Interviewee: Rachin Kalakheti

Interviewer: Priyanka Shrestha

Date of Interview: 05/26/2022

Location of Interview: Stanford University

 

[00:00:00]

Priyanka: So to get started, I guess, could you tell me a little bit more about your life, like growing up in the village and just what you remember from that time?

Rachin: So, I was born in 2002 in a small village that is like five hours of drive away from the capital city of Nepal named Manahari. And there my mother went to Israel for foreign employment when I was two years old. And my father is a driver, so he had to be out all of, most of the time. So, I was raised mostly by my uncle and my grandmother. Life growing up in a village was definitely a really big part of my personality. Because growing up, we did not have any technological devices like mobile phones, computers, nothing. So, the only thing we can do, we could do to get entertained was just go out, talk to people or just play with friends, outdoor games and all that. So that helped me now that I think about it, that helped me boost my social skills and not be afraid to talk to people. And also, we, and especially in villages and Nepal we live in joint families. We live with like, everyone lives there, uncles, aunts, father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, all that. So being surrounded by so many people, so many people caring for you, you get to learn so many things to get to like everyone's perspective is instilled in you. That means that you know, different person, you know, that there are different perspectives to certain things. So, growing up with a lot of people really helped me understand all that. And also like the village itself is a very tight knit community.  Everyone knows what everyone is doing. And it’s good and bad at the same time, but I definitely enjoyed it. And the thing I did not enjoy a lot being in the village was we did not have really good educational infrastructure. And also, we did not have any access to global information. We did not have any global exposure at all. So, it was like, I was just confined inside a village only. So that was definitely, I mean, I did not think about it at that time, but. Now that I think back on it, it makes me feel sad that I wish that I could have gotten exposed to   global information from the beginning.

Priyanka: So, you lived in that village until you were in sixth grade. Um, and then you said you moved to Hetauda after that, right?

Rachin: Yeah. So, I completed my sixth grade in my village. And so, my village had education only up to 10th grade. But since my mom was back when I was starting up the sixth grade so we could - so there was   someone who could actually shift with me and take care of me. We decided that staying here for my education is not the best thing to do. And also, my sister was growing up as well. She had to, she, we also wanted better education for her as well. So, we decided to move to the nearest city called Hetauda for a better education. Ideally for the best possible education in Nepal, we would have moved to Kathmandu, but Kathmandu was really expensive. And also, and in part, we, we did not, we'd like, we had this mindset, like everyone in Nepal has this mindset of theirs the student who studies can study anywhere. Now that I think about it, I don't really agree with it, but yeah, it's, that's the, that was the mindset of that. And that is what I thought as well until recently. So yeah, so we moved to Hetauda and then I completed my high school there.

Priyanka: So then tell me about studying in Hetauda and just, how that was different from before and how you think that you know, how you think that impacted you?

Rachin: Yeah, definitely. So, I would say that, I did not particularly find a lot of difference in the education, education style and everything in Hetauda either because all that the teachers were doing was just reciting the book and then just translating the thing they said into Nepali language. So, it was like, I don't know, reading books were very natural to me. So, I did not even have to listen to teachers to gain knowledge. I just used to go through book and I just knew it all by reading the book. There was nothing more that we learned apart from the books from teachers. So that was the education style and there were not much extracurricular activities. So, the thing is I used to be really valedictorian not in like, I don't know, second, third rank in my school, almost all day in almost all the exams. So, I was considered a really good student, but then that was all about it. And academics is all there is, so you don't have any extracurriculars, nothing, just study. That's it. So, I was like that until I moved to Hetauda. But then, I never really, I don't know, I never really valued getting really good grades. At first it felt good because my parents would be happy when I scored good, but then I just started thinking, what, why? Uh, and then just, I started focusing on - I got my computer. So, my mother, when she came back from Israel, she got me a laptop. And then I just started playing around with the laptop. That's when I got to know about internet, I just started browsing through Facebook. It just exposed me to a lot of things that I was not exposed to before. And then I just started just diving deeper. And then I used to play games a lot at that time. I have been a really curious child; I've been a really curious person from my childhood. So, after playing the games for a long time, I just was curious about how games were made. And then I just started researching on my own about how games were made and then just started learning on my own. Because even though we shifted to computer science, the computer science subject till I would say 10th grade is taught by anyone, any teacher who does not have knowledge in any other field. It's like, if you don't know anything else, just teach computer science. That's, that's how the mindset was for computer science because the curriculum was really outdated. It was 10 years old when I studied. So, if you just want to get good, create a good score in computer science, you could just easily do it. So that was like a really easy subject just for grades. I had to, I just learned it on my own through YouTube and browsing through the internet, Google, all that. And then I continued that until my 10th grade, I just focused my time more on learning outside of my school, more than on the school itself. So yeah, and then at the time, my teachers were concerned as well, because my grades were falling by a bit. Then I did not care at all though. I knew what I was doing. So even my parents tried to convince me to get better grades just to keep up with what I had before. But I just did not care enough to keep up with that. But I just didn't know. I just didn't know why I just didn't see the significance. And so yeah, that's how it was. And then I just kept on continuing to develop a few games. Yeah, then we came to high school. High school was a bit more chill because until 10th grade teachers would be really pressuring you to get good grades and giving you professional attention. But with high school, you just do whatever you want. Um, we don't care. So, it was better for me in a sense because there was no one nagging me now to get better grades. And by that time, I had been going to Kathmandu, the capital city, to a few competitions and I even won a few of them. So, all of those achievements made my parents realize that I'm on the right track. So, they were supportive now and I would just, so I'd say most of my growth happened when I was in my high school. I would say 40% of my 12th grade, I was just absent. So yeah, that was my high school experience in Hetauda.

