I discovered I was gifted at 47. My whole life made sense at once.

I was a government-school student in Punjabi Bagh, Delhi. I scored 49% in 12th — enough to qualify for a medical college seat, but not enough for the one I wanted, so I repeated the year. No teacher ever looked at me and said: this boy thinks differently.

I carried that confusion for decades. Through law studies I didn't finish the conventional way. Through selling cable TV door to door. Through building Su-Kam Power Systems from a single idea into one of India's best-known power brands — the work that got me called the "Inverter Man of India" and "Solar Man of India." Through every patent, every product, every factory floor, a quiet question followed me: why has everything always felt harder, louder, and more intense for me than it seems to for everyone else?

I had answers, of a kind. I was "difficult." I was "too much." I was "lucky." I was "self-made," which is a polite way of saying nobody could quite explain me, least of all me.

Then I read a book.

At 47, I read a book called Gifted Grownups: The Mixed Blessings of Extraordinary Potential by Marylou Kelly Streznewski. For the first time in my life, I cried over a book — because for the first time in my life, I was seen.

Everything reorganised. The boredom in classrooms wasn't laziness — it was a mind racing ahead with nowhere to go. The restlessness in business wasn't instability — it was a need for challenge that no finished project could satisfy for long. The intensity that cost me, socially and personally, was the same intensity that SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) and the Davidson Institute describe in the gifted adults they work with every day.

Why this site exists.

I built GiftedKids.in first, because of my own son and because of that boy in the third row of a government school — bored, punished for daydreaming. That boy was me. He is millions of Indian children right now.

But those children grow up. And in India there is no one waiting for the gifted adult — no test, no framework, no language, no room. There is just a person in their thirties, forties, fifties, carrying a lifetime of mislabels and a nagging sense that they were built for something the world never had a name for.

I am that person. I found the word at 47. I do not want anyone to wait that long.

You were not the problem. You were never the problem. You were gifted, and no one ever told you. Let's change that.

Are you a gifted adult? →   Founder essay: I killed my own best-seller →

A note on Su-Kam: Su-Kam Power Systems is referenced here for historical and biographical context. Kunwer Sachdev founded and led Su-Kam until 2018 and is no longer associated with the company, which subsequently underwent insolvency proceedings. Gifted Grownups is an independent platform and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Su-Kam Power Systems.

Further reading — organisations that work with the gifted

• SENG — Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted: parent groups, clinician directory and resources on the emotional world of gifted individuals across the lifespan.
• Davidson Institute for Talent Development: research and family support for profoundly gifted young people and adults.
• National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC, USA): position papers and research summaries on gifted identification and education.
• Gifted Development Center: Linda Silverman's clinical work on gifted assessment and adult identification.
• World Council for Gifted and Talented Children: international body coordinating research and advocacy.
• Hoagies' Gifted Education Page: the long-running curated library of articles, book lists and links.
• Kazimierz Dabrowski and his overexcitabilities — the framework many gifted adults finally find themselves in.
• GiftedKids.in — our sister platform for gifted children in India, co-founded with Dr Inderbir Kaur Sandhu (Mind Path).