Comments
Nostalgia interspersed with anecdotes of “college days” overcame the harsh afternoon sun, as Sundar Pichai, CEO of internet major Google, showed the 3,500 students at IIT-Kharagpur – his alma mater – that he was just like any of them.
Thunderous applause greeted the 44-year-old. Clad in denims and a casual shirt, the confident Pichai set the tone of the discussion. “I did have my share of fun,” Pichai said, as he chatted with students at the Tagore Open Air Theatre at the campus.
He spoke on meeting wife Anjali (on the campus) and bunking morning classes at IIT-Kharagpur.
It came as a big surprise to students when Pichai shared the story of how he would walk right up to the main entrance of the girls’ hostel to meet Anjali. And since those were days when one wasn’t relying on technology, you had to send messages via a messenger.
“People would go around the hostel shouting loudly: ‘Anjali, Sundar is here for you’,” he said, as the crowd burst out laughing.
The Google CEO then related the story of the chaos he caused by inadvertently “greeting” people at his hostel mess with Hindi expletives. “I had no idea what those words in Hindi meant. And I wasn’t very popular at the mess,” he said, with the students already in splits.
On leadershipBut Pichai was all business the moment he was asked a question about Google and his leadership. For him, teamwork and letting people go and ensuring their success were more important as a leader.
“Make sure you have good people. And remove the roadblocks for them. Value teamwork,” was his confident, yet crisp message.
The point made, the young crowd, most of whom have idolised him since he became CEO of Google, gave him their signature “like” – a roar of approval.
By the end of the 40-minute- long chat session, Pichai showed why he was like any of us or the IITians – he watched cricket and football with his kids; had “embarrassing” grade point averages in the first year (like many engineering students), idolised Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, and looked up to NR Narayana Murthy too.
His humble, down-to-earth side had won over the IITians.
“He is just like any one of us,” said an over-awed student, heading out to get his share of “goodies” from Google.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.