Meenakshi has always been a scholar throughout her life. Being a disciplined and obedient student she qualified in several government exams and today she has become a dentist. Currently she is the Principal and HOD at Darshan Dental College in the Department of Prosthodontics.

Meenakshi Khandelwal is the Principal at Darshan Dental College and is the HOD of the department of Prosthodontics. She has been working with this institute for the last fifteen years.

Meenakshi hails from Indore, MP. She did her schooling from St. Raphael’s Higher Secondary School and did her BDS and MDS in Prosthodontics from Government Dental College, Indore. She joined Darshan Dental College as a Nursing Staff and started off her journey in the medical field. Gradually she got all the promotions and today she has become the Principal of the institute.

Talking about struggles, Meenakshi says she faced struggles while she was studying as she worked very hard to grab a seat due to reservation. She has always been a good academic student throughout and that’s the reason that she has been able to qualify for many government colleges.

Meenakshi considers her mother as her role model because despite being from a conservative family where girl education is not promoted,, her mother although, being less educated herself, wanted her daughters to become professionals and that’s why Meenakshi could become what she is today. She has always been motivated by her teachers to be the best of all and her colleagues who encourage her to advance in her field. Finally her husband is her role model as he always motivates her by saying, the top is always vacant, and this quote keeps Meenakshi moving.

Apart from work, Meenakshi enjoys spending time with her family. Also, being passionate about cooking, she enjoys making new dishes.

If Meenakshi could go back in time, she would like to spend more time with her father and relive her college days for those being the happiest days of her life.

Meenakshi advises the newcomers to this field that there is no substitute for hard work. So if you want to be successful in any field, you have to work hard, manage your time and update yourself at every point of time.

During the Covid times, Meenakshi says, initially it was difficult to handle the situation as the entire staff was scared of being infected by the virus. So they had to change many policies with respect to safety and precautionary measures for the patients coming in so as to prevent the doctors and the staff working on the front line. They even kept strict norms for mess and hostel residence to prevent everyone from getting infected by the virus.

Meenakshi feels that she is not a born leader but she believes in doing her best which requires whole hearted efforts and so she thinks that she has developed some leadership qualities and skills during the period of time due to which she takes the lead wherever needed.