#8 Ananya Appan

Hi, welcome to another episode of hashingtooppeople.h. This week, Divyanshi and I got to talk to Ananya Appan, fourth year IM Tech student at TripLity Bangalore. She has an impeccable academic record, but doesn't compromise on her co-curricular activities as she believes that those led her to being who she is. We also got to talk a lot about TripLity Bangalore, the responsibilities of SAAC, and how it gives opportunities for each and everyone to shine in our own way. So I won't bore you anymore. Let's hit the recording. Hi Ananya, thank you for joining us today. Hello, thank you so much for the opportunity. Pleasure is ours. So before we start, just could you give your introduction, like how would you introduce yourself towards a new person in like three or four lines maybe? I am a really shy person, but I still like to meet new people. And I'm an anime lover, and I also like reading books a lot, and I also like dancing. And I'm actually quite studious, and when it comes to studies, I like to understand things in depth, and I like things which are more related to logic, and I'm really bad at mugging up and stuff like that. I guess that's about it. Okay, right, right. So yeah, just going about your academics, I just wanted to understand how your life was before TripLity Bangalore, and why you chose TripLity Bangalore in the first place? Yeah, before TripLity Bangalore, like I went to DPS until 10th standard, and it was actually really nice. I know there's a lot of, you know, there's a stereotype about people who come from DPS, and every time I tell them from DPS, people are like, are you from DPS really? And I'll be like, yeah, I am. But it's really nice, because apart from only studies, we focus on a lot of things over there. There's like, man, the bass, and singing, and there's lots of cultural fests and everything. Which DPS were you part of? Bangalore, like there's three DPS's in Bangalore, and I was part of Bangalore North. Okay. Because I was also a DPS alumnus. That's nice. Yeah, so after DPS, I joined Deeksha, and that's like, it's not exactly a coaching centre, you have both PU as well as preparation for GE Advanced and Mainz over there. And yeah, it was a really nice place because there was no pressure. It wasn't like we had to stay until late, maybe seven or eight. I didn't stay in a hostel at home, and we used to commute by bus, and I used to come back I think by around four. And the professors also would really go over there, and it was really nice. I enjoyed learning, and I actually enjoyed my 11th and 12th to learn. So yeah. Your scores show like, why you learn, like learning, all I mean, your NTSC, KVPY, Scholar and also 12th in Karnataka boards. Yeah, so exactly my question, same question I wanted to ask. So like, most of us like, mine, the only achievement yet is cracking IIT. And nothing before, even my 12th percentage is very, not bad, okay, 80 above all I think. So we all says 80, Scholar, KVPY, Scholar and this is the second rank. I'm so confused, I don't even know how I got the scholarship, so just like, I was like as confused and as surprised as we're getting it as anyone else I think. Was there any goal associated to all of it, like when you're like, beyond, beyond cracking for NTSC, actually, I didn't even go for any coaching till I didn't go for any special coaching. But I always wanted to crack NTSC because my brother was a Fiji and I was like, I didn't go to Fiji or anything like that. And I thought, okay, without going, I want to try doing this. So my friend was also going and she gave me some of her materials, so I went through that and then I just went and actually NTSC, I only cracked the state level. And I think I just cracked, like they chose the top 25 students and I was like 24th or something. So yeah, I just somehow managed to scrape through a nationals, I didn't get it. So NTSC, I don't know how it happened, KVPY, actually, KVPY, I wanted to crack it really bad because I wanted to get into IISC and my dad is actually an alumnus of IISC and he keeps, he's been telling stories about IISC, how his hostile life over there and there's a gym con over there and the food in the canteen is so good and all the profs over there. So I was like, okay, I really want to get in now and it's close to my house. It's just like 20, 30 minutes from my house. So I thought that getting into IISC through KVPY would be my best shot. So even in Deeksha, they didn't give any special coaching for it, but then I looked at like previous question papers and all and I just tried and I, because I looked at the previous papers, I knew which sections would be harder than the other. So I had like a game plan when I went there. And yeah, I actually enjoyed doing my KVPY exam was really nice and yeah, I just somehow got it. Yeah, what happened with my KVPY was I scored perfect in biology and I flung them maths. I used to love biology and I don't know why I ended up choosing PCM, but it just so happened. And I mean, my biology teacher from 10th was really proud that I got like full in bio, but then I flunged in maths like really bad. Yeah, I think the math path is really hard. Yeah. Okay. So like seeing your co-curriculars also, were you that active in school with the co-curriculars as well, like dancing and when did you pick dancing as a hobby? Yeah, in school actually, not dancing, but then I used to draw like there used to be these bulletin boards outside each classroom and each classroom used to have a competition like whoever makes the best bulletin board. So for that, we had to like make a lot of charts and also every month we would be given a certain topic and we'll have to like decorate those boards with things from that topic. So for that, yeah, I used to draw a lot. And I think that my best friend, actually she was really interested in drawing. So because of her, I also got interested in drawing, so I used to draw. And when I was in fourth grade or something, I was part of like athletics, but that's only in fourth grade. So we went for some inter-school competitions and all, but dance, I didn't do as part of school dance. My mom had joined me in dance class because she was like, she wanted to go to dance class when she was small and her mom never let her. So she's like, I want to make you join dance class without even telling me. Okay. So there is like a dance form, but in particular, yeah, Bharat Natia. Okay. Yeah, Bharat Natia. So in second standard, I think she heard from a friend of hers that there's this really good Bharat Natia dance class and it's in Maleshwaram, which is like around the whereabouts of IISC only. So she's like, okay, I'm joining you there. So on Vijay, that's me, which is like the day when you usually start learning new things. We went to the dance class and I was so clueless. I was like, mommy, I don't want to go, but she's like, just come with me. And actually the dance class was really nice. They just taught us one step over there. And they have this thing, which is like a Natto Angam where they put beats and all. And I