Revision as of 10:21, 12 August 2015

Some facts: Sunder Pichai; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, August 12, 2015

Early life

Sundar Pichai has been one of the eminent Indians in Silicon Valley; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, August 12, 2015

Sundar Pichai: A timeline; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Aug 12 2015

Source: The Times of India

1. The Times of India, Aug 12 2015, Vinayashree Jagadeesh

2. The Times of India, Aug 12 2015, B Sivakumar & Vinayashree Jagadeesh

Magic memory, humble origins, stunning rise

Born and raised in Chennai, Sundar studied in institutions which had modest reputations and facilities at best. Neither Jawahar Vidyalaya at Ashok Nagar (where he did Class X) or Vana Vani Matriculation School on the leafy IIT-Madras campus (where he completed his class XII) are in the elite league. He grew up in a conservative, middleclass Iyengar family in south India, which did not even use a telephone for a long time. The rare outings involved the family of four squeezing together on a scooter.

The teachers now have a hard time placing Sundar who completed his 10th in 1987. “We tend to remember the naughty ones always,“ quipped his economics teacher Uma Prabhakaran, recalling Pichai as a calm boy with good manners.

A well-behaved, academically sound, unassuming student -that's how teachers at Sundar Pichai's alma mater Jawahar Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School in Ashok Nagar, Chennai, described the 41-year-old newly-appointed CEO of Google. “We're proud and elated at the news,“ said school principal Alice Jeevan who taught English when Pichai was a student. “We'll always feel proud of our children's achievements.“ A S Kumar, another school alumni who handles the Jawahar Vidyalaya alumni page, defined Pichai as a `bookish' person. “One of our schoolmates remembers how he fought for every mark, especially in the science paper. If he made a mis take, he'd try to understand where he went wrong and correct it,“ he said.

The pride and elation remains evident in Vana Vani matriculation higher secondary school on the IIT Madras campus, where Pichai completed his schooling.

But he and his brother Srinivasan, also an IIT alumnus, did leave a mark in academics. Sundar, in particular, is also remembered for his phenomenal memory .

“Years ago when Sundar was in school, he came to our house in Mayiladuthurai once. During a conversation, a family friend gave me his phone number. I asked my wife to write it down but she forgot. After some months, I asked Sundar about the number, and he reeled it out in stantly,“ recalled his mother's brother S Raman, a retired bank manager who lives in Chennai.

Their parents Regunatha Pichai and Lakshmi Pichai never had reason to complain about Sundar or his brother's performance, says Raman.“Only once his mother said that both were intelligent.“ For several years the family did not have a telephone and it was only when Sundar was about 12 years old that they got a landline. Sundar's family vehicle was a blue Lambretta. While Regunatha would ride the scooter with Sundar standing between his legs, Srinivasan would be on the seat between his father and mother.

The big transformation in his life came at IIT, where his interest in electronics and IT grew. “Though he did BTech in metallurgy from Kharagpur, he was interested in electronics,“ said Raman. IIT was also where Sundar met his future wife, Anjali, a native of Mumbai.

A soft-spoken, amiable person with an outstanding academic record, Sundar managed to land a coveted scholarship at an Ivy League college. “He first completed MS from Stanford University and after this Anjali did MS while Sundar was doing a stint as a consultant at McKinsey,“ said Raman. Sundar's parents now divide th