A moment I want to share.
She was in 9th standard when she told us. I want to pursue fashion/design. Advika was certain. Not impulsive—certain. That's different.
Coming from a family where science was the default path, the word fashion didn't compute at first. Design felt abstract compared to engineering, medicine, the safe roads we knew growing up. But what struck me was how she led that conversation. She didn't ask for permission; she presented her thinking. That was a leadership moment — a young person knowing what she wanted and having the courage to articulate it, even when it didn't match the family script. What followed wasn't a yes or a no. It was a structured dialogue. We did what parents should do: we sat with the doubt. Asked questions. Talked to people in the field. Let her explore, not to convince her otherwise, but to make sure she was choosing with her eyes open, not running from something or towards something out of compulsion. For High School (+1 and +2) she chose Design as the Major.
Three years later, the results came in. Rank 77 All India Rank. She has joined NIFT Bangalore, in Fashion Communication. One of India's premier Design Institutes, in the stream she chose. I'm proud of her. But more than that, I'm proud of how we got here—the thoughtfulness, the conversations, the willingness to trust her instinct even when it didn't match the script.
Here is what I keep thinking about, though:
In an age when AI can do so much, when algorithms can optimize and predict and automate, what actually matters is what she brings that no machine can replicate. Her ingenuity. Her curiosity. Her first-degree thinking, the Design Thinking. The ability to see something that doesn't exist yet and imagine it into being. As a proponent of AI, I believe, AI will assist her, It should. But it's her originality that will set her apart.
Advika is ready & I am excited to see what she builds!
