The Pune Techie Who Hears Regularly From Elon Musk

He claims he talks to the billionaire tech mogul on a range of issues - from technical stuff, need for multi-planetary life and sending men to Mars.

A 23-year-old Indian techie, who is in touch with the Twitter-savvy Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, says he aspires to work with his "role model" and learn from him. Pune-based software professional Pranay Pathole had his first interaction with Mr Musk, who is now the world's richest man, four years ago while defending him from social media users who were upset with his criticism of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Elon Musk is known to respond to tweets from his followers from time to time. However, Mr Pathole says he regularly corresponds with the billionaire tech mogul through direct messages on the microblogging website on a range of issues - from technical stuff, the need for multi-planetary life and sending men to Mars. .@elonmusk basically revolutionized the way we transfer money now. So all those crypto "experts" before passing down toxic and hateful comments think about what he has done & he knows how the money works better than any of us Why are people spreading hate against @elonmusk? He's actually making a difference by providing Starlink Internet service to Ukraine, while at the same time trolling the Russian military. I really love it. It's hilarious how he is publicly ridiculing Putin. pic.twitter.com/c3qvJiz49U

Mr Pathole, who now works with the Tata Consultancy Services, has since been in awe of Mr Musk's "hardworking and multi-tasking ability" and dreams of physically meeting him someday.

"One day, he is working on building the most powerful rocket (Starship), the next day he is working on a fully self-driving car, next he is trying to solve traffic issues, and trying to find solutions for diseases like Alzheimer's through Neuralink. Getting an opportunity to work with him for a young guy like me would be really amazing," he told news agency PTI.