In Chapter 1:

Partha Pratim Chakrabarti (Chakraborty) (born 1962) is an Indian computer scientist. He is a distinguished professor and the former director of IIT Kharagpur. Dr. Chakrabarti has made pioneering research contributions and solved a number of open problems. His work has been incorporated in standard text books as well as industry level tools of major international companies. He has published more than 200 papers in international journals and conferences and supervised two dozen PhD students. He is also an honorary awardee of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, the highest science award in India, for the engineering category in 2000.

The 1991 Indian economic crisis was an economic crisis in India resulting from a balance of payments deficit due to excess reliance on imports and other external factors.[1]​ India's economic problems started worsening in 1985 as imports swelled, leaving the country in a double deficit: the Indian trade balance was in deficit at a time when the government was running on a huge fiscal deficit.[2]​

The fall of the Eastern Bloc, which had trade relations with India and allowed for rupee exchange, posed significant issues. The Soviet Union was India's largest trading partner until 1991, with bilateral trade of over $5 billion per year, the turmoil in USSR triggered the collapse in India's export. Towards the end of 1990, leading up to the Gulf War, the situation became dire. India's foreign exchange reserves were not enough to finance three weeks' worth of imports. Additionally, the Gulf War, specifically the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait, caused a significant shift in the trade deficit as India relied on these nations for crude oil. The surge in crude oil prices further exacerbated the imbalance in India's balance of payments. Meanwhile, the government was on the brink of defaulting on its financial obligations. In July of that year, the rupee experienced a sharp depreciation/devaluation due to the low reserves, which further worsened the twin deficit problem.[3]​

In February 1991, the Chandra Shekhar ministry was unable to pass the budget after Moody's downgraded India's bond ratings.[4]​ The ratings declined further due to the unsuccessful passage of the budget, making it increasingly challenging and expensive for India to borrow money from international capital markets. This placed additional pressure on the country's economy.[5]​ The International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended its loan program to India, and the World Bank also discontinued its assistance. These actions limited the government's options to address the crisis and forced it to take drastic measures to avoid defaulting on its payments.

Nehru hall at IIT Kharagpur:

David Ross Cheriton (born March 29, 1951) is a Canadian computer scientist, businessman, philanthropist, and venture capitalist. He is a computer science professor at Stanford University,[1]​[2]​ where he founded and leads the Distributed Systems Group.[3]​

He is a distributed computing and computer networking expert, with insight into identifying big market opportunities and building the architectures needed to address such opportunities. He has founded and invested in technology companies, including Google, where he was among the first angel investors;[4]​ VMware, where he was an early investor;[5]​ and Arista, where he was cofounder and chief scientist. He has funded at least 20 companies.[6]​

As of 2025, Forbes estimated Cheriton's net worth at US$19.8 billion[7]​ while Maclean's estimates his worth at $18.64 billion.[8]​ He has made contributions to education, with a $25 million donation to support graduate studies and research in the School of Computer Science (subsequently renamed David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science) at the University of Waterloo,[9]​ a $7.5 million donation to the University of British Columbia,[10]​ and a $12 million endowment in 2016 to Stanford University to support Computer Science faculty, graduate fellowships, and undergraduate scholarships.[11]​
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In Chapter 2:

Surajit Chaudhuri is an Indian-American computer scientist notable for his contributions to database management systems. He is currently a distinguished scientist at Microsoft Research, where he leads the Data Management, Exploration and Mining group. Chaudhuri is an ACM Fellow.

Address: 781 Escondido Rd, Stanford, CA 94305 (Google Maps)


Blackwelder is one of Escondido Village's two 12-story high-rise buildings. It features 110 junior two-bedroom, one-bath apartments, each shared by two single students.

Construction on the apartments began in 1971 and the units were remodeled in 2009-11 and again in 2022-23. Blackwelder was named for Eliot Blackwelder, whose long and distinguished career included his role as head of Stanford's geology department from 1922 to 1945. Considered a "gentleman of the old school," Blackwelder was known for his dignity, generosity and courteous nature. Blackwelder is connected to the campus Central Energy Facility which supplies hot and chilled water for heating and cooling. The energy plant reduces greenhouse gas emissions for the campus by 68% per year, and water consumption by 33% compared to the previous steam plant. The plant reduces energy used to heat and cool residential buildings by 40%.

John Arrillaga [Father of John Jr. mentioned in this story] (April 3, 1937 – January 24, 2022) was an American billionaire real estate developer and philanthropist who was one of the largest landowners in Silicon Valley.[1]​ He was also a college basketball player when he attended Stanford University.