Kichammi version of - An Indian American

By

V.Krishna Moorthy

"Any resemblance to creatures or packages alive or dead, great or small, is entirely coincidental"  - Adam Osborne

"One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things."      - Henry Miller

As usual Kichammi appeared in his usual mood of dissatisfaction with the people around. May be somebody talked ill about a thing close to his heart !. I am not quite sure who it could be. In the usual style I asked What Kichammi sir, what news?

 What news yaar, I tell you, Subbu is right. As Subbu says, there are Indians, who are more loyal to USA, than Bush himself"- that is typical Subbus style of declaring something.

Subbu is again another man of WORDS. He is a one-to-one match for Kichammi.  If you term Kichammi as gossiper of  practicalities, Subbu stays in his own theoretical domain.

"I do not follow, Kichammi, what is it?" (I thought there are probably, further global troubles the media has almost forgotten about Saddam Hussein and Iraq, may be his sons' death news created some ripples and  may be there was a BREAKING NEWS on CNN this afternoon! Our TV went off due to power failure at Cable operators place. But Kichammi appeared troubled at an international level.



Kichammi continued You see, my neighbour Kuppu, his brothers family has come from US. I do not like them

Why, why Kichammi, Kuppu is a very simple and humble I said.

Kuppu's brother's wife, that lady keeps telling - "India is dirty, bad weather, E-mail not working, telephone not working".

I hesitatingly saidKichammi that is quite true. As a proof I was swinging the "Vishiree" (A typical South Indian fan made out of palm leaves. Nowadays it is a symbol of power failure in middle class south Indian homes. Upper class families have graduated to Invertors).  

May be, to some extent  Kichammi paused......"to some extent ?" I wondered.

In America my daughter's Cell phone never works, our cell phones work anywhere in the country loud and clear!! Kichammmi added.

You see, some of our scientists uttered , Jai Kissan, Jai Jawan, Jai Vigyan (Vajpai-jee's slogan -as Buddha Smiled) praising our achievements  For a moment I thought Kichammi will spare the Indian Vigyanink. Otherwise Kichammi  is an admirer of Lal Bhadhur Sastriji for his simplicity and Vajpaiji, for his poetry.

But, to my surprise, Kichammi said "this also I do not agree".

Why Kichammi, what is wrong? I retorted.

Kichammi continued "Jai Kisan", fine, that is for Green revolution, they produce plenty, with failure of monsoon also, Jai Jawan, again okay, they brought victory in almost in all the wars against enemy, Why Jai Vigyan? Kichammi, appeared annoyed, his worry is our scientists are not up to the mark. But my stomach started churning; I was really afraid! Whatever be its form, "Clerical as Kichammi put it in one of his vamboo sessions or "political" or philosophical -  forms...Vigyan earns my daily Bread.
 

WHY WHY, WHY  I asked hurriedly. Thank god - in a flash I got a right arguments to put forward......Without a break I continued (rarely do I get such chance) What Kichammi, without Science, How there could have been green revolution? Same is true, with defence success. You see, our Indian Science is behind everything Kichammi appeared partially convinced - half heartedly, he fooled in his usual style yes, Our Science is behind everything......

You know, who invented first the Portable computers?

Kichammi, it was a evolutionary process in multiple stages, may be very difficult to pin point .... 

"Nothing doing, I tell you, it is Adam Osborne. You know, he is Indian by heart" Kichammi said and looked through my eyes. I was little ashamed. I have taught history of computers for four decades.

Thank god, Kichammi has forgotten, poor Kuppu's sister-in-law!

"I read long back an article written by him" He fished out from his jibba pocket, a foolscap paper - almost at the verge of getting mutilated.

What Kichammi gave, was a Xerox copy of the article, waited for me to read it fully, often looking into my home, repeatedly asking mami illaiya? (wife is not there), that is to remind me for his usual dose of coffee has not been served. Without coffee, Kichammi is a fish out of water. His thought sequence blocks out. I am spared.... I called of "Di, Di, Kichammi Sir vandhirukkar" (Listen, Kichammi is there) that signals, a request for a cup of coffee. Of course, I also get my peg.

I got glued to the article ...............

Adam Osborne, Director of Silicon Valley Technologies and publisher of the monthly newsletter "From the Fountainhead", writes 

I was raised in Tamil Nadu in South India, in the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharishi, of an English father and a Polish mother. Both were dedicated followers of Sri Ramana Maharishi. Therefore as a child growing up in the small town of Tiruvannamalai, Tamilnadu. I was fluent in Tamil and was sorrounded by Indians who were proud of their nationality and heritage, and believed they had a lot to teach us Europeans.

