What I Learned from Living in India

"Is your parents in the army?" When I revealed the number of homes I lived and the school where I changed, I often asked this question. My answer was welcomed by surprise and confusion when I answered that my family liked to move. I am small so I always think that change is good, change is very entertaining, and needs to change. Finding a new place called Home is seen as part of the change, I welcome it and accept that existence in my life. For me, relocation behavior became very exciting; new home, new school, new neighbor, and new friends.

I grew up in a middle-class family in India. When living with parents, parents took care of them, so you do not have to worry about money. At that time, the middle class of India had to save money, but we never felt shortage. After graduating from college, I got a job with a high salary. If I continue this work, I will never experience the feeling of living in a limited way. After studying at the graduate school for 4 years, my bank account did not exceed three figures. Some of the restrictions were made because I paid the installment payment of the home mortgage of my parents purchased in India several years ago and then managed my own costs with the remaining allowance.

Growing in India means learning to survive in intense competition. Everyone, regardless of school, university, workplace, competes for the top seats only. It forced me to work hard in order to put my foot inside the door. For example, I entered Shri Ram Business School, the most excellent business school in India with an enrollment rate of 1%. I am an educated economist. I worked with the initial mobile payment and bank startup Eko without a branch and the UNICEF innovation team in New York. In the Master's program at Indian Business School, in collaboration with Khosla Impact Fund led by Vinod Khosla, we had the opportunity to explore the startup world from the investor's point of view.

This learning occurred when I noticed that the year of the bridge was not a trip to India but lived in India. I do not do wild things here every day, I live here. I am studying at a public school everyday and teach math, English, and music to the eighth grade. I cook with my mother's mother and I do it several times a day. I learned Hindi language (dheerese Hindi sikhrahi hun) slowly and practicing with a child at a rickshaw driver and a school building.