A conversation with engineers who help run Grofers on the things that make them tick

In focus is a blog series where we move the lens toward our engineers at Grofers and have a conversation on with them about things that make them tick.

Vinayak is a software engineer in our data team and is based out of our Bangalore office. He joined us in February 2019 and today has become an integral part of our engineering team.

In this blog, I talk to him about how he became a software engineer, the people who inspire him, and more.

This conversation has been edited for an improved reading experience.

You continue to do kick-ass work at (and beyond) Grofers. Your PyCon Australia talk on Extracting tabular data from PDFs with Camelot & Excalibur was a hit. How did you start? What motivated you to become a software engineer?

I’ve been interested in computers since childhood. I remember my first interaction with a computer was to play a game.

I’d come back from school late in the afternoon and get wired — playing for hours on end. The new worlds were fascinating and I’d always be curious about what it takes to build a video game.

This curiosity helped me get started with computer science in high school. I designed a two-dimensional basketball game with a friend for a school project — a poor man’s version of NBA Live which is a popular video game series.

As I progressed in life, I was drawn to the infinite possibilities we had at hand to create things with software.

I love programming because it lets anyone create things out of thin air; turn abstract ideas into something concrete.

I am interested in building software that helps other humans spend time doing things they love, be more creative, and a lot more productive.

Who’s someone — outside of tech — that inspires you? Why?

David Gilmour.

He is an English musician who was a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. I’m inspired by his ability to translate emotions into music through the electric guitar.

I would recommend that you listen to Marooned, which is an instrumental track on Pink Floyd’s 1994 album, The Division Bell. Fun fact: the album’s title was suggested by writer Douglas Adams.

If you were to explain your role at Grofers to a five-year-old, how would you do that?

I was trying to think of an example that a five-year-old could relate to, but then I remembered how my niece (when she was 3–4 years old) could operate an iPad.

She knew about the different apps and games present on the device. She was mostly interested in YouTube as it let her watch her favorite cartoons.
Five-year-olds are increasingly becoming tech-savvy.

If I had to explain the job to my niece, I would just say, “You see those apps, all of them were created by a software developer”.

What was the last thing you read? What idea did it spark?

Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild” was on my reading list for a long time and I finally read it some weeks back.

For me, it sparked the idea of being minimal in today’s world where everyone is being conditioned into consuming and owning more things.

I like the idea of reducing one’s material possessions to a set of things that they can carry on their back.

Who’s your favorite co-worker at Grofers? What’s a quality in them that you appreciate the most?

Deepu Thomas Philip.

I worked with Deepu for almost two years before we both came to Grofers (he joined before me.)

He is a well-rounded engineer and has a lot of knowledge and experience. I like my discussions with him as I always get to learn something new!

I also admire his humility and patience in the way he interacts with us young padawans.

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