This Amdavadi woman drives Google's growth engine

Guess who's helping Google fight the battle against pesky spam and help the world's most popular search engine get a foothold in the world of social networking sites. It's an Amdavadi woman who graduated from LD College of Engineering in 1989.

It was, perhaps, natural for Pavni Diwanji to go on to become a director at Google. Her childhood was spent around computers. "When I was a child, my dad, who worked for IBM, always used to take me to visit his office," she says. "At the time, I would play with punch card machines and later PCs too. Now in USA, we have 'take your daughters to work' days. When I was growing up this was unheard of." Her parents also encouraged her to appear for national tests conducted by the Computer Society of India, which she passed with flying colours.

Pavni also founded and led Google Apps for Business and other enterprise products. Prior to joining Google in 2005, she was an entrepreneur who started and sold many successful companies. Pavni also managed the communication and client software division encompassing email, instant messaging and toolbar products at Excite@Home.

Despite her busy schedule and load of responsibilities in the U S , she has never lost touch with the city she calls home - Ahmedabad. "I try to visit every year, it keeps my connection with my city, friends and family alive. I think Amdavadis have a great business acumen, and a knack for making money. I could hardly recognize the city when I came this December - there have been so many improvements in the last three years. Now with technology and infrastructure improvements, I see a huge set of opportunities ahead for the my hometown."

Her younger brother Milind Diwanji, who lives in Ahmedabad says, "Pavni has kept a Gujarati cook in Silicon Valley so that the tastes and smells of Gujarat never leave her. She is a great people manager, something she learnt from our father, Naishad Diwanji." Pavni started her career as software engineer at Sun Microsystems where she was key developer of Java. She has won numerous entrepreneurship awards and holds several patents in areas of distribution systems and networking. She holds a masters degree in computer science from Stanford University.

Asked why there are very few Indian women in the field of technology, she says, "When I was at LD Engineering, one girl came and asked for my advice on what line she should take. She was worried about computer engineering being dry and not very creative. I think computer programming is very creative. Encourage your daughters to pursue science and engineering from early age. Give them access to computers. Have them talk to people who are pursuing careers in technology. Teach them to be confident, and pursue their passions. Rest will take care of itself."

A graduate in computer science from Ahmedabad leaves for Stanford, joins Java's core team and later becomes an entrepreneur. What has this journey taught her? "Follow your dreams and passion , and don't give up on them, no matter what. Remember what Steve Jobs used to say - The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."