I still speak enough Tamil to get by, and feel that my roots are indeed in India. I must be only professed "vellackaaren" Tamilian in America. After all, how could anyone, even an English boy, grown up in Tiruvannamalai, in the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharishi, and not acquire a pride in his roots? It is therefore with some misgivings that today I find myself dealing with Indians, many of who me do not feel proud of their Indianness.

Indian Americans represent the most affluent minority in America, ahead of Jewish Americans and Japanese americans. This is a statistic and not an opinion. Indians swarm all over the Silicon valley, where they are an integral part of most product development teams: be they teams developing new semiconductor chips, software packages or computers. Indians are recognized throughout America as technically superior. No Indian in America has to explain his educational background, or apologize for his technical training.

And yet, as a group, though Indian Americans are quick to acknowledge their caste, religion or family, they lack national pride. Indians are not proud of their nationality as Indians, something I realized many years ago. Something that puzzled me Recently, talking before Indian audiences on the lecture circuit, I have frequently talked to Indians of their lack of national pride, with telling results. Invariably, after making this assertion from the lecture podium, I find myself surrounded by Indians: Engineers, Scientists, doctors, even lawyers, all asserting the correctness of my observations,"You are correct," they will assert. "I am not proud that I am an Indian."

Is the reasons India's colonial heritage? Who knows? But whatever the reason, it is a pity since the day Indians learn pride, India will rapidly move out of its third world status to become one of the world's industrial powers. Today I work with an Indian American, trying to help him make his dream come true. And in the process, make my own dream come true, since I have hitched my dream to his.

Then, with my dream realized, I will return to India, to preach Indian pride: not pride in being a Hindu, or practising Islam or being a Parsee, or a Sikh: not pride in being a Tamilian, or a telugu, or a punjabi, or a marwari; not pride in being a Brahmin rather than a lesser caste.

These are all divisive differences that India would be better off without. But I will preach that Indians must learn to be proud of being Indians just as Singapore nationals are proud of their nationality, irrespective of their race or their religion. Then there will be no more shoddy Indian products, since every worker will generate output with the stamp of a proud man on it. With self-evident quality that screams out:"That is the work of an Indian!"

And corruption will decline. For, although bribes are solicited by greedy, dishonest men, as well as by men who do not earn enough to feed themselves and their families, and even though these root causes of corruption transcend the bases of lack of Indian pride of which I speak, nevertheless a proud man will pause, more than a man without pride, before extending his hand to receive a bribe.

And a proud Indian will try harder to be responsible for products and services that others will praise. And it is in that praise that India's future Industrial greatness lies.

- Adam Osborne
 

Adam Osborne was born in 1939 in Thailand and spent much of his childhood in Tamil Nadu in South India, in the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharishi, with his British parents -- his father taught Eastern religion and philosophy to him. Osborne moved to the U.K. at the age of 11 and in 1961 graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Birmingham University. After relocating to the United States, he completed a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware and quickly landed a job with California-based Shell Oil. Like many creative minds, Osborne didn't settle well into life as a small cog in a vast corporate culture. His strong-mindedness -- what Osborne himself has described as brashness -- simply didn't sit well at Shell. He found that he did enjoy technical writing, particularly about the newly developing computer industry and in the early 1970s, Osborne was given the job of writing instructions for Intel's new microprocessor.


He was best known for creating the first portable computer, the Osborne 1, released in April 1981. It weighed 23.5 pounds (12 kg), cost $1795--just over half the cost of a computer from other manufacturers with comparable features--and ran the popular CP/M 2.2 operating system. Besides being the first portable computer, it was also the first computer that included software; the bundled WordStar, SuperCalc, dBase II, CBASIC and MBASIC had a retail value of more than $2,000. Its hardware features included dual 5.25-inch disk drives, a 4 MHz Zilog Z80 CPU, a fold down keyboard, and a five-inch, 52x24 character monitor. At its peak, Osborne Computer Corporation shipped 10,000 Osborne 1s per month. The computer was widely imitated by other computer companies started bundling software, lowering prices, and offering portable computers. Osborne's most famous imitator was Compaq, who offered a portable computer compatible with the IBM/PC.

