Arjun Jain’s journey from struggling with JEE to becoming an IIT Bombay professor highlights how setbacks can redirect, rather than define, a career. After declining an IIT-BHU seat in Petrochemical Engineering, Jain completed Computer Science at RV College of Engineering, pursued a PhD in Germany and conducted postdoctoral research at NYU. His work in computer vision and deep learning led to research, entrepreneurship and industry roles before he returned to IIT Bombay as faculty in 2016.