Growing up in a small coastal town, sitting quietly at the back of the room was never really an option for me. In class 8 that meant becoming a platoon commander, and in class 9, house head. The final year of my bachelors came with the design lead role, and the first year of my masters with class representative. None of it was planned. Someone had to take charge, and it usually ended up being me.

Hackathons taught me how to speak. My team would build something and the explaining was left to me, and after enough of those, plus enough speeches at college events, standing in front of a room stopped being difficult. Teaching is the better part though. Much of my time in the club went into guiding juniors, and that is still what feels most worth doing.

Outside of design, things are fairly ordinary. Cricket takes up a good share of it, mostly for Virat Kohli, and a Bollywood film already seen twice can still fill an evening.