'When I shook his hand...': Google employee gets emotional meeting CEO Sundar Pichai at Gurgaon office

Google employee shares heartfelt moment meeting CEO Sundar Pichai. (Image: thetanushigupta/ Instagram)

Meeting a global business leader is often a brief and formal exchange. For one Google employee, however, it became a deeply personal milestone, a moment that brought years of admiration and ambition into clear focus.

The interaction took place at Google’s Gurgaon office, where Tanushi Gupta, a Digital Marketing Strategist at Google, met CEO Sundar Pichai. She later shared a video of the meeting on LinkedIn and Instagram, explaining why the handshake meant far more to her than a routine workplace encounter.

She wrote, “Yesterday, at our Google Gurgaon office, I shook hands with the person whose name I’ve written under 'Role Model' since I was a teenager.”

“There are some moments that don’t feel real even while you’re standing inside them. Yesterday, at our Google Gurgaon office, I shook hands with the person whose name I’ve written under ‘Role Model’ since I was a teenager. Sundar Pichai. And for a few seconds, time folded,” she further expressed.

Gupta said the experience left her overwhelmed, “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t loose my calm. I wasn’t just a Digital Marketing Strategist at Google. I was the little girl who chose machines over makeup. The student who was endlessly curious about tech. The girl who believed that building things mattered more than buying things.”

In her post, she explained that she had admired Pichai since her school days. His journey from India to leading one of the world’s largest technology companies had made success seem possible to her and to many others.

Pichai was born in Tamil Nadu and studied at IIT Kharagpur before moving to the United States for further education. He joined Google in 2004 and became CEO in 2015. In 2019, he was also appointed CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. His rise has often been cited as an example of global leadership emerging from India.

Gupta described the handshake as more than a formal greeting. “Yesterday, when I shook his hand, it wasn’t just a greeting. It was years of silent admiration meeting years of hard work. It was proof that the dreams you quietly protect protect you back. It felt surreal. It felt emotional. It felt like a full circle whisper from the universe saying, keep going.”

She concluded her LinkedIn post by writing, “Some moments you post for engagement. Some moments you post because your heart is too full to stay silent. This one is the moment of my life. One handshake came with a lifetimes of bragging rights and I might not be able to shut up about it, ever. Grateful. Inspired. Still processing.”

On Instagram, she shared the same video with the caption, “Corporate fan girl moment unlocked. When we met our CEO.”

The post received wide engagement. Many users congratulated her and shared similar experiences of meeting people they admire. Colleagues also responded. One said, “Dream day ticked off!” Another added, “The fact that it took us a while to absorb this moment. Core memory unlocked together.”

Other users left brief reactions. One wrote, “What a handshake.” Another said, “Google it? Nah, she met him.” One user expressed, “This man gave hope to many Indians to make a path.” Another added, “The most loved CEO for Indians.”