I was living my life according to others lives,
or according to others choices, according to others' wishes.
Then one day I took a decision.
This is one life I have got. I will live this life as per my choice.
And I found out that people started loving me.
People started opening the doors in front of me.
My name is Dipti.
I'm working with women for economic empowerment.
My main core interest is social development.
If I talk about struggle, it is a part of life.
It comes in everybody's life and we learn from it.
If we don't have a struggle we don't learn.
If we don't have mistakes, we don't learn.
It was not that easy, my childhood was really not that easy because...
We were three sisters, we were seen as a discriminated part of the society.
It was quite a challenge, life for us. Not only for me, but for my sisters too.
I went to school, but the society there was not very friendly to girls.
I was walking to my school and gradually I thought, and my parents also,
they thought that I should go by bicycle, I should be a bit independent.
But it was not accepted by society.
I still remember that when I used to come from school,
a few of the boys standing there, throwing stones at me.
And girls, who did not know how to bicycle, they were commenting on it.
"Why am I doing that? Why was I doing that?"
Later, what happened was that the girls, or the girls parents
or the girls mothers, they came to me and said
Can I help their daughters learn to bicycle?
I took science stream. Science stream taken by a girl,
it was again a challenge, people didn't like it.
People said that science is not a subject for girls, it is the subject for boys.
Then physics. Graduation.
I again took admission in, and took honours in physics.
I had to face the situation where girls were too much dominated.
Too much dominated.
"How can a girl go to physics? It should not be the right of girls."
I had to do something for women, for girls who were suppressed,
so I took it as an opportunity.
Why not come back again and do something for Varanasi?
And I have a dream.
Varanasi has much power, much enthusiasm, much energy.
But there are many women and many girls that don't get an opportunity.
They have struggled more than me.
I see Rangsutra not only as an organization, but as family.
I'm very much positive about the partnership of IKEA and Rangsutra.
I see the trust between these two organisations.
Work hard. Work hard with honesty, transparency, dedication and passion.
It will change your life.
Right now you are following male society.
You are following the society.
And the day will come when you will be followed by society.