VINOD AGARWAL CEO, LOGICVISION IS PERSON OF THE MONTH THE FACTS ON BITS ADMISSIONS ¦ FLYING AEROFLOT ! The BITSAA Edition Sandpaper [2.0] May 2003 Inaugural Issue Birla Institute of Technology & Science Alumni Magazine Dr. AMIT SHETH When Academicians become Entrepreneurs On the Road to Pilani My College, My Country By Dilip D’Souza In Memoriam Remembering Leuna and Vamsi Naagarji’s The last bastion of BITS gastronomia A conversation with Krishna Vavilala Racial profiling grows post 9/11 BITSCONNECT The ambitious $1.5 million project to create the best broadband network of any university in the nation Sandpaper [2.0] May 2003 Inaugural Issue CONTENTS 3 EDITORIAL GENERAL INTEREST 28 My college, my country FEATURES 30 Racial profiling rises post-9/11 4 Sandpaper Online 32 Setting the record straight on admissions 5 BITSAA Roundup 7 Business News EDUCATION & ACADEMICS 8 Masala & Spice 34 Profiling Dr. Amit Sheth Series: When academicians become entrepreneurs COVER STORY 9 BITSConnect: The $1.5 MM project PERSON OF THE MONTH 12 The Impact of BITSConnect on Pilani 36 May: Vinod Agarwal, CEO, LogicVision 13 BITSConnect buzz ALUMNI CORNER NOSTALGIA 38 BITSAA International Initiatives 14 On the road to Pilani 39 Partyin’ around the world 18 Naagarji’s – The final frontier 19 Re-living BITS MERA BHARAT MAHAAN 40 A conversation with Krishna Vavilala IMMIGRANT SONG 21 Flying Aeroflot IN MEMORIAM 41 A tribute to Vamsi & Prasanna CREATIVE & HUMOR 43 Leuna Harkawat, Pilani’s nightingale 23 Cartoons 24 Poetry 44 SELECTED CLASS NOTES 25 Selected articles 52 JOIN BITSAA GIVING TO BITS 53 BITSConnect pledge form _____________________________________________________________________________________________ MAY 2003 SANDPAPER 2 From the Editor Birla Institute of Technology & Science Alumni Magazine We’ll constantly bring you News about our People. Through Person of the Month, we’ll inspire you with the HELLO AND extraordinary achievements of ordinary people. WELCOME TO THE To help you tell your stories, we’ve assembled an incredibly diverse team at SandP from around the world. I expect this team to expand with regular and guest NEW SANDP ! contributors, as well as some of those writing legends from your past. We welcome them all to pick up the pen again Ten years ago I founded a newsletter for Economics at and let the words flow like they used to. Pilani. Titled Zero Deficit, it aimed at providing newsworthy information in a casual way to the Eco Group. BITSAA International got started because a dear friend and I doubt Zero Deficit still exists. Zero Deficit was all classmate, SS Seshadri passed away untimely. The desire business. It required work, it had no masala, it stirred no of a small Eco ’87 Yahoogroup, 20-odd volunteers in New emotions. Jersey, and the passion of the BITSAA alumni body resulted not only in a lifelong scholarship in Sesha’s name Magazines, like causes, survive because of people, passion at Pilani last year, but also ignited a small revolution with and money. We believe we have ample quantities of two, the birth of BITSAA International. By stirring our little and little need for the third. idea with the magic of BITSian passion, we accomplished a small wonder. Sandpaper got started to tell all of you about Naming this magazine Sandpaper made sense to my team. this collective magic, these small wonders. In management-speak, “SandP” had unparalleled brand recognition. It conjured up images and passions for most BITSAA Roundup , and Alumni Corner will tell you how of us like no other name. I was reluctant to grab the name we’re collectively bottling and selectively releasing this from BITS, but my teammates were very convincing. So passion in the years to come. Sandpaper [2.0], or Sandpaper, the BITSAA edition, was born. Unlike Zero Deficit, this first edition has all the ingredients of an Indian masala movie. Comedy, action, villains, We’ve all grown and changed, so this Sandpaper has heroes, heroines, drama, philosophy, and most of all, metamorphosed. But it remains a kaleidoscope of our passion. Sit back, grab the cheeku shake and enjoy the lives. magic. We’ve replaced the gossip column with a more gentrified There are no intermissions. Only sequels. Class Notes that will be your companion for many years, to help you live and learn about the travails and passages of And you all are scripting the show. your friends and classmates. Anupendra Sharma (’87) We are intricately entwined with our past at Pilani. Hence Chief Editor Nostalgia opens avenues for travel down memory lane. At BITS, legendary tales of introducing non-veg food in the messes, banning the NC, of Bihari strikes, devastating fires and crazy professors were passed from batch to batch, generation to generation. History will bring to life all those tales of yore. We’ve always been a gloriously funny bunch, so Creative and Cartoons is stocked with content to keep you smiling about this wonderful thing called life. Business, Technology & Academics will bring news, ideas and stories of our unsung heroes. Some may even inspire you to start new businesses, to invent new technologies, to research new ideas in academia. Anupendra (left) with Venu & Sandeep at the East Coast Golfing Event in summer 2002 In Mera Bharat Mahaan and Giving to BITS, we’ll highlight charitable causes and showcase generous hearts. Through Led Zep’s Immigrant Song, we want you to tell us about your first experiences in the new world after you left Pilani. