By Bhavya Sukheja
Publication Date: 2026-03-22 12:29:00
An Indian-origin techie’s post about her journey from taking a ₹40 lakh student loan to becoming a senior leader at Microsoft has struck a chord online. Priyanka Vergadia, now a Senior Director, Developer GTM and Marketing at Microsoft, shared a video on Instagram recounting her early struggles and the risks she took while moving to the US for higher education.
“I took a ₹40 lakh student loan and boarded the first-ever flight of my life, a one-way ticket from India to the US for my master’s. Everything was at stake. My dad had mortgaged our land for that loan. Even the ticket was taken on loan,” she shared in an Instagram post.
“There was a quiet pressure that I didn’t fully understand yet, but could feel,” she added.
Vergadia described the challenges of adapting to a new academic system and managing life independently in a new country. She said that her first semester in the US was “not…
