Change yourself for the best and keep moving forward: Nidhi Punj

Galgotias University

Photography became my passion and I started writing as well. These two habits have changed my life throughout. I was a girl who was good in mathematics during school days, and that’s it. I was never indulged in any extracurricular activity. But, from the last one and a half year, I am into literally everything– doing photography, writing poems, articles and short stories. I am also a blogger. Things are changing and so am I. I have more to go ahead with my skills, which will definitely turn my dreams into reality.

I’ve always wanted to do something to make a change that could benefit the women community in any possible way. I belonged to a small place where not every woman was given the opportunity to pursue her dream. I was the only from to come out of the pond and avail the chance to promote myself and it was only because of my parents who believed in me.

I was good in studies since my childhood, so I gained the confidence of my parents that they should invest in my education instead of marriage. However, I took a break of a year to prepare for IIT and went to Kota to become an IITian. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it, even though I used to be an ace student in Mathematics in my school days. But you know what, I got to learn a lot about life. I cried, smiled, was in depression for a small period of time as well, and I never knew it. And so, this journey of one year made me strong in many ways, and I gained knowledge throughout. Though I spent more than what I could on my studies until intermediate, going to Kota wasn’t a mistake. It enhanced me, as a student and also as a human being.

So, after Kota, I had to get into a good college. But a good college meant a government college in India, and I wasn’t eligible to get any government college based on my JEE Main scores. After about a month of hustle, I got into a private college and opted for CSE, with the hope of doing great in life and pursuing what I dreamt of.

Undoubtedly, when you don’t make it to IIT and get into a private college, you pay a lot. Automatically, you get some push to do something more than usual, even if things aren’t in your favor. I started my college life, and nothing seemed like what I expected. I never wanted to follow the crowd as I was pursuing engineering in Computer Science.

Days passed, and I ended up in the 6th semester. Then, I got to know about ‘Data Science’, how it’s changing the world’s scenario and making life easier for us. I read about it and gathered information on how exactly the real world problems are being solved by Artificial Intelligence. Meanwhile, I came up with an idea which was a real-world problem and decided that I should pursue Data Science to implement my thoughts and help the world.

Be it my luck or destiny, I participated in a workshop happening in our college where Data Science was being represented by a representative of an organization, in which he was explaining the field of Data Science. There, I got answers to some of my questions. They were starting training in Data Science for students. I appeared for the test, clearing which was a requirement to pursue the course. Of course, I cleared the test.

Then, a new journey began on 30^th June. It was an induction session in which we were introduced to the trainers, who were successful data scientists solving the real world problems. They inspired me a lot. The thing which I got to know is that we don’t need to be an IITian or NITian if we want to change the world. It doesn’t matter whether you are an IITian or a student from a regular college, if you really want to achieve heights in your life, then you just need that spark which lies within you.

We had a never-ending discussion which had to be stopped because of the time limit. They discussed the primary areas of AI, how AI is being used in The Netherlands to help cows, how political parties are using AI, and how Trump’s victory in the US was already calculated before the result came out.

Every prediction, in order to solve a problem, is being done by AI. I got to know how it feels being a Data Scientist. It earns you respect where you work because the company is relying on you. AI is being used in India to solve many public problems, and it is about to change the world for good.

My only motive for pursuing this course is to solve the biggest problems of this world, and give them a solution with the hope of changing things for their development. Now, it has been more than 1 month and, believe me, I am enjoying it and writing my journey of becoming a Data Scientist. I know that AI will help me in fulfilling my dreams, and my mentors will surely guide me to achieve them.

Don’t worry about things you didn’t achieve. Life is just unpredictable. Go find what you love doing and work for it. I learnt things and have changed my life for good. Change yourself for the best and keep moving forward. You will be successful soon.

I’d like to quote this, based on the entire journey of my life so far:

About the Author:

Nidhi Punj

My name is Nidhi Punj and I hail from Bettiah, which is in West Champaran, Bihar. I am a final year student pursuing BTech in Computer Science Engineering from Galgotias University, Greater Noida. Data Science is about to change my perspective towards life. I added some extra habits to my daily chores last year.