The Twisted Nerve.

Confused and looking for direction. Can you help?

2010-08-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

It has been more than 14 months so far into my startup journey with not much to show for it, leave alone a paying customer. And this thing is constantly bugging me day in and day out. Although I did learn quite a lot during this time, no second thoughts on that!

Some timeline analysis:

Before May 2009 : Dabbled in a lot of ideas, one at a time, alongwith Mohit. We worked on a Novel Gunny bag rodent/water/fire resistant for foodgrain storage. Very high development costs prohibited this. We even applied for a TePP fund with the govt but no response. We researchd it ourselves but clearly lacked resources to make a product. Later we moved on biofuels as something we thought could be achieved with our resources. Hence, we took it up as our final year project working together on biodiesel from pongamia pinnata plant and also on biobutanol. None of them worked out doable from a commercial perspective. Biobutanol again required lot of research and many people were involved in various stages of research from many years. Pngamia plant's yield comes once in many years, further no money to buy land and do farming on a large enough scale and finally the costs were more than what diesel was seling in the market.

Around the same time, we applied for an incubation program at IIM Ahmedabad and got through. We were amongst the 13 to be selected from all over India. Certainly we were very excited but little did we know regarding the people who ran this program had no interest in promoting our startups and were infact there to just gain some board-level experience.

June 2009: We started the incubation program with our focus as biofuels commercialisation. We went on a 6-7 city trip all across India to mt various labs, VCs, successfull entrepreneurs, scientists etc. We changed our strategy a bit and decided a better way to utilise biofuels was to use it in fuel cells. Hence, we started following this path now, religiously.

July 2009: Due to already building tensions between me and Mohit, we decided to split. I agree that I was the one who initiated that we should split due to some reasons but he was also too happy to oblige to my offer, which he readily accepted telling me he was also kind of compromising with me. Whatever happens, happens for good. I moved on working alone. After sometime of working alone, he roped in his friend from IITD, who was also good in financial maths having interned in Deutsche bank twice.

August-October 2009: Having finalised the branch, I started to look for fuel cell technology in India. I met with utter disappointment at the lack of development on this front. Having met and discussed with many scientists in various institutions, I figured that CECRI(a chennai CSIR research institute) to be the nly one with any little working knowledge of the field. Their protoype was a mere 1kW system which too was expensive. But 1 kW is too small to do anything with it, a home for example uses 5kW sanctioned load, a telecom tower uses 15-40kW and commercial plants start anywhere from 50kW to 200kW to few MW. Although I didn't have much expectations from it, I still went ahead with initiating the tech transfer from them. I thought I would try to use the tech for outsourcing raw material for fuel cell companies abroad or figure out some other way. I was met with a lot of bureaucracy and inuumerable calls and e-mails and even a visit did nothing fruitful. They just kept ignoring all my mails and calls and never acted upon it. I guess they never took me seriously.

October 2009-February 2010: Having met with disappointment on the technology front in India, I started looking for options abroad. Needless to say, I was spoilt for choice as many companies had mature technologies. Initially, I was looking for PEM type of fuel cells but later I shifted my focus to AFC type of fuel cells as I thought they had considerable advantages over PEM in the long run and would prove winners in the race to commercialization of fuel cells. I found a few companies to whom I started taking, many did not respond owing to me being a young, inexperienced entrepreneur with no assured funds.
All this while I was working on business development as well and talking to potential customers. I managed to bag letter of intent for a customer in Udaipur for 150kW order which was nearly about worth 1.5 crores. Also, I managed to convince a telecom tower company, to try out our solution at a couple of their towers, which could also turn into a sales opportunity.
I also got in touch with many people, some of whom even became my advisors. One of them, a person with more than 40 years of experience in power business, is still with me. Also got in touch with MNRE and a UNDP official there became a good acquaintance with me.
Also, in January through a common contact, I came in touch with a Japanese company who were putting up a clean coal plant in Ahmedabad with the help of its municipal corporation. I even had a couple of meetings with their Japanese chief executives, who had come to India and signed an MoU with them for them to supply biomass based fuel which could be used to produce hydrogen fuel for our fuel cells.
I did manage to proceed with talks with one of tech companies to supply technology to us on a royalty basis and went to advanced stages. We even signed an MoU with them. We were then supposed to visit them in Europe for tech demonstration at their pilot site. One of the advisors had told me that he would visit the pilot site for this tech demo in Februrary as he was already visiting Europe during that time but when the time came, he said his schedule was jam packed and cant go there. It was also my foolishness to rely on him and I take full responsibility for this mistake of mine. I tried to arrange another person who could go on my behalf and even successfully found one local person who agreed to help us with this, but the hosting company refused saying that they cannot accomodate our last minute request. They told me they would inform me of any further tech demo that might happen at a later date. That was the last I heard from them.

