‘Everything must have a story’

A shopaholic who loves to travel and be adventurous, Nagsri Prasad Sashidhar, Chief Happiness Officer, NAGSRI – Creating Special Memories, says that while FIT business makes her fulfil people’s dreams, it also allows her to explore the world and satiate her creative side. Here’s her fascinating story…

It was always academics for Nagsri. “My father is a nuclear scientist, while my mother has a doctorate in agricultural sciences, which took her to teaching and after Class 10, made science a natural option for me. I took on microbiology and biochemistry as my majors and was planning to do my doctorate in oncology,” she shares.

However, there was something new in store when Nagsri got married. “In the first year of my Masters, I got married. My husband Sashi was a banker and was working at Deutsche Bank at the time. He was settled and doing well, and hence it did not make sense for me to take off to the US to do my research. At that time, we were deciding what to do next,” she adds.

That’s when it all began. While Nagsri was looking for an internship in an advertising agency, a sector that interested her, something else was on the cards. “We happened to have a very casual meeting with a friend of my husband, whose wife was a trainer and had just finished training at Thomas cook. She suggested that as a good option and I gradually realised that my calling was in leisure travel, though at Thomas Cook, we were trained in all departments,” she says. In 2007, she joined Mercury Travels, where she worked for 12 years. Later, Nagsri floated her own company: NAGSRI – Creating Special Memories. “People wonder how I shifted to travel from being a microbiologist. I say that from looking under a microscope, I am now looking at things macroscopically. I realised that FIT has a lot more where I can pitch in, both in terms of creativity and satisfaction. It is important that our passion translates into our profession. Hence, I have called it NAGSRI- Creating Special Memories,” she says. Nagsri is also a self-confessed shopaholic! “If someone asked me what would be the two things I could survive on, it would be shopping and travel. I am also adventurous, and have done everything from white-water rafting and sky diving to Gorilla trekking in Rwanda. Writing is another thing I like, and I write about my experiences and places. In fact, even when I shop, I like things which have a story to them. I believe that everything you own must have a story,” she says. Optimistic and enterprising, Nagsri believes that COVID-19 wouldn’t kill travel and considers it a second opportunity for the trade. “Travel is in every human being’s DNA and that’s not going to go away. I believe in the Triple B theory—firstly, you need to have the ‘belief’ that things are going to be alright. That automatically converts into your ‘behaviour’,
which is the second B. The third B is ‘business’, which will automatically generate,” she claims.

“Let’s not lose this opportunity and work together as one single team towards doing the right thing. When we go on a game drive, then the game ranger asks us to be seated when they see a rhinoceros. This is because the rhino has poor vision and can only see the vehicle as one form. The moment you stand up, the picture gets distorted and it knows there is something. Similarly, the client needs to see all of us as one unit. Hence, don’t stand out and try and undercut each other; the pie is big enough for everyone. Just be one unit so that we all are conveying the same thing,” she concludes.