Meet this lady from the Sugar City of the country, Mandya, who had a lot of dreams from her childhood days, but, achieving those dreams now, at the early age of 20. Sowmya S Gowda, who is currently pursuing her B.Com from Bharathi College, Mandya, where she has created a revolution that her city can never forget.

Sowmya, was an ordinary child like any other, who would dream to become a celebrity and gain a lot of recognition from people around her. Born in a poor family, Sowmya knew that she had to do all that she could, within her boundaries. She always remained a quiet girl, who would not talk to many people, because, she felt insecure a lot of times when she felt like speaking to them. This made her a person who never spoke to many, but, she always loved dancing and hence, would participate in competitions where she would perform really well and received good comments from teachers.

After her 10th grade was the time, she had to decide her choice of field, she had to continue studying. With a lot of confusions and disagreements with friends, she decided to choose commerce and entered her college life where there was a drastic change in her behaviour from an obedient student, to someone who would bunk classes. Sowmya would not attend classes, but would go to library and read the books that were stacked. The habit of reading was instilled in her, from a very early age, when she used to stay alone. Now, she had a very few friends whom she believed, were her support, but, they betrayed her, which led her to depression because of which, Sowmya had, a lot of times attempted suicides too. She had a thought after these attempts that failed, that is, “What will happen if I kill myself? There is no one who will care for me. But, if I can prove to them, that I deserve something better, then, I can be an example for people who go through similar situations. I shall depend on myself anymore!” she said to herself.

This made her secure high scores in her 12^th grade, and made her family proud. She happened to take up the course of B.Com to learn more about the field of commerce. By then, she had decided that she wanted to be an entrepreneur. She did not know what to do, until her mentor, Mr. Prashant Yag, senior ambassador at i3, guided her to be a part of the platform of i3, which could help her connect to entrepreneurs and understand the requirements to become an entrepreneur.

For 14 weeks, every Sunday, she would travel more than a 100 kilometers for the conferences at i3, where she met inspiring entrepreneurs, from whom she learned how she could start her journey. Above all, Sowmya understood the value of being socially responsible. She decided to execute various social projects like awareness campaigns, financial literacy, women empowerment and a lot more projects, through which she impacted more than 10,000 people from in and around her city. One of the projects which changed the mindset of people of the entire city of Mandya, was the i3 Cleanliness Campaign. Sowmya approached people from across the city and addressed them on maintaining their city clean. This was noticed by the Deputy Commissioner of the city who discussed with her about the project she was executing. On hearing her motto, he was so inspired that he got pamphlets printed, that could help create awareness in the city. He got the pamphlets to be distributed across the city, along with which, he involved one of the health inspectors to help Sowmya create awareness in the whole of the city. She was now officially permitted to impact the whole city regarding cleanliness and seeing her passion to do more, the officials decided to bring about a rule for the people of the entire city and the rule was, ‘Any person who threw waste on the roads of the city, would be fined for doing so’. Sowmya thanks i3, which helped her become the reason for a change, “I wish to thank i3 for giving me a different perspective of life. I came here to become an entrepreneur, but, I’m going back with the dream of becoming a social-entrepreneur, since my country shall grow along with me. A lot of lessons from the counsellors and my dearest mentors who helped me at every stage, shall be implemented in my journey! I promise to come back with more experience the next time I am here” is what she shares with IUeMagazine.

A small vision, with dedication to ensure it turns into reality, will actually align everything to make it happen. Her passion to make her city clean, has made the government pass the rule to help achieve her vision. The whole of the city is now turning clean because of the small step she took, towards creating a better society. No efforts go waste, if the intention is right. Today, Sowmya proves that gender does not matter, to create a massive change in the society, it is the dream to create the change that matters!

PS: Sowmya had a small dream from her childhood days, when she saw a personality in suit, in a magazine where his story was shared, and from then, she wanted to gain recognition in media along with her picture. IUeMagazine is proud to be the reason to bring such small dreams come true! It’s the small thing that matters.