Hello everybody! I am happy to welcome you to this personal section on my website that gives you some insights on a so far highly eventful life. I was born in Manipal, India and I moved to the United States on July 30th 2019, to pursue my studies. I started off at Wright State University, Ohio where I spent one semester. I enjoyed myself, learned how the American education system works and stayed in a dorm, made new friends, took new classes, all for the first time in the great country of America.
I then transferred to one of my favorite universities in the whole world, U of I at Urbana. I absolutely love the weather, campus and professors of my university. My favorite building is the math building which is a home to many world-renowned professors.
Let us talk about how I got here in the first place!
I spent the first 20 years of my life in India. My family lives in the south of India, in the state of Karnataka, in a city called Manipal. I was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to visit the United States many a time as a kid. My father is an Electrical Engineer who pursued his PhD degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He then moved to India and started his own company, Manipal Dot Net. I live in a joint family consisting of my dad, mom, sister, two uncles, two aunts, a cousin and my grand mother.
When I visited the United States numerous times as a kid, I was always fascinated by the vast scope for research, exploration and opportunities that this country provided. Thus, it was not a difficult decision to make to come to this country to pursue my studies.
After having various phases of interests in music, astronomy, Harry Potter (yes I am a potter head!), I settled on Mathematics when I was about 13 years old. I presented a small talk at TEDx Manipal combining my love for mental math and music (see video in ‘Talks and Presentations’). It was from that point on that my journey in numbers began. I look up greatly to Professor Arthur Benjamin of Harvey Mudd college, Professor Manjul Bhargava of Princeton University and Professor Alexandru Zaharescu of University of Illinois, as my three biggest sources of inspiration in the field of mathematics. My dad, Dr. Narasimha Bhat and great Indian mathematician Srinivasan Ramanujan remain my biggest overall inspirations in terms of having an impact on the world and following my dreams.
In 2016 and 2017, I visited various universities across the U.S.A and had the great opportunity to present my math shows to various audiences. I also had the good fortune of interacting with many mathematicians and at the end of the trip, it was very clear to me that this country was home to excellence. UIUC was one of the universities I visited on my 2017 trip (I also had the opportunity to present a talk at the Math department), and I am glad I am here now as a student.
In 2021, one of the most incredible coincidences (are there any?) occurred as I ran into someone who I would spend the rest of my life with. Anupama Udayakumar was a fellow undergrad who I took a Hindi class with. Although born and brought up in the US, she had a strong Indian cultural background. Our shared interests in multiple things such as Carnatic music, movies, books, philosophy, and a similar view of the world and life meant that we clicked from our very first conversation. We got married as soon as we completed our undergrad and are now doing Grad school together!
