I love diving into problems and translating complexity to beauty & function. Also, I love music and created Ragya.​​​​​​​
or continue reading about me ↓
P U B L I C A T I O N S
DOGS! An Anthology
A book of comics on dogs by writers & artists from India & the U.S.A  

Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Museum
Babajob as permanent exhibit is a part of Design for the other 90% archive

The urban poor rally for the rural poor
People’s Archive of Rural India, Nov 29, 2018
Read Article​​​​​​​
P A T E N T S
NUT-PAT-413: A design patent for the definition of topology of the cloud for any-scale infrastructure
I N  T H E  P R E S S
YourStory  A Kabir-inspired designer in love with information and his journey to FOLO Read
Audiogyan  Ragya with Aditya Dipankar Listen
Indian Express  Startup that’s on a mission to take Hindustani classical music to the world  Read
The Hindu  On Ragya, an Indian Classical music streaming app, songs follow the sun Read
Economic Times  When Marico boss enjoyed listening to Hindustani classical music in his office Read
Hacker News  Ragya - Indian classical music played by the time of the day Read
Musically  Ragya hopes to find streaming niche with Indian classical music Read
The Rasa Journal  Jugalbandi Read​​​​​​​
A   B I T   M O R E   A B O U T  M E

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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.
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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