Born to Fight

NEW DELHI: Arun Sarin was a boxer in school. And while he may not be about to do a Rocky Balboa, the CEO of Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator, still retains that old fighting spirit, as well as the ability to roll out the punches and keep on pushing till he nails the opposition. But boxing wasn't the only sport he liked. He also excelled in hockey and gymnastics.Somehow, the budding superachiever also found the time and energy to be a brilliant student.
Life was hectic, but deeply satisfying at the military boarding school in Bangalore where his father, Krishan Sarin, a lieutenant colonel in the Indian army, had put him. Arun's dad might have had it easier—he was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. But partition took away his feudal family wealth.
Arun was born on October 21, 1954, in Panchmarhi (Madhya Pradesh). Those who know the family say his dad never made him feel that he was born to relative deprivation. Far from it, Krishan Sarin was passionate about his military career and his involvement played no small role in shaping young Arun's early ambition to become an Indian Air Force pilot. But his mother, Ramilla, would hear none of this. Flying was very risky, she maintained, and finally Arun enrolled at IIT Kharagpur to study engineering.
From Kharagpur To California
At IIT, Arun spent five years playing hockey and volleyball, debating and writing, directing and acting in plays. The famous Dilbert comic strip once had an IIT grad saying that sleep was a waste of time. It might have been Arun talking—since he also got a BTech in metallurgy in 1975, ranked in the top 10% of his class and bagged the B C Roy gold medal for all-round excellence.
He left without collecting the medal, but did receive it years later in the US from former IIT Kharagpur director Kasturi Lal Chopra, as his proud parents looked on.
After a gap of 31 years, Arun returned to his alma mater in 2006 to deliver the convocation lecture. A couple of weeks back, the institute received a cheque of Rs 1.5 crore with a letter from him, saying the money should be utilised to upgrade the metallurgy laboratory.