Ragging at IIT: Sundar Pichai shares his experience

The Nehru Hall of Residence at IIT Kharagpur has more than its fair share of super-achievers today, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Magsaysay award winner social entrepreneur Harish Hande and the new Google CEO – Sundar Pichai. In 1989, when Pichai entered IIT KGP, ragging was still in vogue.

Sundar or ‘Sundi’ (as he was known in IIT) had a reputation for going all-out and perform the ‘absurdities’ commanded by his seniors without any hesitation. He would jump on a table and make a spectacle of himself, or lean out of the balcony to abuse an unsuspecting passer-by at the bid of his ‘seniors’. Soon, he had built strong bonds with the ‘seniors’. Obviously, Sundar’s skills of turning the tides into his favour have worked out well for him in his career.

It seems that the camaraderie he shared with his hostel mates at the Nehru Hall has become a big part of his decision-making process today where he known to exhibit a fair amount of empathy for people from different backgrounds and creeds.

One of Pichai’s classmates shared that during the end of his stay at IIT, he and Sundi had explored the campus along with a group of first-year students. He reminesces that the rain day has gone down as ‘special’ in his memory lane, especially when he see how similar Sundar Pichai looks todays to the photos he had clicked that day.