Shutting down the mess to college romance: Sundar Pichai revisits IIT days

It was homecoming for India-born Google CEO Sundar Pichai as he visited his alma mater IIT Kharagpur on Thursday. The tech giant's CEO gave a sneak peak into his college days when he met his wife Anjali and the romance blossomed. He also shared the story how he unintentionally led to shutting down of the college mess for a while as the audience burst into laughter. 

Pichai returned to the IIT Kharagpur campus after 23 years. He studied Metallurgical Engineering at IIT and spent his spare time writing codes. 

Here are some of the highlights of Pichai's friendly interaction with IIT students at the campus: 

Romancing in 90's

"Someone would stand outside and very loudly say, 'Anjali, Sundar is here for you'," the Google CEO said speaking on how difficult it was for him to meet his then future wife while they were dating at IIT Kharagpur. 

Sunder told the audience that Anjali Pichai used to stay in the girl's hostel and he used to wait outside to meet her as a messenger used to loudly pass on the message without caring for privacy. 

First encounter with a computer 

Now, Pichai earns his living as the chief of one of the largest technology firm Google. Interestingly, he saw a computer for the first time at the IIT Kharagpur campus. 

"I saw a computer for the first time at IIT," Pichai fondly recalled. 

Bunking class was a right

"Did I bunk? Yes, it's the right of passage when in college," Pichai said to the audience's delight, adding, "But I worked hard as well."

"I stayed up late at night, missed classes in the morning," Pichai disclosed. 

While a lot of importance is given to academics as a virtue in general, Pichai said, "Academics is not as important as made out to be... education must encourage risk-taking."

 

Saying abey saley and shutting the mess

Pichai hailed from Chennai. He could vaguely speak Hindi when he landed at the IIT Kharagpur campus. Ergo, the tech maverick did not know that 'abey saley' was a cuss word and that got him into trouble. 

"I called out to the mess guy saying 'abey saley' not knowing that it is not how you regularly call out to people," Pichai said. "He was offended and shut the mess for a while," he added. 

"It didn't make me very popular," Pichai said as the audience cracked up. 

When things never change

"First time I got on a plane was 20 years ago, to the US. Much has changed in India, over 100 million people fly annually now," the Google CEO said. 

However, he also noted that there are certain things which did not change. "My dorm at IIT looks exactly the same as 25 years ago," Pichai quipped.