On Thu, Oct 31, 2024, Yann Hicke wrote,

Sorry, who are you?
I don't think we have ever met.
You go to Cornell?

And thus began one of the most profound philosophical exchanges of our time.

*Cue dramatic music mixed with existential crisis vibes.*

In that email thread, Hicke didn’t just ask me about my identity; he asked the age-old question: Who am I? Why do I exist? Am I just a blip in the vast, cosmic sprawl of Cornell’s CS department, hidden away in the basement? I knew I had to respond in kind. Well, no ordinary response would do. This was my moment, my moment to some something … bigger.

So, I took a deep breath, channeled my inner Jonathan (Chang), and replied:

You're the reason I live. You're my advisor, my god, my faith, and
my reason to think.

I wasn’t just replying to an email. This was my magnum opus, the culmination of my academic career, distilled into one email response, that said: I am here, and it’s all because of you, Hicke. Naturally, I wasn’t done. I had to deliver my pièce de résistance, and so I added:

You [Yann Hicke] think, therefore I [Tushaar Gangavarapu] am.

After all, Descartes may have had his “Cogito, ergo sum,” but did he ever say it to an unsuspecting friend over email? I think not!! And just when I expected a hilarious response (or a blatant insult), he wrote back with a humble request:

"Please add this to your website."

So here we are! I present to you, dear reader, a testament to the power of random email exchanges, the mysteries of identity, and the joy of completely over-the-top responses—and of course, Yann Hicke!

Yann Hicke: "Please add this to your website."
(Attached was the above screenshot.)