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

Very few companies last three generations. The luck of the genes seems to be with the Hirlekars in that sense. And also a sense of being with the times. The Senior Hirlekar, the 1st generation, started manufacturing spring movements for dials. His son, our contemporary, Annirudha of COEP 83 batch, pivoted the business to magnetic … Read more

Anil is not just the founder of Elcab, he is also the founder and main cheerleader of our COEP Mech 90 group. If there is any batch gathering or talk happening at any place, one can rest assured Anil is part of it. How he manages to lead such an active social and business life … Read more

Anant Joshi is the youngest of three brothers. Dad worked with ARDE. Mom was a housewife. Most of his early life was in government quarters in Aundh and Pashan – incidentally a location that he still continues to stay in. His dad retired in 1990, around the time we completed our engineering.    Unlike today, … Read more

Anand did his engineering from IIT KGP. He is 59 years old, so I assume he would have finished around 1983. Went on to do his PhD from the US. Worked a few years with HP in the Valley. One fine morning, in what most of his friends labelled as a bout of stupidity, he … Read more

The year was 1962. Hukumichand Chordia had been written off as a serial failure. Every business he tried had been doomed. After a dozen attempts at entrepreneurship across multiple cities, he shifted base to Pune. And that is when he discovered the real entrepreneur in the family: his wife, Kamal. Like most housewives of the … Read more

Was visiting with my Biogas friend Priyadarshan at his Nere farm. Saw some new bamboo planted. Priyadarshan mentioned that he had got the saplings from a nursery in Chinchwad, which only stocks bamboo. We got curious and the cycling group went over to Chinchwad. Just opposite the Tata Motors Chinchwad Foundry main gate is Gawade … Read more