About Me

Date: Oct 9, 2018

I hail from Chennai, a coastal city in Southern India with 2 climates - hot and bloody hot. Did I mention it's also humid all the time? Nevertheless, it's a great city with amazing food and genuinely affable people. Like most kids in India, I took up engineering and pretty much followed a seemingly standard career path. The only difference is I really love STEM research and I'm reasonably good at it.

I've been living in Canada since August 19th 2015. I lived in Edmonton for two years, a few months in Vancouver (downtown near Stanley Park!) and currently in Toronto. It has been quite an interesting ride so far. As with all travelers, I've begun to see things in a different light. I've done a fair bit of traveling and I intend to continue doing the same :) A significant proportion of my fond memories are associated with India. Though I take pleasure in criticizing the government, the education system and the Indian community I hold so dear, it comes from a place of love and not hatred or some twisted inferiority complex.

I've been fortunate enough to work with a lot of intelligent people over the years. It keeps me on my toes and pushes me outside my comfort zone. As a result, I've come to value humility, transparency and the ability to articulate ideas clearly. The sins of my past have also taught me to value honest, straightforward conversations.

As evident from my writing style, I can (at times) come across as an arrogant, pretentious prick. I'd be lying if I said I don't have such moments. After all, I'm flawed and human. But I try hard to keep myself grounded. I'm a huge fan of Salman Rushdie, Shashi Tharoor and James Spader's grandiloquent style of speaking and writing. Robin Williams had it right in Dead Poets Society - ”Language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women… - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.” Hence, I try to emulate these great men with a hint of candidness in my posts.

Techie Intro

I'm the guy who's working towards making Terminators a reality. Kidding aside, I'm passionate about Robotics and AI. I'm a self-proclaimed bibliophile who ends up binge-watching movies and TV shows. I'm interested in building machines with human-like intelligence. It helps me better understand my own brain from a computational perspective and augment myself when the machines take over. For more, please visit my academic portfolio.

What Do I Do Outside Of Work?

I love to travel with my friends and family. Something about roaming around the streets of a new city, soaking in the culture and enjoying the local cuisine is extremely appealing to me. Hiking with a small, close knit group is always fun. I'm currently learning to play the guitar. Recently, I've been bitten by the fitness bug - I bike to work (rain, snow or shine) and try to workout regularly. Yoga has proven to be a game changer - strengthens my core and improves my flexibility.

Favourite Books

In no particular order - War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, Life and Fate, The Fountainhead, The Godfather, A God of Small Things, Midnight's Children, A Fine Balance, The Hitchhikers series, Catch 22, We, The Harry Potter series, Ponniyin Selvan.

If you want judge me based on what I read: Goodreads profile

Favourite Movies

The list is huge and I'd love to discuss cinema in person. A small subset of my favourites:

  • English: Fight Club, Back to the Future, Logan, Forrest Gump, John Wick, The Dark Knight, Good Will Hunting, Shawshank Redemption, most of Nolan, Guy Ritchie and Tarantino's works
  • Hindi: Gangs of Wasseypur, Rang De Basanti, 3 Idiots, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
  • Other: City of God, The Intouchables, Memories of Murder
  • Tamil: Aval Appadithan, Devar Magan, Varumaiyin Niram Sivappu, Vaaranam Aayiram, Padayappa, Anbe Sivam, Ullathai Alli Tha, Pariyerum Perumal, a large proportion of Kamal Haasan, Selvaraghavan, Vetri Maaran, Karthik Subburaj and Mani Ratnam's works