actually liked the atmosphere and everything a lot. And they were like, we have people who we call Akkas who help us, who are kind of like our teachers and they were helping me throughout, like correcting my posture and my hands and everything. So I actually ended up liking it and I continued. How long did you learn Natto for? I learned till my 10th standard. So for eight years, actually now that because of Corona and everything, they started online classes. The same dance class. When did you start? In second class. Oh yeah. I started in second grade. Actually it's pretty good. Having one sport and hobby is so difficult. Yeah. And I'm so happy actually that my mom forced me. Yeah. So just going back to TripLity Bangalore, I just wanted to just know your perspective on joining TripLity Bangalore. What are your aspirations and how did you find it so far? When I joined, I didn't even have any idea or preconceptions about what it's going to be like. I didn't think about it much about it. So I just joined. And then I realized it's only nine girls in class and I was like, whoa, this is the first time this is happening to me because even in Deeksha, we had like some 20, I think girls in class. So it was never like so few. And then, but then they were all really nice and we got along really well on the first day itself. I think most of us. And yeah, actually the first time I came, many people assumed that I knew Telugu already and they started talking to me in Telugu. I was like, no, I don't know Telugu. Yeah. I mean, even if you look at our college, so even before your batch, there was no Karnataka population, I believe like it was either Tamilians or Telugu people in the from the South Indians, especially even, even with my batch, I think there are three, four of them. So there, so if the South Indians are coming, then it's if they assume it's either Telugu or Tamil. Also, the girl boy ratio in your batch is pretty good. Like, yeah, now it seems pretty good. The I-20 batch, I don't know, seven girls and nine girls. Nine girls. One. One. What's up? It is bad. I'm so surprised. Like, I'm super serious. I think it was almost like one is to one or something, no? No, no. Our super seniors, one is to one, then it was 11 is to 60 or something and then it started falling. I think after like the girl reservation came and IITs and all it's been going down. Yeah. Yeah. So after that, it was, I think my first class, I don't remember my first class, and I think but then classes in college in general were like totally different from those in school or in like the Iksha because the way they teach itself, it's not like, it's not spoon feeding or anything. It's not like, okay, these are the problems or these are the notes you have to copy down. So I think it was the first time that I was learning and we don't have like a proper textbook or anything which you follow or like these are the questions you have to do. So in that way, it was a kind of transition, which it was quite nice and actually, especially I think the great thing over here is about exams that you don't actually have to mug up anything to do the exams and it's just all about understanding. So that is one good thing. And another really enjoyable thing about learning to play DB is the fact that you're in college and hostel and every time before an exam, all of us, like all the girls sit together and we study together and everyone has like new insights and new things to contribute and new perspectives. And I think it's the first time I figured out how nice a group study can actually be. So yeah, these are the new things I learned. So yeah, just going back to this. So was Trip LIT Bangalore being in Bangalore, one of the factors you chose because you're from Bangalore? Yeah, yeah, it was because I stay in Bangalore any emergencies that I can just come home in. Especially the first year used to come home and like almost all weekends and all my friends are like, why do you keep going home? Yeah. So just picking up on your academics. So even within college, what I generally notice is, you know, after the first sem, it generally dips because, you know, in the first sem, you get grades very easily and then, you know, in second sem, you'll be like, yeah, you can manage. And then some people slack off. And then I think the second semester, I think is the one which goes a little bit lower. And then it picks up, I think, from third semester or fourth semester, at least that was the case with most of my batch mates. But your seems to be consistently growing. Was it like, what was the intrinsic motivation to like have that same consistency throughout the course? No, I didn't even have any motivation for my CGPA or anything like that. But I think I enjoyed the courses in second sem much more than first sem. Because first sem, I knew I had already done C++ and Python earlier, so I knew that already. And maybe because of that, maybe because of that, I didn't put as much effort into learning it. That could be a reason. And then the second sem, you have all these courses like DSA and DD. I don't know. I just remember the courses. But then all those courses were so good and so interesting. So I think maybe because of that, and maybe because of the difficulty of the course itself, I did better. And I actually think that of late, my grades have been a bit better because of maybe electives and the fact that it's online, it's easier to score as in there's no exams or anything. So maybe that's why it picked up later. I did not have any goal to score better than I think it just happened. Right. I mean, that should be the aim of the students, I believe. Yeah. So what are you currently doing in terms of courses and career path? Currently, I am actually still very confused, but I am mainly into two things. One is vision, which is like AIML or DL, deep learning kind of things on vision, which is images. And that's one track. And I've been doing that a lot of late and we're doing a PE also under that. So me, Swasti and Lalita and two more people from my class, George and Sanjay, we're focusing on something which is called image de-blurring. So it's like you're given a blurred image and you have to de-blur it and give a sharp image. And sometimes when you click photos and all, it comes blurry. But then the model works and it brings a nice image out. So that's one problem which we're working on right now. As of late, I started getting interested in crypto and MPC and also I've taken computing on private data as a course and it's really nice because you'll have to think of different scenarios where the adversity can attack. And yeah, so it's nice to think of different scenarios. And there's a lot of logic and a lot of thinking which is involved in that. So I actually liked that also a lot. So these two things. Yeah. For me, I think one really interesting thing for me is when the kind of HSS courses people take up because it's very interesting because there are a lot of options and you can only choose one. And I happen to share two of the HSS courses with you. So I just