temple state of india

but i was raised in 5 cities (madurai, tindivanam, pondicherry, calcutta, karaikudi) and lived in 11 cities (jaipur, hyderabad, chennai, plainville, wichita, sunnyvale, milpitas, bellevue, sammamish, saratoga, cupertino), spanning across 9 states (TN / WB / RJ / AP ; VA / CT / KS / CA / WA) and 2 countries.

over 40 years i have had many experiences, that shaped me to who am i today. but i will share few critical ones ...

failures are a very important lesson to learn from. i have had few failures, along my journey. i failed,
1. in my competitive exams (to my bar)
2. landing the perfect research assistantship
3. to pursue my passion
4. failed in developing people
5. on ... on .. on

but the important lesson, i learned is that you should not get sucked into it. if you do, negativity will be all around you and thats pretty bad

life is a journey, if its just all about success then its no fun. it has to come with success and failure, so be ready for it. i will close my talk, with one specific story ...

i was one of the best high school student, back in India. i use to score 100% all the time, in my math and 98 percentile in other STEM subjects. all my teachers were so proud and cannot think of me failing. now comes the ups / downs. i go into my final exams, with high confidence and come out as the best scoring student. but i was on kool-aid for too long and i failed to recognize it, thus failing my entrance exam. if i had scored as good as the final exam, i would have landed in one of the best universities in my home state. rather, i had to go 1000 of miles to another good university in a different state / town.

overall, it turned out good. the new environment made me a rounded person, but i learned a valuable lesson that enjoy the success but stay humble to grow and never disbelief in yourself.

you need both failure and success to shape your life, drinking too much of success kool-aid is not good. i have had that experience as well ...
1. scoring highest, in high school
2. first person, landing first job, in college
3. being called the nerd, by bunch of n00b
4. paying for my own tuition, when others struggle
5. people find me, by themselves, for new work

If you believe in yourself, you can succeed. I wan to leave you with this quote, that I have been carrying with me for the past 25 years. I have doubted myself many times, but every time this kept me grounded.