 

[0:05:00]

Priyanka: And so, when you say high school, you are saying you're referring to 10th through 12th grade?

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[0:10:00]

Rachin: Oh yeah. 10th through 12th, because the thing is education system in Nepal is a bit different.

Priyanka: You say you developed a few games and then, and then you also talked about competition. So, can you talk about what kind of games or how that process was for developing it? And then were these competitions also like CS competitions?

Rachin: Oh yeah, for sure. So, the first game, I guess the game I played the most was called GTA San Andreas, which is an open world GTA San Andreas.

Priyanka: Oh yeah.

Rachin: Yeah. So, it was a very popular game back then I just used to play it, like the only thing I used to open my laptop for was to play that game. It's an open world system.  You just travel everywhere in the city and then just complete missions they assign you to. So, I was really hooked into that game. And I was just wondering, what if we could make a game similar to that, but with the locations of Nepal that was something that was really stuck in my mind. And then with that in mind, I started looking into it. And so after 10th grade, we have three months of holiday which is something we never had before. We only had after each year ended, each academic year ended, we had, say 15 to 20 days of holiday and that was about it. So that was the longest holiday I'd ever been given. So, I was preparing for that holiday because I wanted to make sure that I utilize it to make that game. I was trying to think I was thinking of. So, I was   preparing everything beforehand with all the resources I need to develop that game. And then as soon as my holiday started, I just started, I just locked myself in the room for, I say, almost all of the three months. And even then, I was not able to complete it, but I would say after three months of joining the 11th grade, I completed it. And then I had a few settings. I had a few locations in Kathmandu Valley.  It was a very satirical game as well. I used to have a location where you had to go through the woods, which had a lot of potholes and a really bad geographical system. And when Kathmandu, it was like, you cannot see anything after a few distance because it's so smoky and so polluted. Um, so it was a pretty satirical game as well. So yeah, I enjoyed making that. Developing it alone was not easy. Because I could, I would get stuck in a lot of really small stuff, which would have been easy to solve if there was someone monitoring me or someone supervising me. But yeah, it took a lot of time, but then I would say it helped me learn a lot of stuff as well.  Like help taught me patience, taught me researching things on my own. So, I'd say it's a win overall. Um, and then talking about competitions. Yeah, I went to - so there were competitions called hackathons, which is like, you develop software or an application in a given timeframe. I had a friend with me who used to travel with me to Kathmandu. And this was a really new thing because no one used to travel to Kathmandu, because the thing is Hetauda was not really developed enough. There were not enough people to conduct a competition there. So, if I wanted to take part in a competition, I had to go to Kathmandu. So, we went to Kathmandu and nobody really did that because nobody really cared enough. Or they didn't have enough resources, I guess, to go to Kathmandu and take part in the competition. We did that and we won two out of three competitions we went to. It was a really big thing in our high school because it gave them a name because it seemed really interesting. It seemed really exciting because two students, two plus two, high school students from Hetauda from this school went to Kathmandu to take part in the competition. And one among all the bachelor students. Uh, so that was a really big thing back then among colleges. So, my high school was really proud. They were like, you do your thing and we will not obstruct you. You can take leave anytime you want. That's when I started getting support from my high school as well and from my parents as well. So that, that made the process really smooth later on.

 

[0:15:00]

Priyanka: As you were doing this, as you were going to competitions and developing these games, were you already thinking about what your plans are going to be after plus two?

