BITS AND BYTES: A Candid Chat with Technical Guruji

Starting off with the first question – how was your life at BITS Dubai?

Life at BITS Dubai was, to be honest, pretty thrilling. I still remember my first lecture. It was Advanced Analog Mixed Signal Design, by Professor G Vijaya. We later on started calling him Lord of the Rings. Because he wore almost, I think, eight or nine rings. And it was the very first lecture. And I still remember him giving ideas. He was talking about Advanced Analog Mixed Signal Design. “How to bridge analog to digital?” But everything went on top of my head. I couldn’t understand anything. Although this was getting serious, it then all transformed into a fun session altogether. He later became one of my favourite professors. There was also Dr. KK Singh. I still remember his wife, Neeru Sood ma’am. 

So the entire experience at BITS, I think, is amazing because you’re doing a lot. Because you have brilliant minds & amazing people around you. So you’re always on check. You know that you’re not the only one. Everyone here is on par with you. They are really capable of making a move. So those years were really fun. And in the end, you end up learning a lot. You end up being in a stronger position. You end up with lots of knowledge for life. It was fun.

So your experience and what you learned, how much of this had an impact on your career forward? 

Okay, so, you might know that I run a YouTube channel. And the objective of this channel was to share some of my knowledge to the masses. Because I learned a lot. I had the best of the professors. But not everyone has it. So the idea was, why not channelize some of my knowledge to the masses? And it was definitely all the learning from my best professors. And the way they explained difficult concepts, giving real-life examples. 

All this gave me a skill. And it’s a very special skill. Today, if I were to explain any difficult topic to you, I can do it in a very easy way. By gving you a very easy real-life example. So you’ll be able to understand it better. So those kinds of learnings definitely helped me. And I think it overall gives you confidence. It nurtures you in a way that you become skilled enough. Whatever may come your way – you have that confidence.

And I think it’s a default with all the engineers, to be honest. So the knowledge from BITS and all the skill set, everything helped me put my career together. This definitely has some traces of what I’ve learned in college. So, yeah. And also, you become a learner for life. The one important thing I learned at BITS for sure was that you should never stop learning. It’s a daily process. It’s a continuous process. Act like a sponge. Maybe 5%, maybe 10%. Absorb whatever you can from wherever you can. So this learning for life became a daily habit. Good answer, right? 

So, in India, we have this culture of, “whatever you want to do, first do engineering and then see”. You first do engineering and then you figure out your life path. What’s your opinion on this culture? 

So, okay. My honest take on things – You can take it in two different ways. Number one, I’m a firm believer that studies are important. School is important. College is important. Number two, because you need to grow in a good environment, you need to see how a college is.

There’s a very cool concept of dropouts. Just because you’ve heard some successful guy’s story who dropped out from college, doesn’t mean everyone succeeded. Look at all the failures. There are a lot. So, college is essential. Now speaking about someone taking engineering very casually, I think it’s fine. As long as they are in college. Because sometimes we take this load, that, oh my god, I’m 28, what do I do now? My life is going away. Or I’m 26 or whatever. What I believe is, your life restarts at the age of 18 in college. Because before 18, you were not in control. Let’s say you were 6 years old. You had no control over you, right? So, you start at the age of 18. So, if you’re saying that, after engineering you’re 22, technically you’re just a 4 year old.

So, even if you want to explore anything after that – let’s say you want to be in a bank. You want to maybe become an actor or whatever. It’s fine. Or maybe an engineer itself. So, basically, no matter what you study, you can explore again. Ideally you need to pick the stream early on. You need to decide your career path. That you know in 10th grade that you want to be an actor. So, you will go straight to film school and study there. 

But I think it’s sometimes very difficult for people to pick what they want. So, they’ll definitely end up in some college. Could be a BSc. Could be a B.Com. Could be a BBA, CA, Engineering, Medical, etc. And then, while the course is going on, or once they’re done with that, they might get this idea of doing something else.

It’s fine. I mean, it’s totally fine. Because you’re still very young. You’re just 4-5 years old. And you have the life in front of you to explore whatever you want to. And I think the best part about engineers is that we guys literally can do anything. So, we are the right fit for any job that might come in. And I think all the engineers would agree that no matter which stream you are in, whether you studied in Mechanical or Computer Science or whatever, you definitely are equipped with some common skill set that gives you this power to learn quickly. Let’s say, tomorrow if you want to be an accountant, you can easily pick it up. If you want to learn coding, you can easily pick it up. If you want to do photo-video editing, you can easily pick it up. So, we become that during the course of 4 years. So, I think it’s fine. 

