My schooling was at the Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai, in Haryana. After an MSc in Physics from the University of Delhi in 1986, I joined the Indian Forest Service in 1987, in the Uttar Pradesh cadre. When Uttarakhand was formed out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, I moved to the new state's cadre and served there for the rest of my career. I retired in April 2026 as Head of Forest Force, Uttarakhand, the top post in the state's forest department.