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Hello, today is July 29th, 2019 and we’re in Digital Media Commons of Rice University, interviewing Mr. Bala. Uh, my name is Anh Thu Dang, and so we will start

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off the interview with the very first question about your early life. So, could you tell us about the family and community in which you were born? Sure! So, I was born in 1942, the December of 1942. I was born in a small village,

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called Palghat in Kerala, India. My first school actually was in that place, Palghat. My parents moved to a bigger city called Madras in those days, or Chennai now, when I was

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about maybe seven or eight. So, my education was primarily in Chennai, India. I went to school there, went to college, then on to engineering uh college in Madras Institute of

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Technology. That’s in a place called Chromepet Madras, India. So, were there any values that your family and community instilled into you? Yes, how to be frugal, how not to

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waste anything; and when I grew up, I remember I probably only had three shirts, right? So, the fundamental values of respecting other people, helping other people, were all taught by my

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mom and dad when I was little. So, were there any cultural traditions or practices that you upheld and those are—that you are still practicing today? The only thing that comes from my mind is vegetarianism, right?

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My parents never ate any meat, I didn’t eat any meat, although after I came to U.S., I did try eating pieces of meat; but didn’t like it and I’m

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still a vegetarian. So, what was your first language, and was this a language that your schooling was conducted in? Uh, yes. Uh, the name of my language is Tamil.

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Uh, but since I was born in this little village, what they spoke in that village is a different language called Malayalam. So, my initial schooling was in Malayalam after my parents moved to

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Madras, or Chennai, uh I had to go to an English medium school where the second language was indeed Malayalam. Never learned my language, Tamil, although we

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spoke it at home. So, what was it like going to school in India? Uh… It was like a regular school, uh if you didn’t do your homework you would be punished. Um, you know, unlike U.S., uh, we

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had periods, I think. Every hour we had a different subject, right? Unlike here where you have a lot more choices to make.

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Uh, there we didn’t have any choice. You know, it was pretty strict. But do you consider it a positive experience where you were— Yes! I mean, if it wasn’t positive, I guess I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you,

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right? So, what was your dream job as a child, what did you think your life would be when you got older? My job was always engineering. I wanted to be an engineer all my life.

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Uh, so, one option that we had in our school, where I went to, right from the eighth or ninth grade I believe; um, instead of having languages, I could

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go into fundamentals of engineering. Like drawing and advanced math and that sort of thing. So, I was in that program right from the beginning. So, we will now ask about your education.

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When did you realize you wanted to study technology? Like I said, about seventh or eighth grade, I think. I wanted to be an engineer, simply because I couldn’t handle blood and I didn’t want to be a doctor for sure.

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So, could you talk a little bit about your time at the Madras Institute of Technology in India and what did you study there? Sure, um, there—indeed engineering schools in those days, when I went to school, they had fundamentally four disciplines, you know, electrical engineering, civil

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engineering, mechanical engineering, and there’s one more I forget. But in this particular school called Madras Institute of Technology, the emphasis was on electronics or

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instrumentation, or automobile engineering, or aeronautical engineering. So, I went into electrical engineering. So you went in straight into it? Oh, right from the beginning? No—right—no after my, after I did my

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uh, initial degree in physics and math, I went to this engineering school. Okay. So, what steps did you take after the graduation at Madras Institute of Technology? Now you’re going to get into my life history, huh

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okay? Alright, so, uh, when I was in the final year of M. I. T. Madras, um, it was right after the Indo-Chinese war

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and uh, the Indian Air Force was looking for people to join the air force. And, you know, I was short by Indian standards, but I said, “I’ll give it a try.” So, I went for the initial

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interview, I was selected; then they take me to a different place, Bangalore, and there was a five-day interview. And there were people from all over India.

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There was probably about a hundred kids. To cut a long story short, one guy was selected, uh, out of that interview, and that was me. Uh, but then what happens is, when I went back to my house,

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I thought my parents would be happy; but they were—my mom was crying. She said, “I don’t want you to be going to the air force. Period.” Nothing. So... I didn’t join the Indian Air Force

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and um, I joined a company called Bharat Electronics in Bangalore, as a trainee. Uh, and at that time, the guy who was heading up

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that operation was from the air force. A group captain, Srinivasan, and um, he was talking to me one day and I told him this had happened in my life; I was selected but I didn’t; and uh, he–he bluntly told me that I’m

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the most idiotic person he has ever met. Right? Because he wanted me to join the air force, I guess. Anyways—and he chewed me out royally for about three hours and told me that I made a

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fundamental mistake in my life and that I’ll never get over that. Right? So, I couldn’t sleep that night; and next day I went back to him and I said, “I want to go

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to U.S., get a PhD, come back to India, and be a professor. Maybe my life will be better than being a trainee in–in Bharat Electronics. And he said, “Okay, I will help you.

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And, you are just like my son.” So anyways, cut a long story short again, uh, I started applying to schools in the U.S. There was one school that would give me admission

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and some assistantship, that was the University of Rhode Island. And I ended up in the University of Rhode Island. So, was that the main reason why you chose that university?

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Uh, the financial assistantship, yes. I couldn’t afford it otherwise, right? Okay, and why was the U.S.? Why did you want to be in the U.S., not any other

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countries? Um, because I think, uh, the Madras Institute of Technology that I went to had connections with the United States schools. And some of the books that we followed

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in–in Madras were the same books that were used in universities in the U.S. Uh so, I had the option of either going to England or

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U.S. and I chose U.S. Okay, so did you have any challenges with the immigration process? Was there anything that specifically— No! I came here as a student, right? So I came here in 1967, and in those

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days if you had a valid admission and some form of assistantship from a U.S. school, uh, getting a student visa was not difficult at all.

