Beginnings of Govinda Dasu: The Story of Govinda Dasu, Part 1

Govinda Dasu was born in Madison WI on the 4th of July, 1994. He was born to mother, Girija Mittagunta and father, Sridhara Dasu. Girija was a Mathematics lecturer at the University of Wisconsin and Sridhara was a Postdoc and Scientist at the University of Wisconsin. He was born 11 inches long and 7 pounds in weight. He was born at 10:55PM amidst all the fireworks and celebration of Independence Day in a typical American town. The first thing he did was use both of his excreting devices, indicating to the doctors and family that he was a well functioning baby. His mother, father, and grandmother held him, and his grandfather jumped in excitement at the age of 60. He was placed in the incubator for a while but eventually was taken home to Sauk Ridge trail apartments by his parents, paternal grandparents, and sister.

Govinda Dasu was a very happy baby. He was always hungry and slept well. He liked to crawl around the house. His sister, 6 years older, used to place him on a fireplace mantle (the fire was off), and then she used to dance Swagatham Krishna and make him watch. When Govinda Dasu was 1 years old, his parents moved from the 2 bedroom apartment on Sauk Ridge Trail to a 3 bedroom house at 41 Newbury Circle, Madison WI. That is where Govinda loved playing in the basement. He would run around the floor of the basement and tricycle on it too. He enjoyed watching his father who would work on an old-school NEXT computer in the basement. His father was a post-doc and scientist at the time, in the field of particle physics. His father would later in life go on to become the Chair of the Physics department at the University of Wisconsin.

Govinda Dasu spent the first couple years of his life speaking Telugu mixed with English. He would say “gotfar” instead of “forgot”. His first word was “Tata” which means grandfather in Telugu, then “Nana” which means father, then “Amma” which means mother, then “Ju” short for “Anju” his sister. Govinda Dasu liked to eat Upma and he even would take it to preschool. Govinda attended preschool at Kindercare but he did not particularly like it. He preferred to stay at home with his grandparents – Baama, Hyderabad Tata, and Delhi Tata. He used to eat Baama’s food and would sleep on Delhi Tata’s tummy and would run and play with Hyderabad Tata. At Kindercare, Govinda Dasu would just cry that he wanted to go back home. He liked the sunny octoganal windows of the Newbury Circle house.

Later, Govinda Dasu was shifted to the Preschool Lab which was hosted in the Church between the Physics and Mathematics departments of the University of Wisconsin, the departments where his mother and father worked. There, he enjoyed playing with one preschool teacher. He even taught her some Telugu words like “amma kavali” which means “I want my mother”. He also taught her about upma. Govinda Dasu preferred staying at home that being at school. During nap time at school he could never sleep but at home he could easily amongst his family.

Govinda Dasu was potty trained before 3. Before he was potty trained he would sometimes urinate on his parents and grandparents when they were changing his diapers. He would always run around and play. He would smile for his close family, but he was afraid of outsiders.

This was the house that Govinda Dasu grew up at: 41 Newbury Circle Madison WI

Govinda’s grandfathers and grandmother would sit in the front porch sometimes while he would run around. His maternal grandfather had a hard time chasing him. Young Govinda Dasu would get so thrilled when his father came home from work that he would race down the driveway with his tricycle to greet him. His grandfather could not chase him. Govinda’s paternal grandfather enjoyed spending time with Govinda here as well. He almost jumped up in glee the time when Govinda Dasu was born and he organized lots of festivities to celebrate the young baby, the carrier of the Dasu family name.

Govinda Dasu was a fun boy, though not a perfect boy. His mother famously had to pat his head into shape when he was a newborn. Govinda Dasu was a cute boy though with curly hair, big eyes, and a smile. Govinda was born with hair and by the time was 2 he had a lot of it. Govinda was a well travelled international citizen by age 2 as well. He had visited India when he was just a few months old and again for his 1st birthday which was held in Hyderabad. On the way back Govinda Dasu visited Germany with his family. In Hamburg Germany, his father would go to work while Govinda Dasu would stay at the hotel with his mother and sister. They would watch the German TV without understanding anything. Govinda Dasu and his sister and mother has the issue of lice at that time, which they got likely during their trip in India or during their travels. Govinda Dasu enjoyed the German bread and butter with his mother and sister. They would walk outside on the beach in Hamburg though his sister was surprised with the nudity on the European beaches.

Govinda Dasu enjoyed his days in Madison with the snow and the basements. He liked listening to the song “Coconut” by Raffi and other baby stuff. He sometimes ate baby food but transitioned into normal South Indian food quickly. Govinda Dasu could tolerate spice even as a baby.

Govinda Dasu’s family moved from Madison, WI to Cupertino, CA right after Govinda turned 3. Govinda Dasu was sad to leave the land of snow and basements for the warmer and more expensive California, but he enjoyed the 5 day drive along the way. To reach California from Wisconsin, they drove through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. Young Govinda really liked the sites along the way with his sister, mother, father, and maternal grandfather. He enjoyed seeing Mount Rushmore. Govinda Dasu particularly enjoyed the bison stuffed animal he was bought at one of the tourist stops.

3 year old Govinda Dasu saw many sights along the way like Mount Rushmore:

And Yellowstone:

and the Great Salt Lake:

and Reno:

In Reno, Govinda and family went to an Indian restaurant. It was interestingly owned by a couple where the husband was Chinese and the wife was Telugu Indian in ethnicity. Both had grown up in Hyderabad, India. It turns out some Chinese people had stayed in India after the Sino-Indian war in the 1960s. The couple liked Govinda Dasu very much. 3 year old Govinda Dasu sang “Dal Roti Kao Prabhu ke Gun Gao” for the couple.

Young Govinda Dasu was getting potty trained on the way from Madison to California. His parents would take him to different rest stops and tell him to “bish” “bish” “bish” which was the sound that encouraged the young lad to urinate. Young Govinda Dasu also threw up in the car once or twice. Govinda Dasu had a wonderful family who were always so supportive and friendly.

Young Govinda Dasu arrived in Cupertino California and was not pleased though! He didn’t care for the small apartment in Lake Biltmore apartments. He loved the beautiful Newbury Circle with the huge backyard where he could sled in the Wisconsin snow. Govinda Dasu didn’t care for the swan that covered the pond of Lake Biltmore.

Govinda Dasu had his 4th birthday at Lake Biltmore apartments in Cupertino. His parents friends were his friends – Shamik Mascharak, Kavi Duvoori, and his cousin Hemanth. He remembers that he received presents like a puzzle and legos. Shamik’s parents gave young Govinda Dasu a present of a lot of Legos that he still has to this day. They all ate cake and pizza. Govinda had a wonderful time.

Govinda Dasu loved Legos.

When Govinda was 3 he loved to run around the apartment and play. One time he ran straight as fast as he can without looking, straight into the dining table. He had to get 3 stitches. His father said just put a bandaid on it, but his mother insisted on stitches because flesh was coming out. He still remembers coming down the elevator of the hospital with stitches and a candy, after his crying subsided. That was the only major injury he had.

Govinda Dasu attended preschool in Cupertino – a place called TLC. There were many nice boys and girls who attended the preschool. He had a friend named Amithi. His family was from Israel or somewhere in the Middle East. Govinda Dasu went on a field trip one time with his preschool, and his father volunteered to chaperone. There was a place where they had to step on flattened stones to cross a pond and young Govinda Dasu was darting ahead. Govinda Dasu’s father had to hold both Govinda’s hand and Amithi’s hand and manage both of them going at different paces, to make sure neither of them fell into the water. Govinda Dasu was a naughty little boy. But in the end thanks to his father, Govinda Dasu managed to cross the pond safely, as did his father and Amithi. It was a nice field trip. It might have been a zoo — Govinda Dasu’s first visit to a zoo.

