01Story 01 · Travelling India
The first monsoon
A boy running barefoot along a muddy road. His feet were still marked by blisters from the summer, yet he was delighted by the rain.
Because, for a little while, his feet no longer burned.
My journey
This is not a collection of achievements.
It is the story of how one experience led to another: from a small world, to Japan, to the people and places of India, to failed experiments, to DoNeki, and eventually back to my school, where I began trying to create for others what I once lacked myself.
Part 01
Before Japan
The world I thought was the world
I grew up in Mhow, a small town surrounded by forests, history, and a life that felt complete because I had never really seen anything else.
Mhow · where it began
The places that made my small world.
The yellow boardEvery trip started and ended at this yellow station board. For years, it marked the edge of the only world I knew.
PatalpaniWhen the rains came, everyone went to watch the water crash into the gorge. Wet shoes, loud laughter, and roasted bhutta on the way home.
Jam GateWe used to drive up to Jam Gate just to stand under the old arch and look at the valley turning gold below.
Bhim JanmabhoomiThe birthplace of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Growing up, it was a quiet reminder that a small town can give the world something very large.
The old streetsThe same streets for school, tuition and evening walks. Back then they felt like the whole world.
Old Mhow, on paperBack to a Town Called Mhow, A Journey Through Places That Once Existed. Old photographs of the same streets, from long before I walked them.
Our shop, my first campaignOne evening I built my own street-side sale setup outside our shop with posters, mannequins and jugaad. Customers didn't rush in. But I had fun doing tiring work.
Mhow · Grade 8
My world was my school, my tuition, my home, my phone, and the people around me.
Then, in Grade 8, I was bullied.
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I did not have much exposure to the world beyond that circle. I had never really explored my passions, travelled deeply, or met enough different kinds of people to question the assumptions I had grown up with. Yet I thought I understood the world.
I had stood up for a friend who was being mocked. I became the target instead. What followed was ridicule, isolation, being made an outcast, and at times being physically hurt. What stayed with me was not only what happened, but the fear it created: the fear of being alone, the fear of being seen as an outcast, the fear of not being approved of.
Grade 8
I stood up for a friend who was being mocked. I became the target instead.
What followed
Ridicule. Isolation. Being made an outcast.
What stayed
The fear of being alone. The fear of not being approved of.
The trap
School was my whole world, so its opinion became my measure.
Later
I needed another world.
Because school was my whole world, I began treating other people's opinions as a measure of my own existence.
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I started trying to earn approval. Sometimes I conformed to people around me. Sometimes I tried to dominate them. I fought. I sought attention. I pretended to be tougher and more confident than I actually was. I became cynical. I was rude and disrespectful toward people, including teachers and even my parents, despite knowing that there were people who genuinely cared about me.
I was not kind.I was not particularly happy either.
I was trying to survive inside a hierarchy I had mistaken for the whole of society.
Years later
Sitting in a school washroom with a group of boys I considered my friends, I looked down at the scar on my hand, the scar from when I had been bullied. I was doing things because they made me look rebellious and gave me attention.
I had begun becoming like the environment that had once hurt me.
What this part meansMoreLess+
- A small world created a narrow understanding of life.
- Bullying created a deep fear of rejection and isolation.
- Fear turned into approval-seeking.
- Approval-seeking turned into conformity, attention-seeking, dominance, pretence, and cynicism.
- I had potential, but I did not yet know how to use it in a way that felt authentic.
The deeper problem was that I had never seen enough of the world to realise that the hierarchy I was so desperate to survive in was only one tiny part of life.I needed exposure.I needed distance.I needed another world.
Part 02
Japan
The world became larger
Then came AFS Japan.
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I had initially joined because it sounded exciting. I did not fully understand how deeply it would affect me. I was selected as the sole participant from India for a roughly five-week intercultural exchange.
On January 20, after another fight at school, my father told me I had been selected. I was almost indifferent. Only after going to my room and sitting down did I understand what it meant: for the first time, I was going abroad alone, across two oceans, to a country I knew almost nothing about.
My mother cried when I left.My father looked at me with a kind of hope I did not yet understand.And I was still carrying the same insecurities with me.
AFS Japan · my host family
Then I met my host family.
