he secured a silver medal in Neural Networks. The same year in November, he clinched a bronze at The Professional Championship held in St. Petersburg, Russia, for IT Software Solution. The year 2024 also began on a high note as he emerged as a finalist at the Sports/Competitive Programming competition held in Kazan, Russia, in February. From a young age, Kirtikumar has excelled in cybersecurity. At just 15 years old in 2018, he received the title of 'youngest cyber security researcher' from World Records India for securing over 100 websites by identifying and reporting vulnerabilities in their web applications. That same year, his name was inscribed in the India Book of Achievers. [caption id="attachment_36726" align="aligncenter" width="657"] Kirtikumar Anandrao Ramchandani[/caption] The 21-year-old wears multiple hats as an ethical hacker, cybersecurity expert, and programming enthusiast, winning several awards. He has also dabbled in professional eSports, and had

oads/2024/03/GI-6loQW4AACJVU-1024x683.jpeg" alt="Kirtikumar Anandrao Ramchandani is an ethical hacker who represents India in new-age Information Technology international competitions." width="657" height="439" /> Kirtikumar Anandrao Ramchandani[/caption]

The 21-year-old wears multiple hats as an ethical hacker, cybersecurity expert, and programming enthusiast, winning several awards. He has also dabbled in professional eSports, and had achieved a Top 32 rank at the World Cyber Games held in Seoul, South Korea, in 2019.

As an ethical hacker and Penetration Tester (PenTester), Kirtikumar has earned recognition and monetary rewards from major tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle for identifying vulnerabilities in their web applications.

Kirtikumar's interest extends to astrological predictions as well. “Anyone can check my predictions in the Astro World channel where I predicted actual dates or details about market crashes, earthquakes, election results, sporting tournaments’ results, and war which ultimately came true,” he tells Global Indian.

In the world of cybersecurity since the age of eight

At the age of eight, Kirtikumar's enthusiasm for computers became apparent as he immersed himself in activities like programming and gaming. One day, while playing Subway Surfers, he became intrigued by his cousin's method of obtaining unlimited coins in the game. This curiosity prompted him to indulge in extensive research, which led him to discover how to hack the game. By the time he turned 13, Kirtikumar had gained a thorough understanding of hacking tools such as remote access trojans (RATs). Fuelled by his curiosity in the subject, Kirtikumar kept on polishing his skills in the world of ethical hacking.

[caption id="attachment_36724" align="aligncenter" width="713"] Kirtikumar at the International High Technologies Championship 2023 at Veliky Novgorod, Russia[/caption]

Creating milestones

In 2018, at the age of 15, he won the Penetration Tester of the Year award at the United Kingdom based Cyber Security Awards ceremony with several well-known personalities in the field of cyber security as the judges. Kirtikumar also got recognised by the World Book of Records, and earned an entry into the Book of Achievers that year.

The following year Kirti became the youngest to win the Tech Savvy Award which led his interest in the field of science and technology even more, making him passionate in his endeavour to find solutions to vulnerabilities in web applications. “In 2022, I was the top security researcher on the Google Play Security Reward program,” he mentions.

Hacking for good

As Kirtikumar honed his ethical hacking skills further, he noticed that tech giants were publicly recognising cybersecurity enthusiasts for safeguarding their infrastructure by uncovering vulnerabilities in their web applications.

"Inspired by that I decided to leverage my hacking skills for the greater good, securing the internet for users by identifying vulnerabilities in the web applications of major tech companies,” he says. “When I shared the security threats with the respective companies, I was rewarded financially. Some organisations even sent me gift packs with exclusive merchandise printed with their logo and the words ‘security researcher’, as a token of appreciation,” he explains.

[caption id="attachment_36729" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Kirtikumar with Tennessee based cyber security evangelist, Dameon Welch[/caption]

Advancing from web security to browser security and Kernel security

After spending a few years in the field of web security, Kirtikumar yearned to learn something more exciting. “I decided to shift my focus to browser security taking inspiration from international security researchers, Abdulrahman Al-Qabandi and Eric Lawrence.”

After spending a couple of years mastering browser security skills, he again yearned to learn something new, and shifted his focus to Kernel security (errors of which lead to fatal issues on the PC). “I got interested in this subject by following Germany based senior security consultant, Patrick Walker,” says Kirtikumar.

With his dedication to learn advanced skills, expertise and accomplishments at such a young age, Kirtikumar has earned connections with international experts, and opportunities to participate in global forums on cybersecurity. Talking about Kernel Security, he remarks, “It is the most challenging realm of exploration for me because I love to try something tough which can push my boundaries to think out of the box.”