Govinda Dasu never was a big fan of school, and a change in events led to him spend the last 6 months of pre-K with a local baby sitter instead of at pre-school. It turned out that the preschool teacher was preferring her boyfriend’s son over Govinda Dasu, and so Govinda left. Instead Govinda Dasu spent time with a nearby aunty’s house. This, by the way, was in a new neighborhood that they moved too — they moved from Cupertino to 2341 Esperanca Ave, Santa Clara, CA. The nearby aunty did baby sitting. That Aunty’s house was fully green – the carpet, the walls, the blinds, everything. That uniformity of the green color was fascinating to young Govinda Dasu. Young Govinda also enjoyed the macaroni and cheese that the aunty made. He enjoyed hanging out with the other kids at the day care who played video games with him and became his friends. Govinda Dasu looked up to the older boys and girls at the day care including his older cousin and the aunty’s son both of whom were great at sports and sports related video games. Young Govinda could not keep up with their prowess. Once he heard the older kids saying one kid kissed a girl in school, and young Govinda copied the older kids saying “that kid kid kissed that girl” loudly and so aunty said to young Govinda “don’t be naughty”.

When Govinda Dasu’s grandparents came, he and his cousins stayed in his house. His cousins conveniently lived just a block away on a parallel street. They used to run around the house. He and his cousin would play miniclip games and neopets and such on the computer. They would play outside. Once they got in trouble with his mom for writing on the back of the placemats for the table. His older sister and older cousin would watch Shah Rukh Khan & Madhuri Dixit Hindi songs on the computer. They all would watch Pokemon together. Govinda Dasu looked up to his older cousin and would enjoy playing with him. Their grandmother would try to teach the naughty boys Telugu in the morning, while their grandfather taught their older sisters Telugu. Their grandparents cooked and fed them. Govinda remembers his grandmother would wear katika (eyeliner).

Govinda Dasu in Elementary School at Challenger School: The Story of Govinda Dasu, Part 2

As Govinda Dasu turned 5, he took the test to enter Challenger School’s Kindergarten program. He was taken to one of the campuses where they took him to a room with a one-way window. His parents could see him but he could not see his parents. There, teachers asked him some questions and he answered them well. He was already trained to spell some words, reading and write them. He still remembers sitting when he was 4 with his mother. She taught him how to spell cat, mat, bat, ball, and other three and four letter words. He received admission in Challenger School, and joined in the Berryessa, San Jose campus. It was a 15 minute drive a way but half an hour on days of significant traffic.

Govinda Dasu was very scared of school. He did not want to go. The very first day of Kindergarten, he threw up at 8am right when arriving at school. He had to be taken back home and arrived only at 9am. The first day of school and Kindergarten in general was frightening to him. He was scared of the other children, the teachers, and everything else. It is interesting that he was so scared, considering that he seemed slightly less scared of preschool than Kindergarten. Anyways, he threw up near a tree, nearly every day of Kindergarten. He provided so many nutrients to that tree that they say that tree grew more than average that year. All jokes aside, there was a security Mr. Mo (likely Punjabi Mohinder) who would always be there taking care. When he went into Kindergarten, there were 2 Kindergarten teachers — Ms. House and Ms. Burji, then Ms. House and someone else, and finally Ms. House and Ms. Leach. Young Govinda Dasu liked Ms. Burji and was sad to see her go in the middle of the year. There many other students in the Kindergarten class, perhaps 25 to 30. Govinda Dasu had to spell the word family on the very first week’s spelling test — he found it very challenging and stressful. Other memories of Kindergarten Govinda Dasu has are sitting outside in a tree lined outdoor walkway between classrooms for eating lunch and interacting with afterschool teachers. Govinda’s sister Anjana joined him at Challenger 6 months later, after transferring in from another school. He really liked that and felt supported having his older sister at school. There was also a tall Filipino-American after-school teacher Mr. Stevenson who first Govinda was afraid of, but afterward came to be very close friends with.

Ms. Leach, the last of the “second Kindergarten teacher” role, actually ended up being Govinda Dasu’s first grade teacher. Govinda Dasu was quite scared of her but she did turn out nice in the end. She was very organized. Towards the end of the year, when Challenger students did their Young Authors project, Ms. Leach was very supportive to Govinda, encouraging him write and draw. Similar to George Washington’s tree cutting example, Govinda Dasu once had an exam where he looked at answer that he shouldn’t have. He felt so bad about it that at the end of the test, he told Ms. Leach that he had an unfair advantage. Ms. Leach was very kind. She congratulated him for telling the truth and she gave him a point extra as a reward for being an honest boy.

When Govinda Dasu was 6 he visited India with his family. They flew from San Francisco to Paris, where they spent the night. The young boy saw the Eiffel Tower and they went up to the second story, not all the way to the top. They ate at a French restaurant but had pizza because his family was and is vegetarian. He still remembers his parents arguing when they got lost in the underground Paris metro. Then, they got on the flight and flew Air France from Paris to Delhi. In Delhi, Govinda and his family stayed with his aunt in the lower level of a house in Karol Bagh. There he had Angan by Bikanerwala for the first time. He had aloo tiki, samosa, paneer tika on a stick, exquisite shahi paneer, lovely dal makhani, tandoor roti, crispy butter naan, basmati rice, mango lassi, and ras malai. It was so good that he fell in love with this food. He wanted to go every day but could only go a few times. During this Delhi trip, they also visited the Taj Mahal. On the way to Agra, young Govinda had the chance to sit on a bear called balu and eat chole bhature at the incredible Papu da Dhaba. At Agra, young Govinda received as a gift from his parents a model Taj Mahal which was made out of white stone, perhaps marble. The name of the driver was Jagdeesh and he was a nice guy. On this trip, Govinda also met his uncle Sai Mama and his to-be-wife (at that time, now they’ve been married for many years). They met at Angan, and the food was great. Then the family took a Jet Airways flight to Hyderabad. Govinda still remembers the aloo fry he ate inside that plane. It was alright but not that great. He was taken to his paternal grandfather’s house which was a two story house with a yard. There he had nice south Indian food prepared by his grandmother. His grandfather would ask for nice delicacies like gongura pachadi and nuvulu podi, and young Govinda enjoyed such delicacies along with staples like pappu charu annam. He remembers there were others living upstairs but that the ground floor was his grandfather’s. He remembers they had a hole in the ground toilet, and you had to go outside to walk over to the toilet. The family saw major sites like Char Minar and Hyderabad Botanical Gardens. Then the family took an even smaller airplane to go from Hyderabad to Tirupati. In Tirupati, they waited in a long queue to see the Venkateswara Swami. The queue took 6 hours. They ate at Tirupati’s famous Mayura hotel. They had dosa and idly and sambar there. The accomodation was not very posh. There were lizards running around. However, the Tirupati laddu was very tasty. They went down to the lower Tirupati where they had excellent dadojanam from Alamelmangapuram temple, the consort of Lord Venkateswara. The whole crowd was shouting “Govinda Govinda!” in honor of Lord Venkateswara, another name for Krishna, the 8th avatar of Vishnu. Young Govinda, his namesake, was quite amused by this. Finally the family, returned to Hyderabad, and then to Delhi and flew back home. On the way back they took Govinda’s maternal grandfather. He still remembers the jolly time he and his grandfather and his sister had sitting in the Paris Charles de Gaule airport during the layover, eating the crispiest and butteriest croissants at 6am with a dash of jam to dip — what splendor. Govinda started realizing as he got home and experienced waking up at 5am jet lag, that the more east you go, the food gets better, but the more west you go the bathrooms get better!