March 2010-Present: Have been trying various things to try and commercialise one or the other way. Toyed with the idea of producer gas engines for sometime but found them to be non-reliable for industrial applications. Also thought of using modified engines to run on Ammonia or Hydrogen but they're also not cost effective. One of the advisors introduced me to a person who was also inerested in doing some new venture. He tipped me off on small hydro(2-25MW) for which I did a few meetings and found it to be too capital intensive requiring 10-12 crores per MW. Much of it could be arranged through bank loans but a minimum 9-10 crores would be needed to start off. During May-June time, I tried to replicate the idea of making multi-touch systems based on infra-red tracking for short term money making with a longtime school friend. Initially, he fell sick of typhoid for the month of may. During June he recovered a bit and w did some little work before he abandoned the project gain on the account of pressure from his family who wanted him to crack the CAT and get into one of the IIMs.
Meanwhile in July and August, one of my friend from US contacted me to start something together and now we're working together to create the next big company out of India. Lets see what happens.

Closing note:
I have made innumerable mistakes, been lazy sometimes, have thought of running away from all this but I'm still here fighting each day as it comes. Don't know whether I'm on the right path or not but I'm learning from every mistake. Sometimes I get impatient seeing that I haven't made any progress or when I realise I dont even have a small income source to sustain my expenditures but its all a part of sacrifice. Hope good things are in store for me.

ARE YOU THE WHITE COW?

