Usha Ray is feeling on top of the world.
At the age of 80, she has become India’s senior-most MBA.
She was 77 when she enrolled for an MBA in Hospital and Healthcare Management at Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth Centre for Online Learning in Pune. She appeared in the final semester exams a couple of weeks after she turned 80 in August this year.
“I feel I am on top of the world. In the beginning, I didn’t know if I would be able to complete the course. All the subjects were new to me. I had an M. Sc. in zoology. As a school teacher for decades, I taught biology. And here I was learning economics, statistics. It was difficult… challenging for me. But then, I love challenges,” she told My Kolkata from Lucknow. “Now when someone calls me an MBA, I love it.”
A two-time cancer survivor, she works as the CEO of the Lovee Shubh Hospital in Lucknow’s Gomtinagar.
Last year, Peter Fung, a Bay area retired neurologist graduated from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business executive MBA programme at the age of 76. Closer home in India, 84-year old Girish Mohan Gupta of Odisha’s Sambalpur, an atomic scientist and entrepreneur, bagged an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Sambalpur.
At the age of 19, just after completing her M.Sc. in zoology from Lucknow University, she found herself standing across the students in a classroom.
Teaching became her identity. Over the decades, she taught in India and in international schools in England and Yemen, before retiring from her teaching career in 2009.
Even after joining the hospital, she continued to be involved in administration and events, but found herself wanting to learn something new.
“In 2023, when I used to interview people who applied for jobs at our hospital, I would see MBAs everywhere. I thought, what is this MBA everyone is doing? I wanted to know for myself,” she recalls.
That curiosity turned into a challenge, and in April 2023, she enrolled in the online MBA programme.
The decision wasn’t easy. “I am not computer savvy,” she admits. “I hardly knew how to operate a computer. I bought a laptop, started learning, and managed the online classes.”
Her specialisation was in Hospital Administration and Health Services, a natural fit for her role. Despite the steep learning curve, Ray pushed through with unwavering determination.
A two-time cancer survivor, Ray works as the CEO of the Lovee Shubh Hospital in Lucknow’s Gomtinagar Sourced by My Kolkata
Her study routine was rigorous. She would return from work at around 4pm, spend her evenings studying, and often wake up at 3am to revise.
“Age was not in my favour. Memory was not in my favour,” she said. “I had to make so much effort, three, four, five, six times I had to write. But I managed, and I got around 80-82 per cent in the exams.”
There were no moments of doubt. “Never,” she said firmly. “Once I decide I have to do something, I don’t look back. I’ll fight each and every battle and I want to be a winner.”
Her resilience is not new. In 2003, while working in Yemen, she was diagnosed with stage-four chest cancer.
After eight months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she recovered. The disease returned during the second wave of COVID-19 in 2020, but she faced it again with courage.
“When you get any setback, you become stronger and cautious. I have become just like an iron lady,” she said. “If I can triumph over this disease, I can win any battle on this planet.”
Her story is not about degrees or titles, but about defying limits. At an age when most slow down, Usha Ray sped up.
Ray credits her strength to her family and colleagues, who encouraged her to pursue the MBA. “Everybody said, go ahead,” she said. “At this age, I was not going to lose anything. If I couldn’t have done it, it was fine. But I wanted to try.”
Her dedication soon earned her recognition. She was invited by the university to address a webinar. Recently, the university’s director, Safia Farooqui, even offered her the opportunity to pursue a PhD — an offer she politely declined.
“An MBA is enough,” she laughs. “I really feel proud of myself.”
Even as a CEO, she continues to mentor, guide, and motivate others. “Here also, I am teaching,” she said. “From patients to vendors, anybody has a problem — it is the same teaching, only the subject differs, the classroom has changed.”
Having completed her MBA, she now finds herself searching for new engagements. “I want to concentrate on reading books again,” she said. “I even suggested starting a nursing institute where I can train nurses for ANM and GNM tests. Teaching is in my blood, in any form.”
Every day, she believes, is a celebration. “Every day I am putting one feather in my cap,” she said. “Whatever I do, I do it with confidence. I enjoy doing what I do.”
An Amitabh Bachchan fan, she still watches Kaun Banega Crorepati — though sparingly — admiring Bachchan’s confidence and poise. “I have completed 80 and he is 83, so I have followed him all my life. His convincing power is so good,” she said.
Her advice to the youth is simple: “Do what interests you. There are so many distractions today, the key is focus. You can’t cross a river sitting in two boats at the same time.”