Prashant Kurdukar

I joined HPS in 1967 along with Rajendra Reddy (Pol). For a couple of months, I was a Day Scholar. Pol and I boarded the bus from the same stop. Didn’t realize how good the food was in the school until I left school. I was in the East wing, shared my dorm with Nitin, PLN Prabhu, Anil Rupani (RIP), Vasu, Srinivas, Subodh (RIP), and Raghava Rao (RIP). It’s sad that some of these guys are no longer with us. I was known to be EXTREMELY quiet. Sometimes, people would joke about the number of words I spoke during the day. OK, that whole thing was a façade! That’s all I can say!

In the dorm, I played a lot of guitar. I used to ‘bunk’ games on a daily basis, just so I could play the guitar. Once I was caught by Mr. Devadattam but he didn’t say anything! He just looked at the floor and walked past me! I often played late in the night, annoying my dorm mates, I am sure. However, they were gracious enough to suffer in silence and not say anything to me. Enjoyed participating in the inter house entertainment competitions along with Madhu. I remember our first attempt (Ballad of John and Yoko) ended up in disaster because our guitars were not tuned.

Joined IIT Madras along with S. R. Venkateshwaran, Jayant, Raghava Rao, R. Ananda, Girish Reddy, and Deep Sagar (RIP). With SR on the Sitar, we attempted a jugalbandi in a couple of inter-hostel events. That was exhilarating. Thereafter, got very interested in Indian classical music. During summer vacation, I do recall visiting Madhu and Anil Rupani in KMC Warangal. My father had transferred as superintendent of the prison that was located right next to KMC. I remember Ram Panhani coming over to our house to see me.

After IIT, worked in Pune for some time. Bajaj for a year (bad), and then Telco (the best company I have ever worked for). I remember running into Anand Halbe in Pune. I visited him a couple of times at his home. I think Pune was the best time of my life. Lots of great restaurants, great friends, great conversations over beer at “The Place”.

Coming over to U.S. was not a carefully thought-out decision. My roommate was applying to various universities, so I said, OK let me try as well. I remember Jayant came to see me in our house in Hyderabad just before I left for US. While leaving, seated on his motorcycle he said, “I don’t think I will see you again”.

In U.S., did an MS in Mech Engg and then in Comp Science. Worked for AT&T/Lucent for 20 years. Currently, working for Abbott on their RT PCR testing instrument, managing Systems Engineering and Risk.