bangalore at 4 pm on thursday computers fell silent at the steel glass electronic city campus of infosys technologies as 20000odd employees logged out and headed to the convention hall to hear nandan nilekani their cofounder and cochairman who is leaving to lead the national id project he logs into his new job next week in new delhinilekani took the floor at 5 pm to a standing ovation saying i am generally very articulate but this is not the day or place where i can be articulate ive been wrapped up in infosys for 28 years my only identity is infosys i will be going to lead a programme to give identity to every indian but today i am losing my identityof his journey he said its not the question of being at the right place at the right time it is also being lucky you get the right person to guide you in life referring to infosys chief mentor n r narayana murthy he gave me the first job then when he started infosys he invited me to join as a cofounder he added recalling the early days of infosys he reminisced about carrying his first computer on his lap as a precious possession when travelling from mumbai and bangaloreobviously nilekani has no illusions about the world hes entering i am leaving an organized world here standing at the top of an abyss even if i were to fall i may find water but in my new role im supposed to work with 600 government departments knowing fully well that no two government departments get along with one other but public service has been a lifelong calling his ambition he said was not to be on the board of any company also because my father was a huge public service guy my uncle was also in this domain and here i am heading to itfor 1 lakh infoscians he had this to say in the end ill watch how infosys is progressing watch you getting into the next growth orbit from outside the roar came back while you watch us we will also watch you the infosys founding team had interesting anecdotes about nilekani kris gopalakrishnan who took over from him as ceo and lives in the same lane as nilekani remembered him as a friend and dreamer with the ability to think big and make it happen how well he can delegate work youll never find anything in his inbox if you give him any work he will delegate it so well that it will go off to the outbox how he delegates no one knowsfor hr head and director mohandas pai it was nilekanis elephantine memory and his great networking abilities that were amazing also if narayana murthy is to be convinced only nandan can do it how he does it no one knows he saidqna is the citizen id project a viable optionshould nandan nilekani enter politics