Sumedha Meshram
“Everyone thinks I am an ‘Engine driver’ with Nagpur metro, as you have in the Railways. But that is not my job. We are Metro Operators and Station Controllers. It is highly technology- driven work.” Explains Sumedha Meshram when NT catches up with her for a chat.
She is the only woman among 17 who have joined ‘Majhi metro – Nagpur’ as operators in May 2017. ( But that is not a new experience for her as I learnt later! )With seven years of experience in Delhi metro, she is the one of the most experienced of the lot too.
Gold Rate
10 May 2025
“Though DMRC was my first job, that Metro was already up and running full steam when I joined it right after my engineering. It was a great experience, but there wasn’t much of learning involved, except the specific skills required.
I have been lucky to have been selected by Maharashtra Metro when it is still at the building and trial run stage. Everything is unfolding now before my eyes: the laying of the metro lines, the construction of flyovers, of the iconic stations – and even the metro itself is latest in design and technology. so I am looking forward to a lot of learning” says Sumedha like an excited school girl speaking exclusively to Nagpur Today. What’s more, she looks like one in her photograph!
Papa ki laadli eklauti beti
Sumedha went to school in Balaghat, near Gondia, in M.P. (Pretty close to Nagpur). Even in her family she was the only girl among 3 brothers, two who were elder and one younger.
“I was my father’s pet…Papa ki laadli eklauti beti!… he did not allow me to lift a finger to do anything! I was thoroughly spoilt and pampered, but never ‘put down’ and overprotected as the only female child.”
Sumedha’s family was all into Govt. jobs; her dad was in the state PWD department, her mother was in Postal department; there were lecturers and Public sector executives in their extended family, so Sumedha always looked forward to being a career girl.
To that end, she chose to go in for Engineering studies after she finished her 12th. Only after she joined the Govt. Engineering college in Rewa and shifted to a hostel there that she learnt what being on your own was.
“But I was not intimidated by the prospect of living alone and taking my own decisions! It was all so exciting… that was also the time I became fearless and fiercely independent.
So independent had the Balaghat girl become that after her engineering, she decided to shift to Delhi to prepare for her future professional job. She wanted to join a good PSU and even had dreams of clearing UPSC to become an IAS officer.
“I still plan to do it if life permits” she says.
Being in Delhi turned out to be a lucky break. She was in the right place at the right time to land the Delhi metro job.
Was she assigned the job of being an engine operator or did she choose it? We ask.
” I chose it” she said. The ad had specified various jobs, and she chose this one.
Now people ask me – ‘why did you choose the job of a locomotive operator in a metro?’ I reply – ‘why not?”
Happy to be in Nagpur!
Sumedha sounded very happy to be in Nagpur when we spoke to her.
Apart from the learning experience of Nagpur metro, she feels at home in the city.
“It was a city we were constantly coming to during my childhood. You need anything; you have a medical problem – you went to Nagpur. Coming to Nagpur to work is like coming home for me! I love the co operative nature of the people here, they are so friendly too.” She is living right now as a P.G. with a Nagpur family.
Search on for Prince Charming!
This confident, independent girl turns bashful and shy when you ask her about her life partner.
“I am yet to get married” she tells you.
“But it is on the cards. No, I do not have anyone in mind! My parents will find a suitable guy for me. I have left it to them” she confesses.
The plan for the immediate future is to find a house in the city so her parents can also come here to live with her. All 3 brothers have left Balaghat- Gondia area and are either working or studying elsewhere.
What are her dreams for the future?
“To have a very satisfying career that will make me happy. To be someone people look up to and say ‘what a good job she is doing!'”
“Right now I don’t think even my neighbors know me; I am a shy person that way. But I want to be known for my work some day!”
Her motto in life: Never Stop Learning.
We are sure this attitude will take her far; and the day is not far off when whole of Nagpur – at least! – will know her and be proud of her.
Go Girl Go!!!
Sunita Mudaliar
Executive Editor
