Like any other typical 90’s kid, I too wanted to be a cricketer after watching the famous Sharjah match between India and Australia, where Sachin Tendulkar dominated that series. It was all about cricket whether in my gully or be at the school. I represented my school team for the longest time and was extremely passionate about the game. The turning point came when I met with a serious accident and the cricket ball broke my nose and I had to undergo a major surgery. It took me more than a year to recover. Things were never same for me after this accident and I realised that it would be better to move on and pursue my passion in something else.
One day, I jokingly told my family that “Here, we first become engineers or doctors and then we decide what to do in life”. I was just going with flow and taking up Electrical Engineering was just the obvious choice for me, as both my maternal and paternal grandfathers were Electrical engineers. During my engineering journey, I found a passion of organising events and many cultural festivals. I was awestruck by new interest, and went on to become the President of various clubs in the undergraduate college.
These experiences gave me a deep understanding of managing people.
One morning when I was at home and my father asked me why I hadn’t gone to the college, I replied saying “the placement companies are visiting the college and I have no interest in sitting for the interviews. I want to join your business”. I decided to skip my college. Till that time, I had a very little idea of what my father did. Honestly, I thought this would be the best excuse for me and make him happy. Instead, my father got angry and left the house. Later that evening after our dinner, he took me for a walk and for the first time discussed many things with me. He laid three conditions for me to join his business: Get an on campus placement from my college, Undergo 1 year of training in a different company of his choice and No special privileges for me on joining his business with a starting salary of 20% less than what will be offered to me during my campus placement.
I’ve always loved challenges as it brings out the sportsman in me and a desire to win, and give my best. In the subsequent months after being rejected by Infosys, Wipro, TechMahindra and many more, I finally got placed into Igate Patni Computers on 15th November, 2011. That feeling was priceless!
But, I knew there was more to come.
As I underwent my training at Areva (now Schneider Electric) which manufactures power equipments, I fondly remember my days of staying in a small room. Working as a shop floor engineer, a fitter and a technician not only helped me understand the power industry, but also the value of life. During this time, I would come to my room in the night and read more about the power sector: the challenges and the opportunities. There were still more than 1 billion people in this world without access to electricity. I believe, it was during this time that I realized my mission towards contributing in solving these challenges.
After successfully completing my fathers three conditions, I was inducted into the sales and business development team of Hartek Group.
A personal tragedy knocked our family and I lost a loved one. The biggest invention of life is death and everybody has a limited time. The overall experience made me humble and pushed me to focus on my work for an even larger cause.
In 2013, this led me to my first venture, Hartek India. Six months later, we sold our first 11KV switchboard panel – the first ever ‘Hartek branded product’ in the company’s history. The backward integration model turned out to be a great move, enabling the company to integrate backwards into manufacturing and assemble its own branded products. In the following years, we added more specialised products used in the power industry. We soon began manufacturing 11KV/33KV switchboard panels, LT panels and control relay panels used in all kinds of industries, commercial buildings and power plants.
I’ve read a lot on renewable energy and working very closely on the large scale utility solar power plants, I firmly believe, that to truly build a sustainable infrastructure and to ensure every household gets electricity, distributed solar is the future.
This finally led us to founding – Hartek Solar. We build roof top solar power plants across the country. In a short span of time, we are amongst the Top 10 Installers in the country with more than 25 MW installed on residential, industrial and commercial buildings. Dedicated to the national cause of making electricity available to every Indian household, we recently launched plug and play solar kits for residential homes so that consumers can generate clean and sustainable power of their own.