Delhi’s Rs 1-crore Facebook catch savours her chance

“Deepali’s nurtured all her dreams and aspirations studying in this room,” Lalita told Newsline, pointing to the modest space.

Speaking to Newsline over the phone from Mumbai, Deepali said her stint at the IIT was the “best time of her life”. “If I’m asked to live these four years again, I would love to. I got to do a variety of things here. I became more social and confident and made great friends,” she said.

Mother Lalita comes from Rewari in Haryana, whereas Deepali’s father, Sanjay Adlakha, is from Uttar Pradesh’s Badayun district. Their origins may be humble but they say they wanted to give the children the best education.”

“We wanted our children to have the opportunities that we did not get. Luckily, Deepali was bright and focused since childhood,” Lalita said.

Deepali always set high goals and gave her “100 per cent” to achieve them, the mother said. Her teachers at Lancers’ Convent were also very supportive, she said.

In her second year, Deepali travelled abroad for the first time – to Germany. Her third-year internship was in the US, where she went to Facebook office for a “site visit”. She did not then know it would become her workplace soon.

“I knew then that I would give my best to be here. My focus was on the top three firms – Google, Microsoft and Facebook. I wanted a placement in the US office of any of these companies,” Deepali said.

Deepali said she is, however, bothered by all the attention the “three top packages” have drawn. She said she has been getting calls from IIT aspirants and their parents on how one gets such high packages.

“My base salary is Rs 65 lakh. Another 20 lakh is the joining bonus. The rest is in stock option paid after five years. So the impression that I will get about Rs 1.42 crore is exaggerated,” she said, deflecting attention.