The Journey!

Dreams! 

Although they seem impossible at times, dreams have a strong role in defining what a person becomes. If we look back into our past, whatever we are today, started from a dream. It might be something small, but it has evolved over time. New dreams keep popping up every now and then, and I believe, that at least some of them play a crucial role in defining who we.

Back in 2012, was when I completed my 12th Grade, I was confused as I had a lot of options in front of me. I was worried, because I knew I was making an important decision on how my future would look like. Being inspired by movies, I was very much tempted to choose the stream of Electronics and Communication. All I wanted to do was to build the stuff as I saw in movies. I was extremely excited, like most of us, when I joined an Engineering college

    

    Later, I realized whatever was taught in college, was just an advanced version of high schools. Of Course, I learned a lot of basics, but the extensive theory was kind of pulling me back. I slowly realized that what I was expecting is not what I will be getting from the academics. It was a pull back for a few days, and then I thought of finding options of utilizing whatever was available to get closer to the dream I saw.

 

I was so motivated by the idea of robots, because i felt that in some way, humans were trying to recreate humans, but in an synthetic way. I still remember the first few months of college, where I was eager to read books from the Library about Robotics.This was happening in parallel, and soon I realized that I have a lot to learn if I need to get where I want.

    It is equally important to have an atmosphere around us which is constructive, positive and productive. And I didn't want to miss any of the fun from college life. It was extremely important to find a striking balance, so that i can manage both. 

    The first good thing that happened to me, were the group of friends I found. The group started getting bigger and fun. We were always in the last few benches. I started enjoying the fun part of college life. The best part of the entire group was that they knew all of my crazy dreams, but whenever it comes to getting something done, they have always been with me.  I started attending doing a Post-Graduate Diploma in Embedded system design during the weekends, because I felt that would be the first step in getting started. I started learning online, bought stuff and started building tiny robotic devices. I was so excited to see how i could get stuff done with some electronics and a few lines of code. These used to keep me awake at night, most of the time, where i will be building stuff and learning new things. And the motivation I got was how my friends used to support me after I built something new. 

    I still remember that we used to spend late nights watching movies and by the time the movie would be over, we would all be lazy to get up to switch off the lights. And that was when i built something, where we would switch off the lights and fan in our room with a remote. We installed it together in our room in the hostel and had so much fun playing with it. The excitement on their face, when i build something new was the fuel for my dreams. With all these happening, i started learning more, and i was getting excited as i felt that i was slowly getting towards my dream.

    It was during that time that I started hearing a lot about Startups. The idea of having my own company sounded so cool. I really wanted to club it with what I was doing as a hobby, but I never knew where to start from. As a first step towards that dream, I realized something one night. It took me a couple of months to learn about electronics, Arduino, the hardware and stuff like that. And it took me a lot of troubleshooting and effort to get these stuff up and running. I thought, "Why not teach this to students?" The idea was very well supported by my Seniors who were handling an Organization called 'CEST' in our college, SCT College of Engineering. They gave me a platform to organize a training in college for my juniors, through the platform of CEST.

    It was the first time that I was training students. A large number of students signed up for the session. I still remember the day of the training. I entered the hall and I got the shock of my life, when I saw over 80 students, who were waiting there to learn. I was procrastinating too much and the program was delayed by almost half an hour, because i was worried about how to start. I soon realized that it was something big which i have put myself into and there was no turning back. With my friends all around me, trying to calm me down, i took a deep breath and started speaking. My voice was shivering as i started, but within a few minutes, i got myself in the track. I started enjoying it. All my friends were volunteering for the session, which made it much more easy and comfortable.The positive feedback from the students gave me much more confidence for the upcoming day, as it was a two day session. 

 

    Next day, when i reached the college in the morning, I was surprised to see the students playing with their robots, much before the scheduled time. Since then, I had conducted multiple training sessions, in different states .None of them would have been possible if i never made the first step on that day, and if the College and Seniors had not supported the dream. This was the point when I realized that making the first step and getting out of the comfort zone is the first thing you have to do in getting closer to your dream.

