Elon Musk’s Twitter friendship with Indian superfan

Not many people can boast of having frank conversations with Elon Musk about conquering the planet, but for Indian software engineer Pranay Pathole, a friendly chat with the world’s richest man is just a tweet away.

Their unlikely online friendship has blossomed since Pathole was a teenager, and the bubbly billionaire has responded to him with headline-grabbing company updates and even life advice via hundreds of tweets and private messages.

The two finally met face-to-face this week when Pathole traveled to the United States – his first trip abroad – to begin a master’s degree in business analytics.

“He’s super sincere. So down to earth. He’s humble,” the 23-year-old previously told AFP. “The way he takes the time to reply to me … just shows it.”

Musk is a prolific user of Twitter, often posting more than 30 times a day to his 103 million followers.

Why the SpaceX and Tesla boss with a net worth of $266 billion maintains regular contact with the young Indian remains a mystery.

“To be perfectly honest, I have no idea. I think he must be really intrigued by my questions,” Pathole told AFP from his upper-middle-class parents’ home in the western city of Pune.

Pathole’s account is one of just a small handful that the billionaire replies to frequently — once every two days on average, based on Musk’s public Twitter posts since early 2020.

The first time Musk answered him was in 2018, when the then 19-year-old Pathole pointed out a fault in Tesla’s automatic wipers.

“Fixed in next release,” Musk replied, with Tesla addressing the issue in a later software update.

His mother and father celebrated by taking him out to dinner that night.

“I was blown away, to be honest,” says Pathole. “I took several screenshots of it and just never wanted the day to end.”

Their later private chats — daily at first — dealt with “crushing myths” about Musk’s past and discussions about why colonizing other planets was “essential,” Pathole says.

“I used to ask him stupid questions, stupid questions. And he always took the time to answer me.”

The time difference between the US and India did little harm to the four-year virtual friendship.

“I don’t think he sleeps that often. Because he’s on Twitter most of the time,” Pathole says.

Pathole says interactions with Musk have become “a lot looser” over the years and he’s no longer rushing to share them with friends and family.

“Elon is the same guy in both his public and private roles,” he says.

Musk’s candid, irreverent, and often cryptic tweets have sparked wild swings in stock and cryptocurrency prices, inviting scrutiny from US regulators.

The billionaire investor is also in a high-profile legal battle with Twitter itself over its efforts to back out of an agreement to buy the company, with the trial scheduled to begin in October.

But Pathole dismisses suggestions that the billionaire is acting with malice.

“I don’t think he’s a troll,” says Pathole. “He’s an unpredictable guy.”

Pathole, who was recruited straight out of engineering school to work at Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest IT firm, says he was “notorious” for getting into trouble at school – a trait that helps him to understand Musk better.

After traveling to the US with candy for Musk last week, he’s hoping not only to graduate from the University of Texas at Dallas, but also to gain work experience at a US company, including one of Musk’s.

“I want to get a job at Tesla on my own. It’s not like I want any favours. It would be good if he could interview me,” says Pathole.

After their meeting, Pathole tweeted a picture of the couple, which Musk “liked.”

Dressed in a black t-shirt in the style of his idol, Pathole can explain the intricacies of reusable rocket boosters and make a philosophical plea for space exploration with equal ease.

He often quotes the statements of the billionaire entrepreneur verbatim.

“Live on Earth and die on Mars: that’s a philosophy we all share,” says Pathole, adding that he wants to grow old and die with the “red dust of Mars” on his feet.

Pathole has amassed a six-figure following on Twitter, and it grows every time Musk mentions him in a tweet.

Even offline, Musk is a common topic of conversation over dinner with Pathole’s family and friends.

“Elon is like a friend of our family,” jokes Pranay’s father Prashant, a media consultant, adding that he and his wife Pallavi, a homemaker, are proud of their son’s passion.

“If he follows Elon Musk, if he wants to settle down on Mars, we don’t mind.”