Premlata Agarwal, MountaineerMy inspiration is Bachendri Pal. She was responsible for my journey from a housewife to a mountaineer. I owe my new identity to her. She taught me to have faith in my myself. Once, in 2011, when I was scaling the Everest, the weather wasn't favourable and I fell ill. So I spoke to her since I wasn't sure I could do it. But she showed tremendous faith in my capability and I regained my determination to accomplish what I had set out for. Determination, self-motivation, hard work and good leadership skills are some of the lessons I learned from her.

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Shilpa Rao, MusicianMy guru is singer, Hariharan. He is the reason I am a musician today. I first met him 1997, with my mother. He taught me to have confidence in my music, in my voice. As a teacher, he would always first  emphasise on what is good and only then talk about what went wrong with the song. I hope to be big-hearted like him. Some of my favourite ghazals of Hariji include Kaash and Visaal.

Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal, Food Writer and ConsultantThe one teacher who has and continues to inspire me is my English teacher, Anahita Lee. When she walked into our class, she came in with a poster of Shakespeare which she had created. I've met many people who didn't like Shakespeare but her method of teaching made us fall in love with him. I would love to read her comments at the end of our essays. She always said, 'When you like a subject, then you perform better.' Today, she is not just a teacher but a mentor and friend. When I was working on my book, A Pinch of This, A Handful of That, which released in December 2013, she would constantly give me feedback, motivate and guide me to do better. After the book released, when I sent her a copy, she sent me an email stating, 'I am proud to be your teacher.' She has taught us that whatever you are teaching in life, make sure you constructively criticise your students' qualities. Teach them to celebrate their positive aspects and work hard on the negative aspects.

Anindita Nayar, Actress​One of the most inspirational teachers I’ve had was Dr Vasudha Pande who taught me Modern Indian History at Lady Shri Ram College. She was so passionate about the subject that it was difficult not to get swept away by her enthusiasm for it.. At a more fundamental level, she also showed how in history, as in all matters of life, “facts” can be viewed from various perspectives and rarely can issues be seen in stark black or white, even though that would make things much easier to assimilate. She encouraged us to form our own opinions. Gradually, I could see how, thanks to her insistence on this, it started having a spillover effect in my approach towards life in general too. She made us think and thirsty for knowledge, for which I will always be grateful. Gentle, humble, extremely pleasant and warm, yet a very strong individual, Dr Pande was a wonderful mentor and helped me mature as an individual.​

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Evelyn Sharma, ActressI remember when I was in school, we had Drama as apart of our cultural activities. At that time, I was a shy girl, not very outspoken and used to keep to myself. It was then​ that that my Drama teacher Ms. D'souza pulled me up on stage one day and asked me to recite a few lines of poetry. I was so nervous with the whole class listening in, sitting right in front of me, but she pushed me to come out of my shell and give it a try. Had it not been for her, I guess I would still be nervous when facing an audience.