a step in my life where it wasn't based on anybody or anything else it was just for me at the time I wasn't seeing anybody so I was single so I didn't need to worry about like responsibilities or you know my bird calling me up and saying why are you doing this or I had no restrictions basically and I was just my own man it was beautiful I got there and my brother he lives at a beautiful beautiful beautiful like almost like a resort type of gated community it's called Riviera Gardenia and it's it's a beautiful beautiful establishment that basically has villas within a big garden so we had a swimming pool we had gardens around there's trees everywhere lawns and then just huge villas so the first time I entered his house I was like bloody hell man this is huge it's like three bhk as they call it here in India and a three bedroom hall kitchen basically and it's vastly huge he had an upper floor so that was one of the first times that I've ever been in a house that had an upper floor that was kind of a new experience it was really nice he had his own studio set up in one of the rooms in the house and he obviously has two kids my niece and nephew love them dearly and it was an absolute experience the first the first few days I was there was actually the happiest to be honest because I realized that I now live at Goa and I've got all these opportunities and things that could happen and I was lining up interviews and and I'd reached there on the 9th of April just a few days after we had decided in the first place and I just upped and left and the 9th of April on the 11th of April is my birthday so I was really excited for my birthday and my first birthday in Goa and one of the first times that I would be living alone in Goa I mean technically I wasn't living alone because I was living with my brother and his wife and kids but it was the first time I was away from like mum and dad and you know generally in a different environment altogether I mean it's a different state altogether so Um, the first few days were brilliant, man. We had so much fun. I brought my birthday in with blast. We had so much fun on my birthday. I got to sing. I got to, I even danced a little. So if you know me, you know, I don't dance. I've got three left feet rather than just two left feet. So for me, dancing is a big no, no, you know, I can't do it. I can't, I can't, I just feel stupid when I do it. So, but the time, you know, cause I felt so free. I felt liberated that I finally made the move and I'm in a new state and I'm in go of all the bloody states, the place that everybody loves. And, um, we had a great time actually. And my birthday went by and the next day I had to go out for interviews. And what do you know? As soon as I woke up in the morning, the first thing my brother has to tell me is that they're bloody announcing a new lockdown again, cause there's been another wave of COVID. And I was like devastated, man. Cause I just left everything in common there. And they were proposing it's going to be a six month lockdown. And me not having any bloody money and having to survive there for six months was a challenge because the whole plan was to move there, get a job immediately. As soon as you get your job, you know, start working and make money. Right. That's how most of us survive. And I would, I, I was kind of like a paycheck to paycheck kind of person, you know, I never really had life savings or I didn't believe in investments and I didn't have any emergency rainy day funds or anything like that. So I just kind of lived in the moment. And in my, it was just irresponsibility, but we'll talk about that some other time. And, um, I got there and I was thinking, bloody hell, how am I going to survive six months without any bloody money? You know? And especially, um, with the fact that I was living at my brother's house and he had to support me and he had his own family. He had his own two kids. He had his wife, he had his, his own responsibilities. And on top of that, me being a burden on it. And it was, um, to say the least, it was one of the most challenging times of my life. I definitely got to know a lot about myself, a lot about how people can, can behave and how family reacts to you when they're under pressure, especially, um, fear and pressure and doubt and, and regret is a huge, huge, huge, huge demon. And, um, what ended up happening was, uh, there was a few good days. There was a few bad days, but mostly bad days because we kept ending, I kept ending up fighting with my brother because, um, um, he would constantly remind me of the fact that I'm living there for free and the fact that I'm not working or at least not trying to look for work. And I was like, yeah, it's bloody locked down. What do you expect me to do? And it's not like I was just, you know, not doing anything. I was actually calling a lot of consultancies and trying to call friends, trying to go online and find work online. I was trying everything in my power to try and make some money, but it didn't work out. And, uh, luckily for me, luckily enough, um, the, the number of, COVID cases kept coming down and, and, uh, the government kind of got it under control. People were healing, people were getting discharged from the hospitals and in general, um, you know, things were opening up a bit more. And that's when I actually, I went ahead and I applied for Audi at Goa. And that was one of the scariest things I could have done because I, although I did have a bit of experience here and there, I didn't have any concrete experience. And I, I had a manager and I said, Hey man, I'd like to work here. And do you have any openings? And he said, no. And that kind of disappointed me because, you know, uh, that was one of the main things that I wanted to do was get back into car sales. And especially with a brand like Audi, that's, that's pretty much the best thing you could do. Right. So, um, I finally called the manager. I convinced him somehow to at least take a look at my resume. And, um, he, he obliged, but at the same time, he didn't really seem excited. So I'll kind of let you go. And I, I, uh, I happened to get an opportunity to do an audiobook again. This seems to bring up audiobook a lot, but yeah. Um, um, I had an audiobook opportunity, uh, but that meant I had to come back to Mumbai and, uh, you know, ironically enough, it was a very short deadline and the, the manager wanted me to come immediately. And I told him, man, I just got here a few days ago. Things haven't been that great. It's not been that swell. And I don't really have the resources to just up and leave. And luckily enough, the, the, the producer slash manager of the audiobook was kind enough to sponsor, uh, what would be my first flight. And that was, uh, one of the cooler experiences that I had is the first time I had ever flown. I'd never been in the plane before, never really been to more than the entrance or the outside of an airport. So it was very exciting for me and especially to be able to do it, um, for free, wherein I didn't have to pay anything, um, the, the company or rather the, the, the producer slash, um, manager for the audiobook had sponsored it. So it was absolutely cheeky of me, uh, to just go ahead and, you know, try and, um, see how much I could pull out of that. And I, I just kind of just brought it up during conversation actually, but before, when he asked me how am I going to travel, I was like, oh, I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I was like, I don't really have the resources. I can't ride back. Cause I'll be too tired to do the, to do the audiobook in the first place. So he said, no worries, mate. I got you. And he booked me a tickets and everything. And I was like a bit cheeky. And I was like, Hey, do you think we could, uh, do business class? And he said, do you know how much business class costs? And I was like, no. And then he said, why don't you go look it up online? And then that's what I did. And I realized how bloody expensive it is. And I was happy to just be in a plane. So, um, I got to the airport and that was a whole experience. Cause the, the first time around, I didn't know you had to take off your belt. You had to take off everything you're wearing basically, except for your clothes. Obviously you keep clothes on, but you have to take off belts. You have to take out your wallet. You have to take out your keys. You can't keep anything in your pockets. You've got in, in certain cases, they would even make you take off your shoes if they have reasonable doubt. And so, um, the first time around, I kept going through the metal detector and the first time I left my belt on the second time I had keys in my pocket. The third time, my wallet was still in my pocket. And, uh, the second time I had keys in my pocket, my wallet was still in my pocket. And, uh, the security guard kind of caught on to the fact that it was one of my, maybe my first flights. I kind of looked at him and I sheepishly smiled. I gave him a bit of a cheeky, you know, I'm sorry, kind of look. And he looked at me and he went, is this your first time? And I was like, yes, absolutely. This is my first time. And he's like, okay, not to worry. Just take out everything that's in your pockets. Nothing at all, except for your bloody jeans should be on you. And I was like, yeah, man, but if I take off my belt, my pants are going to fall off. What do I do about that? And he's like, just hold on to them. You just have to walk through the metal detector once you're on the other side, you can put your belts back on. But for now we need you to take off anything that would set off the metal detector. And that's what I did. And I flew back to Bombay with, uh, to Mumbai, rather, sorry, they don't call it Bombay anymore, but I flew back to Mumbai and, um, I thought it was the end of my Goa journey, especially considering the fact that, you know, I was, I was not really finding too many opportunities and car sales. And the few of them that I did find were paying so badly that it just didn't, not make feasible sense to be able to live there and sustain there with that kind of money. So I came back to try and do this audio book to kind of fund myself for the next few weeks, if nothing else, and to try and get back to Goa maybe. And, uh, during my time at Mumbai, I went and tried to do the audio book, but then me and my manager kind of had a little bit of a fallout and he, he wasn't really interested. Um, he didn't have the right knowledge or guidance to be able to provide me as an artist. And me, as an artist, um, I wasn't, um, comfortable working with him because he kept, he kept criticizing everything I did. And then every time I tried to change it, he wouldn't want me to go back to the older one. And I was just confused. I'm like, man, you decide what you need, what you want, right? You can't just keep telling me to do things and then I'm going to be okay with it. Plus