Sundar Pichai feels embarassed to talk about his first year grades at IIT. The grades improved later on, said Pichai, during an interaction with students at his alma mater IIT Kharagpur. The Google CEO made a host of candid confessions from his personal life as well as professional, at the event titled 'Back on Campus'.
The Google CEO met his wife, Anjali, on campus but said romance was tough because access to the girls' hostel wasn't easy. "Someone would stand outside and very loudly say, 'Anjali, Sundar is here for you'," which ruled out any privacy, he rued. There were no smartphones in those days.
It was at IIT that he saw his first computer. As a part of ragging, he carried the luggage for seniors at Kharagpur Railway station.
When asked which actresses he liked in his college days, he said that he had liked many. He further added, "What happens in a college dorm, stays at the dorm".
Even though Pichai had studied a bit of Hindi while schooling in Chennai, he did not know the actual meaning of abey saale. For him, it was a way to address friends.
"One day, there was someone in the mess. I called him abey saale. In my first couple of weeks I thought you call people that way. Next thing, I know, folks in the mess were quite upset. They closed down the mess temporarily", he said.
The Chennai-born CEO's favorite actress is Deepika Padukone. In his free time, he loves to spend time with his kids aged 13 and 9.
