Rakesh Agarwal
Well let me start out with saying that it takes me back to the an address on
J. C. Bose Road, Calcutta. Well, somehow , after all the automatic that I
could do under Hare ( hostel's super), I got admission in REC Nagpur in
Computer Science. As everyone said once you are in Engineering college
Life is settled. With the onset of the last 6 months of College it looked
as though I had no choice other than back to "Baap er Hotel", and maybe
become a traditional "marwari" businessman . Suddenly I get this offer letter
from L&T, Bombay, that they were ready to hire me. I was questioning myself
, on what grounds. Well at least that solved the problem, for the time
being, of which hotel to go to. Joined L&T. After six months realized that it
was way too good place for me to work. Switched to TCS. Then TCS decided why
not send this guy to work at Nortel in Raleigh, USA. Well come Sept '94 I
was thrown on Air-India and I landed in raleigh. Went back to India in
April ' 95.
By this time my parents were trying to find out if I had gotten into any
kind of affairs. The message was laod and clear, get married child.
Well it was traditional arranged marriage, in the supposedly holiest city of
India, Varanasi on Jan 31, 1996.
Immediately after marriage, poor me, was
thrown again by TCS to Ottawa, Canada. That was March'96. Boy, I have never
seen such a winter in my life, neither do I intend to see any more. I had
some how been in contact with Abhijit. So I drive from Ottawa to Boston to
meet him. Met him probably after 8 years. Boy that guy had not changed a
bit. Again the cleanest and most organized bachelor's den. Return back to
India in June '96.
After that I got a position at Lucent Technologies,
Columbus, Ohio and was back to the US in Jan '97. In July'97 I had been to New
Jersey. I was supposed to meet Ruchir. I goofed up. Sorry Ruchir.
May 30, 99 we had our first one , a daughter. Having fun with the little one. Amazing to
see how they grow up. Currently wife and myself work at Lucent in
Columbus.
Rajesh Varma
Well....well.............so we all meet again......I have met some of
you recently after being booted up by Xaviers to do the fabled +2 (
Ruchir,for one), talked to some .....Anthony, Shamyol, Shubhayu ,
Sujit, KN Ravi and Daniel to name a some. E-mailed to some: Murali
Nair, A. Sundar .
86 was it........got into BCI , when Xav. didnt want me anymore. Most
of you where with me till then ( Khogen . PKM (Kalyan how is your
Father ? Hope he is keeping well !!!)....etc.).Then everybody of you
around me went of on thier own. Sunil Ranjan PAtak and Sujit kept me
company ........ Rohit Gaur came to me to give me company over a pack
of ciggs. for one day....... . Well I graduated out of BIT with a
mechanical degree and then joined a Tata Co. called TRF Ltd. in
Jampot. I was there for around 5 years doing a good number of
things... construction ( Ispat Steel in Dolvi near Bombay),
engineering for Equipments , and some stupid corporate and IT work. I
joined XLRI only to meet Shubhayu Sengupta who was trying to be a HR
manager whose ideas of Labor involved something to do with
the "female" thing.GOD BLESS HIM. We used have lots of Daaru in XLRI
atleast thrice a week for two years.... . I again bumped into him in
PWC Cal trying to sell me HR strategy .At that point I was in Cal in
Globsyn Technologies ( TechnoCampus)..Sala Order khojta hai...Daaru
bhi nahi Pilaya ....At this point I was happily married........and
trying to Manage a project..which was no where in sight... . This is
when I decided to come over to US. By the way I got to meet Sujit who
was it seems was going through a mid life crisis , so as to
speak..... trying to study IT related stuff in Technocampus( he is a
rich guy...had money to waste)......trying to make up for the studies
he did not do in BIT ( but I understand he is a big shot in ABL as we
all know it).
Since then I have been here in US not too long......I have been
around for over a year now.........trying to understand why I am here
after all I had never planned to come to US ............Well I make
my living trying to sell consulting services to Americans and Desis
Alike..........
V AnandKumar
Just came back from a 1 week trip to India. Its been nice to read the interesting emails from
all of you - did manage to connect on phone with a few - and hope to catch up with others
soon.
The first thing that struck me on seeing the mails - was the quality of English - the dexterity
with which a eventful lifespan of 15 years was juggled into a few well written paragraphs -
deserves rich compliments. Had it not been for the social culture of thinking that "life is ruined
if we don't do a BE or MBBS" - many of us would have been happier as journalists.