not to mention that I'd left Goa, come back and spent a lot of time and energy to be there. And all I was getting was negative feedback or negative, um, behavior from him. And he didn't really see me as a person. And I was like, well, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm like, he wanted to take me on. So I went ahead and just canceled it on him or rather I didn't cancel it. I'd like to think I canceled it, but it was him that told me that maybe this is not going to work out. And maybe you just need practice more before you can do something like this. And I was like, okay, I took it with a pinch of salt and I came away from there. And that's when it got really bad. Cause then that's when it dawned on me that probably I might not be able to move back to Goa, especially considering that I've not gotten paid for something that I came all the way here for. Um, the only good thing was absolutely, I mean, the only good thing was that he actually paid the ticket. So I didn't have to, you know, at least I saved on traveling back to Mumbai. And once that happened, I pretty much lost all hope. I approached an old friend who has a real estate firm and he basically had a few employees and he, he works, uh, for selling new commercial as well as residential properties. And I told him, Hey man. And, um, to be honest, I had worked with him in the past, but again, one of his partners and me didn't really get along and we had to kind of fall out with them. So, um, I kind of left him. And at that point in time, he didn't have his own company, but, um, yeah, he, he was, uh, he was handling a few people here and there. So it was, um, a small establishment. You can say they didn't really have an office or anything. They used to work out of like, um, the places where new constructions were happening. They always had like a small, um, area where you could sit and do calling or just, you know, do whatever you wanted to do. And, and, and, you could sit and do calling or just to entertain guests and stuff like that. So we used to work out of those kinds of places. And I went back to him and I told him, Hey man, you know, I've got myself in a bit of a pickle and I don't have a job and I need to start making money and I need to do something which is going to be able to provide me with, um, income basically and the job so that I don't have too much of a big gap on my resume as well. So I approached him and I told him, man, can you, can you do something for me? Can, is it possible to, um, employ me? You know, point blank asked him that. And, um, he was kind enough to go ahead and not only employ me, but also give me a team leader position in his company. And all of this has happened within the span of two days. I've met him, um, the previous evening and the next morning he called me into the office and he already, he was so excited that he already had cards printed out in my name and he was introducing me to the team. And what do you bloody know? The next day, um, as I was on the way to the office, literally, I just stopped at, uh, on my local cigarette shop to pick up cigarettes. And I get a call from bloody Audi and Audi is telling me that we have an opportunity in Goa. It's for a training program. It's a six month long period where you train under Audi India, Audi India, and then you get a certification. Once you get the certification, you can be a certified salesperson for the company. And I was like, bloody hell mate, now what? You know, so just when I thought things were going to go really bad and I kind of fixed the situation somewhat, it, life just threw another curve ball at me. You know, I had to decide now whether or not I, um, maintain my promise to my friend who was so willing and so helpful and so excited, or do I pursue my own passion and careers? Um, you know, and at that point in time, um, my passion or career, um, orientation was more towards the automotive side of things. And I wanted to do car sales, especially considering the bonuses and the incentives and the kind of money that I'd seen a few of my peers from college doing, like a few of them were working at car showrooms, not necessarily Audi, but they were working at various showrooms and they were telling me about the amounts of money they're making on just incentives. You know, when you sell a car, you get an incentive, you get a small portion of how much ever the value of the car, is as your own. And, um, it was so confusing, but with a heavy heart, I told my friend no, and I turned down his opportunity and I ended up going back to Goa. And that was another exciting whole six months period wherein I was working at Audi. And, um, six months later, they started making, um, COVID vaccines mandatory and me being an anti-vaxxer. I mean, I just downright denied it. I said, no, mate, I've already had COVID two times. I'm not going to go and take a vaccine for a, for a disease that I've already gone through and endured. I pretty much have it in me. My body already knows how to fight it. I don't need the bloody vaccine because I've had it twice. So it's kind of redundant for me to be able to take a vaccine for a disease that's already infected me. And, uh, they didn't agree to it. They said, no, it's company policy. You have to take at least two of the, uh, of the vaccinations or you can't work with us. And me being the hot headed and, uh, very strong to my, uh, moral compass, or rather in this case, my personal beliefs, um, I downright denied them. And I told them, listen, man, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. I'm not going to take the vaccine just to keep this job because it's a matter of my life and my, you know, my family's life. And, um, fortunately for me, my mom and dad didn't really get the COVID. I mean, they kind of did, uh, but it was very brief and then being senior citizens. I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm thanking God that it must've been the mildest form COVID because they got through it and they were unscathed. So that was, uh, one of the good things that happened to mom and dad during the time that I was in Goa, especially for me, it was difficult being in Goa and not being able to be there for them, but thank the Lord that that went out well. And, uh, I talked to my parents. I talked to my, my brothers, my siblings as well. I told them, and this is what the situation is. And I don't know how to deal with it. And they said, no, nothing doing none of us have taken the vaccine. I don't think we're going to start now. And especially considering that mom and dad, so mom and dad did just move to Goa at that time. And they were living with me in, uh, in my house and, um, they were much better and I didn't want to risk, you know, getting sick and probably passing it on to them. So I told my manager point blank, no, it's not happening. I'm sorry. If you want to let me go, you can let me go. And this is at a point when I just completed my, um, training. The six month training period was just over. I passed with flying colors. I was already registered under Audi India and I had my name in the system. I had a certificate and they were, they were negotiating, um, my new, like my new package for, for compensation. And It got, it got really complicated and I had to leave that job because eventually they told me that if, if I wasn't willing to vaccinate myself, then that's it. And you can either resign or we can, we can terminate you. And I decided to resign because that's always the better way to go. And I, I resigned from that job. It was one of the saddest moments in my life because it was, it was definitely a place where I wanted to start my career off and start building on my, you know, car sales portfolio. And especially it being a company like Audi, it, it would have definitely been one of those bigger names on my resume, but you know, life has its way of doing things for you. And that's definitely what happened. And I was sad for, for a long time, actually, to be honest. And for the next two or three months, almost, I didn't have a bloody job in Goa again, all over again. Yes, I know. A traumatic story, but anyways, rather not traumatic, but you know, just kind of, it's like a Korean drama or something. There's always something happening around the corner. You know, you never know where it's going to go wrong. And, um, I ended up just like, um, doing voiceovers for a bit, actually in between at Goa and that didn't work out too well either because Goa doesn't have much of a scope for voiceovers. And then if they do, they have it for their, uh, regional language over there, which is Konkani or however you say that Konkani, I'm not sure, but it's, um, very similar to Marathi that they speak in Maharashtra. In Mumbai. And, um, definitely, uh, one of the more funny sounding languages. And, uh, I knew it in my heart of hearts that there's no ways I'm going to be able to pick up a new language as well as do voiceovers in a new language. So I kind of just sat at home, try to get more work from back in Mumbai, try to look for a lot of online gigs, you know, things that you can do without having to actually go physically to an office. Um, kept looking, kept looking, kept looking. And at the time I was dating somebody who was, um, at least at that point in time was, um, you know, being a support and financially, especially she was taking care of my, um, rent and food and all of those things. So I'm very grateful to her, although she's not with me today, but still I am grateful to her for whatever she did during that time. And, um, a few months passed by and I got an opportunity to work with a company called Frontline Managed Services. Now they're an administrative IT and overall just support staff kind of thing. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. Uh, we used to service, um, law firms in the US of A. And, um, I got in there as an e-billing specialist, which basically meant I had to go through invoices all day and correct errors in the invoices and then submit them online or rather resubmit them online to make sure that payments came through. Um,