I was wondering, over these years that you have grown your YouTube channel, what is the most unusual or unexpected way you’ve seen a consumer use a particular product that you’ve reviewed? 

Something like that doesn’t come to my mind instantly, but I can just give you some basic examples. In India, we have this concept of “Jugaad”. So, you can use different things for purposes not intended for and you can utilize it in different ways. So, at times it happens. I mean, I can’t give you an exact example.

But pretty much, like, for example, you have an old phone. So, I saw that someone’s phone broke down so they bought a new phone. Now, this guy is using this old phone as a CCTV camera. He kept his old phone on charge and high in the room. And through his new phone, he can see his room with his old phone like a CCTV camera. So, sometimes you end up using those devices in ways that people might not have, you know, thought about. Maybe he could’ve used it as a baby monitor. Or maybe a Wi-Fi repeater. So, if you have an old phone, you can just put it in a place, put it on charge. By connecting it to your existing Wi-Fi network, it will take that in and further extend it. Because it has built-in Wi-Fi, you know, the transceiver. 

I think the best part about Indians and tech is that they are the best together. We can clearly say that we’re all techies. We adapt to technology very quickly. We learn it very easily. So, no matter what gadget, what product you have, be it a smartphone, be it a laptop, be it a tablet or smartwatch or whatever. 

There’s someone living in the UK using this phone. And there’s some guy who just got this new iPhone living in Chennai. The guy from Chennai will make sure that he gets the most out of his phone than the one in the UK and he’ll definitely use it in ways that even Apple might not have imagined.

Do you have any final message for us? Because it’s still unclear about what we have to do in life. Some ended up here because they wanted to. Some ended up because their parents wanted them to.

Okay, the first things first, parents are your friends. They are not your enemies. So, make them your friends. If you think that they are not, please make them your friends. That’s right- decide, discuss and build that confidence. If you want to do something, if you have an idea, your parents would be your biggest supporters if you’re open about it. Don’t assume things. Talk to them because they are the ones who would always want the best for you. That’s number one. 

Number two, keep on learning. Never stop learning. Today, because of the GPT, because of all these tools available, sometimes we think or we assume that oh everything is available in one click. Why do you, you know, waste time learning? For example, what’s the height of Mount Everest? 8848 metres. I can Google it as well, right? But it’s in the head. There are things which can be found on Google. But there are things you need to learn as well. If you think you know a lot or you know everything, then it’s a dead end for you. So, keep yourself open for ideas, for suggestions, for new learnings, for everything. No matter where you are, always soak something in. 

Number three. If you are still unclear, it’s okay. I mean, there are numerous examples around. Rajnikanth sir, when did he start acting? He was a bus conductor, right? Boman Hirani, when did he start acting? There are multiple examples. 

Okay, I’ll tell you something. Just one last thing. I mean, sometimes we are very scared of doing new things. We always put a question mark, what if? What if it fails? Yeah. You know, it’s good to have that question maybe at the age of 60. Because at 60, you’d want to stabilise your life. You’d not want your life to go upside down at the age of 60. You know, you’d want to have a nice retirement life, very smooth. But, in your 20s, you have all the energy. So do whatever you want with it. What’s the worst case? You’ll waste six months. It’s fine. It’s nothing. But what if it’s successful? So, no matter what you do in life, just don’t stop. It might be the craziest idea. Whatever it is, just go for it. If you think too much, you’ll feel pressurised. So you need to put things in action. 

And at the end, what I’m going to say is, the final message would be – no matter who is reading this – I’m pretty sure, in the next 10 years, you would have much, much, much, much, much more stuff around you, beyond your imaginations.

So, whatever your goals are, whatever your dreams are, whatever your final destination thoughts are, in the next 10 years, you’re all going to achieve way beyond that. That’s my guarantee, as long as you just practise these few things. So, the end result would be beautiful. It’ll be fantastic. It’s just that you need to have confidence and just go for it.

We have one last thing to ask you, regarding your cars, your tastes and how you are able to maintain them.

Okay, so I love cars. I love cars. And so, there’s just 2-3 things that I always love. I’m not sure if people are aware of this or not, but most of them are. I love gadgets. It’s a given. At any given point of time, I think I sometimes shop, even if I don’t have to – just because I want to. I know it’s a bad habit, but I end up doing that anyway. Second is, I love shoes. And third is, I love cars.

And so, cars are something that give me a sense of happiness and peace

I’m free, I’m all chill. Even if it’s for 30 minutes, I’m happy to sit still in that car. I also get a feeling that I’m in control. So, yeah, I have a few of them and would like to expand the collection as well. And as for how I maintain them, it’s timely service. Drive them nicely. Take care of them and they’ll take care of you. That’s it.  Thank you!