An evening with Kanwal Rekhi ('63-'67 / EE, H7) Pretend you are in the hostel mess at 4:20 pm on a Friday. Chai ... the weekend ahead. As you read these words, let this story grow on you ... hear the echoes of your own memories rhyme in with Kanwal Rekhi's impressions of a time gone by. 1963 : The nation is seized by political fervor after the Indo-China war in 1962. All vestiges of free enterprise are giving way to the "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" socialist slogans. The campus is alive with political discussions. Russian faculty is still on campus, and the HSS courses in Economics assure that capitalism cannot work. Long walks is the norm, bicycles is for the fortunate few. Powai is free of water hyacinth, and about five structures exist at Y.P. Kanwal Rekhi, who at two had embarked on his first long journey to India as a refugee, now sets course from a sleepy Kanpur to Johnny Walker's "Ai Dil haih mushkil haih jeena yahaan" Bombay. Kanwal endures the ragging - and in hindsight as he speaks about it - has a faint smile on his face as he mentions the experience. Like most 17 year-olds that have been filtered out by the JEE, Kanwal is strong in his analytical skills, and leans towards Mathematics in particular. 1965 : The Indo-Pak war. Shastry wins the war for India, but succumbs to a massive stroke in Tashkent. Indira Gandhi goes on to use her position as the Minister of Information and Broadcasting to work the media. She quells the caucus to become the P.M. These events deeply affect the campus community. Nationalization of industries becomes the norm. India refuses the US overtures and remains neutral (much to Johnson's chagrin). The Russian faculty diminishes in numbers, but the Russian motors and mainframes rumble on to ensure their presence on campus. Inter-hostel events pick up and rock-n-roll comes to town. Like many others, Kanwal is nationally seen as one of the Engineering elites,the creme de la creme. Meanwhile in the US, the media and the president are captivated by Khruschev's bold move into Space with the Sputnik launch. The nation demands a domination of the space-race, and huge investments are made into improving education in the Sciences and Mathematics. A law from the 20's limits the number of immigrants per nation as a percentage of the current ethnic population. So, for example, if the census found 8% of the population to be Irish, 8% of the immigrants were allowed to be Irish. That limits the Indian and Taiwanese immigrants but not the inflow of students. Like his peers, Kanwal really believes in what he tells the VISA officials "I wish to go to the USA to study for my MS". He does intend to return, or settle in an European country. Since the standard of living in Europe is on-par with the US, few Europeans do what the Indians, Iranians, and Taiwanese (amongst others) begin to do in larger numbers. Upon graduation, these early few begin to sink roots in the US. 1967 : Kanwal at Michigan Tech follows the trend to repatriate some money. Amongst a handful of Indians in a 1000-mile radius,there are no precedents. These few are trailblazers of sorts and work hard to figure out the system in the US. Kanwal has always been physically weaker. He tends to wake up each morning weary and fatigued, and all for no apparently good reason. At class, he tends to fall asleep with his listening faculties "on". One particular "EE-machines"-like class, the instructor jokes aloud about the sleeping student and goes on to impart his esoteric fundaes. Kanwal pops awake just in time to be handed a surprise quiz on the contents just imparted. He does his thing, and the professor is astounded to see Kanwal ace the quiz ! Kanwal cannot explain it either. It seems like he had "crashed out" except for his on-line listening faculties. (Author's note: We thank folks like Kanwal for establishing the myth that all IITians have this special ability. It saved many a later IITian from being administered a surprise quiz in a post-crashed-out situation) Post-MS, jobs galore in the US. A $10,000/pa salary launched the early ones into upper-middle-class status. The X+1 syndrome hadn't been the observed norm yet, and still, the early waves of eligible bachelors were heading home. Kanwal met his love in Florida. The defense industry was a strong provider in the pre-Silicon days, and Kanwal moved on to Singer-Link in the valley by the Bay. Back when $2000 bought you a car, and housing was at $150/pm, the valley was a sedate place. And yet, it was humming with promises of things to come in the 70's post-Fairchild era. Kanwal had promised his wife that they would be "rich" by the time he was 40. As the adjective "silicon" began to be attached to the valley, Kanwal at 35, did not find himself inside the Chip-tornado. Meanwhile, he had established a commendable reputation as a techno-firefighter on the job. With his uncanny savvy and an 'hands-on' habit, he had become a de facto system-level guru. As he looked around, IITians