‘Insti Wapsi’ the homecoming journey! It is twenty five years since we stepped out of our comfort zone to find our fortunes in the world, and it is extra-special to be coming back to campus to relive old memories and to create new ones. We used to play the Simon & Garfunkel number Homeward Bound in our heads as end sems came close, this time around we will be playing it to go back home to IITB.
Anu Narasimhan
For me, the Silver Jubilee Reunion is about journeys and reflections. It’s like hitting the pause button and stopping and thinking. It is also about hitting the rewind button and going back in time to a time when there was not a care in the world. It’s going back to a place that to us was about new experiences, growing up and above all friendships. It’s about sharing our life’s journeys knowing that the others are genuinely interested in listening and imbibing. The wonderful thing about journeys is that they are different – by definition. And so have ours been. Some have been on the straight and the narrow. Others have been on long, winding journeys. Some journeys have been cut short rudely. Some have had tough journeys and have dusted themselves up and smiled. Some have been outrageously brave and set off on pioneering journeys. All of us have had fun and found happiness and fulfilment along the various paths. I know as I label the kinds of journeys, our minds can conjure up faces of friends who have been on them. The silver jubilee is our opportunity to listen to many of our batchmates relive their journeys. Insti Wapsi itself has been a short and sweet journey starting May 2015 – digital, virtual, social, online – we can use any of these words to describe our connectedness but it has always felt real and has been loaded with emotion. We set for ourselves the target of 300 connections and 150 registrations out of an undergraduate batch of around 310, and we look well in line to meet these. We have a Facebook group with a 180 members, we operate three WhatsApp groups with close to 240 of us connected in real time , and what we are incredibly proud of and happy about is the Mini Reunions or Mini RU’s that have frequently dotted our homecoming journey. Over 210 of us have met with at least one other batchmate, often someone we hadn’t known in our IIT days and our Mini-RU’s have been at Sydney, Jakarta, Dubai, Denver, Nashik, Ahmedabad, Seattle, London etc. in addition to multiple RU’s in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi , Singapore ! We have found in our collective archives over 500 old pictures, added another 500 of new group and family pictures from mini-RU’s and got busy as beavers writing up our life- journeys and IIT memories to be published here. We know the silver jubilee reunion will be awesome and memorable, and we wish to do our bit for Giving Back to IIT through the legacy projects – we have decided to continue key projects like the Young Faculty Awards and the Retired Faculty Wellness Program and are exploring adding The 1990 Batch Innovation & Research Fund and The 1990 Batch Clean Green Campus to the initiatives we will raise funding and help drive execution for. What more could one ask for – friends, family, a sense of fulfilment. Let the party begin! This document is not meant for sale. It is meant for sole use by the recipient and is not for circulation. This document is not to be copied, forwarded or made available to others. The information and opinions are those of the individuals who have contributed to this document. The editorial team has compiled the document, and does not endorse the accuracy of information provided or the opinions expressed.
2
Anu
3
Prof. Ravi Sinha
Message from the DEAN-ACR, IITB
Magic, Memories and Mayhem
Dear alum and alumnae from the Class of 1990,
Even though I have spent the last eight years organizing reunions as a part of my job description, till last year, I had never experienced one of my own. Last January I went back to my school to celebrate my very own Silver Jubilee and me who thought that I had seen it all, realized that there is a whole different layer to this reunion experience. First of all my know-it-all confidence took a severe beating. Yes, you guessed it right. My classmates did reach out me to join the organizing team for my purported ‘expertise’. My initial reaction was “Hell NO”! If you had spent the last few years organizing more reunions than you could either count or remember your reaction too would have been exactly the same. I did eventually get dragged into locating missing classmates, a big mistake because it completely ruined the myth of my so-called ‘expertise’. You see, I went to an all-girls convent and now I am convinced that there should be a LAW that women can’t change their last names when they get married, just for the sanity of reunion planning committees. My fellow organizers were generous with their curses “Shalaa tor moto guchcha gadha ke maine kon shalaai dai? (“Saali, how do you earn your salary? What you actually know will not fill the belly of a braying donkey)! Now that I am done with my massive digression, let me come to the point I wanted to make, - that reunions are a place for magic memories. Granted most of you will look at the name tag’s first and not the faces (the man-sized bellies and receding hairlines are a far cry from your gawky nerdy years). But after that first slap in the back when recognition strikes; the years will fall away faster than the time it takes to raise your first toast. Even those of you who were ambivalent about coming and signed up in the last moment with a definite exit plan on hand (in case you hated it) – know this; you are going to stay till the very end and leave surprised and bemused that you enjoyed yourself so much. Organizing reunions still continues to be a whole lot of fun. After all, not many people have imploring alumni to hide their bottles of imported scotch under the table as a part of their regular job description. Or telling them that even though it has been 25 years some things have not changed. You still cannot drink in public in your alma mater, cause it is STILL an educational institution. Oh and the stories I can share… One reunion I had to convince an alum that “Yes I did write in one of my mailer’s that the dress code was informal. But no, that still does not mean that you can run down the pipeline road sans clothing for the sake of nostalgia”. Sadly I have a word limit to stick to and although I should probably end with something about IITBAA and how we wish you to stay engaged, I have decided to save that for my speech at the event. Yes, the one that I already know most of you will sleep through in your morning after, hung-over state. Instead, I will end here with the hope that your batch too will add to my arsenal of stories. Come 25th December, while all of you are busy having the time of your lives, I will be there somewhere in the background in story hunting mode. Observing all but this time with a touch of envy. You see, I too have now tasted the magic of those moments.
A batch reunion on IIT Bombay campus is a mini homecoming - a time of togetherness and sharing of stories and memories. I look forward to welcoming you all back to campus to renew old friendships and to see how IIT Bombay has grown and changed. For those of you who could not make it and are reliving the moments by flipping through this yearbook - I extend an open invitation to come back anytime you can. For the last 57 years our beloved institution has grown from strength to strength and I am happy to report that even in the last year there has been much to celebrate the distinction of our faculty, the achievements of our students and alumni and the role that IIT Bombay continues to play for the national mandate with distinction and innovation. The Institute recently won the prestigious National Intellectual Property Awards for 2015. IITB won the award for the Top India Academic Institution for Patents, Best Commercialization of Patent(s) based in India and the WIPO Users trophy. We started Tata Centre for Technology and Design. This inter-departmental centre aims to carry out translational research to meet the needs of bottom of the pyramid. The Institute also started Desai Sethi Centre for Entrepreneurship, which offers programs, training and mentoring to students interested in entrepreneurship. A state-of-the-art proof-ofconcept lab is also being established under the Centre for Entrepreneurship. The momentum that IIT Bombay has experienced in recent years have been supported by our alumni who continue to guide students as mentors, given their time and financial support to the Institute and I wish to thank you for your support through your legacy project which supports key programs like the Young Faculty Award and the Retired Faculty Wellness Fund. In closing I wished to point out a little known fact that might have passed un-noticed by all of you. While every SJRU reunion always records a” first”, in some area or the other, your batch has scored a “first” even before your reunion has started. You are the first batch from the 90’s decade to hold a silver Jubilee Reunion and will set the tone for the subsequent years. I hope SJRU 1990 truly sets a trailblazing path and the bonds that you have with your alma mater is renewed and becomes a life long engagement. Thank you and do stay in touch, Ravi Sinha Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations)
Damayanti Bhattacharya
So here’s to magic, memories. May you relive them all and make many more. Damayanti Bhattacharya CEO – IITBAA
4
5
‘IIT Bombay Alumni Association - ACTIVITIES
ALUMNI-ALUMNI SERVICES
The IIT Bombay Alumni Association is a Section 8 (Not-for-Profit) Company set up in 2001 as a independent organisation that works to create and maintain a life-long connection between the Institute and its alumni, serve IIT Bombay and the society at large. Over the last 14 years IITBAA has worked diligently to serve its alumni and alma mater, as well as a host of related constituencies. Today with 33 chapters spread across the globe, 16 thousand life members and close to 43 thousand alumni in its database, it has many firsts and bests to its credit.
Thanks to IITBAA IITB alumni have access to an array of resources including online alumni directory, mailing lists, newsletter, an award winning quarterly alumni magazine Called Fundamatics, online job board, lifelong email id, discounted stay at the Institute Guest house and free access to Institute facilities like the Gymkhana and Library.
IITBAA administers over 10 alumni funded projects on campus and together with our local chapter initiatives IITBAA’s programs and services touch every aspect of the Institute community as well as society at large. Service in support of the Institute Community
STUDENT ALUMNI SERVICES In the last seven years Financial Aid Program (FAP) has supported over 853 students with funds to pay for their tuition fees, mess bill, essential equipment, and conveyance to travel to overseas universities for conferences/projects. Our scholarships program through the Vilas Karnik Grant Scholarship has provided 21 grants scholarships to poor B.Tech students to complete their education at IIT Bombay.
FACULTY ALUMNI SERVICES The Young Faculty Awards helps attract top-notch young faculty to IIT Bombay by providing a joining bonus of Rs. 4 lakhs for every new faculty that joins the Institute. There are currently nearly 200 faculty members receiving YFA. IITBAA also adminsters the Retired Faculty Wellness Fund which provides offers supplementary medical insurance to 196 retired faculty, their spouses as well as spouses of deceased faculty in 125 families are currently covered under this program.
The Association also organises Class reunions, Chapter events for networking, mentorship programs as well as unique flagship programs like the Global Business Forum to showcase technology innovation from the IIT Bombay community and i-Ascend to support the entrepreneurship ecosystem for IIT bombay alumni and students.
SOCIETY-ALUMNI NETWORKS Our Village knowledge Centre (VKC) run by the Bangalore Chapter educates children and adults alike about computers and Internet making available information from the external world otherwise not easily accessible to villagers. In the past 5 years it has resulted in better governance and improved awareness in the 10 villages it is in operation. The Clean Drinking Water Program of the Hyderabad chapter has helped set up four 2000 l/hr RO plants in the dry interiors of Telegana.
How you can Help The main source of income of the Association is its membership fees. It has only eight full time staff and the bulk of the activities are supported by a large number of volunteer alumni who volunteer time to make all this possible. You can join the alumni initiatives too contact IITBAA at iitbaa@iitbombay.org to find out more details on any of our initiatives and to find out how you can participate.
INSTITUTE-ALUMNI SERVICES The Hostel Alumni Team Stewardship Program (HATS), spread over 11 hostels, is an important reconnects alumni to their old hostels. HATS supports retired and older mess workers through the Mess Worker’s Awards and improve he general well-being of the hostel in manifold ways. The program so far has supported over 200 mess workers and helped in infrastructural improvements across hostels. The Soneri Bagh Program administered by IITBAA is a conservation project to protect the ecology and habitat of the Soneri Bagh area along the Powai Lake. It is home to numerous rare flora and fauna in the WWF conservation list and a birdwatchers’ and nature lovers’ paradise.
6
7
INSTI 8
9
Sandeep Pandya
Message from the President, IITB Heritage Fund
Giving Back to IIT Bombay
Dear friends,
IIT Bombay was a playground for all of us as we learned how to become adults. The education we received cost a lot of money and the money spent by the Indian government on educating each of us would probably have educated a thousand kids from 1st to 12th standard or provided clean drinking water to many towns and villages. Just that monetary expenditure from a society that has so many needs and wants means that we all have an obligation back to IIT and to Indian society. We should give back at least as much to India and IIT as what we got. We owe IIT and India. It is time Bharat Shyam to start paying our debts. Far more than the actual expenditure incurred on each of us is the set of priceless experiences that we have carried away in our hearts and minds. There are probably tens or hundreds or thousands of Indians of our age who could have done just as well in IIT but we were fortunate enough to be picked and benefited greatly from our experiences and relationships. It is impossible to put a price tag on these experiences but they were worth at least as much as the education we received in our respective departments.
Greetings as you celebrate the Silver Jubilee of your graduation from IIT Bombay. A quarter century ago, you left a green rustic looking campus on the outskirts of Bombay to face the world. You entered the real world armed with problem solving skills learnt at IIT, intellectual curiosity (developed as you solved world problems during never ending cack sessions in the hostels), deep & lifelong friendships, fond memories and of course an IIT degree. Over the last 25 years, I am sure you have achieved success & satisfaction in personal and professional lives. As you visit the campus to celebrate your Silver Jubilee, relive the nostalgic times, you will meet many friends and batch mates with whom you spent your formative days in hostel. You may not have kept in touch with some, but, you will find that once you recognize them (yes, some would have changed dramatically in 25 yrs), you will pick up the conversation as if the intervening years did not happen. Visiting the campus and meeting friends from campus days is truly a memorable experience. To commemorate this significant milestone, the tradition of past IITB batches has been to contribute back to its alma mater through a Legacy Project, as recognition for what it has provided to its alum and helped them to shape a successful personal life and a rewarding professional career. The C90 SJRU organizing team has set an ambitious target of Rs 6 Crores (US$ 1Million) for C90 batch Legacy Project and selected 4 initiatives after a deliberate and detailed analysis. I would encourage you to get involved with IITB and alumni activities. If you are passing through Mumbai, you can give a lecture or seminar at IIT on either a technical topic or career advice. If you are in academia or research lab, help with research collaborations. If you are in a position of influence in industry, hire or mentor IITB alums. Please join your fellow alumni in building a global network of IIT Bombay alumni, students and faculty by participating in IITBHF and IITBAA activities. Not only will you help your alma mater in the process, but you will also help your own careers and business prospects while renewing old friendships and making new ones. Wishing you and your family a great reunion and the best for the New Year! Sandeep Pandya President, IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation Inc., USA
We should also give back for purely selfish reasons. IIT competes with major universities around the world. IIT Bombay remains a brand that is recognizable and continues to open doors for all of us in our professional careers. So, it is in our own selfish interest to ensure that IIT remains a top institute and our contributions should help it continue to remain a leading institution. Perhaps we can even help it become even more distinguished and well known. This might need some of us to take on active advocacy roles at IITB in addition to our financial support. So, how much should you donate to IIT? As much as you can afford! You should aim to donate to IIT throughout your life. Now is a good time to start to give back at least a fraction of the value of education and experiences that you have received. It is very important for all of us to give back and participate even if it is a token sum. Some alumni will give larger amounts because they can afford it but every one of us should give. Give till it hurts. Give to the institution that molded you into what you are today. Give until you make a difference to India. Give to the youth who will walk in your footsteps. Give so that IIT Bombay can remain a great place to study and have fun. Give. However, giving is just the first step. Actually getting involved in whatever moves you is very important. We are social animals and we all choose a few affiliations in life that are deep and meaningful. It may be a religious, arts or community organization, family, the city or neighborhood where you live or love for the country of your birth or adoption. I get immense satisfaction from being deeply involved in the planning and upkeep of parks and schools in Mercer Island, where I live. I get as much pride from seeing the now huge trees that I planted as saplings in Mercer Island parks as I get from professional achievements. Similarly, I hope to see the IITB campus look as clean and verdant as it did when we were there, I am particularly passionate about Powai and Vihar lakes – they were part of campus and part of my running trail, and the sight of these lakes today hurts me. As I am sure it does even more for those of you lucky souls who live in Bombay and get to see IIT often. I hope to get the satisfaction of seeing IITB become an exemplary clean and green campus through initiatives that the Class of 1990 takes up. Please, please pick a cause related to IIT and humbly but persistently help to make that area better for IIT Bombay. You could contribute your time, ideas and money to your hostel, your department, institute wide cultural or sports activities, overall academic life or the campus. Achievements in these areas where you volunteer time and money can give you a deep sense of satisfaction and happiness and make the rest of your life even richer. What’s more, there is very good research that shows that such community giving will probably make you live longer on average. So, please do get involved actively. Bharat Shyam
10
11
1990 Batch Legacy Projects We have worked closely with IIT Bombay and the IIT Bombay Alumni Association to identify projects which address these crucial areas of concern and help enrich the tradition of excellence at IIT Bombay. Legacy Project #1: Young Faculty Awards Program (YFA) (Ongoing Project) • While student intake at IITB has increased by 60% since 2008, increase in faculty intake has trailed behind at a mere 27%. • With a limited talent pool the increase in the number IITs means that IITB also needs an extra competitive edge when it comes to hiring world class faculty. • YFA was set up by the Class of 1982 offering sign-on bonuses to new faculty joining the institute each year. Joining bonus of Rs. 4 lacs over 3 years for every new faculty hired at IIT. • Program has been successful in attracting new faculty to join IITB and more than 200 faculty members have been hired at an average of 33 faculty every year. • The Institute plans to step up recruitment to an average of 60 faculty members per year during the next 4 years to plug the deficit • YFA is a successful program with well-established governance models administered by the office of Dean ACR.
student’s or faculty member’s capacity. SINE has started a program called ‘IITB Innovate’ to meet this critical need. Alumni of the batch of 2002 have taken up this initiative and provided a one-time fund of Rs. 18 Lakh. Eight to nine shortlisted projects with the potential to benefit society are being supported through these funds. There is a clear need to continue and expand this program. Faculty-driven research is another area requiring strong backing. We believe that research can be given a boost through appropriate financial support and reward mechanisms. While there is more work to be done before a concrete program can be announced, we are confident that this will make a big difference to the institute’s contribution and reputation. We already see examples of good research that will make a difference to people’s lives, which is what applied research aims for. Distributions from this fund will be managed by a committee comprising of our batchmates and appropriate representatives from IITB such as the Dean, R&D. Student and faculty-run projects to incubate innovate ideas will be sponsored through SINE. Our batch will support multiple such incubation projects. We also plan to support faculty-driven research projects. Legacy Project #4: Clean, Green Campus (New Project) Goal –To create a model clean, green campus that will be the benchmark for every other institute in India. This will also include the lakes that are partly on IIT land, but mostly on municipal area Scope
Legacy Project #2: Retired Faculty Wellness Fund (RFWF) (Ongoing Project) • Many of the teachers who taught us are now retired and aged, and lacking appropriate medical coverage in an era of spiralling medical costs. • We are one of the batches which will be privileged to give back to these teachers because we bond with them. Best way to say “Thank You” to them would be to support RFWF which provides supplementary medical insurance to many of our teachers, many who retired before 2003 and hence do not have the Institute provided post-retirement medical health scheme. • Currently on its 5th year of operation with 207 lives (retired faculty and spouse + spouse of deceased faculty) currently insured under the scheme. • IITB Dean for Alumni and Corporate Affairs is handling the corpus. The project is administered by IITBAA under the guidance of a Legacy Advisory Committee. The rest of the collection will be distributed amongst the following projects. Legacy Project #3: Innovation and Research Fund (New Project) Goal –To apply and extend the precious knowledge gained at the institute, thus providing a significant boost to the institute. Students as well as faculty at IITB who have innovative ideas deserve to be encouraged and supported.
Clean Campus on a sustainable basis involving the Institute, the Students and the IITB Alumni: The campus is far from clean with construction waste, as well as regular garbage. At parts it feels like not the serene, clean, green place we used to be students at. We feel that there could be a benefit in providing alumni impetus to making existing systems and processes work in a more hard-lined manner through the involvement of students and the institute authorities. Clean Lakes (Powai &Vihar) on a regular, sustained basis with involvement from the Institute, Government bodies, and Not-for-profit organizations: In recent times, 40% of Powai Lake has disappeared. Known problems include silting, growth of water hyacinth, weed, and eutrophication of the lake. In 1995, the National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoE&F), reviewed the condition of Powai Lake and included the lake in its list of ten major lakes in the country for revival and improvements. The restoration/revival programme by the NLCP, was launched in April 2002, and implemented by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). A fresh revival effort is necessary to sustain restoration, we already have a couple of batchmates who have started the liaison work with the local authorities as well as with not-for-profit organizations. Green IITB Campus Initiatives which could be invented and incubated at IITB centres and transferable across communities (academic and otherwise): IITB Campus has a Green Office Committee set up under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resources. There have been projects undertaken like installing solar panels, vermiculture on wet garbage etc. The goal of IITB is to convert to a Zero Garbage Zone – and our project could work closely with the Green Office Committee towards this end.
Scope IITB Innovate Program through SINE: The Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) is an organization at IITB that is focused on promoting entrepreneurship. It incubates new businesses emerging from within the institute. A critical need of ideators is to demonstrate a working prototype of their idea and prove the concept, before thinking about a start-up business. Prototypes based on new engineering or scientific ideas can require significant investment that is beyond the individual 12
We would need to resource Clean, Green Campus Legacy Project with an able project manager to liaise with the multiple stakeholders and to help deploy funds with our input. Distributions from this fund will be managed by a committee comprising of our batchmates and appropriate representatives from IITB such as the Green Office Committee.
13
Of Giving and Receiving
Lalitesh K
When I was asked to write about giving, writers block struck. Though this topic is central to my life, I feel thoroughly incompetent to write about it. But if I don’t write about, any semblance of being genuine evaporates. Given incompetence, the only way is to write of my experience. But doing so reveals to my classmates and friends, all I have brushed under the carpet over the years. Stuff that’s uncool to talk about, painful and embarrassing. But perhaps even this is an act of giving, so here goes nothing. As engineers, let’s begin with some math. Mathematically, we, including our legacies will eventually be dust, no matter how globally accomplished we are. And when it comes to needs, we only need a potato a day along with a few lentils, greens, sprinkled with human company and good health. And all this is happening on a tiny mote of a planet in a flash of time compared to the size and life of our sun. A sun which is one among stars so many, they outnumber the grains of sand on earth. Obvious right? Living the obvious has been hard - purely because of one human failing, attachment. When we moved back to India in 2004, the objective was to build Google’s first international engineering centre. The purpose - to build products that could only be inspired from India. A year later, it started dawning (slowly) that this cannot be managed, that if the goal is more than PR or revenue, if the goal is impact at scale, one may have to lead from the front, in my case type out code :). This was 2005, beginning of the product that would one day be Map Maker. And I did not realize that the next 5 years would be the worst in my life, worse than when I was unsure of getting into IIT-B, worse even than when our start-up was struggling and we didn’t know how we will feed our new-born. In these years, I was fired three times and Map Maker cancelled six times, saved each time only due to a couple of mentors and the founders faith. And as hard as it was externally, it was harder internally, I had to search inside to be sure this was truly for people, not myself. Had to probe and dissolve hubris, that there was no way the same goal could be met some other way. Had to grow a bit, realizing that there was no villain in this story, just good intentions held back until I learned to forgive. All this made me understand the true meaning of giving. Giving is more powerful and impactful than donating, which is just giving away stuff I want but neither attached to nor need. Giving is giving that part of us that we are attached to, but if given up, humanity benefits. But there is a third all powerful distinction. Sacrifice.
that of the 4.2 Million people aided, 800,000 would have never been reached, 250,000 lives never saved but for the maps from Map Maker. When Sharda and I read this letter, these years lost felt worthwhile. Quoting Star Trek’s Spock, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one”. In my case, the one was Neha, my daughter. All this has been enshrined in discourse as obvious for millennia. But in my own journey, living the obvious began later. When most of you knew me, I was usually driven by a need to learn and excel. In my first year, when most did not know me, I was driven by a baser need to prove myself. Himankan’s long walks and a near death experience in the summer of ‘87 changed all that. Fear was replaced by possibility. But even this new drive was still self-serving, to revel in inventing cool things and being known for doing that. All this came to a grinding halt three years after graduation when the repeated, escalating nature of this drive revealed futility. At that time I was in Pittsburgh, got to learn from some of finest, gentlest, giving minds this planet had - Raj Reddy, Herbert Simon, Red Whittaker. They inspired me to start searching for purpose. And the next obvious struck - If magically, I were given everything ever dreamt, fantasized and imagined, OR alternately could have a world full of well fed, healthy, happy people; which one would I choose? After seven years after leaving India, when I first returned in 1997, my first experience was on the Dadar Local. The train stopped in a slum, and I looked out. There was a mother, all cleaned up combing the hair of her 10 year old smiling son, with dignity on her face. And Martin Luther King’s words “Gandhi could only have happened in India” rang bells. That 750 Million who don’t have three square meals a day, who not only do not chase us down to squash our show of opulence to avenge their suffering, that they instead invite us into their homes and offer us tea, is incredible. Millions of mothers and children are giving and sacrificing for us, far more than I ever can. This is inspiration, the soul of a planet worth sacrificing for. Lalitesh K
Along with all this, something else was happening, I was working 24/7, getting to work at 6.30am, returning at 8.30pm. The only time I saw our four year old daughter awake was on the Sunday lunch. One day she asked why she didn’t see me, I told her, so that we could buy her toys. She told me the next week she did not want any more toys. She still has a bit of that trauma and anger she cannot explain. The pain inside started showing socially, so I distanced myself from people. My wife, Sharda spent more and more time at her parents to shield the kids. We almost lost each other. Sacrifice I learned was not letting go of the easy stuff like career that is giving. Sacrifice is giving that harms myself or worse hurts who I care deeply about, driven by the good of others. By 2010, 150 countries were mapped and the UN had used these maps in 100+ disasters. When Pakistan got flooded in 2010, 20% of the country’s area and 18 Million people were flooded. The UN reached out to us and we gave them the maps of Pakistan. After a three month rescue effort, the UN sent back a letter summarizing
14
15
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS CLASS OF 1990 16
17
Distinguished 1990 Batch Alumnus
Dr Dharmendra Modha
Dr. Dharmendra S. Modha is an IBM Fellow and IBM Chief Scientist for Brain-inspired Computers. He is a cognitive computing pioneer who envisioned and now leads a highly successful effort to develop brain-inspired computers. The ground-breaking project, SyNAPSE, funded by DARPA to the tune of $53.5M, is multi-disciplinary, multinational, multi-institutional and has had worldwide scientific impact. Its resulting revolutionary computing architecture and ecosystem break from the prevailing von Neumann paradigm and constitute a foundation for new classes of ultra-low-power, compact, real-time, multi-modal sensorimotor information technology systems. Dr. Modha has also made significant contributions to IBM businesses via innovations in caching mechanisms for storage controllers, clustering algorithms for services, and coding theory for disk drives. His work has been featured in Economist, Science, New York Times, BBC, Discover, MIT Technology Report, Associated Press, Popular Mechanics, Communications of the ACM, Forbes, Fortune, and IEEE Spectrum amongst thousands of media mentions. Author of over 60 papers and inventor of over 100 patents, he has won ACM’s Gordon Bell Prize; USENIX/FAST Test of Time Award; Best Paper Awards at ASYNC and IDEMI; First Place, Science/NSF International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge; IIT Bombay Distinguished Alumnus Award; R&D 100 Award; and is a Fellow of IEEE and World Technology Network. In 2013 and 2014, he was named as Best of IBM. On their 40th Anniversary, EE Times named Dr. Modha amongst 10 Electronics Visionaries to Watch. Dr. Modha received BTech from IIT Bombay in 1990 and PhD from UCSD in 1995.
The world needs these new approaches and needs them now. We’re populating the Earth and Space with sensors, cameras, and microphones. But, the needle of information is lost in a haystack, nay, an ocean of data. Processing this tsunami of real-time, parallel, spatio-temporal, multi-modal data is too expensive in power and too slow in speed of response for traditional machines, but would be ideal for a brain-like computer. Even more urgently, today’s computers are hitting physical and architectural limits in their size and speed. Modern computers are designed in the image of ENIAC, the first digital computer created in 1946, which defined what came to be known as the von Neumann architecture. Computers were meant for calculation and for handling precise, symbolic data. They separate memory from computation, have centralized processing, handle data sequentially, require programming, operate synchronously in a clock-driven fashion, are fast, and, as a result, are energy-hungry and hot. The brain’s neurons and synapses, however, form a network. The brain evolved millions of years ago in the savannah for solving the basics 4 “F”s: food, fight, flee, and mate (!) and is meant for handling low-resolution, ambiguous, sub-symbolic data. It integrates memory (synapses) and computation (neurons), has distributed processing, handles data in parallel, has learning, operates asynchronously in an event-driven fashion, is slow, and, as a result, is energy-efficient and cool. Under the auspices of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency‘s SyNAPSE program, IBM and several leading universities have been working on the challenge since 2008. Organic technology akin to the brain doesn’t exist today and developing it would require too much time and money. Meanwhile, the pressing problem of data deluge cannot be delayed. So our key innovation is a new non-von Neumann, modular, parallel, distributed, event-driven, scalable architecture: one that can be synthesized in today’s technology and simultaneously serves as a beacon for future technology to come. The new architecture, in turn, necessitates an entirely new way of thinking, programming, and learning. This is cognitive computing — a new synthesis of silicon and software. As a first step, in 2011, we demonstrated tiny cognitive chips, at the scale of a worm’s nervous system. We taught the chips to play Pong, one of the earliest computer games, and demonstrated capabilities such as navigation, machine vision and pattern recognition. Our next-generation chip, demonstrated in 2014, graduated from the nervous system of worms to the nervous system of a bee – with 1 million neurons. The end game is to demonstrate a system with 100 trillion synapses, at roughly human-scale that occupies merely two liters while consuming barely one kilowatt of power. To power the same capability on today’s computers would require, arguably, a nuclear reactor. In contrast, we want to build, literally, a brain-in-a-box! In addition to new hardware, an entirely new software ecosystem is necessary and is well under development. In 2015, the chip and ecosystem was released to over 100 developers on five continents. The quest will require significant time, resources, and innovation, but will unleash a cognitive computing revolution. These new systems will pull data, including sights, sounds, and smells, from massive arrays of sensors and draw conclusions from them, turning the sensors themselves into computers. In the future, these chips could power low-energy, light-weight glasses that help blind people navigate; “eyes” that let robots and cars see; health-care systems that monitor blood pressure, temperature, and oxygen levels of the elderly at home and send alerts before problems occur; and systems that measure the tide, air, and wind speed to predict tsunamis. These cognitive computing chips and today’s existing computers will complement each other, like yin and yang, mapping new ways to improve the world’s productivity and sustainability.
Brain-inspired Computing.
Dr Dharmendra Modha
Since computers were invented, they’ve been called “brains.” Yet, the fundamental tasks at which computers and human brains excel, the vastly different design underlying each, and the brain’s remarkable ability to learn and adapt has always set them poles apart — until now. By bringing together the recent advances in neuroscience, supercomputing, and nanotechnology, we’re at the beginning stages of creating cognitive machines: inspired by the function, low power, and compact volume of the organic brain. 18
19
IN REMEMBRANCE 20
21
RAVIKUMAR RAMAMURTHY FE
Pb
(ROUND)
(1968 - 2013) ravI - AS WE REMEMBER HIM It was in 1990 that I met Ravi at our first job interview – he from IITB and me from RECT. We were both in the same batch of Engineer Trainees who were sent to Pune to be trained in Application software – from then on till I lost Ravi to metastatic lung cancer in July 2013, we did everything together. We moved from our dating days to married life with great enthusiasm. Life took us to Singapore and then to the US with a brief stint in India too. We were both seemingly carefree in our decisions – whether it was buying a home (the first time around the real estate agent was very skeptical about our affordability!) or having kids or moving countries! We were always fortunate to have wonderful friends around us and reasonable fate on our side. Life with Ravi was fun and beautiful. I was always a fan of his absolutely positive attitude towards everything he did – whether it was taking a test or helping kids with their project or me with a simple chore or a friend who needed his support. While I went on a complaining spree about somebody at my job or blowing steam at something else – he would say, ‘Aruna – just drink a glass of water and you will be surprised how calmly you can think after that. Just focus on the positive that is in your control and ignore the rest.’ It is a great philosophy that I hope to follow even though he is not there to remind me! Ravi was equally passionate about his work and family. I remember when our first daughter was born; he was pursuing his MBA and had to travel a lot for work. While I was exhausted feeding our colicky baby, he would walk and rock her ungrudgingly even in the night in order to soothe her. He even taught me the right technique to swaddle and I was convinced that the baby was truly in bliss after this. Perhaps the love and bond that he developed with both our daughters from their birth made them his ardent admirers. He always coaxed them to do their best and expected them to work hard. But he would also goof around and act silly to get them out of despondent moods. There were days when he was tied to his pager and laptop and then nothing would distract him. Internally, I think he could visualize the bigger picture and so he would never be hassled by inconveniences. Ravi started his career in Application software developer, moved on to gain expertise as a database administrator and then into Consulting in that space and eventually Managed Database Services. His last job was managing the outsourcing of IT infrastructure for his
22
H9, Meta MBA, National University of Singapore
MARRIED TO
ARUNA
Children’ -
RANJANA, NANDITA
company. He was also pursuing to obtain a CPA degree and I believe heading towards getting experience to lend leadership to philanthropic charities. During one of our trips to India, Ravi took the girls and me to IITB. He was in a trance as he remembered his days there – he had a lopsided grin on his face and the girls thought he had gone cuckoo! We ran into whom Ravi introduced as the milkman of his mess. He got a quick update of his life and was so proud and happy when he learnt that his son had got through JEE that year! We were all tickled by his IIT nickname ‘Round’, but never really thought about it (nor did he elaborate!) till I met his batch mate Amir Khan. I was very amused because I never thought Ravi could be on the wrong side of the scale! From the time I knew Ravi, he used to donate blood on a regular schedule. It was during the Bombay bomb blasts, there was chaos, uncertainty and fear all around and we were scheduled to leave for Singapore in a couple of days. I was both terrified and flabbergasted when he announced that he was going to the Rajawadi hospital to give blood. When he came back safely, I just hugged him and my respect for him went up several notches. I always knew that I had an amazing husband in Ravi and our girls believed that the sun and the moon rose from him. To his parents, sister, uncles and cousins and even my parents and many in my family and co-workers and friends, he was this guy that everybody felt so good to hang out with and in turn he would make people feel so coveted and welcome. He was so special and precious that I cannot fathom his loss and don’t know if I ever can! I All I know is that I am very thankful for the time I spent with him and will cherish that forever. -Aruna Ravikumar My father was the best person I knew. This may be a biased perspective but I think it was true! My dad was the kind of dad that danced and sang goofy songs with my sister and I, carried us up the stairs when we got too sleepy (only up to a certain age though!), and made us eat weird but surprisingly good combinations of food. He constantly encouraged our whole family to become more educated about the world around us and would take the time to explain difficult concepts by breaking them down to simple terms. He was such a good teacher especially when it came to school. He helped
coach Nandita and I through school presentations, interviews, and of course math. Anytime anyone in the family was sad or down, he knew exactly how to make them laugh in a few minutes. He had the rare quality of being so selfless that even when he was being treated for his cancer, he made sure that everyone around him were also eating and taking care of themselves. Dad caught and tied so many loose strings that the rest of the family had no idea even existed. Mom, Nandita and I only now realize how much he took care of us and made our lives seamless. I know he was a great asset to every company he worked for and a great friend to all who knew him. He created such big footsteps for Nandita and I to follow in and I can only hope that we can! He is missed so much everyday but everything dad taught us is going to be remembered for life just like him. -Ranjana Ravikumar Whenever I think of Ravi an episode immediately comes to mind that epitomises his thoughtful, generous nature. This happened one Sunday morning in June 1992. I had got admission into IIM Lucknow and was to take the Pushpak express from VT station to Lucknow that morning. I was standing on the platform by my compartment as there was still some time for departure. Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to find a smiling Ravi standing there. He had come to bid goodbye and had brought along a book for me. I was hardly expecting anyone to see me off, and this was a very pleasant surprise. Always thoughtful and considerate, that’s Ravi for you ! -Ramaswamy Iyer I wish I could have been more like Round and as I try to grow and become a better person, I would love to learn how to be like him. By this I mean that Round was always good to people around him. I don’t think he had single person who was upset with him during the entire duration of his time in IIT. He always had a smile and a kind word for everyone and had an infectious laugh. He would throw his head back and laugh loudly with genuine happiness and that always broke the ice. Round enjoyed life and it is a real travesty that a person with so muchjoie de vivre had such a short life. We will miss him as we celebrate the 25th year of graduating from IIT. -Bharat Shyam Ravi was a person full of life, enthusiasm and positive energy; always willing to help everyone around him. I know of several Metallurgy batchmates in my hostel giving him credit for having helped them at every step to clear their B Tech. We spent a lot of time together during the NCC camp at Khadakvasla and our trip to Goa, after the end- sems in April 1990. He was the livewire of the group who could seamlessly interact across groups. Thankfully, I remained in touch with him after IIT-through the early ninetees, sometime in between and then from 2010 onwards. I met him
along with Cat sometime in 1992, a few months after he got married, then in 2010, during his transit from the domestic to the international airport, in Mumbai. In 2010, I remember him showing us, with great enthusiasm, photographs of his family as we caught up with the latest in each others lives. A few months after that we met him again in Mumbai with Aruna. Although he was down with a bad flu and had to undertake the long journey back to LA the next day, he made it a point to come, though only managing to gulp down Chinese tea to calm his throat. He promised to meet us again in a few months but that was not to be. The last person from our batch who met him before he passed away was Amir Khan who kept me regularly updated about his health. With his passing away, I lost a part of myself. The other day, I heard a ghazal of the late Jagjit Singh (though not very popular) which immediately took my thoughts to RaviChitthi na koi sandesh, "Jaane woh kaun sa desh, Jahaan tum chale gaye..
Ek aah to dee hogi, Hamne na suni hogi, Jaate jaate tumne, Awaaz to dee hogi, Har waqt yahi hai gam, Us wakt kahan the hum.... Is dil pe laga ke thess, Jaane woh kaun sa desh, Jahan tum chale gaye.” -Ajay Chandra
23
PRADOSH HAZRA (1968 - 1994) H5, MeCH
PRADOSH - AS WE REMEMBER HIM Pradosh and I joined Tata Unisys Noida from IIT together. Pradosh got posted to Japan and it caused excitement in our group. In fact we were all looking forward to be placed in Japan assignment. Pradosh was very excited to go there. Within a few months of his being in Japan, he was diagnosed with lymphoma and his treatment started. The treatment seemed to be working and we remember meeting him in India office. We felt tremendously relieved when saw him back in India and never expected the relapse so soon. The relapse was one of immense magnitude and he never recovered from that. All I can think of is that – I saw so much hope, excitement and happiness and then he was suddenly gone. He was always genuinely concerned, helpful and friendly with everyone around him and created positive vibes. He maintained his cool and poise till the last time I saw him after initial recovery and not much had changed in him. He went through very rough time but had smile on his face despite everything he went through. Yes it is indeed very saddening. Three of us joined Tata Unisys Noida from campus and I lost two of them – Rahul and Pradosh and I was in shock for a long time.
We all go about our lives as if tomorrow is a given. However, every now and then we are reminded of the reality. I was reminded of this very recently when I got to know that Pradosh Hazra is no more. I don’t claim to have a great memory and it has been a long time, however, I will reproduce what is still imprinted in my memories. Apologies for the inadequacy. Pradosh was the resident of R. No. 107 in H-5. He was in the room adjacent to mine across the half partition. Incidentally he was from my home town - Dehradun, however I never had the opportunity to meet him there. Pradosh is a mixed bag, gentle, tough, sweet, acidic in my memory (intelligent not mentioned as it is a given). The most characteristic feature was the big round eyes framed by thick high powered lenses. His intense gaze could unnerve a fresher and without it would look like a lost puppy. He loved reading and was immersed in one book or the other. My most distinct memory is having regular cack sessions late in the night till dawn about any subject under the sun from physics to philosophy. His mischievous character led us to together (Bouncy also joined) to play pranks on our wing mates (leading to one of them ultimately exiting the wing). I do not remember much about his family as I don’t have memories of him ever discussing his family. However, if my memory serves me right he has one younger sister. He joined a TATA company after leaving IIT and was posted to Japan. I remember he wrote from Japan that he was amazed at the level of automation achieved by the Japanese back in the nineties. Then we lost contact till couple of days ago, when I got to know that he had left this world a long time back. He was alive in my memory till that day (closeted in some not often visited corner), however now he is no more. This is a very strange feeling. I was not there when he perhaps needed me, hence can’t claim to be his friend. Nirbhai Agarwal H5, CHEM, 1991
Sandeep Chaturvedi H9, AERO
24
25
Rahul Sharma
It is hard to imagine after 4 years of hard work at IIT that it would not matter for even one day. I shall forever remember that fateful day in May’90 when I learnt about fickleness of life and how we take it for granted. Rahul was a fun guy, and as a classmate in Meta and fellow H7ite, I try hard to remember the good times - mostly as we walked back daily from classes/labs or just from the canteen that reflected his easy-going attitude, humor, and optimism. Rahul’s memory has shaped how I try to think that nothing in life can be so bad after all if you and your loved ones are alive and healthy. With fond memories of our friend Rahul who we will miss sorely at the Class of 90 SJRU. -Satheesh Kuppurao
(1968 - 1990)
H7, Meta RahuL- AS WE REMEMBER HIM 25 years may seem like a lifetime ago but not for me when I think of Rahul Sharma, who was also one of my closest friends and confidants through life in IIT, which in the long journey of life is a relatively short period. But the memories and the associations still hold. For those who were fortunate enough to know him always remember his warm smile and gentle nature. He possessed a sharp and sardonic sense of humour, and had a profound gift in giving monikers to the rest of us – Nigam, Marik, Vinayak and I were not so happy recipients of his gifts. He had a great fondness for fine dining and cocktails, Sundance Bar near Churchgate station and Sun & Sand at Juhu being particular favourites of his. He was very keen on charting his own entrepreneurial course in life and as the environment changed with startups, we are sure he would have made a difference. He had a great zest for life and was always full of plans whether it was going out to eat or at the spur of the moment convincing Viplav and me to trek to Matheran. Tragically we will could not witness all he that could have achieved as on the
26
12th of May 1990 he departed, with so many plans and unfinished business ideas. The outpouring of grief and support, the touching send-off he was given by numerous H7 and other classmates was a testament of how well liked he was. It provided a lot of solace to his parents (he was the only child). As we have aged and are parents ourselves, we can only imagine the grief they endured. I can remember his warm smile, gentle demeanour and sparkle in his eye, even after twenty five years since he left us, his friends and I miss him dearly. Here’s to Rahul till we meet again in some other reality frame. Brijesh Saxena ( with Neelesh Marik, Viplav Nigam )
Rahul, I met Rahul in our first week at Bombay and we became friends soon thereafter. He had a wonderful sense of humor and quite an imagination. He dreamt of forming a rock band with his friends and we even had a name picked out – Volatile. He loved going to downtown Bombay. He was often the person to make plans and would invite me and other friends to go along. It was a lot of fun to hang out with him and talk about our dreams, rock band and all. I am grateful for the chance to get to know him and share many experiences with him. You can use my LinkedIn picture. I have attached a family picture from when we visited Glacier National Park last year. Incredible place. We really enjoyed it. -Umesh Berry
Rahul Sharma was my classmate in Metallurgical Engineering B.Tech. batch of 1986-1990. He was in my hostel 7 too. Rahul was an excellent classmate and fellow-hostellite. I remember our meetings for exchanging quick notes one day before exams or completing important assignments! Ever since he moved in his new wing, he had developed a habit of going to the gym regularly to keep up with his more fit wingmates! It is a tragedy to see loss of life at such young age right after completing all requirements for degree in the summer of 1990. Coincidently, I got to be at his funeral in Mumbai. I had just come back the earlier day to the hostel after a brief visit to my home town after final exams. One of my wingmates told me about the tragedy that happened in off-campus swimming pool the day before. The funeral was next day. I, along with many hostellites, classmates, warden and few professors present on campus that summer day, attended it. It was such a grief moment for his parents (he was the only child) to visit the city and hostel for performing final rites. Both of them showed composure and talked to his friends about his life/memories in hostel. We missed Rahul during convocation when he was awarded the degree posthumously. He is still in our batchmates’ minds and we miss him dearly.” -Santosh Kamat We dedicate the song
"Soldier of Fortune" in his memory..
27
OUR JOURNEYS & MEMORIES 28
29
“we graduated !“
30
31
Abbas’s’ Journey I took out my outdated cycle and stood thinking as to where should I go? The morning movie show and the JEE mathematics examination were the two options open to me. I decided to head for the exam as I did not want to waste my father’s money. This was my second attempt at the JEE with no preparation at all. I had failed the first time after working too hard for it. After the mathematics exam was over I was confident that I would make it to the IIT. Thus, I made it to IIT with sheer luck. On hind sight destiny was arranging lodging and boarding for me as my father was about to retire in the next couple of months. Once at IIT my goal was to get a job and better my economic condition. This goal being too low by the IIT standard, I had no worries and I cherished every moment of my IIT life. Surrounded by lots of intelligent folks and plenty of time, I developed an unusual amount of confidence. I am grateful for that to all my friends and the general IIT environment. I was ambivalent about going for higher studies abroad. I landed up in the gulf for a master!!! after finishing IIT. The scholarship from the US arrived one week after I reached KSA. I stayed in the KSA for about seven years. I headed back to India for a career in the software industry as I was fascinated by IT. A couple of failed attempts at software development career got me thinking about my abilities. My ignorance coupled with laziness and care free attitude forced me to take a break from professional life. I was holed up in a small town for a long period of time. After sending off first my mother and then my father to their final destination, I came back to run the rat race. With no skills and zero experience the future looked bleak. As usual my luck favored me and I landed up a teaching job in Saudi Arabia. I have been working for 7 years now .The pain, trial, tribulations and injuries of the past have been healed and forgotten by now. I am married to simple village lass and we have cloned five replicas and all our time is taken up in attending to their demands. What I am today is because of the decisions I made. I am solely responsible for my status today. I never compared myself with others and will never do it as far as material possessions/ titles etc are concerned. For me success is doing justice to oneself and to all others in my circle(family,friends,employer/ employees etc). Believe me it is the most difficult task to do. To do justice to everyone that is my concept of success. They never taught me this at IIT. I took a while to figure this out. We are controlled by fears once we learn to overcome our real/imaginary fears we are out of danger. Once we are out of danger the pains of life become easier and we are ready to embrace life in whatever form it comes. The main entrance to the main building at IIT has an arch which says GAYYANAM PARMAM DHAIYAM After reading this about 30 years ago now my efforts are focused on attaining real knowledge (GYAN) and running away from the glitter and glory of this fickle, deceptive and cheap world.
32
ABBAS KHAN
Advait Kurlekar
(SIDEY)
(Kurle’)
H9, Chem
H2, Meta
MS, KFUPMt
MMS, Mumbai University FE
MARRIED TO
Masuma
Pb
MARRIED TO
MANASEE
Children’ - SPRUHA, SAMVID
advait’s’ Journey
Well I can say I was one of the lucky guys who found his better half even before passing out. Actually I had overstayed post our BTPs as there were couple of weeks before the job started, was doing some project in the department. 2.5 years of mid-distance courtship (I was working in Pune with a Thu weekly off, she was pursuing her MMS from Bajaj in Mumbai with a Mon weekly off!). Post my MMS from SP Jain in Mumbai I started my consulting career in AFF, then PwC then Cedar, all along being based in Mumbai, travelling the world. My wife Manasee also was pursuing her Finance career in Essar and then SICOM. My elder daughter Spruha was born in 1994 and younger son Samvid in 1996. Shifted to Pune in 2004, continuing my consulting journey but with a dash of entrepreneurship. Partnered with Kirtane Pandit Group in Pune to set up their management consulting practice out of Pune. In 2009 started my own management consulting company called Upohan, still based in Pune. Continue to do work in Pune, in India, in the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia, etc. So work related travel has still remained an integral part of my life. Meanwhile, in 2006, we decided to move into a ‘joint family’ situation and hence my parents, my elder brother and his family and 4 of us moved into the same house – one kitchen! Its been a great time since then, especially for our kids. My parents have now retired, both are doctors. Elder brother and his wife are also doctors. He is a cancer surgeon and also is into bariatric surgery, sister-in-law is a Paeds. My nephew Arthad is pursuing his final 5th year of Law in NUJS Kolkata. My daughter Spruha is pursuing her medical career in GS Medical College / KEM Hospitals in Mumbai (2nd year). My son Samvid is now studying in Trinity College at Oxford where he is reading his integrated masters in Biochemistry. My wife Manasee also runs her financial consulting company. We have always been a dog family. At one point in time we had 4 dogs and 2 cats in our house. We still have 3 dogs and 2 cats! Of late have taken to running little seriously and have been running half marathons around the country. I also teach strategy and consulting in SP Jain in Dubai and Singapore as well as Great Lakes in Chennai. I am on the Academic Advisory Board of MITSOM in Pune and have recently been inducted on the Board of Directors of Resonance, one of the leading IIT Coaching classes based out of Kota.
Advait’s’ IIT Memories
I consider 4 years in IIT as perhaps the best part of my life. I think it has transformed me as an individual with the kind of exposure I got and the plethora of activities beyond the academics that it allowed me to pursue. Dramatics, Ann Prod, Mood I, FOYTE, Himankan, Cross Country Running, Inter-IIT, the Sports Mess, PAF… so many things. Couple of distinct memories – one from my Ann Prod days – everybody vanished after the play was over and it was left to me and the SAC peon / handyman to cart the props on a cart all the way from the Convo to the SAC late night! Himankan: In my second Himankan and unfortunately the Insti’s last, I was one of CG members and had an assignment of setting up the camp at Chandanwadi, I think. I with one porter and couple fo mules went up and I was to spend the night alone in the valley. Once I started unpacking I realized that the boxes that has come up were wrong and there was hardly any food in the same. I just had khakhra and jaggery as food and I had to survive for over 48 hours on that!
33
bhushan’s’ Journey
I joined IIT to do mechanical engineering - but in the first year flunked maths and that changed the trajectory of my life. I had to do the summer course and with little company at the hostels, decided to do a summer project. This is where I picked programming and enjoyed doing it for the next 3 years at IIT and for years later. I went on to work with Hirji Nagarwalla who was a prof teaching OR with Ramaswamy Iyer (Babu). Spent my first 3 years working with him. In the days when the term pair programming was not even coined - we had a ton of fun doing not just pair but 3 way coding :) Nagarwalla was a stricler for quality and contributed hugely to what I did later. I had my own startup in Bombay after that creating point of sale solutions. Had decent success but couldnt scale the business. In 1999 I moved to the US. Spent 4 years working at a startup. After working in India, working in US feels a bit too easy. Enjoyed the boom and bust of startups from 1999-2003. Also, worked with some incredible people from whom I learnt a lot. Joined eBay in 2003. It was my first large company and I completely surprised myself by staying there for 11 years - I thought I will last there for 2 years! Now at Google... I have roughly doubled my tenure at each job change - so I am guessing I will retire from Google in 20 years when I am almost 70 :) On a personal front, Married Manisha in 2000. I have a 12 year old son (almost 13... turning 13 next month) - Mihir. He loves basketball and now I have the arduous task of convincing him that doing math and academics is more practical than getting into NBA. One of my brother lIves in San Jose as well and parents are with us too. So my discretionary time is pretty much with family (no facebook or whatsapp). I had given up chess for 15 years but 3 years ago when I had some health issues and was off of work for about 3 months - caught up again... and it’s fun. You can find me on chess.com late nights on weekends (look for ReturnOfTheDragon). Took to running 3 years ago. My wife and I are both runners now and that’s our favorite way to socialize...
bhushan’s’ IIT Memories
I remember goofing around with Chia the most... all sorts of things that probably are not worth capturing here. I wish I was a better student. I am still surprised that IIT conferred a degree on me... I am glad they did as I needed it for my visa to US :) All my memories - will be incriminating evidence. I remember getting into Ramiki’s office at night to copy assignments... as everyone had already submitted! Pairing with Maku to do projects (I think we hired someone to do our drawings???). Picking books from Anurag Mahesh at night and having him get mad for not returning them. Being coached by Ahuja on the way to exams... And yes - lots of chess. The most fun being playing blindfold with Rathi! And the music with Dilip. Still remember us singing Scarborough fair in chorus with his guitar... and Chiya’s Michelle. And the cack session in D1...
34
BHUSHAN HEDA
BRIJESH SAXENA
H8, Mech
(SEXY)
MARRIED TO
Phd, WICHITA STATE University
MANISHA SON’ - MIHIR
H7, Aero MARRIED TO
URVASHI DAUGHTeR’ RADHIKA
brijesh’s’ Journey
Journey – where do I begin? IIT to now – never in a million years thought I would end up with a PhD that to in Aero. Ended up in Kansas! Of all the places in the world to be in. The very heart of the Bible Belt. Continued living recklessly till about a year + into the PhD program. Got married and was preparing to move from Kansas – when I began the most difficult part of life. I was diagnosed with a rare and incurable cancer with a child on the way. The two of us (two and half actually), daughter was born as I began the 3rd round of chemo’s. It was a very lonely journey but made found new friends along the way. Three plus years of living hell and 2 BMT’s to come out alive but BALD. Just as I recovered, lost a dear and close friend from H-7 Govind Kini (91 batch). Life and time march on so did we. Worked with mostly R&D in Aero and later in Aircraft companies in Kansas, moved to Phoenix in 2014. Continue to live life with the same zest and exercise regimen. Currently with Honeywell Engines (Aero). Love spending time with family and keeping up with old and new friends. Always a member of Single Malt clubs wherever I go, even if the membership of the club is one. Thank to the tireless efforts of Anu got back in touch with a bunch of folks.
brijesh’s’ IIT Memories
A mixed bag truly. Great many happy times along with a heartbreaking loss to end the stay in IIT, losing Rahul Sharma H-7 (Meta), it was coming of age. Good times far too numerous Fresher’s days - with Chandru (batch 86), trying to convince me to slap some senior, “since no senior would have the shame to complain if slapped by a fresher” & George Kurvilla (batch of 82 or 83) taking me to seedier parts of town His way of saying Welcome to IIT!! Shifting into Deepak Amin’s wing and actually being in the room next to him ended ragging early for me. Never a fan of ragging, only tortured folks who stood for elections and were desperate enough to campaign in our wing along with infamous Kini brothers, Rahul, Berry etc. Many great times and absolutely wild times Viplav Nigam, Neelesh Marik, Rahul, Lendl and seniors like Anurag Sharma, Mark, Jaggu, George Paul, NK, Sandeep Jain and so many others. I am still surprised we made it out of IIT. Things Viplav, Marik and I did could be made into “3 Men” instead of 2 & ½ men!! All this had nothing to do with Academica whatsoever. I do remember showing up for a mid semester exam and Dr. Chittawagdi asking me “so you are Brijesh Kumar, did not feel funny at all at the time”. The very last end sem, Marik and I went to Chand Shah before the exam – it was after all the mandatory Humanities paper.
35
Surya Rao H8, Chem
MARRIED TO
tamal’s’ Journey
MythilEE Children’ -
SUCHETA, SUMEDHA
MS, Virginia Tech
After IIT (joined INDAL…worked for 22 days only to earn some pocket money) I went to IIMA. That was another beautiful journey. After passing out went to Calcutta. Debarati came into my life…made me transform from a man to a gentle-man. Worked throughout India across different parts of the country Calcutta, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai in sales, marketing & customer experience in different industries …rubber products, lubricants, paints, consumer durables, telecom and now tyres. Traveling and food (taster for experimental cooking of Debarati are my passion and meeting our son at The Doon School, Dehradun is our most favourite and relaxing monthly break. Seeing our pride growing is the most enjoyable and beautiful experience and feeling me and Debarati cherish…..
tamal’s IIT Memories surya’s’ Journey After my B-Tech at IIT Bombay, I did my MS Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg. Wilfred Mascarenhas aka Mac and Chaitanya Rajguru were also at VT along with me. After my MS, I decided to come back to India and took up a job with TCS in 1992. Got married to Mythilee in 1994 and moved to Singapore where I lived until 2007. In Singapore, I worked with Citibank for 3 years and Thomson Reuters for 11 years. We were blessed with twin daughters Sucheta and Sumedha in 1997. Moved back to India (Bangalore) in 2007 and have been living here ever since. I have a labrador pet named Sunny who has been part of our family since 2008. After my return to Bangalore, I worked with Yahoo! for a year and then with IBM for 6.5 years (still with IBM now). I work as a Senior Integration Architect at IBM. My work involves architecting and designing Automation, Cloud, Analytics and Data Management solutions for IBM and their clients. Holidaying & reading are my current interests. I also spend some of my free time in my farm about 100KM from bangalore where I am attempting to grow Mangoes, Coconut, Silver Oak, Lemon and Sapota.
Like many others my life also got into a transformational change with the admission into IITB. A boy of a middleclass family from a midsize town Durgapur, in West Bengal was overwhelmed with the opportunity, the beautiful campus. IIT B transformed a boy out of a pampering environment of loving parents, elder brothers to a man ready to take on the world. It was a mesmerizing experience full of highs and lows…the socials, fresher nites, mood indigo on one side, CCTs (course clearing tension), boring practicals (in sleepy eyes), NBD (nabad…nervous break down) before exams on the other side. Quite few memories as if it was just yesterday… carrying Thanewala on my shoulder and running in the muddy field during induction , jumping over the boundary wall into the open air theatre for Gary Lawyer show in Mood I after swallowing few quarters of Old Monk and dancing away to glory…running up the hill to see sunset near Vihar lake…trying to impress the beauties wearing a IIT tshirt in abus or train..… those were the days! … enjoyed every bit of it and still ….
surya’s’ IIT Memories My most vivid memories of IIT are those associated with my Hostel (H8). I remember participating in Dumb charades in 1986 where our team (Dilip Joshi, SR Shashidhar and myself - the top team from IIT Bombay, if I remember correctly. We had represented IIT Bombay at LSR, Delhi. I participated in Himankan (don’t remember which exact year though). I also remember that #DilipJoshi, #VireshRatnakar, #Maku and myself broke away from the Himankan group and returned to Sankri (?) and then to Dehradun just before we were to commence the climb to the highest point. I think we returned after we had reached the “Har Ki Dun” camp.
TAMAL SAHA
MARRIED TO
H8, Mech
SON - TANISHK
(tk)
Debarati
PGDM, IIM Ahmedabad
36
37
Sujata Khandkar H10, Elec
MARRIED TO
Sunil
Children’ - CHINMAY, PRACHI
M Tech, Deakin University Graduate Diploma, University of New England
sujata’s’ Journey Normally 2500 characters is too short for life’s journey; but considering that only 10% of my memory is functioning I think I could fit everything in it nicely! Going back 25 years – life at IIT was full on and very challenging but I got through it all intact ……I think ? I remember the music room where I spent half of my IIT life and where I convinced myself that I was actually studying! Chits, Jojo, Anju, Aarti, it was great to have you guys in my life then. 4 years passed in a whirl and at the end of which I decided to stay in India to serve my country instead of further studies abroad. OK, just between you and me, to be honest, I couldn’t entertain the thought of more studies even for a milli-second! So, in July 1990 I found myself living with parents and working 5 minutes away in BHEL Bhopal. Life was good. And it was going to get better…. My parents arranged my marriage with my loving hubby Sunil and I don’t know how 2 years passed. God blessed us with a beautiful baby boy…my happiness knew no limits- especially because both sides of families came up with the same name Chinmay – no conflict whatsoever hurray!!!! 3 years on we are in the land of sunshine, pristine beaches, lazy lifestyle, Beer and Barbie (BBQ) – yes I am talking about Australia. Goddess Lakshmi truly arrived in the form of bundle of joy – my daughter Prachi. and I got completely immersed in the wonderful world of my 2 little kids. Put on your seatbelts because this life roller coaster is moving very very fast….zoooooom …We are in 2010.. Chinmay – my baby boy- is graduating. Prachi, to my shock, horror, amazement is now in High school! During this fast journey lasting 5 years we had many family outings to Canada and USA and yearly pilgrimage to India to attend sometimes one and sometimes up to three marriage ceremonies per year!! All the kids of my siblings and Sunil’s siblings are getting married and having babies one after another and whether I like it or not young mum of 2 is a now grand-aunt! Talking about job, I worked in Alcatel Australia for first 10 years in Australia after a 12 month stint in a local modem company. Then I found the place where the work-life balance suited me best and that was the ‘Department of Employment’. My main job here is managing IT projects that implement the Federal Government policies in relation to all matters relating to the Employment portfolio. Running out of character limit - Its great to have you all back in my life- Keep in touch Junta !
sujata’s IIT Memories This is going to be much harder for me - I have no memories guys! Just some incidences/scenes that I will hashtag here #Anjali Himankan was great- remember feeling sooooo cold and huddling together for gupshup in the base camp. #ChitraAarti Remember eating Hapus mangoes from the mango tree outside H10 ? #ChitraJyotiAarti Visits to the lakes #NoellaAnu Naneghat hike. #Rajshree- your pranks!! #ShaliniJyotiand Others I remember the first time I had a sip of alcohol from a bottle that Shalini had #Chitra Our visits to GKR So many more memories coming in as I am writing these down. But will be better to talk about it. Hopefully we meet soon.
38
umesh’s’ Journey Spending 10 years of education and research after graduation from IIT in the USA, I returned to take up a faculty position in Theoretical Sciences Unit at JNCASR in 2000. My research is focused on theory, modelling and simulations of materials. About 10 (8) students have graduated with PhD (post-graduate degree) under my supervision. In the mean time, I contributed to teaching at the African Univ of Science and Technology (Abuja) and have been contributing to Science Outreach Programmes in Uttarakhand and at JNCASR. I got married to Aruna in 1995 and our daughter, Kruti, was born in 1999. Aruna is a Civil Engineer, presently working as a Coordinator at the International Centre for Materials Science, Bangalore. Kruti is a professional Bharat Natya dancer, presently studying Art and Humanities in the 11th at the DPS, Bangalore North.
umesh’s IIT Memories I was active along with my wing-mates in mountaineering in the Western Ghats as well as a couple of Himankans. Among these, memorable ones include Bheemashankar and Harishchandra-gad. I also fondly remember the treats in Chakra (up-scale) and Shaeen (economic), in addition to trip to Gorai.
Umesh Waghmare Aruna H7, EP DAUGHTeR’ MARRIED TO
KRUTI
phd, Yale 39
phani’s’ Journey The toughest part of passing out of IIT was to get used to compulsory attendance after 2 years. Despite such underhanded attempts to keep in IIT, I managed to pass out of IIT in 4 years. Went straight out of IIT into IIM with a number of friends from IIT and even from the department and hostel. Given that the distance between the hostels and the classrooms was much shorter, managed to do a little better. Got into the Financial Services out of campus and have been in it since across many organizations. Somewhere in the middle got married and now have 2 children.
phanindranath kakarla (Phani)
H6, Mech
PRAKASH RAMAN H3, MSC Chem
PHD, University of Wisconsin, Madison POST DOC, THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The big step I took last year was when I started a company goodhands.in to take care of the elderly. Even though I am not fully involved in this on a full time basis, this is something I am proud of.
pgdm, iim calcutta
MARRIED TO
phani’s IIT Memories
MARRIED TO
Children’ -
My great memories are so many that I cannot really write about them. So I am listing a few of those that I tell my kids: • Getting Huma to play Ek, Do, Teen from Tezaab again • the numerous penalty shoot outs I was a part of in inter-hostel tournaments • one hostel AGM being mentioned for exceptional work and then next AGM getting thrown out for not enough work
RAJITA
Children’ - SHREYA, ADITYA
VIBHA ANJALI, ADITYA
prakash’s’ Journey After graduating from IIT, I left for the US to start my Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Luckily, there were quite a few friends/seniors from IIT-B in Madison who helped me make the adjustment to frigid Wisconsin! Unfortunately, a month after I left India, my Father passed away….that was tough. I was touched when many from IIT reached out to offer their well wishes. Over the years I was able to stay in touch with quite a few hostel friends and one of our batch mates, Viresh Ratnakar, moved to Wisconsin and became my roommate! Lots of fun times in Wisconsin – the best was meeting my wife Vibha Oza, who was also from Bombay. She lived a few blocks away from my house in Goregaon, but we ended up meeting in Madison, Wisconsin – go figure. After my Ph.D., Vibha and I moved to San Diego, got married in 1999 while in San Diego and then moved to the Boston area for our first jobs in the Pharmaceutical industry. We welcomed our kids, Anjali (2002) and Aditya (2005) in Acton, Massachusetts where we live.
prakash’s’ IIT Memories Too many! We used to go hang out at Powai lake quite often. The inter-wing gaali matches were a lot of fun too! Muddy soccer matches, putting together PAF performances, attending concerts at Mood-I, late night chinese at the H-8 canteen, NCC and Ajit Singh (the stories!), the 2nd year NCC camp in Pune (watching Flashdance over and over again!).....just some of the many sweet memories.
• being the 1 AM - 3 AM recipient of the notes for a test the next day, and then having someone else coming to take it at 3 AM • being in a group of 25 walking on a dark road at about midnight outside IIT with a bucket and a toothbrush and trying to wave down a L& T bus (par of the ragging) • some of the closest friends that I made over cack sessions, crossword puzzles, quiz contests, mood indigo etc..
40
41
MADHAV KULKARNI (MAKU)
H4, Mech
MBA, KELLOG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
MARRIED TO
SNEHA
Children’ - SAANIKA, SHREYA
madhav’s’ Journey
To be candid, I had joined IIT as I didn’t want to be a doctor... I don’t remember being a big fan of engineering and I hardly remember going to the lectures in IIT. May be that’s why after getting my B.Tech in Mech, I joined TATA MOTORS (then TELCO) to experience Mechanical Engineering in the real world. Soon after joining TELCO, I realized that it was a stupid idea. TELCO had no work for “trainees” and had no engineering work for even 5% of the engineers they had hired. 2 things happened when I was with TELCO. First – Sneha and I got married. Second - built 4-DL engine assembly line for TELCO (engines that were in TATA Estate & TATA Sierra cars)… That was pretty cool experience. Two years at TELCO helped confirm my suspicion that I was not interested in engineering. Coincidently at that time, ran into another IIT alumni (Nandan Nilekani) and joined a small IT company (about 400 people) called “Infosys”. Moved to the US while working with Infy and after a little over 2 years with Infy joined Capgemini in the US. After spending 11 years in the US, returned to India with 2 daughters, wife and midlife crisis... As the midlife crisis continue to flourish, I tried to do many things to get over it... things such as Going to Kellogg for MBA, Getting golf handicap down to single digit, Himalyan Car Rallies, Half Marathons with no prep, Bars, Concerts, attending some great Sporting Events, almost ending up in jail a few times, Snorkling in many places such as great barrier reef, Maldives, eastern Asia, traveling to over 25+ countries, changing role every 2 years in 20 year career with Capgemini…No success! Still in midlife crises! Then the picture became clearer. I never had any life plan, don’t have one yet either. I can’t even think beyond current year. In nutshell, my life just happens because of my impulsive decisions to make changes when I get bored. For last 10 years I have been in Pune. Currently I am COO for $1.6B business unit in Cognizant... And still a bigger brat than my teenage daughters Saanika & Shreya!
madhav’s IIT Memories Ragging times.. Getting ragged and ragging Nangu who later on became best buddy! H4 wing and friends, Organised booze sessions, grass, RLC, video nights, dunking folks in the middle of the video nights.. Great holi and bhaang. Vihar lake bike rides in monsson. Going with Nangu, Yadav on bikes to VT bade miya and Gokul. Prof Sukhatme giving me an earfull for low attendance in 5th lecture of his class. Almost not graduating on time due to refusing to finish B.Tech project on my guide’s terms... Organising MI professional nights. Taking care of MI security with Nangu and gang and taking half the confiscated liquor bottles to H4. Memories of H4 hostel food still make me wake up in the middle of the night... And of course my dear friend Milind Kolhatkar.. without his notes I could have not finished my degree. H3 Bhosdika!!
mahalingam’s’ Journey I got accepted into the Master’s Program in Computer Science at
the University of California in Berkeley (Fall 1990). My flight from Bombay to San Francisco had a stopover in Singapore. I had a buffet lunch there with no labels, and discovered accidentally that I could eat non-vegetarian food. Upon arriving in the USA, my first impressions were -- my clothes didn’t get dirty at the end of the day, the milk was tasty and not watery and that the people were friendly. I stayed at the International House in Berkeley, which is a huge dormitory housing about 600 students - with a good mix of students. There were a lot of activities happening, and I made some good friends there. I finished my Masters in October ‘92, and went to work at Bell Labs in New Jersey. I then returned to UC-Berkeley in August ‘93 for a Ph.D. I drove from N.J to California with stopovers at Michigan, Chicago, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, Salt Lake City etc. As luck would have it, my car had a malfunction at Old Faithful in Yellowstone, and I got to stay there an extra day. After returning to Berkeley, I found out that academics/research wasn’t in the cards for me. During the summer break of ‘95, I went to a local card club with a friend. I played poker there and lost $100 the first time. I went there the next day and won $300. And it became a life-style. I ended up dropping out of the PhD program. I was single. I did not have a plan. Some days I won money. Some days not. It took me a while to accept that this is what I liked and this is who/how I am. In ‘98, I took a long break from cards. I travelled to Spain for a few days and then India. I then got a 4-month diploma in Business Administration from UC-Berkeley Extension. After a week of internship somewhere, I decided not to pursue it anymore. Back to poker. I started internet poker in 2004. Comparing internet poker to casino poker is like comparing a jet-plane to a bullock cart. So, one could win fast or lose fast. I met my wife, Cindy, in 2005. We got married in 2006 and as Cindy likes to say, she brought the luck. Cindy is a registered nurse now. We have a daughter, Catherine, who is 16 and our son, Om was born in 2009. Here are few of the places we have traveled together: Hawaii - a few times. Bahamas - Jan’09, Catherine’s favorite. India - 2010. Taiwan & China - 2011. Alaska Cruise - 2014, very relaxing. Om is in first grade now, and I am now back to doing homework, with him!
mahalingam’s IIT Memories IIT was fun. It was the first time that I was really away from home. I lived in Matunga, Bombay. I vaguely recall sending
my stuff ahead by car and then bicycling from Matunga to Powai. In Hostel 9, I was assigned a roommate for the first year, #Sanjay_Kumar_Dokania, a good guy. I was introduced to my fellow hostel-mates, freshmen and returning students, through the tradition of ragging. There was only the one time that I felt uncomfortable, when a senior asked me to shave my facial hair. Lectures, labs, workshops, projects. It was hectic at first. That was how we got to know and hang out with our fellow classmates and our teachers. I would like to particularly mention #Bharat_Shyam, #Bharadwaj_Amrutur and #Devesh_Khatu, with whom I have kept in touch. I have fond memories of Professors J.R.Isaac and D.B.Phatak. Random memory of Prof. K.D.Joshi and the pigeon-hole principle. Hostel life was a pleasure. I got to socialize and bond with our fellow hostelites in the mess hall, watching TV, playing carrom or a version of table tennis in the upstairs rec-room. The mess food wasn’t much to speak of, but it was there that I developed a liking for tea. Soccer on the lawn was also fun. We would sometimes play bridge and drink tea all night. The canteen guy #Anand_Shetty and his milkshakes deserve special note. And somewhere in there, we got our academic work done. I went on the 1988 Himankan trip to the Uttarkhand region and I say it is probably the best trip that I have ever had. Backpacking, clear air, pristine lands and drinking water off streams in the Himalayas. We went from Dehradun to Sankri-Taluka-Osla-Harkidun-Ruinsara Tal and back. While in Dehradun, I think I had the best rice ever. It was some kind of basmati rice and exquisite. I did not really participate in any of the Mood Indigo events, but Devesh and I went to Mardi Gras 1990 (the IIT-Madras equivalent). I did feel a little envious of the IIT-Madras folks as the hostel that we stayed in served dosas and sambaar for breakfast.
Mahalingam Easwaran (LINGU)
H9, CS
MARRIED TO
CINDY
Children’ OM, CATHERINE
MS, University of California, Berkeley 42
43
Ajaykumar Kunnath H7, CS
MARRIED TO
Nibha
DAUGHTeR TIARA
MS, Stanford University ajAYkumar’s’ Journey
One of my many inspirations has been the “The Road Not Taken” and “The Wasteland”. One of these many have read, and the other I dread to read. The day I realized that running has a cost to it; I also realized that it can help me reach my destination sooner. With a bicycle bought from a super-celebrity who thought I could jump from a running start into an open TV set box-pack (which I did to my own shock and surprise!); I realized that maybe there is more that I can achieve in life than a good return on my answers. While my inspirations took me on a universal tour of dusty shelves and unused books and pages yellowed with age; I found that plans and purposes are best made with people. Numbers, algorithms, methods, expressions can go into books over 1000s of pages and still retain the Wilkinson’s edge. But as an old man once said “Hitch your wagon to a star and you will fly”. Sometimes the best-made plans can separate BFFs forever. Some get the high road and some the low. Often times, I found myself going the wrong way on a one-way street. And then, the dawning of the difference others made in my life. The realization of the vastness of the universe and how important it is to see it in a grain of sand and to hold infinity in my arms and eternity in the hour has made it all worthwhile. When do I begin to make my mark in this world or should I just let go? Patterns of engineering began to emerge as I realized I could travel from Journal Square in New Jersey to Boston by changing trains and not surfacing even once! My BTP became Baggage-Transportation-Parking as I found concrete translations to my Language Learning exercises. I also learned that entire nations could have their identities wiped out or formed where none existed. More than a journey to Middle Earth; mine has been one to the realms of space and genes. My fears revolved around not whether stalactites grew down or stalagmites grew up; but on icicles forming under chassis of vehicles. And much like the Plato cavemen, the light as it travels to me; can only after reaching me can let me know what is and what will never be. Thus, my journey has been one of carrying the light where it could not reach. And now, is the time to shine the light on precious moments when the old “diya” and the laser will lead us where no one has been before! And then, somebody turned around and said “Old man, look at my life; I am a lot like you were. Twenty-four and there is so much more”. Are we there yet?
ajAYkumar’s’ IIT Memories
Top-of-the-list: #H10 - Waking up at 3am in the lounge with a blanket around me and me having no clue as to how I got there. Names and faces of concerned residents include some from my batch and of some of the juniors. Second-in-the-list: Me waking up at 8:10 am in the morning of my Engineering Mechanics (EMech) unit assessment at 8:15 am and me running and biking up MB hill like crazy. Third-in-the-list: Learning to play Volleyball with #Rajguru and the others. Very encouraging The bonfire of the boats from the old boat club. They would have sunk anyway - the wood was rotten to the core. Can we do better than that? Freaking out during my Electronic Devices exam. Freaking out at challenge problems from the Professors. Realizing I could not do Discrete Mathematics; worse still - I could not count! Smuggling Beer into the hostel. Having #Paithane smuggle my stuff under his raincoat so I could spend the weekend at home and not let people know I was not around the hostel during the weekend. Surprise of an invite to the H6 Fresher’s dance social during the first month. How did this happen??? Gate-crashing the H-7 social. Yeah, it happened. #PravinKrishna, shocked that it took so much effort to draft a statement of purpose. Even more shocking - I am applying!! Pagal Gym to be abandoned forever. Final year PAF to be remembered forever. High volume rock from all the ages in the lounges - not just in mine; but other hostels!!! Me learning to play the “Stairway to Heaven” lead on the classical guitar. A scale drawing of Asterix on the wall of my room. Limericks for Door graffiti. Making friends and pen-friends during Mood Indigo. Visiting Pune over the weekend instead of spending it neither at home nor hostel. Am I crazy? My struggle with my first K&R “Hello World” program on UNIX. segmentation violation. core dumped. what next? Wearing shorts and bathroom slippers to the lab - and losing my slippers. What have I been smoking???? Recovery in the third year. Focus on Grad school. GRE, AGRE, and nothing else. No CAT. No GMAT. No GATE. And coursework. Can I do better? Learning about others and their successes over the horizon. Letters are received by the hostel for posting on the notice board. Unheard of anywhere else!!! Dumping my bike on the MB hill during final year and hiking it back to the hostel and for the rest of my stay on campus. Selling it to my next-door neighbor before I left campus. Relief at graduation - Hail UGAPEC!
44
akil’s’ Journey Post IIT Journey After graduation, I moved to Boston University. There I discovered mathematics and the lack of desire to ever leave university. Unfortunately 8 years later, my advisor forced me to leave. I tried unemployment for 8 months. It suited me. Finally got a job in a software startup. Those 6 years were fun. Got married during that time. All good things end and the company went under. Managed to land a job in finance in NYC. 3 years later became a father. Still recovering from that. There should be minimum qualifications. Seriously !
akil’s’ IIT Memories 250 strangers and another 317, cream of the cream, BS!!, cool shaded paths by hostels filled with more strangers, classes? Ooops! CS101 weekly quizzes, cack sessions in middle wing first floor #Ravi # Avinash #Ranjeev#Arshad, academic probation #Golu, contract bridge, all nighters, toe dipping in vices, walking along the massive water pipe behind IIT to I-have-no-memory-where. I don’t even think I was with anyone. Weird one! New semester-clean start (NSCS), classes! much effort no impact, Aero PM labs, #BrijeshSaxena, NSCS, #Anu, Aero, guest house lawns, staff canteen, face-plant, Aerodynamics Lab, #Ghane, NCC camp, a movie hall, KSRK lab,# Lalitesh, Pascal, NSCS, structures, rainy day, #Deepraj, 3rd year haze, #Nipun, seminar, fear of public speaking, no effort no impact, GRE, apps, another rainy day, hindi songs on LT lawns, bangalore IISC PT visit, Kanpur aero measurement trip, cold! Goons on train, Nasik Aero trip, MI classical night, MI rock night fiasco, call parents to meet warden at age of 20, #farhad, Mathematical logic, BTP! no effort, regret, regret! no strangers. Boston, Fresh start, this is mathematics!, algebra, Vikas, analysis, geometry, dynamical systems, no aptitude to teach, direction change, Houston, wedding, startup fun, wedding, startup collapse, back to Boston, New York, mortgage finance, + 20lbs, - some hair on head, + 1 son, - rest of hair, + 20 lbs
Akileswar Subramanian (lendl)
H7, Aero
PhD, Boston University
MARRIED TO
ABHA
SON - ISHAAN 45
amber’s’ Journey
After passing out from IIT-B, I worked on the shopfloor at India’s largest steel plant at Bhilai for about five years. Was a great learning experience, applying operational efficiency fundas in a demanding workplace with highly unionised workers. Met Neelu, a fellow Lucknowite and got married in 1995. She brought immediate good fortune and I made it to IIM Ahmedabad. After passing out in 1997, worked in consulting industry – AFF, Arthur Andersen and thereafter KPMG. Currently lead the aerospace and defence practice at KPMG in India. Work involves fair bit of travel, which is also an opportunity to meet interesting people and learn from other cultures. Interests include sports, listening to music and watching action thrillers. Personal dream is see India as the 3rd largest aviation market by 2020 and the largest by 2030. Sounds crazy, but hey, what’s a dream if it ain’t?! Have two kids – Meghal, 15 and Nakshatra, 6. Both are quite a handful but also the light of our lives. We live in Gurgaon along with our pug Simba and hope to welcome you to our humble abode someday soon!
amber’s’ IIT Memories
My best memory of IIT-B is that of the Interhostel Sports General Championship (GC) 198990. We were within nudging distance of the GC. We just had to win the soccer finals and it was ours. The soccer final was a close contest and ended in a tie-breaker. I missed the penalty and we lost the finals. The mood in the H4 mess was downcast. I broke down, covered with guilt. So did others. And then something strange happened. Someone gave a rousing speech, some others shouted the H4 war-cry and we decided we will not give up. The last event was cycling and that had double the weightage of other sports. Our arch rival, a neighbouring hostel, was all geared up. Our only way out was to win cycling and with a huge margin. Over the long night, putting our frustration aside, hordes of H4’ites hit the streets. They raided every hostel and cajoled friends with high-end sports bikes to part with them. Many resisted and received some rough treatment (verbal variety only). In the end, most relented. By the next afternoon, we had 20 bikes and 20 charged-up warriors ready to kill. 12 of them ended in the top 20. The GC was ours, with a huge margin. We had redeemed ourselves. Can never forget that day. Such a roller coaster of emotions over a 24 hour period – very similar to the Aamir starrer Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992). The incident is an inspiration for life. Taught me the power of kinship, shared goals, tenacity and above all, loyalty to the flag!
46
Amber Dubey H4, Mech
Alok Agarwal
PGDM, IIM Ahmedabad
PGDM, IIM Bangalore
MARRIED TO
NEELU
Children’ - MEGHAL, NAKSHATRA
H6, Elec
MARRIED TO
Nagu
Children’ -
GIRIJA, TARANA
aLOK’s’ Journey
After graduating from IITB, I landed up at Tata Motors in Pune as Graduate Trainee Engineer. This was the best way to get initiated into working life. The motto was “2 punch aur ek lunch”. In that year, Ravi (Kaalia) and I had many adventures on his scooty. A year later (1991), I landed up at IIM Bangalore. Many of the batchmates from IITB were already at IIMB, having got in the previous year. Patel, Ajay, Anu, Marik, etc. It felt like an extension of the life at IITB. Only, there were a few more girls in the class. Met Nagu at IIMB, to whom I have now been married 21 years (since 1994). IIMB was lucky for me ! First stop after IIM Bangalore was in Mumbai. I joined the mutual fund industry and became part of Dalal Street. Though I left the funds industry in 1998, I continue to grapple with investment ideas and models… and lose money on stocks. Its great fun, though. Frustrated by the depressed stock market and the state of the funds industry, I decided to bail and joined the emerging Management Consulting business of Ernst & Young in 1998. From hot and humid Mumbai to cold and windy Glasgow was quite a shock. I never got over seeing the sun in the sky at 9 pm. Our older daughter (Girija) was born in 1996 while were still in Mumbai. We spent 7 wonderful years in London. When our second daughter (Tarana) was born there (2006) we decided to return to India for support with bringing up a young family. As we returned to India, I moved out of Consulting industry and joined the wave of Analytics, taking up a job with Dell in 2007. I left Dell in 2014 and started out my career as a full time entrepreneur. We have been living in Bangalore, now 8 years in 2015. Girija, now 19, is studying Medicine in Pondicherry. Tarana is now 9 and studies in 4th Grade. Nagu released first book “Ambling Indian” in 2015. Life is exciting.
aLOK’s’ IIT Memories
Rajeev Agrawal (Teku) and I were room neighbors. He often got feed from home. Many times, the wingmates got delivery of the food that his mother (bless her) so lovingly sent. However, there were times when Rajeev never got to taste the food. He never minded, though. He is a large hearted man. The hostel lounge was one of the most memorable places. Listening to Kishore Kumar songs till early in the morning . Playing carom for hours on end. Organizing socials with girls hostel and Sophia College. It was the most happening place on campus. Electrical Engineering batch went for industrial tour around the country. How we managed to include Goa in the itinerary is anybody’s guess. However, it was great fun trying to find a smoke on the beach at midnight. “Maine Pyaar Kiyaa” Bollywood movie was released when we were in 4th yr. IITB went crazy about that movie. It was showing in Huma at Kanjurmarg. We all watched it at least 10 times. Half the hall used to be filled with IITB students. The hall then emptied out at the interval as no-one wanted to watch Salman. IITB had awesome profs. Prof Kamath who visualized the equations inside electrical machines. Prof KCM who once kept writing on to the wall, when the blackboard ended while the equation didn’t. As I was applying for MBA entrance, my BTP guide professor Shankar (bless him) almost refused to sign my recommendation letter. He said “I don’t want to lose you to Management”. I was in tears. But, I knew that I had no chance as an electrical engineer against the likes of George and Chitra.
