CURRENT MISSION

To be of some honest use to the world.

ABOUT ME

Born and brought up in Trivandrum, a relatively small city in South India, I spent the last four years of my life in Dhaka and the four before that in Bombay. I'm an idealist, happy-go-lucky, fun loving person who lives to grow from each experience and to lead a life that embraces serendipity. I am a visual artist and currently living in Hannover, Germany as an exchange student.

2025 update: I’ve moved back to my hometown, Trivandrum, together with my partner, and we have a beautiful child. Currently we are working towards creating a local community of people from diverse backgrounds.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

When I first moved to Dhaka, Bangladesh for photography school I was was accepted as a couchsurfer in a house where an American, Slovenian and a Bangladeshi was living. Turned out they were looking for a housemate and me the Indian joined the family. I went on to stay in that house for four years, and during this time we had people from all over the world living in this little tin-roofed seventh-floor apartment. I have grown so much through these interactions and if not for couchsurfing I would have never lived through those experiences.

Right now I am travelling through Europe and would consider it a privilege to be hosted by people in the cities I plan to visit.

Interests

After my graduating in economics my interest in travelling led me to work with an offbeat travel company soon to realize that it was mostly a desk job allowing others to travel. I pursued a course in Photography afterwords and have found my path since. I like to work on conceptual/documentary stories and this has brought me into close contact to different sides of the world and has introduced me to some exceptionally brilliant, inspiring people

• books
• photography
• gardening
• traveling
• music
• sports
• art history
• art
• cinema
• conversation
• ultimate frisbee

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies - I have several carefully curated movies stored in my hard-disk and I value each and every one of them. Cinema is integral to me and I believe there are several things I have learnt from them. Roy Andersson, Wes Anderson, Wong Kar Wai, Jim Jarmusch, Chris Marker, Mike Mills - these are a few of my favourite directors. If someone asks me what my favourite film is, more often than not my reply is Wings of Desire.

Music - My preference depends on the mood of course; I like to think of myself having an eclectic taste and I'm always keen on listening to new kinds of music.

Books - I am very promiscuous in my reading habits, multiple books are dealt with at the same time, fiction and non-fiction. One of my favourite past-times is to spend time scouring through books in second-hand bookshops. I hoard books and when I find someone who I think will enjoy a book as much as I did, I gift them.

Teach, Learn, Share

There's this website called 'the dictionary of obscure sorrows' where some of my favourite words come from. One such word is this:
'flashover
n. the moment a conversation becomes real and alive, which occurs when a spark of trust shorts out the delicate circuits you keep insulated under layers of irony, momentarily grounding the static emotional charge you’ve built up through decades of friction with the world'.

I really enjoy real conversations and have learnt immensely through them, about (almost) everything. I'm ready to have a flashover with you, to teach, learn, share everything.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bangladesh, Cambodia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

Bangladesh, Germany, India, Italy, Nepal