A small-town beginning
No metro college, no head start, no map. Just a stubborn interest in how machines and numbers behaved, and people willing to answer my questions.
About me
I am an engineer who never stopped being a student.
Numbers first, ego last, and a joke somewhere in the middle. This page is the long version.
I grew up without a shortcut. No metro college, no industry contacts, no one to tell me which skill would matter in five years. What I did have was an obsession with how things worked — machines, networks and, before all of that, mathematics.
I still think in plain arithmetic rather than adjectives. Write the numbers down — hours, effort, outcomes — and most confusion clears by itself.
The rest of my day job is uptime. Twenty-seven years of power, cooling, networks, servers, storage and the quiet discipline of being accountable when nothing is allowed to fail.
Away from the racks, I write. Poems and songs, in Hindi, Punjabi and English, usually at hours no reasonable person is awake. And I tell jokes that are, by any objective measure, terrible — which has never once discouraged me.
The road here
Four turns that shaped the work
27 years inside critical infrastructure
From hands-on operations to leading enterprise IT and data center estates — designing halls, running teams, being accountable when the world expects zero downtime.
Among the Magnificent CIOs of India
Recognition was pleasant. What stayed with me was noticing how many brilliant candidates I had to reject for reasons that were never their fault.
Building what I never had
I founded XOR Bit Infotech for the technology work, and One Great Mentor for the mission — giving students from Tier 2 and Tier 3 India direction, exposure and real skills.
What I hold to
Four things I do not negotiate
Integrity first
If it cannot be said plainly, it should not be done at all.
Numbers over noise
Opinions are cheap. Show me the measurement.
Excellence without ego
Do the boring parts brilliantly. That is the whole secret.
Keep it human
Careers are people. Laugh, listen, then give the honest answer.
Off the clock
The part of me that has nothing to do with work
Take away the racks, the slides and the classrooms, and this is what is left.
Family is the centre
Everything else is scaffolding. A home that feels warm, a table worth sitting at, and people who know they are loved without having to ask.
Faith, quietly held
I plan carefully and then let go. Some part of every good thing in my life arrived without my permission, and I have learned to be grateful rather than clever about it.
Always a student
Curiosity has never left. A new subject, a new instrument, a new city — I would rather be a beginner often than an expert only once.
Fun is not optional
Good food, music, a long table of loud friends, and laughter that is slightly out of proportion to the joke. Life is meant to be enjoyed out loud.
Health in moderation
Light exercise, real rest, a bit of indulgence and no drama about any of it. I intend to stay around, and stay useful, for a long time.
Give what you were not given
Culture, art, teaching, a word put in for someone who needs it. If I can hand someone the chance I had to build myself, that is the day well spent.
How I teach
Multi-Skill Mastery (MSM)
One deep mastery, a stack of adjacent skills, and the mindset to keep both alive for a whole career.
Excel
Academic depthGo deep in one mastery until your capability is demonstrable, not merely claimed.
Expand
Industry breadthStack adjacent skills so your profile becomes a combination employers rarely find.
Evolve
Mental fortitudeHabits, discipline and professional maturity — the part that keeps you relevant.
M MenteeI ImplementerR ResearcherA AchieverC ChampionL LeaderE Executive