Um, the first few days were brilliant, man. We had so much fun. I brought my birthday in with blast. We had so much fun on my birthday. I got to sing. I got to, I even danced a little. So if you know me, you know, I don't dance. I've got three left feet rather than just two left feet. So for me, dancing is a big no, no, you know, I can't do it. I can't, I can't, I just feel stupid when I do it. So, but the time, you know, cause I felt so free. I felt liberated that I finally made the move and I'm in a new state and I'm in go of all the bloody states, the place that everybody loves. And, um, we had a great time actually. And my birthday went by and the next day I had to go out for interviews. And what do you know? As soon as I woke up in the morning, the first thing my brother has to tell me is that they're bloody announcing a new lockdown again, cause there's been another wave of COVID. And I was like devastated, man. Cause I just left everything in common there. And they were proposing it's going to be a six month lockdown. And me not having any bloody money and having to survive there for six months was a challenge because the whole plan was to move there, get a job immediately. As soon as you get your job, you know, start working and make money. Right. That's how most of us survive. And I would, I, I was kind of like a paycheck to paycheck kind of person, you know, I never really had life savings or I didn't believe in investments and I didn't have any emergency rainy day funds or anything like that. So I just kind of lived in the moment. And in my, it was just irresponsibility, but we'll talk about that some other time. And, um, I got there and I was thinking, bloody hell, how am I going to survive six months without any bloody money? You know? And especially, um, with the fact that I was living at my brother's house and he had to support me and he had his own family. He had his own two kids. He had his wife, he had his, his own responsibilities. And on top of that, me being a burden on it. And it was, um, to say the least, it was one of the most challenging times of my life. I definitely got to know a lot about myself, a lot about how people can, can behave and how family reacts to you when they're under pressure, especially, um, fear and pressure and doubt and, and regret is a huge, huge, huge, huge demon. And, um, what ended up happening was, uh, there was a few good days. There was a few bad days, but mostly bad days because we kept ending, I kept ending up fighting with my brother because, um, um, he would constantly remind me of the fact that I'm living there for free and the fact that I'm not working or at least not trying to look for work. And I was like, yeah, it's bloody locked down. What do you expect me to do? And it's not like I was just, you know, not doing anything. I was actually calling a lot of consultancies and trying to call friends, trying to go online and find work online. I was trying everything in my power to try and make some money, but it didn't work out. And, uh, luckily for me, luckily enough, um, the, the number of, COVID cases kept coming down and, and, uh, the government kind of got it under control. People were healing, people were getting discharged from the hospitals and in general, um, you know, things were opening up a bit more. And that's when I actually, I went ahead and I applied for Audi at Goa. And that was one of the scariest things I could have done because I, although I did have a bit of experience here and there, I didn't have any concrete experience. And I, I had a manager and I said, Hey man, I'd like to work here. And do you have any openings? And he said, no. And that kind of disappointed me because, you know, uh, that was one of the main things that I wanted to do was get back into car sales. And especially with a brand like Audi, that's, that's pretty much the best thing you could do. Right. So, um, I finally called the manager. I convinced him somehow to at least take a look at my resume. And, um, he, he obliged, but at the same time, he didn't really seem excited. So I'll kind of let you go. And I, I, uh, I happened to get an opportunity to do an audiobook again. This seems to bring up audiobook a lot, but yeah. Um, um, I had an audiobook opportunity, uh, but that meant I had to come back to Mumbai and, uh, you know, ironically enough, it was a very short deadline and the, the manager wanted me to come immediately. And I told him, man, I just got here a few days ago. Things haven't been that great. It's not been that swell. And I don't really have the resources to just up and leave. And luckily enough, the, the, the producer slash manager of the audiobook was kind enough to sponsor, uh, what would be my first flight. And that was, uh, one of the cooler experiences that I had is the first time I had ever flown. I'd never been in the plane before, never really been to more than the entrance or the outside of an airport. So it was very exciting for me and especially to be able to do it, um, for free, wherein I didn't have to pay anything, um, the, the company or rather the, the, the producer slash, um, manager for the audiobook had sponsored it. So it was absolutely cheeky of me, uh, to just go ahead and, you know, try and, um, see how much I could pull out of that. And I, I just kind of just brought it up during conversation actually, but before, when he asked me how am I going to travel, I was like, oh, I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel. I was like, I don't really have the resources. I can't ride back. Cause I'll be too tired to do the, to do the audiobook in the first place. So he said, no worries, mate. I got you. And he booked me a tickets and everything. And I was like a bit cheeky. And I was like, Hey, do you think we could, uh, do business class? And he said, do you know how much business class costs? And I was like, no. And then he said, why don't you go look it up online? And then that's what I did. And I realized how bloody expensive it is. And I was happy to just be in a plane. So, um, I got to the airport and that was a whole experience. Cause the, the first time around, I didn't know you had to take off your belt. You had to take off everything you're wearing basically, except for your clothes. Obviously you keep clothes on, but you have to take off belts. You have to take out your wallet. You have to take out your keys. You can't keep anything in your pockets. You've got in, in certain cases, they would even make you take off your shoes if they have reasonable doubt. And so, um, the first time around, I kept going through the metal detector and the first time I left my belt on the second time I had keys in my pocket. The third time, my wallet was still in my pocket. And, uh, the second time I had keys in my pocket, my wallet was still in my pocket. And, uh, the security guard kind of caught on to the fact that it was one of my, maybe my first flights. I kind of looked at him and I sheepishly smiled. I gave him a bit of a cheeky, you know, I'm sorry, kind of look. And he looked at me and he went, is this your first time? And I was like, yes, absolutely. This is my first time. And he's like, okay, not to worry. Just take out everything that's in your pockets. Nothing at all, except for your bloody jeans should be on you. And I was like, yeah, man, but if I take off my belt, my pants are going to fall off. What do I do about that? And he's like, just hold on to them. You just have to walk through the metal detector once you're on the other side, you can put your belts back on. But for now we need you to take off anything that would set off the metal detector. And that's what I did. And I flew back to Bombay with, uh, to Mumbai, rather, sorry, they don't call it Bombay anymore, but I flew back to Mumbai and, um, I thought it was the end of my Goa journey, especially considering the fact that, you know, I was, I was not really finding too many opportunities and car sales. And the few of them that I did find were paying so badly that it just didn't, not make feasible sense to be able to live there and sustain there with that kind of money. So I came back to try and do this audio book to kind of fund myself for the next few weeks, if nothing else, and to try and get back to Goa maybe. And, uh, during my time at Mumbai, I went and tried to do the audio book, but then me and my manager kind of had a little bit of a fallout and he, he wasn't really interested. Um, he didn't have the right knowledge or guidance to be able to provide me as an artist. And me, as an artist, um, I wasn't, um, comfortable working with him because he kept, he kept criticizing everything I did. And then every time I tried to change it, he wouldn't want me to go back to the older one. And I was just confused. I'm like, man, you decide what you need, what you want, right? You can't just keep telling me to do things and then I'm going to be okay with it. Plus not to mention that I'd left Goa, come back and spent a lot of time and energy to be there. And all I was getting was negative feedback or negative, um, behavior from him. And he didn't really see me as a person. And I was like, well, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm like, he wanted to take me on. So I went ahead and just canceled it on him or rather I didn't cancel it. I'd like to think I canceled it, but it was him that told me that maybe this is not going to work out. And maybe you just need practice more before you can do something like this. And I was like, okay, I took it with a pinch of salt and I came away from there. And that's when it got really bad. Cause then that's when it dawned on me that probably I might not be able to move back to Goa, especially considering that I've not gotten paid for something that I came all the way here for. Um, the only good thing was absolutely, I mean, the only good thing was that he actually paid the ticket. So I didn't have to, you know, at least I saved on traveling back to Mumbai. And once that happened, I pretty much lost all hope. I approached an old friend who has a real estate firm and he basically had a few employees and he, he works, uh, for selling new commercial as well as residential properties. And I told him, Hey man. And, um, to be honest, I had worked with him in the past, but again, one of his partners and me didn't really get along and we had to kind of fall out with them. So, um, I kind of left him. And at that point in time, he didn't have his own company, but, um, yeah, he, he was, uh, he was handling a few people here and there. So it was, um, a small establishment. You can say they didn't really have an office or anything. They used to work out of like, um, the places where new constructions were happening. They always had like a small, um, area where you could sit and do calling or just, you know, do whatever you wanted to do. And, and, and, you could sit and do calling or just to entertain guests and stuff like that. So we used to work out of those kinds of places. And I went back to him and I told him, Hey man, you know, I've got myself in a bit of a pickle and I don't have a job and I need to start making money and I need to do something which is going to be able to provide me with, um, income basically and the job so that I don't have too much of a big gap on my resume as well. So I approached him and I told him, man, can you, can you do something for me? Can, is it possible to, um, employ me? You know, point blank asked him that. And, um, he was kind enough to go ahead and not only employ me, but also give me a team leader position in his company. And all of this has happened within the span of two days. I've met him, um, the previous evening and the next morning he called me into the