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You know, you just got the visa and I came here as a student. And by the way, when I came here, the government of India in those days would let you have only eight dollars, that’s it.

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So, I landed in New York with eight dollars in my pocket, that’s it. You know. Mhm. So, what were your initial perceptions of the U.S.?

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And did it live up to your expectations? Oh, more than. Um, I could tell you some wonderful stories. Um, the first

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day—maybe I should tell you this—the first day I landed in New York. I come out of the immigration and there was an information desk where a man was shooting the bull with the girl who was sitting at the information booth.

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And I had my ticket in my hand, and I went to that information lady, I said, “I have to go to Providence, Rhode Island. What do I do?” She looks at the ticket and she says, “See

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those double-glass doors? Go out, go to the third bus stop,” dah dah dah dah dah. “…bus will come and pick you up, you need to go to another airport.” Now, since I was a vegetarian, I hadn’t eaten

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anything in the plane. I had never seen the inside of a plane, and tears started coming out of my eyes. And the guy who was shooting the bull with her looks at me and says, “Did

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you fly K. L. M. Airlines?” I said, “Yes.” So, he takes me to his office, and this guy happens to be the general manager of K. L. M. at J.

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F. K., right? Look at my luck, right? So, anyway, he takes me to his office, he calls somebody, and within minutes a pilot comes in and he says, “That’s the only suitcase you have?” One little

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green suitcase. He picks it up and says, “Come on, I’m going to give you a ride to the other airport.” They gave me a ride in a helicopter to the Newark Airport, alright, so here I was uh and he—on the way he was calling somebody.

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Somebody comes and takes me to the plane to go to Providence, Rhode Island. And I was in the plane, eight dollars still intact in my pocket.

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And now my next thing was to figure out, you know, the school had told me if you land by four o’clock, we’ll come pick you up. But if it’s after four, figure out a way to stay and spend the night in Providence and call us the next

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morning. We’ll come pick you up. So, I’m now in the plane going to Providence and I saw another passenger and I asked him, “Is there a way I can spend the night in Providence for three dollars?”

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And he said, “Yes, there are places like that, but I won’t advise you to go there.” So then, my next question was, “Is there a hotel at the airport?” And he said, “Yes.” “How much would

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that cost?” “Ten dollars.” I said, “Okay, thank you—” so I had made up my mind, I was going to pick up my little green suitcase and use it as a pillow, spend the night at the airport. But, look at the luck again, as I was picking up my suitcase, I

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heard somebody butcher my name. There was a Nigerian student and an American girl. They had come to pick me up and I said, you know, “—but school advised me to land before four o’clock.”

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And they said, “well today’s Sunday, we had nothing else to do. We just figured we will come to pick you up!” So here I was, in the school, alright. Eight dollars still intact. And the international student advisor’s officer was waiting and

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he hands me a key. Room number four, I remember. And says, “Don’t say anything, I know how tired you are. Go sleep, and we’ll talk in the morning.” So that was my first

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day in the U.S. How can I not have a good impression? So, how about your next—the following days in the town visiting? Well follow— Yeah, yeah it was fine.

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You know, I was a student and there was all the tuition uh, was taken care of. And my meal for the first semester was taken care of. But I figured that I didn’t have any money, right?

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I didn’t have money to buy an after-shave lotion, which I still remember was forty-two cents. Okay? Anyway. So then what happens is I quickly figured out that the computational

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lab, you know, it was an IBM 360, mainframe—you people probably haven’t even heard of it—and it needed an operator. And people didn’t want to work on Saturday afternoons and

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definitely not on Sundays. So, I went and told them, “Look, I’m available. I can work Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.” And, they said, “Fantastic!” So they paid me.

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I don’t even remember how much they paid me, but that was my first payment of money in the U.S. Okay. So how was the town, the city, different from where you lived before in India?

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Totally. Uh, I grew up in a place where, uh, it was hot or hotter throughout the year. And I come to Rhode Island, I’d never seen snow before, never experienced

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cold weather before. I did not know what a top coat was, alright? So, when the winter came, I remember, October of that year, I was cold.

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I didn’t have any coat, nothing. Anyway, somebody took me in, some host family—I had a host family. The lady took me and… bought me a coat. So, what did you study at the University of Rhode Island?

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I was, uh, I studied M. S. in electrical engineering. With a lot more emphasis on, um… computational area, right? So, my–my thesis was

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analog to digital conversion, right? And bandwidth compression. So, that’s what I did.

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So, were those courses um, very relevant to your future career? Or, okay. Absolutely. Some of them were not, I was asked to take electro-magnetic theory and

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I didn’t do well on that course, I remember. But when it came to computing, and digital analog to digital conversion, I enjoyed every minute of it. And, yes, that paved the way

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for me to—in my career. Okay. So were there any impactful courses or professors that you encountered in your college career? In India or here? Uh, both. Um, in India, my professor

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um… was good. He was, he was excellent. And I, you know, like I said, I was not from a rich family, right?

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So this professor, I remember, um, asked me to apply to Government of India scholarship. Um, which I did. And I did get some money, when I was a student in–

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in Madras, a scholarship. Um, so, yeah. Uh, I mean there were so many people who paved the way for me, really, I didn’t do anything. It was maybe God, I don’t know.

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But anyways, that professor was good. Uh, there were professors in University of Rhode Island, yeah particularly the computational uh, area. Uh, the man who told me, “Yeah, you be the operator,

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uh, on weekends for the… lab, comp. lab.” Right, so there are so many people. I have never come across

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anybody who was not kind to me. And I don’t know why, maybe I look, I— I don’t know. Yeah, there are a lot of people that I’m thankful for. Okay, so before we move to questions about your

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career, do you have any questions? Um, yeah, I do have a question. I was wondering how difficult it was to uphold vegetarianism during your time in American universities? In the University of Rhode Island, since I—my meals were paid off,

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uh… I could get bread and milk in the morning for breakfast? Again, milk, and bread; and salad for lunch. But dinner was extremely difficult.

