So would you say there is a protective & guiding force in your life?
There is indeed such a thing, but I first and foremost associate it with the blessings I got from my grand-parents and parents. I grew up with my maternal grand-parents. My grand-father was a very tough, self-made man and basically he is the one who shaped me into what I am. So I guess I can associate this divine, mysterious force as something that worked through them all.

What is fate for you?
Fate is something that walks past you and you don’t even know or realize it. When I look back at my life, there were so few odds that I would do what I did and be where I am. I can hardly believe it.
I am the son of an air-force officer. At best, my fate would have been to do well in school and join some government body. But my dad insisted I go and study in the US, even though I did not have a scholarship. This was the first twist of fate, something that got me to excel. As a kid, a most normal of kids. I had no particular inkling for sports, academia or even business. But once I reached the US for my post-graduate masters, some transformation started. I had to defend myself and start performing at a better level.

The second twist of fate happened with the job offers I got once I graduated. One was from a start-up next to Milwaukee, in a town that had no non-whites. The other one was from Microsoft and the third one from Intel. Microsoft back then was way more famous, prestigious and attractive than relatively unknown Intel. But Vinod Dham, the father of the Pentium chip happened to be the brother of my childhood’s doctor, a man who had served under my father. Vinod Dham is the one who wooed me into the Pentium team at Intel. And it clearly was the most satisfying and important professional decision of my life. I was there for six years, I did some great work, it gave me so much fulfilment.
The third twist of fate was my meeting with Rajesh Pilot, during one of my visits to India. I was then a typical arrogant NRI. And in the few minutes we spent together, he just asked me “why are you going back to the US? You should come back. Look at what we are trying to build here!” There was nothing special in his words, but for some reason unknown to me to this day, it was enough to trigger something in me and I moved back to India. I then proceeded to found BPL mobile.

... contd.