47
Vivek Shende H3, Chem
MARRIED TO
Mrunal Children’ VALLARI, VEDANT
MS, Louisiana State University
Vinay’s’ Journey After I left Powai, I landed in Pasadena (California) for graduate school at Caltech. I spent 5 years there learning about all sorts of things and then moved to northern California near the Bay area for a couple more years at the University of California at Davis. I was fortunate to find an academic job in the mid-west and learned to live with snow and sleet. It was a special time as I met my wife there and had my daughter. After several years it was back to warmer climate and I landed at my present location in sunny Florida where I have been for more than a decade now. We have two great kids a boy and a girl. My wife is also a teacher - she teaches little kids while I teach big ones at the University.
Vinay’s IIT Memories Lots of great memories - sprawled around the common room in H5 - playing carrom board at all hours of the days. Awful food in the mess - now I know why it was named as such. The crazy movie nights that I am sure people remember. Spending hours with classmates at H5 (#Ravi, #Viku, #Dinesh, #Yogo, #Murthy, #Sundar,..) and other hostel (#Harla, #Sandeep, #CR); #Urvish sneaking me into the computer lab and hanging out with him and #Unut. #Manesh regaling us with stories of his trip to Sweden and the loot he brought with him back.
vivek’s’ Journey After graduating from IIT, I worked in PIL (Polyolefins Industries Ltd) for 1 year as Process Engineer. It was very interesting. For first time, I felt that whatever was learnt in 4 years is actually useful! It made me more interested to do Masters. So in 1991 I went to LSU for Masters. After doing Masters, I returned back in 1994. I wanted to work in Process Controls area and was lucky to get job in Tata Honeywell Lt., in Pune. Here I met my would be business partner, Aniruddha Joshi. We had similar interests so we floated a company in 1996. We started doing design and supply of Chemical Engg. equipments. Based on our Honeywell experience we diversified in to Process Automation. From 2001, we started working for first US based client for Engineering Services. Till now, we are working in Process Automation and Engineering fields. I got married to Mrunal in 1997. Mrunal has her own set up for designing and making ladies bags, quilts, and bed sheets. Have two kids. Vallari is 16 and Vedant 12. How time flies! It seems it was just now that they were toddlers, and they are already reaching teenage!
vivek’s’ IIT Memories IIT memories begin with ragging! What is shown in 3 Idiots is probably softest version of ragging that used to be done during our time. It used to go for good six weeks. But later on one felt that ragging was better than the barrage of assignments and tests (:-. The first common year, the Engineering Drawing, workshops are all part of memory. The 3 years at department seem to vanish at hectic speed. Memories in hostel were about games played in evening, walks to Vihar lake, galli fights inter hostel, watching Mahabharat every Sunday in TV room, year end video shows, all night playing carrom or simply listening to music in lounge or just cack sessions. Also remember the water fights inter wing! Other things include PAF, MI, watching movie in COnvo on weekend. Going out to Chakra bar for birthdays by contribution by all those who had birthday in that month is unforgetable!
Vinay Gupta H2, Chem
MARRIED TO
Christy Children’ AMIYA, KEVALIN
MS , PhD, CalTech 48
49
chitra’s’ Journey
After four fantabulous years at IIT Powai, I moved to the twin towns of Urbana-Champaign where I did my MS & PhD. I currently live in Queens, New York City. I am now a Principal Engineer at Intel Corporation -- started there as a senior design enginner soon after PhD in September 1996 at the Hillsboro, Oregon location. When I decided to get married to Roby (aka Lakshmi Narayan) who was based in NYC in 2000, I gave a 6 month notice to my manager about quitting & moving to NYC. But my manager asked me to try tele-commuting from NYC to Hillsboro, OR instead. Started trying it out in May 2000 and been doing that ever since -- over 15 years now. While this has restricted my career choices & movement, it has given me great work-life flexibility that I have come to treasure as kids came along. My husband Roby is a financial software engineer currently with Credit Suisse. I have 2 daughters, Krupa, aged 12, currently a 7th grader at Hunter College High School in Manhattan and Kaavya, aged 7, currently a 2nd grader at PS188 Kingbury school.
chitra’s’ IIT Memories
My most treasured memories are from my hostel, especially hanging out with my best friend Sujata and our other friends Anjali, Jyoti, Arti and Kshama mostly. Also have lots of memories of fun times with Noella, Anu, Raju, Shalini from our batch and several other girls both senior (Anna, YP, Minothi etc) & junior (Deepti, Kshama, etc) to us -- during the initial few days of ragging, hostel days, garbha etc. Some of the best times are the many walks, especially late night walks, to Powai & Vihar lake with Sujata, Anjali, Jyoti (and Rupal), Arti & Kshama. Closely followed by listening to records of Pink Floyd, Dire Straits and whole lot of others and watching everyone dance -- one song “Here we are, falling in love again...” is so clearly etched in my memory. Enjoying Mood Indigo with friends, especially all night classical music & ghazal nite is unforgettable. Participating in Inter-IIT was super fun also playing Basketball, my favorite sport. Especially loved the year it was at Bombay -- quite proud about being the top scorer in one of the games there ;-) I also thoroughly enjoyed the end of semester all night movies at the hostel -- got introduced to so many classic movies and actors -- Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant etc etc. And many Hindi ones too -- recall watching QSQT in our packed hostel TV room! I was inspired by many our professors -- Prof. Poonacha, Prof, Vasi, Prof. Desai, Prof. Shevgaonkar to name a few. Believe it or not, I have not stepped into our beautiful campus since our convo day! I have passed by it many times though to/from from the airport to my brothers house in Airoli and the changes outside are astounding! In a way I’m almost afraid to step into the campus lest it spoils the beautiful images & memories I have of it, but on the other hand I want to walk everywhere in the campus again and feel it all again. Not sure which of these two will prevail over time....
50
Chitra Natarajan H10, ELEC MS, PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
Deepak Bapna (Bapu)
H4, Mech MS, Boston University PhD, Carnegie Mellon University
MARRIED TO
MARRIED TO
Children’ -
Children’ -
Roby
KRUPA, KAAVYA
SHIVALI ANIK, SAANVI
deepak’s’ Journey
The Journey since graduating from IIT has been very interesting – bringing me to Bangalore after living in the US for 20 years (across six cities). Went to beautiful (and cold) Boston (Boston University) for my M.S. Other than Harvard Square, Charles River, and amazing fall colors- one of the main memory of Boston is getting mugged on the Commonwealth Avenue in Allston. Came back to India for six month before starting my Ph.D. in Robotics at CMU (Pittsburgh) in August 1993. In lot of ways CMU was turning period in my life given the kind of exposure (technology, industry, faculty) it provided. The best memory of CMU is testing our lunar robot in Atacama Desert (Chile). Got married to Shivali while I was still doing my Ph.D. and can’t forget those wonderful times living on mere student’s stipend. I did my thesis defense on my birthday in 1998. Got convinced by a mentor to start-up a new lab for him in Little Rock (where the company wanted to make a shift from defense to commercial). Enjoyed that thoroughly (only time when I had 7:30 – 4:30 job). It was in Little Rock in early 2000 that our 2 year old was diagnosed with Special Needs- Life has never been same since then, but every incident teaches you new lessons. We needed lot of support and hence moved to Dallas (i2 Technologies) closer to friends and better medical facilities. That took me away from Robotics, but still turned to be one of the better decisions I made. Anik made good progress here. Saanvi was born in 2003. I had a team in Mumbai and decided to move to aamchi Mumbai (Nov 2004 – April 2005). Moved back to Dallas and then somehow convinced Yahoo that Retail Planning has a lot of commonality with Contextual Advertising (which is 100% true) and joined Y! in Burbank in Dec 2005. From there to Seattle with Microsoft and then move to Bangalore (via Hyderabad) with Microsoft. Anik is in 12th grade now and we are waiting to see where next year will take us – to continued happiness and comfort for my family.
deepak’s’ IIT Memories
IIT Memories in 300 words- not possible!!! I actually wrote H4 Memoirs (with contribution from all the wing mates) which got lost on CMU servers or between my moves (I am sure it must be on some floppy drives in some storage box). First of all, thanks to Kanchi, Babua, Ahuja, and othersI feel I really learnt how to study in IIT. One needs to sit with any of them to know what “clear fundes” mean. Thank you guys. What do I miss most- Chat sessions in Bagdi’s room? Bag’s room was our wing lounge and he could not get any of us out of his room. He could lock his room, but people will come through the windows (and being on second floor you can imagine how dangerous it was). Also, oddly- I miss the rains in the campus- with so many trees around, the rains were just beautiful. And I miss IIT lingo. I distinctly remember either the watchman or Alok Jha shouting “Rm # 258, Bahar Ka Phone Hein”. And that was enough to wake me up from deep sleep. What else? Tiffin time (the meal I truly enjoyed); Chai at Vadilal; Labs with Ajuha and Bhartiya; Watching Cricket match in the lounge, Movie Nights, evenings at Vihar lake, Holi Celebration, water fights at midnight, forcing wing mates go for Bachchan movies with me, and the list goes on. We used to do quite a bit of short-trips and those were fun- most memorable being Matheran and trekking from hostel to Sanjay Gandhi National park. And can’t forget Himankan 88 and visiting Atul’s home in Bareilly before that.
51
Pravin Krishna (PK)
FE
H7, Meta
Pb
MARRIED TO
RITU
DAUGHTeR’ KEYA
PhD, Columbia University
pravin’s’ Journey
Our (1990) batch’s forthcoming reunion has brought into renewed focus my memories of the years at IIT and prompted some introspection about my “life journey” as well. It is a cliché – but the IIT years were, for me, formative and indeed even somewhat transformative ones. It was a thrill to be surrounded by top academic talent at IIT – variously brilliant students from all parts of the country and, from different socio-economic strata as well. Many of the classes were highly intellectually stimulating. But, closer to graduation, I realized the increasing tepidity of my interest in the field, especially in engineering research and in laboratory work. I had already been interested in social sciences for some time and felt that I should perhaps pursue graduate studies in economics, even if this was a field that I had never formally studied before. It seems a minor issue now, but felt like a major dilemma at that time. Nonetheless, the encouragement of my peers at IIT and, somewhat more surprisingly, the faculty who I spoke to, allowed me to move in the direction of economics with greater confidence. I did my PhD work in international economics at Columbia University. My early years in graduate school were especially challenging ones, given my lack of background in the field. I drew support from the brilliant and stoic Shashidhar Thakur, batch-mate from H7, who was enrolled at nearby NYU. Inspiration also came from the number of world-class academics at Columbia at the time. Among others, my teachers included Jagdish Bhagwati, Robert Mundell, William Vickrey, Edmund Phelps and Dani Rodrik, many of whom went on to win Nobel Prizes in economics. Graduate studies and the engagement that it allowed with students from around the world, especially those coming from collapsed economic systems (former Soviet bloc) and other poorly performing ones (for instance, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and even India) deepened both my understanding of these regimes and the role of economic policy in shaping the fortunes of nations. It also cemented my motivations to pursue a longer-term career in this area. After graduating from Columbia, I have largely remained anchored in university settings (a separate yearbook note on “Life in Academia” elaborates on this) but with an applied real-world focus to my work: I started my career at Brown University, spent some years at Princeton, Stanford and the University of Chicago and am now at Johns Hopkins University (Washington DC), the National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge MA) and also at Columbia University (back in NY). Along the way, I met and married another economist, Ritu Basu, who works at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. Life is now a constant juggling act between research and university life, engagement with the policy-making world, family time and the occasional vacation, all under the constraints of a dual-career, work-travel-intensive household. We have a precocious 10-year old girl, Keya, whose recent queries about the world of science have far exceeded the combined knowledge (and recollections) of her parents – we might just have to reach out to IIT friends for help!
pravin’s IIT Memories
Memories? My earliest memories, unsurprisingly, are from the first few days on campus and of the now amusing, but then traumatic, experiences of 24/7 ragging by our seniors, and our generally unsuccessful attempts to escape the harshest among them. Even amidst this distress, the extraordinary talent possessed by the student body, especially our seniors, was readily evident. As impressed as I was by the high-order academic ability, my greater amazement was at the multidimensionality of the individuals around: Literary talent, athletic strength, musical aptitude, street smarts and smooth urbanity and a million extra-curricular fields of interest. It was a very impressive mix – and nearly thirty years later, remains unsurpassed in my experience. In my memory’s eye, the IIT years have now rolled into each other: Classes, borrowed notes, exams, innumerable late night “cack” sessions in hostel rooms and at the campus noodles shop, Himankan, many Mood Indigos and PAFs have all merged into one amorphous continuum. I had many strong and enriching friendships – to many to name really. Recollecting my IIT years, as has been especially occasioned by our upcoming 25th reunion, now fills me with nostalgic warmth and a quiet pride.
52
prashant’s’ Journey Getting into IIT was the luckiest break of my life. I know, you are saying, “welcome sir to stating the obvious!” Funnily, or rather seriously, back in 1985, I was quite clueless about IIT. One of my cousins told me in the 11th std, “It’s the best college in India and you need to get in there”. So I tried. But for that simple advice I’d probably be working as a bar tender or if I was lucky a bar customer somewhere in India. For starters, because of IIT, I never had to go through a job interview ever. My first job at Godrej was handed to me by an IIT alumnus who hired me because they sponsored my BTP. Three years later, I was up for a phone interview from Bell Labs, USA. The guy calling me was yet another IIT graduate! (I tell you, they are everywhere!)He asked me only one question. “So you are also from IIT. Crack maregaa naa?” I lied “Of course!” He said, “Ok. Aaa jaa!” Phew! I put down my C++ cog sheet. These lucky breaks continued throughout my life. Bell Labs NJ was a lot of fun! I could get away with only 2 hours of work per day. But after 4 years, a few of us Desi co-workers followed the horde in this “wild west migration” to a place called Silicon Valley wanting to taste the “.com boom”. Forming a grandiose sounding company called “Object-Mart” we sold our services (software only) at cut-throat prices. In 2-3 years we sold this rag-tag outfit to a wellheeled startup. Now, we each had our own office and didn’t have to take turns being phone operator or janitor. I worked really long hours in this combined company because -being well heeled- it provided all meals and sleeping facilities at the office. Also, I was single with no real life. Then we hit the IPO gold mine in 2000. All employees bought new cars. Stock market decided to suddenly wake up and punish our stock for faults of others before us. We kept increasing our revenues/profit and stock price took the contrarian approach. I quit that company in 2004 and started a software outsourcing company with a friend. We grew up to about 50 “heads” in Hyderabad in a few years. Oh, somewhere in between, I had a chance encounter with one of my ex co-workers from way back at Bell Labs. Back then Kristie was a software tester hired to find bugs in my code. This time she decided to marry me so she could pursue finding bugs in everything I do, as a full time activity. Anyway, this outsourcing business was not my forte. I had to do marketing/sales which was tough as I’m not active on social media. Plus we had to clean up other peoples’ “dirty work”. We sold our India setup to our biggest client Polycom. I also traded my Bay Area garage for a mansion in Albuquerque, New Mexico with cash to spare. For the last few years I have been tinkering with some startup ideas just to find out 6 month later than some 25 year old has already built it. I am also pursuing countless disparate hobbies like wine/beer making to woodworking, from farming to golf! I will let you know if one of these startups or hobbies leads to some mentionable success. Haven’t made any blue Meth yet but this last “India pale ale” I made is tasting mighty good! You gotta come to ABQ to taste it. Cheers!
prashant’s IIT Memories I think I already mentioned that I was clueless about IIT before I first came there. I had only heard that it was the best engineering college in India. I had never imagined that a college could be bigger than a couple of 4 story buildings. “Campus” was only the name of a restaurant in Vile-Parle where I grew up. So when our taxi, after entering the Main Gate, seemingly took forever inside this “park” kind of place to get to the MB, it was an eye opener for me. I also remember my mother telling me with teary eyes, while dropping me off at H8 on the first day, “Son, do study well. And don’t succumb to any of the vices during your hostel stay”. After that first day, most of my distinct memories are alcohol and tobacco related. I remember the first beer experience was with my wing seniors and fellow batchmates #ShivKaushik and #VaradJoshi and #UmeshKamat. First hard liquor was with #KalyanMukherjee before an on campus rock concert during first sem. It was Rum & ThumesUp. #KalyanMukherjee was also the partner in crime during my first cigarette (I believe the brand was GoldFlake). I clearly remember how very gingerly we took only 2 or 3 puffs.Before my first taste of Vodka (Romanov?) I distinctly remember #SanjayGhag telling that “it simply tastes like nariyal paani!” My first time bunking lectures to go out drinking, before noon, was with #CherianThomas and #VinayakThakur. The venue was I think Shiv Kripa(?) opposite Vikroli station. Perhaps #AnuNarasimhan was there too? I do remember perfecting the technique of how to blow cigarette smoke rings with #Ghane during one winter vacation. Being a font of knowledge he also told me that motorcycle engine runs more smoothly (or efficiently) in colder air of winter nights. A fact I have been meaning for verify on google for all these years! My first taste of ‘Planter’s Punch’ was probably with #Anu at #Chakra Bar. My worst session of mixing too many alcohols was one night in the 4th year in H4. After having accidentally switched to rum I got violently sick. While I was heaving over the railing #KBSPrasad was consoling me and askng me “Tu Rum kyon piya? McDowell #1 aur laa rahaa tha!” That was the same night somebody told me the saying, “Rum Whiskey Very Risky, Whiskey Beer No Fear”.
Prashant Sawant
H8, Civil MARRIED TO
Kristie 53
ANIL’s Journey
After IIT, I came to University of Hawaii in Honolulu for MS. Hawaii is literal heaven on earth. After MS, I decided to complete my MBA at University of Georgia. The time in bars in Athens, Georgia, was well spent and it really helped me understand and appreciate the American culture. After graduation in 1994, I took on a product marketing role at VLSI Technology. I gained enough experience (or so I thought at the time) in 5 years to start a Bluetooth chip company, Zeevo, in 1999. We got great funding from premier VCs such as Sequoia Capital and Dell Ventures. Zeevo was an incredibly humbling experience as I learnt that great ideas, smartness, and hard work alone did not solve all of world’s problems, and I truly began to appreciate the value of experience and management skills. Eventually, Zeevo was sold to Broadcom, although I exited a few months before the sale. After Zeevo, I joined my wife, Benu, in her small venture, Milestone Inc, – which provided digital marketing services for hotels. I wanted to exit semiconductors, and digital marketing was hot subject in 2004. Although a risky experiment (working with your wife, and in a radically different industry), my gut instinct was that there was a substantial company to be built there. 11 years later, I can look back and say that it turned out to be a good instinct, and we are very blessed to have built a company that is regarded as a leader in digital marketing software and services in the hospitality segment. I am also fortunate to be married to a very beautiful, smart, and hardworking lady – Benu. We got married 20 years ago in 1995. We have two kids – son Aditya (18), who recently joined University of Southern California, is a computer science geek, and actively seeks to disrupt the current order of the universe through his apps when he is not training for a marathon. Our daughter, Divya (14), is in high school in 9th grade, is neck deep into robotics and tennis, and is just fun to hang around. I am very thankful for the free ride I have - both the kids have taken after mom’s beauty, brains, and the hard working ethics, while I got away easy. For once, me being a “gheesu” has benefited someone other than me, and I am glad for that.
ANIL’s’ IIT Memories
IIT continues to be the best four years of my life. Some great memories from IIT days – 1. Ragging in the first few weeks – I was the unfortunate sucker from Delhi with no local relatives to run to over the weekends. So, I cleaned more rooms for seniors, and did more song and dance sequences than I would care for. However, the best side effect - I made some awesome friends, and had a very steep “toughening” curve. 2. Thorough enjoyed the H3 Sat afternoon lunch of curd-rice, masoor daal, and papadum with pickles. And then a nap with music playing in the lounge. Hard to find a more calming and relaxing experience. 3. Evening run by the Pipeline road and cack sessions by Vihar Lake while watching sunset. 4. Mood Indigo Dance Competition - Shalini (Govil) and I planned a great show and then what a complete mess we made out of the judging. Since we didn’t want to do the work to add up all the scores from judges, we announced our own results based on our judgment. Several performers and judges challenged our results. 5. Himankan – was a life-changing experience. Growing up in a very protective environment, this was one of the most fun and adventurous activities I had undertaken to that day. 6. Fun parties – all the fun parties and booze bashes with Slower Bores wing mates and EE classmates. 7. Role model – Creating a life-long role model in my BTP prof - Prof Vasi. His values, ethics, integrity, modesty, shaped a lot of my values as I got into real world research and work environment. I have much to thank him for to this day. 8. Vividly remember sitting through several lectures and not having learnt a thing - not even knowing what was discussed. Its almost like you were not there. I use that skill very effectively to this day to shut out boring meetings and inconsequential conversations. 9. Prof Chandorkar “the Psychic” – its really odd that in one of my senior Analog Design classes, Prof Chandorkar goes off on a tangent, and says, “some day, I will visit California, and I will take an exit off the highway, and stay in “Aggarwal’s motels”. Although I don’t own hotels, I do work with them on a daily basis. EE to hotels was not in the plan. So, how close his statement has come to reality spooks me to this day.
54
Anil Aggarwal (Aggie)
H3, Elec MS, University of Hawaii MBA, University of Georgia
MARRIED TO
BENU
Children’ ADITYA, DIVYA
Anjali Khare H10, Chem
PhD, State University of New York, Buffalo
MARRIED TO
VIJAY
Children’ ABHIJIT, ASHISH
anjali’s Journey After graduation, I came to US for MS/PhD. While at SUNY-B, met my life partner - Vijay fellow Chemical Engineer, and we got married in 1997. After finishing PhD, we moved to Boston, MIT - and then I decided to move out of Chemical Engineering and pursue career in Computer Science / Data Science / IT. Joined a start-up, which was very nice move as it gave me lot of opportunities to take on different roles outside of my formal training. I wish I had tried out this route earlier, but it is never too late. Around that time, we also welcomed two new additions to our family - Abhijit (now 14) and Ashish (11). Few years back, we moved to Cary, North Carolina. I later worked with Oracle for few years and then decided to try out startup again. Currently working for a small startup in retail software industry.
anjali’s IIT Memories There are so many memories from the exciting 4 years of my life - it was the time of growth, exploration, struggle (near end semesters), and enjoyment (most of the time). I remember relaxing in canteen after lab / eng drawing classes, evening walks to Powai/Vihar lake, playing TT or just listening to music in the music room, Himankan in 1st year summer, and few local day hikes, trying to stay up late night for studies / watching movies
55
Anup Singh H2, Chem PhD, North Carolina State University
MARRIED TO
SMITA
Children’ ROHAN, MEGHNA
ANUP’s’ Journey
IIT made me who I am today. While I resented the fact that everyone at IIT was as smart or smarter, the 4-year grind surrounded by crackoos and magoos taught me how to dig deep and survive in the toughest environments. I also learned the value of friendship and how to rely on a close-knit group of friends for support. Some of my fondest memories consist of simple things I did with my friends such as going for ice-cream to celebrate birthdays, playing a game of Bridge until the wee-hours, going to Kanjurmarg for a movie etc. While I learned a lot, I was not ready to have a real job after graduating. So I looked for every opportunity to avoid getting a job and finally decided to pursue my PhD at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, USA. Graduate school, just like IIT, was a blast. While IIT education had made me memorize and understand a lot of things, I never had the time to think critically and independently. It took me almost 5 years of graduate school to figure out how to think independently. It started with my graduate advisor, probably the best teacher I have ever had, who provided a high-level description of my doctoral project and encouraged me to figure things out on my own going forward. This was hard in the beginning as I was so used to finding answers in a book or asking someone smarter but soon I started enjoying the freedom to design my own experiments, make mistakes and learn from them. Another thing I learned was that I liked biology a lot more than engineering. I decided to stay in research after PhD and joined Sandia National Labs in Livermore, California. This year is my 19th year at Sandia. To spare the boring details I will just say that I have spent roughly two decades developing better point-of-care diagnostic devices and tools for automating biology. My work is really my hobby where I get paid to invent things. Even better, some of my inventions have found their way into heathcare products being marketed. One significant “achievement” in the first year of my job was to meet my future-wife Smita on a trip to India. It was an “arranged” meeting courtesy of our parents. We kept in touch by letters and phone calls for the next 6 months and got married towards the end of the year. Getting married to Smita was unquestionably the best thing in my life. Both Smita and I like to travel and spent the first 10 years of our marriage exploring places all over the world and in the US. We had our first son, Rohan, in the 11th year of our marriage and Meghna four years later. The two kids now have become the center of our universe and I am playing sports and doing a whole bunch of other activities all over again. The only difference is that this time around, I get hurt easier and it takes twice as long to heal. But I couldn’t be any happier. Life is good and getting better everyday.
ANUP’s’ IIT Memories
One of my best memories is that of Himankan in the final year. I remember almost every day of it as if it happened yesterday. The fun started as soon as we left Bombay. Many of us from H2 including Anupam, SriG and Shiraz were in the same bogey wearing recentlyacquired bright yellow H2 t-shirts that got puzzled looks from our fellow passengers. I believe the culprit was the H2 logo which had two stick-figures holding hands with something like “2-together” written underneath. Our next stop was Mussorie where I had my first can of coca-cola. I guess I can blame Himankan for my coke addiction! We also stopped in Haridwar and I remember Shiraz and I stripping down to our underwears to take a holy dip in the cold and fast-moving Ganges. Once we got on the trail, the going got much tougher. I had never walked more than a few kms in my life before this trip and here I was on a 10-day trek reaching 13,000 ft! While the first few days were very tiring, I finally got used to the elevation and started enjoying the beautiful scenery and the amazing stories from the locals. There was this village where they worshipped Duryodhana (or was it Ravana?)— with an idol depicting him more as a hero than the villain we know him to be. As we got to higher elevation, the nights started to get really cold and we soon discovered that our blankets were no match. The solution was to pack ourselves like sardines in a can in the tent. It did work in terms of keeping us warm notwithstanding the foul air containing body odors (and other gaseous emissions) from 10-12 people who had not taken a bath in days. Another memorable event was watching snowfall in the middle of a night. This was the first time most of us had seen a snowfall and our boisterous excitement led the security guard into believing that we were reacting to a bear-sighting. Our final destination was a beautiful lake surrounded by snow-clad mountains. Someone had brought a volleyball set and a bunch of us played volleyball at 13000 ft on our rest day. My love for hiking started with this trip and has stayed with me since. And now I have even recruited my wife and two kids to become avid hikers. One day I would like to go back to this region with my family and some of my batchmates to re-do the Himankan. We will do this perhaps in another 5-10 years when enough of us would have retired to have the free time to undertake a 10-day trip.
Anu’s’ Journey
I spent most of my childhood being a ‘speak when you are spoken to’ person – whose only redeeming feature was a huge pair of eyes that seemed to take in everything. To me, the 4 years at IIT were about growing up, about exploring, about getting to be a confident person. And I am not sure whether it was an ugly duckling to swan metamorphosis – both the beginning and end references are perhaps incorrect – but was a transformation all the same! After flotsaming through 4 years at IIT, I went to IIM Bangalore and flotsamed some more. Life came easy – friends, acads, activities galore, and at the end of two years there, a start of a marketing career. After 24 years, it is fair to say that I have managed some of the country’s marquee brands – Titan, Tanishq, Lakme, Hutch, Britannia and worked for some dream companies. Never felt the need to have a split personality to climb the corporate ladder – I was the same person at work, at home, with friends, everywhere. Being outspoken, being naïve, being caring, being oneself – have worked for me in the corporate world. While I have won marketing and advertising awards and featured as a leading marketing professional, what I take pride in is mentoring woman leaders. My personal world is what has made my professional life possible. I am married to an IIM-batchmate, Ashish Dikshit who is CEO for Madura Garments. I am quite capable of RG Giri at home, Ashish is from IITM , but he is totally Zen-like albeit with keeda in his eyes. Our sales careers just post IIM meant that while we tried to get married , our companies ensured otherwise – our postings were Madurai – Ghaziabad, and then Ahmedabad – Guwahati – our batchmates told us that Nagpur station platform #1 was ideal wedding venue . We have an 18 year son Adi who has grown up in a ‘kibbutz’ environment – grandparents, neighbours, nannies have had as large a role in who he is as Ashish and I have. Adi just started an undergrad program in CS at UCLA – I believe one of my successes in life is having a 100 common FB friends with Adi Might seem strange to mention this as an achievement, but have travelled to every state in India, hung out at many dhabas, and chumma chatted with junta. The world – here I come next! Am currently at a crossroad professionally – exploring career options ranging from education, to non-profit to running a chai-ki-dukaan. Have been quite fortunate in life, and count people in my world and conversations as my blessings! Am happiest when I am connected with and hanging out with friends, and volunteering for causes.
anu’s’ IIT Memories
I was a wide-eyed freshie who took a train from a sheltered home in a small town to Big, Bad, Bombay. I took one look at my seniors Rita and Minothi and said to myself “when I grow up, I will be smart too”. I experienced love at first sight with someone TDH, and no it wasn’t a guy – I soon became Anna’s little lamb and decided in my first week that I would be H10 GSec, cos duh Anna was. I had long curly hair in pigtails which got cut short rather early – as I told Amma I was missing classes in my quest to comb my hair – but actually was a quest for smartness. It got me the moniker of Golly which has stuck – the other two nicknames I had were Freshie and Twerp – and the troika could easily have been considered derogatory, but in my world were endearments! After Amma left me and went home, my first realisation was “hey, there is no 9 pm curfew, I actually have a 24 hour day to do as I please”. And no – one didn’t necessarily hit the Boys button first but slowly and surely did. I remember the first walk back from library to the hostel holding hands. Much as I liked it, it scared me too. I applied the safety in numbers maxim. Why hang out with one guy when there was such a pool available. I remember a walk to H7 and no holding hands this time, but H5 ensured the street lights went off – one got ideas even if one didn’t originally have them. The first bike ride on a slope, and of course we knew what you were doing, and smiled to ourselves. I must confess though that some of my best buddies are those who made friends with me enroute to Rajashree and/or Shalini. I had arrived! I remember being the average on Dipan Ghosh’s first quiz. It set me surely on the path of academic averageness and life maximization. Tried my hand at Mount, HAM, WTGW, crossies, you know even basketball. Don’t laugh folks – I have represented IITB in Inter IIT – Madras in BB (every UG girl had to play to form the team ). Skirt factor I learnt about in the first sem workshops where a smile meant the lab assistant did the work, it backfired on me when my department profs wouldn’t let me take the end sem claiming they hadn’t seen me taking their course itself. Vihar and Powai lakes, SAC, H7, H4, H8, Staff C, Vadilal, RK, Chakra, Maggi Stall – these are where I was found – notable misses being classes and H10. I was really proud that I made Hostel GSec and Insti Cult Nom – told me I had a future in things that didn’t need engineering. What IIT really gave me were friendships. Too many to name, and no need to either. Most often I was Betty Cooper – one of the boys – have inadvertently walked into lounges and caused mayhem. Birthday parties ranged from 100 pax in H10 mess in year1 to 100 pax at Madh Island in year4. I ate with the mess workers in the kitchen, and counted watchies as some of my best friends. The Mood I core group picture is actually a friends and family one – we knew khaandan politics long before Laloo I am blessed that IIT continues to give me new friendships after 25 years. It’s almost like I never left home.
Anu Narasimhan (Golly)
MARRIED TO
ASHISH SON - ADITYA
H10, CIVIL PGDM IIM Bangalore
56
57
ANURAG’s Journey
Started my schooling in an Arabic medium school in the Middle East. Moved to a campus school at Kurukshetra (near Delhi – of Mahabharatha fame) from where I finished my 12th grade prior to showing up at IITB. A quintessential small town, reserved kid of a nuclear Physicist Dad and a Phd Mom, trying to adjust to a big city and a big institute with literally a mini India with folks from all parts of India was quite a challenge. I did adapt to the institute but perhaps remained reserved and quiet for a large part of my stay at IITB. Getting up early mornings at 4/5 am, hitting the IIT-NITIE road for a 5KM and remaining disciplined were traits that stood by with me for a large part of my life. After IITB I showed up at IIM, Ahmedabad. There were a lot of IITians including those from IITB and so it wasn’t as alien a place as IITB was when I first showed there. I detested the place to begin with as it was so non-quant but eventually began to like it. A summer internship at HLL systems divisions convinced me that computers wasn’t my cup of tea, but I still showed up at HLL – in their International Business Division. Joined Citi in Madras a year later in what was perhaps a very fulfilling part of my career. Deal in Dollar Rupee Swaps, was part of NHB’s mortgage securitisation program and eventually showed up Citi Singapore in 1997 trading Asian Currencies. I remember staring work in mid June 1997, little realising that my world was about to be rocked within 6 weeks as we were about to enter the Asian Financial crisis. Moved to trading G3 in 1998, equities in 2000 and credit in 2001, everytime timing a move just when the asset class was about to crash. Eventually moved on to Wealth Management and made my relationships with some of the biggest industrial groups in Asia which stood me in good stead even when I rejoined Market in HK back again in 2005/6. This was a lesson well learnt – solid relationships stand the test of time while your skill tool kit keeps getting outdated and old. A fact that was underscored by my meeting my wife – a gregarious, outgoing, happy go lucky types from SRCC Delhi. An extremely bright Chartered Accountant who loved to party,loved to make new friends and mostly loved life. She has changed me a lot for the better as I am sure I have changed her. We have two lovely kids – Vanika who turns 14 this winter and Kushan who turned 10 this summer. When I look back on all these years in Singapore/HK and the family I have, I feel blessed and complete. Life has given its share of travails and tribulations. My wife went through a life threatening illness when our second one was born. Taught us both to live in the present and funnily, try to remain happier. Taught us the importance of being together and seeing our kids grow up. Part of the reason I gave up my job in HK which involved a weekly trip to Singapore back home. Love to travel with the family, even though I am really bad at planning travels. That credit goes to my wife and increasingly to the kids. Currently at Deutsche Bank in Singapore running the Asian Wealth Management franchise. Its fun meeting all the interesting people despite the fair amount of travels that it entails. Waiting for what life mught bring next- with an open mind.
ANURAG MAHESH H8, Mech PGDM, IIM Ahmedabad
Arti Barapatrey Jain H10, Elec PGDM, IIM Calcutta
MARRIED TO
SHWETA
Children’ - VANIKA, KUSHAN
arti’s’ Journey After my B.Tech at IIT Bombay, I did my PGDM from IIM Calcutta. Post PGDM, stated my career in finance and then moved to IT/systems. I worked with Mukand Glabal, ICICI Infotech, McGraw-Hill Education, Ranbaxy, Tata Interacative Systems. Currently, working as an Independent IT Consultant. Got married with Amit in 1999 and settled in Mumbai. We are blessed with two lovely kids, daughter Akshata (14 years) and son Krishiv (10 years). I love to spend quality time with my kids and read books in my free time!!
arti’s’ IIT Memories Most memorable time of IIT is spending time with my hostel gang (H10), mainly Chitra, Sujata, Anjali, Jyoti (whenever she was available).... Major time pass was listening to songs of Sujata’s choice and going for long walks to Vihar lake and hills behind H4. Another interesting memory is studying on H10 terrace....
MARRIED TO
AMIT
Children’ AKSHATA, KRISHIV
ANURAG’s IIT Memories
Taking the Paschim Express from Kurukshetra to Bombay in June 1986 was a literally a transformation for this small town guy. The first few weeks were about ragging, making friends, getting adjusted to the new way of life and getting to know folks from different part of the country with their different cultures and languages. I remember the incessant Bombay rain, Footer in H8 lakeside grounds in the mud, the frogs entering the Ground Floor rooms and yes – Roll-call (We call, you roll in the mud). I went through IITB continuing to remain somewhat reserved. Built a few but long lasting friends. Mostly either my wing mates at H8 or my branchmates from Mech. I tried to learn what I could. Acads was my thing and I had fun learning about gears, fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, though computers wasn’t my thing. IITB for me was continuation of the campus life, about soaking in a lot of knowledge, making few but longlasting friendships and trying to grow up from a small town guy.
58
59
Shrikar Chakravarti H6, Chem MS, University of Texas, Austin phd, University of Wisconsin, MADISON shrikar’s’ Journey Graduated with MS in Chemical Engineering from UT-Austin in 1992 and Ph. D in Chemical Engineering from University of WisconsinMadison in 1997. Joined Praxair, leading supplier of industrial gases, in September 1997 at their Technology Center in Buffalo, NY (about 15 minutes from Niagara Falls). Worked in a variety of areas, all in R&D, including CO2 capture, Six Sigma, Electronics, Biofuels and Energy Conversion. Currently responsible for process & business development of novel ceramic membrane based reforming technology for conversion of natural gas to liquid transportation fuels. Married Nirupama on January 26, 1996! Our first daughter, Ananya, arrived in 2000 and our second daughter, Snigdha, arrived in 2009.
MARRIED TO
sriganesh’s’ Journey
Nirupama Children’ -
ANANYA, SNIGDHA
Following my B.Tech. in CSE from IIT Bombay, I spent a year with L&T in Powai, and then went to SUNY Buffalo to pursue a PhD in Computer Science. Upon graduation, I joined IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. Around the same time - in Feb 1997- I got married to Radhika. Towards the end of 1999, bit by the startup bug, I joined a relatively mature startup - Narus in Palo Alto. A daughter Sashwathi was born to us in 2000. Towards the end of 2001, having spent ten years in the US, I decided to make the move back to India. Following a short stint with Sun Microsystems, I joined HP Labs in Bangalore as their first research scientist. With its freewheeling charter to “invent for the emerging markets”, HP Labs India was a great place for multidisciplinary research, and I became interested in HCI, User Experience Design and the management of innovation. I stayed there for a good 12 years. A son, Skanda, was born to us in 2002. In late 2013, looking for a break from the hectic life and perpetual traffic jams in Bangalore :-), I joined Xerox PARC in idyllic Rochester, NY, as research manager for prescriptive data analytics. I feel greatly blessed to be have able to pursue research in different areas throughout my career, and interact with students, academics and business folks in equal measure. At this time my family and I are well settled into the quiet life in Rochester, and are able to spend time indulging our interests in music, art, spirituality and community service.
sriganesh’s IIT Memories IIT was where I found lifelong friendships. My fondest memories are the times spent with my wingmates - Sethi, Asthana, DC, Bawa, Bong, Venky, Sarode, Vaishnavi and others - conversations that ended at 4 am only because we had a test at 7, late night trips for bread pakoda, maggi noodles and American chopsuey; birthday celebrations at Sujata Palace and Meghdoot (I think) in Ghatkopar - and on one special occasion (Pritam da Dhaba in Dadar). And the time we decided everyone in the wing should have a Asterix-ian name (I was Cacophonix the besura bard !). We teamed up with H10 to win PAF. Educational angst was the theme. I vividly remember some of the music - Floyd’s “the Wall” and “Shadows of a thousand faces”. The musical times spent with Bong (aka Ashim Bhaumik), CP (H3?), Madhavan (H5), Vidyasagar (H1), Supriya , Kavita (H10) and the TRRM family on campus. Winning first place at Malhar for our fusion piece “Mixed Fruit Jam”. The Mood Indigo festival … being captivated by hard rock (Smooooke on the Waaaater, and of course, the evergreen Hotel California) the very first time I stepped behind those massive, bone rattling speakers. And the beautiful sounds of Ghulam Ali and Mehdi Hassan’s ghazals playing in the H2 lounge. And then there were the memorable trips - Himankan, Nagarhole national park … I could go on and on. So many memories. Truly the best and most formative years of our lives.
Sriganesh Madhvanath (Sri-G) H2, CS
MS, SUNY, Buffalo phd, SUNY, Buffalo 60
MARRIED TO
Radhika Children’ -
SUSHWATHI, SKANDA
61
Sudhama Gopalan H9, Chem
PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MBA, University of Chicago, Booth
MARRIED TO
RIMa
uday’s’ Journey After successfully graduating from Staff-C^H^H^H^H^H^H^H IIT, Uday got a Master’s in Computer Science at Indiana University. He worked at Microware, Intel, and is presently excelling at Google. He continues to dabble in yoga, music, and has been an outstanding friend through thick and (a lot of) thin. Continuing old traditions, this profile for 860719 has been proxy-submitted by 860728.
Children’ -
Wife: Sangeeta Son: Kunaal, Computer Science student at Georgia Tech Daughter: Kanchan, middle schooler and budding writer
ARYAMAN, KARAN
( - Viresh Ratnakar )
sudhama’s’ journey I grew up in suburban Bombay in Chembur. When I 13, we relocated to New Bombay in the vicinity of a large petrochemicals
plant where my father worked. Living and breathing the workings and occasionally the fumes of a petrochemicals plant, I developed a natural affinity for organic chemistry and chemical engineering. Yet when the time came, I turned down an opportunity at UDCT to join IIT Bombay though a ride in Chemical Engineering was far from assured. After all, IIT-B was the place where I had always wanted to be. A year into the B.Tech. program, I switched into the chemical engineering program. The years at IIT-B were as promised - and much more. Crazy, wacky, deep, driven ! Filled with characters, and life-time friendships. These were also the years when I met and courted my to-be-wife at a Bombay college. At the end of my third year, I had the opportunity to spend a summer in Holland. The new perspective from time spent outside India made me change my post-IIT plans from an MBA at an IIM to graduate study in the US. So, off I went to Ann Arbor, Michigan to the University of Michigan in pursuit of my graduate studies. The five years spent in Ann Arbor were the most significant years in my life. This was when I finally married my wife Rima after 3+ years of a long-distance relationship. Aside from getting my PhD before turning 26, this was also when I learnt the most about life, people, life-long relationships, and the USA. After completing my doctoral program, I opted to take an R&D role in Chicago with coatings leader Sherwin Williams so that Rima could pursue her own PhD without us have to be apart. I spent 5 years at Sherwin Williams redesigning their automotive coatings products to reduce solvent emissions. Being in Chicago now offered me the opportunity to pursue my long-held interest in an MBA at the University of Chicago, while continuing to work. Our older son was born during this period in 1999. When my employer announced plans to shut down its facilities in Chicago, I opted to finish my MBA and move into a career in business at management consultancy Booz & Company ( then Booz Allen & Hamilton, and now PwC Strategy&). The next few years from 2000 to 2004 were largely spent on the road consulting to automotive, energy, and pharmaceuticals clients. After having enough of the travel, I left in 2004 to join HSBC in Chicago. Our second son, Karan, was born shortly thereafter in 2005. I spent 7 years in HSBC eventually running the P/L for a significant part of their US credit card business, and engineering a turnaround during the financial crisis of 2008-10. When HSBC announced its intention to sell its credit card business, I decided to pursue other interests in the healthcare space. Since 2011-12, I have shuttled between the corporate and consulting / startup spaces in healthcare developing products and markets for my employers or clients. So how does one move from chemical engineering to management consulting to banking to healthcare? I believe it all started at IIT-B where I was around the greatest collection of driven analytical minds for whom no problem was off-limits. I tried to stay true to that spirit, and have enjoyed a wild journey so far ! Now I have the good fortune of encouraging our older son, Aryaman, to try engineering in college a couple of years from now.
sudhama’s’ iit memories The bulls and their droppings
The monkeys Pandu in the H9 mess -- he scared the crap out of most of us The Young Guns at the Chem E Department ( the late Dr. Khilar, Profs Khakkar, Suresh, and so man more) The NCC camp in Pune -- Subedar Ajit Singh. Was he just friendly and gay or both? Prof B K S Rao and his notes written on yellowing Government of India envelopes from the 1960s My surprise at how every corporate manager I ever approached for a sponsorship at IIT ( Sportsfest, Mood Indigo) opened their doors to me Meeting and speaking to several luminaries from the press and Bollywood Hearing some great performances by artists The memories are endless
62
Uday Naik H8, CS
MS, Indiana University
MARRIED TO
Sangeeta Children’ -
KUNAAL, KANCHAN 63
george’s’ Journey After graduating from IIT, I attended graduate school and worked at Intel for a few years designing microprocessors. After a few years of this I left to attend business school and switched careers to become a professional investor. I have been an investor for almost 2 decades now. Personally, I have 4 children who keep my wife & I very busy.
george’s’ IIT Memories Going to Bhimashankar on Friday night, running out of cash on Sunday, hitching a ride to Pune and crashing at Rajguru’s place. Getting back to IIT on monday. Freezing my ass at Himankan & getting pushed out of the overcrowded tent due to lack of air!
George Tharakan
Giridharan Iyengar
H7, Elec
(GIRI)
MS, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign MBA, UCLA
H4, Elec
MS, Ottawa University PhD, MIT
MARRIED TO
sRipriya Children’ ROHIT, ROHAN
giri’s’ Journey Hey Gang, Great to connect back after such a long time. It has been a while and staying connected via WhatApp and other forums has surfaced back several fond memories. As for my journey from IIT to now -- while I was at IIT, I never expected I’d be doing a PhD. I thought I’d go the MS/MBA route but wasn’t sure what I really wanted to do. So, decided to work for one year and use that time to figure it out. I worked for L&T in aamchi Mumbai along with Venkat (EE90) and SriG (CS90). Had a great time with them and it seems all 3 of us decided to go to the US for our graduate studies. I ended up in Canada, rather than the US -- decision driven by a better schol from Ottawa U. I had a great time in Canada for a couple of years. My adviser there convinced me to pursue a PhD and recommended that I apply to MIT Media Lab. But for his pushing, I’d have never considered a PhD. I am forever grateful to him along with my 7th grade English teacher (who introduced me to Hardy Boys). Both of them have had a tremendous impact in my life. I ended up at MIT Media Lab for my doctoral studies. Along the way, I got married to my childhood sweetheart and life partner Sri in 1994. She also came to Boston to study and we were two penniless graduate students having a great time in one of the best cities in the world. After getting my PhD, I worked for IBM Research for 8 years and then decided to try the startup route. The second startup did better than the first one and we eventually sold it to Aol where I am presently employed. Nowadays, I am into Big Data, Machine Learning, Deep Learning and always looking at the next big thing to apply these tools to. I also teach at Cornell Tech & City University of New York.
giri’s’ IIT Memories I remember Amber Singh #Dubey pushing me to try out track ended up surprising myself. We used to be in our hostel relay team together and have won several races together. The EE Industrial tour during our 3rd year was an awesome trip. I remember getting out of the bus at 6AM in Ooty and shivering like crazy in the 1 degree weather. Visiting Indian Telephones factory and having the awesome 1 Rupee lunch, the beach football at Goa can never be forgotten. #Mahadevan, #Krishnakumar, #Jyoti, #Chitra, and many many other EE batchmates.
64
65
Viplav Nigam H8, Civil
MARRIED TO
Shaila
MS, Lehigh University
viplav’s’ Journey Life journey has been interesting and intense. I have had the pleasure of working for small, medium, large financial companies, stock markets and exchanges in North America with the pleasure of starting a few of my own. I have had the good fortune of balancing work and family life and making time for traveling with wife and kids, eating at exotic places, meeting interesting people, cooking forgotten recipes, and photographing the world.
viplav’s’ IIT Memories All my memories of IIT are so fresh as though it all happened yesterday - starting with Khande - GSec / H8/1986 - giving fundas to freshies on my first day at Powai, those dreaded surprise quizzes, the last minute anxiety to get past semester end exams, the rush of Inter IIT sports meets, the crazy days and nights of Mood Indigo, and eventually the day we left IIT. It seems like it all happened in a flash but left a massive impression, a dream that pleasantly plays over and over. A lot to talk about when we meet again!
vipul’s’ Journey IIT Bombay put me on a life’s trajectory I had not contemplated in my early life. I am finding out that you cannot really plan your life in detail so enjoy the path it takes. When I joined IIT I never thought I will end up living and working in USA. IIT Bombay has been a positive influence in my life because of the friends I made and things I learned. The beautiful verdant campus and Vihar lake made it memorable. After 4 years on campus I joined Penn State to get my masters in Chemical Engineering. I returned to India after that but soon came back to pursue PhD. I enjoyed the student life at Penn State as the circle of friends widened and included people from all around the world. Following the graduate degrees I joined Air Products that is also based in Pennsylvania. It was in year 2000 that I first met my future wife during India trip. We got married a year later and have 2 beautiful children – a boy and a girl. I still live in Pennsylvania that I find very beautiful and within easy reach to major east coast cities.
vipul’s IIT Memories My memories of IIT starts with the way the successful candidates were informed of their JEE result back in 1986. Before the invention of internet and email IIT used to send telegram to inform the rank and admission date to select the department. When the telegram came we were not home so we had to go to the post office to collect the telegram. Even before I went to Bombay campus for admission procedure I knew I wanted to go there. I was lucky to get the department and campus of my choice. For the next 4 years I made numerous friends and life time of memories. The first month was little tough with the monsoon rain, double occupancy in small hostel room and “introduction” with hostel seniors. Once that passed I got busy exploring the campus and getting involved in various fun activities. The second year was even better as I got used to the campus and life in the hostel. Long cack sessions and daily soccer or volleyball became common evening activities. I missed the Himankan to Kashmir as I went home during the summer vacation. The next year I made sure that I went to Himankan to Garhwal region. That trekking trip left a very distinct impression of the Himalayas and I can visualize the places I visited in that trip. The Navaratri, PAF and valfy were other memorable events for me. They were made special by the good food. Even after quarter century I am happy to be in touch with all the friends from the college days. They have been source of encouragement during the graduate school and beyond. I am looking forward to meeting many others whom I haven’t been able to meet since leaving the campus.
Vipul Dholakia
MARRIED TO
H4, Chem
Children’ -
(Gujju)
ms, Penn State phd, Penn State 66
Puja
SHLOK, SHAGUN
67
ashish’s’ Journey
1990: Started at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, roommates were Anoop Kulkarni (EE’90) and Mangesh Pimpalkhare (EE’89). Within a few weeks of landing, got funding at University of Wisconsin, Madison and took the Greyhound bus from Virginia to Wisconsin. 1992: Finished MSEE, started working. 1994: Back to school for PhD in Power Electronics 1996: Advisor launched a startup (SoftSwitching) – quit PhD and went back to work. 2000: Restarted PhD (part time). Secured funding from US Navy to research new power architectures for ships and subs. 2001: Got married to Nina 2003: Graduated from UW-Madison with a PhD EE. I went to work at DRS Technologies – a defense contractor in Milwaukee – applying PhD research to several USN projects. 2003-2011: DRS Technologies - Most of this period had heavy defense industry spending due to Dubya/Cheney. I worked on algorithms, controls and power hardware for several ambitious prototype projects: the world’s biggest permanent magnet motor drive at 50,000HP, Massive DC power systems for destroyers. Also got to work and stay on active USN ships and subs. 2006-2008: Realized that technology was fun, but wanted to have a broader business view. Took GMAT, wrote creative (bogus) essays for applications and got into University of Chicago and Northwestern. Finished MBA in Finance and Accounting at University of Chicago GSB (right before it got renamed Booth) – part time over 2.5 years. Experimented with career change to Finance and worked at Robert W Baird in equity research. Work was great but was not as satisfying as designing manufacturing, marketing and selling products. Sonia (2005) and Anita (2009) arrived. Both sets of grandparents were a huge help to us. 2011-present: Moved to TCI (Transcoil), started out as the VP of Engineering, I became the COO in 2013 and President/CEO this year. TCI is a small (140 employees) manufacturer of magnetics and power electronics.
ashish’s’ IIT Memories
Many trips to and from RLC – usually with #LaxmanEaswaran (Laxy). Not going to classes, borrowing notes from #KiranBellare (Belly) or #AnilAggarwal (Aggy) and then complaining to them about their handwriting. An uncontrollable fit of laughter during (Maharana) Rathore’s Measurements class that almost got me suspended. Himankan – Trip with #NarendraSoman, #AtulBhadkamkar, where Atul almost drowned and Soman saved his bacon.
Ashish Bendre (Bandar)
H2, Elec
Atul Agarwal
(Bareilly)
H4, Chem MS, University of Maine, Orono
MS, PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison MBA, University of Chicago, Booth
MARRIED TO
NINA
Children’ SONIA, ANITA
MARRIED TO
Rupali Children’ -
AKSHAT, KUSHAGRA
atUL’s’ Journey
My IIT Graduate Journey, started a bit late (extended my IIT graduation until Aug’90 due to project submission), has been very simple, on an auto-pilot, which has now brought me to Kolkata where I am since last 20 years. From campus, went to Rallis India, worked in Ankleshwar Gujarat for their Pesticides project business. My journey from Gujarat to USA was unplanned, sort of unknowingly guided by friends in campus, especially SWSF & Vinod Gupta & Babua. This took me to really beautiful and chilling Maine (Univ. Of Maine at Orono) for my M.S. My arrival in maine was through Boston, landing with Deepak Bapna almost unannounced, who hand-delivered me to Maine. The lovely experiences there of my favorite Photography, added on hues of trekking, camps, and making good use snow for Skiing, especially in Sugarloaf mountains and ice skating in beautiful AlfondsArena, I can go on and on. Not to forget the amazing golden colors of fall. Came back to India leaving my Ph.D. with an EPA USA Project in August 1993. I was made to give a declaration that I am leaving US on my own (had a PhD Schol). In a way, UMaine was just planned as an experience of famed US life and fun-stop for me, since I took it as this only. But I realized later how well IIT and MS have prepared me with excellent basics. During this period, made several trips around in USA, had almost a bimonthly pilgrimage to Boston, and after leaving Maine & before landing in India, took a 2 month Amtrack pass, visited everybody from IIT that I could, to north-south, east coast to west coast. After getting bored of the travel, decided to fly back. Back in India, joined Start Paper to work on a project, and after 2 years, Joined L&T in Paper division, partnering with Voith Paper, a German organization. Ultimately, was sold by L&T along with the Paper division to Voith and am in the same place since 1996, KOLKATA. Got married to Rupali when I left Star, took some days off, and then joined L&T. The project of a new paper unit I was hired for, got shelved, and I shifted to their technical side, slowly becoming sort of a paper recycling man, and am now responsible of a business segment here. No much topsy-turvy there.
atul’s’ IIT Memories
IIT & Hostel Memories are fresh to this day, dotted
with the photograhy club and wildlife club, many wildlife club treks to ghats with laxman and jangli, the trips to Dzongri (Sikkim) and Himankan’s Har-KiDoon are still fresh in memories, so are Moods of MoodIndigo. Clearing Physics by Babua tutorials, Chem Engg by Gujju notes, gaalis of my roommates Q and Ghana, and all fun with others of NWFF, my wing. I Remember distinctly going to various friends places in various cities, including the beautiful locator at Baroda when I shouted H4 trademark in a theatre in Baroda for bagdi. Also how can we forget the only hello Rupali got over phone from Bagri before our marriage. Now we are living our blessed life with our parents and 2 sons, Akshat and Kushagra, one just finished 12 and other doing 10.
68
69
Amitabh Saraf H5, Mech M Tech, IIT BOMBAY PhD IISc Bangalore
MARRIED TO
Shubhra Children’ -
NIHARIKA, SUHANI
amitabh’s’ Journey After finishing my B Tech in Mechanical Engineering, I was amongst a very few batch mates who decided to stay back and complete my M Tech by Research at Systems and Control Engineering, IITBombay. Controls engineering and robotics were my areas of interest but I got an opportunity to learn a lot of mathematics as well under the guidance of Prof Shiva Shankar of EE. I had an opportunity to visit Centre for AI and Robotics (CAIR) of Defence Research and Development Organization at Bangalore on invitation of Dr M Vidyasagar, a very famous controls theoretician and Director of CAIR. When he showed me the facilities at CAIR I was quite impressed and decided to take up a job as Scientist that he offered. Thus started my career at DRDO in December 1992. While my basic area of interest was in robotics, CAIR was deeply involved in flight control law (CLAW) design for Indian Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). The aircraft was in its infancy that time. Due to my controls background I was pushed into CLAW activity. There were 3 different organizations who were big time competitors to take up the CLAW responsibility - HAL, NAL and CAIR. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was Head of DRDO and he said to the 3, “OK, if you think you can do it, let us have a competition. A specific set of maneuvers will be given and the aircraft should be able to perform the maneuvers in simulation. Whoever does the best will own the responsibility of CLAW design for LCA.” Competition was held and it brought out limitations of all the organizations and Dr Kalam said all of you come together and form a single team. Thus was born the National Control Law team for LCA, a group of about 20-30 people which is still intact after 23 years and has won great laurels. The team has designed control laws for all versions of LCA and the new aircraft programmes that country has taken up. The interesting fact about the team was that apart from just a few people, none of us knew how an aircraft flies and so all the EE and ME majority members learnt flight mechanics on the job! During my work I also got support from DRDO to complete my PhD which I did in Aerspace Engineering from IISC in 2001. I then moved to University of California, Irvine and did my post doc for about 2 years till 2003. This was another great moment of my life as I worked for Space Shuttle atmospheric re-entry guidance algorithms for NASA. I am currently working on systems design for the Naval variant of LCA for operations on Indian aircraft carrier ships, which includes ski jump take offs and arrested landings on the ship. I am married to Shubhra Saraf and have 2 daughters Niharika and Suhani.
amitabh’s’ IIT Memories It is so long time back but yet there are some great memories of the time spent at IIT. The first great memory is that of wet wet IIT and hostels when we took admission. All the play areas between the wings of Hostel 5 used to be covered with waist high grass and a lot of water and slush. On the day of Freshie Night, we all freshies dug up the grass by hand, created a fantastic mud pool there. Then we had a rugby match which was the first time I realized how much fun dirt and mud can be! Plus we had pleasure of dunking notorious raggers of H5 in to the mud post the match. Another interesting memory is of the prof who taught us Chemistry in Sem1. While teaching Schrodinger’s Equation he did this: d/dx(sinx)=sinx and d2(sinx)/ dx2=-sinx. And despite much hue and cry, he did not budge and I realized it is much easier to become a prof at IIT than join for BTech! I also remember the NCC camp that was organized at Dighy Camp in Pune in second year December. That was also great fun. I remember we used to sneak out and roam around MG Road in Pune and see movies there. And movies remind me of the Huma, Heena theatres at Kanjunmarg and the trek up and down the hill to see movies there. Wonder if the theatres and the trails still exist? Some good memories also come back for the PAFs and a special one organized by H5 was called ‘Phantasmagoria’. It was really a magical creation and probably the best one I saw in the whole period. Our group won the PAF that year and it was real fun. In the first Mood Indigo (1993) H5 had won the contract for organizing canteen and during the Live Wire show in MB Lawn I remember how we fleeced the drunk Mumbai rich brats coming from outside of IIT. We made enough money to buy 3 washing machines for the three wings of H5!
70
anand’s’ Journey
On a dark and stormy night.... (Just kidding!). Born in March 1969, the second and by far the most troublesome of 2 kids, I apparently showed an early and keen interest in all things engineering by taking apart various appliances at home. With an equal measure of patience and skill the parents managed to channel my “creative curiosity” (we will skip the details of a 2-3 year period when I exhaustively researched the combustion point and most efficient method for achieving combustion for practically anything I could lay my hands on....) into building things like circuits, telescopes etc. After going through 8 schools in 6 cities by 12th grade, had the happy ability to adjust quickly to new environments but a rather hodgepodge foundation in basic education (CBSE, ICSE, multiple state boards - anyone?). A fortunate early interest in reading and shameless coat tail riding of my much brighter and more diligent friends, Mayur Kapani (IIT- Kharagpur, 1990) and Dharmendra Modha (IIT Bombay, 1990) helped me get into (ghiss into?) the hallowed halls of IIT-Bombay. Spent the four years in IIT-Bombay in relative obscurity, but blissfully happy. Forged some of the strongest bonds with fellow humans in that foundry of hard work, high academic standards and low every other standard (mess food and mosquitos come to mind). After 4 exhilarating years, joined the graduate program in the department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts with the full intention of getting a Ph.D. A very difficult advisor, the thought of not having to slave for 3 more years and the easy lure of money and good weather in California saw me ditch the Ph.D. program and join Schlumberger ATE. Moved on to Cadence Design systems and spent a few years traveling the world as part of an Engineering consulting team. My frenetic travel and rootless lifestyle ended when I had the good sense to ask my future wife Vinita out on a date in late 1999 (we had known each other since 1993). We were married in 2001 and have two wonderful children – Dhruv (2005) and Diya (2009). Currently work for a small EDA company Helic, Inc. and spend any and all time I have available with my wonderful family. We visit India every year in July and try to meet as many of our old friends as we can! Looking forward to the next 25 years and the GJRU!!
anand’s’ IIT Memories
• Self taught swim lessons at the pool with Aatish Dedhia! Gallons of chlorinated water swallowed. • One of the few who rode a bike to class everyday – giving a daily ride to ML Sanjay after a soccer ankle/leg break. • Late night “cack sessions” with Ranjit Notani, Melvyn Lobo and other H2 4th wing 2nd floor freaks. • Showering in cold water and washing clothes every morning – hated piling up laundry for the weekend. • Horrible H2 mess food, but eating tons of it anyhow. • Called a “pseud” for refusing to wear flip-flops to class. • Weekend train rides back home to Prabhadevi with Rajiv Taori. • Wooden bed being burned in H2 4th wing 2nd floor corridor. Being banned for life from H2 for “knowingly not revealing the identity of the perpetrators” to the investigating committee. • Loving every minute of the 4 years!!
Anand Raman
MARRIED TO
H2, Elec
Vinita
MS, University of Massachusets
DHRUV, DINA
Children’ -
71
Yashodhan’s Journey
After completing B.Tech. , I decided to take a path less travelled and appeared for Civil Services Examination. I failed miserably . It was total !  With some reco from TRRM - an ever helping Prof. From Meta, I could land up a job in H. R. Johnson- a tile manufacturing company. After working for about 2 years, ‘ IAS keeda ‘ raised its head again . It so happened that I accidentally met with a friend who had studied with me for Civils and had cracked it. I wrote the exam again while I was in job. This time, I stars were in my favour and I cleared the exam. I got into a prestigious Indian Revenue Service( IRS ). It was 1995. After 2 years of fun filled training at Madras and Faridabad and travel all across the country, I got my first posting as Assistant Commissioner ( Customs and Central Excise ) in Pune. Thereafter,I worked in various capacities mainly in Intelligence Agencies in Pune and Mumbai . I could get chance to work in premier Agencies like DRI( Directorate of Revenue Intelligence) and NCB ( Narcotics Control Bureau ) . Presently, I am on deputation to Ministry of Shipping as Deputy Chairman, Mumbai Port. Most of these assignments were very challenging and at the same time gave tremendous job satisfaction. On personal front, I married to a beautiful doctor from Pune on 3 rd June 1997 Parth was born on 25 th August 1998 . He is pursuing his IB Diploma from a school in Mumbai . He is an intelligent boy and dreams of doing his undergrad in Mechanical Engineering in some prestigious Univ. in US. Anannya is born on 23 rd April 2009. She likes to have just fun and forced it on the entire family. Life is GOOD !
Yashodhan’s IIT Memories
There are lot of memories of IIT days. Don’t know from where to start ? First day when came to IIT with father with lot of excitement but little apprehensive of ragging in hostel. But H-9 being largely PG hostel, was not as harsh on freshers ! First encounter with seniors and tried to sneak away...He Ordered me to sing a song. And when I started, listening to my voice and ( what’s that ? ) he hastily requested đ&#x;˜œ me to stop. Though, My skills in Kabaddi made me endeared to them, subsequently. Initially, we Mumbaikars used to run away to our homes/ relatives to escape whatever ragging that was there and listen to stories over next week. .. Freshers day was the day we were all waiting for so eagerly and paid back to all seniors with interest! Slowly got used to IIT routine.. Slippers, Cycle, 8 am alarm, 8:30 lecture, 12:30 break, 3:00 pm lab and 6:00 pm Gymkhana. 8:00 pm dinner , TV, TT, Chats, walk, late night Maggi and @ H-8...though, Tests on Mondays and Thursdays were hated the most. So many New friends ... Plutonians- Ranjit Jadhav, Ajay Teredesai, Kadakia, Asthana , Chatur, so many of them... Meta junta- Navin, Senthil, Ravi Jain, Sanjay Ghag, Baldy, String ... On and on. Cross Country runs, Cycle races, Inter IIT sports meets , training camps for them, Mood Indigo, inter hostel competitions... So many things to do
72
Yashodhan Wanage
Ajay Garg H8, Civil
(Yash)
DANICS CIVIL SERVICE
H9, Meta
FE
Pb
Indian Revenue Service
MARRIED TO
Prachi Children’ -
MARRIED TO
KESHAV, ARUSHI
ajay’s’ Journey After leaving IIT, I joined civil service called DANICS. Married in 1997 to Prachi Agarwal who is a banker. Prachi and I have two kids, elder 16 years old Keshav Garg studying in 11th. Younger 13 years old Arushi Garg studying in 8th. Served in various capacity in different departments of Delhi government, Andaman and Nicobar administration, Central government and also Madhya Pradesh Govt. Presently serving in Delhi government as Special Vigilance Commissioner. As regards life journey nothing remarkable except that I am in the process of discovering the grandeur and greatness of ancient Spritual and Cultural heritage of this sacred land (Bharat bhoomi). Which I feel, could answer many fundamental questions which humanity facing collectively and individually. I would be happy to share with anyone who is interested.
Rajashree Children’ -
PARTH, ANANNYA
73
Anoop Kulkarni
MARRIED TO
H3, Elec
Children’ -
(Slower Bores)
MS, Virginia Tech MBA, University of Chicago, Booth
Manjiri SAANI, VED
anoop’s’ Journey After graduating, I wasn’t lucky enough to get a schol, but attended Virginia Tech after on my own funds. It was exciting but harrowing to depend on family resources until the schol came through. One of the professors there founded the first Wireless Personal Communications curriculum in US universities. There were several IITans including Rajguru (90) and Pimpalkhare (89) from Elec. To find a job in that field, I had to move to PacTel at Walnut Creek California, a beautiful place close to the skiing, wine country and San Francisco. I was transferred to Los Angeles for a project and I quit and moved to a startup company there. I enjoyed the intensity of the startup but we soon ran out of funds and I moved to Lucent Technologies in the suburbs Chicago. I got married to my wife Manjiri just before the move. My wife started doing her masters in Chicago and I travelled to various cities in US to deploy CDMA wireless networks there. We bought our first house in 1999. Saani, our daughter was born in 2002 and Ved, our son in 2005. There were many ups and downs at Lucent in that decade but I stayed firmly committed to them and changed my roles a couple of times, to the present role of Director, Small Cell Services PLM. I am now responsible for the services portfolio and pricing for our indoor and outdoor Small Cells product line. Back in 2010, I decided to expand my horizons on the business side and prepare for my next career move, so I started my part time MBA at Chicago Booth. The kids were in elementary school, at that time and I hated missing weekend activities and never could take a vacation in those 4 years. I finished the MBA in 2014, and we just moved into a new and bigger house which is something we had been putting off while I was taking classes. It is amazing that 25 years went by so fast.
anoop’s’ IIT Memories My first memory is a mix of lack of sleep from ragging and being bitten by hordes of mosquitoes. I would close the windows of the hostel room to keep moskies out and Danny Udgaonkar, my roommate would open them to get fresh air in, daily. They never seemed to bite him. As I advanced from the first year to the 4th, I seemed to spend more time playing carrom with Laxy, and others from the hostel. We ran the editorial board for the mood Indigo magazine with Manesh, and I realized that the guy was a writing genius. Within H3, each wing had a distinct identity (early lesson in branding). Ours was slower bores and we spent a lot of quality time drinking together, especially after a each round of exams. Then we would have gaalis and water fights in addition to more civilized hostel activities such as football matches and cross country runs. Our food was considered to be sub-standard compared to H7 which was the gold standard, and there was a strong rumor that the good eats were consumed by the mess workers before official dinner time began. Halfway through my stay they introduced the fruit dinner, and that seemed to get some life back into the food. Then I remember Himankan. My uncle and aunt trusted me to accompany my cousin Dipa who was very keen on the trek. We went to some very scenic places in Garhwal area. Unfortunately I didn’t do my job well enough and by the time the trek ended, Dipa and KK (H3) were very much enamoured with each other. It ended well with KK becoming a member of our family. I wasn’t really into academics until I had an encounter with Professor Poonacha. He was the first one to talk about problems which were yet unsolved. I remember he gave us the first ever take home exam that no one was able to crack.
74
RAJESH’s’ Journey April 1990 – Finished IIT all destined to join Reliance (in Patalganga). In the month of April 1990, decided to write a letter to recruiter in Schlumberger (as my name was not there in first list of shortlisted candidates) that I am keen to join Schlum. Ashish Asthana helped to draft this letter (I was never good with this kind of stuff). What magic he did, hurrah! Got an offer from Schlumberger on 8th May 1990. Since 18th July 1990, I am in Oil and Gas industry. Looking for oil and gas reserves, drilling and completing wells in different parts of the world. After getting trained in Alexandria (Egypt), started working on rigs in India, then in Norway (North Sea), Nigeria, Gabon and other places. In 1997, I moved from field position to technical, sales and marketing roles. Job with Schlum took me to different parts of the world. There is always action in this industry. Once I had to move from Rajahmundry to Assam in just 4 hour notice. Those days in 1991 operating in Assam was quite difficult, one had to go to well site (oil rigs) with Army. Convoy will have logging truck, engineer vehicle and Armed Escort. Second time I needed Army was in Nigeria when my location (Warri) was attacked my 300 local community hooligans. Nigerian Army had to use gun shoots to disperse the rowdy crowd. There is always excitement. Expect the unexpected. In personal front, met Dola (my sweet heart) in 1996; got married in 1997. Both of us are of the same wavelength, that why we have been married for 18 years. Recommendation for happy married life- Every 10 years of your marriage, visit Taj Mahal on a moon lit night and stay in Amar Vilas. Each room from this hotel is facing the Taj. We (Dola and myself) got to do this . Second best thing which has happened to me was when our son Rohin was born. What a bundle of joy he has been. Has been changing school quite frequently, till the time we decided that we will live in Gurgaon. Now Gurgaon is my home town since 2006. He is going to LIS, Gurgaon, enjoying the IB curriculum. Even I like reading his books. Anyway Dola is quite dedicated in teaching/mentoring Rohin for his education and career. My son is an ardent lover of dogs especially Labrador and Golden Retriever. If you have one such dog in your home and live in NCR region, please do invite him.
RAJESH’s’ IIT Memories • I loved hanging out with H9 East Wing Top Floor guys—Ashish, Shrawan, Ajay (thanks to you all providing me class notes for four years), Gyanny and others. • Always the back bencher in Mech. Eng. Classes; mastered the art of entering class from front door (even when you are late to class and the back door has been shut). • Still remember the goal which I scored during football final match between H9 and H4. • Group of 5-6 hostel mates with a cricket net and hockey sticks looking for the escaped tiger (from Sanjay Gandhi Park) in Powai area at night 1pm.
RAjesh chAKRABORTY (CHAKRU)
MARRIED TO
DOLA SON -
ROHIN
H9, MECH 75
Balasingham Gajendra (TIGER)
MARRIED TO
Komathy Children’ OVIA, NEHA
H3, Elec M Tech, RMIT University, Melbourne
amit’s’ Journey After IIT, I have lived in the Chicago area. I started by joining Northwestern University in Evanston for grad studies. Initially it almost felt like I never left IIT because my 2 roommates in Evanston were my class mates from IIT. After finishing my Ph.D. I worked at Argonne National Lab. for a couple of years doing basic research. Then I decided to take a plunge in the corporate world and joined Motorola. Interestingly I have been in the same location since then but my company has changed name many times. Motorola became Motorola Solutions, then my part got sold to Nokia Siemens Networks which finally became Nokia. Over my career at Motorola/Nokia I have played many roles and now lead a team that develops 4G LTE base stations for customers worldwide. Just as I was starting at Motorola, I married my lovely wife Aseema. We now have two boys (Veer and Gaurav).
amit’s’ IIT Memories I don’t know where to start, there are so many memories. I started as the scared kid who did not know what to expect when I joined IIT and quickly realized what a great place it was. The friendships made in IIT will last a lifetime. I can still taste the Chinese food at Shetty’s. After surviving Professor M.S. Kamath’s Basic Electric Circuit’s course I thought that I could survive anything.
GAJENDRA’s’ Journey Balasingham GAJENDRA (Tiger) EE H-3 1986 to 1990 I was an overseas student from Jaffna, Sri Lanka where I completed my primary and secondary schools. Jaffna provided the balanced mix of what was needed for a middle class people to enjoy a happy life. Excellent education, rich culture and medium town with moderate population density. In summary it was a memorable good childhood life in our ancestral home town. After the worst communal riots in 1983 followed by ongoing persecution of Tamil youths in North and East parts of Sri Lanka, many youths (including me) were desperate to leave their own traditional home land. I consider myself to be extremely lucky to get admission at the prestigious IITB. This is like winning double lottery - escaped from Sri Lanka and the great reward of IIT admission for my hard work in high school studies. I would like to stress this: When I arrived in India, I really experienced the freedom as I was able to have peaceful overnight sleeps without fearing that Army would round up an arrest youths in the early hours or while in deep sleep. I can still recollect the breeze of this freedom air I experienced 29 years back. Apart from torturous academic survival and initial home sickness, life at IIT had been excellent in many fronts such as life in a different place combined with hostel experience, variety of learning, confidence building, good feeling of being an IITan are to list a few. After graduating from IIT, I got a job in Nasik where I lived and worked during the years 1990 to 1992. Again Nashik was another wonderful experience of another kind in my life journey. First job in life, good company with comfortable accommodation in a peaceful country town. In 1992, I migrated to Australia which was a significant milestone and start of my next major chapter in my life. The Australian citizenship as well as the welcoming culture of this country provided me the legal right as well as heartfelt gratitude for me to sing ‘I call Australia Home’. For me, first half of my life had so many twist and turns, uncertainties and question marks. In Australia, after couple of years of difficult period in the Job front (due to worst recession in Australia during 1989 to 94), life has been generally predictable with gradual progress as time goes. Summarizing my life journey in Australia, I did my Master’s degree in Melbourne RMIT University. Initially worked as a Software Engineer at NEC Australia from 1995 to 2000. Then I moved Sydney to start my next job with Ainsworth Game Technology. I am still working in the same company now as a Principal Engineer and recently completed my 15 years’ of service. Outside work, over the last 2 to 3 years, we as a group of friends have been trying out small non-technical business ventures to keep our mind out of regular routine work and also to give us a sense of satisfaction that we have been trying out something different in life. All these business endeavors are in very early stages naturally with potential risks and rewards and next 2 to 4 years will tell how we fared. About family life: In 1999 I got married to my lovely wife Komathy. I have two daughters Ovia ( 13) and Neha (10). I enjoy my life in Sydney with my wife and kids along with the network of family and friends. I guess it is now time for me to get ready to deal with challenges related to teen age children as my first one just entering that age group. To summarize, life is cruising with usual ups and downs as well as with hiccups at times typical to any family life. Finally, I am truly delighted in realizing that magically I have been linked with many IIT batch mates. Something I never thought would happen in my lifetime. I have to thank Anu, KK and many others worked tirelessly with determination to make this link happen.
GAJENDRA’s’’ IIT Memories One interesting memory I wish to share... I did my high school in Tamil medium and hardly used English during our school time. So IIT was my starting point to freely try out all sorts of my English speaking talents. Following is one outcome during my first few weeks in IIT as a fresher. One Saturday afternoon, a group of H-3 senior guys gathered outside the stair case entry of my wing for their usual after lunch time pass chat. I just finished lunch and was on my way back to my room. I tried to sneak without being caught. As the seniors were looking for time pass, my wishful hope did not work out. They called me and engaged in talks particularly designed to bully freshers as well as to pass their time. During their bullying session, one guy (sorry forgot the name) told me to clean his room. Using my expert spoken English knowledge I replied to him as follows: “Dust is allergic to me!” On hearing my accidental ‘ulta’ construction, they all busted into big laugh. And that senior Idiot (remember 3 Idiots!), while laughing quickly replied: “Wow! - That is really a great tool, you simply have to enter every room and the dust will vanish in seconds from each room you enter!”. BTW, after that I found a better way of avoidance. Once out of the mess (H-3) I enter the music room right next to it first AND then check the entire corridor for clear way. If intelligent bunch gathering was out there, then the superior option for a fresher was to simply sit down and enjoy the music while flipping the Filmfair magazines.
76
AMIT MALIK
MARRIED TO
ASEEMA
(BANDE)
Children’ - VEER, GAURAV
H7, EP F1
F2 77
Ranjit’s’ Journey
Who enjoys leaving their home? I did not either. After B. Tech., I stayed behind for M. Tech. and followed my interest in studying the environmental issues. I was assigned to a new hostel but the great staff in the MB promptly honored request to let me retain my room in H-9. End of B. Tech seemed so abrupt. There were so many things that ended rudely (Was I supposed to plan for an adult life?). Staying back for M. Tech. was like having a second chance to live the life that I cherished. That was a great decision! After M.Tech., I came to the University of Cincinnati for a Ph.D. in water resources but felt the need to get some practical experience so left after finishing M.S., thinking to return after a couple of years (“Yet knowing how way leads on to way”). Fast forward15 years of consulting, kids soccer coaching, family, annual India visits; totally forgot about Ph.D. Came to a point in life where I had to make a decision- Quit the job for two years and cruise the US on a Harley or finish the Ph.D. for which I came to the US in the first place. The latter sounded less drastic! So joined the Louisiana State University Coastal Engineering. Researched hurricane storm surge and waves. Chased hurricanes to collect wave data by boat in the windy seas. Later taught as an adjunct professor at LSU. Currently, work with government clients to develop solutions to coastal restoration (I live in the Mississippi River delta which has been subsiding and eroding at an alarming rate threatening coastal communities and industry).
Ranjit’s’ IIT Memories Gathering and chatting on the second floor foyer of the Civil Engineering building Dreading the Engineering Drawing class (weekly afternoon) and rushing to get that assignment done during the lunch time Monkeying around during the lecture breaks with Abbas Q, Alok Jha, Vijesh Bagdi, Thakur… Soccer on the hostel lawns every evening with the usual gang Maradona (Sai Ganesh Iyer, Aero), Lingu (E. Mahalingam, CS), Birdie (Amruthur Bharadwaj, CS), Shanky (Shankar Krishnamoorthy, CS) et al and junta cheering from the sidelines Making rounds of Amir Khan, Aagree, Dokania’s wing during exams. Going for a jog along the pipeline road and the lakeside hills. Thanks Gun (G.N. Shrinivas, Aero) for the company. Exchanging ‘Howdys’ at the H-4 lukkhas (Alok Jha, CE et al) gathered at the corner of the balcony on the way. The Mumbai monsoon, the long walk from the MB far down to H9 under the big trees drenched in the warm monsoon rains Returning from vacation, boarding off the Mahalxmi Express at Kalyan Junction in the early morning hours, catching the Local to Kanjur Marg at the start of the new year with a heavy heart but mind full of new possibilities. Sitting for hours in the Convo Hall during the Mood-I Indian Classical Night listening to Zakir Hussein, Bhimsen Joshi… then walking back to the hostel at the daybreak. Mass yelling of “niceties” at H5 from the west wing during the electricity outages.
78
RANJIT JADHAV (JD)
H9, Civil MTECH, IIT BOMBAY MS, University of Cincinnati PHD, Louisiana State Univ
MARRIED TO
APARNA SON -
PRANAV
RAVI JAIN
Ravi’s’ Journey
H2, Meta
FE
MBA, NMIMS
MARRIED TO
ANITA
Children’ ANIRAV, PRANAV
Pb
After IIT, I straight went on to do MBA from Narsee Monjee Inst of mgmt. studies(NMIMS), Bombay . It was a “refreshing” 2 year program with a hostel life in Juhu !!!.Followed up with typical MBA routes and worked in fmcg companies selling & marketing Mach3 razors (Gillette now P&G), VIP suitcase(Blow Plast) and Parachute hair oil (Marico Ind).Got married to Anita in 1994 & have 2 basketball crazy sons Anirav & Pranav. Then the bug to get into “IT” hit & here I was with no knowledge of coding, so started life as marketing & strategy head for Satyam(now Tech Mahindra), followed up with sales stint in lovely city of Indianapolis.(home of colts & Pacers). Interacted with lots of CXOs and learnt how relationship so crucial to any business. Now I am back in Bangalore driving Analytics & Big data Biz unit for Harman Inc.
