Pichai's IIT Batchmate Chose Spirituality Over Technology

Sundar Pichai's IIT Kharagpur batchmate Gauranga Das is an ISKCON monk, who met Pichai years later and shared a memorable exchange about their careers. The two IIT graduates studied at different campuses in the same year - 1993. While Pichai pursued technology and became Google CEO, Das chose spirituality and built a public career around teaching, writing, and social work.

Pichai told Das, 'You look younger than me.' Das replied, 'You deal with Google, which creates stress. I deal with God, who releases stress.'

Their story is not about one path being better than the other but rather how two graduates from the same IIT batch can make very different choices about their lives.