When Govinda was 6 there was also the y2k event where all the software companies had to hire virtual assistants in India to correct code so that databases designed for only up to 1999 don’t break. Young Govinda was also somewhat aware of these end-of-the-world scares but he wasn’t scared. The family decided to not stay home during that new year so they went to a festival in Monterrey where he got to hang out with his cousins. It was a lot of fun and they even took a picture together.  

In second grade Govinda Dasu had a vegetarian teacher named Ms. Shenfield. She was quite nice and friendly. He had friends – one Indian boy and one Chinese girl. It was the Bay Area and there were lots of Indians and Chinese people, children of immigrants. He used to play with his friend, the boy, and once they even had a playdate where his friend came to his home and his mother made aloo fry and they played with water guns in the front lawn. Once he was teasing the girl in school and her mom came to pick her up and she scolded him for throwing some tan bark on her. It was a funny episode. That girl would later on go to the same high school and then to a very prestigious college. Overall second grade was a wonderful time, but Govinda was still a little shy. 

At the age of 7, Govinda also visited London for the first time. The UK would be his 4th country after the United States, India, and Germany. He remembers very clearly that they left at 12:30pm PST and it was a 9 hour flight and he thought they would arrive in London by 10pm but they arrived at 5am due to the 8 hour time difference! He was fascinated looking at the London city from above. All the brick roads and different looking houses. London was very different from San Francisco. Young Govinda hadn’t slept the entire flight and suffered from immense jet lag. As soon as he got in the car with his Uncle and Aunt (the same aunty he met in Angan in Delhi the year earlier), he fell asleep while looking at the Bath road in London. There Govinda met his maternal grandfather who was staying with his maternal uncle and aunt. Govinda to this day vividly remembers that trip to London. They went for a walk in Westminster by the Thames on Wednesday. Over the next four days that Thanksgiving Break, they would visit Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye, Madame Tussauds, Stratford-on-Avon, Oxford, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, a real live hedge maze, London Bridge, and a several other sites. However, most memorable of all from the trip were the rides on the London Underground (the “tube”), and the high tea experience outside of Buckingham Palace. As is common in London, they also had wonderful Punjabi food cooked by his aunty — she made dal makhani and roti and aloo paratha and such with lots of butter and it was so good. In addition they went to Dilli Walla and some other nice restaurants in London and had nice food. Overall the trip to London at such a young age was very memorable for young Govinda.

Mr. Zach Andrews was Govinda Dasu’s third grade teacher. He changed Govinda’s life and turned him from shy and introverted to enthusiastic and extroverted. He was a very enthusiastic teacher, originally from Montana, who had studied at Santa Clara University. He, along with his buddy Mr. Aaron Schiffner from Santa Clara University, would host the engineering club where the kids would learn how to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks and a device for holding an egg as it is dropped. Govinda’s bridge broke when a cinderblock was placed on it, but his egg holding device won the competition protecting the egg inside. Mr. Andrews created a CD for the class with all the pop songs of the time like Avril Lavigne’s sk8terboy and A*Teen’s Half Way around the world. There were so many little funny tidbits from that class. Once for poetry memorization, the students had to pick their own poem, and Govinda Dasu decided to recite 5 sanskrit slokas. Govinda Dasu said it so fast and Mr. Andrews couldn’t follow so he gave him a 100%. Mr Andrews organized 2 field trips but Govinda only attended one — to an ice skating rink which was so much fun. He always gave good grades and Govinda always remembered how explained the theory of evolution — how fish became amphibians became people over time. It was so awesome when Mr. Andrews talked about Montana when they read the Trumpeter Swan. He was so animated in the way he taught 3rd grade literature like A Cricket in Times Square, The Wizard of Oz, and such.  He was so good at teaching every subject. Govinda always remembered the physics he used to teach about how the popsicle stick bridge was stronger when you used the width of the popsicle stick bridge vertically like this:

Rather than in any other way like this:

Mr. Andrews taught history and social subjects so well too, encouraging Govinda and other students to be enthusiastic. He had a special auctioneer voice and he would pretend to be an auctioneer and would sing songs like “Cotton Eyed Joe” and other popular songs. He made Govinda feel so confident that young Govinda had the courage to apply to the talent show by singing and performing “Step in Time” from Sound of Music. Govinda really enjoyed giving speeches in the class and Mr. Andrews encouraged him so much. Overally, Mr. Andrews painted such an excited and fun picture of the world that was impossible to beat, and created enthusiasm in so many students, and changed Govinda’s life. Govinda later when doing his PhD would plan to meet Mr. Andrews in Montana – it hasn’t worked out yet because of the COVID-19 pandemic but they will meet one day as adults. We’ll see how it will be. 

During 3rd grade, Mr. Andrews actually cast “Govi” as the teacher in their Spring Show which was the first time Govinda ever felt like he was in the lime light. Most of the kids had one or two lines to remember but young Govinda had 26! He really enjoyed that role from leading the pledge of allegiance, to scolding his classmates like a teacher, to wearing a white shirt and red tie like Mr. Andrews. He was actually playing the role of Mr. Andrews, and that made him feel special.

During 3rd grade, Govinda also took another trip to India for his elder cousin’s wedding. She was 22 and having a proper South Indian style arranged marriage in Hyderabad. He remembered the heat of India, incomparable to anything he had experienced before. He remembered the fans blowing scented water and the different vegetables made into artistic shapes. He was to play the brother role for his cousin Vasu and he had to copy what the pujari was saying — it was an incredible experience. He, his mother, and his sister stayed with his paternal grandparents, though it was actually his maternal cousin. He got to see a marriage for the first time and the groom, pujari, and other kids found young foreign-arrived Govinda quite amusing with his fun loving attitude and imperfect Telugu.    

It was hard for any grade to beat third grade with Mr. Andrews. Govinda thought his teacher was alright, but he was no Mr. Andrews. In the class though, he continued getting good grades and being extroverted, thanks to the dose in confidence Mr. Andrews gave him. He remembers reading cool stories like Phantom Tollbooth and writing detailed answers on tests that would overflow into the page margins and other parts of the page. The teacher wanted him to be more brief! 

Govinda never liked sports let alone basketball of all sports but at one point he was encouraged by his cousin to attend Skyhawks basketball camp which was alright. The most memorable part were the burritos on Tuesday — the food the other days wasn’t that good. Another time he attended Stanford Basketball camp which was convenient since Govinda’s mother started working at Stanford at that time. There were college basketball players and they could see them and their facilities which was kind of interesting. However, Govinda was never fascinated with basketball, like his older cousin Hemanth.  

Fifth grade Govinda has a wonderful teacher Mr. Maté. He was tall and jovial, plump and kind, friendly and creative. He liked Govinda. He continued to bolster Govinda’s confidence. He called him “Govi the happy”. This was the year when Govinda won his first student council election ever to be the representative of his 5th grade class and a “Secretary” in the student council. He won because he consistently asked for votes from peers regardless of whether they were friends, and because he gave an enthusiastic speech. He enjoyed attending the student council meetings with all the older students, volunteering to set up the haunted house and the school dance, and such. In the school dances, one boy started to dance with a girl even in 5th grade, but Govinda was too shy until 8th grade. The student council would have meetings with food and free pizza and young Govinda enjoyed this very much, especially when they included breadsticks and other nice treats after a day of activities and being hungry. During 5th grade, Govinda also started to develop a greater friendship with a friend from third grade, whose mother was a Carnatic musician that Govinda’s parents liked very much. They would hang out a lot in his house and also he would come to Govinda’s house. They flew a toy helicopter in his house to clean up cob webs and they would bike, run, do legos, and many other activities. He was also a very good Carnatic vocalist and somewhat of a child prodigy and Govinda’s grandparents would enjoy listening to him sing the Sithapathi keerthana. In the 5th grade talent show, Govinda made a name for himself by singing Razzle Dazzle from Chicago with a fancy shirt with a red handkerchief in it. Overall, 5th grade was a fun time. 

