Writing Profile

I write two online newsletters—about a post a month—one focused on fiction and another on technology’s societal impacts, with a focus on AI. I also mentor intermediate-level fiction writers through the Ink and Quill Collective in India.

Unique Experiences

20 years spent living on the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Bombay campus, surrounded by pristine nature, people who loved the good things in Indian culture and professionals working in advanced technology labs, fostered a unique environment for creative thinking. I had earlier(1999-2002) worked in the US at Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center on wireless tech, MIT Media Lab on 3D printing tech, and the AI Center at the University of Georgia on natural language processing, machine learning and genetic algorithms.

I began my return from Atlanta to India living in a tiny village in India for work. The six months (2002) at Vigyan Ashram, a school for dropouts, I spent teaching 3D printing, doing research and writing grant proposals turned out to be a turning point (more about it later). Inspired by the life led by my sponsors in Mumbai, I declined a fully paid admission into a computer-science PhD in the US . Instead I led (2003-2013) a tech-based, for-profit social venture (business in the CSR sector) that provided communications software to over 1 million farmers, connecting Agri-institutions (esp. farmer outreach centers) across the country requiring lots of rural travel working for IIT and the social venture (Agrocom).

At Jio (2013-), I have spent a decade contributing to competitive app development and technical innovations, with several projects either showed at Reliance AGM (Annual General Meeting) or made revenue (contributing 1/5th of total revenue of one e-commerce vertical), providing offerings to the 100s of million users using Jio Apps.

This Work

Throne in Exile is a novella I began writing in 2020, inspired by my deep dive into the Ramayana and its retellings. After four years of development, I released a 90-minute audiobook series to a global audience of creative professionals in September 2024.

Memorable Experiences

One of my most memorable experiences was living six months in Pabal, a small village in Maharashtra, and 20 years at IIT Bombay where I learned invaluable lessons about simplicity and community, which influenced the themes in Throne in Exile.