office and he already, he was so excited that he already had cards printed out in my name and he was introducing me to the team. And what do you bloody know? The next day, um, as I was on the way to the office, literally, I just stopped at, uh, on my local cigarette shop to pick up cigarettes. And I get a call from bloody Audi and Audi is telling me that we have an opportunity in Goa. It's for a training program. It's a six month long period where you train under Audi India, Audi India, and then you get a certification. Once you get the certification, you can be a certified salesperson for the company. And I was like, bloody hell mate, now what? You know, so just when I thought things were going to go really bad and I kind of fixed the situation somewhat, it, life just threw another curve ball at me. You know, I had to decide now whether or not I, um, maintain my promise to my friend who was so willing and so helpful and so excited, or do I pursue my own passion and careers? Um, you know, and at that point in time, um, my passion or career, um, orientation was more towards the automotive side of things. And I wanted to do car sales, especially considering the bonuses and the incentives and the kind of money that I'd seen a few of my peers from college doing, like a few of them were working at car showrooms, not necessarily Audi, but they were working at various showrooms and they were telling me about the amounts of money they're making on just incentives. You know, when you sell a car, you get an incentive, you get a small portion of how much ever the value of the car, is as your own. And, um, it was so confusing, but with a heavy heart, I told my friend no, and I turned down his opportunity and I ended up going back to Goa. And that was another exciting whole six months period wherein I was working at Audi. And, um, six months later, they started making, um, COVID vaccines mandatory and me being an anti-vaxxer. I mean, I just downright denied it. I said, no, mate, I've already had COVID two times. I'm not going to go and take a vaccine for a, for a disease that I've already gone through and endured. I pretty much have it in me. My body already knows how to fight it. I don't need the bloody vaccine because I've had it twice. So it's kind of redundant for me to be able to take a vaccine for a disease that's already infected me. And, uh, they didn't agree to it. They said, no, it's company policy. You have to take at least two of the, uh, of the vaccinations or you can't work with us. And me being the hot headed and, uh, very strong to my, uh, moral compass, or rather in this case, my personal beliefs, um, I downright denied them. And I told them, listen, man, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. I'm not going to take the vaccine just to keep this job because it's a matter of my life and my, you know, my family's life. And, um, fortunately for me, my mom and dad didn't really get the COVID. I mean, they kind of did, uh, but it was very brief and then being senior citizens. I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm thanking God that it must've been the mildest form COVID because they got through it and they were unscathed. So that was, uh, one of the good things that happened to mom and dad during the time that I was in Goa, especially for me, it was difficult being in Goa and not being able to be there for them, but thank the Lord that that went out well. And, uh, I talked to my parents. I talked to my, my brothers, my siblings as well. I told them, and this is what the situation is. And I don't know how to deal with it. And they said, no, nothing doing none of us have taken the vaccine. I don't think we're going to start now. And especially considering that mom and dad, so mom and dad did just move to Goa at that time. And they were living with me in, uh, in my house and, um, they were much better and I didn't want to risk, you know, getting sick and probably passing it on to them. So I told my manager point blank, no, it's not happening. I'm sorry. If you want to let me go, you can let me go. And this is at a point when I just completed my, um, training. The six month training period was just over. I passed with flying colors. I was already registered under Audi India and I had my name in the system. I had a certificate and they were, they were negotiating, um, my new, like my new package for, for compensation. And It got, it got really complicated and I had to leave that job because eventually they told me that if, if I wasn't willing to vaccinate myself, then that's it. And you can either resign or we can, we can terminate you. And I decided to resign because that's always the better way to go. And I, I resigned from that job. It was one of the saddest moments in my life because it was, it was definitely a place where I wanted to start my career off and start building on my, you know, car sales portfolio. And especially it being a company like Audi, it, it would have definitely been one of those bigger names on my resume, but you know, life has its way of doing things for you. And that's definitely what happened. And I was sad for, for a long time, actually, to be honest. And for the next two or three months, almost, I didn't have a bloody job in Goa again, all over again. Yes, I know. A traumatic story, but anyways, rather not traumatic, but you know, just kind of, it's like a Korean drama or something. There's always something happening around the corner. You know, you never know where it's going to go wrong. And, um, I ended up just like, um, doing voiceovers for a bit, actually in between at Goa and that didn't work out too well either because Goa doesn't have much of a scope for voiceovers. And then if they do, they have it for their, uh, regional language over there, which is Konkani or however you say that Konkani, I'm not sure, but it's, um, very similar to Marathi that they speak in Maharashtra. In Mumbai. And, um, definitely, uh, one of the more funny sounding languages. And, uh, I knew it in my heart of hearts that there's no ways I'm going to be able to pick up a new language as well as do voiceovers in a new language. So I kind of just sat at home, try to get more work from back in Mumbai, try to look for a lot of online gigs, you know, things that you can do without having to actually go physically to an office. Um, kept looking, kept looking, kept looking. And at the time I was dating somebody who was, um, at least at that point in time was, um, you know, being a support and financially, especially she was taking care of my, um, rent and food and all of those things. So I'm very grateful to her, although she's not with me today, but still I am grateful to her for whatever she did during that time. And, um, a few months passed by and I got an opportunity to work with a company called Frontline Managed Services. Now they're an administrative IT and overall just support staff kind of thing. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. Uh, we used to service, um, law firms in the US of A. And, um, I got in there as an e-billing specialist, which basically meant I had to go through invoices all day and correct errors in the invoices and then submit them online or rather resubmit them online to make sure that payments came through. Um, Not to be ungrateful, but it was one of the most bloody relentlessly monotonous jobs I've ever done because all you bloody stare at the whole day is numbers. And they had this thing called Leeds Files, which is a kind of format in which you have to present legal timekeepers. So it got really complicated because it's all on text files. It's not like organized or something. You have to learn those things and use Excel and all of these things to your advantage. And I rather just preferred going and editing the text file because exporting it to Excel and re-importing it back to text format just seemed illogical to me. And me being the curious mind that I am, I was able to go through the Leeds Files and be able to find errors or be able to just sit through and get through whatever needed to be done. So in that way, I was a bit more confident than the other people who would often use Excel, but I just kind of edited raw. Like just in the file itself. And I got really good at it. And six months down the line, I got promoted. They gave me a raise. I was having a few health issues because it was nighttime work. So we would start at 6.30 in the evening, go all the way to 3.30 in the morning. And if there was an excess load of work, then you would need to be there to like 4.30, 5 sometimes, depending on how much work was there. So I had initially. When I actually joined the company, I didn't need to. I didn't need to go to the office. We used to work from home again, COVID protocols. That was rather good time actually, because although the work was monotonous, being able to be at home in the comfort of your own home, having your own loo and being able to eat whenever you want. And for me, being able to smoke whenever I want was bloody awesome. You know, it's absolutely stunning. So I was one of the smarter. I mean, not in a good way, but one of the smarter chaps. And what I did was I had a screen that had dual inputs. So I had my work computer on the VGA, which is the most standard older technology. And I put my personal PC into the HDMI. And what I would do is in between cases or in between when I had a little time here and there, I would just switch the display inputs. Yeah. And I would play my games during workouts. Don't tell them I did this though. Big, big breach of policy, not exactly a breach of policy because I wasn't really, um, uh, you know, trying to capture data from, from their, um, from their systems. And also I couldn't even see their system while I was gaming, but morally it's wrong, right? You're not supposed to game when you're being paid for the time that you're on duty. So that was a bit of a gray area over there, but yeah, six months went by. I got promoted, they put me on appeals, appeals basically means that you can, you connect and directly conversate, conversate with the, with the, the lawyers basically. And you, you get, uh, they would need certain things to be edited and certain things to be said in a certain way so that it becomes billable and billable basically means that you can charge for the time you've spent doing the task that you were assigned. A lot of the things are not chargeable because they're just part and parcel of being billable. They're just part and parcel of being of, of case research or case studies. So there was a lot of times where we, we had to literally edit like whole paragraphs just to make it legitimate enough to be able to charge time on it. And that kind of became a little more interesting, a little bit, a little less monotonous, but at the same time, it was still grinding work. Right. But it paid the bills. It gave me a lot of opportunities to say.