wanted to pick your brains on the HSS courses, how it helped or maybe what interested you. For me, digital platforms is the one which we shared, right? And I chose all the other courses and that was the, that and H, no, not H-O, I don't remember the other one. That was one which was like free for me in the timetable, so that's one reason I took it up. And also my dad and Ramesh were like colleagues in I think Germany in Siemens or something. And because my dad already knew Ramesh said I was a little bit curious to get to know him as well. So I took his course. And actually it was really enjoyable. I'm so happy that I took that course. I think I would have enjoyed it. The thing about that course specifically is that you might think, you know, I mean, it's about platforms which are around us and, you know, you might think that you know everything in general. You know, it's a very generalistic course per se. But by the end of it, I realized how much, how much it's changed my thought process and how I approach a lot of news which happens and a lot of just market analysis, I believe. Yeah, it was very, it was very, very nice course, especially for like, if you're interested in doing a startup or something, yeah, like that. No, I wanted to say that because of that capstone project that, you know, we can, we can choose thinking of any, any startup idea or something like that. It actually allowed us to show our interests beyond that particular course. Like you, you involved art in your project and I involved. Yeah, we became like personally involved in it and it was close to us, like whatever we were building or trying to do. Yeah. And that made the course all the more enjoyable and I think it was very interactive as well. Like there was the first half of the class were server teams and then after that there was like a more interactive session to it. Yeah, the brain trust activity actually, I mean, I can't thank him enough for doing what we did. It was so amazing just, just to, just to, so we are basically working on 10 or 15 different projects because we were having those discussions. Yeah, it was actually so good to like even think like when others present, then we give like our review comments and all. So it's like we are working on our own, but as a group also. Yeah. At the same time, we were not trying to be very, I mean, you know, it was, it was a positive and constructive criticism. Yeah. It was a really nice moment for me at least. Another thing which was very interesting for me was as you mentioned that you're, you're very shy and when you became SAC, I was, so it was shocked for me, so I just wanted to know what, what, what was your perspective of becoming SAC and like why did you choose to and how it changed you as a person because I always wanted to become a SAC in my first and second year, but I never did for obvious reasons, I chose different parts. Did you want to become SAC or it just like there was no one or like it happened? Yeah, just kind of, yeah, so yeah, like in girls, at least one person has to be SAC from third year and second year and we were in third year then. And I think no one was interested in becoming and I'm someone you can kind of pursue it a little easier. I mean, she was a previous SAC, so she's like, I know you can do this, all you'll have to do is just write mails because I'm a bit good at like writing and I enjoy writing, so she's like, you just write mails and you don't have to even attend meetings, you can just bungle the meetings and, and the major reason why I joined is because I'm at that time I was a little shy and also because I was shy, I actually wanted to join and like boost my confidence and there were times when I wanted to speak out like earlier, maybe in group discussions and all, but I was afraid to because I thought that maybe what I'm gonna say is wrong or something and I know that even now, I mean, I know that even if I'm wrong, I should voice out my opinion and put it there, but I wanted to get the confidence to do that and I think that's the main reason why I joined SAC and yes, it has helped me in that and I thought I'd also learn to meet new people and to interact more with new people, but that, I don't think I did that, but then yeah, in SAC also, the major thing I did was actually content writing, writing mails and writing like the FP posts and all of that and in infinite the content writing team, I had a little bit and like some of the brochures and all that stuff, but I think in SAC as a whole, it, I mean, the team itself, eight of us, it's so good and I'm so happy that I joined because I got to know these seven other people who are so nice and it's almost like family and I'm so happy that we work together so well and so consistently without having that much arguments or fights and we respected each other's opinions well, so I'm really happy about the SAC. Yeah, I mean, SAC has evolved since I joined at least in terms of their competencies. I would say because each year they bring something to the table and especially when they took up and when they took up infinite before when you, before you joined and I think that, that was one of the most phenomenal step I would say and new people are doing such a great job and new people did such a great job and I know how much this year's, at least last year's SAC work. I would say my classes used to end at five and then we used to, we have this room which is the other reception which is like for SAC and for like our gathering and discussions and all that, so I used to go to that room from five and then from five to eight every day, I think especially towards the infinite time or anytime we had festivals, we used to sit like, there's so much in SAC, you have to figure out, discuss the budget and then you'll have to think, okay, what are the things which we need to buy and all that stuff and who all to contact, which are the committees or groups to involve and what permissions to seek. So all this is there and what activities to do as part of whatever we're organizing or planning out. So yeah, it was, it was very fun and nice and apart from that there was a lot of other things which we had to take care of like maybe some conflicts in college or those kind of issues which turn up which I didn't even know how I would deal with those but then we actually dealt with it and we thought about it properly and we did it and we have made a lot of mistakes also I think but hopefully we have learned from those mistakes. Yeah, so just an insider's perspective, I just wanted to know like you're dealing with so much inside stuff but usually when students are talking it would be more like SAC doesn't have much power or SAC doesn't do this, that, so from your experience, what is it something, what is something that you did to kind of make sure that the college was running smoothly even without the rest of people knowing because a lot of it doesn't come out that often, right? Yeah. And it's one of the largest commitments in the college because you are elected and you are for a one-year term and it's