‘His first reply was my life’s highlight’: Pune engineer on being Twitter friends with Elon Musk

A 23-year-old man named Pranay Pathole ended up in the Twitter DMs of Elon Musk in 2018 after a casual tweet on Tesla’s automated windshield wipers. Musk responded immediately to a query from a Pune-based second-year engineering student concerning a Tesla windscreen change. ‘Fixed in next release’, Musk replied promptly astonished the teenager.

Now, Pranay works as a software developer for Tata Consultancy Services and is a Twitter buddy of Elon Musk. Pranay recalls his experience as the ‘Twitter friend’ of the world’s richest man in an interview with a leading daily.

‘A Reddit user had posted a query and I was intrigued. It was related to automatic wipers. I found that very interesting. I thought I could tweet it to Elon. And if he replies, then maybe he could consider that feature for Tesla. And, within a couple of minutes of tweeting, he had responded! I was just blown away by seeing him respond to me’, Pranay said.

The young man reportedly stated that his interactions with Musk have become fairly routine. ‘When Elon responded to me for the first time, that was the highlight of my life. But now my interactions with him have become very casual. We talk back and forth through Direct Messages (DMs) on Twitter’, he added.

Also Read: 24-year-old fan of Prabhas dies by suicide after ‘Radhe Shyam’ gets negative reviews: Report

Musk is modest and has no airs about his prominence, according to Pranay, who describes him as ‘super friendly’. He further added that Musk is quite active on Twitter and responds to his tweets within minutes. ‘It doesn’t feel like you are interacting with the world’s richest person. To me, it feels like you are just hanging out with another buddy of yours’.

Their discussions extend from Mars to the early days of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Pranay’s Twitter following is steadily growing, thanks to Musk’s constant comments. His pinned tweet on Twitter is also one that Musk responded to. Pranay said that he wants to pursue a Master’s degree in the United States and if given the opportunity, work alongside Elon Musk.