A montage of Rajeev's photos with his family streamed continuously on a big TV screen and Gujarati bhajan and spiritual melodies played in the back ground.

A mourner present at the service said, "From the memorial service one can make out the life Rajeev led: quiet, peaceful and full of friends and family."

A couple, who moved to the Silicon Valley a few years ago but knew the family back in India, attended the funeral. "We were newbies when we moved here. But we knew Asha's family back in Ahmedabad. Rajeev helped us a lot with the little things. He always had time to spare, no matter how busy he was with his work. Rajeev was such a humble human being. Even while offering his opinion or advice, he was so soft-spoken. He was a pillar of support for the community."

The 47-year-old professor is also famous for mentoring and advising Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who were his students at the Stanford University and later built Google Inc. Prof Motwani worked directly on the algorithms research that led to Google search engine.

He was one of the youngest professors teaching at the Stanford. His love for teaching and discussing the latest in technology is widely known amongst his students.