Govinda Dasu in Middle School at Challenger School: The Story of Govinda Dasu, Part 3

In sixth grade, Govinda started to become more popular. He would hang out with some of the upper schoolers and he would start acting kind of cool sometimes. He was elected to be class historian and he managed the political strategies well. He didn’t run for an office that was too high up and that he wouldn’t win. He knew his place and cleverly maneuvered up the political ranks. He gave a fun speech which was enthusiastic. In sixth grade, Govinda had the popular, charismatic, funny, and plump Mr. Vickers as a teacher. He was brilliant. His sister also had him 6 years before. Mr. Vickers taught the class about the fully story of Jacob from the Bible. He used to famously say that Jacob’s dad did the “big nasty” with his multiple wives to produce so many children, and all the kids would laugh so much. Mr. Vickers was a very conservative Republican (though registered Independent) and he was a devout 7th Day Adventist Christian. He would argue with young Govinda (who was influenced to be a liberal Democrat and not very religious) about politics, religion / God, and such controversial topics a lot. They would have so much fun. Mr. Vickers was an infamously famous grader. He would literally read the test the day before the exam, so it was impossible to do poorly, and almost everyone got a 100% every time. They all were fill-in-the-blank tests that were easy to pass. His class was a no-pressure class. He would tell anecdotes from his life instead, about his medical conditions, about his very old mother, about listening to Michael Savage, the conservative talk radio host. He even described how Jesus was 100% man and 100% God. There were so many amazing tidbits about the world that Govinda learned from Mr. Vickers. He would discuss his German ancestry and how his friends in school used to tease him for being a German since it was only a few decades after WWII finished. His face used to be pure red. He used to eat a nice Togos sandwich every day and the kids would make fun of him when he had to use the restroom or when his shirt was so tight after eating a lot of that a button would fly off. He was so much fun. 

During 6th grade young Govinda visited Geneva for the first time on their way to India. He, his mother, his sister, and his father went to Geneva, Switzerland because his father had an experiment there at the CERN collider as a particle physicist. His father showed them so many wonderful places like the Jura mountains of rural France, Ferney-Voltaire (the rural French town where Voltaire is from), CERN offices that included the LHC and a Nataraja statue parallelling the dance of subatomic particles, Lake Geneva, downtown Geneva with its Jet d’eau, Interlaken where they went paragliding (after very little legal paperwork), Wengen in the Jungfrauregion (though food wasn’t great in Wengen and they had this strange German mukala pulusu variant which wasn’t that good), Lausanne where they met maternal cousins (who they would later meet in Chennai again), and several other places. They visited many different wonderful restaurants having an excellent eggplant pizza with sauce picante at Meyrinoise, fried dough balls with an equally great pizza with ricotta at Pizza D’oro, exquisite French cuisine at LIP, and even the best Indian food at Rajpoute in rural France. Rajpoute even made their own wine and cheese from their farm and they stuffed their own house cheese into their paneer naan and sprinkled a bit of it above their baingan bharta. The biggest memories from that visit though were the stays in the fancy 4 star Holiday Inn Select of the rural French town of Thoiry, playing tennis on the clay courts in the French sun with a view of the Jura, getting croissants at the local mall which had its own flavor, taking walks in the French countryside, and the colorful flower pots that almost every Swiss and French maison had on its window sills.

The trip continued on to India where Govinda got his first experience of extreme luxury. His mother’s sister was staying in Mumbai at that time, and his father had stayed in India’s most famous hotel, the Taj, before, so this time they got upgraded and stayed in the old building (i.e. the original Taj) on the 6th floor (the one that sadly got bombed a couple years later). It was so luxurious, and Govinda still remembers the aloo tikis and hash browns and aloo paratha and hot chocolate and all the elite Indian and Western foods that came with the breakfast. Govinda also had a wonderful time on the streets of Mumbai with his aunt. He noticed the puffs and samosas were so cheap and he was excited that he could get so many, and his aunt told him to enjoy the first one first. His maternal grandfather was also there. They visited the Elephanta caves off the coast of Mumbai. They had to take a boat to go there and a bird shat on Govinda’s father on the boat ride and Anjana, his sister, laughed. They also visited India Gate which was right outside their hotel. The hotel had lots of nice decorations like pictures of British ships (since the hotel was a relic of the British Raj), beautiful wooden flooring and railings, and glorious carpets and rugs. In that trip they also went to South India where they stayed in a Hilton in Chennai. That was where they met his cousins from Lausanne again as well as their grandparents who were good friends of Govinda’s maternal grandfather. He also saw other cousins and aunts and uncles as well, one aunty of whom would become a good whatsapp friend of Govinda years later. From Chennai they took a taxi to go to Tirupati, their family’s most beloved temple, where they say Govindaaaa, Gooooovinda. In that temple again the accommodations weren’t great with lizards running all over the place, and the bathrooms and sheets dirty with no proper dry bathroom setup. However, the crowd was as big as ever, so they were lucky to get any accommodation at all on top of the hill in Tirumala. They visited the Lord Venkateswara shrine after 6 hours of wait once again and had nice laddus. It was perhaps this time that when they came down to lower Tirupati they proceeded to Alamelamangapuram which is the shrine of the wife of Lord Venkateswara (technically they are Lakshmi and Vishnu, but likely adopted local gods into the Hindu framework during the Vedic conquest of South India). Anyways, they then went on a drive back to Chennai and there they got a pleasant surprise. They were able to stay in the Chennai Hilton. Govinda still remembers the wonderful scents and also a Sardarji with a large mustache opening the door for them. He was amazed by the treatment and also by the wooden toilet seat — now what a toilet! In India, he was mostly used to old school hole in the ground toilets but this time he was treated with splendid luxury of posh hotels.

Seventh grade was a time of reaching new heights for Govinda. He ran for Student Council Vice President against many other candidates, and by giving an extremely enthusiastic and crazy speech, he won! And, actually they had changed the structure that year such that whoever wins for VP in 7th grade automatically becomes the President in 8th grade, to ensure that the President has experience. Govinda started growing a bit physically as well and starting to get a little bit of puberty though puberty really started to hit when he was 13, not 12. His mother fed him eggs, hard boiled, and he started taking higher quality bread and caprese sandwiches to school, and such. He started tennis as well, going with the Carnatic music teacher’s son. This was the year that Govinda started to shine — he won the speech competition for a speech he wrote himself about Willa Cather, the author of the American classic O Pioneers! In a student council meeting, Govinda thought of this idea of “City Day” where each classroom would decorate their class like a different city. Mr. Vickers’s class, in which Govinda was a student, decorated the classroom as Las Vegas, with Mr. Vickers acting like a plump and smooth high roller. Mr. Schiffner’s class decorated their classroom as Beijing. Some other classes chose different cities and it was so much fun. Mr. Vickers also used to sing sometimes, and was so much fun. He sang this song — “There was a hole — it was the prettiest hole that you ever did see — and the green grass grows all around all around and the green grass grows all around” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4NGABiouKg. He used to love singing “God Bless America” and saying the pledge of allegiance. He did a masters in Biology but he he did not believe in evolution — he was a creationist, believing purely in Bible scripture. He used to sometimes talk about Shiva and Vishnu too though, and the way he pronounced those Hindu Gods was funny. 

