Sikka's better half keeps him at best

Earlier this month, employees of Infosys were surprised when a not-so-familiar 'Infoscion' asked a delicate question related to work-life balance at a town hall meeting organised by the company to introduce Chief Executive and Managing Director Vishal Sikka.

At this point, U B Pravin Rao, the new chief operating officer (COO), asked the person to introduce herself. But the reply came from Sikka, "She is the latest Infoscion and my better half," Sikka said, to the surprise of the audience.

She was Vandana Sikka, the wife of Vishal, who jokingly calls him a “fake Punjabi.” Perhaps the question aimed to get a sense of how hectic it was going to be for Sikka as he set out on his new innings at the Bangalore-based company.

In his Twitter handle, Vishal Sikka, introduces himself as a husband. In his latest blog post Transitions and Anchor, he had a paragraph on his wife: "And then there is my wife, my V. My companion, my compass, my anchor. Her singular support, strength, dedication, selflessness and passion have reminded me of what unquestioned support is all about, what love means and makes us do."

"One thing I am not looking to is long plane travels," Sikka told reporters last month when the company announced his appointment. On how he planned to manage the company, being far away from India, Sikka had said last week he planned to be in the city at least once a month for a week to meet employees, visit delivery centres. Rao would manage the show in his absence from the operations and delivery perspectives.

Co-founder N R Narayana Murthy was attached to the company. Murthy often used to say Infosys was his middle child since it was born after his daughter Akshata but before son Rohan.

“He had no time for family all these years. The day he started the company, I realised I should loan him to Infosys. His dream, sleep and food, everything was Infosys,” wife Sudha had told Business Standard in August 2011 on the sidelines of a function to bid farewell to Murthy.

“If you do his blood analysis, you won’t find haemoglobin — it will only be Infosys.”