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You know, I see all the kids standing in line and taking live lobsters and the, the lady at the counter would put 'em in, in this hot water beaker and that’s what they would eat.

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And the very fact that I’m seeing all of this, uh, I couldn’t take it. Right? Um, so, I literally survived on salads, milk, and bread when I was in school. And then, after about—I think after

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maybe a year, uh I moved into a graduate student apartment… and there were two other Indian people. So, the three of us shared and we started cooking and cleaning, and I was fine.

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So, initially I… it was very difficult. Mhm. And then, you said early on, in your early life, you were kind of put on this track for engineering? Do you think there were other tracks going on in India at that time or was it mostly just engineering or nursing or…?

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Uh, in the school that I went to was called the Madras Christian College High School. Uh, they had the engineering track and the other one was normal, you know.

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Uh, they didn’t distinguish between regular coursework or biomedical engineering —bio—biology, let’s say. It wasn’t– it was just, you know, engineering track was defined, sort of, all the rest of them were common.

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Mhm, so do you think at the time India was really promoting engineering to the youth? Uh… perhaps. Uh, I couldn’t be sure. Perhaps they were, right? I remember me

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getting the T-square and drawing engineering, drawing, you probably don’t know that, anyway. Slide rules. Okay, so what was your first job out of college?

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Out of college… interesting. Um, so when I was in the second year of my M. S. in Rhode Island, uh I was doing my thesis and they told me that I could apply

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for jobs the moment I came here to do my PhD. But in the second year, the um, my friends, American guys, told me I could apply for jobs and get a job if I wanted money. And, to be honest, my

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dad had gotten a second mortgage in the house, in our house in India, to pay for the plane fare so I could come here. So, I was more anxious to get money and send money back to my dad

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so he could get rid of this mortgage business. So, yes, uh second year I started applying. Uh… places in Northeast, and I had a job with a company, computer company, in New Jersey.

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And I said, well, if these people are paying for the plane fair, I had a classmate of mine in Dallas, Texas who was doing his PhD at SMU. So, I said, “Hmm, maybe I can go see him.” So, the only reason

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I applied to Texas Instruments is to go to Dallas and see my classmate. So, I came to TI, well for an interview, in Dallas, Texas. And, yes, they offered me a job and the money they offered was a hundred dollars better than the job that I got in

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New Jersey. So, my decision was automatically made… to come to Texas. Plus, the weather here was nicer. It’s closer to India in...

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So how long did you stay in Rhode Island? Uh, I–I stayed exactly two years in Rhode Island. I went there August of 1967 and I moved out in August of

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‘69. And my thesis was almost done, but my, my uh, defense, thesis defense. What’s the terminology for it? Uh… yeah, defense of the thesis was not

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done till— but my professor told me, “You just go and we will set it up, and you come back, right? Finish writing your thesis and you come back and then defend your thesis.” So, I moved to Texas in

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1969 August, and I went back probably three, four months after that, back to University of Rhode Island to get my thesis defended and officially get my degree. So, when you moved to Texas, was it Dallas or Houston?

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Uh, well it’s funny. I was interviewed in Dallas, for the position of a designer. Alright? An electronics designer.

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But between the time my interview was done and the time I’m ready to come to Texas, what had happened was that they wanted to set up a new design center in Houston. So they called me and said, “Hello, your job is not

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gonna be in Dallas, it’s gonna be in Houston. You’re gonna to be in this brand new, uh, MOS, that’s metal-oxide semiconductor design group in Houston. So while I was

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interviewed in Dallas, I was offered a job in Houston and that’s… was 1969. So, how has your role at Texas Instruments Houston changed over time? Could you talk about a progression of how your career progressed?

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Oh, in TI? Uh, yes. Sure… So I joined TI in 1969, uh, as a circuit designer and uh… how am I

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gonna tell you this? Uh… so, while I was doing circuit design, I had a lot of these colleagues who… were doing a lot of these operations manually. In other words, back in

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1969, to get an integrated circuit, you know, we used to have what we would call as a rubylith and somebody had to go take a pen, uh a knife, and carve out where we

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wanted gates in the circuit. I don’t know if I’m making sense to you; but anyways, it was all done manually. So, uh, I told these guys, look I—let me try to automate this process so the

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knife would automatically go and cut the transistors. And... they said, “yeah, give it a try!” So I was doing it. You know, I was not married, I was a single guy, I didn’t have

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anything else to do, so I would go there on weekends and create this automatic program. So when once that was done, uh, it became a big deal in–in TI. “Ah, look at this guy, what he has done,” you know, “automated the whole process.” I–I

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think that probably had a lot to do with me, with setting up my career, right? So, uh, and then in 1970 they needed—we were three engineers working on the

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first integrated circuit, single chip integrated circuit, that went in a hand-held calculator… right? You… this is way before you guys were born, I’m sure. Um, so, then—I was uh

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one of the guys who did that in 1970… yeah. I think it was either 1970 or maybe 1971. Um, and that was completed and we had uh, calculators that was introduced by TI—by

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the way I still have one of those calculators. I should have brought this, you know. I should have brought it to you to show it to you. I forgot—anyways, uh so after about, I

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think, maybe a couple of years they said, “Can you please manage the section of three engineers,” you know, “you’ll be the program manager.” Uh, but in those days program managers also did some work and I had two or three

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guys that I had to supervise. And uh, then the group became larger and larger. And then I moved on and 1977, or ‘78 uh, I was asked to move to Lubbock

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to manage, really the larger group of design engineers that included not just the integrated circuit design; but also the plastics, the LEDs, and everything that went into the scientific

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calculators. So, we lived in Lubbock that one year, in 1978, and then my daughter at that time was two years old… um, she had no company. Uh, the girl who was fearless in

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Houston was extraordinarily quiet in–in Lubbock, my wife was getting bored. So I told the then chief, that I really don’t like this place. I want to go back to Houston or Dallas,

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or some place. So within a week, believe it or not, uh it was Morris Chang— you probably haven’t heard of him—anyway he was from Taiwan. Anyways, he said, “Okay,

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where do you want to go? Dallas or Houston?” I said, “Either one is fine.” So I was moved in 1979, I think, to Dallas to manage something totally different.