It was perhaps in the summer of 7th grade that Govinda had to go to tennis camp because his best friends mother wanted them to go. It was kind of fun. There were other kids there who were all better than him at tennis but at least they could hang out in Kona Kai and JCC. Although the camp was a little pricey, they got to play tennis all day and swim. Some of the highlights were that they could . There was this one beautiful older girl that Govinda remembered at one point and all the boys were watching her when she played tennis and he laughed at them also. There were a lot of interesting instructors at the tennis academy. There were some from Vietnam, some from Europe, some from India, and it was interesting. It was organized by a Tamilian brother and sister duo who were professional tennis players and representatives of India — Coach Niru’s Tennis. Govinda again, like all sports, was never any good at tennis. There were a couple of funny incidents though. Once one of the Vietnamese coaches was laughing at how bad Govinda was playing at she said to just go, leave the place. And so he ran out and left the entire place into the street. And the entire staff got very mad since that was a liability as they are required to watch over the minors. The coach was kidding. She wasn’t actually serious that he should leave. Govinda really liked his experience with Coach Alex from Germany. It’s interesting because earlier in life Govinda had a similar looking tennis instructor also named Alex, who also was from Kona Kai but also taught Govinda and his cousin Hemanth at their local pool (but the swimming not tennis division). Anyways Govinda and tennis coach Alex became friends. He would tell stories about how horrible the war in Iraq was, and how he even had to shoot a small kid and it weighs on him. He was such a nice guy. He used to teach Govinda and his friend Rohith tennis and then Govinda’s dad would drop Alex in his apartment. Later on Govinda would find out that his favorite tennis coach Alex died in a car crash on the Autobahn in Germany.  

In the summer of 7th grade, Govinda got to go to his dad’s offices in Madison and Fermilab near Chicago. This was a fun trip. First they arrived in Chicago airport, and rented a PT Cruiser which was a fascinating shape that entertained young Govinda. Then they proceeded to drive to the western suburbs where they stayed in a Holiday Inn and went to Fermilab every day. He enjoyed meeting his father’s PhD student who was graduating and proceeding to a prestigious faculty position at the University of Florida — the 3 of them ate together in a pizza shop. Fermi lab was an impressive building for Govinda. It was 11 stories tall, which was taller than most buildings in California. It was certainly nothing compared to the buildings of Chicago, but compared to the suburban California that Govinda was used to, it was impressive. He remembered seeing a model of the entire complex within one of the floors of the building itself which was meta and a bit interesting. Near the Fermilab area, one day they also went to the Aurora temple where they got free daddojanam (yogurt rice) — this was Govinda’s first temple when he was a baby in Madison. So, then they proceeded to downtown Chicago where Govinda had a treat! He was able to stay in a tall building (on the 30th or 40th story), a Holiday Inn, and witness the African American culture of the city watching jazz shows playing on the TV in the hotel. They got to do many fun activities in Chicago like visit the Field museum with the dinosaur replicas, visit the Chicago bean, take a ride on the Speedy Gonzalez boat in the Chicago River, and see the tall buildings of the city. They then proceeded to drive up to Madison for a couple days. In Madison, Govinda got to see his father’s office and that was also fun. He did get to see the Newbury Circle house where he grew up, but not snow since it was summer. This was a good father-son bonding experience. 

In fact, Govinda was very much sad throughout his life from age 5 all the way to age 24 that his father was not around most of the time and was always in Madison and Geneva. He really detested the decision his greater family had made to split the family and have him and his sister and mother live in California and have his father travel back and forth between Wisconsin and California, and Geneva and California. It was so wasteful in terms of time, money, and emotional resources. His father would leave on Sunday afternoon or Sunday night (often with Govinda finishing his homework in the car on the way to the SF or SJ airport and back) and would only come back on Wednesday or Thursday. But come Wednesday or Thursday, his father would still be busy with work (particularly due to all the lost travel time). Finally, on the weekend his greater family would organize so many social gatherings and so many Carnatic concerts and Bharatnatyam dance performances that his father had to volunteer for and attend, that Govinda rarely got to spend much time with his father in his childhood. Govinda to this day is slightly bitter about this. However, many others still have it much worse, and Govinda is grateful for the time and help he did get from his father, and the things he learned from him. 

It was perhaps the summer of 7th grade that Govinda went once again with his father to Switzerland as well. By this time he had visited all 5 countries (US UK Switzerland France India) that he would visit until he was in Junior year of high school where he would add Singapore, and after college when he would add China. Govinda attended Village camps where they organized activities. The food was alright and they went to this amazing huge swimming pool where there was another fat Indian boy and a bunch of Swiss kids. They all would swim. He would learn about different types of international people — English people (he made a good friendship with an English boy named Stephan Hall whose parents were bankers), French people, Swiss people, European people of the Jewish diaspora, etc. Govinda would connect the names like “Erez” with this fat Jewish boy who was excellent at Tennis from the Tennis summer camp with Coach Niru. Anyway, they went bowling where one of the camp counselors who was a French-North-African guy told Govinda “don’t be a p–sy”  when he bowled. Govinda had no idea what the word meant and assumed it meant sissy or wuss (which are also somewhat offensive and which he did not grasp fully at that age), as all the other kids were laughing. Harkening on this event, later on in 9th grade innocent Govinda would use this word in English class to describe Odysseus from the Odyssey (specifically what Odysseus said he didn’t want to be perhaps) and all the class members would laugh and his feminist English teacher was first shocked but later realized he was so innocent and told him to ask his peers what that word meant. His teacher asked if he meant pansy which Govinda also didn’t know the meaning of. Govinda’s innocence is a theme in his childhood and has put him in situations that were difficult for him at times.