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When I arrived, I met students from different parts of the world. But even there, at first, I was still seeking attention. I had changed countries, but I had not changed myself.
5 a.m.
My host mother once travelled roughly 20 kilometres at 5 a.m. because she did not know what I liked to eat and wanted to bring me vegetarian breakfast.
Almost exactly my age
My host brother told me that he too had experienced bullying. But he could speak about it openly, even in front of a crowd.
I did not know what to make of that kind of kindness.
These people did not know my school reputation.They did not know my social position.They did not need anything from me.They simply cared.
Japan · photo dump
Getting lost, adapting, listening.
AFS Japan · the cohort
Strangers from everywhere, then friends.
TokyoPeace signs at a busy Tokyo crossing, a few weeks after we had all been strangers.
AFSStudents from different countries, one AFS flag, and a very green Japanese summer.
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Sometimes I was lying in the quiet countryside. I was getting lost, adapting, listening, making mistakes, and continuing.
And slowly, something happened. The hierarchy I had spent years obsessing over began to look strangely small.
Japan gave me the freedom to choose what kind of person I wanted to be.
Japan did not "fix" me overnight.It gave me perspective.And when I returned, I wanted to see more.
Measurable outcomesJapan
5week intercultural exchange
1sole participant from India, selected through multiple rounds
Elementary / conversational Japanese, with certification
Cross-cultural school and community immersion
Part 03
Travelling India
From seeing the world to seeing my own country
After Japan, I realised something almost embarrassing: I had travelled outside India before truly understanding India.
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So I began exploring. I travelled through villages, forests, tribal regions, towns, and cities. At first, I went simply to see places I had never seen before.
Then I began observing. Different cultures seemed to appear every few dozen kilometres. Different languages. Different ways of eating. Different community structures. Different beliefs. And alongside those differences were different forms of inequality and different social problems.
After Japan
I had travelled outside India before truly understanding India.
So I began exploring: villages, forests, tribal regions, towns, and cities.
01 / 07 · Tribal regions
Baiga tribe
Different cultures seemed to appear every few dozen kilometres: different languages, different ways of eating, different beliefs.
02 / 07 · Villages
Village life
Lives almost completely outside the urban world I knew, where clean water, sanitation and electricity were not a given.
03 / 07 · Faith
Old traditions
Different community structures, different beliefs, and traditions that still shape everyday life.
04 / 07 · Festivals
Culture, lived out loud
The same country, a new face every few dozen kilometres.
05 / 07 · Forests
Into the wild
At first, I went simply to see places I had never seen before.
06 / 07 · Towns
Bhopal
The capital of Madhya Pradesh. Towns and cities came with their own inequalities and social problems.
07 / 07 · Cities
Indore
The city closest to home, seen with new eyes. Travel changed the question I was asking.
Travelling IndiaPlaces I saw
From the road
Places that stayed with me.
Bibi Ka MaqbaraMarble, minarets and a long straight path. It is often called the Taj of the Deccan.
HatchlingsDozens of tiny turtles crawling towards the waves. One of the quietest, most hopeful things I have seen.
Three moments
Then the people became harder to ignore.
02Story 02 · Travelling India
A red light
A child knocking on the glass of my car in traffic, carrying a younger sibling and trying to make a living.
The light turned green. The cars moved. And she disappeared.
03Story 03 · Travelling India
The winter night
An old man lay trembling in the cold. A group of strangers covered him with a bedsheet, and left.
No names. No photographs. No recognition. Just an act of kindness.
Then there was the winter night.
An old man lay on the ground, trembling in the cold.
A group of people appeared.
They covered him with a bedsheet.
And they left.
No names. No photographs. No recognition.
Just an act of kindness.
Travel changed the question I was asking. I stopped asking:"What is outside my world?"And started asking:"What happens to the people living there?"
Measurable outcomesTravelling India
Sustained independent exploration across diverse regions of India
Exposure to rural, tribal, urban and culturally distinct communities
Direct observation of issues later explored through social initiatives
Part 04
Wisdom Talks
Trying to solve my own pain point
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After returning from Japan, I wondered whether other adolescents were facing the same problem. I imagined two groups of people.
