Harshit was in final year at a college near Jalandhar. He had a job offer from a big IT services company. Nothing fancy, but confirmed. His two closest friends had a “startup” — mostly a pitch deck, a logo, and late-night café meetings where they spoke like CEOs. One friend said, “Bro, job is for scared people.” His father said, “Beta, scared is okay. Hungry is not okay.” His mother kept asking one simple thing: “Salary kab aayegi?”