Just Aspire

Written by Ajai Chowdhry

Narrated by Ranjit Madgavkar

'When I left Jabalpur, the small town where I grew up, to pursue a career, I could not have dreamt that I would find myself at the vanguard of pathbreaking revolutions that would transform India.'

Entrepreneur, sportsman, salesman, engineer, educationist, jazz aficionado and investor-meet Ajai Chowdhry, the HCL cofounder who dons many hats, all with equal ease. Growing up in the sleepy town of Jabalpur in a family that had migrated from Abbottabad post India's Independence, Ajai's life was set for a linear trajectory-engineering, a well-paying job and a comfortable life-but for the year 1975.

This was the year when Ajai quit his job at DCM Data Products and jumped into the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship, founding HCL with Shiv Nadar, Arjun Malhotra, Yogesh Vaidya, Subhash Arora and D.S. Puri. In the 1970s, leaving a stable job with one of India's leading brands was nothing short of crazy. To add to that, not many Indians knew what a computer was. The word 'start-up' was decades away from its use in common parlance.

Over the next four decades, HCL would go on to become one of the largest IT companies in India and a household brand. In Just Aspire, Ajai not only shares the story of a successful business behemoth but also of dreams, aspirations, hope and achievements from the eyes of a small-town boy. Along this journey, he shares timeless lessons on entrepreneurship, technology and the future. For all dreamers and doers, this book is a treasure trove of inspiration.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperBusiness
• Release date: Sep 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9789356296633

Ajai Chowdhry

Ajai Chowdhry, one of the six founding members of HCL, began an exciting journey more than four decades ago, with a dream to give India its very own microcomputer. The pioneers of digital electronics in India, they scripted three major milestones of the IT industry: the PC revolution, mobile telephony and systems integration. Ajai, regarded as the ‘father of Indian hardware', has been a relentless advocate of self-sufficiency in electronics. He has served, and continues to serve, on several government committees working towards making India the electronics hub of the world.