PERSONAL
Born in India in a farmer's family, most of my early childhood was spent in a small town called Durgapur where my dad had moved (away from farming) to work in a steel factory. Growing up with two siblings in a family of pretty modest living standards, I formed some of my most fruitful relationships within the family and outside. My parents were very focused on giving us the best possible education. (In India, at least on those days, a good education was your ticket to being successful in life) To that end, my mom started working to send us thru the best schools that we could afford.
That push from them (admittedly with some pushback from me :-) )saw me thru some of the best educational institutes in India (St. Xavier's in Durgapur, Ramakrishna Mission in Narendrapur, IIT in Chennai, IIM in Ahmedabad) and then I landed up working in Mumbai. Got transferred to US in the early nineties and now we have adopted this as our country. Both my daughters were born in Texas. We lived in Florida before that but now live in beautiful horse country outside Atlanta.
While I try to keep varied interests in life - I am not terribly good at most of them.
Philanthropy: Life is too short not to give back to the world. I used to volunteer for the last few years in Dallas with an organization that works to help battered women and kids in physically abusive homes. For details check out The FamilyPlace. After moving to Atlanta, I am yet to pick up a cause. However, I run for a cause whenever I get a chance. Any cause.
Running: I took to long distance running in 2005 and have so far not gotten bored of it :-) The original inspiration behind running was the high gas prices of 2005 :-) The longest I have done is 20 miles. Most days I do only 5 miles though. I (and my knees) have learnt the tough way the difference between running in the hilly areas of Atlanta versus the great flat lands of Dallas :-) I just finished my first calendar year of 100 mile runs every month. Now I want to try out running without supporting shoes.
Wine: While not a connoisseur exactly, I am a big fan of red wine. Rarely goes a day when I do not have my 2 glasses of wine. Well, except one random month in a year when I go cold turkey on all wine (or alcohol) just to prove the point that I can give up if I wanted to. That is my month where I post my best run times too. I drop weight and I run straight :-)
Indian Music: While I play the tabla myself, I am an avid listener of Indian music—all variety of it. Qawwalis, Ghazals, Bollywood, Folks songs of various states etc. Sadly enough, I have never gotten into Western music and am ridiculed on a fairly regular basis :-) (mostly by my two daughters :-) )
Stand Up Comedy: My real goal in life is just to be a funny guy. I am as far away from my goal as is one pole from the other. Nevertheless, I have taken classes and occasionally perform and attempt to write humorous columns. My most favorite comedian? Without doubt, Robin Williams!! Favorite writer is P.G. Wodehouse.
Regarding what I am not or what I do not like, you may want to contact my wife for a longer list. But I know for a fact that I am not a movie buff (for whatever reason, I cannot sit down and watch a movie) and I am somewhat too much of a disciplinarian when it comes to how I will spend my time. I always have a list :-) Even on a weekend my younger daughter and I go around the house fixing stuff with our "project list". I put a lot of premium on getting to know people. I dread and avoid large parties where I can never have a meaningful discussion with anybody. Of course, my wife would summarize the above observations as being boring, pretentious and awkward. Maybe she has a point :-)
PROFESSIONAL
I have been a senior executive in the enterprise software industry (financial and supply chain world) for the last 20 years. Currently I am the President of Software and Analytics business unit at Equifax. I have held various EVP and SVP positions running worldwide Sales, Marketing, Services and R&D in i2, Optiant and Citibank before this. I also sit on the board of a couple of small companies.
I read up books whenever I can - but I stick mostly to business and management books.