Forest Whitaker has rightly said, “Stereotypes do exist, but we have to walk through them,” and Ambika Dutt has valiantly walked through all the stereotypes that persisted around and about her.
Born in Rohtak, a town in Haryana, Ambika’s journey to achieve her threshold of the roaming_nutrionist is not about her sole vision to overcome obesity or body image issues but also to overcome the mindset that always kept her aloof from the outside world. Ambika talks about how her family like most families in Hissar or Haryana has a defined social order in their mind and in that order women did not have much autonomy as most urban women seem to have. Ambika was never allowed to take school or college trips that were more than a day. So basically all the exposure she got was in her school or college premises or on an afternoon trip with her classmates. She was even admitted to a college that was just 15mins away from her home so that she didn’t have to travel long distances or encounter any strangers on the way.
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Adding to this Ambika said, “My parents were always like ki agar kahi bahr trip pe jana hai toh shaadi ke bad apne pati ke sath jana.” To this, Ambika now expresses how her parents are always saying that she never sticks to one place and keeps on traveling constantly. Recently, Ambika took her longest road trip from Gurugram to Goa in which she was the one behind the steering wheel. She also drove on one of the deadliest roads in India that is the Spiti Valley Road.
Ambika feels pride in driving in mountains and other places as she is the first girl in her home to take up such driving. Her parents too feel proud of their daughter’s achievements not only in her transformation journey but also in doing all those activities that they never thought she would pursue. Ambika recently bought her first car from her savings and she feels nothing excitement and a sense of self-regard. Her idea to get a ‘Scorpio N' was based on her future trip plans that include mountain trips and off-roading. Ambika while expressing herself mentioned who is her support and the one who drives and pushes her to chase her dreams, and that person is her life partner, Nikhil. Having been with Nikhil for about 10 years, Ambika firmly believes that it is Nikhil’s faith and confidence in her that makes her want to work harder every day. Nikhil has been a part of almost every decision that Ambika took and his decisiveness to support her and never stop her from following her heart is what made a huge difference for her.
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Ambika has achieved several milestones in her life but for her, the most important and life-altering milestone is not any single event, rather it is her growth toward a more free and self-reliant self who is not bound by any societal stereotypes. With every step, that Ambika takes towards being a more independent individual she is encouraging every person who is bound by any stereotype whether it be societal, family, gender, or anything else, to stand up and start moving towards their dreams. Yes, it may sound easy but it surely is not, but nothing comes easy to those who cut their way through mountains to see the sunrise in front of them.
