Advait & Namratha

Advait and Namratha first met way back in 2016.

Advait's first friends in college were Dheeraj, Vishnu, and Ashwin.

Picture 1 is that of Dheeraj, Ashwin and Vishnu chasing cows at a hill behind campus during the first week of college.

Namratha's first friends in college were Dheeraj, Aditi and Rohan.

It was through Dheeraj, the overlapping friend that Advait and Namratha first met.

During the first year of college, Advait and Namratha crossed paths infrequently. The first time they met was at the Manipal Food Court.

They did play squash once. But they never really spoke much apart from those interactions.

This year, Advait and Namratha met even more infrequently. Apart from watching a really poorly done play by the dramatics club, they didn't talk.

Namratha was active in her student clubs, and spent the summer in China.

Picture 2 is Namratha with her flatmates and friends in Beijing.

Advait was not active in any clubs. And spent the summer at home. Although he did spend that year exploring the coastline, surfing and hiking.

Picture 1 is proof Advait went surfing.

This was the year, Advait and Namratha started meeting more often, and their friend groups started overlapping.

Summer 2018, Namratha, Advait and friends volunteered their time to renovate a local public school. While Advait and Namratha maintained they did this out of the goodness of their heart, there was an academic grade associated with this activity.

They repainted an entire wall, created original art and planted many a plants. It was honest, hard work. They were proud.

By 2019, Advait and Namratha were good friends. She even called Advait for her birthday.

By then, a lot of people in college had started moving out from their hostels, including Advait. Because of this, Advait, and Namratha's friends who moved out started hosting people.

Here is a picture of Advait and Namratha together at one such Diwali party, hosted by a common friend.

Oh, and they also moved away from the campus by the end of 2019 for their internships to Bangalore.

This was the year when Advait and Namratha achieved the milestone of graduating, and working their first real job.

And then covid struck.

Graduation was meeting up at a restaurant months after the real graduation date, once COVID subsided a bit. They wore graduation caps that Namratha bought on Amazon.

Advait loved his job, he worked at a fast growing startup.

Namratha didn't feel the same about her job. And she realized that being a software developer at a slow moving big technology company was not her calling. (It was at HPE)

Picture 2 is Advait helping Namratha with some code.

Namratha and Advait were finally living in a world where covid's grip was loosening. They occasionally met.

One of those occasions was a hike a few kilometers outside bangalore. Advait drove his small hatchback there, with Namratha and Dheeraj with the aim of touching grass.

Grass was indeed touched, but the hill remained unconquered. The three got lost, and gave up in 20 minutes.

This was the year of big change for Namratha and Advait.

Namratha finally had it with that sluggish corporate SDE desk job. She moved to a new job as a product manager at a startup, before deciding to go to Duke for her Masters.

Advait finally decided to do what he wanted to do – start his own company. He wrote a five page resignation letter to his boss, and left to join Cornell for their startup program.

They both landed in New York on a hot summer day in August 2022.

Picture 1: Advait and Namratha went for their first broadway show together, Moulin Rouge. Advait became a huge fan of musicals.

Picture 2: Namratha asked a stranger to take a picture of the both of them, while taking a stroll on The High Line, in Chelsea. Namratha likes Chelsea. Advait is lukewarm towards it.

Advait graduated from Cornell in May 2023. He also started his company and received funding from his first set of investors. He thought he was killing it. Little did he know, he'd never recommend others to start their own company. It was not easy.

Namratha was still at Duke. She visited New York for Advait's graduation, and Christmas. Advait and Namratha sent out their first holiday card to friends and family.

The card was Advait's idea, and it took a lot of convincing to get Namratha on board. The design is intentionally cheesy.

Namratha officially graduated from Duke. She got a job as a Product Manager at a startup and moved to New York.

Advait's family and Namratha's family took their first group holiday together.

Advait's family visited New York for the first time. So did Namratha's family.

Advait and Namratha got engaged.