About me..

There is a little history behind my name - Sunil. I was born in the year when India won its first cricket world cup under Kapil Dev. My mom tells me that I was ecstatic looking at other people celebrating around me after the victory; cricket is in the Indian blood. Though Kapil Dev became a popular name, my elder brother, who was just 3 years old then, was a bigger fan of Sunil Gavaskar. He forced my parents to name me after Sunil Gavaskar. I wonder whether this name had anything to do with my virtues of patience and persistence. Talk about relationship between name and personality!

I spent most of my growing up days learning different things like Karate, Dance among others. In one of the places near Maharashtra where my family stayed for a few years, there used to be public celebrations of Ganesh Chathurthi. There were cultural events to entertain the devotees who thronged the pandals in huge numbers. Dance competition used to be a flagship event. Participating and winning prizes in dance competitions helped me overcome stage fear at a very early age.

Karate practice went on for 8 years apart from the role of an instructor for one and a half years. Teaching Karate to a bunch of young people was far more enriching and educating than merely practising. Motivating them and instilling a sense of confidence in the kids to do the impossible was a totally different experience altogether.

The qualities of motivating and persuading people came to fore when I set up Carbon Scavengers –group for fighting global warming. This is a non-profit group consisting of people who are all very keen to make a difference to the environmental scenario of this planet. My work is to motivate corporate offices and institutions who to adopt environmental friendly policies and reduce their Carbon footprint and thus make a difference to the environment.

Since my dad was in a transferable job, we frequently relocated to different places across various states. The best part about my childhood is that I got to meet people from different geographies, languages and religion. This made me culturally sensitive at a very early age. As a matter of fact, the language we spoke at home had tinges of various other languages because of this exposure. Today, in the age of globalization, the most sought-after managers and executives are those who are culturally sensitive and who possess a global outlook.

For four years, I worked for a U.S. based company that creates Mobile computing devices or handhelds for enterprises. Currently, I am studying Marketing in one of the premier B-schools of India. The other day I was just wondering why I thoroughly enjoyed what I did during my office and also why I enjoy being a student of Marketing. There seems to be one strong common factor between these two phases of my life. One involved thinking like our customers to create innovative mobile applications for our handheld devices. The other, Marketing, involves understanding the customer’s psyche again, but this time to facilitate the creation and marketing of the products. The gist is that skills of understanding and empathizing with people are helping me out in every aspect of my life. This includes my personal life too.

I have a wonderful girlfriend. She is from Jaipur and I am from Bangalore. Had it not been for all the travelling that my family did during my growing up days, I don’t think I would have got along with a person who is so different than I am in almost every aspect. I appreciate her values, her culture and her upbringing; so does she. The diversity is so huge that even after three years of courtship, we still feel that we have so much to know about each other. Touch wood!