23 since last 7 years!

My friends know that I always claim to be 23 years old :D. Ok here I admit today, I am 23 since last 7 years. I formally started the company when I was 23 and ever since my age refused to grow.

Today, not sure why, I feel a little old, a little wise. I look into the mirror and see the white hair shouting at me — “Oh Paresh, you entered the Thirties”. That left me wondering — how fast the last 10 years went by? I sat introspecting about my twenties and I could connect the dots looking backwards.

I stumbled upon website building

Couple of months before I entered 20’s , I stumbled upon a piece of article meant for school kids in a newspaper that showed some basic html code and grabbed my attention. I was introduced to Internet a little earlier by my brother. Net connection at home wasn’t available those days and so I saved almost every Html & Javascript tutorial I found and carried them home in Floppy Drive (yes the 1.44 MB ones) and practiced at home :) My first website came up a little ahead of my 20th birthday.

Never knew that a hobby that started when I was 20 would become my career few years later.

Web designing led me into BHUMI

Bhumi was started by a small group of youngsters wanting to witness change in society. The energy the group carried, pulled me into it. I got an opportunity to do its website and that gathered lot of appreciation from everyone, eventually I became a core team member. Bhumi laid the foundation for my entire thought process. It taught me the most important lesson of life — “Ability to read various perspectives”. The confidence it instilled in me stayed forever and helped me secure seat at NITIE.

Bhumi also gave me a strong network, which later turned out to be a major source of my business leads.

Confidence that helped me crack NITIE

Even though my GATE score was good, NITIE had a Interview and Group Discussion. I had no GD prep/training earlier and was about to attend my first. A GD is all about perspectives and Bhumi had a healthy culture of debate & discussions. I cracked it. Even my interview revolved around my work at Bhumi. I was so confident after the interview that, as I came out, I said to a senior there — “I would be coming back to join as her junior”.

NITIE gave me the final push!

Throughout these years, my passion for websites was alive and I used to take up freelancing projects with the banner of “Coherendz”, however I never felt the need for formalizing the company. My sir, Prof. Prasad pushed me to register a firm.

NITIE provided me the foundation required to run a business along with the exposure to the industry and then kicked me into full-time entrepreneurship.

The game changer girlfriend!

Coherendz has been a girlfriend who changed my life. She is my alter-ego and stood as a mirror in front of me, providing me every opportunity to look into myself, improve and grow. Now here is a secret. Because my girlfriend is young, my age stopped growing as well.

In these 10 years I met wonderful people full of energy & spirit, who kept me inspiring all the time. Latest addition to the list is my wife, who is a great source of strength to live my dreams for the rest of my life.

Oh, how did I forget this young chap, Abhi who taught me simple mantra — “Happiness in life is beyond excuses”.

He did this wonderful greeting for me : http://www.coherendz.com/greetings/happy_birthday_paresh.html