In 1983, Adam Osborne bragged about two advanced new computers his company was working on, which destroyed consumer demand for the Osborne 1. The resulting inventory glut forced Osborne Computer to file for bankruptcy on September 13, 1983. After Osborne Computer's collapse, Osborne wrote a best-selling memoir of his experience, called Hyper-growth, which was published in 1985.


In the year, 1992, Osborne returned to India. , the land of his youth, and started  another company dealing with computer software. But, in declining health, suffering from a brain disorder that triggered frequent minor strokes. He died in obscurity years later, in Kodia kanal in India, aged 64.  He will forever be remembered, however, as the man who invented the PC and followed his dream of a computer in every home much as Henry Ford dreamed of a car in every garage.
 

Meanwhile my wife served a hot cup of coffee. Accepting it, as though chanting some mantra, Kichammi said loudly "JAI VIGYAN" stretching it with the precision of a Vedic chant. Now he cannot go back on his words. Now he will try to prove his point - the greatness of Indian vigyan.

You see Kichammi continued, India is the 7th largest country in the world and the second largest in Asia with a land mass of 3.29 million square Km, and a population of over 1000 million. The second largest populous country, India is the home of 16 per cent of world's population and accounts for 2.42 per cent of the total world area. It possesses  richness and diversity in - culture, people, language, geographic, climatic conditions and natural resources that are matched by few other countries in the world. India is the 5th largest economy in the world in purchasing power parity terms with a GDP of over US $ 1 trillion, and the second largest amongst emerging developing economies

Let me tell you, the history Kichammi proceeded and presented the best of Indian American

The History

The Indian American community in the United States is over a million strong, but this large number has grown from small beginnings and an expansion of immigration within the last thirty years. The first Indian immigrant entered the United States in 1790 as a maritime worker, as part of the early commerce connections between India and the U.S. After that, the next noticeable groups of Indians came to the west- coast of the United States, in the state of Washington, entering from Canada.

These early twentieth century immigrants were largely agricultural workers. In the early 1920s only about five thousand Indians resided in the Unites States. At the time Indians were denied citizenship and the right to own land in many states. After World War II, the U.S. desire for more professionals, particularly doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs, facilitated the immigration of Indians. In 1946, the Indian Citizenship Bill, co-sponsored in a bipartisan effort of Congressmen Emmanuel Celler and Clare Booth Luce, legalized the ability of Indian immigrants to seek naturalization and granted India a token quota of one hundred immigrants annually.

The Current Scenario

When the Immigration Act of 1965 lifted immigrant quotas that had been in place for more than fifty years, the entry of Indians into the United States increased during the late 1960s and 70s.In 1960, estimates showed only five thousand Indians in the United States, but by 1970, this population had grown to approximately three hundred and fifty thousand. The 1990 U.S. Census records the number of Indian-Americans at 815, 447, and between the 1980 and 1990 Census, the annual growth rate of the community was 8.5 percent. According to the estimate of the Population Reference Bureau, the Indian American population has grown by 103% in 1980-90 and by 55% in 1990-97. As a result the Indian American population numbered 1.215m in 1997, making it the third largest Asian American ethnic group in the US, after the Chinese and the Filipino Americans, outstripping the Japanese. Certainly, the Indian American community in the United States has experienced a remarkable transformation from its modest beginnings.  
There are 1,678,765 Indian Americans in the USA as per year, 2000 records.

  New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY  

199,010

  Los Angeles-Anaheim-Riverside, CA  

 68,887

  Chicago-Gary-Lake Country, IL  

59,046

  San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA  

 35,533

  Houston-Galveston-Brazoria,TX  

26,559

  Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton  

26,120

  Detroit-Ann Arbor, MI  

18,509

  Dallas, Ft.Worth ,TX  

17,831

  Boston-Lawrence-Salem, MA  

16,549


    


Reacting to data produced by the U.S. Census Bureau,  Democratic Representative Frank Pallone Jr., of New Jersey, the
head of the 41-member Congressional Caucus on India and Indian- Americans said "These figures confirm what we empirically know  about Indians in America. They generally are well-educated, hard  working and at an advantage because they speak English."
 

