(This is an excerpt from Chemical Khichdi: How I Hacked My Mental Health by Aparna Piramal Raje, published by Penguin Random House. You can buy it here.)
I was 24 then, and had been working in sales and marketing with VIP luggage for three years. Midway through the year, I was accepted into the Harvard Business School. The programme started in September.
In the interim, I planned to take time off from the business, to pursue a different sort of adventure: to intern with Randeep Sudan, a senior bureaucrat in the Andhra Pradesh state government at the time. Mr. Sudan worked closely with N. Chandrababu Naidu, then considered the chief minister of one of India’s most technologically progressive states.
The internship was facilitated by a family friend, and I was keen to learning about state-level governance, a completely unfamiliar subject.
Come July 2000, I found myself in Hyderabad, then the capital of Andhra Pradesh, staying as a paying guest in the home of Lakshmi Devi Raj. Over the next four weeks, I acquired two role models - my innovative and approachable boss, Mr. Sudan, and my hostess, the 68-year old joyful and independent Lakshmi Aunty. During the day, Mr. Sudan ensured I worked on stimulating projects, such as how the state could attract more external investment.