not like you can leave in the middle unlike other clubs or committees. Yeah, so actually even I think from the outsider's perspective it does seem that SAC doesn't have much power but I think SAC has a lot of power because and also a lot of responsibility as well because you're given at times a huge amount of budget for every single thing and you have to ensure that you use the budget efficiently and plan it out and you have almost the entire college at your disposal literally like if you want, like we put up the lights for Diwali in the mess and outside and all and now it's still there so and it's so yeah one thing is for infinite, we were just thinking of stuff and I randomly came up with the suggestion of the graffiti and then we're like okay yeah let's just put a graffiti so now there's actually a graffiti over there so if you're in SAC, if you just like think of something that it can actually happen, you have that power and there is a lot of power, now coming to the part about things which we do which probably go unnoticed, I think there are some issues like there was even small issues like just water problems and all so all these days the registrar used to say okay I don't actually have enough data to go about for solving the hot water problem in the boys hostel and I think Barajoshi took that initiative and then he actually went and some of his friends I think went to each bathroom and then collected and checked okay when is hot water coming and when is it not so he finally actually gave that to the registrar and he had to do something like his all the time he was saying that he didn't have the data so at least now he had that data and he could go ahead and fix it so I'm not sure if it's fixed now but then they did do something and there were other issues I think like there was this back gate issue in between where suddenly because of some certain reasons orders were not allowed from the back gate and had to be only allowed from the front gate and this actually I think it happened during the holidays so there was a bit of a communication gap amongst us itself but then finally we somehow and we were also trolled a lot for it so if you're a part of a cycle I think any other committee then you'll have to be you'll have to be ready to get trolled or not trolled I mean just to get criticism and all that and then accept that criticism and use it constructively to maybe do something better or in the future not repeat that because yeah I think we should have probably discussed it earlier and then somehow we came to some consensus and we did talk to a registrar and CAO and all about it and I think finally it got reopened again so we gave like we actually had a meeting and then he asked us to like tell different points for why we should reopen it or give other solutions for that particular problem which we were facing instead of closing the back gate so all these things we had to like actually draft a proper document and all for it and give it to them so these are some things which we have done maybe which I didn't like revealed openly yeah I think that is that is one of the reasons why I didn't end up joining factories what happens is you end up solving problems which you might not be ready for in the sense of so at least I like to take charge of cultural things you know but I don't want to deal with something which was which is very centric to administration and you know you'll have to take a responsibility for that and then you criticize you get criticized rather yeah so in that sense I everyone who becomes sacked there is some there is a lot of respect from my side so yeah kudos to you on that I think even if like in the eight members even if all are not really so interested in like communicating with the administration and all maybe if you're like Prachi in our batch she was really interested in festivals and organising festivals and doing all the decoration and she did it really well so and I was more of content writing only yeah I just wanted to get to that question are there are there certain roles that you divide or is it very unspoken in that sense yeah we just somehow the roles got assigned to us and we just fit into it perfectly so you know Abhigna she was like the database manager she was really good with excise sheets and everything so she used to handle all of that then I me and Anirudh Baya and sometimes Brahma also we used to do most of the content writing so it was mostly me and Anirudh Baya but sometimes Brahma also used to help out I think then Anirudh Baya was like super enthusiastic he actually does a lot of work in everything okay then Shivani she was in charge of finance so she was in charge of like noting down all her expenses and the thing how it works is you're not actually given money at once you'll have to spend from your own pocket then you'll have to collect the bills and all and then you'll have to show it to Debas Matanam and then finally after like a long time after a lot of approvals it gets accredited back into your bank account so yeah so finance is something which you'll have to actually keep a check off really carefully and Shivani did that part and then Smith and Anirudh Baya mostly they did a lot of all this like contacting this Eryctor for like organizing the stage and all those yeah just event organizers yeah so these were more or less the roles which we had and Bharath is always like he's always for his friends he's always voicing our opinions and he's really passionate so every time we have any discussions or anything yeah Bharath always puts his voice forward really well but yeah I think one good thing is that especially even if we were having conflicts between like if we were not disagreeing we finally agreed to disagree and we like took a vote or something and the majority would always be taken into consideration finally right I just wanted to talk about ACM-ICPC so you were regionals of front reply to Bangalore once right yeah once but somehow we got selected to two regionals in the same year so we went to both Kharapur and Amrita puri wow is there a backstory to it you know I think we just got lucky because it was Tech Meals Vastia and Lalita again we three are always a group and we had then prepared that much for it but then we did start preparing for it I think I don't remember when but then we used to meet up together and we used to discuss and try to do some problems and all and it was fun but I don't think we were so dedicated towards it to like actually land a place in the regionals but somehow we got lucky because that time for the regionals I mean for that round before the regionals there were five questions and I think the first one was really easy and all the other four were really hard so we finished the first one in like I think two or three minutes and because we finished it so fast that was the reason why we were selected because we couldn't do the other four questions and because the other four questions were so challenging most of the teams couldn't do it and so it finally boiled down to who finished the first question