With a mean family income of $59,777, the highest of any Asian  group in America, and with an average per capita income that is more than 25 percent higher than the national average and second  only to Japanese Americans among all ethnic groups, Asian Indians'  economic power in America is indisputable. In 1980, Asian Indians  lagged behind both the Japanese and Filipinos in median household  income.Census data shows that 14 percent of Asian Americans in  America are engaged in work related to science, medicine, engineering, and technology. Significant percentage (19.3 percent)  also can be found in managerial, administrative, sales and teaching  positions. In fact, more than 5,000 Asian Indians currently are  faculty members at American universities.
 

The average Indian-American family has 3.83 people, and 89.2 percent of this population is married-couple families. To extrapolate, this indicates the importance of family-centered life for the Indian-American community, as most Indian families consist of a husband, wife and their two children.

The Indian American community has strength and unity, as is illustrated by the over 1,000 Indian-American organizations across the country. These organizations engage in a wide range of activities, from cultural festivals and civic work to political activism. Not simply separate groups, many of them belong to larger, unifying umbrella organizations, such as the National Federation of Indian-American Associations (NFIA), the American Indian Associations (AIA), and the Indian American Forum for Political Education (IAFPE), which enables them to pursue their interests in a more cohesive and effective manner.

Second generation Indian-Americans born in the United States have demonstrated a strong commitment to pursuing higher education. Of the 16,873 U.S. born Indian-Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four, 14,776 have graduated at least from high school. Furthermore, 10,965 of them have received a college education. With approximately sixty-five percent of this age group having attained some college education, clearly young Indian-Americans in the United States, following the example set by their parents, are interested in bettering themselves and securing a comfortable position for themselves in the community. Moreover, this new generation of Indian-Americans is pursuing more diverse professional interests. While Indian-Americans have traditionally felt most comfortable entering fields of science and technology these young people are now more aggressively pursuing careers in the social sciences and liberal arts, as well as the traditional sciences. As Indian-Americans branch out into different occupational fields, this diversity will only enhance the strength of the community.

In addition to being a great professional force in many realms, Indian-Americans have also become a strong voting force in the United States. According to the 1990 U.S. Census, of the 593,423 foreign-born Indian-Americans, 34.3% of them have been naturalized. Along with the other 212,021 United States born Indian.

Private American Citizens Residing Abroad

Americans Registered Abroad By Post (List compiled July 1999 by the Bureau of Consular Affairs)

This list does NOT include U.S. Government (military and nonmilitary) employees and their dependents.Editor's Note: This list was the last one published. "By Post" means that some countries have both an American embassy and consulate. Americans living in the area of these posts are encouraged to register, which simply means they fill out a form to let the embassy or consulate know they are there. This helps in case of emergencies and situations like lost passports. Many do not register, which means that in theory the number of Americans could be higher. These numbers also include children who became American citizens by being born in the United States, but whose parents could be citizens of other countries. Although this list is from 1999, it still gives a good indication of where Americans are. In India hardly 15,369 Americans.

There are around  3,784,693 Americans living abroad:

 

MEXICO  

1,036,300

CANADA  

687,700

ENGLAND  

224,000

GERMANY  

210,880

ITALY  

168,967

PHILIPPINES  

105,000

AUSTRALIA  

102,800

FRANCE  

101,750

Facts about Indians in USA

 (Source: Center for Immigration Studies, Washington D.C)

Profile of Asian Indians in U.S.A
 

38% of Doctors in America are Indians.
12% of Scientists in America are Indians.
36% of NASA employees are Indians.
34% of MICROSOFT employees are Indians
28% of IBM employees are Indians
17% of INTEL employees are Indians
13% of XEROX employees are Indians


 

The Distribution

5%  

of all physicians in the United States obtained their primary medical degree from India.

25%  

The median family income of Indian households is 25% higher than for all U.S. households.

30%  

of all hotels and motels in the U.S. are Indian-owned.

40%  

Only 4 out of 10 Indian immigrants have taken up U.S. citizenship.

50%  

of Asian Indians in the U.S. own their own home.

65%  

of the male Indian immigrants hold managerial/professional/technical jobs.

75%  

of Asian Indians were born outside the U.S.A.

80%  

of the men in the Asian Indian community have college degrees.

90%  

of Asian Indians live in urban areas.

100%  

of those surveyed are proud of their Asian-Indian heritage.


 

Source: India: A Dynamic Democracy. A Government of India Publication.

The Nobel Laureates

Har Gobind Khorana - Born January 9, 1922 - Raipur, India. Indian-born American biochemist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 with Marshal W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for research that helped to show how the genetic components of the cell nucleus control the synthesis of proteins. Khorana was born into a poor family and attended Punjab University at Lahore and University of Liverpool, England, on government scholarships. He obtained his Ph.D. at Liverpool in 1948. In 1971, he joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Biography

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar - Born October 19, 1910 - Lahore, India (now part of Pakistan).

