Anamika Chaturvedi : From a Physicist to an Award Winning Environmentalist

Anamika Chaturvedi

I am extremely delighted as I write story of my own friend Anamika Chaturvedi, today here, at this platform of Success Stories “From Caterpillar to Butterfly”; more so when I am writing for my blog after a long gap.

We first met in college in our Physics class and soon became best friends. That was early 1990s; though opposite in nature, we had a great bonding. While I was usually quite, she had a tendency to fight for the right.

Born and brought up in Rajasthan, Anamika always wanted to work for equal rights of women in all spheres of life. As she grew she learnt that she could achieve this only if she acquires some powerful position and thus she became a civil service aspirant. Her own brother, who was an RAS (Rajasthan Administrative Services) Officer, became her inspiration.

But as she entered college and secured admission in Physics (Hons); she fell in love with Physics and Mathematics. There, she didn’t like the way some lecturers were teaching and dealing with students and so she started thinking of filling the gaps in the University in case she doesn’t succeed in UPSC exams.

She failed in second round of two attempts and so she started applying for lectureship. Consequently, she received a call from an Engineering college as well as a private college, SS Jain Subodh, Jaipur. Though she was more interested in teaching at the engineering college but the later was near to her home and so she joined it.  But two years down the line, she had to resign as she got married and had to shift to Indore. But nothing deterred her and she was selected by IPS Academy where she taught M.Sc students too.  There, she also got a rare opportunity of working with an eminent Physicist Late Professor Babulal Saraf. She was also assigned the task of setting up a nuclear physics laboratory in the Academy.

She says, “That was the golden period of my life. I was working with a genius and not only teaching but applying all the principles of theoretical physics into experimental.”

She simultaneously got registered for Ph.D in Microwave electronics under another great Physicist Prof. K.K. Maheshwari. But she had to resign for her husband got a better opportunity in Mumbai and later she got pregnant. Circumstances forced her to discontinue her Ph.D.

After the birth of the first baby, she started giving tuitions in Physics. But by 2009 she had shifted to Pune and so after second child, she decided to start a pre-school in 2011. When the school picked up destiny started showing its colour and her husband had to shift again to Mumbai. She closed down her school and danced to the tunes of destiny. In Mumbai, she sold books through Amazon and when her husband had to shift to Delhi, they shifted to Noida.

Guess what she is doing here?

No tuitions, no school, she has become an environmentalist; which she says is her true calling. The pathetic condition of waste and Ghazipur story shaked her to the core and she started working on waste Management. Environment Management is her passion now. Her first success was to make her own society a zero waste society. Once this was achieved, she expanded her wings. 

Recently she was selected as one of the seven judges to determine the cleanest society in Noida by NOFAA (Noida Federation of Apartments Owners Association) and she was awarded for her Waste Management Work by CLOUD 9 this Women’s day.

She is also a founder of Bhumitra- a team of people dedicated to make environment and earth a better place to live in. They organize workshops and educate people to improve environment.

Her life teaches us to meander swiftly with the flow of life, putting our best foot forward, following our passion.  

Her message, as an environmentalist,  to the society, “We all have a responsibility towards environment. Just as matter can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only change forms, so is waste. Let us allow waste from our homes, offices, schools etc to recycle and convert the biodegradable into compost. Let us take a pledge to live in zero waste society. Let us write a will for our children, promising a clean, pollution free and green environment. If we pass on a cleaner and better earth to them, they will be encouraged to maintain this legacy and this beautiful green earth can be passed on to generations.”