Flipkart-Walmart deal changed Sachin Bansal's life, brought him closer to family

Sachin Bansal’s fondness for gaming is common knowledge. But did you know that the billionaire techie wanted to drop out of IIT to become a gamer? Read on.

The Flipkart-Walmart deal has been one of the headliner acts of the year so far. It saw the online portal’s co-founder Sachin Bansal walk away with over a billion dollars and a lot of free time on hand.

At the time of the exit, Bansal had written in a Facebook post, “I’ll be taking some long time off and focus on finishing a few personal projects, which I haven’t been able to find time for. I will catch up on gaming and see what kids are playing these days and brush up on my coding skills.”


It seems that Bansal has managed to stick to the plan successfully.

At a recent event, Bansal’s wife, Priya, reserved comment on his exit, but she told ETPanache that the couple’s life has changed tremendously since then. “We see a lot more of him now,” she said. “He is spending enough time with family. We go for walks in the park. Our parents are happy to visit us now as he gets to spend quality time with them, something amiss before.”

Bansal affirmed this, adding that in the post-Flipkart world he was spending quality time with his parents and in-laws, and catching up on movies.

As for his gaming, it has increased multi-fold since the exit. “Sachin and our eight-year-old son literally spend the entire weekend gaming. Sometimes, I have to turn Hitler and say ‘Enough’,” said Priya. Bansal’s tryst with gaming began during his college days at IITDelhi, also where he met cofounder Binny Bansal.

Speaking of his early days in gaming, Bansal said, “I was a lot into gaming at the time. I really wanted to become a professional gamer. In fact, at one point, I foolishly even decided not to finish my degree and though I would become a fulltime gamer [instead]. I was playing Age of Empires [a series of historical real-time strategy games] and Quake III Arena [multiplayer-focused first-person shooter game].”

In an earlier interview, Binny had also spoken about Bansal’s love for gaming. “Right from college days, Sachin was a big gamer. He actually took one more year to complete his degree because he was gaming too much. He joined one year before me and passed out with me. Whenever freshers joined Flipkart, many thought they could beat Sachin to win a free dinner, but nobody could, as Sachin is very good,” he had said.