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ MAY 2003 SANDPAPER 3 From the Editor Birla Institute of Technology & Science Alumni Magazine SandpaperOnline www.bitsaa.org/sandpaper/sandpaper.html UP TO THE MINUTE STORIES YOU WON’T FIND HERE This published version will appear at infrequent intervals. To access the latest news, stories, cartoons, humor, class notes and to find out the latest regarding the BITSConnect project, visit the website. In addition, find the 2002 Business News and archives of People in the News. In addition, delightful articles and stories such as Sagarika Jaganathan’s Moments in time , describing her white water rafting trip while at BITS, Laxman Mohanty’s Dining Dynamics, Sandeep Mukherjee’s Cricket in the Common Rooms, and the most complete BITS encyclopedia prepared by the 1996 batch, are to be found on the website. BITSian AUTHORS BITSians IN ACADEMICS Sandpaper has started a database of all At last count, there books published by BITSians. Support our were 163 BITSian BITSian authors, and read the works of alums teaching as our literati, be it fiction, non-fiction or professors at reference. universities and research institutes around the world. BITSians IN BUSINESS All details including research interests Find out about the Top 50 BITSian and awards are to Leaders in Business. Also read about be found on the BITSian entrepreneurs who have started website. over 100 companies in the US alone. TEAM SANDPAPER CHIEF EDITOR Anupendra Sharma GUEST WRITERS Dilip D'Souza, Prof. KRV Subramanian, The Sandpaper team is a Prof. Rahul Banerjee globally distributed virtual EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Sandeep Mukherjee, Devesh Satyavolu, team in the United States and Pushkala Venkatraman India. We are looking to add NEWS Venu Palaparthi people in Europe, Australia BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY Mukul Chawla, Aanand Krishnan, Ashish and most of all, Pilani. Garg CREATIVE & HUMOR Antara Bhattacharya , Sagarika Send your letters, comments, Jaganathan suggestions and articles by EDUCATION & ACADEMICS Vikas Chandra NOSTALGIA & HISTORY Emani Satya Swaroop, Laxman email to: Mohanty [email protected] CARTOONIST Sabya Kar CLASS NOTES Suraj Srinivasan Visit our website at: CONTRIBUTORS Suharsh Dev Burman, Rajeev Menon, www.bitsaa.org/ Sanjay Motwani, Sridhar Parthasarthy, sandpaper/sandpaper.html Sriram Sundaramoorthy TECHNICAL EXPERT Pirasanna Venugopal BITSAA International has been granted 501(c)3 tax- OFFICE Sandpaper Magazine exempt status by the IRS, BITSAA International, Inc and is registered in New 34 Pierce Road Jersey, USA. East Windsor, NJ 09520 Tel: +1 (917) 930-1492 _____________________________________________________________________________________________ MAY 2003 SANDPAPER 4 BITSAA Roundup Birla Institute of Technology & Science Alumni Magazinee BY VENU PALAPARTHI 2002. THE YEAR THAT WAS In 2002, we set ourselves a very raising money from two East Boston, Seattle, Detro it, and San aggressive agenda and Coast fundraisers. This $16,000 Jose. It was the first time he had met endowment now funds two merit- so many BITSians in the US (or succeeded on most fronts. As a anywhere)! group, we pushed the limits in cum-need scholarships in Pilani in our first year of existence and perpetuity. As a pilot project, it demonstrates the loyalty of laid a tremendous foundation on To enable high-impact networking, which to build our future BITSians to BITS and their BITSAA organized its first golf success. If you are wondering keenness to give back. The first outing in NJ with about 50 BITSians two scholarships were awarded to what these achievements are, in attendance. One particularly read on … Krishnachaitanya and Charles spirited BITSian insisted that he had Augustine in December 2002. played golf on the Sky lawns. Needless to say, BITSians found the The global BITS community: sand traps on the course more Our biggest focus for 2002 was to treacherous than the sands of Pilani. bring BITSians together and enable them to communicate with BITSian Achievements: BITSians and learn about each other. To won accolades around the world as that end, our website, launched in they continued to blaze new trails in February 2002, has been a huge science, technology, and the arts. The Director in Boston hit with BITSians, helping us with Prof. SP Kothari organize, communicate and reconnect with each other around BITSAA International (USA): the world. We are continuously We expanded BITSAA inland developing this website as a focal from our beachheads in New point of our community. Also in York and San Francisco.