really fast and because we finished it really fast we got selected and we had chosen Karakpur because we knew that one of the other teams had chosen Karakpur and the way Karakpur selects is that it only allows I think one team or two teams per college so because we were the only I think our team and maybe Satwik's team so we were the only two teams who had opted for Karakpur and because we came first we were we could go to Karakpur and Amritapuri also they take a lot of I think they take a lot of students for their regionals so we were able to go to both you you three are really close and like apart from ACM-ICPC you like in general also you work together so how does that help to align your interest and prepare for a common goal so do you divide your work and like how does this go through there is bonding between you three guys and yeah there is some bonding between us but yeah the way we work is somehow I don't even know it just fits in perfectly so we divide our work usually we divide it as equally as possible it's not like any one person has any role in general so in I think one or two courses also we were together yeah like we did like VR and advanced special recognition together so and of course ICPC together and the thing is we're just so used to working with each other so I working with each other so I think everything just clicks into place like that but recently we're like okay we should not get so used to working with each other we should probably like work with others so I think as of late we've been working with other people I mean it's not like we are only doing things together definitely as as you go through the five years you'll diversify your profiles and it definitely has to it would be a challenge to kind of divide later on so it you gradually separate out in terms of the work yeah but you know me and like all three of us like watching anime a lot so we had this one dream of going to Japan together like only the three of us going to Japan and because like we were just thinking of how ways to go to Japan without like spending from our own pockets so we saw this conference it's I think eccv which is like a really tier one like top tier conference in vision and then we just finished our VR course then so we thought okay we'll just ask Dinesh sir if we can if we can try to like write a paper or something under him just so that we can apply for that conference and maybe get selected and go to Japan it's more like we wanted to go to Japan than actually write a paper um and then Dinesh replied like okay that's like a bit too ambitious for you guys and ecc was like one of the top most conferences and we can't even imagine like thinking of applying to it now but that time because he was so ignorant we just thought okay let's just do it but then he was kind enough to like offer us that piece so right now what we're working on that deep learning thing it's um in hope to write a paper I hope you guys to go to the okay so many anime lovers in our college yeah which ones do you watch any any common ones which we would know they um some of the cliche ones Naruto full metal alchemist those were I've watched earlier before okay like the different genres and anime so this is one genre called slice of life which is just about everyday life so um in leads and all you have things like uh they they have like superpowers and all that since slice of life it's not like that everyone is just a normal human being and it's like about everyday lives and I don't know why I like it I find it so relatable and um thought provoking so I like slice of life anyway they have some kind of like underlying philosophical um some kind of message to give usually so I think that's why I like it but that story of going to Japan is so hilarious and I mean if you if you one day go through just because you write a paper just because you have you wanted to go to Japan that would be a story to tell for the lifetime yeah we were interested in writing a paper also but I think it allied with our interests of going to Japan as well so yeah so uh you worked on Shrek startup uh Lexi as a mobile app developer right so uh and I think around that same time or was it the next year that you became sad um next year I became sad okay so how was your experience working in in the startup and following that another question I wanted to ask was obviously this took a lot of your time and also becoming a sack also took a lot of your time but uh did it affect how you approach your academics or how you how you manage your time yeah I think it did because um sometimes you'll have to give priority to um your work or like sack work or your internship work so uh I don't think it's really advisable to do internship work along with your academics but because it was actually kind of stressful at that time because first of all it's a startup and and second of all our team was really small so it was just me and Gullin on the front end cost up on the back end as Shreyas was the only one who was doing like the UI UX design um at the start at least and then later Arvind also came and helped us so because it's just a small team and we have to do so much in so less time and they actually like give us well like Shrek was a mentor but then um a boss was this a person called Prakash and he was a really nice person actually but uh we wanted to release at least um a prototype by a certain time so we had to meet deadlines and every time we introduce a new feature you get issues like the first time uh I think I like we did a section of it I think it was the dashboard or maybe um a graphical analytics kind of part I was really happy about it and I was not expecting anyone to raise issues or complaints about it and suddenly when I got so many issues or complaints I was like taking a back like oh my gosh why then I realized that okay that's something which is going to happen anyway and like developing you're gonna um overlook certain things and there's gonna be bugs and errors which you'll have to fix so we got into this daily routine of like building things then getting issues then fixing those issues and again getting more issues and then fixing those issues so like while the starting part of it was more was more of learning later on it was more of doing the same thing over and over again so uh it was nice actually I actually enjoyed it um because working with Gullin and Shreg Peer was so nice it was almost like a family we sometimes used to work till two o'clock at night and all but then we used to meet up in the mess and Shreg Peer would get things for us and all like once Gullin wasn't feeling well or something so I think he got papaya for her and then he cut it and all and Harikadee also used to come and me and Harikadee were also very close so it was it was fun yeah it was fun but I don't think it's advisable to like um do two things at once and I think I just somehow managed because um I didn't actually spend too much on my studies at that time I think it was all like last minute studying just before the exam or just one day before the