It got, it got really complicated and I had to leave that job because eventually they told me that if, if I wasn't willing to vaccinate myself, then that's it. And you can either resign or we can, we can terminate you. And I decided to resign because that's always the better way to go. And I, I resigned from that job. It was one of the saddest moments in my life because it was, it was definitely a place where I wanted to start my career off and start building on my, you know, car sales portfolio. And especially it being a company like Audi, it, it would have definitely been one of those bigger names on my resume, but you know, life has its way of doing things for you. And that's definitely what happened. And I was sad for, for a long time, actually, to be honest. And for the next two or three months, almost, I didn't have a bloody job in Goa again, all over again. Yes, I know. A traumatic story, but anyways, rather not traumatic, but you know, just kind of, it's like a Korean drama or something. There's always something happening around the corner. You know, you never know where it's going to go wrong. And, um, I ended up just like, um, doing voiceovers for a bit, actually in between at Goa and that didn't work out too well either because Goa doesn't have much of a scope for voiceovers. And then if they do, they have it for their, uh, regional language over there, which is Konkani or however you say that Konkani, I'm not sure, but it's, um, very similar to Marathi that they speak in Maharashtra. In Mumbai. And, um, definitely, uh, one of the more funny sounding languages. And, uh, I knew it in my heart of hearts that there's no ways I'm going to be able to pick up a new language as well as do voiceovers in a new language. So I kind of just sat at home, try to get more work from back in Mumbai, try to look for a lot of online gigs, you know, things that you can do without having to actually go physically to an office. Um, kept looking, kept looking, kept looking. And at the time I was dating somebody who was, um, at least at that point in time was, um, you know, being a support and financially, especially she was taking care of my, um, rent and food and all of those things. So I'm very grateful to her, although she's not with me today, but still I am grateful to her for whatever she did during that time. And, um, a few months passed by and I got an opportunity to work with a company called Frontline Managed Services. Now they're an administrative IT and overall just support staff kind of thing. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. And, um, I've been working with them for a while now. Uh, we used to service, um, law firms in the US of A. And, um, I got in there as an e-billing specialist, which basically meant I had to go through invoices all day and correct errors in the invoices and then submit them online or rather resubmit them online to make sure that payments came through. Um, Not to be ungrateful, but it was one of the most bloody relentlessly monotonous jobs I've ever done because all you bloody stare at the whole day is numbers. And they had this thing called Leeds Files, which is a kind of format in which you have to present legal timekeepers. So it got really complicated because it's all on text files. It's not like organized or something. You have to learn those things and use Excel and all of these things to your advantage. And I rather just preferred going and editing the text file because exporting it to Excel and re-importing it back to text format just seemed illogical to me. And me being the curious mind that I am, I was able to go through the Leeds Files and be able to find errors or be able to just sit through and get through whatever needed to be done. So in that way, I was a bit more confident than the other people who would often use Excel, but I just kind of edited raw. Like just in the file itself. And I got really good at it. And six months down the line, I got promoted. They gave me a raise. I was having a few health issues because it was nighttime work. So we would start at 6.30 in the evening, go all the way to 3.30 in the morning. And if there was an excess load of work, then you would need to be there to like 4.30, 5 sometimes, depending on how much work was there. So I had initially. When I actually joined the company, I didn't need to. I didn't need to go to the office. We used to work from home again, COVID protocols. That was rather good time actually, because although the work was monotonous, being able to be at home in the comfort of your own home, having your own loo and being able to eat whenever you want. And for me, being able to smoke whenever I want was bloody awesome. You know, it's absolutely stunning. So I was one of the smarter. I mean, not in a good way, but one of the smarter chaps. And what I did was I had a screen that had dual inputs. So I had my work computer on the VGA, which is the most standard older technology. And I put my personal PC into the HDMI. And what I would do is in between cases or in between when I had a little time here and there, I would just switch the display inputs. Yeah. And I would play my games during workouts. Don't tell them I did this though. Big, big breach of policy, not exactly a breach of policy because I wasn't really, um, uh, you know, trying to capture data from, from their, um, from their systems. And also I couldn't even see their system while I was gaming, but morally it's wrong, right? You're not supposed to game when you're being paid for the time that you're on duty. So that was a bit of a gray area over there, but yeah, six months went by. I got promoted, they put me on appeals, appeals basically means that you can, you connect and directly conversate, conversate with the, with the, the lawyers basically. And you, you get, uh, they would need certain things to be edited and certain things to be said in a certain way so that it becomes billable and billable basically means that you can charge for the time you've spent doing the task that you were assigned. A lot of the things are not chargeable because they're just part and parcel of being billable. They're just part and parcel of being of, of case research or case studies. So there was a lot of times where we, we had to literally edit like whole paragraphs just to make it legitimate enough to be able to charge time on it. And that kind of became a little more interesting, a little bit, a little less monotonous, but at the same time, it was still grinding work. Right. But it paid the bills. It gave me a lot of opportunities to say. got my own house. I met a new girl. We started living together. I got two cats. Um, it was pretty much perfect. Perfect. And, um, I was enjoying the job to a certain extent, but of course, again, it came in Artemis and then I lost interest a little bit here and there. And eventually I ended up applying for a new job, like a startup, and they wanted somebody, um, to do American accent calls for them. So they wanted me to do B2B, um, sales calls basically, wherein we were promoting digital marketing courses, not, not courses per se, but we were, we were offering digital marketing services wherein we would take your company or your, your boutique or your cafe or your gym, whatever it is, we want to market it online for you digitally. And I was one of the main points of contact for that, wherein I would leave my number, callback number. I would also call out clients. We had huge sheets with so many bloody numbers and half of them weren't even legitimate. So I had to do a bit of research, make sure it's a legitimate number, call out, see if they wanted our services. If they wanted the services, great. We set up an appointment. Every appointment I set, I used to get a certain amount of commission and then the rest of it was handled by the rest of the team wherein they would go ahead and pitch and get all those things done. And at the time I was actually doing a dual kind of, so the company that I was joining the, the star, they were in a bad position and they actually wanted help with the calling because they didn't have enough resources or manpower. So they, they, they cheekily asked me if I would be able to, or if I would be willing to rather, um, work after my normal job, which is the, the frontline managed services job. And that was, as it is a nine hour shift. But, um, seeing that was, um, you know, that they had, um, you know, at least they were able to, you know, get that, they were able to, um, get that done for them. So, um, you know, it was, it was a really, really, um you know that they had a requirement and they they kind of seemed desperate almost i'm i reluctantly agreed to do it four hours after my normal shift for them and i think that was one of the worst decisions of my life personally because i was burning the candle at both ends and i definitely felt it and towards the end of it these guys didn't even appreciate the work that i was putting in they kept criticizing me and saying that i'm not doing enough and i kept reminding them that i am doing this for you guys because you requested me and i'm not doing it full time right now and i'm i'm new to the industry so you have to give me a little bit you have to give me a little bit of time to be able to get over the learning curve to understand what kind of clientele we're dealing with and to be able to do proper research because half the numbers that you guys giving me don't even dial to the right place they just go to restaurants or go to some random third person who doesn't even know what the hell you're talking about so um we had our differences and then i told them listen man you need to either


Not to be ungrateful, but it was one of the most bloody relentlessly monotonous jobs I've ever done because all you bloody stare at the whole day is numbers. And they had this thing called Leeds Files, which is a kind of format in which you have to present legal timekeepers. So it got really complicated because it's all on text files. It's not like organized or something. You have to learn those things and use Excel and all of these things to your advantage. And I rather just preferred going and editing the text file because exporting it to Excel and re-importing it back to text format just seemed illogical to me. And me being the curious mind that I am, I was able to go through the Leeds Files and be able to find errors or be able to just sit through and get through whatever needed to be done. So in that way, I was a bit more confident than the other people who would often use Excel, but I just kind of edited raw. Like just in the file itself. And I got really good at it. And six months down the line, I got promoted. They gave me a raise. I was having a few health issues because it was nighttime work. So we would start at 6.30 in the evening, go all the way to 3.30 in the morning. And if there was an excess load of work, then you would need to be there to like 4.30, 5 sometimes, depending on how much work was there. So I had initially. When I actually joined the company, I didn't need to. I didn't need to go to the office. We used to work from home again, COVID protocols. That was rather good time actually, because although the work was monotonous, being able to be at home in the comfort of your own home, having your own loo and being able to eat whenever you want. And for me, being able to smoke whenever I want was bloody awesome. You know, it's absolutely stunning. So I was one of the smarter. I mean, not in a good way, but one of the smarter chaps. And what I did was I had a screen that had dual inputs. So I had my work computer on the VGA, which is the most standard older technology. And I put my personal PC into the HDMI. And what I would do is in between cases or in between when I had a little time here and there, I would just switch the display inputs. Yeah. And I would play my games during workouts. Don't tell them I did this though. Big, big breach of policy, not exactly a breach of policy because I wasn't really, um, uh, you know, trying to capture data from, from their, um, from their systems. And also I couldn't even see their system while I was gaming, but morally it's wrong, right? You're not supposed to game when you're being paid for the time that you're on duty. So that was a bit of a gray area over there, but yeah, six months went by. I got promoted, they put me on appeals, appeals basically means that you can, you connect and directly conversate, conversate with the, with the, the lawyers basically. And you, you get, uh, they would need certain things to