My goal in life has always been to collect experiences. When I first learned about Jagriti Yatra, it was an experience that I knew I could not miss. It is an 8000 km train journey across India's tier-3 cities that requires the participants to eat, sleep and live in a moving train for 15 days in the bitter December winters of North India. It was something way out of my comfort zone but also excited me a lot. I applied for the Yatra and was one of the 450 people selected for it out of around 10,000 applicants. I had the opportunity to meet and travel with amazing people making enormous contributions on various social fronts. I also met and learned a lot from the journeys of grassroots entrepreneurs and change-makers like Anshu Gupta, founder of Goonj, and Bunker Roy, who founded Barefoot college. It was a life-changing experience, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Life truly begins at the end of our comfort zones!
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
I did my under-graduation in computer science and engineering from a tier-3 college in Chennai. Though I am eternally grateful to the institution for all that it has given me, I was also aware that the job opportunities offered were comparatively lesser. Through an off-campus drive, I got into HSBC, one of the worlds leading banks, and loved my job. The package was also 4x the average package offered in my college. So, I decided to help my juniors with what was required to crack interviews at large companies in the open market. I conducted two free workshops on the technologies to be aware of, how to prepare ones resume, and how to use the time during college to improve ones profile and knowledge. I believe that this will pass on from one batch to the other and will benefit many students.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
During the release of a project at work, I faced escalation on a few critical issues. A senior team member who had been working on these aspects was on urgent personal leave. On contact, he asked me to delay until he is back by saying that there was no issue from our side. My options were to accept that I was unaware of the problem and ask for time to fix it or do as my senior had said. The latter was ethically wrong from my perspective, but since he was my senior and had given me instructions, I was confused on how to disagree with him. In the meeting, I decided to go ahead and do what I believed was the right decision. I took the details from the business team and asked them for time till the end of the day to check things from my side. I spent the entire day in the office till around 10 PM to understand the code and spotted the issue. I did a quick fix for the same and emailed the business team asking for time to build a permanent and stable solution. I believe that, given a choice, it is always better to do what is ethically right even if others disagree. Last-minute stitches or cover-ups wont put up for long and will end up amplifying the issue.
What is the one thing you can claim to have some level of expertise or depth of knowledge in - it could be anything - a subject, a sport, a hobby, a venture, an initiative which has led you to do deep work in that field?
I believe that my strength lies in technology. I had limited hands-on experience during my under-graduation, but I explored as many avenues as possible to improve my technical knowledge in computer science. This led to me co-authoring a book on cloud computing during my final year and presenting white papers at two national conferences. My three years of software development experience furthered my belief in how technology can be leveraged to make everyday activities and experiences more accessible and better. Around this time, I, along with my team, won a national hackathon on the theme of Smart Cities, where we built a healthcare solution. At IIM C, I worked on a live project with the RightWalk foundation to improve the Indian governments NAPS portal, bridging learning and employment. With my experience and a mindset to continuously learn, I can plant seeds of change using technology. I aspire to join a Product Management role post-MBA and bring ideas to life that will make everyday life easier.
If 10 Million Dollars (approximately INR 75 Crores) is given to you to use it any way you deem fit what would you do with this corpus?
I would use the money as follows: $1 Million spend for my family. To close loans and help them with whatever they need.$5 Million investment in education, a cause that I am passionate about. I would contribute to the NGOs currently working in this space and start one on my own as well.$2 Million investment in stocks and mutual funds.$1 Million Deposit in the bank for emergency needs in the future.$1 Million spend it on immediate experiences in travelling across the globe.
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