assignment kind of thing and maybe because um I had my friends around to help me or like discuss it was fine at that time so I somehow managed uh with Saq with Saq I it wasn't as bad as my internship I think there was not that much pressure but then again there was a lot of work one thing was at least the second half of Saq I I had taken up electives so because it's electives there's less of like exams and stuff and more of assignments so I think that way I was able to plan out things better the first half um like maybe in Saq it because it's eight I don't think there were there was that much work also in the first half because like infinite came in the second half on the year that was um more time consuming so in the first half uh I think it was it was more of like if there's any urgent work it's just meetings for me it was more of content writing and I could do that fast I did not spend too much time on that so I was able to spend time on my studies and yeah if there was any group work then I could always like I would also pitch in as much as I could but there were always my teammates and um I think we were able to I was just able to manage but mostly if there's like any Saq meeting which is urgent or something then that would take priority then then any other assignments or something which is um which is really urgent or some other exam which is coming up fast I would probably study for it right so what was the one uh one lesson I mean uh one thing is obviously front end well how how did front end in lexile fit into your uh you know I won't say regime but fit into your profile and what did you learn from working in a startup or keeping aside or keeping aside the friendships in all uh in terms of the culture in a startup or or anything which which stands out to you in from that experience yeah so why front end is because actually in my first year I was part of zen's uh and even there me, gurlain and swasti we were working on react native and we were trying to do something called canteen app which was supposed to be for our canteen so what you were doing is something like people can order from their rooms itself because at that time there were a lot of the queues after PE and all were like getting really long and we were waiting for a long time to get our orders so we thought we could do something like ordering from your room and then just going there and collecting and that we started off in react native um so we knew react native already and because of that I think when there's internship offer came again we were the thing was the plan was to do to build a front end using react native and because I already knew that I was like okay I can do this um my experience in a startup so one thing is I don't know if this could actually be called a startup because it was literally just an idea of strike payers and prakash and it was just the four or five of us working on it so the thing but the thing is we do learn a lot because you'll have a lot of responsibility and you build everything from ground up so usually I mean if you join a big company or something you'll already have some code and you'll have to like spend some time first of all understanding that code and then you'll have to like add on something to it probably uh and then I think the testing process and you'll have a mentor like a proper uh mentor who is who you'll have to like probably report to at periodic intervals and all so we're here uh one thing is we did everything from scratch me and gurlain and because we did everything from scratch we didn't have to uh I think we learned a lot in that way and we didn't have to spend a lot of time like doing understanding someone's code before and we could like anything which we wanted to introduce something new you can do it easily because you already know a lot of your code so in like it's easier to fix bugs I think in a way because you know exactly where things will be going wrong uh rather than um if it was someone else's code you don't know whether it's going wrong and whatever you have added or whatever they have what was already there um and likewise also you'll have a lot of work and you and it is a bit of more of pressure on you because it's only a few people who are working in a startup and uh yeah shape there was a very good mentor and he did knew he didn't know a lot of reactators so anytime we did have any problems we could go to him but we did not have any like periodic meetings or anything like that I think for reporting or anything um so it's a bit more informal in a startup I feel and also you have a bit more flexibility and luxury to do things uh at your own pace so um because of ACMICPC I took a break in between and I'm not sure if you'll get that luxury if you're working for another company I mean for a for not working for a startup or something like that so you have uh worked with like your batch mates and everyone around you like mostly your batch mates I want to talk about so uh are you in favor of competition among your batch mates like I've heard that you are a very good teacher and like you help your friends with their coursework so like one more question after that is like so like sometimes you get frustrated that why aren't they doing their own work yeah I say I actually like teaching a lot and I think in my first year especially because I had done C++ and some programming earlier and many of my friends hadn't um I was helping them a lot with that like with debugging and all but I think later on um like later semesters and all I don't think I um I don't even think I had the time to help a lot because of the startup and then later on uh SAC work um so competition amongst us I think I obviously the healthy competition is good but I don't think there's much competition among us and I think it's good that there's not much competition because we are willing to help each other like I said that we have these discussions um group discussions and anytime any of us that needs help we go to someone else without like there's no I mean if there is competition you'll be a little bit conscious about going and asking someone else for help but there's nothing like that over here um sometime yeah about frustration I think uh yeah I do get it's not because of any one person it's I get overwhelmed at times when there are a lot of people asking me at the same time uh and especially in first year it was like uh the same code or like problem one person would come and then like after 15 minutes the same problem someone else would come and then again after like half an hour someone else would come with the same problem so I'll be like okay I've explained this like three times already and at the point I was like okay I have to now on any any I'll like solve all your problems together something like that but I think um as long as I do like helping others and as long as I have the time for it I also learn a lot from like teaching others or helping them yeah I mean teaching others is a measure of how much you know so yeah I think it's very good to like learn something for the second