For many teenagers, rebellion against parents involves small issues like curfews or fashion choices.
However, for achievers, the dilemma is a little more complex. Infosys Co-founder Nandan Nilekani chose the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay over his father’s preferred IIT Madras.
In a conversation with LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky, Nilekani reflected on this moment from his youth.
Born in Bengaluru in the 1950s, he grew up when career options were mainly limited to engineering or medicine. Not wanting to pursue medicine, engineering became his obvious choice.
As per India Today, Nilekani had his dreams set on the renowned IIT Bombay, which was and still is one of the top premier institutes in India, but to his surprise, his father rebuked his choice.
Back then, his father communicated his decision to Nilekani via a telegram and wrote, "Join IIT Madras, chemical engineering,” Nilekani recalled.
Nilekani, then 18, decided to not stray from his aspirations and told his father that he might not listen to him this time. “I told him, ‘I’m not going to listen to you.’ Instead, joined electrical engineering at IIT Bombay. It was a small act of rebellion,” he said in a conversation with the LinkedIn CEO.
Nilekani’s father, who valued stability and education due to his own "insecure" job, also prioritised a secure path for his son.
However, Nilekani's decision to defy this and pursue his own path led to his successful career. After graduating, he worked at Patni Computer Systems in Mumbai, where a chance meeting with Narayan Murthy changed his life forever.
Together with Murthy and five other engineers, Nilekani later Co-founded Infosys, which went on to revolutionise India’s Information Technology (IT) sector.
