From Mysore to Padova — and back, with a juice bottle in hand.
Born in Mysore, now based in Bangalore. My path started in hotel management (AIMS Institutes), routed through operations at NMIMS, and eventually took me across an ocean to a two-year MSc in Italian Food & Wine at the University of Padova. Somewhere between Barolo tastings and agri-tourism fieldwork, an idea started to fizz.
I was selected as one of six youth delegates in the Eusalp Youth Exchange Programme, representing Italy in a six-day cross-border gathering high up near the France–Switzerland border. We spent it debating alpine tourism, population decline, and how small regions protect their identity without freezing in time. I wasn’t born Italian, but I got to argue for its mountains.
Back home, I sent out applications and waited. And waited. The inbox stayed politely quiet. At some point the honest thought landed: stop waiting for someone to hire your ambition. Build something instead. That’s where Quartermelon actually began — not in a pitch deck, but in a decision.
“I’m a firm believer in Lord Jagannath. Quartermelon didn’t start as a business plan — it started as a small, quiet spark of faith that said, go make something honest.”
A podcast & Substack — short reflections on this odd, in-between decade of building, questioning, and figuring things out.