time because uh even there's TA and like I'm actually a TA for programming too first the second years and I have forgotten worst of like whatever I learned programming too I think C plus plus Java so there are so many things about oops which I like learned now because I was teaching um I don't know if you can call it teaching but then helping them or solving their doubts or answering their doubts or debugging some errors or trying to explain a few concepts so there's so much you learn when you like teach the one good thing about this online class is that like if we were offline then usually the TA's go to each person's like you know how in the lab everyone has their own systems so if there's some common doubt I don't think everyone gets to know about it unless the TA goes and tells it but over here if you have any doubt you have no choice but to ask it like out in the open so everyone gets to know about it that's one good thing I think about online I personally like the lab sessions for Java I really like them like they were so perfect like everything was perfect like we had something to do during lab we had an assignment on that basis yeah yeah I think it was so much better than all those labs which we had in campus as well hey over there also that was so much like we didn't knew half of the time we were sitting around over there and like having nothing to do like okay after half an hour we got the question and started doing it and then I don't know what's ever happened yeah like even for us I don't even remember if we had proper labs for Java or C++ I was wondering did we like actually have a two hour lab for this because I think we just got the question and then half an hour we just went to our rooms and did it maybe what is the one thing that that you think your batch is bad standout compared to other batches and like what are your equations as a batch I wanted to ask with juniors and seniors as well I think our batch uh our batch has a lot of like bright people I know but they don't stand out as much I think as like the current 50 years like when we were in first year I think Parliwal Bayer and all of you they were like doing so much of stuff but I think our batch is like more like the silent achievers or something because I really feel that everyone keeps doing things so like people keep trying out new things a few of us have written papers and all that a few of us I think were mentors and Zens and Anubhav Pratyushan all our mentors and Enigma so and I think that because of the strength of the batch as in it's only 60 there is some unity or at least a little bit more closeness or intimacy in our batch I think everyone is reaching out to everyone and that slowly those borders are fading and no one is shy or anything like that so I think as a whole our batch is kind of close I'm happy that the numbers are quite small and especially when we miss the classes like before when the whole batch is a whole you should sit in a class because right now we have electives and there only like we're all split into different small small groups in each elective but earlier when we used to have core courses I think it was really good to have the whole batch as a whole in the class because of the doubts which came up all the problems like this because we used to have such nice doubts they used to enjoy teaching us and I think we also used to enjoy learning so in that way our batch is really good yeah and I like it so oh yeah just I think Swasti told me this that you you assign weird nicknames to your friends could you could you could you let us in on those what are those oh my god okay so um actually I think I went through uh in third year or something I was like okay I'm gonna give everyone food names so then a Brahma is like Brahma Kulkarni right so Kulkarni became Kulfi okay since Kulfi is like some food item then um there was Rahul like his name was Rahul Murli Shankar and for Murli I just thought okay I'll name him Momo because Momo is a father food but if he didn't accept it so I changed it to Moo Moo and he accepted that somehow then um then uh yeah Nitin is there and I don't know why I just thought okay I'll call him Natel and then that somehow became Natu so I call him Natu now um for the girls I think girls I kept their names before itself before the whole food phase so Swasti is Swasti is Swasti Shreya Mishra so SSM and that's the name which her friends used to call her earlier so I I can't say I kept that and even Lalita um we all somehow ended up calling her Chotu because she is a little small and also because she acts like a kid then uh goodly goodly like called her Linu just because I don't know why Linu sounds so nice and even she liked it so Linu all these names I kept in first year itself then Pratik Shah became Pratik Koo I thought I just added a OO to everyone's air don't laugh Pratik Koo is a nice name then uh who else is there Leheri Leheri actually came to be and asked me can you keep a name for me also please I told her okay I'll call you Jimmy Kee because like Jimmy Kee are those yearnings okay which uh in Tamil we call him Jimmy Kee I I think she didn't get it okay she was like do I go to the gym and that's why I called him Jimmy Kee and she didn't like the name I was like okay I'm not keeping one for you and then um Vaishnevi is Vaishu like we all call her Vaishu last year last year is just last year last year I think I've covered everyone right Millie Millie is Milo yeah Millie is Milo is it just like that is it no because Milo is like a food ring no no in general the the idea of uh having nicknames I mean giving nicknames yeah I don't know I just I just keep it like that Ratan also you see Ratan is Ratan Bharkava so I made Bharkava into burger and then I made burger into Baghu so he's Baghu okay so one more thing I I don't think a lot of people know is you also play guitar or violin no I don't I don't play the guitar I just you know the thing is um I've like I've done classical music for like four to five years so I know if I know Sarigamma Padanesa I can like just I can just do some like I can play some tunes so Swasti has a guitar and then I just took it someday and I was like okay I'm going to figure out where Sarigamma Padanesa is so after figuring that out I just played because once you know the notes you can play on your own I don't know how to play the guitar okay okay so so now we got to know that you also learned classical music so four years is not a less time I call myself a photographer even within one year I don't know so uh yeah so I just wanted to know like how or why was it uh important to you to be all-rounded in the sense of you have picked up various skills throughout and it definitely adds value and yeah I think what was that that intrinsic factor that kept you working on through various activities well as a kid my mom just put me in a music class so I didn't even have like one thing is I'm a big copycat and I have a brother so whatever he did I actually did uh I just copied him a lot so first he went to classical like he went to music