I’m from Jammu and Kashmir, where people have made beautiful things by hand for centuries: papier-mâché, walnut carving, shawls. I didn’t make any of those. I studied computer applications at IMS Jammu instead, but I like to think a little of that patience rubbed off.

I learned design the hard way, by freelancing. No team, no one to hand things over to. I took every project from the first sketch to the last detail, and learned that every small decision is yours, including the bad ones.

Then came Fisdom, which is now part of Groww. Working under Amit Kumar, I learned to balance creativity with logic. It’s also where I met R. More on that soon.
There I got to rebuild the whole app, which felt like being handed a house and told to redecorate every room. I learned the most from watching real people get lost in something I was sure was obvious. Dark mode taught me that a colour is never just a colour: you have to decide it twice. In 2023 I received the Spirit of Fisdom Award for leading it, which I’m told is a real award and not something I made up.

After that I joined CapMint, a small founding team where everyone does a bit of everything. I came in as a product designer and grew into a senior one by saying yes to whatever needed designing next. I learned things I never thought I would: how a logo and a colour palette come together, how a design system stays alive after the launch party, how a trade moves from a tap to an order. Not everything made it out of the door (one app got paused), and I still learned a lot from it. Somewhere in between, I also started learning typeface design, so I now read every sign I walk past a little too closely.

What I enjoy most is the place where design meets engineering: the edge cases, the empty states, the screen nobody thinks to draw. It isn’t glamorous, but it’s where a product starts to feel solid.

Now, about R. Most of my free time goes there, and so does the advice I actually take. We talk about books, music and people, and try to find meaning in small, everyday things. Friday evenings belong to biryani, music, singing and dancing.

Music matters to me, so I’m learning the keyboard, a Yamaha PSR-i500, and practising songs in Kashmiri, Hindi, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and English. I’m not good yet, but I’m getting braver. The rest of the time I’m out and moving: cycling, going for drives, watching movies, with a camera usually nearby.

See the photos I take →

That’s about it. Just this much, for now.