My Story

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost

My path has been anything but linear, where I’ve worn multiple different hats over the course of my journey. However, a common thread weaving through everything has been a thirst for knowledge, an unwavering commitment to what I’m doing, and striving for excellence.

My Journey

From classrooms to AI labs — the road less traveled

A timeline of discovery, growth, learning, experience, impact.

My Early Years

Growing up, I wanted to be an astrophysicist and imagined my days in an immaculate research lab. Excelling in academics and extracurriculars, I was frequently awarded Best All-Rounder at school. Watching the first Harry Potter movie in 2002 sparked a magic of Hogwarts and I felt the pull of a boarding school. I topped the entrance at Mayo College Ajmer and ranked second at The Doon School—my preferred choice. Scoring a perfect 100% in Math on Doon's entrance, even answering an eighth-grade problem as a sixth grader, instilled a belief: “I'm not good at math, I'm marvellous!”—a mindset I carried into analytics.

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The Doon School Days

Life away from home at The Doon School fostered resilience, independence, and a passion for diverse pursuits. I excelled in Squash, representing Uttarakhand at the National level for two consecutive years. My love for music blossomed as I independently learned Classical Guitar, and I even contributed to breaking a school record in the freestyle relay team. I was also the Junior House Chess Captain, and did a lot of trekking in nearby mountains. Those were the days, the formative years which gave me hobbies for life that I still indulge in, something that shaped my personality in indelible ways.

IIT Kharagpur Journey

After my 10th boards at Doon, I joined the IIT-JEE grind, and secured a seat at IIT Kharagpur with INSPIRE Scholarship. My first semester at IIT was rebellious one, as I prioritized all the cool things in campus - English Dramatics Club, Institute Squash and Swimming teams, Campus Newspaper, and a Western Music Band - while academics took a backseat. As a result, I didn’t perform well in the 1st semester and actually failed a course! With that, I buckled up by starting to becoming serious and even earned back the A grade in the retake! Lesson learned - getting back up matters more than never falling.

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What Post IIT?

Keeping with where everyone was going, I wrote the CAT in my final year, and to my surprise, I achieved a 99.8%ile (out of 0.2 million candidates) and received interview calls from IIMs in Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Lucknow for their flagship MBA programs. At the same time, I received a PhD offer from University of Minnesota (UMN) Twin Cities, USA on a full tuition fee waiver with stipend. It was always my dream to pursue research so I decided to pursue the PhD program instead of an MBA that I didn’t know or care much about at the time. Little did I know I would revisit the MBA dream again later.

The Pursuit of US Education

My advisor was Chinese-origin and a brilliant person. He pushed me into AI research from the start. I was part of Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, travelled to Sweden and Australia for my research and was a conference presenter at AGU conference in San Francisco. I had qualified as an international Graduate Teaching Assistant and led labs sessions for multiple subjects. Teaching such a diverse mix of students was refreshing and also challenging as it was my first teaching assignment ever – but I think I did a pretty good job of it. I found that I liked teaching, and others liked my teaching as well!

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Learning AI and Data Science

It was 2016. AI and Data Science were picking up across all domains. Recognizing that, I took multiple CS electives, and graduated with an MS degree from UMN, also earning a minor in Scientific Computing. To further skill up in AI, and qualify for AI jobs in USA under the OPT program, I enrolled in the one-year MS in Data Science and AI program at University of San Francisco with faculty including a former Kaggle Grandmaster. I worked as a Data Scientist at an adtech firm called Lawfty in their tech team at downtown San Francisco office, and wrote lengthy SQL and Python modules for exploratory analyses!

Working in AI

When Nissan opened its first Global Digital Hub, I joined as a Lead Data Scientist and spearheaded multiple AI projects across forecasting, computer vision and traditional machine learning areas. From working night shift at the manufacturing plant to collect training data, to travelling onsite to Japan GHQ and US HQ, I encountered firsthand how industry AI development included navigating messy datasets, experimenting empirically and communicating effectively with stakeholders. This was a seed planted to share my learnings from the industry as an instructor, things you don’t learn in academic settings.

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Revisiting the MBA Dream

I came to the revelation that a strong Data Science practitioner requires both strong business acumen and technical capabilities to shine. I applied for top MBA programs, got through IIM Calcutta’s flagship 2-year MBA program (belling the CAT again with same 99.8 percentile 5 years later!), but chose ISB’s MBA program instead which is top-ranked worldwide (FT Global 30). I loved the diversity of class, and appreciated how excellence outside of pure academics makes people excel in real-life scenarios and careers. I was also awarded Dean’s and Merit Lists for being within the Top 6% of graduating class.

The Start of AI Masterclasses

I had always been approached by students wanting to learn Data Science and AI in a simple, and crystal clear manner, and there was a clear gap in this space. My passion for teaching, ignited over years of learning and applying in industry, led to the launch of my online Masterclasses in 2022, which saw an overwhelming response. What started out as a personal passion project quickly expanded to something more, and I was approached by corporates and institutes alike for AI training programs. I gave multiple in-person and virtual trainings to large classes and teams, and spoke in leading AI/ML conferences.

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Why I Like Teaching

This is by far the most “frequently asked question” I get. To keep it simple, the "Ah! Now I get it" moment from a student remains my greatest reward. And I have also come to know that I have a natural knack to simplify things and explain it from scratch, just like how I would want someone else to explain it to me. As my story continues to unfold, I invite you to explore the world of Data Science and AI with me. Whether you're just curious or ready to embark on your own learning journey, I encourage you to explore the resources here and reach out with any questions. Thank you for taking the time to read my story!

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