"In future I'll devote my time to agriculture"
By Namrata Gogoi
Mumbai, Dec 05, 2007 1918 hrs IST

Born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, Chella Namasivayam, vice president (IT) of iGate Global Solutions, is an IT guy by profession and an agriculturalist at heart. His father despite being a lawyer, continued with the family occupation of agriculture. Everyone arrives at crossroads at some point in their life, and for Chella it was no exception. He had to choose between his 2 passions -- IT and agriculture. Passion for technology and the existing career opportunities in that field led him to choose IT over agriculture. He earned an engineering degree in Electonic and Telecommunication from the Thyagarajar College of Engineering in 1990. He has also gained a number of technical certifications in various products like router technologies, operating systems including both Windows and Linux are to name a few. When quizzed about his hobbies, Chella says he invests his spare time in gardening and sports. "I'm the manager and the coach of our office cricket team," smiles Chella. So does he get time to play in the cricket team? "I used to play in our intra-organization tournaments till a couple of years back, but now I have restricted myself to the above 2 roles, though I still enjoy playing "gully" cricket," laughs Chella. There is a filmi side to this corporate honcho; he loves watching movies. English movies having cutting edge graphics like, "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and all the Harry Potter films are his favorites. Regional movies also keep him hooked to the screen. From being the VP, to a passionate agriculturalist, to the manager, and coach of the office cricket team, Chella handles multiple roles and one wonders when he gets time to spend with his family. But this doesn't faze Chella. His daughter Amurutha is the apple of his eye. He makes it a point to give her classes on mathematics and Hindi every evening. Weekends are reserved for the family. Ask Chella how he manages his time and stays connected to the world, and he'd retort with a grin, "I have allotted time throughout the week for my various tasks, such as, meeting vendors, attending technical conferences, and surfing the net for the latest technical news." His other passions are listening to music and traveling. Says Chella, "I'd like to explore places in India, especially the borderline states and south India." His favorite destination is Kodaikanal, which he likes to visit often. A gizmo-freak, he possesses a Denon AVR and Nakamuchi set. He is also fond of experimenting on his Apple-iPhone. But, mixing pleasure with work is taboo for this 39-year old target-driven professional. He has worked every bit to earn the position he is in today. "I was elevated to the manager's position within 6 months of my first assignment in the IT department of a manufacturing firm," says a proud Chella. When asked about his future plans, Chella enthusiastically retorted, "10 years from now I would like to devote all my time to agriculture. I have already sketched my plans for technical farming. These include designing automated systems, which I'll implement on my own farm," signs off Chella.