Viraj Pa'TI'l to Viraj Patil

The title of this post is, as I write, the google status message of my friend - Viraj Patil. For someone who knows that he is quitting TI (Texas Instruments) to join IIM-B (Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore), and only so much, it will seem like he is bragging his achievement, boasting, showing off or whatever.

Allow me to introduce my friend for 7 years while explaining that his status message doesn't mean to do any of the above mentioned things. A man of much fewer words than actions, he is continuing to set new high standards in our group of friends. 7 years back we all met each other in M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore. Through years we became fast friends and moved together as a group.

Viraj (Viru) always came across as a reticent, at times rude, fellow. This changed with the arrival of his 'steady-state' partner. He was someone who, we believed, would look in another direction if he accidentally even looked at a girl, as if saying, "Ohhh! Distraction!" As Vikram once put it, "Viru would go home and take a cold water bath if he sees a girl..." He was the butt of a lot of our jokes based on this idea. His frequent visits to the restroom (we're exaggerating here, of course) earned him a title "Attendance!"

He'd generally be in the top 5 scorers in the examinations in our class of about 70 and he'd come up to us all and exclaim "I got f***ked man!" when all he managed was mere honors (80% in VTU). If one pictured him and me standing next to each other, one wouldn't get a more academic contrast than that. The guy who almost failed in a course had no intention to apply for re-evaluation whereas the guy who missed securing 80%, instead securing 79.99% was feeling ashamed and wanted to apply for re-evaluation!

I would always believe that he was acting weird (We all believed so anyway and we still do believe that)! He'd fend off congratulatory messages by saying things like, "That was a fluke. Next time you see, I'll surely fail." And the story repeated all 8 semesters. It was just that we knew and got used to his quasi-modesty. This isn't to say he isn't modest, but when such things happened, people would get irritated.

The bottomline remained that with every semester he'd only get more determineed and focused. To complement those, he'd be methodical in his approach. There wouldn't be a single lecture he'd miss or a single notes' sheet he'd not have written down. Yet he found time to occasionally play with the rest of the group or roam places, go on trips or treks.

With time and with the reformation that the steady-state partner brought in him, he eased into a free and light-hearted man with tolerance to personal jokes or friendly banter. Academically, Viru, Vinod and myself took inspiration from our seniors at school (MSRIT) who had the urge and itch to do an extra bit. That found us participating (teaming up with Arun V.T. and Swetadrivasan) in the Honeywell - Freedom to Innovate - 2006 and ending up as the Top 5 team out of about 200 in India. Initially interested in the IIMs just as most others wanted to append an MBA to their BE to have that edge to their profile, he started developing a strong inclination towards technical qualifications (MS, MTech).

He had the audacity - if that word can be used - and the subconscious confidence in his abilities to believe that he deserved a better job than an average campus-placement job. He didn't take up the 1st few interviews/tests. He didn't take up the job he landed at CTS, instead choosing to apply online. His persistance rewarded him a job at TI as a consultant. Basis his performance, he was to be either confirmed or rejected there as a full-time employee. He would often worry. Any comfort given to him through allusions to his high pay would only evoke a reply, "It is not confirmed dude..." Need I say what finally happened in more explicit manner than just saying that he is quitting TI after 3 years of dedicated (may be overly dedicated) work? He ensured though, that he didn't miss many commitments - social, family etc.

What better event can happen to him than to get an admit at IIM-B? It only had to be this better (than the now saturating work at TI perhaps) an opportunity for him to decide to quit TI. As he is entering IIM-B, he still has not 'showed-off' in any status message that he is quitting for that reason. While each one of us in the group are trying our best to inspire each other and give each other an occasion and reason to be proud of ourselves, this surely counts as a pride-evoking achievement for us all.

On behalf of Madhur, Rahul, Shreyoshee, Shwetha, Swetadrivasan, Tejaswi, Vikram and Vinod I wish him good luck! I'll soon update this post with some pics of our group! Here is hoping that all of our dreams (including our million plans like restaurant, farming, suing and anti-suing agencies) are realized and one day we meet at the crossroads that we bade farewell to each other and join forces to inspire others and possibly generations to come!

Cheers!