From Fields to Founder to Author and Investor: A Journey of Lifelong Learning
From the fields of Irruttupallam to the frontier of technology entrepreneurship, one alumnus reflects on how curiosity, courage, and continuous learning shape a purposeful life.
“Learning never ends; it only changes form.”
A young boy once stood barefoot in the fields of Irruttupallam, helping his father under the blazing sun. There were no shortcuts, only early mornings, patient work, and the quiet rhythm of the land. Those seasons of persistence became his first teachers, long before classrooms and careers.
At Karunya Institute of Technology, resources were few, but curiosity was abundant. The walls of a hostel room turned into a library of formulas and ideas. “If the mind is hungry enough, every limitation becomes a teacher.” Preparing for one of India’s toughest exams, the GATE, without coaching, was not an act of genius but of steady commitment, discipline and pure grit. That discipline opened doors to IIT Kanpur, where the journey deepened into the world of design, self-learning of programming languages like C and JAVA, and writing research paper for The Strain on Photoelasticity and working on the landing gear analysis of the India’s indigenous defense aircraft.
At IIT, discomfort became the new classroom. Learning to translate, adapt, and reimagine ideas was as important as mastering equations.
“Growth begins the moment comfort ends.”
From research projects to programming in C and C++, every step demanded humility and hunger.
Professional life brought another realization: comfort often signals the end of learning. So each time the path felt predictable, it was time to start over. Startups became the next teachers. They were messy, demanding, and full of pushing boundaries. They taught that innovation begins in empathy and that customer pain is the real syllabus of entrepreneurship.
Later, at Babson College, a new perspective took shape:
“Entrepreneurship is not a subject; it’s a mindset.”
It’s not about funding or fame, but about risk reduction, immersion in real problems, and relentless curiosity. Along this road, one partnership mattered most — the unwavering belief of his wife, Bhuvana, who said “yes” to the dream long before success was visible. Together they built ventures like Appranix, a company that turned resilience into confidence and earned recognition for innovation in cloud recovery.
The story didn’t stop with an acquisition. It widened to mentoring founders, funding 14 more startups, and sharing lessons through The Cyber Resilience Reckoning, a book born from the conviction that purpose and learning are inseparable.
To the next generation of Karunya graduates:
The journey from any village to any vision is possible. What matters is not where you start, but how long you keep learning. Failures are not detours; they are the road itself.
Stay curious. Stay kind. Keep building — not for recognition, but for meaning.
“The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.”
Stay flexible. Keep learning. The rest will follow.
