Tej Kohli Personal Information
On August 11, 1958, a baby boy was born in a village called Pratapgarh, located in the chittorgarh district of Rajasthan, India. His parents named him Devender Tej Kohli. On Sept 21, 1960, a baby girl was born in Jabalpur, one of the known city in the heart of India. She was named Deepali. The paths of Devendra Tej Kohli and Deepali crossed while they were both studying computer science during college days. They liked each other and fell in love and subsequently decided to get married. With the blessing of god and in presence of 1000 people of the community, they wed on May 14, 1980 and one of the best families in the world was created.
On August 21, 1981, Deepali and Devendra Tej Kohli had their first baby boy. He was named Tej Kohli. That was me. I was born and raised in Delhi, the capital of India. India is a wonderful country with many diversities and it’s heart – Delhi – is a beautiful place with many historic monuments.
I don't remember much from my early childhood. Like other kids in my neighborhood, I grew up by playing cricket, fighting with other guys, learning street diplomacy and studying in school. I was a straight A-grade student and managed to keep that tradition through my life. When I was approximately 11 years old, I read my first book which was the "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand and very much enjoyed it. I read a considerable number of similar novels in the next couple of years. During my schooling years at Delhi I started to participate in math and computer science competitions and started to realize the true power of math and emerging affinity to computer programming. I became a winner of a number of nationwide matchs and computer science competitions during that period. They were very competitive and they required non-standard logical thinking. I love competing.
After finishing my 9th standard, I went from Delhi to California, US where my father was working with a well known IT Group. It was an interesting and challenging period of my life. It was interesting because I went to an American high school and it was interesting to learn a new language, new culture and new customs. On the other hand, it was challenging because even I was respected in my school (I was the leader of its math team), I didn’t have any friends there. I think almost all the children that come to United States during middle or high school years from countries that are poorly represented in United States school go through such period of time. That experience, however, gave me an opportunity to learn that a person can live a reasonably happier life for some time without friends and for that a very high level of self respect and confidence is required.
I finished my high schooling in San Francisco and then spent 3 years doing my bachelor studies there. I majored in computer science. It was a four year program and I had to study with quite heavy load in order to finish my degree in 3 years before our planned arrival to Dallas.
We settled in Dallas and after finishing my masters degree in Computer Science, I spent an year working at the computers department of am IT insititution. Currently, I am working with global IT Company at Dallas as a software engineer.