I was born into a nuclear family of two eminent scientist parents, who passed on to me not just their genes but their spirit of constant curiosity and scientific inquiry. I was brought up in Calcutta of the seventies and eighties, when the city, despite its frequent plunges into power-cut darkness, was still abuzz with not just the quintessential Bengali hallmark of all things academic, culture and politics, but also with commerce and industry.
The swirl of childhood and adolescence found me studying in what then was the world’s largest school, an institution of stern pedagogy and cut-throat academic competition, teeming with thousands of students. Possibly because of my genetic predispositions, a competitive disposition and a demanding school environment, I turned out to be a ‘model’ student, a blinkered racehorse maxing out exams on a trot, until the world finally conspired to open my eyes to a bigger, richer reality – aka “the rest of the world”. Perhaps that’s the time when I started becoming who I now am – a massively social, ever explorative, curious mix of practicality and idealism, with a really large spread of interests.
Time moved on, and so did I, leaving Calcutta behind and picking up an expanding assortment of new learnings, memories and connections. The two years spent earning my MBA at XLRI were brilliant, thick with many treasures of all the above three kinds. My corporate career, with a startup foray right in the middle of a string of blue-chip multinational jobs, continued much in the same vein, providing me a rich daily fodder of ever-new roles, while I moved base right across India from Jamshedpur to Mumbai and, finally, to Bangalore, which felt like home as soon as I set foot on it.
While I enjoyed walking the plush carpets of corporate corridors and benefited from the wide-angle cross-industry exposure its high offices offered, truth is, I approached all my roles like an entrepreneur, enjoying pushing envelopes, innovating and going beyond the brief. It must have been this incipient drive that led me to start StreetBuzz. It is a culmination of many thoughts that have simmered and brewed for years, and I am excited at the talented team it has attracted around it now. Here’s hoping that together we can build something that makes a positive difference to this planet, and make this world of ours a more connected, less divided, and better place to be in.
Saugata Chatterjee
Founder & CEO