"History will be kinder to me"

Kargil Vijay Diwas. 25 years, man. Sitting here, staring at my laptop, trying to give a shit about this quarter's numbers. But my mind's somewhere else today. You know that guy in HR who's always on your case? Or that teammate who stole your idea in the last meeting? Feels like the end of the world sometimes, right? Then I think about those soldiers in Kargil and every other frontier. Guys our age, probably dreaming about normal stuff - girlfriends, bikes, maybe a cool job. Instead, they're dodging bullets, watching their buddies fall, all for what? So we can sit here and argue over who gets the window seat in the office. Makes our "problems" look like a joke, doesn't it? Remember that time you lost sleep over your annual review? Those soldiers lost sleep wondering if they'd see another sunrise. We stress about meeting targets. They had actual targets on their backs. Not saying our issues aren't real. They are. But maybe, just maybe, we could cut each other some slack sometimes? That colleague who messed up your presentation - maybe they're dealing with shit we know nothing about. To those brave souls who never made it back - I don't have the right words. "Thank you" feels hollow, but it's all I've got. Your sacrifice is the reason I can sit here, complain about my boss, and plan my next vacation. To the families left behind - I can't even begin to imagine your pain. Hope you know that your loved ones' courage hasn't been forgotten. And to those still bearing the scars, visible and invisible - you deserve way more than just one day of remembrance. So yeah, next time I'm about to lose it over some office drama or a messed up Excel sheet, I'll try to remember this feeling. Try to be a bit kinder, a bit more patient. Because at the end of the day, we're the lucky ones. We get to be here, doing our 9-to-5, planning our weekends. All thanks to those who put everything on the line. Jai Hind. 🇮🇳 Let's talk about this. What are you guys thinking today?

My father worked as a peon when I was a kid. I barely had any friends and could not afford any toys. He used to work really long hours everyday. He was sleeping when I went to school and I was sleeping when he got back from work. So we never really talked. I was not good at studies during school, later I got to know that I had severe ADHD. My teachers used to say that I am good for nothing and very talkative all my life which gave me a lot of anxiety. I got into a CSE at a Tier 2 college. This was with the help of my cousin sister who used to tutor me after school and taught me how to think from fundamentals. In college my seniors used to do a lot of ragging and make us not have food in the hostel mess. I lost a lot of weight and ended up with jaundice. This was the reason why I had a very bad CGPA in first year, <6. Slowly over the years I was able to bring it over 7. I got into a service based company after college with a CTC of 3.75 LPA. I did not have any offers and I did not have anyone for guidance in my life. That is when I started to pick up some freelancing gigs and talked to people from other countries and cultures which educated me about top tech companies. So I started preparing for that. I was rejected a total of 4 times by Amazon which completely broke me from the inside. Meanwhile my father got stomach cancer and he passed away. To this day my deepest regret is that my father did not see me finally achieving success in my life and till his last moments I am sure he thought of me as a failure son. As I moved through my career I made a goal of reaching Google. I prepared very hard for an entire year with a lot of studying and preparation. Finally I got into Google. My family became very happy for me as I was the first person in my entire extended family to get such a package. After a lifetime of struggle I was finally content with where I am. My only wish is that my father was here and his struggle for providing me with the best was not wasted.

Do you think your startup's founders are like this?

[TL;DR former National quizzing champ dropped out of B. Tech in 2020 during peak of addiction and depression . Got over it and sober in Jan'23, resumed college and completed my B. Tech in Feb'24. Picked up coding again and feel ready for a job now Should I be honest or lie about the gap? Been ghosted my few recruiters whom I was honest with.] JS developer here. I used to be a decent student, public speaker and one of the best quizzers in the college scene (former National Champ). But I never addressed some traumatic events that took place in my life before I turned 16. My depression took refuge in substance abuse and I abandoned all studies/career prospects during the pandemic. Eventually after 7 years of using, I got clean/sober in Jan'23 and resumed my studies. I earned my degree but on paper it took me 8 years to complete a 4 year B. Tech (2016-24). Reasonably I get asked about the gap in my academics by hr/recruiters whom I push my CV to. I've been dead honest to them about my struggles with mental health and addiction in the past. And I've been getting ghosted. (It could be because of skill reasons on my part but I'm not even getting a feedback). Should I not tell recruiters the truth about the gap? Should I leave the addiction bit out? How should I word it? I've never held a real coding job before but been slogging for the last 6 months to get better each day (my github and projects will reflect that). Please help me out with all your valuable suggestions. If you're a tech recruiter let me know how you would perceive my case.

Check pinned tweet 😂

Life has become so dry and meaningless nowadays. Struggle connects us on some level. I’d love to hear your stories of struggle and how you overcame it. Here’s my story. I studied B.E for 7 years because of backlogs. Every year was a new batch, no friends. Extreme depression, humiliation everywhere. Isolated myself from an extremely judgmental society. Confidence had no meaning in my life. Somehow struggled and cleared all the backlogs. Studied programming and web design. Started working for free. After 1 year, first salary was 2k per month. Then 18k. Then 30k. I always felt dumb because of the backlogs. Want to rectify it. So went to the US with the only admit I got. Studied my ass off. GPA 3.95. But I was broke again. Cried my eyes out multiple times because I had no money for food. Couldn’t tell this to parents. Found a job later after many many applications. Happiest moment of achievement was when I bought my first 43 inch LED TV. With my own money. Current pay: over 2L / mo.