OUT OF OFFICE
Wondering what I'm up to off the clock?
Here's a sneak peek at what fills my hours after the laptop closes…
Strengthening My Roots
My parents, my husband Ravi, who spent years as "boyfriend" before finally earning the promotion and the in-laws I now live with.
Keeping My People Close
The office crew that made work not feel like work. Board game nights, in-house DJ parties, cafe-hopping missions nobody planned in advance — we just knew how to have a good time together. And when the company needed a model for a product shoot, I put my hand up, got in front of the camera with the videographer, and just went for it. Turns out "wears many hats" isn't just a resume line.
Exploring New Places
My grandfather was in the Air Force, always being transferred, and my dad grew up used to new places, then passed that same restlessness on to us. Every two to three years, our family picks a new corner of India to fall in love with, from Kashmir's snow to Kanyakumari's coast. If I've been given a lifetime on this planet, I'd actually like to use it, so there's still so much of India and the world left on my list, like a bioluminescent beach, a black-sand shore, and the northern aurora.
Chasing Unique Experiences
I say yes to things my nervous system immediately regrets. Scuba diving in Andaman felt surreal, and the Formula Rossa, the fastest roller coaster on earth, had us queuing for three hours before doing it anyway (0 to 240 km/h in four seconds). At Sea World I got to pet a stingray easily half my size, plus a baby shark and some starfish, in a safe space that let me be brave for once. In the Maldives, my husband and I, both shaky swimmers, went deep-sea snorkelling with no visible ocean floor in sight and somehow still loved every second. I'm always a little in awe of nature and a little scared of it too, but I keep saying yes anyway.
Letting Creativity Flow
In 11th and 12th, buried in PCM textbooks, I needed a creative outlet, so I picked up nail art. Later, once my work moved fully into digital spaces, I found myself craving something tangible again, so I picked up painting and pottery too. Something about making a piece with my own hands, one that actually exists in the world, feels different from anything I make on a screen.
Dancing My Heart Out
My mother enrolled me in Kathak as a kid, and it turns out I was annoyingly good at catching choreography: two or three tries and I had it, which meant on literal day one of college dance club, I went from newest member to unofficial teacher while the seniors took a breather. That confidence eventually got me best friends, inter-college competitions, and — fun twist — a husband, who was one of those seniors' friends. Life's come full circle: I choreographed a five-minute solo for my own engagement, one song each for the three states in our story.
Adulting after marraige
Turns out being a product designer prepared me for marriage more than I expected — empathy is basically the whole job, and now I'm using it to understand a household that thinks differently than the one I grew up in. Also learning, for the first time in my adult life, how to actually run a house — my parents handled everything before this, so cooking (under my chef-trained husband's very patient guidance), chopping (I'm genuinely excellent at this now), and general adulting are all new terrain. Slow, occasionally chaotic, oddly proud-of-myself kind of growth.
