High Level Points

• I like being self-reliant. And this leads to me doing things such as learning how to code because I did not want to rely on having an engineer to develop a product that I wanted to build a business on. Or rely on a marketer to do my SEO. And so on.
• I've spent 8 years in Singapore, 2nd to 9th standard. 3 years in the UK for my undergrad. 3 years in Qatar. And the rest spread between Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.
• I can go for long periods of time without any social interaction. I can be locked up in my study room for weeks and it would not affect me mentally.
• I prefer India to living abroad. India is home. No matter how much you try to assimilate yourself into the USA or London, you will always be a 2nd class citizen there.
• Ive trained myself to type fast. I average ~130wpm in 60s typing tests. My recorded maximum has been 148wpm. See rank no.4 here
• I took a 9 month break after my first job to learn how to code.
• Out of all Indian cities, I like Mumbai the most. There is something special about it.
• I don't drink tea or coffee.
• I dislike hot milk or just any drink that is hot. Even hearing someone offer me "a glass of hot milk" makes me physically cringe.
• I can read / write and speak fluent tamil
• I've improved on my Hindi to a point where I can understand the gist of what someone is saying. I speak very broken and bad hindi but usually can get my point across.
• I prefer written messages to calls for most things. It allows me time to think through things.
• I'm quite organized in general. Spreadsheets power several aspects of my life.
• As of Dec 2022, I've managed to be very low on sugar (i.e. avoiding desserts) for close to 2 years now.
• I prefer balanced diets consisting of 3-5 smaller meals a day (slightly heavier on protein though) to the more hardcore diets like OMAD or Keto.
• I tend to get seasickness. Though it's gotten slightly better over the years.
• I like living frugally and keeping my personal cash burn low. It gives me mental peace knowing that if everything were to come crashing down on me hypothetically speaking, I could go into cockroach mode and survive any winter.

Growing Up (Ages 0 - 15)

• I was in Qatar once upon a time with my family. Too young to remember much.
• I spent 8 years (2nd std -> 9th std) in Singapore. I'm glad I was exposed to the Singaporean education system.
• As a child, I used to never belong to a "group". I was a floater. You'd have found me sitting alone in lunch tables.
• I was pretty good with studies until 6th standard. Thing went downhill after 7th when we moved to a different secondary school.
• I never had good relationships with any of my teachers after 7th standard. They always started by liking me. But because of my general disinterest towards studies I'd quickly become amongst their least favorite students.
• Final Fantasy 8 and X and X-2 were some of my favourite games growing up. To date I play soundtracks from these video games while I'm working.
• Growing up, I've been bullied probably 3-4 times. Nothing I'd consider to be major or scarring. But I do remember the incidents vividly.
• My first brush with editing websites was Neopets. Where the site taught us how to edit our profile page by modifying the HTML/CSS. I took my Neopets profile page very seriously. It looked good.
• My dad pushed my brother and I to get interested in computers and the web early on. He signed me up for Dreamweaver / HTML / Photoshop physical classes when I was in 6th standard. The others in the class were age 18+.
• At some point I was addicted to playing MMORPGs (Runescape, Diablo 2, Maplestory, Silkroad, Gunbound and others). Where I'd spend every walking hour on it. And used to get into nasty fights with my elder brother (who was tasked by my parents with blocking access to my games) and my parents over it.
• I snapped out of my online gaming addiction around 10th - when my parents unceremoniously took me out of my Singaporean school and sent me to boarding school in India because I was flunking exams.

Late Teens (Ages 15-21)

• I got into guitar playing around 10th. I used to practice for 4-6 hours a day.
• My brother gifted me a Taylor 310ce. It was one of my most prized possessions. Which I sold several years later because I found it frustrating to say no to people who'd ask to borrow it. Cause  I didn't like it leaving my sight.
• At some point during college, I was quite convinced I was going to get into the Music Industry as a music director.
• I've taught English to Korean Kids. These were children of well to do Korean Manufacturing Executives who were setting up an Indian manufacturing arm. They pay was good for a 21 year old. Something like 10k/month for 3-4 hours of work a week. But I quit abruptly because my mother found out and made a scene about her son turning into an english tuition teacher.
• After graduating from college, I was pretty aimless in life. I spent a couple weeks roaming around Varanasi being a total hippie.
• CouponDunia was the first job I applied to and got in. A great decision in hindsight.

Beginning Adulthood (Ages 22-Present)

• Realized that I'm a generalist. I like to be decent at a lot of different things. But not an expert in any one field.
• Spent roughly a year in 2017/18 crashing at a friend's house in Mumbai to save on rent. I wanted to keep my cash burn rate low
• Started a company at age ~25 with my co-founder Sameer Parwani. The company continues to be my main priority for the foreseeable future.