Ravi’s IIT Memories So many memories, four years of fun and learning- lots of friends, hazar “Kack” session, room no 285 -1Vth wing, swimming in beautiful pool, Khufiya Subzi in Mess, Madhuri movies in Huma/Heena. Gopi(Canteen Boy’s) sandwiches, walks near Powai and Vihar lake. I always used to look forward to weekend booze session and music in the lounge. Learnt to play bridge in 4th year. Chinese food at 1 am after “magga” session. AND Yes Mood I and various shows. Most memorable to hear Jagjit singh. Then there was PAF, Social with NM and numerous events. Excess rain were really a pain many times. 36 hour train journey back to my home in Calcutta. Loved the PJ sessions and the one we laughed most was asking a someone to become a “fan” ie you rotate and let ceiling fan be still,!!!!. Hazaar Keeda with so many friends.Met some unique people a)one person could sleep non stop for 16 hrs b)How people loose fear after “bhang” c)Many of my hostel mate could study 24 hr at stretch & no sleep !! d)one guy could play 7-8 instruments and sing beautifully. e)some real naughty one and some really shady ones I used to hate the NCC drill. I regret missing so many lectures and chance to interact with so many intelligent Prof. I still remember the long corridor route to our Meta deptt and then to “Y” point. I consider myself as lucky few to have got a chance to study & live life at IIT Mumbai
79
Gaurav Kothari
MARRIED TO
H8, CIVIL
Children’ -
(Kothari)
gautam’s’ Journey Post IIT, I went to IIMC for an MBA. Compared to the rigors of IIT, this was a laid back two years, though the exposure to stuff
nikita
KHUSHI, JAINA
gaurav’s’ Journey Coming out of IIT, I was not keen in further education. Hence I applied for job placement through campus interview. I got selected for 2 Tata companies, Tata Unisys (IT) and Tata Consulting Engineers (Civil). I ended up following my brother’s foot print and joined Tata Unisys. Out of total 13 selected during campus interview, only one other brave soul, Nilesh Thakur from IIT joined with me. I worked on several R&D projects with Tata Unisys and disappointed when my US business visa was twice rejected. I ended up travelling to Zurich, Switzerland for a development project with Startup Company to develop Airline Reservation system on open n-tier architecture. I travelled round the globe implementing airline reservation system for next 3 years. I left Tata Unisys in 1994, but continued working with the same client as Independent consultant for next 4 years. Somewhere around 1999, Swiss client got acquired by Siemens and project was put on hold. Around the same time, I got married (at much later age than typical Guajarati boy) to Ahmedabadi Girl, Nikita. And yes, it was an arranged marriage. We decided to move to USA in year 2000. I started work in NJ/NY with India based IT company called IIS Infotech (later acquired by UK based on FI group and renamed as Xansa Infotech). I spent first year working for financial industry clients in Manhattan. Even though I truly enjoyed working in vibrant Manhattan, overall quality of my life was horrible with 3+ hour daily compute from Edison to Manhattan, worse than Mumbai. I was asked to travel to Atlanta for short 4 week architecture assessment which turned out to be 5 year project with CocaCola and we ended up staying in Atlanta for good. I left consulting company in 2004 and ended up taking up full time position with CocaCola. I worked in Coca-Cola/corporate world for next 5 years till I got tired of it. I decided to venture out as independent SAP consultant in 2009. I worked on SAP Implementation project with Dr. Peppers Snapple group in Mexico City for a year. In 2010, I joined SAP consulting company called Backoffice Associates specialized in the data migration/governance space. Since then, I have been working on a long term project with Dow Chemicals, Michigan for last 5+ years. On a personal side, we are blessed and proud of both of my daughters, Khushi (9th grade) and Jaina (7th Grade). We love spending time with the family and travel around the country/abroad and exploring new places on cruises. Nikita is also working in IT as project manager. I remember when my 2nd daughter was born; one of my Coca-Cola colleagues asked me, if I have bought a Shot-gun. I didn’t understand his comment and he explained that very soon, boys hovering around my house. Now that I have 2 beautiful teenagers, I now understand what he meant. Both my girls are very active in extra-curricular activities such as Piano, Swimming, Indian Classical dance (Bharat Natyam) and Flute/Clarinet. We know that kids are with us for maximum of next 4-5 years and after than no idea, where they will end up going to college and settling. So we are trying to make best of use of short time we have together. I see myself returned back to India for retirement after 10 years or so. Let’s see where life takes us in next decade.
gaurav’s’ IIT Memories #First Income# - Since IIT days, I have been always more interested in the IT/ Software field and less in the Civil Engineering. I remember the excitement and kick that I got, when I was able to sell the software program that I had developed to design the truss to MSEB (Maharashtra State Electricity Board) for Rs. 2500. As I remember I was in 3rd year at that time and it was a big deal. I made few more sale after that as well.
like psychology and economics was pretty intellectually stimulating like only quintessential Bong profs can make happen. I landed my first job at Tata Steel, starting at Jamshedpur and then in Calcutta. Calcutta has a soul and character to it unlike any other city I’ve been in, and it was a wonderful 2 years getting to know the pulse of this city. In 1994 I jumped on to the IT bandwagon with Infosys, moving to Bangalore, and thereby closer to idli and dosa which till date remain my persistent and primary concern! Around this time I also developed a fascination for reading spiritual literature, a trait that is beautifully alive even today. I got to read the ‘Tibetan Book of Living and Dying’, and looking back I would rate it among the top five books that have influenced me ever. After a few months learning the IT ropes, I soon found my rhythm and enjoyed some great initial years at Infosys. Between 1995 and 1997, I called New York home and went to work on Wall Street, enjoying a period of intense fun at work and equally creative exploration of all the cultural delights of New York. I also connected with the Buddhist community in New York, dabbling in armchair philosophy, and learning to meditate by cozy candlelight on cold winter evenings and becoming a regular ‘dharma bum’ of sorts. From then on over the years, I’ve had the incredible good fortune of meeting many wonderful lamas, gurus, teachers and they continue to be my source of great practical inspiration. After NY, I shuttled between Bangalore and other places for a few years, spending 2 years in San Francisco, perhaps the loveliest city this side of Paris, during the dotcom era. Around 2000 (or was it 2001?) the vagaries of the dotcom cycle allowed me a gap of a few weeks between clients, and curiously, the name of ‘Kailash’ flashed thru my mind. I researched the net and figured the way to get there thru the overland route from Kathmandu, and that first trip to those snowy heights in Tibet will stay with me for the rest of my life. I have since been back thrice, the latest time this summer. Beyond words, supremely magical. Fast fwd..after 19 years with Infosys, I am now an analytics buff @LatentView Analytics, cozily settled in San Jose, and thus as close to desi roots as one can hope for in the USA. 25 years out of IIT, whatever be the future, I say Tathastu!!
gautam’s IIT Memories IIT is a blur of happy, crazy, fun memories pagal gym with the lithe Murthy (H5-Chem) voted to clamber up right to the
top before somebody buckled and our pyramid came tumbling down like the proverbial nine pins getting by with the minimum of effort thanks to the help of some conscientious folks who actually attended classes... watching the slab of butter at breakfast time remain the same as bread was served, ostensibly with butter...instead of putting butter on to toast, our mess honcho Shashi with his very fine and very economical scraping of butter actually ensured the slab of butter grew with each slice he served, by adding on bread flakes instead to the butter. am eternally indebted to Aditya Behari for this acute observation oodles of time spent gazing from my balcony at the monsoon magic and loitering around Vihar lake and going up the hills to watch sunrise and sunset the delights of mess food...or food mess...though some brave Mess Secs like Umashankar and Shinde tried to introduce rasam, much to the ghat wing’s dismay. We almost got away with rasam as a daily fixture before a major Maratha revolt put paid to dreams of rasam heaven my major trek with Himankan ‘87, a demanding yet lovely trip all the same. blisters all over my feet, but what magnificent vistas! thrilled at being part of the H5 singing choir and winning PAF in the fourth year. our voices received an extra boost with a neat shot of whiskey 2 seconds before the curtains opened, courtesy K Dinesh, our lead singing sensation. of MoodI concerts, esp the all nighter with L Shankar and Zakir Hussain...totally outstanding of being my wing’s unfailing wake up man for all exam mornings of Goonman Vikram Dwarkadas and the uniquely crafted half door to his room fashioned after a night of heavy and outrageous Diwali bombing of flicking newspapers from all the PG wings so they could be stashed away and sold later for booze...
Gautam Kumaran
PGDM, IIM CALCUTTA
(Pitaji, Peets)
H5, Mech 80
81
himanshu’s Journey I could not have enough of IIT during my B.Tech and decided to stay back for an M.Tech! After that I came to US for a PhD at Purdue University. Transition from +45 C Rajasthan to -45 C Indiana couldn’t be starker! Got married during my PhD and my wife, Anu also got her masters at Purdue. After that we moved to the bay area and have been here since. We have two kids – daughter Trishla is a junior in high school and son Sohil is a freshmen in high school. Professionally speaking, I am probably one of the few people who is still sticking to mechanical engineering! I spent first three years at Applied Materials as an engineer. Thereafter I joined Intel and developed/managed development of some of the core technologies that are used in cooling laptop computers now. Since 2007, I have been engaged in entrepreneurial activities. In my first company we developed the cooling mechanism for electronics used in the latest fighter jets (F-35). After selling that I have been involved in refrigeration space. One of the things I am proud of is a refrigeration technology that enabled the cheapest refrigerator in India – Chotukool (licensed to Godrej). In my current startup, Inficold, we are developing power backup solutions for Air Conditioners such that they can continue to provide cooling during power outage. Other products based on the technology is an off grid cold storage system for the Indian market to reduce the food spoilage due to lack of access to reliable electric power.
himanshu’s IIT Memories #Wingjunta Siting on the tables just outside the mess during Tiffin time with all the wingmates - Kram, Baldy, Rajki, MG, String, Gandhi, Shrikar, Harry and talking endlessly. #Bhang After ingesting the spiked Thandai in Third year Holi, it was total tamasha scene. Still remember Baldy, one of the sober ones, cleaning with buckets whatever others had thrown up in the wing. #H6ME1990 On the terrace just before the IE/OR endsem exam in Eight semester with Amlai and Jaggu teaching the rest of the Mech junta (Sirsi, Rajki, Phani, Udit, Kabra, Somu, Bheed) whatever we did not learn during the semester. #Grub Local Bombay junta (Shrikar, MG, Rajki) bringing home food for the rest of non-Bombay junta. It helped us get through the hostel food. #Harish Walking all the way to YP to have a Chai with Vinchhi (1991) and Paria (1992).
82
Himanshu Pokharna (POKHI)
H6, Mech
MTECH, IIT BOMBAY PhD, Purdue University MBA, Wharton
MARRIED TO
ANU
Children’ TRISHLA, SOHIL
Hitesh Vadalia (VADA)
H3, Chem
MS, Polytechnic University, New York
MARRIED TO
RUPAL
hitesh’s’ Journey I think it must be quite common to state that the life after IIT has been shaped by what we did and what IIT did during the 4 year stay. I think it was not a single journey that I went through, it was multiple journey, one journey was to achieve excellence in learning, another involved appreciation of the nature and eventually the linkage between various life forms in nature and how delicate is the balance - which is a must for each engineer to know, yet another journey involved the path to become a creator - creator of innovative products, creator of new social culture etc. So it was like metamorphing into a butterfly from a caterpillar. My main motive was to learn and than use the learning to improve the image of India that we are not only capable of creating great companies and great wealth not only outside of India (mainly USA) but also in India. So after I did my Masters at Polytech University, NY in Polymers I came back to India immediately and after a short stint joined our family business of manufacturing Nickel Catalyst. Today I am satisfied to say that I created a global leader in the name of Monarch Catalyst in the hydrogenation catalysis field. Now after selling off the company I have embarked on a new journey - to create another leader in non-hydrogenation catalyst field. Don’t know whether I will succeed or not but the learning is more important to me, as some say the journey is more important than the destination. Another aspect which is very close to my heart is nature and wild life, this is for a person, who could not differentiate between a Maina and a Bulbul during his childhood. It is all because of the multifarious extra-curricular activity which was made possible by IIT that I could learn this aspect much more important than the engineering itself. It gave a very different perspective in life - to achieve zero wastage in whatever we do, to make processes as close to 100% efficiency as we can and minimise the impact on the nature due to our activity. I think this aspect should be stressed a lot more with the present generation of engineers, who I have found to be much more sensitive towards nature but is not in tune with it & best way is to enrol them into nature and wildlife activity. Also due to my dear friend Vivek Khare’s persuasion I started to read English literature which hitherto I had not tried due to my vernacular background and this really led me to become much better in English language.
83
SANJEEV CHHABRA H7, CS
FE
PGDM, IIM AHMEDABAD
Pb
MARRIED TO
VERNIKA Children’ PARTH, PRANAV
SANJEEV’s’ Journey Regrets, I’ve had a few. But then again, Too few to mention. -- Paul Anka
SANJEEV’s IIT Memories A week or so after arriving, three or four of us (Sanjay Nagrare? Joydeep?) decided that we could wake up at 4, and creep down to Bombay before the seniors awoke. Then we would have a glorious day in Bombay, without ragging, and see the stars of Bollywood. The first problem was that none of us was clear on the location of Y-Point, and if it was the same as Main Gate. Secondly, it was raining buckets. Third, we had no idea how the bus system worked, or the train system, or what was the difference between Central and Western, or where exactly Andheri was.
SANJEEV’s’ Journey Before reaching IIT, I had a very playful and fun childhood growing up in small townships in Namrup (Assam), Bathinda and Nangal (Punjab). Days were filled with all kinds of sports apart from school / studies and was always outside the house playing till nightfall. Life in IIT was no different except it now also included chatting till late into the night, movies and venturing into the City besides acads. Didn’t bunk any classes to the best of my memory in the 4 years there. Since the beginning at IIT was not enamoured with the idea of going to the US. Was not clear of what I wanted to do but was sure that I did not want to go to the US for the sake of going to the US. Did appear for GRE but then dropped everything that had anything to do with applying abroad. MBA seemed like a good option if I wanted to stay in India. Got through IIM and completed MBA from Ahmedabad in 1992. Finance seemed interesting and more analytical – more to my liking. 2 years in Ahmedabad was lots of fun – felt better than the years at IIT since IIM was more compact, made many more friends and close friends, enjoyed more working on group projects. 2 years went in a blur. Passed out and joined Bank of America. Initial years were equally fun and interesting – notwithstanding the 1992 stock market scam, India was opening up and financial services was an exciting place to be. Moving to Mumbai after couple of years of training / internship in Chennai, gave me an opportunity to get involved in interesting deals – Dabhol financing, telecom projects financing among many others. On the personal front, married Vernika in Oct 1994, who I had known for many years. She is very similar in views, beliefs, values and a true friend and soul mate. Parth came into our lives in 1996 on this very day (Nov. 22) – have just wished him his 19th birthday (as I am writing this!!). Pranav made us second time parents in Nov. 2000. Professionally, continued with Bank of America till 2001 and then changed to ING / ING Vysya Bank till 2003 and moved to Standard Chartered in Jan 2004 and have been there for the last almost 12 years. After almost 17 years in Mumbai, moved to Singapore in May 2011 and have been here for the last 4 years. Vernika is a special educator and works with children with special needs / learning difficulties besides taking care of the home and the three men in her life. Parth has just gone to college in the US while Pranav is in Grade 9 and enjoying our sole attention.
We made it into town (either Bandra or Juhu), and spent a miserable day on what looked like a beach. Wet, we decided to watch a movie, and ended up buying tickets in black for Janbaaz, and crept back to hostel tired, hungry (do I need to mention drenched?). I spent years avoiding the City after that. I still am. To rub it in, a month later, I volunteered for Techfest (remember that)? I was asked (I think it was a H3 GSAA, Apte?) to deliver an invite to someone in Wagle Estate, Thana. I knew Thane, of course; the first railway in India had run from Bombay to Thana in 1853. My only issue was: was Thana on the Western Line (get a train from Bombay Central) or the Central (get a train from VT)? (Have I mentioned my capacity for useless trivia?). And how do I make reservations for the Bombay-Thana train? I spent a week thinking about this, and finally asked some seniors. We shall move on, now. I missed the Director’s welcome speech, the one about being Cream, or something. I had already been churned enough that week, over the next few years, I was cooked as well. Ghee, is what I think I became. But I suppose I found love there. Truly, the faculty adored and missed me; unlike others, I spent thirteen semesters there, even being invited each year to stay on for the summer. How many of you can say that?
SANJEEV’s IIT Memories o Nervously waiting for the IIT JEE results and couldn’t believe when I was told that I had got 307 rank. Counseling at IIT Delhi and being made to strip for the medical with 10s of other boys! o Got Electrical Engineering at IIT Bombay – started seeing Bombay in any movie I saw after that in a different light as ‘my’ city o Entering the IIT Main gate with Dad, going to MB, checking the hostel list and reaching H7. Taken aback by guys in t-shirts, jeans, chappals – complete opposite of what I had expected IIT to be o Ragging for first month or so – at that time – felt weird - why do we have to go through this? UGs vs PGs o Mess food – getting used to fishing for paneer in ‘Mutter-Paneer’ and fishing for mutter in ‘Aloo-Mutter’! Slowly realized everyone said H7 mess is probably the best! o Labs / practicals in first year – welding, lathe – thinking .. is this what engineering is about? o Hostel elections – groupism of all kinds .. if this happens in IIT, what about the country? o NSO Badminton – enjoyable and fun. Great bunch of seniors. Awestruck watching seniors like Amin (batch of 1987). Awesome coach in Parmanick Sir. o First time home after first sem exams – getting up at 4 am to go to Bombay Central to book train tickets 90 days in advance to get confirmed berths!! o First Mood I – culture shock.. o First year – slowly adjusted to life in IIT – made friends amongst senior and batchmates – Vinod, Berry, Sexy, Gabbu, Shashi,.. o Department change to Computer Science and roll number from 860413 to 860735. Very nervous about scope for computer science which was all about ‘software’ o Memories after that more of a blur.. o Getting up just in time and running to be in time for the first class at 9:00 am with bread / omlette sandwich in hand o Trips to City – watch movie at Sterling, go to Marine Drive, have dinner at Sundance Café (Churchgate), troop back on the last local from VT around 12:30am o Walk to Vihar lake during exams – hamara kya hoga? o 3rd year industrial training – Godrej at Vikhroli .. only good thing I remember is good breakfast and ‘cutting chai’ outside the gate o Inter-IIT badminton at IIT Kanpur in 1989 – hard practice for 10 days, and then ‘Gold’. Awesome team. o Final year – BTPs, applications and scholarships and admissions – excitement in the hostel and department, I getting calls for IIM and getting selected at IIMA o Tragedy – close friend and wing-mate Rahul Sharma left us – drowned just after we had finished.
84
Sanjeev Gupta
MARRIED TO
H4, Civil
Children’ - NIKITA, KUSH
(Ghane)
SunIta
85
kashyap’s Journey
Folks: Not so much to write home about myself. But since Anu is insisting, I will give it a go! I graduated from Metallurgical engineering and did RA giri at the Materials Science Centre at IIT-Bombay for a year. I worked on thin film deposition of Silicon nitride (Chemical vapour deposition) using equipment that we developed in house. It was quite challenging dealing with equipment required to operate at very low pressure levels. I had to interact with folks from many different departments like glass blowers, metal tube shaping folks etc. to build the CVD apparatus. This project developed my interest in thin films and semiconductors and I went on to pursue my Masters at North Carolina State University at Raleigh. North Carolina is a very pretty state being flanked by the Blue-ridge mountains on one side and the Atlantic shore on the other. My research work at NCSU was on solgel deposition of thin films of high dielectric constant material called PZT (Lead zirconate titanate); a material used in FRAM (ferroelectric random access memories) chips today. I took courses in semiconductors and circuit design and developed a liking for it. I graduated from NCSU with a Masters in Materials Science and EE. I was enrolled in the doctoral program in semiconductor devices. But since I was getting more inclined to pursue a career in circuit design, I decided to take up an offer in the west coast with a semiconductor company by name Conexant Systems in Irvine, CA. I relocated down to southern California and joined the DSP group at Conexant systems in 1999. The warm climate in Irvine made the move easy for us. I was with Conexant family of companies (Conexant/Jazz) for ~6yrs before I took up an offer from Qualcomm Inc. in San Diego. I moved to San Diego CA in 2006 and worked in the digital IP division (Standard cell / Memory design group) for ~7yrs. I relocated to Bangalore after over 21 years in US and it has been quite a challenge adjusting here. The hardest thing to adapt to is the heavy traffic in the city. I have been braving the traffic on outer ring road for over 2 years now, which is no mean feat in itself! I worked at the Qualcomm site down here for ~2yrs. Currently I am contracting with Avago technologies and working on 10nm memory compiler design and development. I have many fond memories of my days at IIT. Going out for a long jog in the campus, playing hockey and being part of the inter-iit hockey team. Also, I recall going down often to H6 on a bi-cycle to discuss assignments with classmates. My 3rd year seminar project on computer modelling of heat transfer was quite memorable. Spent long hours in the computer lab with Vinuth and it was my first tryst with programming!
86
Kashyap Bellur (Kash)
FE
Pb
Meta
KARTIK ANANTH (HARRY)
FE
MS, North Carolina State University
H6, Meta
MARRIED TO
MS, University OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
PRABHA
Children’ - SUPRIYA, SHAMAA
MARRIED TO
Pb
ARUNDHaTI DAUGHTeR’ - KAVYA
kartik’s Journey
Life after leaving Powai resulted in my landing in the city of angels LA @ USC where I purportedly spent more than a few years on some academic pursiots and a lot of extra curricular activities also...after completing a couple of masters degrees in materials science and EE and not defending my doctorate due to more lucrative offers that landed on my doorstep...I went on to pursue a career in research and development at Motorola semiconductor in Austin Texas....following which I joined a startup back in my old stomping grounds in LA ..which was a fun experience when it lasted and luckily through the dot com post era got acquired by Intel where I have spent it seems an inordinate amount of time...14 years now. My work @ INtel is as far removed from my education in metallurgy...but its been a fun learning experience on multiple different jobs and rotations...now I am a principal engineer based in Portland, Oregon working on system and SoC architecture related aspects related to Intel’s various forays (many not too successful) on phones/tablets and mobile devices...
kartik’s IIT Memories
Have very fond memories of my days as a hexalite ..from the 1st days of arriving there and being paired w/ my roomie Kram...(whom I also roomed up with in my graduate school years @ USC) meeting and forming very long lasting bonds with all my ‘southie wing junta’ Rajki, Shrikar, Pokey, Baldy, String, Gandhi, Kram. Being ragged through the wee ours of the morning being asked to drag my guitar and perform (not just musical tempo’s) at the whim of seniors. Late night last minute cram sessions before finals then ditching all that for a H8 chinese corner chop suey and vada pav and chai. Shooting the breeze , singing songs bunking some afternoon labs for naps. Trying out for all sorts of freshie cultural activities debates, drama, some hostel whats the good work, quizzes etc. PLaying carrom and TT through the night, listening to Pink Floyd , Dire Straits @ 2 am. Suffering through the food in the mess with Shekar the canteen boy with his pastried and treats being a life saver apart from Vadilal and RK/Laxmi’s outside Y point. Trying to be ‘social’ but greatly disappointed..at the yearly/ bi yearly event where we got some visitors from other colleges Life in the meta dept. was relatively easier than the 1st year RGer and all the 9 pointer CS/EE junta...more easy going folks w/ some easy going profs. TRRM/ BTR/PKR and PKP lectures are all a very very distant memory I remember not learning about corrosion, electro slag refining and power metallurgy . Fun times w/ batch mates outside H-6 especially PK/Ravi Jain my lab partner/ Fata/ Alluri/ Kashy/ Senthil. Inter IIT TT, going w/ String, GN and some others for Mardi Gras was fun. Post end sem late night/all night special film screenings, going into town into VT/Dadar for movie and food and catching the last train back walking up fro mKanjur marg station once. POuring rains and trying t ocycle to lectures or bumming rides ... BTP and applying for schols and schools in the final year but partying @ Mood I every year and the rock concert and the all night classical being especially brings back great memories. Best of all nothing academic but all the friendships, life building skills and relationships through the four years bring back such great memories...
87
Vinuth Prasan H9, Meta
MARRIED TO
FE
Pb
Rajashree Children’ -
SUKUMAR, SRINATH
MS, BITS Pilani PGSEM, IIM Bangalore
Vinuth’s’ Journey 1994: As I was interested in computer programming, I did a certification course (CCST) in software development from NCST Bombay (now merged with C-DAC). 1995: My father suddenly expired and the family moved to Bangalore. 1996: Started working in ABB India as a Systems Engineer. My first assignment was in DB development in Oracle. 1997: Moved to Corporate Office in ABB and developed a Coal Handling Plant design software for ABB Delhi. 1997: Completed PGDST (PG Diploma in SW Tech), a part-time program from NCST, Bangalore. 1998: Got married to Rajashree on Feb 6. 1999: Moved to Sundaram Telematics, Chennai, a TVSE company, working on projects for Motorola Bangalore. 2002: Worked in Motorola Bangalore in development of Motorola cellphone User Interface Service platform. 2003: Moved to Samsung India Software Operations, Bangalore, working in development of Samsung’s proprietary Handset Platform. 2003: Birth of my first son, Srinath, on Aug 23. 2004: Completed MS (Software Systems) from BITS Pilani through distance education 2005: Appeared for GMAT, scored 770/800 and applied to top 5 US Management Universities. Got rejects from all of them. 2005: Birth of my second son, Sukumar, on Oct 30. 2007: Joined PGSEM (PG Diploma in SW Enterprise Management), a part-time Management Program for IT professionals in IIM Bangalore. 2008 - 2014: Moved to Program Management role in Samsung India, managing software development programs ranging from entire mobile phone based on Windows Mobile 6, to Linux kernel customizations for Android phones and Android OS upgrades for Tab 3 for Sprint operator in NA. Learnt a lot during this time and 2013: Completed PGSEM from IIMB. 2013: My mother expired on Jul 30. She had been the pillar of strength during my toughest times. 2015: Moved from technical role to operations in Samsung Bangalore as head of Project Management Office.
Vinuth’s IIT Memories I enjoyed our hostel trip to Mahabaleshwar in the first year. I loved the Main Library and enjoyed browsing through books on different subjects which broadened my view considerably. I saw some great movies in IITB Film Festival like Out Of Africa. During Mood Indigo, I went to a ghazal recitation by Peenaz Masani. When she explained difficult Urdu and Persian words in plain English, I began to enjoy the wonderful world of Urdu ghazals by Ghalib, Faiz and others. I loved the evening gupshup sessions in our hostel mess after classes. I loved the GRE practice sessions with Sanjay Roy and taking walks in the campus with him. I am indebted to Prof. PK Pattnayak and Prof. PK Rao for their encouragement and guidance during my studies in IIT.
Vivek’s’ Journey Life has been quite a ride but not as much fun as IIT. Losing my Dad in the third year at IIT luckily made me stay in India but then I did an MBA and never worked as an engineer. The first contradiction. In fIrst half of my career I was a consultant, mostly with McKinsey, and the IIt training helped but I did practically nothing as an engineer. The next half has been running engineering companies and currently in civil engineering - a subject I never enjoyed. The second big contradiction of my life.
Vivek’s IIT Memories Most of my real close IIT memories cannot be shared - Nath, Ravi Jain, ML, Senthil, Badboo, Babu and I did things which are best not mentioned in open forum. I got my nickname Daku at IIT and since I live up to the name, it has done me lots of good - most do not not forget my name for starters. I had my first drink At the end of year one with Gopi, Sandeep and others since they want to borrow my music system. We had old monk neat and I do not recall much of the night. The next best drinking memory is that of “Santra” - every time someone got a schol. I am hoping to repeat the fun in the SGRU. Class had to be done but now when I think back the innovation that Prof Srinivas Rao tried teaching us or discipline that Prof Dhamdhere instilled or integrity that Prof GV tried to teach - all have helped in the run so far. All of us were so tense in the last year trying to figure what to do next - Senthil showed a new dimesion and continues to be a great networking guy. Some of us were sporty - thinking back not many - ML was an inspiration for antics on the field, and Madilat for football +++. I started bunking class on every Thursday in my last year - my first girl friend from NM used to come to Aarey On wed nights. Would love a mid week beak even now but not at Aarey. Mood I was brilliant fun esp the music fest - this was a passion I discovered in IIT and still listen to some of he numbers we used to play in the hostel. Still love to dance with friends but cannot shake my leg as I used to. The movies at Heena and Huma and the chats after that were funny with Senthil and Nath - and we could cycle back and forth on the hill. Powai lake never caught our interest but swimming in vihar was good fun. Also, sometimes I still laugh at how we tried to patao Prof Bhatacharya’s young wife!!!! Life was a lot of fun.
Vivek Rastogi (Daku)
H2, CS
MARRIED TO
priya
PGDM, IIM Ahmedabad 88
89
Bharadwaj’s’ Journey After my BTech, a two year internship at the inspirational AT&T Bell Labs pretty much sealed my fate as to my future path - which was to obtain a PhD and spend time in research. Fortunately for me, Stanford University gave me an admission in their graduate program in the Electrical Engineering department. Spent a fantastic 6 years in what I consider to be one the most “complete” universities to obtain my Masters and PhD. I also graduated into the grihastashrama at this time in partnership with my lovely wife Vidya. Spent the next 6 years working in the Bay Area in Agilent labs followed by a stint in a startup. In between, our beautiful daughter, Deepta, graced our family. The pull of mother and motherland was too strong by this time (or perhaps it was the push from the rat race of the bay area), so decided to relocate to India. Was not sure what to do in India - so took a chance in applying to IISc Bangalore. Luckily for me, got a job in the ECE department there as an Assistant Professor. Been there for the past 11 years now - would say it is one of the best places to work for in India. Meanwhile, our adorable son Aarush showed up! Also could spend quality time with my grandfather and mother - before both decided to move on! Time at IISc has been really satisfying - been able to influence (positively I hope) many a student both within IISc and at many other institutions around the country.
Bharadwaj’s’ IIT Memories #examprep: Late night cramming for exam with notes borrowed from Shanky #pileon: Raid home-cooked grub from punters who just returned from home #ReProxy: When the “scum of the earth (The BTachs)” were asked to leave class because they proxied attendance - they suddenly got a conscience and prepared an apology note with signatures which incorrigibly still had a proxy signature! #chaitimes: Chai at the humanities department - especially made more alluring when a class you were supposed to attend was going on! #footySwamp: footy with the aggressive bongs in the hostel lawns #literatureStudy: gaining worldly wisdom by reading taboo rags handed down from hostel room to room #RIPRavikumarRamamurthy: Early morning wakeup shout across the wings from Ravi with a brush in his mouth: “Teredesai homework kiya kya? Nahi kiya?” #ViharSojourns: Run along the pipeline, climb up the vihar hills, look across the lake and strain to hear the sounds of normal life from homes outside the campus.
90
Bharadwaj Amrutur (Birdy)
Bharat Shyam H9, CS
H9, CS
MS, Stanford University
MS, Stanford University PhD, Stanford University
MARRIED TO
MARRIED TO
LAXMI
Children’ DEEPTA, AARUSH
SARAH
Children’ LILA, SAM
bharat’s’ Journey
It seems premature to talk about my life’s journey because I feel it has a long way to go. The past has been about experimenting and making mistakes and as they say youth is wasted on the young - and so as I have gained perspective on life, I am eager to put all that experience to better use. I mostly dabble in software and software services. I co-founded a company that was acquired with a great outcome for employees and investors and I am working on possibly creating another one. I have invested in a handful of others as well. What I have learned about myself is that I am not very good at tolerating the thumb wars of corporate life and so I now try to start things on my own or fund new ideas. Other than realizing that corporate life is not my cuppa, I have also learned the importance of creating and participating in a community and I am happy to have lived longer on Mercer Island than in any other city. I love the satisfaction that comes from trying to contribute to our community in small ways. In addition to family, friends and the little Island that I call home, I have a handful of causes that animate me and I would like to contribute to them over the coming years. These include creating sane gun control laws so we can have a less violent US, giving back to Indian society from which I have taken so much and helping poorer areas in the world that do not have adequate water. I like to read, see movies, travel, meet up with friends and spend time with my family. Aside from hoping for all the best for my family and friends, my only real burning desire is to have the health and the mental acuity to keep working till I am in my 90s.
bharat’s’ IIT Memories
Wow - there are too many memories to list them all but here are a few in a stream of consciousness. I discovered the true meaning of god and religion under the influence of hallucinogens in H9 and that rapidly led to my realizing how easy it is to manufacture these emotions and become a real agnostic or atheist in the years after. The memories of Mahalingam studying in his lungi with a towel wrapped around his head and sitting on his desk reading my notes after I went to sleep and then acing the tests while I got a B still hurt Lingam’s PC Sorcar magic show while I slaved on the project! Tossing somewhat late homework in to the office of the professor so it landed exactly on the pile they had not yet graded - should have taken up basketball. Romantic walks up Vihar hill with my first girlfriend and then trying to replicate that same feeling unsuccessfully with subsequent girlfriends. Silly? Being fascinated by Operating Systems and having that joy live on for a few decades until it finally burned its course after I helped ship Operating Systems that are used by a billion people. Proud that someone I knew and worked with wrote code that runs on the Mars Rover (Rajeev Joshi) wow! Chasing a fox up and down the hills around Vihar lake as I jogged in the hills and by the lake several days in a row. Trying to balance partying with East wingers (Chuck, Joga, Cutie, Gyani, Shrawan …) and studying with West wingers and mostly failing at both. Maharashtra #1 Shankar freaks out when a slacker like me gets a much better SPI in the first semester. Balance is restored to the universe by 8th semester as this inspires Shankar to crack and crack again and thank goodness for his notes - helps Lingam to PGM. Waking up on the roof of a bus, wondering how I got there. Awed by the things that my batch mates have done over the years and looking forward to more. Memories of Ananda and Egg Sandwiches & Banana milk shakes late at night at the H9 canteen. Grateful to Shankar, Birdie, Krishna (Batch of 91), Devesh and others for being there for me selflessly on March 12th, 1993 and the horror that I lived with afterwards. Panther in the backyard, Snake in a bed. What happened to my bike that I left behind on campus? Still proud of resisting ragging as a freshie and trying to stop it in the next 3 years. Abomination. Wish I had not been forced to take so much math - I have forgotten it all. I wish I could have taken at least 3 more literature classes. Working with Prof DMD on my BTP and learning from his attention to detail and passion. Those who were there know who said it – “You’re not the cream of the nation but the dust of the country going and settling in America”. Undieman! 91
Chaitanya Rajguru (Guru)
H10, Elec
MARRIED TO
RASHMI Children’ -
SOURABH, SAARANG
MS, Virginia Tech
chaitanya’s’ Journey Hi friends! It is nice to share something with you. I am sure there are many experiences we have had in common. I grew up in a middle class environment in Pune. I am not sure how I ended up in IIT despite being somewhat relaxed about studies, but there I was, entering H7 with curiosity and sweaty palms. The four years went swiftly by … I applied to US universities in my fourth year like all IITans are supposed to. Unfortunately I didn’t land a scholarship, but still went ahead with financial support from several very kind well-wishers. I joined Virginia Tech (Go Hokies!) to get my Master’s degree in EE. Life has been smooth sailing for me generally … I joined Intel in Folsom, California to be part of their Flash memory design team. I rate that stage as the next most influential in my life: my IIT years molded me as an individual, while my Intel years molded me as a professional. I am extremely grateful for both. After several years of enjoying a bachelor’s life, I decided that life should get more exciting. I got married to Rashmi, who happened to be a friend’s sister. In due time, two sons arrived, Sourabh and Saarang. Rashmi’s hands were full with the challenges of having two young kids at home and a husband buried in work. As Sourabh reached school age, we moved to Bangalore. Moving back to India was always a wish, and we have no regrets. Intel made the transition easy, and Intel Bangalore had more nice people to work with. After five years, we made another move to Pune to be closer to family and friends. Currently, I am working to establish new technology-based business for KPIT Technologies. Overall, it has been quite an engaging journey on all fronts – work, family life, kids growing into their own personalities, and of course the fun times. Sometimes, my life trajectory feels like a successful lab experiment: you predict the projectile motion from theoretical calculations, and the experimental numbers are happily within 5%! That is cause for both, celebration and discontent. The discontent comes from the fact that lab experiments are conducted in a controlled environment to achieve predictable outcomes. Is there no ‘out-of-the-box’ result? Is the nonlinear transistor missing, making for a passive RLC circuit? Of course, RLC offers its own laid-back pleasures, as all IITans know (some from more hands-on experimentation than others). So that seems to be a good choice too. But I wonder … and the journey continues …
chaitanya’s’ IIT Memories During my fresher days, I was pulled into the institute dramatics club. I was not unwilling, as it meant fewer hours of ragging … It was a blast, helping with the stage setup and lighting, playing minor roles, laughing away at practically nothing … Later, participating in PAF’s was equally fun. I went on a few outings from the hostel, and all were totally memorable. The Bheemashankar trek from the ‘ladder route’ and our precarious money position on the return leg; the Lohagad trek, in which we knew we were on the right road, but couldn’t tell which one of the two forts ahead was Lohagad; the Kihim beach day trip. Neelesh Thakur gave us a graduation treat by hosting us in a beachside bungalow owned by his uncle (Kihim again?). The lounge / music room initiated me to rock music from day 1, always played very loud. ‘Smoke on the water’ and ‘Hotel California’ were played several times per evening, mixed with ‘Country roads’ and ‘Joy’ by The Ventures. The TT, chess, bridge, and carom area was the domain of seasoned players and expert commentators. Due to the darkness there, it had a mysterious and philosophical vibe. The department folks were an interesting, mostly serious-looking bunch of students. (Only recently did I find out about some of the extra-curricular goings-on in those days. They were really advanced even then!) We were lucky to be taught by KCM, MSK, SDA, SCS, HN, JV, ANC, KVVM, PGP, RKS, PCP, and several other professors who somehow squeezed a lot of abstract stuff into our brains. I still remember ANC’s dimpled, mischievous smile when he gave us an ‘open-sheet’ exam on semiconductors. It drove everyone crazy, cramming hundreds of complicated and useless formulae on one sheet. Inter-IIT and Mood-I were two other ‘seasons’ in the academic year. There were the innumerable ‘in between’ moments as well … going dubs on bicycles up the MB slope, swimming in Vihar lake in the moonlight, polishing off the Sunday brunch of aloo parathas topped with spoonfuls of butter, the heavy rains and the accompanying smells & bugs, half-heartedly hunting for an escaped leopard with torches while hoping we wouldn’t find it, the famous and rejuvenating ‘Chandran ka lime’ in the H7 canteen, and more than anything else, the ever-refreshing cack sessions on Marine Drive, in the wings, at RK / SP, everywhere. Too soon, before I knew it, I was attending my convocation, and was out of IIT! Then we left IIT. But how will IIT ever leave us?
92
chandra’s’ Journey I pursued B.Tech. programme in Civil Engg. in IIT Bombay
from the year 1986 to 1990. Thereafter I joined Indian Administrative Service (I.A.S.) in the year 1992. Since then I have worked in various administrative capacities in Odisha state . Particularly I worked in the field of Social, Rural, Edication, Health and Nutrition and Economic Development. During this period I further pursued higher studies. I pursued Masters in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ ID) in Harvard University, U.S.A. from the year 2002 to 2004. Thereafter I pursued Ph.D. in Applied Economics and Management (AEM ) in Cornell University, U.S.A. from the year 2006 to 2009. At present I am working as Transport Commissioner in Odisha Government. My academic upbringing in IIT Bombay has immensely shaped my professional career and in executing my responsibilities with full commitment and rectitude. It has always guided me in exploring the greater potentials of responsibilities and carrying out the same with the best abilities. The contribution of further studies is also immense. The contribution of professors and staffs are too immense to mention here. However, I must some of these names here - Prof. V.D. Dikshit, Prof. R.S.Aiyar, Prof. Mohan Kalani, Prof. B.S.Pani, Prof. Tarun Kanth, Prof. P. Bnaerjee, Prof. Dhingra and Others. I got married in the year 1997. My wife’s name is Shweta Alpna. She teaches in KIIT University in Bhubaneswar . I have one son and one daughter. My son’s name is Atindra Shekhar, he studies in class X. My daughter’s name is Vishakha Shekhar. She studies in class V.
chandra’s IIT Memories I lived in H4 from the year 1986 to 1990. Living with
hostel mates and some of the best friends had been one of the most enjoyable periods in my life. I had great moments with - Alok Jha, Atul Agarwal , Brijesh Bagdi, Deepak Bapna, Vinod Gupta, Mahesh Venakatachalm, AKN, Vijay Harlapur, Milind Kolhatkar, Joglekar, Feroze Kanchwala, Qureshi, Nagrare and Others. I also learnt a great deal from Naresh Gurbaxani (cross country), Asit Gopal and others. The contribution of mess staffs is unforgettable.
CHANDRA KUMAR
MARRIED TO
H4, CIVIL
Children’ -
(BABUA)
SHWETA ATINDRA, VISHAKHA
MPA/ ID, Harvard University PhD, Cornell University 93
VIKAS DABRAL
MARRIED TO
H4, Elec
Children’ -
(Dabbu)
vinay’s’ Journey
Mukta
ADITYA, AMEYA
PGDM, IIM Calcutta
After graduation in 1990, I worked for 1 year in BEL, Bangalore. Bangalore was then less than half its current size. It was chilling time before embarking for MS at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg. Bucolic setting in Blue-Ridge Moutains was a perfect landing spot for coming to a completely new country. This was followed by a short trip north to suburbs of Washington DC where I worked at Hughes Network Systems for 7 years. During the intervening period, married Sangeetha in Dec’94. Our first child - Bhavna was born in 1999 followed by Pallavi in 2003. After working for a few startups in Washington DC area, I made a move to Qualcomm in San Diego in 2003. It has been home since then.
vinay’s IIT Memories A couple of weeks before joining as a freshie, I was brought down by a bout of typhoid. Recovery took almost a month, so ended up at the campus a couple of weeks later than opening day There was no sympathy for me as far as ragging goes. One of the seniors nicknamed me Typhie. Fortunately that name did not stick for too long :). During Holi of our 3rd year, the Bhang created in our H-6 mess had been spiked up real good. Lot of folks who consumed it had severe hallucinations. I remember walking past Dron Jaroria room. He was clutching the bars of the window, and almost shrieking - “Guys, I am sinking into a well. Pleeease help!” Since he has the prankster of the wing, a bunch of us had a big laugh and did not take him seriously. Next morning when I heard similar stories from other folks, and recollecting his horror filled expression, I realized Dron wasn’t kidding. Folks from H-6, including String( in WhatsApp) are still recounting that day.
vikas’s’ Journey After four years of D-notgiri at IIT I found myself selling electric motors at Kirloskar Electric. After couple of years I went to IIM Calcutta, hoping to try my fortune in another industry. At IIMC I realised that age did not make me any wiser and I still struggled to attend lectures. After graduation I worked at SCICI for a couple of years in the Treasury. A bet with friends who offered a free flight and I found myself working for Swiss Bank Corporation in Singapore, trading Foreign Currency Options. Swiss Bank moved me to London, then US and back to London. In 2005 after nearly 10 years at SBC/UBS I decided to quit to pursue other opportunities. Finance jobs were easy to find in those days and I joined Citibank shortly thereafter. I moved to Singapore for a year and then back to London to set up Foreign Exchange derivatives business at Lloyds Bank. After 7 years at Lloyds I left to take a career break. On a personal front I married Mukta in 1998. Mukta is a Textile Design graduate from NID Ahmedabad. In 2000 we had a son named Aditya. Aditya is now preparing for GCSE’s (10th Board equivalent). He is a keen follower of politics/world events and has his own blog (www.pertinentproblems.com) where he writes about US/UK/ Indian politics and major news events. We had a second son Ameya in 2003. Ameya is interested in technology and hopes to become a Doctor. Both my sons won the school Spelling Bee challenge, an area where second generation Indians seem to excel. We should declare it a sport and try to get it added to Olympics. We also have a one year old Labrador called Yogi. I enjoy taking Yogi for a walk and spending time with her. As a child I never had a pet. Having Yogi has been challenging but very rewarding. I would encourage friends to get a puppy, IF they have the time. I also spend a lot of time at my local tennis club (http://www.hatchendtennisclub.co.uk) playing tennis and drinking Ale.
vikas’s’ IIT Memories Above all IIT teaches one humility. It was a pleasure to be surrounded by clever and talented people. Thanks to the extraordinary quality of food served in the H4 mess the best memories revolved around food. I even joined Harlapurs mess committee in the hope of getting bigger/better non veg portions. Shewale used to get drinks cans from abroad (Zambia?) and some of us (Thombre/KBS/Harlapur) would open a can a day and share it to make it last long. NCC trip to Pune had disaster written all over it. I remember drinking 12 raw eggs as a challenge (didn’t taste very different from mess food). I managed to wiggle out of the morning jogs as I had donated blood. Another memorable trip was the EE industrial tour to south India. Academics was mostly a disaster except for B.Tech project under Shivshankar. He even fought to get me admitted to M.Tech. Luckily I had realised very early that engineering wasn’t really my cup of tea. I spent most of my time at IIT playing carrom/TT and reading magazines/watching TV in the common room. I also enjoyed spending hours talking about vague and random unprintable stuff while my cycle caught rust.
Vinay Murthy
MARRIED TO
H6, Elec
Children’ -
(Hindupur)
SANGEETHA BHAVNA, PALLAVI
ms, Virginia Tech 94
95
deepak’s’ Journey After completing B-tech, I joined Tata Consulting Engineers in Mumbai & worked till 1995..During this period I got married to Rajashree in 1995. I then changed to Larsen & Toubro, Projects division worked till 2004 . almost 10 years. In year 1996, we were blessed with Tushar on auspicious diwali Padwa day. After long stint at L&T, I am now working with Toyo Enginering India limited more than 10 years. Professionally, I got opportunities to travel to many countries as part of project execution which at most of time was challenging. For last 25 years, I have been working in core Civil Engineering field & enjoying it
deepak’s’ IIT Memories I was born & bought up in IIT campus as my father was working in Mech Engg Deptt. Therefore my memories of IIT are too big. I still remember the evening struggle at NCC when I use to be late & got punishments. I enjoyed cycling at IIT campus which i miss today in this metro city. In deptt, I was closely connected to Vinayak Thakur, Rajendra Joshi & use to share notes !
CIVIL
DEVENDRA WANKHEDE
MARRIED TO
H7, Mech
Deepak Joshi Rajashree SON -
TUSHAR
(keede)
PGDM, IIM Ahmedabad
MARRIED TO
VAISHALI Children’ SVEDIKA, KIAN
96
devendra’s’ Journey
Hello I would describe myself as a global Indian professional who has passion for STRATEGY FORMULATION, IMPLEMENTATION with a HUMAN touch, and managing profitable business in different cultures. On the personal side I am a devoted husband and a loving father, caring brother and an obedient son. My life’s journey has been full of adventures, the important first one was IIT Mumbai, continued with IIM-A immediately and accelerated after joining Nestle India as a Management trainee in 1992. As a 23 year old I was full of energy and ready to capture the world by making consumers discover Nescafe, Maggi, Milkmaid, Everyday. This mission took me first to Delhi, 120 nights of sleeps in train, covering routes of Gwalior to Bastar, locally manufacture coffee machines and products. Even remember meeting with Prof. Dipan Ghosh to discuss plans for Nescafe Maggi Kiosk on campus! Later as a global executive with Nestlé, constantly learnt from managing business in India, Middle East (Dubai), Europe, and Global, moving every three years to a new role or new location. I am currently based in Switzerland with my wife Vaishali who is a Anesthesiologist and who has been my main support and who has done many sacrifices following me in my adventures. We have two lovely children, daughter Svedika and son Kian, who are fast preparing for college adventure of their own. My personal interest is in real and tangible innovations combining products, services with connected technology, that will further enhance lives of people.
devendra’s’ IIT Memories
For me the memories are of getting ragged in the first week in hostel, rolling in the wet muddy grounds, holi celebrations, Hostel food, monthly Rs. 350…cannot forget the Sunday special, poori bhaji, black eyed beans and coconut chutney, Thursday paratha bhaji, Friday dry dinner just before going for movie screening at main hall. God bless our head cook Punjabi and the support staff. Memories are of the milk shake during exam nights, omlet bread and tea, and everyones favourite Maggi noodles. Himakan we went to Swargarohini in Gharawal. I still remember the fun we had on the snow near the base camp and the excitement of sleeping the tents. Journey sitting on the roof-top of the bus, dodging the trees are moments unforgettable. Mood Indigo was fun, particularly the rock shows and the classical nights. Fortunate to see live performance of Jagjit Singh, Ustad Zakir Hussain. Rum (Old monk urf.. Budda Baba..and coke) were great companions then. NCC parades for 15 August and 26th December were full of action and energy. It was not always possible for everyone to be standing in Sawadhan position and remember there were some fun episodes. Nice memories were of seniors visiting hostel after first year in Masters in the USA and telling us about the life there. Everyone were super attentive and visualizing how it will be. Those happy memories will always be with us….
97
farhad’s’ Journey After graduation, went back home and worked there for about 6 months prior to moving to Singapore in 1991 with a job offer in software development. Did masters in telecommunication which kick started my wireless telecom career. Got married in 1999. My wife Shapna is a doctor from back home. Moved to Ottawa (Canada) in 2000 and joined Nortel. Moved to Blackberry in 2001. Got 2 boys (Sajid -12 and Nameer-9) who keep me busy. Settled down in Ottawa together with 4 of my siblings and their families.
farhad’s’ IIT Memories So many of them. Best time of my life. Some of the highlights.. • Cack sessions with in mates on hostel marine drive • Intra-hostel footer competition • Participating in PAF with awesome break dancer Sachin Pandhare • Numerous hiking with wing mates. Memories include getting lost during hiking and discovering a chai-wala selling chai at the top of mountain when we reached there at the end of the day • Inter IIT at Kanpur and getting silver medal in soccer • Photocopying awesome lecture notes of Chaabra and getting NBD night before endsem when Chaabra is washing his clothes so calm :-) • Innovative ragging technique of Golu • SSPRAO scolding all of us in the class for agreeing to inaccurate info he provided on some micro-eletronics topic • BEC book of professor Kamat
98
Farhad Ahmed (Boka)
H7, CS MSc, University of Essex, UK
MARRIED TO
SHAPNA Children’ SAJID, NAMEER
Firoz Kanchwala (kanchi)
H4, Elec
MARRIED TO
Quddusa Children’ ZARA, SANAA
fIroz’s’ Journey
Junta, being inherently a private person who has resisted leaving digital footprints as much as possible, I am way out of my league as I come forth with my story. Things didn’t quite go as planned when I embarked on my life journey after IIT. My F1 got rejected not once but two times and I was looking at two years before I could apply for another US visa again. My fallback was a job at Telco, the automotive company in my hometown, Pune, which I had accepted without much thought. Much to the delight of my parents, I decided to become a graduate trainee engineer in their Management Services Department. I was teamed up with two others to maintain their capital assets system. Easy enough, I thought, as it was going to afford me enough time to chart my future course. Well, as luck would have it, in a few months the other two resigned and around the same time the government introduced some important regulations that directly affected the company’s bottom line. For me, that changed everything and what followed were two action-packed years as I fast-tracked into coming of age professionally. Then again, quite unexpectedly, I was called upon to take up a consulting assignment in the San Francisco bay area. H1 visa was granted quite easily and soon enough I found myself in the valley doing gigs at Pacific Bell, MCI, Synopsys, IBM, Zylog and SGI. Life was fun with easy money, bachelor friends, fancy cars and weekend getaways. Soon it was 1996 and I caught the start-up bug which was quite rampant in the valley at that time. Influence Software was founded in the budding area of analytics and grew from a three person team to twenty-five in a couple of years. Around the same time, on the personal front, a big change was in the offing. During my visit to India, I was introduced to Quddusa, my wife-to-be, by mutual friends. After a year of parting with half my salary in the name of AT&T, we got married in December, 1998. A year later, Influence got acquired by Informatica. Not exactly an IPO fairytale – but we were so excited that we forgot our very first marriage anniversary. My IIT wingies who had planned to surprise us that day ended up being quite surprised themselves. After that, I dropped anchor at Informatica and have been working there ever since. In 2001, we moved to Houston for Quddusa’s medical residency which she completed in three years. We were back in the bay area in 2004 and bought a house in Belmont where we are living today. In 2007, we were graced with our first daughter, Zara and in 2011 by our second daughter, Sanaa. I am thankful and content with what life has had in store for me. I visit Bangalore two to three times a year to collaborate with teams here and take the occasion to visit my parents who are still living in Pune. These days I am working on big data technologies and with so much happening out there, there is never a dull moment.
fIroz’s’ IIT Memories
The other day a neighbor asked me what has been the best time of my life so far. Without much thought I replied it was my four years in IIT. Then I thought some more, and naturally, it became much more difficult to pick but the first impulse tells volumes about what the experience at IIT has meant to me. Joie de vivre of the late teens, hostel life, enduring friendships, unmatched intellectual density, and academic rigor have provided so many sweet memories that it is difficult to condense it all in this paragraph. I vividly remember the very first day in H4, Jogs and I put our stuff away and went out to explore our new digs only to find ourselves in the lion’s den where the seniors were waiting for us. After many memorable days of playing the cat and mouse game, it all ended when we were formally inducted into the hostel on freshie’s night. Luckily the eastern span of south wing second floor was almost empty and some of us like-minded muggu-types decided to make it our home base. Memories of water-fights, relentless escapades, endless chat sessions in Bag’s room, ravaging of Bapu’s grub supply, ogling through Som’s collection, passionate footer matches, and movie nights are permanently etched in my mind. Who can forget courses like Phathak’s CS101, Kamath’s Basic Electronics and KCM’s Electro-magnetic fields? I remember one Poonacha’s mid-term test where he took us from the classroom to the Vihar lake since we appeared too tense. He asked us to turn in the paper the following day trusting us not to discuss. After spending many futile hours, I swung by the rooms of my fellow EE students to find them all assembled in one room none the wiser. I remember the visit to Bapu’s home in Udaipur, Bag’s in Nashik and hosting folks in my home in Pune. The remarkable experience of Himankan – tens day of arduous har ki dun ruinsara taal trek – cultivated a lifelong passion for hiking. Four years in IIT are now a small fraction of my life so far but the richness of the experiences there have had a far more significant impact on me than that.
99
Mohammed Dohadwala (DUDU)
H5, Mech
PGDM, IIM CALCUTTA
MARRIED TO
SAMEENA Children’ MUSTAFA, SADIQ
mohammed’s’ Journey It has been an interesting journey... from not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, to doing engineering at IIT B and then management at IIM C... and after all this education, still not knowing what I wanted. I guess drifting was easy, given the strong education. After a stint with the UTI, which used both my engineering and finance skills, I drifted into Oman, only because India was getting into a recession and I was nearly going to lose my job. I have worked in 3 banks in Oman and this place now feels like home. Both my kids have grown up here, and I have found the peace I probably never would in Mumbai. Yoga met me in 2006 and this has changed my life completely. I completed my Teacher Training in 2011 and now offer free classes to anyone in Muscat who wants to learn Yoga. I think I have finally found my calling in life and find my happiness in leading Yoga classes and discussions, in addition to working as a banker. I am becoming more spiritual and less religious, more tuned to happiness and less seeking of material gain, more accepting and less expecting.
mohammed’s IIT Memories #Riyaz Papar - He taught me cycling in our first year at IIT. Without this skill, I would never have passed! #Narayan Kamath - One year senior and M.Tech Chem and room partner for 3 years. You would think I should know him pretty well. As it turns out, he is as much an enigma today as he was then. #Sriram Gangadharan - Introduced me to wonders of drama and how to crack a PAF. #Subir Kar - My B.Tech Project Guide, exemplary professor, accomplished musician and compassionate human being. RIP Sir, I owe a lot to you!
mohan’s’ Journey As with many of us, my journey post IITB was determined by a scholarship – I figured if someone was paying me, why not see the world!! And that led me to Atlanta, USA. Within a year of grad school, I was ready to get out of there, so I finished my MS and went to work at a special chemical company in a small town called Amarillo, Texas. I was ready to leave that place in a month but stuck around for some reason – as it turns out, I found that Texans were pretty friendly (at least back then ?) and I made some lasting friendships from that small town that stick with my wife and I to this day. Oh, and by the way, I got married along the way to a beautiful woman, Gayathri, who has actually been patient enough to put up with me for the last 20 years. After a few years, it was pretty clear that engineering wasn’t my thing, so I moved to Chicago and went to business school on the weekends, while working. Those Chicago years were a blur – my two daughters (Aditi & Bhavna) were born, the winters were harsh and it seemed like there was always school work. But strangely, I loved it – I was 30 years old and had finally figured out what I wanted to do. And that put me on the path to my present career – in finance and healthcare - first at Pfizer, then a small Biotech startup that proved to be an exhilarating ride, a healthcare technology company (Epocrates) and now at my current role at Publicis Touchpoint. We’ve called Princeton, New Jersey our home for the last 14 years and like it here. One of the best parts of the last few years have been the renewal of friendships and the intermittent visits with old IIT friends. Surprisingly, Gayathri actually likes listening to my IIT stories (or at least she pretends to). And my daughters finally understand, why their Dad gets so excited anytime one of his old IIT-B friends visits. Although I’m far removed from engineering now, the IIT name seems to come up in the most unexpected ways – I was recently talking to a Private Equity Manager and giving a brief run through of my bio. As I mentioned that I went to an engineering school in India, he interrupted me to say “not just any engineering school but one of the best in the world”. And so it is, that maybe the lasting impact of IIT-B on my life is not the education itself but the confidence that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere else too……….that, and the friendships that continue even after 25 years.
mohan’s IIT Memories The looonngg walk from MB all the way to H6 and pretty much passing all the other junta on the way to the hostel As a freshie, my room-mate for the first month was String – who also happened to be the one freshie that had the highest enthu for getting ragged. So one of my lasting memories is being woken up promptly at 10 pm every night by my roommate who would then drag me to some senior’s room for ragging. Mood Indigo ’88 Sound & Light with Kram – it’s a hazy memory but a good one Being one of the worst Maintenance Secretaries on historical record for H6. It was bad enough that even my own wingmates (Baldy and Poki, in particular, I think) were pissed because the bathrooms in our wing weren’t working. Losing count of the number of times Rajki watched “Maine Pyar Kiya” – not sure if he is still a big Salman Khan fan Beer at RK after the mid-terms or finals Xeroxing Shrikar’s meticulous notes a couple of days before the exams and then going to Gandhi to get the ultimate fundas Somewhere in between, there was a whole semester where String didn’t do laundry Mass Transfer Lab – with my lab partners (Satya, Surya, Cement, Khan) eating all the peas for the lab experiment, getting yelled at in the Lab by the Prof and then having to repeat the Lab The lock breaking incident with Rajki & Baldy; I recall there was a major speech involved at the end The total surprise at Harry’s transformation and aggression when he stepped out to play TT
MOHAN GANESAN
MARRIED TO
H6, Chem
Children’ -
(MG)
GAYATHRI ADITI, BHAVNA
MS, GEORGIA TECH MBA, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, BOOTH SCHOOL 100
101
girish’s Journey
Well I have to say that it has been quite a blissful ride for me - pretty much seems as if the maker said that this dude needs extra help to turn out somewhat worthy of great parents, a loving wife, two remarkable kids and hundreds of caring friends along the way. Some of you might remember that I was not particularly keen on leaving India or for that matter Delhi, and despite the cancellation of GRE tests twice, I ended up at Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida in September 1990. Teaching subject matter that I myself had conveniently missed was a nightmare. My savior was Nutty (Natraj Rao, H8-Civil, 1988) who did not judge and got me through the first quarter. The three years in Melbourne were an extension of the IIT-Bombay days – full velagiri. In 1993, came my first real job at the County Engineer’s office in Sebring, Florida and a stint of cowboy boots, Stetson hats, line dancing, bowling and going to the Sebring International Raceway. The slow-paced life in Sebring actually made me focus on learning my trade and the silsila of 60-hour work weeks began. Year 1995 was an eventful year. I got married to Kavita in a chat mangni pat byah fashion. Kavita and I were classmates until 10th grade in Delhi. Later that year, we also decided to move to Miami, Florida – beautiful weather, beaches and big city diverse culture. We have since lived in the Miami area. We had two new arrivals along the way – daughter Rhea in 1999 and son Raj in 2001. We have a strong and extended network of friends in South Florida who are much like family. On the professional front as a Transportation Engineer specializing in Traffic Operations and Intelligent Transportation Systems, moving to Miami has also been highly rewarding. Since 2002, I have been running the South Florida Traffic/ITS practice for HNTB Corporation, a national transportation infrastructure solutions firm. Class of 1990, I am truly privileged to have journeyed together through this special place called IIT–Bombay 25 years ago. Please look me up the next time you are planning to be in South Florida so that we can meet, catch up and create new memories. Cheers!!!
girish’s IIT Memories
There are so many fond memories that will remain with me forever. When Raj plays tabla, I tell him about Ajay Garg. When Rhea ran for student body elections at her school, Aagree’s tenacity came up. Of course, all the mischiefs/ misdeeds of H-8 A-2 wing, hostel picnics, Goa/ Pune trip, Mood Indigo, Vadilal, table tennis, carom, teen-patti sessions, late night velagiri, soccer/volleyball in the rains, trips to the city, watching Maine Pyar Kiya umpteen times, and on and on. Thank you to all the friends for being a part of this outstanding time in my life.
102
Girish Kumar (Munna)
H8, CIVIL MS, Florida Institute of Technology
MARRIED TO
KAVITa Children’ RHEA, RAJ
GIRISH SETLUR H9, EP
F1
MS, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
MARRIED TO
UMA
F2
girish’s Journey
I was born in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) and largely grew up in the southern part of the city in Basavangudi area. I studied upto 7th Std in Mahila Seva Samaj which was my mother’s school which was largely a girls school which had boys upto 7std only (pre-pubescent boys :-) ) I was pampered there, wrote what is still my best essay on the story of Star Wars (THE Star Wars) I saw during summer holidays. I won the best essay award for that (and this should win the worst essay award). A girl called NagaJyoti and me stood joint first in 7std (and no, she wasn’t my first crush) finals. I also won a bunch of medals in athletics (chariot race). I joined National High School which was predominantly a boys school and got my butt kicked literally and figuratively by my teachers. Then I continued on to National College (11 and 12th std) where I took postal tuition in Agarwal classes and cracked JEE got 750 rank and joined IITB Aero. IITB was a natural choice since my Aunt was there as my guardian. My dad was petrified that I would do drugs in Bombay as he had heard of many stories. I was so Sanskari in IITB that my routine was Hostel room to Mess to Department back to Mess and back to Hostel room and weekends run off to Aunt’s house in Chembur to be pampered there. Managed to get a B.Tech degree. Prof. S.H. Patil was very fond of me for reasons I still could never fathom. I appeared for GRE general after practicing on using a GRE guide that has single sided question papers. I was so conditioned to seeing single sided papers that I assumed that it was single sided in the actual test and messed up all the choices and got the lowest marks ever scored by anyone in GRE. But I sort of cracked the subject GRE and GATE Physics and conned Wisc Madison to take me and later bullied U of Illinois to snatch me from Wisc Mad. after a semester. I hated the T.A. part of my grad work at U of I but sort of liked my research. Had high opinion of Profs there but found them to be rather petty and exploitative as individuals. Again scraped through with a Ph.D. doing what I wanted to work on. My Ph.D. thesis contained all those and only those topics I was expressly told not to work on by the Profs there. I worked for a few months in Applied Materials in Santa Clara as a Process Engineer (go figure !) and they realized I was as useful to them as a fork in soup bowl. I learnt how to drive a car late in life in Santa Clara from a Professor of Sculpture and Art who was a part time driving instructor. He told me “Girish, I want to tell you something. When you see someone crossing the road you have to come to a stop and let him pass. Please remember - even if he is a Pakistani, you have to stop.” I came to Bangalore and worked as a post doc at JNCASR and IISc and people there listened to my ideas and said “you are obsessed”, “you are talking like a lawyer” , “you are a pervert” etc. Not exactly music to ones ears. Nevertheless here I am - a obsessed, perverted Professor of Physics at IIT Guwahati talking like a lawyer (whatever that means). Got married to my wife Uma (see? I am talking like a lawyer) who is trilingual, has more degrees than fingers, is Bengali and a fanatical vegetarian but does not bat an eyelid in ripping open lower organisms to study the workings of their innards (a less than charitable description of zoology).
girish’s IIT Memories
Being the nerd that I was I remember I was the only student in the elective on Mathematical Logic offered by Prof. Dashrath Singh of HSS who taught me as if I were a class of 100 students. I remember being ill quite frequently for three plus years due to what was a mild form of TB (as I found out after three unnecessary surgeries and several misdiagnoses) which I contracted from mess food. Not a pleasant memory to be sure, but life is not always a bed of roses.
103
SREENIVAS GOLLAPUDI (GOLLA)
H4, Chem
MS, SUNY, BUFFALO PHD, SUNY, BUFFALO
MARRIED TO
RAMA
Children’ SIDHARTH, SANJAY
SREENIVAS’s’ Journey You make plans or as in some cases, things are planned for you and life has its way of tweaking them. Your AIR is 1234 and your major is
Chemistry. Wait, but I don’t like chemistry. It was in one of those grinding inorganic chemistry labs that made me realize I cannot continue, let alone make a career, along this assigned path. I decided to switch. Didn’t know to what and when. Might as well take another crack at the JEE since I was going to spend 5 years on the campus anyway. Chemical Engineering was the new assigned choice. Again, an epiphany struck during an industry sponsored group project on computer simulations of chemical processes. Computer Science it is. Didn’t comprehend the full extent of the decision. Working through two disciplines in grad school especially during the Buffalo winters was not easy. But meeting my future wife certainly more than made up for it. Buy one get two for little more than free. Came out of grad school married to Rama and two graduate degrees in Chemical Engineering and Computer Science in hand. At least I’ll have choice with respect to what I am going to work on :) Next todo go someplace far from the cold and snow of Buffalo, NY. I started my career in Oracle corporation in sunny Bay area in August 1996. Not sure if it was my first choice at that time. Did one thing that surprises me even todate - finished my PhD while working at Oracle. Perhaps thought it’ll open more doors. But it did draw me closer to the fascinating field of game theory. In the meantime, Rama happily settled into academic life as a scientist at Stanford University in their department of genetics. Along the way, we had two additions to the family - Siddharth (16) and Sanjay (13), both born in the same labor room in Stanford Children’s Hospital. Down the hallway from Rama’s office in the medical school. Circa 2006, after nine fulfilling years at Oracle, pangs of change started to push me toward the online world of web and the underlying edifices of users, graphs and data. This was when I also decided to switch from the internal facing engineering role to a more external facing industrial research role. A change that was helpful in articulating small problems to the large world I guess. After a brief stint in a startup, I joined Microsoft Research to continue work on understanding and analyzing user behavior in the online world of search, interactions and decisions. I also had the privilege of interacting with IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, and MHRD on bringing interactive textbooks to the low-cost Aakash tablets. The kids negotiated their way through elementary and middle schools. Siddharth (in 11th grade now) is on the cusp of exploring the brave new world of college life where he’ll one day write his year book entry. Unlike his dad, from the outset he is clear on majoring in computer science. Power to the next generation. Sanjay in the meantime is happy solving math contest problems and is blissfully oblivious to the rigors of high school education that await him next year. Rama after 17 years at Stanford and myself after 8 year in MSR transitioned to new jobs this year. Mine being less of a change with a new position in Google Research. She joined a startup working on personalized genomics. Here’s to the next 25.
SREENIVAS’s IIT Memories I still remember when I walked into H4 on that rainy day in August 1986. A sleepy Parag walks out to introduce himself to my father and
myself followed by a lad in ‘make-the-nirma-lady-proud’ white pajamas. Vaibhav Phadnis, of course. The rest of the gang showed up over the course of the weekend and thus began a wonderful journey well past the four rambunctious years spent in the hallowed hallway of north wing second floor (E). And then there were the hard life lessons learnt. Sitting on the ledge, next to the stairs, cacking and arguing into the wee hours of countless nights. That’s how. When we were not engaging in such mindful conversations, there was always the music wafting from Madhavan’s violin to make even the ardent musical nonfan shut up and enjoy. Speaking of music, how can I forget the explosion of creativity and talent during PAF, and the perpetual hope of getting paired with H10 or H11. The dice always had a different story to tell. We have the pairings. And H4 is paired with.. H3. Damn. Next year. Oh wait, there was Mood I too. A potpourri of raw cultural talent. Those were the best days of the year. Except of course when Lady Sriram College didn’t show up in full strength. The mess outside the mess, Shetty’s, evokes fond memories. Piping hot veg. fried rice with american chop suey and singapore noodles, while transcending continents and cultures, kept the conversations going even under the leaking Shetty’s tarp during the Bombay monsoon. I still believe the food there to be the singular reason I was not labeled malnourished when I walked through the U.S. immigration. Wait, I almost forgot about the academics. Learning the fine art of accurate measurement in the ironsmith workshop was a lesson in misery. Aha! I still see some light through the dovetail joint, Gollapudi. Go and repeat the project! On the flip side, going through the never ending labs without many memories is a thought worth cherishing :)
104
umesh’s’ Journey I moved to USA after graduating IIT to attend graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis. It was there I met my wife Pam. After graduating I moved to New York to attend the doctoral program at the University of Rochester. A year later I changed course and moved to Boston to work at a startup. Then a year later I moved to Minneapolis to follow my heart and be with Pam. To this day I believe she tricked me by inviting me to visit in the summer when it is gorgeous. I was blissfully unaware of how frigid it gets in the winter. By the time I found out it was too late. Pam and I married a few years later and made Minneapolis our home. We have two wonderful children who bring us a lot of chaotic joy. After working in engineering and leadership roles, I became a stay at home dad a few years ago. It was one of the best decisions. My wife had been a stay at home mom since our first child was born and wanted to pursue her professional dreams. Being able to do that made her happy. Happy wife, happy life. To maintain my sanity and to stay professionally active, I work part time as a freelance software consultant. The last year has been challenging. Following a shoulder injury, I have chronic pain which has reduced my ability to do things. I am learning to accept things as they are and live a fuller life. Some days are incredibly hard, but fortunately there are better days too. I have much to be thankful for. I look forward to someday wrestling my kids and getting back on the tennis court again.
umesh’s’ iit memories I have many fond memories. I loved the campus. It was an oasis. I enjoyed walking in the lush green areas and going to Vihar lake to hang out and swim. Having grown up in a place which didn’t see much rain, I loved the monsoons in Bombay. I fondly remember doing many things with great friends. We would often go hangout downtown. Sometimes we would do absolutely nothing which was fun too. I loved waking up to the smell of Aloo Parathas on Saturday mornings – they often left me comatose and requiring a nap afterwards. I enjoyed playing tennis and squash. But most of all I remember the shared sense of joy after every semester’s final exams.
Umesh Berry H7, CS
MARRIED TO
PAM
Children’ JASON KARAN, KATELYN MIRA
105
rakesh’s’ Journey
Time just flew away and we were out as B.Tech graduates!!!. I wanted to do MBA after a gap of one or two years. HCL was the first company to offer me a job. Just in few months I was in Dubai (UAE) in a Dubai based company specializing in interiors and Exhibition works. This was a thrilling experience for me and I just loved my job. The creativity done by me and my team still stays there… Deira Heritage House, Bar Dubai and Deira Gold Souk wooden structure, seven wonders during Dubai shopping festival. Learned lot from people of different cultures of the world…. Singapore, Japan, Philippines, Europeans. Later I Got married to Roopika in Dec 1993. After my marriage all my accounts were looked after well or I must say Very Well! As she was a banker. Blessed with two wonderful kids, Anshul 1998, Eesha 1999. Life was pretty smooth. Came back to India in 2001 and settled here ever since. This was the starting of new phase of our life with lots of changes all around…. Family, work culture, relatives colleagues…I started working with the interior based company- Gautier. In few months I realized that working in India in Lala company is not my cup of tea. And here it started the Roller Coaster Ride!!!. I started my own venture specializing in interiors and exhibition work. Delhi market was not so mature to understand the quality of work which I did in Dubai from last 10 years. I did work on few good projects, simultaneously learnt the tactics of Real Estate. From 2001- 2008 was golden period in many sectors in India. Also started investing in stocks. I had a new member in my family in 2011, my black Lebra “Pluto ANAND”. Last year I started new business of installing roof top solar panels both in residential and commercial properties. It’s a beautiful transformation phase where my kids have now become my best friends. I enjoy sharing my school and college experience with them and in turn learn from them lot of new concepts of this generation… in other words getting smarter!!!!
rakesh’s’ IIT Memories
Its a nice feeling when I look back and think about the journey from IIT B, I would rather like to start from the first year B Tech. It was actually dream come true situation for me. Literally it took one year for me to digest that I am in IIT Bombay. Gradually, like others I also started feeling that this place belongs to me. This transformation phase comes in the life of every student. Life in Hostel 4 was totally different and gave us ample of time to interact with our colleagues and learn a lot of social skills and different culture. In my Second Semester I have changed my wing to North wing First floor where I got in touch with QAMFAR, BARELLY, BONG, NANGU, JAYDEEP YADAV, BURMAN and VISHAL MISHRA. Time just flew with lot of masti, lot of pranks, evening Volleyball games, Swimming, Badminton, Mountaineering and Cycling. Tried one unsuccessful attempt of contesting Hostel Mess Secretary. Remembering full day movie shows, and affection showed by mess workers to feed us hungry boys ( food quality was barely eatable). Remembering our evening cack session on the outside mess lawn and Canteen shakes and sandwiches which kept us alive. Our two canteens nr H-1 and H-8 were great source of junk food and late-night food along with some food supply and Heater in my room ( I think my passion and love for cooking started from my hostel room and groomed well when I was staying alone for 3 yrs in Dubai). We were always back bencher, and I proudly say that in the span of those 4 years at IIT, I never sat in front!!. Last day before exam or submission of assignment we were always in front of the books or making copy of MAGGU guys notes. Remembering my B tech project Guide Prof S L Dhingra who was a constant source of inspiration to do something in life. It is hard to believe, how I managed to complete my B.Tech in 4 Yrs, as I had all qualities of Not attending classes, being always at the back doing all kind of Masti in the College. Time just flew, those golden days are never going to come back, I wish I could relive my College days once again in life. Although Anu is trying hard to make that possible!!
106
RAKESH ANAND H4, Civil MARRIED TO
ROOPIKA Children’ ANSHUL, EESHA
RAKESH MALIK (PATPARGANJ)
H5, Elec MS, PUNE UNIVERSITY
MARRIED TO
USHA
Children’ MANASI, VARUN
rakesh’s’ Journey After B.Tech, I joined the Radio Astronomy group of TIFR at Pune in 1990. I was involved in the design of digital correlator (imaging) system for the GMRT radio telescope and also spent some time doing radio astronomy. During my 7-year stay at TIFR, I spent about 1.5 years at Paris Observatory to study Solar radio astronomy; and obtained an MS Physics by research from Pune University. In 1997, I moved to Delhi and have been in the VLSI/EDA industry ever since. I worked at PCL-Mindware and Cadence before joining Transwitch in 2000 where I spent 13 years developing chips for networking as well as HDMI/DisplayPort. For the last 2 years, I have been working at Cadence. I also try to stay (at least loosely) connected with academics by mentoring student projects. TIFR had a big influence on me on the personal front too. In 1993, I got married to Usha, a colleague at TIFR. We have two children. Manasi, 18, is in the first year B.Tech (ECE) at IIIT-Delhi. Varun, 16, is in 11th and is in the assembly-line process of JEE/ Engineering-entrance preparation. In more than two decades of marriage to a Kannadiga (who grew up with strong Maharashtrian influences in Pune), I have learnt that “sambar” is something that people eat and it is not the favorite food of South Indian tigers :-)
rakesh’s IIT Memories There was a dreaded electrical machines course in the 3rd year. A Transformer design (paper design only) had to be submitted as a group project. Night before the submission, we (Sundar, Chitre, Kalia ? -- do not recall the names) assembled in Vinay Murthy’s (H6) room. Everything was going well and about a dozen pages had been filled up with different calculations. Just when everyone was feeling satisfied with a job well done, it was discovered, at 4am, that the transformer we proposed needed to be almost 2-km tall! It seemed too late to do anything about it and we went back to sleep. It was left to Vinay to do some magic to get the numbers right and he got us all through that course.
107
Manesh Patel H5, Elec
MARRIED TO
Sameera Children’ -
IMAANE, ATIYA
PGDM, IIM Bangalore
manesh’s’ Journey
Ours was the fateful year when the GRE scores for India were cancelled twice in a row. This turn of fate left me with only IIM as a viable option. After IIM came Arthur Andersen - and that was a great 6 year ride doing mergers and acquisitions. Then when one of my bosses at AA decided to branch off on his own I followed - only to figure out a couple of years later that the life of a hot shot BSD Investment Banker was clearly not for me. Luckily, it was now 2000 and the height of the (first) dot com boom - so the only qualification one needed for a CEO’s job was that you had to want it! So there I was running an online travel startup - Traveljini,com - which, in its time, was a leader in the space. However it suffered from an ailment common to ventures of its kind - a 5 year business plan with 2 years of cash! And by the time the cash ran out it was 2002 and the boom was well and truly bust! Luckily one of my first (and finest) bosses at AA bought some travel off me one day and said “Havent you had your bit of fun on the side? Time to come back to the real world.” ...and so it was B2C for me. Only - AA collapsed before I could actually physically join - and there was an agonizing 6 month hiatus before the India practice merged with EY and I could draw a paycheck once again! And there I have been ever since. On the personal front - met Sameera on a trek and kept in touch with her afterwards and kept asking her out until she got tired of it. Figured the only way I could force her to come drinking with me would be to propose marriage! Seventeen years later, we are still going out drinking ... and our two lovely daughters (ages 13 and 8) are still struggling to get our weird jokes!
manesh’s IIT Memories I believe IIT was a defining period of my life when I truly grew into the person I am today. And for that I have to thank the awesome friends I made there - and the amazing library whose small but high quality literature section I completely devoured during my 4 years. The fondest memories of course, are those of all-night cack sessions with wingmates and hostel buddies where everything under the sun was discussed threadbare and the solutions to all the world’s problems were developed! # Checking in at the hostel: Tall South Indian dude standing behind me in line to sign into the hostel - I dutifully fill out the form (Last name, first name, father’s name) but the dude behind me reads the form, gives a snort of Tamil disgust and fills out: Last name - KS Dinesh, First name-KS Dinesh, Father’s name-KA Sundararajan!!! Of course that tall south indian superstar went on to become my BFF - but who knew then!! # Rajesh Vaidya (wingmate, 1991 batch) - as always fighting with me to get the paper first - and then lounging on the balcony rail for half an hour with a toothbrush in his mouth! Still havent figured out to this day how he manages to do it # LedZep wake up calls: Waking up to Led Zeppelin blasting loudly in Jagga’s room at 7AM - most awesome! # Himankan 1987: Getting snowed in at Chandanwadi and the whole group lying on their sleeping bags in one large room for a whole day - singing our way through the entire Wall by Pink Floyd. Delicious! Along with Ravi Ramaratnam, Viku, Sundar! # Himankan 1987: Getting a free day at Jammu thanks to landslides en route and Sundar coming up with the bright idea of “lets go to Vaishnodevi” - so we go there and climb up and down but of course, cant actually visit the temple because of the complicated queuing system. But the taste of those aloo parathas at the top of the climb will forever stay with me! # Writing poetry with H3-KK in class (several classes, several examples of bad poetry but what a lovely way to make it through class!) # Mutalik Desai praising Ashish Bendre’s description of an event in one of the books we were covering as part of the Twentieth Century Literature course - analyzing its deep meaning - and Bendre completely mystified as to “did I really mean that”? # Neelesh Marik and I at Rabindra Sangeet - both of us signed up with the hopes that the group may actually get to travel “abroad” - and for the girls!! # KCM - and my only really tense time academically - just didnt get it!! # Waking up to Jayaram Shenoy shouting my name as he is leaving for Tutorials (the one thing you couldn’t miss!) and working my way out of the piles of towels, hockey sticks etc on my bed and rushing off. Then of course trying to reconstruct how all that stuff got into my bed in the first place!! (and failing) # Laxy, Bendre, H3-KK, Tubby and Self - Watching the guy next to us at RLC pop a boiled egg into his neat peg (Hot Chofee, if I remember the colour right). And then: Gulp 1- Egg whole into mouth - Gulp 2 - The entire drink ...and then he was gone. Fastest balanced meal I ever saw anyone take!!
108
LALITESH’s’ Journey Zen and the art of cluelessness - by Lolya Except for having joined IIT-B late after two weeks at medical school, I was a rather boring IITian: • 8 hrs class, squinting for fundas, failing miserably • 6 hrs Aero PC lab, illusion of inventing, only rediscovering • 1 hrs of Floyd, Phil Collins and rock with Byte, Wodehouse and Ludlum • 0.5 hrs zooming about in my Kawasaki, dangerously according to cribs to my dad in realtime - which maddeningly for him was the result of a bet about my CPI • 3 hrs at H9 with Gourang, Rajiv Joshi, Bharat Shyam, Birdie, GUN et al, at H7 with Lendl, Golu et al - 3 hours and a lifetime of memories Grateful - Profs and classmates we had here, no where else. Inversion - teachers Suri, Zoom, JC, Sudhakar and Shimpi became friends. Friends Gourang, Lendl, Joshi, Bharat, Birdie, Ajay Shah, Deepak Bannerji, Punya, Golu, GUN became teachers. Many friends and One entire Himankan gang of 87. life. Regretful - Complete loser priorities. Should have known classmates like Sexy (Brijesh) and Mouli (Mahulikar) better - what amazing human beings. Should Punya (Avinash Punekar) and i have done that finance startup we dreamed up? And should i have stayed at H3? Apology - not a week goes by when i don’t remember you. Mute hermit is me Onward to Iowa State (90-91), to Stanford (91-92), CMU (92-97). Corrected regrets. Was the only desi in the dorms with Turkish roomies at Ames. Hung out with the Hammarskjold house at Stanford. A distributed desi dorm at Pittsburgh, discovered being Indian. Took to supra-curricular with zeal of a fish thrown back in the ocean - martial arts, cooking, writing, acting, directing, music groups and activism - co-founded the first internet lobbying group in 91, bailed when politics polluted. Space robotics, Lunar Rover, what a rush. Reflecting on purpose. Saw i was built to build, not research or teach - long my dream and ambition. Ran from ISU - was two years from my former dream. Realized between Hammarskjold hippies and Desi Pittsburgh hangouts that my rocketing out of India was a reaction to hopelessness. Inexorably, my calling lay back home. Resisted marriage for years. My mom even called to say she was ok if i was gay. Little did she know :). Finally found Sharda, another who was similarly resisting. “Arranged love” RK Laxman and my dad twinkled when we visited as newly weds. Clarity of India purpose changed everything, had to go back. To go back, had to be post economic. To be post economic, had to do a startup. Dropped the faculty job, did the startup, as usual without any clue - not knowing the difference between technology and product. Built what we thought was great tech 98-02. Perfect timing, just after the dotcom crash. Even better timing, flat out of money, unpaid for months. Perfection in timing, Neha was just born, didn’t know how to feed her (Nishant joined 3 yrs later). Speaking of kids, another dive off the cliff, poor sods. When i held Neha, April 14, 2002, realized how terrorists happen. You hold this being, all it wants is to be with you, exactly the way you are. No one else has ever been with you like that. Time stopped. She was the fifth element. Thankfully, the day when Neha came home, fledgeling Google called to buy us. A dotcom? Now? my incredulous friends asked, and that too a fire sale? My team said hell no. Pink Floyd’s words intervened, “Mother, she won’t let you fly, she might let you sing”. Googlers reminded me of IIT-B, H9ers. So i dragged our team and jumped. Sheer luck and providence did the rest. India bugs kept tunneling, wrote a engineering document to model a hypothetical Google India. Founders found it on the intranet and approved it before we finished. Diwali 2003. Yet another leap, another journey - again clueless. Decade long rediscovering India, rediscovering engineering, (re)discovering myself. Again an adda of hippies materializes. Left Google with one insight. Maslow’s hierarchy is broken. Poverty is an information problem. No clue how it actuates. Another clueless leap, fully expecting to crash and burn. Sound familiar? “Monkeys learn faster”, a CMU prof and friend Martial used to say of him and me. Truer words have never been spoken of yours truly, love, the typist
Lalitesh
MARRIED TO
Aero
Children’ -
(lolya)
SHARDA NEHA SIRI, NISHANT
MS, IOWA STate ms, stanford university PhD, Carnegie Mellon 109
gourang’s’ Journey
“Survival of the fittest” - Darwin said that those who adapt, survive! Among many things that we learned at IIT, I would think survival through any situation was the most important lesson learnt. Whether it was ragging when we first came as freshies to the hostel or the professors who tested the limits of our abilities, or the brilliant peers along with relative grading that pushed you to up the ante, I learnt how to focus in doing your best and not to get deterred by the circumstances you face. The results may or may not be to your liking, but when you accept it, learn from the outcome, and adapt for future, you always survived. My life story after IIT can be divided into 3 parts: 1. After graduating from IIT, I went to University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan to do my MS in Aerospace Engineering. I focused on Structural Dynamics and being in Michigan, found a job working as an engineer at Ford Motor Company. I worked for six years as an engineer in USA and Australia, working largely on noise and vibration for large and luxury cars such as Taurus, Jaguar, Falcon and sports car such as Mustang. In 1994, I met and married my wife - Kimpu. 2. Post the engineering stint, I went to University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for my MBA and naturally gravitated towards finance. Post graduation, I joined Lucent Technologies in New Jersey, USA in their Corporate Treasury working on corporate finance and later customer finance. I moved from Lucent to Avaya as it got spun off from Lucent, and there I spend time on Capital Markets and then Mergers and Acquisition. Then I came to Tyco International where I was sent to Singapore to setup their Regional Treasury for Asia Pacific. I then saw through the split of the company into 3 separately listed company before moving back to USA as the Assistant Treasurer managing global treasury operations for TE Connectivity. These second stint was mainly focused on working for large US companies in the corporate treasury world. During this period, our 2 kids were born, Pahel and Paarin. 3. We liked living in Asia, so I decided to make another career change and moved into Citibank in Singapore. I was responsible for advising large MNCs in how to setup their global treasury and worked there for 6 years. Recently, I moved to JP Morgan in Singapore where I run both the advisory practice for Asia Pacific in transaction banking and head the ASEAN transaction banking business. This current stint in banking has been for almost 7 years. During all these changes, the survival instinct has served me best to adapt to different environments. I will be forever grateful for lessons learnt in the four years at IIT.
gourang’s’ IIT Memories There are many fond memories from those four years - camraderie among hostel fraternity, inter-hostel sports tournaments, cack sessions to solve world problems with brilliant peers, chai time discussions between classes, hostel elections, working till late hours trying to complete the BTP, etc. But the best memory was from the trip to IIT Kanpur for flight lessons where all the aeronautical students from my batch bonded together in the UP winter reminiscing the last four years and dreaming about our future post IIT while enjoying moments that cannot be shared in an open forum ...
