Mumbai, Feb 17 (NationPress) Bollywood icon and global sensation Priyanka Chopra Jonas displayed her emotions while addressing students at Harvard Business School during an India Week event. The star expressed her immense pride in witnessing an auditorium filled with young students adorned in sarees and kurtas, adding that she feels grateful knowing her daughter Malti Marie will have such role models to look up to.

Priyanka shared her experience on social media, stating, “This is how my day began. I was scheduled to deliver a keynote address alongside my close friend and business partner Anjula Acharia to wrap up India Week at the esteemed Harvard Business School. The theme was ‘The India We Imagine’… no big deal, I thought. You can do this, Priyanka.”

However, she revealed that seeing the audience transformed her mindset.

“But looking out into the audience today, I only had one thought - You are the India I imagined. Let me elaborate,” she continued.

During the session themed “The India We Imagine”, Priyanka reflected on her own experiences as a teenager studying in the US.

Recalling those formative years, she reminisced about feeling like an outsider. “When I arrived at a high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and later at Newton North High School in Massachusetts in the mid-90s, there weren’t many who resembled me.”

She also expressed her delight and astonishment at seeing numerous Desi faces at an international university. She never envisioned that decades later, she would be addressing a full hall at Harvard. “I never anticipated that in my 30s, I would be speaking to you, the future of our culture and our world, on this stage, in this iconic chamber where so many remarkable individuals have spoken, and where many world leaders were born. The audience was full… and we were Desi… and Desi allies,” she shared.

“It brought tears to my eyes, because this was not the experience of my teenage years. But I’m thrilled that you get to have it. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. I’m excited that my daughter will have all of you to look up to.”

Expressing her pride at seeing representation at one of the globe’s top institutions, she noted, “To witness an auditorium filled with students dressed in sarees and kurtas at the HBS campus in Boston, Massachusetts, where I grew up… witnessing so many people from my community at one of the best schools in the world made my heart swell with pride. You are the future.”

Priyanka concluded by thanking the students for their warmth and expressed gratitude to her husband Nick Jonas and daughter Malti Marie for their support, referring to them as her “forever Valentine’s.”

On the professional front, Priyanka is preparing for her upcoming Hollywood film “The Bluff”, where she will portray a powerful role. She is also set to star in filmmaker SS Rajamouli’s highly-anticipated project, Varanasi, which features Mahesh Babu alongside her.