+ 2 at Bidhan were the happiest days of my life. For the first time I Studied. (And I did a lot
more notorious things - Subir and Shubhayu were with me in my Chemistry Tuitions - Great
days) I found that I didn't understand Physics - but Math and Chemistry was reasonable. I
decided to do only the "Theory" part of Physics and focus on math and Chemistry for Bengal
JEE . The strategy worked - the Physics paper in 1988 was so tough that the brightest
faltered.
The day of Bengall JEE results is red letter day for me - when I found my name in the list of
selected candidates. ( I was sure that my name would not figure - Amit saw the list and came
back to me with the good news - I thought he was fooling me and didn't see it till the next
day)
Wanted to go to West India ( Dimple Kapadia was a Gujju - and thought all Gujju girls
would look like her) and decided to go to REC Surat. We had a system where the degree is
based only on the final year results so the first thre years werea holiday. Spent the first three
years in Public Speaking / JAM / Extempore - Xavieran and ABL background helped - poor
Gujjus were floored. add to that a lot of TT and Badminton. Got political and became the GS
of the college in 3 rd yr.
Joined HCL Ahmedabad in June 1992 - Joined Wipro Baroda in Dec 1992. have been with
Wipro since then. 1994 moved to Bangalore in Product Management - 1996 moved to
Taiwan as Program Manager - 1997 came back to Wipro Bombay as Corporate Brand
Manager - worked directly with the great Azim Premji - thats been the most eventful two
years of my career ( Launched the new colorful Logo of Wipro - those of u in SFO dont
think Wipro is a gay company because of our multicolored Logo ) - 1998 Dec moved to San
Jose as Business Development Manager - 1999 Jan to Austin as the Head of Texas
Business.
Got married to Krishna in 1995. She was working for CMC Bombay . ARRANGED
marriage she now works in Wipro. She is a programmer and helps me understand Jargon
which I talk to my Customers. No kids till date (For those of you planning one - its only in
Hindi movies does it happen so easily)
What do I do - Austin is a great place - green like Durgapur - play Badminton at UT Austin
and TT at a club close by. Spend most of my office time at datek online trading and losing
money. Bug my wife for Quality - Quantity and variety of food - I am not a bad cook myself.
Wipro's been a good place - with attractive stock options looks like I am stuck here for the
next 4 - 5 years. Plan to be in US for a few more years then move back to Bangalore.
Next move if any will be to get something started on my own. Have a few ideas - if any of
you have similar inclinations get in touch and lets see what we can build.
Rajesh Chakravarty
Now it is time to bring you guys up to date with what has happened to
me in the last decade and a half (regardless of whether you give a
damn about it or not).
Came to Xaviers Cal like many of you but to the Eco-Math-Stat stream
(only Abhik stood by me in that dastardly desertion of ranks!) Moved
on to Presidency for an Econ Honours . What a life! For three years
led a hectic and demanding love life, debated politics and staged
marches, cut classes and generally completed what was in Presi lingo a
"canteen honours".
In 1991, purely by luck, moved on to Ahmedabad for
an MBA. 1993 saw me working in Delhi for IFCI, a quasi-government
financial institution and developing a fine hatred for all systems of
human activity where one had to report to a "boss". Next year, tied
the knot with my Presidency classmate, Sayantani, and set off for the
land of plenty for a Ph.D. From a 45 degree plus summer in Delhi we
came to a minus 40 winter in Minneapolis. It was more than just
"cool". Next year we took off for LA. Ah, sun-bathed Southern
California, do I still long for thee! Completed my Ph.D. in Management
in 1999. Believe me it was tough, particularly with all those Hollywood producers calling me up every week.
Decided on a change of clime once more and came over to Edmonton,
Canada where I am presently stationed. Now I am a full-fledged Finance
prof. Planning another move back to the US soon -- hope to switch to
Georgia Tech in Atlanta in a few months. If you are dying to see a
not-so-recent photo of mine, visit my homepage at
http://www.bus.ualberta.ca/rchakrabarti . I was in India in May-June,
not to Durgapur though. My father having retired from DSP, I now
pretend to be a thorough Calcuttan. But the memories live on...
I joined ISB Hyderabad in 2007
http://www.isb.edu/Faculty/FacultyDir.aspx
Ravi Bharadwaj
Hi guys! I cant tell u how wonderful it feels 2 get back in touch with so many of u. It is like a dream, going back 14 years down memory lane. I have done my specialization in orthopaedic surgery, and am currently working as a clinical tutor in medical college, calcutta. My job involves teaching u.g & p.g medical students apart from seeing patients and performing surgeries. I am currently dividing my time between calcutta and bankura medical college. I promise 2 keep in touch as frequently as my schedule allows. Do keep in touch.
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