Sundar Pichai one of the head honchos of the Google said that calling the friends in the name of Abey and Saaley was like friendly call and greeting them. He did not know that it was like abusing them. He did not know the meaning of these Hindi words. He was talking to the students at the , IIT- Khargapur.
Pichai recalled that though he had a smattering of Hindi from his schooling of Chennai, it took IIT to expose his deficiency. “Abey saaley” is how he said he called out to people when he got to IIT, not realising that he was in fact abusng them. “It didn’t make me very popular,” he recalled for an audience of students.Another milestone at IIT for the Google CEO it’s where he saw a computer for the first time.
Mr Pichai also said that though it was hard work to get into IIT, he bunked classes. “It’s a rite of college,” he professed, delighting students listening to him, many of whom stood on benches at the back to get a look at the tech titan. “I stayed up late at night, missed classes in the morning,” he disclosed, stressing that “academics is not as important as made out to be” and that the education being imparted must help in taking risk.
The Google CEO met his wife, Anjali, on campus but said the 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. If only he had a smartphone.
Technology, especially the mobile phone, has reshaped the world, he said, though even its considerable power has failed to update some things_ “My dorm at IIT looks exactly the same as 25 years ago,” he joked. Meaning it has not improved .
