They had always felt a special affinity for Cambridge, where Aju’s first employer was based at 145 Broadway “as the Esplanade rose.” Moving into the Esplanade was like a dream come true, with access to all the interesting activities the city offers as they begin to approach retirement.

Both Aju and Mary grew up in Kerala, in the southern part of India. Aju came to do his Master’s degree at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where his initial specialty was AI, however his mentor told him the area was something of a gamble, so he co-specialized in operating systems. This area has defined his career. He graduated from WPI and went to work at Digital Equipment Corporation (in PDP (16-bit), VAX (32-bit), Alpha (64-bit) minicomputers.) DEC was such a large company that it had its own terminal at Logan. The work was cutting-edge and he was able to publish and present at international conferences on operating systems.

His innovative work led to his being hired away from DEC by EMC (in data storage), then at VMware (in virtualization), and at Oracle (in OCI cloud). Today he runs A.D.S. Consultancy - AI/data solutions for medical device clients.

As his career was getting going, Aju got a call from his father back in Kerala. His father wanted him to come home and meet a young woman whom his parents thought would be a good match—Mary. Within a week of meeting each other, they married and a week later they were in the U.S. Mary got a Master’s at WPI in computer science and now works for Dell Technologies in Hopkinton. They have two children: Maya (Bentley MS Finance, CPA, planning to spend a year traveling in Australia) and Mohan (Tufts MS Mechanical Engineering), and a “therapist,” a 5-year-old shepherd mix, COVID-rescue (for the adults!) puppy named Stella, who “keeps us grounded.” They love walking with the dog in all directions from the Esplanade, and Aju bikes, as well.

Aju’s exuberance was obvious as he said: “we are avid travelers, so are our children. I have circled the globe 3 times without backtracking, to learn and to share. Mary and I have visited 6 continents. Antarctica is on the list. Mohan and I are BMW enthusiasts—logging serious wrench time on our collectible classics, the perfect father-son bonding ritual.” Aju also loves exploring local museums and attending innovation conferences, calling this location a “candy store” for him. They joke that Mary’s hobby is worrying whether AI does or doesn’t want her job.

Aju and Mary are enthusiastic about the community-building activities at the Esplanade. Aju loves to teach AI to people and hopes to run another course here in the fall. He was delighted to see how the first group that took his course has used the skills—including such beautiful activities as compiling a memoir. Aju would like to see resource sharing take off so we help each other more and perhaps a once-a-week tech support session.

It was a real pleasure to spend time with these enthusiastic and interesting neighbors, whose motto is “serendipity goes hand in hand with synchronicity.”

~Barbara Ogur