Sanjay G. Mavinkurve

Samvita and me (at SFO)

Pei and me (in SF)


Samvita and me, with our mothers (in Wadi)	Aye, Baba, and me (at Mangeshi)

Samvita and her parents (in Wadi)	Samvita, me, and our fathers (in Wadi)

Copy of Konkani Self Taught

As far as I can tell, this is the only book that outlines the grammar and vocabulary of my language, a dialect of Konkani spoken by the Chitrapur Saraswats (but it does so poorly, so much so that the title is a veritable misnomer, and only those who have some experience with the language would benefit at all from it).

Author: Aiyagal, Baindoor Deorai
Title: Konkani Self Taught / by Baindoor Deorai Aiyagal
Published: Bombay: Konkan Cultural Association, 1968

I found this book at Widener Library and took pictures of each of its pages.

If you want to print the book, then you should probably download it in high-resolution (105MB). If you just want to download it to view on your computer screen, then you may want to download it in low resolution (15MB).

Text summary - updated January 27, 2007

I was born in Mumbai, India and grew up in Saudi Arabia. When I was 14, I came to America to attend Western Reserve Academy, a private boarding school near Cleveland, Ohio. I graduated in 1999 and began college at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In 2003, I left Harvard University with a B.A. and M.S., both in computer science, and a minor in French language and literature. In July of 2003, I came to California to work at Google in Mountain View (near San Francisco). At Google, I focus on user interface architecture and design (what's that?), primarily for mobile devices. I live in East Palo Alto, only 4 miles from Google's headquarters.

My parents and virtually all my family live in India. My father is retired, after having worked in the Middle East for about 30 years. After teaching in Saudi Arabia for more than 18 years, my mother recently moved back to India and now stays with my father. They both live in 8/7 Talmaki Wadi, in Mumbai and take care of my dear grandmother full-time. My brother, Gaurav, graduated from Dartmouth College in 2001 and from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 2005. He is now in his second year of residency in neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio (a top 3 hospital in the United States). His wife, Sara, graduated from Kent State University in 2003, and is now a second-year law student at Case Western Reserve University. They both live in Cleveland, and I miss both of them dearly.

Most of all, though, I miss and adore this little muffin. :) Samvita graduated from Nanyang Technological University in 2005, and is now an associate at Singapore's DBS, the largest bank in that country (here | another view). We're planning to marry in February of 2008.

I work in the United States on an H1-B visa (America's "work visa"). My brother and Sara are citizens of the United States. Samvita and I are citizens of India.

Someday I would like to be a Bollywood movie star. My favorite movie star is Hrithik Roshan.

My email address is my first name followed by @post.harvard.edu. My cell phone number is 617-270-6553. I prefer texts and emails to phone calls, and I don't check my voicemail.