be edited and certain things to be said in a certain way so that it becomes billable and billable basically means that you can charge for the time you've spent doing the task that you were assigned. A lot of the things are not chargeable because they're just part and parcel of being billable. They're just part and parcel of being of, of case research or case studies. So there was a lot of times where we, we had to literally edit like whole paragraphs just to make it legitimate enough to be able to charge time on it. And that kind of became a little more interesting, a little bit, a little less monotonous, but at the same time, it was still grinding work. Right. But it paid the bills. It gave me a lot of opportunities to say. got my own house. I met a new girl. We started living together. I got two cats. Um, it was pretty much perfect. Perfect. And, um, I was enjoying the job to a certain extent, but of course, again, it came in Artemis and then I lost interest a little bit here and there. And eventually I ended up applying for a new job, like a startup, and they wanted somebody, um, to do American accent calls for them. So they wanted me to do B2B, um, sales calls basically, wherein we were promoting digital marketing courses, not, not courses per se, but we were, we were offering digital marketing services wherein we would take your company or your, your boutique or your cafe or your gym, whatever it is, we want to market it online for you digitally. And I was one of the main points of contact for that, wherein I would leave my number, callback number. I would also call out clients. We had huge sheets with so many bloody numbers and half of them weren't even legitimate. So I had to do a bit of research, make sure it's a legitimate number, call out, see if they wanted our services. If they wanted the services, great. We set up an appointment. Every appointment I set, I used to get a certain amount of commission and then the rest of it was handled by the rest of the team wherein they would go ahead and pitch and get all those things done. And at the time I was actually doing a dual kind of, so the company that I was joining the, the star, they were in a bad position and they actually wanted help with the calling because they didn't have enough resources or manpower. So they, they, they cheekily asked me if I would be able to, or if I would be willing to rather, um, work after my normal job, which is the, the frontline managed services job. And that was, as it is a nine hour shift. But, um, seeing that was, um, you know, that they had, um, you know, at least they were able to, you know, get that, they were able to, um, get that done for them. So, um, you know, it was, it was a really, really, um you know that they had a requirement and they they kind of seemed desperate almost i'm i reluctantly agreed to do it four hours after my normal shift for them and i think that was one of the worst decisions of my life personally because i was burning the candle at both ends and i definitely felt it and towards the end of it these guys didn't even appreciate the work that i was putting in they kept criticizing me and saying that i'm not doing enough and i kept reminding them that i am doing this for you guys because you requested me and i'm not doing it full time right now and i'm i'm new to the industry so you have to give me a little bit you have to give me a little bit of time to be able to get over the learning curve to understand what kind of clientele we're dealing with and to be able to do proper research because half the numbers that you guys giving me don't even dial to the right place they just go to restaurants or go to some random third person who doesn't even know what the hell you're talking about so um we had our differences and then i told them listen man you need to either Either provide me with more resources, more accurate data, or you just give me more time to do whatever I'm doing and don't ask me for immediate results because they're not going to come. It's not that simple, right? If you were not able to do it and then you hired me to try and do it, you can't expect me to be a bloody expert in no time at all and do an accent and be able to manage your data and be able to then also provide you with real life results and so quickly, especially after I've worked a whole bloody long day and I'm coming to do this as a favor to you and it was just horrible. So I ended up actually quitting my job at Frontline Managed Services, one of the worst decisions I've made, but then again, life has a way of putting you through things. So I just took it with a pinch of salt. I told the people at the startup that this wouldn't work out because they were just too underappreciative, didn't pay me enough, would constantly try and cut me on. On my commissions, as well as when it came to the overall pay, they mentioned something different in the beginning and then later on they wanted to tax me and there was a considerable chunk of the money that I was making and it didn't make sense because then the only reason I joined the startup was to make more money and they were taking that away from me basically and I was like, man, I'm done with this. You know, I can't be underappreciated, overworked and then not paid enough for it as well. So I tell them that it wouldn't work out. And I left and unfortunately for me, I'd already put in my papers at Frontline Managed Services. I was at the end of my notice period. And at the time, my girlfriend got an opportunity to go ahead and be able to do her post-doctorate in Malaysia and she had to leave in a few weeks. And, you know, I was like, okay, you know what, man, I'm just going to go ahead. And by this time, I had kind of regained some of my financial stability. I had a little bit of, you know, I had a little bit of savings for rainy days and I decided to just take some time off to be able to think and be able to, you know, decide what I wanted to do, whether or not I would stay back at Goa, where I'd enjoyed the last two and a half years thoroughly because I got to spend a lot of time with my niece and nephew. I got to watch my niece grow up, literally. She was born in 2020. I moved there in 2021. And I basically got to watch. I grew up and that was one of the best experiences of my life and the most traumatizing because baby's poop stinks, man. Once it's on your skin, you can't get it off for days. You know, it's just horrible. And babies in general, very cranky and they require a lot of love and attention and, you know, you can't just leave them like a pet. You have to take care of them. And, um, a lot of the times, um, my sister-in-law would be out at work and my brother would be at work and I was the only one who would be able to, you know, take care of them, especially considering the fact that. I was working from home. So it definitely taught me a lot about the responsibilities of being a parent and how difficult it is to have a child and bring one into the world and then teach it what to do in the bloody world. So Goa taught me a lot. And, uh, ironically, Goa has, um, very low liquor prices. So Mumbai is literally double of what you pay for liquor in Goa. And I'm not proud of this, but I did have a drinking problem for a few years, not something that. Really, um, you know, shattered my life, but it wasn't healthy in that sense. And, um, I, I went up on a limb when I initially got Goa because of the lovely pricing, right. He's getting it at half the price twice as much, and that kind of happened. And that was, um, a little bit of a, uh, lower part of my, you know, journey in Goa. But once I was done with that, it got really nice because, um, when I met my current girlfriend, she really, really. Really, really took the time out to understand me. And, um, she took the time out to understand why I was drinking and then slowly and surely she, she got me out of it. And, um, I still drink, I don't drink as much as I used to, and now I have a much better grip on it. And I'm not as, um, you know, addicted, you could say almost cause, um, there was a time when I couldn't do without a drink every day, you know, I had to have a drink or my day was not complete or I wouldn't get sleep. So she helped me through that. And, uh, I learned a lot. And again, having my own cats that taught me a lot about, um, being a pet owner and how expensive it can be to buddy, to have pets, you know, with the veterinarian's bills and the bills for all their food and for litter. And then the very fact that you clean the litter is to keep all your expensive stuff inside because the cats always get to it and they're animals, right? They can't understand that they're destroying something that costs a lot or that it's, it's something that. Can't be played with unlike human babies, which still don't understand it until a few years later. So it definitely taught me patience, responsibility, the ability to be able to push through difficult situations. Um, the ability to be able to save and say no to people. Um, my girlfriend bought up a lot of, um, situations and she constantly made me see situations wherein I was, um, uh, a, a people pleaser, how people would take advantage of the fact that I have a kind soul. And, and try and take advantage of my personality. And a lot of times would just downright just have me there for entertainment. And she noticed all of these things and bought me out of it. And uh, that's when I decided that, you know, maybe it might be time now, um, to, this is, this is obviously I'm talking about after I left the job at the startup and, and, uh, I'd finished my, my notice period with, uh, FMS, which is frontline managed services. And um, I pretty much was jobless. But I had, as I said, a few, a little bit, a little bit of savings for rainy days. And I just decided to spend it, um, on spending time with my girl because she was obviously leaving and she herself had finished, um, her notice period with her company. So we ended up just spending a few weeks together at Goa. And I think those were some of the best days I've ever had at Goa. And unfortunately after that, she did have to leave and go to Malaysia. And uh, for me. I wanted to stay back at Goa, but my parents, um, weren't too happy at Goa. So they moved back to my hometown in, um, in Mumbai or rather back to their hometown in Mumbai. And, uh, they were staying there and them being kind of older and in more need of support, I had to go back to Mumbai. So that's basically the story of how it all happened. And um, Goa in, in, in totality, literally, I mean, there's obviously so much more I can tell you about it, but from the surface level and what it taught me and how it was as an experience, this is pretty much it. So cars and bikes, let me see where I can start. I think the first memory of a car that I ever had was a gypsy or, um, in other countries known as a Samurai, but it was a Suzuki gypsy in our country. And um, it was one of the most, uh, well known army cars. And, um, that was fascinating. It fascinated me and sparked the whole, um, journey on me being interested in automotives and automobiles and in general. And it's also what led me to go ahead and eventually actually pursue, um, both education and at least try for a career in the same, in the automotive space. Um, for me, the fondest memories I have is, um, as a child when my uncles and aunts would buy me cars or any sort of toy that had wheels on it. I, the, uh, very smart person that I am. My dad was an engineer. He used to, um, build and manufacture reaction vessels and, um, basically do a lot of fabrication work and stuff like that. So tools were always available at our house. Like I grew up around tools always being one of the primary things, like the first thing that I see. Um, and, um, I still remember my dad's old toolkit. Um. It was a plastic tray and a bunch of tools that he'd collected over the years. Some of them so rusty, you can't even touch them. Some of them so pristine and lovely that you don't want to use them. And that's kind of where I got the whole idea and what sparked the ideation of trying to build cars and bikes or be able to do something about something related to the automotive industry. And I still remember the first time I bought my own screwdriver, it was me and my dad. We'd gone downstairs to buy, um, a few tools for something he was trying to do at home or a tree. I don't remember, but I remember distinctly being at the hardware store and I seen, um, this screwdriver and it was bright yellow color. And I was like, that, that, that, can I have that?


