Side Hustles - Pankaj Tanwar

i made a script that added fake calendar events so i could avoid plans. someone asked ‘friday 7pm?’ → ctrl+shift+f+7 → fake event → ‘oh sorry’. Not recommended though :)

Mini viral on Twitter & RedditFun side projectOpen sourceBuilt in a weekend

💸 My Zerodha portfolio now controls my bedroom lights. It turns red when I lose money. When markets recover, the lights calm down. I hijacked my smart-bulb’s protocol and wired it to my live P&L. Now my room roasts me in real-time. 🔻

2M+ views across Reddit & TwitterZerodha CEO resharedFeatured on Hindustan Times, NDTV, Times NowViral on Reddit & Twitter

🌑 I built the 'real' dark mode for this website. Your cursor becomes a flashlight and everything else stays pitch black. You have to move around to read anything. Is it useful? Absolutely not. Did I do it anyway? Obviously. Try it yourself by switching themes. 🤷‍♂️

Most useless feature ever500k+ views on Twitter & Reddit

📱 I built a script that gives me a fake phone call to escape boring and awkward situations. I tap 'ESCAPE' on my phone, my server schedules a call, and after a minute my phone rings with pre-recorded audio. I just say 'sorry, I'm getting a call' and walk away 🚪

Viral on Reddit & Twitter300k+ views on social media

🥗 I was looking at a fancy restaurant menu and realized I couldn’t understand half the dishes. So I built a small AI tool. Just open the camera, point at the menu, and it turns all the fancy names into simple, desi-friendly versions. 🍽️

100k+ views redditFun AI side projectBuilt in a weekend

🏋️ I hacked my bedroom lights to talk to Google Fit. If I haven’t moved in 2 hours, it flashes angry red until I get up. The bulb’s app wouldn’t play nice, so I reverse-engineered it to listen for UDP JSON RGB commands. Now my script yells at me in red when I’ve been lazy. 🚨

270k+ views on social mediaViral on RedditWeekend Project

🤖 My mom recently joined Instagram and complained that I never like her posts. I don’t even have the app anymore. So, I built a Python bot that auto-likes her posts and leaves comments using AI trained on our WhatsApp messages. 🤷‍♂️

400k+ views on LinkedInViral across social mediaCovered by news websites100% Open SourceMom is finally happy

✈️ My desk at work is right next to a window, and I get a clear view of planes flying around HAL Airport. So I built a tool that sends me a little notification whenever one flies by - with flight details and a fun fact. 🤙

Loved by aviation nerdsViral on Twitter100k+ views on social mediaOpen SourceBuilt in a weekend

🚨 A chrome extension that blocks social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) until you scream `I'm a loser` into your microphone. The louder you scream, the more time you get to browse 😭

Featured #1 on Hacker NewsTrending on Reddit100% Open Source2.5M+ Views Across PlatformsFeatured in Major Tech Blogs

✈️ Boeing's been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. So I built Boeing Flight Detector - a fun tool that flags Boeing flights while you're booking flight tickets. 🤙

1.3k+ upvotes on Reddit100% Open SourceViral on LinkedIn250k+ viewsWeekend Project

📱 I built a simple app to help parents learn apps like WhatsApp and PhonePe through hands-on practice. One morning my mom freaked out thinking I broke her phone — turns out, PhonePe just updated its UI. That trip turned into a crash course, and this app was born. ❤️

Viral on Reddit & LinkedInMy parents now do UPI & video calls

📵 An AI tool to filter out cringe content (engagement click-bait, promotional content, and low-value off-topic posts etc) on your LinkedIn feed. It uses AI to analyse LinkedIn posts in real time and hides cringe worthy content. 💀

150k+ views on RedditOpen SourceWeekend Project

☀️ After getting cooked on my recent flight, I built this little thing that tells u which side of the plane to sit on to avoid the sun burning ur face off. It checks your route + time and tells you: left or right? ✈️

Now I pick window seats *strategically*Sun: 0, Me: 1Got called "unhinged but useful" on Reddit

⏰ A fun alarm app - that won’t stop ringing until you find the right button to snooze. Or You have to either solve captcha or solve a math problem to dismiss the alarm 😵‍💫

Fossdroid200k+ viewsWeekend ProjectOpen Source

🤳 Repurposed my 10y old tablet (Android 4.4.4 KitKat) into a digital photo frame, cycles through photos from a shared Google Photos album, switching up the display every hour supported via custom nginx server. 🤙

