0 - Born
3 - Featured in news for speaking 3 languages and reading words/numbers apparently
7 - Parents separated. Started living with maternal grandparents.
12 - Moved in with mother and her boyfriend. Got physically and sexually abused by that man.
17 - Scored AIR 674 at IIT JEE. Got Computer Science at IIT KGP.
19 - Won national hackathons. Internship at Microsoft; scored full time offer.
21 - Published multiple papers in Cryptography and NLP. Best paper award in IEEE ASONAM.
22 - Started doing weed, childhood traumas resurfaced. Had a pyschosis episode. Joined fulltime at Microsoft.
24 - Admitted into a rehab; shared about childhood trauma with parents. They were like “shit happens” and wanted me to STFU about it to avoid being shamed. Started chainsmoking.
25 - Quit Microsoft. Joined IIT KGP for PhD, continued my thesis research.
26 (golden year) - Homeless as family abandoned me due to more depression episodes. Two suicide attempts. “RECEIVED” a cold email to co-found a startup. Joined her, dropped out from PhD, worked on Conversational AI for Indian languages. Fell in love with my co-founder. Quit smoking. Got married. Moved to US.
27 - Re-birth in NYC. Paused startup and enrolled at Columbia.
28 - Graduated from Columbia. Joined SkyLink (YC W22) as Founding ML Engineer.
30 - Quit SkyLink to resume our startup; got O-1A extraordinary visa.
My secret: Optimism in darkest moments.
Love is all you need!
0 - Born
4 - Wanted to be a street beggar because I thought they were chilling
4 - Got an ass whooping for wanting to be a beggar
15 - Wanted to become a lawyer
15 - Got an ass whooping for wanting to be a lawyer
17 - Failed to get a JEE rank
20 - Became a lecturer in a tier 4 engineering college
21 - Got into IIT Bombay for masters and dealt with depression for 2 years
24 - Got into Kyoto university for PhD and dealt with depression and suicidal ideation for 3 years
28 - Graduated with a PhD and joined a Japanese government funded lab
32 - Joined AI4BHARAT
34 - Became adjunct faculty at IITM and IITB
36 - Got into Google
My secret: I showed up everyday regardless of the challenge.
Always show up!