I didn't plan to be in HR. It happened the way most careers do — through a door that was open when I needed one. I walked in, found I was good at it, and kept going for 22 years.
Cognizant, Wipro, Synechron, and eventually Sr. Director HR at Intelliswift, where I built cultures, designed performance frameworks, and sat across the table from founders at some of India's most ambitious companies. I was good at my job. What I didn't see was that I'd become exactly the kind of person I was trying to help.
"For twelve years I was performing well, moving forward, convincing myself I was happy. But something was hollow. I just hadn't named it yet."
In 2013, I attended a workshop where a trainer asked: "If you were an artist, how would you paint the masterpiece of your life?" I had no answer. That question haunted me for two years. Then I painted it — literally. A badly drawn picture of the life I actually wanted, stuck on my bedroom wall.
Left side: the reality I was in — a nagging boss, long hours, a question mark where my purpose should have been. Right side: the life I wanted — speaking on stages, a team around me, the specific feeling of being fully alive in my work, not just competent at it. In the middle: three arrows. Three bold steps.
In 2020, I wrote a book. Inside it, I declared publicly, in print: "I will retire by 45." People who read it thought it was motivational language. It wasn't. It was a target.
In late 2022, I left my last corporate job. Moved from Pune to the Himalayan foothills of Dehradun. I crossed the 45-year-old mark before the move was complete.
The painting happened. Precisely. On the timeline I had set, toward the life I had drawn with my own hands in 2013. That's not a motivational story. That's proof.