110
Gourang Shah
Hari Iyer
H9, Aero
H4, Chem
(orang utan)
MS, University of Michigan MBA, University of Michigan
PGDST, NCST Bombay
MARRIED TO
hema
MARRIED TO
kimpu
Children’ -
(harry)
Children’ PAHEL, PAARIN
ARJUN, ARYAN
hari’s’ Journey
1990 and a graduate in clueless. Sort of inevitable when what keeps you up most nights is not facts but the escape into fiction. Got a government job, not your average MNC. The road not taken. Always a silver lining: discovered I liked to travel, write travelogues, and read Hindi pulp fiction from railway magazine stalls. On a side-note, re-discovered programming, even had a talent for it. Who’d have thought that looking at my CS 101 grades. My first and last job as a chemical engineer. Jump off into a parttime software engineering diploma full time. No half measures when you are on to a good thing. Enjoyed every minute of it and made up for the lost years. Looking back, I still remember Prof. Shenoy, fresh off the boat from the US of A, in his booming baritone: “The math will kill you”. It killed hard-core engineering for me until I found the happy medium of software. The software years wore on; made a lot of friends only to see them off at the airport. Why not me? Made landfall in the United Kingdom. Not the London of Conan Doyle or Ian Fleming, or the countryside of Enid Blyton or James Herriot but it still felt strangely familiar. A quickening. The world was my oyster. Next stop: Helsinki, Finland. Then Cape Town, South Africa and on. Swore I’d work in a new country every year. Two is company and marriage happened. Honeymoon and wanderlust. Twin careers and kids shrunk the world family-size. The world economic low tide found us washed back on the shores of Bombay, only it was now called Mumbai. Programming is no country for old men where every man must aspire to be a manager. Whither worklife balance? All roads lead to the US of A. On the beaten track. All that education, a waste of tax-payer’s money? Nothing chemical about it but still an engineer. Glad I at least got that one right.
hari’s’ IIT Memories
The quest for good food - Friday night dry-d or evening bhel, go partial-messing and then non-messing, chinese at H8, samosa-puncture or late night omelette at the stall outside H1, get yourself invited to SAMEER with #Mahadevan Iyer or NITIE with #Sreenivas Gollapudi, Tomato Fry at Laxmi Palace and icecream at Vadilal (Y-Point) with the NWSF gang #Giridharan Iyengar, #Mahadevan Iyer, #Vaibhav Phadnis, #Parag Gokhale, #Sreenivas Gollapudi et al. The PAF H4-H5 rivalry: Gabbar Singh dialogue in Sanskrit and # sing ‘Melancholy Man’, one of my favorites by Moody Blues. The NWSF hanging out anywhere but my room and the water fights. Walks along Vihar Lake with or without the gang. Skipping the bored-out-ofmy-mind lectures sitting outside the Guest House tossing pebbles into Powai Lake (usually hitting the Hyacinth more than the water) and looking longingly at the traffic on the other side of the world.
111
jayArama’s Journey Stayed in IIT B for my M Tech, met my wife Madhavi there and then we both went to Purdue. After my PhD, there was some deliberation on academic vs corporate life, went for the latter and onwards to SF Bay area. Sometimes I wonder about the road not taken... but OTOH, have been able to continue down a path of continuous curiosity, switching the emphasis of what I do to an adjacent field every few years while always remaining an EE (my Twitter handle is @eecraft). So I’ve gone back & forth between semiconductor companies, systems companies and most recently a consumer service (@twitter, leading their hardware engineering team and doing some interesting things on servers & storage). Along the way, we had 2 kids, Vedika in 2000 and Sumedh in 2004 (first comes consciousness and then comes good thinking). Outside of work, and family duties I am a photographer, have become and stayed a cricket fan (!) and tweet regularly.
jayArama’s IIT Memories H5 mess had quite the reputation at the time and I was somehow talked into becoming the mess coordinator. And there was the meme of putting up notices with my signature on the hostel notice boards (do they still have those?). My CPI took a dive in the 6th semester! (But was almost worth it as things sort of turned around for a little while).
Jayaram Shenoy H5, Elec MTECH, IIT BOMBAY PhD, Purdue University
MARRIED TO
Dharm Prakash Vajpayee (aagree bhai)
H9, CIVIL
MADHAVI
M Phil, JNU New Delhi
VEDIKA, SUMEDH
ARPANA
Children’ -
MARRIED TO Children’ -
dharm’s’ Journey Multi dimensional view. worked in Telecom industry with DOT , MTNL with varying capacities from 1995 to 2015 in Optical fibre systems , maintenance and installations . Maintained links with academics by guiding candidates appearing at Civil Services Examination,Presently heading Dias india Edutech P Ltd www.diasindia.com have been President of Joint Front of RWA ‘s of Dwarka, New Delhi 2005-2015. Environmental Activist ,heading NGO Delhi Environment Group Working for promotion of skill based education in Balrampur -Shravasti area of UP under Hindustan Utthan Manch
dharm’s’ IIT Memories First experience of public life i gained was at IIT.contested many elections ,made lot of friends .Lot of annecdotes. Many of them i have presented in the form of poems. Literary Secretary cum Councillor H9 1986-1987 Debating Secretary 88-89 CoCoordinating Editor Institute Hindi Magazine Aksha 1987-1989 Dept General Secretary Civil Engg 1988-1989 GSAA 1989-1990
SAMANVAY, SAMVEg
Did practical training at SEEPZ with Anand Kulkarni, was running a summer mess at the time so stayed in the hostel, and bicycling every day through the backroads was a treat! At the department, soldering a whole Z80 based SBC in 7th semester lab, and then (with Anand Kulkarni again) a pretty fabulous BTP was climax to a good 4 years academically. Later on, during my MTech, running the GS elections and being nominated to the IIT senate are good memories.
112
113
Prasad Kodali
MARRIED TO
H4, MSC Chem
SON - AADITYA
(KBS)
Aruna
PhD, PennState
Prasad’s’ Journey After finishing my M.Sc Chem.(Integrated course) at IIT Bombay, I went for my Ph. D in the US. While academic and research pursuits were never my strengths (I remember black tar at the bottom of the chemistry beakers in most of my lab experiments at IIT), I realized that I had to do a Ph. D or atleast enroll in a Ph.D. program to get to the US. I managed to drag my lazy behind through 6 years of grad school to finally get a degree in Computational Chemistry and yep, I too was wondering what that would mean. Then landed an entry level research job in a start up company in Cleveland – it was the internet boom and money was flowing freely; we had some great ideas, but time was too short; If anyone want ideas to spend ~$50 M USD in a short period of time (in a ethical and legal way of course), please come to me!! Got a job in IBM in 2001, just before the World Trade center bombings in NYC, saw the building smolder for days from a very good friend’s (Prasad Inampudi) house – brought things into perspective. I appreciate my friends and family even more ever since. Have been going through work and life always looking for interesting things to do; held numerous job roles in the company from product management to building new solutions to sales, in a way still trying to figure out that ‘perfect job’. I like to think that I made some impact on the world in my area of expertise and having that never-dying curiosity is what keeps me going in search of next set of opportunities to make a difference. Had the privilege of travelling all over the world – still need to go to Africa and Australia though; enjoyed every experience, making new friends and excellent food in every location. Still have that travel lust (I spend quite a bit of time in the airports and am still fascinated by the people and places that people travel to) and hopefully will be able to instill the same wonder in the kid and travel more once the kid grows up a little more. In life, married my college sweetheart and have a wonderful son who occupies most of our time. Every once in a while I fail the test of “can you outsmart a 4 year old” (with pleasure). Tried my hand at various sports (I have this feeling that I am naturally athletic, but lazy) – enjoy playing a round of golf with good friends or going for a swim or just hanging out on the beach looking at the ocean. Hawaii is our favorite vacation spot – can’t wait to take the kid to the Big Island! Enjoy cooking with my wife, always with a good bottle of wine open (Wine makes everything taste good) ☺. Been blessed in life with a few good friends and wonderful family, as they say: good friends, good family, good food and good wine!! Life is too short to go through it without a sense of humor. Life’s lessons: IIT opened the door for a Ph. D, the Ph. D opened the door for a job in a start-up, the start-up job opened the door for a job in a multi-national and every job in the multi-national opened up another one …… I guess it is what you make with the opportunities that are given to you
Prasad’s IIT Memories Three guys from Andhra Pradesh (Gultis as we were fondly called) stepped onto the IIT campus in 1986 with our heads shaven (Seendripu Kishore, Prasad Inampudi and myself) – not even sure what we were thinking and that set the stage for ragging – imagine a guy for the first time away from home and being ragged like crazy, I so badly wanted to go back home, but endured the first semester, after that the rest was a blur Not being academically inclined, I do not have very many memories of classes/courses ☺ (once when I was showing my parents around the campus, Kurle stops me and asks me how I found the way to the library!!); most of my memories were in the hostel. The wing fights, dunking in the hostel fountain, the awesome mess food. I even did a stint as maintenance secy – slightly better than a mess secy job but equally bad. They are too many hostelites to mention here, but each and everyone of you shaped the way I grew up. The funniest memory from H4 days was a smart monkey dangling a roti in front of a small dog and then slapping it; apparently Vijay Harlapur saw something more than that and you will have to ask him about that. I think one of the best experiences of the IIT life was being part of the core group for Mood Indigo 1990 – Thanks to Ghane, Anu, Cherian Thomas, Kurle, Nilesh (and I am sure I am missing a few names – old age) it was one of the best experiences in coordinating a massive event – learned a lot in life from that group; THANK YOU!! IIT introduced me to my sweetheart – Thank you IIT!!
114
Sandeep’s Journey & IIT Memories Growing up was one big journey with my banker dad. Moving from one city to another, from one school to another, every 2-3 years, was lovely life experience but I was rootless. I loved sciences and in Chennai I first heard about IIT in 9th std. I gave JEE. IIT chose me. And I ‘chose’ Chemical when I could have got Elec! Crazy….. Why? Because I loved chemistry, and hated those circuits & mechanicals! Ha ha..! It was nice to join IIT with friends. Anu and I joined from the same tiny school in Ahmedabad, perhaps their first batch to IIT. Then on first day at campus I found Dinesh who I knew from Chennai. Having friends on day one was a relief especially for a relative introvert like me. H2 with its large rooms and open spaces was the first air of freedom, but shortlived. Talkative Bharteeya, my first roommate, was the perfect foil for serious me, and for all the nagging ragging. Normal life began after the big release on Freshiesday. Got a great bunch of guys as wingmates - Sethi, SriG, DC, Lelwyn, Vaishnavi, Zubin, Sarode. Thanks to Dinesh I got friends at H5 - Viku, Sundar, Manesh. Viku and I kept in touch in Mumbai. At Chem Engg, found friends in CR, Unat, Chandorkarand others. Vinay and Urvish became close pals. Getting a topper’s guidance before exams was godsend and going to Urvish’s place in the campus was a welcome change. (Thanks to SJRU I have rediscovered my chem engg batchmates; Bangalore RU was memorable). After the first few zeros I experienced what Churchill once said about school - ‘when I wanted to tell them what I knew, they only wanted to know what I didn’t know’. No fault of mine! Nirvana! And discovered there is so much more to do at IIT. Got involved in hostel and its activities. I remember the PAF I led from H2. Some shit about heaven and hell which turned out to be one hell of an experience for the audience. Also Surbahar. Dinesh, the ultimate singer of our batch, was organizing. I had never compered it but Dinesh was convinced I can. Copied some useless shaayri from library and read out from pieces of paper! Loved the cheering and the jeering by the crowd! My loveliest memory of IIT is of course Mamata. A schoolmate of Anu and mine, she would come to meet Anu during Mood I and vacations, but soon she had more reasons. She added joy to my last year at campus! This lovely b&w pic of ours was clicked by DC at the Livewire. Thanks DC! At the end of four years of chem engg I had enough of engg, and skipped applying overseas. I got the prized job at HLL (after Schlum of course!) and an admission offer from IIM Bangalore. I ditched IIMB to take up HLL! Crazy again…. but I wanted to give engg one more chance to see if it had something for me. A few months at HLL and I was back giving entrance test for IIMs! This time I managed an admission at IIM Lucknow. Whew! At IIM I discovered the world of Finance. I joined Unit Trust of India (UTI) from the campus and came back to Bombay. At UTI I got my best boss, great friends, and great exposure at senior most levels taught me real MBA! And here I finally got married to Mamata in ‘95, after 6 years of courtship. And Aayush, our son and our biggest joy, came into our lives in ‘98. After 7 great years at UTI, I joined Zurich Financial Services, a European insurer planning to enter India. 2 years later 9/11 hit home, literally. I got my first pink slip. Z made huge losses in the fall of the twin towers, and decided to bury its plans for India! After Z, I joined RGA, an American reinsurer that was starting an office in India. Eight years at RGA were the most satisfying professional years. Starting from a hotel room office, in 8 years I was instrumental in making RGA the leading reinsurer in India. I am now the Country Head for Sun Life, a Canadian company. I take care of their interests in their joint ventures with Aditya Birla Group – Birla Sun Life Insurance and Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund. I also enjoy being a Coach to my friends over weekends as they try to find their professional and personal success. I plan to retire early to contribute in small measure to all the goodness in the world, and to spend time connecting the dots to unravel the miracles of life. Powai is now home for us. Mamata is doing great stuff in the community through Rotary. We plan to explore India and the world once Aayush is off to the US to study engg next year…. And here comes another twist to my tale. He is planning to study Chem Engg. Why? Because he loves ….. you guessed it. Ha ha! Life has come a full circle! 15 years next to the campus, but never really felt like going into the campus – somehow feeling that I had ditched the insti. Yet I was back at the campus for Aayush, my son and wannabe engineer who did a project here. And back again for SJRU. Loving every moment of reconnecting with long lost friends and bringing so many of us back to the campus. No more inhibitions!
Sandeep Asthana H2, Chem PGDM, IIM Lucknow
MARRIED TO
Mamata SON -
AAYUSH 115
navin’s’ Journey
My life’s journey since I graduated from IIT has been a roller coaster ride. There have been few highs but lots of lows. However, things are looking up now and, as an eternal optimist; my best is yet to come. After graduating in 1990, I worked for a couple of years in a packaging company in Thane; gained some relevant experience which set me up for an MBA from Booth, University of Chicago. This was a real high point of my life. In fact, having Eugene Fama , Merton Miller (both Nobel Laureates in Financial Economics) and Raghuram Rajan (the current RBI Governor) as my teachers was some experience I am goanna cherish for the rest of my life. However, I came back to India in 1995 to chase my “Indian Dream” instead of my “American Dream”. In the process set up a large retailing business in Indore in 1997, which was suppose to be the beachhead for a larger footprint but it wasn’t to be. I was way before time for such a venture. And, while I hung in there and tried very hard to turn things around, but was of no avail as I was caught in a huge debt trap. I had to shut shop in 2007 and looked for a job to keep the house fire burning. I worked at Reliance Retail and Mehrasosn Jewellers for the following 7-8 years. In fact, I continued to work in fine jewellery businesses as I always dreamt of restarting my jewellery business. And, with grace of God, I have reopened my Jewellery store in Indore in September 2015, and within the same premises as earlier. Things are looking very promising now and hopefully the worst is behind me. As I reflect on my past, the journey of being an entrepreneur, it was an ordeal; but in hind sight, it changed me for better. Now, I have come to realize that destiny plays such an important role in our lives, no matter how hard we try or how smart and educated we are. Also, perseverance, tenacity and grit & determination are such important traits for being an entrepreneur. And, most importantly, while failure is a part and parcel of being an entrepreneur, dealing with it is the most difficult experience. In fact, I did a couple of things to take the bitterness out and revitalize myself for the next stage – one, I took to writing in my own little way and two, started learning to play Guitar and now spend at least 1 to 2 hours of practice every day...learning some riffs and tunes of our Classic Rock favorites – Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Santana and so on… In conclusion, I am so grateful to God that He has given me a second chance to be an entrepreneur and thing are looking very promising now – and with gigantic dreams in my eyes, heart and soul - I am ready for the road ahead….Amen!
116
NAVIN VERMA H9, Meta
FE
Pb
MBA, University of Chicago, Booth School
MARRIED TO
NEELESH MARIK (HKD)
H8, Mech
SHIBANI
PGDM, IIM BANGALORE
TANAY, OMILA
ANURADHA
Children’ -
MARRIED TO
DAUGHTeR - DIA
neelesh’s’ Journey I was in the corporate world for about 14 years, before moving to entrepreneurial activity. My work experience includes positions in blue-chips as also start-up environments, and cuts across a wide array of product (consumer and industrial) and service (consulting, technology, IT/ ITES) businesses, multiple geographies and cultural contexts (Asia, Europe, America, Australia), and industry life-cycles (growth, maturity, decline). Over the last 8 years I am on a process of new learning, inquiry and practice in ways that were not possible earlier in mainstream life, specifically exploring the human potential space where behaviour, systems, culture and consciousness affect personal growth and creative novelty.
neelesh’s’ IIT Memories I was a regular average student trying to figure out why I had chosen what I had chosen as the discipline of pursuit. I didn’t quite succeed in that! Key memories that still persist with foggy clarity are: - Requesting an invigilator to call the Course Professor so that I could clarify a certain question in a test, only to realize that..... - Venturing in groups of 8-10 people through the jungle between GH and H8 during the panther days to sight the nocturnal animal, without success, but having died a hundred deaths at every sound in the bushes - Visiting the Urz festival at Chand Shah in the middle of the nights, which was like walking into a medieval hallucination in some other part of the universe. - Hosting several rounds of planchette in our wing, with a mix of awe and skepticism, whilst ‘conversing’ with entities in other dimensions - Contracting a bad throat pretty often that required cough syrup medication aided by natural herbs, for relief. - Developing a warm relationship with the warmth of fresh photocopies, especially in short bursts of a few days strewn meticulously across the four years Inability to ever have Rajma Chawal again in life, irrespective of how well they are made by the best cooks in town and a few more such.
117
R. Krishna Kumar
MARRIED TO
H3, Elec
ANJALI, TANVI
(KK)
Dipali
Children’ -
MTech, IIT Bombay
KK’s’ Journey
After my B. Tech., I worked as a Research Assistant in the Department of Aero. Engg., with my future father-in-law (so I can legitimately claim to have married the boss’ daughter :-) ). I then spent about 8 months in CEERI, Delhi, where I developed microcontroller-based hardware, and then started my M. Tech. in Telecommunications at (where else!) IITB in 1992. I got placed at Tata-IBM, Bangalore (now IBM Global Services) through campus interviews in 1994, and deputed to the IBM T J Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, NY, in 1996, where I joined the data mining group. We did some very interesting work, including developing a program for mining basketball game data, which was used by a number of National Basketball Association (NBA) teams. IBM showcased us in a number of sporting events, including the Kasparov-Deep Blue match, and the Atlanta Olympics, where we worked with the US women’s team, analyzing their opponents’ games - they eventually won the gold. All of us, including spouses, got to visit the Olympics, which was tremendous fun! My IBM manager, a colleague and I quit IBM in 1997 to start Virtual Gold, a data mining company, in New York. We continued working with the NBA, and also developed our own mining algorithms, which we eventually patented. I returned to Pune in 2001, and headed the India operations of the company until 2009, when we merged it with our biggest Indian customers, where I headed the Technology division till 2011, after which I moved to another data analytics startup, Abzooba, where I currently head the Indian operations. We have close to 100 employees in Pune and Kolkata,and focus on Business Intelligence, Predictive Analytics and Natural Language Processing. On the personal front, I got married to Dipa (daughter of Prof. M M Kulkarni, former Professor, Aerospace Engg, IIT B) in 1994. Dipa is a BCom., CA, MBA, and most recently, a PhD in Finance. She quit corporate life for academics, and is now HOD, Finance, at SCMHRD, Pune. We have 2 daughters, Anjali (currently 17, and in Std. XII, a fitness freak and avid reader), and Tanvi (currently 14, and in Std. IX, also an avid reader and blogger) Our family is into reading, we also enjoy trekking and traveling. We have done 2 major treks in the Himalayas (including one which recreated the route of Himankan 88. I have run the Mumbai half marathon 5 times (twice with Dipa). Incomplete dreams include learning vocal classical music, and a PhD.
KK’s IIT Memories
Police investigation in the 1st sem with #cr - a wingmate told cops that his room was full of a white powder (someone put sugar on his fan and turned it on) my first trek with #cr, #laxy, #pingale, #prashant - #laxy slipped on all possible surfaces - mud, rock, grass, cement an invitations-only H3 social - furore by the non-invited, #bellare’s resignation as social secretary, and fines galore #adve fired by KCM for saying that he had not understood anything since the previous Wednesday #dittiya getting a test paper back with KCM’s remarks, “Mr. Dittiya, this is brilliant! Did you realize this is so brilliant?” writing a poem with #patel starring #rajshri and #joglekar as an evil villain whose “moon eyes glinted” (signed Valmiki44 & Kalidas48) #sundar coming late for a lecture, snapping his fingers (in elegant left-handed style) at DPR, asking, “May I come in, Sir?” #patel instantly cracking my punny question - “What’s ironic about the Waves course?” (“The instructor’s name is Shevgaonkar, but he has a beard”) Himankan 88 with #bellare, #anoop, #laxy, #gul, #danny and others. I met my future wife on this trek Scraping through the Digital Circuits course as Prof Revankar had a stroke after the end-sem, leaving Prof Poonacha to correct the papers. He asked us, “How do you solve Question 3?” Clearing an MSK re-exam, the academic highlight of my career Wooing my future wife by taking her dog for long walks, all the way to H6 and back Industrial Tour organized by #dedhiya and #pai - a booze party from start to end. #ml asked Prof Shankar why he was still a bachelor at 50, #pai tried to get a “Topper Treat” out of #chitra by drunkenly singing outside her door. #anandkulkarni bargained, bought carrots at Rs 2 for 3, instead of 50 ps apiece. #ravikrishna scoured city maps, earning the nickname “efficiency” or “effy”. #h5kk saved all his drinking for Goa Reading “Paradise Lost” in the 7th sem with #adve, #patel and #bendre, rain pattering on the leaves outside Study group with #laxy, #anoop, #bendre called NBD Core Group (NCG) in the 4th year. Members had to have 2 of 3 “Bs” - Bai, Baatli and Beedi. Making “We Survived!” T-shirts for the #EE class, which all wore for the last end-sem #rajshri’s wedding in Pune with #sundar, #laxy, #bendre, #pai, #bellare and #anoop - all night drinking and watching WC90, arriving late for the wedding, but just in time for lunch PAFs, elections, gaali fights, GBMs, video shows...the memories go on for ever!
118
rajesh’s’ Journey
I was born and raised in Mumbai and I called the Western Suburbs (Khar, Bandra, Santacruz) my home for the 21+ years I spent in India. I was raised in an upper middle-class family and my parents and (maternal) grandmother are the biggest influences in my life. I had a strict and disciplined upbringing and yet liberal in other ways -- I was taught to embrace diversity and treat people with dignity, no matter what their background or leaning. It has shaped who I am and has kept me grounded through the years; it has made me who I am. My parents put a heavy emphasis on education and on developing all-round skills, be they social or in sports -- I was always encouraged to try my hand at various extracurricular activities (as long as they were legal). :) I went to school in Juhu (Manesh Patel was a classmate) and some of my childhood friends are film stars and industrialists today......very similar to some of our classmates at IIT-B. You can say that I was trained young to be surrounded by the rich and famous.......... :) I excelled in academics relative to my peers throughout my school and junior college days except in the years that actually mattered (10th and 12th)........go figure. I went to SIES College for my 11th and 12th (Mahalingam, Sundar, SK were classmates) -- German was the one class we all attended and we sent over 30 people to IIT from our batch. I took the JEE to follow in my uncle’s footsteps, 20+ years after he had graduated, and I was lucky to make it to IIT-B like he did. Orientation at IIT-B was rough -- I hated being ragged, couldn’t swallow the mess food as much as I tried and I was just miserable. It showed in my academics.......I was resigned to be a 6 pointer in my freshie year though I am most proud of having increased it consistently every year (to 8s and 9s in my final semesters).........therefore I spent my time honing my other skills like football/soccer, table tennis, trivia etc. and developing an appreciation for the arts, performing or not. Somewhere along the way, I played football for IIT-B at 3 Inter-IITs, which is surprising since I walked on to the team during my freshman year. The rest of the time, I spent traveling.......going back home literally. I would take an auto-rickshaw to go home from Powai late at night (Rs. 25 fare, in those days a princely sum), only to return again by auto-rickshaw early in the morning. In 5 years at IIT, I never spent more than 2 consecutive nights in my hostel room and even that was a rarity. Ranbir Sinha Roy was often a partner in crime on these jaunts and I would drop him off before I went home. We were a small close-knit group for MSc Chem (5 Years) split between H3 (Prakash Raman, Danny and me) and H4 (Sinha Roy, KBS Prasad and Lohokare) but we couldn’t have been more different in our personalities. Others that were part of this group and transferred included R Madhavan, Riyaz Papar, Atul Yadav (Ady) and Joseph D’Souza (JoeD). Nowhere was the difference in personalities more apparent than between Danny and me -- we were polar opposites by nature. During my IIT days, I had every textbook that was prescribed and copious notes neatly collated together (some were saved by the Department for posterity). Danny had none and so he freely helped himself to mine while I would be away on the footer field. I took pride in being good and precise in the lab. Danny, meanwhile, took pride in making things turn fluorescent (long story, to be recapped another time) and causing accidents (and explosions).......yet we would remain the best of friends and our lives would take parallel paths over the years. Life within the MSc group was laid-back and easy, made easier with the arrival of the 2-year batch, a large number of who were from the fairer sex. Upon graduation, we all had a number of scholarships (half dozen or more) to the best schools in the US and thus began my journey to the US in 1991. I spent 7 years (1991-98) at The Ohio State University in Columbus working on my MS, PhD and MBA, the last degree being my true calling. Along the way, I was recognized for being a distinguished teacher while morphing into a social butterfly/party promoter nonpareil. In addition, I tried my hand at multiple things including managing a restaurant and DJing in a club.............those were some wild times better discussed over drinks at reunions. In 1998, I moved to New York to do something different after 7 years in academia and research. I still call New York home after 17+ years though I have spent a few years abroad working in global roles. I joined as a Product Manager with Thomson Financial to build their first internet-based product and quickly rose to become the Global Head of Product Management for their sell-side business (Investment Banking, Capital Markets, Equity Research and Private Equity) in 2003. Along the way, I was responsible for integrating numerous acquisitions, big and small ($200 million to $15 billion), building the Thomson ONE platform for 300,000+ sell-side professionals and turning around 2 significant divisions ($300+ million in revenue). In 2007, I moved to Zurich as an expatriate and set up Thomson Reuters’ global subsidiary for Content & Technology resources in Switzerland. I managed the business operations at a statutory level supporting $7.5 billion P&L across 60 countries. The 5 years (2007-2012) in Switzerland and Europe were probably the highlights of my career but things didn’t go as planned on the personal front when I lost my father suddenly in 2010. I took a sabbatical in 2012 to take care of my ailing mother in India and found myself at a crossroad introspecting about my career and what I wanted to do next. Though Social Entrepreneurship in areas like Education, Healthcare, Energy and Sustainable Technologies are closest to my heart, I decided to put my plans on hold and focus on my immediate family (my mother and 2 sisters). I moved back to New York to be close to them and now find myself back in the corporate rat-race managing business operations and technology (COO/CTO) for Wolters Kluwer in the US. Still, I believe I am truly blessed as I reflect on the past 25 years........I am surrounded by family and friends, those dear and near to me and there are very few things that I would do differently if I had to relive my life again. I am thankful for all the doors that IIT opened and for all the opportunities that it presented on this fantastic voyage. I raise my glass to the next 25 years.........and wish everyone nothing but the best
RAJESH NAIK H3, MSC Chem MS, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY MBA, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 119
Sumit Sirsikar
MARRIED TO
H6, Mech
SON -
(Sirsi)
Ashwini DHRUV
PGDM, IIM Calcutta
sumit’s’ Journey Next step after IITB was the IIM in Calcutta , with plenty of ex-IITB junta for company. Since then, working life has taken me to Bombay, Bangalore, Singapore and currently, Gurgaon. Have worked in marketing roles mainly in the consumer goods (ITC, Colgate) and financial services (Standard Chartered, Prudential). Currently with IREO , a real estate PE firm in Gurgaon. Married my wife , Ashwini, in 1996 ; our son Dhruv is now in the 10th grade. General stuff -- have tried to keep in touch with some sporting activity - used to be some corporate cricket /football etc earlier, then squash for some time before the knees packed up, these days it is more swimming (- definitely kinder on the knees!). Along the way, also picked up an interest in windsurfing and scuba – will be completing my Advanced Open Water Diving Certification along with my son, this year. Did a bit of quizzing post-IIT, was on BBC TV’s Mastermind series. Rest – when we meet.
sumit’s’ IIT Memories some random incidents, no particular order, use whatever relevant. #FreshieFrog : Memories of our freshie months of Jul/Aug ’86 … the extremely wet weather & those ‘dungeon’ rooms in the H6 basement wings that all freshies were promptly banished to. When the downpours came, the place used to turn into a soggy nether world - with puddles in the wing corridors, monsoon frogs all around etc. Especially the wing bogs – a sort of common room for all manner of crawling/hopping refugees from the wetness outside. You quickly picked up essential life skills like going on doggedly with your business while nervously sharing stall space with a stray frog or grass lizard. Highlight (or maybe lowpoint?) personal memory for me .. in a rush to make Appaji’s NSO class on time that day, absentmindedly pulling on my shoes without untying laces, then taking 3 clean steps before the brain registered that my left foot was not the only occupant of my left shoe. Indescribable emotions thereafter - a cross between the panic of expecting to be bitten any moment & the almost funny ticklish-feel of a squishy creature wriggling about in very limited space around your toes. Needless to say, we separated as fast as freshie and frog can. #DickieAbrahamPintofFreshieBlood : Hazy memory ... but one of the more classier bits of our ragging I remember. All 40odd H6 freshies woken up in the middle of the night, marched sleepily into a completely darkened, curtains drawn hostel common room to hear Dickie Abraham’s midnight speech. Something about the supposedly hallowed H6 freshie initiation tradition of mixing each freshie’s contribution of “a pint of freshie blood” into the cup containing “hostel blood”. After Dickie’s accompanying crazy torch light dance , even the most hardened cynics were beginning to wonder ... he certainly looked mad enough to carry it through! #DahodStationWithTekuGajju : Returning from IIT-D Rendezvous in 3rd year with Teku & Gajju. Last minute wait listed tickets, no scene in general compartment so resigned to a standing overnight journey in reserved bogey, TC landing up well past midnight, us self righteously refusing his bribe & getting the inevitable boot from the train at the immediate next stop -- Dahod (in Guj or MP?). As far as I remember, only 3 of us & a stray dog under the stone bench of that 1-platform station -- shivering in the chilly December night & waiting for couple of hours for whatever train came next heading in the general direction of Bombay. Plenty of time to debate on whose bright idea was really responsible - don’t think we’ve settled the issue even now. #TheGreatAviyalRevolt : Major ruckus in our2nd or 3rd year – over introducing “aviyal” into mess lunch menu. Plenty of hot air between both camps … most junta just happy to egg on a good tamasha. Highlight memory - some anti-aviyal stalwart (I think , Arnab Sur , ’88 Mech) stomping out of the mess at lunch time, plucking grass out from mess lawn and then with much fanfare proceeding to ingest the whole thing .. grass, mud et al -- to make good on his “will eat grass but not aviyal “ threat.
120
sunil’s’ Journey Life has been a blast. Worked on four continents, nine countries and visited over 60. God married somewhere along the way, and now live with a family of two kids, trying to grow roots in one place. Things continued on a roll ever since leaving IIT. Did the standard stuff, went overseas, got a degree and got a job in Schlumberger’s research organization. And then my eyes opened wide to see the big world out there. Nothing beats taking a plunge into the melange of vistas and cultures that humanity has to offer. Perhaps the moment of bliss came in Nigeria, where i first experienced the apparently strange custom of celebrating a person’s death. This event is delivered with pomp and splendor, much like weddings back home. Intrigued I asked the reason only to be told that they are celebrating the Life of a person who has passed on. Mourning is only for regrets. I’ve tried to mold myself into this frame of mind ever since - live and be merry, much like how it was back at our alma mater.
sunil’s IIT Memories Beginning Day One: The G-Sec assured my parents all would be fine. I was serenading him to sleep before they reached Y-Point. Mom’s First Trip to H3 – “I don’t care if everyone is wearing [Bata] Hawaii’s. I’m getting you better slippers tomorrow.” Math One – When did anyone use that stuff anyway? Closing Convocation Day: The Diro while shaking my hand “Atleast today you should have polished your shoes.” Peon at the Main Building: “We are closed. Come tomorrow to pick your certificate.” Me “But the office closes in 15 mins.” Peon “You’ve waited four years. One more day will not be a problem. Aata udya yeyacha” And Somewhere in Between Mess grub, wing raada, end-sem cheap chai, Himankan, Tammanabai, punch cards and the first email, Joshi, fish pond, freshie nite, Mood Indigo, HAL, exam tension, and a heck lot of fun.
Sunil Gulrajani
MARRIED TO
H3, Aero
Children’ -
(Gul)
DEEPIKA AMAN, NOOR
phd, Cornell University 121
jeetendra’s’ Journey
While in IIT B I wasted my time in non-prescribed negative thoughts about how materialistic the world is, the utility of living, etc. I got inspired by lectures of Srila Prabhupada, the founder Acharya of International society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Srila Prabhupada spread Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s message of Krishna consciousness throughout the English-speaking world. Even drug addicts transformed on hearing him. This inspiration got clouded when I came across news of Child Molestation in ISKCON Gurukul. It broke my heart to know that Srila Prabhupada had said during his last days, “I am being poisoned”. There are primarily eleven religions active currently on planet earth namely, Sanatana Vedic (Hinduism), Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Shinto. News of Sexual abuse, hypocrisy, and quarrel are heard of in all of them. Also each religious sect has innumerable sub-sects. Who could I depend on? What is a bonafide teaching? Who should I follow? Who should I accept as my Guru? The LORD made me meet SHROTRIYA BRAHMANISTHA GURUDEVA, JAGADGURU SHREE KRIPALUJI MAHARAJ. (SHROTRIYA means well versed in scriptures of ALL religions and knows how ALL messages connect. His lectures removed ALL my doubts and are now taking me to deeper levels. BRAHMANISTHA means is GOD realized and is ALWAYS situated in the state of PURE DIVINE UNALLOYED LOVE.) In the year 1957, KASHI VIDVAT PARISHAT, the supreme body of the most highly read scholars and pandits in our country befittingly honored SHREE KRIPALUJI MAHARAJ with the titles of ‘NIKHILDARSHANSAMANVAYACHARYA’, ‘BHAKTIYOGRASAVATAR’ and ‘JAGADGURUTTAM’, supreme amongst all Jagadgurus. Even a person who exploits does not wish anyone to exploit him. This shows that intrinsically every soul adores Divine Qualities. The Golden rule that comes in scripture of every religion in some form or the other says, “In everything, do unto others as you would want them do unto you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets”. Following it makes me focus on and allow cultivation of GOD’s Divine Qualities in me. I can only do so if I choose to cultivate LORD CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU’s Sikshastakam teaching, “One should be humbler than a blade of grass more tolerant than a tree devoid of all sense of false prestige and ready to offer all respects to others. In such a state of mind one can remember the Lord constantly.” This is because every soul is an energy part of GOD who is a reservoir of unlimited Divine Qualities to an unlimited degree.
Jeetendra Verma (Jeetu)
H2, Elec
Jyoti Bhagat Majmudar H10, Elec PGDM, IIM Bangalore
M Tech, IIT Delhi
MARRIED TO
RUPAL
Children’ - AASHNA, ANKUSH
jyoti’s’ Journey 1990-91: Worked as RA under Prof. Shevgaonkar in IIT-B 1991-93: finished MBA at IIMB 1991 Dec: Got married to Rupal Majmudar EE-89 batch IIT-B 1993 April to 2008: Lived 14 years in Zuerich. Worked for ETH: the technical university in Zuerich, ABB, Philips Semiconductors which went on to become NXP and then to DSP group in Israel. 2000 and 2003: Aashna and Ankush were born. 2008: Came back to Bangalore 2008 to Date: Co founded EduSports, offering physical education and sports in schools.
jyoti’s’ IIT Memories Have beautiful memories of IIT. For the first time out of home, the freedom, the independence, being rebellious, decisive, falling in love it was a turning point in my life. Don’t remember a lot of details but I know that my life was full of thrill and excitement supported by a lot of friends. The big regret is that I didn’t keep in touch, but now when I am meeting batchmates, it feels so comfortable. On campus, remember eating Maggie, egg bhurji, garlic fried rice, late nights at Chakra, learning to swim, playing baddy, PAF, industrial tour, vihar lake walks with Chitra, Anju, Arti, Kshama, Sujata and ofcourse late night outings with Rupal.
jeetendra’s’ IIT Memories
Foolishly I spent most of my time in IIT to think that I am a misfit: I am inferior to my other IIT brethren. It is because of this that I was scared to speak to almost everyone. I interacted with very few. I lost the opportunity to endeavor to make many wonderful great friends. It is only later by the mercy of bonafide spiritual teachers did I realize that I am suffering from a BIG ahankaar ego. I considered myself to be independently powerful and I perceived others to be independently powerful: “Independent power” in me is less than “Independent power” in others hence I am inferior, blah, blah, blah. This mental disease got rectified when my Gurudeva taught me that the “as it is” fact is that every sentient being is “dependently empowered” by the LORD: it is foolish to consider oneself as an independent doer. Wisdom for me is to SURRENDER FULLY to the LORD ALONE and *allow Him* to utilize me as His instrument. Please bless me that I choose to do so.
122
123
KISHORE S (BALDY) H6, Meta
FE
MARRIED TO Pb
PhD, University of California, Berkeley MBA, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton
kishor’s’ Journey
REKHA
Children’ ISHAAN, SAMEERA
First Memory of IIT - The lush green, beautiful campus in a heavy Bombay downpour! Satya (ChemE - H8), KBS (M.Sc. Chem - H5), and I arrived by train from Hyderabad to Dadar, and then by taxi to the campus (shepherded by Satya’s father) in a heavy July downpour. We were dropped off in the logical order of distance from the main gate, H8 followed by H4 and then finally H6. The taxi had skilfully maneuvered around what would become a permanent fixture during my 4 years – a giant bull and its brood stranded across the road atop the steep incline between H7 and H6. I arrived at a very desolate H6 with not a senior “inmate” in sight. I was terribly anxious about the ragging. Soon, I would discover that the inmates welcoming the freshmen were quite the “lukkas”. I was “greeted” by RC Chawla (aka Randi Chawla, Meta’89), George Thomas (MSc Chem 87), and Notya (Rajat Srivastav, Mech’88). Notya gleefully christened me “Baldy”, and we became the three baldies in H6 parlance (we had shaved heads from our Tirupati sojourn prior to enrolment). Recalling my first year, I was frankly quite lost. It took me until after the first year to make close friendships, many of whom I will be meeting after almost two decades. My fondest memories of the IIT years revolve around the general bonhomie and the good time I had in the company of these friends - late night carrom sessions in the H6 lounge, hostel picnics, PAF, Mood Indigo, and the all-night cack-sessions regarding politics and our much touted convictions about the irrelevance of the academic curriculum to our individual futures. IIT confined us all to a sheltered environment. The first two years proved to be adequate time for me to develop the required self-assurance to move to the next phase of my career – imbibe a keen sense of the competition at an elite academic place and to not be scared of it. I just couldn’t wait to graduate, which was when I met my wife. She had accompanied my hostel wing-mate’s sister to Mood Indigo. I was assigned the brave task of playing host. Right then, unbeknownst to me, I had set course on my personal life! In the grand scheme of things, my personal journey has been incredibly enriching as I foolishly and recklessly pursued seemingly irrational career steps. The most transformative trigger for my career would have never been possible if I were not at IIT – My admission to U.C. Berkeley for my graduate studies! Today, when I reflect on all the gratitudes that I owe for my career accomplishments, Berkeley stands tall, second only to my parents. I just did not realize then, that IIT would become the most important stepping stone for everything that followed afterwards in my personal and professional life. In comparison to the Martian biosphere at IIT, Berkeley was a whirlwind – a M.S. in Materials Science engineering culminating in a Ph.D. in EECS in 1996. I had changed majors to EECS at the graduate level, specializing in radio-frequency integrated circuit design. This was my first act in what would be a recurring pattern of self-flagellation, until of course it hurt really badly. If you can do it or if you are feeling comfortable, it must be easy or you are stagnating, and therefore the logic goes, it is not worth holding on to or needs immediate intervention – also called the art of self-sabotage! You have to make your own jungle. As you grow older, you find that there is no one who makes it his or her business to jolt you from self-stupor. Like a Swiss watch, you need to develop a finely calibrated sense of time to create your own sense of “alarm”. Else, one cannot postpone death! After my Ph.D., I joined Rockwell International at their semiconductor systems group in Newport Beach, California. After 15 months at Rockwell, I joined Broadcom in late 1997 for a short stint of 9 months. Two years of Corporate America proved to be a far cry from the adventures and the constant stimulation that I craved for after school. I needed to liberate me from the status quo. So, I joined a fledgling wireless start-up called Silicon Wave in San Diego. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. I learnt about building teams, building tools, solving engineering problems, and most importantly, relying solely on primal human instincts of creativity and survival – Postpone death! Silicon Wave ultimately got assimilated into Qualcomm in 2007, well after my departure in 2002. Much earlier, in 2001, the 9/11 tragedy lit the fuse for a worldwide economic meltdown that was long in the making. In the aftermath, it became clear that Silicon Wave would be hard pressed to commercialize its pioneering Bluetooth technology. After 4 years at Silicon Wave, I was really burnt out. Once again I had to recalibrate my journey. I resigned and retreated to the comfort of joblessness, home, and my two weeks old first child. It would be a full year of work sabbatical, until mid-2003, before I was back to “finding myself”. The jungle was beckoning me back and closing in on me. A year before I left Silicon Wave, in 2001, I had enrolled in Wharton’s part-time MBA program. At the end of 2003, my MBA drew to a close and my “lukka-giri” had run its course. I determined to start my own venture – MaxLinear! I persuaded 7 of my colleagues from Silicon Wave to abandon the comfort of their salaries and domestic routines to join me as cofounders. The prospect of recreating the fury and the passion of the early years at Silicon Wave was irresistible. We had no funding, no ideas to work on, and as it played out, no salaries for 2 years after and more. For us, this voyage was not one of choice, but one we were inexorably drawn to – not unlike the first pilgrims on the Mayflower who set sail across the Atlantic to America. On March 25th, 2010, MaxLinear had its Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MXL). We were huddled together in the balcony overlooking the trading pit, to ring the opening bell at the big bourse, precisely at 9.30AM. Turns out that the button that I was so determinedly pressing to trigger the opening bell was just that – a button! The NYSE does not take chances of miscues and the opening bell is automated to precisely ring at 9.30AM to signal the start of trading. The NYSE President assured me that I was only the most recent fool in a long history of such bell-ringing CEOs and that I was in august company. Life is indeed strange. It always manages to hold back just enough to humble you at the signal moment of your triumph. MaxLinear continues to be an adventure that constantly gives me more thrill than is safe for either of us. The jungle, it seems, is constantly closing in on me and I am still learning to postpone death!
124
kumar’s’ Journey I presently live in Acton, MA with my wife Sudha, and my two kids. My son Vedant is 14 & my daughter Vanshika is 9. My wife Sudha is an accomplished Hindustani vocalist and performs in the local area. I have been living in the east coast of the US for the last 23 years, 8 years in the NY/NJ area & the rest in New England. We are not huge fans of the New England winter, but love to ski. I am currently with Verizon Labs in Waltham, MA. I am working on a few interesting product concepts in the space of IoT, video delivery & cloud infrastructures. I have been with Verizon for 4 years.
kumar’s IIT Memories The only ‘academic’ memory I retain is the ‘educational tour’ during our third year. Ooty, Mysore, Bangalore & Goa. Learnt a lot, not much from the academic side. Great job by Rajesh Pai to get this organized. Prof Shankar was such a great sport to accompany us, engage with us & turn a blind eye when he had to. #EE90 #RajeshPai #ProfShankar A big thanks to Yatin Chitre to keep me out of the doghouse, the dreaded EE &FFs. Without his notes, would have made many visits out there. #YatinChitre Memories from the hostel – lousy mess food, great canteen, awesome gaali fights & football. We had the record for the number of ‘video shows’ we did in my last year there. Life changing experience. #H5
KUMAR VISHWANATHAN (KK)
H5, Elec
MARRIED TO
SUDHA
Children’ VEDANT, VANSHIKA
125
RAVINDRA’s’ Journey
RAVINDRA KUMAR
Lelwyn DSouza
H6, Civil
H2, Mech
MARRIED TO
NUTAN KUMARI Children’ -
RITWIKA, KISHAN KASHYAP
MARRIED TO
JOAN
Children’ ANDREA, RACHEL
126
lelwyn’s’ Journey Post IIT on account of family reasons I joined a Multinational company in India as a Management trainee. In 1990 that meant subsistence living that was hand to mouth for basic necessities of life except for Tons of Beer that I always had money for. My roles were in building Chemical process plants - the bigger the better. I worked in India and Korea and then moved to P&G in 1995. With Procter I started to travel a great deal on my role and in 1998 moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. This is probably the closest I would call to a home base for me in 10 different locations that I have lived in after college - Goa, Mumbai, China, Japan, Fairfield county in Connecticut, Iowa, Puerto Rico, Back to Cinci, Thailand & now Singapore. On the personal side Joan (my wife) has been a trooper supporting all these moves and I have 2 wonderful kids Andrea (14) and Rachel (9).
lelwyn’s’ IIT Memories # Inter IIT # the year we won it in IIT B with the skin of our teeth we went on a rampage that night drinking tons of Santra and god knows what..... I vaguely remember that I was in a procession of Burning hockey sticks(rags tied to the end of hockey sticks with petrol that were set alight) - going to H5 and knocking the rows of bicycles down till Security reinforcements arrived and then finding myself asleep outside my door late morning after successfully trying to get into the room # H2 sportsman of the year award # I loved athletics, soccer, basketball , volleyball, field hockey .. name it and I would love to play. When I did get Athlete of the year and then more important “sportsman of the year” award with Sanjay- who I still remember as the elegant soccer player I was thrilled to share that award with him ....
127
MAHENDRA PINGALE H3, Aero
MARRIED TO
GAYATRI Children’ GARGI, CHINMAY
PGDST, NCST BOMBAY MBA, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN
mahendra’s’ Journey I’d pretty much decided to switch to software career in the late 3rd / early 4th year while doing my B.Tech. in Aero. Accordingly, I joined SARK Consultants in Mumbai right after IIT – a small software firm started by 4 ex-IITians. Later, I joined CMC (now part of TCS) in Apr-‘91 — a lot bigger IT company than SARK, but a lot like an extension of IIT life, with lots of new learning, friends and hard work (yes, ghodagiri!). The only frustrating part was the arduous commute to and from Panvel, taking 2-2½ hours one way – on a good day! Nonetheless, I also completed my Post-Graduate Diploma in Software Technology (PGDST) in parallel at the same time from National Centre for Software Technology (NCST) – now a part of C-DAC. At the beginning of 1994, I moved to Bangalore to join Infosys, only an obscure, emerging IT firm back then! Bangalore brought about a whole new set of experiences with an entirely new world – for a hard-core ghat born and brought up in Panvel! 4th Block Koramangala had its own charm back then with big houses and daily commute to the new Infosys complex (still not fully built out) in Electronic City on Hosur Road. On the personal front, I met with, and subsequently got married to, Gayatri in Nov-‘95. And, as luck would have it, we were on a flight to Paris on Dec 31, ‘95, to a short assignment in Brussels! Needless to say, that was the memorable first winter together! Eventually, we moved to Pune in Jul-1996 when Infosys opened their new location there, which turned out to be a good family decision. A far bigger change came in ’98 when we moved to the US for my new job in Columbus, OH. But, the adventurous part was, we did it while Gayatri was 7-month pregnant with our first-born! We were blessed with Gargi in Sep-’98, and that was a whole different experience trying to balance a new job in a foreign country and trying to raise a baby just between the two of us – with both our parents and families back in India! Makes me shudder now!! We later to moved to Austin, TX, and were blessed with Chinmay in Oct-2000. I joined IBM in 2001, and have been with them since then, now working as a Software Offering Manager. Austin is where home is now, with Gargi and Chinmay busy at their high school, and Gayatri trying to magically keep the whole family going!
mahendra’s IIT Memories Monsoon Trek: One memory of my freshie time is the monsoon trek to an obscure fort near in Karjat. Jitendra Vaidya and
Pendse (H3/1988) did an amazing job in organizing and coordinating it. What is still etched in memory are pouring rains; narrow, muddy and slippery tracks; AND the amazing mesmerizing beauty of the mountains amidst all the mist, waterfalls and greenery! Mood-I and Hindustani Classical: Mood-I was the first-ever social festival I’d participated in. What I remember it most for is the immersive experience it gave me of the Hidustani Classical! I forever cherish the concerts of the stalwarts like Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, Parveen Sultana, Prabha Atre, Kishori Amonkar, Zakir Husain, Allah Rakha, Jasraj and, of course, the ultimate Pdt. Bhimsen Joshi! Though I never could dive deep enough to learn the art, I’m forever grateful to Mood-I for this lifetime gift of immortal music. “Wetting” Rungta’s Bed: “Wing Cricket” was big in H3 with matches turning really competitive and noisy. At one such match, the upper wing-mates got quite mad as our decibel level went up. When we would not budge despite “gaali fights,” the upstairs guys took it to a new level and poured buckets of water on us! This, obviously, enraged us. We grabbed few buckets, and stormed upstairs. Verbal abuse continued and, in a fit of rage, I poured an entire bucket of water in Kamal Rungta’s room – and, even, on to his bed! That kind of helped calm things down, but I really felt bad for it! “Rescuing” Dusankar: Ajit Dusankar from my wing got really sick one time with severe stomachache, and was admitted to campus hospital. Unfortunately, their diagnosis and treatment actually made things worse. I then learned from his parents that their family doctor had a very different diagnosis, and needed Ajit to be shifted to his hospital ASAP! He was, of course, quite eager to go home, but the hospital staff would not discharge him in those conditions. Thinking on my feet, I had Ajit sneak out and wait by my bicycle outside. I stayed back for a few minutes before slipping out myself! Then I got him straight to his home and, eventually, to the family doctor! He was immediately operated on. The family doctor, in fact, stated that things would have been far worse had there been further delay! This is one good deed that will stay with me forever despite the incidence at the IIT Hospital!
128
mandar’s’ Journey It is hard to believe that it has been 25 years since we graduated from IIT. Some of the
memories from those days are still quite fresh. After graduation, I came to Louisiana State Univ. to do my Masters. Compared to IIT, the coursework was very easy and most of us, IITians (we had 2 more in my LSU batch: Nishit Sahay and Bhalachandra Kanade) sailed through. I was driven by doing something right for the environment and I decided to do my Thesis with a Prof. focused on Enviro. Chemodynamics. Having aced his course, his expectations for my research were high and I did not take him very seriously. So, ended up graduating with an M.S. instead of Ph.D. and started working as an Applications Engineer for a company manufacturing Air Pollution Control Equipment in Long Island, about 30 miles east of New York City. This technical sales role turned out to be very appealing for me and ended up loving the opportunity to work with customers to resolve their pollution control problems by building complex scrubber systems. After 3 years, I ended up moving to another Pollution Control Equipment Manufacturer, where I got a chance to work in different industries such as Semiconductor and Pharmaceutical. In the end, I was running the Pollution Control business unit for the employer. However, Capital Equipment tends to be cyclic business and it was difficult to meet CEO expectations of doubledigit growth year-over-year. Hence, after spending 9 years there, I got an opportunity to work in Product Management at Sartorius, my current employer, in specialty-filtration for the BioPharmaceutical industry. This time, I had the opportunity to work to support consumables business as opposed to capital equipment and in an Industry that is in a sharp growth curve. This helped me grow through the organization over the last 10 years and currently I lead a team of 14 people supporting BioPharm. customers in Filtration for the Americas. On the personal side, I have been blessed with a wife and an 8-year old daughter. We love to travel and like to visit at least 1 National Park in North America every year. I certainly hope to travel much more in India in the future as well to see “Incredible India”!
mandar’s IIT Memories My 4 years at IIT-Bombay have been truly a life-changing experience. I came out of my shell once we got settled into H3.
Having grown up in Mumbai, I never imagined a place so beautiful right in the suburbs. I was blown away by the beauty of the campus with Powai lake not too far from my hostel. Many evenings were spent jogging along the pipeline road and taking a stroll along the lakeside. Many of the friendships formed during those days have stayed strong for over 25 years, considering sometimes we have not spoken to one another in several years. Whenever we meet, the still strong connection is felt. Some of my fondest memories are playing cricket with my wingmates (Pingale, Khare, Patya, Dusi, Vada, Argal, Shramaji) in the passage outside our rooms during lunch break and during free afternoons, talking about innumerable different strategies about wooing girls till wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately, none of us actually did anything in that department beyond talking. I participated in 1 Himankan in Kashmir and multiple wildlife treks. I remember Pehelgam, Aru and Liderwat being simply breathtaking. I got to experience snowfall for the first time in my life and little did I know it then, it would become a part of life in New York! I distinctly remember the bone-chillingly cold nights spent huddling together with the rest of the trekkers & the sheer joy of drinking the first morning tea. I cherished the 30-hour train journey with Nellesh Thakur (H7 EE) on Jammu Tawi express from Bombay Central to Jammu Tawi with different landscapes from the dessert of Rajasthan to the lush green farmlands of Punjab are etched in my mind forever. The wildlife treks inculcated in me a passion for nature and wildlife viewing, which I carry on to this day. In conclusion, the time at IIT has been one of the best 4-year span of my life so far.So, thanks to everyone who contributed to it and so sorry that I won’t be able to make it to the 25-year Reunion.
MANDAR DIXIT (MANDY)
MARRIED TO
REENA
H3, Chem MS, LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY 129
Seshadri Kumar
MARRIED TO
H3, Chem
DAUGHTeR’ -
(SK)
shailesh’s’ Journey
Sandhya NANDINI
MS, University of Utah phd, University of Utah seshadri’s’ Journey I left India in 1990 after my B.Tech. and went to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the USA to do my MS. I finished this in 1994 and started my PhD, which I finished in 1999. My field of research was Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Along the way, I developed a strong interest in Indian Classical Music and also in playing the flute in addition to singing, which I was doing in IIT as well – but now I expanded my interest to singing classical music – both Hindustani and Carnatic music – entirely self-taught. Still not at a level to give concerts, but enough to make myself (and, importantly, my close family and friends) happy! ? After my PhD, I got a job as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Utah, working in a US Department of Energy (DOE) Grand Challenge Center on scientific supercomputing – solving challenging problems on the world’s biggest supercomputers (at the time) – the supercomputers at the Defense Labs – Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia. I was part of the Center for the Simulation of Accidental Fires and Explosions (C-SAFE). After 6 years as faculty in Utah, I came back to India to take care of my parents. I found a job with a CFD vendor company, CD-adapco, to start their India division in Bangalore. I spent three years at CD-adapco before realizing that I preferred to work more on the end applications of CFD, and joined Dow Chemical R&D in Pune in 2008. I spent six years at Dow R&D, which moved in 2012 from Pune to Mumbai. In 2014, I left Dow and joined Emerson Innovation in Pune, where I have been since. Will soon quit this job for academia. I got married in 2007 to Sandhya Srinivasan, and we have a beautiful daughter, Nandini, who was born in 2012. Sandhya is a music lover like me and a literature and history buff who reads much more than even I do. History is a shared passion. I have always had a love for writing and sharing life experiences. My first letter to my folks after coming to the US was 30 pages long; the second was 60 pages; and the third was 90 pages long. I used to write about my culture shock (in 1990 there was quite a bit of it) and my observations of my new environs. I used to write very long emails to friends. Much later, this passion for writing found another outlet when I started my own blog, www.leftbrainwave.com, in 2011. I write on current issues, mostly politics, but also music, films, literature, science, and social issues. I hope to be a published writer someday.
seshadri’s’ IIT Memories My most happy memories of IIT relate to my discovering that I was a reasonable singer in IIT. I did try a few times to audition for the IIT light music night but was not selected. But I did sing in every hostel valedictory function. What was especially nice was that I would sing loudly all the time in my room, and no one would object. I will always be grateful to my IIT hostelmates for this kindness. It helped me grow as a singer and helped me develop an open-throated voice. In this context, I remember the one time I spent Holi in hostel – it was a blast, especially the bonfire the night before Holi, as a lot of us sang many songs in a really fun Antakshari (including #Argal). And thinking of music, I discovered Jagjit Singh in IIT during one Mood I! Another musical memory from Mood Indigo was the classical night. One year, we first had Ajay Pohankar, who was a young sedate singer then, followed by Zakir Hussain and Shivkumar Sharma – the crowd loved this. When they finished, at nearly 3 am, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi started. Unlike Zak and Sharma before him, he did not bother with the audio. Started singing slowly – alap – in the lower register. I was in a group of guys, including I think #Khare, #Mandar, and #Argal – all of us were quite clueless about classical music – but there was one chap from another hostel who seemed to know something about classical music. He was our beacon. He told us Panditji was singing raga Lalit-Bhairav – Lalit in the aaroha and Bhairav in the avaroha. We were suitably impressed. Panditji moved gradually from sober and serious to electric with lightning-fast taans. Our hairs were on end, even though we did not understand much about the music. We wanted to hear more. Just then a voice from the crowd shouted “Jo bhaje Hari ko sada!” Our guide frowned angrily. We said, “What, what?” He replied, “‘Jo bhaje Hari ko sada’ is a bhajan, in Bhairavi. Bhairavi is a raga that one ends the concert with. Now Panditji will conclude the concert.” We were all very angry and looked in the direction from where the voice had come, though we had no idea who the villain was. Sure enough, Panditji ended with an amazing “Jo bhaje Hari ko sada” in Bhairavi, but all of us were discussing after the concert was over - having a snack in Rainbow - and then on the entrance of the hostel - until early morning - how musically illiterate fans had no business asking for songs without knowing their implications and spoiling the fun for serious music lovers!
130
After IIT, I went off to Washington State for a master’s program in Computer Science. Graduated in 1992 and drove down the west coast over five days to California for my first real job at Amdahl, a small IBM and Sun Microsystems competitor at the time. After a fun two year stay in the bay area, came back up to the pacific northwest to join Microsoft and to explore the great outdoors around the area. Met my wife Kanchen there in 1996 and got married in 1998; together with friends we spent summers hiking/backpacking in the mountains or rafting/kayaking the rivers & lakes of the area. On the work front, the Microsoft years were spent working on email and database storage & search products. After the technology bubble burst, got interested in finance and investing; initially a hobby, it became a passion after a few years of learning and practice, and eventually I left Microsoft to pursue it full-time. Moved back to India at the end of 2011 to be close to family (and a chance to trek in the himalayas every once in a while).
shailesh’s IIT Memories Night before holi: bonfire and dancing, followed by marching off to other hostels singing & dancing, with one of us with a stick alternating between the drums and the paved road for effect, all the way and back. Holi morning: asking folks as they came in if they wanted bhang or milk with breakfast, and asking them how they liked the milk in the next day. Late night outings for chai & bhurji, only to come back and fall asleep. Marathon movie sessions after endsems.
Shailesh Vaishnavi H2, CS
MARRIED TO
Kanchen
MS, Washington State 131
mukul’s’ Journey
None of us know where our life journey will be taking us, but am I glad IIT Bombay and this crazy smart bunch were on a stop along the way. Hard to believe that stop on the journey was twenty five years ago. Following that was Masters in Computer Science at Univ of Arizona, Tucscon. 1992 saw me become a dropout, dropping PhD to take on work at Amdahl, Intel, and then in 1998 joining Oracle. That sojourn helped me meet Gitanjali in 1995. Luck kept smiling with Mihir, now 17, and Jui, now 15 joining our family. Soon, they will be encountering their life’s memorable stop as they prepare to enter college – but for now, it is our turn to savor the journey’s stops. Going back, around 2004, I became an accidental entrepreneur, initially consulting, and now with a product that packages Dr D. B. Phatak classes to create web and mobile applications with prepackaged reusable code – without having to program. The jury on being an entrepreneur is still out, but the luckiest break remains the one twenty nine years ago, to have the privilege to join Computer Science and Hostel 7 at IIT Bombay.
mukul’s’ IIT Memories
It was not just the room with the hard iron bed and the flimsiest of mattresses that could be packaged in a holdall. Neither was it just the marine drive at Hostel 7 where innumerable hours were spent with chai. Neither was it the just the late night carom or ping pong games or the mess. Saturday morning parathas with a healthy helping of butter was also not it. Of course all these things could be found on repeat visits after graduation, but the life seemed missing, despite there being plenty of other students, creating their memories. The two key ingredients – the right time in our lives, and, the amazing friends who went through things together, were missing on those visits. And so, the explanation to the kids on why the place is special always boiled down to the escapades, the friendships, the memories that individually seem irrelevant, but put together, has made the time and place special. Whether it was the shouting matches across wings, or the football games, or being in the late night line with #Boka for notes outside #Chhabra’s room, or listening to #PK and #Adve argue or be with the #Wati #Guru #Mishra #Phunti group! The ragging, the cack sessions, the arguments, and somewhere in there we ended up learning as much if not more than the MB and the buildings behind with the smartest yet scariest professors who were kind enough to present us with passing grades. The knowledge could have come decades earlier had we paid more attention. But this GabbarSingh aka Gabbu aka Mukul, wouldn’t change a thing from this memorable past. Well, maybe a few more trips to H10.
132
MUKUL PAITHANE (GABBU)
H7, CS MS, INIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
MARRIED TO
GITANJALI Children’ MIHIR, JUI
NARESH BABU SUNKARA H2, Mech ME, IISC, BANGALORE
MARRIED TO
RAMA
Children’ - JYOTI, HEMANT
naresh’s’ Journey & Memories
Born in the coal mining city of Bokaro, the birth place of coal mafia ( Please see “Gangs of Wasseypur” ) the first memory I recall I my playing cricket and gilli-danda (tipcat) on the empty roads of Bhilai. He adds his jeep riding experience on visiting Dam on the weekends and of eating Poori-Channa. Recollecting about my school life reminds me of my teacher named Mr Chandwani, whose teaching methods were like of a military man. “We used to go to his place at 5.30 in the morning .We used to be afraid of his scolding us every now and then. We broke locks of the sports accessories store once to play cricket once in school and got a tight scolding from the gatekeeper”, which makes us say I was definitely mischievous in his playful ways. After schooling, I took coaching from Prasad Chambers: “Agarwal-classes”, which ran postal classes. They used to send books by post and they were supposed to read suo-moto , grasp and send the answer to engineering exams by post. I think new age Is very dependent on the Internet for every small thing. I was interested in robotics and got inspiration from the steel plant in Bhilai. I opted for the Mechanical Engineering branch. At hostel I recall a incident “We burnt a cot in Hostel 2 , burnt a Lizard during 6 semester in Hostel 2. But while doing engineering, my interest shifted from mechanics to the Computer science. Did Masters at IISc Bangalore.I wasn’t that good. But managed 7.8 out of 8 at IISc. 1992-1997 : Joined Wipro, travelled across the globe. Landed in Canada worked with corel corporation. Did long drives across the Canadian border till prince Edward island, the eastern most island of Canada. Enjoyed life. 1997 : Got married to Ramadevi. 1997 - 2002 : Joined QUALCOMM at San Diego. Had good life, made lot of friends. 2002-2015 : Came back to India, joined a startup. The start-up burnt and closed down. Joined Symbol technologies, again joined a start-up, struggled, joined cisco. Currently enjoying corporate social politics and so called leadership gyans. 2015 - Future : Looking forward to retirement and teaching my two beautiful Kids, Hemant and Jyoti and daily 5 KM runs. Have been running 5 KM every day for past 3 years. Things I loved 1. Going for beer with the H2 4 wing 2 Floor gang and movie at Kanjurmarg.
133
Partha Bose H3, Mech
MARRIED TO
Madhumita
Children’ - SUNAINA, ALISHA
MS, Virginia Tech MBA, University of Rochester
srikanth’s’ Journey I was a small town boy from TN who traveled from Chennai to Bombay, a big city I had never been to. I went from being
frightened by it to falling hopelessly in love with Bombay. As I traveled through my years at IIT, I went from being a near dropout to making something of myself thanks largely in part to a little bit of help from my friends. Over the next six to seven years, I found the love of my life, completed my entry into adulthood, and also picked up a PhD. along the way. After spending a few years in industry, I went back to academia to a tenure track job. The initial years in academia were rough, primarily because I had spent too much time in industry. After struggling through those years, fighting through tenure, I have settled into a longish career at Boston University. On the personal side, Sowmini and I are blessed with two beautiful girls Krithi and Aarthi. As of this writing, Krithi a high school senior is just beginning to submit her college applications. The next few years promise to be exciting. Aarthi has three more years before finishing out high school. We have made Westborough, a western suburb of Boston our home.
srikanth’s IIT Memories It’s difficult to distill four years into short paragraphs. Those years were some of the most consequential in my life. I want pARtha’s’ Journey Born in North Calcutta and the youngest of three siblings, I grew up in a joint family with lots of cousins, aunts and uncles. An
avid supporter of Mohan Bagan, my life’s ambition was to be a famous soccer player. That did not work out exactly as I envisioned - instead I joined IIT Bombay, probably to get as far away from home as possible! IIT days were a haze, a combination of high ‘spirits’ in the hostel and gymkhana - rarely at the institute or the department. After IIT, I worked for a year in Shaw Wallace as a Management Trainee, where my unofficial job was to buy company liquor at a huge discount. Left India for the US on Indian Independence Day 1991. Picked up 2 graduate degrees in the US, one in Engineering and one in Business, at least one of which was redundant in hindsight. I blame the generous financial aid for my lack of life direction during the graduate school days. Once the aid stopped during the second year of business school, I had to make a hasty exit to the reality of corporate world. Interestingly, I got hired into FedEx by an IITB alum, Raj Subramaniam (1987, Chem) and spent 3 years enjoying the southern hospitality in Memphis. After my MBA and before joining my job, I spent two months doing ‘lukhagiri’ in Calcutta. The only significant event during this period was that I met my future wife Madhumita. Roll forward a year and a half - I had convinced her to marry me and move to the US. This was a feat in and of itself given the abysmal social skills that was part of the IIT curriculum. In 1999, the dot com boom was in full swing and we moved to Northern California. The bubble burst, but we stuck around and have been in the San Francisco Bay area ever since. Our two lovely chipmunks were born soon after, Sunaina (2002) and Alisha (2004). The years have gone by fast as we did the ‘two-working-parents-juggling-family-and-work-while-leading-a-(mostly)-boring-suburban-life’ thing. In between we have managed to travel quite a bit, which is the one thing all family members seem to agree on. We also went through the ‘R2I (Return to India)’ experience for about three years during 2010-13. Living in Bangalore (Whitefield) was almost an extension of Bay area life and mostly enjoyable (if you take away the horrible traffic). On the plus side, the kids learnt to speak a bit of Bengali, read and write Hindi, began to speak English with a South Indian accent (h pronounced as ‘hech’), and experienced Durga Pujo in Calcutta. I learnt how to drive an Innova on Bangalore streets with minimal injury to pedestrians and random three-wheelers. We returned to the Bay area in 2013, and currently bracing up for the hugely interesting years ahead as we raise two teenage daughters while trying to preserve our sanity :-)
pARtha’s IIT Memories So many memories of IITB - playing #footer on the hostel grounds, weekend bashes in the wing with the loudest music
that frequently ended with folks getting sick, illicit pleasures of eating beef at the #MalluMess outside YP or buying country liquor at the #RLC, coach Jha shouting at me on the football ground, playing volleyball through the night on the lighted courts opposite H2, inter-wing and inter-hostel sports and gaali fights, curd rice & sambar in the #H3 mess for Saturday lunch to fight off Friday hangover, the best mess food during the sports camp before #InterIIT, all-night movies of questionable quality in the common room after mid-sem and end-sem, walk to #Powai lake, incessant rains during Bombay monsoon, sleeping in VT station before catching the 6am Gitanjali Express, standing in line at #MB telephone exchange to make a long distance call home, bhaang in #H3 mess during #Holi. On the academic front, I remember the three consecutive zeroes (1 mid-sem exam and two quizzes) that I got in a Thermodynamics course (UNG, are you listening?), the slow trudge (walk or ‘borrow’ freshie’s bike) to the department for afternoon labs, the incredible patience of my BTP advisor Dr Narasimhan (who after finishing his MS & PhD at Caltech in record 5 years ran into BTech students like me in his first full-time teaching job), putting chappals in my bag before getting into the air-conditioned Computer Center, the look of pure surprise from an H10-ite upon learning that folks from ‘that’ wing in H3 still managed to get CPIs in the 8+ range.
134
to be brief, yet at the same time give a sense of how my years at IIT have influenced my life. At a personal level, I learned a lot from my very talented, brainy, and generous wing mates. I always felt like the somewhat inadequate Ringo Starr, getting by with a little bit of help from my friends. Rajki (Rajkishor Krishnamurthy) the quirky and effervescent mechanical engineer and the level-headed and down-to-earth MG (Mohan Ganesan) hugely expanded my musical tastes. The three of us discovered and listened to a lot of rare and beautiful folk and rock music. A lot of my memories of IIT is tied up with the music I listened to. Rajki and MG and the crooner amongst of our midst, Harry (Kartik Ananthanarayanan) left an indelible mark on my musical tastes. Shrikar (Chakravarthi) my next door neighbor kept me constant company with his constant and cheerful jibber-jabber. He was mostly doing that to aid his own studying, but it helped me too. I don’t think I have ever told him that! His very generous mother also took care of us Chennai boys, far away from home and craving home cooked food. My classmates Baldy (Kishore Seendripu), Harry, and Kram ( Karthikeyan) – we were constantly there for each other academically through thick and thin. When I needed an ass kicking, Baldy was there to deliver a swift kick in my pants to make me believe in myself. Harry – I’ll never forget the evening before Holi (year 3) when I sincerely thought I was not going to make it through the night. Kram, lungi master, fellow traveler from Chennai, sharer of early morning khadak chai that the mess workers made for themselves (no one else but us Chennai boys rose that early in the morning to be able to do that!) – I’ll never forget your messing up of the Diwali train ticket and making us travel third class unreserved back home. Sharad – us small town boys made it! And how can I forget Pokhi! Couldn’t have made it through the extra semester I spent at IIT doing M.Tech when all my friends except him had left for the U.S. He helped me maintain my sanity. And those fiery Bikaneri Shev packets he used to bring back after every summer vacation – my colon still has nightmares! On a professional level, I could list many good professors who taught me basic courses which set the foundation for the career path I eventually pursued. But the larger and more important point I’d like to make is that academically the IIT curriculum taught me how to think and learn on my own. As a faculty member, perhaps this is THE single most important academic skill I learned those four years, more important than any specific class that I took. I developed a streak of stubborn intellectual independence that has never left me and has been foundational to much of what I have done since I left IIT.
Srikanth Gopalan (String)
MARRIED TO
Sowmini
Children’ - KRITHI, AARTHI
H6, Meta PhD, University of Utah 135
nilesh’s’ Journey From ‘Yavatmal? Huh? Where’s that’ to having jewelers from Mumbai to Guwahati depend on Yavatmal for conducting their business has indeed been a tremendous journey. A rollercoaster ride that has been nothing less than a thriller. Post iit, after a brief stint at Reliance Industries, I tried to set up my own industry. However, the attempts didn’t bear fruit. The Harshad Mehta stock market boom of 1990s got me into stocks and I had a good time for couple of years. But change in market dynamics after the introduction of online trading saw everything wiped out. It was down-hill all the way and I entered Y2K in deep red – down but definitely not out. Fortunately, the new millennium was to bring a new dawn. That was about the time when mobile telephony was introduced in India. I found, from a school friend who is a jeweler, that the jewelers, esp. in smaller towns, had almost no access to volatile international gold prices. They were often fleeced by wholesalers who had better information. I bridged this divide by starting a service to provide gold price updates as sms alerts (internet was a good 10 years away for most). The concept clicked. Not only did this turn the tide for me, but more importantly, it also changed the way the wholesale jewelry trade was conducted.
NILESH RATHI
NIPUN RAMAIYA
H8, Chem
H7, Aero
MARRIED TO
MBA, Pennsylvania State University
SHALINI Children’ -
AAROH, SHREYA, LAAVANYA
nipun’s’ Journey After IIT-B, I moved to the US to do an MBA and upon completion in 1992 have been working in the Sales & Trading departments of investment banks, currently with Jefferies in London. My area of interest is Emerging Markets Fixed Income. Alpa and I have been married since Nov 1998. She is a CA from India and did an MBA from City University in London. We live in Wimbledon with our two children. Anshu was born in 2001 and Arushi in 2004.
nipun’s’ IIT Memories
MARRIED TO
ALPA
Many wonderful memories from hostel days. Post dinner rounds of carrom, post tiffin walks to Vihar or Powai Lake, riding my bicycle back and forth from our house in Vile Parle to campus at the start and end of term. Hot omelettes at breakfast in the morning and the Saturday b’fast of Aloo Parathas.
Children’ ANSHU, AARUSHI
Among the high points has been making sure that the call given by the jewelry trade associations for a trade shut-down in protest of a tax was successfully communicated across India (pre whatsapp days) as also rallying my competitors (and clones) to approach the telecom regulator to get the sms regulations changed - having my half-a-minute of fame on Zee TV in the process. On the personal front, I am happily married to Shalini, an electronics and communication engineer, who gave up her teaching career to bring up our three kids. The elder two, Aaroh and Shreya have just joined college this year while youngest and naughtiest Laavanya is in the sixth grade. It is with them that I am now enjoying my life without EMIs!!
136
137
SANJAY GAJAMER (GUJJU)
MARRIED TO
PURNIMa SON -
MALAY
H6, ELEC PGDM, IIM Calcutta SANJAY’s’ Journey 1990-92: I got admission in IIM Calcutta after IIT. As far as living was concerned it was like going from one jungle to another! Of course my train journeys home to Darjeeling became much simpler. I did marketing and systems in the two years with usual extra bout of games and cack sessions. 1992-95: My campus recruitment was with Philips and joined them as management trainee in Mumbai in the lighting division. Happened to prefer sales after the training of 18 months and was assigned to the rickety old van of distribution in South of Gujarat. It was an eventful two and half years- learning the ropes of sales & distribution with threat of plague outburst in Surat and flood in Baroda. In the personal front found someone interesting and beautiful in Mumbai during management trainee days and got married in Mumbai in May 1994 to Purnima. 1995-97: Shifted job in 1995 and moved to Bangalore with BPL as product manager in Audio division. Our son, Malay, was born in 1996- exciting time with less sleep at nights! BPL underwent organisational changes and was posted to Calcutta in 1997 as regional manager for Consumer Electronics for Eastern region. 1997-2004: Joined Samsung in 1997 as Branch Manager and subsequently kicked upstairs for the regional role on expansion. In 2002 joined Whirlpool in North but same year joined back Samsung in Head Office in Delhi as Marketing Head for Consumer Electronics. 2004 : Joined Murugappa group in Chennai as Marketing Head for Parry’s. However, Purnima was working in Delhi and didn’t want to shift to Chennai. In this jamboree got an opportunity in Dubai where she also had an opening in her office. I joined Samsung Gulf last quarter of 2004. My father passed away in March 2004. 2007-15: Changed to local group Al Futtaim Electrons in 2007. Shifted to Qatar in 2009 heading electronics division in local company Intertec, family was in Dubai. In 2011 end came back to Dubai to venture on my own. Malay got admission in UVA and so he started his undergraduate journey in pre-com in 2014.
SANJAY’s’ IIT Memories 1986-1990: 1st Day in the hostel 6 – welcome with a smile, that was surprising after undergoing subsequent meeting with the seniors. Sleeping in Computer class in the big audi after a long night sessions in the 1st month. Trekking in a single file from H6 to Vihar lake and YP early morning in rains with soaked pillows, ostensibly to catch the yellow bus to station for a Hike organised for the freshies, the buses never stopped! Roll on the mud for pledge, etc,etc. These perhaps bounded us on comradeship. Learnt great lot on organising from PAF, Materials in MI and as a cultural secy in Hostel. I understood the power of Human Resources. The football and late night volley ball sessions, the cack sessions during exams and visit to Chinese corner. The “Dron” coup in the hostel and half the hostel visiting the hospital after Holi Thandai Night. Participation in various cultural activities in MI, Malhar and Randavous added to the rich experience of my student life. Prof Kamats (I am also called Kamat!) tests and exams which went from 1 hr closed book to 3 hrs open book exams. Ever subscript and super scripts were important while solving the problem in KCM’s tutorial classes. RG giri with reference books gone from the library. Half the class vanished when the particular prof turned after scribbling on the board. Different coloured chapples after visit to the cyber lab. And lots more……..
138
SHRAVAN’s’ Journey In the last year of my B.Tech itself I figured out that I had to be on my own and that too in India itself. But the confusion continued and I took up a job in EIL choosing it over a MS in US. Soon I left EIL within 1 year 3 months to be on a new venture as a partner. This was to do with computerised embroidery. From a complete organised sector to a unorganised sector was a big leap. But it also threw upon me huge potentials. Life taught me fist lesson very soon, with no investment stake in the company is a myth. This was good 23 years ago. Now things have changed in recent years. So I was again starting up, this time alone. With the first customer in place there was never looking back. I have been selling computerised embroidery machine since then. The biggest advantage of your own business is you can keep exploring more and more. Once your base business is on track, you can experiment with many projects alongwith. Today, I have interests in a new age library ( www.Indiareads.com) and consulting for non woven small scale projects. I took a sabbatical of sorts a few years back to grow up once again with my kids. Now they will soon be going their way and I will be working full time again. I am eagerly looking forward to work with sustainable social project which delivers some good to society. I am open to all ideas on this.
SHRAVAN’s’ IIT Memories Life was very interesting in IIT. It has tought me live to life under pressure with bowing down under. The intellect late night sessions that we had in our hostel rooms is what I missed through out these years in life.
SHRAVAN CHHAJER (CHHAju)
H9, MECH
MARRIED TO
RITU
CHILDREN -
LAKSH, AASHI
139
Viresh Ratnakar
MARRIED TO
H8, CS
Children’ -
(motu)
vivek’s’ Journey I am married to Dr Vaishali Khare, and we are blessed with two wonderful children – Gautam (14) and Aditi (9). Vaishali is a
Sonali
ARULA, KAVI
MS, Penn State phd, University of Wisconsin
viresh’s’ Journey Life’s journey boley to… 00-10: Bhopal, Aai, Baba, Dada, love, the smell of books, Rajan-Iqbal, Five Find-Outers, raincoats, rassa-puri, sabudana, Tintin, Asterix. 11-20: Bhopal, school debates, theatre, girls, bleep, The British Council Library, Rubik’s cube, Maggi, JEE, Bombay, rain and crabs in H8, whisky, cigarettes, bleep, the curious hum and smell in the air-conditioned computer center, shine on you crazy diamond, bleep, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, cryptic crosswords, Octofuss, scribbles, girls, friends, night-outs, treasure hunts - “clue man!”, smoking on the paf stage under the pretext of being owls, nonsense verse, Anamika, RK, masala omelettes with lots of green chillies, bleep, B.Tech. 21-30: Penn State, beer, cigarettes, Douglas Adams, cooking chicken curry, radio, Dire Straits concert, night-outs, M.S., Wisconsin-Madison, cooking, Pink Floyd concert, more beer, more cigarettes, night-outs, roommates, Woody Allen, Star Trek TNG, writing, JPEG optimization, girl, marriage, international smuggling, Ph.D., California, Epson, daughter. 31-40: The incredible warm smell and comfort of a baby, maha drivergiri begins, cigarettes, quitting those &*@#^% cigarettes at last, Google, wine, summer in Bangalore, beer, son, house, son cooking delightful imaginary dishes for hours at age two, bleep, bleep, Lego, Aai-Baba getting older. 41-??: Another summer in Bangalore, single malt, bleep, bleep, my daughter and my son -- meri cliched aankhon ke shining stars, wine, table tennis, running, beer, Europe trips, majhe Baba naahi rahyle, half marathons, puppy, daughter’s first boyfriend, cooking, jackfruit curry with lots of green chillies, cryptic crosswords, scotch, wine, beer, cheese, picture abhi baaki hai...
viresh’s’ IIT Memories // Note to editors: both anecdotes below are a bit edgy. Feel free to not use them! #h8 The H8 picnic to Gorai beach, circa 1988, was an epic sensory feast. I can still recall vivid flashes from that, ah, trip. The 8 P.M. glow of a naked yellow electric lightbulb over a bench on the beach. Yellow light on white sand. Ocean rhythmically lapping, urging on. Music in the head. Dark matter and dark energy changing hands. The warm night flowing on till wee hours. Falling asleep right there at the edge of the water. Waking up to a silver dazzle. Early morning sunlight, Xanadu! And through that silver glow, from a sleepy vantage point half immersed in warm sea water -- the sight of fisherwomen wading through the shallow sea to start their day… #identities-unidentified The two boys bought an assortment of snacks at the hostel canteen: sev, masala peanuts, fried mung. “Aaay, main rum layega, tum log snakes lana,” he had said. The boys had heard tales about him. The O.D.D. instructor who fancied boys. “F**iit, man, we can deal with him, let’s score the free rum!” they had agreed upon that. They were young, cocky, and they had a plan. The evening began. Rum was poured and cheered. Snakes were eaten. More rum. More snakes. “Aaay, ab pappi dega?” the man asked. “Boss, thoda cigarette piyega, bahar,” said one boy, incredulous that this was for real and they had to actually put their plan into action. “Hanh, ek cigarette mujhe bhi peena hai bahar,” the other boy concurred. “Theek hai,” the man said, “main aur ek peg banata hoon.” The boys stepped out. They ran all the way back to the hostel. Unfazed, the cocky boys smoked their cigarettes in the safety of their hostel. No emotional scars. No drama. Just some free rum scored. Price paid: hard labour for the rest of the O.D.D. sessions.