got my own house. I met a new girl. We started living together. I got two cats. Um, it was pretty much perfect. Perfect. And, um, I was enjoying the job to a certain extent, but of course, again, it came in Artemis and then I lost interest a little bit here and there. And eventually I ended up applying for a new job, like a startup, and they wanted somebody, um, to do American accent calls for them. So they wanted me to do B2B, um, sales calls basically, wherein we were promoting digital marketing courses, not, not courses per se, but we were, we were offering digital marketing services wherein we would take your company or your, your boutique or your cafe or your gym, whatever it is, we want to market it online for you digitally. And I was one of the main points of contact for that, wherein I would leave my number, callback number. I would also call out clients. We had huge sheets with so many bloody numbers and half of them weren't even legitimate. So I had to do a bit of research, make sure it's a legitimate number, call out, see if they wanted our services. If they wanted the services, great. We set up an appointment. Every appointment I set, I used to get a certain amount of commission and then the rest of it was handled by the rest of the team wherein they would go ahead and pitch and get all those things done. And at the time I was actually doing a dual kind of, so the company that I was joining the, the star, they were in a bad position and they actually wanted help with the calling because they didn't have enough resources or manpower. So they, they, they cheekily asked me if I would be able to, or if I would be willing to rather, um, work after my normal job, which is the, the frontline managed services job. And that was, as it is a nine hour shift. But, um, seeing that was, um, you know, that they had, um, you know, at least they were able to, you know, get that, they were able to, um, get that done for them. So, um, you know, it was, it was a really, really, um you know that they had a requirement and they they kind of seemed desperate almost i'm i reluctantly agreed to do it four hours after my normal shift for them and i think that was one of the worst decisions of my life personally because i was burning the candle at both ends and i definitely felt it and towards the end of it these guys didn't even appreciate the work that i was putting in they kept criticizing me and saying that i'm not doing enough and i kept reminding them that i am doing this for you guys because you requested me and i'm not doing it full time right now and i'm i'm new to the industry so you have to give me a little bit you have to give me a little bit of time to be able to get over the learning curve to understand what kind of clientele we're dealing with and to be able to do proper research because half the numbers that you guys giving me don't even dial to the right place they just go to restaurants or go to some random third person who doesn't even know what the hell you're talking about so um we had our differences and then i told them listen man you need to either Either provide me with more resources, more accurate data, or you just give me more time to do whatever I'm doing and don't ask me for immediate results because they're not going to come. It's not that simple, right? If you were not able to do it and then you hired me to try and do it, you can't expect me to be a bloody expert in no time at all and do an accent and be able to manage your data and be able to then also provide you with real life results and so quickly, especially after I've worked a whole bloody long day and I'm coming to do this as a favor to you and it was just horrible. So I ended up actually quitting my job at Frontline Managed Services, one of the worst decisions I've made, but then again, life has a way of putting you through things. So I just took it with a pinch of salt. I told the people at the startup that this wouldn't work out because they were just too underappreciative, didn't pay me enough, would constantly try and cut me on. On my commissions, as well as when it came to the overall pay, they mentioned something different in the beginning and then later on they wanted to tax me and there was a considerable chunk of the money that I was making and it didn't make sense because then the only reason I joined the startup was to make more money and they were taking that away from me basically and I was like, man, I'm done with this. You know, I can't be underappreciated, overworked and then not paid enough for it as well. So I tell them that it wouldn't work out. And I left and unfortunately for me, I'd already put in my papers at Frontline Managed Services. I was at the end of my notice period. And at the time, my girlfriend got an opportunity to go ahead and be able to do her post-doctorate in Malaysia and she had to leave in a few weeks. And, you know, I was like, okay, you know what, man, I'm just going to go ahead. And by this time, I had kind of regained some of my financial stability. I had a little bit of, you know, I had a little bit of savings for rainy days and I decided to just take some time off to be able to think and be able to, you know, decide what I wanted to do, whether or not I would stay back at Goa, where I'd enjoyed the last two and a half years thoroughly because I got to spend a lot of time with my niece and nephew. I got to watch my niece grow up, literally. She was born in 2020. I moved there in 2021. And I basically got to watch. I grew up and that was one of the best experiences of my life and the most traumatizing because baby's poop stinks, man. Once it's on your skin, you can't get it off for days. You know, it's just horrible. And babies in general, very cranky and they require a lot of love and attention and, you know, you can't just leave them like a pet. You have to take care of them. And, um, a lot of the times, um, my sister-in-law would be out at work and my brother would be at work and I was the only one who would be able to, you know, take care of them, especially considering the fact that. I was working from home. So it definitely taught me a lot about the responsibilities of being a parent and how difficult it is to have a child and bring one into the world and then teach it what to do in the bloody world. So Goa taught me a lot. And, uh, ironically, Goa has, um, very low liquor prices. So Mumbai is literally double of what you pay for liquor in Goa. And I'm not proud of this, but I did have a drinking problem for a few years, not something that. Really, um, you know, shattered my life, but it wasn't healthy in that sense. And, um, I, I went up on a limb when I initially got Goa because of the lovely pricing, right. He's getting it at half the price twice as much, and that kind of happened. And that was, um, a little bit of a, uh, lower part of my, you know, journey in Goa. But once I was done with that, it got really nice because, um, when I met my current girlfriend, she really, really. Really, really took the time out to understand me. And, um, she took the time out to understand why I was drinking and then slowly and surely she, she got me out of it. And, um, I still drink, I don't drink as much as I used to, and now I have a much better grip on it. And I'm not as, um, you know, addicted, you could say almost cause, um, there was a time when I couldn't do without a drink every day, you know, I had to have a drink or my day was not complete or I wouldn't get sleep. So she helped me through that. And, uh, I learned a lot. And again, having my own cats that taught me a lot about, um, being a pet owner and how expensive it can be to buddy, to have pets, you know, with the veterinarian's bills and the bills for all their food and for litter. And then the very fact that you clean the litter is to keep all your expensive stuff inside because the cats always get to it and they're animals, right? They can't understand that they're destroying something that costs a lot or that it's, it's something that. Can't be played with unlike human babies, which still don't understand it until a few years later. So it definitely taught me patience, responsibility, the ability to be able to push through difficult situations. Um, the ability to be able to save and say no to people. Um, my girlfriend bought up a lot of, um, situations and she constantly made me see situations wherein I was, um, uh, a, a people pleaser, how people would take advantage of the fact that I have a kind soul. And, and try and take advantage of my personality. And a lot of times would just downright just have me there for entertainment. And she noticed all of these things and bought me out of it. And uh, that's when I decided that, you know, maybe it might be time now, um, to, this is, this is obviously I'm talking about after I left the job at the startup and, and, uh, I'd finished my, my notice period with, uh, FMS, which is frontline managed services. And um, I pretty much was jobless. But I had, as I said, a few, a little bit, a little bit of savings for rainy days. And I just decided to spend it, um, on spending time with my girl because she was obviously leaving and she herself had finished, um, her notice period with her company. So we ended up just spending a few weeks together at Goa. And I think those were some of the best days I've ever had at Goa. And unfortunately after that, she did have to leave and go to Malaysia. And uh, for me. I