Anand Mahindra and Bill Gates during a 1997 meeting.
When a Twitter user shared a picture from the Netflix documentary 'Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates', it led businessman Anand Mahindra on a trip down memory lane. The old black-and-white picture shows Mr Mahindra in a meeting with the world's richest man, Bill Gates. Responding to it on Twitter this afternoon, Mr Mahindra revealed that it was clicked in 1997, during Bill Gates' first visit to India. Mr Mahindra also revealed that he and the founder of Microsoft had been classmates at Harvard in 1973, before Mr Gates famously dropped out to focus on his company.
"Thank you for sharing, because this meeting was in '97 during Bill's first ever trip to India & I had no record of it since there were no cell cameras at the time," wrote Mr Mahindra.
In a series of tweets, he explained that Microsoft had requested the meeting since Mahindra & Mahindra, at that time, had been "one of the 1st adopters of WindowsNT 4.0".
Mr Mahindra also amused his 7.4 million Twitter followers with a funny story from the meeting. He said that at the beginning of the meeting, he told Mr Gates that he had been holding a grudge against him.
"Funny story from that meeting," wrote Anand Mahindra. "When Bill entered, he said 'So I believe we were at Harvard at the same time?' I said 'Yes, we never met, but I have a grudge against you.'"
On being asked by Mr Gates what the grudge was, Anand Mahindra responded: "My daughter asked which of my college classmates were now famous & when I told her your name, she said: 'What a loser you are Dad!' So thanks to you, I'll always be a loser to my kids!"
Mr Mahindra's anecdote has collected over 1,700 'likes' and a number of comments.
Anand Mahindra on Friday announced his decision to step down as executive chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra from April 1, 2020.