I am from a business family, most of my relatives are into business of some kind, and so a lot of our family conversations revolve around business. If you think the word "business" occurred too many times in the previous sentence, you can well imagine how much intertwined it has been with my life since my early childhood! Now you may think that someone from this kind of background would naturally be good at entrepreneurship, but thats not really the case. Talking about business and actually doing it are very different things. That was my first lesson back in 2005 when I started a coaching centre for IIT-JEE at my native place (Balasore, Odisha) after finishing my B.Tech. from IIT Madras. During my final year at IITM, I was considering two options : starting a JEE coaching centre at Balasore or going for a PhD. Although I was very passionate about science, I was not sure if I had the patience to pursue a PhD. When I began my undergrad, my sole aim was to learn software programming and earn money in the industry. But over the course of 4 years, I completely lost interest in this trajectory due to various reasons and was mesmerised by various concepts of physics. At IITM, I was also deeply involved with Vivekananda Study Circle as a volunteer, which had ingrained in me a deep desire to contribute to the society. The coaching centre idea was motivated by a mix of both these reasons, i.e. to stay in touch with physics and to help students from my native place in reaching the best institutions of higher education. So, as soon as my final semester exams got over, I packed my bags, came back home and rented a small room near our house to start my JEE classes!