2010-05-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

No? Are you sure you’re not the white cow? 99 out of 100 people in this world are. Well, look again, go check yourself in the mirror. Are you still sure?
Looks can be deceptive. we see literally hundreds of white cows every day, we even eat with them, walk with them, talk with them, share jokes with them. Confused?
Well, our beloved ‘white cow’ as described by marketing guru, Seth Godin, is the average man, common man, aam aadmi, call him what you may. As Seth notices, suppose you’re driving down a highway .You see a cow grazing by the field. Nobody stops and looks at a cow and says “Hey look, a cow! “. That’s the truth, cows are everywhere, hence they’re invisible. Likewise, average man is invisible. Average man is boring. Average man is well, average! Our average man does not like to take risks, he likes to play it ‘safe’. He likes to go with the flow. He thinks that by doing what everybody else does, supposedly one day he’ll become better off at doing them than others. He thinks if he can’t do anything, nobody can especially you. YOU, the reader of this article, you is a future Ambani, Mittal, Gates, Buffet. You is a shining star of India. You is the next big thing. He usually will show high self-esteem about the work he’s doing. He will think anybody taking a risk is the biggest fool he’s ever met and will smirk, laugh and criticize your ideas. That’s the average man. He can come in many forms, maybe your teachers, friends or even parents. But ‘ You’ should not care about the world , rise over all this and move on.
Well, in today’s world,’ being safe’ is the riskiest thing to do with your career. Well, among other things this is one of the biggest lessons the recent hush-hush in the financial world has taught us. According to thousands of people who lost their jobs, they had one of the safest, best jobs in the world. Who wouldn’t kill for a job at the Wall Street at a top-notch firm where billions move from one place to another everyday! But we all know the consequences.
To be successful, one has to learn to take risks early in life. Risk taking capability reduces with age, hence the earlier the better. You win some, you lose some. But here’s the deal. The more risks you take, the better you learn how to manage them. That’s what entrepreneurs do; they take risks AND manage them. India, and the world, in general needs more entrepreneurs. We don’t need more average men; there are already a lot of them. About 6 billion to be precise. Well then, do I mean we don’t need scientists, artists, rockstars, politicians, lawyers? Of course not. We need. Infact, I say ALL successful people are entrepreneurs. Don’t believe me? Let me explain.
Entrepreneurs are people who do what they love, they break new grounds by being innovative, they live by their own rules, and they do something that is useful to this world and do it to perfection. It’s a way of life. For example, Great scientists are just like business people who build great products in the form of their theories that have a profound effect on our knowledge of the world. Likewise, other people.
Take another example of Mahatma Gandhi; he was an entrepreneur according to me. He had a great idea to change the world (freedom of India) for millions of Indians(customers).He went against the market forces (Britishers) and build great products(like Quit India Movement, Non-Obedience, Non-violence, Non-cooperation) which he advertised( through local newspapers started by revolutionaries, by holding seminars and conferences).He built a great team(Pt Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, Gopal Krishna Gokhale etc.).With such a business strategy, people of India finally bought his products (yes, they finally bought his ideas), which led to the greatest victory ever in the history of India.
Lets talk about this concept in the context of creating great companies that change the world we live in. So the first big question comes, why this?
Well, like I said being risky is the new safe today.Furthermore, its a lot more than that. You set out to create a change in this world, a positive change. You will be known by that years after you are gone. Entrepreneurship is the tool with which you can create this change. You see a problem that’s bothering people or you see an area where you can improve the life of people around you. That, my friend, is the Holy Grail of entrepreneurship. That is the golden goose, the opportunity! You can either kill it by ignoring it, or use it to make billions! Let’s not forget, it’s not about the money. This is a trillion dollar advice. You make making-money your prime motive and you dig your own grave with your own two hands. Great companies are build to make meaning, they make our lives better and that’s exactly what you should look out for. As simple as it may sound, many people forget this basic principle. You make something that is of great value to people and they will be more than happy to pull out their wallets and pay you! Make meaning, Money follows!
When is the right time to do it? Now, is the right time to do it.
Well, you say you are young, just a recent graduate, you don’t have an experience in the industry, you don’t have the money, oh, and you forgot, the best of all, you don’t have an MBA. How can you even think of doing a business. Right?
Not a problem!