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Not design engineering management, but manufacturing management. So, my career took a shift, right, so from design to manufacturing. And uh, uh… I guess I must have done a good job and they kept promoting me; uh and I

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think I became they named me a Vice President. I think it was 1983, if I remember right—I may be wrong on the year— but anyways.

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Um, I was made that, asked to move to Houston, straighten out certain operations, and, you know, uh I… had different responsibilities that—I had done manufacturing managements, design engineering management, uh

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applications engineering management and so on and so forth. Uh, and… uh, again we went from Houston, well from Dallas we moved to Houston, back to Dallas, and then uh, they said

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go to Japan, you know, be in charge of the Japanese operation. By then I think I was a Senior Vice President. Uh, went to Japan, lived in Japan for six years, and at the end of that I said, “This is enough.

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I’m gonna retire.” That’s what I’m— Do you have any idea why they decided to move you to Japan? Uh, did you ever, like, uh express that you wanted to work overseas during your time with uh—? No.

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No I did not, um, in fact I think the philosophy in those days was, you know, TI had operations in several countries, right? Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Baguio, Philippines, and so on.

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And every place, uh, they—we didn’t want expats. We wanted the local guys to be the manage CEOs of those places. But, in our Japan operation, I think for many years, the local management

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was not as effective, I suppose. So, they said, “Bala, you go manage the Japan organization.” And I knew a lot of people at TI worked in Japan

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and uh… I guess that was a reason. Uh, no I… didn’t ask for anything. So, are you fluent in Japanese? Uh, a little bit.

00:32:44.410 - 00:33:01.140

Okay, so what was it like learning this language when you first moved there and when did you start? Um, when we first moved in, I was not as good because I didn’t speak the language; and they didn’t speak any English.

00:33:01.780 - 00:33:18.910

But I will tell you, as a nation, the Japanese people are perhaps the best people when it comes to helping somebody out. Um, then I had somebody who came to Texas Instruments once a week,

00:33:20.310 - 00:33:34.300

early in the morning, like seven o’clock, and teach me Japanese for an hour. So, when I went there, as the President of TI Japan, I had my speech written in English and there was a translator

00:33:34.300 - 00:33:47.110

who translated the speech. After six years, when I left Japan, I told the translator, “I’m going to speak in Japanese. You’ll translate it into English.” I mean it was

00:33:47.670 - 00:33:58.890

awesome, right? There were probably a thousand people, and they all stood up after my—my speech was done. I was that good in Japanese but now I think maybe I’ve forgotten most of it.

00:34:00.030 - 00:34:11.300

So, how long did you learn Japanese until you officially moved to Japan? Oh, oh, no no no! I learned—I started learning Japanese only when I was in Japan Not, not here, not in the U.S., no.

00:34:12.400 - 00:34:29.860

So, could you talk about the challenges you faced running TI Japan? I was really afraid. I was afraid because… here’s this gaijin guy, a foreign guy… trying to manage… 4,000 people.

00:34:31.330 - 00:34:40.170

Every one of ‘em, uh, Japanese. Um, and I didn’t speak the language, right? I was extraordinarily afraid.

00:34:41.780 - 00:34:55.690

But the one I knew, one thing that I could do was to learn the Japanese language, speak to them in Japanese and get at least the key managers to see things in a different way,

00:34:56.310 - 00:35:10.120

my way. So we— I had seven people that I had selected and we called—including me it was 7. I called them the Samurais, the

00:35:10.280 - 00:35:24.590

Seven Samurais and we would get together every Monday morning, uh look at the whole situation and tried to figure out how to fix… uh, stuff in Japan. Mhm.

00:35:24.590 - 00:35:40.100

So what are your day to day tasks of your position at that point? Day to day tasks? Okay. So, in TI Japan, we had design, um design

00:35:40.100 - 00:35:57.190

engineering, manufacturing. We had three or four factories and we had marketing. And we had to have the cooperation from the U.S. Texas Instruments. And I used to go to

00:35:57.190 - 00:36:15.030

work, you know, early in the morning before the Japanese people show up at nine o’clock. And whatever problem we had in Japan, I would have contacted Dallas or Houston and solved a bunch of these problems. And if I was not able to, I was able to get

00:36:15.230 - 00:36:26.390

people from the U.S. to go to Japan to help the Japanese out. So, those types of things I think the Japanese people—it helped create the confidence

00:36:26.840 - 00:36:39.680

in me, I think. So um—what was the question? Uh, it was just how—what was your day to day task? Oh, day to day task. Solve issues evenly between the

00:36:41.540 - 00:36:56.480

other regions of TI in Japan. Uh, visit customers, visit designs uh, and work with the Japanese in figuring out what is the right direction we had to take.

00:36:56.560 - 00:37:10.950

Be the chip design, or applications or marketing. Or whatever. So, how was it like being such a high ranking South East Asian professional in a predominant–predominantly East Asian state?

