I grew up in Pune in Sadashiv Peth, the most conservative “Maharashtrian Brahmin” part of town then. Ordinarily I would have gone to a Marathi Medium school, but my dad, who was in a central government job and would get transferred all around the country every few years, put me in St. Vincent’s when we moved to Pune in 1962, when the China war broke out. He was posted in Assam in the North East Frontier Area then, and he figured that the transition would be easier for me, as I had always studied in an English medium school till then. When I was in the first year of college (Fergusson College) after my S.S.C., one of my father’s friends told him that there was a good engineering college in Powai called IIT or something like that, and he should try to get me admitted there. So, I sat for the JEE exam and got into EE at IITB.
The first year at IIT in Hostel 3 was terrible for me because I had never lived away from my family before. These days kids from Pune go home from the hostel every weekend. In those days we could go home at most 3 or 4 times a year. I used to be terribly lonely, especially on weekends, because most other kids in the hostel in those days used to be from Bombay and would go home on Friday evening and return on Sunday. My wing-mates used to take pity on me and take me home on weekends by turns. I came to be called “कुलकरण्याचं बेवारशी पोर” (Kulkarni’s orphan child). Later on, of course, I got used to being alone and would not go home to Pune even when I had an opportunity.
After finishing my B.Tech. I joined Tata Electric Co., and then joined IIM Calcutta for an MBA after three years. After a series of jobs with L&T, TCS, Citibank, and I-flex Solutions, I left I-flex in 2008 when I was heading the Banking Products Division. Oracle acquired I-flex, and most of the senior management at I-flex left shortly afterwards. Since then, I have been pursuing what I really love – music. I acquired the love for both Hindustani Classical Music, and light Hindi and Marathi Music while in IIT. I have a Hindustani Classical Music website (www.ragasphere.com) along with a partner. I love to play the flute, the harmonium and keyboard and spend hours doing just that these days. About ten years ago, while chatting during a business meeting with some IIT alumni who are also passionate about music, we came up with the idea of starting an orchestra and called it Y-Point Orchestra (YPO). I am not sure if the Y-Point on the IITB campus still exists, but in the seventies Y-Point had an important place in the life of students. That is where the bookstores, restaurants, and yes, the booze shop were. So Y-Point Orchestra sounded like a good name. The YPO has been performing for the last ten years fairly regularly and has grown in size.
I have been trekking since my IIT days, and later, I have trekked to Everest Base Camp, Kilimanjaro and a few other peaks. In 2017 I had a brain haemorrhage while on a trek near Pune and had to be rushed into brain surgery. By God’s grace, everything worked out well and I am back to near normal. I have stopped doing difficult treks since then but am reasonably fit otherwise. My friends, especially from IIT, joke that one good thing about my surgery was that it proved that I do have a brain. 😃
After quitting my last job, I have also been consulting with some large software companies in the Banking and Payment Systems domain and guiding a couple of software startups.
I have been married to Smita for 44 years. She is an artist and makes hand-made designer bags. We have two daughters – Sai (सई) and Mrinmayi (मृण्मयी). Sai is married to a Professor of Philosophy at North Bengal University, Anirban Mukherjee and lives in Siliguri. They have two sons, Aniruddha (12) and Auritro (6). She teaches English and German online, and does translations between Bengali, German, English and Marathi. The younger one, Mrinmayi lives in Toronto and is a post-doc researcher in Neuroscience at Baycrest hospital. She is married to Siddhant Mehta, a software professional.
Thinking back, I do believe that I am what I am today, because of my five years at IITB (and two years at IIMC). Apart from what I learnt at IIT, it gave me self-confidence, and most importantly, I made many close and lasting friendships during those days at the hostel.
IIT Bombay 1974 Reunion 