World oneYoung people
trapped in school, approval, image, and immediate validation
World twoOlder people
who have lived decades of success, failure, loss, and change
What if those two worlds could meet?
Not for career advice. For perspective.
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I researched adolescence, identity formation, conformity, and youth development. I conducted interviews and surveys with students and older people. I visited old-age homes. Then I tested the idea.
What I didMoreLess+
- Researched adolescent behaviour, identity, conformity, and youth development.
- Conducted interviews and surveys with students and older people.
- Visited old-age homes to explore participation.
- Ran 2–3 pilot sessions connecting adolescents and older people.
- Worked with three collaborators on an early web application.
The problem I carried
Young people, often trapped in school, approval, image, and immediate validation.
The other world
Older people who had already lived decades of life, with time and a desire for meaningful connection.
The question
What if a teenager could sit down with someone who had already lived much more of life?
The point
Not for career advice. For perspective.
Part 04
That became Wisdom Talks.
The pilots did not work the way I expected.And that was important.
The problem was not necessarily the availability of knowledge. It was whether a young person actually wanted to act on it.
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I realised that the content I wanted to give young people was already available everywhere. There were books. There were videos. There were podcasts. There were adults giving advice.
I also realised something more personal: I was still too early in my own journey to believe I could solve this problem. I wanted more exposure. More experience. More credibility.
So I stopped trying to force the idea and kept exploring.
Measurable outcomesWisdom Talks
2–3pilot sessions
3collaborators on an early web app
Research and user interviews conducted
Old-age-home outreach
Part 05
Youth Inspiration
Taking what I had learned to younger students
I knew that feeling. I had once believed my own world was tiny.
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My next initiative came from something I had seen while travelling. I met young people who were intelligent and capable but who seemed to have a very small picture of what was possible for them.
I visited government schools and student NGOs. I worked with younger students, especially Classes 5–8.
StorytellingWorkshopsDiscussionsGamesInteractive activities
There is a much larger world outside the one you currently know.The opportunity may not be equal.But it exists.And you can still try.
Youth Inspiration · in the field
A much larger world, one classroom at a time.
400+students reached across 12+ government schools & student NGOs
Classes 5–8
There is a much larger world outside the one you currently know.
Youth Inspiration · a session
Talking to a whole school ground
A session with students in their school ground: stories, questions and a simple message. There is a much larger world outside the one you currently know, and you can still try.
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Children do not exist in isolation. Their lives are affected by financial circumstances, family problems, abuse, health, where they live, and the environment around them.
Impact requires consistency, time, and understanding the whole environment around a person.
Measurable outcomesYouth Inspiration
12+schools / NGOs
400+students reached
Storytelling, workshops, discussions, games
Part 06 · DoNeki / Good Deeds
What if goodness became visible?
The idea of DoNeki began with an old man on a winter night.
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A group of strangers had covered him with a bedsheet and disappeared. The next day was Diwali. I saw watches, phones, houses, cars, clothes, and wealth being displayed and admired.
And I kept thinking about that bedsheet.
Why does a watch communicate status immediately, while an act of kindness can disappear without a trace?
Not so people could boast about it.But so that it could inspire someone else.What if one act of kindness became the seed for another?
What I didMoreLess+
- Researched altruism, moral psychology, social values, and anthropology.
- Interviewed NGOs and social workers to understand volunteering, trust, funding, and recognition.
- Designed the product logic, scoring framework, user journeys, rewards, and conceptual AI-verification system.
- Coordinated developers and built an early community of NGOs and social workers; met people in person, recorded their work, and tested the platform.
- Refined the target audience after discovering that my first community was not the right market.
- Launched the platform on the Google Play Store.
While building DoNeki, I had to become different people
ResearcherProduct strategistCommunity builderNegotiatorSocial workerStorytellerEntrepreneur
DoNeki is still being built.
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I had never been a programmer, so I learned to communicate product logic to developers instead. I had to persuade social workers who initially believed that good work should remain private. I had to think about how AI could verify deeds, and whether goodness could fairly be measured. And I had to accept that my first target audience was wrong.
Founder · DoNekiRecognition, rewritten
I once wanted recognition because I wanted to be seen.
Now I was building a system in which people could be recognised for what they gave.
