Pragna Vedant shared her gripping and encouraging life story to the world through the page of ‘Humans of Bombay.’ It shows her success after all failures.
Her single mother brought her up. At the young age of 16, she had to tie the nuptial knot with a man. She made her husband aware that she wished to pursue her career in the beauty industry. She did not get demotivated with their current financial status. She turned her single room into a salon space in which she began trimming hair and threading and shaping the eyebrows. Simultaneously, she organized and ran mehendi sessions.
Her base of customers grew “through word of mouth.” She was successful in creating a ‘buzz’ in the locality. It was far more valuable than proper advertising techniques. This actively encouraged her to learn more. She used her savings to get enrolled in professional beauty courses. She was able to save up enough to open her own salon shop. The salon successfully ran for ten years. She added while talking to the ‘Humans of Bombay’ people visited her salon just to film her chopping, shaping, and setting a hairstyle “being blindfolded.” One can assume the amount of trust invested in her by the clients. Who will like to let anybody in the world experiment with their hairstyle that too blindfolded?
Suddenly in 2005, catastrophe rained down on her. The unprecedented rain caused a flood and paralyzed the city. The monsoon flood killed more than 500 people and the destruction of property worth Rs 1,700 crore was estimated by the official after the water receded. The crippling rain did not affect Pragna and her family members, but the flood swept away her home and salon. She could not bear this heavy blow of losing her dream and shelter; she stressed herself out, resulting in a stroke. The seriousness of the stroke is that it left her paralyzed. After three months of physiotherapy, she was able to move around but in a wheelchair. Few other shocks like left-hand paralysis and vision loss in one eye came on her.
In these difficult times, she did not become an escapist or denied reality. She realized that she “could never be a beautician again” with her shortcomings. Her well-wishers and other people from the beauty industry encouraged her saying, her knowledge is her USP and she should share it instead of limiting it to herself. Pragna considered their advice. She did not succumb to the obstacles which her life threw at her. She became a beauty consultant and started to teach and train young minds under her. She had the will and determination to work hard.
She is a strong woman with strong will power, with which she learned to walk again. She proudly admitted that it was not an easy task for her. She failed multiple times but did not lose hope and continued to learn to pick herself up. She emerged more powerful than ever.
She became a ray of hope for young girls and women coming from the lower strata of society. She organized beauty training courses at a minimal charge or free of cost. She holds the highest record of training 35,000 women in the respective line. Some of the women who have received training from Ms. Pragna Vedant joined big brands and the other women opened and are successfully running their salon shop. Pragna helped numerous women to stand on their feet. She paved the way for them to become financially independent and shine brighter. The women cordially invite her to the inauguration of their salon shops. She feels proud of her students. After all, which teacher will not have the same feeling after seeing their students working hard and achieving their dreams.
Pragna shares an incident where she noticed that one of her students kept her photograph in her shop’s temple. She could not resist asking her student the reason for doing it. Her student replied, the salon was because of her and this was a small way of paying respect to the person who helped her grow. Pragna was touched after hearing her words.
She said she could have helped them with money but decided to make the women skillful enough to arrange on their own. She believes “skill never leaves” anybody and she herself is a lively example of the statement. Her story motivates women across the globe.
