2010-12-30 20:23:15
My first meeting with Ajay was in 1996. I had just started working on a new project, a large robotic scanning system. He was one of the hardware engineer’s on that project, I ran the software portions…we used to call him “spring” for the way his head would be bobbing up and down when he was animatedly trying to describe a technical item. Very energetic, very dedicated, an engineer, in the true sense of the word…even if he wasnt really an engineer.
Right at that time he had decided that his future was not necessarily in hardware but software. Every time he came to work he had a book with him. Those were the days of Turbo-C (which was the only “freely” available c compiler) and he would spend after hours sitting and entering programs from Al Steven’s books and seeing how they work. We would spend time discussing brevity of code, and programming. He had the hardware view, I had the software view…it was long discussions over tea (11:00am or 3:30pm everyday), or HAL Lunch (you have to eat it to know what I am talking about).
Our path’s diverged…he went to a smartcard company, doing software. When I was looking for software engineer’s I went looking for him. I was looking for engineering attitude. Even today, he is one of the few people in the world who truly epitomizes it.
When he needed to learn C++, he went at it the whole hog, I expect he is one of the few C++ programmers in the world who truly understood Multiple Inheritance and Operator overloading, and actually had an opinion about it. One that he would argue with customer’s about, customer’s simply loved him!
The learning spirit…that was what ajay was about. Hard work, Empathy, Attention to Detail, what constitutes completed work, when is a job really done…it defines what ajay was for.
But that’s the work side…he took a bank loan and paid for his brother’s education in australia. He put a second brother through college. He supported his family…never looking for something for himself. He had this Hero Puch bike that he used for years and years and years…because all his money was tied up. Only much much later did he buy himself a car.
Our relationship remained that of a Boss and Subordinate for the longest time. He was always my foil. Not afraid to come up and tell me when he thought I was wrong, if an engineer got a rough time from me he would take him down to the nearby darshini shake him back up, he would come back and tell me if he felt I had been unfair. One of the most important things that any leader needs is honest feedback. He was my feedback loop.
I remember times, late at night, 2:00am. One of the teams is working nights to achieve a deadline that needed to be completed…he would be there. It’s not even his team but he would be there. Quite often the security guard would come looking in wondering why these people are laughing like jackasses so late at night.
Fast forward to the last four years…I knew him for so long but it was only when it was time for him to get married that I found out that he had escaped the clutches of cancer in his young age, and that he had only one kidney. He spent so much time visiting doctors, getting biopsies making sure that he had escaped the cancer before he even agreed to get married. He was clear that if even one doctor suggested that there was something wrong he would never get married.
We drove down to Tirupathi for his wedding. It was really good to see Ajay, with that shy smile on his face, ready to begin the next phase of his life.
Fate can be really cruel. It wasnt long after that that he started getting a growth that would not subside. The last two plus years were so many surgeries, so many problems. So much medical havoc. Then there was the last operation, where they more or less touched every part of his body cleaning it out of the growth that was pushing at his spine. He go better but after a while he could not walk…there was one more surgery…and we all thought it was done. He needed rest and then he will be back to work.
I used to call him and we would talk. Long discussions on work, life, lots of things. That was when we truly became friends.
And then a couple of months ago I heard the truth. He did not have much time. Two years tops. His biopsies had been reviewed at the sloans kettering institute, and the response was that there is nothing that can be done for him. Today, as I write this he is no more…
His family had not told him that he had very little time. I did not tell him either…but I guess he knew. Whenever I called him the energy, the determination to get better was there. It was not me that was giving him support. In reality it was him supporting me. It was his energy, strength coming through to me.
Ajay…wherever you are…thank you. I will be telling my children about my friend.
Samyeer Metrani 