The Phani I remember

 

Everyone on the bus is excited about the potential sitings of gorgeous bikini clad women at Anjuna beach goa except Phani who feels a call of nature.    After a few moments after turning the bus back to the hotel, he returns only to say  “it was just a feeling.”   Sometimes, life is crazy that even shit doesn’t happen.  Later, he finished number 2 in the class, got a full scholarship at Purdue and continued his stellar academic success in the US, and became a successful quant manager.    Through many turbulent things that life through at him, Phani, with grit and hardword made many quantum leaps of progress.

 

To start in a rural setting with minimal English exposure, share Agrawal tutorials with like minded bunch of four in Kakinada and make it to IIT is, by itself, a very notable record.   He continued working hard – that was what I found remarkable.   He didn’t cool off, like I did, but was determined to work hard.   He may have done structural engineering but for me he embodied the hard labor of a construction worker.  What great dignity there is in that.

 

He was not all work, he was fleet of foot and could dribble.   He made few excellent passes while playing for Narmada C in six a side and scored and helped advance to later rounds where better teams outscored us.  Yet largely, he seemed on a mission to prove something but what and to whom I couldn’t quite fathom.  I’ve never seen him relax and I suspect he has never seen me work hard in that period.

 

In those days of immaturity, his run ins with Marty were particularly amusing.   He once said “Nee XXX bastard” in a heated exchange with Marty where XXX is a family member.   I was tempted to ask what exactly he meant – was it XXX who is a bastard?  Or did he mean “Nee XXX, bastard.”   I really couldn’t infer if there was the important coma as punctuation.   But his mood was a bit off color so I couldn’t quite get it clarified.

 

In the midst of all this he did very well in the class.   He worked hard for CSK as his project guide.  Wrote FEM code (what else?)   And laid a solid foundation for future academic excellence in Grad school.   He topped the institute for the hardest 3^rd sem 2^nd physics quiz.  So I was hardly surprised that he did well in graduate pursuits and often wondered if Phani would have been better off if he had more urban exposure in India.   I came away thinking possibly not - for that probably gave him motivation to prove himself and he used that well to his advantage.

 

I got a call from him when I was in GS NY and when Phani was just graduating from Wharton.   He wanted to trade commodities for GS.   At that point so did every one.   But he explained his motivations.   It was sad to see a person of scholarly pursuit move to finance but in a way it was good.   I’d rather see some one like Phani having success and wealth and the power to influence society than other incompetent people or worse, just plain assholes.   So more power to him.  And for the next part of his life, I wish greater success and relaxation for Phani.