seemed still not to be caught up in the entrepreneurial passion that seemed to seize friends around him. Now c'mon - how could they ? This was a species given to tearing out vital pages from single-source "reference" books while on campus. They were more adept at rising quickly through the ranks, and trying out Amway as an exciting business thing ! Kanwal still crashed out in midstream sometimes even 'on the job'. Nobody could pick on his contributions, so they attributed his inexplicable sleeping to "Uh-Oh! he is a party animal - must've had a long night". All this left Kanwal perplexed but he set it aside. He was at the "early Bird" program at Santa Clara University, picking courses that excited him. Economics and History were his compelling thing, and he was an authority of sorts on the American Civil War. (Authors' note: I was amazed at Kanwal's dexterity in borrowing separate events from global history and weaving them into a compelling fabric supporting his point throughout the interview). One of Kanwal's reports (David Jackson), a technician, left Singer to found Altos computers. Kanwal began to feel a restlessness that plagues budding entrepreneurs. The catalyst that launched him out was a new manager with an East Coast attitude. Kanwal quit. It was still too early for Kanwal to really launch his own firm. So, onwards to Zilog, where he met Inder MohanSingh (IIT KGP) and Naveen Jain (Pilani '73). They got along well enough to eventually leave Zilog to launch Excelan. At Excelan, Kanwal saw his role as THE technical 'doer' with Inder playing more of a marketing role. However, with some early downturns and some dis-satisfaction on the part of the VCs of Inder's performance, Inder was asked to leave Excelan as the CEO. Lots of lessons here for social friends getting together to form an enterprise and the bitterness of parting. Kanwal went from the head-techie to the CEO of Excelan. And yet, Kanwal sometimes, wandered off into a deep snooze right in the middle of very important meetings ! This time though, it added to his reputation since everyone assumed that he was working too hard. Strange how people's perception of you is driven by your status in the ranks, regardless of the truth ! The reality, as it turned out, was a very harsh one. Kanwal had "sleep apnea" - a respiratory-disorder induced disease that prevents one from even having a deep sleep. The good news was that Kanwal had found the cause, the bad news was that the cure was a long-term, painful one. Overcome it he did, with characteristic elan - as did he his second disorder : speech impairment. Pilots will testify to the one cardinal truth that they all know well: "Once in the air, fly the airplane!" No amount of complaining or self-pity will reverse the adverse weather or the leaky fuel-tanks. Got to fly the airplane and land it safely - you own your life. Kanwal is an ace pilot in that very sense - imagine going through IIT without any deep sleep, through CEO-level negotiations with a speech-disorder ! And when asked about it, the man replied "God gives you ways to overcome your disabilities with gifts in other faculties". The rest of this story could have several interesting endings. Kanwal went on to take Excelan public ... is on the board of a few companies ... has been profiled in magazines from the Wall Street Journal to India Currents ... helped launch Novell-India prior to leaving Novell. At home, he is a loving father to two kids, and is known to the TIE community as a large-hearted mentor. I have picked a small story to end this article. It has to do when Kanwal wanted to donate $50,000 to IIT-Bombay. Kanwal wrote out a check to IIT Bombay (it was still "Bombay" in '91). The RBI came back with intelligent questions such as "Where did you get this much money?" with "How did you earn it" etc. This from a man who took a $140M worth Excelan public many years ago ! To make a long story short, there was enough hassle from the gatekeepers to force Kanwal into an alternate arrangement. He bought $50,000 worth of stock in "Onward Technology" - a Harish Mehta venture (who had coaxed Kanwal to have his company be a Novell distributor in India in earlier years). All profits from this $50,000-equivalent investment are now directed as Rupee contributions to IIT-Bombay. As some of us alum's struggle to nourish the roots that we all share, a project that facilitates the giving would be very beneficial. Kanwal goes on to cite the pushy alum-letters and attitude taken by campuses in the US as an example. Time to work with the like-minded at IIT Bombay to make this happen ? Time for another round of Chai folks ? Should we draw from successful stories like Kanwal's to leverage the alumni and work on projects that give us a sense of fulfillment ? By the way, Kanwal has been profiled in the May '97 issue of India Currents . This article for Y-Point has not focused on Kanwal's professional life - which was in any event covered very well in the India Currents issue. |