My Autobiography: The Journey of Tuhin Sarkar

Early Beginnings

My name is Tuhin Sarkar. I was born on August 12, 2010, at Nirmala Nursing Home in Hyderabad, Secunderabad to my parents, Goutam and Priyanka Sarkar. From an early age, I showed signs of advanced development. I learned to talk at just nine months old and could speak fluent Bengali and Hindi (which I picked up from watching cartoons) by the time I was one and a half years old.

I began my education journey early, joining nursery school (kindergarten) when I was two and a half years old. Even then, I was ahead of my peers in nursery and LKG (Lower Kindergarten). I learned to speak fluent Hindi by watching Hindi cartoons like Chotta Bheem and Doraemon. My mother was particularly impressed when I perfectly replicated a drawing of a train—complete with the wheels and engine—that I had seen on my school wall.

My test-taking abilities stood out from the beginning. My mother often described me as having "profoundly excellent" test-taking aptitude. While other children struggled to understand what to do during exams, I would finish them in just fifteen minutes—only one-third of the allotted time.

Moving to Bangalore

In 2015, when I was five years old, my family relocated from Hyderabad to Bangalore (Bengaluru) due to my father's job. We rented a home in Arehalli in Uttarahalli Hobli, as I remember. After moving to Bangalore, I joined Euro Kids for UKG (Upper Kindergarten). Since I was only 5 years and 10 months old when it was time to enter 1st grade, I had to repeat UKG twice, but I did this at Orchids the International School.

However, I ended up leaving Orchids after a horrific accident involving one of their school buses from the Mysore Road branch. Fortunately, I wasn't on that particular bus as I used a different route. After this incident, I transferred to Sri Chaitanya for 1st grade. It was around this time that I first needed glasses, which I attribute to playing too much Subway Surfers.

Discovering My Passions

If you're wondering about my interests, I love computer science, politics (especially international geopolitics), and aviation. My journey with computer science began when I was seven years old, when my father allowed me to use his laptop. At first, my access to computers was quite limited because my parents were cautious about my technology use.

We had a slow BSNL broadband connection that was functional but not impressive. The laptop I used then—and still use today while writing this—is a Lenovo Z50-70 with an Intel Core i5-4210U CPU, Nvidia 820M GPU with 2GB of VRAM, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB 5400 RPM Hard Disk Drive, and Windows 8.1 Pro. It wasn't particularly powerful, but it served its purpose. I used it mainly for simple activities like MS Paint and occasional web browsing.

Eventually, my father decided to cancel our internet service due to the high cost for poor quality. Instead, my mother used mobile data on her Galaxy J7 with an Airtel 4G SIM, and my father purchased a J10 4G dongle for internet access on his Galaxy E7 phone. He also used this for writing emails when he was sick and couldn't go to his office to use his ThinkPad T440.

During this period, I was a typical second-grader at Sri Chaitanya Techno School. I excelled at Abacus and enjoyed playing with my friend Abhay. I was just an ordinary kid.

Health Challenges and New Discoveries

Things changed when we moved to our new home in Marathahalli. The air pollution there severely affected my health, causing frequent lung infections and bronchitis. My ENT doctor, Dr. Meghna Potluri, recommended that we change homes, but it wasn't easy to move from a house we had just purchased. We bought a Phillips Air Cleaner AC2892/20 Air Purifier, but it didn't help much.

Because of my poor health, I couldn't go outside to play. Instead, I found myself confined at home with the TV and a 100 Mbps ACT broadband connection. I watched FactTecz videos to improve my general knowledge. One day, a video by airplane content creator Artist Ravi appeared on my homepage, sparking what would become my unwavering passion for aviation. I watched his videos daily and gradually became knowledgeable about aircraft.

The Power of Imagination

In October 2019, when I was nine years old, I began experimenting with manifestation. Every night before bed, I would imagine having things I wanted. At first, I wished for material possessions like a new MacBook Air to replace my father's Lenovo laptop. When I lost a tooth, I even hoped the tooth fairy might leave a MacBook instead of coins! Of course, that didn't happen, and I felt guilty for being greedy.

After weeks of manifesting material items without success, I shifted my focus. Suffering from chronic bronchitis and sinusitis due to pollution, I began to imagine an escape—a better environment free from illness. Then one day, I watched a video about American public schools. I was fascinated by how digitized they were compared to my own school. Students could bring phones to class, and technology was integrated throughout the learning experience.

