Aruna Upadhayaya- is a name well known in the city due to many reasons but most dominantly in the academic circles.
Born to Amiriti & NKP Salve in 1950 in Kamptee, she was educated in Nagpur; Aruna is a graduate in Humanities &Master in Economics. In 1972 she married Arun Upadhayaya and was blessed with two daughters, Radhika and Aparna.
It was while she was a hand’s on mom that the need to look into the children’s education scenario around her that shaped her destiny. It was because she was unhappy about the educations standards and hence she decided to take matters in her own hands and therefore in the year 1979 Mother’s Pet was born!!She began with 80 students which encouraged her & rest as they is history. 80 to today’s 10,000 and still growing.
She loves people, especially kids & loves the field of education. Mother’s Pet she has toiled with just 3 people to begin with and the results are there to see. Hard work and sincerity, she says, always pays!
Having learnt a lot from the job, she says it’s still a continuous process of self training& developing and constantly upgrading her skills.
Some feel having born to an influential father, her journey to success was much easier than most. To this she has a very matter of fact reply of that she’s not ashamed of it – yes this may love helped a bit but it’s her strength & will & vision that has proven time and time again & sustained over a period of 30 odd years.
Aruna is a great admirer of Indian women & actually believes the women definitely are the stronger sex! As it’s the woman who gives BIRTH, nurtures & shapes generation, takes care of homes, in-laws, husband, kids and goes out to work- so she is certainly the stronger of the two!!
She takes pride in herself being a good mom, daughter in-law,wife etc and suggests to us that we as women have to look inwards and be very strong and clear as to what we want out of life and to create an environment at home which gives priority to the children and develop a good support system through her husbandor in-laws . At this junction she proudly claims how she had/has great support and encouragement from her husband and how he is a great part in her success story.
Aruna’s civic sense makes her very passionate about issues the elderly and children. She does not live by the Good & Bad but the Strong & Weak and therefore invokes the women to have a strong, motivated, nurturing disposition.
Today she’s a proud owner of 5 campuses in Nagpur – 3 of Centre Point & 20 Mother’s Pet .Having tremendous satisfaction of shaping thousands of young minds & achievers, one would think she would rest and enjoy her laurels but no – the restless & dynamic spirit in her began Bansal Classes this again rose out of a need to help aspiring engineer/s who were willing to undergo a difficult structure and system. And now she is looking towards opening new schools in Pune and Mumbai with the IGSE Curriculum. She enjoys the challenge to start afresh from the very grassroot level & see her creations grow.
Aruna asserts that coming from a background where education was the most important aspect of their growing up years; today she stands tall because her parents insisted on a good education. And this continued as she and her brother, the famous Harish Salve wanted to create their own niche & identity. Added to all her dynamic qualities she is a fun loving person where her zeal for living life comes to the forefront. Age for her is only on paper!!
Her message to women is that True Empowerment for any women is one who has the liberty to change her decision to improve the quality of her life & to handle the consequences independently.
Monica Bhagwagar