Rachin: That’s really interesting because until the mid of my 11th grade I was pretty sure that I was just kind of study in a private college in Nepal because so. The most popular thing it’s, so the equivalent of getting into Ivy league colleges in Nepal is like, you get into this popular government school, government college where you can study for almost free. And they have really good infrastructure there as well. But the way of getting in was you had to prepare for an entrance exam and your high school grades, nothing, nothing else even mattered. Just the entrance exam would determine whether you get into the college or not. So, I was pretty sure that I was not going to get in because I did not have that good of an academic skill. So, I did not even hope to get in and I did not even want to get in because going into that school, it would be like, I had to spend so much time on my academics, which is something that I do not want to do. So, getting into private colleges was easier, but I had to pay a bit more, which was, I'd say manageable. So that was my plan. So, to get into those government colleges, you have to start preparing for entrance exams from your 11th grade. So, I did not know that I just, I did not even care thinking about it because as I told before, we were in the mindset of like a student who can study, who studies can study anywhere. Right. But then, after around the mid of 11th grade, my cousin told me that I should look into U S colleges. But the reason I did not consider applying to abroad colleges was because it's really expensive. And we were not that well off financially, but then my cousin was   just forcing me, pressurizing me to look into U S colleges. So, I looked into it and the first thing I saw, I went, I went on Google and I just found Harvard's website and, in their website, they said about financial aid saying that if you cannot afford a college, if you cannot afford college education your need will be met. So, I was like, yeah, that sounds cool. And then I was like, yeah, I'm going to apply for it, but then I did not know how hard it is going to be to get in. I just didn't realize the difficulty of getting in. So, I just started going around the internet, looking for YouTube videos about how to get into U S colleges and all that.  You can find plenty of them. So, I just could say, I watched almost all of them. I had above average grades. So, I also had extracurriculars that I was doing on my own. So, all I needed was crafting my story and writing a good personal essay. And then I just started applying. I took it after my 12th grade. I did not apply when I was in 12th grade because I was just going out and going to different competitions and all that. So, after my 12th grade, I took a gap year and in my gap year, I applied to different colleges. I applied to 20 colleges in total. I got rejected by 19 of them and got into Stanford at last.

Priyanka: How did it feel to like, I guess, to get into Stanford and open acceptance letter and everything?

Rachin: Oh yeah. That was really amazing because was working on this, like getting into the US. So more than getting into Stanford, I wanted to get into the US with a full ride scholarship. So more than getting to Stanford, I was excited about that thing. So, I worked on that for like, say two years, right? Just my sole focus was getting into a good college and getting into a college in the United States with full scholarship. So, I just worked on that for two years and then one after another, you'll see rejection letters for the time span from my first decision day to the last decision day that was Stanford was one month. So, it was one month of seeing rejection letters and questioning what I did wrong and all that. So, it was really a tough time, but then I just, I, if I was just prepared for, it was not working out because by that time I had realized that I knew what I was getting into. This is just getting into US colleges with a full ride from Nepal. It's like, yeah, I have a 99.99% chance of not getting into any college you apply to. So, I was prepared for that. And I had already planned that if I, if this didn't work out this year, I'm gonna start something else and then apply next year again. So, I was pretty like, not that depressed because I knew what I would do next. So yeah, but I was still very disappointed because it was something I was working on for   two years now. So, it didn't, it didn't feel good to not see the results not coming up. But then, yeah, when I, so Stanford's decision was about to release at 5 AM in Nepal. And I was up till 2 AM that day, because I was just thinking about things and just talking to friends about how we are, all the friends that we applied together, how we are getting rejected from every college we applied to. And then, yeah, six, and then I slept at 2 AM, 6 AM, my eyes open. And I was just, I was still sleepy. I was just, I'm just going to see the rejection letter and go back to sleep again. I opened them. I opened my phone, just checked, just go to the website. I'm still sleepy. And then I see the confetti coming out of, oh, shit I got in. And then more than me, my parents and all my parents and all the relatives, they were pretty sad because they saw me working hard for two years to get that. And they were pretty sad about it. Um, as soon as I saw the rejection, as soon as I saw the acceptance letter, I just jumped, went to my parents. They were sleeping at that time. So, I just woke them up, told them that I got in. Uh, and the funny thing is people in Nepal don't know what Stanford is. So, I had prepared them from before that, Stanford is this great college. Uh, so if I get, so they would, they knew that Stanford was big. So yeah, that's why they were, they were   super amazed by it. And the funny thing is, so after this acceptance, I went to my high school. Right. And then I went to my vice principal and then he was like, oh yeah, it's good this time, but yeah, you could try Harvard next time. He just didn't know what Stanford is. So, it's really funny that time. And I, but then I told him that for me, Stanford is better than Harvard and everything. So yeah, that was the story.

