Emails have become a critical form of communication. I remember when people said instant messaging would kill email. I was sceptical about writing off the longer form of communication. Emails continue to thrive today, and two years ago, it was an email from Anubhav Arora that affirmed my belief in them.
I’ll keep that email private. But in it, he explained his passion for the community and his desire to contribute to SaaSBoomi. He was clear, precise, and honest. And soon after, we were on the phone discussing his first assignment.
I threw down a three-part challenge. “How would you solve it?” I asked. He listened, dead air on the other end of the call. “Give me a couple of days to consolidate my thoughts, and I’ll get back to you,” he said.
I was amused. Most people try to come up with an answer on the spot. But not Anubhav. He needed time to think. One day passed. And then another. On the third day, I was ready to put Anubhav in the contacts bracket rather than volunteers, and then—ding—another email.
Anubhav had sent me a seven-page document detailing each problem and explaining and justifying each solution he offered. My first instinct was to chalk it off to another person using GenAI to solve a problem. Nothing wrong with that. It is, after all, the nature of today’s reality.
However, a closer read showed this was not the work of an LLM. It was 100 percent Anubhav. He possessed within him a deep understanding of SaaS and AI. We got on another call, and I assigned him to our M&A Helpline project.
Now is when I saw the real Anubhav shine through. We had assigned a few volunteers to that project, but Anubhav took true ownership of it. His natural leadership meant that other volunteers started to follow his lead. Within a few weeks, all I would hear was, “We should involve Anubhav in other projects.” Anubhav, despite having an all-consuming role at Salesforce, was excited to do more. Eight months later, he was part of our Caravan team.
In the run-up to Caravan, I began making a concerted effort to connect with Anubhav. I knew him as a professional, but I wanted to understand him as a person. It didn’t take much prodding. He was eager to discuss his ideas, dreams, and ambitions. Through those conversations, I discovered a kind-hearted individual who gave before he took. His patience was part of his personality, helping him slow down events in real time so he could make decisions based on both fact and emotion. He always had time. If you pulled him for a 15-minute call and it ran over, he wouldn’t resist. If work overwhelmed him, he would find time in the night to meet his SaaSBoomi commitments.
At Caravan, I saw his laughter and the child in him. That’s not to say Anubhav is immature. Not even close. But he approaches life with the same wonderment as a child. It’s one of his most precious qualities. Let me explain. At a recent Caravan, he promised us that he would get himself a couple of boxes of motichoor laddoos. Now, Caravan is a marathon that can be emotionally and physically exhausting for volunteers. Those golden balls of goodness are a reminder that home isn’t too far. At the end of a particularly draining day, as we all prepared to feast on those laddoos, we discovered that half the box was empty. Anubhav had been snacking on them all day long! He laughed and challenged us to resist laddoos. None of us could. It became a running joke within the group, and Anubhav took it on. At that moment, I was reminded of this ad: the same grin and the same innocence.
Anubhav’s desire to connect with others is truly why I am writing this diary entry. He often spots people trying to shrink into corners and draws them out, gently nudging them into the light, while assuring them that their opinions matter. He can do that on the dance floor, too. I still remember him pulling me up from my chair at a volunteer offsite in Goa, forcing me to dance with him. His steps were complex, and a few drinks in, they were, erm, ambitious. And as luck would have it, we both stumbled and fell to the floor. Anubhav got up, dusted himself off, laughed, and offered me his hand so we could continue dancing.
Thank you, Anubhav, for the dance and for all your energy and commitment to the cause.
