A passionate, bubbly and adventurous Anshita hails from Indore, the clean and smart city in India. Like many, Anshita’s family was her biggest morale booster and backer. Anshita was not like the rest, always curious about eccentric things and venturing into fields unexplored by the masses.
And so, after getting done with her junior college from Indore, she decided that she wanted to step into another niche stream of education – Luxury and Brand management. She always wanted to be the best at everything she did. She realised London, United Kingdoms was the best place for her to pursue this niche. She gained a lot of courage from her sister and strength from her father. She always had full support from her family and quoting in her words, “..wherever I am today, all credit goes to my family as they always believed in me“. Her struggles did not end with just landing in London, in fact, it felt as if she was walking into a valley of challenges.The foremost of them was having to cope with living by herself in an unknown land. The next obstacle was blending in a batch filled with people holding past experiences in Luxury Management. Being the youngest and without adequate experience, she had to struggle her way through. But once again, with her never back down attitude, she managed to bag a job at the luxury brand NEXT till her course ended.
There are various sectors in the luxury industry like fashion, automobile, jewellery etc. She went on choosing liquor (wine) sector. Though the spirits industry is often characterized as one dominated by men, that never affected her as she believed in herself and got motivated seeing other women around in the liquor industry. These women haven’t let the stereotypical industry “norms” hold them back.
After her studies, She moved to Mumbai to gain some experience in the wine industry. While working in the wine marketing department she explored about wine tasting. She had first heard of wine tasting in London and she tried few sessions as well but she never thought that she will actually be exploring this field. This job included meeting new people, exploring something new everyday, travelling, trying new food and wine from different countries, a lot of exploration which fascinated her.
She also realized that she has a good palate, taste buds and smelling senses to enter in the field of tastings. She did her certification in the same from WSET London and in no time, she ended up working with Sula and other companies in Delhi and Mumbai. This is Anshita – a go-getter in every field she stepped into.
As usual, like other people, she too had long office hours, after which she used to feel tired and go to sleep. In her own words, she quotes, “I was becoming like a couch potato” and she knew something needs to be done about it.
Dance and fitness were always in her rundown. Being fit using conventional methods didn’t appeal to her enough, and she embraced pole fitness as her daily fitness routine. She quotes, “..it was fun and at the same pole helps you a lot to strengthen and tone the body. I started loving my routine and used to wait for my class once a week”.
She mastered it in a short span of time. Pole dancing had helped her shed body image issues and insecurities and it acted as a catalyst in imbibing newfound confidence.
With the sad demise of her mother last year, she left the job and came home to be a support to her dad. That was her grieving period. Factors like not working and loss of mother started draining her emotionally and mentally. But that didn`t stop her, making full use of the time she had, she got a pole at her house and she started getting involved with pole art. She took online classes with international pole artists. Before she could realise, Pole fitness had become an incredibly important part of her life and general well-being.
Pole classes provide a supportive space to move all parts of your body. A movement is actually a tool or resource we can use to get un-stuck; to create space for energy and emotions to flow. We can move from a place of tension and tightness to embodying feelings of joy, strength, and hope. It also has helped her heal emotionally and mentally
Over time as she trained more in art, she also witnessed the stigma that was around pole dancing. She set to create awareness about the benefits of pole dancing through her social media posts.
This step in itself was a mountain to climb. Anshita says, she struggled to change mindsets. Starting with her family, when she told them about her love for pole dancing. They were taken aback, coming from a traditional society where pole dancing was probably never heard of. As days went by, her family saw her passion for this art and began backing her. People from everywhere around her raised concerns, but her father put his foot down and became her relentless supporter!She struggled with the way the masses continued to look at pole dancing in a derogatory manner. Once she was approached by a popular someone in the industry to pole dance at a party they were hosting. This is when she realized that the fight was not only against the traditional society but also the so-called “Educated Illiterates”. She continued to put her head down and worked harder to create awareness about the art. She plans to start giving classes on Pole Art / Pole Fitness and she will be calling it Pole Fitness Classes.
Her diligent pursuit to bring a change finally paid off when she received hundreds of Instagram DMs requesting her to take pole fitness classes in Indore. That`s when she realized that she was making a dent in the narrowed mindsets of the society. And once again, with her family supporting her from strength to strength, she will soon be starting her own pole dancing classes.
Anshita draws her inspiration from the Pole Dancing greats such as Marion Crampe and Lisette Krol and dreams to dance alongside them someday!
Anshita signed off from the amazing conversation by leaving us with an inspirational message for all her followers and fellow strugglers out there – “Choose your own way and never fear to explore the unexplored!”