Chandrasekhar , with William A. Fowler, won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics by formulating the currently accepted theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars. Chandrasekhar joined the staff of the University of Chicago in 1938 and became a U.S. citizen in 1953. Besides doing work on energy transfer by radiation in stellar atmospheres and convention on the solar surface, he also attempted to develop the mathematical theory of black holes. Chandrasekhar studied at Presidency College, University of Madras. Biography

Other Famous Indian Americans

Dr Kalpana Chawla is the first Indian American to fly in a US space shuttle. Born in Karnal. India Graduated from Tagore School, Karnal, India, in 1976. Obtained Bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College, India, 1982. She did her Master of science degree in Aerospace Engineering from University of Texas, 1984. She has completed her, Doctorate of philosophy in Aerospace Engineering from University of Colorado, 1988. Died on February 1, 2003 over the southern United States when Space Shuttle Columbia and her crew perished during entry, 16 minutes prior to scheduled landing.
Biography

Zubin Mehta - An estimated 800,000 attended a free open-air Concert by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin  Mehta on the Great Lawn of Central Park, New York, on July 5, 1986 as part of the Statue of Liberty weekend. One of the worlds foremost conductors, Zubin Mehta, is probably Indias most famous immigrant to the United States of America. Celebrated for his animated and passionate style of conducting, he has swirled the baton for more concerts than most of us will even be able to listen to in a lifetime. The career that followed reads like the "Guinness Book of Musical Records," if there were such a thing: Mehta was the youngest man to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic (guest conductor at the age of 23) and the Berlin Philharmonic. At 26, he became the Los Angeles Philharmonic's youngest permanent conductor and, at the same time, Montreal Symphony Orchestras principal conductor. He was also the first man to simultaneously lead two major North American Orchestras.
Biography

Viond Khosla - The Co-founder of Sun Microsystems (The company which is sweeping the internet with its brainchild Java) .  VINOD KHOSLA is a partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He was a co-founder of Daisy Systems and founding Chief Executive Officer of Sun Microsystems where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors.Khosla came to the United States after completing his B. Tech. degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is known to be a driven individual, and ambitious too. When just 15, the young Khosla, growing up in Delhi, aspired to start a company in Silicon Valley, he told Amar Bhide, the Harvard Business School professor who conducted a case study on Sun Microsystems, the company Khosla founded in 1982.
Biography

Vinod Dahm - The Creator of Pentium Chip (Needs no introduction, 90% Of the today's computers run on it).  He is known as the father of the Pentium processor. However, for Vinod. K. Dham, the way to limelight is not an easy trek. Vinod was born in Pune in 1950. He completed his initial education in Pune. For his bachelor's degree, Vinod went to the Delhi College of Engineering. In 1971, he graduated from the college with a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering. After graduation, he worked briefly in Delhi for Continental Devices a semiconductor company. In 1975, he went to the US. There, he joined the University of Cincinnati to pursue a Masters in Electrical Engineering (Solid State). After his masters, in 1977, Vinod joined the National Cash Register (NCR) at Dayton, Ohio. There, he was a team member of the NCRs memory design group. His work at the NCR has enabled him to receive many patents. His big break came in the form of a presentation on these patents. While he was making a presentation at the IEEE conference in Monterrey, California on re-programmable memory, he received an offer from the Intel to work with them.
Biography

Sabeer Bhatia - The founder and creator of Hotmail No. 1 web based email program. He sold Hotmail, a free Web-based email, offering, to Microsoft Corporation and walked into Silicon Valley hall of fame. A number of things about the deal captured the public imagination, not least the image of a young man from Bangalore, with next to nothing in his pocket (not to mention his bank account), playing hardball with the worlds richest man. But the deal also had profound lessons for the industry. Bhatia born in Chandigarh, grew up in Bangalore where he attended St. Josephs School. He briefly studied at the Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani and came to the United States on a CalTech transfer scholarship at the age of 19. Even for the highly accomplished IIT types that come from India it was an achievement of extraordinary merit, because the number of CalTech scholarships awarded each year are few and even these are won only after passing a test that is considered one of the toughest in the world.
Biography

