‘Keep your face towards the sun and the shadows will fall back’

He doesn’t believe in the typical rat race which is the norm driving this competitive world. Rather this marathoner has cut out his own pathway towards happiness and success. Meet Sarthak Pandey, who passed out of Apeejay School, Noida in 2012. In a candid interview, he fondly recalls his school days.

Tell us about yourself.

I graduated from Apeejay School, Noida in 2012, so it’s been more than 12 years since I left school. I graduated in Economics from Delhi University and pursued my MBA from Indian School of Business. At present, I work in the SaaS technology industry, and I lead strategy for the leader in the testing world. On a non- professional front, I am an ultra-marathoner, who has run 100 km-plus three times and runs 50-80 km as practice runs.

What does a typical day look like?

I wake up at 4:30 am, go for a run and am away from gadgets for two hours. I spend some time with my family and start working by 8 am, work for 12-15 hours, making key decisions about operational and strategic items in the company to ensure we achieve our key goals for the year as well as for our long term goals. I wrap up my day by 9:30-10 pm, read a book and sleep to repeat the same routine the next day.

Tell us about your school life.

In school, I was a very shy guy till class X. Post which I understood the importance of constructive feedback, where my friend told me that I come across as an introvert, so I decided to change the same and became conscious about life and people. I was the Vice Head Boy in class XI and Head boy in class XII.

I studied in Apeejay from nursery so it was an absolute pleasure and an honour to become the head boy. I was also a key part of the basketball team during secondary and high school, have played zonal, CBSE clusters and represented the state in Basketball twice. I would consider myself to be a calm guy, tackling all the situations with ease, which I have carried on in life.

Share a few nostalgic memories from Apeejay.

I have quite a few nostalgic stories from Apeejay. I vividly remember a teacher tapping on my shoulder when I asked her about the results of the prefectural board process. She used to smile and tap on my shoulder and I knew that something good was going to happen. She had seen me grow from class VIII to class XII, it was mesmerising.

On a separate note, when I was in class VI, I got interested in basketball and played till the end of high school and beyond due to another teacher. Another teacher, unfortunately he is not with us anymore, he mentioned to me in a note in class XII: “You’re going to be a man in life” which still resonates with me, as “man” meant, leading and owning things and taking responsibility.

How were the teachers at Apeejay?

The teachers in Apeejay still drive me and ensure I look forward to a compliment of my self-worth. However, it really did shape me as a human, to not only succeed, but lead in good and tough situations.

What is your dream and goal in life?

My dream is to climb up the highest ladder of the corporate echelons and build a business that contributes to the society and health and fitness to develop the Indian society.

Any message for the students of the school.

Feel inspired, and be inspired. Look at your alums, speak to them and get the best idea on what you can do in life. Alumni community is always there to help. Do not be scared to dream, work hard and you’ll get there, it might take some time, but you need to be patient and persevere. Always, try to succeed, but embrace failure, because failure is experience and teaches you more, learn from it, and implement it in life and try to be the best.