All women, everywhere, have the same hopes; we want to be self-sufficient and create a better lives for ourselves and our loved ones

Melinda Gates

Carrying all these beliefs into adulthood, life often felt like a tug-of-war: on some days, lucky and deeply held by friends and well‑wishers; on others, hurt and confused when my instinct to help and care was not always met with the same warmth in return. Even so, I built a flourishing career in India—working with Hugo Boss, traveling for events and fashion shows across Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, travelling to Hugo Boss Germany head office in Metzingen, Germany, talking to celebrities and page‑3 personalities, moving from assistant marketing manager to brand manager with my own office and team in Pune.​

When my daughter was born, I pressed pause on that dream job to be with her and to support my partner’s career in a new country, trusting that this sacrifice was temporary and rooted in love. But in the very land that promises liberty and freedom for all, the first thing I lost was my own freedom: no credit card in my name, no way to build a credit history, no financial independence, no SSN or regular driver’s license, and above all, no legal right to work for years on an H4 “dependent” visa. I spent hours sitting in public libraries searching for loopholes—cash jobs, pseudonyms, anything that might let me feel useful again—only to run into the same practical, legal, and financial walls that so many H4 spouses quietly know too well.​

During this time, the unpaid, unseen labor of caregiving and homemaking filled every corner of my day, yet the world around me often reduced it to “doing nothing,” slowly eroding my sense of identity and worth. By the time cancer entered the picture, I was already exhausted from years of being over‑responsible and under‑recognized, both by the system and by my own inner critic. That diagnosis, as terrifying as it was, became a brutal kind of clarity: if life could be taken away so quickly, then my worth could not be tied only to a paycheck, a visa status, or a LinkedIn headline—it had to include the invisible work, the love, and the sheer courage it took to begin rebuilding my career and self from the ground up.

Continue Reading: Diagnosis And The First Shock