Also Read: Watch out for the cyber criminals: 22-year-old cyber expert Vaibhav Jha upskills natives and foreigners

Endeavours in eSports

Kirtikumar has been into competitive eSports but decided to leave it in 2020. In 2019, he participated in the regional finals of the World Cyber Games in Seoul, South Korea, securing the seventh-place finish in the Asia Pacific Region, cementing his position among the top 32 players. He also competed in the Clash Royale League (CRL 2019) and ranked among the top players worldwide in weekly Grand Challenge finishers.

[caption id="attachment_36727" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Kirtikumar Anandrao Ramchandani at The Professional Championship held in St. Petersburg, Russia[/caption]

“I left competitive gaming in 2020 after winning my last Paytm First Games. It wasn't helping me think outside the box; I was simply addicted to the game,” he explains. “Fortunately, I realised this at the right moment and began to dedicate more time to browser and kernel security research. I am pleased to have qualified for national rounds and to represent India internationally in these fields,” he remarks.

Academic brilliance

A former student of St. Stephen and Navkar Public School in Ahmedabad, Kirtikumar excelled in science and maths, earning a top 100 ranking in the International Math Olympiads (IMO) and National Science Olympiads (NSO) during his time in school. He also achieved a spot in the top 400 in the National Cyber Olympiads (NCO), as a school student.

Currently, the cybersecurity enthusiast is pursuing Chartered Accountancy and Company Secretaryship while working as an independent security researcher. “I aim to explore the intersection of finance and technology, merging my passion for both to create innovative solutions beneficial for traders,” he says.

[caption id="attachment_36728" align="aligncenter" width="527"] Kirtikumar Anandrao Ramchandani at The Professional Championship held in St. Petersburg, Russia[/caption]

When the multitasker finds some time out of his hectic worlds of CA, CS, security research and international competitions, he loves to draw, write, cook, follow cricket, and solve LR/RC/CR on GMAT forums. Ever since he was a teen, he has been giving talks to aspiring security researchers and loves participating in such sessions to share his knowledge.

Follow Kirtikumar Anandrao Ramchandani on LinkedIn and Twitter

Reading Time: 5 mins

Rupa Bayor in India, her coach in Korea: How an Arunachal athlete became an international Taekwondo star

(September 22, 2024) Ranked 11th globally and second in Asia, Rupa Bayor boasts an impressive track record, having won multiple medals at prestigious events such as the South Asian Games, Australian Open, Croatia Open, and various other international competitions. This year, Rupa made history by winning a bronze medal at the 8th Asian Taekwondo Poomsae Championship in Danang, Vietnam, marking India’s first-ever medal in the Senior 1 individual Poomsae (a defined pattern of defence-and-attack forms) event. "I want to thank my coach, Abhishek Dubey, who inspired me to dream big and achieve this milestone," she said after her win. Rupa’s list of achievements includes a gold medal at the World Taekwondo President Cup Europe 2023, where she became the first woman to medal in the Senior-1 Taekwondo Poomsae category at a WT grade 2 ranked event. She also won silver medals at the Oceania Open WT G2 in Brisbane, Australia, and at the World Taekwondo President Cup Oceania, as well as a bronze at the Australian Open. [caption id="attachment_39402" align="aligncenter" width="593"] Rupa Bayor and Abhishek Dubey[/caption] Rupa’s coach, Abhishek, a medal-winning athlete himself, has represented India in multiple sports events and is now involved in managing major events and elite

com/youth/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Rupa-Bayor-and-Abhishek-Dubey-1024x1010.webp" alt="Indian athletes | Rupa Bayor and Abhishek Dubey | Global Indian" width="593" height="585" /> Rupa Bayor and Abhishek Dubey[/caption]

Rupa’s coach, Abhishek, a medal-winning athlete himself, has represented India in multiple sports events and is now involved in managing major events and elite athletes from his base in Seoul.

Athlete in India, coach in Korea

Abhishek’s most recent assignment has been as an organising committee member of the South Korea’s 'Gangwon 2024' Winter Youth Olympic Games serving as a communications/NOC services manager. He has been coaching Rupa online, helping her secure medals and become the first Indian athlete to break into the top 15 of the World Taekwondo rankings.

"My coach is helping me in every way possible," Rupa said in an interview. "He lives in South Korea but still manages to find time in his busy schedule to train me remotely. He can't leave his job and come back just to train me, so I train online. Both of us are giving our best. I believe if my coach were with me, I would have performed even better," added the athlete who considers her coach her biggest strength. “I trust him more than I trust myself. If he says I can defeat an opponent, I can do it. Without him, I don’t think I would have achieved much."

From obscurity of Arunachal Pradesh to international stage

Rupa’s journey to becoming a Taekwondo champion has been inspiring. Starting with little knowledge of the sport, she has risen to prominence through her talent, dedication and hard work. Despite the challenges of training remotely with her coach, she has consistently excelled.