    

    This was the time when many people knew about what I did. But I was still not sure how to move to the next step. I found myself stuck with my ideas. It was when the 2005 Alumni batch came to our College, with a wonderful initiative of giving exposure to students in the field of startups. I remember the HOD coming to our class along with Sandeep Zachariah, and they explained about their initiative. It was when i lifted my heads up from my book ( Where i was playing Bingo :P ). It sounded so exciting and i really wanted to get in somehow. I was excited when the HOD of our Department, Sheeja MK, pointed me out from the last bench and said that i have been doing similar stuff in College. This was a turning point where I got closer to my dreams. I was connected to the 2005 Alumni batch and with a community called "Rethink" which was an initiative by Sijo Kuruvila, who is the founding CEO of Startup Village, which was my dream place to be in. The 2005 Alumni Batch, sponsored me for the first ever exposure which I had, to the community of Startups and Makers. It was an event in Ahmadabad, called the Maker Fest. After we got connected, we had a conference call later that day and the next day, I was made ready to fly to Ahmadabad for the Maker Fest. It was an event where makers, startups from all over the country would gather.This was the best exposure so far. I got connected with a lot of makers like Arvind Sanjeev, Jibin Jose, Rohil Dev, Nidhya, Juhaim who were all experts and experienced in the domain already. The fun part was how easily every one synced up in a very short time. Getting connected with the team and spending time with them, was something which helped me a lot moving forward. This was a point, where I realized how important network and getting connected with Like Minded people was. The lesson has helped me with multiple aspects of my life, both personal and professional. And hence the biggest turning point happened, and i got an idea how to take my Startup forward, with the support from the Rethink community and the Alumni of SCT.

    Within a few months, the next event came up which was the Arduino day in Banglore. This was again identified and supported by the 2005 Alumni team. This time, we were much more prepared. Four of us from SCT traveled for the event. Angelin Mary John, Shameer A, Sujith S. This time we were much prepared. We were not there just to see and network, but we had something to present. It was a Brain Controlled Robot. I had this idea of building a brain controlled Robot since long, but the Mindwave sensor kit was expensive for me to afford at that point. This was again when Sandeep Zachariah, connected me with people in Rethink community and from the ALumni who gave me a Mindware Brain Sensor Kit, to prepare for the presentation. This was also when i got connected with the Team of Fin Robotics, which was the brain child of Rohil Dev. Interaction with their team was yet another turning point which gave me much more exposure to a startup environment. Back at the Arduino day, we had a stall for our idea, where we presented our Brain controlled Robot. We also had a networking session organized by Sandeep Zachariah in banglore where we met more people from Rethink team, giving us a better exposure. This was also a part of the initiatives of the Alumni and Rethink community which gave us students an amazing exposure, about what is really happening outside.

    Later, with the support of the Alumni, Rethink community, CEST, friends, i decided to go ahead with my dream of my startup where we started small by designing, developing and manufacturing Home Automation Products. We named it Synapse, and we started manufacturing products. We slowly spread our wings and moved into other domains like Chemical Industry, where we started manufacturing Gas Leak detectors. Most of our Gas Leak Detectors had customers from other countries, and later we also expanded into the area of Research and Development. Our team started developing custom products for clients, based on use cases. At a point, we decided to take a break to understand the market from a different perspective. This was a big change. Shifting from a I have been focussing and learning more in other domains. Currently I work on Industry 4.0 and Digitalization for manufacturing Industries, with Focus on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

 

Still learning, still dreaming, Still evolving !

 

Something i learned from the whole experience mentioned above is,

 

• It is really important to have dreams. May it be big or Small. 
• It is really important to be with the right community who can help you in moving forward. Anyone can get stuck. And we area always afraid of asking for help. Support and guidance from the right people can help in achieving dreams in ways which you can never imagine. Sometimes, these connects happen with time. If it doesn't we should try to find them ourselves. 
•  It is equally important to have a work life balance. You should never have a situation where you think, too much work has made me miss all the good parts of life. OR, too much fun has made negligent about achieving the dreams.

At the end of the day, It is all about Dreams, Networking and finding the Right Balance.