‘The Code We Lived by Before We Coded’
‘Microsoft VP’ Ravi Vedula’s
‘Hyderabad Days’ Book
Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao
My
nephew, Dr Aitharaju Bharat Babu, a dental specialist by profession but a
litterateur by volition, walking in the footsteps of his illustrious father,
the late Dr AP Ranga Rao, is a voracious reader and a passionate book lover. He
constantly surrounds himself with a vibrant circle who include among others,
doctors, civil servants, social activists, political leaders, journalists,
high-profile software experts etc. as well as authors of highly acclaimed
books.
Bharat
makes it a point to purchase works at his own expense, generously gift them to
friends and relatives to spread the joy of reading. One such remarkable
350-page book that Bharat recently gifted me is ‘Hyderabad Days: The Code We
Lived by Before We Coded,’ authored by Ravi Vedula, his teenage days friend,
when their families lived as neighbours in the government accommodations of the
Panjagutta Junior (PJ) Officers’ Colony in Hyderabad. Their friendship has
beautifully endured the test of time.
Bharat
fondly recounted his memories with Ravi Vedula, who is a lifelong engineer and
a storyteller at heart. Today, he serves as Corporate Vice President at
Microsoft, residing in Seattle, USA. Ravi has spent there for over twenty-five
years making munificent contributions across various technological domains.
Beyond his impressive academic credentials, his journey to the upper echelons
of Microsoft is a testament to resilience, advancing from a barefoot boy
chasing cricket balls down the dusty lanes of Hyderabad’s Panjagutta of yester
years, to a global tech executive.
Coming
from a modest middle-class background, Ravi uses this memoir, as beautifully
captured in the ‘About the Author’ note, as a metaphorical return home. It is a
nostalgic pilgrimage not just for him, but for anyone who fondly remembers a
simpler world that fundamentally shaped who they became. A fascinating aspect
of this book is its publication in the USA by ‘8080 Books,’ a unique
publishing imprint of Microsoft Corporation, the very company where Ravi Vedula
has built his career.
Adding
immense weight to the volume is an immaculate foreword penned by Greg Shaw, an
extraordinary individual who, three decades ago, worked closely with industry
titans Bill Gates and Peter Rinearson. Gates is the legendary pioneer of the
microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s who co-founded Microsoft in
1975. Rinearson is a distinguished American journalist, author, entrepreneur,
and former Microsoft Vice President who famously won the Pulitzer Prize.
The
foreword opens with a compelling reminiscence of his role in publishing
epoch-making literature. He highlights his experience with The Road Ahead,
a seminal work that famously heralded the personal computer and internet
revolutions. Shaw also reflects on his later experience collaborating with
Microsoft’s current CEO, Satya Nadella, on the critically acclaimed book Hit
Refresh. That work anticipated the massive, ongoing shifts defining modern
technology, namely cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented
reality, and quantum computing.
Shaw
astutely observes that in both of these landmark books, the authors revealed
critical glimpses of their personal back-stories. He then draws upon a few more
historical instances to illustrate how an individual's formative years
invariably shape their grandest professional achievements. Drawing a brilliant
parallel between those landmark tech manifestos and Ravi Vedula’s Hyderabad
Days, Greg Shaw characterizes this memoir as an elegantly written testament
to a unique human phenomenon.
Greg
Shaw opines that, it explores the unwritten ‘Code’ that Ravi, much like an
entire generation of Indian-American software developers, assimilated within
their childhood colonies and neighbourhoods long before they ever learned to
program a computer. Ultimately, Shaw hails the book as both a literary triumph
and an illuminating lecture. Capturing the very soul of the memoir, he highlights
a poignant quote from the author: ‘This isn’t a story of how I made it. It’s
the story of where I was made.’ With
this, Shaw aptly concludes that inside each of us live those foundational
memories and reminders of where we were made, and of the people who taught us
how to live.