140
family physician, and also a magician who effortlessly manages the relentless demands of motherhood and her profession. Gautam studies in the ninth standard, is a voracious reader, learns the tabla and hindustani classical music, and possesses a dry sense of humor. Aditi is energetic, very creative, inquisitive, fun loving and catalyzes a lively ambience in our home. We love taking long walks, playing impromptu imagination games, and exploring places near Bangalore. During occasional bouts of introspection, I thank God for my incredibly good luck and for the warm relationships that house my life. I continue to be an enthusiastic reader (classics, history, science, thrillers, but not self-help, management), though I don’t have the voracious appetite I had before. On the professional front, after my B.Tech graduation, I continued to be at IIT Bombay and completed by M.Tech degree in chemical engineering. Subsequently, I obtained my PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. My PhD research was on the structure-property relationships of barrier layers in interfacially polymerized reverse osmosis thin film composite membranes. I returned to India after my PhD and worked in Larsen and Toubro in Baroda for a few years as a process engineer. I followed this with a post-doctoral stint at Boulder with my PhD advisor and studied aspects of the synthesis and properties of polymeric membranes. In 2005, I joined General Electric Company at its R&D center in Bangalore – the John F Welch Technology Center – in the Advanced Materials (Silicones) group. In 2006, the business my group supported in GE became an independent stand-alone company, Momentive Performance Materials. I now work at Momentive in its R&D center in Bangalore. Momentive is one of the leading global manufacturers of speciality silicone, ceramics and quartz products. I lead the Process Technology group and my team’s work hovers around shepherding scale-ups of Momentive’s new products, increasing the efficiency of its manufacturing processes, and performing modeling analyses of its operations and process chemistries using diverse tools including CFD, plant simulation and computational chemistry.
vivek’s IIT Memories I am an observer by nature and tend to follow events around me with detached interest. IIT was an immersive milieu and
I remember getting a lot more involved in the hostel activities than I have outside it. Some of the memories from those golden days linger, and have fructified into stories – greatly magnified by our fertile imaginations, with embellishments to make the events more interesting and embarrassing, colored with the passage of time, and containing but a kernel of truth. #pataoing girls: To many of us - my wing mates and hostel mates in H3, girls remained a big fascination and mystery. One of my wing mate friends along with another hostel mate used to learn German at the Goethe institute. My friend also happened to be more enterprising than the rest of us (heck, he actually had danced in a social as a freshie!), and was attracted to a fellow student in the German class. He sought our advice on how to patao the girl, and after much deliberation, we proposed an action plan. Clue-less nerds that we were, the action plan hovered around the duo managing to sit behind the girl during the next class, and discussing the “hi-fi” science of relativity, multidimensionality, and quantum effects. This, we felt was the surest path to “impress” the girl. The duo executed the plan to perfection; fortune favored them – after the class my friend followed the girl and noticed that she had dropped something on the floor. Mustering all his courage, he picked it up, ran after the girl and actually talked to her, “Madam, …” And that was the end of it :-) Other plans were equally hair-brained, involved, convoluted, but our shyness ensured that these didn’t progress to the “Madam” stage. That we became self-assured young men upon graduation from IIT, and much more comfortable with girls remains a bit of a puzzle to me. #NCC: Probably half our batch had to resign itself to two years of NCC. Not being particularly proficient in any sport, and being stupid enough to not choose NSS, I landed up being commanded by a couple of army gentlemen :-) – Ajit Singh, Succha Singh, Bhajan (?) Singh – to turn smartly left, right, backwards, and to march endlessly in a loop. It took us some time, but we realized that the command “dahine dekh” usually coincided with Rajashree Bhagwat or Damini Kumari running in full sprint as part of their NSO training. I remember sitting through several hilarious “theory” lessons, understanding “Bailey bridge ke lambaee ka weight kya hai?”
Vivek Khare H3, Chem
MARRIED TO
Vaishali
Children’ - GAUTAM, ADITI
M Tech, IIT Bombay phd, University of Colorado 141
Umesh Kamat
MARRIED TO
H8, Chem
Children’ -
(Ujjwala)
Ujjwala DEVASHISH, PRIYADARSHINI
Umesh’s’ Journey I think I am one of the few people from our batch who went to work in my engineering area of specialisation. With graduation in Chemical Engg and specialization in Process Control, I joined Dharamsee Morarji Chemicals. I worked on process automation of their Acid and Fertilizer plant for more than 2 years. Thereafter I joined Honeywell and worked on refineries and other areas. While working in the corporate world, I felt a strong urge to start a business venture which I believed would give me more freedom to apply my own ideas. I started a venture with Manoj Bhataria and Avinash Panchal, both IITians from H5. I stayed in that business for more than 15 years. We did many specialized automation jobs for different industry segments like Chemical, Fertilizer, Motion Control, Defence and Storage Automation. I am proud of being a consultant to IIT for its project 1 MW solar thermal power generation project near Delhi. In 2012, considering the business needs for the growth of the company, I merged the business with a large company. This company Inventys Research is incidentally owned by another IITian six years senior to us. I presently head the automation business unit at Inventys. I am married to Dr. Ujjwala who worked as a Medical Officer for Government of Maharashtra and presently she is a happy homemaker taking care of our children – Devashish just turned 16 and our daughter Priyadarshini who is 12 years old. My mom has been an inspiration to me. She is in my pic with Ujjwala.
Umesh’s IIT Memories I have such great memories of IIT. Hostel 8 and my wing and my amazing friends – Varad Joshi, Prashant Sawant, many more … I was also a very “Mount “ person . I participated in several mountaineering activities. I am especially proud of having completed the Basic Mountaineering course at Manali , and the rock climbing course at Panchmarhi.
Upendra’s’ Journey After graduating from IITB I embarked on my journey away from home, beyond seas across continents, for graduate study in chemical engineering at University of Kansas, USA, in the American mid-west Heartland. My first exposure to living in the western culture. Little I realized at that time, that the highly valued work-ethic and high professional standards of my MS thesis advisor (guide) and that culture would have a life-lasting impact on my approach to work. After completing my MS research in the area of plasma reactor modeling my aspiration to do a PhD in a top university in the field of polymers, lead to study at the world-class top ranked Institute of Polymer Science at the University of Akron, Ohio, USA. By doing so I shifted fields to the sciences, with my PhD thesis work in the area of Macromolecular Chemical Physics, molecular simulations and computation chemistry. That was one “out of the world” experience for me which put me firmly on a life-long quest for research in the field of polymers, ahead of several decades as compared to India. Post-PhD in 1998, I had a stint for couple of years in US Industry as well as a post-doctoral fellow at Cornell University, NY, in the Department of Materials Science and Eng. I returned back to India in 2000, and worked as a scientist at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune, in a permanent position, for about 7 years. During this time I initiated work in new areas and problems in the field and also continued work on the area of my PhD thesis. My research which was funded by Industry and the Govt., was carried out by remarkable and brilliant students and staff, who worked under my cooperation and supervision, and whom I credit for that success, which resulted in my receiving the CSIR Young Scientist Award and the MRSI Medal, both national recognitions. However, my most life-changing and cherished event occurred during that phase, which was my meeting Sulatha who was pursuing her PhD in Chemistry at the NCL. I think we had the right chemistry to fall in love and bind ourselves in that amazing chemical bond for life. We got married in 2004. Professionally, at one point in time, I came to realize, that my calling was for doing what I loved to do by myself without others dictating what I must. To pursue my passion by being my own boss ! It was then that I moved to IIT Madras to embark on a teaching career where I would also be associated with very bright students. I became a Full Professor, the highest rank and position in Academia in 2012. At IIT Madras I teach UG and graduate level courses in chemical engg. I have established a small research group and laboratory (in 2007) for molecular modeling. On personal front, we have a daughter Amiya and son Adit, who keep us occupied in an adorable parallel universe outside of work.
Upendra’s IIT Memories Being a campusite and getting into IITB for UG study in itself was a cherishable moment. As if the pressure release was not enough, the new life at IITB gave me immense pleasure academically and more so via a high level of extra-curricular activities and my almost semi-pro sports experience, wonderful hostel life (in H-3) and time spent with fantastic high-achievers wing-mates (go Champs H3) , that resulted in the best of life-long friends I made. Thoroughly Enjoyed being institute baddy secy, hostel sports secy, organizer in-charge of “sound and lights” for Mood-Indigo, being part of wild-life club and mountaineering club activities, completing basic course in mountaineering in 1988 summer. The 7-day monsoon trek to Bhimashankar in rugged western ghats as a freshie was as eye opener. The Himankan 87 tough hike via Pahalgam to Chandanwadi in Kashmir Himalayas was an all-time awesome experience of friendship, camaraderie and bonding across batches of IITians. The experience of being a core part of our Hostel # 3 winning the inter-hostel sports General Championship twice consecutively during my time and coming a close second in my final year was a delight. It was a natural joy for me having played badminton, cricket, volleyball, hockey, having actively done cycling and marathon for my hostel, and having played badminton, cricket and volleyball for IITBombay team. Playing inter-iit sports helped me make many friends pan-dept pan-hostel wise. Hostel life extended my personal experience in varied directions such as appreciation and enhancement in music (rock, pop and blues) collection. The most beautiful side of life in hostel was an aggregation of mates most cosmopolitan in constitution, most varied in social strata and class, all of whom lived so harmoniously learning from each other the ways of life under one umbrella. In my department (chemical engineering) I experienced the wonderful breadth and rather complex nature of the discipline of study, a branch considered even today as the most versatile of all. That did have a long lasting professional effect on me. Towards my final semester, bringing academics back into focus, it was a great experience working on interesting projects and getting two journal publications as an undergraduate. Having worked closely on course projects with few faculty and having done well in some courses, I was able to obtain professional reference letters that have served me well. This propelled me towards higher studies and research as a possible career after life at IITBombay. It is true that time spent in a place like IITBombay, especially as an undergraduate, provides one with a great sense of permanent optimism and high confidence to a life of success.
Upendra Natarajan
MARRIED TO
H3, Chem
Children’ - AMIYA, ADIT
(Unut) 142
MS, University of Kansas PhD, University of Akron
Sulatha
143
nishit’s’ Journey After graduating from IIT-B, I moved to Louisiana, USA where I received my Masters of Science degree in Chemical Engineering in 1992. Following my graduate degree, I joined ABB Lummus Global in Houston, Texas, as a process engineer and worked there in various roles in engineering and design of petrochemical plants. I also earned an MBA from University of Houston while working at Lummus. After 13 years of service with ABB, I moved to ExxonMobil Chemicals in 2005 and got to work on a mega project for a SABIC/EM Joint Venture, in various design, engineering and project coordination roles. I just returned to my home base in Houston, TX after enjoying an exciting professional and personal expatriate assignment in UAE and KSA. I am married to my lovely wife Ranjita and have two very adorable daughters Risha (6 years) and Neha (3 years) who keep me busy and interested in life’s journey. I find it difficult to stay active on social media and look forward to meeting all my batch mates at SJRU.
nishit’s’ IIT Memories I will start with my memories of my very first days at IIT, where I came to the dreamland of Bombay from a relatively small town in Bihar. It was exciting to find the beautiful campus and hostel that were absolutely pristine. The initial excitement quickly came to an end with encounter with the seniors, who tries to scare us, but quickly got back to their senses- thank to my very best buddy from MP who was a pro in Nanchaku! Very quickly from there we became part of a larger family of H-8 and life has never been unexciting since then. Second memory is about our Chem E class (cant reveal the names)- I cant forget the shifting of podium for the professor who almost fell off while doing his regular walk back and forth while lecturing. Having been through numerous safety trainings in personal and professional life, it does feel silly to have been part of a prank that could have had serious safety repercussions! Finally, the days of final year after having been admitted to the MS program in the US, I could not forget the weekend party when my dear friends made me from a teetotaler to a someone who never shied away from a drinking contest!!
144
NISHIT SAHAY
NITIN ZAMRE
MS, Louisiana State University MBA, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON
H3, Chem
H8, Chem MARRIED TO
RANJITA Children’ RISHA, NEHA
(ZAM)
MFM, JAMNALAL BAJAJ
MARRIED TO
VAISHALI Children’ RUTVI, JYOTIRMAY
nitin’s’ Journey
I joined Reliance group through campus and worked in petrochemical plant operations for 4 years and then moved to corporate strategy and planning. Also completed masters in finance from Jamnalal Bajaj. In 2000, joined CRISIL – a change from industry to consulting as well as from Mumbai to Delhi. Spent 10 years with CRISIL in energy and infrastructure consulting. While in CRISIL, was in London for a couple of years when CRISIL had acquired a British firm. Joined ICF International to head their regional operations in 2010. Been with them since then. Stuck to energy and infra sector like their problems :)
nitin’s’ IIT Memories
Many memories – starting with ragging to freshies night to Himankan, MoodI etc. Almost everyone was crazy about movies – Huma/Heena providing the staple course. I remember once we went to Andheri to watch some such random movie – I think Insaniyat ke Dushman aka IKD. If I remember correctly, the movie hall was called Pinky. When we came out of the movie hall, we realised that we have run out of cash – no money at all. And there were no ATMs. Raking our brains to figure a way out, one of us found that he has postal stamps. After a good amount of efforts, someone took ‘daya’ on us and bought the stamps. We got into a BEST bus and reached Powai. It never occurred to us that we could have taken a taxi. Taxi was definitely a luxury then. Group – me, Ravi Shanker (Gora), Vivek Shende, Poky (89, Aero) and Yogesh Londhe. I think in our second year, we decided to go cycling to Alibaug. It was September so we decided night cycling. Our preparation was - a few battery torches, stuff to repair punctured tyres, jerry cans for water. We all managed to borrow bikes from the freshies. We started at around 8 pm (having stuffed ourselves with mess food) and at Vikroli had to try our skills to repair the first puncture. By the time we reached Chembur, we realised how tough it will be. Beyond Chembur it was even worse on dangerously dark road. But we didn’t want to go back – izzat ka sawal tha. So we kept pushing. By the time we reached Panvel, we had run out of steam. So we dumped our bikes on top of an ST bus and reached Alibaug. Spent a day/night there and took a ferry back to Mumbai - that was the best part of the whole journey. From Bhaucha Dhakka back to IIT was a safe daylight cycling trip. For quite some time the group managed to keep the ST ride a secret…. Group – Me, Vivek Shende and 89 batch wing mates. Unat ditched us last minute. The best trip was of course the Goa trip – second year. As we got off an ST bus at Panjim, one of us realised that he has forgotten cash in hostel. After hurling choicest expletives at him, wisdom prevailed and the first thing we did was to book return ST tickets. Then the search for accommodation – we must have been great planners – arriving in Goa without having a place to stay. But had great time over the next 5 days. Of course given the cash situation, we had to sacrifice feni and other alcoholic delights. Group – me, Ravi Shanker (Gora), Mitesh Shah, Sameer Anand and Vivek Shende. Yogesh ditched this time.
145
Ashish Asthana H9, Mech
MARRIED TO
Sameera SON -
AAYAN
MBA, XLRI Jamshedpur ashish’s’ Journey When I passed out of IIT in the spring of 1990, I could never have scripted how the next 25 years turned out. After my B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering, I went on to do my MBA from the XLRI School of Management in Jamshedpur, and then began my professional journey. Asian Paints took me to the furthest corners of India, and I slowly learnt that apart from functional skills, working with teams, leading by example and inspiring those around you are as critical life skills. Coca-Cola happened a few years later and I experienced the magic of simple ideas scaled globally. I have had the privilege of marketing some of the world’s most loved brands over almost 2 decades. Have grown up across several cities in India thanks to my father’s job, I picked up the travel bug pretty early in life. My own job has located me in 5 countries and taken me to 30+ countries so far. I have been fortunate to have stepped on all of the 7 continents on earth, including Antarctica. A leadership programme took me on an expedition to the “end of the world” in 2006. One of my most memorable experiences was drinking Old Monk rum with the purest ice on the planet! Sameera, my wife, has been an amazing companion and constant inspiration in my life’s journey. Aayan, our son, is our source of joy and optimism. Looking back, we have every reason to count our blessings. And this strengthens our resolve to make a difference for those who are not as fortunate. We support two charities working with underprivileged children in India. In the years ahead, we plan to increase our personal efforts in this area.
ashish’s’ Journey Got out of IIT and landed in SUNY-Buffalo -- all because Karodpati -- my wingmate from H2 (‘89 Chem) was there and he said ‘Aa jaa be’. Cursed myself after landing at frigid Buffalo where it snows 10 months in a year and nothing happens. But I did ok -- met my future wife Indu at Buffalo who was also a CS engineer. We got married in ‘94, the same year I got my PhD in Comp Science (theory). We moved to Chicago in ‘94 where I did a 2 year stint as a post-doc at University of Chicago doing research and teaching theory courses. We moved to the SF bay area in 1996 and I joined a hardware compiler company called Chronologic, which eventually got bought by Synopsys. Left Synopsys to do a network security startup in 2000 called Andes Networks that shipped great products but did not make us rich, so came back to Synopsys in 2003, then left for Google in 2008. I have been a happy Googler ever since.
ashish’s IIT Memories I landed at IIT from Bhopal and was stunned to find out that people at IIT spoke english for real conversations -- where I grew up, english was supposed to be spoken only during the ‘English period’ in school. So as a freshie in H2, I hung out with these guys who could speak decent hindi and who could do some keeda -- guys like Daku, ML, Ravi Jain, Sanjay Nath, Senthil to name a few. We got along so well (or maybe because everyone else avoided us, hmm) that we ended up together on the keeda wing on 4th wing, second floor. Our keeda is X-rated, but some keywords to describe it would be alcohol, burning, todphod, aunty, Bhandup, lizards, water-fights, personals, waves, and did I say burning? Easily the best time of my life, though utterly pointless. At IIT, I played NSO baddy with talented folks like UNat and Viku. Another cultural thing is that for some strange reason, they signed up for a PAF with H10, which we actually won that year.
ashish’s IIT Memories Life’s first lessons about living and working with #smartestpeopleonearth in #rubberchappals #4amazingyears made some of the strongest friendships in my life #MoodIndigo #Dramatics #PAF #FOYTE #SAC killed 2 birds with one stone, i) indulged my passion for dramatics, ii) got to know almost every woman on campus! Running up the hill sowed early seeds for my love affair with #running
Ashish Naik
MARRIED TO
H2, CS
Children’ -
(Badboo)
Indu
NANDITA, MEGHNA
146
MS, SUNY Buffalo PhD, SUNY Buffalo
147
pankaj’s’ Journey After passing out from IIT, I joined Essar Steel, Hazira in September 1990. There I worked for 14 years . Then I joined Tata Consultancy, Mumbai in 2004 and worked there for 1 year. Then I joined Deloitte, Hyderabad in 2005 and worked there for 9 years. During that time I visited USA and Europe. After that I switched to M/s Westernacher AG Technology Mumbai. Worked there for 1 year and then joined back Deloitte, Hyderabad. On personal front I got married in Feb 1992 to Kumkum from Ahmedabad. She is B.Tech (Civil). She started working in late 90s in Essar, joined IT department and then worked in TCS and Deloitte. Currently she is working with Deloitte. I have a son , Raghav (Aged 22 years) and a daughter, Pooja (18 years). Raghav passed out from BITS –Pilani, Hyderabad in 2015 and currently working with Deloitte. Daughter Pooja is Studying in Second year B.Sc (Finance) in NMIMS, Mumbai.
pankaj’s’ IIT Memories I have great memories of IIT. It is a wonderful campus with lot of greenery. I loved going to Vihar lake and walking/joggin there. I enjoyed PAF and Mood Indigo. In summary it was a very good and memorable time of my life
148
PANKAJ DAVE
PARAG GOKHALE
MARRIED TO
Ms, State University of New York, Buffalo
H9, Mech
KUMKUM Children’ RAGHAV, POOJA
H4, Elec MARRIED TO
sonali Children’ POOJA, PRIYA
parag’s’ Journey
Upon graduating from IIT, it was a big decision point for me like many of us. First it seemed like I was headed for a job at CitiCorp that I had landed during campus interviews. Then it was for a management degree at an IIM. But the lure to go across the seven seas and encounter the unknown was too much for me. And I headed to University at Buffalo for an MS degree. This proved to be a major decision as the path for many years to come was set. I completed my degree in two leisurely years. Yes, compared to the fast pace of academics at IIT, these were quite leisurely. When I graduated in 1992, United States was in the middle of a recession. Computer Science was still a burgeoning field. Y2K rush was still years away. So I jumped at the first job opportunity in New Jersey at a Government contracting company. After obtaining my green card, I found my calling at a Storage and data management company called Commvault. The rest is history. I am at Commvault for 20 years and counting. I am happily married for 21 years with 2 kids. Life has had its up and downs. I am in touch with a few of my hostel mates. But not everyone of course. I do hope to meet more people. Unfortunately, I am not able to make it to the Silver Jubilee celebration, but I plan to meet more people at least in the greater New York year in the years to come
parag’s’ IIT Memories
Looking back, the IIT years were definitely the most enjoyable and defining period of my life. When I entered IIT, a whole new world of opportunities was opened up to me. And I flung myself into it wholeheartedly. I was determined to participate in anything and everything. During the summer after my freshman year, I went on a Himankan trip to Kashmir in the Pahalgam area along the upper lidder valley. It was quite an adventure and a well run expedition from our own seniors. In the very first year, our hostel was paired up with H-10 (girl’s hostel) for PAF. I had to participate as it involved going for practices in H-10. Electrical Engineering was one of the largest departments. We did everything from Machines lab with Professor Kamath on Russian made machines that seemed to be from World War II era. We did control system labs, instrumentation labs and learnt so many things that I don’t even remember anymore. For my thesis, I learnt programming and computer science in the image processing laboratory run by Prof. Sahastrabudhe. Hostel 4 was the center piece of life at IIT. Starting with various intra-hostel competitions like “What’s the good word” (even its Marathi edition), me and my wing mates participated in all the activities. The best was the General Championship trophy. Hostel 4 had a long standing feud with Hostel 3 that started with “Gaali” (Bad word) competition during fresher’s night and ragging. We narrowly missed the GC to H-3 in my junior year. We had a strong and motivated junta in variety of sports. In my senior year, we went in with all chips in. The scores see-sawed as results from each sports came in. Volleyball, Soccer, Swimming and so on. It all came down to the team sports of cross country running and Cycling. Those of you familiar with (51-n) formula of scoring know that every person and position counts. Higher your position, lower the value of n and you get more points. We scored enough runners and cyclists in top positions to secure the general championship trophy. Both of those events were my favorite and having participated and contributed made me fully part of the hostel experience. The most memorable was the “Senior’s farewell night” that the then junior class gave us. It was a memorable party and the movie was Aamir Khan’s hit movie “Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak”. We were blown by the song “Papa Kehate Hai Bada Nam Karenga”. Seemed an apt ending to our wonderful hostel life of four years.
149
Wilfred Mascarenhas (Mac) H8, Meta
FE
Pb
Children’ ALYSSA, PRIYA
MS, Virginia Tech MS, Purdue University
wilfred’s’ Journey After my B.Tech, I came to the U.S. for a MS in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, Virginia. I was fortunate to have my wing mate Surya Rao at the same university, along with several other batch mates. It definitely made adjusting to a new place and culture a lot easier. I was fortunate to be offered a job by a consulting company in Indiana while I was doing my Master’s - thanks to a scientific publication I authored in my first year at Virginia Tech. My work involved computer aided design and analysis. Over the years I got more and more interested in computer science and ended up doing a second Masters in Computer Science from Purdue University. After my degree in CS, I took up a job with IBM, and after several years at IBM joined Eli Lilly and Company, a pharmaceutical company. I have lived in Indianapolis, Indiana, for 23 years and have been working at Lilly for approx 15 years. Currently I work as an Advisor in Data Integration and Analytics. I have 2 daughters, 12 year old twin girls, Alyssa and Priya. In my free time (if such a thing exists when one has 2 kids), I enjoy volunteering, hiking, running, gardening, and other outdoor activities.
wilfred’s’ IIT Memories I have very fond memories of my 4 years at IIT. I remember rushing for breakfast each morning and literally making it just minutes before the mess would close. Ate burgee and toast for all those years!! Yikes!! I remember all-nighters before finals and batchmates coming to my room at 4am for last minute cramming!! I was cursed, since I attended classes and took good notes (haha!!) - many times I didn’t have my notes until much later in the night to start studying myself! Other random memories: “cack” sessions in the middle of the night during finals, going to Shetty’s to drink chai at 2am before going to bed, playing soccer every evening, and more... I was very fortunate to have great wingmates - a diverse group of guys who made the four years exciting and full of great experiences, memories and learning!
yogeshwar’s’ Journey After graduating from IIT in 1990, I went to University of Colorado at Boulder, USA and was qualified for a direct PhD. I
completed my PhD in Chemical Engineering with specialization in membrane separation technology in 1995, and then returned back to my hometown (Pune) to market products of Brookhaven Instruments, New York. After two successful years at Brookhaven Instruments, I handed over the work to two of my IIT friends, Umesh Kamat (1990 batch) and Manoj Bhataria (1989 batch), and decided to enter the environmental field. So I took up a job with IW Technologies in Pune in August 1997, and have been working in the environmental field since then. In IW Technologies from 1997 to 2000, I got to apply my membrane separation knowledge for recovering water from industrial wastewater. Then, in 2001 four of us from IW Technologies started another company, Wytewater Technologies in Pune in the same line of business as IW Technologies decided to close shop. In Wytewater, I developed a process for producing oxygenated bottled water for Manikchand Group, and the water is now marketed under the name Oxyrich, which makes me feel proud every time I see an Oxyrich bottle. After six years of working with industrial clients (1997 to 2003), I decided to move on municipal clients. So I resigned from Wytewater and joined CDM International, an American company. During these six years, my personal life also saw two major events: I got married in June 1999 to Sonali, a handsome lady from Ratnagiri, and we had our first child, a boy in February 2002. We named him Akash. For the next 4 1/2 years, (Jan 2004 to May 2008), I worked on various municipal projects across India, first with CDM International and then with NJS Consultants, with main focus on wastewater treatment and water recovery. I am very proud to say that I was part of the team that developed a 130 million liter per day water recycling scheme for Nagpur, and this recycling plant is now under commissioning. This plant will recover good quality water from sewage of Nagpur city, and the recovered water will be supplied to Mahagenco power stations for use as cooling water. I am also happy to note that in November 2005, we had our second child, a girl, whom we named Avani. Then in June 2008, we all moved to Sydney as I took up a job with CH2M HILL, and worked in Australia for five years. We returned to India in May 2013, and I joined my earlier company, NJS Consultants.
yogeshwar’s IIT Memories The most memorable happy IIT days are the Wednesday afternoons in the second semester, when myself and Umesh Kamat
(Chem Eng, H8) used to go to Mumbra for rock climbing. I used to get a real kick, walking up the road to YP with a climbing rope on my shoulder. Sometimes, Naru from H8 would join us and show us a few neat tricks. I got hooked on to hiking and rock climbing in the first semester itself, with my hostel mates like Manoj Bhataria, Milind Gandhe, Girish Sant, Kedare, Mukund Chitale and lots of others. I went to Manali in May 1987 to do my basic course in mountaineering, and then went on numerous mansoon hikes, rock climbing sessions, 5-day treks in the Sanhyadris in the second year. Sadly enough I was a team member of the expedition to Gangotri III in May 1988, in which we lost Sunil Kharkar to the Himalayan weather. That day, myself and KD Joshi were at the Base Camp, and there was a severe snow storm. Our tent collapsed at about 2 am, which woke us up, and we then fixed it and stayed awake the whole night. Our summit team was to attempt the summit on the previous day, and then as the morning Sun broke out, we saw a few people climbing down near the summit. I don’t remember how we figured out that they would be in trouble, as there were no mobile phones then, but we figured and rushed to the base camp of another expedition team and requested their help. Their leader immediately deputed two Gurkhas, and then KD and I started the climb down to Uttarkashi. We reached Uttarkashi by 4pm, i.e. a down climb of about 6000 feet in a span of 7 hours, and requested rescue help from the military. I think a helicopter was sent to search and rescue and team, and then our IIT team members along with our guide were admitted to Dehradoon Hospital. Several people lost their fingers and toes with Mukund Chitale losing almost all 10 fingers. Sunil Kharkar’s body was recovered after almost 2 - 3 months. This horrific experience ended the activities of the mountaineering club of IIT Bombay, but I continued to go for rock climbing to Mumbra and monsoon hikes in the Sahyadris. Then there were the mugging days, the Question Banks for AGRE in the last year and may other exams. The borrowing of notes and circulation of photocopies went on till almost 3am in the morning. I remember that I stayed continuously awake for almost 72 hours, as we had back to back five end semester exams in our 6th semester, and then slept for continuous 26 hours.
Yogeshwar Gokhale
MARRIED TO
H5, Chem
Children’ - AKASH, AVANI
(Yogo)
Sonali
PHD, University of Colorado 150
151
pratik’s Journey
Above all, am thankful to God that He gave me an opportunity to go to IIT, fulfilling my dream then, and to be worthy of it in life. Well, after IIT, did not want to work - so got into MMS, 2 year MBA at NMiMS and continued to exist. Met Dimple in 1995 and got married in the same year. Still continue to be wedded, some of the few things I try to take credit for doing well in my life although, as always, do not fully deserve it. Janki, our elder daughter was born in 2001 and Gauri arrived in 2004. Most fortunate to have them and life has gone by helping them grow and enjoying being with them. Janki, now in her teens and probably may not agree about this bit, but I am trying to be a more open & ‘with the times’ kind of Dad :-) !! Happy and grateful to God, I could find interesting work closer to home that enabled me to look after and be there for my family. At work, spent 6 six years straight from campus at United Phosphorus working with the owners to support the unprecedented, exponential growth and then to set up a business in fluorinated containers. Spent 4 years with Owens Corning in India supporting their business transformation to deliver on the glass fibre investment made at Taloja and in business development continuing in the same function with Dow Corning for another 4 years before joining the Tata Group for management consulting in Chemicals. Had a brief stint with Roland Berger strategy consulting in the interim before re-joining the Tata Group as head of Strategy in Tata Chemicals, also my current role and job!
pratik’s IIT Memories
There are memories galore, all fond memories. Let me attempt to write down something worth reading without getting too sentimental. The first four weeks are firmly rooted in my mind. Day 1 was when I met Birdie, Amrutur Bharadwaj as my room partner. Observing him go about his daily tasks in a disciplined manner, I learnt why toppers are toppers!! Simplicity, hard word, contentedness and discipline leading to immense self confidence, I always have wished I could imbibe too - still struggling!! :-) At the other end of the spectrum was the Pagal Gym, an event held 2-3 weeks later, which was discontinued subsequently, which I realized I related to more for boisterous outbursts, impromptu flights of fancy and doing everything other than what I was supposed to do!! The first four weeks at H9 were a paradigm shift for me having come from a timid, compliant and star gazing nature to metamorphosing into that of immense self belief and conviction that I could do and achieve whatever I set out to do. Intense 4 weeks but they changed me forever and I am always thankful to the institute and to my friends. I built strong emotional bonds with them that I continue to cherish and treasure with the regret that I could not reach out to more. Well, at that time nothing mattered in the free spirit in which we all lived but I guess this is something I can look forward to after 25 years now when we meet again...
152
PRATIK KADAKIA H9, Meta MMS, MUMBAI UNIVERSITY
MARRIED TO
FE
Pb
RAJ KRISHNAMURTHY (RAJKI)
H6, MeCH
DIMPLE
MS, Purdue University MBA, SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY
JANKI, GAURI
MARRIED TO
Children’ -
BHAMINI Children’ DHRUVA, YAJUR
raj’s’ Journey
It has been quite a ride for the past 25 years. The flight into Chicago is still crystal clear in my mind, sitting with Notani (Ranjit) and Lele (Sandeep) popping free vodka cocktails! The journey had began! We went our ways after Purdue, Lele did join me briefly at my first job - remember many a days as roommates - cooking up all kinds of meat - Lele had sworn that he would try out every animal there is, having been deprived of it as a KoBra for 22 years! Then life took a turn, married my schoolmate from 5th Std and moved to California. Five years passed, got an MBA and a little one in tow. I seemed to have charmed the SVP of Applied Materials enough for him to send me off to Singapore on an expat assignment (the concept still existed then!). A year and half flew and memories were built downing Sakes & Sushi in Japan, Honju & Shabu Shabu in Korea and ofcourse a few Tigers in seedy Kopitiams of Singapore! Markets turned, expat money ran out and instead of going back to HQ in US, I made my way to Europe. With a stint in Israel the next seven years were spent roaming around quaint little towns in inner Europe enjoying the hospitality of small bed and breakfasts and laid back work culture. We had another boy in the UK and for the past fifteen years this has become home with kids in school and my better half truly blooming in her NHS career. When I turned 40, I got a keeda which got me into a couple of things. Along with a fellow IITan (Shashank Mani - IITD) and a ‘Civilian’ Rewati Prabhu (fellow IITan R Gopalakrishnan - RG of Tata Chemicals - a huge patron of Jagriti asked very curiously about the founders of the Yatra - “Oh so you both are IITans? And Rewati - is she an IITan or a Civilian?” ! ), we launched Jagriti Yatra which has turned into a must do event for every 20 year old in the country. I can say proudly that we have created over 350 entrepreneurs and have enjoyed the goodwill of over 3500 alumni. This year we proudly launch the 8th Yatra from IIT campus on the 24th Dec! The other side of this keeda has made me start my own business from scratch. We are raising our seed round in December and hope to go to Series A by mid next year. The next ten years is going to be a different roller coaster - and boy am I read - yeee ha! Life has been good to me. Through all these years IIT has remained like a halo over me - a memory, a godfather, a silent inspiration that you can achieve anything you set your mind to - because - you are an IITan.
raj’s’ IIT Memories Far like the horizon as it appeared when you sat at the edge of the ledge in the hostel corridor of memory Though distant, its as clear as the sunshine that hits your hungover face at 11 or the pitch blackness between h9 and Chinese corner at 3 Drilled into your innermost neurons wedged between the memory of mess grub and movie nights are the bonds made during those years Facing M Achutan demon together Getting Gaonekar’s expression in each of our three headed Ravan’s face at freshies night Or staring at the night sky atop the pipeline aching to hear the dog bark out a leopard Drenched together trekking in rainwashed chanderi Running mad when Somaya kicked straight into the opposite goal from our post Being saved by the JagguAmlai crash course on trusses And a state of mind never achieved again with fenny and bhang Could I have imagined this fag partner will defy physics Or that our wing cacofonix will ring the new york bell? And could I dare to imagine what more is in store for every one of us in the clear horizon as seen from the edge of the ledge Sitting in the hostel corridor of memory
153
UDIT MATHUR H6, MECH
MARRIED TO
KAPILA
CHILDREN - SHRENYA, BHAVYA
ABBAS’s’ Journey 1990 - Joined Stup Consultants in Mumbai 1992 - Joined KFUPM, Dhahran, KSA for MS 1995 - Joined Zamil Steel Bldgs, Dammam, KSA 1997 - Married Shabnam 2000 - Moved to Houston, Texas to work for Atlas Bldgs Systems on H1B Visa 2005 - Joined Mustang Engineering, EPC company 2011 - Decided to move back to India, joined Rolta India whom Mustang subcontracted work
PGDM, IIM Lucknow
2012 - Joined Mustang HDP in Al-Khobar, KSA
ABBAS’s’ IIT Memories UDIT’s’ Journey 1990-1990: In the last years at IIT I was still undecided on the career option which best suited me. Indian Industry did not keep engineering at a high pedestal and this was clear to all of us. For some reason in the family I was not too keen on going overseas in pursuit of higher education in engineering. This search for a career lasted another year. Most of the time was spent in perusing administrative services as a career option which I gave up reluctantly in favour of management as a career. Perhaps VP Singh’s politics helped me make the decision.
My IIT fond memories are our wings infinite cack sessions, birthday parties at Vihar Lake, cheering our hostel teams, NCC sessions and camp and winning the GC in the final year.
1991-1993: I perused Post graduation studies at IIM Lucknow. I specialized in Supply Chain, Systems, Marketing and Systems. 1993-1998: My first job was at Asian Paints at a plant in western UP and I learnt both the art of turning around operations and living by myself. I got married in Nov 1994 to Kapila, a Delhi girl from my community. In January of 1998 I was blessed with a daughter just as when I was planning move to Mumbai Corporate office. Worked in big bad Mumbai with APaints trying to move them from legacy systems to new age ones ( of that time ) . We moved to NCR as our daughter was not keeping well in Mumbai and the paediatricians in Mumbai just could not put their finger on the root cause of the problem which was gluten allergy. 1999-2004: I moved to Sicpa in their materials management function and equipped myself with small player tactics to fight against bigger reputed player in the packaging market. I realised that while I was working in the Materials/Procurement function, the work I was engaged in was IT transformation systems. 2005-2010: I started my second innings in IT with Siemens and worked with SISL for about 2.5 years implementing SAP and various enterprise systems. After all Management consultancy has taken a beating compared to systems-based IT consulting as industries realized the benefits of putting to practices best practices with the help of IT rather than engage management level consultants and not being able to implement it at grass root level. The IT journey commenced further with a three and a half year stint with Accenture which enabled me to see a different business model of IT which was onsite-offshore driven and industrialization of IT transformed the way IT was practiced globally. I got opportunity to work with and see at close quarters global corporations like DuPont, Alcatel, Federal Mogul etc. My significant contribution was to successful design and execution of DuPont projects as they shifted from a Business Unit to a Geography based rollout model. 2011-2013: Once again the change bug bit me and I grabbed an opportunity with TCS to start a practice related to Value Engineering within the SAP Practice fold. For the last 3 years I work as one of the Key members of a 100 member strong SAP Presales team. I ‘work as a Solution Architect and lead a team of Presales Architects which is focussed on European opportunities and we work across all verticals for medium to large SAP opportunities.
UDIT’s’ IIT Memories
154
1986-1990: Coming from a neat and clean University campus in Patiala where I was brought up, I took some to adjust to the rainy climate and bovine infested roads of Mumbai. The notions of doing Sci-Fi inventions for glorious motherland were washed away in the rigmarole of ragging and daily grind of running up and down the hill to the Russian provided workshops and Cyber Computing Centres. It all made you feel like a cog in the wheel . Hardly the kind of environment that made you see some light with Engineering as a respectable career, other than to leave to US shores for more of same charade and some income in US currency. The flipside was the opportunity to see Mumbai the India industry capital from close quarter, but honestly there was nothing awe inspiring. Campus life was cool, loved the lakes around and the occasional panther episodes and dabbling in the debating and elections just to keep the adrenaline flowing. H6 was a great retreat and we had a great crowd of batch mates.
ABBAS QURESHI
MARRIED TO
H4, Civil Engg.
CHILDREN -
(Q)
MS, King Fahd University of Petrleum & Minerals
Shabnam Banoo ABDULLAH, MARYAM, FATIMA MUSTAFA, IBRAHIM 155
Narayanan Ramani
MARRIED TO
H3, CHEM
Children’ - VARUN, GOKUL
(CR)
RADHA
MS, University of New Mexico PhD, University of Texas, Austin MBA, University of Texas, Ausin
CR’s’ Journey Should be easy to summarize 25 years into 400 words. Always loved Physics, always hated conventional
Chem Eng. Grad School took me back to my first love, back to Physics, Microelectronics, Surface Science, TEM images of Al atoms in a crystal, Quantum Physics, teaching myself Astronomy and Particle Physics. Always loved Philosophy, and Grad School gave me the time to delve into everything from Ramana Maharishi, to discovering the history of my own native land through the Periya Puranam, and to meeting Ammachi – my spiritual guide. The first seven years after IIT has shaped my thinking to this day. On the Professional side, after a PhD at UT Austin, and 15 years at Motorola / Freescale, and the last few at GLOBALFOUNDRIES, you can say that I am a veteran of the Semiconductor Industry. After many years in R&D developing nine generations of semiconductors, and an MBA, I have moved to a business role as Director of Product Line Management, and I spend my time defining technology offerings, and travel around the world engaging with customers to win business. The tech industry is always fast paced, and there is no telling what is around the corner, I am treating it all as one big adventure. Along the way I fell in love with Radha, we met in Austin, and before we knew it, we were shuttling Varun to High School, and Gokul is months away from it. The last 15 years have been that fast. The kids have turned out to be wonderful musicians and tennis players, and we enjoy the time as a family pursuing similar interests. Travelling to McAllen, TX for a tournament, or watching Federer vs. Nadal at Indian Wells, it has been fun to share it with my kids. I also moonlight as a singer in an Austin band called Omkara, and that has definitely pushed and motivated me to improve. All said and done, it has been a wonderful ride so far, have been privileged to meet tons of wonderful people, who have shared their talent, warmth and company with me and my family. While we have settled down in the US, my heart always belongs to my native land, and to the friends I made growing up there, to them I owe whatever I am today! Hope we meet again more often before it all turns a full circle.
CR’s IIT Memories Looking back after 25 years, my time at IIT-Bombay seems to have been so long ago, and yet, the memories are as vivid as
anything that may have happened yesterday. vOn my very first trip to join IIT, I met K.S. Dinesh in the same compartment, sharing the same set of 8 seats with family, on the Dadar Express from Chennai to Mumbai. We discovered that both of us were headed to do Chem Eng. at Powai, and that we shared the same birthday! Little did we know then, that we would be in Grad School together and room-mates, and great friends a lifetime later. The first month of ragging at H3 was a survival event, and we learnt to quickly accept it, laugh about it, though at times we wondered about the sanity of the place. The friends made that first month have proven to be some of the best I have ever made, perhaps it was the coming of age, or being thrown together to face life’s first adventure away from home. Over the next four years, I grew up in so many ways, and looking back, I marvel at the innocence and bravado of that age, when seemingly the sky was the limit. It was all one big blur. My first monsoon hike, learning to play tennis, cross-country, bike racing, phenomenal cricket matches, staff canteen vada pavs, TOI xwords, bunking lectures, double brekker, free milkshakes from the sports sec, late night carrom, Veg Manchurian and Haka Noodles (never found the same ever again), Dire Straits for the first time, APP, Floyd, Mount Club, Boat Club, NCC, Holi and Bhang, Sports GC for 2 out of 4 years, inter-IIT, PAF Production, Mood Indigo, Basic Mountaineering at Aru, Movies at Colaba and Kanjur Marg, Pav Bhaji opposite VT station, and on and on and on.. In between there were some lectures, some tests, some instances of despair, infatuation, depression and others of reckless abandon. All through this, my wingmates were there, and shared in the joy and the pain, and to this day I am thankful for that. Somewhere in there, realizing that the days at IIT while packed, were creeping to an end, I actually did well in GRE, and after abandoning the IIMs, headed to the US to a whole new world, taking with me a lifetime of wonderful memories, that I treasure to this day.
156
murthy’s’ Journey After spending four fabulous years in Hostel 5 and in ChE Department, because my GRE scores got cancelled due to a paper
leak, I ended up working at United Breweries in Bangalore for about a year and was being groomed to become a Brew Master. That one year tuned out to be pretty amazing … monthly salary for spending, having company of great friends, and getting a chance to taste cold Kalyani Black Label draft beer directly from the fermentation tanks every day (quality check before it gets shipped out to the local Pubs in kegs). I must be insane to leave this job and go to the US for grad studies. Soon after completing my MS from University of Toledo in 1993, I came to a tiny town called Racine, WI to take up a job at SC Johnson (If you never heard the name, it is because SCJ is a family owned company going into its 5th generation but it owns some pretty common household brands like Ziploc, Glade, Raid, Windex, OFF!, AllOut, Kiwi etc). That was 23 years ago and I am still here working for the same company (I never felt the desire to look for any other job). I enjoyed working for SCJ all these years and still look forward to going to work every morning. My current job is to scout for external technologies for Raid and OFF! Brands and so, if you have good product ideas or technologies to keep those pesky bugs away, bring them on. Coming to my family, I met Srilakshmi while I was in IIT in 1988 (her dad was a Prof in Physics Department in IIT) and eventually got married to her in 1995. I am blessed with three children Samyukta (13 yrs), Janavi (11 yrs), and Srikar (8 yrs) who keep our every waking moment busy with their countless activities. I was able to fulfil my dream of completing a Ph.D. while working at SCJ from University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in Engineering (in retrospect, I am not sure if the PhD is worth the sacrifices I had to make). Some accomplishments that I am proud of include becoming a runner (I completed Chicago Marathon in 2011 and have been running in at least two half-marathons every year), and becoming a volunteer for a nonprofit organization called Vibha that helps under privileged children in India. Lately I am busy helping Vibha with their yearend-drive and pledged to raise $10K. If you are wish to make a donation to my Vibha Pledge Drive, please do so by visiting the url https://secure.vibha.org/campaign/vibha-2014/MurthyMunagavalasa/. Sorry that I could not join you all for the SJRU and I wish the reunion a grand success. It is great to get reconnected with you all through WhatsApp thanks to all those who made this possible.
murthy’s IIT Memories Those 4 years in IIT gave me countless unforgettable memories… the volley ball games we used to play in the hostel in
the evenings, the gaali fights between wings, learning swimming, running for the hostel, becoming the unofficial typist for the hostel 5 magazine “Pent up the feelings of Penthouse”, bunking classes and having chai in ChE Dept Canteen with Yogo, SaKuRa, Satya, UNat… going to many hikes and treks, learning Calligraphy, and going to Himankan… to name a few. One day, after the Himankan expedition, we were invited by somebody from our Himankan batch (I think it was Aggi or KK from EE… can’t remember) for dinner… I was so exhausted after eating delicious food that I just dozed off on Mak (Makarand Kulkarni, 2 year senior, ME)’s shoulders and was even snoring… when everybody was about to leave, I got up, realized what happened and felt so embarrassed!). I remember the day Sashikant Valecha (2 yr senior, ChE who lived next to my room) coming to my room with a cigarette in his hand. After 30 min of coaxing and cajoling, he and I ended up smoking our first cigarette in our lives (I quit smoking after 2 years). During ragging, we all were made to roll in wet mud and were even made to form a human pyramid with me being right at the top because I was so skinny. I remember the day I tasted Bhang on holi without knowing what I was getting into.. the day I shaved off half of my mustache during ragging... listening to Dindin’s melodious singing… cogging Guptaji’s notes,
Murthy Srilakshmi Munagavalasa Children’ MARRIED TO
H5, Chem
SAMYUKTA, JANAVI, SRIKAR
MS, University of Toledo PhD, University of Wisconsin
157
raj’s’ Journey I am coming up on 23 years in the bay area and its been a great, fun journey. On the personal side, Shalini and I, have a daughter (freshman at Rice University) and son (middle schooler). I enjoy the community we live in and bay area life keeps me on my toes. Professionally, I am a products guy and have focused on working on “data products”. I have worked with some incredible people and fun companies, including running product management at Informatica, Tibco and also dabbled in sales at an early big data startup, called Aster Data (which got acquired by Teradata). I continue to learn more about data and machine learning, and there are a lot of interesting things happening in these areas, including deep learning and enterprise/ industrial applications of connected things. In the early part of my career, I had a great time being an engineer at Intel and worked on Intel’s Pentium family of processors. After 6+ years at Intel, I decided to get my MBA from Berkeley, which was a great experience. After my MBA, have focused more on product management and marketing, and still continuing on my journey of discovering how new technologies can create disruptive products and enjoy working in smaller team and company environments
RAJ PAI
H3, Elec MS, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII MBA, University of California, Berkeley
MARRIED TO
SHALINI Children’ -
SONAL, RONAK
RAJENDRA KABRA H6, Mech MARRIED TO
ARPITA
rajendra’s’ Journey Getting in to IIT was just an incidence. After IIT wanted to go back to native and open a business. Went back to hometown and joined a mid sized company for getting experience. However things did not go as desired, as there was no guidance I had on entrepreneurship which you find for today’s generation. Made a decision to immediately leave hometown and join some bigger group and took my way in manufacturing. Got married at 22 and was blessed with a son in 1994. Then just moved on and became Manufacturing Unit Head in Birla’s in 1999, followed by joining first generation industries in Green field projects for 4 years and then moved back to bigger corporate in 2008 in Cement in field of Projects and Manufacturing.
rajendra’s’ IIT Memories It was first time away from home hailing from a conservative family. Things were for a surprise a cosmopolitan culture and friends from different background. Initial homesickness while remain ‘Bindas’ was something unusual for me. Food at Hostel mess was a major issue which I could not cope up till I left. Four years were extremely rewarding
raj’s’ IIT Memories #ChampsH3 wing was my life in IIT and share a lot of memories with #Partha Bose #Laxman Easwaran #Upendra Natarajan. Over the 4 years in H3, the lasting memories were “galli” fights with other wings, intra-wing soccer and cricket matches, infinite cack sessions in #Krishna Kumar’s corner room, and lots of parties! The EE class in H3 shared a lot in common in interests and attitudes and have stayed connected as great friends with #Anil Aggarwal, #Kiran Bellare.
158
159
Rajeev Joshi
MARRIED TO
rajendra’s’ Journey
H9, CS
SON - ROHIN
rajendra’s IIT Memories
(Josh)
Jennifer
MS, UT Austin PhD, UT Austin
rajeev’s’ Journey
The older I get, the more I realize Lennon had it right: “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.” For my BTP, I was going to work on natural language processing. But then, (on a whim) I applied to work with Karmarkar for my BTP project. Eventually, this led to an offer from AT&T Bell Las, where I worked (with #Bharadwaj (“Birdy”)) on Karmarkar’s idea for a supercomputer. In those days, Bell Labs was at its peak -- a wonderful and inspiring place to be -- and quickly sold me on the joys and satisfaction of academic/research life. Realizing that this entailed a PhD, I applied to grad school at UT-Austin. At UT, I planned to continue my AT&T work on hardware design, but took an introductory course on distributed computing with Jay Misra. Through him, I became acquainted with the great Edsger Dijkstra, whose writings and lectures were a revelation, unlike anything I had been exposed to before. Inspired by Dijkstra, I ended up switching to working on formal verification. After my Phd, I got a job at the DEC/Compaq Systems Research Center. At the time, I was convinced I would be there for the rest of my career; it was an amazing group of researchers. But 2 years later, the dot-com bust hit, HP bought Compaq, and most of my lab fled to Google and Microsoft. Feeling depressed, I heard about a new verification lab being started at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory by Gerard Holzmann (also an ex Bell Labs alum). I called Gerard, and ended up moving to JPL in 2003. At JPL, I worked on applying formal verification tools to mission software. But in 2006, I somehow got the chance to join the dev team for the Mars Curiosity Rover. I started off writing the flash filesystem for Curiosity, and ended up as the lead software engineer for the data management subsystem. Working on Curiosity was both exhilarating and exhausting. For the two years before launch (in 2011), there were many weeks when I survived on 5 hours of sleep, and my wife soon got sick of the 2 a.m. phone calls from the testbed. But our crazy Rube-Goldberg landing system worked, and on Aug 5, 2012, we landed successfully on the surface of Mars. After landing, I worked with the surface ops team, living on Mars time for 3 months (shifting back our work schedule by 40 minutes daily, like flying one time zone west every day). We’ve had our scares (like the afternoon of Feb 27, 2013, when the loss of a flash memory chip almost cost us our $2.5 billion rover), but Curiosity is still going strong. I’ve since moved on to other challenges, and am now working on the software for an orbiter to Europa (one of Jupiter’s moons, believed to have a subsurface ocean that could harbor life).
rajeev’s IIT Memories
Memories include: - Eating Chinese food outside H-8 late nights/early a.m. And constantly running into #Ratnakar there. - Working with the class of 1991 (Gauss, Yezdi, Manuvir) on the “PC Workshop” that Prof. Dhamdhere organized. It was the first time I spoke in front of a large group of people, and I realized it wasn’t as intimidating as I had expected. - Running around trying to convince people to submit articles for the “Core Dump” newsletter we (re)started. And writing all the bios for the final issue. - Giving up on mess food late in my 2nd year, and trying various alternatives, including the guy who dropped off the stacked metal containers with dal+chawal. Eventually, the best option was the canteen -- and Ananda’s sausage sandwiches (two slices of toasted white bread + butter + sausages) followed by his banana milkshake. He really saved us... - Getting addicted to solving Times cryptic crosswords in the mess lounge at breakfast time. - Teaming up with #RanabirSinhaRoy in the first year to write a chess playing program for D.B.Phatak’s introductory programming course. That’s my first memory of learning the importance of heuristics. - Escorting #TVRaman back to his room for the first time and seeing him solve his Braille Rubik’s cube in under 45 seconds. That was a real eye-opener! - Borrowing #Chhabra’s notes for copying before a big test. I think he was single-handedly responsible for a net half-grade increase for many of us.
160
With great enthusiasm and a solid educational background (B.Tech. with Silver Medal) thanks to IITB, I continued my education at Stanford. Finished M.S. with specialization in Expert Systems & Earthquake Engg. within a year, thanks to a scholarship Stanford offered me. Worked in California for almost 8 years in both of those fields in companies as small as 50 people(start-up), to as large as 15,000 people(multinational). The entrepreneurship bug bit me at that time and I switched to being self employed; which by the way continues till date. Also, I got married around the same time. The variety of ventures during this entrep. phase included trading, tech-transfer, being a pioneer in introducing a couple of new technologies in India(hoping that counts as ‘paying back’ to the nation!), to the present day consultancy in Green initiatives. My wife is in the top management of a pharma. multinational, and I have a daughter in 9th.
HOSTEL - 8 It started as a forced-upon residence without much choice, with totally unknown characters & an environment of ‘shared everything’. However, it ended up being a 2nd home with many of the characters turning into long term friends. Having lived in a hostel from 5th to 10th standards, sharing was not new to me but it was still a nice experience in adult social living. Overall, it was great that I stayed in H-8 and became the life-member of that fraternity, than availing the other option IITB had given me - to commute from my home in Mumbai. Random memories that come to mind (in random order) are - How the time froze in the philosophical all-night cack sessions with no agenda, the incessant rain leading to unending cack sessions accompanied by spicy fried food from the almost 24-hr eatery next to H8, the mess & its store (which btw is the main reason why we’re so immune to all food poisoning!), the unforgettable serene walks behind H8 through the dense forest, the ‘happy’ holi celebrations thanks to the bhaang-milk, Friday night socials & parties, the all-night+all-day video shows, the super-normal people called hostelites, who dreamt big, lived like kings, including those who grilled kabootars, the real long term residents called Ph.D. candidates, the ingenious mosquitoes and other numerous insects which made us so forest proof and such experts at killing insects, the unexpected snakes & frogs in bathrooms which made me sort of surprise-proof, the mumbai rains & flooding which taught some great survival skills, and finally how the bright minds called ‘seniors’ came up with unique + unbelievably stupid tasks for the initiation (also called ragging) ritual & freshie night ceremony. Friends I distinctly remember from H-8 that I shared these memories with: Ashfaq T., Kalyan M., P. Maini (& his carpeted room), Anurag M., Gaurav K., Akhil V., Kaushik, Kattimani, Shukla, Garg, Viresh, Rathi, Vyas, Munna, Nigam, Dilip etc. ACAD & Other - The institute was supposed to prepare us to be the ‘engineers of the highest calibre for building the nation’. Most of the faculty did a great job of imparting the best of the ‘funda clearing’ sessions in line with that vision. However, the opportunities that existed upon graduation led us to being the managers, executives, leaders & pioneers of the ‘highest calibre’ for building various nations! So we are the prized possessions that our parents & ‘the nation’ gifted to the whole World!The best thing that happened to me thanks to the IITB was the tremendous elevation of my confidence and my status! It was and still is a big feather in my cap. Random personal memories - The all entertaining & interesting mood-Is. The unending tests/quizzes/surprise quizzes and exams, the excruciating Math III class and its tests, the massive books which doubled as stands/weapons/counterweights/bed supports etc., the unbelievably robust Russian machinery, the shock of the unbelievable middle of the night time slots to work on the CDC mainframe, the cycling in the rain, the nice new SAC, the ultra high chlorine swimming pool which led to me ending the NSO swimming, football in the rain, the absolutely brain-free multi-entertaining activity called NCC, trips to YP and to the ‘world outside’, the enjoyable outings also known as ‘surveying’. The talented and unique teachers that I will never forget - R. S. Aiyyar’s & his super systematic teaching, talented teacher & guide P. Banerji, talented teachers Dhingra, Tarun Kant & thier stories, highly able but down to earth Limaye, Pani & Dixit, Sethuraman (I wish I had taken his class seriously, given how imp. Comm. Skills turned out later!), Deepak Phatak who made programming sound so interesting, unique & entertaining Electrical Engg. profs who were assigned to us, Quantum Mech. prof who tried hard to clarify those concepts but ended up confusing people anyway; who were wondering why we were being taught this at all! There are also teachers that I remember because they caused so much mental pain, but I’d refrain from naming those. I remember almost all of the classmates & many of my batch-mates (especially those who shared the stage as medalists), but Anu being the enthu girl with unique hairstyles & big eyes really stood out. Then there are unforgettable characters I met who had made various parts of IIT their home. The ‘fixtures’ of - the computer room: Hemmady, hostel-8: Ashfaq T., library: this list is too large!, labs: the various poor M.Tech. & Ph.D. candidates burdened with that task, the tilted TV watching beds : again a large list.
RAJENDRA Vrushali JOSHI DAUGHTeR’ MARRIED TO
H8, Civil
SHALMALEE
MS, STANFORD University 161
Anand Kulkarni
MARRIED TO
H2, Elec
Children’ -
(Kulki)
dhananjay’s’ Journey
Shachi AVANI, ADITI
MS, IISc Bangalore Anand’s’ journey Just amazed to think, it has really been 25 years
since I last met most of you. 1990: Did not follow the crowd into the US. Partly because I was not convinced of the value, but mostly because I was just too lazy to go through the process. Did well enough in GATE to get into CEDT IISc, Bangalore. 1990-1992 : Thoroughly enjoyed my time in CEDT. Continued to learn Bansuri that I started in IIT under Shri Patnaik. K. Prasad, Naresh Babu, Ashutosh Pendse, were also in IISc at the same time. Thought of continuing towards a PhD, decided to wait a couple of years. 1992-1993 : Spent an year at Godrej working on Electronic printers (remember them?). Generally allowed a lot of free time just because I was from IITB and IISc, so was a lot of fun. 1993-1996: Moved to Tata-Elxsi, Bangalore. Mostly Hardware design for SCSI RAID controllers, slowly moved into firmware and software design. Continue to learn Bansuri. 1994 : Got married. Technically an arranged marriage, but was love at first sight, thankfully mutual. Extremely lucky for me, given my social skills. 1997 : Came to IBM, San Jose on H1 visa. Working on firmware for SCSI and SAS Hard Disk Drives. Fell in love with California and the US. Stayed in the job through an acquisition by Hitachi GST and a move into Hitachi Research to work on TCG and Security. 2004 : Thanksgiving got a spot on our annual calendar with the arrival of our twin daughters, a constant source of joy and love. 2007 : Got an opportunity to join a startup called Pliant Technologies, working on one of the first real SAS SSD for enterprise applications. The product was a roaring success, but financially, we were just ok. Pliant was acquired by Sandisk in 2011 which was in turn acquired by HGST in 2015 to turn a full circle. 2011 : Began to learn Indian Classical vocal music, having mostly given up playing the Bansuri since reaching the US. My teacher can just barely tolerate my music, but I have fun. 2015: Am still working in Systems and Software group in Sandisk. Girls are just starting middle school. Hoping for good times ahead.
Anand’s’ iit memories Second year, Sundar M (EE H5), was helping me buy a bicycle. He would just walk up to random students and ask if they
wanted to sell their cycle. One such “student” turned out to be Prof H. Narayanan, who asked “Do you ask all your professors this question?” Third year winter, EE gang took a 10 day tour of south India. One of the last segments was from Bangalore to Goa by train. We had reservations, but a couple of us dumped all the luggage with rest of the gang and sat in a different, empty compartment couple of bogies down. Befriended a local kid who was also travelling for a short stretch. Went to sleep and when we woke up, the kid had gotten off but with all of our shoes and chappals! So reached Goa ready for the beach, barefoot. Kannan EE-H5, Dabral EE-H5. Final year, we had the Visiting Leopard situation. Working in the lab late nights to finish the BTP changed to working from 7 in the evening to 7 in the morning. The campus security had imposed curfew after dark.
162
I attended graduate school at Brandeis University which was is Waltham, a suburb of Boston for a graduate program in Biophysics leading to a Ph.D. Brandeis was a small liberal arts college but had an excellent reputation and graduate program in the Life Sciences. I chose to do my Ph.D in a lab that studied the structure and function of proteins using a technique called x-ray crystallography. I was developing new methods that would help understand the structure of an enzyme thrombin that is involved in clotting of blood. I had a lot of freedom to dabble in many different fields. This included neuroscience, molecular biology, and genetics. It truly was an exciting time to be biological research. Unfortunately, I was asked to leave with a Master’s degree as my advisors did not feel I was making sufficient progress on my allocated research topic. This was in 1995. Somehow unfazed by this, I decided to embark on a new project to understand the function of newly cloned gene that was implicated in a rare and fatal genetic disorder. I felt that I had to do something that would allow me to make a mark and also provide fundamental insights into how a cell made decisions when there was damage to its DNA. I was taking a huge risk, and the best part I was no longer on the role of the University. This was a truly a liberating experience. But unfortunately, my research did not leave to any tangible results. This time I was forced to leave the university in disgrace. Biology was an experimental science, and I was not good in working with my hands and not the most organized of persons. I returned to India in 1999. I joined the family business. This was plan B, while i figured our what plan A was. We are in the capital equipment space. More specifically we build assembly lines, material handling equipments and automation systems for customers from different verticals like auto, auto ancillaries, white goods, metals transportation and defence. I always been single and still looking. Seriously. My mother passed away quite suddenly of an heart attack while returning from her morning walk in October 2007 and I lost my father just last year while he was on a yatra to Mansoravar. Manufacturing was never my first love. On a technology scale we are not doing rocket science. But I think much of what we do is fundamental to building India’s infrastructure within and outside factories. Presently the company is facing serious challenges and am on the look out for investors. I know that my best days are still ahead and looking forward to the future with a lot of hope and anticipation!
dhananjay’s IIT Memories
1st Year : Came with the dream of changing to the Engineering Physics program. Only to realize that everyone in the M.Sc. Chemistry program had joined with the same plan. A life filled with hazaar tension and unrealistic expectations. Flunked Engineering Mechanics and completed it in summer. A dream died hard. 2nd Year: Just five of us remained in the department. Lots of common courses. Dreaded the chem labs and compulsory NCC attendance even more. Hung on. Hostel life, wing life, support from my seniors like Paritosh, Apat and Sam Shah enabled me to survive. The famous wing rivalries of H3 enabled me to thrive. Discovered a love for hiking. Participatd in Himankan 88 which culminated in a solo trek to Gaumukh. 3rd Year : An introductory course and seminar cemented a lifelong love for the Life Sceinces. Was an organizer for the professional play at MI. My first research stint at TIFR. 4th Year : The women who joined for the 2 yr. M.Sc. Chem program suddenly made life more interesting. Edited Daily Noise during MI. Introduction to RLC by the EE gang ( KK and the Nabad Core Group). Passing out during a concert at the SAC and waking up in the institute hospital the next day. An adventurous and aborted trek to Roopkund in the summer vacation. 5th year: The intense work on my thesis, going through the grind of applying abroad, the anticipation of awaiting the replies. Learning to just go with the flow and learning to treasure the smallest of memories. Other beautiful memories wing birthday and farewell treats at RK, Sujata Palace and Chakra, walks to the lake, attending rock concerts on campus and in Mumbai, wing bashes, inter-wing soccer in the evenings, running the institute cross country races,
cycling.
Dhananjay Udgaonkar (Danny)
H3, MSC Chem 163
ramaswamy’s’ Journey 1986 to 1990 – Got through IITB with a Mech Degree but more importantly many good friends. I think I started my thinking career through the hostel days, and maybe some of my philosophies in life came from simple living and high thinking that was characteristic of H 9. I was called Cat – maybe to do with the catnaps I took – I cant remember which was the cause and which was the effect but I have a huge fondness of all things feline. 1992 to 1994 – IIM Lucknow. Another degree, nay diploma this time. 1994 to 2003 - Set out to find my fortunes in the world of finance . Found the fortunes that mattered, which are safely in my mind , my brain, my heart, my soul. The exchequer is just a means to an end 2003 to 2005 – Backpacked India – and trust me, while backpacking Europe sounds more glamorous , the journey through India is perhaps the real thing. My only miss is Bihar and I am sure I am going to go back and complete it, the moment I find the right trigger and the right company 2007 – Retired from the professional world , and have the many pleasures that come from not chasing a corporate career. I read, I travel , I teach, I learn from Coursera courses and am seeking to develop the right brain, which the IITIIM education doesn’t even bother to recognise. I hope to make creativity the corner stone of life at some point of time. And since there’s no such thing as a free lunch I trade the equity derivatives for a living. What I hold dear is imagination and stimulating the mind. I cant remember ever being bored or having had to scratch my head on what next to do. Thoughts flow, ideas happen, happiness !
164
Ramaswamy Iyer (Cat)
H9, Mech PGDM, IIM Lucknow
Ravi Balasubramanian (B Ravi)
H8, MECH PGDM, IIM BANGALORE
MARRIED TO
RADHIKA Children’ APOORVA, ADITI
ravi’s Journey Life took a definitive turn in July 1989 when the decision was made to not mail any pre-app forms to the US universities. There was palpable shock everywhere - at home, amongst wingmates and many others. At that time, who knew that Bangalore would open up a different set of opportunities and that another potential engineer would bite the management dust. The mid-nineties saw another fateful decision - to go East when every Indian was going West. Two score years later in a new country called home with a wife and two tough teenagers, another important decision was made - this time to return to the place of the 1989 decision for the December reunion. I am looking forward to this momentous occasion - hopefully, old memories will be evoked and new memories created.
ravi’s IIT Memories Size was my first shock..... entering the gates of IIT and being amazed at the distance it took to walk to H8..... and then opening the door to my room at “B” ground and wondering how I will fit in..... and then realising it will be two of us - not just one ! My room mate was none other than Tamal TK Saha. Who knew pipes could be so long... until I went runnning along the water-pipes at Vihar on a rainy monsoon evening...many thanks to Heda who walked along with me for half the run ! Never a dull moment with my lab partners - Sirsi would be the patient note-taker and Joga the brilliant thinker. And yours truly, would well... The famous H8 Mech gang.. Anurag Mahesh & Ahuja chasing the dreams, the triplet of Marik, Joshi and yours truly also chasing some other dreams and Bhale the pure-one shep-herding the triplet. And the rest of H8 is of course legendary.....
165
Ajay Sethi H2, CS
MARRIED TO
Divya Children’ -
ajAY’s’ Journey
ADITI, ADVAIT
PhD, Rice University
ajAY’s’ Journey
First year of IIT was a breeze – course-work, etc. didn’t demand much. The resultant cognitive abundance helped trigger interest in matters beyond studies -- from sports and cultural activities to Indian Classical Music & Indian Philosophy. However, my non-academic explorations were jolted a few semesters later by a course where the Professor graciously allowed me to scrape through. After this, I made a small decision that had a large impact: to attend classes regularly and to pay attention in the classes. Around this time, Prof. Sanyal enthusiastically taught us the Compilers course. I enjoyed the course so much that I did my B.Tech. Project on Parallel Compilers (under Prof. Biswas and Prof. Sanyal) and, after graduation, stayed back at IIT to build Parallel Compliers for Param Supercomputer (with Prof. Dhamdhere, et al). Param, of course, was India’s first homegrown supercomputer. Parallel Compilers association continued for another 5 years; I got an opportunity to work with Prof. Ken Kennedy (who is credited with starting the field). It was a rewarding association – one of our papers won the Best Paper Award; another was nominated; yet another won the most-cited-paper recognition recently. More importantly, I learnt the process of (and experienced the joy of) coming up with “new stuff”. After finishing Ph.D., I joined Oracle and spent 8 years with the company (initial 3+ years in the Bay Area and next 4+ years in Bangalore). Oracle was a good stint – I was able to make impactful contributions and got a number of quick promotions. I also got an opportunity to put my Ph.D. work to good use when I led a high-impact team to add parallel programming capabilities to Oracle’s procedural programming languages. After relocating back to India and settling down in Bangalore, the lure of entrepreneurship beckoned. I started a company to build an innovative mobile-first search service. The company raised VC investment and acquired millions of users. Subsequently, I worked with a mobile payments startup (as COO) that built one of world’s first phone-based chip-and-pin payment devices. After an exciting journey that provided first-hand experience of evolving mobile-first economy in India, I joined Accel Partners -- an early-stage, technology-focused venture capital fund. This has allowed me to contribute to the Indian startup ecosystem and to continue to experience the joy of coming up with “new stuff”. On the non-professional front, I have had wonderful friends all through the life. At IIT, I had great wing-mates (with a diverse set of interests and expertise) and was blessed with an “extended family”. I was “adopted” by Sriganesh’s (SriG’s) parents during the IIT days and have had wonderful time with SriG’s family since then (esp. SriG’s charming and cheerful mother). SriG’s and his parent’s balanced scientific and spiritual outlook had a life-changing impact on me and nudged me to complement my intellectual curiosity re: Indian Philosophy (inherited from my mother’s unwavering faith and my father’s breadth and depth of knowledge in this area) with direct experiential aspects of Indian spiritual traditions. After finishing my Ph.D., Divya and I got arranged married (1998) and, after spending a couple of years in the US, we relocated back to India. After Divya and I moved back to India, we were blessed with two beautiful children -- Aditi and Advait. Besides studies and sports, both are building a solid foundation in Indian classical music and getting exposed to India’s immense spiritual wealth. Besides enjoying spending time with kids, Divya and I have pursued our shared interests: travel and spirituality/meditation. Over the years, this has driven us to explore various external and internal landscapes. On the external front, we have visited several continents. On the internal front, we have explored several paths towards “becoming” and “being”: Art of Living, Vipassana, etc. as well as quantum theory, neuroscience, etc. Undoubtedly, it has been a beautiful journey so far. And an even more beautiful journey beckons.
166
After passing IIT, I joined IIM Bangalore and passed out from there with specialization in Finance. I was always fascinated by the stock markets and therefore joined UTI, which was the largest investor in Indian markets at that time. After learning the tricks of the trade, I joined SSKi Securities in 1993 to do equities research and then moved over to Morgan Stanley and DSP Merrill Lynch in 1996 and 1999 respectively. I was based in Bombay from 1992 to 2000. In 2001, I moved over to Singapore to join Citigroup Asset Management and since then I am based in Singapore. After working in Citi for 7+ years, I ventured on my own in 2008 and started a hedge fund Akshayam to invest in Asian equities. My fund was bought out by Maybank Asset Management in 2014 and since then I have been managing the fund as part of Maybank. I met my wife Sonal through newspaper advertisement. We got engaged in May 1995 and then got married in Feb 1996. We were blessed with our daughter Mitali in Dec 1997. Our son Akshay was born in May 2003 in Singapore. Fast forward to today, time has flown thick and fast. This year, my daughter has gone to Royal Vet College in London and will soon be an adult (18 years old). My son is about to become a teenager. We are all Singapore permanent residents but continue to be Indian citizens. The quality of life here is great but comes at an exceptionally high cost of living.
ajAY’s’ IIT Memories
The 1st few weeks at IIT were quite difficult due to ragging by seniors. Since, I was not from Bombay and most of the freshies from Bombay used to go home over the weekend, the non-bombayites like me had to bear the brunt of the ragging. I also got infected by conjunctivitis which increased my misery but saved me from ragging for that period as seniors were scared of getting infected. Anyway, after the freshers night, ragging stopped and I started enjoying the hostel life. In first semester, I had a torrid time in Engineering design course as I was quite bad in drawing. I barely scraped through with CD grade. I did well in other courses and ended with a decent CGPA. I lost my way in second semester and took things very easy resulting in my CGPA dropping below 8. That shook me and I decided to take my studies very seriously in year 2, when EE courses started. EE courses were generally tough and most of us got tensed while navigating through the courses offered by Professors KCM, Kamath and Pandey etc. While the relative grading made the overall atmosphere quite competitive, it was good to see a good camaraderie between the EE students in our hostel. I was fortunate to have Ajit Dusankar as my neighbour and we were able to discuss and solve difficult problems in different subjects. In those days, semiconductors/microelectronics were considered to be the hot fields to get into and it was easier to get scholarship if you worked with one of the professors in these fields. I worked closely with Professor Chandorkar in this space. However, at eleventh hour, I had a change of heart and decided not to apply to any universities but to instead focus on getting into one of the IIMs. I had been preparing for CAT as alternative option any finally decided that I was more suited to do a finance job rather than an engineering job. As I look back, I thank God for guiding me in nick of time. Overall, campus life was fun and I made lot of friends. It was great to have late night chat sessions with wing mates and to go out to city to watch movies (climbing back from Kanjurmarg station to get to IIT was exciting). I was lucky to have great wing mates all of whom came from simple families and were open to discuss everything under the sun. My wing mates were Mandar, Argal , Harshad P, Ajit Dusankar, Tiger, Mondal, Prof Mahulikar, Mahendra Pingale, Hitesh Vadalia, Vivek khare and Sandip B.
Ajay Sharma H3, Elec
MARRIED TO
Sonal Children’ MITALI, AKSHAY
PGDM, IIM Bangalore 167
Ravishankar’s’ Journey After graduation, I worked with Mather and Platt, an engineering firm, for a couple of years in Pune , before joining IIM Lucknow. From IIML, i joined CRISIL - a credit ratings and analytics firm and spent about 21 years with the firm before calling it a day earlier this year in March 2015. I met my wife Vibhuti at CRISIL; we have two sons At CRISIL I did a variety of roles across areas like credit analysis, financial research, operations, human resources and strategy. I have been mostly based out of mumbai; spent a few years in Chennai
Ravishankar’s’ IIT Memories Learnt many lessons of leadership and business at IIT - running hostel mess, campaigning for elections etc. i remember getting into the kitchens late in the night and cooking egg bhurji and maggi for the hungry ( and often drunk) night owlsof the hostel. Over a period, cooking has developed into a serious hobby! My first ( and many more) votes in a national election was cast in IIT. somebody discovered that the indelible ink could actually be deleted with a matchstick and each of us ended up voting 4-5 times. Hostel meant everything - it was like religion is today. we were intolerant towards every other hostel particular during competitions. In one year when we were in the running for the interhostel sports trophy, everyone who could pedal, participated in the cycle race, which was the last event, to maximise our chances of winning the trophy. I remember a number of us who were cycling long distance for the first time barely managed to finish the race. i don’t remember if we won the trophy that year though!
168
RAVISHANKAR GEDELA (KALIA)
H6, Elec PGDM, IIM LUCKNOW
MARRIED TO
VIBHUTI Children’ AAKASH, VEDANT
SACHIN PANDHARE H7, CS MARRIED TO
CHARU SON -
ATHARVA
sachin’s’ Journey
Hi, My professional journey started in Mumbai. I started on my own, writing/ selling software and after a few years, switched over to software/IT industry. I worked with three companies since then, Kale Consultants, Polaris and Infosys. Kale & Infy was the longest, 10+ years. Stuff that I’ve been doing all these years, includes product development, setting up new business lines/services, consulting and delivering some complex systems for customers across the globe in banking and financial services and most other industries, but still love my initial few years when I developed some cool software. The work took me all over, India and outside. Abroad, I got to travel largely to Europe, ANZ/Singapore for short stints. I was based in India till recently, moved around a few cities including Delhi, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad. I am now based in New Jersey, United States. Delhi is where I met my wife. I didn’t know she comes from a true Punjabi family, till they got the news! It was all Bollywood style, and we were lucky finally! Charu has been in IT industry as well and now works with IBM. We have a son, Atharva, he is 13 years.
sachin’s IIT Memories
Walking up the slope?… I let the gravity take over, and I wasn’t short of company! That in a way summarizes, Of course, life was all fun except when it came to the grades J. IIT life has an immense impact on me, at the least it did turn a shy person into…well a not so shy person J. Wonderful times with friends on the campus, Patya, Thakur, DD, Dhavale, Gabbu, Wati, Guru, other batch-mates to start; night-outs, marine drive, staff c, computer lab, Digger and BTP, and finally the degree ending our campus life. How I wished those times never got over, I made a good use of the time though J and put to good use for all the stuff you can think of. If nothing else, it served my health good for so long! But then managed to win a IITB bridge tourney (which we organized of course), run 10k and climb the steep hill at Vihar lake running with Berry and Vinod, trick Farhad on soccer field or play for hostel soccer team, winning the hostel volley match, early morning synchronous, lol, yoga and swimming routine with Patankar, the maiden silver in Caroms with DD, and the rooftop booze and bridge sessions J. There is so much as I am writing down, but let me add a few not many would recall and possibly can’t imagine now. For 4 years I choreographed for PAF. Farhad and I had an item number carved out in each one of them. and both of us kept rocking the stage for H7, with our breakdance moves and topped the charts J a couple of times if I remember right. H7 was amazing, surrounded by Powai lake, yes it was there. Reminds of the bonus share of mosquitoes, a few KGs extra per head. My first day recall of the hostel is our senior Rege standing tall(!) at the entrance with a broad smile making us miss the other not-so smiling seniors at marine drive waiting for us to get in. But then I had Patankar, he has this knack with people. He found out a way for us to occasionally escape the ragging sessions in the nights, to act in a Marathi play run by Hattu and co. We were part of the mob of course, but we worked hard nevertheless J. We eventually did a performance in Dadar and many more! The summers were awesome too, SSSP Rao (Prof Rao) signed me up for a good stipend on BTP, which, honestly, I didn’t claim, and a summer project that exposed me to corporate world. But timings scared the hell out of me and I just loved campus life more and more! I ended up working all the summer projects but ‘88 summer project with DBP was one of the most rewarding, literally! I don’t know why DBP chose us, during that summer, I guess he spotted the talent well. Berry & I were the rich guys on the campus, summer of 88, we built the placement system in Dbase III plus! Those who got their campus job, thanks to us J. In fact, DBP also gave me another piece of work, so technically, I was richer J.
169
sameer’s’ Journey After graduating from IIT, I joined NC State on a direct PhD scholarship. Little did I know I was heading straight into recessionary-force winds in ChemE, while there was an enjoyable ‘Sameer i.e. hava ka jhonka’ blowing in IT. It took me 4 years, and my marriage to the wisest and most gorgeous person in my family, my soulmate Nita, to realize that. When I did, I graduated with an MS and joined the IT field application development, data warehouses, data operations. Along the path, I discovered that what gave me true enjoyment was analytics and business applications, and obtained an executive MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School. I did stop along the path to smell the roses and enjoy life, and now have 3 beautiful kids, one in UVA, one in High School, and the littlest in 3rd grade. Post-MBA I headed up the Data Warehouse Analytics & Exploration IT group, where my team enjoyed data mining and business analytics. Then I moved to IT service strategy aligned to business needs, followed by 7 yrs in global consulting assignments in strategy execution, performance management, change management, and data analytics. In 2016, I am planning to branch out on my own and currently pondering the services offerings of Me, Inc and how to target prospective global clients. It’ll be a bit scary, but I know it’ll be a thrilling phase.
sameer’s’ IIT Memories 6 of us in Chem E from H6 and H3 went on a wonderful trip to Goa. I had forgotten, but was recently duly reminded by my friends, of how I left my share of the cash in a soap dish back at IIT, which immediately whacked our budget by 16%. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful time on Goa beaches. #RaviShanker #MiteshShah #YogeshLondhe #NitinZamre #VivekShende I remember the NCC days and the trip to Pune - being cold, waiting for hot tea in the morning, the marches, the movie, and great friends. #MiteshShah #NitinZamre I remember the panther hunting expedition at Powai Lake #MiteshShah, the various trips to Vihar Lake with #MiteshShah, #NitishSahay, #RaviShanker, #YogeshLondhe, and going to the mela that used to happen near Powai Lake. I also remember having to walk the giant water pipes, and how scared I used to be of that !!
170
SAMEER ANAND (SAAMRI)
H6, Chem
SANDEEP AHUJA H8, Mech MS, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
MS, North Carolina State University MBA, University of North Carolina
MARRIED TO
MARRIED TO
Children’ -
SON - NITIN
NITA
SHAWN, SELENA, ELISHA
NISHI
sandeep’s’ Journey After graduating from IIT, I joined the University of Iowa and earned Masters in Mechanical Engineering in 1992. I moved to metro Detroit area in search of job. My first job was to develop computational fluid mechanics and heat transfer software. I worked on exterior aerodynamics of NASCAR racing cars and later on thermal/ mechanical design engine and transmission controllers. I recall going to San Francisco in 1999 for a conference. Just being in the area, I felt that this is where all the action is and I need to move. I recall meeting Bhushan Heda and Uday Naik from my hostel H-8 during that trip and that meeting just further confirmed that I should move to California and join one of the high technology companies. I ended up joining Intel in the Datacenter Engineering Group. Most of the thermal/mechanical positions in the datacenter group were in Portland or Seattle area. I ended up joining a team in Seattle area as a Sr. Thermal Engineer and advanced my career to Principal Engineer’s position. I got married to Nishi in 1994 and we have one son. Nishi is also a Principal Engineer at Intel and our son is a high school senior at Charles Wright Academy.
sandeep’s’ IIT Memories There are too may good memories. I must say that Rathi’s pranks bubble to the top. I will leave those for talk over dinner. The brotherhood feeling among our batch mates continued even after some of moved to the US. When I moved from Iowa to Metro Detroit area, I stayed with Ravi Shanker (Chem.). I am greatly thankful to him for providing all the help and support I needed to find my first job.
