I’m Leela … and I grew up in India … and then I moved to Chicago four years back … The city I grew up in India … It’s called Hyderabad … It’s in the southern part of the country … I grew up there … pretty much … my entire life before college … then I had to move to a different state … and the northern states are very different then the southern states … all the states have different cultures … and if you move to a different state … you have to speak in another language to talk to other people … The language I spoke as a child was called Telugu … it’s one of the southern languages … in India … and during school … I also learned English and Hindi as well … and a little bit of Sanskrit … Growing up … I had just one sibling … He’s a handful I would say (laughter) … He was younger … yeah … All my relatives … even my parents and my grandparents … They all look at us as two opposite ends of the spectrum … He’s much more … expressive … he’s opinionated … he’s outgoing … and I keep to myself most of the time … So … during my childhood … I did a little bit of sports … but not to much … just cricket … it’s a common game in India … Apart from that … I did a little bit of dancing … just for fun … if I were to perform tomorrow … I would practice today … something like that … But not too much … Every two or three years I would perform in school … middle school … then during high school … I just focused on my studies … trying to prepare for my college exams … no arts … just study all day … every day … My studies were focused on engineering … and I was mostly leaning towards mechanical engineering … and my father had a little bit of influence on me … because he used to be … he was the first engineer from his home town … It was a big deal … being an engineer back in the day … in the 60’s and 70’s … especially in India … He wanted me to do what ever I wanted to … he didn’t try to influence me … but I thought … maybe I would try … engineering … There are different career changes … in between …for me … from high school to passing the exam to get into college … it’s supposed to be one of the toughest exams in India … some people prepare from middle school on … Once I got into one of the colleges … and I had to move out of the state … it was very broadening … it broadened my horizons … even in the arts … or interacting with people … everything … Since I used to be a keep to myself kind of guy … and once you get into college … you have to interact with people … because you are living in a dorm with other people … The college I went to in India was also called IIT … The Indian Institute of Technology … It’s one of the top colleges in India … It was in a place that wasn’t a city … it was more like a town … and since India has so many communities in the different states … and once I got into college … I instantly became a member of one of the southern Indian communities at the college … and there’s so many other communities too … It gave me a comfortable zone … to start … I wasn’t interacting with people … But it opened me up to interacting with more people … and I got a bachelors degree in engineering there … The way I got to know about IIT (Illinois Institute of technology) … here in Chicago … was through someone from here … and he was a friend of my father … so he used to interact with us … And he told us all about IIT … He even presented some research opportunities too … those were some of the deciding factors for me … for applying to that college … When I first moved here to go to IIT … I lived in a dorm … because I wasn’t interacting … well … I didn’t know much about Chicago … what kind of neighborhoods to live in … or anything … so I’d say the safest plan was to live on campus … and then … once I knew things better … I’d move to somewhere I felt more comfortable … Coming here … I wouldn’t say I experienced culture shock … because I kind of had that experience when I first went to college … That gave me … “Oh … there are things that can be done differently” … So that made me think that there are different things in different places … So you might not need to be surprised by it … it’s just different … that’ was one of the deciding factors to being open … to all … all kinds of stuff … My first winter experience here? … I would say that it was very magical … (laughter) … It was the first time I saw snow … like … it was real … I was so excited … I started playing with it … my hands were so cold … almost frostbite … it was worth it … I like winters … people frown upon that … but that’s ok … I still like winters … I’ve traveled … to Vegas … I’ve been to Las Vegas … and I’ve been to LA … and that’s about it … I was interested in visiting other places … but when my relatives come … my brother visits me once in a while … So went to places … like Vegas and LA … And … eventually here at school … I ended up with a masters in computer science … I graduated two years back … and started working right after that … It was a startup company … When I started working for them … they had just started six months earlier … It’s called Excell Technologies … It’s located in the west loop … I live in Streeterville … because it’s close to work … and doesn’t involve any driving … What do I do there? … that’s an interesting question … I had no experience in computer science at all before doing the masters degree … I had to take all the classes … from an undergrad program … to build up my knowledge … based on that … I do mostly programing … but it’s related to artificial intelligence … How did I get into the dance company I’m in now? … As I said … in my childhood … I did a little bit of dancing … but it was never formal … it was like … it was joyful dancing … I would say … just moving to the music … no formal training … So … I always wanted to do a structured class … in dance … structured dance training … And … when I was working at the startup company … and that was right across from the dance studio … that now I’m part of … and every day … I used t walk by the studio … and when I would walk by the studio I would see people dancing … and … I just wanted to be in one of those classes … It took me … three days max … I gave in … and I went into the studio … and I was like … I want to sign up for the class … Yeah … that started off my dancing … Honestly … I didn’t know the difference between any of the styles of dancing … before joining the dance studio … I was just … Oh … that’s a different form of dancing … That basic awareness … I didn’t have … before I started … and it happened to be Latin Dance that I started with … but … I really really liked it … and the studio primarily focused on Latin dancing … When we’re performing … outside the studio … The name we go by is The DarkSide … as the team name … I was learning in the studio … and one of the instructors came up to me and was like … you should try out for these teams … and I barely had any experience … and I was like … I don’t know if I’m good enough for that … the team … and she was … No … You should try out … We’ll train you if you get in … I was … Ok … This was one team … and I had just tried out for another team too … a salsa team … and this was more bachata … it’s one of the two dance forms of Latin dancing … and I got into both of them … I was so excited … to be in both at the same time … I think … from my experiences … that arts and sciences are two … opposite sides of the coin … as like one uplifts the other … one feeds into the other … If there’s advancements in science … that helps in other forms in art … and science draws inspiration from arts … I’m very lucky to be a part in both areas … What did I think of Chicago as a city … culturally? … Before visiting … I had this mental image of Chicago being a completely different kind of culture … but once I came here … I wasn’t  that surprised … as there were things similar … but done in a different way … so I was Ok … there are similarities … too … it’s just not all differences … And yeah … I love living in Chicago … I generally go back one a year to visit my family … and a couple of times my brother has visited me … or I visit him sometimes … My folks haven’t been here yet … My brother lives in Sweden … he works there … I visited him for probably ten days … in Gothenburg … that’s the city he lives in … It’s on the southwest side of the country … it’s pretty relaxing there (laughter) … As far as social media … I still have a tendency of keeping things to myself … I do less social networking … I actually like networking with people … online or just actual … physical … interaction … But I do minimal social networking … There isn’t even a profile picture on my social network accounts (laughter) … For my foreseeable future … I would say … I will be living in Chicago … As far as business … maybe go from a startup … to a medium sized company … On the dancing side … maybe I’ll be in some competitions … and grow as a dancer …