~2,000users~200verified deeds10–15partner NGOs
DoNeki in the field
Small acts, recorded.
Sanskar Shivir · Mhow
Goodness that happens quietly
A free camp for children from underprivileged families: yoga, discipline, meditation, stories and stick training. We recorded it and shared its story.
Shukla Tent House · Mhow
Free cane juice in the heat
Through the peak of summer, the family behind Shukla Tent House served free sugarcane juice to passers-by and bus passengers. No banners, nothing asked in return.
Roadside · Mhow
Biscuits for a roadside settlement
Beside the highway, families live in tarpaulin shelters below the road. We stopped with a carton of Parle-G and handed packets to the children and parents who came up to the railing.
With Kavach Samajik Sanstha
Clothes for children
With Kavach Samajik Sanstha, a local social organisation, we joined a drive where children from the community received clothes and essentials. DoNeki recorded the work so it would be seen.
18 Sep 2026 · Madhya Bharat Hospital, Mhow
Blood donation camp
A blood donation camp held at Madhya Bharat Hospital in Mhow, with the Rotary Club of Mhow Cantt. DoNeki documented the donors and shared the story to encourage others to give.
Bahuuddeshiya Seva Samiti
A home for 34 years of care
For over three decades, Bahuuddeshiya Seva Samiti has cared for underprivileged children. We met the team, sat with the children at mealtime, and recorded their work, including their plan to build a bigger home.
Filmed on the ground · 3 visits
Places where goodness lives.
01
Rajdhani Ashram · Old age home
A song for the elders
A music event at Rajdhani Ashram, an old age home, performed by a highly talented group of disabled artists. Residents gathered under the tent to listen, and the performers showed what they had worked on. Two groups that are often overlooked, sharing one afternoon.
MusicEldersDisabled artists
02
Roopankan · Zero-fee library
A library that charges nothing
Roopankan is a library with zero fees for ambitious students. The students here do all the work themselves, from making food to cleaning the bathroom. Every room has a story based on its name, and the whole building is filled with posters and art.
Free learningSelf-runArt
03
Sarvahitam · Cow shelter
Feeding the shelter, meeting the kids
At Sarvahitam, the group laid out fresh green fodder for the cows in the shelter, then spent time with the children there, handing things out one by one. Small, hands-on work, done without a stage.
Animal careChildrenHands-on
The biggest lesson so far
A good idea is not enough.
A social problem cannot always be solved simply by making an app.
- Understand people.
- Test assumptions.
- Be willing to hear “no.”
- Rebuild when reality disagrees with you.
Measurable outcomesDoNeki / Good Deeds
~2,000users
~200verified deeds
10–15NGOs in the community
10–15social workers / volunteers
2,000–4,000views per community post
AI-integrated app on the Google Play Store
Part 07
Head Boy
Returning to the place where it all began
Eventually, I became Head Boy of my school. That felt strangely circular.
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This was the same environment in which I had once been intensely concerned with peer approval and social hierarchy. Now I wanted to change the environment itself.
15 August 2026 · Investiture
Head Boy, New Digamber Public School
Head Boy, investiture ceremony01 / 14Scroll or drag
My vision: to make our school an ecosystem where each student
- has safe opportunities to explore and participate
- has a little idea about what they want to do in future
- is authentic and knows what actually matters
On record
Students’ Council Election · speech
The Head Boy speech
Speaking to the whole school during the Students’ Council election campaign, in front of students and teachers who would vote. The vision: a school where every student has safe opportunities to explore, some idea of their future, and the confidence to be authentic.
What I did as Head Boy
Electedby student + teacher vote, ~800 students
Elected
Elected Head Boy through student and teacher voting in a school of about 800 students. The same school where I once cared intensely about peer approval.
Competitionsintra-school competitions & events
Competitions
Organised intra-school competitions and events, so each student has safe opportunities to explore and participate.
Intra-MUNhelped organise, 200+ participants
Intra-MUN
Helped organise an intra-school MUN with 200+ participants, building on the 4–5 MUN conferences I took part in myself.
Bizfinityhelped organise, across 8 schools
Bizfinity
Helped organise Bizfinity across 8 schools, along with other inter-school events.