Anyways, back to the summer of 7th grade, Govinda was glad to be done with Village camps because he had a treat when he went on an amazing road trips with his father to Lyon and also more importantly, from Geneva down through Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco), through the coasts of Italy to Genova (Genoa), Pisa, Florence (Firenze), Venice (Venizia), Milan (Milano), and all the way back. It was the most amazing trip. During the trip to Lyon, young Govinda along with his father drove fast down the extremely well maintained French highways through hills. They arrived at the flowering tree lined boulevards of Lyon where they went to an exceptional restaurant. The restaurant served an exquisite watermelon soup with appropriate bread. Then they proceeded to a tagliatelle dinner, where Govinda learned for the first time from his father that pastas, while Italian in origin, can have creamy french variants with champignons (mushrooms). Finally they had a wonderful french cake as dessert. They did the 3 hour drive back to Geneva that day itself. This trip was just an appetizer when compared to the road trip that they made to Italy. For the Italy trip, the first day they drove from Geneva, technically from the French suburbs in a housing community called Citea. By the way Citea was alright, but didn’t meet young Govinda’s expectations because in the US the windows have nets to prevent insects, but in Citea insects came into the house and he had to smack them on the walls which made the walls yucky. Anyway, they went on their trip, driving first to Mont Blanc which is between France, Italy, and Switzerland (just like some Himalyan peaks are between India China and Pakistan or India China and Nepal), where they went through a giant tunnel, one of the longest and greatest architectural tunnel feats in the world. And through that tunnel, they managed to cross from France to Italy. They ate fondue in a wonderful restaurant in the quaint Italian mountain village of Val D’Aosta. They then drove down that night to Genoa where they stayed that night. In the morning when they woke up, they walked down the rustic avenues of Genoa and had pesto tortellini in a wonderful coastal restaurant — it was the most exquisite fresh cheese pasta with the best pesto sauce Govinda ever had in his entire life. They then proceeded to the museum of Christopher Columbus who was originally from Genoa. There his father purchased for him a wonderful ship toy, the Santa Maria perhaps, which he still has to this day. They then proceeded to drive down the Italian Autostrada on the western coast of Italy to Pisa, where young Govinda got to see the leaning tower and even walk up it, and it reminded him of the Nizam / Mughal architecture of the tall Char Minar towers (near the Qutb Shahi Tomb) in Hyderabad, India where you have to climb up steep steps. Anyway, outside the leaning tower, Govinda had an exquisite thin crust pizza with his father and it was such a good time. From Pisa, they drove to Florence where they were hoping to see the David, but unfortunately they could only see that building from the outside. Instead in Florence, they walked the streets and ate ice cream in the hot Italian sun. It was fun. They noticed many American tourists. Govinda’s father noticed some of the architecture but Govinda was too young to notice. Then began their long drive to Venice. On the way they passed Bologna and Padua, two towns with some of the world’s oldest universities that Govinda’s father told him about, as he had visited them for physics conferences years earlier. They drove all evening and arrived in the Crowne Plaza in Venice East (Quatro D’Altino), and they had to take a train to get into Venice every day that they were there. In Venice, Govinda and his father went on a gondola ride together, which was too romantic an atmosphere for a father and son, but whatever. They also had nice pizzas and pastas in the plazas, and Govinda remembers his father talking about how some of the older hotels on the canals would be very expensive. It was very entertaining for the young lad to see how the streets were all waterways and everyone went by boat everywhere. It was sunny and they could see so many tourists. They saw the famous church, the Basilica di San Marco, which was big and fun. It had styles from all over the world thanks to those great Venetian traders. When they came back, Govinda had Penne Siciliana, a baked eggplant penne pasta, for the first time at Trattoria in downtown Geneva – it was awesome. Overall they had a great time in Europe together.

Throughout Middle School, Govinda had a composition teacher from France, who taught English. She did not permit any “be” verbs when writing! They had many writing assignments including a DAR essay (Daughters of the American Revolution) where he got to write about Sacagawea (Sacajawea). He remembers his mother was working as a software engineer on staff at Stanford University, and she helped him retrieve some books from the university library about Sacagawea. The books were very dense and young Govinda could only read and cite sections of them, but it was still an interesting experience to see those old books with plain binding. 

In Eighth grade, after 2 years of Mr. Vicker’s homeroom, Mr. Helmer was homeroom. He was really nice to Govinda, and he also liked Govinda’s older sister Anjana who was very good at English. Mr. Helmer taught English literature and vocabulary, but he was most famous for his grammar lessons that featured sentence diagramming. Mr. Helmer used to talk really slowly in a deep voice which was amusing to many students. He was the one who ran student council until the principal Mr. Morrison took over. Mr. Helmer ran so many extracurricular clubs like the journalism club. In retrospect, it’s kind of funny how Govinda was both the president of the student council and an editor in chief of the newspaper. The system should have given some other students the chance, particularly since other students were better at designing pages than young Govinda, who was more of the talk-a-lot politician type. Moreover it’s not fair for someone to control both the politics and the news of the society — sounds like a dictatorship, but young Govinda was a funny and nice guy and had good friends that he hung out with from middle school. Although, perhaps he took things too far in 8th grade when he decided to give a 30 minute speech instead of a 5 minute speech, all about the merits of American capitalism. 

In Eighth grade, Govinda developed a pen pal friendship with the founder of Challenger School, Ms. Barbara B. Baker who would have been in her eighties at that time. They discussed liberatarian philosophies, and she heavily influenced his mindset. Young Govinda went from being a democrat to being a libertarian thanks to her influence. She encouraged him to read long essays written by American and French revolutionaries. She was so encouraging and supportive. She encouraged him to read Locke and Tocqueville. Young Govinda wrote a lot to her, in long paragraphs. She was purely encouraging and boosted his self confidence to the supreme. He felt proud of being in a pen pal correspondence with the founder and CEO of all 20+ Challenger schools across 4-5 Western states. He was untouchable (in the good sense) even by teachers. That being said, once Ms. Baker introduced Govinda to a French libertarian who was also affiliated with Challenger School and he was a little more critical of young Govinda, encouraging him to do further research and deeper analysis. This was a time in Govinda’s life when he was experiencing lots of praise and encouragement from lots of powerful people (at least powerful from an eighth grader’s perspective), but there were also nuances and some critics to his glory. In addition to that French libertarian, some of those critics included Govinda’s PE teacher. For instance, Govinda’s PE teacher didn’t like him and so he made him run laps during PE while the other students played. PE was an ordeal at Challenger. The PE teacher made the students run 5 laps on Monday, 6 laps on Tuesday, and a full timed mile on Wednesday (7.5 laps), and so on. Govinda’s best time was 6:44, which he would only beat once in his life afterwards (when running on the treadmill at Stanford). Wednesday also used to be the days of algebra and geometry tests. Govinda enjoyed Algebra more than running as he was more academically than athletically oriented. 

His math teacher was beloved by all students. He was from the Lake Tahoe area and was the roommate of Mr. Andrews from 3rd grade. He would tell Govinda stories about how he used to do winter jobs putting chains on tires as they drove up to the ski resorts, and Govinda was very impressed because his parents always struggled to put those chains on. The teacher had a smooth personality and did math very cleanly on graph paper. He was the kind of attractive, well-kempt teacher that all the girls in the class had a crush on, who could date attractive women from all over the world, who was smart and bound to rise up the ranks of any corporate ladder. He was an early supporter of Obama, and was a very worldly aware and modern teacher. Govinda learned so much from his role model. Govinda remembered a time when his math teacher called him out for being an exemplary personality — well rounded as a student, but also kind, and enthusiastic. This really meant a lot to Govinda. 

Govinda (they all knew him as “Govi”) began to gain some glory through seventh and eighth grade as he became the favorite of the staff and administration of Challenger Berryessa. He rose to the heights of power. He was best friends with the principal. They would call him out of first period class in the morning just to raise the flag. He would get to stay after school to lower and fold the flag carefully and neatly and put it away. And, he would do this with the principal every time. And, it was always very important that the flag should never touch the ground, ever. Every secretary, every teacher, every staff member, every administrator knew his name. When there were visit days where parents would visit the school, Govinda was heralded as a great salesman of the school, the student council president who could advertise the merits of the school in building intelligent leaders out of preschoolers, kindergarteners, elementary and middle schoolers. He remembers how every activity, every branded Challenger paraphernalia would make him feel special. And, he was part of that leadership. At times perhaps, Govinda’s power went too far. For instance one time he had a little tiff with his favorite Mr. Vickers who gave an insanely hard logic test, and so he complained to the principal, and then later Mr. Vickers was not happy that Govinda complained. Or another time there was a plump teacher who was watching a movie with some students and Govinda was walking through the hall and said hello, and the principal was upset that a teacher and students were watching movies together. Another time, a student lost his book and Govinda shouted to the class he lost his book and the teacher got mad at that student and people were pissed at “Govi” for being a tattle tail. But these were chance episodes and learning moments. In order to not be a goodie two shoes and always in the good books of the administration, during 8th grade on the last day of school, the students wanted to do activity that wasn’t administration approved and Govinda gave the okay and won the support of this classmates but some teachers and administration were not happy, but one teacher was like “well there’s nothing they can do it’s the last day of school haha”. But, anyway, it felt a little weird that the last day had that tinge of bitterness, but at the same time, the principal wrote him a wonderful thank you card for being an exemplary student. Govinda still continued to write Ms. Barbara B. Baker. Govinda would later visit Mr. Helmer many years later before graduate school and Ms. Sherrie and they would talk. Govinda is linkedin connected with Mr. Schiffner. Govinda bought Mr. Vickers a Togos sandwich and met him at a Togos when he was going through a tough time in 2014. He even met the replacement math teacher the students weren’t too excited about since her mom was the admissions director at The Harker School, the high school Govinda would go to, following his sister’s footsteps. It’s a bittersweet dynamic graduating from a place you spent your 9 most seminal years at from age 5 to age 13. Govinda remembers the students singing that song Graduation by Vitamin C (Friends Forever). 

