It was a packed house at Delhi University's Sri Ram College of Commerce to hear Google CEO Sundar Pichai speak. Pichai is on his first visit to India after taking over as the CEO of the tech giant.
A smiling Pichai answered every question that came his way, some asked by students present at the event while a few were on video (including a couple from his alma mater IIT-Kharagpur) and some posted via social media.
The session moderated by cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle provided insights into Pichai's journey from an Indian schoolboy to become the CEO of Google and gave glipmses of his childhood and what the future he visualises for his company and India. Bhogle called Pichai the "Rahul Dravid of the tech industry."
While the cricket fan in Pichai has been talked about a lot (he used to be a big fan of Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar during their playing days), Pichai highlighted his love for football and said that he supports Barcelona and is also a fan of Lionel Messi.
While Twenty20 cricket is the flavour of contemporary cricket but the Google CEO still prefers One Day Internationals and Test cricket. "T20 is something I didn't grow up with," Pichai said.
Pichai also has some tips for students who want to do their own thing in life. He said while India has a culture of valuing education and the education system here should encourage creativity and to make sure that the "the system doesn't penalise you for being different."
In response to a question that has come up in many an Indian's mind, "Why do we not have Indian deserts as Android version names?" Pichai said that "When I meet my Mom, I will ask for suggestions," and added that Google could conduct an online poll to decide the name for Android N.
He also revealed that he didn't like sweets when he was younger and mixed sambar with payasam so that the payasam wouldn't taste sweet.
He expressed hopes that companies such as Google would emerge in India as the Internet becomes more mainstream.
Refuting the assumption that Google hires only those with computer science graduates, Pichai said that he was confident that a majority of people of Google don't have a degree in computer science.
When asked, how much did he score in his class 12 exams, "Not enough to get into Shri Ram College of Commerce," quipped Pichai to thunderous applause from the crowd.
The session lasted for about an hour.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had also participated a similar session at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi during his India visit in October.
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