This time’s thoughts are provoked by one of my school classmate’s brother – Gireendra Kasmalkar. Giri runs a 1500 strong company called SQS – which is into one of the most non-glamourous areas in IT – software testing. Giri did his mech engg from IIT Bombay. Went to the US for his MS, but surprised … Read more

My dad and DK Sharma (DKS) grew up in the small town of Samastipur in Bihar. DKS comes from a political family. DKS’ dad was an advisor to one of the early Chief Ministers of Bihar – Karpoori Thakoor. I still remember being influenced by his dad’s opinion on defence spending. (Disclosure: my dad was … Read more

Deepa Tracy is a true blue Mumbaikar. She was born, brought up, and except for a brief period between 1973 to 1983, has always been a resident of aapli Mumbai. She was still in college in 1973 when she got married. Remained a housewife till 1978 – her husband was posted in a small town, … Read more

Daljit Mirchandani was born in 1947 in Sindh – and now stays in Sindh Society. He grew up as a kid facing a lot of health issues. The turning point in his life was his joining BIT Mesra – and at the age of 17, being dunked into a gym by his Sardar friend. That … Read more

Brijdid his Electrical engineering from COEP, 1990 batch, worked with Reliance for a few years, and then went to Yale to do his MBA. Spent some time with consulting – switched over to a corporate – and then came back to India in 2000 – to become an entrepreneur. He divides his time between India … Read more

Atul Nishar is a CA by qualification. He started a corporate career advising people how to run their businesses. That’s when he realised that he could practice what he had been preaching. His first venture was started along with his job – Apple Leasing. He quit when the venture started doing well – but was … Read more

Am not sure what the most common surname was in our COEP Mech 90 batch, but the most common first name was definitely Atul. There were at least 4 of us who responded to that first name, yours truly included. Here’s the story of the most creative of the Atuls. Atul Desai’s turning point in … Read more

Ashwini grew up in Aurangabad in a middle class family. Her parents were quite progressive – in the conservative eighties, they let Ashwini’s younger sister start her own girl’s cricket team. Ashwini was good in both academics and drawing. She was looking at becoming an architect, viewed a relatively respectable profession by the middle class, … Read more

Arun’s dad worked with BHEL in Bhopal, and then Hardwar. He went on to do his mechanical engineering from GB Pant university in UP, followed by an MS from Virginia Tech. The conventional US dream job followed when he went to work in Chicago. He returned to India for his marriage, and thought that he … Read more

Appukutan Vidyasagar wanted to be an engineer. But, he came from a family with limited means. Vidya proposed doing a diploma. But dad was not happy with the idea of Vidya spending the rest of his life on the shopfloor. Dad’s wisdom was that it would be best that Vidya works in offices, preferably government … Read more