Tanya Choudhary: Making history

Tanya Choudhary, a student of Nalsar University of Law,  set a record  by winning 17 medals — token of her excellence — at her graduation ceremony early this month. An all-rounder, Tanya is not the geek you expect her to be. “Some of the medals were for topping in subjects like criminal law, constitutional law, company law, and the others for leadership, for being ranked first in class and for excelling in extra-curricular activities.

“The last one, the Vice Chancellor’s gold medal for the best outgoing female student came as a surprise to me. I was not expecting that,” says Tanya, who hails from Delhi. She attributes most of this success to her sheer love for the subject. “Honestly, I didn’t slog for this. It happened very effortlessly because I really enjoyed the subjects. I never felt like I was studying or working at all,” she says, adding, “Academics was not difficult. What kept me busy were the competitions and extra-curriculars. I won many legal essay and moot court competitions and published a few articles in various journals. I had also got the opportunity of being the academic convener for the university.”

Tanya was not always this passionate about law. It was, in fact, her father’s dream that she become a lawyer. “In Class XI, when I was considering career options, I knew engineering was out of the picture since I was never interested in science. Law and CA were the two options I was looking at. Finally, I narrowed it down to law because my father really wanted me to become a lawyer,” says the 23-year-old.

Even though she was always one of the top rank holders, Tanya says that college brought out her potential in other areas. “We had great seniors who were more than willing to help us. That is one of the reasons I decided to try out everything I could lay my hands on,” she says. The seemingly happy-go-lucky girl, who enjoyed every bit of her college life, showed exemplary resilience and battled against all odds to make her family proud.

“I lost my father last year. He hadn’t been keeping well since I was in my third year. That was the only challenge that plagued me during college,” she says, adding, “When I was in college, I wasn’t around my family to be of any help to them. So, I thought the best I could do was to do well in studies. That is what my father would have wanted. So, I just channelled everything into being productive,” she says.  

Tanya, who is now working with a law firm in New Delhi, says that she misses the free time that she used to get in college the most. “I used to watch so many TV shows then. Now, I work for a minimum of 12 hours a day, just like any other law graduate,” she says. On her attachment with Hyderabad, she says, “I have been to the film city, the Old City, and also shopped at Numaish. I would have liked to explore more, but the campus is quite far and so, we would hardly get time.”