Govinda did well in almost every subject in school. You know it’s interesting — when he was in first grade there was a Filipina-American girl who used to write so neatly and get good grades. Young “Govi” was not able to keep up with other students during K-2. Only after Mr. Andrews changed his life did Govinda become great in school. After that 3rd grade experience though, by the time Govinda was in 8th grade, he would look back and realize that the students who were toppers in 1st grade were completely different from the students who were toppers in the end. Govinda learned a lot in middle school. In computers they had done turtle logo from 1st grade to 5th grade, but in sixth grade Ms. Kirk, an elderly lady — libertarian, old school computer type, taught them typing. She had great typing form and would teach all the students about the QWERTY convention and how to make sure all your fingertips are on ASDF JKL;. Govinda really enjoyed the feeling of being able to type faster. He remembered some students could type really fast at 50-60+ wpm and while Govinda couldn’t type as fast as some of his peers, he enjoyed the ability to type more quickly. In 7th grade they did pascal programming and Govinda enjoyed writing simple accounting softwares on those old school computers. In 8th grade, they studied economics and they read the very right wing and libertarian laissez faire economics of Uncle Eric’s Books by Richard J. Maybury. These books and their discussion of the etymology of the word dollar coming from “thaler” which is an Indo-European word for money interested Govinda. He enjoyed the laissez faire politico-economics and his world political view began to be shaped. He remembered how politically incorrect the books were calling much of the middle east and central asia “Chaostan” and at that time he didn’t understand how silly and jingoistic those Americanisms were. Ms. Kirk really liked Govi. She would have long conversations with him, and he felt like the teacher’s pet. He felt that way in most of his classes with most of his teachers in fact. In terms of English and Social Studies, Challenger taught American literature and history very well. Govinda remembered Barbara Baker and many of his history teachers extolling America as a “great nation” and even encouraging him to watch The John Adams Series on HBO. In English, Govinda has fond memories of his teacher Mr. Helmer talking about Huck and Jim going down the Mississippi, and also him saying “Come on Oliver” in a cockney English accent. Mr. Helmer was an interesting character — he was also a hiphop DJ. He had a vast span of knowledge from medieval and classic English to hip hop art. Govinda remembered from 6th grade second guessing himself in a quiz about one of his favorite stories, The Hobbit. He first knew that Elvish writing could only be read through moonshine but then changed his answer which dropped his grade on a particular quiz from a 100 to an 88. Another time Mr. Helmer gave a pop-test on Kon Tiki, an extremely boring but fascinating book by Thor Heyerdahl. Later Govinda would visit the Kon Tiki museum, and like so many things, in retrospect it was more pleasant. Of course as with many things, even later the memory became a little rough-over-edges because a student in Govinda’s masters program had mentioned that the Thor’s theory was debunked. Still, the memory of the boring book, the fun museum, reconnecting with Mr. Helmer in a visit to Challenger after 10 years, and discussing that book (and the fact that Mr. Helmer’s sentence diagramming skills were relevant to NLP) meant something special to Govinda. Back to middle school though, Govinda had an interesting science experience too. He remembered than in 7th grade they got a special science teacher but she seemed a little jaded because of her divorce and she left part way through the year. She was replaced by a young teacher and this teacher was special because she was Asian like most of the students. She created fun experiments that all the students loved with different chemicals and such. Young Govinda at first was a bit of a wise guy at first, challenging that such a young teacher who had graduated college only recently could teach them. He somewhat foolishly asked where she got her degree from. But very soon later, he began to deeply respect the teacher and learn from her wisdom and her amazing experiments with physics inclined planes, chemistry potions, and such. To be quite frank, many of the boys also used to have a crush on her as she dressed up stylishly and wore Burberry and other fancy products and carried fancy bags as well. There was also a science fair that occurred, which one student always won. His mom was a medical student and he was inspired by her science projects. So, he always had the most amazing grad school level medical science projects that won 4 years in a row. It was inspiring. Govinda got 2nd place a few times. He did science projects with the help of his father on climate change (global warming inspired by Al Gore’s documentary), saturated fats, acids and bases, etc. He remembers hanging out with his father creating those science fair boards – it was good family bonding time.  

Actually, the school had many old teachers, but it also had many young teachers who included extended care teachers who were part time students at San Jose State or local community colleges and such. There was significant drama in the school when different teachers dated and all the students used to watch when different teachers dated and such. Some even got married and such. Govinda also had some small childhood crushes of his own. Some seminal events follow. When he was just 6 years old, there used to be a Chinese American girl who would try to kiss him on the lips when he was sharpening his pencil (and succeeded too) and he would run away because she had cooties. When he was 11 years old he went to a camp called Village Camps in Switzerland and there was a Swiss-French girl named Zoe who used to wear lipstick and Govinda liked her a bit and got matched with her for one activity, which was some kind of foot wrestle. When he was 12 years old he liked some Chinese American girl a bit and then another Indian American girl in 8th grade. All of these were small whims that came and went. When he was a small boy, perhaps 6 or 7 or 8, he used to have a dream that appeared where he was ice skating with a girl on a date, kissing, barely clothed. Some of the boys in school used to talk about how some girls were prettier than others. Some of these were all discussions that young Govinda overheard. It is difficult to understand how many young boys and men develop their taste in girls. It is true though that they are influenced by their surroundings. Perhaps young Govinda may have had an appreciation for the phenotypes of Indo-European eyes, East Asian skin, and so on. It is funny how boys influence each other on their various likes, and how society does as well. 

Govinda Dasu in High School at The Harker School

The detailed story of Govinda Dasu’s high school experience at Harker will be described in another article as “Part 4”. However, here are some highlights to foreshadow what’s coming: 

• Govinda received a good amount of press through the Harker newspaper in his time there:
  • For singing in a choir: https://news.harker.org/hundreds-gather-to-celebrate-the-life-of-sharron-mittelstet/ 
  • For being part of the cum laude society – https://news.harker.org/new-cum-laude-members-inducted-at-ceremony/ 
  • For winning an award with Prag for a science project – https://news.harker.org/another-great-synopsys-year-for-harker-two-students-to-intel-isef/ 
  • For winning some minor certificate in a singing competition – https://news.harker.org/musicians-earn-top-awards-and-get-coaching-at-local-festival/ 
  • His name was even mentioned in a Lick Observatory Science Internship Program – http://www.ucolick.org/~raja/hs/LIST2011.txt
• He even had a cousin with the same last name at the school. And even his dad got featured in the Harker website: https://news.harker.org/cern-scientist-speaks-at-nichols-hall/.
• And sister who attended Harker as well: https://issuu.com/theharkerschool/docs/2005_november_harker_news.

