Here are a few events in my life that you may find interesting:
- At age 0, I was born in the United States in Lowell, Massachusetts at the Lowell General Hospital
- At age 0.5, I was given a 24-letter first name, the short version of which is "Raam"
- At age 3, I visited Northern India for a month with my parents
- At age 8, I started learning martial arts (a mix of Kempo, Karate, and Kungfu), attaining 3rd degree brown belt (one degree short of black belt)
- At age 9, I built my first computer (a Pentium 66mhz)
- At age 12, I wrote my first computer program (using QBasic) and started exploring the Internet using Prodigy and CompuServ
- At age 16, I switched martial arts schools and started learning Tae Kwon Do
- At age 18, I started teaching myself about fitness and lost 75lbs by age 20
- At age 20, I started blogging on raamdev.com
- At age 21, I bought my first investment property (a 2-family house)
- At age 22, I bought my second investment property (a 3-family house)
- At age 23, I started a web hosting business (now called ActualWebSpace), bought my third investment property (a 4-family house), and built a 16'x12' shed from scratch
- At age 24, I renovated the basement of my first property, removing about 40 yards of dirt by hand using 5-gallon buckets and installing a bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom
- At age 26, during the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007, I tried to sell, but lost all but one investment property to foreclosure; I filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
- At age 27, I decided to transition to a nomadic, location independent lifestyle and began selling all my possessions in preparation for my journey; I decided to begin my journey in Southern India in March of 2010
Here are some other random facts:
- I was not named for the first six-months of my life; my interim name was "Beautiful Soul". Lowell General Hospital had my name in their system as "Baby Boy" until I had them update it... 21 years after I was born!
- While my name is of Indian origin, I am mostly Irish with a mix of Polish, Lithuanian, German, French, and Native American
- I was brought up a strict vegetarian (no meat, fish, or poultry)
- I was home schooled my entire life (using Calvert and Keystone teaching materials)
- From 8th grade onward, I taught myself using the "teachers manual"
- I grew up in a very business-oriented family environment
- I grew up with no furniture or TV in the house
- While I was a landlord, I did all the rental management and maintenance work myself and lived in basements and attics as a way of being frugal