Entrepreneur Harshdeep Rapal was recently surprised to run into an alumnus from his Indian college while out for a walk in California. The founder of Legitt AI took to X to talk about the incident, saying that he found a piece of home away from home.
“Yesterday evening, while out for a walk in the neighborhood, I met an elderly Sikh couple. We exchanged a quick “Sat Sri Akaal” and somehow ended up talking for almost an hour,” Rapal said in his X post.
An Indian college senior in the US
During the course of the conversation, Rapal learned that the Sikh man had immigrated to the US from India in the 1970s. By a strange coincidence, both of them had studied at the same college.
“Turns out uncle was from and had graduated from the same college as me – back in 1969,” Rapal said.
According to Rapal’s LinkedIn profile, he holds a BTech degree from Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology. However, he graduated in 2005 — much later than the ‘uncle’ of his story.
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From Patiala to Bay Area
During the conversation, the founder of Legitt AI also discovered that the elderly Sikh man studied at IIT Delhi after obtaining his bachelor’s degree from Thapar Institute. He has been based in the US for more than five decades, although he is originally from Patiala in Punjab.
“[He] did his M. Tech. from IIT Delhi, applied for a US Green Card while still in India (Yes, back in the day you could apply for a Green Card while still in India and it was delivered by mail at home), and moved to the US in 1971 for his first job,” Rapal revealed.
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The man, whom Rapal did not name, spent some time in New York. For the last 50 years, however, he has been based in the Bay Area, which is also where he ran into Rapal.
Rapal said that the couple invited him to dinner in the coming week.
“He asked me about my family, work, and Legitt AI with so much curiosity and warmth. At one point, it genuinely felt like he was feeling so proud of me. Invited me over for dinner coming weekend,” he revealed on X. “Funny how sometimes home finds you away from home.”
