"Follow your curiosities, relentlessly and without apology."
That's the philosophy that's quietly shaped every major decision in Eesha's life — from a small town in Rajasthan to the heart of one of India's top engineering institutes, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani .
Eesha Gadia grew up in Jhunjhunu, a culturally rich town in Rajasthan, as the middle child in a bustling joint family of 11. As a kid, she was endlessly curious — playing basketball at the district and state level, learning to skate, sketching, and picking up the guitar in her school's music club.
When boarding school demanded focus in 11th grade, she consciously set most of those hobbies aside — though the guitar, and more recently tennis, never fully left her life.
She chose Science with PCM in high school, and a curiosity-driven elective in C++ planted a seed she didn't yet recognize. That curiosity carried her to BITS Pilani, where she pursued a Dual Degree — an M.Sc. in Mathematics and a B.E. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
Being the first in a family of commerce backgrounds to choose Science — and then move far from home for college — was uncertain and uncomfortable. It was also, in her words, exactly "the right call".
Her love for Mathematics gave her an intuitive edge in Computer Science, turning curiosity into conviction. That conviction led her to Barclays, where she grew from a fresh graduate into a Senior Developer, building large-scale systems in a demanding financial environment — and more recently, into the world of AI, an area she now finds genuinely exciting.
Her path wasn't without its stagnant chapters. The isolation of COVID-19 hit right in the middle of her college years, stripping away the energy of campus life. Instead of letting inertia win, she channeled that restlessness into focused placement preparation.
Years later, a similar quiet stagnation crept into her job — and once again, her answer wasn't to wait it out, but to build. She started tinkering with AI projects, reigniting the curiosity that has driven her at every turn.
Her father remains her biggest influence — not because their visions always aligned, but because he never stopped showing up for her ambitions, even the ones he didn't fully understand.
Her biggest life lesson: you don't need a grand plan or a guaranteed outcome. You just need to lean into what genuinely interests you — and trust that it's leading somewhere.
Looking ahead, Eesha Gadia hopes to move beyond execution into shaping technical direction in AI, with an even bigger dream on the horizon — building something of her own that solves a real problem and creates lasting impact.
Her message to anyone reading this: don't wait for certainty. Dive in. That restlessness — that refusal to stay still — might just be what shapes you the most.
Eesha Gadia grew up in Jhunjhunu, a culturally rich town in Rajasthan, as the middle child in a bustling joint family of 11. As a kid, she was endlessly curious — playing basketball at the district and state level, learning to skate, sketching, and picking up the guitar in her school's music club.
When boarding school demanded focus in 11th grade, she consciously set most of those hobbies aside — though the guitar, and more recently tennis, never fully left her life.
She chose Science with PCM in high school, and a curiosity-driven elective in C++ planted a seed she didn't yet recognize. That curiosity carried her to BITS Pilani, where she pursued a Dual Degree — an M.Sc. in Mathematics and a B.E. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
Being the first in a family of commerce backgrounds to choose Science — and then move far from home for college — was uncertain and uncomfortable. It was also, in her words, exactly "the right call".
Her love for Mathematics gave her an intuitive edge in Computer Science, turning curiosity into conviction. That conviction led her to Barclays, where she grew from a fresh graduate into a Senior Developer, building large-scale systems in a demanding financial environment — and more recently, into the world of AI, an area she now finds genuinely exciting.
Her path wasn't without its stagnant chapters. The isolation of COVID-19 hit right in the middle of her college years, stripping away the energy of campus life. Instead of letting inertia win, she channeled that restlessness into focused placement preparation.
Years later, a similar quiet stagnation crept into her job — and once again, her answer wasn't to wait it out, but to build. She started tinkering with AI projects, reigniting the curiosity that has driven her at every turn.
Her father remains her biggest influence — not because their visions always aligned, but because he never stopped showing up for her ambitions, even the ones he didn't fully understand.
Her biggest life lesson: you don't need a grand plan or a guaranteed outcome. You just need to lean into what genuinely interests you — and trust that it's leading somewhere.
Looking ahead, Eesha Gadia hopes to move beyond execution into shaping technical direction in AI, with an even bigger dream on the horizon — building something of her own that solves a real problem and creates lasting impact.
Her message to anyone reading this: don't wait for certainty. Dive in. That restlessness — that refusal to stay still — might just be what shapes you the most.
This story was told by Eesha Gadia and published with their permission by the What's Your Story editorial team.