 

[0:20:00]

Priyanka: Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy that then yeah, in Nepal, not everyone knows what Stanford is. It's always, it's always just Harvard, right?

Rachin: That's somehow. Harvard and Oxford.

Priyanka: And Oxford. Yeah, that's right.

Rachin: Yeah.

Priyanka: Yeah. Um, no, that's so exciting. Yeah. After you got in, did you immediately come for the next school year or did you take another gap year before coming in?

Rachin: No. So, it was a really uncertain time because of COVID at that time. Um, as soon as I got my acceptance letter, this was in 2021.

 

Priyanka: So, this was like in 2021?

 

Rachin: Yeah. 2021 April. Right. Yeah. April. At that time, as soon as I got my acceptance letter cases started rising again because of the variant in India. We had really high number of cases. People were dying. And then I thought we’re going to have online classes this year as well. So, I made up my mind about if things are online this year, I'm just going to take another gap year and then come next year. But then things started getting normal and Stanford was back in person. So, I just decided to come right after.

Priyanka: What was that like?  Coming to the U S actually, physically, you know, yeah.

Rachin: So, yeah. I knew what to expect from the U S because I have been around the internet for a few years now. So since, as I said, information is global, I knew what life is here.  At least some of it, at least I had the basic idea. So, I knew what to expect, but then after coming here, it still feels really different to experience that in person. The main difference I'd say I found was, in Nepal, it's like, you don't really talk to strangers. Here it's like, you can just go and everyone is so nice to each other. In Nepal, you're still nice to each other, but you don't go out of your way to talk to strangers in Nepal and everything. And after coming here, like in Nepal, as I said, people are there, there's no other option than just being a doctor or an engineer. So, coming here, everyone has their own set of passions they want to do or what the majors they want to do. I know a lot of majors that I didn't even hear about before. So, talking to these people, I, it's definitely one of the most exciting moment of my life. Every, every people, every person I talk to - it's they’re - I just get, it's like, I thought I'd realized, I thought, you know, a new person. And in Nepal it was not like that. Everyone had very similar personalities, steady is all that. So here it's everyone had very different views on life and how they want, what they want to do in life. So yeah, that was one of the most exciting part of coming here. But yeah, the first time I, the first few days, it was pretty harsh because the transition was really abrupt because it’s coming from a village, from a random third world country to the elitist place in the world. It definitely feels a bit hard, a bit abrupt. But yeah, I found a few friends whom I connected well with here. Then just things that getting off.

 

[0:25:00]

Priyanka: What do you think is something that helped you kind of make that transition here? And then maybe, what do you think is something that you wish you knew that, you know, when you came here that you now know?

Rachin: Something that helped me with the transition was…yeah, that's a good friend. Luckily, the first few people I talked to are my really close friends now. So, I got to know a lot, they helped me, they helped me explain a lot of things that I didn't know. So, they made my transition really smooth afterwards. So yeah, I would say that was the smoothing part of my transition. And then the thing I wish I knew was, I would say getting to know more of American culture, all the little details of American culture. I would say, and I think the way you can learn that is it's a listening to a lot of American music. Um, and what else?  A lot of  American media that would have helped me learn a bit more about American culture, but yeah, that's something I wish I would have done.

Priyanka: Before Nepal, did you listen to American music or watch American movies at all?

Rachin: I mean, yeah. I used to watch a lot of American movies. That's how I learned my English. Speaking English is not a thing in Nepal. Yeah, that's how I learned my English and I watched a lot of American movies, but I did not really listen to a lot of American music. It was just, I just used to listen to a lot of Nepali and Hindi music, but not really a lot of American music.

Priyanka: So, do you listen to more now?

Rachin: Yeah. A bit these days I listened to African music as well. It's really cool.

Priyanka: And are these recommendations from your friends or did you just found them?

Rachin: Yeah, it's mostly the recommendation from friends.

Priyanka: Do you still listen to Nepali and Hindi music too, or do you think less so now that you're here?

Rachin: Oh yeah, I definitely listen to them. It's definitely, it's really, I don't know, it really touches my soul because something that, I know that it's my native language. So, something that touches my heart. So, I do it.

Priyanka: Do you have the chance to talk in Nepali a lot now? Or do you miss doing that?

