For many Indians who grow up in small towns, the dream is not just to land a job at a global company, it is to one day walk their parents or grandparents through those shining office corridors they once only saw on television. Vyanktesh Bajaj, Bengaluru-based Microsoft employee moved thousands online after sharing the story of bringing his 81-year-old grandmother to the Microsoft campus for the first time.
A dream born in a small town
Bajaj, who has been working at Microsoft for over a year and a half, comes from Mangrulpir, a remote town in Maharashtra. Growing up there, the corporate world felt distant and almost unreal. “I come from a remote place in Maharashtra, where opportunities and exposure to the corporate world were none, even metro-city luxuries felt distant to us,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Like many children from smaller towns, he would look at tall glass buildings on television and imagine a different future for himself. “During my childhood, I always dreamt to be in those tall glass buildings I had seen in TV,” he shared. Years later, that dream took on a new meaning when he walked his grandmother through the Microsoft campus in Bengaluru.
Seeing the corporate world for the first time
For Bajaj’s grandmother, whom he lovingly called “Dadi”, the visit was her first close look at a modern corporate workplace “She looked around with pure curiosity and wonder — the scale, the technology, the collaboration, the energy of people building things that impact the world,” Bajaj wrote. “She kept asking me, ‘How does work happen at such a massive scale here?’”
‘Life taught her wisdom’
Bajaj also explained how his grandmother, despite never receiving formal education, had always been progressive in her thinking. “Life taught her wisdom in ways classrooms never could,” he wrote. “It felt like generations of sacrifices quietly coming full circle,” he added. For many first-generation corporate professionals in India, such moments are emotional milestones. Behind every office ID card is usually a family that made silent sacrifices, believed in education, and hoped for a better future for the next generation. “You are doing very meaningful work,” she told him after seeing his workplace. “That one sentence felt bigger than any promotion, title, or award,” Bajaj wrote.
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