171
Zubin Dittia (Bawa)
H2, Elec MS, University of Washington, St Louis DSc, University of Washington, St Louis
sandeep’s’ Journey After IIT, I decided to take it easy and move closer to home. My first stint in Delhi at Tata Unisys was one of best period of my life if I look back. I blended in Mandi House culture spending evenings with local college friends and roaming on bike around girls college (everything we don’t do as UG in IIT). I met my future wife, Seema at a social (I almost got beaten up by Bengali market boys). Working on small consulting assignment in US and Canada and return to roads of Delhi every six month or so for next 5-6 years became a routine and career and money was least on my mind. Then marriage and quick turnaround on family got me to realize that I have to become serious and moved to California. Next 10 years was about living American dream… I was a struggling and aspiring IT consultant shifting from state to state and job to job for getting back to where I ought to be in career and financially. Some time spent in fitness and most of time with Zoya, my daughter growing, new addition, Ishaan and Seema getting busier with event management… overall life was fun! Then came bad news from home about deteriorating health of my parents and I decided to take a plunge and move to India. Couple of years in India trotting around to Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru and now in Singapore. Five years in Singapore has been nothing short of revelation of how different and better things are in east as compared to west. Culturally more accepting, closer to home and wonderful getaways around have kept us quite busy. I tried hands on many things… starting from spirituality, deep reading, Vipassana, trekking, cycling to work. Life has become simpler but nights longer with work!!
sandeep’s IIT Memories Zubin’s’ Journey
After IIT I was in St. Louis where I got my masters in EE and DSc in CS from Washington Univ. Before I was done defending my thesis, three of my professors decided to start a company in silicon valley, and they wanted me and a couple of other engineers to join them on that journey. That was a heady time, and quite exciting professionally; I was helping design chips which would go on to become the technology behind the core routers of the Internet. However, I did not like Sunnyvale, in no small part because I hardly had a social life there, and the place was the epitome of boredom (it still is!). In early 2000, just a month before the dotcom crash, Cisco acquired our company; this change made my professional life take a turn for the worse and I realized I hate big companies. Luckily, at around the same time, an old friend of mine who I had met in Zurich and who had just completed his PhD decided to move to silicon valley to follow his dream of trying to start a company, and he looked to me to be his partner in crime. I happily obliged, and Jibe Networks was born. This also gave me the opportunity to move to San Francisco, which was a city I had a great fondness for. I loved my time in San Francisco, and I felt the city really changed me for the better; it made me leave my science/engineering roots and discover the wide world of other cultures and peoples. Professionally, Jibe despite being a tiny company, was extremely fun to work at. Those were hard times to secure investment; we were always a month or two short of running out of money, which kept us on our toes but also gave us this immense energy and passion and feeling of being alive which I still miss. In 2006, Jibe was acquired by another startup company, which in turn was acquired by Citrix in 2007, and so I found myself back again in the dreaded big company environment. By this time, I had moved into a home in San Mateo, which was located halfway between my social life in SF and my work life down south in silicon valley. My social life had become very full and I found myself spending half the days of the week in the city in the evenings. On a personal front, I went through several relationships, including three live-in relationships, but it seemed I couldn’t hold ‘em down (or perhaps I didn’t want to be held down :-). In 2009, I joined a storage company Tintri as its second engineer; I still work there, except it now has about 500 employees. Its been fun to watch the company grow from 4 people in a small room into a large building where most of the faces are strangers. In 2008, I discovered the Burning Man festival, which had a huge positive impact on me; it can change the way you approach life, so I’m huge advocate for telling people to go there at least once in their lives (I’ve been 6 times). Just do it! In 2010, I was struck by a terrible autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis. I was in tremendous pain, so much so that it would take me a couple of minutes just to execute a turn in bed. The doctors seemed to be flying blind, and wanted to prescribe me medicines that based on their side effects sounded to me more like toxins. I started reading about health, and after lots of reading, I fasted, changed my diet and lifestyle, and after a couple of years not only was I completely free of the disease, but I also seemed to have earned a reputation where today people seek me out for health advice when they are diagnosed with various chronic diseases.
Zubin’s IIT Memories
I have a very poor long term memory. I remember very little from my IIT days, and even less from my school days. Faces and people are all blanked out or a distant haze. I do remember a few incidents, even though I may not remember the people involved or their roles. There was the time I faced down a challenge from someone to eat a whole green chilli without any other food (or neat, as the bar-going US public might say). In return I got a free milkshake. But I spent the next two days in agony and could barely speak. Nearly two decades later, I faced a similar challenge at a bar in San Mateo known for serving the hottest burgers in town; smothered with habanero chilli sauce, these have such a reputation that many silicon valley companies have competitions on whose employees can eat the most. Well, my experience at H2 with the green chilli must have primed me, for I was able to eat it with a moderate amount of pain, while others at my table were screaming high heaven and we nearly had to call an ambulance for one of them. Then there was the time that it was my birthday and I knew I was going to be given bums, so I tucked a pillow down my pants. After my bums, I made the mistake of proudly pulling the pillow out and gloating, at which point I was given a second round which was delivered with a special passion that I will never forget. There was the time we had snuck into someone’s room and spread chopped onion all over it while he was away on vacation. It took him weeks to rid his room of the stench when he returned. I don’t remember why we thought he deserved such a terrible punishment, nor do I remember to whom it was administered, but its one of those memories that the march of time has somehow left intact. I remember the Electromagnetic Fields class which was taught by a sadistically brilliant professor whose name escapes me save for the first letter K, and who competed for a certain dubious honor with the one also known as H. I remember my head swimming in curls and divergences. I remember going to an NCC camp near Pune where other sadistic souls would wake us up at 5am, and I remember the time someone woke me up to find me chanting mantras about curls of divergences of the brand name of my pants. I’m not sure if the material meted out to us in some of those courses was hallucinogenic; perhaps eating mushrooms would give us similar insights. I remember my first computer class, on a Unix Uniplus System V system, faced with an arcane editor called vi, and of realizing that typing ‘i’ would allow me to type. Today I still use vi every day, and have been known to hurl unrepeatable expletives at those who swear by emacs. My friend Scott Hassan had the nerve to name his cat emacs! I’d never have forgiven him if it weren’t for the fact that he wrote the very first web crawler for the company a certain very large search engine company, for he finally gave me a tool I love more than vi. I remember the time a snake went into someone’s room (I think it was Kurlekar - wow can’t believe I actually remember a name!) while a bunch of us including him were watching from several feet away in the corridor. Hostel security guard was summoned, but despite his reputed investigative abilities, no sign of the snake was to be found. It was nearing bedtime, and Kurlekar looked worried. Very worried. A second search was called for. This time, his rain boots were examined, and the snake popped out of one of them. Ouch!
172
When I went for course selection in IT BHU, I came prepared to take up something locally. But night before show on TV about NASA got me excited to go and choose Aero in Bombay. I landed in H9 East wing top floor and fear of coming from small town in big city vanished when I met with wonderful kids from all over India… I had a great company of Gun, Bharat Shyam, Ashish Asthana, Chuk, Cutie, Shrawan and many more and developed a bonding which will last forever. We were all learning new tricks away from secured environment of home and felt the freedom carrying us away. There is too less a space to go through what all we did as we grew up together and some things will remain only in memory. Somehow throughout the IIT days I was satisfied just getting through semesters. Lucky me that I never saw a summer in Powaii. Many of the days were spent in the cafeteria or at tea shop in humanities department always finding someone to give a company. Looking back, I realize that 4 years can be long to endure and a concept of taking a break year may not be a bad idea for some. Couple of semester were really a struggle as I was too entangled in sorting things for myself and going through the end of teen was not easy. I only got the reality check of the impact of all extra-curricular as I got in 3rd year and fortunately it was not too late to make amends. Listening to LPs in lounge, late night carom, all night movies in the mess, trips to NITIE in late night, Sujata palace, RK, election parties, MI, trips to Khandala or camping on beach, socials… there were too many things to keep us busy throughout the years. Even though I was not known in wider circle for cultural activities, I was reasonably active in theatres. There were street plays, stage drama where I took some role or the other. I loved basketball but unfortunately could never be good enough to be part of hostel team (although I was non-playing captain in 4th year). Walks and run in the vast green surrounding was one of my favorite activity and I ended up losing around 15 kgs in first 2 years. Looking back, it was like living a whole life time in those 4 years as there never was a dull moment or lack of incidents to cherish forever.
SANDEEP CHATURVEDI (CHATUR)
MARRIED TO
SEEMA
Children’ -
ZOYA, ISHAAN
H9, Aero 173
sanjay’s’ Journey I after finishing graduation was working with Prof S K Sane on few product development. During campus was selected by DRDO for post of Scientist B along with 2 more PGs. I left DRDO and got selected through UPSC for DGCA, Ministry of Civil Aviation. I was associated with most of the VIP air crash notably Sh Y S Reddy, CM Andhra Pradesh chopper crash. At present i am posted in Mumbai as Director Air Safety(offtg) incharge of western region. I had formed Airlines Welfare Association a charitable organisation and as General Secretary spear headed agitation for getting homes. I filed a Writ Petition and pleaded along with other solicitors against Air India, CIDCO, Govt of Maharshtra, Govt of India. 355 members got benefited.
sanjay’s’ IIT Memories The favourite entertainment used to be playing Carrom and Table tennis with Sachin Pandhre, Deepraj Dixit. Late night cricket in wing corridor used to be very popular. I was commander of my NCC contingent during our camp at NDA, Khadakvasla. I slept before the roll call and the whole contingent was stranded creating chaos. I was also sent as captain of H7 cricket team for registering dissent during interhostel cricket due to some hostel politics. Remember spending time in gym with Brijesh Saxena.
174
SANJAY BRAMHANE (BRA)
H7, Aero LLB, MUMBAI UNIVERSITY
MARRIED TO
KIRAN SON’ -
SIDDARTH
SANJAY DASGUPTA H9, Chem MS, Princeton University PHD, Princeton University
MARRIED TO
MAUSUMI Children’ -
SABAR, NAVIN, EMILY
sanjay’s’ Journey
I left IIT and came to Princeton University on September 14th, 1990. I started off with $750 in my pocket and after spending $20 on whiskey on the plane, $30 on the Princeton airporter, I started my US journey with $700 in my pocket. The airporter dropped me off in front of Forbes College and I lugged two suitcases from there to the Old Graduate College. The first thing that I purchased the next day was an ironing board. After a couple of weeks, I realized that I was a little over-dressed in class in a sports jacket and slacks - and people looked at me funny when I addressed the Professor as “Sir.” The five years in Princeton were amongst the most enjoyable; the environment was so intellectually stimulating and the place extraordinarily beautiful. After Princeton, I joined a Management Consulting firm, Oliver, Wyman. A couple of years at Oliver Wyman gave me a very good big-picture view of the world of finance and, subsequently, in 1997, I joined banking. I started trading in 1999, first in the European and Asian Convertible Bond markets, and then subsequently in the US derivatives markets. I found the mathematics of financial markets very intriguing and spent a whole lot of evenings and weekends trying to figure out some structure in the madness of the non-linear dynamical market. After a brief stint at a start-up hedge fund in 2003, I joined a high-profile start-up in 2005, Magnetar Capital. In 2009, I moved to the Royal Bank of Canada to run a derivatives strategy in their proprietary trading arm. In 2014 I moved for the first time to the sell-side of a bank and now globally head derivatives trading for Institutional Clients. We have a fantastic work environment with great emphasis on applied mathematics and technology to aid trading. On a personal front, I am very happily married to Mausumi, who came from the Kolkata area and spent time in Southern California. She currently works at Morgan Stanley. We share three children, Sabar, Emily and Navin. Sabar is a freshman at Stanford and is studying EE/CS. Emily is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins, studying CS and Navin is a seventh-grader in the Princeton school system. Last but not the least, our dog, Mishti, is just everyone’s love – she is a mix between an American Cocker Spaniel and a Flat Coat Retriever.
sanjay’s’ IIT Memories
My first memory of IIT was the week (or was it two) of sharing a room with my roommate, Aamir Khan. I remember the food in H9 being a particularly hard pill to swallow. I remember Anand (Andy) in the canteen – surely, I wouldn’t have survived the four years at IIT without his banana milk shakes and sausage and salami toasted sandwiches. I do remember the huge mosquitos and being bitten in the most outrageous of places ? I remember the netting of the window and vent above the door being a complete lifesaver! I remember the rain and the clothes not drying, and getting molded. I remember hanging out in Vihar Lake and climbing the hill to the side of the lake. I remember having midnight snacks at Shetty’s stall in H8 – the memories of that food still make my mouth water. I remember spending time in the first year with Rajeev Joshi and listening to a lot of Simon and Garfunkel. I remember eating up a whole box of kheer-kadam in Ranabir Sinha Roy’s room in H4 (actually, I think we ended up saving one or two for Rajeev). I remember walking to lectures (I never had a bike on campus) and going oh no! every once in a few months when I stepped in a fresh hot pile of cow dung! In the second year, Sudhama, Abbas and I transferred to Chemical Engineering and we were only three in that discipline from H9. I remember sleeping in and missing a lot of lectures, despite valiant attempts by Rajeev Joshi to wake me up. I remember spending hours upon hours playing carom, chess or table tennis with Mahalingam. I remember spending a lot of time doing the Times crossword with Sudhir Dravid. I remember practically the whole batch in Shankar Krishnamoorthy’s room preparing for a Workshop quiz. I remember getting into a lot of mischief with Sanjay Srivastava – but for the most part, we really had a great time. I remember hanging out in the West Wing in Abbas’ or Navin Verma’s room. I do remember the socials with Sophia College and all the fun preparations to set up the parties. I remember being proctored at an exam when the professor tore a hole in the newspaper he was reading to try and see if anyone was cheating. I also do remember being given the chase of a lifetime by a huge monkey who was sitting on the road from lectures to the hostel. I remember the Mood Indigos ever year and the fantastic musical performances. I remember being treated to the most unbelievable performances by the likes of Zakir Hussain, Alla Rakha, and L Subramanium. All in all, it was a fantastic experience
175
Cherry’s IIT Memories
So what if Cherry tells me that the last time he actually wrote a document, it was his BTP – and , Anu, please spare me from this pet project of yours – I have forgotten to write. So we decided we would write for him instead. So these are a small portion of Cherry’s memories, I am sure he has many more from H6 . So guys, bear with us. We were a group of 5 in the Civil engg class of 90 – maybe class of 1990.2 is the right expression ( you do the math ! ) Vinayak Thakur was our brick – he wrote the notes, he photocopied his notes and distributed to the rest of us, he reminded us of quizzes and he made sure that we turned up on the days that we had to show our faces at the department. Sawant, Ghane and I were the lukha’s , gender made me a little more conscientious – log kya kahenge ? Cherry Thomas was our forevergrinning, able-bodied , part-intellectual, part-lets do it guys types chap. We used to do our lab experiments carrying stuff called theodolites behind the workshops on undulating slopes. Thakur did the experiments, Cherry helped, the other 3 slept on the grass and ate cucumber with red chilly powder. Cherry is a total sweetheart who hung out with me all summer doing my summer project – which was to keep breaking concrete slabs ostensibly to measure compression strength. Cherry did the heavy lifting, I did nonstop chatter. Cherry and Ghane did their summer project with AAAI ( some airport authority BS at the international airport ) . What it meant was they had swank ID cards that allowed them all access – to the terminal, to the runway (? ) , to the cafeterias – which was most important. Their summer project for some reason had to be done in the night – to do with international take-offs and landing’s ? I shudder to think that such folks should ever have been trusted like this Cherry would buy us Rs 1.20 ka dosa and 0.80 p ka idli – and man life was good. Daytime spent breaking concrete bricks and the nights at the airport . Of course, one day we got really ambitious. All 5 of us or was it somehow 6 ended up walking into the Leela to have a pot of tea – other than Ghane, the rest of us had no idea what service tea meant. So we walk in , rubber chappals and all, with the girl with a curly mop somehow adding respectability to this expedition. I think it was Cherry who non-chalantly asked for a pot of tea and 6 cups – and they obliged. We paid a princely sum of Rs 60 at the Leela for our first cup of tea’s ( mind you, not chai’s ) and believed that it gave us the right to rest our bums on those chairs all night. Chakra Bar and Planter’s Punches. Cherry was in the Mood Indigo Core Group – well, all our friends were duh ! I think he was brilliant at keeping our own friends from smuggling booze into SAC, or was that Anu ? He would host us at H6 often, when we need Thakur’s tutorials to get through – and it was clear that he was an extremely loved soul in his hostel . Ditto, folks – in the department, we loved this strong, silent ( ? ), happy guy – who didn’t have a care in the world. Cherry now lives in Dubai, is married to Jolly – who has mutlipled the joy at home with her sunny personality and disposition. They have a son who studies Engineering at Trichy, and Cherry tells me that he hopes his son has the same great time there that he had at IITB. You made our lives easier back then, Cherry. Thank You and God Bless !
CHERIAN THOMAS (CHERRY)
H6, CIVIL
SANJAY GHAG H8, Meta M MGT, IIT BOMBAY
MARRIED TO
MARRIED TO
SON - JimmY
Children’ -
JOLLY
sanjay’s’ Journey
VAISHALI RUCHA, ARYAN
FE
Pb
After graduating as Metallurgist, I took up a job in Essar Group who were planning to set up a steel plant in Hazira. I, along with about 30 more IIT/REC fresh graduates were the first batch of GETs who joined Essar Steel to set up 1.6MTPA Steel Plant at Hazira. After completing the Steel Plant project, I was supposed to be transferred to Amsterdam for Essar’s refinery project. However, that’s the time when IIT-Mumbai launched its Management programme focussed on Technology and Management. It excited me and I decided to join this course. I got married to my lovely wife, Vaishali after 3rd semester of Management. It was an arranged marriage. Vaishali used to work with Tata Group those days and took a big gamble of marrying a student. That was the time when infrastructure sector in India was being liberalised/privatised. I decided to build on my projects background and plunged in to the Infrastructure Sector. I commenced this exciting journey with a small infrastructure development firm before joining Infrastructure Sector of Mahindra Group as Project Development Manager - developing, promoting and managing infrastructure projects in India. During this tenure, I worked on the first water privatisation initiative in India. After developing this project, I joined Saudi Arabian Amiantit Group as Project Development Manager responsible for the development of privatisation projects in the water sector in the Middle East and Asia regions. I then became a principal investor by joining Gulf One Investment Bank in Bahrain and was responsible for investing in infrastructure assets of the Middle East region. Prior to joining IL&FS, I was responsible for infrastructure investment at Bahrain based Oasis Capital Bank. I am currently working as a SVP at IL&FS Limited and has now accumulated over 23 years of experience in infrastructure development and investment in the Middle East & Asia. I have extensive experience in acting as principal investor as well as project developer on privatisation projects, giving me a unique appreciation of both sides of the table in the PPP industry. I have two kids – my daughter is in 12th standard and son is in 5th standard. I am a sport enthusiast – like to be on the ground, play almost all sports, though master of none.
sanjay’s’ IIT Memories
I differentiate myself with the current life at the campus by the kind of ragging we had to undergo as Freshies. Most of the experience was very interesting - clearing or defining our life fundas and also helped us in quickly absorbing in the campus life. Getting rid of half mustache during the last day of ragging set the new looks on my face for the rest of my life. Being a Mumbai resident, I missed most of the week-end life at the hostel but made it up during weekdays. The memories are endless - the late night TT and Carom sessions with nice background music, prolonged cack sessions, flood light cricket and football matches, evenings on the jogging track, live cricket matches on the TV, some exciting movies on VCR during late nights on week-ends, evenings on Vihar and Powai lake, hostel socials, etc. etc.
Anu, Ghane, Sawant
176
177
Aditya Ray H7, Elec
MARRIED TO
Sunandita
DAUGHTeR’ - ANINDITA
PGDM - IIM Ahmedabad
aditya’s’ Journey I had gone to IIM Ahmedabad to do PGDM/MBA immediately after IIT. After passing out from IIMA in 1992, as a Campus offer I got the job with Wipro Systems as Sr. System Analyst. But I was soon convinced to take part in turning around project of Dunlop India, a brand we all grew up with. I learnt a lot in my first job with Dunlop – from Product Management, Advertising, National Sales Coordination, to heading a Branch Sales Division. In 1995, I joined Amtrex Hitachi in Mumbai. After spending a little over 2 years between Amtrex Hitachi and then Propack, I joined Zee Network in early 1997. It was a decisive move, as I joined the Media Industry for long term. Zee Network was the biggest Institution after IIM Ahmedabad where I learnt the maximum in my Career. It was also the most successful and rapidly growing experience for me. In little over 7 years, I grew from Sr. Manager to Sr. Vice President, getting a promotion almost in every year. I became the National Brand Head of Zee TV, Regional Head of Zee Network (East), Channel Head of Zee Bangla, National Sales Head of Zee Regional Channels all in quick successions and last three roles almost concurrently. An offer from Sri Lanka to head the prestigious Maharaja Group’s TV Broadcasting business and a challenge of quick turn-around in a foreign market after the big success in Zee Network, made me leave India to join The Capital Maharaja Organization in Sri Lanka as it’s youngest CEO for MTV (Maharaja TV) in 2004. I had a huge success there – made the flagship Sirasa TV as the number 1 channel in Sri Lanka within a year, resulting in over 100% rise in Revenue. But after 14 months, I again jumped. This time to move back to India – to The Times of India Group. The challenge was again to make a media brand No. 1 – to bring TOI Kolkata ahead of The Telegraph in East. In spite of making lot of progress for the brand, it’s circulation and revenue, I did not succeed to make it No. 1 this time. During my TOI stint, I also got associated with a very interesting project – Times Private Treaties. Converting Client Brands as investments for TOI Group and enhancing the value of those brands through sustained media campaigns in exchange of a small stake in those brands. I stayed with TOI for almost 4 years, before taking up a challenging role of CEO and Chief Evangelist for a Start-up venture of Dentsu – Last Minute Media, an online marketplace to offer remnant media inventories of TV, Radio, Newspapers and Magazines to willing registered online buyers either at a discount or at a premium. Last Minute Media’s life got shortened due to recession in Media business in India in 2008-2009. I joined Avenir – A Management Consulting Firm practicing Theory of Constraints (TOC) in 2010. It was a new world for me. TOC gave me new knowledge and direction to effect quick, yet sustainable turn-around for most businesses by application of Constraints Management strategies and techniques. It was a very interesting and highly enriching knowledge and experience that I gained with TOC, which I can use in any business including Media and Consumer Brands. In 2014, I joined back The Capital Maharaja Group as CEO – MTV, to repeat my turn around performance for Group’s TV Media business. Have been fortunate to bring back flagship Sirasa TV to No.1 position once again and now focusing on rapid growth & expansion and transition to the next level, for all Media Brands of the Group
aditya’s’ IIT Memories Fondly remembering the sharing of notes and joint studies for common subjects with my room partner Dharmendra Modha (CS) and for Dept subjects with Rajguru, Dilip Sinha, Nilesh Thakur and Venkatraman. Party time after the exams, Table Tennis with Dixit, movie going with Farhad. Going to Durga Puja and Kali Puja at Khar Ramakrishna Mission with Kallol, Arindam (a batch senior), Soumya Mullick (2 batch senior) etc. Our Industrial Tour with EE batch in Ooty, Goa etc. Our H7- EE batch’s trip to Kihim after the final semester exams.
178
Avinash’s’ Journey Had the choice to go IIM or USA route after graduation. Chose the USA route or better or worse. Found out that life was tough as a physics major (both work and money) so switched to EE in a year. Was having too much fun as a graduate student, had a good adviser so stuck around for a Ph.D. Moved to SF bay area after graduation working in R&D in semiconductor fabrication. Finished life stuff - got married, bought a house, got green card. Realized fabs are going moving out of bay area so switched to test engineering and later to hardware design. Had two kids four years apart - older daughter and younger son. Left job and started consulting in 2007 - made it through the 2008-2009 downturn. Gained a lot of experience and more importantly confidence. Got a chance to lead a global team so joined a company again. Maybe get back to consulting again part time after kids are grown up :-)
Avinash’s IIT Memories First vivid memory of IIT - outside H5 after a particularly tough Physics-1 quiz: Wondering if it was just I who couldn’t get it and here comes #akileswar (#lendl) saying it was tough with expressive hand gestures. Taking the side route to the rooms instead of main walkway during freshie times to avoid seniors. Needing help from Kishan and Ajat to get back to room after I had a bit too much to drink after first MI rock concert. Watching some random Ursula Andress movie in Pune during the NCC camp with the other junta (#adve, #malik, #misra, etc.) Endless cack sessions in #pedro’s (#kudrolli) room despite his repeated attempts to kick us out so he could sleep Making sure #vati (#waghmare) leaves his notes outside his room before he goes to sleep so we can start studying Studying habits during endsems: dinner at 8. lukhagiri until 10 when mess opened for endsem special. Try get to study but mostly figuring out what to study until it is midnight and time for canteen to open. midnight - another snack break. Actually begin serious studying after that. Around 2-3 - junta leaving for H8 for food. Eat, come back cack some more and go to sleep. Wake next morning when vati wakes us up and go to test :-) Memorable trips - himankan after 2nd year, PT at RRI Bangalore after 3rd year, visit #vati’s home in Dhule after 4th, trips to panchgany and dahanu courtesy of #pedro’s dad rich friends vacation houses. many memories with #george, #rajguru, #misra, #pedro, #golu, #boka (farhad). Hearing #pandhare listening to “I want to break free” for hours, He had recorded the same song on both sides of a tape (remember those?) to avoid rewinding. Hearing “we dont need no education” from #boka’s room around midnight during endsem signalling mugging done and nbd complete Watching #rajashree get frustated during first year metal labs (lathe etc.). She was paired with #golu and #lendl who couldn’t be bothered to do work whereas she needed good grades for changing dept. Monsoon hikes to sahyadris- most memorable being the one to bhimashankar. After getting lost, rained on and hairy single ladder crossing we (#rajguru, #george, #pedro, #misra and other junior folks) finally reach there at night. Stayed in the temple where the pujari woke us up at 4am (I think he was smking something a lot more potent too). Decided not to trek back but take the bus; got on the bus and found that we didn’t have enough money to take us to Bombay. So got off at Pune instead (closer and cheaper). Stopped by #rajguru’s house to get cash. His mom was super nice. I remember nobody had the guts to sit on the clean sheet on the sofa so we all sat on the floor instead! Hearing of Rahul Sharma’s demise after 4th year endsems. Vividly remember his mom getting moved by the outpouring of sympathy in hostel. Shee said, “At least I know my son’s last year were great and with so many friends” - stuck with me. That’s all that’s important in the end, isn’t it?
Avinash Mahajan H7, EP
M tech, University of Texas, Austin PhD, University of Texas, Austin
MARRIED TO
Aparna Children’ ADITI, ANIKET 179
sanjay’s’ Journey Post IIT : After graduating from IIT, I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where I learnt driving and graduated with a MS degree in Operations Research. I continue to use my driving skills until today. I came back to India and joined TCS Pune, which was a continuation of college due to the young colleagues and bosses; and the culture of taking it easy for long periods of time and then working overnight to complete assignments. During that time, I got married to a lovely colleague named Dhanashri whom I managed to impress during our frequent treks around Maharashtra. In 1996, we moved to Singapore with our son Kaustubh. as it was within a few hours of Pune, where my parents lived. I joined Deutsche Bank in their IT division and continued within banking IT until the current time. Our second son, Nilay was born in 1999. Both the boys played basketball for their school. Life was moving fast until I was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013. It made me see life in a different light, completely changing my priorities. I took a sabbatical for a year and wrote a book about my fight with cancer, before starting my job search. The book is currently selling well.
sanjay’s’ IIT Memories My first memory of IIT was - being called for ragging by a senior named Gaunekar. It turned out to be an ‘interview’ session during which we exchanged our philosophies. At the end of it I was recruited for the Marathi Annprod, which meant I spent most of the first semester carrying and rearranging chairs and waking up the drunk guys at 4.00am after the daily practice. A wingmate could teach the professors a thing or two about efficiency; he used his undie four times without washing and still not reusing the same surface – you figure that one out. We used to go to find the leopard, jumping over the H6 wall, always ending up at Chinese corner discussing what we saw. This usually happened during exams. We could go to sleep without guilt after putting in so many hours of ‘work’. I have great memories of playing football or volleyball on the hostel grounds. Or studying together or sharing a notebook on the night before the exam – each person taking notebook in a 2 hour shift, before passing it to the next person.
180
SANJAY JAGTAP
SANJAY MANNEY
H6, Mech
H2, Elec
(JAGGU)
MS, University of North Carolina
MARRIED TO
DHANASHRI Children’ - TWO KAUSTUBH, NILAY
(ML)
M ENG, Carleston University , Ottawa
MARRIED TO
PALLAVI
Children’ - SAYAN, PARAV
sanjay’s’ Journey My journey after IIT took me first to Ottawa, Canada. What a wonderful place that was, where I discovered the thrill of being outdoors in the snow, immersing myself into all sorts of winter sports: downhill skiing, ice hockey, ice skating and tobogganing. I played soccer for the City of Ottawa league, sometimes in -2C, every bit was a new experience. Made some amazing new friends there, continued my work on large scale matrix computations that started with Prof H. Narayanan (HN), which got me the scholarship at Carleton Univ, perhaps the only other place that did this sort of research :-) Five years later moved to the US joining a start-up, which was sold just before the telecom bubble where I experienced the highs and lows of that bubble up close. I ended up in Silicon Valley where I have been for the last 20 years. Have taken up rowing, also called sculling, in a beautiful lake close to home, sadly the California drought has drained all the water and I am eagerly waiting for the El Nino rains so I can resume sculling. It seems my journey has taken me through multiple businesses and companies that can be called “turn-around plays”. I have been very fortunate to have had almost a 100% hit-rate professionally, could be luck, could be effort, who knows, perhaps a bit of both as life usually is! About 20 years ago, I convinced a gorgeous neighbour of mine in Hyderabad, that her happiest journey through life would be with me, Pallavi couldn’t agree more! That’s my story and I am sticking with it :-) To date that has been my biggest achievement. We have two beautiful boys, and these three people have now become the center of my universe.
sanjay’s’ IIT Memories When I arrived at IIT-B I was already a 12 year veteran of hostel living. The first evening, I put on my sports gear and went out to play, like I always did the previous 12 years and I did that for the next 4 years no matter what. The best way to get to know people in my view is to play something with them. And we did a lot of playing, in the hostel, on campus, off campus, outside class, in the labs and sometimes in class, on Friday booze nights, after end-sems, at birthdays and for no reason at all. The friendships and memories we made still continue to this day, they now include our wives and kids and perhaps we have sobered a little but the IIT experience continues, it’s not just a memory from the past.
181
dhananjay’s’ Journey Hello guys! This is Saaarode from your IIT days. It is nice to get in touch with all of you. My contact with few of them was kind of on-off. After completing my MS I did 2 to 3 short stints in small companies and then joined IPCL as engineer in the ethylene plant in the technical services. The company was converted to Reliance post takeover in 2002. After working for Reliance until 2009, I shifted to Saudi to get some project experience in ethylene plant and other related processes as Process Engineer and am currently posted in the Olefins Business Development unit of Petrochemical Industries in Kuwait since 2011. On personal front, I partnered in 1999 and then multiplied two fold. Currently my better half manages everything other than my professional life and my children are studying in DPS in Kuwait in class 11 and class 7. See you all
dhananjay’s’ IIT Memories I still remember hostel and himankan from my days at IIT. Not to forget Mumbai monsoon. However, I have not been in touch with any one. I did see some of the photographs of Chemie batchmates but couldn’t recognize any of them as I still carry the old image of them in my memory. Perhaps it would be the same with them whenever they see me. Hope we meet some time.
Dhananjay Sarode H2, Chem MS, Clemson University
MARRIED TO
SHEETAL
devesh’s’ Journey
This has been an interesting life journey for sure, and I am not sure how much of this I should write in here. But it is safe to say that I joined the C.S. Department in IIT Bombay because I could, not because it was what I wanted... I was just going with the flow. After graduating, I got my M.S. at the University of Texas at Austin, and took up a job at Oracle in the Bay Area, which I only got serendipitously. I was intrigued by the gleaming glass towers off 101 while driving back to SFO during a visit here in the spring break of 1992, and so stopped by and dropped off my resume. After working there for a couple of years on a project that eventually ended up being shelved, I joined a couple of startups, which also went nowhere. So a few months shy of my 30th birthday, I decided that it wasn’t quite my calling, and quit the software industry and moved to New York City to day trade stocks and options for myself. 1999 was a banner year... I took a lot of risks to build up my portfolio... But then greed and the law of gravity caught up, and I ended up being on the margin, so to speak. Having lost most of what I had made, I moved back to the Bay Area a year later. Over the course of the previous 10 years, I had also explored my sexuality... having lived a sheltered life in India, and had become a community activist with LGBT (lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender). South Asian groups. I enjoyed that work much more than software, and so decided to pursue a job in the non-profit sector. I ended up working with two agencies in the LGBT field over the course of the next 11 years, doing fundraising/organizing events for them. I found that to be much more fulfilling, and the hours were much more reasonable. That also gave me time to explore other pursuits. In 2005, I decided that I would run a marathon... partly because I was inspired by some friends/colleagues who had run them, but also to prove a point... I had not been very athletic in high school or at IIT, and in fact had been called a “pansy”. So I trained for and finished the San Francisco marathon. Little did I know that it would change my life completely! Being a competitive person, I decided I wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and so trained for it and achieved my goal at the 2008 Chicago Marathon. The next year, to commemorate my 40th birthday, I decided to take on the challenge of running a marathon a month for 12 months, to raise funds for the non-profit I was working for, and was blessed to run in all the top marathons in the world. Meanwhile, I was a victim of the recession a couple of years ago, and was let go from my job. Since then, I’ve been trying to find my new life path, made more difficult due to some challenges I have had in my personal life. But I’ve also made the most of my free time by pursuing another passion: travel, along with experiencing food and culture... and have had the fortune of visiting about 20 countries in the last 4 years, often combining it with running marathons. Last year I set myself a life goal of running 100 marathons by 50, which amounts to running one a month on an ongoing basis, and that’s one goal that I have so far kept on track, having run my 60th marathon last month!
devesh’s IIT Memories
My first ever trip to IIT to check the JEE results, with Bharat Shyam and another Ruparel classmate who unfortunately didn’t get in. Bharat and I were all smiles, having done well... But on the way back to the main gate, we were ragged by a bunch of seniors who told us to take the smiles off our faces and shove them up our a**es. I remember being both befuddled (how does one shove a smile up an a**?!) and scared at the same time (was this an indication of things to come?!) Luckily the ragging wasn’t too bad in my hostel. Being ragged for being from Grant Road, (which is near where Mumbai’s red light district is, for the uninitiated!) Bharat Shyam’s fighting for his principles and standing up to the seniors. Our “ragging finale” was rolling in the mud outside the hostel, which he refused to do. More power to him! Mahalingam being firmly ensconced at the hostel’s carrom table, and his ability to crack exams after skipping classes and just poring over someone’s notes just once... Shanky baba, Muggu baba, Cracku baba... Someone had etched these words next to his room on the H-9 West Wing top floor, where they had survived for many years later... Until they finally got buried by a new coat of paint. The runs with Bharat to Vihar Lake, when the path leading there from next to H-4 wasn’t the rubbish dump that it is now... Being teased as a “pansy” for my walking style (luckily I didn’t mind it too much then, but my marathon career was partly a response to that!) Taking part in lit(erary) activities, including going to IIT-Madras with Mahalingam for Mardi Gras... The endless cups of tea, between the hostel, Main Building canteen, etc... The chocolate-banana milkshakes that Anand, the person in charge of the H-9 canteen used to make at midnight... The late night stops at the noodle stand outside H-8... Mess food... Which was indeed a mess back in those days. (I recently ate at the hostel last year, and it had remarkably improved!) The interminable trek to Y-P each weekend to go home to escape mess food... Making fun of profs for their unique styles and idiosyncrasies. I shall not name them out of respect :) I’m sure there are many more that I could list here, if my brain cells cooperated... But this is a good start!
Devesh Khatu H9, CS MS, University of Texas, Austin 182
183
Kiran Bellare
MARRIED TO
H3, Elec
Children’ - MONICA, ARIANA
(Belly)
Kavita
MS, University of California Santa Barbara MBA, Wharton kiran’s’ journey In a blink of the eye, 25 years have passed – it just seems like a little while ago when we were graduating from the
sheltered Powaii campus, aspiring to conquer the world. I traced the beaten path and landed in the US (like most other classmates) at UC Santa Barbara. Grad school was short and quite a riot, following which I landed my first job in the SF Bay Area (Intel). In 1994, got married to Kavita, who I had met while in India, and had also moved to the US the same year as me. After 3 years of living the good life (no kids, lots of free time, good friends, disposable income), I had the itch to go back to school and we moved to Philadelphia, where I attended Wharton. We moved back to the Bay Area in 1999 (which was going through a tech revolution). Monica, our first daughter was born a few days before the turn of the century and the best birthday gift I could get (we share the same birth date). The next few years was quite a change for us, with playgroups and toddler parties, school, diapers and all the thrills and tribulations a first born. Ariana, our second daughter was born in 2004, after which we turned into seasoned parents. On the work-front, I had my share of roller-coaster rides - I moved from Oracle to a young startup, Phone.com and we went through the ups and downs of going public and the bust of 2001 around 9/11. Living up the Silicon Valley spirit, I placed my bets with startups over the next few years, including my own forays at starting a company, which were both great learning and humbling experiences. I then settled back into corporate world and have been at HP for the last several years running products in Cloud and Big Data (the latest buzzwords!!). The last 10 years have moved the fastest, with new friends, family in the area, kids school, work - or maybe it’s the metabolism slow-down we all go through! As a hobby, I try to stay in shape at the gym thrice weekly and am also track the stock markets as an active investor.
lakshmanan’s’ Journey In the final year of IIT, I had no idea how I would live the rest of my life. KK, Anoop and I made some great, idealistic plans to rule the world, but only KK has remained on that path. I ended up joining RIL out of IIT, and quickly found out there were places in the world with worse gender ratios in the world!! I remember it as a wonderful blue-collar experience (Misal pav for breakfast! Patriotic songs about Shivaji on the bus! ), but it wasn’t that much fun living it. I got into IIM Calcutta, and chose the path of least resistance by majoring in Finance. I did relearn that it was possible to communicate with the other half of humanity. I got a job managing money at SBI MF after graduation, and I am still shocked that the life savings of poor widows and orphans was turned over to someone as green as me. I left them after 4 years with nothing to show for it except for a world of experience and a wife (I met Meenakshi there!), and had a ball at Prudential ICICI for a year afterwards. Life was looking good, and we were settling down into middle class Mumbai suburbia, with our newly-born daughter, Mallika, when the wanderlust hit us. Or rather, the hour long commute from Andheri to Churchgate on local trains got to us. Figuring that this would be the time to scratch my itch to do research, I applied to PhD programs and got into Duke University. Before I knew it, we were in a strange country, supporting our family and Meena’s MBA, on my below minimum-wage stipend. When things were looking the bleakest, Meena and I had a discussion about our finances, and somehow decided to have our second kid Rohit! By the time I graduated after 5 years, I had definitely figured out that academia was not for me and joined Lehman Brothers. This time the company left me rather than the other way around, but I continue to work at their erstwhile asset management arm. Life is looking good again, and we have settled down into middle class New Jersey suburbia, and our nest has started emptying with Mallika starting college. I spend an hour and a half each day commuting to work on train, from the Vasai Road of New Jersey. As they say, you can take a lad out of Mumbai, but cannot take Mumbai out of him.
lakshmanan’s IIT Memories My first memory of IIT is meeting Raj Pai in our shared ground floor room at the hostel, and our seniors innocently assuring our parents that they would take care of us. Man, they sure did that! To be fair, thanks to those initial days, I had my first drink, experienced what Phantom feels, re-learnt the national anthem, got an education on wing rivalries, and lost a lot of my silly inhibitions. Also, when roles were reversed, I had a clean room for the first month in subsequent years. My memories of the rest of my time at IIT are a jumble of wing parties, late-night cack sessions in the wing landing, soccer in the rain with Bose, UNat and Pai, late-night volley ball, booze, loud music, hostel elections, intra-hostel sports, learning how to swim wearing a red cap, Mood Indigos, Fruit-D in the mess, RK/ SujataPalace/ Laxmi on special occasions, RLC, long bike rides with Bendre and movies in Huma/Heena with KK and the gang. I don’t remember much about academics except, studying for exams from borrowed notes at the last minute with the “Nabad core group”; and my BTech guide, PG Poonacha, who was a true mentor and succeeded in transferring his love of elegant solutions to difficult problems. My only regret is that I went on only one Himankan, but it did inspire me to go on many more treks over the years. All in all, I learnt little electrical engineering at IIT, but hanging out with the smartest and most genuine people I have met and will ever meet transformed me as a person, and gave me enduring life skills that have contributed greatly to all my success.
kiran’s’ iit memories In the true-IIT-style, I procrastinated on this essay until the 11th hour despite reminders from Anu and Unut – I was set to
work on it at 2am last night after a late night holiday party and drinks (old habits die hard ). But I guess age took over and sleep won over all good intentions of a cram session!! In any case, here I am. There’s more than memories of IIT – distinct imagery of events etched in mind – the late-night “cack sessions”, RLC trips, inter-wind rivalry, Mood-I and the build-up toward it. I’ll call out the top 10 here, in no prioritized order. 10) Rag sessions and indoctrination by ‘seniors’ - Yogesh Kher, Dhawale and gang, and other ‘horror stories’ that were whispered in the hallways 9) Election campaigning and politicking with Gul and gang 8) Exercise routine - Running along the pipeline road by the lake, and jumping into locked squash courts to play squash on evenings/weekends 7) Riding on Bendre’s bike to classes and getting chased by the mad bull on campus – I call this the 18” encounter (horns were <18” behind for almost ½ mile) 6) Rat-race of grad school applications, GRE, recos 5) Cramming for Prof Kamath’s infamous tests 4) Controversial H3 social and the hungama it created. 3) Mood Indigo rock concerts – these were very impressive 2) Lab exploits - Drinking RLC swigs and smoking with Laxy, Bendre, Raj, Anil, Tubbs and gang at the lathe/machine lab, made it more of a Chemistry experiment 1) Danny’s 4-year pursuit of the “simple babe” ideology The campus, the colleagues, the vitality and the attitudes go the extra mile in making this a truly unique undergrad experience.
184
Lakshmanan Easwaran (Laxy)
H3, Elec PGDM, IIM Calcutta PhD, Duke University
MARRIED TO
Meenakshi
Children’ - MALLIKA, ROHIT 185
SANJAY NATH
MARRIED TO
H2, CS
SON - SIDDHARTH
(NATHU)
SOMA
M TECH, IIT, KANPUR
SANJAY’s’ Journey
It has been a mixed one so far. Childhood was spent in my hometown, Jaipur. Early on, I spent a few years away from home in a hostel in Pilani; for 4 years. That’s where I learnt to live independently (away from family) for the first time, and it was quite an experience by itself. That’s where I learnt some life skills and essentials like swimming/ horse riding. How we longed for the fortnightly outing that was allowed to us in classes 7 & 8 with a small amount as pocket money. That small pocket money seemed like a princely sum at that time. Rush out to rent a bicycle for about Rs 2-3 for the day and cycle furiously to the favourite spot ie Shivaganga. Spend the pocket money in buying whatever catches one’s fancy and fits within the budget. The winters used to be bitterly cold in that area and needless to say, taking a bath used to be a painful experience. Learnt to play a few sports in the boarding school. That was also the place where I was forced to eat whatever was prepared in the school mess. I still remember, many times I would take advantage of the sudden power cut and put the unpalatable vegetables on the next guy’s plate or throwing it below the table! Needless to say, the reverse was also true, that is, the neighbour’s sweet dish would sometime vanish during the power cuts. We learnt to protect our plates from such unscrupulous elements who may be sitting close by, waiting to take advantage of a power failure. After class eight, I shifted back to Jaipur and started attending St. Xavier’s school. At that time, it was considered the top school with most of the elite families sending their boys to that place. It took a while to adjust to the day school; made some new friends and got on. Class eleven onwards, I became aware of some elite engineering colleges called IIT and started preparing for the tough entrance exam in my natural, haphazard manner. Got hold of some books (Resnick Halliday/Loney), along with Agarwal classes in class twelve. Somehow that period was quite enjoyable, though it was hard work. Three of us had pooled together money (Rs 800/-) and ordered the correspondence course from Mumbai. Somehow managed to scrape through and was able to secure a seat in IIT mumbai. Then came the shocker. I was close to the bottom of the class!! That deflated the ego almost completely and from then on it was a struggle to keep up with the punishing schedule as I did not want to study hard after having made it through the mother of all exams. The inevitable happened- grades suffered, clearing tension almost every semester. The best part there was the life we spent in the hostel, with friends 24X7. Lots of cack sessions, boozing, not to mention the crazy things we did together and survived. Some special memories covered in the memories below. After my B.Tech, I tried to made amends and got into the MTech programme at Kanpur as the profs in Mumbai were not keen on taking me. So the action shifted to Kanpur. Some more crazy years followed there with the least amount of time being devoted to academics. Met some excellent friends there. Learnt a lot about life and how to deal with it. I felt grown up for the first time and began to seriously pursue philosophy and wondered about the purpose of life as happens to many a young person. In Kanpur, I came across some truly remarkable and gifted people there: one of them became a monk with RK mission soon after completing his Ph.D in CS. I also had a bit of a contribution in saving someone from almost sure death (suicide) by timely action. That taught me not to take anything (especially academics) very seriously. The winter months were quite cold and gloomy. We would switch on the heaters in the room and take bath perhaps once in 3 days..... Summer was equally bad in the sense that there were very frequent power cuts and along with the power, the water supply would go, leaving us with no easy way to cool ourselves. The food was decidedly better than Mumbai, the canteen also offered much better fare. The scholarship there was such a relief as I did not like it much to ask my family for money. The student days were definitely my best and most memorable days. Oh, how I miss my student days! Soon after completing my masters, took up a job in Jaipur and then moved to Pune after a short while. Got married in 1996 and riding the IT wave fuelled by Y2K fears, left for the US. Life was ok in the US but I was not really comfortable there. My son Siddharth was born there and eventually we moved back to India after the collapse of the US economy in late 2001. The most enjoyable parts there were the long rides, clean atmosphere and lots of natural beauty all around. Mom expired in 2002 and in a way I was glad as she was suffering from a host of ailments, degrading the quality of life. I was not a very aggressive person when it came to career. I suppose I should have been a teacher or in a line similar to that. That’s what I enjoy far more than the regular IT job. I’m constantly amazed at the amount of enthusiasm and energy lot of people bring to their jobs and wonder about the secret of their boundless energy. I guess one should follow their instincts and do what they love to do! Key takeaway! Now, my son is about to finish his schools and embark on his journey into the world of professional education. Wishing him all the best in his endeavours. Growing old now. Things have become a little difficult to remember, hair has become grey, though still there covering my pate.
SANJAY’s IIT Memories As I sit down to jot down, lots of memories flood my mind now, related to the days in the campus. First impressions upon entering the college hostel. The buildings, looked rather dilapidated, badly in need of a fresh coat of paint. The fields, overgrown with grass that was a good meter tall at places. The ground floor of the hostel was the least desirable place to live, because of the myriad creatures hopping, crawling and the inevitable snakes chasing some of the frogs. Yikes! It took some time to get used to the Mumbai monsoons. Senthil was the first one I met upon landing in H2. He was standing in his balcony in his pants with white checks I think. A disarming Hi! from him led me to begin conversing with him. Soon enough, we found out that we would have to share the room with another student for a month or two and that is how I met with Ashish Naik. Ashish was a baddy player of some calibre. The fun part: his side of the cupboard we shared used to always have a box containing some homemade laddus prepared lovingly by his mom. Never met her but have tasted quite a few of those delicious laddus. Needless to say, sometime I would flick and quickly eat one of two of those delicacies when Ashish was not around. Thanks for those! We were a little nervous with the prospect of being ragged by seniors but those fears were largely unfounded. In a period of about 2 months, we all moved to the 4th wing, second floor and that wing and floor had a fairly bad reputation. We had to keep up to the wild traditions of that wing and I think we ended up enhancing that badass reputation. Slowly got to know about the others in that wing: Ravi Jain, Kamat, RK Singh, Daku, ML, Raman, Babu, Taori, Lobo, Notani and some others. Different people, different personalities but in general most of us had a streak for some crazy behaviour. I feel that once we’re in a crowd surging with some crazy energy, even the relatively simple, sober people tend to match the other wild ones in the misdeeds. Things like wild booze parties, answering to people calling out to others loudly and leading the caller on to the terrace; bursting bombs close to the people by lowering bombs after lighting the fuse by a thread from the terrace; breaking a couple of cots by brute force. These are some of the things that come to mind. All that doesn’t mean we didn’t have any toppers amongst us. It was the likes of daku, babu, Atish Dhedhia who were the toppers or close to the toppers in the respective departments while it was for us (Senthil, myself, Kamat, Ravi Jain) to bring down the class averages. Quite a gang it was and it was so much fun on an continuous basis. The first year was quite easy and on the strength of the previous slogging in school days, getting reasonable grades was rather easy. Going to lectures was quite low on the priority and many times we would wake up just in time for lunch. Kamat in particular, would be awake routinely till 5-6am and hence would miss out on the lunch too and would be seen rushing out on his bicycle to grab something to eat. From the second year onwards, academic life was tough for me and going to lectures was mandatory in order to secure passing grades. I would really envy the metallurgical deptt. gang (ravi/Senthil/Kamat/RK Singh) who used to bunk most of the lectures, study little and still easily get through the courses.Booze parties were quite common in the wing, accompanied with music blaring from speakers, loud outrageous singing, smoking and dancing. Many times, we didn’t think twice before venturing out of the hostel in the dead of the night to climb the hill behind the hostel. From the top of the hill, we could clearly see the flights taking off and landing at the Mumbai airport. Those were some carefree days! One particular keeda stands out in my memory. There was a social event in the hostel and girls from some college in Mumbai were invited. It so happened that a particular girl that Raman knew also came. She was dancing and socializing with a particular guy who was a year junior to us. After the social, we wrote a letter to that guy, impersonating the girl and shared some imaginary warm feelings with the guy. The return address was Raman’s. As expected, in a few days Raman got a proper love letter from that guy, to our utter delight. We promptly made some photocopies of that letter and stuck it to the hostel notice board for all to see. That must have really infuriated the guy. Looking back at those years, so many memories come rushing that it seems quite possible to write some 50-100 pages.... Among the profs, Prof. Phatak was the most popular, sensitive one with his friendly behaviour, energy, enthusiasm and his command of the subjects he taught. Sometimes it seems like a miracle that I managed to clear the courses and get a degree. WoW!
sanJAY’s’ Journey It started with a whim. Perhaps, it does with many folks. Unwittingly drawn, as I was, to a distant shore with nary a tremble in my heart. Leaving the familiar behind was always a thrill. And, there I was, all alone, in the distant land of America after a brief stint of 1 year in an Indian company since leaving IIT: the place that I called home more than 25 years ago. Life in IIT seemed like a breeze. It was a microcosm of the nation with variegated accents, habits and cultural norms: some steeped in regional traditions and yet many more “nouveau indiens”. Academics was an afterthought, as my primary motive was to have a jolly time. The place, indeed, offered what you looked for: each person creating his or her own universe in a way. Miami, at once, proved to be a contrast that I’d sought the moment I arrived one lazy afternoon. The confluence and vibrancy of different world cultures intrigued me. The assault on the senses was “muy poderoso”. Sun-kissed golden beaches vying with equally glorious humanity as if nature was overly indulgent in offering her bounty. It might not have been a geek’s delight but, to me, it seemed perfect. Life in IIT did change its course in time. With each passing year the languor of the past had to be shaken off, the grades had to be burnished and, eventually, the stress of the unknown started to cast its pall. The blissful nonchalance of the yesteryears was looked at askance and the regret about what it could have been began to assert itself. The innocence was lost. America was a land of opportunity, they say. It still is, though in much diminished terms. The place is full of vigor and, more importantly, accountability. Under the laid-back veneer of South Florida, there lay a work-ethic that does reward hard work and competence. It does compensate, disregarding the tribal affiliations, conduct that enriches society at least in a material sort of way. It was, inevitably, monetarily satisfying providing me a comfortable consulting niche in the construction sector. While detailed memories of IIT are lost in the mist of time, experiences there, just as elsewhere in India, have left their impressions in deep recesses of my mind. Oftentimes, they spar with the psyche of the present: cajoling, taunting, beseeching, pointing to the futility of it all. But, the bounce back is even more potent banishing such emasculating entreaties. But then, what would life be without such complexities.
SANJAY ROY H9, Civil MS University of Miami
MARRIED TO
MONALISA SON - VEER
Vaibhav Phadnis H4, Elec
MARRIED TO
Urmila
Children’ - VAISHNAVI, OMKAR
PGDM, IIM Bangalore
vijay’s’ Journey After graduating I started working for Herdillia Chemicals from June 1990. During my 4 year stint I worked in various roles in Production, Process Engineering and Project Management functions. I wished to do an MBA and enrolled in XLRI in 1994 and majored in Finance and Marketing. In 1996 I worked for Ramco Systems in Madras for 7 years. In 1997 I got married and in 1998 moved with my spouse to USA for 2.5 years and implemented Ramco ERP. In 2003 we were blessed with a daughter and soon after I relocated from Chennai to Bangalore and was with i2 Technologies for close to 10 years. During these 10 years I had opportunity to lead Supply Chain Management implementations for customers in US, Germany, Finland and Japan. In 2013, I moved to Mumbai and look after India Operations of a niche ERP company. I do quite a bit of personal travel for the past couple of years between Bengaluru and Mumbai to be with my family. I enjoy reading, running and yoga.
vijay’s IIT Memories The below is one of the most memorable experience I shared with my wingmates.
vaibhav’s’ Journey So, I never really wanted to leave India and go to the US for doing an M.S. Wanted to stay with family. Despite giving the AGRE with the rest of the gang, I decided to not give the TOEFL and GRE. And as 90% of the class was busy with their college apps, I appeared for the CAT and got into IIM Bangalore for my MBA. It was a tough decision to go away from engineering, but all of my conversations with family and friends told me that it is not easy to make a research career in India and harder to stay with a technical line in the industry… So there went 4 years of engineering education. I consoled myself saying, “Oh, IIT is less about *what* you learn and more about the experience etc…”… But my love for technology stayed with me for sure, so after a 1 year stint at the fashionable Andersen Consulting as a fresh MBA grad, I switched to Wipro Infotech, and have been in the IT industry ever since…. I got married to Urmila in 1996. She is the most wonderful person who has brought a world of good in all aspects of my life. She too is an engineer & MBA, was a software marketing professional working in Mumbai. When our first child - Vaishnavi - arrived in year 2000. Urmila chose to be a homemaker to devote all her time to raising our child. Then 9 years later, we had a baby boy – Omkar. After marriage, Urmila and I lived in Mumbai for 4 years and then moved to Bangalore. After spending 7 years in Bangalore, we finally decided to move to Seattle In 2007 when I got an offer from Microsoft Redmond HQ. I had been at Microsoft in India, so the move was easy. The last 8 years in Seattle have been great. Omkar was born here, and Vaishnavi has been growing up to be a wonderful teenager. She has been blessed to get accelerated education in the public schools, and keeps challenging herself to do more. My work front has been all in the IT industry. After a short stint at Andersen Consulting, I have spent 5 years at Wipro, 6 years at Compaq/ HP, 9 ½ years at Microsoft, and back at HP for the past 2 years. Presently, I am in the HP Cloud business unit, responsible for business
#Cycling: In 1987/1988, few from our wing (H4, NWSFE) decided on friday night at 10pm to go cycling. I was woken up from my sleep and I made the standard excuse of not having a cycle, needing sleep etc. My wingmates Thombre (Meta 1985-89), Dabral (Elec 1986-90), Shewale (Civil 1986-90) and KBS (Msc Chem- 1986-91) arranged for a cycle, berated me for being lazy and off we started from the campus carrying Rs 20-30 each and our ID card at around 11pm. On the way we went to the airport to watch the take-off and landing post which we rode the bicycles to Juhu, had some snacks. We were stopped when we were heading south somewhere after Juhu by the police as there was nakabandi. We showed our ID card and we were let go. We stopped near Haji Ali and some other places to eat/drink and eventually reached VT around 430am. Not knowing the rules, we naively bought tickets for our respective cycles as well and got into a local heading for Kanjurmarg. As expected a TTE got in sensing that this was going to be a good day for him. Over the next 30-40 min we haggled with him and paid Rs 10 as fine (with no receipt of course!!) and got down at Kanjurmarg. We came back to the hostel and were the first ones for breakfast where we recounted our experience to our hostel mates. They were highly enthused. Couple of weeks later there was a inter-hostel cycling competition. In prior years, Sports Secretary had to literally beg hostel mates to take part as the points awarded were 100- the position you came at. This was done for the first 99 finishers. Guess what, that year most of the participant were form H4 (I guess 60-70 at least); and we won the first prize in inter-hostel cycling as well as contributed towards getting us the inter-hostel sports trophy.
development.
vaibhav’s’ iit memories Several memories! From the first visit to see the results (I remember being ecstatic at seeing my name on the list) to the counselling sessions, and the first day at the Hostel! The ragging period was something I can never forget. My learning grew manifold in several aspects of life through that period. What wonderful friendships! I am still in close touch with especially my NWSFE wing mates – Parag, Giri, Mahadevan, Gollapudi, Hari, Rags, Dabral… Met Tommy once many years ago in Singapore, and more recently Joglekar in San Jose. I always feel that my IIT friends are the BEST friends I have ever made. So much in common, such matching wavelengths – our families are also get along well, so these are friendships I would like to treasure forever! H4 was a riot. How can anyone forget the oath! Not that I would dare to say it out loud . Though I am going to miss the SJRU, I did sneak in a visit to the campus and H4 in October. The place hasn’t changed much in the past 25 years! Nostalgic visit! Key memories: working out in the Gym, going for the 4 km run on Tulasi Pipe road, playing badminton, cycling in the GC, the PAF. And the many tests, quizzes and labs. I was always very focused on acads, so the corridors of EE building are fresh in my mind. We topped up our IIT stay with a week long trip to Golla’s home in Vizag, the return journey got eventful as we faced a storm! Wonderful memories!
188
Vijay Harlapur H4, CHeM PGDM, XLRI Jamshedpur
MARRIED TO
Kanjakshi DAUGHTeR’ - SHRIYA
189
Satishkumar Ramachandran (SAKURA)
H8, Chem
MS, University of Kansas MBA, University of California, Berkeley
MARRIED TO
Subha
Children’ - HANSINI, VARUN
senthil’s’ Journey
I was about to finish my Master’s in Mineral Processing when I realized that there were hardly any jobs in the Metallurgy field. I have always loved to hack and code, so it was an easy choice to get another Master’s in Computer Science. The US was a very different place in the early 90s. Indian food was considered exotic and I knew many folks who had never eaten Indian food. It’s soooo different now! It took me a good 3 years to get used to the US culture. It was also a period of personal exploration for me. I loved being in school and living a DNOT life :-) After the Dot Com crash and watching my stock options go away in smoke, I considered doing an MBA , but somehow me and management do not mix, so I dropped the idea. I got married to my wife Jayne in 2002(on my birthday!). We balance each other incredibly well. I am one lucky guy! I was feeling seriously disillusioned with the US and we decided to move to New Zealand. My daughter was born there; we realized there New Zealand whilst a great place, was still only just a great place to retire. We looked into moving to UK (where my wife is from) but finally decided to move back to the US. It was during this time when I was away from the US, I realized just how American I had become and also the good things about the US had to offer. Having a child changes your life immeasurably. In my younger days I never really thought I would get married, no less have children, but becoming a dad was clearly the best thing that happened to me. I had way too much fun with my daughter when she was younger. She’s 10 years old now, and is becoming too cool to hang out with her dad :-) We still spend a ton of time playing Mario Kart and Rock Band as a family. It’s a funny feeling rocking away to “Smoke on the Water” with your wife and daughter on rock band!! My life seems to be one of continuous transition, which at times feels like a pain in the ass! Right now, I am trying to transition in the mode of a successful trader. That’s my big dream! I will make it a reality.
senthil’s IIT Memories satishkumar’s’ Journey Junta, I left IIT with some of you to the USA to complete my M.S. degree from Kansas. I also completed my MBA from Berkeley later on in 2005. I currently live in California with my wife (Subha) and kids (Hansini and Varun), and play cricket every weekend in Fremont, CA. In the 25 years post-IIT graduation, I have worked for pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and construction companies in product development, strategic planning an finance. I am also a very ardent carnatic music buff and can safely call myself a professional amateur. My kids are in 5th grade and Kindergarten. I am in touch with some of my hostel mates and wing-mates who live here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
satishkumar’s’ IIT Memories Folks, I was part of the H8 carrom team along with Bhushan Godbole, and Varad Joshi, that won the inter-hostel competition that year. I believe that was in 1989. Clearly remember eating the maggie noodle and chai at Shetty’s and playing carrom at 400 am before a final the next day.
I was and am still a Rebel. I used to have major world wars with my mom. What a relief it was to finally fly out of the nest and be on my own! During my school days I used to dream that one day I would be in IIT. Can you imagine the feeling of actually living that dream! I landed up one early morning at H2, got my room assignment, walking up to the balcony and spotted my- to be best friend, Sanjay Nath in the very next room. Man, what a whirl wind those first few months were! The ragging, the boozing, the ton of new friends, the madness. I enjoyed every minute of it.In the first year, I remember having Bhang for Holi. I had quite a few glasses of Bhang and did not feel a thing.I promptly had a few more and told everyone that it was a complete waste of time. Went over to a friend’s room and starting chatting. After about 30 minutes of bad mouthing bhang, I decided to go back to my room. I stood upand the bhang hit me like a ton of bricks. Wow, that was some high! The only bad part was that it lasted for over 3 days!! The first year was the most enjoyable for me. Life became a bit more serious after that, cuz I Wanted to go to the US and my CPA was not really helping :-) Summers were also a great time to hang out at IIT. The study load was very light and there were endless hours to while away the time! We would play bridge for over 12 hours non-stop. Going to the mess hall to have food felt like a major chore! I remember my friend Shekar Kamat would regularly miss lunch because he would wake up at 2 in the afternoon! In the 3rd year summer, myself, RK Singh and Shekar Kamat decided to do a cycle trip. The destination is no longer clear in my mind, but it was a one way trip about 200km from IIT with a bus ride back. We practiced for the bike trip for months. We got some introduction letter from Yashodan Wanage’s dad to various guest house on our route and we would automatically get very comfortable accomodations just showing the letter. One fine morning as we were leaving one of the guest house, one of the Marathi/Gujarati poet waved us on our way. That memory sticks to my mind. In the one week of travelling by bike, I was picking up Marathi in a very rapid fashion and I could actually start to converse in it! And finally, the fourth year arrived and it was all over so soon! I was already sad to know that I would miss my friends but also excited about the new beginning in the US. I got autographs from all my friends in H2 – fourth wing. I think these autographs convey the fun I had in the 4 years at IIT better than anything I can imagine! By bridging the WA groups, I felt I was continuing on with my memories of those long ago IIT days. It brought a smile to my face when I accomplished that hack. My hacking skills finally came of some practical use :-) The four years at IIT were the most defining years of my life. They shepherded me from being a boy to becoming a man. In my mind they are priceless and I would not exchange them for anything! Too bad we cannot live them again!
Senthil Kumar H2, Meta
M eng, Penn State ms, Penn State 190
FE
Pb
MARRIED TO
Jayne
DAUGHTeR’ MEGHANA 191
milind’s’ Journey
Days at IIT were probably the best days of my life. There were a lot of friends to be made, new things to be learnt - more non-academic than academic! and it was phase in life where you are old enough to enjoy things and young enough to be away from responsibilities. Post IIT I decided to stick around in India and not go to US - to stay closer to my family. Selected MBA as an option and went to IIM Ahmedabad to do PGDM in Finance and Marketing. Post MBA in 1993, went on to do stints with various organizations in finance related areas starting with Asian Paints in Mumbai. Got married to Swapna in 1995 in Mumbai. She hails from Mumbai like me (I hail from Thane) and it was an arranged marriage. I moved to a short stint in the Middle East (Bahrain) in 1996 and worked with an investment fund called Telcap WLL as an investment manager. That stint was cut short in 1997 as I decided to return to Mumbai due to my father’s untimely demise. I then joined a French bank called Credit Agricole Indosuez in their dealing room and worked there till 2000. My first son, Aditya was born in 1998 and he is now in 11th standard. In 2000 in late stages of dot com era; I set up a dot com called cfoindia targeted for CFOs of Indian corporates with couple of my friends. We tried this for 6 months and then decided to fold it as it was challenging to get funding at levels we were looking for. I then moved to IT in 2000 and joined a small IT services company called Concio which was headed by Achyut Godbole (ex IIT Bombay gold medalist) who had earlier headed L&T InfoTech. This stint lasted only a year and in 2001 I moved to Infosys in Bangalore to their Finacle product unit. That has been a stable stint you can say as I have continued here for last 14 years in various capacities. I worked in various capacities of business analyst, product manager and currently work as product business manager looking after product lines of Treasury, Wealth Management and Payments. My second son Ajinkya was born in 2004 and he is currently studying in 6th standard. In August 2015, Finacle business was moved to 100 percent subsidiary of Infosys called EdgeVerve so technically I work with EdgeVerve today. This business is really international and I have been to over 30 countries as a part of sales, presales or project activities.
milind’s’ IIT Memories
I stayed at H4 right from beginning. The first month from 15th July to 15th August was really exciting to say the least. Ragging was in full form and we freshers were really scared. I recollect joining a theatre group in those days to escape ragging. We used to be away till late night doing rehearsals etc and would come back to room post 1 am hoping that no seniors would be awake to catch us. A lot of what was talked about or done cannot be mentioned here :) but a favourite question used to ask a person to narrate the names of all planets in solar system in correct sequence and if he misses a single name or sequence them incorrectly - call the person ET - for extra terrestrial. That way there were many ETs in our hostel including me :) Another favourite past time was gaali competition with H3 and freshers were encouraged to shout. It was all done in jest. At the end of 1 month, there was a freshie’s night and ragging stopped suddenly. That was a very professional approach and made us realize that all that happened in the first 1 month was all stage managed and possibly to teach us many secrets in life. Seniors who were ragging us the day before became our best friends. I moved to SWSF South Wing Second Floor at the end of first year and have many fond memories of my friends there which will stay with me lifetime. Most of the folks were my batchmates - Deepak Bapna (Mech), Firoz Kanchwala (Elec), Prasad Joglekar (Elec), Vijesh Bagdi (Civil), Alok Jha (Civil), Vipul Dholakia (Chem). Plus we had constant company of Babua (C S Kumar - Civil) and Bareilly (Atul Agarwal - Chem) who though did not stay in our wing was a constant companion. Acads were pretty non-eventful I would say compared to many interesting stories we used to hear for Elec department those days. Another memory which will stay with me forever will be Himankan in 1987 where we took Har ki Dhoon route.
192
MILIND KOLHATKAR H4, Mech
MILIND PATIL H2, Chem
PGDM, IIM AHMEDABAD
MARRIED TO
SWAPNA Children’ ADITYA, AJINKYA
MARRIED TO
PALLAVI DAUGHTeR’ SAMPADA
milind’s’ Journey After graduation in 1990, I worked with EIL Delhi as a Process Engineer. I moved to Abu Dhabi in 1996 and worked there as a Process Engineering Consultant with Technip till 2005. Thereafter I returned to India and I am now settled in Mumbai. I am working with RIL in their Oil and Gas Division. Currently I am heading the project team responsible for executing the Coal Bed Methane Field Development Project in Madhya Pradesh. I am married to Pallavi. I have one daughter - Sampada. Over the years I have realized how fortunate I was to be at IIT Bombay. I am deeply grateful to the IIT Bombay for giving me the best possible education in a superb atmosphere and instilling in me the competitiveness and confidence which has helped me throughout my career.
milind’s’ IIT Memories I have lots of memories of our days at IIT - the initial days when I was ragged a lot by my seniors; sighting of a leopard and how we are asked to be vigilant; walking down the muddy track to the lake behind our hostel where it use to be so clam and peaceful; the afternoon chai in the mess; making fun of the PG students from H1; the evening cricket and football games which were played between 2nd and 3rd wing.... I remember how eagerly we use to wait for watching Pranoy Roy’s The World This Week in our TV room on Friday nights. Once we had gone for a monsoon trek to the hills near Karjat. We were a group of 10-15 guys mostly from H2. We had to cross a full flowing river with waist high water when we all had held our hands very tightly. The climb to the hill top was very slippery - I still remember how scary I was and how I had sworn that if I returned safely I will never go back for such adventures. Among the batchmates and fellow H2-ites, I readily remember: Daku (Vivek Rastogi), ML Sanjay (ace footballer), Anup Singh (Bihari babu), Anupam Bharatiya (little sleepy lad from Delhi), Sandeep Asthana (polished pseud), Advait Kurlekar (culture vulture).
193
Dharmendra Awasarmol
MARRIED TO
(DHARAM)
PARINEEKA, SUSHRUT
nandita Children’ -
H2, Elec dharmendra’s’ Journey I joined Infosys in Bangalore after passing out of IIT and worked there for 3 years. Working at Infosys was a very different experience than being at IIT, as we were all mostly bachelors staying in shared accommodation in a new city and working for an employee friendly organization. In the midst of persistent work pressure and looming deadlines, I have great memories of night outs at office in attending to American work hours, week-end cricket matches, religiously spending every evening in pubs with friends, etc. Over the years, Bangalore has changed and so has Infosys, but the glorious memories of the past still motivates many of us faithfuls to get together as and when circumstances permit and commemorate the golden past. 1994 through 1996 saw me work for GE in US as Infosys on-site coordinator in Albany, NY and Shelton, CT. This was indeed a novel and great experience of exploring USA with American colleagues and fellow Infoscians. This was an incredible journey of adapting to a new welcoming country and settling in it. In accordance with the trend of the time, I joined hands with likeminded friends for a software consultancy start-up named “Zen & Art”. In the capacity of a Technical Director, I grew the organization to a strength of 300 before it got impacted by the financial downturn of 2001. I worked at CITIGROUP for 7 years in the technology department of the Equities Trading business till 2008. I consider myself really fortunate to get an opportunity to work on the most extensive electronic trading system of the time. I joined Etrade in 2008 and have been working in its Equities and Options Order Management System since then. I’m enjoying marital bliss, thanks to my beloved wife, Nandita Pantawane and my two children, Parineeka (16) and Sushrut (14) BTW - Nandita is the daughter of renowned writer and critic Dr. Gangadhar Pantawane, who was nominated the first president of the “International Marathi Sahitya Sammelan” held in San Jose in 2009. I feel blessed with my life’s journey so far and attribute a good part of it to the quality education that I was privileged to avail. As part of paying back to society, currently I’m engaged in activities towards giving a helping hand to the rural and under privileged sections of Indian society. In this regard, I’m really proud to say that I’ve undertaken the responsibility of providing free English medium school education to all the children from my hometown (interior Maharashtra) upto 10th grade, irrespective of caste, religion, gender, etc. This program is successfully in operation for the last 5 years.
dharmendra’s’ IIT Memories It is said that the most beautiful memories of one’s life are from college days. I’m indeed fortunate to have had a highly memorable college career. The first year was really great in cherishing and savoring the freedom of being away from home. I still remember the carefree outings with likeminded friends late on week-ends, the newly introduction of spirited liquid diet, etc. during the initial days. Attending college in the morning and labs in the afternoon during that first year was exciting to be with new friends. Things really settled down for having a good time after the Freshie’s Night and I never looked back after that when it came to having fun. The remaining years of college after the first year were spent mostly away from college due to my well advanced time management policy and reluctance to let anything interfere with my proclivity to have a good time. The best gift that I received from my college days is the bunch of friends that I acquired during that stay. I consider the time spent with these friends the golden age of my life and I am always eager to congregate with these invaluable folks to relive the past. Our stay at IIT transitioned us from boys into men and the experiences during this stay shaped our future life. I feel very privileged to have spent my college days at IIT Mumbai with its natural setting of open spaces, mountains, lakes, etc. Although the landscape has now changed considerably, just like me, the IIT with its Main Gate, Y Point, Powai Lake, Rainbow (eatery), Mood Indigo, NCC office, Pagal Gymkhana, Convocation Hall, Decorative Tree lined wide streets, Freely roaming sinewy Bulls, Mess food, snake sightIngs, booze parties, holi celebrations, Freshie Night, etc. will always remain etched in my mental retina and be a source of nostalgia for me. I take this opportunity to thanks all my friends and IIT administration for enriching my life hugely.
194
dharmendra’s’ Journey I could enter IIT only because of Anand Raman and Mayur Kapani who are my best friends 1990: My GRE Scores were cancelled twice because of wide spread cheating in Asia, therefore, I had to take GRE three times and had to delay graduate studies by one year. 1990-1991: In India, started a company, S.O.L.U.T.I.O.N.S., that was quite successful and profitable. However, I began realizing that it was Science and not Business that most excited me. 1991: I came to University of California San Diego (UCSD) and switched to EE. I was deeply inspired by a math professor (kind of like Shivashankar in EE at IITB), so I loaded up on two years of graduate-level Mathematics spanning Probability Theory, Analysis, etc. UCSD has a great, free culture so I was able to take courses in EE, CS, Mech, Math, Econ, Neuroscience, Biology and really soaked up. An interesting course that I took was called “How to win a Nobel Prize” that was 8 in-person meetings with Nobelists. 1993: I got married. 1995: Graduated from UCSD with a PhD. 1996: Hung around at UCSD as a post-doc while thinking about meaning of life and living very close to the beach in La Jolla, California. 1997 – mid 2000: Joined IBM but struggled. Late 2000 – mid 2001: Left IBM to start a company. Failed in the aftermath of dot-com bust. Realized, once again, that Science and not Business was my true passion – so shunned a number of start-up opportunities to return to IBM Research. 2001 – 2005: My career took off at IBM Research with contributions to a number of IBM products. Amongst other things, invented a caching algorithm, ARC, which upstaged 4 decades of widely used LRU algorithm. ARC was recognized in 2014 with a Test of Time Award from USENIX. July 16, 2004: Decided life was too short, too precious, and too fleeting to do small stuff and embarked on the challenge of building a brain-inspired computer. 2005 – 2015: Starting just by myself, the project has attracted $60M in US Government research funding to date, and has led to a new computing architecture. In 2014, I was named IBM Fellow and IBM’s Chief Scientist for Brain-inspired Computing. In 2015, I was named a Distinguished Alumni of IITB. The entire journey from 2006 is at www.modha.org. Along the way, I learned a number of skills in leadership and management. 2015 – future: My goals are to reflect on life and universe; to lead a very simple, peaceful life with my wife; and to travel. I want to teach physics, mathematics, and programming to under-privileged high-school students. I love investing (couple of hours on weekends) and have developed a global macroeconomic worldview that I would love to discuss with anyone who is interested.
dharmendra’s IIT Memories I loved hanging out on Marine Drive in H7 and walking to Vihar Lake. (Shashidhar Thakur, Sachin Padhare, Sanjeev Chhabra, Ajay Kunnath) I loved hanging out on the back seat of every class with Shalini and Ajay. I loved not going to most classes and borrowing notes from Sanjeev Chhabra.
Dharmendra Modha
MARRIED TO
H7, CS
PARAMITA, SOHUM
HITA
Children’ -
PhD, University of California, San Diego
195
shalini govil-pai H10, CS
MS, Penn State
MARRIED TO
Raj
Children’ - SONAL, RONAK
shankar’s’ Journey After IIT, I went to Univ of Texas at Austin for graduate studies. Austin was special to me because I met my wife-to-be there. After getting my Masters, I decided go west to California where Synopsys, a small Electronic Design Automation (EDA) company at the time, was looking to grow. EDA was intriguing to me because it was at the cross-section of VLSI design and Computer Science and has been responsible for 1000x increase in productivity of electronic design and is instrumental in all the advances we have seen in semiconductors we see these days. I was at Synopsys for 10 years from 1992-2002 working on many technologies and products that helped transform the way digital circuit designers design chips. In 1995, Supriya and I were married and welcomed our daughter Esha in 1999. The startup culture in the valley had always intrigued me and I started my own gig in Jan 2003, Sierra Design Automation, in the EDA space. After a roller coaster 4 years, including the birth of my son, Dev in 2005, Sierra was acquired by Mentor Graphics Corp, one the EDA big 3 for a very successful exit . Since then, I have been leading the Digital IC Implementation business at Mentor driving technologies enabling circuit design at advanced process nodes down to 10 and 7nm. Throughout my 23 years in the Valley, I have had the good fortune to interact with many executives and VCs in the valley and there is unanimous agreement that IITs produce some of the best technical talent due to the creativity, adaptability and competitive fire to win of its graduates.
shankar’s IIT Memories shalini’s’ Journey Well - hard to write your life’s journey when its not yet complete. But as most of you know, i have always been into entertainment and media. I realized early on that I was not going to make it in that field by the virtue of my looks. So I decided to use my skills in math and eventually CS to help drive my path. After IIT, I got my MS with a focus in Computer Graphics after which I joined a small company called Pixar. Pixar in those days was just toying with short films and had a small fund from Disney to make a motion picture. I joined the team when it was 50 people. Well, we released Toy Story 2 years after i joined, and since then every single animated movie now is CG. During this time, I married Raj (also IIT 90) who has been the rock and my strongest supporter ever since IIT! I stayed on at Pixar to also make A Bugs life, during which Raj and I had Sonal our first daughter (who is now in college!). Sonal was credited in the movie under “Babies born during production”!. After this, I moved to start my own company in the Internet space. During this time, we had our second son Ronak, and I also wrote two books on CG (one w Raj). Along the way, I saw a huge oppty to transform the distribution side of media with Internet. I joined Google at the time they acquired Youtube to learn and drive this new space, and have been there for 5 years now. The revolution here is just beginning!
shalini’s’ IIT Memories Gosh, cant write them all down PAF was always a blast, especially the year when I tried to sing in LT lawns (maybe this was called something else, not PAF) and I ended up screeching cos my voice would not go that high! One year for the annual fest in Jan (forgot its name, think it was Mood indigo?) I conducted Footsteps with Aggie. Well we lost the results and Aggie and I came up with our own finalists and winners! Needless to say the judges (including Tariq the film star) was not happy with the results
There are so many memories from my 4 years at IIT. Numerous “cack” sessions in different hostel rooms, carrom and tabletennis contests, inter-hostel competitions - 20 questions, dumb charade - the list goes on.. Some random memories that are permanently etched : 1. Professor MS Kamath hissing into my ear during a particularly tough Basic Electric Circuits exam in Tamil “ if you dont get it, just leave it” 2. Professor JR Isaac and Dr. Phatak and their incredible camaraderie with the CS students 3. Mood Indigo and the carefree final semester with all the apps submitted and unversity admissions locked down 4. the hours spent in the library poring over journals from conferences around the world imagining what those universities would be like 5. walking along the corridoor of learning between classes where impromptu debates would break out about anything and everything 6. as a Computer Science student, asking the welding and molding instructor in the first year how it would help me be a better computer scientist :-)
Shankar Krishnamoorthy (Shanky) H9, CS
MARRIED TO
Supriya
Children’ - ESHA, DEV
MS, University of Texas, Austin 196
197
PRASAD ALLURI H8, Meta
FE
Pb
MARRIED TO
prasad’s’ Journey
USHA
Children’ -
SUBHA, SIDHARTH
PhD, Arizona State University MBA, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton
prasad’s’ Journey
I grew up in Warangal, a small town in AP, better known for naxal presence. My fondest memories remain from my Warangal days playing marbles and tops, flying kites on streets, long bicycle rides from Kazipet to Warangal and gilli-danda with buddies in summer. While attending IIT was a dream for a small-town boy like me, it took me a while to get connected. For the longest time I felt a misfit. The sense of belonging only arrived after settling in with my wing mates in the second year. After graduation, I did my Ph.D. at Arizona State University (ASU) majoring in Materials Science and minoring in Solid State Electronics. I have to admit, unlike undergraduate times, there was no second guessing whether I belonged there or not. I shaped up and for the first time got serious about academics. My advisor, who to this day remains a good friend, was a tough nut to please. It did take me seven years to get out and were the hardest 7 years. True to the interdisciplinary nature of my degree, he did let me dabble in different aspects of engineering and science so it was fun that way. My advisor also introduced me to squash , I also have fond memories of playing weekend league cricket in Arizona. I got married in 1995. My wife Usha did her undergraduate degree from ASU and got a taste of life as a poor Indian grad student’s wife. When I think back, I don’t feel we were poor at all. We watched dollar movies, drove along the west coast in our beat-up Nissan, and camped in most of the national parks in the western US. Now I only feel richer by the number of manuals I own and poorer by the lack of new experiences. After graduation, swayed by my wife, I joined Motorola research labs in Austin, TX. While the 4 years I spent researching were exciting and fulfilling, I was bitten by the startup bug which took me to Southern California. I have to thank Kartik Ananth ( Meta class mate) for that. We were the early employees of an Optical Phy component start up that got acquired by Intel in 2001. So the startup life didn’t last too long. To this date, I haven’t left Intel. A few years after acquisition, Intel moved me to Folsom where I live with my family now. Our daughter Subha was born a few months before we left southern California in early 2004. Intel let me explore several disciplines in the corporate world. Got my first taste in marketing, chickened out and went back to my comfort zone of tech development, followed it up with a formal business education (MBA at Wharton) that allowed me a second foray into business as a technology strategist. I have my imprint on the newest of memory technologies announced by Intel. While at Wharton, my son Sidharth was born. My wife deserves full credit for managing those difficult days with two young kids. They both remain at the center of our lives but I do manage to find a bit of time to practise meditation. It is THE HARDEST thing I have ever under taken and someday I hope to say I can indeed meditate!
