Apple?s iPod is where passion meets profession for Ajai Chowdhry, chairman and CEO of HCL Infosystems, India?s home-grown technology and IT giant. It is not tough to guess why. The revolutionary music device is sold in the country by HCL. It?s a company that Chowdhry started way back in 1976 with Shiv Nadar and four others. The gadget also allows him to be with his music anywhere anytime. However, for him, music means more than a mere pastime. It runs in his blood and family, a tradition that he has kept well and nicely passed on.

Chowdhry comes from a family, where music is a way of life. His father, an IAS officer, was a poet and used to write in Urdu. His sister, a musician, would, ?put the ghazals that he wrote to tune. We would have mushairas at home. So I grew up in an atmosphere that was very different,? he reminisces. And marriage just filled the air with more of it. His wife Kunkun is the granddaughter of renowned Naina Devi, often regarded as India?s Thumri queen.

His taste in music is as varied as the verticals his company caters to. From jazz to retro Hindi songs and from old English numbers to Indian classical, he has it all on his playlist. Talk of favourites and it is George Benson and Earl Klugh in jazz while the likes of Kishore Kumar and Mohd Rafi resonate in Hindi. In classical it?s Kishori Amonkar all the way. ?Some of my taste in classical music got influenced by my wife,? he says. But, the bearing doesn?t stop here. Chowdhry?s younger son, Akshay, is a musician and has chosen music as his career.

Being the head of a technology company might give him a serious image, but he is a man of many interests. While music remains closest to his heart, he also loves photography. ?I do a lot of portraits. I am not great at it but I still love it,? he laughs. Chowdhry is also an avid traveller. It gives him more time with his camera when he travels to the mountains. On a day-to-day basis, he still calls it a day by reading fiction. Looking at his diverse set of interests, one is intrigued as to what drove him into the world of technology.

As the story goes, after his bachelors in telecommunications and electronic engineering from Jabalpur, he got three job offers in Delhi in the same week (after a long wait). After qualifying in all three, he had a choice to make. He took up a job with DCM Data Products, the fifth largest Indian company then. ?That changed my life in a lot of ways,? he retrospects. It was at DCM that he came in touch with people like Shiv Nadar and Arjun Malhotra. Three years into his first job and all of 25-year-old, Chowdhry quit DCM to start Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) with Nadar, Malhotra and three others. ?I was young and had nothing to lose. I thought, I could always take up another job if this didn?t work out.?

Down the memory lane, Chowdhry recounts the early days of HCL when there was licence raj, technology could not be imported and there was nothing called venture capitalists or angels. ?None of those opportunities where people could become entrepreneurs was available. We actually led the whole entrepreneur wave in Indian IT,? he says. Started in a barsati, HCL was conceived with the ?lofty thought of creating a computer around the microprocessor,? with a ?princely? sum of Rs. 1.8 lakh. Today, the company is a $4.7 billion global enterprise.

Those were the days when microprocessor was just making its presence felt and there was no such thing as a desktop. ?In fact our first computer was as big as a desk. It was developed out of scratch. When we look back, we realise that we created a computer at the same time as Apple and three years before IBM,? he boasts. If the size of the computer in those days was huge, their price was equally big. Talk of affordability and you have touched a raw nerve in him. The man cherishes a dream. He wants to see a PC in every Indian home.

?Since the beginning we wanted to bring the costs down to a level, which will make the PC affordable for many. It?s been 32 years since then and I am still on it,? he quips. Though India?s PC penetration remains as low as 20 PCs per 1,000 people, Chowdhry?s dream is not as far fetched, as it seems. The company recently unveiled its low cost PC MiLeap. The range, which starts from Rs 13,999, moved HCL and Chowdhry an inch further towards their dream. ?I am sure computers will become like phones very soon. Once technologies like WiMAX start to happen, the market will explode. Pretty much like phones,? he says.

Chowdhry has definitely given a new meaning to IT by pushing his ?for the masses? agenda with all aggressiveness, both at the hardware and the software level. However, the man has many more things to his credit, setting up HCL?s overseas operations, pioneering HCL into digital lifestyle by getting into IT retail, building technology capability for convergence to name just a few. ?Innovation is at the heart of HCL. Creating markets is also a part, which I am very proud of. We are not a laggard. We don?t follow others,? he says.

In the eighties, a Delhi-based government agency challenged HCL to have a presence in every district of India. They did and subsequently created an entry barrier for others. Today, the bottom of the pyramid provides them with a huge opportunity to tap the untapped. Chowdhry also sees the PC and the Internet as a device to create jobs. ?Look at the number of women sitting at home, who are graduates and have a lot of free time. That?s a fantastic force sitting out there that can utilise the medium to create jobs for themselves,? says Chowdhry, his eyes gleaming with passion.

Another feather in Chowdhry?s hat is conceiving the HCL concert series. Initiated in 1998, it holds four concerts a month in Delhi and one in Chennai year after year. Something that speaks volumes about his love for everything cultural. A typical day for him begins with some yoga or exercise. He spends 10-12 hours at work, goes back home to watching a movie or cricket on television or listening to music. ?Post dinner, it?s time to read some fiction, time to switch off.? So, does being the CEO and chairman of India?s largest PC vendor allows him to completely switch off? ?I tend to switch off a lot. To be fresh for the next day, it is important to switch off. Though we sell products on which other people take emails home, I am not the kind who take it home,? he laughs.

Apart from finding time for his other pursuits, Chowdhry also makes himself available to run a class?Meet the CEO?for youngsters who join HCL. One unique aspect of it is Chowdhry?s definition of a good quality person for his new employees. ?Doing what you said you will do is the definition of quality. Most people think that they will be a great quality person in office but when it comes to home they don?t care. I believe, if you are a quality person you are a quality person both, at home and office,? he says.

It?s a little suprise then that Chowdhry has his fingers on so many things. The CEO does, after all, walk his talk. The 58-year old who was not quite sure of what he was getting into when he started off has seen the company grow from strength to strength. ?The next journey will be to take the company to solutions as the Indian market is maturing. We are aiming at the leadership position in systems,? he reveals. For someone who was not very ambitious from the beginning (I just wanted a job), growing the business is always a quest.

However, recounting all his highs and lows in life, Chowdhry holds no regrets. ?If you are not happy with what you have achieved, then you are always unhappy. However, when you have achieved what you want and you think that you have achieved everything then also you are mistaken. One should always have the quest to keep doing more,? he says signing off, his zest for life doing all the talking afterwards.

Fact File

* Ajai Chowdhry took over as chairman of HCL Infosystems in November 1999.

* He has been awarded the Dataquest IT Person of the Year -2007 award.

* He was also invited to be a part of the IT Hardware Task Force set up by the Prime Minister.

* He was born in Rajasthan (Mount Abu) and completed his schooling and graduation from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.