I showed up at IIT on June 12, 1969, the date of the IIT entrance “interview”, thinking this was to be an actual interview, and that I’d be able to discuss matters, get information, and make an informed choice about my major. Instead, when I was called in, the person “interviewing” me (N.R. Kamath, I suspect it was, in retrospect) merely asked “What department do you want?” Apparently, I had the full range of choices available. Assuming he was going to advise me, I said “I was considering Electrical, Chemical, or Mechanical. I’m not sure. What do you think of Chemical?”
He said: “Oh, Chemical is good!” and sealed my fate by writing “Chemical” on this paper and sending me on. Whoever he was, he decided the course of my life, in less than a second!
Well, it turned out I didn’t especially enjoy Chemical Engineering. It lacked a sufficient foundation of theory and was altogether too empirical for my taste. So I spent my undergraduate years exploring all sorts of other fields, including medicine, computer programming, and so on. Because I ended up learning so much medicine, I petitioned the ChE department to do my BTech project in Biomedical Engineering. The ChE department came back with an emphatic “No”, since there were no faculty members who could advise me. I said I’d do it all on my own and appealed to the Deputy Director (S.C. Bhattacharya). He was able to get the department to agree to my request. Mine was the first BTech thesis in the ChE department in Biomedical Engineering. My work led to three research papers, so it had a strong impact, and actually initiated the field in the ChE department.
I decided to stay in India after my BTech, both to explore my career options, as well as to learn more about India and Indian culture. Ultimately, I branched off into an unexpected direction altogether. I was doing a lot of programming for fun and was a regular visitor to the Computer Center during my UG years. I got to know Jimmy Isaac quite well. He was heading the Computer Center, and offered me a job there after my BTech. I worked there for several years with Jimmy Isaac and D.M. Dhamdhere, joining the team that wrote the IITFORT compiler, which had a huge impact on IIT.
I left in 1979 for the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for graduate work in Computer Science. Following my PhD, I joined the faculty of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In 1999, I moved to the University of California, Riverside. From 2004-2021, I served as Professor of Computer Science and Associate Dean for the College of Engineering. I am currently a Professor of Computer Science at UCR.
IIT’s greatest contribution to my life were the wonderful friends I made there. In career terms, my experience working at the Computer Center was a true highlight. I found the ChE faculty uninspiring (N.R. Kamath and K.P. Madhavan excepted), so I just did stuff I enjoyed, such as reading a large number of medical textbooks, learning Sanskrit, Persian, German, etc., and writing lots of computer programs on the Minsk-II, the EC-1030, and the other computers we had available. This exploration of a wide range of topics has enabled me to maintain a broad range of interests through my career.
Today, I have a wonderful wife Aruna and two daughters, who are the most important things in my life. My career has all been in academia, but I’ve refused to be pigeonholed into narrow areas, as often happens with academics. I’ve never paid attention to the expectations of others, so my interests have remained broad, both within and outside Computer Science. For instance, I’ve authored a book called “Sons of Sarasvati” on Sanskrit scholarship of the 19th century, which has been very well received by scholars in the field. I was also recently elected Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. I enjoy biking and collecting and restoring vintage fountain pens.
IIT Bombay 1974 Reunion 