When Kumari Shibulal first entered her marital home in Alleppey, Kerala, her father-in-law, the late C.K. Damodaran, welcomed the young bride with an unusual gift. He gave her a small, beat-up radio, with a tangle of wires sticking out from its case, and said, ”This is what your husband made as a boy.” Turning the dial, he laughed, “Look, it still works!”
Twenty-nine years later, the son he spoke of, S.D. Shibulal or “Shibu”, now the chief operating officer of the $4 billion (Rs15,880 crore) global software services’ company, Infosys, remains a DIY electronics freak. He recently cobbled together two devices, Slingbox and TiVo, so that his daughter Shruti can enjoy her favourite TV shows live from the US, in their Bangalore home.
Sangitaa Advani
Shibu is not alone in his passion for gadgets. He is joined by S. Gopalakrishnan or “Kris”, a fellow founder-member of Infosys and its current chief executive officer (CEO)—Infosys was established in 1981 by N.R. Narayana Murthy and seven engineers in Pune with an initial capital of just $250.
Kris is a low-key person with simple tastes. For someone who steers the course for almost 90,000 employees in 25 countries, he still sets up his own computer in the office and, until recently, drove himself to work every day. But when it comes to cellphones, he confesses shyly, “I buy a new one every week!”
Deepak Satwalekar, managing director and CEO of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. and an independent director, Infosys, discloses how coffee breaks at board meetings are usually a lively race between the duo and Narayana Murthy to show off the latest gadget. Narayana Murthy’s usually pertain to music; he loves to listen to Western classical. “Kris and Shibu,” says Satwalekar, “show a child-like delight in their ability to use and adapt their tech toys!”
R.N. Koushik, associate vice-president, Computers and Communications Division, Infosys, says that in the 17 years he has known the pair, even in this domain, they share the best practices. “Both of them never explore the same thing. If one says a particular gadget is good, the other will buy or use it!”
S.D. Shibulal and S. Gopalakrishnan
But this is not about pride of possession. When Kris and Shibu buy a latest device, they never use it as it is: They examine it, take it apart and refit it to their needs, turning fad into art. That’s why at Infosys, where geeks are a dime a dozen, the two are revered as “gizmo gurus.”
For both, the fascination with technology started during childhood. At TD High School in Alleppey in the 1970s, Shibu would devour diagrams in the magazine, Science Student, using them to build motion and sound sensors that would turn on a light, or a small fan.