My toddler years were spent tugging at the strings of my elder sister’s tennis racquet at our home in the city of Bangalore, also known as Silicon Valley of India. Little did I know then that tennis would become an integral part of my life.

I was enrolled at my sister’s tennis academy at the age of 6. What started as a daily 2 hour session of pure fun soon became 5 to 6 hours of intense daily tennis practice split between morning sessions before school and evening sessions after school. The intensity of daily tennis practice inculcated in me a sense of discipline and allowed me to understand my capacity for hard work.

I started participating in tennis tournaments at the age of 8 which opened a new chapter in my life. It exposed me to greater challenges that tested my physical endurance as well as my emotions. It gave me an opportunity to understand the virtues of patience, humility and honesty by trial and error.

In the past 12 years of playing tennis, I have learnt that tennis, much like life, is an entrepreneurial journey with no guarantees. It has taught me that enjoying the journey is more important than reaching the destination for only undertaking the journey is in our hands and that, if we do the right things in this journey, the desired results will follow. It has instilled in me a never-say-die spirit as tomorrow is another day. I believe that my learnings in tennis are transferable to other endeavours of my life such as studies and work. I believe I have done well in academics scoring 89%, 95% and 79% in 12th, 11th and 10th Grade respectively.

I believe character and culture have had the most impact on my life. Tennis, which I started playing when I turned 6, proved time and again that the strength of the character that I could deploy in a match on any given day put me on the path of a favourable outcome every point that I played eventually leading to victory in the match. In all the matches that I won or lost narrowly, the strength of character that I displayed were patience, never-say-die attitude and focus on the journey which were under my control rather than on the result. Like in tennis, strength of character is very important in life. A culture of healthy competition in tennis has helped me to try to be the best I can be as well fairness in whatever I do. I have also tried to help fellow players in my Academy in tennis and fellow students in my school in studies.

I have been a “gadgets” person since my toddler age. When I was in 6th grade, my dad took me to a Microsoft reseller shop for a workshop on visual programming for kids and I won a prize for learning and completing the programming tasks.

Being a tennis player, I know that every tennis shot has an algorithm that needs flawless execution to achieve the desired outcome.

Recent advances in technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning make me believe that, in today’s world, what all can be imagined can all be implemented. I want to experience and contribute to these technologies by gaining expertise in Computer Science.

I have scored 90% in my Information Technology 10th grade examination and this makes me want to do and achieve more in this field.

I did a project on the business of vegetable vendors when I was in 6th grade. I took the help of my mother to come up with the survey questions and did the survey by meeting vendors doing vegetable selling business in my locality. This helped me understand the challenges faced by small businesses. Utube videos of experiences of how some enterprising people have made millions by implementing their unique ideas in this internet world have given me some insights into entrepreneurship.

I enthusiastically participated in school cultural events before I got into playing serious tennis. In my apartment, I used to lend my racquets and teach tennis to other kids.