The Story
Not the resume.
The person.
Six chapters. One city that made me, one classroom that couldn't contain me, and everything that happened after.
The Story
Six chapters. One city that made me, one classroom that couldn't contain me, and everything that happened after.
Chapter 01
I grew up in the lanes of Ballygunge. Calcutta sheltered my parents before it sheltered me, so I did not just grow up in a city. I grew up in a story already several chapters old.
Satyajit Ray taught me that extraordinary stories hide inside ordinary lives. Pather Panchali, Charulata, Apur Sansar. Cinema as a way of seeing, not just watching. And Prosenjit Chatterjee, Bumba Da as the whole city calls him, showed me that you can carry a generation's emotions on your face and make it look effortless. I grew up watching his films and understanding that storytelling is the most powerful thing a human being can do.
There is nothing I love more than the monsoon in Calcutta. A walk around Rabindra Sarobar when the city slows down and everything feels like a scene from a film you cannot quite place. Daily life here feels like fiction. Not because it is unreal, but because it is so completely itself.
The love for business came naturally in a city where every lane has its own economy and everyone has a loud opinion. Calcutta gave me my taste, my curiosity, and my inability to do anything halfway.
Chapter 02
I passed out of Sri Sri Academy in 2017, part of the very first batch of that school. Christ University in Bangalore came next, BBA (Hons) with a Marketing specialisation, and with it a city that built me in ways Calcutta had not.
I worked through college. Mystery Junkies, an escape room company run by Rupert Piccardo and Sapna Gurukar, is where I learned how to actually talk to customers. Not pitch them. Talk to them. I set up rooms, managed reception, handled the cashbox, and made sure people left happy. Small work. Real lessons.
Bangalore also gave me Laila, a Bajaj Avenger Street 220, and my first real taste of the road. She lives with my friend Puru now, someone I met years later at Masters Union. Full circle, as these things tend to go.
I left with a degree, friends for life, and a dissertation on advertising and automobile sales that got applauded. The real education, as always, happened outside the classroom.
Chapter 03
Before Uncrowd there was PromotEdge, and before I could bet on myself I needed people who believed I was worth betting on. Gautam Saraswat, Rishi Jain, Avik Guha, Sayantan Guha, Saurav Agarwal. Each gave me something I still use.
Starting Uncrowd in late 2023 meant cold calls, no safety net, and a partner who handled what I could not. I handled everything client-facing. The pitches, the onboarding, the early weeks of every relationship. I built a team of eight, introduced SOPs, and made something that worked without me holding it up constantly. The most honest education in execution I have ever had.
Chapter 05
His name is Nawaab. Royal Enfield Meteor 350. Before him there was Laila, a Bajaj Avenger 220, and Bangalore roads that were just wide enough to get lost on.
The best birthday I have had was a solo trip to Tosh. No plan, just a road going up and mountains getting bigger. Mountains over beaches, always. Ladakh, Rajasthan, Wagah, Kasol-Tosh again. The list grows faster than I can ride through it.
Cars run just as deep. Audio builds, engine mods, the Baleno tuned exactly the way I want it. If you want to lose two hours talking about cars, I am your person.
Chapter 06
I taught myself to cook the way I learn most things: badly first, then less badly, then well enough to be proud of. I am not a recipe person. The goal is not to be home-cook good. The goal is to be actually good.
I had a cat. Bosco. He passed, and I will leave it at that. I am a cat person, always have been, though I love dogs too. There is something about a cat's complete indifference to your approval that I find deeply relatable.
The air rifle range is where I go when everything needs to slow down. Ten metres, a target, complete stillness. You cannot fake it. My father shot at national level. I come to it with that in the blood.
Boxing I do for the head more than the body. No strategy without discipline. Boxing teaches that faster than most things.
Chapter 07
One film, one book, every week. Not a goal. A rule.
Seedhe Maut. If you know, you know. If you do not, start with Nayaab and work your way through. Die-hard fan, not embarrassed about it. There is a directness to what they do that I find genuinely inspiring, not just as music but as a way of saying things that matter without dressing them up.
Kendrick, J. Cole, Nas. Bass-heavy everything. Music shapes a day the way good copy shapes a campaign, quietly and completely, without you noticing until it stops.
Coppola taught me that the best stories are about family, power, and loyalty. Taleb taught me to respect uncertainty. I am still working through the implications of both.
Want to know more?
Whether it's about work, a collab, or just the best route to Tosh, I'm always up for a good chat.
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Nishant Gupta
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