Talk: Pooneet Goel

I wanted to share a story which exemplifies everything amazing about Ashok Uncle. Right after I graduated college, I had joined a company called Homestead.com as a software developer. I had met Ashok Uncle at a party that summer and like many conversations that night, he asked me what I was going to be doing. I told him briefly about my job and expected that to be the end of the conversation as was the norm but he stopped me and put a hand on my shoulder and said, “that sounds fascinating, tell me more”. We spent the next 20 minutes discussing Homestead, the business model and my role while many of his other friends came up to chat, he politely told them he would be with them as soon as he was done with me. Ashok Uncle was always genuinely interested in what us “kids” were doing and always challenged us to think bigger than we already were. I will always remember him as the brilliant uncle who would always take the time to know and hear me.

And on behalf of my wife Aditi’s parents – Ram and Sheila Mohan who couldn’t be here as they are in India – they wanted to share the following message:

I loved Ashok as an elder brother - he was a year ahead of me at IIT/Kanpur, a brilliant student who made life look easy, a master and careful listener who always responded in a thoughtful, gentle manner. He was caring and we were blessed to have him in our lives. Sheila and I were fortunate to have had the chance to fix some of his favorites for dinner recently. He lives in our hearts.

We will always remember him.