Rajiv Gupta The GM of Hewlett Packard, Rajiv Gupta .When he was a teenager, Rajiv Gupta wanted to do something that would affect people positively - something that could change the world for the better. This dream could finally be in reach, now Itanium is becoming a reality. Rajiv Gupta had a chance to use his compiler expertise in new ways - the Itanium family architecture demands the highest level of interface between the compiler and the hardware and he had a unique opportunity to help found an instruction set that was based firmly on these principles. Rajiv is IIT Kharagpur alumnus. He secured a hotly contested place at the prestigious California Institute of Technology (CalTech), where he carried out his work requirements to earn his PhD in just under a year, studying compilers and how to optimize them. Something of an academic maverick, he has a curiosity that drives him to work through his requirements single-mindedly, then spend the rest of his time pursuing whatever takes his interest.
Biography

Sanjay Jejurikar- As a Director in the Windows Division, Sanjay is responsible for overseeing the building, testing and quality assurance of the Windows 2000 family of products. Sanjay joined Microsoft in July 1989 as a software design engineer in the Windows NT test team and is part of this group since then in a variety of roles. His most recent role is managing the groups responsible for build, QA/OS testing , business applications integration testing , and logo testing for Windows NT products as a Director of Test. Prior to joining Microsoft, Sanjay was a post graduate student in Computer Engineering at Syracuse University, New York. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from VJTI, Mumbai, India.
Biography

C. Kumar N Patel - In 1963, he develops the carbon dioxide laser, now used around the world as a cutting tool in surgery and industry.  C. Kumar N. Patel was born in Baramati, India on 2 July 1938. He received the B.E. from the College of Engineering in Poona, India and the M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1959 and 1961, respectively. Patel joined the Bell Laboratories in 1961. Then became Executive Director, Research, Materials Science, Engineering and Academic Affairs Division at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ. Patel's discovery, in 1963, of the laser action on the vibrational-rotational transitions of carbon dioxide and his invention, in 1964, of efficient vibrational energy transfer between molecules, led to his series of experiments which demonstrated that the carbon dioxide laser was capable of very high cw and pulsed power output at very high conversion efficiencies. No other laser has made a greater impact on society
Biography

Narendra Karmarkar- In 1984, he invents a ground-breaking algorithm that improves the capabilities and lowers the cost of linear programming.Dr. Narendra Karmarkar is well-known for the Karmarkar algorithm for linear programming which was announced in 1984 and which made headlines not only in scientific publications but also the mass media. His algorithm and its variations are preferred over simplex. The method used in his algorithm has revived interest in interior methods, which are currently an important area of research in mathematical programming. Dr. Karmarkar who has been a member of the Technical Staff, Mathematical Sciences Research Centre, AT & T Bell Labs since 1983, graduated from IIT,Mumbai, in 1978. This was followed with an M.S. from California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.. Dr. Karmarkar had the distinction of receiving the Marconi International Young Scientis Award in 1985 and the Fulkerson Prize in discrete mathematics given jointly by the American Mathematical Society & Mathematical Programming Society in 1988. 
Biography

Arun Netravali - In 1997, Arun Netravali receives the prestigious C&C Prize for his contributions in digital image and video compression technologies. Netravali Arun Netravali, the ninth president in Bell Labs' history, was also Lucent's chief technology officer and chief network architect during his tenure. Netravali, now Lucent's chief scientist, continues to work with the academic and investment communities to identify new technologies that will be relevant to Lucent's mission, and acts as an advisor to Lucent's senior management on technical and customer issues. Under Netravali's leadership, the speed with which Lucent moved its innovations from lab to market increased dramatically, as he fostered stronger partnerships between Bell Labs and Lucent's businesses, without sacrificing technical excellence. Dr. Netravali was an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has taught graduate courses at City College (N.Y.), Columbia University and Rutgers University. He has served on the editorial board of the IEEE, and is currently an editor of several journals. He serves on the board of a number of organizations. He received his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India, and master's and doctorate degrees from Rice University in Houston, Texas, all in electrical engineering. He holds an honorary doctorate from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Biography

Balamurali Ambati, graduated from New York University at the age of 13 and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine at age 17, becoming the worlds youngest doctor. Seventeen-year-old Balamurali Ambati of India, has become the worlds youngest doctor. He received his degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York on May 19, 1995, breaking the record of an Israeli medical student who graduated from the University of Perugia in Italy at the age of 18. A National Merit Scholar and a winner in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search & the International Science & Engineering Fair, he completed ophthalmology residency at Harvard, where he developed strategies to reverse corneal angiogenesis. He is completing cornea & refractive surgery fellowship at Duke University, and will be joining the Medical College of Georgia.

