Trishita Sinha

Have you ever cried in an empty food court during New Year’s eve, having dinner all alone by yourself? Well, I have.

I belong to a small industrial town named Haldia in West Bengal. I had the so called “perfect childhood”. Haldia is one of the most peaceful towns in West Bengal with lush green fields, small ponds every corner and pleasant tropical climate throughout the year. Adding to that, my house was located as such, that everything, be it my school, dance institute, painting classes were within the range of 1km. Absolutely perfect. I being the youngest in my family, was the center of attention all the time. I was pampered by everyone. I never experienced or explored much as a child or teen.

Being the typical Indian parents that they are, my parents were a little liberal as well. Since I was not good in Math and Physics, my father didn’t expect much from me. And that my elder brother and sister are settled, I had full freedom to do whatever made me happy and not worry about anything else. Perfect life right? Well not so much for a shy, introvert and dependent girl like me.

I was nine years old, when my class was first taken to the school library. We were issued slim books full of short stories. I finished those book rather quickly. But I wasn’t satisfied. For some reason since that day, I had my eyes on the thicker books. So one day I plucked up my courage, asked for it and that changed my life. Reading became my number one escapism. While most of my friends were falling in love, I was falling in love with fiction! I have forever been an escapist who kept herself busy with fictions, art and nature. You know, the simpler things in life.

Throughout life, be it school, college or my training days in Mysore, I have been blessed with amazing friends, on whom I was very much dependent. But when I got posted to Hyderabad, after my training, it really turned my life upside down. None of my friends were posted to Hyderabad and for the first time in my life, I felt alone. Not only that, I was going through a terrible heartbreak during that time. I remember New Year’s Eve, having my meals in a huge, completely empty food court with tears rolling down my cheeks. No amount of kind words from anybody was helping. I spent the entire night watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The next few weeks were no good either. No motivation to wake me, complete my work, nothing. I was my skinniest self, lost weight like crazy, bought junk food every day and spent my days watching movies like a lunatic. At that time, I was not allocated to any project and unlike others, I made zero attempt to change that.

I don’t want to feel, how I felt during that phase of my life ever again but I can’t be any less thankful for that experience. Slowly and gradually I started going out, socialized with more people. For the first time in my life, I didn’t have a Bengali gang of friends. I met some amazing people from different communities and damn… I can never forget the feeling, the feeling that I was independent probably for the first time in my life. Pretty soon I actively started looking for projects near my hometown. Also I started exercising, and my appetite returned. Life started looking bright. I moved to Bhubaneswar and got into a good project, with great teammates and manager.

Other than making me independent, IT industry has also given me this huge amount of confidence. There’s no place to be shy and they will really push you to bring out the best in you. An introvert person like me needed this. I never knew, I was good at so many things and the only thing holding me down was me thinking inside the box. One of the best days of my life till now was when I came second in a Fashion ramp walk. I surprised myself. And I want to keep surprising myself like this. There’s so much to explore, so much to learn, so much to experience and my heart is always filled with gratitude for each of the tiny blessings in my life.

Total Work Experience : 2 Years ( Infosys )