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Coming from Rajasthan with a middle-class family background, the values of honesty and hard work were imbibed in me since childhood which helped me in aiming big and achieving more.
Currently, I am pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Management from MDI Gurgaon with Marketing and Operations as my specialisations. I recently concluded with my exchange semester at University of Szeged, Hungary. It was an experience in itself as it was all about honing my cultural fits, learning in a different educational setup, travelling and yet being adaptable. Last summers, as a part of the curriculum, I interned with Michelin and worked upon a new business model for a driver aggregator model for commercial vehicle industry and was awarded a PPO for the same.
I graduated from BITS Pilani in 2013 with a dual degree in M.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics and B.E. (Hons.) Manufacturing Engineering. The five years at Pilani had certainly set the benchmarks for my life ahead. I kicked off my professional career with Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. where I was taken in as a Graduate Engineer Trainee. Since I like to take risks and explore new things, with a strong operations background, I worked under dealer development and network expansion section in the sales and marketing operation for around 2 years. As a key achievement, our team inaugurated a total of 489 locations Pan India and it was the highest ever growth numbers at HMSI. For me, the entire experience was an eclectic mix of team dynamics, leadership, time management, innovation, branding & exposure to competitive work conditions.
I believe life is too short for regrets. So keep trying till the end and if you fail in it; learn, rise and keep moving on. As an individual, I like to try new things and learn as much as I can from experiences. In the two years that I have spent in MDI, I have very actively participated in case-study and leadership competitions floated by various companies and as well as B-schools.
Being awarded the ‘Crisil Young Thought Leader Award 2015’ is something that I am really proud of and I was also awarded a PPI for the same. I have won over 13+ competitions including the Campus Winner for RPG Blizzard Case Competition and have been the National Finalist for Snapdeal-Xolo ‘Marketer of the Year’. I feel that doing this was probably the best way to implement and learn what we induced in classes.
Over my tenure at MDI Gurgaon and BITS Pilani, I have had held various positions of responsibilities and have been an active member of various clubs and committees thereby helping me in exploring my leadership and team dynamics skills. Apart from academics and career focussed plans, I have been very active towards developing myself personally. My inclination towards social services developed during the graduation days and I have pursued this passion by working with NGO’s over the time. I take an active interest in cooking, travelling and photography. Whenever I can squeeze out time, I travel. I have travelled 21 states in India and my recent exchange programme allowed me to cover 13 countries in three months. Currently, I am working with a National Geographic Channel‘s team for a travel expedition documentary in India. Apart from this, my entrepreneurial spirit resulted in the foundation of a HAM Radio Club and Manufacturing Engineering Association at the BITS Pilani. All in all, it resulted into certain transformations which I carried thereon.
From June'17, I will be working with Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL) as a Business Management Trainee. Again, a new sector and new hopes.
With a rich experience behind my back and the positivity to cease any opportunity that comes my way, I am living my life one experience at a time and capturing these moments through my lens.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="669"]Give us an instance when you failed miserably and how did you overcome that downfall?
I would like to quote one instance from my graduation days at BITS Pilani. Back in the second year, I was quite interested in the way start-ups work and was inspired by few successful ventures of our alums. Being a fan of electronics at that time, I was constantly in touch with my seniors and met two of them who were working on HAM radios. After spending some time on the working and make of HAM radios, we three decided to launch a 'HAM Radio Club' on our campus. Having the support of our faculties, in November 2009, we started a new club in the college, which also became the second campus in India to start this club after IIT Kanpur. A lot of work was done to the increase in visibility of the club and managing this with regular studies was a task. Next year, we recruited 10 students to the team and there was a decent response to our activities and awareness sessions in the college.
We had planned to get funding from the college for a HAM radio but it got delayed. Consequently, this translated into many students leaving the club as managing studies with the work required was tough. By June 2011, we were left with only three students in the club including me. The seniors had also graduated while the club had received negligence from each end. We had to shut down the club as no student wanted to join us, no sponsor agreed to fund us and even faculties were disinterested in guiding us. The club remained closed for 10 months. The entire founding team was in despair for not managing the club well but it was during this time that we decided to have regular brain storming sessions.