00:37:13.230 - 00:37:25.330

Initially like I said, I was very afraid. But with time, it was interesting. Um, in those days, there were only three people I remember who were

00:37:25.330 - 00:37:41.190

non-Japanese managing companies in Japan. One was Carlos Ghosn, you may have heard about him—the Nissan Chief, right, who ended up in jail. Anyway, that guy, another guy and myself.

00:37:41.720 - 00:37:53.780

So um, it was every other week, some magazine will come, talk to us about management of Japan people by a gaijin, right?

00:37:55.630 - 00:38:09.340

So I was at ease after the first couple of years, it was fun. I enjoyed every minute of it. So, from my understanding, you were recognized as one of the top 100 business

00:38:09.490 - 00:38:26.680

leaders in Japan. So, what was it like receiving such an illustrious distinction? I was—I was really, really happy. Uh, I really didn’t ever think that guy from a

00:38:26.730 - 00:38:41.900

relatively not rich family who came to the U.S. with eight dollars in the pocket uh, deserves such kind of recognition. Right? But when I received all of those, I was really

00:38:41.900 - 00:38:57.600

happy. I—there’s only one thing, right? If you look at my life, and look at all these things that ever happened, in Hinduism we believe that I must have done some good in my last

00:38:59.550 - 00:39:14.430

birth. This is the way God is telling me, “You are okay”, right? That’s a true Hindu philosophy. Mhm. So, how did this experience differ when you were named one of the top

00:39:14.740 - 00:39:28.630

business leaders by Business India? Oh that was done, oh—that was done before I went to Japan, right? Before I went to Japan, I think uh, I was a Senior Vice President

00:39:29.210 - 00:39:41.700

at TI, this business India people came and they interviewed me and I had no idea why, what they would want to do. And I was

00:39:41.700 - 00:40:01.080

surprised to see my face in the cover of that magazine so that happened before Japan. Okay. So, what project are you most proud of from your career with TI? The one that I’m most proud of is—I was one of the three guys working on the single chip calculator, right?

00:40:03.030 - 00:40:18.290

Um, I–I think that’s probably the one that I’m really proud of. So I understand that you were instrumental in TI’s $7 billion donation to Rice University. So could you explain how this donation came to be and what

00:40:18.560 - 00:40:34.750

your role was? Sure. Um, so one of those time decisions we moved back from Dallas to Houston, and Houston is—Houston TI’s where we had all the micro-controllers, micro-processors,

00:40:35.200 - 00:40:50.880

digital signal processing and so on and so forth, right? And TI gave books to this digital signal processing device and uh, our theory was it’s gonna find its way in all

00:40:50.930 - 00:41:05.170

telecommunication instruments and so on and so forth. And I knew I had studied Dr. Burrows’ book. Uh it was “FFT”, if I remember it right. “Fast Fourier Transformation”.

00:41:06.300 - 00:41:22.170

Um, Dr. Burrows was a signal processing expert. So, we were in Stafford, Rice is right here. So there was a relationship that was getting built between Rice University and TI.

00:41:22.700 - 00:41:39.040

And we had a lot of Rice graduates joining uh, TI’s staff as design engineers and chip architects and so on. So–so the relationship was there between us, Dr.

00:41:39.470 - 00:41:54.590

Burrows and myself, or some of the other guys like Gene Frantz at Rice University. So um, Dr. Burrows and the then president of Rice University,

00:41:56.720 - 00:42:13.030

I… Okay, the name escapes me now. They wanted um… they explored the possibility that would TI gave, donate $7 million towards computational engineering

00:42:14.880 - 00:42:24.970

and initially uh, nobody wanted to do it. Then I had a meeting with Dr. Burrows and Rice president. Oh my god! I forget his

00:42:25.010 - 00:42:40.000

name! Anyways, we said, “If we talk to do it toward signal processing, and advance signal processing, and you figure out through Rice research programs—how we can

00:42:40.780 - 00:42:56.500

come up with progressive generations of signal processing; and with the money gets used toward that, maybe I can talk to TI in uh, coming up with the money.” Uh, That’s when it

00:42:56.500 - 00:43:13.890

all started. And I had a discussion with the then president of TI, and he laughed me out of room. Um anyways, but I think we were all pretty persistent.

00:43:14.930 - 00:43:28.630

And Tom Engibous was my boss, finally said, “Okay, if that’s what you want, we will do it.” So thanks to Tom, my boss at that time; uh, and thanks to Dr.

00:43:28.630 - 00:43:41.670

Burrows! He was pretty key as well. Uh, Tom, my boss, was willing to give a $7 million towards TI, and those days it was called the

00:43:41.710 - 00:43:49.290

“Computational Lab”. Uh, I don’t know what it’s called now. It’s near the Duncan Hall I think. Oh okay.

00:43:50.680 - 00:44:04.430

Um, could you also talk about the TI scholarship that you—the TI scholarship program you sponsored in Bangalore came to be? Uh, oh I didn’t sponsor that. I oh—the scholarship set up in my name?

00:44:05.560 - 00:44:21.580

Oh, I–I didn’t do anything of that sort. What did happen was, I think um—when I retired, maybe I was only Indian Senior Vice President, and President of TI Japan.

00:44:22.310 - 00:44:40.110

And so the TI Indian people were happy to see an Indian guy doing all of that, I guess. So the day I retired, the guy who was managing TI Bangalore of TI India, uh, announced that, they

00:44:40.110 - 00:44:53.170

had set up a scholarship in my name for all over India. So, that’s how I knew. I–I had nothing to do with it. Okay. So how did you get involved with Metro Bank after your career with TI?

