Who are we talking to?
Venkataraman Ramachandran, Mechanical Engineering, 2003–07
Building platforms across the entire value chain for the agri-input industry ||
What does it take to transform Indian farmers’ lives?

Let’s find out more about his journey from campus to digitizing the most difficult, the Agri world.

To start with, after working for so many years, how do you define purpose in your professional life?

I don’t subscribe to the notion of splitting my life energies into professional being and personal being. Each animate each other. What does then purpose mean to me? Purpose is about discovering newer phenomena about myself and the world through working on things which are far outside my comfort zone.

According to you, what is your success mantra?

Living joyfully is the only successful mantra.

From an engineering perspective, what skills would form a stepping stone in your domain of work?

Honestly, I could never discover in my engineering college what it means to be a good engineer. I have an extremely vibrant creative mind and over the last decade, thanks to my eclectic set of experiences working on unorthodox domains, I have developed an array of cross-domain skills that can help me flourish in whatever I set out to do. Key skills which have helped me in that journey are 1) An ability to think on my own and articulate my thoughts in the most cogent manner, thanks to blogging 2) An ability to build my understanding of any domain through first principles, without relying on any short-term guides or conceptual approaches.

With respect to leading an accomplished life, what would be your suggestion to the students of SVNIT?

Stay curious. The World is now a far more open and connected oyster than when I spent my time in SVNIT. “Always stay outside your curriculum” Keep tinkering and building new things.

Would you mind sharing with us, one of your beautiful memories with SVNIT or SVR? (pmc, canteen, hostels, classes)

I met my wife in SVNIT. I used to be a popular singer in the college and it was in staff club, that I started practicing duet songs with my wife to sing in Kashish and Sparsh festival.

P.S — 
The core purpose of this publication is to create a dynamic repository of alums, build content & credibility for in-house seekers to connect and increase general awareness about each other — the SVNITians.

In Conversation, Venky Ramachandran was originally published in Stories & SVNIT on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Who are we talking to?
Anshul Kothari, Computer Engineering, 2012
Professional Athlete, Indian Swimming Team| Master of Business Administration, Indian School of Business

Well, he is an swimmer and his views are like a true athlete.
All swift, short and to-the-point.

To start with, after working for so many years, how do you define purpose in your professional life?

If you feel happy and look forward to the daily grind required for your work, then you have found your purpose.

According to you, what is your success mantra?

Discipline,Self-Belief and Persistence

From an engineering perspective, what skills would form a stepping stone in your domain of work?

The ability to think out of the box solutions for common problems.

With respect to leading an accomplished life, what would be your suggestion to the students of SVNIT?

Stick true to your purpose and chase your dreams along with hard work and self belief. Listen to your heart for your desired goal and use your mind to achieve that goal.

Would you mind sharing with us, one of your beautiful memories with SVNIT or SVR? (pmc, canteen, hostels, classes)

Playing counter-strike with other hostel-mates and also enjoying the conversations with classmates during the lunch break at canteen.

P.S — 
The core purpose of this publication is to create a dynamic repository of alums, build content & credibility for in-house seekers to connect and increase general awareness about each other — the SVNITians.

In Conversation, Anshul Kothari was originally published in Stories & SVNIT on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Who are we talking to?
Ankit Rastogi, Computer Engineering, 2003
Vice President, Cleartrip.com | Leading Accommodation & Activities Business

Look what he had to say and how generous of him to be the first one in the series.

To start with, after working for so many years, how do you define purpose in your professional life?

People Leadership is the hardest skill to be gained. Neither it can be gained in Ivy League B Schools nor by reading the best books. One of the best crack to hacks to learn it is entrepreneurship. Virtues of humility, empathy, listening, staying grounded and peer learning are fundamental to a quality leader. I think if I measure myself on those lines over the last 15 years of my professional life I am glad to some extent it has been purposeful. Still work is in progress. Lastly the connections, camaraderie, teammates bonhomie, colleagues becoming friends and family is the wealth creation done.

According to you, what is your success mantra?

Two which I follow —
1) Ruthless Execution and hard work always win against pure ideation and sheer smartness.
2) Taking things to closure counts a lot more than purely starting. Be in tasks, projects, initiatives etc.

From an engineering perspective, what skills would form a stepping stone in your domain of work?

On the softer skills sides, SVNIT was first place which taught me diversity be it in people, projects, opinions, and ideas. Diversity needs to be nurtured in every aspect of a workplace to get a holistic picture. Purely from my Comps Engineering perspective, the basics learned in terms of applying technology to automate and build consumer solving products have been fundamental in my career graph. I have moved from pure techie roles to product to business and that journey would not have been without SVNIT education.

With respect to leading an accomplished life, what would be your suggestion to the students of SVNIT?

Continue experimenting which ensures our ability to change or accept changes remains inherent, Solve for local problems. Participate in entrepreneurial journeys if not of your own, of others striking close to you. Amount of learning even if those ventures fail are lot accomplishing and wholesome. Lastly, remember unlearning and learning have no age and time, continue cherishing as a student of life and it will be a lot more joyous.

P.S — 
The core purpose of this publication is to create a dynamic repository of alums, build content & credibility for in-house seekers to connect and increase general awareness about each other — the SVNITians.

In Conversation, Ankit Rastogi was originally published in Stories & SVNIT on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

So, we picked this answer from Quora and added it here as a resource.

Here is the link,
https://www.quora.com/Which-graduates-from-SVNIT-Surat-have-made-it-to-the-IIMs-in-the-past-10-years

This answer is by Arvind Jain.

Graduates from SVNIT, Surat who made it to IIM A in the past 8 years was originally published in Stories & SVNIT on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.