"There are no endpoints in life — only turning points."
She grew up in a small village near Cochin, Kerala, in a humble home shaped by her father's LIC work and a small piece of farmland. When she was in 9th standard, her father lost his memory in an accident and he lives with dementia to this day.
Watching her parents navigate that chapter taught her more than any book could: her mother showed her what quiet strength looks like, and her father taught her to live fully and leave warmth wherever she goes.
Maya started earning at 13, tutoring younger kids which was an early lesson in independence that never left her. A first-class B.Tech graduate from LBS Institute of Technology for Women, she went on to build a career spanning programming, ERP consulting, cybersecurity, emerging tech, including a solo move to the US that turned a "timid village girl" into an international professional, earning her the QAD Champion Key Contributor Award along the way.
But her hardest chapter wasn't professional, it was quiet and internal. Years into a difficult marriage, while showing up for everyone else, Maya slowly stopped showing up for herself.
The woman once known for speaking nearly 50,000 words a day, more than double the average, eventually found herself speaking fewer than 50.
She was living with high-functioning depression, invisible from the outside. Eventually, she made herself one promise: "I will not give up on me." That promise led her through divorce, rebuilding, and rediscovering a version of herself she'd quietly set aside.
She returned to singing and dance, teaching herself Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattam on YouTube, eventually becoming part of a Guinness World Record group performance. She tried entrepreneurship, stumbled, then became a fractional CEO, helping scale a company to 3X ROI in two years. She’s also a recipient of CIO 500 Super Women IT (south) award.
And in her boldest personal challenge, she trained for months and trekked to Everest Base Camp, pushing through illness and dangerously low oxygen levels with one mantra: just one more step. She made it and realized she'd conquered something bigger than a mountain.
That climb gave her the courage to finally take her own leap. In March 2026, Maya MS launched CyberCalm ,which is built around AI governance and digital trust turning a childhood dream into reality. Her ambition, in her words, is to grow it into "one of India's most trusted AI governance advisory firms."
Her message to anyone standing at the edge of giving up: don't think about climbing the whole mountain today, just take the next step. Sometimes, the life you're meant to live is waiting just beyond it. She’s still climbing, still becoming.
Watching her parents navigate that chapter taught her more than any book could: her mother showed her what quiet strength looks like, and her father taught her to live fully and leave warmth wherever she goes.
Maya started earning at 13, tutoring younger kids which was an early lesson in independence that never left her. A first-class B.Tech graduate from LBS Institute of Technology for Women, she went on to build a career spanning programming, ERP consulting, cybersecurity, emerging tech, including a solo move to the US that turned a "timid village girl" into an international professional, earning her the QAD Champion Key Contributor Award along the way.
But her hardest chapter wasn't professional, it was quiet and internal. Years into a difficult marriage, while showing up for everyone else, Maya slowly stopped showing up for herself.
The woman once known for speaking nearly 50,000 words a day, more than double the average, eventually found herself speaking fewer than 50.
She was living with high-functioning depression, invisible from the outside. Eventually, she made herself one promise: "I will not give up on me." That promise led her through divorce, rebuilding, and rediscovering a version of herself she'd quietly set aside.
She returned to singing and dance, teaching herself Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattam on YouTube, eventually becoming part of a Guinness World Record group performance. She tried entrepreneurship, stumbled, then became a fractional CEO, helping scale a company to 3X ROI in two years. She’s also a recipient of CIO 500 Super Women IT (south) award.
And in her boldest personal challenge, she trained for months and trekked to Everest Base Camp, pushing through illness and dangerously low oxygen levels with one mantra: just one more step. She made it and realized she'd conquered something bigger than a mountain.
That climb gave her the courage to finally take her own leap. In March 2026, Maya MS launched CyberCalm ,which is built around AI governance and digital trust turning a childhood dream into reality. Her ambition, in her words, is to grow it into "one of India's most trusted AI governance advisory firms."
Her message to anyone standing at the edge of giving up: don't think about climbing the whole mountain today, just take the next step. Sometimes, the life you're meant to live is waiting just beyond it. She’s still climbing, still becoming.
This story was told by Maya MS and published with their permission by the What's Your Story editorial team.