The brothers have co-authored the book, AIDS: The True Story, as well as numerous research articles. They and their father serve as judges for numerous regional & national science fairs, and as special U.S. Navy judges for the Intel International Science & Engineering Fairs, and conduct free classes in New York to foster academic excellence. Their mother Gomathi is a Tamil linguist and mathematician.
Biography

Prathima Agrawal - In 1987, she is the principal inventor of the Microprogrammable. Accelerator for Rapid Simulations, which offers vastly increased speed and power to simulate large digital systems. 

 

Sunita Bijlani- In 1989, she helps develop a digital operator services system that can provide assistance, verify credit cards, and set up conference calls.

Kicha Ganapathy- In 1993, he heads a team of virtual reality researchers creating three-dimensional "you-are-there" games, travel tours and training simulations.

Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan - Walt Disney paid Shyamalan $2.5 million for the screenplay of the movie The Sixth Sense.  Born in India but raised in posh suburban Penn Valley area of Philadelphia, the son of two doctors. Had a very early passion for filmmaking when given a Super-8 camera by age 8, modeling his career, even at that young age, to hero Steven Spielberg. His first film, 'Praying with Anger' was based somewhat on his own trip back to visit the India - his birth place.
Biography

Hillol Ray, Poet Laureate, Author, and Song Writer, is an Environmental Engineer and Manager of Drinking Water Supply Enforcement Program, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Dallas, Texas. 
 Born and raised in a suburb of Calcutta, India, he has been writing poetry since the age of six, in his native language "Bengali".  His poems are regularly published in Bengali magazines from Asia, Europe, Canada, Sweden, and North America and are currently being translated into English, Swedish, Spanish, German and French languages. Many issues of "Six Country Reporter" at EPA in Dallas have also published his English poems.  But one of his recent poems, "Earth Day", has made him an "overnight" sensation. It was read at several local observations, presented at a celebration in Arizona, displayed by the Dallas Museum of Art, and has been published worldwide.
Biography


My restless heart now longs to change the world
For the children of today and tomorrow
To assure dignity and security, without any exception,
And self-pride without a sorrow!
So, may I appeal to all leaders to enforce good intentions
And fine words into action now
'Cause tomorrow may be too late to make a world
Fit for children or show an empty vow! 

Hillol Ray
June 16, 2002

 

Apart from this, the CEOs of the following well known companies to name a few AppNet, America Online (The Largest ISP in the World), Web Methods, Lucent Technologies (Pioneer in Fiber Optics), Proxicom, Network Solutions (The sole web domain assigner), General Dynamics Corporation, Lazard Freres, Litton PRC, Columbia Capital, Primus Communications, Discovery Communications, Bell Atlantic, Cable & Wireless, The Motley Fool, Hughes Network Systems, Cybercash, MCI World com, PSINet, Motorola, Micro Strategy, Equalfooting.com, Teligent, Inc., MindBank, U.S. Airways, CIENA Corp., BioNetrix, Net 2000 Communications, Computer Associates, SAIC, Startec, INOVA Health System, Cvent.com, Eglobe, Metrocall, Inc., DynCorp, Consumer Elec. Ass'n, The Carlyle Group, Cyveillance, Nextel Communications, Fannie Mae, Intelsat, Draper Atlantic, Venture Fund, L.P., Freddie Mac, Manugistics, Raytheon Systems Corporation, Spacevest, etc., are all Indians. The Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey, Stanchart are Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta and Rana Talwar respectively..

I felt great and proud. As usual great pat on my back by Kichammi brought me back to my senses.

What is going wrong in this country? Our boys shine in USA, why not here?

What are we lacking - management, coordinated efforts, resources, business opportunities or the determination to make things happen? -  I am confused. 

Kichammi said, Dear fellow, you should have gone to USA, you would have really done something great.......

No Kichammi, I donot agree, probably you would have done wonders....

"No, no Kichammi shook his head vigorously, without any explanation....."

Kichammmi as your professor has said - "you are hunting rabbits here instead of hunting lions" - I hope, Manaka Gandhi is not listening!!

Kichammi gave  a big stare, as he moved out....  saying  "HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY"

Vande Mataram ................

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