I was born in Uttar Pradesh, India and then raised in New Delhi, India. I spent most of my childhood having kid fights with my elder brother, learning Indian classical/folk dance and the leftover time pretending to be burried in books. After high school, I entered the University of Delhi to study economics and then joined Delhi School of Economics in 2001 with a Merit scholarship to pursue Masters in Economics. Thereafter, I worked as a research assistant for four months and then taught undergraduate students in economics at the University of Delhi. I made the decision to pursue a Phd in economics and left New Delhi for the University of Iowa in 2005. Currently, I'm in my fifth year of Ph.D. studies in economics at the University of Iowa. In Fall 2010, I'll be joining the Department of Economics at Syracuse University as an Assistant Professor.