A great balancing act

BEING a medical student takes years of unwavering dedication and so does running a technology website. Both endeavours demand an investment of time, effort, and money to bear fruit.
But, a deep interest in both medicine and technology is the grand motivator for Jaya Prithivi Raj, 21, to take a plunge in both pools.
While embarking on his five-year journey towards a medical degree (and later specialising in cosmetic plastic surgery), he also single-handedly started The Adventures of Vesper, a website that aims to siphon through the labyrinthian landscape of technology news and produce content that is easy to understand.
What sparked your interest in technology?
My interest in technology began when I was a child, thanks to my mum and dad.
My dad used to own a computer shop, and it was there that I was given free range by my parents to learn hands-on about technology. They would let me meddle with anything I could get my hands on.
It was my mother who taught me about all the components of a computer, and the names of the devices I was tinkering with.
In time my knowledge and interest in technology grew, and I considered myself a technophile.
What made you start writing about technology?
As time went by, I wanted to do something with all that I had learned about technology. I wanted to share what I know in a way that everyone could understand.
Back when I was in university, I used to write reviews in forums and the like.
One of those places where I wrote is the Xiaomi’s MIUI forum. There I wrote about Android apps and made friends who encouraged me to write more.
What made you start The Adventures of Vesper?
It began two years ago when my friends encouraged me to start a website. Because I was still a student, I started a blog on Blogger.
It was not easy at first. Without an income and being a student, I had to rely on free tools to get my website growing.
From what little money I made, I invested back into the website. I used the money to get a domain, buy a hosting space, and moved to Wordpress. Essentially I moved from a blog to a proper website.
What do you do on your website?
I generally do everything, from taking care of social media accounts to attending events, conducting reviews, and creating content. It takes a lot of time.
Events are set at a fixed time, and they only take a couple of hours, but reviews take much longer.
To do a product review justice, it takes approximately two weeks of usage and testing, but while reviewing one device another may arrive, and I’ll have to juggle between both devices.
However, I have a writer on board now. Shaun (the writer) and I go way back. We first met at a Xiaomi community meetup.
It was at one of those meetups where he expressed an interest in helping me out with my site.
Thanks to him, my work has gotten a lot easier.
How do you balance your life between being a medical student and a tech writer?
It is [definitely] not easy. Especially with a medical degree, which involves a lot of studying.
Maintaining the site involves a lot of writing, making videos, and general content creation.
I do get exhausted, but I try my best not to procrastinate.
One of the most significant challenges is [managing] classes. There are times where I am tempted to prioritise one over the other. In other words, to skip classes to go for tech events.
This is especially bad when there is an event that I want to go to, but I have a class at the same time.
In the end, I’ll have to either go to the event late, or not at all.