Govinda Dasu as an Intel Semifinalist featured in San Jose Mercury News

Again, details of Govinda’s rise to minor fame will be described in another article as part of “Part 4”. However, some highlights follow.

Govinda Dasu was one of the 11 students that became an Intel Semifinalist. He was even featured in the San Jose Mercury News for being an Intel Semifinalist right here: https://www.mercurynews.com/2012/01/11/record-29-bay-area-high-school-students-are-intel-semifinalists/

Govinda Dasu also was featured by his high school, The Harker School for becoming an Intel Semifinalist: https://news.harker.org/harker-once-again-sets-record-for-california-intel-semifinalists/

At around that time, Govinda Dasu had built War of Word a platform for debating political resolutions. He was featured in the India West newspaper for this work, as evidenced by this reference to War of Word by India West (on the right hand column).

Govinda Dasu race to finish Stanford CS undergrad in 2 years

Govinda Dasu’s race to finish the Stanford Computer Science program in just years will be described in “Part 5” most likely.

Govinda Dasu as founder of an English App featured in The Hans India News

Govinda Dasu also founded and English teaching app and was featured in The Hans India, an important newspaper: https://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Education-and-Careers/2014-12-31/Learning-dollars-Free-English-Learning-App-for-India/123823

The story of what Govinda Dasu did after a record-setting graduation from Stanford CS will likely be detailed in “Part 6” of this series.

Meeting the Real World

“Part 6” will also describe the period of time where Govinda managed to get some press from his alma maters. For instance Harker discussed in their alumni blog: 

• Govi’s initial ideas around Learning Dollars which was then A Pilot Project Designed to Help English Learners in Developing Countries Land Jobs – https://news.harker.org/alumni-app-makers-discuss-latest-inventions/ 
• For meeting up with his friend Nicole in India when working on a project there – https://news.harker.org/class-notes-harker-school-1992-present-harker-quarterly-winter-2014/ 
• Govi’s startup consultancy which received interest from other Harker alumni – https://news.harker.org/class-notes-harker-school-1992-present-harker-quarterly-spring-2016-2/ 

As Govinda got busy with his masters, PhD and business, he didn’t keep in touch as much with Harker administration, but the community still loves him, overwhelmingly supports him, and remembers him fondly. He still keeps in touch with close friends from Harker over calls. Of course as with any colorful alumni, life changes and there are imperfections in life, and in fact that color adds authenticity to life. He is still in touch with Harker acquaintances over social media and through his sister’s network and parent’s family friend networks. Considering Harker had so many Indians (maybe 35-40%), there was considerable overlap between the Harker circle and the family’s Indian friends circle. And, he even kept in touch with his favorite teachers and staff over social media, and pre-new-normal meetups, but nowadays mostly online calls. He continues to follow and support Harker over social media and paper mails, and the community continues to love and support him as he builds out his business. Though most of his clients come from his much vaster Stanford and Northwestern networks, some of his potential clients and clients did and do come from his Harker network as well to this day. He has attended Harker official and unofficial community and friend meetups every year from 2013-2019, and since the new normal of 2020 and onward, he keeps in touch via virtual meetups and calls and plans to attend reunions virtually as he travels the world. He keeps in touch through social media, birthday wishes, and cultural email updates. Harker is only one of the 10 equally important communities Govinda is part of which include his Challenger, Stanford (BS and MS), Northwestern, business (developers and clients), travels, greater family, and extracurricular circles. Though his life updates are mostly to his bigger international business and college networks, he continues to use his harker alumni email, along with his Stanford and Northwestern ones, as a source of pride for the powerful Silicon Valley high school that was a stepping stone for him, has and continues to support him throughout his endeavors.  

Govinda learning AI and HCI in his Masters

“Part 7” will cover Govinda Dasu’s masters-level graduate studies at Stanford.

His experience is even documented in this podcast: https://www.amazon.com/Stanford-Sprint-Jog-Graduate-Experiences/dp/B08KMGTQBJ 

This is the time when he got involved with the Stanford Venture Studio, which helped his company get listed as a resource by a number of important funds: https://blog.learningdollars.com/2020/02/24/how-ld-talent-got-listed-as-a-resource-for-portfolio-companies-of-yc-techstars-pear-a16z-and-12-other-funds-we-just-asked/ 

Govinda and his business partner and cofounder are plugged into the Stanford network. 

• Singari from Venture Studio has used LD Talent.
• https://vshub.stanford.edu/ has mentioned LD Talent in the member perks section.
• Many Stanford GSB and undergraduate students and alumni have used the platform.

His Stanford connection proved useful when his business was shared in the Stanford Club of Chicago mailing list:

Govinda’s life in his PhD and Beyond

“Part 8” will likely cover the experience of Govinda Dasu at Northwestern University, where he did his PhD.

Govinda’s company was featured in the Garage newsletter at Northwestern and he is featured on the PhD students website, the Design Technology Research website, the Delta Lab website, the Design Cluster website, the Delta Lab twitter, and his advisor Nell and Haoqi’s websites. 

Govinda’s future plans

“Part 9” onward will cover what’s to come in Govinda Dasu’s life, including his time with his life parter Anisha Chakradhar, his business, his home in Wisconsin, his travels to Nepal, and his sphere of cultural influence as promulgated by his youtube channel.

Govinda’s life has reached what felt to him like many heights, followed by humbling experiences, in cycles. He was a shy young kid, but then rose to be the president of his middle school class, a big fish. Once again he was humbled being a new student in high school, but again rose to be ASB Vice President, a leader in the Junior States of America, a science and academic award winner, and a legend. Once again, he was humbled by his first experience in undergrad where he had to work hard again to get good grades and learn new things, studying in a library all day. But again, he rose up and managed to graduate Stanford CS with a 3.9 GPA in just 2 years. Then Govinda faced the real world, hard experiences in business, hard and unfair experiences in personal life, social struggles and humbling moments in career. In his masters, he studied hard, made lots of friends at Stanford, and in the Silicon Valley and around the world through online business. After his sister’s marriage, he moved to the Midwest where now he is making connections across the country as well through both his Stanford and Northwestern networks through his business. 

He has a long way to go, but finally after the cycles of life, he feels he is rising up in the real world, the real ocean, not some pond. He is running a network of 300+ globally distributed developers, with over 60 paying clients. His business’s website and blog are ranked within the top 75K sites in the world and top 17K in the US. The business’s website and blog and videos and social media and email lists have thousands of consistent followers, which is more than any other feat he has achieved before in his life. He is managing a large portfolio of investments as well, but in addition to that he has started through his business a venture wing to invest in diverse entrepreneurs in majority world countries to start companies targeting global markets. He has mentored students who have published at the CHI conference student research competition, and he himself has run a study and is preparing a paper to publish through his PhD. His business is producing consistent revenue that would value it as a competitive startup. He is active about sharing developments online through his writings and social presence to all his supporters from all the diverse walks of life he has and continues to have. His online presence is rich across his business, and personal websites and profiles, but he also has learned to stay in touch and enjoy time with close family and friends, and travel as well. He has developed into a seasoned personality, and has learned who he is. He says to himself who he is, his cause for scalable global development, and his methods, every day. 

If we are to plot Govinda’s highs and lows, we can see it might look like the above. Hopefully, this time, he and the supportive, intelligent wife he marries, can lead a happy life together. Having learned the hard lessons of colorful life, imperfection and maturity, Govinda can perhaps just keep following his refined processes and grow his endeavors for global development. He hopes to thoughtfully lead a consistently happy and successful life with his loved ones and mission.