This village boy is a distinguished engineer with Dell

Shibi Panikkar had little guidance when it came to making career choices, having grown up in Mangad, a village in Kannur, Kerala. Such was his naivety that when he got through engineering at the University of Calicut, he opted for the electrical and electronics branch, simply because he thought he’d get to learn two topics. “Every other engineering stream like mechanical, chemical, came with just one prefix,” laughs Shibi.