She's been running an NGO for underprivileged children since she was just thirteen….
Asavari Agrawal grew up watching her father, Parag, build a career in technology, and her mother, Meghna, build something entirely her own: Via Milano, a restaurant that has won the Times Food Award three years running.
Somewhere between national-level table tennis (she's represented India internationally), Bharatanatyam since age five, Trinity Grade 8 piano, and trekking Annapurna Base Camp with her dad, she also found time to found an NGO, at thirteen.
It didn't start with a plan. Her mother used to take her, as a small child, to Karuna Shreya, a hospice in Bengaluru, and to Thayi Mane (a children’s home for orphan and destitute children), visits Asavari once mistook for playdates. Slowly, she understood what she was actually looking at: children her age, same city, same sky, an entirely different world. She couldn't just leave it there.
At thirteen, she began running table tennis sessions at Thayi Mane. One Saturday, she noticed older girls sitting out — uncomfortable, on their periods, with nothing to manage it. That evening, she pledged monthly pad drives. Not one has been missed since 2022.
That quiet decision became "Shape the Future" (Stf_Shape the Future), the organization she now runs alongside her final year of A Levels at Inventure Academy, Accounting, Economics, Business, Maths, and English, while also co-authoring a research paper on India's quick commerce sector, interviewing leaders from Swiggy, Zepto, and bigbasket along the way.
This year tested her in ways few seventeen-year-olds face, her mother underwent a surgery while Asavari managed her own health challenges, all while juggling university applications and her Saturday commitments. What carried her through wasn't a system, but it was her teachers writing to her daily, and friends who quietly picked up the slack without being asked.
She's also no stranger to losing. In Grade 8, she lost a national tournament she was certain she'd win, and told her mother she wanted to quit. Her mother said nothing, just put the racket back in her bag. Two years later, Asavari was representing India in Bahrain.
Her biggest lesson: a difficult period isn't the end of the story unless you decide it is.
Her philosophy on impact: consistency beats intensity. One of her school partnerships grew from 26 to 38 children, not from a single big gesture, but from years of parents trusting she'd simply be there, every Saturday.
Looking ahead, Asavari Agrawal doesn't have a five-year plan, and she's at peace with that. She just knows that wherever she ends up, the children she works with will remain part of her life.
Her most honest admission: as she prepares to leave for university, it isn't the applications or the distance that scares her but it's leaving behind two little girls at an Anganwadi, one of whom calls her "Amma".
This story was told by Asavari Agrawal and published with their permission by the What's Your Story editorial team.
