5.2 Shruthi Bopaiah: What If You Don’t Want the Life Everyone Expects?

What if your life doesn’t follow the usual script? In episode 5.1, Shruthi Bopaiah, Head of Customer Obsession at Axis Bank, shared how she built a career without having it all figured out. In this chapter, the conversation gets more personal, moving into loss, relationships and one of the biggest choices she has made in her life. What’s in it for you? If you’ve ever questioned a life choice that seemed obvious to everyone else, or wondered whether you might regret choosing differently, there’s a lot to take from Shruthi’s story. Shruthi also opens up about her decision not to have children, including the years of “Should we? Shouldn’t we?”, watching friends become parents, wondering if she might change her mind, and eventually reaching a place where she can say she has no regrets. The conversation also explores what that choice means for a relationship. Does a marriage need children to feel complete? Where else can nurturing and meaning show up in your life? And how do you separate what you genuinely want from what you’ve simply grown up believing you should want? Chapters: 00:00 Choosing a Life Without Children 00:28 Meet Shruthi Bopaiah 01:43 What Grief Taught Me 04:08 Choosing Not to Have Children 07:17 Will I Regret Not Having Kids? 09:43 “Do I Really Want to Be a Mother?” 10:35 Advice for Women on the Fence 12:28 Does a Relationship Need Children? 14:02 Building a Life Together, Separately