''Great Boon'': Startup CEO Shares How Access To Indian Railway's Library Contributed To His Success

Ruchit G Garg, the chief executive of Harvesting Farmer Network, took To Twitter to share how access to Indian Railway's library contributed to his success story. Mr. Garg, whose mother worked as a clerk for the railway's library, said he was able to read books and magazines that ''were out of our reach.''

Sharing a picture of the library, he wrote, ''When I lost my father about 35 years ago, my mom started working as a clerk for Indian railway's library, meant for executives/staff. We had very little means, could not afford much including books… I would sneak in to read all possible things I was interested in…''

See the tweet here:

When I lost my father about 35 years ago , my mom started working as a clerk for Indian railway's library, meant for executives/staff.

We had very little means, could not afford much including books…

I would sneak in to read all possible things I was interested in… pic.twitter.com/QxoXgRU0Ys

— Ruchit G Garg (@ruchitgarg) March 16, 2023

In another tweet, he wrote, ''Access to library proved to be great boon as many of the books/magazine were out of our reach. HBR (Harvard Business Review) @HarvardBiz ​was one of them and reading case studies was a fun pastime for me.''

Mr. Garg then went on to describe his ''full circle moment'' saying how he used to read Harvard Business Review in the library and years later, he was invited to be on the panel at the prestigious university.

Check out the tweet here:

And I bought a copy of HBR at the Harvard university campus, mine own copy!!

I still feel super elated about being able to do this … from not being able to afford few rupees for books, to getting invited as panelist at Harvard and buying a copy of my own

I still have this.. pic.twitter.com/7t30LbRUoC

— Ruchit G Garg (@ruchitgarg) March 16, 2023

The tweet has gone viral, with many hailing the power of books and their role in changing a person's life. Others also congratulated Mr. Garg for his success and wished him luck in the future.

One user wrote, ''I had read somewhere: "Good books are our real friends". Another commented, ''I grew up reading everything I could find because of libraries—my father taught library sci in a night school to every other librarian in the town, that's why they tolerated me, I didn't go to Harvard but love books and reading—understand this joy so well.''

A third added, ''Twitter. Please show me such stories!''

Mr. Garg spent at least 11 years in the US, working for tech giant Microsoft. He then returned to India and started building a seed-to-market start-up, called Harvesting Farming Network (HFN).

Notably, his startup which had been banking with Silicon Valley Bank for nearly a decade also felt the ripple effect of the collapse. After the debacle, Mr Garg placed a request to wire some of their funds. 

"We have been banking with SVB for over 10 years. We have deposits that are right now stuck with them. Thankfully for us, the situation is a little bit better as most of our operations are in India. Just by sheer planning and luck we have a lot of money already made as FDI (foreign direct investment) in Indian entities. But still a large portion of our money is sitting in SVB," Mr Garg told NDTV .