00:44:53.840 - 00:45:12.710

Ah I was happily retired. And um I’m trying to remember… Oh, I met the Chairman of Metro Bank in a party

00:45:13.790 - 00:45:27.690

uh, at— I think— at Rice University. And before, no actually before that, uh one of the board—board members of Metro Bank had told the

00:45:27.730 - 00:45:39.380

Chairman, “Okay there’s this guy from Texas Instruments. He’s recently retired. Uh, I think he’ll be a good board member.” So when I met the Chairman,

00:45:40.230 - 00:45:55.030

he asked me, “Oh so you were the guy someone was talking to me. Would you like to come and join our bank?” So, “Okay.” So, that’s how that happened. What was your experience as an elected board member of Freescale

00:45:57.660 - 00:46:14.340

Semiconductors? Uh, that was much easier. The guy who was the Freescale Semiconductors CEO used to work for me at TI, right? So uh, when I heard that he was doing it, I had

00:46:14.510 - 00:46:27.230

sent him an email, “Hey you need an additional board member let me know.” And so that’s happened. That—yes, I went after that. Oh okay. Do you have any questions?

00:46:27.430 - 00:46:37.470

Yeah you’ve mentioned before that one of your proudest achievements in your TI career was building a single chip calculator. Can you kind of talk about the impact of that innovation? How it changed the field?

00:46:37.530 - 00:46:54.380

Uh, well uh. I think it has got... See in those days it was impossible to put all of the requirements for a calculator in one single chip that measured about 1.5cm by 1.5cm.

00:46:54.380 - 00:47:08.820

It was not possible. I said it was not possible, right? But, I remember them telling us, “No you guys work on it. Take your time.

00:47:09.420 - 00:47:23.950

Do it.” Uh, that then paved the way for people to integrate multiple functions in one single integrated circuit, right? So today if you go look

00:47:23.950 - 00:47:42.440

at it, it’s a single chip on all your cellphones, a single chip that drives a lot of automotive features in a car. Um, so I think we paved the way for people to integrate more functions

00:47:42.890 - 00:47:55.560

in a single chip, right? That is useful everywhere: robotics, to–to calculators to robotics, everything and everything in between, right?

00:47:56.370 - 00:48:14.760

So yeah, to me it was a big accomplishment, because I myself said, “It’s impossible.” But we did it. And so when we kind of think of TI today, we think a lot about calculators. Can you talk about the breadth of the company and the impacts you’ve had in

00:48:14.760 - 00:48:31.350

technology at large? Sure. Um, in those days we had multiple emphasis. We had what we called digital electronics, analog electronics, and end products like

00:48:31.410 - 00:48:41.890

calculators, education products, the original “Speak & Spell”. Um, probably you guys haven’t heard of it. Um, the Julie the

00:48:41.950 - 00:48:53.980

talking doll, right? Speech recognition, all of those. And the calculator itself. It went from a basic four function calculator to scientific calculators.

00:48:54.470 - 00:49:04.740

Calculators that did most of the functions done by, you know, IBM 360, main frame. So all of that happened. But today TI is different, right?

00:49:04.770 - 00:49:19.500

We… I think the emphasis as calculators and all the other products are gone, the digital area TI’s into micro controllers, and not so much of digital;

00:49:20.670 - 00:49:34.630

but it becomes mostly an analog device company. Um yeah, we paved the way for multiple things in TI in those days. It was fun, fun place—fun place to work.

00:49:36.050 - 00:49:47.970

And then you mentioned before some of your struggles of holding culture practices in the U.S. Did you have those same struggles in Japan? Culture practices? Oh. No! Um

00:49:48.100 - 00:50:05.920

no. Not at all. I think the only countries where I had problems being a vegetarian is uh, Korea and Portugal. Um, every other place, you know, you—once they know you’re vegetarian, they go out of their way to satisfy

00:50:07.420 - 00:50:22.580

you. And particularly in Japan, the moment they know that you’re a vegetarian, it is unbelievable. They think I’m next—or Buddha or something. You know, they go out of their way to

00:50:22.580 - 00:50:38.350

prepare exquisite vegetarian dishes. Um Japan was awesome as to this. And then um, kind of a question about your life. When did you end up meeting your

00:50:38.710 - 00:50:52.210

wife? Uh, hahahaha. Our marriage was an arranged marriage. So um, we got married in 1971, or early of 1971.

00:50:54.770 - 00:51:08.250

Um my—I had a classmate of mine in Houston. His wife had a friend in Bombay, India. So, we were introduced by her.

00:51:09.390 - 00:51:21.690

So we, we—I had seen her pictures. She had seen my pictures. And we were writing letters. And her mom went to

00:51:21.710 - 00:51:32.080

my mom and they set up what they’d think as an engagement ceremony without neither one of us being present. That’s how we got married.

00:51:36.530 - 00:51:52.720

Okay. So um, from my understanding, you have been working in both the East and West, where the settings and operation of business are very different. Um, so what is your view comparing in the way the people of the East and the West conduct business? Uh, as

00:51:52.760 - 00:52:04.080

I know, in Japan people really like, put a great pressure on collectivism, while in the U.S. people value individualism. So, what do you think about that? 100% right. You are 100% right.

00:52:04.510 - 00:52:17.720

Um, the total difference, I mean the fundamental difference, between the U.S. and Japan is that, um we believe in individual accomplishments. The Japanese believe in team accomplishments.

00:52:19.990 - 00:52:31.710

Um, the Japanese, um even if you go to elementary schools in Japan, uh, the tables are round tables and the kids sit around the table.

00:52:32.600 - 00:52:51.170

Um, they are given a common problem to solve, and they work together. So, they learn teamwork right from the beginning. And um, in our field, in the integrated circuit manufacturing, there’s a thing called “yield”— in one wafer,

00:52:51.600 - 00:53:06.860

you know, for how many of the chips are going to be good. Um the Japanese are, where, the best when it comes to teamwork, you know, because we have to go from one stage to another stage, and so on.

