Coke with the CEO of Logica, India.

It started when I was waiting for some work to be done before I could begin work on something and had sometime on my hands. Nandini was going up for lunch and I decided to tag along to give her some company. We met Niraagulan Murugan upstairs and joined him. Since I had already eaten, I got myself a coke and was talking to them about what Logica, Bangalore did for World Environment Day and about the Emission Testing they had planned.

Halfway through, we were joined by Abhay Gupte, who just happens to be the CEO of Logica in India. No biggie right??? Yeah. Start the freak out! For me, a fresher, my first job out of college, it doesn’t get bigger than this!! I sat staring at my coke, listening to everything he said, because it just seemed unreal. Who has a coke with the CEO casually? Really!

He talked about Logica’s CMMI appraisal (Level 3!!!) and things that need to go up on the intranet. Business-y stuff. Then he talked about the Environment Day plans and we talked about planting trees on barren ground. Like a hillock. How cool would it be to be travelling say, from Bangalore to Chennai, and find a green hill and a Logica sign? It seems to be a good idea and I hope it can be done.

I started contributing to the conversation when Mr. Gupte brought up Logica sponsoring an animal enclosure at the local zoo (Bannerghatta Zoo). This had all my attention the minute I heard Logica + sponsor + animal. I told him about a Non-Government Organisation called People for Animals who I volunteer for. For those of you who are interested, PFA is an organisation that deals with wild animals that are displaced due to the encroachment (of Bangalore as it expands). They rescue these animals and then rehabilitate them into the wild. They work closely with the Forest Department of India and work out of many cities across the country. They have a program where you as an individual or a company can sponsor these animals (medical and general maintenance) for a specific period or till they are released into the wild.

We discussed the work Infosys has done with the Mysore Zoo, where they sponsor enclosures and considered doing something similar with the Bannerghatta Zoo. The point that I raised was that Logica would look like we were sponsoring captivity, which is honestly not cool.

We branched out to talking about the oldest zoo in India which is the Vandalur Zoo, just outside Chennai. Mr. Gupte told us about a lecture he attended by S. Muthiah which was about how Chennai (or the then Madras) is the first city of modern India. Some of the facts that Mr. Gupte shared with us were fascinating.

There is a building called The Ice Room and the reason it’s called thus is that when the British established the East India Company, they would ship massive amounts of ice all the way from England to be consumed by the British here. All this ice was stored there! Another fact he talked about was the initiative taken by Colonel William Lambton, who started the Great Trignometrical Survey of the Indian sub-continent in 1806. Unfortunately, Lambton died by the time they made it to Nagpur and the survey was taken over by his assistant, Colonel Sir George Everest, who was his assistant then. At the end of the Survey, the Colonel Sir George Everest had the highest mountain in the world names after him, but the poor Colonel Lambton, who started this survey only has a tiny hillock in Salem, Tamil Nadu named after him!!

I found Mr. Gupte to be extremely approachable. After my initial freak-out, I wasn’t afraid to open up or voice my opinions as I would have otherwise been, when in front of someone so senior. He is so down to earth and I love that he took time to chat with his employees, no matter how junior they may be. Not something you’d expect from someone so high up! I truly appreciate it. Now, getting back to my narration.

We talked about the origin of the city of Bangalore, or now, Bengaluru. The name of the city came from the Kannada name Benda Kalooru which literally translates to the city of boiled beans. The story goes that in the year 1120 AD the Hoysala king, Veera Ballalla lost his way on a hunting trip. After a long search, he met an old lady in the forest who offered him shelter for the night and boiled beans to eat. To thank her for her services, the king built a town and called it Benda Kalooru.

It was only later in 1537, that Kempe Gowda helped design the town and give it its modern shape. It was fun to realise that we all knew the story, but none of the specifics. We didn’t know when it happened or who the king was! I’m hoping that now, after my research, I can wow people about my awesome knowledge and then say oh yeah, I chatted with the CEO about this, nonchalantly. How cool will I be!

It was the most interesting coke I’ve ever drunk and I’m quite grateful that I had some free time on an otherwise busy Tuesday. I’m sure this was probably a regular lunch for Mr. Gupte, but it’s definitely one of the highlights of my Logica life. The other one was riding in the lift with Craig Boundy. Just saying. Till next time then.

PS: I’d like to thank Google and Wikipedia for a whole lot of history information.