Family consists of Nannaru (father), Amma (mother) and Akka (sister) besides myself. Akka got married in '98 to Poduri Hemanth Datta and is presently a proud mother of Pradhyumn, born on the 25th of December 1999. I'll put some photos as soon as I manage to get and scan some.

I was born on the 7th of May, 1977 in a fiery little known village in interior Andhra Pradesh called Bellampalli. My first three years were spent there with Tataru (grandfather) and Ammamma (grandmother). Ammamma was a loving and extremely patient lady who bore our (me and my sister's) many terrible battles with fortitude. I still remember all the sweets which she used to make whenever me and akka used to go there. She was a lovely lady! I still remeber her very vividly. Grandfather was a General Manager in the colleries there and lived in a huge bungalow constructed during the British Raj. Nowadays, one of the things which I enjoy doing is to get into "philosophical" arguments with my grandpa. He is still keenly interested in math and has done a few very interesting things. Recently, he developed an algorithm to construct "nested magic squares". He also translated the Bhagvad Geeta into Telegu. My first three years were spent there amidst towering mango and palm trees. I almost used to feel that there was a different world high above in the branches. The bungalow itself had three levels all of which you could reach without using stairs... Those were enchanted times! I do not remember my grandparents from my father's side but my father tells me that his father was a strict person who brought up his 6 sons and 4 daughters (!) with a lot of love and discipline.

Well, what can I say about my parents? Amma is a really quiet person. She seldom gets angry, but when she does, she can have all the angry fire-power of a kitten :) I remember only one instance when she got very angry. Amma was a good teacher. She is patient and all those examinations which she set and corrected during my tenth standard examination were such a great help! She enjoys programming as much as I do and is a huge computer buff. I remember her telling me with huge disgust that there are people in her office who actually use calculators and then enter the values onto the computer in Excel.

Nannaru had a really fiery personality when I was a kid. He had some ingenious forms of punishment. I remember one time, when he made me read aloud all the comics of the house twice because I was reading some comics on the sly instead of studying. Nannaru has toned down since and is quite soft-tempered now. Well, almost :). Nannaru really doesnt bother much with computers and stuff although he makes valiant attempts to know them. He is the King of unfinished projects. They range from the sublimely religious to the completely ununderstandable. He makes spectacular beginnings and then drops them off just as happily. He does enjoy himself whiles he's at it though, so its completely fine.

Happily, both of them had good perspective and pretty much let me enjoy my childhood without unnecessary and silly pressures of outperforming other 10 year olds.

Well, now to attack the extremely difficult topic of my sibling. During our child-hood, we used to alternate between periods of long games in the sand-pit outside our granfather's bungalow and raging quarells over everything and anything. As far as I remember, the fault was almost always hers, although she mostly doesnt agree. Inspite of all this, she managed to keep liking me. A lot. I remember boring her with extremely long-winded thoroughly boring stories which I used to cook up as a kid. Usually she managed to keep listening without choking. As an elder sister, she used to take it as a birth-right to periodically catch up on my life by reading my diary which I briefly maintained. Ofcourse, I couldnt so much as touch her things. She is a typical something-ian (i forget her sun-sign) and takes a liking to people quickly. She recently (Dec 98) got married to Hemant Dutta, a really cool guy. On the 25th of December, 99, (the last Christmas of the millenium, although it doesnt mean much since we are all hindu) she gave birth to a bonny boy whom they have named Pradyumn. I wish they could listen to some of my friends here pronounce that. Its really funny. Hemant (or hemoooooo if you hear it from my sister) is a marine engineer and a nice, funny guy. There was a time when Akka used to keep repeating all the jokes he cracked so I do know for a fact he has to be funny.

After Bellampalli, I came to Nagpur, a bustling city in the center of India, where I spent the next 20 or so years. They say that everyone has a city which he calls his "own". Mine is Nagpur. It is a lovely city which manages to strike a nice mean between the suffocating congestion and wealth of Bombay and the peace and quiet (and consequent complete lack of facilities) of Bhubaneshwar. I havent been there for some 6 years. I am sure that it has changed drastically, but I hope its still somewhat like what I remember. There, I went to Somalwar, a school which was famous state-wide for churning out "merit" students. I spent some of my best years there. The next four years were spent at IIT, Bombay. I mostly remember it as a damp, cow-dungy place where personal hygene was against the fashion :) Seriously it was a fun place, although the gender ratio could stand some improvement.

I came to the University of California, Berkeley in August 99, where I have been doing my PhD.