00:53:07.270 - 00:53:19.650

The yields are made of it. Chips made in Japan or the way made in Japan have much bigger yield than in the U.S. Now that said, what the individualism

00:53:19.650 - 00:53:30.290

does, is that it promotes innovation. So uh, the U.S. people tend to be much more innovative in any field, right?

00:53:32.410 - 00:53:48.290

Japan, the individual innovation doesn’t happen, right? Uh, the only thing I can think of is the Sony Walkman. I think, that came from Idei-san, who

00:53:48.290 - 00:54:02.500

was the chief of Sony at that time. Japanese are absolutely fantastic in taking something and make it into a better product, or incremental innovations. Awesome! Here, we want

00:54:02.500 - 00:54:18.240

to innovate something, and wanna go to the next one, and the next one, right? Uh, I’m not saying one is better than the other, but the combination of the two is awesome. So, we’re now in a globally oriented

00:54:19.160 - 00:54:33.150

world, so what’s your view about people’s readiness and acceptance in the three countries that you’ve been spending most of your life in? Uh, about people’s readiness and acceptance, in the

00:54:33.280 - 00:54:47.190

three countries that you’ve lived, the U.S., India and Japan? To catch up with the changes from other parts of the world. It could be either in technology, or like

00:54:47.190 - 00:55:00.070

politics, general world views, anything? I think… Alright, I haven’t said something about the U.S. and Japan. I think India is like in the middle of these, between two countries, right?

00:55:01.130 - 00:55:17.100

Um, India is a poorer country compared to these two. Um, but the fact… Well okay, the fact that um, TI India—I was one of the guys who was responsible to start TI India, you know, that was

00:55:18.090 - 00:55:41.530

many years ago. Uh, what I find is that, if you take all these three people together and you one single project, that will be the best in the world. Something wrong with the camera? Um, I’m sorry but, like, the memory card is

00:55:43.090 - 00:56:02.840

full. So like we might have to, like, get another one? Sure. You can pause the audio. I can go ask the front desk. I’m talking too much. No, you’re not. That’s good.

00:56:03.130 - 00:56:14.390

That’s a good thing! So, what do you think about the way the current U. S. administration handles its foreign policies? You mean the current administration?

00:56:18.310 - 00:56:34.460

You know, I used to be a lifelong Republican, but I’m not anymore. Um, I do not like the current policies. Um, um, I think

00:56:34.600 - 00:56:52.240

America is what it is because of people like you and me. Uh, to say that more and more are moving towards white-only nation is

00:56:52.240 - 00:57:11.130

a big mistake. Um, I don’t subscribe to that and I hope we don’t re-elect this president. But please don’t have any of this. What do you consider is missing in the way the younger generations leading their

00:57:11.350 - 00:57:22.730

lives nowadays in the East and the West? The East and West? Mhm. Do you think there’s something missing uh, in the way younger generations leading their lives? I don’t think the younger generations

00:57:24.650 - 00:57:37.510

work as hard as my generation did. Um, for example right, we had to memorize all the multiplication tables when I was five or six.

00:57:38.920 - 00:57:54.840

Today my granddaughter doesn’t want to do it. There’s a calculator. Giving the answer. Oh, yeah. Yeah you’re right. Anyway so I think the–their life is much more

00:57:55.150 - 00:58:09.770

easier compared to our lives, right? So have you ever experienced any like racial—um, Asian racial discrimination in Japan from the Japanese? Me personally, no.

00:58:09.880 - 00:58:27.550

Absolutely not. But having said that—I know that the 4th generation Koreans in Japan who cannot become citizens of Japan unless they change their name, right?

00:58:28.170 - 00:58:39.760

If your name is a Chou, forget it. You have to change your name from Chou to something like Yamasaki. Only then you are eligible to become a citizen of

00:58:39.830 - 00:59:00.570

Japan. It was like that when I was there; I don’t think it has changed too much. Um, the–the discrimination, in Japan um, is pretty significant actually; they are very quiet people, right?

00:59:01.140 - 00:59:19.860

I’ve seen um, bars where it says, “For Japanese only” right? Because they don’t want non-Japanese to go sit in the bar and talk loudly. Um, there’re subtle

00:59:19.960 - 00:59:31.970

discriminations but it is, there is in Japan. So, I believe that you have shared with us the recipe that you yourself have been making about the bitter melon. Yeah. So is it true that in your

00:59:32.050 - 00:59:50.680

household, you do not observe the traditional gender division of labor that we expect to see in some traditional cultures, like the man does not help at all in cooking, and it’s the women who belong to the kitchen? Well I— most Indian men don’t cook,

00:59:51.960 - 01:00:04.540

right? And I think it is true of Philippines or Vietnamese or whatever. Um, I don’t have such inhibitions. I used to help my grandma when she was cooking.

01:00:06.670 - 01:00:19.470

I still cook in my house here in Houston. And my grandkids, there are some favorite things that I make for them. Hey I’m retired; I can do whatever I

01:00:19.470 - 01:00:33.500

want. Cooking is one of my hobbies. Oh, okay. So do you think that it’s the American culture or the Western culture that affects your way of like, doing the household chores, instead of avoiding it like most men

01:00:33.520 - 01:00:50.300

in Asia? I don’t know. Um, I don’t know. Um, well but there are people, Indian people who also do cooking at the house, right?

01:00:51.100 - 01:01:02.420

Um, my uncle in India used to do that. So, but in general what you say is true. These men don’t like to cook; it’s the women’s job.

