Sundar Pichai turns 53: When Google CEO recalled childhood struggles – ‘Had no running water, used to stand for hours’ | Company Business News-OxBig News Network

Google’s parent company Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is celebrating is birthday today (June 10). As the top executive turns 53 on Tuesday, his journey of climbing up the tech ladder has been nothing short of extraordinary.

Speaking with Lex Fridman in a podcast recently, Sundar Pichai recalled how during his childhood even getting basic things was a luxury. Opening up about his childhood in Madras, now Chennai, Pichai said that these formative years helped him become who he is today and shape his approach to life.

No running water

Speaking on the podcast, Google CEO Sundar Pichai reflected on how even running water was unavailable when a drought struck his city during his childhood.

“We had no running water. You know, it was a massive drought. They (authorities) would get water in these trucks, maybe eight buckets per household,” he said, recalling those days.

Pichai revealed that he stood in line with his brother and mother to get the water.

“So me and my brother, sometimes my mom, we would wait in line, get that,” he said.

No telephone, medical reports took days to come

Sundar Pichai also recalled how the idea of instant access to information even with a telephone was a dream.

There was a five-year waiting list. We got a rotary telephone. It dramatically changed our lives,” he said.

“People would come to our house to make calls to their loved ones,” Pichai recalled.

The lack of telephones or any other technology would even affect people’s access to their medical records, the Google CEO said.

“I would have to go all the way to the hospital to get blood test records, and it would take two hours to go. Then they would say, ‘Sorry, it’s not ready; come back the next day.’ Two hours to come back. That became a five-minute thing,” he said.

These experiences helped Sundar Pichai understand his passion for technology and eventually pursue it as his career, becoming successful.

“As a kid, even this light bulb went in my head, this power of technology to kind of change people’s lives,” he said.

Sundar Pichai was born on June 10, 1972 in Chennai. He grew up in a small two-room apartment with his parents and brother.

Pichai has often shared anecdotes of his childhood and described incidents that have inspired him to become successful and eventually the CEO of Google.