wanted to stay back at Goa, but my parents, um, weren't too happy at Goa. So they moved back to my hometown in, um, in Mumbai or rather back to their hometown in Mumbai. And, uh, they were staying there and them being kind of older and in more need of support, I had to go back to Mumbai. So that's basically the story of how it all happened. And um, Goa in, in, in totality, literally, I mean, there's obviously so much more I can tell you about it, but from the surface level and what it taught me and how it was as an experience, this is pretty much it. So cars and bikes, let me see where I can start. I think the first memory of a car that I ever had was a gypsy or, um, in other countries known as a Samurai, but it was a Suzuki gypsy in our country. And um, it was one of the most, uh, well known army cars. And, um, that was fascinating. It fascinated me and sparked the whole, um, journey on me being interested in automotives and automobiles and in general. And it's also what led me to go ahead and eventually actually pursue, um, both education and at least try for a career in the same, in the automotive space. Um, for me, the fondest memories I have is, um, as a child when my uncles and aunts would buy me cars or any sort of toy that had wheels on it. I, the, uh, very smart person that I am. My dad was an engineer. He used to, um, build and manufacture reaction vessels and, um, basically do a lot of fabrication work and stuff like that. So tools were always available at our house. Like I grew up around tools always being one of the primary things, like the first thing that I see. Um, and, um, I still remember my dad's old toolkit. Um. It was a plastic tray and a bunch of tools that he'd collected over the years. Some of them so rusty, you can't even touch them. Some of them so pristine and lovely that you don't want to use them. And that's kind of where I got the whole idea and what sparked the ideation of trying to build cars and bikes or be able to do something about something related to the automotive industry. And I still remember the first time I bought my own screwdriver, it was me and my dad. We'd gone downstairs to buy, um, a few tools for something he was trying to do at home or a tree. I don't remember, but I remember distinctly being at the hardware store and I seen, um, this screwdriver and it was bright yellow color. And I was like, that, that, that, can I have that? And that was like, well, we already have one at home. I said, yeah, but those are yours and I want my own. So that was a bit impressive. And he was like, all right then, if you're that excited about it, why not? And he bought me my first ever screwdriver, which was a Phillips head screwdriver, or rather not a Phillips head, but a Phillips screwdriver, not Phillips the brand, the cross or it's the pattern or the type of screwdriver it's called Phillips, but other people call it cross, call it X, whatever you want to call it, a plus. But it was that. And I remember as a child, I would always buy cars and bikes or anything that had wheels, as I mentioned earlier. So the minute I got my first screwdriver, I went home and all the toys that I had, literally each and every car, bike, or any kind of vehicle, and sometimes not twin cars or bikes, anything that had screws in them, I just went ahead and started opening them up. You know, I started taking it out. I'd open it up, look more and more into what it was, how it's built. Can I do something to improve it? Can I do something to try and repair it in case it was broken? And generally just sparked this weird obsession with being able to open things and use tools. And that's where it all started, right? My first screwdriver, and I got my second screwdriver, which was a flathead or a minus or whatever you want to call it. But basically the minus sign is the best way to describe it. What type of screwdriver it was. It's just a flat line across. And that's when I started getting more and more into tools. And I started buying more and more tools like pliers and screwdriver sets, different types of wrenches, offset wrenches, spanners, pipe wrenches. And my dad was a very, very, very resourceful man. He would basically do as much as he could on his own. If he could figure it out and do it on his own, he wouldn't call a person from outside to come over and do it. So he'd try and learn skills, learn how to do things on his own. And in that same spirit, he taught it to me. So I learned a lot about generally just working on things at home, being able to assemble furniture, being able to do a bit of plumbing here and there, being able to open up electronics. My dad taught me how to solder when I was a bit older and I did burn myself. I did burn myself a few times because I'm an idiot that way. I'm not the most safety-oriented person and I used to not exactly use the soldering iron the way it's supposed to be used. So I did end up burning myself quite a few times and did end up destroying a lot of tables, a lot of chairs, a lot of things that I shouldn't have destroyed because of that soldering iron. But it also made me so much more confident in being able to work with my hands. And that's what sparked about, you know, the whole narrative to go ahead and become, to try and get into the automotive industry and try and repair bikes, restore stuff, and in general, just be curious about anything that required tools to be worked on. And during school, I mean, we pretty much had a normal standard education, right? Not until the 10th standard, it was all normal. And it's after the 10th that you have to decide whether you want to do commerce, arts, or you want to do science. And me being the kind of curious chap that I was, my father definitely had a great influence on my life and the things I liked and the things I liked doing. And I also learned, I mean, not from a coveted kind of school or institution or university per se, but I learned to sing from a local teacher who had studied at London in, I think, I'm not sure what's the name of that really famous school in London that teaches music. I'm not sure if it's Trinity or whichever other one it is, but that's the one she learned at. And then to give back to the community, she would teach the locals, the local children, basically from the 4th standard to the 10th standard, she would do a course of five years of singing training from everything she learned when she was abroad and studying music, basically. And by that time, I've learned music as well. I wasn't into voiceover as much, but I did have a fair idea of how to do it. So I was dabbling in trying to be a musician. I mean, I wasn't super excited about it. I was more, as I said, a hands-on kind of guy who wants to work with tools and do things with, you know, anything that could be worked on with tools. So it was obvious that I went in for science and my dad was super proud because unlike my two older brothers. I was the only chap in the family to go ahead and do science and then I also went to pursue engineering after that. And my dad was a self-taught engineer. He never actually had formal education in engineering, but he took the time out to try and learn it himself. And he did. For the longest time, he would study and, you know, just learn it on his own and be bloody good at it as well. So that's how it all came about. And after I did science in the 12th, I was a little bit more experienced. I was a little bit more self-centered. Our family took kind of a turn for the worse, you can say. Dad lost his factory and the industry wasn't doing too good and dad wasn't really getting into a lot of work and we were not well-to-do. We didn't have any old money, so it wasn't exactly the best time. But now I went ahead and I joined an organization called Dados and I was working there selling musical instruments during the day. Because I didn't want to leave my education behind, being only a 12th pass, I started doing commerce, which is completely opposite to what I was doing all these previous years. But I started doing commerce in the night college at Xavier's and that was another experience that I was definitely not ready for. Working all day and then trying to study at night and then traveling back home and then doing the whole thing all the weekend the next day. And eventually... I sucked at commerce because obviously I had never had any formal background in commerce. I wasn't thoughted for the last two years and to try and catch up on two years of syllabus that you missed out on, plus learn the new syllabus, was horrible. And I kept failing and one of the priests who was one of the... He was basically the vice principal at the college. He sat me down and he said, man, what are you doing? You've done science. You're a smart guy. You know what you're doing. You know, especially when it comes to... All of these other things like, you know, science wise, at least, you know, what you're talking about, you know, why are you trying to get into commerce and why are you doing this? And I kind of explained the situation to him and he was like, okay, I get it. And I get that you, you know, you're just trying to support your family, but at the same time, you have to think about yourself. You have to make sure that you build your own career and definitely do something that makes you happy or else you're just going to be going from one thing to the next. And then you don't know when you left the earth and you just feel unsatisfied. So...