1.1k+ upvotes on Reddit400k+ viewsWeekend Project

👨‍💻 Cric-Code is a fake VS Code, so you can browse live cricket score in your office. It lets me browse Cricbuzz as a VS code editor & makes me look like I am doing actual work 😉

#1 on HackerNews55k+ views on Twitter38k+ views on LinkedIn6 Reddit AwardsFeatured on Product Hunt100k+ visits in a day

⏳ A linux gnome shell extension which shows how much day/month/year/my life has passed, in menu bar, inspired by the concept of Memento Mori - "remember you must die"

100k+ views on r/gnome subreddit950+ blog viewsOpen Source

🔏 A tiny command-line tool, I built for myself - written in JavaScript that allows you to edit file directly from Amazon S3 without leaving your cozy terminal.

Open SourceBuilt in a weekendWritten in JavaScript

🖨️ A fun-tiny tool to convert images to ASCII art (an image of characters).

1.1k upvotes on Reddit15k Views on LinkedInReddit Frontpage16 AwardsBuilt with Vanilla JS

😋 A fun browser extension to prevent you for copying code from stackoverflow. Ouch! I know I've built a monstor :)

Most hated project by devs ;)20k+ ViewsViral & Open SourceGold & Silver Award on Reddit

✍️ A little personal slice of the internet, for my ramblings, late night thoughts and some learnings. I write about intresting technical topics and challenges that I encounter.

90k+ ViewsRecognised by Offical MySQL & Cassandra Team#1 on HackerNewsRank #1 on Google SearchReddit Front Page

🎯 A cloud based web application, built from scratch to enhance the campus recruitment process, resulted in approx 70% decrease in human efforts by MNIT Placement Cell and students.

Offically used by MNIT Placement Team20k+ Active Users45+ Github Stars

🤦 I've been watching the Shark Tank India show. Midnight, around 1 AM, I got this fun idea, to turn Shark Tank memes into a website blocker chrome extension.

50k+ Views500+ Reddit UpvotesReddit Frontpage

👮 Want to trace unwanted personal data leakage in API responses? A friendly tool to trace & protect PII (Personally Identifiable Info) on your website at a single click.

Recognized by Employer

📂 I built a file upload service, from scratch without any external library, no npm, just pure JavaScript 🤖

Featured in JavaScript Weekly

📖 Web is crowdy. So, I built a free platform for people to share their personal resources!

Loved by Engineers from Google, Uber

🛠️ A 30x light weight alternative to nodemon to monitor your nodejs applications.

75+ Github Stars

👨‍🎓 A smart, affordable & interactive e-learning platform for kids with a complete school management solution. Scaled the product from 1k users per month to 5k+ users a day!

35k+ Active users

🔍 A tool, built out of my frustration to automate the lazy work of removing duplicate files from my local system. It hashes the content and check for duplicacy.

No more Frustration

📌 An Online Web based real time team collaboration whiteboard with extra features as drawing request, moderators etc.

First Realtime Project

🏄 Architected, built & scaled the Node.Js backend & devOps for tussle.fit - a Cohort based course platform focused on women health.

Scaled to 100k+ users

🧑‍🏫 Freelance project for a university in USA, a platform for profs to reward students with points based on their performance and students using points in campus to buy anything.

My First Abroad Freelance Client

🍭 Question answer platform + Share your Interview experiences with juniors + Live chat room + Get your summarised coding performance + Unique guide to placements as according to your level of coding performance.

Recognized by MNIT Faculty

🏆 A freelance project, built for the shop owner to manage realtime rewards & coupons for it's customers.

Shipped in a week

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 A freelance project, built for a client outside India to manage their employees, company workshops, personal workspace at just one place.

5* Rating by Client

🧭 A freelance project, built for a Kolkata based real-estate client to run his lottery campaign on purchase of flats.

5* Rating by Client

💎 An Online Quiz system built with Nodejs, AngularJs, MongoDB, ExpressJs and Bootstrap5 with additional feature of User management by admin.

Selected for Approval

💡 A cloud based platform for NIT Jaipur students, to facilitate Blood Donation Portal + Online Consultation from MNIT Dispensary Doctors at one click.

Recognized by MNIT Faculty

📎 A Web Platform for hostels, restaurants etc where they can post their donation request of extra food and other NGOs can view all the request and accept according to their need.

Recognized by MNIT