Meet the star who’s changing the perception of Goa.

Goa has been long portrayed as a place for tourism, adventure sports, and a larger than life nightlife. All these aspects have been further amplified by Bollywood films such as Dil Chahta Hai and Go Goa Gone. However, what is often overlooked is that the state of Goa has its own identity as well. One person that has been changing this perception about Goa with every ounce of strength in her body is Ms Swarali Asish Shirodkar a computer engineer by trade who was mostly cornered in class and went through depression throughout her engineering days. COVID-19, as big of a tragedy as it was, turned out to be a blessing in disguise for her.

From Surviving to Thriving

Along with her colleague, Mr Rahul Keluskar, she started the only available COVID-19 health page in Goa. Which was a point of contact for people who needed assistance regarding the availability of prescription drugs, oxygen cylinders, etc. One aspect that she experimented with was singing. By posting covers of Bollywood songs on the social media platform, she amassed a following that made her a force to be reckoned with. The interesting aspect of these songs was not only that she is a great singer, but also that she makes the songs her own, which allows them to be fresh. Something that this content-consuming world adores and devotes time to. In a generation with a habit of content overload, information overload, and a short attention span, achieving over 1 lakh (hundred thousand) views is a humongous achievement.

A Multifaceted Star

A further dive into her career would allow one to see the laurels and accolades she has garnered. In the year 2021, she was given the Entrepreneur of the year award by the Rotract Club of Mapusa. This was due to her interest in data analysis, with which she started an IELTS training institute named The Benchmark. The institute has several students under its belt and is one of the topmost training institutes for IELTS in Goa. Being a part of the Grow partner company, a firm based in Pune, Maharashtra. She met many more future business owners and wants to make them a more refined version of themselves, which would enable these business owners to hire more people and make everyone get a job at some point in the future. Another firm that Ms Swarli runs is christened Learnizz which is a marketing training academy that specialises in affiliate marketing. The academy is teaching people the most important skill in life sales. A skill that people use in all aspects of their lives. Be it in conversations, social media uploads, being an influencer, etc. We are all competing to see who provides the best value for a viewer's time.

Back to the singing portion of Ms Shirodkar’s life, she has had quite an impact on the social media scene due to her success and her commendable ability to sustain and reel under this newfound fame, which is, quite often than not, not the case. Many artists have had a boost and then somehow lost touch. And Ms Swarli managed this without having a trained voice. She credits a fellow singer Mr Dipanjan, another maestro from West Bengal, for making her voice trained and thus making her much more capable as a singer now that the technical aspects are within her grasp. She is an ardent admirer of Shahzeb Tenjaani and is followed by him on Instagram. Subsequently, her covers were posted by him. Another wholesome anecdote she shares is of fellow peer Rahul Pandey an artist who has sung in the Salman Khan production, Hero. Who on the Live feature of Instagram wished her a Happy Birthday by singing her a birthday song. Till now, Ms Swarali has sung covers of songs such as Teri Bann Jaungi from Kabir Singh (her breakthrough song), Jo Bheji Thi Dua from the lesser talked about film Shanghai, and Garmi, another contemporary party banger. She has thus proven her range and versatility.

Closing Thoughts

A simple girl from Goa who was cornered in her four years of college during her engineering degree would have, according to some people, a self-esteem issue. However, Ms Swarali defied normalcy and went on to embrace the world of social media, and thus broke the mould by putting her voice out there for the world to take notice, and took notice they did. She had the resolve to help the people around her. She started two firms, worked with another and was awarded as a COVID warrior for her efforts during the ugly phases of the lockdown.