Ravi
Vedula’s preface is deeply electrifying, masterfully framing his life’s
trajectory as a journey between two distinct worlds: India gave him his roots,
and America gave him his wings. Reflecting on this profound duality, Ravi notes
that while the dusty lanes of Hyderabad taught him resilience, the value of
five rupees, and Jugaad, the art of resourceful, frugal innovation under
strict constraints, the high-stakes conference rooms of corporate America
demanded absolute clarity, expansive vision, and global scale.
This
juxtaposition inspired his memoir, a creative spark ignited during a personal
meeting with General Colin Powell. Ravi was struck by how Powell, the legendary
first Black US Secretary of State and a decorated military leader, drew upon
boyhood anecdotes to guide his statesman leadership. Mirroring Powell’s own
biographical approach to life and leadership, Hyderabad Days stands as
Ravi's personal testament to those enduring early lessons.
Structured
chronologically, Hyderabad Days comprises seventy-six distinct topics
distributed across six thematic sections: ‘The World Within the Gates; Kitchen
Politics, Cricket Wars, and Other Neighbourhood Truths; Stories That Raised Us;
Growing Up, Drifting Apart; Voices from the Outside; and finally, The Colony
Without Borders:and the Day It Stood Still.’ In an enthralling opening piece
aptly titled ‘Nostalgic Lead,’ Ravi Vedula candidly reveals that his book was
never meant to be a grand project.
Instead,
wrote Ravi that, it blossomed from a simple, deep-seated desire to preserve
fleeting sensory memories: the unique aroma of his mother’s Upma, the
raw feel of gravel under bare feet during neighbourhood cricket matches, and
the distinct, grainy taste of Gokul Chat enjoyed under neon lights after
hunting for second hand comics. Yet, as he committed these vivid memories to
paper, Ravi arrived at a profound realization. These childhood chronicles were
far more than mere nostalgia, but they were the raw human circuits and
cognitive algorithms, the foundational building blocks, that shaped his entire
way of thinking.
In
his opening topic, Ravi Vedula masterfully clarifies the cultural definition of
an Indian ‘Colony,’ explaining that it signifies a vibrant, deeply
interconnected neighbourhood rather than a sterile settlement. Reflecting on
the spirited atmosphere of Panjagutta, he vividly illustrates this shared
ecosystem by writing: ‘Everyone knew everyone. If you sneezed in your
bedroom, someone in three houses down would send you Haldi Milk. If your
cricket ball smashed a window, the news reached your mother before you got home,
and if you tried to date someone, five uncles and six aunties were already
following the drama.’
Capturing
the true essence of the city’s past, Ravi writes: ‘It's about Hyderabad in
the 1980s and 1990s: not the Hyderabad of Biryani brochures or tech parks, but
the one with drain-covered gullies, open gates, and neighbours who all knew
your nickname.’ Yet, he candidly admits that the memoir does not shy away
from life's harsher realities. Some chapters carry the heavy, unmistakable
weight of grief and longing, evoking images of love letters never sent or a
cricket bat never returned.
Even
amidst these shadows, Ravi beautifully concludes that the community offered an
enduring solace: There was always a kind of light. That is what the colony
gave us, a net of belonging, strong enough to hold both joy and pain.’ From
the day Ravi Vedula moving into PJ-4 to fond memories of Gokul Chat, Pesarattu
(Crisp, Green Moong Crepe),
Milk Cards, Morning Sleep, and the IAS Lane, Bhel Puri and Tick-Ticket Toys, every single chapter is captivating.
In
his final reflections, Ravi grows deeply nostalgic, writing: ‘The PJ Colony
is no longer the same ... My family home has been demolished ... But its spirit
lives in me.’ Well, Hyderabad, a city that managed small colonies and
neighbourhoods, now governs global aspirations. Hyderabad Days is a
masterpiece: an evocative, must-read book that beautifully honours a lost
world.
(Article Writer: Former CPRO to Former Telangana
Chief Minister KCR)
