Leaders I Met: Resilience Personified - Ms. Sugitha
In a recent online meeting, Ms. Sugitha Sarangaraj spoke about her experiences as a journalist in covering the devastating floods of Chennai in 2015. Yes, 2015 is a year that will remain fresh in the minds of Chennaiites for a long time. This natural disaster tested the city's spirit and brought out extraordinary stories of human courage and commitment. As she spoke, it brought back memories - the sense of helplessness, the chaos, revival of hope and so on. It occurred to me that leadership is not just about executing one's job role. Quite often, it is established when one goes beyond the call of duty.
The question then is, what drives them? Is it just passion for the job or much more? There is much more to it. It could be a burning resolve to raise the bar or a genuine empathy for the people and stories that matter.
Ms. Sugitha Sarangaraj embodies all of this.
I later had the opportunity to meet her in person. What followed was one of those rare conversations that sweeps across many topics at once — artificial intelligence and its implications, the ethics of reporting in a world of misinformation, the critical importance of fact-checking, the vulnerabilities in cybersecurity and much more. She moved through each topic with the ease of someone who thinks deeply and reads widely.
Three qualities about her that struck me were:
1. Choose the Path Less Trodden
It is easy enough to stay within one's comfort zone and still build a remarkable career. But it takes a different order of willpower and determination to make your mark while walking a more difficult path. She has done exactly that. Every time someone implied that a particular role or beat wasn't meant for a woman, she didn't step aside. She rose to the occasion and excelled at it. That quiet, consistent defiance is itself a form of leadership.
2. Set Your Own Bar
Forget the glass ceiling, set your own ceiling seems to be her mantra. Not just that, she simply kept raising it. She didn't wait for society to define what success looks like for her. She has been consistently breaking stereotypes and upping her own standards, measuring herself not against external benchmarks but against her own best work. That is a rare and powerful kind of ambition.
3. An Unquenchable Thirst for Knowledge
In a media landscape that is shifting faster than almost any other field, she is constantly investing quality time in learning and upgrading her skills. It is not a checkbox exercise. It is a genuine intellectual curiosity that keeps her sharp, relevant, and ahead of the curve. In a world of shortcuts, that kind of commitment to growth is both rare and admirable.
What this means is that true leadership rarely announces itself. It doesn't wait for the right title or the right moment. It shows up in the middle of a flood, in the choice to take the harder road, in the quiet discipline of learning something new, the steely determination. She is a reminder that some of the most meaningful leaders are not just in boardrooms. They are out in the field, asking the uncomfortable questions, telling the stories that need to be told and inspiring others simply by the way they choose to live and work.
My interaction with Sugitha Sarangaraj reinforced a simple thought. When passion is combined with purpose, resilience and continuous learning, it creates a form of leadership that quietly stands out.
