S teve Jobs once said, "You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out." And it seems his words really stuck out with Raja Vijayaraman, who became the first Indian app designer to win the Apple Design Award at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this year.

"It was a huge surprise for me. Most people always think that we Indians don't design so I never thought I will be getting this sort of award. It was like a distant dream. It took me 3 minutes to get (that) it was happening for real and still I'm sinking into the feeling," Raja shared with India Today Tech, recalling the moment his name was announced on stage at WWDC 2018.

Every year lakhs of engineering students graduate from various engineering colleges in India, including from prestigious ones like IITs and NITs, with the hopes of making a name for themselves in the IT industry and, in rare cases, even the Silicon Valley. But very few make it to the top. And even fewer manage to break the glass ceiling and stand out in the crowd.

Unlike what most people may assume, Rajas story is not that of a typical IIT boy making it big at WWDC. Rather, its the story of a simple guy who fell in love with programming and found his calling in designing apps that were based on Apples platform.

Raja Vijayaraman hails from a small town called Theni in the southern-most state of India. And just like any other small town Indian boy, he wanted to move out of the town to a big city. So after completing his Class XII, he joined a mechanical engineering course in Chennai. "Once I got into mechanical engineering I found out that this was not my cup of tea."



Unlike what most people may assume, Rajas story is not that of a typical IIT boy making it big at WWDC. Rather, its the story of a simple guy who fell in love with programming

Although he wanted to drop out of the course, his father, Vijayaraman, advised him against it."When I told my father that I don't like to continue with mechanical engineering, I want to drop out, he said rather than dropping out you just finish this engineering course and (then) you can do whatever you want," he shared.

So after completing his course in mechanical engineering, Raja took a 3-months animation course and joined the VFX industry where he worked on various movies like Rajnikanth's Robot, European movies and The Flying Machine. Around the same time, he got his first iPhone iPhone 3GS -- that, as he recalls, was radically different from his old Nokia N8. While exploring his iPhone, he got to know about the $99 Apple Developer Program. And that was the beginning of his love affair with app designing.

"I have no friends around me in the programming area so I myself stared learning programming and that's how I went through this app development process," he said.

Raja started working on the Calzy app back in 2013. The first version of the app was released in 2014. Over the course of five years, he has not only perfected the design but also added a host of new functions to it. He started working on the latest version of the app -- Calzy 3 -- in November last year and it seems that all his hard work is now paying off. Calzy 3 managed to impress the Apple bosses with the simplicity and utility of the app and its design.

The idea behind developing the Calzy app was simple -- a calculator with the modern features that people could use in their day-to-day lives. "I needed a calculator, which is so simple that I could use in my day to day life. Calculator was introduced 50 years back. It remains the same how it was introduced 50 years back. I wanted to create a calculator for the times we live in," he said.

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"On our phone we have so much of memory space so we can have lot of numbers stored. In iOS there are a lot of new technologies like 3D Touch and drag and drop functionality. So I wanted to re-imagine the calculator around these kinds of technologies. That's how new version of calculator was made," he shared while talking about how he came up with the idea of designing the Calzy app.

It was five-year long journey for him. And Raja credits his parents, his wife and his friends for supporting him in his long journey. As Raja recalls, things didn't change for him even after his marriage. "My wife is so supportive," he says.

But things weren't as easy for him back as they are now. "This year Calzy app has been doing really well, but for the first version it was difficult," he said, adding that he faced a lot of challenges in the beginning. But things got better eventually.

"In iOS 11 there are a lot of cool features which I incorporated into the app like drag and drop feature, partial search feature... So I incorporated those technologies into this new version of Calzy," he added. Today, Rajas app costs Rs 159 on the App Store. But what kept him motivated during this sojourn was his passion for designing and his love for technological innovations.

As far as Calzy 3 is concerned, the app, which is available for download only on iOS, itself is pretty amazing. It is compatible with iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch and it comes with a host of interesting functions. Calzy 3 app can spell out calculation results in 65 different languages and its unique bookmarking function which lets users sort of bookmark their calculations with date and title for future use.

Besides this, the app also comes with an iMessage extension, which allows people to use the messaging service without leaving the app. The app also comes with latest iOS technologies like 3D Touch, Face ID and Drag and Drop and it features "handoff" support to resume calculations on another supported device.

Today, Rajas calculator app costs Rs 159 on the App Store. But what kept him motivated during this sojourn was his passion for designing and his love for technological innovations

When I asked Raja if an Android version of the app was on the cards, his answer was a flat "no".

"No, I just like to be with iOS right now I like the simplicity and the design language and I really love this product. I'm completely in this Apple ecosystem," he said.

In the days to come, Raja will update Calzy 3 to iOS 12. "Of Course, I'll be updating it to iOS 12. Right now I don't have any features set for Calzy but iOS 12 has introduced a lot of new technologies like AR Game, those sort of things so I might do a new app around that AR tech," he says.

He also has a couple of other ideas in the pipeline that he will like to work on in the future. "I can't reveal now. But there are a lot of apps in the pipeline that I will do eventually I'm a one-person company. I mean I do design, development and everything. Since I do everything, it will take some time," he added.v It has been a long journey for Raja from a mechanical engineer to the first Indian Apple Design Award winner. And he credits his passion for app designing to help keep going. "I think that is the most important thing -- doing something that inspires us or motivates us," he says.