Greeshma T | When a Career Becomes a Calling

When Greeshma looks back at her younger self, she remembers a girl who dreamed of a stable white-collar job. Like many students growing up in Kerala in the late 2000s, she was fascinated by the booming IT industry. After tenth standard, she enrolled in the Computer Science stream, imagining a future in technology.

But life had other plans. Influenced by her father's concerns about the demands of corporate life and night shifts, she switched to Biology just two months into Plus One. At the time, the decision felt practical rather than life-changing. Yet it marked the beginning of a journey that would eventually lead her far beyond classrooms, hospitals, and offices, into a deeper understanding of people, society, and herself.

Today, Greeshma works in the social impact sector, but the transformation from an aspiring tech professional to a social worker was neither planned nor straightforward.

Biology turned out to be a good fit. She particularly enjoyed Zoology and excelled in the subject, eventually pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Zoology. Yet as graduation approached, financial realities began to shape her choices.

While she loved the subject, she knew that building a career in Zoology would require years of further study. Her family circumstances made that difficult. She needed a path that would allow her to enter the workforce sooner.

This practical consideration led her to pursue a Master of Social Work (MSW) at Vimala College, Thrissur. At the time, she knew very little about the course.

"I had no idea what social work really was," she recalls.

What attracted her was the possibility of finding employment quickly and the opportunity to study through an affordable government merit seat. What she discovered instead was something much more profound.

The Work That Chose Her

For Greeshma, MSW was not merely a postgraduate degree. It became a turning point in her personal growth. Before joining the programme, she describes herself as shy, hesitant to voice opinions, and often inclined to please others. She rarely stepped outside her comfort zone. The course challenged that version of herself.

Through fieldwork, internships, classroom discussions, and interactions with people from different backgrounds, she gradually developed confidence. She learned to communicate, express her views, and engage with the world around her.

More importantly, she developed a new understanding of society. The course introduced her to social realities she had never fully considered before. It helped her build civic awareness and understand the structures, inequalities, and challenges that shape people's lives.

"It felt like coming out of a shell," she says.

The transformation extended beyond academics. Together with friends, she explored new topics, conducted life-skills sessions in schools and Anganwadis, and even created small opportunities to earn extra income through training programmes. For the first time, she was not simply learning about society; she was actively participating in it.

Learning Humanity 

After completing her MSW in 2016, Greeshma entered the healthcare sector, joining Jubilee Hospital in a Patient Relations (PR) role. The position placed her at the intersection of human vulnerability and institutional systems.

Every day, she dealt with patient complaints, concerns, emotional distress, and practical challenges. Her role required her to act as a bridge between patients and the hospital, ensuring that non-clinical issues were heard and addressed.

The experience transformed her understanding of people. Hospitals, she explains, are places where individuals often encounter some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Financial crises, serious illnesses, fear, uncertainty, and grief all converge within those walls.

Witnessing these realities daily changed her perspective. Instead of viewing people through assumptions or stereotypes, she began seeing the circumstances that shaped their behaviour. She became more aware of her own biases and judgments. The work was emotionally demanding, but it also deepened her empathy.

"It was there that I realised how much I enjoyed working with people," she says. The hospital environment taught her lessons that no textbook could provide. Every interaction became an opportunity to understand resilience, vulnerability, and human dignity.

New Directions

Greeshma's career journey also took her beyond India. At one point, she considered moving to New Zealand. Later, she accepted an opportunity with Aster in Dubai. Family opinions, practical considerations, and changing circumstances influenced the decision.

However, life abroad proved challenging. Having contracted COVID-19 earlier from Kerala, she developed young-onset hypertension and struggled to balance her health with the demands of the job. The healthcare environment in Dubai felt less empathetic than what she had experienced in India, adding to the emotional strain.

Eventually, she returned to Kerala;  she soon got caught up with some urgent family commitments that required her to stay at home. Little did she know then that it would become the moment that opened the door to a new chapter in life. 

Finding Space at aikyam

Through a family connection, Greeshma learned about opportunities at aikyam, a social impact organisation. Initially, she joined remotely, unsure of how meaningful social work could be in a work-from-home setting. But she soon discovered that impact can take many forms.

Her work includes curating opportunities through aikyam jobs, supporting visibility for organisations in the social sector, managing event information, and helping connect people with fellowships, workshops, and social impact initiatives across India. The role differs significantly from the fast-paced healthcare environment she once knew.

For the first time in years, she has greater flexibility and a healthier work-life balance. Her evenings belong to her personal life rather than unpredictable hospital shifts. However, adjusting to a desk-based role was not easy. She missed the constant teamwork and immediate feedback that came with on-ground social work and healthcare. But the experience has also expanded her understanding of how social impact can be created through digital platforms and community-building efforts.

Looking back, Greeshma believes the greatest gift of social work has been perspective. Her internships, professional experiences, and interactions with diverse communities have shown her how fragile life can be and how differently people experience the world.

She remembers working through the devastating Kerala floods of 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic. She remembers seeing patients transported to hospitals in sand-carrying Taurus lorries during flood emergencies. She remembers witnessing fear, loss, courage, and hope in equal measure.

Experiences like these changed her understanding of what truly matters. They taught her that many of the problems people worry about in everyday life appear smaller when viewed against the backdrop of genuine human suffering. At the same time, they revealed the extraordinary resilience people possess during crises.

More Than a Career

For Greeshma, social work ultimately became much more than a profession. It helped her find her voice. It taught her to engage with people confidently. It challenged her assumptions, expanded her worldview, and strengthened her ability to empathise with others.

While technology and artificial intelligence continue to reshape workplaces around the world, she believes there will always be a need for human care, compassion, and connection. These qualities cannot be fully automated. 

And that is perhaps the most important lesson her journey offers: education may provide knowledge, but meaningful engagement with people provides wisdom. Through social work, Greeshma found both.