What were you doing when you were 28?

After the electrifying speech of Kanhaiya, Indian media has already declared him “Student of the Year”. Odes are sung, eulogies are prepared, op-eds are written. However, during this whole JNU episode, people are again raising the argument which they raised during FTII controversy, which questioned, “till what age should the state fund education of students?” Another interesting argument is that if Kanhaiya’s parents are very poor and Kanhaiya can earn to uplift them, should he not also focus on earning his livelihood instead of just wasting his time in protests and dharnas.

Vijay started a poll on Twitter, asking, “What were you doing when you were 28?”. The poll has gone viral. People are not only voting but also sharing their experiences. Some of our readers requested us to compile and share these stories. We have picked some of the tweets and responses on his poll:

At age 28, I had finished Medicine, cleared the UPSC, joined the Revenue Service and had caught 1000kgs smuggled gold at Mumbai Airport.

— Kiran Kumar Karlapu (@scarysouthpaw) March 5, 2016

@centerofright starting out life as a single mom had quit journalism for IT, sold my gold to put son in nursery. Wrote first fiction MS.

— Gayatri Jayaraman (@Gayatri__J) March 6, 2016

@centerofright Got my 1st freelance work payment from a US client via Paypal when I was ~19! , abhi 28 ka hona baki hai

— गिरीश #DigitalIndia (@MissionUP2017) March 5, 2016

@centerofright I was working at 28 & I’m from JNU :-) @AviralKapoor_

— Nandini (@_NAN_DINI) March 6, 2016

@centerofright Vijay, not at 28 but at 29 was CEO of BSE listed Hyderabad based telecom company.

— Rakesh Shah (@rknshah) March 5, 2016

@centerofright started a startup having worked for 6 years. Gave full time employment to around 15 people

— Pranab, EA (@pchaturved) March 5, 2016

@centerofright it was peak of my career – was all india number 1 medical representative turnover for company and highest incentive earner !

— S.Ranganathan (@rangats) March 5, 2016

@centerofright At 28 was going through toughest of my life, have learned the hard way, but don’t want freebies from anyone or Gov #MeAt28

— Sandip Mandalia (@S_Mandalia) March 5, 2016

@centerofright At age 28, I had cleared Chartered Accountancy exams and was running a multi billion USD global fund with one more person.

— * (@BhagwanUvach) March 5, 2016

.@centerofright started working in a PSB, at 19, even while studying final year graduation after passing by all India exam(through merit)

— #TnT (@TeqTrader) March 6, 2016

@centerofright my father lost his hearing when I was in class 9,I had 5 sisters,have been working and supporting my family since. #Kanhaiya

— Sudhanshu Mittal (@SudhanshuBJP) March 5, 2016

@centerofright MBA, gave a tedx talk, bought a house, cover pg of a national mgzine but that doesn’t justify judgin smone else’ life choices

— Gabbbar (@GabbbarSingh) March 5, 2016

@centerofright qualified CA at 23, was working with MNC, social front was married with a son & able to fulfil all social responsibility :)

— Kalpesh (@ekvichar_) March 6, 2016

@centerofright – had already served 7 years in the Army including the Bangladesh war.

— SB Puri (@satishbpuri) March 5, 2016

@centerofright I had cleared my UPSC exam by 25, finished my training, started working for Indian Railways and had got my first promotion.

— Ananth Rupanagudi (@rananth) March 5, 2016

@centerofright I had completed 10 years with Indian Navy ..

— Shailesh (@shaileshkpandey) March 5, 2016

@centerofright At 28 I finished my Masters and had 4 years of IT experience.

— Narasimha Rao (@NarasimhaRao10) March 5, 2016

@centerofright I was working at 28 & I’m from JNU :-) @AviralKapoor_

— Nandini (@_NAN_DINI) March 6, 2016

@centerofright was working with a shipping company (12 hr almost everyday) and saving money to do my Master’s in Psychology & go to Japan.

— Srividya (@srividya23) March 5, 2016

@centerofright was in middle of my PhD at UK, before that paid taxes for 2 years. Now through remittance I am part of Indian economy.

— Dr Bharat Koli (@bharat_koli) March 5, 2016

.@centerofright started working at 19, by 29 I started my second business venture RailsFactory

— senthilnayagam (@senthilnayagam) March 5, 2016

@centerofright One thing: debated an Ivy League political science professor in op-ed pages with @harshcal and won the debate :-)

— Rajeev Mantri (@RMantri) March 5, 2016

We will like to hear your stories too. Please use the comment section to share your part of “What were you doing when you were 28?”