After (somehow) graduating in ’91 with a Meta degree, I landed in Bharat Forge Ltd, Pune. The idea wasn’t to dazzle folks out there with my meagre Meta skills, rather to enjoy home food instead of grub. I was with BFL for about 4-5 years and thereafter after joined Tata Motors (née Telco) and quit after about 70 days! The experiences there were so unique (and gruesome) that they are best shared over a beer or two or three or four…. You get the picture, eh? I was thus jobless in 1996 (the term “sabbattical” hadn’t yet been coined). I then noticed that every other idiot was entering the IT sector. I believed that I too was eminently qualified on that score. To buttress my I-Level (Idiocy level), off I went and joined a course run by one reputed institute. Thereafter, having tested to their satisfaction that my I-Level was now on par or perhaps even better than their employees, Infosys and MBT (as it was then known) offered me a place. Money was more or less the same, but the latter had its own canteen then. So wife decided for me and I joined MBT which later came to be known Tech Mahindra. Once in, my I-levels increased rapidly and so did the bank balance. This went on happily till 2009 until the company-wide requirement of I-level suddenly went sky high. I tried hard, but was found consistently wanting on that account. So I decided to call it a day (an IT-day, actually). No more IT for me! Now I started using the “sabbatical” term liberally. But wife hated the thought of me being home at any hour she returned, whichever it might be. Actually, I always wanted to learn a foreign language, and here was the chance. I learnt German. Marriage saved, I then thought “Let me see if I am able to use this new skill to put some food on the table”. Did some translations (v v boring) and also trained a lot of translators. It was then when our son started his XIth Science year. One day I happened to browse through his Physics text book and that turned out to be, well, another turning point. I then put in a couple months of studying and approached a local coaching class. Fast forward a couple of years and I am now writing this just having finished a class on Magnetism for XIIth students. Great profession; you can say all the wrong things as long as your diction is perfect and you aren’t found out. Actually, that can probably be said of most professions, I suppose. That’s it really as far as my (somewhat) professional journey goes…
prasad’s IIT Memories I shall just recount one. There are loads, really. So, here we go. First semester, and one of those Thursdays I think when we used to have those wretched Chemistry practicals (every alternate Thursday, if I remember correctly). In fact, there was this viva that fateful Thursday. Our examiner that day was this matronly lady with not just a no-nonsense manner but an outright hostile demeanour. The viva used to be on two practicals, one that we did a fornight back and another that we did 4 Thursdays ago. She asked me to say what I did in one of those. I started parroting some lines and could see that she wasn’t feeling too happy about the whole thing. As I wondered why, she asked me to stop (“Shut Up”, actually) and turned towards my partner, Senthil (H2, I think). He took over from there and the effect that it had on her was dramatic. I am quite sure that had there been a Geiger counter around and if I would have known how to use it, I would have certainly recorded a positive reading. Forgetting everything she must have been taught about good behaviour and decorum, she screamed at him to stop, which he did immediately and I believe, with some relief too. She asked us how come chaps like us got admitted into IIT. As I was marvelling at the thought of how two minds can think so exactly alike, Senthil blurted out in the most innocuous way “How can we possibly know that, Madam? It is people like you who corrected our papers!” Visions of the third eye of Shiva (I believe he has a female form too) now being opened were floating in front of my pair of mortal eyes. But here the story turns…, his cheekiness had tickled what possibly was her single funny bone and the matriarch started laughing uproariously. There was to be no execution that day! But here was the reason for her anger which was explained to us later by a smart-alec 9-point someone who had been eavesdropping from a nearby table. Apparently she had asked me about experiment Y and I started with exp X. That explained her initial anger and the subsequent explosion when Senthil simply continued from where I had left. The problem was, unbeknownst then to either of us, we both had prepared for exp X hoping that this is what we would be asked about. But fortune did not favour the brave that day and well, you now know the story. Senthil’s nonchalance in face of the cannon fire saved the day for us and we both got away with a 6/10 that day. Though I guess she could have been more lenient :-)
prasad’s IIT Memories
My fond memories about IIT are all about H8 and my wing mates. Those crazy things we had to do during ragging days have become stories for my kids. Paagal gym and the gaali fight are still vivid in my memory. You can write stories around the creative gaalis that Ashfaq Thanawala and Kalyan Mukharjee invented. How can I forget the first taste of RLC with Rasna? Only in IIT you will get to see liquor being served out of bathroom buckets. During one of those inebriated freshie parties I remember competing with Joshi on pushups in H8 footer field. No H8 memories are complete without recanting Rathi’s infamous Dettol incident. During the ragging time one of the ‘popular’ group of seniors invited Rathi to be their wing mate. He promptly moved in along with his new sport bike and all. Little did they know that they were befriending the devil himself. These cool seniors kept a matka in the corridor for common use. For some reason Rathi wasn’t part of the pool and that ticked him off. To this day I am not sure what really riled him up but Rathi decided to add Dettol to the matka water. Clearly it didn’t take too long for the seniors to realize about the adulteration. That caused a major ruckus and a special GBM was held. It was the scene of David vs. Goliaths. Any feeble hearted couldn’t have survived such public razing. Rathi valiantly fought the accusations, albeit lost, became a hero among the freshies. Rathi was no longer welcome to the cool wing and he ended up becoming my wing mate. I was probably the most he could relate to compared to others. Garg, Anurag, Satya, and Ahuja were too sedate. Often Rathi and I used to roam in our undies in the wing and used to pick on passers by carrying ‘Homo’s’ text book. If you recall, there were only 7 or 8 copies of those famous text book and the elec students had to fight over checking the book out of library at 6pm. And then, if they passed through H8, they had to face our heckling. There are so many memories to reminisce – walks along the Vihar lake, late night H8 Chinese corner treats, priceless baffled looks of professors during lab viva exams, late night walks to get to Kanjurmarg’s katara theatre, Wardie ‘sponsored’ movie nights and bhang on holi day, Lakshmi’s tomato fry and Vaadilal’s samosa, unique IIT lingo, concept of bums, Murli’s commie newsletters, belittling PGs, long night cack sessions, water fights, mad scramble for fundaes on the night before exam, and so many more.….all priceless!
198
PRASAD PATANKAR (PAATYA:))
MARRIED TO
JAYA
SON - AJAY
H7, Meta 199
Urvish Bidkar Chem
phd, University of Texas, Austin
urvish’s’ Journey Feels like journey is just starting. The past was somewhat predictable - finish IIT, get a higher degree (Ph.D. in my case) find a job and settle down... no thinking! Well, the higher degree was a fantastic learning experience and it was nice that we solved an important question (beating a team from Princeton U. to the punch in the process!) - but in a specialization I never expected. So much for predictable! Getting married to Sunanda has been a true blessing but was sheer luck - no design or planning there. So much for predictable! Job as a quant on wall street & running our own hedge fund wasn’t anywhere on the cards - so much for predictable! Friends and Family have made this unpredictable journey a joyous one. Feels like its just beginning.
MARRIED TO
Sunanda Children’ -
ISHRITH, AATREY
vijesh’s’ Journey All my schooling happened in Nasik, Maharashtra prior to joining IIT
in 1990. Needless to say, 1990-94 were the best years of my life; the freedom of hostel life, IITB environment, meeting such good friends and the friendship which I will cherish for my whole life. We didn’t realize how quickly those four years passed. There was also the obvious pain of leaving friends and the whole IITB experience behind. My post-IIT phase started after joining Engineers India Limited (EIL) as a Management Trainee in 1990 through campus interview. I was to move to Vadodara, Gujarat after completing last semester. We had a farewell dinner (I think it was Chakra) before departure; not to mention that it was a real senti dinner!! After 5 years with EIL, I moved to Abu Dhabi in 1995. Life took another sweet turn when I got married to Meetu in 1997. Meetu graduated from LSR, New Delhi. I am really thankful to Meetu for marrying me and moreover bringing two sweet boys Aadit and Anan into our lives. Aadit is now a big boy of 17 and Anan is 10. I have been mainly working in the Oil & Gas Industry and life has been nomadic for the last 25 years (that’s long!!). During this journey we stayed in Abu Dhabi, New York, Abu Dhabi (2nd time), Tokyo, Jakarta, Calgary, Kuala Lumpur and now we are back in Jakarta. Jakarta to some extent is quite similar to one of the suburbs of Mumbai. Aadit and Anan go to Jakarta International School. Aadit is in grade XI and he will be moving to hostel in another 1 ½ years. I wish he gets same environment as IITB and similar lifelong friends.
vijesh’s IIT Memories # After lunch all SWSF guys used to look out for first available open room to park and chat. Most of the time it turns out to be my room. These guys would not buzz off for hours; even if I had to sleep or study (which I rarely used to do).
# Water fights used to be great fun. On one occasion I threw bucket full of water inside the loo thinking Alok Jha was inside but it turned out to a senior guy who later was screaming like hell. I quietly ran away.
urvish’s IIT Memories Friends.
200
Vijesh Kumar Bagdi H4, Civil
MARRIED TO
EMBA, SP Jain Mumbai
AADIT, ANAN
Meetu
Children’ -
201
Vinayak Thakur H6, Civil
MS, University of Rhode Island
MARRIED TO
Sapna
Children’ SAHIL, SANAM, SAAVI
vinayak’s’ Journey After graduating, I did my M.S at the University of Rhode Island. After that, I started working as a Bridge engineer in Framingham, MA. Worked as an Bridge engineer for 4 years. Got married to Sapna in 1996. After getting married, I decided to switch to Software field. In 1997, We moved to NJ, where I joined a consulting firm developing software for the insurance industry. Sahil was born in 1998. I joined JPMorgan in 2000 and have been there since. Sanam was born in 2001 and Saavi followed in 2004. Sapna used to work as an Ultrasound Tech till recently. She recently started to work as a real estate agent. Most of my spare time is spent working around the house (built our deck in the backyard, finished the basement etc), coaching my son’s baseball team (last year as he will be off to college next year) and driving Sanam and Saavi to dance and piano classes. Recently, we got a dog, Hannah. She is a Havanese poodle. Time flies, cannot believe its been 25 years since graduation.
vinodkuMar’s’ Journey My journey of life has been full of diversities. Both my grandparents belonged to a downtrodden untouchable caste and a real poor background. My parents, though, managed to study and get government jobs. I was brilliant student and always stood in top-3 at school. I was center topper in 10th board(1982), school topper and center topper in Mathematics in 12th board. I was a good athlete, volleyball player and carrom player. In the first year of my engineering, intense and violent anti reservation stir took place in Gujarat. Having all required aspects in me, I became a student leader of my community and worked very actively against the stir. This spoiled my studies. In May 1985, I happened to meet Atul Poorabia, a senior of ours from Computer, H-2. He inspired me to write JEE. Being a Gujarati medium student with no coaching available, it seemed difficult but I worked really very hard that year and managed to clear JEE though with a very poor rank, SC-132. I was consistently poor in studies at IIT. Yet, I was able to manage. I would have completed my B.Tech. in 5 years instead of 4 years, but Alias!! My community customs and family situations led to my marriage in May-1990. Something unfortunate occurred on H-8 Valfy night leading to one semester suspension of mine.(No questions, Please). This blow was big enough to agitate my life, but the bigger one was yet to come. In August 1990, my mother was diagnosed to have cancer. I decided to stay with her till her last breath. She passed away in 1994. I took up teaching profession, which gave me enough popularity and satisfaction but not much money. Circumstances led me to a financially weak condition and in debt. Things got worsened with time and a time came that I used to pay more interest than I earned. From 2002 to 2008 was the darkest part of my life and but for my wife’s support and faith, I could not have come out of that. I am proud of myself for maintaining honesty and never letting my children down at any stage during this period. Meanwhile, I left a bright political career, after being active for about 12 years, in 2009. Things started getting better. Today I am enjoying a not so bad financial condition, a reasonably good social status and a highly satisfied family life. I must mention that my mother and my wife are two best things occurred to me in my life. Today, very maturely I state that all this has given me a better understanding of life, the world and the eternal truth.
vinodkuMar’s IIT Memories My best memories at IIT are of meeting some personalities. I have met Nasiruddin Shah, Mira Nair, Pinaaz Masani, Abhinav Chaturvedi( Hum Log fame), Kitu Gidwani, Ustaad Zaakir Hussain, Pandit Ravishankar Sharma, Pandit Hariprasad Chorasiya, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi etc. on campus. And Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor(on the sets of Hifaazat), Narendra Modi(Ghatkopar,1989) etc. outside campus. One of the finest memories of IIT days is that of the letters. Letters from home, friends, close relatives and in my case from the fiancee. I remember the happiness on receiving a letter and sadness on not receiving one for more than a week. I miss the Friday dry dinner even today. On one evening, I was playing volleyball without shoes. After a spike, I landed on a nail vertically inverted on its top. It was around 5 cm in length and 4 mm in diameter at bottom. It came through the sole and the pain can only be imagined. And the scream of mine at the time of removal was wildest ever I have witnessed(including ones in movies). Playing carrom while listening to hindi music was the favorite activity. I miss some PG students. To name them, Murali, Vinod Garg, Naru(all H-8) and Poonam Sharma(H 10, she played Garba very well) if I remember surname correctly. It seems that watching Mahabharat by B. R. Chopara, Tamas, Ye jo hai Jindagi etc. is just a recent past. On a romantic note, my first love letter to my wife ( fiancee at that time ) was written from IIT. I managed to write “I Love You” in seven different Indian languages. Evening jogging around campus via Powai lake and intense work out at hostel gym was also a favorite activity. How can one forget Mood Indigo, Live Wire, Classical nights, PAF and of course weekend movies at convo? Memories of Gorai beach picnic are still fresh. Songs and dance in the bus, evening booze, going deep in the sea (with car/truck tubes full of air) at late night and coming back in the early morning! What madness! On fourth Holi at IIT, in a bet, I and Madhavraj(a junior), each of us took a jug full of dense ‘Bhaang’ in the evening around 5 pm. And My God ! It took me 36 hours to get normal ! I could not close my eyes as I experienced as if I am going deep in the black hole at speed of light. Vinish and one other wingmate had to do a night out to take care of mine ! Hundreds of more memories of small incidences. But those at SJRU ! Not to mention that some of them are not worth sharing here !!
Vinodkumar Vyas
MARRIED TO
BA (Ext), Kakatiya University
Children’ - AANALDE, SAMARTH
H8, Chem
202
Shilpa
203
Anupam Bharteeya H2, MECH PGDM, IIM Lucknow
MARRIED TO
SUJATA Children’ -
SIDDHARTH, NAYANTARA
anupam’s’ Journey On graduating from IIT, I joined Engineers India Ltd as a graduate engineer. I was posted at their headquarters in Delhi. Worked there for precisely one year, and then went on to do my MBA at XLRI Jamshedpur. I met a lovely girl there and we got married 2 days after our convocation in April 1993. Took up a job with Blow Plast from campus, and worked there for close to 2 years, in Sales. Company was well known for their VIP brand of luggage and for the oh-so-popular-with-kids Leo Mattel range of toys. Also catching up on the fashion street was Moderna brand of moulded furniture. Work was interesting, and fast paced. Every few months I moved location. Kolkata Bangalore Delhi Indore Agra, followed in rapid succession. Towards the end of 1995, I moved on to consumer banking. Joined Citibank at Delhi. Settled into a rhythm. 10 years. Worked two main, diversely different areas: auto loan sales & fraud risk management. Got an opportunity to be a part of the core team that established the joint venture company - Citicorp Maruti. Very exciting 10 years at Citibank, I shall always cherish them. In 2005 I changed gears and shifted to the Data Analytics domain. Worked with Genpact for 6 years, then with Nielsen for 2, and finally moved to Capgemini, where I work today.
aatish’s’ Journey From a chronology perspective, after IIT, I went to US, did my Masters from Cornell and then got a job at Intel in Portland, Oregon, and then came back to India and started in 1997, in Mumbai, Zycus, where I still work. What is more interesting is an incident that helped my crystallize my approach to life. I remember that I was playing tennis with a friend of mine when I was working in the US and he asked me about my ambitions, and I mentioned instinctively and instantly that I have no ambitions. And then on second thoughts, my mind intercepting, I mentioned that what I planned to do was go back to India and start a company. Later when I reflected, that philosophy has what has defined my career path so far. I could never have that burning passion or ambition that I read about in business books. No pumping up, whether we lost a deal or won a big one. I realized that it was not my style, and what worked for me was that lack of ambition but a clear goal of where I would like to reach, and then working at in a calculated manner, like in chess. Being myself gave me a lot of pleasure. No shouting, only 40-50 hour weeks, weekends to myself. The company luckily did well, but I am pretty sure I would be fine even it had not. What gives me much more pleasure than work is just being with nature. I have hobbies, like trekking and bird watching, but they are just excuses for me to be with nature. It feels calm and relaxing, and occasionally you get those absolute sublime moments which go deep into the soul, and the entire life is worth that moment. Looking to the future, besides work, I have a goal to make some contribution socially and get a bit more into spirituality. But if it does not happen, I would be fine lazing around in nature.
aatish’s IIT Memories I remember a monsoon night, when I opened the balcony of the 4th wing corner room that I was lucky to have. It seemed like a forest out there, and the mist, the thunder and lightning was something that I still have in memory. It was blessing to study in an institute that had such an amazing location. And I cannot forget the people Lazy elegant achievers (Laxy, Dabral, Ashish Naik, Dusankar) Strong willed (Raj Pai, Stephen Lobo), ever cheerful (Anil Agarwal), charming (M.L.Sanjay), Forthright (KK-H5). And many more. Have had great times with all, and learnt a lot from them. Unfortunately US/EU has snatched them all. Look forward to meeting them and reliving those moments at the reunion.
anupam’s’ IIT Memories IIT Powai & H2 hostel experiences are etched in memories as if they occured y’day! June’86 as I walked into H2 on day1, I recall seeing this massive hulk of a man perched there like a mafia don. Our senior Mr. Vaidya! Gave me the creeps! Anyway, I go to my room and what do I find? Mr. Narendra Soman was lying on a mat on the floor. There were 2 bulky cleaners towering over him. We were told he had come down with jaundice, so had to be moved to the hospi. The venerable hospi & its docs were going to come to our rescue in many situations, when one wanted to miss an exam or when one wanted to lay hands on that yucky ointment they gave for muscular pain, it was a very effective deterrant for the pesky red ants that got into every bit of clothing and gave nasty welts when an unsuspecting person donned the clothes in a hurry. The years went by real fast. There were so many things to do for the first time in one’s life. Academics was secondary (for several of us at least). We tried our hands at the HAM club, and also at aero modeling, fascinated by all those inch-sized IC engines that powered-up the tiny gasoline model airplanes! Enjoyed the swimming pool facility, learnt to swim in a week, never could manage to overcome the fear of diving off that platform, even the lower one. Can’t forget the lanky Michael Keeler who shamelessly walked all the way from H2 to the swimming pool in his briefest of briefs (only). And there was Sethi, round as a ball, whom the coach took fancy on, made him swim lap after lap in the sports sessions, so much so that he probably switched to NCC in the second year. Zubin Dittia could never put on a tight belt in the NCC parade, and could never coordinate his left arm with his right foot during marches, so the NCC coach loved to shout at him and shake him by his belt. We all went to that Pune NCC camp, and there the biggest problem was “where to take a crap”! There were no clean toilets & we learnt how to do it under the stars. It was crazy! It was heard, that Notani was too shy to shit in the open, so he saved it all for 3 days, and then crapped in a city hotel! It was probably the first semester when Pushparag had his madonna towel snatched away by Anup Singh when he was shuffling back from his bath. Wakdikar and Awasarmal were perennially in the TT room. They hardly spent summer holidays at home I think, there were always courses to make up! Wakdikar had perfected the trick of blindly taking up all the courses that Shailesh Vaishnavi took, so that he could bunk all lectures, and copy notes. That 1 time, when he didn’t take the same course as Vaishnavi, he forgot it and mugged up for Vaishnavi’s wrong course exam, only to realize his mistake on the breakfast table 1 hr before the exam. I don’t think he batted an eyelid even then, he simply ambled off to the TT room and played TT all day! I can’t forget the mango & coconut tree tree escapades in the 3rd year. Had huge painful red ant bites all over my body after that hot afternoon spent clambering up each of the H2 coconut trees. And finally our campus recruitment time - friends wanted to join TISCO because of its one year fun-filled GT program & mountaineering course. I remembering landing a job only in my 10th & final interview because I managed to answer the question on why space rockets were launched from the east coast & not the west :-)
204
Aatish Dedhia
H2, Elec MS, Cornell
MARRIED TO
Alpa
Children’ - SOHAM, SAMVIT
205
Amir Khan (Amir)
H9, CIVIL
MARRIED TO
Susan
Children’ ALEXANDER, SOFIA
MS, University of California , Irvine MBA, University of Southern California amir’s’ Journey I completed my masters degree in structural engineering from UC, Irvine in 1992, after which I worked for four years as a design engineer, consulting mostly to nuclear power plants. Went back to school full time for my MBA in 1996. After graduating in 1998, I worked in the financial services sector for sometime, before doing my own start-up with a few friends during the peak of the dotcom craze. Raised some money, burned some money... tried to raise more, failed... life went on. Now, I find myself back in the corporate world at a public cloud/SaaS company. And in-between somewhere, I was lucky enough to work on some really cool franchises, such as Call of Duty, SpiderMan, and World of Warcraft, among others. I’m an avid follower of College Football, the Lakers, and the NFL.
amir’s IIT Memories Some of my favorite memories of IIT include all the fun Mood Indigos, being general lukkhas at the hostel, buying kakdi (cucumber) while doing civil engineering survey class around the hills of campus, Himankan ‘88, being scared to go out at night because of that tiger on campus, Friday night movie nights at the Convo Hall... actually, there are way too many great memories from my four years at IIT to fit in a short essay...
anand’s’ Journey After 4 indelible years, left IITB with a mix of nostalgia and anticipation. Nostalgia for all the memories and friendships that, without me realizing at that time, would prove to endure the test of time and distance even 25 years later. Anticipation about going to a foreign land and what the future held for me. Landed in Carleton Univ in Ottawa, Canada in Sept 1990 for my Masters and stayed in the hostel on campus. Felt no different than going back to IIT after my holidays during my BTech. So much so, that I didn’t bother to call my anxious parents for almost 2 weeks that I had reached the new country and settled down. ML Sanjay came to the same univ and we stayed in the same hostel for the entire 2 years. In 1991, we were joined by 2 more batchmates - Giri and Jogla. Masters for the most part felt like an extension of the undergrad. Landed a job Bell Northern Research soon after graduating and as luck would have it got to work with Teku (Rajeev Agrawal) on one of my projects for a few months. On personal front, fell in love and married an Asian girl. We moved across the continent to San Diego after spending a few years of the bitter cold. While the weather and the place was beautiful; our marriage didn’t last too long. She headed back to HK and I decided to pack bags and move to Dallas to join Nokia. Spent 10 years at Nokia and was truly an awesome experience of working at a great company. Got to travel to so many different countries and experience cultures; that it has shaped a big part of my personality. Standouts being the Artic Circle, Sydney and Budapest. Got married a second time to my current wife - Lakshmi in Chennai in 1999 and we had an adorable son - Keshav in 2004. In the midst of all this, took a break and went to Wharton to do an MBA; which was an awesome experience from the sheer completeness of business perspective that it gives you. Moved to BlackBerry in 2008 and rode that wave until mid-2013. Spent a lot of time in Latin America as I built a team there. And every time I would go to one of the countries there - it would feel like being in India. Seemed to me that I had the reverse Midas touch - any company I joined would boom and then bust. Since then moved to the financial sector and am currently as JP Morgan Chase - thankfully this is too big to fail. It’s been a very fortunate and privileged life that I got to lead so far and as I hit 25 years since graduation, at times mid-life crisis is starting to hit. What does all this mean and what is the purpose of all this. Hopefully one of these days, I find the true calling in life!!
anand’s IIT Memories Having lived for most of my life in Delhi and a couple in Calcutta - Bombay was certainly very new to me when I moved to IIT in 1986. Remember walking down the corridor and Banerjee (aka Bana for those of us from H5) tossing me a cat to catch. Ragging time was devising ways on how to dodge seniors. Great friendships particularly with batch-mates and wing-mates; that endure to this day. Pick up the phone or meet them and the conversation just starts to flow as if none of the intervening time ever existed. Never found that sort of friendships during my Masters or MBA or working life. Not sure if that is true for all undergrad colleges, but certainly true for us at IITB. Probably that was the greatest gift that IIT gave us. The hostel food (if one could call that) and how the non-stop chole - simply turned us all off from it. So much so that once when one of my wing-mates - Anurag Govil (Shalini’s elder brother) invited all of us to his home for dinner - no one touched the much more appetizing looking chole that his Mom has cooked. The acads - some good profs, some not-so. Still remember the exasperation of watching KCM write left to right of the blackboard and erase all of it before you were half-way through writing your notes. Not sure if I remember much if any of what I learnt during my undergrad - but it certainly taught me how to analyze and approach things at work and in life. The Mood Indigos, the Bombay rains, the trips to the City (including Delhi Durbar in Grant Road - what awesome food) ... all memories that one could savor a lifetime.
Anand Krishnaswamy
H5, Elec
MARRIED TO
Lakshmi SON -
206
M Eng, Carleton University MBA, Wharton
KESHAV 207
santosh’s’ Journey
After graduating from IIT Bombay in 1990, I worked for 4 years in India. Then, got opportunity to come to Canada on full scholarship to do MS in Industrial Engineering in University of Regina, Saskatchewan. I went back to India in Jul/Aug 1996 after completing MS, and married Jaymini, my earlier neighbor from Goa (who was my classmate/batchmate too from grade 2 to grade 12). After my MS and subsequent work for 1 year in engineering in Regina, we moved to Toronto; I decided to pursue my MBA at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto. After graduating with MBA in 1999, I transitioned into finance and worked in Toronto for a few years primarily at Scotiabank and American Express. In 2003, we were blessed with our only son, Shivam, born in Toronto. We purchased a house there and were almost settled. Destiny had something else in store for us. I was transferred in January 2007 through my company (American Express) on a promotional opportunity to work in New York HQ office. I left American Express after working there for total 10+ years, and joined a smaller firm CIT Group, a commercial lending and leasing financial services company, in NJ in 2013 with slightly higher responsibilities. Throughout my entire time in North America over the last 21+ years, I had been in touch with few of my IIT hostellites (H7) from 1990 and surrounding batches through online email groups. I had met 3 or 4 of them while in Toronto, but not got an opportunity to meet a broader group. Earlier this year in 2015, taking lead from some of us 1990 batchmates on that H7 group and cognizant of the fact that it was our Silver Jubilee year, we decided to meet at a central location in July in Denver, Colorado. All 15 of us flew into Denver from the east coast, west coast, Canada and India for an extended weekend get-together. It was good to meet many hostellites after 25+ years. We relived memories from the old hostel/IIT days, cack sessions burst through the night, hikes and white water rafting in the mountains and Colorado river rounded the 3 days so quickly! I can imagine the 2015 SJRU in December on the campus to be a mega homecoming event and it would have been a good opportunity to catch up with long lost batchmates. However, due to professional and family reasons, I am not able to make it, mainly because of distance and timing. Will definitely look up the updates and live the SJRU experience vicariously through postings on FB and WA.
santosh’s’ IIT Memories
# remember our days in hostel playing TT and carrom late nights with fellow hostellites and some mess workers! # few days when we had left out in march for search of a leopard roaming inside the campus! # the mid-afternoon tea at hostel which was supposed to have been prepared for mess workers, but nonetheless we students got to have it too before the regular tiffin time # the day before the exams when we classmates were frantically looking for each others’ notes and preparing the whole night ! # NCC camp in Pune wherein we got chance to actually learn firing # many more memories on ragging, val functions, BTP projects, etc etc.....
208
SANTOSH KAMAT H7, Meta MASc, University of Regina MBA, University of Toronto
MARRIED TO
JAYMIN SON -
SHIVAM
SATHEESH KUPPURAO H8, Meta PHD, University of Minnesota
MARRIED TO
VASUDHA Children’ PRANAV, RUJULA
satheesh’s’ Journey
FE
Pb
When I left IITB, I never thought I’d land up in one of the coldest places in US – Minnesota! Other than that, I was pleasantly surprised by the hospitality of folks in US and of the Indian student community as well. Those ties are a strong runner up to my IIT ties shaping much of my personal & professional life. As was written in the book of life of IITans in 90’s, I headed to the Bay Area after my PhD in Mat. Sci. and started my professional life at Applied Materials – developing semiconductor chip manufacturing equipment. 25 years, many IIT and Pan-IIT get-togethers, and greater than a couple of million air-miles later – I’m still at Applied, but with probably stronger ties to IITB than I expected (my group has had joint research projects with IITB for the past decade and a half)! The Bay Area’s thriving IITB community makes being connected easy as well and it is a kick to see us all try to behave in front of our kids (like no nicknames!). It wasn’t easy to be at one company in a rapidly changing Bay Area for so many years. Whenever I tried to bolt, better opportunities held me back. I’m fortunate to be heading a business unit that keeps me busy in a challenging industry. On the personal front, I got married to Vasudha in ’97 and we have two kids – Pranav (15), and Rujula (12). They seem to know what IIT, or IITans are about! And they’re happy they are not under the same pressure (even if they don’t mind the mindless IIT gossip). It is hard to imagine a quarter century has passed by. When I look back, I could have done lot more to keep touch with more folks (many whose looks I’ve forgotten). But life is a journey (as they say), and it is important to cherish the non-IIT things in life as well! And now, I’m really looking forward to a second homecoming (I last visited Bombay in 1997) to celebrate the reunion with my long-lost pals.
satheesh’s’ IIT Memories
Hostel memories: These obviously are the fondest (and some of the toughest!) as well! Nothing can replace the endless cack sessions on H7 marine drive squatting away mosquitoes (and freshies). Some of the others – PAF, the late nights at Chinese corner & Rainbow, Mood-I, Holi, Valfy nights, Interhostel sports, are etched in the brain forever. Some of my fondest memories over the years– • Our Hostel Volley team coming 3rd although no one would have bet on us making it to the top 8 (taught me teamwork at a younger age!) • Trip to Vihar lake and back finding 3 of my wing mates lost their clothes to the watchy • Treks to Sahaydris that Vikram woke us up at 3am for, including the one where decided not to do the trek and ate mess-made sandwiches all day • Saturday morning aloo-parathas in H7 mess; plus the midnight canteen attack • Endless Pink Floyd • Late night strolls in VT area + Hina/Huma nights • Wise-cracks during movies and TV shows + cricket matches • Pointless wing cack sessions usually culminating in someone getting bumps (now they’re continuing over email!) • All the folks we picked not-to-be-a-professor becoming professors! • In 1994, setting up the first H7 website in one afternoon when someone on the email distribution asked whether it was easy to do this (early days of Internet) • Our “Turning-40 year old” hikes to Yosemite and making it back in one piece What surprised me the most was that in spite of the 25 years, we (our IIT H7 batch) still maintain contact (and our memories) in a genuinely old-fashioned way – Email! No amount of social media could displace our trusty group email that has kept our batch-mates and wing-mates (and some seniors/ juniors) bonded in a way that can only be described as – “Enchanting!” 209
Dinesh Kalakkad (DinDin)
H5, cHeM
MARRIED TO
LeeNa
Children’ - ADVAIT, KRISHNA
PhD, University of New Mexico dinesh’s’ Journey Never thought I would graduate in 4 years. Never dreamt I would go to the US and actually end up with a PhD. Looking back it all seems so incongruous. There are some well cited studies that refer to late frontal lobe development especially in males [From nih.gov: “The frontal lobes, home to key components of the neural circuitry underlying “executive functions” such as planning, working memory, and impulse control, are among the last areas of the brain to mature]; Ok, there, that is my excuse. In 1990, the few, the proud, the bottom of the barrel, got admitted into University of New Mexico. A combination of inertia and the desire to never have to come back to school led me to complete my Ph.D. there by end of 1995. After finishing grad school, started in the semiconductor industry first in a wafer fab (Atmel) and then moved to an equipment company (Novellus). The beginning of my career in engineering roles quickly brought me face to face with my marginal engineering skills which prodded me to move on to more management type of roles in operational/sales/marketing arenas which is still what I am doing, more recently, in Lam Research. I met Leena in grad school where we found kindred spirits in each other (through our complete disregard for consequences in general), got married in 1994 and we have two sons Advait and Krishna aged 18 and 16. By the way, people say Krishna looks like me, almost like a double role. I can easily imagine a situation where a few years later Krishna shows up at the villian’s den and all the bad guys go like ‘Ab tak zinda hai tu!’ thinking I have returned. I know…some things never change.
Shrinivas’s’ Journey I stayed on in IIT for 2 more years than most of you as a PG! Yep! I wanted a first hand feeling for what PG Bhos.. meant! Those were very fulfilling years, working on a piece with my guide Prof Sudhakar that would go into the LCA program. At that point, I was at cross roads wondering if I wanted to get into a job or do what every right minded IITian appeared to do (back then) – ie. Get into a PhD program. I got a scholarship from the Oxford Univ Computing Lab, and so the decision was made! Off I went to get a PhD (the denizens of Oxford call it a D. Phil). That was a period of great personal growth! I rowed for my college, played cricket on the lush green fields of England, travelled across much of Europe, tasted the wonderful ales of England read books and debated topics that I scarcely knew existed. Met some awesome friends for life too! I knew all along that I wanted to come back and make my career in India. In my last year at Oxford, a chance meeting with an acquaintance at Oxford (who at that time had graduated and become a Consultant) opened my eyes to Consulting as a profession! I interviewed and joined Andersen Consulting in Mumbai after taking a year out after my D.Phil. That phase had me helping major Indian corporates reengineer their supply chains and work processes! It was an on-the-job B-School education I suppose! After a couple of years of doing this, I realised that I had possibly moved too far from Technology! With a couple of hops, I moved into the spectrum in India that bridged my Technology and Business capabilities - I entered the world of Indian IT (mostly IT Services at that time). For the next 10 or so years, I was part of DEC/HP implementing business impacting technologies! This involved travelling extensively across US, UK, Netherlands, Turkey, Singapore etc. That was also the phase when I got married and we had a son! In 2011, I moved into the world of Products, and joined Walmart Global eCommerce (into what became it’s @WalmartLabs organisation). Personally, I spend time in Bangalore, Mysore and internationally where business takes me!!
Shrinivas’s IIT Memories IIT Memories are too many!! Himankan in 1987 – in Chandanwadi – we woke up for our first morning peering out of our window to see a snow covered field with a brook behind our Daak Bungalow. We couldn’t figure out where the loos were, so we started our own competition trying to etch our “golden” names in snow from the first floor window!! The organisers quickly figured what was going on, and we were promptly shutdown! :(
dinesh’s IIT Memories The biting sarcasm and sense of humor from the likes of Manesh, Kas and Sita. The Zen like calmness of Vaidya. Kale’s camel walk and his bhang infused Floyd trip. Kung fu moves and sound effects with Ravi (you should have seen our very authentic dubbing and dialogues). Taking a whole night to make 2 minute noodles in the room with Manesh and Ravi (still can’t figure out how we took so much time). Fantastic Mood-I evenings with the Ahmedabad gang - Sandeep, Anu, Mamata. Letting Kaushik, Khare, Sandeep, Harla, Harry do lab work while I watched. Rasna + RLC in a bucket. Rane’s class nightmare. BTP nightmare. Fun times during PAF & Surbahar. Getting thrown out of SAC by Ghane and Anu during a rock concert since I tried to get some daaru in (Inspiration from Nagrare). Spontaneous night long chat and music sessions with Viku and gang. Midnight coffees at Leela. H4 gang – Nagrare, Piggy, Mangesh Ballu, Vishal Mishra, Yadav, Burman, Lamba, Ghane. As clichéd as it sounds, many more memories of hearts brimming with love and friendship making you wake up and end the night with smiles and laughter.
GN Shrinivas
MARRIED TO
H9, Aero
SON -
(GUN)
Purnima PRAHLAD
M Tech, IIT Bombay D Phil, Oxford University 210
211
ajay’s’’ Journey After IIT, I went to the IIM Bangalore for doing Masters in business. Post that, I landed up with a job at UTI Mutual Fund in Mumbai in 1993. I worked there for 12 years in various capacities which included Equity Research Analyst, managing Equity and then Balanced Funds, ultimately finishing up with managing the Offshore Equity Funds. In 1997, I got married to Soumya. Remarkably, even though she was in Bangalore when I was in IIM Bangalore, we did not meet then. After 12 long years at UTI, it was time for a change and I moved on to Birla Sunlife Mutual Fund in 2005. There I managed both the Offshore and Domestic Equity Funds for almost 6 years. In 2011, I got an opportunity to move to Hong Kong. After working for almost 18 years in a similar kind of set up as the Indian Mutual Fund industry is small and homogeneous, I deemed it a good time to get a different perspective in professional and personal life. Soumya and I were keen to move to Hong Kong to give our kids Yasha and Soham a much wider exposure. So, I joined in Barings in Hong Kong to manage their India investments and have been here since. Remarkably, after all these years, I am only into my third job. I like travelling, listening to music (especially ghazals) and reading (even on topics other than Finance).
ajay’s’ IIT Memories Many fond memories of IIT are from the hostel life (H3). I still remember some of the intro sessions during the first year – some intimidating, many hilarious. The introduction night (do not recall what it was exactly called) where all of us had to sing and introduce ourselves – SK was the star attraction. Still remember I used to like “ragging” by some who used to send us to the library to copy questions for the exam from the books which were not available. Of course, one cannot forget the late night “cack” sessions where all topics under the sun were discussed. Long carom sessions in the hostel still come back vividly in the mind. Really enjoyed the stay with friends like #Vadalia, #Patwardhan, #Khare, #Pingale, #Sharma, #Dusankar, # SK, #Mandar, #Mahaulikar, #Bala. Of the Aero department, memories are hazy though still recall the summer training at HAL Nashik with #Gourang Shah, #SK Iyer, #Gulrajani. Some memories of Glider training at IIT Kanpur and how #GNSrinivasan (Gun) was the first one to take off in a glider. Recall some Palmistry by #Gun. In the summer training in Air India, still recall that sumptuous and cheap breakfast which was available at the time
212
Ajay Argal
Ajay Chandra
PGDM, IIM Bangalore
LLB, Gujarat University
H3, Aero
H9, Mech
MARRIED TO
MARRIED TO
Children’ - YASHA, SOHUM
DAUGHTeR’ - SHIKHA
Soumya
Sohan
ajay’s’ Journey After leaving the cocoon of IIT, I worked at Tata Steel in Jamshedpur. Had a great time there, made new friends. I left Tata Steel in1992 to join the Civil Services- the Indian Revenue Service. After training in Mussoorie and Nagpur, I have been posted in Ahmedabad, Nasik, Thane, Mumbai and now in Jaipur. During this journey, I met my wife and we got married in 1995. Our daughter, Shikha is studying Engineering and we are right now experiencing the empty nest syndrome. In all, life has been good, I have enjoyed the journey so far and yes, I have been able to sustain the luxury of waking up late in the mornings, just as in IIT. During this period, I have travelled a lot, though mostly in India. I have been in touch with a number of hostelmates and batchmates in the intervening period of 25 years.
ajay’s’ IIT Memories Now after 25 years, when I look back at life at IIT, I remember my wing-mates, my friends, the good times we had and the crazy things we did; the academics part is buried deep down in some crevice in the brain. In Mech, I don’t think we needed to study too much, for it to be etched in memory. Weekends, invariably were centred around night long cack sessions till 3-4 in the morning and waking up late, the dinners at Kobe in Sukhsagar and the journey to and fro, or the dinner simply at RK’s; sometimes the movie at the Convo or outside. I have vivid memories of the trip to Lonavala and Khandala, the trek behind Bushy dam in the midst of numerous streams, the trip to Goa on a shoestring budget, the evening strolls to Vihar Lake, the long,36 hour train journeys from Calcutta to Bombay (as these great cities were called then). I recollect quite a few witty exchanges between some of us and the distinctive humour (which is quite different from that of the normal junta). All in all life at IIT was wonderful, time breezed by; notwithstanding the food at the mess- less said about it the better.
213
Kamalkant Shukla
MARRIED TO
H8, CIVIL
Children’ - ANISHA, ANMOL
(KK)
POOJa
MBA, Drexel University Kamalkant’s’ Journey Entering IIT was like a dream come true – with no Agarwal/Brilliant classes just Barrons’ Guide, books and friends (“Birdy”, “Dabbu”, Rajesh Rao et al). And thought H8 was a great idea as my brother was also there – no ragging, seniors as instant friends etc. Soon found that was not how things worked! When my younger brother got through IIT and was coming, there were several trips to the administrative offices, pataoing several people to ensure that he doesn’t land up in H8 too-and it worked. After graduation, I joined Datapro (along with Rakesh Anand) a software learning company through campus interviews. I ran away (!!!) from that company in a month’s time and relented to Dr. SG Joshi’s (my BTG Advisor) invite to join a geo-mapping project in the CSRE department and a much bigger project in the CESE (Center for environmental Sciences and Engg) department (I am sure the lure of getting an MTech also played a role in coming back!). I tentatively moved to H4 for a year while gearing towards the Indian Administrative Services ’91 (along with our “Babua”). After two (unsuccessful) attempts at IAS, and with an M Tech (Env. Engg.), I gave this up and took up a consulting position with Tata Consulting Engineers @ Carnac working on Water Supply systems (for major metros) and Unaccounted for Water studies. I soon moved into a Project management and business development role and was handling projects alongside international consulting firms. After 7 years in TCE and several successful projects later, I decided to pursue my MBA and came over to USA in 2001. This was supposed to be short stint – get my degree and work for 2-3 years and return back – but did not turn out that way. Post-graduation, I worked in Philadelphia, Houston, Boston and finally settling down in Michigan in 2005. Since moving to Michigan, I have been with the Chrysler Group in different capacities and roles. On the personal front, Pooja and I got married in Dec.1998, and welcomed our elder daughter Anisha in 2000. After her first birthday is when I came to USA leaving my family behind albeit temporarily. They finally joined me in 2004. We were blessed with our second daughter Anmol in 2007. Anisha is currently a sophomore in High School. Along with being an Honors student, she was chosen into the School Varsity in Track and Synchronized Swimming (winning the 2015 State Championships) as a Freshman. Anmol is coming of age soon!! We recently had another addition to our family earlier this year and have named her Rosie. She will be 6 months old this December’15. Anmol loves playing with her and spends most of her evenings after school with her never missing a moment to showcase Rosie to her friends (PS: Rosie is a guinea pig!!!)
Kamalkant’s IIT Memories So many of them!!! Going to the Main Building for the first year lectures, walk down the Slope….not allowing the bikes to overtake, the late nights, waking up and reaching the lectures just in time, my first swim in the pool, the late nights at the carrom table, the endless keedas in the hostel, walk down the Hill to catch a movie in the Kanjurmarg cinemas…the list go on….. Some of the vivid memories: A day before my Inter-IIT Meet in Kharagpur (’86), I decide to go visit Calcutta in just a T-shirt and then come back late in that December night, catch a fever and then spend rest of the trip just cheering my team-mates from the sick bay!! Kabbadi match for H8 and we were a man short. I wanted in and everyone laughing….. a lanky guy against a team of stocky seniors….I played, got a few points and still have a broken tooth to show for it. My first “swim” in the pool… take off my glasses and walking around with a friend, and tried to swim at 6’ deep side…I mean how hard could it be with me being 6’ tall as such…. Next thing I realize, the lifeguard is jumping into the water to grab me out and had me put a red cap on! Spending several nights at the carrom tables (with Vinod) and chess (Parag Shah)
214
RAMMOHAN’s’ Journey & IIT Memories It was that fateful day in July ‘86 as my dad came to drop me off at the Hostel. It was pouring rain: the kind of rains that were normal in Bombay, but for the guy who has lived all his life in Madras, it was intimidating. As we entered my room (39), we found that my roommate had already settled in. My dad, of course, was elated to see that his son’s roommate had already put up pictures of Ganesh. And later, we find out that his name is Kartik and he is from Bangalore. My dad, with a sense of elation that his son had got a pious, decent guy as a roommate, left back for Madras. The harrowing experience of ragging for the next month culminating with Pagal gym was an unforgettable part of my hostel memories. This experience setup for all the success in my life. The next four years was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. From hallucinations after Bhang to making countless trips to Chakra Bar in the final year, here was a 6.5 GPA guy who managed to get a scholarship to USC. It was a stroke of luck that everyone needs in his or her life. The best part was I ended up with Kartik as my roommate for the next five years at USC. Life in the first five years at USC was one of transition from an immature undergrad to a mature adult. Making trips to Grand Canyon with temperatures hovering at 120 F with IIT wing mates, navigating riots and an earthquake in Los Angeles, and the experience of completing a Ph.D thesis were the highlights of the first five years in the United States. In 1995, my wife Latha joined me in my journey as I left grad school and joined the workforce. I have been blessed with two lovely children, Ashwin and Varsha, and have a successful career in the semiconductor industry. As I look back on my life, IIT has provided me long-lasting friendships that I still am able to leverage even today!! I consider all of these friends a part of my extended family who can be relied on to help out in times of need at any point in time.
K. Rammohan (KRAM)
H6, Meta PhD, University of Southern California MBA, Cornell
FE
Pb
MARRIED TO
LATHa
Children’ ASHWIN, VARSHA 215
Sharad Gandhi H6, Chem MS, University of Virginia
MARRIED TO
Rupal
Children’ - LABDHI, ARIT
sharad’s’ Journey
What I do now, connects so well with what I was doing at IIT - mostly nothing focused. Starting from Optimization, Instrumentation and Process Control as my key interest area at IIT, I still thrive to align my work into similar domain. Currently at IBM as a Telecommunication Industry consultant to keep up the family - I advise clients in new area of business, technology and solution, including the buzz words - cloud, b2b, m2m, iot, smart world, etc. Prior to these 8 years at IBM, I worked for more than 6 years at Reliance Communication and a couple at Amdocs. After coming back from US in 1994, I started my own business in Udaipur hoping to be very big (had I invested same amount in Infosys, I would have been millionaire). Though we could never achieve a milestone called ‘Success’ but I made many new good friends (clients). My own business was a very adventurous, I have played every role including trainer, consultant, architect, developer, accountant and trouble-shooter (i.e. CFO, CEO, CTO, CAO!). I was the key advisor for setting up an ISP in Udaipur. In 2000, I have left private venture and joined Reliance Communication to assist them in setting up the telecommunication company. Currently, I still continue to harness the same dream and area of interests, which is instrumentation, process, and optimization to solve simple problems of real world. The journey continues. I pursue many non-realizable activities. At personal level, I got married to Rupal in a normal Indian arranged marriage. She has graduated with an MSc from Bhavnagar University. We share common religious and spiritual thoughts, beliefs, & life style. Our children (going in 9th & 5th grade) are other parts of wonderful family and they keep us up with all the spiritual needs and support. Labdhi, in her initial years played Tennis and Basketball. Arit wants to do everything – music, dance, swimming and now cricket – and he is good rummy player started playing since he was 6 yrs old. Memories of my parents keep us energetic and hopeful. My father who lived till 1995, has been a passionate worker – actually working for 14 hours a day (actual effort, unlike new claimants in IT world) till last day. He worked as a clerk in the court and had been running a wooden toy factory – supporting 300+ people community of Kairadi. My mother has passed away in 2013 due to lung cancer. She was a great person, I always found her hopeful (despite many worries) in all the times. She was always eager to do new things. First 3 ½ year after leaving IIT, I had been in the US for MS & PhD. This is where I have truly learnt English. I have done everything what all other fellow IITians must have done. I tried to learn Tennis, Music, Squash, Cricket, Soccer etc. I was ham radio enthusiast, so I got my sign (n3qvg) at CMU. I also joined the Light & Sound team at CMU for organizing at events. My un-fruitful activities are: (1) Proposing to setup an IIT at my home town in Raj in competition to proposed Kota – Jodhpur – Failed attempt, now dreaming to setup a college better than IITs (2) developing asiaus.system as a virtual business platform for all businesses – to set up a new business in a click – no platform exists to setup this business ;-) (3) essential oil extraction unit (flowerabsolute.com) – On hold (4) Writing books – on hold (5) optimization.systems as a top level forum for efficiency (6) Anonymous business – in progress (7) Take up self-fulfilling cause – yet to start.
sharad’s’ IIT Memories
Very small world but powerful -: During counselling at IIT, met Manish Jain and Deepak Bafna as first friends from Udaipur. Was on provisional admission due to being underweight – 38kg - Drank Water to cross 40 mark on recheck. Wanted EE, did not get it, did not prefer MechE, and so, chose ChemE. First Semester Paagal Gym. Playing a role of Krishna (as being lightest) to break Dahi Handi – Big guys like Phani / Rajki are on the lowest level of the Pyramid. Shared the room no 3 with Yogesh Londe. Spent time with Saamri, Mitesh and Londe in initial days. Aagree (H9) became friend. Moved to Room No 242 as chosen by our seniors. Learnt to swim. Became unofficial coach for new Swimmers claiming to teach swimming in a week. Other Hindi Bhashi became my friends including Pokharna (Poky), Jaroria, Bheed and Mumbai gang. Gradually started learning Carrom, playing volleyball, tried luck with wing-cricket, watching movies. Many things were mostly first time for me – Watching TV, Train Travel, Telephone, A/C Computer Lab etc. Plucking mango from hostel tree and putting them in grass for ripening. Climbing on the coconut tree and getting scratches on the chest. Trying a luck with Tabla learning along with Mitesh at Music Club, ping-pong (TT) with Pokhy, Electronics at Hobby club making 555 timer, Aero Modelling. Listening to the music and playing Carrom in hostel lounge. Getting intoxicated by Bhang on holi and vomiting & getting admitted in the hospital. Remembering Pokhy taking me to Hospi on bicycle while getting 103 degree fever. Rajki, Srikar, String, MG helping me to correct my Seminar and BTP report. Not sure but continued learning through teaching wing-mates. Lab acquaintance Harla, Dholakia, Yogo, Gupta, for collaborating on lab reports (Copying from Guptaji!). Taking help of wing-mates to write Reco and Suck letters for videsh yatra. Not returning Economics book borrowed overnight – and getting a warning from Library and displayed on the board. Getting DD in English in first semester. Getting AA in instrumentation from a southie prof by writing my name as S. Kumar Contesting election for Boat Club Secy promising to revive boating at IIT – only time I got a chance to go to all the hostels (except on Holi) ;-) Summer project on soap bubble with Srikar / Chari, summer project with UNat under UVS travelling to Patalganga. Going to Kanjurmarg at 6AM, taking train to Mumbra and then taking the bus on the potholed and congested road to Patalganga Enjoying grub brought by parents of Mumbaites Picnic/outing to Gorai beach, Tansa, Lonawala-Khandala.
216
shashi’s’ Journey Here I am - 25 years in the US, married to Smita with two lovely daughters, Nandini (13) and Anu (9). I live in the SF Bay area, and work at Google. It has been a long path from the graduation from IIT in 1990 to now. It has been almost ten years working at Google. I have managed various efforts in search in this time, and it has been a blast. Anu was born a month after I started working for Google. Nandini was only 4 years old. It has been amazingly rewarding watching them grow in this time. Nandini loves to read, play viola, and paint. She is somewhat of a techo-geek too and loves all things tech. Anu is a performing artist at heart, attracted to singing, stage opportunities like musicals, and dance. Both love to swim, which is our favorite activity together as a family. Somewhere along the way I picked up road cycling as a weekend activity. Along with other IIT-B batchmates like Raj, Shalini, and Anil, we have done numerous weekend rides. It is a great way to enjoy the outdoors and get a great workout. Smita is a product manager at EMC and has always worked in storage tech. Obviously, she is the one that holds it all together. 1999 was a sad year. My father passed away in an accident in Bangalore. It was one of my good fortunes that I was working in India at the time, and could spend a quality few months with my family before this tragic event. The ten years before Google I had worked at Synopsys. That was the area of my PhD work at UT Austin. Which I completed in 1995. I got married to Smita in 1996. Austin was one of the best times for me. Well that is where I met Smita, for starters. I had an amazing advisor, really figured out what areas of computer science interest me. My colleagues were amazing too. The friendships built in those years come close to those from IIT. New York was the first city I lived in right after IIT. I went to NYU for a year. New York was just Mumbai for me - the pace, the activity, the general vibe. To this day, it remains my favorite city. That was a quick roundup of 25 years. Countless birthday parties, baby showers, vacations, New Years, Thanksgivings, conferences, bosses, subordinates, and more have been condensed in this summary. The foundation and memories from IIT days still form a strong core of what I am.
shashi’s IIT Memories My very first memory was that of me and Ajay Kunnath intrepidly visiting H7 a few weeks after JEE results, way before the semester began. We went there to ‘check things out’. We walked into a den of lukkha seniors and got a first taste of the ragging that lay in store for us. I vividly remember the walk past H7 marine drive, with my parents, mattress and all, with hungry seniors waiting for the night when the freshies are alone. And there began a month of servitude and labor, aka ragging. Pagal gym was not even the low point! Extreme home sickness is what marked the first few months. But the bonds and new friendships started forming. Ragging was done, marked by a lavish party. All of this was quickly replaced by a sense of extreme overwhelm. Six courses, four labs, or something like that. Filing a piece of metal, welding a line while praying that I don’t die, sitting in a pit of mud pounding out a mould. Kreszig - could you have written a less dense and slimmer book with more colorful pictures?! I quickly settled into a groove after the first sem. Back breaking course work, NCC parades, weekend trips home, rejoicing chicken nights, became routine. Holi mithai scavenging, treasure hunts, charades nights, putting an LP in the music system like it was baap ka raaj, all wonderful images. Having never had access to a tennis court, a pool, badminton, etc., it was all a wonderful world with unlimited possibilities. Himankan after my second year is still a treasured memory. Chai, DC, baked beans, and the sights in Har Ki Dhun were all the reward for bone chilling nights and walking many miles like a ‘khacchar’. Sliding down a glacier on a steel plate was a good substitute for sledding. Swimming in the Ganga, hot naans and paneer in the dhabas, death defying bus ride from Dehradun, all unforgettable. Before I knew it, I was a fourth year. Next year I would be graduating! Fourth year was a blur of BTP, GRE, practical training, apps, recos, schols, etc. Val functions, BTP defence, packing for a flight to a strange land. No more walking up the hill after the rains, biking around Powai lake, swimming in Vihar lake (crocs there? seriously?), running next to giant pipes. No more staff C chai or late night noodles with omelette. Even 25 years later, some of my closest friends are from IIT-B. Even after a several year hiatus there is no ice breaking needed. The memories just flood back easily, reigniting relationships cemented a long time ago.
Shashidhar Thakur H7, CS MS, University of Texas, Austin phd, University of Texas, Austin
MARRIED TO
Smita
Children’ NANDINI, ANURADHA 217
arvind’s’ Journey Soon after IIT, found myself at Univ of Michigan, Ann Arbor for MS in Materials Science. Moved on to MIT in ‘92 for my Ph. D. 1995 was a very happening year for me. Aug of that year, went to Chennai to get married to a girl I hadn’t even met...just spoken to a few times over the phone. Lakshmi inspired me to wrap up my research, albeit my advisor’s upcoming sabbatical was the main reason. Getting married and finishing up thesis....two big events. Joined Applied Materials, Inc. in Feb 1996 and moved from coast to coast...Boston to Santa Clara. When AMAT gave me the opportunity to move to Singapore in 2012, I took it up right away. First few months were tough. No friends or family. But going on 3 years here, we have an active social life and liking it here very much - thanks to the great friends we have made.....if only you can see Lakshmi’s social calendar. We have wonderful memories of our life in the US.....do miss that!
Arvind Sundarrajan (PAAJI)
H6, Meta MS, University of Michigan Phd, MIT
arvind’s’ IIT Memories • I remember jumping over the wall behind hostel 6 and walking on the pipeline, all the way up to the Shiva temple. I used to do this frequently - usually, in the evenings. • I remember getting up every morning at 5am to find notes on my door from wing mates asking that they be woken up in time for breakfast. Upon knocking on their doors, I would be warmly greeted with ‘colorful’ vocabulary. • Remember one of our hostel mess staff Kutty with a broad smile - delivering a glass of hot milk every night - room to room. Used to look forward to it especially on cold winter nights. • Eating egg burji and tandoori roti followed by delicious ice cream at Vadilal outside the campus gate. • In the first year, I used to get homesick pretty frequently. So much so that I would go to VT and watch trains come and go. • Who can forget Bombay rains. Remember walking to classes sometimes in the rain and getting drenched in spite of wearing a raincoat.
218
MARRIED TO
LAKSHMI
FE
Bakul Damle (Bakul) Pb
H5, EP MS, Caltech
MARRIED TO
SHILPA SON -
ESHAN
F1
F2
BAKUL’s’ Journey
I joined IIT Bombay in 1986 to pursue Engineering Physics. This branch allowed me to take classes in a variety of fields of interest, which included Physics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Not only did I get to experience the academic rigor that IITs are famous for, I also participated in the wealth of extra-curricular activities that IIT Bombay offered. Joining the amateur radio club, and participating in cultural and sporting activities such as the Performing Arts Festival (PAF), Mood Indigo and the Himankan trek helped me develop soft skills of organizing events, people management and, taught me to have fun while working hard. My experience with PAF started with a resounding defeat in my first year but this ignited me and my H5 hostel mates to step up and win the next 3 PAFs. I cherish that great experience of performing with very talented artists! Outside PAF, my musical pursuits in IIT-B also included forming a rock band with other IITians. I played the keyboards and represented IIT-B in Mood Indigo. For one year, I also served as the Music Secretary of my hostel. The Himankan trek in Kashmir with the base camp at Pahalgam, was a great learning experience in long treks in freezing weather and enduring against all odds. The importance of team work in having a successful outcome in adverse situations was amply demonstrated in this activity. After graduating from IIT-B in 1990, I worked for a year designing switch-mode power supplies and helped manage my father’s power electronics company, Digitronics, in Pune. In 1991, I joined the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and graduated in 1992 with a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. Though California offered numerous opportunities, I decided to join National Instruments in Austin, Texas. Being part of this small upcoming company gave me unique opportunities such as designing some of the first reconfigurable high-resolution computer-based instruments and managing an engineering team very early in my career. In 2005, I joined Maxim Integrated in Dallas, Texas, where I am a business director managing the battery management business. Fuel gauges, battery authentication and the emerging fast charging, wireless charging and energy harvesting technologies are my key areas of focus. I am an avid photographer and enjoy photographing the beauty of nature, culture and our friends and family moments. I have had the great fortune of traveling a lot, all over the world for business, and have captured these sights and experiences in photos. My recent acquisition, a mirrorless camera, has started me on a journey of exploring the use of 40+ year old manual lenses, with amazing results. I enjoy music and playing on the keyboards and participate in cultural activities whenever possible. I met my wife Shilpa in Austin, and we have shared 21 wonderful years together. We have a 14 year old son, Eshan, who is also a budding musician. He plays the piano and the euphonium. He is also a tech/science buff and knows so much more than I ever knew at his age! He is also a black belt in Taekwondo.
219
Milind Mhaiskar H5, CHEM
MARRIED TO
MANISHA SON -
MANMATH
Milind’s’ Journey & IIT Memories Milind Mhaiskar is one of the Stars of our batch, very busy bringing change that we all want to see. He was handpicked in Nov 2014 by the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra to be his Principal Secretary. He is the Chief Minister’s closest bureaucrat. And this is what Indian Express had to say on his appointment. “Mr Clean Image - Milind Mhaiskar, Principal Secretary. The 1992-batch IAS officer is known for his workaholic nature. His stint in Sangli as the Municipal Commissioner established his reputation as an honest and efficient man. His work as Relief and Rehabilitation secretary during the 2012 drought was widely appreciated. He has handled Urban Development, Rural Development, Revenue and Health departments. He is expected to play a key role in execution of various state schemes.” Yet he remains so down to earth. So typically Mhaiskar, as he was called in campus. He is part of our whastapp groups and despite his very busy schedule he responds once in a while to our crazy ranting and to our requests to join our mini reunions and the SJRU. AT IIT, Mhaiskar, a dweller of Hostel 5 and the resident of its Mount Wing, participated in several hikes, treks and a rock climbing camp at Panchmadhi, Madhya Pradesh. He also successfully completed a basic course in mountaineering at Manali. He was a quiet person and an avid reader. In the last year at IIT, he was often seen on the hostel steps, with Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. After IIT, Mhaiskar stayed around in Mumbai and prepared for IAS. He joined IAS in 1992. He must have got a good rank to get Maharashtra Cadre which must have been his first choice. During his IAS training he met his batchmate Manisha Patankar. They became close friends and finally married in 1994. Manisha is also a high profile bureaucrat. She is currently the Principal Secretary for Urban Development in the Maharashtra Government and leading the initiative for developing 10 smart cities in Maharashtra, in additional to her regular responsibilities. Their son Manmath turned 16 this month, and not as interested in sciences as was his dad. Here he is in the pic with his cousins. Brief career graph: Mhaiskar started his IAS career at grassroots level and was closely involved with rural development. He became the Collector of Wardha in 2000 and Municipal Commissioner of Sangli in 2003. 2006 onwards he was joint commissioner and then additional commissioner of MMRDA (Mumbai Metro Region Development Authority). In 2009 he became Secretary in charge of Medical Education and Drugs Deptt. In 2011 he joined the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. 2013 onwards he was heading the Relief and Rehabilitation Department. During this stint, he won an award for the best Govt to Govt initiative for creating information management system for land acquisition and allocation to persons displaced / affected by large projects; this ensured that the process is smooth and appropriate rights are passed on to bonafide project affected persons. And in Nov 2014 he took over as Principal Secretary of the State of Maharashtra. In addition to this responsibility, he also leads the making of a smart city near Sangli – one of the 10 in Maharashtra and 90 in India. We do hope he can make it to the RU –( Yogo, Umesh Kamat, Sandeep Asthana )
Munish’s’ Journey It is too soon to talk about Life’s journey at this point as it is ongoing with long way to go. As such, this would probably make a better topic for Golden jubilee reunion or later. That said, journey till date since IIT days has been an interesting and rewarding experience to say the least. Continually learning, experimenting, and exploring new areas of interest as well as learning from past mistakes have helped gain overall perspective on life. I came to the US soon after IIT for graduate school and completed an MS in computer science and later on went back to graduate school to get an MBA. I worked at several internet and software companies in the Silicon Valley to build products in areas such as internet security and payments to name a few. Later on I transitioned to finance and worked on Wall Street. These days I mostly dabble with things related to investments and technology.
Munish’s IIT Memories There are too many to list them all but few that come to mind are: Having cack sessions on random topics at any place that could go on for hours well into late night. Same thing with playing carrom or table tennis into the wee hours of morning. Milk shakes and sandwiches made by Varghese, our hostel canteen guy, were something to look forward to, particularly on days, when hostel mess food was unpalatable. Mood Indigo used to set the festive atmosphere in campus marking a good beginning of a New Year and semester – with no assignments or tests to think about. ☺ Camaraderie with Prof. Phatak of CS dept. who wouldn’t hesitate to ask for a cigarette or offer one if anyone asked. Living in terror of a water snake that used to show up every now and then in the bathroom on ground floor during the first semester Craziness around the hostel when planchet wave had swept the entire hostel for a brief period and folks were performing it in most wings. While it wasn’t clear what exactly was happening and whether to believe any of it but the whole experience was rather spooky. Sometimes spirits, likely evil ones, refused to leave. Wonder if any got unleashed and still lurking around – just kidding! Witnessing silly pranks like the one where an innocent chap was set up to be slapped by a senior for bursting Diwali firecrackers outside his door. Having the unique experience of answering my own questions in a course on investments, an elective offered in the final semester.
Munish Jain H8, CS
MARRIED TO
Shreya
MS, University of Central Florida MBA, Wharton 220
221
Prakash Bhalekar
MARRIED TO
(BhaLE)
APARNA
H8, MECH
Children’ AARTI, ANIRUDH
MBA, PennState
Rajeev’s’ Journey In the winter of 1989 I got a letter from Prof. Radhakrishnan (son of Sir C. V. Raman) offering me a job in Raman Research Institute, Bangalore. I had done my summer internship here and they wanted me to join as a Radio Engineer. So in the summer of 1990 I landed up in Bangalore. Worked there till 1991 with some of the most brilliant minds and realized quickly that I had learnt nothing in IIT. But technology started fascinating me. I quit to join C-DoT, one of the most amazing tech organizations then, which just reinforced this feeling of inadequacy. Autumn of 1991 decided to go back to IITB to study again. Applied for M.Tech, got through GATE but an interviewer kicked me out after I insisted that my answer to a question asked was right (which I still believe it was). My B.Tech. supervisor felt that I was a rare specimen who wanted to really study technology and accepted me as a Ph.D. student direct after B.Tech, which is what I finally did in 1995. In 1994 I got a job offer from Sasken Communications in Bangalore and joined them in 1995. The Ph.D. stint in IIT however finally cleared my cobwebs and I fell in love with technology and its capability to solve tough real-world problems. Spent 8 years in Sasken initially building embedded products and then managing their products business. This was my induction into product management. The product was tremendously successful and I realized that creating and selling useful products was all I wanted to do. Then came the downturn of 2001 and as the company’s focus shifted I moved out to follow my dream. To create a product that what would make India proud. With the little savings I had and goodwill of friends and family started Innoviti in late 2002. Since then have been enjoying this journey called Innoviti. Had major ups and down, two near death business experiences and today am very proud that Innoviti is one of the most exciting companies in the payments space. A company that is using payments technology to help small business owners get loans from banks. That has been the journey since that letter in 1989.
Rajeev’s IIT Memories Prakash’s Journey & IIT Memories Memories from IIT: distant and foggy memories but the ones that stand out are american chopsuey and fried rice at Shettys late in the night. Cack sessions in our wing. Nights on the jetty. And struggling to find blood samples of smokers for my BTP. My BTP was to study the effect of smoking on the viscosity of blood. The profs i admired were Gaitonde and Subir Kar- my BTP guide. Some close friendships are strong right upto now and some were reignited along the way and some just faded away. Post IIT, I started working with Schlumberger in Africa and the Mediterranean region and after about 4 years went on to do an MBA at Penn State. Came back to India after the MBA and worked in manufacturing, automotive and for a little in IT. Lived in Japan and Singapore. Currently doing a solar start up - QuadSun. www.quadsunsolar.com.
Heated arguments at two in the morning about politics, movies, religion or just about anything. Realizing mud can really be therapeutic when it allows you to get back at your seniors on the day of Pagal Gym. Coming back from lab to find water a river flowing in the wing with a batchmate swimming down the river to demonstrate his swimming skills. Contributing to the “Not Allowed” list of props in Performing Arts Festival by using a cow, fire and motor cycles as props. Watching Maine Pyaar Kiya 19 times with my good friend Kaalia. Twice back-to-back shows. Being a part of the leopard hunt party. “Rm 116, STD call hai,” and running down the stairs to take my parents call in that iconic phone booth. Walking back to the hostel in monsoons with pant bottoms being painted by an intriguing mixture of mud, water and cow dung that took days to clean off. Rushing to the department when news came about Machines Course grades being out, just to make sure that one had scraped through. The weekend trip to Churchgate to idle around Flora Fountain picking up second hand books and come back loaded with books bought at Rs. 3. Waiting for Wednesday 8 p.m. to watch Chitrahaar. Those days in the Photography Dark Room in Khadda Wing where I saw images appearing magically on photo paper. Sitting through the night and preparing the artwork for the hostel Souvenir magazine and then finally seeing it in print. Walking over to Vihar lake. The cycle shop and the annual ceremony of getting the cycle painted with anti-rust coating. The treasure hunt, which I still organize but now for the kids in my building. 350 words are difficult to capture 4 years of memories. They made me what I am today, the good, the bad. Friendships formed then have lasted the test of time, because they were forged when we were all just pure hearts full of hope. Thank you IIT for those 4 years in which we learned to be brave, to follow our dreams.
Rajeev Agarwal (Teku)
222
MARRIED TO
H6, Elec
manisha
PhD, IIT Bombay
SUDHANSHU, SIDDHARTH
Children’ -
223
Satyaprasad Inampudi
MS, SUNY, Buffalo MBA, Harvard University
H8, Chem
Children’ -
(Satya)
MARRIED TO
KALYaNI ANNIKA, TRISHNA
satya’s’ Journey I went to the US after graduation to pursue a Masters in Chemical Engineering in New York. But I soon realized that research is not for me and so I discontinued my Ph.D program and looked for a job. Thinking back it was a gutsy/stupid move as I sought a job in the midst of a bad recession in the US and I was on F-1 (Practical Training), which meant that if I didn’t get a job in 8-10 months I would have to move back to India. Fortunately, I landed a job in biotechnology sector when the industry was still in its infancy. I spent five fabulous years at this job but realized that I had more interest in finance and management than engineering. I applied to business schools and was fortunate to be accepted at Harvard University. Needless to say this was the most exciting thing to happen in my academic/professional career. After business school, I switched careers and worked in the software industry briefly managing various marketing programs for a predecessor of Oracle Corporation. But my real passion was Wall Street. I joined as a stock analyst in 2005 and worked for several years at AllianceBernstein. I had a great time and often wondered why someone would pay me to have so much fun. Then in 2013, I felt that I need to be more independent in my professional life so I can spend time with my wife, kids and parents. I currently run a money management business and also invest in private companies. I got married in 1996 to Kalyani who currently practices dentistry in New Jersey. My older daughter, Annika, is in middle school and the younger one, Trishna, is in elementary school. My parents live in Hyderabad and I have some business interests in Bangalore, both places I am travelling to quite a bit lately.
satya’s’ IIT Memories Best memory is my first memory of arriving at the campus: Imagine three gulti 17-year-olds with shaved heads who barely spoke hindi and who have never been out of Andhra (except Kishore) landing in a cosmopolitan place like Bombay. Everything was an experience - the food, the people, the language, the cows, ‘ragging’, etc. Awesome memories with great friends of H8-A2-R and A1-L and of course my gult buddies KBS (H4) and Kishore (H6).
vivek’s’ Journey Basically... after IIT I briefly worked as an RA and got my BTP published at a National Conference.Then decided to try out other fields apart from core engineering. Learnt animation & made a short film. Became a copywriter & worked on several corporate accounts like L&T, ESAB, Maruti & Rajasthan Tourism. Wrote music video scripts for the likes of Daler Mehndi (Tunak Tunak), Jassi (Dil Le Gayi) and assorted bhangra rappers. Developed a network security product with a bunch of IIT-ians. Joined TATA’s e-learning and corporate training division, managed branding for US, UK, ANZ & Japan, scripted award winning 3D animation/claymation films, judged several international e-learning & corporate training awards. Founded a company providing corporate training/branding solutions to customers like Panasonic, Greaves, Orange, TATA and some start-ups. Authoring 2 books encapsulating my professional and personal experiences - From Tales to Sales & Things Dads Should Tell Their Kids (But Probably Won’t). Hope to write Asimov-style fiction next. Let’s see.
vivek’s’ IIT Memories IIT was an overdose of sheer fun every single day. One incident I will never forget though, which seems hilarious now, but was terrifying when it happened... One fine morning, after the usual night out, I was stepping out of the hostel wing for a chai and wada sambar outside YP. In the corridor, I bumped into a sharply dressed gentleman in white T-shirt, white shorts & white shoes. Absentmindedly I wondered “Aapke kapde mere kapde se safed kaise,” when he stopped me and brusquely asked me, “Which year?” I said, “Final year”. It was the time of post-JEE counselling for to-be-freshers, so I assumed he was one of the over enthusiastic parents. So I asked him, “Your son got through JEE huh?” This was met with stony silence, so I assumed he probably had issues with English, so I asked him again, “Aapka beta JEE mein pass ho gaya kya?” After some more silence, he said, “I’m the new Dean of Student Affairs. You need to complete your final year soon.” I tell you, I’ve never walked so fast in my life.
Vivek Vasudevan MARRIED TO Chiyyaram Achary Dolly (Chia)
H8, Meta
SON - VARUN
Ravi Ramaratnam H5, MECH
MARRIED TO
moNA
Children’ - MEGHNA, ROSHNI
Ravi’s’ Journey 1990: My initial attempt at pursuing an MS degree in Robotics seemed jinxed as the GRE results got cancelled twice due to paper leakage and my MS applications were also unfortunately lost/misplaced during postage. I had to redo all the paperwork (app forms, recos, app fees) and eventually apply without GRE scores, with the remotest chance of receiving any offers from the top universities. Meanwhile, with some luck and determination, I appeared for an off-campus interview conducted by Schlumberger and landed a job offer. I chose to take up the job first, keeping the MS for later consideration. 1990-1993: Joined Schlumberger in Dubai. After a rigorous 4-month training in Egypt (with the Gulf war for background), I was posted as a Field Engineer to various remote locations in India … places that I would not have otherwise probably experienced. From the tea gardens of Assam (the then hotbed of ULFA movement), to the harsh deserts bordering Pakistan, to the offshore rigs in the Arabian Sea, life was sure hard work, but also a great adventure everyday … applying cutting-edge technology, working under pressure in difficult conditions, making independent decisions and getting decently paid! The option of doing an MS slowly faded away … 1994-2000: Continued with Schlumberger as a General Field Engineer, with postings in various locations in Eqypt, India and China. On a single status, travelled a lot, enjoyed the challenge of working in different places and staying amidst varied cultures. 2001-2003: Moved to Alexandria, Eqypt as Instructor to restart the Schlumberger Training Center (same place where I received my training a decade back!) to train a global mix of newly hired engineers. Got married to Mona in June 2001. She also loves the outdoors and shares my passion for long distance driving and exploring off-the-beaten track. Our Eqypt stint was an extended honeymoon … we explored all of Eqypt by self driving … the Giza Pyramids, Luxor, Mt. Sinai, Red Sea & Siwa oasis (where Alexander the Great supposedly met the Oracle). We also covered France, Belgium, Holland and Italy. In 2002, I moved to Malaysia as Field Service Manager and we explored the Far East as well. 2003-2015: Moved back to India (Coimbatore) and joined Baker Hughes (another oilfield services company). Blessed with daughter Meghna in 2003. Shifted base to Mumbai in 2006 and welcomed daughter Roshni in 2007. Our long road journeys have now reduced, though we did manage a few trips to cover Gujarat, Goa and even Nepal (from India!) by car. On the career front, progressively assumed leadership and management roles within Baker Hughes spanning Training, Operations, Sales and Account Management, catering to Upstream Oil & Gas exploration companies including ONGC, Oil India, Reliance and Cairn. Going forward, I want to maintain a balanced healthy active lifestyle, continue to travel and explore, devote more time for family and social causes.
Ravi’s IIT Memories In spite of the mounting years wearing down on the memory (especially short term), it is amazing that many events, mostly pertaining to Hostel 5, are still clearly etched in my mind (some even bordering on the juvenile)! - Sep ‘86 – Our first year booze party in our Hostel 5 Wing, using buckets and mugs for the mixing the heady concoction of affordable “fruity flavours” sourced from RLC. Really hit the high with wingmates #ManeshPatel & #DineshKalakkad and wing seniors Farid, Vaidya, Scram, Kale. - May ’87: Himankan trip to Pahalgam, with #VivekKulkarni, #ManeshPatel, #SundarMudaliar. Travelled by train in unreserved compartment from Mumbai to Jammu. Managed a quick darshan at Vaishnodevi. Pahalgam hillock was dubbed the “Cream of the Nation”. I recollect that toothpick was recommended as an essential accessory for the morning routine. - Dec ’88: Embarked on a “bicycle” trip to Goa, with #SundarMudaliar and #SanjayShanbag. Remember sleeping one night en route at a highway petrol pump, with Sundar (aka Varda) armed with a long knife. Due to hotels being overbooked during Christmas time in Goa, we stayed at a temple dharamshala arranged by Sanjay. For the return trip, we opted to take the 24 hour sea-route by steamer (rather than ride cycle back), as we had lost all steam by then! - Nov’89: While jogging on H3 hill near Vihar lake one evening, I severely twisted my left ankle and snapped a tendon. Luckily, #VinayGupta was also jogging alongside and helped me hobble back to the hostel. I had to use a makeshift crutch (hockey stick) for a week. - Memorable other regular, ongoing events at Hostel - all-night “cack sessions” on myriad topics, inter-wing “friendly” gaali fights that served to enrich vocabulary, Friday mess dinner “bada khana”, followed by “bada movie”…
226
Sanjay’s’ Journey Realized that I hadn’t had enough of IIT so stayed back for another year, would have stayed back longer but guess IITB got tired of having me around for five years, summers included and decided that I needed to graduate. Only place to match the wild side of IITB is IIMB so decided to spend some more days doing vellagiri, this time in Bangalore, the city of mugs and pitchers, in my case buckets of draft beer. IIMB was an extension of IITB but there were girls here, man . And there were pubs , dudes – not the RK and Chakra we used to go to . Other than these two differences, life continued from where it left of at IIT. Joined Wipro from IIMB and after six months decided that there was more to life than selling printers, so decided to something of my own. After good six months, drums of booze and cartons of ciggs decided that wanted to make water soluble polymers for the energy industry, went ahead and setup a plant in Nagpur . Mind you- no gyan of chemistry – well lets not discuss chemistry grades here. Spent 5 solid years slogging it out in Nagpur when it dawned to me that I wanted to move on. Moved from +49 degrees to -40 with a job in Norway. Moved back to India in 2004, then again moved back to London. Came back to India in 2007 and have stayed put ever since. Have worked in power industry most of time, currently working with Adani Power in Business Development. When in Nagpur had met Aanchal on Yahoo chat , had a long distance romance for a very long time, close to 6 years, first I was in Nagpur, she was in London, then I moved to Norway and she moved back to India, finally in 2004 I moved back to India and we were both in one city. Took some major convincing to get her parents to agree to part with her and we finally got married in Dec 2006. 9 months later lil Aiyana makes her appearance, she is daddy’s lil girl ☺ . Circa 2015 – Home in Gurgaon, 2 gorgeous girls in my life, Friends always around , life is good. Do drop in whenever you are this side of the world.
Sanjay’s IIT Memories I arrived at IIT with a few clear objectives: 1. Banao Babes, Have fun 2.. Not touch alcohol or tobacco, Have fun 3. Well , have fun. You know I might be the most successful person in the class, well cos– I have always had fun ! H4, H4 . H4, H4 – I don’t know how many times I would have screamed this in my 4, nay 5 years at IIT. Best time of my life . # NWFF – who could have asked for better friends ? Who would have known that I would play a role in keeping us connected ? The 1990 SJRU is the second silver jubilee I am coming for – I attended our seniors’ one and I am sure I will attend the juniors’ too. H10, H10 – the other hostel I kept thinking about ! Those stories we shall talk about when we meet. H3 , DK Bose, DK Bose, DK Bose – I think H3 ensured that H4-ites were totally thick with each other. Department – was it a place we were required to go to ? Best Memories #NWFF # Yamaha RX100 wheelies # Chakra Planters Punch # Vishnu Salami sandwiches # Phone calls home asking for money # Go Girls
Sanjay Nagrare (Nangu)
H4, civiL PGDM, IIM BANGALORE
MARRIED TO
Aanchal DAUGHTeR’ -
AIYANA 227
Maheendra’s Journey
IIT was a springboard both for my career and my life. IIT education and recos got me into Lehigh University for my Masters and PhD in Fracture Mechanics. That led to a career in Reliability Engineering focused on failure modes and design improvements. After 18 years in Semiconductor Equipment industry, I recently moved into Energy sector working on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells. IIT’s hostel life prepared me for life outside career. Endless cack sessions, infinite keedas, perpetual lukkhagiri taught so many useful skills. Making friends, spotting a zhasa, sensing a profitable partnership. All the 20Qs, treasure hunts, dumb charades, essentially trained the mind to be a problem solver - thinking outside the box. That skill has seen me through many challenges in life, in grad school, at work, at home. But I think the biggest gift IIT gave me is that supreme confidence that no matter how late in the game it is, any problem will be solved, I guess night-outs before submissions and exams pay off after all. While in IIT, I never realized the importance of Humanities and Social Sciences classes. But now at work and in family, that education seems to come in very handy. I still remember and use Adler’s psychology in day-to-day life. Kant’s philosophy about motives and actions explains so many things at work when dealing with people. IIT gave me not only an academic credential but also skills, confidence, reputation to back it up.
Maheendra’s IIT Memories
Best keeda in hostel (that can be narrated without risking disciplinary action), was the Institute of Higher Research. We were in Hostel 2 on the 2nd Floor of 1st wing (the wing now called Ekidasohb Elas). We used to cack a lot in the area around the stairs. There were no stairs to go up on the terrace but there was a makeshift ladder to go up - quite a hassle to go up. Whenever anybody outside the wing came looking for somebody, our standard response was :”Abhi upar gaya hai, terrace par”. Then when the poor soul searched on the terrace and came down saying “Nahi hai upar”, we used to get his signature on a sheet saying “I pursued higher research”. Got some 15-16 bakras. Incidently, a guy from H4 went up twice! Then there was the exchange of pleasantries with H3. I don’t know why we used to communicate with H3ites only when the lights went out. A very nice memory - when we won PAF in Jan 1987. It was called Best Days of our Lives. And those days of preparation and performance truly were. First experience of PAF and got to experience a big win.
228
Maheendra Kasmalkar
Rajashree Pimpalkhare
H2, MECH
MS, University of Maryland
(Kassu)
H10, Elec MARRIED TO
MS, Lehigh University PhD, Lehigh University
Mangesh
MARRIED TO
NIKHIL, BELA
Revathi Children’ MIHIR, PARTH
Children’ -
rajashree’s’ Journey
The four years at IIT with you all were the most formative for me and the journey since has been pretty fun as well. I was the first one in our batch to get hitched right after graduation. I completed my MSEE at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County in the Fiber Optics program but then moved to California to join Intel Corp designing chips at the end of two years. Through the last 23 years, I have worked at Intel, Synopsys, and PayPal and now Intuit in various roles ranging from chip design, product management, engineering management and now strategic partnerships. Throughout my career, I have sought to be a problem solver and a courageous leader. As a women technologist, it has been an interesting journey in Silicon Valley. After spending all my childhood and formative years in a very gender neutral mindset, I have had to learn to deal with perceptions and unknown gender biases in all of us. I can definitely say I have enjoyed the challenge and we are going to leave the work culture here in a much better place for our daughters (and sons.) On the personal front, I have two kids - 16 and 12. Mangesh and I continue to lead active lifestyles although I have never matched my childhood athletic abilities - that is now the goal for 2016. Besides running and cycling, I have also dabbled in music, am a recreational diver, have has two pretty bad ski accidents needing surgery and hope to be back on the slopes again this year. Sorry to be missing this time with you all - I will be toasting you all from the beach in Puerto Rico with a drink in my hand!
rajashree’s’ IIT Memories
My first memory at IIT is the selection for NSO sports where Coach Yadav heckling all the boys that I could do more push ups than them! This was followed by all those Inter IIT meets that were all about the social scene rather than the athletic challenge. All I can say is that the girls to boy’s ratio made the four years in IIT pretty darn interesting! One of the more embarrassing memories is the interhostel basketball game with H4 in my second year. The whole H4 team kept handing me the ball back in the hope I would at least be able to score one basket - but alas that was not to be till Chitra came to my rescue... I also remember PAF and “Goodness Gracious Me” the many night walks to Shetty’s canteen and Vadilal - tomato drop soup and one-by-two chai - end-sem chai and always celebrating my birthday during the exam week - waiting to get Chitra’s notes before very test and final in the fourth year - throwing water on visiting junta from the H10 terrace above the entrance - all the scholarship celebrations at Chakra. Also remember cracking Dipan Ghosh, KCM, UBD also my adverse reaction to Fluid Mechanics where I convinced myself passing grade was all I wanted anything better would send the wrong message that I liked the class. The many late night/all night sessions with Anu discussing our aspirational and sometimes imaginary love life - total awe for the courageous lives of our many seniors - YP, Anna, Sharada, Shubhada, Anu Moulee, Achala and of course Meena!
229
DilIP SiNHA H5, ELEC
MARRIED TO
RASHMI SON -
AYUSH
DILIP’s’ Journey Joining IIT Bombay in 1986 was a dream come true for a small town (Patna) guy like me. After completing a 4 year gruelling course of Electrical Engineering, I wanted to work. I had two options at that time, either go to the burgeoning IT sector or work in the brick and mortar company. I chose the latter, somehow the idea of sitting in front of a monitor just didn’t appeal me. I landed at the steel city of Jamshedpur in July 1990, where in Tata Steel coached me to become a steel engineer. It was a great experience there being part of a mammoth bureaucracy which went in producing the steel. Very soon, I got restive due to the narrowness of the work assignment and the restricted life which Jamshedpur city offered. I prepared for IAS/IES exam and finally landed to Indian Railways in 1993. Railways, spread over distant areas gave me the opportunity to live at different places (Hyderabad, Baroda, Calcutta, Varanasi, ....). The work mainly concerned engineering management which basically meant improving processes, motivating employees and finding innovative jugaars (contrivances) for continuing with ageing equipment. Social life in Railway colonies were filled with bonhomie. Meanwhile, I got married to Rashmi in 1997 and had a son in 1998. With advent of metro trains in Indian urban public transport sector, I switched to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in 2003 and came to Delhi. This is the place, I’m presently located. In DMRC, I got opportunity to bring new technology for the rail working and build a team for assimilating the technology and maintaining it. Delhi’s life for the last 12 years has been to my liking with its vibrancy and also for providing opportunity to my wife to carry out her medical profession.
