Lalnundika Darlong arrived at Shri Ram College of Commerce with a confession he is one of the first to make: he initially chose the institution because the classrooms had air conditioning.

What followed was a collegiate career that most would assume was the result of ruthless calculation. Before graduating, Darlong had secured internships at EY-Parthenon, Deloitte USI, Nestlé, and IBM. He became a UN Millennium Fellow, won national corporate case competitions, and rose to the highest student position at SRCC’s storied Placement Cell. Yet, he insists none of this was the execution of a master plan.

“I approached college like a kid exploring a daycare,” he notes. “Playing with different toys to see how they worked, rather than a kid being handed a pre-packaged toy set and told exactly how to play with it.”

That instinct, to wander before committing, is the throughline of Darlong’s trajectory. Having grown up across Panama, Bhutan, Seychelles, Romania, and India, adapting to new environments is his baseline. It fundamentally shapes his approach to leadership. As Chief Secretary of The Placement Cell, SRCC, overseeing more than eighty members and directing vital PwD recruitment drives, he learned that influence is rarely top-down. “True change rarely comes from the top of the food chain,” he observes. “It requires nurturing the grassroots that others ignore.”

Darlong is unusually candid about the high-achievement systems that often select him. He calls out the survivorship bias inherent in corporate and academic ladders with the precision of someone who has benefited from them but refuses to be blinded by them.

“We assume those selected are inherently the top one per cent, rather than realising they simply become defined as such by the act of selection”, he explains, pointing to the unseen variables and sheer, irrational humanity that often dictate success or failure.

This grounded perspective was hard-won. For Darlong, his most transformative moment wasn’t a missed corporate offer or a failed pitch, but a quiet reckoning. When a junior he had barely interacted with thanked him for being an “amazing senior”, he was struck by how little he had actually assisted her. The gratitude packed a punch, revealing a blind spot: he had misjudged the immense weight of small kindnesses. A resume, he realised, is just paper; the people you impact are the reality.

That visibility carries its own distinct weight. Whether he is the only undergraduate on a team of IIM Bangalore interns, discussing the NEP 2020 with the UGC Chairman, or receiving the Hora Gold Medal from the Chief Minister of Delhi, Darlong represents more than just his own ambition. As a college professor once pointed out, seeing a student from the Northeast break into these exclusive spaces helps others shatter the glass ceilings they have built for themselves.

Beneath the ranks and certificates, Lalnundika’s sights are set on a broader horizon. He is drawn to the complex intersections of public administration, geography, and human nature, striving to remain a generalist in a world that relentlessly demands specialisation.

And if the structured, high-achieving corporate spaces disappeared tomorrow? He doesn’t miss a beat.

“I shall simply perfect the intricate science and art of brewing a phenomenal cup of masala chai and run a quiet little shop,” he says. “Sometimes the most profound societal shifts start over a warm cup of tea anyway.”

Profiled by: Anjali Kumari Jha