Sundar Pichai's batchmate Phani Bhushan reminisce about the new Google boss

"I shared the same hostel, Nehru Hall, with Pichai. It was in 1989 that I met him. People from different states were put together in a wing: I am from Bihar, and Pichai is from Chennai, hence we were put in the same wing. Pichai was serious about studies from day one. From the very beginning, he knew that he would have to work towards going abroad for higher studies. He eventually made it. I recall him to be a very focused and quiet person. On birthdays, we used to go to Kolkata, almost 100 km away. All of us pooled money and used it to party. Catching up on weekly Friday movies at local cinema hall was one of the things we all used to look forward to. Many times, we used to watch dubbed Tamil movies.

In those times, getting into an IIT was easier than getting a girl from IIT. We all were surprised when we found out that Pichai was getting married to Anjali as he was a very shy and reserved guy."

Bhushan is a Mumbai-based serial entrepreneur & founder of Anant Computing Platform. He spoke to Prachi Verma in New Delhi.