If you ask me where my story begins, I won’t start with a degree or a title. I’ll start with a small, quiet town called , Krishnarajanagara. K R Nagara as most people call it is tucked away in the Mysore district. It’s the kind of place that never makes headlines, the kind you might drive past without a second glance, but it shapes you in ways you don’t fully understand until years later. That’s where my roots are, and I carry them with me wherever I go. I am a Kannadiga. Growing up there, I was always the quieter one, someone who preferred listening to speaking, observing to being observed, the kind of child who noticed everything but said little. That temperament has grasped me.
Today, that foundation quietly shapes how I live and study. I’m currently pursuing my MPH at the School of Public Health, JSS Medical College. I live in Mysore with my maternal aunt and her family. There’s something steadying about being protected by family while you’re still in the middle of becoming who you’re meant to be. It’s an interesting, sometimes challenging stage of life, because I’m holding two very different worlds together at once: Ayurveda from my BAMS background, rooted in tradition and holistic understanding, and public health from my current studies, grounded in data, systems, and populations.
I’m learning, slowly and deliberately, how to let these two worlds co-exist with each other rather than compete for space in my mind. The independence I chose earlier by living in the hostel while studying my Ayurveda course …hasn’t made me hard, and that surprised me too, it’s made me whole instead. I no longer wait for someone else to be my source of stability. I’ve learned to do that myself. And even while I hold onto that strength, I continue working on the parts of myself that still need attention: remembering to be as generous with myself as I am with everyone else, and speaking up, fully, in rooms and conversations where my voice actually matters, instead of retreating into comfortable silence.
Looking ahead, I want to become a researcher and a holistic healer. Before you assume those two paths pull me in different directions, let me tell you why they don’t, at least not in my mind. Research, to me, is a form of care. It’s saying, I want to understand this deeply enough that I can genuinely help people. Holistic healing, on the other hand, is saying, I see you as more than your symptoms, more than a diagnosis on a chart. Both come from the exact same place: a belief that people deserve to be truly, fully understood. My dream isn’t fame, and it isn’t recognition either. It’s simpler than that, and somehow harder too. I just want to be a better person every single day, with no finish line waiting at the end and no final destination to arrive at. If I’m being critically honest with myself, and I think I owe myself that honesty, I know my biggest risk going forward isn’t failure. It’s losing myself in the process of caring for everyone else, being so generous with others that I forget to be generous with myself. I’m working on that, slowly, imperfectly, but genuinely, every day. I’m someone who came from a small town, who lives in my relative’s home filled with love, who holds two degrees and a bigger heart, and who is figuring it all out one day at a time. I’m not a finished story. I’m still being written, and honestly, I think that’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.
By Dr Varshini D
JSS Academy Of Higher Education And Research, Mysore, Karnataka
#FriendInNeedIndiaTrust #FINInternship2026 #SummerIntern2026 #MeetTheIntern #LearningByDoing #YouthLeadership #ProfessionalGrowth #SoftSkills #InternshipJourney #FutureLeaders #SocialImpact #SkillDevelopment #LearningNeverStops #NGOInternship
Ministry of Education Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India NSDC National Skill Development Corporation Skill India United Nations