mumbai doesn't really let you be passive. it's loud and fast and full of people who want things. at home, i watched my dad build himself up from nothing, so wanting more felt normal.

as the eldest daughter, i carried that expectation quietly. i didn't always know what i wanted, but i knew what i needed: to understand how things worked. not *just* that they worked. why. that question followed me everywhere. it still does.

a student exchange at the university of florida. i was 21, and i was in this whole new country by myself. it felt like a big risk, the kind you only understand once you are actually doing it.

everything was different: the pace, the expectations, the way people spoke up in class. i earned a 4.0, but what stayed with me was simpler. i liked the feeling of being new somewhere and still figuring it out. i came back wanting more of that.

i worked on urban heat equity, and for once it was not just research. it moved money. it helped point funding toward shade structures in low income neighborhoods where extreme heat is not an inconvenience. it is risk.

i used geospatial data and ml to show which areas lacked shade and why. published another research in springer nature in december 2025. a project that started as homework ended up in the hands of people making decisions for real communities. it truly makes me happy.