This inspired me to imagine a modern, technologically advanced school environment that could compete with the best schools worldwide. Every night, I pictured a school with cutting-edge technology: students with their own devices, an app to track the school bus, NFC chips in ID cards for access, air-conditioned buses with tinted windows, and digital attendance systems. I imagined the school providing iPads and MacBooks to students. I envisioned every feature that should be standard in an expensive private ICSE school.

A Dream Comes True—With a Twist

After months of this visualization, my parents shared exciting news: I would be admitted to Orchids the International School. I was shocked—it felt like my manifestation had worked! The new school was a huge improvement over my previous one, and I was incredibly excited to start there.

However, just as I was preparing to begin this new chapter, COVID-19 struck in February 2020. The pandemic dramatically changed everything. Masks became mandatory, and the world felt suddenly dangerous. Schools shut down, streets emptied, and normal life was put on hold.

When online classes began and everything went digital, I saw elements of my manifestation come to life, but in a completely different context than I had imagined. I initially felt guilty, as though my wish for a digital school environment had somehow contributed to the pandemic. Eventually, I convinced myself that this was coincidental—I had simply been imagining something different.

Challenges During the Pandemic

During the COVID-19 lockdown, I developed a serious gaming addiction that affected me deeply from ages 9 to 10. My grades suffered significantly, though I still managed based on my natural abilities—a classic example of the "gifted kid paradox." This phenomenon occurs when children identified as highly intelligent early in life eventually struggle academically or emotionally because they never developed proper study habits, fear failure, become bored with standard curriculum, fall into perfectionism, or have unaddressed mental health or neurodivergent conditions.

By fifth grade, I had a wake-up moment and worked hard to improve my grades, eventually ranking second in my class. During this time, my best friend was A.K. Hemanth, a fellow tech enthusiast. We remained friends until he chose to focus on sports instead of technology after fifth grade.

Middle School Years

In sixth grade, when in-person classes finally resumed, I attended only two weeks of school before returning to online learning from June to October due to COVID concerns and a family bereavement. I returned to physical school in November, as Orchids had implemented a hybrid learning model.

During online school, I became friends with Ira Lahiri, for whom I developed feelings. We connected well and even followed each other on Instagram. Unfortunately, a misunderstanding involving a meme I posted led to conflict with another student named Shivam Dave, who escalated the situation unfairly. This incident damaged my reputation and resulted in Ira blocking me, which was deeply painful.

When I entered seventh grade at Narayana school, I was struggling emotionally from this experience. I used humor to mask my depression and anxiety. The adjustment to the new school environment was difficult, especially with an authoritarian dean who once punished me for giving him a chocolate on my birthday by making me sit outside his cabin for two days. Seventh grade was one of the lowest points in my life, and I had lost motivation.

Finding My Way Forward

After the PT-IV examinations in seventh grade, I realized things needed to change. I took responsibility for my life and began to improve my situation. Eighth grade brought positive changes—I made new friends like Eesha and Siddharth, participated in my first Model United Nations (MUN) conference, and attended an event called Cryptics. I was selected for these opportunities after giving a well-received speech on Ross Ulbricht and the Silk Road.

On my 14th birthday, I hit my hardest quote ever:

The day I turn 14, I will no longer be the first 13 year old to do something.

In life, since then, I've realised that I'm not at the number 1 kid, there are people who are much smarter and much better at stuff I do at a much younger age. But this quote has kept the drive in my alive - to do something that nobody has done at this age. If it wasn't for this quote, I wouldn't work so hard each day, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing right now.

When I joined 8th grade and I decided to lock in, I decided that I needed to learn a lot of languages. I realised, I am fluent in English, Hindi, Bengali, and my third language at school has been French for 3 years, and I've done Kannada for a year and Sanskrit for a year. I needed something new, something better. I wouldn't say that Hitler's speeches inspired me to learn German, but it was something new, something challenging, and we all know how much I love challenge. Since then I've made it my personal mission to be a polyglot, to be fluent in English, Hindi, Bengali, German, French, Kannada and Sanskrit. Is it possible? Maybe.

Everything after this, all of my achievements are listed on this website. This is where my current written story ends, though my journey continues, it is never the end for me. I may update this autobiography with new information as my life unfolds at Glentree Academy, but till then, I'm glad that you read so far.