“Have confidence in your capability without giving your gender much thought. Be focussed on your goal and work with complete dedication."

Ritu Karidhal is a proud contributor to The Mars Orbiter Mission launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation. Leading the team behind the success of 'Mangalyaan', Ritu has been involved in a lot of revolutionary space operations with ISRO. A proficient alumnus of the Indian Institute of Science, she completed her Masters in Aerospace Engineering with a clear aim of working towards a change. She comes from a middle class family , in Lucknow, where the major importance has always been given to the education . She always had the fascination about space , an urge to do something different from a normal trend . Collecting news articles related to any space activities by ISRO or NASA was one of her hobbies.The dream of joining the space agency came true in 1997,November .She has worked for many prestigious missions of ISRO , handled responsible position of Operations Director for many missions.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx