Pragya Rohatgi

[TRIGGER WARNING] : My mom was diagnosed with Bone Tumor. I lost my father when I was in class 10^th and I was the only child to my parents. Our local Doctor asked us to visit a big hospital in Bangalore from Gwalior. By this time, country implemented lockdown to stop spread of Corona Virus. The travel was closed. We anyhow reached Bangalore. When we visited the hospital, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. During the initial days of lockdown, it was very difficult to take care of the house, and with frequent doctor visits to my house, neighbors thought that we had corona, so no one came for help. You might have heard, “Crisis leads to opportunity”, so I started giving live online training via social media for clients. I got so indulged in this that, I literally forgot about Mom’s condition. Her condition was worsening, but she never expressed it, never. After some time, my mom’s condition worsened, so we visited the doctor in Bangalore in June, he told me that she won’t be able to survive. I begged, pleaded and what not to stop this from happening. But this is life. You can’t control it. She died after 15 days. I had to perform the rituals alone in the strange city. I still remember our last talk. She said “Don’t you worry bacha, Me and Papa will always be with you.” And with that thought in mind, I have resumed my passion of being the Mental and Wellness coach. I still struggle a lot to fill my pocket during this lockdown and I don’t know what is going to happen in the future, what all obstacles I am going to face, but as long as my parents are with me in spirit, I am positive that no one can stop Coach Pragya from being the best.

(Few years back……)

I have been into sports since childhood as I aced through outdoor games. I loved dancing, as well. But along with my extracurricular, I always made sure my academics wasn’t hampered. The only concern of my happy-go-lucky life was that, I was short in height. My father introduced me to the gymnasium world where I started working out, while also maintaining a balanced diet. Life was going smoothly till the year 2010, when I lost my father to an accident. Dad always wanted me to become a doctor, mom wanted to see me as an engineer, but I wanted to do something more unconventional, the profession that would bring out the artistic side of me.

I fought with my dejected spirits and Time, scraped through an engineering course and landed an IT job in Indore. My fitness regimen was doomed, I labored hard to adjust to my new working life. During this time, I found about a fitness fad “Zumba”. 15-mins a day of Zumba, was all that I needed to re-energize myself. After spending a good amount of time in Indore, I grabbed a paid internship in a leading e-commerce firm, in Bangalore. The office provided luxuries like Health Club, Sports center and what not. It was more of a heaven, for me at least. With these luxuries, I thought why not follow my passion as well. So, I got myself certified as a Zumba Trainer by end of 2017.

Days later, I grabbed another job at a startup. I was on Cloud-Nine. Balancing Work and Passion was a challenge I was determined to face. So I started taking Zumba classes in the mornings so as to fit it in my schedule. Soon, I got promoted in my job.

“When everything is coming your way, you are in the wrong lane.”

Though I got promoted, the pay was still not what I expected for the efforts that I put in. With a passion for teaching Zumba in my repertoire, I planned to make it big as a fitness instructor. So I quit my job, and started promoting myself as “Coach Pragya” from my hometown Gwalior. I started small, took sessions for school kids, started my own page and shared videos on it. In 2020, one of my mentor arranged a session for me in Pune for 500+ people.

I was making progress in my field. Soon, 2020 came, and another tough phase started. My mom was diagnosed with Bone Tumor. Losing parents at a young age, can traumatize anyone. But not me, not Coach Pragya. I have dreams, a vision, a purpose and I will never stop. And that’s what my parents would have wanted. Their loss has left a big void in my life, but now it’s not the time to grief. My passion for fitness, my daily workout regimen, the happiness when my client finds himself making progress, gives me satisfaction, strength and peace of Mind to survive, and truly makes life worth living for, even in these drastic conditions.