$ cat about.md

Headshot of Arvind Rathee

about

Hi, I'm Arvind. I'm a frontend engineer at Daffodil Software (4.5 years in), based in Gurugram, India. I spend my days shaping React and TypeScript applications in healthcare and fintech, and my evenings on a backend-first track toward Forward Deployed Engineer — Node.js and system design first, an LLM/RAG layer on top.

What follows is the longer version: how I got here, what I've been up to, and what I'm doing now.

$ what I optimise for

I optimise for the things you can't see in a screenshot — reliability, real-world performance on the bandwidth visitors actually have, and the kind of code that the next person can change without holding their breath.

I lean pragmatic. Ship the boring proven thing; refactor when the friction is real, not when it's theoretical. "Is this code easy to delete?" tends to be a more useful question than "is this code clever?"

AI tools (Claude Code · Cursor · ChatGPT) are part of the workflow now — I treat them like a fast junior engineer: leverage their throughput, verify their work, never let them ship unattended.

Performance budgets, accessibility, and clean error states aren't nice-to-haves for me — they're part of the deliverable.

$ how I came to be

I grew up in Haryana — a part of India where you don't typically meet engineers until you become one. I picked up programming the way most engineers do: too late to be a prodigy, early enough to make every mistake. The thing that made it click was, of all places, Udacity — in 2018, mid-undergrad, I started reviewing Front End Web Developer Nanodegree projects on the side. Two years of reading other people's code — line by line, writing feedback — was the single most useful exercise of my career.

By the time I finished my M.Tech in 2021 (both degrees at UIET, M.D. University, Rohtak), I knew what kind of engineer I wanted to be. I joined Daffodil Software that November as a fresher and have been here ever since — through MayaMD, HIMS Agroha, Chalo, and now Vimo. The detailed work history is on /resume.

$ what I'm doing

updated 2026-05-04

  1. now · 2024 →

    Vimo — Childcare SaaS. JSP → React with Claude Code.

    Currently leading an LLM-assisted migration pipeline that converts legacy JSP into React components — manual migration effort cut roughly in half. Building a shared component library inside an NX monorepo. Most fun I've had at a desk in years.

  2. now · 2026 →

    Building rathee.dev in public.

    Treating my own portfolio like a product. Each phase shipped openly so I can write about what I learned along the way.

$ tech stack

Roughly: what I reach for without thinking, what I'm building real things with, and what I'm deliberately leaning into.

  • ● comfort

    ReactTypeScriptRedux ToolkitNX monoreposcomponent librariesperformancePWAClaude CodeCursorChatGPT

  • ◐ working

    Node.jsExpressMongoDBREST APIsPlaywrightVitestDockerCI/CD

  • ◌ learning

    Node.js (deeper)ExpressMongoDB internalssystem designdistributed systemsAPI designRAG basicsLLM evals

  • ○ exploring

    LLM agentsvector DBsprompt-pattern librariesKubernetes.NET (later, if a project needs it)Game dev (Unreal · Unity · Roblox)RustWebGPU

$ ways of working

The non-technical half. What I'm good at without a stack name attached.

  • ● strong

    End-to-end ownershipCode reviewMentorship · since 2018MigrationsGreenfield projects

  • ◌ growing

    ArchitectureCross-functional collaborationTechnical writingPublic speaking

$ cat off-screen.md

The site is tech-themed — but I'm not, entirely. A few less-engineering bits:

  • 📍 where

    From Haryana, based in Gurugram. English · Hindi · a smattering of Punjabi at family functions.

  • 📺 watching

    One Piece (still) · Classroom of the Elite II · Daemons of the Shadow Realm.

  • 📚 reading

    long-form non-fiction · the unsexy bits of engineering.

  • 🎧 listening

    lo-fi while shipping · OSTs (Steins;Gate, Made in Abyss) on a long walk.

  • ☕ habits

    Take ownership of unowned problems · ask "could a script do this?" · enjoy a proper pour-over. Can't sit still for long · won't finish books I don't love · perpetually tinkering with dotfiles.

$ what comes next

Closer term: going deep on Node.js + system design, then layering LLM/RAG on top — the Forward Deployed Engineer track. Longer term: distributed systems, more writing, open source, a small game in Unreal someday, and .NET when a project actually needs it.

The full open-ended list — engineering, personal, hobby — lives on /bucket-list with a little story behind each one.

In one line: frontend engineer turning the backend "side" into a real second discipline — Node.js first, LLM/RAG next, on the way to Forward Deployed Engineer.

/resume — formal version · /bucket-list — wishlist · /contact — say hi.