Entrepreneurship

When Anand Mahindra told Bill Gates he had a grudge against him

Updated : December 26, 2019 06:23 AM IST

A Twitter photo of Anand Mahindra sitting beside Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates in a group meeting in 1997 reminded Mahindra and Mahindra chairman of a funny story about the meeting.

A Twitter user on December 22 shared a black and white screengrab from Netflix documentary 'Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates' where Mahindra is seen sitting next to Gates.

In a series of replies, Mahindra revealed that the photo was taken during Gates' first visit to India in 1997.

"Thank you for sharing, because this meeting was in '97 during Bill's first-ever trip to India & I had no record of it since there were no cell cameras at the time," Mahindra tweeted.

"Funny story from that meeting: When Bill entered, he said 'So I believe we were at Harvard at the same time?' I said 'Yes, we never met, but I have a grudge against you'.

"His (Gates) team froze, thinking they had arranged a meeting with a wacko!

"Bill kept his cool and asked: 'Why the grudge?' I replied: 'My daughter asked which of my college classmates were now famous & when I told her your name, she said: 'What a loser you are Dad!' So thanks to you, I'll always be a loser to my kids!' We had a big laugh at that..." Mahindra further tweeted.

Billionaire Gates had dropped out from college to focus on building Microsoft.

M&M earlier this week announced that Anand Mahindra will step down as the executive chairman of the company as part of a succession plan. Mahindra will become the non-executive chairman of the board, effective April 1, 2020.

Haven’t seen the series..Didn’t know this pic was flashed in it. Thank you for sharing, because this meeting was in ‘97 during Bill’s first ever trip to India & I had no record of it since there were no cell cameras at the time..Just a photographer from Fortune(?) magazine (1/4) https://t.co/StLthh0Kcr
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) December 24, 2019

Bill started at Harvard College the same year I did (‘73) and famously dropped out to start Microsoft. But the Microsoft team didn’t request this meeting because we were classmates; they asked to meet us because M&M at that time was one of the 1st adopters of WindowsNT 4.0 (2/4) pic.twitter.com/a8n4dOgLA7
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) December 24, 2019

Funny story from that meeting: When Bill entered, he said “So I believe we were at Harvard at the same time?” I said ‘Yes, we never met, but I have a grudge against you.’ His team froze, thinking they had arranged a meeting with a wacko! (3/4) pic.twitter.com/LH3UBdelNp
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) December 24, 2019

Bill kept his cool & asked “Why the grudge?” I replied: ‘My daughter asked which of my college classmates were now famous & when I told her your name, she said:’What a loser you are Dad!’ So thanks to you, I’ll always be a loser to my kids!’ We had a big laugh at that..(4/4)r pic.twitter.com/6ahkLwNqUm
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) December 24, 2019

With inputs from IANS

When Anand Mahindra told Bill Gates he had a grudge against him

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