My real ambition is simpler than the work suggests. To make the six billion people in the world a little happier than I found them. To plant a billion trees along the way. And to share whatever I have learned about the body, the mind, and the dharma — with anyone willing to receive it.
A small ceremony for a single tree. Barefoot, on wet earth, the way it should be done.
ESDS has already planted over a million trees through Project Green Connect. The goal is one billion. Every week, tree-plantation drives in cities where ESDS has offices. Lakhs of seeds donated to farmers at no cost. Marathons and health camps for ESDSians and their families.
I am told this is unusual for a sovereign cloud company. I do not see why. The same circuits that run our data centres run on the same earth that grows the trees. There is no separation that I can find.
ESDS team · Project Green Connect — #BillionTrees
India’s first-of-its-kind Post-Graduate Diploma in Advanced Cloud Computing (PGDACC), built and offered through partner institutions across the country. Education is the element of difference between good and bad.
Daily 4 AM. Meditation, pranayama, yoga. Before the day touches me. The eleven days at Dhammagiri Igatpuri at the start of 2020 dissolved chronic pain inherited from my father and grandfather, and a band of stored grievance around the heart that no doctor had been able to find. The practice did not end on day eleven. It became the architecture of every day since.
If you are new to Vipassana, the first ten days at Dhammagiri are the only doorway I know that works. They are free. You bring nothing. You leave with everything you arrived without.
The Global Vipassana Pagoda, Gorai — built in honour of S.N. Goenka and the lineage of teachers who carried this practice forward for 2,500 years.
Piyansh, myself, and Prajit — on the lawn at home. Three lotuses, one practice.
The yoga mat is where I introduce my sons to the practice. Asana, breath, stillness — long before I expect them to understand why. The body is the vessel. The work is what the vessel carries.
If I leave them anything, I want it to be this. Not the company. Not the patents. Not the data centres. The breath. The discipline. The capacity to sit still with whatever arises in their hearts and watch it move on.
Hanuman Jayanti at the Ramshej temple, with my mother — a tradition that goes back through more years than I can count.
Hanuman Jayanti darshan, Ramshej.
With my mother, Sarala Somani, at Ramshej.
If you are a student, an aspiring entrepreneur, or someone trying to find your way into the work of building India’s digital sovereignty — write to me through the Connect form. I will not promise a meeting. I will read what you send.
If you are working on a tree-plantation initiative, a cloud computing programme at your university, a Vipassana centre, or a similar mission — the same applies. The work is large enough for everyone who wants to do it.