by Ram Chilllarege. New York, May 23, 1997

I squeezed my way into the hall of the new Hindu temple in Wappinger falls, to catch the last notes of "jay jagadisha hare" and witness the arathi. As people moved towards the dinner lines, I was scanning the crowd for a familiar face. In the distance, I thought I saw one. Approaching, I caught the attention of the gentleman but his wife and daughter were occupied. I start:

"I know you but cannot place you. Were you ever in Bangalore?
"Yes"
"Say around 77?"
"Actually 74 to 77"
"Gala! - its me, Ram!"

And thus we met, after 20 years.

Mulraj joined CMC after Institute and continued to live in Bangalore. After a stint with hardware he changed to systems and then into business software. Since '84 he has been in the US working on business software: Initially with Grenada systems doing voice response systems and now is with Goldman Sachs.

Over the past several weeks he put me in touch with Sahu and Sankar. As we recall old times and friends the conversation steers to how we came to the institute.

Mulrajs father was a business man, and so were three generations before. By the time he finished high school his brothers had begun businesses. Mulraj wanted to broaden his horizons before committing to the family traditional. He choose to go away from Bombay, his home, to Panthnagar for BSc. That done, and the appetite to explore whetted, it was too soon to quit. IISc became a logical extension.

"The institute changed it all", he muses. Although Panthnagar was different and blew his teenage image that Bombay was the center of the world, it was still a concentration of north indians. The Institute had diversity from all parts of India and changed his outlook forever. There were struggles and conquests. Some of them leading to kinship and a lifetime of friendships.

Mulraj knew English, but for all practical purposes his studies had been in Gujarithi. The institute was all English. "I suddenly felt vulnerable, and Srivastava helped me tide through those moments". His roommate in E-14 insisted that he persist through a P.G. Woodhouse he gave him. "Just keep reading, even when you feel after the fourth page you want to quit. As you start enjoying the story, you will get drawn into it and finish the book". And, "it worked!". By the time the first semester concluded, he was more confident and the bonds of the new friendship were forged. Over the next few semesters his group would grow to include Tapas, Anil, and Thyagi and Bimal.

Sarala, his wife and mother of two children, grew up across the street back in his village, Rayan in Kutch. The families were neighbors and good friends. After his graduation, Mulraj's father once suggested that he meet Sarala. He had known her only as a kid, and not seen her since fourth grade, every since his family moved to Bombay.

The preparations for his sister's wedding were at their peak. 9:00 am the 17th of July excitement and chaos reigned in the Ghatkopar apartment. Relatives arrived, things needed to happen, and being the transportation chief he had no time for anything extra. An hour before the barath, his grandmother gets it into her mind to make one last minute trip to the temple. He was gaining on the argument, when a young lady waltzes into the discussion and convinces him otherwise. The debate lost, stuck in traffic, between the silk and the sweat, he thinks "woh smart chokri lag-e-thi" (wonder who she was, but she is a smart girl). As though his grandmother heard him think, she begins, "you may not remember Sarla, but she grew up across the street from you, and is such a wonderful girl..."