When I joined the Sunday Times the people I was competing with were all 10 or 15 years younger, they all had double firsts from Oxford or Cambridge, they were all bright as new pins.
I joined the Madras Christian College but dropped out after three months. Telugu music director Ramesh Naidu asked me to assist him, and I did so for over a year. I did think of rejoining college, but by then, I was discovering the musician in me. I worked with Illaya Raja and Raj Koti and soon shifted to commercials. This led to movie offers.
I was in high school and 9/11 happened. My boyfriend joined the army and I was extremely disgusted with this war fervour.
I joined Planned Parenthood because I wanted to help poor women with real health care needs.
I decided to do theatre intensely. I joined Makarand Deshpande's group Ansh. He became my guru. That's where I met Anurag Kashyap and Kay Kay Menon. These were the people who supported and inspired me.
My story is similar to every ordinary Indian boy's tale. My father wanted me to become an engineer or a professional but I was sure that I have to be in the Hindi film industry. I joined college through the quota for extra curricular activities but I am still not a graduate.
I did plays in high school, but I was convinced you couldn't make a living doing it. You don't have a lot of options in Indiana anyway, though, so I didn't want to stay there. I graduated early and worked a bunch of really odd jobs, and then I joined the Marines.
AIM started in 1997, and I remember when I started using it in earnest, in 1999, when I joined TheStreet.com from 'The San Jose Mercury News'. We digital journalism pioneers communicated obsessively by AIM, and as a newbie, I recall being amazed that the whole newsroom was 'chatting' this way.
For the past, I guess, three years or so when I joined Bullet Club and as a member of The Elite, I was honestly kind of in the shadow of all of my friends.
My life did a 180 when I joined Bullet Club. Joining Bullet Club opened the door to New Japan for me. It made me more valuable.
