ಪರಿಚಯ

I grew up in Tumakuru district and went to school at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya there. I studied Electronics and Communication at Global Academy of Technology in Bengaluru, then Software Systems at BITS Pilani. I started at Infosys in Mysuru and now work at IBM. I live in Bengaluru.

My first collection of short stories, ಕಾರೇಹಣ್ಣು, won the Ee Hottige Short Story Collection Award in 2019. Several of the stories in it had already picked up prizes in literary competitions, which was a surprise to me at the time and still is, a little.

Since then the books have wandered between forms. ಡಾರ್ಕ್‌ವೆಬ್‌ told technology as a story rather than a manual — as far as I know it was the first Kannada book to try it. ಆರ್ಟಿಫಿಶಿಯಲ್ ಇಂಟೆಲಿಜೆನ್ಸ್, ಸರಳಗನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ was the first Kannada book written entirely about AI for people who do not work in it. ಫೀಫೋ was an experiment in how a story can be told. ಕನಸೇ ಕಾಡುಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆ is young adult fiction, which Kannada has very little of, with rather more jokes in it than the others. The latest of my own is a novel, ಇಂತಿ, ಪೂರ್ವಿ.

I have also translated one book rather than written it: ನನ್ನ ಹೆಸ್ರೇ ಸಿನ್ನಮಾನ್, Vikas Prakash Joshi's My Name is Cinnamon, for Bahuroopi. More people have read it than anything else with my name on it, which I have decided to find funny rather than annoying.

Every fortnight I write TechPost in ವಿಜಯ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ — science and technology for a general reader. I also speak at literary forums and colleges, usually about AI or about staying safe online.

If you want to reach me, email is the surest way.