The turnaround happened in 2012 when I started visiting faculties and fortunately got one faculty mentor. With his help, we re-initiated the process for funding of the equipment needed. There were several presentations which the board insisted on before allocating the amount which was close to Rs 1.5 crores.
After a month, the institute granted us the fund and the team started with renewed energy. We contacted the Ministry of Telecom for conducting exams for Ham Radio Licenses in Pilani and they agreed for the same. The next step was publicity of the club which we did extensively by giving live demos of the equipment and by conducting awareness sessions. We also conducted an event during the technical fest which received the highest participation during the entire fest. We opened applications for the team and received over 500 applications for just 20 seats in the club. We conducted the licence exam and over 200 students wrote including 16 faculties too.
This instance is very close to my heart, as having tasted failure once it was something which I built from the scratch. Today, I feel immense pride as I see the club running successfully even 4 years after my graduation.
This experience was indeed unique and enriching in many ways as I gained team building, time management and most importantly leadership skills by handling the club, making new strategies and negotiating for funds.
The legacy remains as I see my start-up dreams being realised by my juniors at BITS.
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What is the biggest risk that you have taken so far and why?
I would like to share one instance from my summer internship at Michelin last summer where I was working on making an aggregator model for truck drivers in the commercial vehicle industry. As part of the business model, I had to understand the psychology of drivers, what problems they faced and how their life goes while on the road. So, for that, I decided to have a road trip from Gurgaon to Ahmedabad on trucks, experiencing first-hand life of drivers. This decision was negated by my mentor at Michelin and family too as there were obvious risks involved in travelling on trucks from a security point of view. My mentor consequently cancelled my travel plans to insist on this. As an individual who loves challenges and believes in facing odd situations in life with courage, I decided to go ahead with my plans.
I felt that no other experience could help me in my research better which was later proved right. I could really see what problems they face and how society ignores them. My research really benefited to what Michelin's b-plan needed and I got a special appreciation for the same.
I did make some friends on the way as shown in the pictures attached.
All in all this stint motivated me to take more such risks in life and change my perceptions, not only did I gain experience but it also brought in me more sensitivity towards all sections of the society.
If you had a magic wand, what is the one problem in India that you would magically wish away? Explain why.
India is the world’s largest democracy and yet it is often seen that vote banks motivated by political gains are persistent in the system. If I had a magic wand, I would have changed the political mind sets working for gains by wooing regional voters on the basis of caste, religion and region.
The recent example is of Shivaji's statue in Mumbai which comes after a decision to construct Sardar Patel's Statue of Unity in Gujarat. The respective estimated costs of construction are Rs. 3600 Cr. and Rs 2989 Cr. which otherwise could have been used for a lot of developmental purposes.
It brings me enough disappointment to see that when the states are already debt-ridden, how can they think of spending so much on these secondary issues?
The same governments are yet to pay to those debt ridden farmers who are on the verge of committing suicides. The Maharashtra govt. is yet to pay Rs.1000 crore to drought hit farmers in order to cover their losses while the state saw 3228 farmer suicides in 2015 because of their increasing debts. India still lacks access to education and employment and these investments can be done there to bring better outputs. Municipality schools could be run efficiently with such huge amounts, healthcare infra could be improved and Mumbai’s drainage issue during floods can also be solved.
This amount could also have helped in the restoration of 300 medieval forts in Maharashtra and boosted the tourism sector while it could have also been used to repair all of its roads connecting the cities to the rural areas.
Would Sardar Patel or Shivaji ever approve of this special and expensive extravaganza while the nation is in dire need of help?
Do we need their values or statues?
Have government lost their priorities?
As I sit and reflect, I feel that not a magic wand but a mere change in mind-set can bring about the much-needed effects.
After all, a government is a reflection of the society it governs.
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