After crossing sixty, many people prefer to slow down. Brijesh Chandra Srivastava chose the opposite: he entered a field where he was once again a student.
That new venture is BridgeMind Store, the digital retail initiative of BridgeMind Consulting. As festive shopping gathers pace, it enters a crowded marketplace with an unusual founder and a simple ambition: make everyday online shopping easier and more dependable.
For Srivastava, the real story is not just selling products. It is the courage to begin something unfamiliar after decades of expertise elsewhere.
From Engineering Decisions to Customer Decisions
An IIT Roorkee alumnus, Srivastava spent 32 years with RITES, retiring as General Manager after working across railways, bridges, industrial infrastructure and metro systems.
Engineering trained him to study requirements, evaluate alternatives and make reasoned decisions. Retail asks parallel questions: What does the customer need? Is the product worth offering? Is the price sensible? Will the buying experience inspire trust?
The drawing board has become a shopping cart, but the discipline of thinking remains.
BridgeMind Store: Retail Without Heavy Inventory
Operating at cerebralpursuits.in, BridgeMind Store follows an asset-light digital retail model. Instead of investing first in warehouses and large inventories, it focuses on product selection, presentation, pricing, customer communication and the shopping experience. Sourcing, inventory and fulfilment are supported through an integrated partner ecosystem.
Thoughtfully Curated. Simply Delivered.
Its offerings span practical festive and everyday needs, including fashion, accessories, gifts and household products. The objective is not merely to display more items, but to help shoppers discover useful choices conveniently. The venture aims to keep the customer-facing journey straightforward: browse, compare, select and order, while the partner-supported model handles the physical movement of products. It is an approach that seeks to combine the reach of online retail with a more considered, curated shopping experience.
The festive season is an early test: attract attention, earn first orders, learn customer preferences and build the confidence that brings people back.
Choosing to Become a Beginner Again
After four decades in infrastructure, Srivastava is learning the language of digital commerce: product discovery, customer behaviour, fulfilment, online presentation and service.
A young entrepreneur begins without experience. An experienced professional who chooses to start afresh makes a more deliberate decision.
“Curiosity has no retirement date.”
From Books to Business
His first post-engineering turn was writing. Awareness to Mastery - The HCF of Every Great Exam received the Legacy of Literature Awards 2026 honour for Best Manuscript. The Document Fortress - A Practical Guide to Navigating India’s Public Works Projects was recognised as Best Professional Non-Fiction.
Cerebral Pursuits then extended his knowledge-sharing into digital learning and communities. BridgeMind Consulting now connects three complementary activities: professional advisory, Cerebral Pursuits for learning and sharing, and BridgeMind Store for digital retail.
Experience → Knowledge → Community → Enterprise
A New Venture, a New Learning Curve
BridgeMind Store is still a young experiment. Its progress will depend on listening to customers, refining selections, correcting mistakes and delivering a reliable experience. Festive demand offers an immediate opportunity to test that promise. For a new retailer, repeat customers and word-of-mouth recommendations may ultimately matter more than a brief seasonal spike in orders.
From a village in Uttar Pradesh to IIT Roorkee, from infrastructure projects to books and now retail, Srivastava’s journey has taken another unexpected turn.
A new marketplace. A new learning curve. And a seasoned professional ready to say: “I can be a student again.”
