By Gaurav Aryal


Ritu Singh Vaidya, Managing Director at United Traders Syndicate Pvt Ltd (UTS), has enjoyed every role she has stepped into. When she walked on the ramp, she mastered it with her style. When she was on the stage, she cherished the music and touched the listeners’ heart. Now, she is handling the position of a leading business person very well. Model, former Miss India, singer and now a businessperson; Vaidya has perfected the responsibilities she thinks are brought to her by destiny and her dedication in the pursuit of dreams.




Ritu Singh Vaidya always dreamed to set up her own business although she was at the pinnacle of her modelling career. With twists and turns of her career that were never disappointing for her, she has now climbed up the ladder towards a leading position in one of the leading business houses of Nepal, Vaidya’s Organisation of Industries and Trading House (VOITH). Her working style is ruled by discipline as she was raised in a family with partly business and partly army background.

Vaidya recalls her childhood in Delhi as “nice, pleasant and loving”. She feels fortunate about having pleasurable childhood days. Her grandfathers were in the business sector and were running their family business in present day Pakistan. She says her grandfathers moved to Delhi when she was an eighth grader. She was educated in Delhi and after completing school, Vaidya pursued fashion designing for her higher studies. She is also a BA in Economics and Political Science from Delhi University.

It was obvious for the beautiful and charming Vaidya to be offered a career in glamour and modelling industry. She believes destiny took her into the world of modelling. “I was in class XII when my friends and I participated in the May Queen contest. So, that was the beginning of it.” She was crowned the May Queen title. She actively began modelling after many offers started coming her way. Her journey on the ramp did not stop immediately though. She went to the Miss India contest and grabbed the title that many Indian women dream to achieve – Miss India – in 1991. After winning the title at home, her next target was to win international titles. Vaidya became the fifth runner up in Miss World, second runner up in Miss Asia World and first runner up in Miss India Universe.

“I took it (modelling) on because it just came to me. It happens that things suddenly start working for you and I think they are the natural things to happen because they just come your way,” she says, “But I always had an entrepreneurial spirit in me. I always wanted to establish myself in some kind of business where I felt challenged. I am someone, who likes a routine, discipline and innovativeness.” Vaidya believes she was always inclined towards business. Even during her modelling days, she would dream of getting into some sort of business in the future. “I wasn’t somebody who was going into Bollywood” she says.

Vaidya says she has never been a person who is devoted to only one thing. “When I got into the glamour world, I was also very focused on my studies and about what I was going to do next. Though I was very much enjoying it, I couldn’t see myself turning forty on the ramp,” she explains.

Everything was organised and settled for young Vaidya even at the age of 20. She says she was almost leading a life what people start mostly at their middle ages. She was just 20 when she met businessman Suraj Vaidya in Kathmandu at a charity fashion show organised by him for Bal Mandir. The professional acquaintance grew into love and later to marriage within a matter of years. Vaidya recalls that the initial days of living in Nepal after her marriage was completely different from her earlier days. She says it was a total change in her life, family, career and friends. “The first year of marriage was difficult because I was not used to a lot of things. But my husband made it very easy for me as he was very easy and patient about me even when I went back to Delhi 15 times in 12 months,” she shares.

Vaidya ventured into fashion designing in her initial days in Nepal and worked as a fashion designer for seven years. That was the time when she was also rearing her child. Vaidya stopped designing clothes and dived into her new found passion – singing. She released an album, ‘Sun Zara’ and appeared in her album’s music videos as well. However, she has abandoned her role as a singer as she thinks it consumes a lot of her time and takes her away from her family. “When I released my first album, I really thought I can manage singing simultaneously with my business commitments but later I realised it is not so. For Hindi singing you have to be in Mumbai and be accessible whenever somebody calls you. That was not something I was looking for and desired in my life. Singing for films and doing stage shows is not my cup of tea.” She started taking responsibilities in VOITH when Suraj Vaidya was busy travelling and spending time for larger business responsibilities.

“He had a great ideology on which everybody was moving and that was a great success too. Once he was unwell and had to take rest for treatment. That was when I took up the work,” she says. At present, she is completely looking after UTS and its divisions that deal in Toyota and heavy equipments. Along with it, she occasionally looks after the spa she has set up a few years back. When it comes to working approach, she says, “My approach is very simple. I try to simplify things and believe in a totally centralised command. But jobs are designated to different people and they have a total free hand in what they do. But yes, it has to be totally accountable.” She encourages flow of new ideas from her employees but feels that the final central command has to be strong enough to prevent things going haywire. Vaidya thinks employees are most happy when you let them do the work, give them a good working environment, be ready to listen to their suggestions and at the same time reward them for what they do. Vaidya has a disciplined working style. “Because I am disciplined, a lot of my staff has to be disciplined. They can’t take anything lightly because they know when I say something that needs to be done. I am very focused on making sure that whatever needs to be done, should be done in the given frame of time,” she emphasises.



Vaidya reveals that her organisation is planning to expand into newer sectors like hydropower, hospitality and education. She is trying to consolidate what is already with the organisation along with planning of new ventures. She says, “Hydropower should be there soon as it is already in the pipeline and we are seriously looking into hospitality. Hopefully, we will be coming with new ventures in the next two years if we don’t have external disturbing factors like endless bandhs and political crisis.” Vaidya believes that she has not earned enough money to spend on charities and philanthropic activities. “I believe in doing philanthropy with my own money. I won’t be convinced about it if I am going to throw somebody else’s money and call it a charity. If I can do well and manage to spare money from my earnings; that is the right kind of charity that I would want to do.”

She thinks she is very compartmental and does not like to mix her personal and professional life together. So, she never takes her office to home. “My time is totally devoted to home when I am home. Similarly, when I am in the office, I give all the time to my office works,” Vaidya reveals. Evenings are for her son and husband while she reserves her morning time usually for exercising. A strong believer in destiny, Vaidya is very satisfied with what life has brought to her. She takes her life as it comes and is ready for wherever it leads to. Optimistic in nature, one shouldn’t be surprised to find her trying new things, ventures and passions in the days to come. Her well wishers shouldn’t be astonished to see her in a completely new avatar not too long in the future.





PERSONAL SIDE


Take on success: I am a very happy content person. Nevertheless, the day I do not want to do anything more, I would think that I am dead. From that point of view, there is a lot more to do.


Planning a holiday: I like things to be done perfectly and neatly. I make sure I do a lot of research on wherever I am going and know the places so that I won’t miss what I want to see and what we are going to do. I like my travel to be organised right from my ticketing and stay to every itinerary and the places where we are going.


Brand consciousness: If something is nice it does not need to be branded. I believe in being comfortable and wear what I think looks best on me.


Secret of beauty: Fitness is something I really believe in. You should be very fit because body is the vehicle that carries you. So you have to take care of it.


Spending leisure time: Reading and listening to music. I read more of philosophies and autobiographies. I love Indian classical music and mostly listen to Hindi music and instrumental and for English, I like jazz and more soulful songs.


Favourite pastimes: I love to sing and do gardening and am passionate about my house. Therefore, I love cleaning on my off days.


Better mother or a better boss: I try to justify every role - a good mother, good wife, good house keeper and a good business person.


Favourite Travel Destination: Paris among all because it is the most romantic and artistic city and also Venice. Turkey was also a very nice place where we went recently and Russia turned out to be a pleasant surprise.


Sporty indulgence: I used to be a badminton champion in my school. I adored playing volleyball and basketball but now I am more into gymming.