Memoirs of my campus days!
T. SRIDHAR
Chief People Officer,
From GCT Coimbatore & IIT, Madras
Now @ Cognizant
Life during the initial years of education is all about working hard and watching a veritable world of immense possibilities open up before you. When I look back, a string of events flowed through my life that made me aware of turns that life can take. It gave me the strength to evolve into the person I am today.
I was (and still am!) fascinated by things moving, and electronics. Not surprisingly then, I chose mechanical engineering, which worked well for me! The four years spent at college revolved around nothing else but studies. And I must confess, I would still propagate that as the best way to go through college. Of course, I had my share of indulging in cricket and in lots of fun!
Not surprisingly then, I stood second in the university–back then all colleges fell under the Madras University banner. I was a little disappointed at missing the first rank by a mere six marks! Clutching these accolades under my arms, I attended my first campus recruitment and was placed at Ashok Leyland.
However, academic pursuits don't stop with a mere undergraduate degree and I went on to take the GATE examination. On the morning of the examination, I vividly recall having to attend a general paper, and wasn't sure if it would make sense to complete the other papers that afternoon! Out of the five who attended, only two of us stayed back; the rest simply left for an afternoon movie! Imagine my surprise then, to note that I scored much above the cut-off score (above 90%) in the GATE examination. Well, the next step, naturally, was IIT.
You would agree that this is certainly a very tough course, but I topped it and was awarded the medal–a sweet victory for having missed the first rank in my undergraduate degree! To add to my delight, at the convocation ceremony, the German Council General of Delhi who distributed the awards, invited me to Germany and even promised full financial aid! I still consider that to be one of the proudest moments for me and for my parents, who attended the ceremony. However, although I was inclined to join California Tech where I was admitted for my PhD, I was unable to do so, for personal reasons.
With a master's degree and a sense of achievement, I decided to stay in India. I took up a job with a leading software company–one of the few that existed at that time.
It's been an exciting twenty years in IT, although I do feel sad sometimes that I have not been able to do justice to my fundamental engineering course. However, the length and breadth of my diversification doesn't end there! I was a techie in the project management track and moved into Banking and Insurance space. After 15 years in this industry, I went on to lead the Insurance and Healthcare practices for Cognizant. After having managed business for many years at Cognizant, I moved on to managing people in my role as the Chief People Officer–a global responsibility! As they say, the learning never stops!
Today if I were to look back at the journey of my education and my professional experience in the world of IT, I realize that life is a lot more fun and enriching when you have a goal in mind, and don't mind traversing the road less travelled. I have also learnt that it pays to be open and not be fixated with just technology. After all, it was not an easy journey for me–studies until 2:00 am in the morning, midnight teas at our local tea stall, rushing back to the library for more studies. And when I went home with the savings of my stipend from post graduation–my first salary before work–boy, did it feel really good!
If there is one thing I regret, it is that I am not in touch with my alumni–being global citizens, keeping in touch has been tough! Nonetheless, it has been an exciting journey for me!
To all you enthusiastic aspirants–stay simple, stay focused, keep an open mind and you will emerge with confidence!
