Sundar Pichai at IIT Kharagpur: I thought "abey saaley" was a friendly greeting

Kharagpur: It was like walking down the memory lanes for Google's India-born chief Sundar Pichai when he visited his alma mater IIT Kharagpur on Wednesday. Close to 3,000 IITians gathered to meet the alumnus.

During the interaction, Pichai talked about everything from his learning hindi, love for sports, advice to kids, his college days, nostalgia, to meeting his wife Anjali et al.

Pichai told students that he was not a very proficient hindi speaker because of his Tamil background. “I didn't know Hindi too well when I came here from Chennai. I thought "abbey saale!" was a way to call out to people. I learnt Hindi in college,” Pichai told the students.

“Aim high enough to fail a few times,” was Pichai's advice to the students. He also underlined the importance of following one's passion.

“Academics is important but not everything. Take risks, try different things, follow your passion,” he added.

Sharing his experience on meeting his wife, Anjali, on campus, Pichai said that romance those dayswas tough as access to the girls' hostel wasn't easy.

"Someone would stand outside and very loudly say –Anjali, Sundar is here for you”, shared Pichai.

Asked on the next big thing at Google, Pichai said: "I can`t quite tell exactly but advances in AI and machine learning, we are making a big bet on that. Advances in machine learning will bring a difference in many many fields."

Pichai earned his degree in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur.