My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future

Nooyi recalls growing up in a large house in Madras, India with her parents, sister, brother, and grandfather. Her parents had an arranged marriage, after which her paternal grandfather invited them to live in his home. Her grandfather, a former district judge and patriarch of the family, had built the house and lived there with them. Nooyi called him “Thatha,” and though he was strict and “regal,” he was also very kind (6). She remembers her cousins, aunties, and uncles visiting regularly, and she fondly recalls the “busy, happy days” of playing with the other children in the garden and putting on performances for the adults (4). Her mother was hardworking and nurturing, and she took care of all the household’s accounting; meanwhile, her father, a mathematician, was unusually involved in household chores and childrearing for a man of his generation.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Madras (now called Chennai) was a large city of 1.5 million people in the culturally rich state of Tamil Nadu, where Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam dance originated. Nooyi’s family was Hindu Brahmin, which meant that they were in a respected position in the Hindu caste system and expected to be highly educated people. They were not wealthy and rarely spent money on vacations or eating out, but they had stability and the respect of their community. Nooyi never felt limited by her sex; her parents and grandfather encouraged her to be hardworking and ambitious and to value her education. She emphasizes the importance of family, calling it both a “foundation” and a “force” in one’s life and believes that “healthy families are the root of healthy societies” (11).

Nooyi had chores as a child, such as buying milk and vegetables from local vendors, going to the grocery store, doing the dishes, or churning buttermilk. Her mother was always working, cooking for the family, and taking care of the kids. Madras is a drought-prone region, and the household carefully rationed water. She and her sister had few toys and inventively used other objects in imaginary play.

Growing up, Nooyi participated in the Bulbuls Girl Scouts program and attended Holy Angels Catholic School, where she was a part of the debate club. She also trained in traditional Indian dance, a classic pastime for girls. Once in high school, Nooyi chose to focus on a science-centered curriculum. She established a band called the LogRhythms with a few close friends. Nooyi played guitar and sang with her band at school concerts and local music festivals, and she enjoyed her family’s enthusiastic support for her music.

While in high school, her father was hit by a bus, and took months to recover from his injuries. Nooyi reflects on how different her life could have been if her father had died, and she remembers the emotional and financial hardship her family endured because of the accident. She graduated high school in 1970 and attended Madras Christian College in Tambaram while still living at home. As a college student, Nooyi joined the newly established cricket team and continued to practice debating, which she credits with helping her build confidence and public speaking skills. While her sister had faced their mother’s objections when she decided to complete her master’s degree in a different city, the family supported Nooyi’s decision to move to Calcutta to complete her master’s in business. By then, her mother had accepted that her daughters would live more independently than she had before they were married.

At 18 years old, Nooyi arrived in Calcutta (now called Kolkata), where she lived on campus with 11 other women in her master’s program at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta. Her two-year program included courses on finance, marketing, supply chain management, and computing, which was new at that time. In addition to attending school, Nooyi was selected for extracurricular opportunities, such as the Asian Youth Seminar on National Youth Policy in New Delhi and the Leslie Sawhny Programme of Training for Democracy. These programs helped Nooyi understand how India was changing and gave her “foundational knowledge” about her country (35).

During her first summer break from business school, Nooyi traveled to Mumbai to complete a summer internship for the Department of Atomic Energy. This internship required her to collaborate with another student to determine when the government’s projects would be completed. Nooyi was dismayed by the inefficiencies of big government projects and unimpressed with how developed countries sold outdated equipment to poorer nations to make a profit. This experience showed the author the “interdependence of business and society” (36).

Soon after, Thatha died of a stroke. Nooyi was devastated that she could not say goodbye to her grandfather and secretly watched his cremation in the male-only cremation grounds. She grieved for her grandfather; he taught her so many academic and life lessons, including to always stay busy and work hard.

Now nearing the end of her master’s program, Nooyi attended three rounds of group interviews with Mr. Rao, the boss of the textile company Mettur Beardsell. She was stunned to be selected for the job, as Mr. Rao was impressed with her confidence. As a woman in business, Nooyi was still very much in the minority; however, she was encouraged by the women’s movements unfolding around the globe and felt respected by her teachers and fellow students. She began her new job as a door-to-door saleswoman, visiting businesses and selling them threads and fabrics from Mettur Beardsell. Soon, she met Norman Wade, the British businessman and managing director of the Indian branch of the company. Wade was impressed with Nooyi’s work and became a valuable mentor to her. Nooyi became an expert in her company’s fabric needs and did quality control checks at their factory in Pondicherry. While she had returned to living at home and gave her mother her paychecks to use for the family, Nooyi loved the responsibility and independence her job gave her.

However, the company’s production slowed when workers went on strike, and Nooyi had little to do. She was scouted by Johnson & Johnson, and she moved to Mumbai to begin her new position as product manager of Stayfree feminine protection. Nooyi felt that her new position was purposeful: Women in India at that time used cloth because they had very little access to pads or tampons. Menstruation was taboo, and women who wanted to buy period products had to ask for it from store owners, who kept it behind the counter. Nooyi tested multiple products and asked her female colleagues for feedback about them. She had to explain her research to her male bosses. After seven months, the company introduced Stayfree pads in two test markets.

Nooyi became increasingly interested in moving to the US, as many of her peers from business school had done. She applied to the Yale business program and was shocked to not only be accepted but to also have 70% of her expenses paid in a scholarship and work-to-pay program. To attain her visa to study in the US, Nooyi had to line up overnight outside the US Consulate in Madras. She stayed awake all night to keep her place in line, and she was grateful that both her bosses from Mettur Beardsell came to check on her and encourage her. The next day, she met the interviewer and received her visa. Finally, in August of 1978, Nooyi’s parents traveled with her to Mumbai, where she boarded a flight to the US.

Nooyi was amazed at her new surroundings when she landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport, taking in what she felt was a very clean and organized environment compared to her hometown. When she arrived at her new dorm at Yale, she felt very lonely and homesick. However, she resisted the impulse to fly home because she felt that she had to “honor this opportunity” (56). Nooyi continues to feel strongly connected to immigrants in America because of her experience.

Soon after her arrival, she befriended Mohsen Fardmanesh, an Iranian student at Yale who helped her understand where to shop and what to eat. A vegetarian, Nooyi struggled to find food she liked and tried pizza for the first time. After living on bread and salad at the dorm cafeteria, Nooyi changed dorm houses and moved to Helen Hadley Hall, where she could cook for herself.

Nooyi was conscious of the many cultural differences between herself and her peers. For instance, education in India was formal and respectful, but American students were casual and even disagreed with their professors. In some ways, she assimilated—such as becoming a fan of the New York Yankees—but in other ways, she struggled to fit in. Nooyi felt self-conscious wearing her sari, but she could not find American clothes that suited her, especially since she had little money to spend. In order to save money and send some home to her family, Nooyi took a job working nights at the dorm switchboard.

When Nooyi attended her summer internship interviews, she was embarrassed about her cheap outfits. Nonetheless, she received an offer from Booz Allen and moved to Illinois for the summer to work for them. She never met the client, which she attributes to the fact that she wore her saris, but she felt that the experience was generally positive. That summer, she met Raj Nooyi through a mutual friend. By the end of the summer, they decided to marry and surprised their families with the news. During her second year at Yale, Nooyi maintained her long-distance relationship with her fiancé, completed her coursework, and was pleased to accept a job offer from the Boston Consulting Group. At the year’s end, she and Raj married in front of both their families in a small wedding. Her new in-laws informed Nooyi that her education was valuable and that she should continue working if she wanted to.