DILIP’s’ IIT Memories The facilities of the campus as well as Mumbai city were of immense attraction to me. My favourite past time was going to movies, strolling at Marine Drive (both the original as well as H7’s), eating at restaurants, going to Lonavala etc with my wing mates. At other times, I would spend my time listening to music, reading novels or arguing over endless issues with colleagues. I would regularly watch Friday movies at IIT club with Prasad. Many of the evenings, I would go to jog by the side of Vihaar Lake and along the water pipeline. I also remember becoming Garden Secretary for a year, and took great interest in developing the rose garden of H7.
RAVI’s’ Journey I have had a particularly charmed life since leaving IIT (heck, considering IIT remains one of the highlights, I’ve led a particularly charmed life overall!). I’m doing the job I’ve always wanted to do, I’ve got a great family life – what more can one ask for (assuming miraculously losing 20 lbs without giving up beer doesn’t count). Even when I was at IIT I wanted to end up as a professor balancing research and teaching. Since I wasn’t the best student at IIT (ha! ha! “lukha” is a better word for what I did there), it’s not like I was preparing the ground for this career early on. I went to Syracuse University for my Master’s largely at the suggestion of my brother (who had a classmate who told him SU was a good school). I didn’t have a particular subject area in mind; I had a vague idea that I liked the more theoretical material, and knew that I was definitely not going to do electronics I ended up doing work in both EM and signal processing. This, back then, wasn’t by design, but it turned out to be crucial because it allowed me to publish a lot more than would be normal. There was one seriously difficult period in my student life and I need a break – and ended up meeting my future wife in trying to get a break from Syracuse. Charmed life indeed. On graduating I was seriously worried we’d have to live far apart while she did her PhD – and ended up being offered a job at a govt. research lab just 50miles away. Charmed life indeed. I could publish here and when it was time to apply for faculty positions, I had a decent resume. I applied in 2000 before the dot-com crash and an unusual resume like mine got some attention. I expect the next year things would have been different with 100s of PhDs who didn’t get Silicon Valley jobs flooding the academic market. Charmed life indeed. In 2000, I moved to Toronto; in 2001 so did my wife – including our baby son floating inside her. Probably the biggest surprise I’ve ever had! You don’t actually plan to start a family when you’re living apart! My dept. at the Univ of Toronto is fantastic – high quality researchers working in a highly collegial atmosphere. It’s been an incredible experience. Our daughter showed up in 2006. Toronto itself suits us to the T – it’s an incredibly diverse city with cultural influences from every part of the world. We’ve made great friends from various parts of the globe. During the football World Cup some area of Toronto is celebrating and some area depressed after every match. You can start today and eat at a different kind of restaurant for a year straight! It’s also an amazingly safe city with the feel of a small town near home. Like I said, with a great family, the job of my dreams and living in a wonderful city, what’s not to like?
RAVI’s IIT Memories To write down memories of IIT doesn’t feel right – it feels like IIT is in the past, but to me, IIT is present every day. The way I talk, the way I approach new concepts, the way I argue, the way I want my students to think of studies – they all come from my time at IIT. While I was a total lukha at IIT, I learnt an incredible amount – and I learnt that just getting a good mark didn’t mean you knew things (or rather, getting a bad mark didn’t mean you didn’t know things). Even now, I get strange looks from colleagues when I say something disparaging about “muggus” – or talk of the worst form of humanity, students doing RG-giri! My introduction to IIT was different from most because my brother was had been in the same hostel for 3 years before I got there. I stayed in one of the hostel room during JEE. So, when I got there, I already knew where Convo was and what LT meant. I had tasted ice cream at Vadilal’s and been to Chakra. But, nothing prepared me for the sheer joy of freedom and the incredible pleasure of being surrounded by a super-diverse, super-intelligent, group. I’ve made friends there who remain the very core of my personal life – even if I don’t get to see them for years on end. We just recently had a mini-reunion and I picked up arguments with wing-mates as if we had been talking just the day before! My memories of IIT center on friends, cack-sessions and drinking really cheap liquor, not so much lectures, labs and exams. We did so many exams that it became a second nature to study at the last second and not sweat the grades. Somehow, those didn’t matter – I wonder what I’d do if my son had the same attitude to his high school grades? How did we get away with this? How did I get through 2nd sem without knowing what our inorganic chem prof looked like? My memories of IIT center on the incredible personalities that surrounded me – each a pleasure to know. The sheer number of individuals I remember is actually quite remarkable. A few vivid memories: Even my wife laughs at the notion of us ganging up on Makhan to take away his air rifle – he had shot so many lizards, the mosquis in our wing had skyrocketed into unbearable numbers! The memory of Rajguru asking a stunned freshie – why does surf wash whitest? WHY does surf wash whitest? Why DOES surf wash whitest? Why does SURF wash whitest? Why does surf WASH whitest? Why does surf wash WHTEST? The first time I was introduced to George Tharakan’s handwriting – a handwriting that I saw again and again and again because I didn’t have notes of my own to study from – and come hell or high water, George would fall asleep by 1, just in time for me to start studying. Mangesh Pimplekhare wondering how to split a cake into 3 without cheating and accounting for collusion. Lendl showing his true colors getting that 2400 in GRE. And through most of IIT, sitting back and admiring the amazing force of nature that is Anu Narasimhan - many of you are finding out about this through this reunion; I was lucky to have a backseat to her organization skills way way back in the day! At IIT I realized that learning (if not studying) can be fun. That you can be good friends with people who strongly disagree with – you can argue, you can call each other names, you can question their basic intelligence – all the while knowing fully well they would walk over hot coals for you. At IIT I learnt about differences between people – and some of what is common between them. At IIT I went from being a bratty kid to a reasonably sentient adult. IIT isn’t a memory; it’s who I am.
RAVI ADVE H7, ELEC
PhD, Syracuse University 230
MARRIED TO
SHALINI CHILDREN AMAN, ROSA
231
Siva Muhunthan H6, CS
MARRIED TO
Sokulaa
Children’ - VARSHAN, SHREEYAA
MS, State University of New York, Buffalo siva’s’ Journey During my childhood days in Sri Lanka I wanted to study in Sri Lankan University, and work my way towards being a professor there. When the political situation at home turned bad in early 80s, I thought about applying to IIT to study there and return home to pursue my dream. I am glad I came to IIT-Bombay. No doubt very challenging, but it gave me well respected qualification as well as lots of confidence for challenges in life. Year after IIT graduation was the most turmoil in my life. I had to escape Sri Lanka by boat to Tamil Nadu as a refugee. Taking a chance against, being shot in the water than getting cornered by troops on land. Professors Phatak, and Dhamdhere helped me get jobs in Bombay. Then a year later I had to leave India a month after Rajiv Gandhi assassination. Getting permission to leave India required dozens of visits to various police stations and other organizations in Chennai, and took two months. I only had a week in Colombo to get my visa, and leave to USA. My parents in Jaffna didn’t even get my message I am in Sri Lanka. Visa to USA was a miracle. It was much harder for Sri Lankans than for Indian nationals. A week later Prof. Srihari in Buffalo thought highly of IIT degree, he decided to award me with a research assistantship and financial aid. Foundations of my education from IIT helped me work with some of the best in the industry in USA. After spending a couple of years at IBM, I got an offer from Microsoft. If IIT gave me a foundation and confidence, 17 years at Microsoft gave me lot more. At this point I am proud to have IBM, Microsoft, EMC, and Uber on my resume and a dozen patents. More importantly the education has helped me live a life where I can get new opportunities, and create some for others. I married my beautiful wife Sokulaa in Colombo in 1998. We have two children Varshan, and Shreeyaa. Seattle area has been home for 20 years now.
siva’s’ IIT Memories Many things about IIT are evergreen in my memory, and will always be. Gajendra (H3 Elec, aka tiger) whom I had only met a couple of weeks before, and I left Colombo by flight to Madras, and later by train to Bombay. I can still picture us entering IIT campus with lots of trees, and hardly anyone on the streets (it was 7am) on a July day with light rain – it was beautiful! First few weeks were only about getting to know others. Jiten and I shared 25. Kalia, Gajju, Dron, Kabra, Jaggu were all few doors away. Ragging period was full of mid night activities of playing soccer in rain, long jumps in mud all in minimum cloths. But it was fun, and very essential to get to know others and settle into the culture. On the intro of all freshies it became clear there were lot of cricket enthusiasts from our batch. Funny (spello?), Sirsi, Dhakur, myself etc were regulars in the H6 team all 4 years. On our first year we practically won the championship under the leadership of Gundu (H6 captain), and Ragavan (IIT captain). Through some controversies H5 managed to turn one result over, and beat us on the rematch. On my second year I took 7 VS 7 (i.e. H7 which had 4 batsmen who play for IIT), and got them out for 52. Easily my best achievement in cricket! Room 183 was mine for over 3 ½ years. Fiji in 183, Jaggu in 182, Kabra 181, and Jalna couple of doors away. Lot of cag sessions, frequent mid night trips to Chinese corner, inter wing sports activities – many things to remember. I ended up spending most of summers at IIT, not because I failed exams but because of situation in Sri Lanka. I remember late night games – volley ball under flood lights, to card games such as literature with fond memories. Kalia coned me to be one of his mess secretaries. It was my first title of any sort, and was good experience. We even made money for the hostel running summer mess! Going to VT after exams to see movies and hang out was funs, mainly with Gajju. Dron – you are an inspiration buddy. I remember his campaign speech “If Janaki Ramachandran can be chief minister of Tamil Nadu, I can be a good GSec of H6”. He truly was a good GSec. As I was leaving for USA, he walked up to me and said “Muhunthan - see you in USA”. He called me a couple of years later when he was in USA. I am still waiting to see you in person here, let’s do it next time! Kannan Sachidanandam, if it wasn’t for your dad running to IIT and send my I20 by courier to Sri Lanka I would not have got my US visa! It was nice to get in touch with Jaggu recently. I look forward to reading his book. Many professors helped us learn, and more importantly learning to learn. Professor Phatak taught us 4 subjects, free lessons on C, and my BTech guide. But more importantly he was an inspiration as a teacher as well as a person. Professor Dhamdere taught us OS, and compilers as part of research employment. But more importantly he set, and expected highest standards of honesty, and integrity; Qualities that serve us a lot in life forever. Many other professors taught us selflessly, about which I could write pages and pages and not do justice. Thanks to everyone for 4 wonderful years at IIT, they will live with me in many ways for ever.
232
SHASHIDHAR’s’ Journey After my graduation from IITB, I did my MS in Materials Science & Engineering from Washington State University, Pullman, where Shailesh Vaishnavi (H2, CS) joined after a year. In between these, I worked for Tata Unisys (now TCS) for a week and quit when asked to sign a bond. Looking back, I sometimes wonder how different my life would have been if I had signed… Came back to India after my MS, and started working for Tata Refractories in Belpahar, Orissa. The town was centered around the factory, and life was reminiscent of campus life - work, eat, drink, play, party… only you couldn’t bunk work just because you felt like it… Moved on to Praxair...and before you start wondering why you never flew with them, Praxair was an industrial gases company and not an airline (if only I had a penny for every time I was asked what destinations we flew to….). Funny business, this industrial gases, where the packaging is upto 50 times more expensive than the product it contains, and more effort is spent in recovering the packaging than in selling the product. Had stints in Delhi, Calcutta (that’s what it was at that time) and Pune with them. During this time, got married to Sudha in 1998, who still puts up with me... I then jumped on to the e-commerce bandwagon with a Mumbai-based online trading platform for industrial gases… a short lived venture, since a bearded man decided to have his men fly a plane into the WTC – which also happened to be where our VC was based… Spent the next 3 years in Nairobi, Kenya, which was (and will remain) one of the most cherished times of my life on the personal front, as both my daughters, Shivani and Shriya, were born during this period. Came back to India in 2007 and started working for Royal Sundaram, a general insurance company based out of Chennai. Five years later, accepted an offer from the parent company to work with their Saudi operations, and have been in the sunny land of oil and sand in Riyadh since the last 3 and a half years. My wife and daughters are now based in Pune, and preferred not to come over to the land of abayas, so am a forced bachelor in Riyadh. Outside of work, I read a lot of fiction novels and spend time on the weekend whacking weeds on the golf course (although I do manage to hit my balls sometimes…referring to golf balls there…I’m not into S&M…yet). I have had more than my fair share of downs in life and things have been looking up for the last decade… here’s hoping it continues this way..CHEERS!!!
SHASHIDHAR’s IIT Memories Memories from IIT days…so many of them…the hostel…the inter-IIT’s…MI’s…PAF’s…Friday movies at the Convo…tea at the Aero canteen…night shows at Huma/Heena…midnight snacks at Shetty’s…I could just go on and on and on… There are 2 trips that standout though… Dilip Joshi, Surya Rao and I travelled to Delhi to participate in a cultural festival as the DC team from IITB…totally unplanned, last minute trip…ended up travelling in unreserved in the middle of winter…with the intent of making a name for ourselves. Needless to say, we did not succeed in our goal, in more ways than one…Oh BTW did I mention that the fest was at LSR !!! And then there was the trip in our 6th sem…this one took a lot of planning and effort. The minimum 80% attendance rule had just been implemented, and we cajoled and pushed each other to attend each and every class without fail…all so that we could bunk classes after the mid-sems to take a road trip. Dilip Joshi, Neelesh Marik. Viplav Nigam, Girish Kumar (Munna), a few of my seniors and I took off in a car and 2 bikes, spent a full week on the beaches in Goa…and managed to make it back intact …and clear the end-sems as well. Oh, how I wish I could relive those days…
SR Shashidhar (Shashi)
FE
Pb
H8, Meta
MARRIED TO
Sudha
Children’ - SHIVANI, SHRIYA
ms, Washington State University 233
H2 234
235
H3 236
237
H4
238
239
H5
240
241
H6 242
243
H7 244
245
H8
246
247
H9 248
249
H10 250
251
Inter IIT
252
253
Himankan
254
255
Mood I
256
257
Aero Engg dept
258
Chem Engg dept
259
CS Dept
Civil Engg Dept 260
261
ee dept
EP Dept
262
263
Mech Engg Dept
Meta Dept
264
265
LESSONS LEARNT AT IIT AND AFTER 266
267
Lessons Learnt at IIT
Dharm Prakash Vajpayee ‘Aagree’
For the first time in my life, I was interacting with people almost all over the world. In my hostel we had janta from countries like Shri Lanka, Mauritius and US. Coming from a very protected background from the city of Taj, I had never stepped out of my home town, English was new to me and here I was thrown to totally new surroundings. In fact in my home town, even in English medium schools and colleges people used to speak in Hindi .So here we were in totally new environment and we were lost. And thus started my quest for people like us and lot of new friendships were forged and which are continuing till date. On first day of my campus life, I remember going to bank at the main gate and my meeting with tallest guy of our batch Pushparag, speaking in Hindi to another of our classmate and thus began our long friendship. Hostel life in IIT has had therapeutic and transformational influence on us. It had purged us from many ego hassles and taught us to tackle adverse situations. Friendships were forged, values of life were silently absorbed, which formed a solid foundation for future course of life. Here itself I learnt first few lessons in public life. Importance of teamwork, comradeship and meeting the deadlines were learnt. I still remember bringing out the first issue of our Hostel ‘ S magazine Pluto’s Voice, which we changed to Abhivyakti in first year of our life in record 12 hours .We had to collect articles, get the art work done, get it typed on stencils and then produced .But we had taken the challenge, many people thought that we will not be able to deliver and these were itself great motivators – to deliver. I still remember our team of Amir Khan, Dokania ji and Pankaj Bhai working overtime to bring it out just before Valedictory function. Never quit --- Another most important lesson, I learnt was never quit, keep on fighting .I was one of the first few students of our batch who would get elected as a Councillor of Hostel. In my hostel during our time post of Literary Secretary was a Councillor post and typically a second year student used to contest, but as I had set my eyes on institute’s G S post, this was the political career beginning that I was looking for. I started as an underdog, no one ever thought I will get elected, but I was confident that I will do a very good job. And I went door to door for campaigning. For the first time in my life I was speaking to so many people in English, I had to deliver a speech in soap box that too in English, but after a hectic round of campaigning I had become very confident and I recall having done a good job at soap box and finally I was elected beating a second year guy by more than 31 votes. I went on to become the GSAA for IITB in my 3rd year, and I know that if and when my political career takes off, the starting would have been, of course, at IIT. Dharm Prakash Vajpayee ‘Aagree’
268
269
The IIT years a FIve-pointer’s perspective Neelesh Marik
1) Lukha-ing in the hostel Indefinite contemplation, in the crucible of newly discovered quasi-independence (away from home, parents etc) on the meaning of Life, Universe and Everything, suitably catalysed by the likes of Douglas Adams, among other trippy writers. 2) Hanging out at Shetty’s , Staff C, Vadilal , Rainbow, RK Investing presence in clusters of social meandering of like-minded, like-jobless and like-hungry people. Perpetual hunger being a feature (not a bug) of the residential graduate program. 3) Hostel Lounge - sandwiches, carrom, bridge, TT (And of course reference the nefarious activities in the lounge) Games, games and games. Mostly of the finite nature, albeit played ad infinitum. 4) Never going to library or classes - where really were the classes? Library: Except to pay late return fines on the few occasions (in alternate blue moons) when some esoteric book was picked up in whimsical impulse, to be promptly forgotten thereafter until discovered in the cobwebs of the hostel cupboard many weeks after due date. Classes: Except to register attendance (where such was necessary for grades and /or some onerous stipulation made by a heartless prof) in creative ways - such as slinking out of the classroom backdoor after the attendance register was signed and the prof was facing the blackboard (or green board was it?)
11) Crossies in the mess With newspaper smeared with tea, egg waste and other unspeakable stains, thereby rendering the newspaper unusable by anyone else after crossword was cracked. Of course, only cryptic ones. 12) Music, Music Music This was one of the highest ROE (Return on Effort) items - endless hours wafting in phatasmagoric sojourns while supine on the lounge pillows. Knowing & Unknowing Despite a lack-lustre academic showing, we have no doubt honed some basic skills of research, comprehension, analysis, problem solving, empirical hypothesis creation, presentation and merit based persuasion. We also intuited the scope for improvement in three areas that our current higher education system does not cater to, but should: being enculturated into a trans-rational world view and an inclusive value system, acquiring deeper skills of integral synthesis/ meta-thinking, and building greater curiosity in subjects outside core disciplines. Fortunate to have been exposed to such diversity of brainpower and cultural diversity, we have perhaps internalized some capacities and perspectives that stood us in good stead later on in our avocations: •
The need to balance data-based decision making with intuition and inter-subjective optimality. To not feel constrained when meaningful data is not available or reliable, just as to not be completely dependent on it when it is. Being aware of the possibility of a ‘Black Swan’ anywhere, any time.
•
The propensity to tolerate, and even enjoy ambiguity. And live with seemingly conflicting forces, knowing that a bigger perspective will emerge in due course.
•
The understanding of the principle of complementarity, and the consequent need to live with different professional styles and personal preferences in a team environment.
6) Going to town to gawk at Bombay One favourite adventure being wedding gate-crashes, premised on the logic that if anyone found unfamiliar (and inappropriately clad) guests, they would assume that these were invitees from the other family.
•
The intuition that every person has a role to play. The successful organization design is one where people are allowed to play to their strengths.
•
The importance of hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, and execution excellence.
7) Insti Cult activities - JAM, what’s the good word, quizzing, Good place to meet other dhanda-nots, and members of the opposite sex. Hostel socials being another such venture.
Neelesh Marik Student and Advisor
5) Cogging ED drawings, photocopying or timesharing notes And if the drafter or T-Square was forgotten, using one deft fingers (even if in shaky nervousness) to ‘cog’ dimensions from the adjoining table.
8) Trying one’s hand at Mountaineering and Sports - but too much effort Return on Effort was the paramount metric that oriented life, attitude, behaviour and action (if any)
*And never really a 5-pointer – Editor
9) Endless cups of tea, and Maggi stall a favourite Cutting Chai, Heaped bowls of noodles, more forks than noodles at times. 10) Living in the same clothes for days on end Including rotational uses of the underwear - different sides on different days.
270
271
Umesh Waghmare
My Journey through Academia
A Life in Academia
With a background of both parents teaching science at a college and mother formally taking up classical music after she was forty, and the consequent environment at home that nourished my curiosity, academia seemed to me like a natural or probably the only limitless space to live in and pursue my dreams. My exposure to bright, hardworking, committed and happy minds at IIT-B, Yale and Harvard fortified my conviction to be in academia. Towards the end my formal education, particularly from my experience in the USA, I felt convinced that all types of work are important and should be equally respected. Secondly, I quote a line from a talk I heard at the Harvard office of career services: “with your education, you should be able to go to any part of the world and succeed in what you choose to do”. Indeed, this was reassuring against any reservation anyone expressed to me in going back to academia in India where the financial incentives are not attractive. On return, it was pleasant to find out that the research environment in India provides absolute freedom and opportunities to take up high risk problems, particularly to a theorist like me. It is sometimes frustrating to see little quantifiable and visible impact in the near term of such work. The frustration eases out when one realizes that the contribution to development of human resources in India is quite important, and probably one of the most environment-friendly developments. It is also greatly satisfying to work with students coming from relatively weaker background, and changing their path of life. In academia, intellectual stimulations come not only from one’s own work, but also from the open, critical interactions with peers. One is forced to continue learning through life. As a result, one remains mentally young; the childlike curiosity and fascination for the world stay on! In most areas of scientific or engineering research, the number of researchers in India is sub-critical, and hence training our young generation will have important impact in the decades to come. While I have been involved in higher education, it is very certain in my mind that good and consistent basic education is crucial for India’s upliftment. There is competition or comparison of performance between peers in academia within India, but I feel that it can often be counterproductive; there is a greater need to work together instead. If one must compete, it should be with the best in the world. Only then, we as a country will excel. I have been fortunate to be involved in Science Outreach programmes in Uttarakhand, through which I get to be (a) frequently in the nature and the Himalayas that I love, and (b) connected with our people from varied backgrounds. My experiences there have influenced me greatly as they give me the time and space to introspect, and strengthen my faith in the people of India at large. Of course, a life in the real world is quite interesting for the challenges and hardship one must experience. This is irrespective of the profession one chooses, and everyone must learn the art of life that enables a path to one’s ultimate goal. For my constitution, being in academia has provided a fabric of life that is intrinsically social and connected with spiritual aspects of humanity.
Shortly after graduating from IIT in 1990, I began graduate study in the PhD program at Columbia University in New York. Unlike many in my cohort, my chosen field was economics – quite distant from the science and engineering pre-occupations of my undergraduate days.
Umesh Waghmare Professor, JNCASR
272
Economics, by its very nature, offers the opportunity to engage society at a macroscale, which, for me, was innately satisfying. It is perhaps for this reason, more than any other, that my interest in economics and in related fields remains as high today as it was when I started.
Pravin Krishna
Graduate training instilled in me an understanding of the importance of ideas in shaping society and, more specifically, of the role of economics in determining the fortunes of nations. As John Maynard Keynes memorably put it “Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.” Yet, economics is one thing and a research life in the field is quite another. Universities, especially elite research institutions, are fast-paced, high-pressure, hyper-competitive settings, far removed from the imagination of many as environments of tranquility and calm with endless time for quiet scholarly contemplations. Most have heard of “publish or perish”, the admonition especially relevant at early career stages, where stringent “up or out” decisions by US universities imply that few survive the grueling tenure process to stay on (while the rest must leave the University, often with loss of face and also deep anxiety about their future). To publish a great many high-quality research articles, hard work is an absolute must -- but so is an abundance of good fortune. The lucky few survive. Many worthy others do not. Academic departments in the United States remain the graveyard of many a brilliant mind. Seniority brings some comforts. But, universities are dynamic venues: You are only as good as your last idea. I have seen Nobel laureates and graduate students equally anxious in presenting their new work in front of academic audiences. The academic culture in seminar rooms is challenging, indeed even confrontational -- elevating innovation, rigor and depth of ideas over all else, allowing little respect for seniority or titles. And, this is exactly as it should be. Research takes up most of my time. There is a considerable amount of policy interest in my fields of specialization (international economics, development, India). This has also allowed me to engage flexibly on projects with institutions like the World Bank, the IMF, the OECD and the UN, all of which has helped to keep my research grounded in real-world questions. What keeps me in academia? Why not take up opportunities in the policy-making world or in development institutions (like the World Bank) or on Wall Street? We each have our reasons. For me, it is the opportunity that universities provide to continually engage with the brightest and freshest minds in a wide range of fields, whose depth of knowledge quickly adds to one’s own repository and to be able to do so in an area of significance for the world. I could not, for myself, ask for too much more. Pravin Krishna Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business Johns Hopkins
273
Careers in the Financial Sector A personal perspective Anurag Mahesh Managing Director, Head of Global Investment and Key Client Solutions, Asia Pacific - Deutsche Bank
I am often asked about careers in the financial sector and I write this piece as a quick guide to understanding the aspirations and the challenges in finance careers, contextualised to today. I have used the Q & A format, partly because I found it easy and convenient to work with, and partly cos I was given these questions to answer ☺ 1) Is Money an instinct and interest that one either has or doesn’t have And the simple answer here is NO. I can say this from my personal career moves and those that I have seen. I moved to a completely new sector in banking (Citi Group) from a consumer goods company (Hindustan Lever).
I think stress management is key in every industry and every one’s personal journey as well. I didn’t find any particular stress in the financial industry. Perhaps the risk of losing one’s job remains somewhat elevated. At the same time, not being able to find a new job also does bother you. For folks like us, who have been in the financial services industry for almost 25 years, going back to other jobs is perhaps not a real option.
I remember finding my feet quickly - I would say that like most vocations, Finance can be learned. Lots of hard work, discipline, some gut and a fair amount of sales / marketing / relationship building skills. So yeah - can be picked up on the job.
So in some ways we are a sandwiched generation where we have only one skill which perhaps the world doesn’t need. Our kids are not through university and lot of us may not have the nest egg for retirement. So that is indeed an issue. No real answers. There are many individual stories and that I can share and I am sure you are familiar with them too
2) Does it use any of the quant skills that we believe we have a copyright on cos we are IITians?
5) What skills do you wish IIT had taught you better to work your way around in the career you have chosen ?
The short and clichéd answer is that it depends. I spent a large part of my job in structuring and derivatives and I would say that I used a fair amount of quant. Even though the skills were not exactly what we learned (It was more of Stats, probability etc), the general quant background at the IITs tend to stand you in good stead. In trading and sales perhaps, it’s a lot less of quant and perhaps a lot more of group dynamics and an MBA perhaps is a better tool to fall back on.
I think the most important skill is flexibility and thinking on your feet, apart from off course creating a fairly quant and analytical mind.
3) Being a very regulated industry, does it restrict creative and free thinking? Clearly it now is a very regulated industry and for a good reason. I am not sure if it stifles creativity. Perhaps it is better to say that creativity is channelled more towards bringing in technology in every aspect of Finance. Won’t bore you with the details as I am sure you have heard of trading, payments, client access, margining etc and how tech and tech companies are fundamentally changing the face of finance. This is where a lot of change is ongoing and I believe that Finance industry would be change fundamentally in the next 10 years. I think you will see a large finch company emerge and be the next Google/Facebook and would create a lot of disruption.
274
4) We hear about financial sector careers being high stress, more so than some others, would like to hear your thoughts on this
6) How does the industry still make amongst the aspirational career to have list Not sure if I agree. Things have come to such a pass that new grads really don’t want to get into banking like we did and are perhaps giving it a miss. Consulting and Tech are far more favoured options . I keep speaking to my nephew at UC Berkeley and the valley is really changing the world!
7) What is the most fulfilling part or most satisfying part of the job you do? This is a tough one and perhaps there isn’t one single answer. To me it would be around helping clients raise debt/equity capital in their companies. It has made me feel that I have contributed to giving them the fuel that they need to run their businesses.
275
Careers in the Financial Sector
Dr. Sanjay Dasgupta
The Financial Services are broadly divided into the buy-side and the sell-side. The buy-side represents the conventional investor (as in, these inventors would historically “buy” stocks and bonds from banks); whereas the sell-side are the customer-facing businesses within banks which “sell” securities out of their inventory to “make markets” in these securities. Up until last year, banks had both buy-side as well as sellside, segregated into separate aggregation units, operating at arms length with respect to each other. So, for example, the proprietary trading arm of a bank would constitute its buy-side, whereas the customer-facing, market-making arm would constitute its sell-side. With the advent of the Volcker rule, there is now a clear distinction in the US, where banks are restricted to sell-side and the buy-side is represented by Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds, Pension Funds and Endowments, Insurance Companies, etc. There are two forms of trading, proprietary trading and market making. If you take the example of a wheat merchant, a market maker would move inventory from village to towns and cities taking a spread out in the process (buy at a lower price in the village to sell at a higher price in towns). A proprietary trader, on the contrary, would take a view that wheat is cheap by buying it and storing it in silos for months, eventually selling when the price is higher and risking capital in the process. We say on Wall Street that market makers are in the “flow” business (i.e. they want their inventory to be constantly moving), whereas proprietary traders are in the “storage” business (i.e. they will take a bet on what is cheap, what is expensive and hold on to these until they make money, or are proven wrong). The Securities that we trade are broken out into four main asset classes: Equities (partnership in an enterprise), Fixed Income (bonds and debt instruments, characterizing lending to an enterprise), Foreign Exchange and Commodities. Within each of these asset classes there are trading instruments. The cash market is the underlying asset itself, for example, the Equity, or Bond or Commodity itself is referred to as cash (i.e. spot). The Futures market is a contractual basis for trading of the cash instrument (i.e. the asset) at any future date. The Derivatives market is the right but not the obligation to buy or sell the underlying instrument at a fixed price at a future date. For example, with IBM stock trading at $100, one may be able to buy the right to own it above $110 three months out for $1.5. If the price is above $110, one may exercise this right to own shares. If it is below 110, the owner does not have to exercise the option and it expires worthless.
When markets are quiet, there is less trading opportunity. As one may imagine, the characterization of these processes and design of systems to trade require a lot of facets and toolboxes that we learn as Engineers: Signal Processing, Optimal Control, numerical analysis of PDEs, Linear Algebra, Neural Networks and Machine Learning algorithms and a sound footing in Probability and Statistics. Furthermore, because of the latency involved and large amounts of data handled, technology plays a very important role. The design of distributed systems with very efficient marshaling and transport of data across a plethora of processes across large networks makes the practical implementation of such systems quite challenging. When I started off on Wall Street in 1995, I got quite immersed in this problem solving aspect to figure out ways to characterize the structure in the madness of the markets. Twenty years later, I still find the problem intellectually very stimulating; however, I often find myself questioning the utility of this whole “game”. No doubt, Capital Markets provide a venue for Enterprises to raise Equity or debt financing, to hedge their Foreign Exchange exposure and for Nations, Suppliers and Manufacturers to lock in prices of Commodities. Trading operations provide the liquidity and fluidity to ensure that prices, by and large, are efficient – and hence, the end user gets the “right” price. Still, there are way too many gamers of this game. However, having experienced these markets for a while now, I do not see very obvious ways to change the “game.” One of the solutions may be to slow everything down from micro to nano-seconds to one-second auctions, thereby leveling the playing field and weeding out a lot of the gamers; however, this very likely will be the cost of liquidity, and hence price, to the end user. Because of the issues raised in 2008, the industry has swung from being under regulated to now being grossly over-regulated. Banks do not typically lose money because of trading; they lose money because of faulty and reckless lending practices. However, because of the over regulation a lot of talent has now left banks and found its home in the more unregulated hedge fund space. I have worked at banks, I have worked at hedge funds, I have worked on the buy-side for twenty years and now finally, I am making markets in one of the top sell-side derivatives operations. All in all, it has been a fascinating journey … Dr. Sanjay Dasgupta, Managing Director Global Head, Institutional Flow Trading RBC Capital Markets
Having given some background on the assets, basic types of instruments and pay-offs and types of traders, we are now in a position to start discussing a trading operation. All the underlying asset prices (i.e. the market) constitute a non-linear dynamical system with non-stationary temporal dynamics. These are characterized by systematic and idiosyncratic diffusion and jumps – in essence, a combination of Weiner and Poisson processes. The different instruments essentially symbolize different moments of the joint-distribution of this dynamical system. There is a “systemic” component to this madness and around this systemic variation there is essentially random noise in prices. A successful trading operation stays neutral to these “systematic factors” and looks for stationary errors to buy and sell securities. This is a common approach to trading that applies to any moment. When markets get more volatile, there are more inefficiencies and hence more errors, therefore more trading opportunity.
276
277
Shalini Govil-Pai
Women in Technology Careers
Women in Business Careers
Growing up in India, I can’t remember a time when I felt uncomfortable being good at math in school! It was fun being smart and beating the guys. Things changed a small bit I joined IIT - it was quite a shock (or pleasant surprise depending on viewpoint) to see that there were such few women joining the Institute. It took a while to being the only girl in class, to doing homework on your own and never having anyone to share notes with or mugga maro with. Despite that I mustered it through classwork, esp with the help of a few friends and of course RK. There are many horror stories women in tech have related as to their experience being the minority. A few that I personally witnessed at work are below, although they are not as bad as others have encountered
Let me start by explaining both my motivation as well as my qualifications for writing this piece. While I have worked only in India and primarily in consumer marketing companies, women in workplaces is actually a blog I could write if I trusted my writing skills more. My objective for doing this piece is quite selfish – I really want to see more women in senior management and all you dads and moms can influence that !!
1.
Being invited for the “tech” event, but can you please dress up nicely and help with registration ( now I’m usually keynote for many such events)
2.
Mentoring a fresh grad who told me that when she would do CS projects in school, her partner would take away the keyboard saying “you won’t be able to do this work”. (now she is her college partners boss)
3.
Conducting a tour of our campus to some foreign dignitaries, and then being asked - can we meet the director (had to remind them that I was the director)
The gender diversity issue in STEM is raging strong in Silicon Valley. The issue starts quite early in the pipeline. Witnessing my own kids schooling experience can reveal the pattern - my own daughter starting to dislike math in middle school because it was for the “geeks”. If Raj and I were not on her case to make sure she didn’t give it up, she could very easily have dropped Calc in High school and not applied in Engineering (which she is currently pursuing at Rice Univ and keeping up the very low percentage of 18% US women undergrads in Engineering!) My son on the other hand is devoted to math and robotics and his buddies and he love hacking and some have even pulled out all night hackathons at the tender age of 13! What makes their experience in school so different? Peer pressure is one part of it, unconscious bias in teachers and employers minds is another, and finally media has a part to play. Watch any of the “hero tech” movies (Social Network, Jobs, etc.) it’s all about the guys who code away in sweat pants and hoodies and the gals who sometimes hang out for the drinks. Do you think it matters that you have more women colleagues at your work place? I recently came across this company which was trying to make an app which would activate when you tapped it in your back pocket. Well, said one of the women who worked there, we women don’t carry phones in our pocket. What would the company have done without this insight into the other 50% of the world? As many of you have daughters, make sure you are not perpetrating the problem with an unconscious bias that sets in for any minority group At Google we purposely have bias busting classes that help people unravel their own biases that form sub consciously. From Google’s Youtube’s division, we are also working on a series of movies and shows featuring women tech role models! I look forward to seeing more and more women in Tech careers. Shalini Govil-Pai Director & Global Head, Youtube
278
The numbers are poor in the Indian context– the birth gender ratio is close to 50%, in the best of companies we hire 30% women at the entry level, and by the time we reach the CXO suites it drops to an abysmal single digit.
Anu Narasimhan
So let me give you a sense of the challenges that I have faced trying to be an effective professional. As a sales manager, I used to live in Madurai which then was a very small town – as I get into an auto, the driver asks me “ madam, do you want to go home or to the Titan showroom “ – that’s the kind of visibility working women in India have to deal with. I remember barricading the door of a hotel room in a really small town with tables and chairs, and still not being able to sleep a wink. Companies I have worked at have at times felt like an old boys club – men hang out with other men (!), the desk and the bar are often seamless, and vital information and strategy chatted over a drink rather than in a meeting room. Companies also have fat rule books for ‘affirmative’ action, and line managers in these organisations have found equally long workarounds – and women have found themselves ‘mommy-tracked’. I am the one who has ended up organising the lunches and do at senior management meetings (and almost expected to), I am confused however whether it is a gender thing or a personality disorder of mine. There is however a lot of good news too. Management, Marketing, Business Development are all extremely aspirational – we don’t have to sell these to young women of today. Honestly, I have not had much reason to fault men managers on dis-intent as much as on dis-competence, on the ability to manage women subordinates. I have perhaps had more reason to suspect a lack of ambition in women professionals – the glass ceiling is internal long before it becomes external. And I remember that 6 years of formal education at two of the country’s premier institutions did not teach me any communication or leadership skills – that was meant to be learnt on one’s own. Can we do differently by our children? Sports is a good route to building excellence and team work. Are there other avenues to build confidence, social skills, leadership, collaboration? Most of us are not recluses, and we would like to be ‘inclusive’ – we just find it difficult, or so we believe. Take it from someone who knows, it isn’t so difficult to put one’s hand out and be the first to speak the crucial first sentences. There is no advice for this, it just needs to be tried, actually it just needs to be done ☺ Think of it as paying it forward for our children by mentoring employees and creating affirmative workplaces. We as parents need to find the right role models for our children. The closer to home the better. And you know there is a difference between taking care of our children to being a role model for them. Our son has never said so but he wants to grow up and be what Appa is – can’t ask for anything more in life! Anu
279
Who are the true engineers A Personal Perspective Sameer Anand
The Webster’s dictionary defines the verb “to engineer” as “to produce or plan, especially in a clever and skillful way.” The noun engineer is described as “a person who has scientific training and who designs and builds complicated products, machines, systems, or structures.” Synonyms are listed as “architect” and “mastermind.” Since the word originated from the Middle English word “engineour” i.e. “to device, construct” in the 14th century, the world has gone through multiple transformations: the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the Information Technology Revolution. These have been enabled by the growth of corporations, Financial and Management systems. In the future, we may experience the Artificial Intelligence Revolution possibly accompanied by people-focused Social and Psychology systems to stabilize the fabric of the social public system.
standardize a global Way of Working, but then adapt as needed locally to meet the diverse needs of the cultural system. It also became clear that there were different systems and sub-systems to be architected and improved: at the Self, Team, and Organization-level. Since I personally applied these techniques to 15 very different countries including US, UK, India, Brazil, Singapore, Turkey, Central America, Caribbean and Latin America, if I had continued to think of myself as a traditional engineer focused on technical and tangible IT etc systems while overlooking the people and the culture of the wider system I was architecting for, I definitely know my work would have been rejected by the diverse cultures. While I haven’t worked in “academia”, a big portion of the role did include leadership development, coaching, and action learning of the individuals in the system.
I’m going to apply the definition of an engineer as an “architect” or “mastermind” of “systems”, and will define “systems” as inclusive of people, processes, and technology. Per this definition, anyone who is an architect or a mastermind of a clever, skillful plan to design and build a system is a true engineer. While the answer of which engineer is truer, or “more equal than others” (in an Orwellian sense), may depend on the individual observer, I’ll only provide below my journey along the various engineering paths. In IIT, my personal vision of engineering included someone who architected reactors for fluid mechanics and the associated heat, mass, and energy transfer operations. As I moved to NC State, the “systems” being architected changed to immunoassays and drug delivery vehicles. In my first job as an environmental engineer working on air pollution reduction, the “system” changed to the chemical plant as well as the environment and the people who would inhale the pollutants.
I feel, based on my personal experience that true engineers are ones that are not restrictive but rather evolve with the times. While staying true to the definition of engineers as architects and masterminds that design systems and structures with the appropriate amount of innovation vs. standardization, true engineers flex traditional definitions of our engineering curriculum to encompass evolving and broadening definitions of the systems and structures that we architect and mastermind. Institutions should add social sciences (psychology, sociology), leadership and soft skills classes to keep engineers up to date with emerging needs of society and corporations. Sameer Anand
Moving on to data warehouses being architected as an IT data analytics engineer, the system was first defined as the data warehouse and its analytical applications and standard reports. Eventually, as I moved closer to the business side of things, the definition of system broadened to include the patient, the provider, the payer, the regulatory entity, as well as the set of internal customers that used services I was architecting. When I moved from a US-based role with my cost center, to a global coaching role, the systems I was architecting broadened more and more to where IT applications were a smaller and smaller part of the system. The engineering and system I was architecting focused more and more on non-tangible items such as enhancements to the Leadership pipeline (new entrants to managers to future leaders to leaders to executives), accountability, alignment, and empowerment to deliver the corporate strategy system, performance management of the corporate system and, when things went wrong, devising a problem solving technique for the system. The clever and skillful aspects of the engineering now had to do with how to
280
281
The Fall and Rise of IIT-Bombay
Lalitesh K
IIT Bombay was the center of my life for 17 years from KG all the way to the Aero batch of 1990. My heart is and will always will be with IIT-Bombay. My love for this place calls on me to write this as much for as the need India has for a vibrant IIT-Bombay of global stature. The point is simple, IIT-Bombay along with others is declining and it’s no one’s fault. It’s a national imperative to take it to heights beyond its previous heights and it is possible in a decade. The necessary and sufficient condition is one simple but monumental change, complete autonomy.
India does not need 500,000 mediocre engineers every year. For India to maintain and expand its growth and to take care of the billion that will remain unemployed, we will need the 10,000 exceptional ones in every field including engineering to generate those pillars of economy. IIT-Bombay is right at the top of the ones close to this standard. It is true the country will need about 20 of these, not just one stellar IIT-Bombay. My hope is if we get one right, we in India are very good at pattern matching :).
The five IITs became not just national but global brands, and beyond just a brand, their alumni were and are responsible for India’s rise and growth. What India has wrought out of that misery, abject poverty and despair, while remaining a true democracy is a major messy miracle. The IITs have a lot to be proud about, but dark clouds gather. The IITs are dying.
•
Eliminate retirement age for stellar, emeritus professors, will automatically increase mix of stellar profs
•
Eliminate syllabus for JEE, go back to the original JEE model, using Einstein’s and DB Phatak’s testing philosophy of testing for infinite grasp, ignore infinite ignorance
•
Increase tuition of kids of well off parents to global levels, Indians spends Billions importing education, they will pay for local world class education
Organizations don’t die, they bleed to death. I first postulated this is happening to IIT-B in 2004 and discussed with KSRK Prasad, my father; Jared Cohen, CMU president and my mentor Raj Reddy. They all concurred for reasons that follow. Jared in his several trips to India confirmed these hypothesis.
•
Increase pay scales of faculty to be globally competitive, give them perks like free education for their kids subject to admission at IITs and peer global universities
•
Upgrade all facilities to be on par if not better than the best land grant institutions in the US
•
Create an IIT-Bombay endowment managed only by the donating alumni and the senate with a target of $100 Million in a decade
There is a simple truth and three corollary psycho-historic forces of that truth driving this decline. The truth is that the IITs are massive victims of their own massive success: 1. Any successful government institution becomes a political vehicle, so have policies around IITs, subject to populism vs thoughtful strategy. Even politicians who sympathise can’t do otherwise. Why would any sane politician let go of a few million votes that come by creating yet another IIT, siphoning off both funds and faculty from existing ones? 2. India’s economic rise, especially in the fields of technology driven by IITians has in turn created great, amazing jobs for techies and researchers, not available in our parents’ days. Jobs where they quality of work is as good if not better than IITs, work environments as cool and pay scales rivalling US pay, about 5-10X of the faculty peers. Only the exceptions among exceptional researchers then choose to be IIT faculty. How does a global star in his or her field justify to their family why their quality of life is much worse than the peer they just went to dinner with? 3. And due to the same success of IITs, the incoming student mix has changed from being a large body of weird, fringe, geeky kids with diverse interests and thought, to being a large body of well trained, regimented, drilled and driven kids, primarily due to the rise of the coaching raj. Whatever spark and keeda they had is being beaten out of them.
I tell my kids to never crib about a problem without offering a solution, so here go a few ideas, there will be better ones once everyone helps:
All of these are possible, in a decade, but only with complete Autonomy. Taking the simple example of Alumni donations, donations will flood in. How do we know? The few IITian billionaires I know are giving all the time 10x more to other global institutions in spite of their love for the country and the IITs. Putting my money where my mouth is, me and my better half will pledge a million dollars to IIT-Bombay and will raise another 10. I will even come there and teach if I pass the interview :). If IIT-Bombay gets Purna Swaraj. Money is easy to donate, autonomy requires your help to together ideate, speak out and evangelise. We seek your help in the advocacy initiatives for IIT Bombay – to get IITB back to where it used to be before. Lalitesh K
All of the above is inevitable, it’s very hard to do much about this, but we have a fire burning. That fire is the era of robotics and automation, I call it the Infinity Era. The Infinity Era will eliminate all arbitrage and pattern matching. Jobs in every field except for the exceptional, from manufacturing to engineering will vaporise. This is not just another technology wave where people need to reskill. It’s a global tectonic tsunami where in every field of human endeavour, the computing machine will become cheaper and more scalable to deploy in both capex and opex replacing everyone except the top ~5% of that field, be it a carpenter, a driver, a cook, an engineer or a surgeon.
282
283
RUN UP TO INSTI WAPSI MINI RUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S 284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
IN acknowledgement 300
301
OUR HEARTFELT GRATITUDE WE WISH TO THANK OUR SPONSORS FOR MAKING THE SILVER JUBILEE REUNION OF THE CLASS OF 1990 POSSIBLE. WITHOUT YOU, OUR HOMECOMING JOURNEY WOULDNT HAVE BEEN AS FUN AND MEMORABLE.
SJRU CLASS OF 1990
Shukriya.
Bayarlalaa.
Maururu.nandri.
aabhar.
Hvala.
Quyanaq.
Grazzie. Gracias. Merci.
Danke.
dhanyabaad.
302
Efharistó.
kòp kun. Rahmat.
303
Thank You, 1990!! WE have effortlessly set records. WE tracked down 305 of our batch mates. We had the best detectives. Some going to old residences, some writing good old letters, some faking as customers online.
Sandeep Asthana
WE got the best 24X7 tech support. What a WhatsApp! This creation survived a million chats, thousands of pictures, never seen WhatsApp so alive and so active. A thousand unread messages overnight….. Every day! We have never seen and will never see a busier group. WE built connections, fast! Each one of us getting our friends connected to this phenomenon called SJRU, convincing friends to get on WhatsApp, onto our Facebook group. From India to UK to Australia to Kuwait to HK to London to Jakarta to Singapore to WE chatted with each other like only long lost friends can. We did nukkad pe charcha. We argued about topics ranging from spirits to spirituality. We agreed, we disagreed, and we agreed to disagree. WE had 100 reunions before this Silver Jubilee Reunion. We had it in every size – micro, mini, mega, mama… In unlikely places – in a car, on a flight, on treks and hikes, at clubs and resorts, department & hostel RUs. Pictures flowed like the booze, we realized we could take selfies without cringing, and sharing with the group was so much fun. WE dug up old pictures, sometimes with the help of our parents and nieces too. Relived memories with them. Himankan’s. Val functions. Convoy. Dept. Picnics. WE had poets and poems adding color to our cack sessions and to our reunions. Such was our camaraderie that a friend somewhere completed the thought with new stanzas. WE prepared for the SJRU together. We built song play lists. We listed our Profs who we want to meet. We planned for months what we will do when we meet in campus. So what if we don’t really do them. WE created this most memorable year book that IIT will see in a long time. We wrote up our journeys, and our IIT memories, some helped others write, some actually wrote for others. We managed to include two-thirds of our batch. WE had the best ground support in our friends at the Alumni Association. They kept guiding us, cajoling us. They truly go out of their way to make this a memorable gathering for each one of us. WE had the biggest SJRU the IITB campus has seen. 160 of us here and happening. And so many joining us on video. WE all made this SJRU a Fundu Cracku Success. Bana De!
304
305
S NO
NAME
DEPT
PAGE NO
S NO
NAME
DEPT
PAGE NO
1
AATISH DEDHIA
ELEC
HOSTEL LOCATION 2
MUMBAI
AATISHD@GMAIL.COM
205
57
CHANDRASHEKHAR KUMAR
CIVIL
4
BHUBANESWAR
CSK29@CORNELL.EDU
93
2
ABBAS ALI KHAN
CHEM
9
SAUDI ARABIA
ABBASKHAN2222@YAHOO.CO.IN
32
58
CHERIAN THOMAS
CIVIL
6
DUBAI
TOM.CHERIAN11@GMAIL.COM
176
3
ABBAS QURESHI
CIVIL
4
SAUDI ARABIA
ABBAS_QURESHI@YAHOO.COM
155
4
ABHAY SHANBAUG
CHEM
2
MUMBAI
AMSHANBAG123@GMAIL.COM
10
NEW YORK
CHITRA_NATARAJAN_Q404@YAHOO. COM
50
5
ADITYA BEHARI
EP
5
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
4
BANGALORE
DBAPNA@YAHOO.COM
51
59
CHITRA NATARAJAN
EE
ADITYA_BEHARI@HOTMAIL.COM
60
DEEPAK BAPNA
MECH
61
DEEPAK JOSHI
CIVIL
HOSTEL LOCATION
CAMPUS MUMBAI
96
6
ADITYA RAY
EE
7
COLOMBO
ADITYA@ADITYARAY.IN
178
7
ADVAIT KURLEKAR
META
2
PUNE
ADVAIT@UPOHAN.COM
33
62
DEEPAK SOMAYA
MECH
6
URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
DSOMAYA@YAHOO.COM
212
63
DEEPRAJ DIXIT
AERO
7
HYDERABAD
DEEPRAJ@GMAIL.COM
213
64
DEVENDRA WANKHEDE
MECH
7
VEVEY-SWITZERLAND
DEVENDRA.WANKHEDE@GMAIL.COM
97
DEVESH KHATU
CS
9
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
DEVESH@DEVESH.COM
183
8 9
AJAY ARGAL AJAY CHANDRA
AERO MECH
3 9
HONGKONG JAIPUR
A.ARGAL@GMAIL.COM CHANDRAAJAY86@GMAIL.COM
10
AJAY GARG
CIVIL
8
DELHI - NCR
DAJAYGARG@YAHOO.COM
73
65
11
AJAY KUMAR KUNNATH
CS
7
MUMBAI
AJAY.KUNNATH@AURIONPRO.COM
44
66
DHANANJAY SARODE
CHEM
2
KUWAIT
DSARODE64@GMAIL.COM
182
3
67
DHANANJAY UDGAONKAR
MSC CHEM
3
PUNE
DHANANJAYU@UTCON.COM
163
2
166
68
DHARMENDRA AWASARMOL
CHEM
9
NEW JERSEY
AWASARMOLS123@GMAIL.COM
194
167
69
DHARMENDRA MODHA
CS
7
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
DMODHA@GMAIL.COM
195 113
12 13
AJAY MANSUKHANI AJAY SETHI
MSC CHEM CS
BANGALORE
AJAY_SETHI@YAHOO.COM
14
AJAY SHARMA
EE
3
SINGAPORE
AJAYSHARMASING@GMAIL.COM
15
AJAY TEREDESAI
META
9
CONNECTICUT
AJAYT@ELLINGTON.COM
70
DHARMPRAKASH VAJPAYEE
CIVIL
9
DELHI - NCR
DPVAJPAYEE@GMAIL.COM
71
DILIP JOSHI
MECH
8
DALLAS
DJOSHI12345@GMAIL.COM
45
72
DILIP SINHA
EE
7
DELHI - NCR
DK_SINHA@YMAIL.COM
230
47
73
DINESH KALAKKAD
CHEM
5
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
KALAKKAD99@GMAIL.COM
210
PHOENIX
16
AJIT KUMAR DUSANKAR
EE
3
SINGAPORE
KPMGAJIT@GMAIL.COM
17
AKIL SUBRAMANIAN
AERO
7
NEW YORK
S.AKILESWAR@GMAIL.COM
18
ALOK AGARWAL
EE
6
BANGALORE
ALOKAGARWAL69@OUTLOOK.COM
19
ALOKKUMAR JHA
CIVIL
4
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
AJHA12@YAHOO.COM
74
DURVASULU CHANDRASEKHAR
META
2
AMBER.DUBEY@GMAIL.COM
75
FARHAD AHMED
CS
7
TORONTO
FARHAD_AHMED2003@YAHOO.COM
98
ANAGARWAL@YAHOO.COM
76
FIROZ KANCHWALA
EE
4
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
FKANCHWALA@GMAIL.COM
99
77
G. RAVISHANKAR
EE
6
MUMBAI
RAVISHANKARG172@GMAIL.COM
168
GANESH.BALGI@GMAIL.COM
20 21
AMBER DUBEY AMIT AGARWAL
MECH MECH
4 6
DELHI - NCR SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
46
22
AMIT MALIK
EP
7
CHICAGO
AMITMALIK@YAHOO.COM
77
23
AMITABH SARAF
MECH
5
BANGALORE
AM.SARAF@GMAIL.COM
70
78
GANESH BALGI
CHEM
6
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
79
GANESH SKANDAN
META
6
NEW JERSEY
24
ANAND KRISHNASWAMY
EE
5
DALLAS
ANKRISHN@GMAIL.COM
207
25
ANAND KULKARNI
EE
2
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
ANANDKULKARNI@GMAIL.COM
162
80
GAURAV KOTHARI
CIVIL
8
ATLANTA
GKOTHARI@GMAIL.COM
80
GAUTAM KUMARAN
MECH
5
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
KUMARAN_GAUTAM@YAHOO.COM
81
26
ANAND RAMAN
EE
2
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
ANAND_RAMAN1@YAHOO.COM
71
81
27
ANIL AGGARWAL
EE
3
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
ANIL@MILESTONEINTERNET.COM
54
82
GEORGE THARAKAN
EE
7
SANTA BARBARA
GM_THARAKAN@YAHOO.COM
64
AHCHAND@YAHOO.COM
83
GIRIDHARAN IYENGAR
EE
4
NEW YORK
GIRI@ALUM.MIT.EDU
65
GIRISH GUPTE
EP
7
DC-AREA
GRGUPTE@YAHOO.COM
28
ANIL CHANDIRAMANI
AERO
3
MUMBAI
29
ANJALI KHARE
CHEM
10
RALEIGH
ANJALIKHARE@HOTMAIL.COM
55
84
30
ANOOP KULKARNI
EE
3
CHICAGO
ANOOP_KULKARNI@HOTMAIL.COM
74
85
GIRISH KUMAR
CIVIL
8
MIAMI
GKUMAR@HNTB.COM
102
31
ANUP SINGH
CHEM
2
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
AKSINGH@SANDIA.GOV
56
86
GIRISH S. SETLUR
EP
9
GUWAHATI
GSETLUR@IITG.ERNET.IN
103
204
87
GOURANG SHAH
AERO
9
SINGAPORE
GOURANGS@YAHOO.COM>
110
HARESH MALHOTRA
CHEM
2
MUMBAI
HARESH_MALHOTRA2000@YAHOO.COM
32
ANUPAM BHARTEEYA
MECH
2
BANGALORE
ANUPAM.BHARTEEYA@GMAIL.COM
33
ANURADHA NARASIMHAN
CIVIL
10
BANGALORE
ANURADHA.NARASIMHAN@GMAIL.COM 57
88
34
ANURAG MAHESH
MECH
8
SINGAPORE
ANURAG.MAHESH123@GMAIL.COM
89
HARI SUBRAMANI IYER
CHEM
4
NEW JERSEY
IYERH@HOTMAIL.COM
111
35
APURVA PARIKH
META
9
DALLAS
APURVA1PARIKH@HOTMAIL.COM
90
HIMANSHU POKHARNA
MECH
6
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
POKHARNA@GMAIL.COM
82
BOSTON
91
HITESH VADALIA
CHEM
3
MUMBAI
HVADALIA@HOTMAIL.COM
83
I. JOGA RAO
MECH
9
NEW JERSEY
36
ARSHAD KUDROLLI
EP
7
58
37
ARTI BARAPATRE JAIN
EE
10
MUMBAI
AARTIAJAIN@GMAIL.COM
59
92
38
ARVIND SUNDARRAJAN
META
6
SINGAPORE
IPARVIND@GMAIL.COM
218
93
JANARDHAN DEVRAJAN
META
7
PHOENIX
JDEVRAJAN@GMAIL.COM
39
ASHFAQ THANAWALLA
EP
8
MUMBAI
94
JAYARAMA SHENOY
EE
5
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
JNSHENOY@IEEE.ORG
JEETENDRA SANT
EE
4
NEW JERSEY
JEETS333@HOTMAIL.COM
40
ASHISH ASTHANA
MECH
9
DUBAI
ASHISHASTHANA@YAHOO.COM
146
95
41
ASHISH BENDRE
EE
2
WISCONSIN
ABENDRE@TRANSCOIL.COM
68
96
JEETENDRA VERMA
EE
2
MUMBAI
JEETENDRA.R.VERMA@GMAIL.COM
147
97
JITEN SHARMA
MECH
6
MELBOURNE
JITENSHARMA@HOTMAIL.COM
112 122
42
ASHISH NAIK
CS
2
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
ASHISHVNAIK@YAHOO.COM
43
ASHOK SARKAR
CHEM
4
MUSCAT
AKSARKAR5@YAHOO.COM
98
JYOTI BHAGAT MAJMUDAR
EE
10
BANGALORE
JYOTI.MAJMUDAR@EDUSPORTS.IN
123
ATUL.AGARWAL.ME@GMAIL.COM
99
K RAMMOHAN
META
6
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
KARTHIKRAMMOHAN@YAHOO.COM
215
100
KALLOL BISWAS
CS
9
LONDON
KBISWAS06@YAHOO.COM
101
KALYAN MUKHERJEE
CIVIL
8
MUMBAI
44
ATUL AGARWAL
CHEM
4
KOLKATA
69
45
ATUL BHADKAMKAR
CHEM
2
WISCONSIN
SBHAD@HOTMAIL.COM
46
AVINASH MAHAJAN
EP
7
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
AVINASH.MAHAJAN@GMAIL.COM
179
47
B GAJENDRA
EE
3
SYDNEY
GAJENB@HOTMAIL.COM
76
102
KAMALKANT SHUKLA
CIVIL
8
MICHIGAN, TROY
KK_SHUKLA@HOTMAIL.COM
219
103
KANNAN SACHIDANANDAM
EE
6
BANGALORE
KSACHIDAN@GMAIL.COM
6
PORTLAND
AMOMKARA@GMAIL.COM
87
KASHYAP.BELLUR@GMAIL.COM
86 184
48
BAKUL DAMLE
EP
5
DALLAS
BAKUL_DAMLE@YAHOO.COM
49
BALI BHUMA REDDY
CS
8
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
BREDDYB@YAHOO.COM
104
KARTIK ANANTHANARAYANAN
META
KASHYAP R. BELLUR
META
50
BHARADWAJ AMRUTUR
CS
9
BANGALORE
AMRUTUR@GMAIL.COM
90
105
51
BHARAT SHYAM
CS
9
SEATLLE
BHARAT_SHYAM@HOTMAIL.COM
91
106
KIRAN BELLARE
EE
3
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
KIRAN.BELLARE@GMAIL.COM
107
KIRAN DHAVALE
META
7
MUMBAI
KIRANDHAVALE68@GMAIL.COM
34
108
KISHORE SEENDRIPU
META
6
SAN DIEGO
KISHORESEENDRIPU@GMAIL.COM
124
KODALI BS PRASAD
MSC CHEM
4
RALEIGH
IAMPKODALI@GMAIL.COM
114
NAYAKAN88@GMAIL.COM
130
52
BHASKAR DAS
MECH
4
53
BHUSHAN HEDA
MECH
8
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
BHUSHAN.HEDA@GMAIL.COM
CAMPUS BANGALORE
214
54
BRIJESH KUMAR
AERO
7
PHOENIX
BSAXENA@GMAIL.COM
35
109
55
CHAITANYA RAJGURU
EE
7
PUNE
CRAJGURU@YAHOO.COM
92
110
KUMAR MONDAL
CIVIL
5
THIMPU
111
KUMAR SESHADRI
CHEM
3
PUNE
56
306
CHANDRASHEKHAR JINGAR
CS
8
FOLSOM
CJINGAR@YAHOO.COM
307
S NO
NAME
DEPT
PAGE NO
S NO
NAME
DEPT
112
KUMAR VISHWANATHAN
EE
5
BOSTON-ACTON
KUMAR@VISHWANATHAN.NET
125
168
PRASAD KUKKAMALLA
EE
7
113
LAKSHMAN EASWARAN
EE
3
NEW JERSEY
LAKSHMANE@GMAIL.COM
185
169
PRASAD PATANKAR
META
7
PUNE
PATANKARPRASAD@GMAIL.COM
114
LALITESH KATRAGADDA
AERO
3
BANGALORE
LALITESH@GMAIL.COM
109
170
PRASHANT KAMAT
CHEM
3
BANGALORE
PRAKAMATH@YAHOO.COM
115
LELWYN DSOUZA
MECH
2
SINGAPORE
LELWYNDSOUZA@GMAIL.COM
127
171
PRASHANT SAWANT
CIVIL
8
NEW ALBUQUERQUE
PRASHS99@YAHOO.COM
53
116
M AMIR KHAN
CIVIL
9
LOS ANGELES
AMIR_KHAN@SBCGLOBAL.NET
206
172
PRATIK KADAKIA
AERO
9
MUMBAI
KADAKIA.PRATIK@GMAIL.COM
152
117
MADHAV KULKARNI
MECH
4
PUNE
MADHAVKULKARNI1@YAHOO.COM
42
173
PRAVIN DONGRE
MECH
2
DELHI - NCR
PRAVINDONGRE@GMAIL.COM
118
MAHADEVAN IYER
EE
4
BANGALORE
MKIYER@GMAIL.COM
174
PRAVIN KRISHNA
META
7
DC-AREA
PKDC.IITB@GMAIL.COM
119
MAHALINGAM EASWARAN
CS
9
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
EMLBERK@YAHOO.COM
43
175
PUSHPARAG
EE
2
NEW JERSEY
PUSHPARAG@HOTMAIL.COM
120
MAHEENDRA KASMALKAR
MECH
2
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
MKASMALKAR@YAHOO.COM
228
176
R MADHAVAN
CHEM
4
MUMBAI
MADHAVAN.RAMASWAMI@GMAIL.COM
121
MAHENDRA GAIKWAD
MECH
6
NASIK
M_GAIKWAD@YAHOO.COM
177
R. KRISHNA KUMAR
EE
3
PUNE
KKUMAR448@GMAIL.COM
122
MAHENDRA PINGALE
AERO
3
AUSTIN
MKPINGALE@GMAIL.COM
128
178
RAHUL SHARMA
META
7
123
MAHENDRA SONAWANE
179
RAJASHREE PIMPALKHARE
EE
10
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
RAJASHREEP@GMAIL.COM
229
124
MANDAR DIKSHIT
CHEM
3
NEW YORK
MANDIX01@OPTONLINE.NET
129
180
RAJEEV AGRAWAL
EE
6
BANGALORE
RAJEEV@INNOVITI.COM
223
125
MANESH PATEL
EE
5
MUMBAI
MANESHPATEL@YAHOO.COM
108
181
RAJEEV JOSHI
CS
9
PASADENA
RJVJSH@HOTMAIL.COM
160
126
MANISH JAIN
CHEM
5
UDAIPUR
MANISHCHEMTECH@YAHOO.COM
182
RAJENDRA JOSHI
CIVIL
8
PITTSBURGH
RAJANJOSHI@HOTMAIL.COM
161
127
MANOJ TIWARY
MECH
2
KOLKATA
MNJTIWARY@YAHOO.CO.IN
183
RAJENDRA KABRA
MECH
6
MUMBAI
RKABRA01@YAHOO.CO.IN
159
128
MILIND KOLHATKAR
MECH
4
BANGALORE
MILIND_KOLHATKAR@YAHOO.COM
192
184
RAJENDRAN CHARY
CHEM
6
BOSTON
RAJ.CHARY@HOTMAIL.COM
129
MILIND MHAISKAR
CHEM
5
MUMBAI
SOORYANAMASKAR@GMAIL.COM
220
130
MILIND PATIL
CHEM
2
MUMBAI
M1PATIL@YAHOO.CO.IN
193
185
RAJESH CHAKRABORTY
MECH
9
DELHI - NCR
RAJESH_CHAKRABORTY2003@YAHOO. CO.IN
131
MITESH SHAH
CHEM
6
DETROIT
MITESHSHAH1973@GMAIL.COM
186
RAJESH GHASKADVI
EP
5
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
GHASKI@GMAIL.COM
ABUIQFA@YAHOO.COM
100
187
RAJESH KASBEKAR
MECH
2
SHREWSBURY
RKASBEKAR@KAZ.COM
RAJESH MAJUMDAR
MECH
5
KOLKATA
RAJESHBM@HOTMAIL.COM
132
MOHAMMED DOHADWALLA
HOSTEL LOCATION
5
MECH
5
KUWAIT
HOSTEL LOCATION
PAGE NO
DOGPLATE@YAHOO.COM 199
52
118 26
75
133
MOHAN GANESAN
CHEM
6
NEW JERSEY
GANESANMM@GMAIL.COM
101
188
134
MUHUNTHAN SIVAPRAGASAM
CS
6
SEATTLE
THE.MUHUNTS@GMAIL.COM
232
189
RAJESH NAIK
MSC CHEM
3
NEW YORK
RAJESHRAMNAIK@GMAIL.COM
119
GOELM@HOTMAIL.COM
190
RAJESH PAI
EE
3
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
RAJPAI@GMAIL.COM
158
RAJESH RAO
EE
3
BANGALORE
135
MUKUL GOEL
CIVIL
4
DELHI - NCR
136
MUKUL PAITHANE
CS
7
VIRGINIA, RICHMOND
MUKUL.PAITHANE@ETELIC.COM
132
191
137
MUNISH JAIN
CS
8
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
MJMM2015@OUTLOOK.COM
221
192
RAJESH SINGH
CIVIL
9
138
MURTHY MUNAGAVALASA
CHEM
5
RACINE
MURTHY.MUNAGAVALASA@GMAIL.COM 157
193
RAJESH SINGH
META
2
CRNARAYANAN@YAHOO.COM
194
RAJINDER SHINDE
NARENDRA.SOMAN@GMAIL.COM
195
RAJIV TAORI
EE
2
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
RAJIV_TAORI@YAHOO.COM
NARESHSUNKARA@YAHOO.COM
196
RAJKISHOR KRISHNAMURTHY
MECH
6
LONDON
BRDY11@GMAIL.COM
153
139 140
NARAYANAN RAMANI NARENDRA SOMAN
CHEM MECH
3 2
AUSTIN NEW JERSEY
156
141
NARESH BABU SUNKARA
MECH
2
BANGALORE
142
NARESH SEN
CHEM
8
MARYLAND
197
RAKESH ANAND
CIVIL
4
DELHI - NCR
RAKESHANAND@HOTMAIL.COM
106
HYDERABAD
NAVIN@OPTIONM.NET
198
RAKESH MALIK
EE
5
DELHI - NCR
RAKESH.MALIK0@GMAIL.COM
107
199
RAKESH MISHRA
CIVIL
6
DELHI - NCR
RRMISHRA2008@GMAIL.COM
200
RAMASWAMY IYER
MECH
9
MUMBAI
IYER.RAMASWAMY@GMAIL.COM
143
NAVIN MALIK
MECH
4
144
NAVIN VARMA
META
9
DELHI - NCR
NAVINVERMA2@GMAIL.COM
145
NAVNEET JADHAV
CIVIL
6
EDINBURGH
NMJ1003@GMAIL.COM
146
NEELESH MARIK
MECH
8
KOLKATA
NMARIK@HOTMAIL.COM
147 148
NEELESH THAKUR NEERAJ GUPTA
EE EE
7 2
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA BANGALORE
RANABIR SINHA ROY
MSC CHEM
4
BOSTON
RANABIR.SINHAROY@YAHOO.COM
NEELESH_THAKUR@HOTMAIL.COM
RANJEEV MISRA
EP
7
PUNE
RAMA.JAYANTI@GMAIL.COM
NEERAJGUPTA@GOOGLE.COM
203
RANJIT JADHAV
CIVIL
9
LOUISIANA
RJWEBMAIL@GMAIL.COM
204
RANJIT NOTANI
MECH
2
DALLAS
RNOTANI@GMAIL.COM
136
205
RAVI BALASUBRAMANIAN
MECH
8
SINGAPORE
RAVIRADHIKA@HOTMAIL.COM
165
137
206
RAVI JAIN
META
2
BANGALORE
RAVIJAIN67@HOTMAIL.COM
79
144
207
RAVI RAMAMURTHY
META
9
208
RAVI RAMARATNAM
MECH
5
MUMBAI
RAVIRAMARATNAM@GMAIL.COM
NIKUNJA MANDAL
CHEM
3
KOLKATA
NMANDAL2001@GMAIL.COM
NILESH RATHI
CHEM
8
YAVATMAL
NILESH@FN4MEDIA.COM
152
NISHIT SAHAY
AERO CHEM
7 8
LONDON HOUSTON
153
NITIN KHARE
MECH
5
BHILAI
154
NITIN ZAMRE
CHEM
3
DELHI - NCR
155 156
NOELLA Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;CRUZ P RAVISHANKAR
EP CHEM
10 6
CHICAGO DETROIT
NIPUN_RAMAIYA@YAHOO.CO.UK NSAHAY@YAHOO.COM
117
209
RAVIKRISHNAMOORTHY
MECH
6
BANGALORE
RAVIK@IITBOMBAY.ORG
NOELLADCRUZ@GMAIL.COM
RAVINDRA KUMAR
CIVIL
6
DELHI - NCR
RAVI01021968@GMAIL.COM
126
RAVI.POORNA.SHANKER@GMAIL.COM
211
RAVIRAJ ADVE
EE
7
TORONTO
RSADVE@IEEE.ORG
231
S. SHASHIDHAR
META
8
SAUDI ARABIA
SHASHIDHAR007@GMAIL.COM
233
SACHIN_PANDHARE@YAHOO.COM
169
145
PANKAJ DAVE
MECH
9
MUMBAI
PANKAJDAVE@HOTMAIL.COM
148
158
PARAG GOKHALE
EE
4
NEW JERSEY
PARAG_07712@YAHOO.COM
149
213
SACHIN PANDHARE
CS
7
NEW JERSEY
214
SAIGANESH IYER
AERO
9
FLORIDA
159
PARTHA BOSE
MECH
3
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
PARTHA_BOSE@YAHOO.COM
134
160
PHANINDRANATH KAKARLA
MECH
6
MUMBAI
PHANIKAKARLA@GMAIL.COM
40
MECH
4
162
PRADOSH HAJRA
MECH
5
163 164
PRADYUMNA MAHAJAN PRAKASH BHALEKAR
MECH MECH
4 8
MUMBAI
PRABIRDAS66@HOTMAIL.COM
PUNE
SANAND100@GMAIL.COM
170
6
PUNE
SAMEERJALNAPURKAR@GMAIL.COM
PVMAHAJAN04@HOTMAIL.COM.
8
SEATTLE
SANDEEP.AHUJA@COMCAST.NET
171
PRAKASH.BHALEKAR@GMAIL.COM
222
219
SANDEEP ASTHANA
CHEM
2
MUMBAI
SANDEEP.ASTHANA68@GMAIL.COM
115
220
SANDEEP CHATURVEDI
AERO
9
SINGAPORE
CHATURVEDI.SANDEEP@GMAIL.COM
173
PRAKASHRAMAN@HOTMAIL.COM
41
166
PRASAD ALLURI
META
8
SACRAMENTO
PALLURI2004@GMAIL.COM
198
308
CEMENTS@HOTMAIL.COM
EE
BOSTON SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
DC-AREA DC-AREA
MECH
3 4
8 6
SAMEER JALNAPURKAR
MSC CHEM EE
CHEM CHEM
SANDEEP AHUJA
PRAKASH RAMAN PRASAD JOGALEKAR
SALIM CEMENTWALA SAMEER ANAND
217
165 167
215 216 218
24 SINGAPORE
226
210
NZAMRE10@GMAIL.COM
157
PRABIR DAS
78
22
212
161
164
201
150
NIPUN RAMAIYA
116
202
149 151
133
5
PRASAD_JOGALEKAR@HOTMAIL.COM
221
SANDEEP LELE
MECH
5
DALLAS
SANDEEP.S.LELE@GMAIL.COM
222
SANJAY BRAMHANE
AERO
7
MUMBAI
SANJAYBRAMHANE1968@GMAIL.COM
174
309
S NO
NAME
DEPT
PAGE NO
223
SANJAY DASGUPTA
CHEM
9
NEW YORK
SANJAY_DASGUPTA@YAHOO.COM
175
224
SANJAY DOKANIA
CIVIL
9
BHILAI
SKDOKANIA69@GMAIL.COM
225
SANJAY GAJAMER
EE
6
DUBAI
GAJAMER@GMAIL.COM
226
SANJAY GHAG
META
HOSTEL LOCATION
8
MUMBAI
GHAGSP@YAHOO.COM
S NO
NAME
DEPT
278
VENKATRAMANAN RAMAKRISHNAN
HOSTEL LOCATION
EE
7
138
279
VIJAY HARLAPUR
CHEM
4
177
280
VIJESH BAGDI
CIVIL
4
281
VIKAS AGGARWAL
EE
4
PAGE NO
BANGALORE
VIJAYHARLAPUR@YAHOO.COM
189
JAKARTA
VKBAGDI@HOTMAIL.COM
201
VDABRAL@OUTLOOK.COM
94
227
SANJAY GUPTA
MECH
9
DELHI - NCR
SANJAY.G.123@GMAIL.COM
228
SANJAY JAGTAP
MECH
6
SINGAPORE
SANJAY.JAGTAP2@GMAIL.COM
180
282
VIKAS DABRAL
EE
4
LONDON
229
SANJAY MANNEY
EE
2
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
SANJAYMANNEY@YAHOO.COM
181
283
VIKRAM DWARKADAS
EP
5
CHICAGO
227
284
VIKRAM KANNAN
AERO
7
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
VIKRAM_MW@YAHOO.COM
186
285
VINAY CHANDORKAR
CHEM
6
MINNEAPOLIS
VCHANDORKAR@HOTMAIL.COM
187
286
VINAY GUPTA
CHEM
5
FLORIDA
GUPTAV00@GMAIL.COM
49 95
230 231
SANJAY NAGRARE SANJAY NATH
CIVIL CS
4 2
DELHI - NCR BANGALORE
NAGRARE@GMAIL.COM SNATH@HOTMAIL.COM
232
SANJAY ROY
CIVIL
9
FLORIDA
SANJAY@BELLSOUTH.NET
233
SANJAY SHANBHAG
MECH
5
MUMBAI
SANJAY.SHANBHAG@YAHOO.COM
287
VINAY MURTHY
EE
6
SAN DIEGO
MURTHYVINAY@GMAIL.COM
VINAYAK KARNATAKI
CS
8
SEATTLE
VINAYAK.R.KARNATAKI@GMAIL.COM
234
SANJEEV CHHABRA
CS
7
SINGAPORE
SANJEEV_VERNIKA@YAHOO.COM
84
288
235
SANJEEV GUPTA
CIVIL
4
SINGAPORE
GHANE0@GMAIL.COM
85
289
VINAYAK THAKUR
CIVIL
6
NEW JERSEY
VINAYAK.THAKUR@GMAIL.COM
290
VINISH CHAUHAN
MECH
8
JHANSI
VINISH_CHAUHAN@HOTMAIL.COM
208
291
VINOD SHARMA
EE
7
MINNEAPOLIS
209
292
VINOD VYAS
CHEM
8
AHMEDABAD
VINODVYAS281967@GMAIL.COM
203
293
VINUTH PRASAN
META
9
BANGALORE
BVPRASAN@YAHOO.COM
88
294
VIPLAV NIGAM
CIVIL
8
NEW YORK
VIPLAVN@GMAIL.COM
66
236
SANJEEV JHA
CS
8
BHOPAL
SKJHA954@GMAIL.COM
237
SANTOSH KAMAT
META
7
NEW JERSEY
SANTOSH.KAMAT@UTORONTO.CA
238 239
SATHEESH KUPPURAO
META
SATISH KUMAR RAMACHANDRAN CHEM
7 8
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
SATHEESH_K@IITBOMBAY.ORG SATISHKUMAR.RAMACHANDRAN@ GMAIL.COM
190
202
240
SATISH PATTANAIK
META
6
SATISH.PATTANAIK@GMAIL.COM
295
VIPUL DHOLAKIA
CHEM
4
PENNSYLVANIA
VIPUL_DHOLAKIA@HOTMAIL.COM
67
241
SATISH SHEWALE
CIVIL
4
PUNE
SAT_SHEWALE@YAHOO.CO.IN
296
VIRESH RATNAKAR
CS
8
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
VIRESH@GMAIL.COM
140
242
SATYA PRASAD INAMPUDI
CHEM
8
NEW JERSEY
PINAMPUDI@GMAIL.COM
224
297
VISHWANATH KARRA
CS
2
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
VISHYK@GMAIL.COM
243
SENTHIL KUMAR
META
2
COLORADO-BOULDER
SKUMAREMAIL@YAHOO.COM
191
298
VISHWAS WAKDIKAR
CS
2
244
SHAILESH VAISHNAVI
CS
2
BANGALORE
SHAILESH.VAISHNAVI@GMAIL.COM
131
299
VIVEK CHIYARAM ACHARY
META
8
MUMBAI
VIVEKACHARY@YAHOO.COM
225
245
SHALINI GOVIL-PAI
CS
10
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
SGOVIL@GMAIL.COM
196
300
VIVEK KHARE
CHEM
3
BANGALORE
VIVKHARE@REDIFFMAIL.COM
141
246
SHANKAR KRISHNAMOORTHY
CS
9
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
THE.KRISHNAMOORTHYS@GMAIL.COM
197
301
VIVEK KULKARNI
CHEM
5
MUMBAI
VIVEK0169@GMAIL.COM
247
SHARAD GANDHI
CHEM
6
MUMBAI
SHARAD@ASIAUS.SYSTEMS
216
302
VIVEK RASTOGI
CS
2
DELHI - NCR
VIVEKRASTOGI2002@GMAIL.COM
89
248
SHASHIDHAR THAKUR
CS
7
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
THAKUR@UTEXAS.EDU
217
303
VIVEK SHENDE
CHEM
3
PUNE
VIVEKSHENDE@YAHOO.COM
48
249
SHEKHAR KAMAT
META
2
FLORIDA
KAMAT1000@GMAIL.COM
304
WILFRED MASCARENHAS
META
8
INDIANAPOLIS
TOWILFRED@YAHOO.COM
150
250
SHIRAJ BHALWANI
EE
2
MARYLAND
SHIRAZ_BHALWANI@YAHOO.COM
305
YASEEN CHITRE
EE
5
DC-AREA
YASEEN.CHITRE@HOTMAIL.COM
251
SHIVNANDAN KAUSHIK
CS
8
PORTLAND
SHIVNANDANKAUSHIK@GMAIL.COM
306
YASHODHAN WANAGE
META
9
MUMBAI
YASHODHANW@GMAIL.COM
252
SHRAWAN CHHAJER
MECH
9
DELHI - NCR
SHRAWANCHHAJER@GMAIL.COM
139
307
YOGESH LONDHE
CHEM
6
DENVER
YLONDHE@GMAIL.COM
253
SHRIKAR CHAKRAVARTI
CHEM
6
BUFFALO
SHRIKARC@HOTMAIL.COM
60
308
YOGESHWAR GOKHALE
CHEM
5
PUNE
YOGESH@NJSEI.COM
151
254
SHRINIVAS GN
AERO
9
BANGALORE
SHRIN@HOTMAIL.COM
211
309
ZUBIN DITTIA
EE
2
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
ZUBIN.DITTIA@GMAIL.COM
172
255
SHRIPAD MAHULIKAR
AERO
3
MUMBAI
SPM@AERO.IITB.AC.IN
256
SRIGANESH MADHVANATH
CS
2
NEW YORK
MSRIGANESH@YAHOO.COM
61
257
SRIKANTH GOPALAN
META
6
BOSTON
GOPALAN.SRIKANTH@GMAIL.COM
135
258
SRINIDHI THIRUMALA
EE
3
PORTLAND
MYSORE12@GMAIL.COM
259
SRINIVAS GOLLAPUDI
CHEM
4
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
SGOLLAPU@YAHOO.COM
260
SRINIVAS M.
META
6
261
STEPHEN MELVYN LOBO
EE
2
DALLAS
MLOBO_S@YAHOO.COM
262
SUDHAMA GOPALAN
CHEM
9
CHICAGO
SUDHAMA.GOPALAN@GMAIL.COM
62
263
SUJATA NENE KHANDKAR
EE
10
SYDNEY
SUJATAKHANDKAR@GMAIL.COM
38
264
SUMIT SIRSIKAR
MECH
6
DELHI - NCR
SUMITASH8@YAHOO.CO.IN
120
265
SUNDARESAN MUDALIAR
EE
5
NEW YORK
SUNDARMUDALIAR@YAHOO.COM
266
SUNIL GULRAJANI
AERO
3
HOUSTON
SUNILGULRAJANI@GMAIL.COM
121
267
SURYA RAO
CHEM
8
BANGALORE
SURYA.RAO@GMAIL.COM
36
268
TAMAL SAHA
MECH
8
MUMBAI
TAMALKSAHA@GMAIL.COM
37
269
UDAY NAIK
CS
8
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
URN94555@GMAIL.COM
63
270
UDIT MATHUR
MECH
6
DELHI - NCR
UDIT.MATHUR@YAHOO.COM
154
271
UMESH BERRY
CS
7
MINNEAPOLIS
UMESHBERRY@HOTMAIL.COM
105
272
UMESH KAMAT
CHEM
8
MUMBAI
UMESHKAMAT@GMAIL.COM
142
273
UMESH WAGHMARE
EP
7
BANGALORE
WAGHMARE@JNCASR.AC.IN
39
274
UPENDRA NATARAJAN
CHEM
3
CHENNAI
UNATARAJAN@IITM.AC.IN
143
275
URVISH BIDKAR
CHEM
URVISHBIDKAR@YAHOO.COM
200
276
VAIBHAV PHADNIS
EE
4
SEATTLE
VAIBHAVPHADNIS@YAHOO.CO.IN
188
277
VARAD JOSHI
CS
8
PORTLAND
VARAD_J@YAHOO.COM
310
CAMPUS NEW JERSEY
VISHWASW@HOTMAIL.COM
72
104
The information provided in the table is correct to the best of knowledge of the editorial team. The edit team has also taken some liberites in location - city / state / regional area are used as convenient. Email idâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s have been shared basis the majority response received on query posted to the class of 1990.
311
We will be forever indebted to Elephant Design Parkar Communications 312