Mahesh Reddy, PHBS economics student

The possibility of constant discovery is what attracted him to China. Not only was he arriving in a country of 1.5 billion strangers without knowing the local language, but he was also entering a new terrain academically. He had never taken an economics class before in his life.
 

Mahesh has been passionate about learning and exploring since a young age. He says as a boy, numbers were “magic” that seemed to provide answers to the world around him. He tried to master their spells. When he was 17, he had his first taste of discovery. He asked his math teacher about a problem for solving the summation of n power of numbers and the teacher replied that the formula did not exist. “I didn’t sleep some nights trying to solve the problem,” Mahesh recalls. Fortunately, shortly before an interview to enter the Indian Institute of Science, Mahesh had a breakthrough and discovered the equation. As a kid excited about his accomplishment with visions of television interviews and national praise, Mahesh brought his equation to the interview panel of the university. It was here he had his second discovery. After presenting the work, an interviewer replied, “Ok, son, that is good, but it had already been solved 400 years ago.” His dreams of fame and national praise were shattered, but it was still enough to impress the judges and earn him a spot at the prestigious university.
 

Mahesh continues to be driven to explore and learn. He often says he just likes to “play”, which is how he describes the academic and intellectual challenges he pursues. He arrived in China “clueless”—no working phone, no internet, and a feeble command of ni hao.
 

He remembers early days in China by the delightful discovery made. Day one is remembered as the day he “discovered waimai” (food delivery). Day two is the day he discovered IKEA and more importantly the Swedish meatball. Day three? That was the most significant one of all—the day he “was introduced to shaokao” (Chinese skewer barbecue).
 

If it was math that Mahesh was after, his first semester as an economics student at PHBS was sure to satisfy. During the first semester, he enrolled in advanced microeconomics with Professor Yang Xu, a notoriously demanding class for economics students. It lived up to its reputation. Even a lifetime lover of math like Mahesh was challenged and tested. Yet, once again, numbers had a little magic in store for him.
 

Mahesh had already learned a few sleepless nights plugging away at equations was not going produce the perfect solution. Luckily, he had been placed in a workgroup with Jay Kang, a Chinese classmate, who seemed to grasp exactly what the problem called for. “He helped me solve the whole problem,” said Mahesh. Once the work was out of the way, there was time for the important stuff. Mahesh and Jay realized they had a mutual love of action movies and shaokao and this quickly sparked what Mahesh says is undoubtedly a lifelong friendship. When Mahesh started hanging out with Jay and his roommates, along with another international student, Javier, over lamb skewers and Tom Cruise movies, the group bonded quickly. “We call each other bros. I even learned the Chinese word gemen,” said Mahesh, before he dove into a description of the favorite film he saw last year, Wolf Warrior 2.


By Nathan Faber
From The Nanyan Observer
 

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