01:01:03.060 - 01:01:16.380

I don’t have such inhibitions! Mhm, okay. So, what do you think is your cultural identity now? So do you… Ther—are you—have you ever felt like you’re American? Or like you still feel like

01:01:16.570 - 01:01:33.890

you’re an Indian? I still feel like I’m an Indian, right? No question. Yes, I’m an American citizen, but the very inside of me, I feel like an Indian. Um, I don’t think it’s true of my children, or

01:01:35.160 - 01:01:49.780

my grandchildren. They are Americans; they don’t know India. Totally different! Yeah. So, do you find that living in Japan and America have given you different perspectives on Indian culture?

01:01:51.390 - 01:02:02.910

On India? No. Um, not really. No. Uh, I think India is India. Japan is Japan. U.

01:02:02.910 - 01:02:19.590

S. is U. S. Um I think—I hope Indian people will take the best of what available from other cultures and improve. So um, what are your hopes for the

01:02:21.230 - 01:02:31.020

future? The future generation I mean. Your kids, your grandkids. Well, I think my kids and my grandkids and their children will always be Americans.

01:02:33.250 - 01:02:48.930

My hope is that there is absolutely no discrimination between, you know, Whites and Chinese and Indians and what have you. And that um, I never experienced

01:02:49.580 - 01:03:02.770

any racism at work. Never ever. The thirty-seven years I worked at TI. And I did not know this racism exists; and

01:03:02.770 - 01:03:15.000

I learned that only after Trump becomes the President. I hope that things—that chapter goes away, and that I really hope that America is a true immigrant nation.

01:03:15.580 - 01:03:26.930

Mhm. So um, do you have any values that you wish to instill in your kids and grandkids? Absolutely. No lies. You don’t tell lies, right?

01:03:27.240 - 01:03:36.680

And you’re honest. And you’re 100% ethical. So, what do you consider your proudest accomplishment? My proudest accomplishment?

01:03:42.760 - 01:03:57.170

Um… working on the single chip calculator. That was… Yeah. That probably is my thing that I’m very proud of. So, if your great great grandchildren were to watch this interview

01:03:57.170 - 01:04:13.450

decades from now, what wisdom would you like to pass onto them? Be ethical. Do not ever lie. Any questions? Yeah. Um, so I just kinda want to ask about the story behind your recipe you ended

01:04:13.450 - 01:04:25.100

up sharing with us. I wonder if you could tell that story for us here. Story about the recipe? Well I actually—uh, this is after we

01:04:25.100 - 01:04:40.690

got married. Uh, my mother in law lives—she used to live in Bombay, but she no more now. Um, first time when I went to their house, that was one of the things that she had made. And

01:04:41.130 - 01:04:56.680

actually it was made with uh, bitter melon, mango, and carrots, okay? And I had forgotten the mango part. Um, because when I came here, I liked it so much that when I came here

01:04:56.860 - 01:05:09.200

I started making it. But it was very difficult to get mango in the early 70s in Houston. Raw mango; not the mango that you eat. But this is raw mango.

01:05:10.320 - 01:05:19.380

Uh, we had them in Manilla, in Brazil, in Philippines. We have them in Vietnam. But it was very difficult to get them in Houston.

01:05:20.490 - 01:05:36.680

So and you would get them occasionally in the Chinese store. But I said, you know, “What you need is a little sour taste.” So, if mango is not available, let’s make it with the Granny Smith apple.

01:05:37.580 - 01:05:52.590

That’s the way it came about, actually. And so you said that you often cook with your family and you have your special recipes that you use for your children and your grandchildren. Can you kind of talk about that as well?

01:05:52.800 - 01:06:05.050

Well. Well, we have two granddaughters. One of them uh, would try out anything, right? And she would critique it correctly.

01:06:06.080 - 01:06:18.620

Uh, the other one is pretty finicky. She would eat the only certain things like Macaroni cheese. Anyway, the one that eats all kinds of stuff, I would go and cook something different.

01:06:19.790 - 01:06:32.790

And she loves to cook. So uh, when she comes to our house, we would make sushi. All vegetarian, of course. Uh, we would make things that she wants to make.

01:06:33.550 - 01:06:48.170

So, she has bought a bunch of cook books. And when she’s home, our house, she would say, “Thatha,”— thatha means grandpa, “let’s try to make this”. So, she and I would make and we would give it

01:06:48.300 - 01:07:04.460

to other people. They call mom, my wife, and we all eat. So yeah, I enjoy cooking with my granddaughter. She’s nine years old. And so what would you consider to be your taste of home?

01:07:06.000 - 01:07:21.620

Indian food. Uh, Indian food uh, we eat lots of rice, lots of curries, lots of vegetables made with curry, lots of vegetables cooked in different ways.

01:07:22.620 - 01:07:36.780

And we have the bread, which is the flattened bread, called—there are multiple different types. Uh, there’s one that is made with wheat flour, that you

01:07:37.210 - 01:07:49.090

do it in such a way that when you deep fry, it fluffs up. Okay? It’s called puri. Anyway, so we enjoy making those. Uh, yeah when I’m

01:07:49.090 - 01:08:04.480

with the grandkids are there, we make all kinds of stuff. Indian food mainly. So, do you often go back to India? I used to every year. Um, because my mom was alive.

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Uh, after that we do that maybe once every two or three years. Mhm. Any more questions? Not at all. So, yeah.

01:08:16.280 - 01:08:23.540

I guess we can wrap up the interview now. Thank you so much for coming and sharing your story with us. It’s been a very interesting interview to

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us. We learned more about you and India in general. Thank you. Thank you for spending so much time with me, listening to all my stories. Very good stories! Alright. So, I used to tell my son,

01:08:39.070 - 01:08:55.660

no you can turn it off. I used to tell him—I used to tell him, “If you don’t study, you’ll be a slacker in a grocery store." So, and uh, so really

01:08:55.660 - 01:09:02.280

what happened was, I, like I said, I came here with a little green suitcase, right, and that green suitcase was in our attic for many, many years.