She is associated with the Indo Korean Taekwondo Academy in Mumbai which was founded by Abhishek Dubey in 2007. He has trained numerous Taekwondo aspirants since then.

Since Rupa lacked proper training facilities in Arunachal Pradesh, she moved to Mumbai in 2021 to train at his academy. However, the high cost of living in Mumbai made it difficult for her to make ends meet. It was then that Abhishek offered her a scholarship through his academy, which Rupa describes as life-changing.

Later, with the support of Mumbai headquartered Indian conglomerate Welspun World, her journey took off, starting with her participation in the Croatia Open as her first international event. Winning a medal there boosted her confidence immensely, and she has been grateful for Welspun’s support ever since.

[caption id="attachment_39401" align="aligncenter" width="785"] Rupa Bayor[/caption]

Aimed for a constable job, became a world champion

Reflecting on her humble beginnings, Rupa who took up the sport at the age of 15 shared, "I had never heard of Taekwondo. It’s not well-known in the villages.” Like other children in Arunachal’s village Sippi, she spent most of her childhood farming with her mother. Her father had passed away when she was a child. As a single parent, her mother worked hard to raise Rupa and her siblings.

Her uncle, who is a district Karate master, encouraged her to take up Karate initially. Later he encouraged her to switch to Taekwondo as he felt that the sport has more potential. Within a short period of time, Rupa started showing good progress, and her mother sent her to Itanagar for training.

“I started Taekwondo thinking that if I won a medal, I could secure a constable job. That’s the mindset in my area—no one had gone far in the sport, so they didn’t know much about it. I never thought I would become a professional in Taekwondo," the athlete remarked.

Her first tournament was at The National School Games in Pune. Although she lost the tournament, she gained exposure, which helped her in honing her skills.

Her first international competition was the Kim Un Yong Cup in South Korea, where she faced defeat due to her lack of experience on the global stage. Later that year, she participated in the South Asian Games, securing a silver medal. However, the pandemic caused a two-year hiatus in her playing career.

Mumbai proved lucky

In February 2021, Rupa relocated to Mumbai to improve her performance at the medal-winning coach Abhishek Dubey’s Indo Korean Taekwondo Academy. Her initial plan was to move to Mumbai for two months, but realised that it was insufficient time to practise as learning is a continuous and massive process to become a top athlete at the international level.

She is thankful to her coach Abhishek Dubey and Welspun World’s Super Sport Women Program for providing support to extend her training period.

“I made sure to do justice to my coach's efforts by training six days a week for approximately 12 hours a day for more than 15 months at Indo Korean Taekwondo Academy,” she shared. This led to her several medal-winning performances representing India internationally.

[caption id="attachment_39404" align="aligncenter" width="721"] Rupa Bayor[/caption]

Arunachal’s pride

On her short visits home, the athlete receives a lot of love and attention from the people there. “They are happy to see a woman representing their village and Arunachal Pradesh on a national and global scale.

Coming from a humble background, the girl who once aimed to win medals just to secure a constable’s job now dreams of bringing more laurels to India. She hopes to promote and teach Taekwondo to children in her village, aspiring to create champions for India, just as her coach helped her become one.

Follow Rupa Bayor on instagram
Discover more fascinating Stories

Reading Time: 5 mis

Kishore Kothandaraman: Harvard dropout redefining B2B events through Goldcast

(November 16, 2023) In January 2022, Goldcast, a Bay Area B2B events platform received $28 million in funding. It was a critical moment for co-founders Kishore Kothandaraman, Aashish Srinivas and Palash Soni, after four years of building the company in a country where they had each arrived as students. Now, the company hopes to hit the $100 million mark in the next four years. Victory was hard-won for Kishore Kothandaraman, the small-town boy from Neyveli, an industrial town in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore district. When he made it to Harvard Business School, he thought he could finally tell his parents that they no longer needed to worry about him. One year later, however, he quit his Ivy League Education, along with his classmate Palash Soni, to found his own company instead, rising above the pressure from a society that continues to value education above all else. [caption id="attachment_34139" align="aligncenter" width="538"] Kishore Kothandaraman[/caption] "I grew up in Neyveli, dad is a civil engineer and mum is a teacher," the Global Indian said in an interview. "Everything was provided to me but nothing in abundance. What I wanted, I had to earn. That's the first thing my parents taught me. And the other

in Neyveli, dad is a civil engineer and mum is a teacher," the Global Indian said in an interview. "Everything was provided to me but nothing in abundance. What I wanted, I had to earn. That's the first thing my parents taught me. And the other - what you earn, you give back to society in a meaningful way." He grew up in a middle-class household learning the value of money while not really wanting for anything.