class and I think after one year my mom put me also a music class maybe it's just like a Brahmin thing or something to put their children in music class but then we used to go to class together and that was nice then after some time he started he started doing classical like violin the teacher who we went to she taught vocal and violin so my brother started doing more of violin and then I went to dance class so once I went to dance class I think I didn't get enough time to do both music and dance so I just like left my music and I only focused more on dance the rest of it I think like drawing and all I don't do it that much but I told you my friends she was into drawing a lot so again I'm a copycat so I was like okay she's doing with me also so I did I also used to draw a bit and like even reading novels and doing all that sort of thing so it's because of my brother he used to read some novels we just used to buy it and maybe because those books are already here I just used to read them and but I do think it helps a lot like especially one thing I feel in Andhra and all when they like from as early as I don't know what 7th, 8th standard they go to hostel and then they only focus on studies and that is I don't even know if you'll get the whole like that kind of force studying I don't know how beneficial it is and how much they were enjoy doing that and apart from that always doing all these other things keeps you gives you a bigger perspective I think in life and there's so much I've learned through dance yeah like through dance because you have to assume various roles while dancing you have to put yourself in people's shoes even when you're trying to like act or portray the role of some character and that way you become more compassionate towards people you become more expressive and musicals like it's just a joy for me I don't know somehow in my family itself like my dad's family his mom used to play the vena and his sister used to play the vena and and since I was a small kid there's always been classical music being played around in the house so I just got so habituated to it that I like listening to it a lot and it calms me down and I can appreciate it so I don't know I mean I know the classical music isn't liked a lot by everyone but I think that if you learn it then maybe you'll be able to appreciate it better a little at least so yeah in these ways this has made my life more fulfilling and yeah yeah I mean also I I I can completely I think relate with you because I I didn't take up dance or dance or music but I definitely picked up a lot of drawing a lot of coloring I won't say painting I didn't do any painting but I also picked up photography and a PowerPoint presentation so presentations was one of my I mean ms paint and PowerPoint or like one of the first tools I ever used on like on a system and I've and you just don't know how much I appreciate it at this point because while people are trying to figure out how to how to make posters on adobe photoshop or you know illustrator I could do that simply on PowerPoint because of the mastery I got in PowerPoint and especially with a class presentations it's it's like a breeze for me like I don't have to think much about this so in that sense and also because I deal with photos and editing a lot it it just makes whatever I try to present more presentable in that sense so it just it just gives you a very good platform for you to express yourselves and that's something which is very important yeah like I think if I didn't read so many books as a kid then I wouldn't be so good at like writing content yeah or things like that yeah yeah you know it's interesting that you know a lot of our kids or you know parents tell them that you can pick those things in college and you know your first focus on your studies and like in like school and it's I don't I don't know if that's the way it should go about because a lot of things you learn throughout your childhood come into play when you join college and when you have something yeah go on go on yeah it's just like a lot of especially when you're small you're learning so much and I think it's much more easier to pick up things when you're small and when you're as big as like a college student then you've come to a not a saturation point exactly but you already know so much by then you kind of figure out okay what are your interests and you're a bit scared to I think try things new and it's easier to try new things when you're small yeah even the time when the time and the risk factor right definitely when when you're kids it's it's very easy to maybe or maybe focus on a lot more things without worrying too much about grades because if if you have that trigger you can you can still make sure that you get through it but in college I always thought maybe I'll pick up a guitar one day but it never happened so yeah even I want to learn guitar but I don't know yeah anything Vivian you want to ask no I get closing remarks at the end of a podcast yeah yeah just just just one just one remark Ananya if if we were to learn anything or take away anything from the podcast what would it be from your side I think what I want like what I've mainly learned is that especially when I was small I was actually very competitive so I used to just do things because I wanted to be good at them I mean I knew I was good at them and I just was happy like I knew that things came easy to me and because I was good at them maybe because of that and because of the competition and all I just was focusing more on getting things done but I think now it's not important about getting things done but rather the process of actually doing it or learning it or appreciating it like for example in dance earlier I was more focused on like the just the technique and I didn't really understand much about dance as a kid because for me it was more about flexibility and agility and that kind of stuff and like stamina and okay I have to endure this I know because in dance it's like it is quite taxing and you'll have to have a lot of mental strength to go through maybe one whole dance item which is as long as like 15-20 minutes but then later on now that I'm doing dance again I realized that okay it's not about learning new items it's not about learning new things but it's more about understanding and appreciating what you've learned more and understanding it and enjoying it and doing it so even now in like my courses which I'm taking up or something I don't want to just do it for the sake of completing the course but rather that I want to learn and I want to like look at things in detail and understand and enjoy it so I think whatever we do from now on we should probably do it wholeheartedly and enjoy it very well said very well said so thank you Ananya for joining us joining with us today I know it took I think it took more than what we promised but thank you for your input and I'm definitely sure you know juniors will learn something from this episode for joining us yeah it's okay thank - Thank you so much for giving me your type words.