NEW DELHI: Radhika Gupta , the CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Fund and a trailblazer in India’s financial world, shared her inspiring journey of overcoming physical challenges and societal perceptions in a heartfelt conversation with Rohan Dua , Executive Editor of The New Indian .
Radhika Gupta candidly spoke about her neck condition, a physical challenge she has faced since childhood. Surprisingly, she admitted that she never knew the medical term for her condition, even after becoming a prominent figure. “I feel growing up; if you still ask me about my neck condition, I don’t know what it is called. In fact, since I have become well-known, people write to me on Twitter, that your condition is called cervical. I said, I didn’t even know that,” she shared.
Check out the full interview:
Born in Pakistan in the 1980s, Gupta weighed 13 pounds at birth, nearly double the size of a normal baby. Medical facilities at the time were limited, and she recounted spending a long time in an incubator. Her weight began to normalize as she grew older, but by the age of 10 or 11, her family started noticing a slight tilt in her neck. It wasn’t until her teenage years, when her father was posted in Rome, that doctors suggested wearing a neck brace, a solution Gupta was not keen on embracing. “I was already so irritated. I was like, I will wear a neck brace and go to school,” she recalled humorously.
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Growing up, Gupta faced the challenges of body shaming and societal judgment, much of which she attributes to a lack of awareness about issues like mental health and physical differences at the time. “Today, body shaming, mental health, all these things have become very relevant. When I was growing up, there was no awareness at that time,” she remarked.
Offline bullying and societal pressures shaped much of her childhood, leaving her with insecurities and underconfidence. Yet she embraced these experiences as part of her journey. She recalled, “We grew up with our sense of insecurities, with our sense of anxieties, with our issues of underconfidence.”
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Despite offers from doctors to “fix” her condition, Gupta proudly stated that she has no interest in changing who she is. “After I did the talk, which got me popular, till today doctors write to me saying they will fix this. Really? Yeah. I am like that. I don’t want anything fixed. I am fine.”
Adding to her struggles was the challenge of constantly relocating due to her father’s transferable job. Gupta revealed that she lacked the stable support system that many enjoy. “I must be one of the few people you will meet who will say, I don’t have school friends. I don’t have any school friends,” she shared. Without a consistent network of friends and with limited access to communication tools like email and the internet, Gupta grew up without a traditional friend ecosystem.
Radhika Gupta’s story is a testament to resilience and the power of self-belief. Her journey from battling insecurities to becoming a celebrated leader in India’s financial industry serves as an inspiration to many. As she stated in her conversation with Rohan Dua, “Adversity shapes you, but it does not define you.”