Teachers' Dayfully organised by the student council
Teachers' Day
Fully organised Teachers' Day through the student council.
Open doorsformal channels to share opportunities more equally
Open doors
Created formal channels for distributing opportunities more equally, so a student's world does not stay small.
Career guidancesupported sessions for students
Career guidance
Supported career-guidance sessions, so each student has a little idea about what they want to do in future.
How do we make sure a student's world does not stay small?
Measurable outcomesHead Boy
~800students; elected by student + teacher vote
200+Intra-MUN participants
8schools at Bizfinity
Teachers' Day, organised by the student council
Formal opportunity-distribution mechanism
Career-guidance sessions
Part 08
Academic Journey
Learning inside the classroom, too
MoreLess+
The things I studied often intersected with what I was exploring outside school: markets, incentives, product design, numbers, and how systems work.
Commerce gave me a way to think about organisations and entrepreneurship.Mathematics gave me a way to think about structure and measurement.My projects gave those ideas somewhere to be tested in the real world.
Measurable outcomesAcademic journey
90%Grade 9
92.7%Grade 10
90.5%Grade 11 · Rank #1 of 118
98.75%Grade 12 predicted (97.6% with Maths)
1430SAT
1470SAT superscore
Part 09 · School
Building, speaking, competing
A · Startup Club
A safe place to try.
Founded and led with teachers. Every Friday, 70–80 students pitch ideas, work on them independently, and return with measurable progress.
- 01Problem discovery
- 02Validation
- 03Solution design
- 04Prototyping
- 05MVP
Friday session
Let students fail while failure is still safe.
AStartup Club
FOUNDER
Startup Club
70–80students mentored every Friday
- Founded & leads it with teachers
- Problem discovery → validation → MVP
- Students pitch, build, return with progress
Let students fail while failure is still safe.
BIAYP Silver
AWARD
IAYP Silver
₹20,000raised for NGOs (approx.)
- Service & fundraising · 26 weeks
- Marketing · 26 wks · Athletics · 52 wks
- Adventurous journey · 3 days / 2 nights
The harder part is continuing when nothing feels new anymore.
CSpeaking
ON STAGE
Speaking
20–40minute sessions for hundreds of students
- Speeches & student sessions
- Entrepreneurship · AFS
- Discipline · student development
Less about performing, more about making an idea land with another person.
DTennis
COMPETITOR
Tennis
#4Under-12 ranking, Madhya Pradesh
- Competed from a young age
- ~1 hour a day, 7 days a week
The quieter side of discipline, the part that exists when nobody is watching.
EJapanese
CERTIFIED
Japanese
日本語elementary / conversational, certified
- Learned through AFS immersion
- Kept studying after returning
- Step Up Nihongo · Steps 1 & 2
Japanese taught me how to be comfortable not knowing.
FModel UN
DELEGATE
Model UN
4–5MUN conferences
- Researched, debated, negotiated in committee
- Organised an intra-school MUN · 200+ participants
Knowing when to defend an idea and when to rethink it.
IAYP · Silver · 01 / 02
IAYPInternational Award for Young People · recognised by school
Silver Level, completed.
New Digamber Public School congratulated me (XI C) and Shubham Hablani (XI D) on completing the Silver Level of the International Award for Young People.
A year of service, skills, physical recreation and an adventurous journey. The numbers are below.
An honest note · shared on LinkedIn
“I don’t fully feel like I earned it.”
When the Silver Award came, I wrote publicly that I had stayed consistent with physical activity, but had not done as much volunteering or skill-building as others around me. Some classmates who gave far more time received bronze.
That reality didn’t sit right with me, and I said so. Owning that gap mattered more than the medal.
Measurable outcomesIAYP Silver, in numbers
104hours of commitmentIAYP Silver · 1 year
- Service & fundraising26 h1 hr/week · 26 wks
- Marketing & business26 h1 hr/week · 26 wks
- Athletics52 h1 hr/week · 52 wks
₹20,000raised for NGOsIAYP Silver
3D/2Nadventurous journeyIAYP Silver
Records
Certificates
AFS JapanAward of Courage01 / 15
Part 10 · Building in public
Telling the journey as it happened
My journey, in my own words
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