The person
behind the projects.

This page is about everything that isn't on my résumé: birds, travel, music, and cooking. But first, let me tell you a bit about myself.

I came to machine learning through birds. My father introduced me to birding when I was three years old, and I learned to identify common birds before I had learned the English alphabet. Then years later, in high school, I took the Bombay Natural History Society's (BNHS) Basic Course in Ornithology. There I learned how camera traps enable bird monitoring and support conservation. I was intrigued to see how a machine could understand fine-grained differences between similar-looking bird species, and this led me to machine learning.

It didn't stop at birds and machine learning. Since then I've built a chess engine, a new training method for imbalanced classification, and even spent a stretch on brain cancer survival analysis. None of it was part of a plan, just curiosity. I like picking up new things and exploring them in depth.

And this curiosity is why I'm out birding most weekends, why I travel to places I've never seen, why I learn new pieces on the keyboard, and why I'm always experimenting with different ingredients and techniques to see what works. The rest of this page is about that side of me.

An Asian Green Bee-eater taking off in light rain, with water droplets scattered across the background

01Birding & photography

So, why do I like birds?

Birding is my reason to get outdoors and off a screen. Being out in nature, photographing birds, is when I feel the most at peace. The interesting thing is that birding has trained my memory in a practical way. To identify birds in the field, you need to remember differences in plumages, calls and behaviors and be able to recall them on the spot. And over the years, that has sharpened both my memory and my attention to detail.

For me, a lot of the pull is that you never really know what you'll find, or whether you'll find anything at all, and there's a real thrill in that uncertainty. The rest of it is how close birding keeps me to the natural world. The more time I spend out there, the more I believe everyone should learn a bit about wildlife, because real conservation only happens once people care, and it's hard to care about something you've never stopped to notice.

A seasonal waterfall near Mahabaleshwar shrouded in heavy mist and fog under dark, moody light

02Travel

New places, same reason.

Most of my trips are planned around birds. And chasing them has led me to some of the most stunning, under-the-radar places that I would never have found otherwise. Like this waterfall, which I discovered while searching for Brown-cheeked Fulvettas in the Western Ghats.

I enjoy the slower parts of travel just as much. The food, the people, and the little everyday things that are different everywhere you go. Those small things tend to stay with me the longest, and I think carrying these experiences home is the real souvenir.

An abstract, close-up shot of a hand playing an electronic keyboard in a dark room under moody lighting

03Keyboard & Music

On the keys.

Music has always been another creative outlet for me, and I play the electronic keyboard. Over the years I've explored different styles of music and learned how each one brings out a new way of expression.

I also hold a Grade 7 certification in Electronic Keyboard from Trinity College London.

Outside of playing, I listen to a lot of music. I'm a big fan of rock, but I like plenty of other genres just as much, from classical ghazals to contemporary pop. What interests me is technical ability, which is why Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Queen, and Fleetwood Mac are some of my all-time favorites.

A fine-dining plate of paneer medallions over cauliflower purée with coral tuiles, served with a lychee-elderflower mocktail

04Cooking

What's on my menu?

Rarely the same thing twice. Most of what I cook starts as an experiment, mixing ingredients and techniques to see which flavors and textures actually work together.

I don't follow recipes too closely. I'd rather understand the flavors and the techniques and improvise from there. Plenty of it doesn't pan out, but the times it does are worth it.

Arjun Basandrai standing with arms crossed in a white taekwondo dobok and black belt against a plain grey studio background

05Taekwondo

Yes, I can kick quite high.

Kicking is fun, but it is only a small part of what taekwondo actually is. The bigger part is the philosophy, ideas like Geukgi (self-overcoming) and Hongik (humanitarianism).

I have trained for seven years and I am a Dan-1 black belt certified by Kukkiwon.

Taekwondo and I had a falling out during undergrad, and I have not trained in four years. But the patience it built has lasted far longer than the training did, and I do want to get back to it soon.

Curious about any of it?

Birds, music, a recipe, or work, I'm always happy to talk. So feel free to reach out.

Get in touch → See my work