Aditya Dipankar

I've been a musician since I was 5. I play multiple instruments - the Tabla, drums, Guitar and I've been practicing the Alto Saxophone since the last 4 years. I also love to sing and compose my own music too.

👨‍💻

My fascination with computers began when I was 10. I took to Logo programming naturally and soon started to code in GWBasic and C++. In my later school years, I was hooked to coding and was making viruses and selling software to my classmates. My dad had to lock the home computer so that I would be compelled to stop writing code. I opened the cabinet, removed the jumper and bypassed the password :)

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Around this time, the internet arrived with some speed in India and the day I saw Yahoo email load on my friend's computer for the first time, I was filled with so much wonder, I came back and started to create linked pages in MsWord. Soon, I started to write HTML in Notepad.

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After school, I was lucky to have been rejected by all engineering colleges and finally entering NIFT, where I very soon found myself attracted to graphic design. I took to it like fish to water and started obsessing.

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I bunked classes to spend time in the library and read books on typography, poster design, web design, graphic design, etc. I was spending time in the computer lab teaching myself Photoshop, Corel Draw, Adobe Flash, action-scripting and what not.

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During placements at NIFT, although with the lowest kind of CGPA for my course I landed myself a graphic design job by taking a portfolio to college instead of a CV. Soon, I moved to PaGaLGuY.com, where I grew leaps as an interface designer.

In 2009, I got accepted into the master's course for Information & interface Design at National Institute of Design and, for the first time, I spent 2 years studying design formally.

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2010, Right out of and during NID, I started working with Microsoft on Office Mobile. Was enjoying it, until very soon I was lured by the startup life and quit my job at Microsoft to move to Bangalore and become the first designer at Myntra. I quit Myntra on day 1 to help Sean Blagsvedt redesign babajob.com, as I found that much more meaningful. (Later in life, 2022, I joined GoodWorker to continue this journey where I was managing the UX for their mobile apps for blue collar workers and other initiatives.)

From there on, I've spent most of my life in startups where I believe I've learnt a lot. Babajob, Sunglass.io, CALM.io, BRYTER, and now Ragya.

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In 2012, I started FOLO, a graphic design studio that has done some really good work since its inception. Also, in 2012, I was blessed to have found my music and life guru in Pt. Vijay Sardeshmukh, himself a disciple of Pt. Kumar Gandharva.

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From 2014 till 2021, the activist in me has been involved in multiple initiatives which have been a part of the counter-culture movement in India in the form of either governance, journalism or other forms of media. To name a few, People's Archive of Rural India, TheWire, Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi Government, couple of my own data-driven visualisation initiatives - NetaFilter.in and CAAProtests.info, and other initiatives such as Nyaaya.in and Civis.vote. As a designer, I have tried to contribute to the good fight however best I could.

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In 2019, I founded Ragya, a first-of-its-kind democratic streaming service exclusive to Indian classical music. This is the most ambitious project of my life so far and I continue to learn patience and persistence everyday in this journey.

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G E T I N T O U C H

adityadipankar [at] gmail [dot] com