Rachin: Uh, the first time I really missed that because, so we have one more freshman from Nepal, an international student from Nepal. So, I arrived here a week early. I had to speak English for a week straight and that's the first time I was doing that. So, the first time I spoke Nepali with that guy, it felt really good. And then afterwards, I guess I'm just used to it now. I mean, I do talk to my parents now, every three, four days. So, I do get a chance to talk in Nepali, but yeah, it's all right now.

Priyanka: I guess, is there anything else now that you're here that, you know, you, I think when I go to Nepal and I spend time with my cousins, they will ask me a lot of questions about the high school experience here. Just like, they’ll have these ideas from movies and, you know, TV shows and things like that. And some of them are to belong to, and I'm like, that's not really how it is here. And so were there things like that for you, where you thought something was going to be one way or you had this idea and then you came here and you're like, yeah, it's actually kind of different.

 

[0:30:00]

Rachin: Yeah, I had the idea of everyone at Stanford, it's going to be super steady or super, just focused on work, nothing else. Just, but then after coming here, everyone is so chill. Everyone is so well-rounded. Everyone is, everyone of course does well in their academics. Everyone does well in their field, but at the same time, they're really humble. They're  really, really willing to share what they're doing, willing to teach and willing to talk to everyone. So that was, that was something I did not expect. I expected people to be a bit arrogant, a bit not wanting to talk to me, a bit elitist I’d say, yeah. But I did not find that here, which was really surprising. And I'm really glad that did not happen.

Priyanka: I was looking to the future now. So, you know, at Stanford and you're thinking about studying you’re just in psychology and CS and management. What’s the vision, I guess, of what you want to do in the future?

Rachin: Ideally, I would want to start my own startup, like the classic Stanford dream.

Priyanka: Um, yeah.

Rachin: Um, yeah, ideally, I'd want to do that, but if I cannot by the end of my college years. I'd have to get a job because I have to get a job to stay here, but then I'd still strive, getting a startup done is definitely my ultimate goal here in the U S.

Priyanka: In the future, do you see yourself staying in the U S and just working here long term or do you see yourself going back to Nepal?

Rachin: So that's a really, that’s a question that I really don't know the answer to. And so, but the thing is, Nepal right now is going downhill because of all the political issues, all the economic crisis going on right now. So, if the country is dead by then, it doesn't really make sense for me to go back. So, if Nepal starts thriving in the next few years of course I definitely want to go back to the home country. But if I see that, I thrive more here and I see no future potential in Nepal, I would rather stay here.

Priyanka: One thing that I'm interested in, in doing this project and doing these interviews is I feel, especially, and I don't know how much this applied to you, but especially for a lot of people me, who's like, you know, I've grown up in the U S, our parents grew up in Nepal. There's a lot of different values we draw from being Nepali and also from having spent time in the U S., and so I'm just curious if you, you know, what your thoughts on that are. If you've encountered any things where there’s certain values and certain things that you always grew up with and Nepal that you're used to that. You know, you may be kind of had to think about more or just see differently in the U S.

Rachin: Yeah, one of the major things in Nepal was of course, you have to study, you have to focus more really hard on academics, but yeah, that was something I was already over, but, but  yeah, that's something I saw here. People are really, people are doing what they're passionate about instead of just focusing on academics. So, I really vibe with that. And the other thing was, yeah, talking with the opposite gender, talking properly with the opposite gender is really not encouraged by parents and the society. Yeah. Um, but I mean, I used to talk with my friends a lot, so I don't think that made a lot of difference, but that is something, yeah, that is something that's different here. People are totally frank with each other, regardless of their gender and Nepal is a bit more conservative. So yeah, that's the difference I saw. And also in Nepal, it's trying to play a bit safe. Parents want their children to have a stable, safe life. So that's why I think parents want their children to be doctors, engineers so that they're financially stable and they have a better life. Yeah, that does not come from an evil side, that's just their way of caring for their children. But here parents are more open and they would they I'd say would want their children to do what they like instead of just doing what makes money.

 

[0:35:00]

Priyanka: At the end of all my interviews, I always, you know, tell my interviewees as a final question. Um, you know, if there's anything else you want to add or anything that you feel like you didn't get to talk about as much, or that you think is important to your story that you just want to share before we wrap everything up.

Rachin: I think I told everything that I wanted to. So, I talked a lot.

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Priyanka: Yeah we did

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Rachin: So yeah, I think I shared, I shared most of it. Yeah.

Priyanka: Yeah, I know you were very good. That's what I think that makes the best interviews is when I'm doing very little talking, I just get to listen and learn from you.

Rachin: Yeah.

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