Growing up with challenges

Kishore's life changed when he was 13 years old, and his father was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. "It was not clear if he would make it through or not," Kishore recalls. His father went on to have a series of health concerns after that, including a heart attack a couple of years after his diagnosis. "I was a teen, getting through school and it was hard to see him go through it. But it taught me that if he could overcome such immense struggles in life, I can definitely figure out the smaller obstacles that came my way." Determined to make something of himself, to make them proud and to ensure that they were taken care of, Kishore set his sights on a good school, and a good university. He graduated as an engineer and worked with Blackbuck, a trucking logistics unicorn in India. "I got to see how a small group of ambitious misfits can build something from scratch and win against incumbents." And that, Kishore states, is exactly what he's hoping to do with B2B events.

The Ivy League journey

In engineering college, he noticed that his seniors were applying for MBAs at brand name business schools and going on to do very well for themselves. Kishore decided to do the same and entered the big league when he was accepted at Harvard Business School. However, Kishore was already dreaming of running a big company of his own and entered Harvard hoping it would put him on the path to his dreams. "When I came to Harvard Business School I was constantly looking for ideas and potential business partners," Kishore said. It's not an approach that Indians in Ivy League schools usually have - risking it all to start a company. Luckily for him, he found not just ideas at Harvard but his future business partner, Palash Soni.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by HubSpot (@hubspot)

One year in, Kishore and Palash both dropped out of school. They founded Goldcast in 2020, just before Covid hit the world. They decided on a SaaS company, a digital events platform for B2B marketers to host events with prospective customers, from webinars to larger user conferences and hybrid events. "The objective is twofold," Kishore explains. "Marketers want a great experience and second, since you're hosting an event, can you collect data on that platform for sales and marketing teams to use post the event."

They knew very little about starting or running a business at the time. What's more, they were both in the US on student visas and couldn't work in that. It was one of the many challenges they faced, as strangers in a foreign ecosystem that seemed to have no place for them. They had savings but those were in Indian rupees and didn't translate to much. What's more, the pandemic brought the world into lockdown and messed up the playing field for immigrant founders like Kishore and Soni. But they knew immediately that the pandemic held a big opportunity. This was their chance to become frontrunners in the digital and hybrid event space. "We were excited because we didn't know what we were getting into," Kishore smiles.

Even the first step was fraught with challenges - funding. "It was a big deal and very tough. We didn't know how to raise funds," Kishore admits. Palash, meanwhile, had a wife and a baby to support and the immigration landscape wasn't looking favourable. Kishore wanted to ensure his parents had everything they needed. Both the young entrepreneurs refused to give up, however. They also didn't know whom to ask for funding. "Investors like to get calls from people they know, or whom they are introduced to personally," Kishore says.

Fighting for a dream

There was only one thing to do - stick with it. The co-founders were frustrated when their efforts didn't lead anywhere but "we believe in the idea so much that we finally managed to get a couple of million in the early funding round." The hardest part, they say, was roping in the first 10-15 customers. Finally, they received $2 million in early funding. "We had some competitors, though and by the time we raised $2 million they had raised $500 million," Kishore says. "How can you compete with that? Putting your heart and soul into it and convincing people to try the product out becomes crucial."

One of their first paying customers was Harvard University itself. The university encouraged entrepreneurship among its students and alumni and paid them $20,000 to host an event for the freshmen. Thirty minutes in and the platform crashed. "It was terrible PR for us," Kishore recalls. "That's how we were being remembered. Goldcast? Aren't they the company that organised that event? Yeah, that's the same one."

The road less taken

Trial and error was the only way to learn, though. "It's a very lonely journey. Only a few people can understand what that really means. Only founders know. It's very hard to express that to your family, to your peers or your employees. I remember reading once, most businesses fail because founders get tired." It is a tiring process, Kishore soon learned, when most people say no to you. As a founder he had to put pressure on his employees too. "You have to put up a good fight because it's a war. You and your co-founders have to be very prepared for it."

They had to push themselves and the product in the market, to get in people's faces and share their story and message. "People are biased towards those they are comfortable with, and being a non-native speaker in a foreign country makes it even more challenging." Watching his competitors receive hundreds of millions in funding, and learning to live with the decision to quit an Ivy League school and a very coveted degree for a startup - Goldcast's founders had many 'why bother' moments.

Bright future

They persisted, though and they're glad they did. "Now, people are realising that this is someone we want to partner with." Goldcast has a solid team of people all working to build the company, and make sure that it becomes a single platform that marketers can use for all events. "Reaching $100 million in revenue is a big milestone for SaaS companies and we want to achieve it in four years," Kishore says, adding, "I want to go to NASDAQ and ring that bell.

Follow Kishore on LinkedIn and Goldcast on their website