Recent graduates make the best breed of entrepreneurs, speaking statistically and generally. You’re well networked, you’re young, you’re enthusiastic, you is the only person you have to feed, there are no spouses and thank God, no kids .Moreover you live amongst technology. There’s no better place to find a team than here. And frankly, once you get caught in the corporate web, you’ll find that life way too ‘safe’ to leave it and start anything from scratch .Well then, do I mean everybody should leave everything else including job at Schlumberger/MS or PhD at MIT/your favourite MBA from IIM A ? No, ofcourse not, that would be a sin by many peoples’ standards. But the point here is, are you doing it for the money or do you really love it? “Oh, I don’t care, all I care about is money! After all, now even Govinda says Money hai to Honey hai. Why should I trust you over Govinda? “ Well, trust me, if you are not excited by the idea of working in oilfields in the scorching heat in a no man’s land , or if the prospect of working with cutting edge technology in closed labs with weird LCD displays and a plethora of buttons around you, doesn’t excite you, don’t go for it. It’s not that fun after all.”And money? How am I supposed to buy a Lexus before my classmate does?” Well, just look around more people have gotten rich otherwise. Money is everywhere. Chances are that if you do something you like, and you do it repeatedly to perfection, you’ll have more Lexus than your classmates.
Second obstacle that comes is the experience in general and experience of your industry. One thing, EXPERIENCE IS OVERRATED! You are going to learn more by trying to setup a new business from scratch than your counterparts sitting in cubicles writing codes. You call that experience? That’s wasting time, frankly. It’s adding no real value to you. You don’t learn by typing around, you learn by going to the streets, talking to real customers, who are going to pay you for your cutting edge software or your next big product or your new life-saving drug. That is where you learn the nitty-gritty of the trade. You learn how a great product is developed, you learn what people want and what they don’t want, you learn to negotiate, you learn to sign deals, you learn to manage your finances. Business is largely about people. When you learn how to deal with people, half the battle is won. It can’t be done in cubicles, by definition. That is what is called experience. It’s kind of a blessing in disguise, not having an experience. You have a clean board, you can see for yourself what works for you and what doesn’t. Sure, you can and should take advice, but that should be it. When you make a mistake, it’s your neck on the line, not your employer’s. You learn faster when it’s your business. It’s your baby, won’t you care? Ask yourself, where you will learn more.
As far as MBA is concerned, what a person learns in 2 months while “trying” to setup a business is far more valuable than the 2 years spent in classrooms. That is the whole point of it, when you do everything yourself, you learn accountability, responsibility and best of all leadership, the three most important pillars of your professional life. There just isn’t a better way to learn these skills. Education is not a bad thing, not at all. But one should know when to get it, why to get it. Brushing up your skills with an MBA after you have some real world solid experience and networking will go a long way in making your case stronger than sitting in MBA classrooms right after your graduation, where you don’t know the basics of how a business is done.
MBA is not there to teach you how to do business, it won’t, it can make a good business person better. That’s it.
The last and often the most daunting problem that you might face if you walk this route is raising capital for your venture. Where do you get the money from? Is it really that tough? “I’ve heard a majority of start-ups die before their second year and that’s mostly due to lack of funds!” Well, I’m afraid to say it’s in fact the fact. A majority of people who start out forget the other principles I discussed about before, some die off simply due to bad decision-making and other due to lack of funds. But that should not deter our vision. People who set out to make money leave all hope at this stage, but people who set out to right a wrong continue.
There are a lot of good opportunities to raise capital. Govt of India provides funds to young entrepreneurs with promising ideas under a scheme called TePP. One of our alumni, Natasha Sodhi, founder of Yellow Fourier Technologies, is one such person. Other than that, various banks throughout the nation are increasingly making investments in the sunshine sectors of our country. Apart from that there are our good old venture capitalists and angel investors or private equity routes. One of our alumni, Raghu Khanna, founder of www.cashurdrive.com was one such person. Apart from that, one of our alumni, Sachin Bhatia, along with a few others opened Drishti Soft Solutions with a initial capital from their own pockets(called bootstrapping) and are currently looking for venture capital to scale up. People often use a mix of various paths to raise capital.
When you set out to change the world, small problems like these often come along. That’s where risk management comes in. One should learn to mitigate it as much as possible.
Now that being young, inexperienced (with no MBA in Finance) and penniless are no longer a problem, we can move on to how to go about actually doing this!
Well, there have been complete set of books written over it. I’m going to try to sum it all up in a few lines here:
1) Find the problem, it’s the golden goose.
2) Conceptualise a product/service around your target customer that will solve the problem.
3) Go to the market experts, concerned professors, potential customers to fine-tune it and know if people really want it. If yes, in what quantity, how much are they willing to pay for it?
4) Build prototypes, give them away for free and let people test them and let you know how good or bad a job have you done.
4.5) Appoint a advisory board comprising of people who know how to do the business: technical, legal and operational aspects. Ask them nicely to be your mentors. Give them a share of your profits. Good Samaritans are not a minority in India!
5) Use the satisfaction reports, advisors and prototypes to finalize contracts with dealers, suppliers, customers and raise capital to scale up.
Following these steps should help one take off! But then, easier said than done. There can be no guarantees to avoiding failures. They will happen. But one should learn and move on and never stop. That’s the biggest lesson.
There’s a joke which goes like:
“One entrepreneur is explaining to another how he got into business. “I was afraid to go out on my own, but my former boss gave me a jump start by telling me the most encouraging two words in my life. One day he came into my office and said “You’re fired.” “
Well, one shouldn’t wait for that day. Should one?
A person has his whole life to be average, for once, try to do something out-of-the-box, surprise yourself, challenge yourself. Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t. So go ahead, start thinking today. Don’t be afraid of failures. Don’t be safe like other 99% people around you, get up and get going. Safe is stupid. Safe is boring. Safe is average. Safe is risky.
And as Mark Twain put it nicely,
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover “

Entrepreneurial life

2009-12-05T13:33:00.001-08:00

Well, these days I'm in process of starting my own company and certainly some days are better than other. Some days are exciting(usually the ones with any miniscule development, either positive or negative) like getting a positive mail from prospective tech transfer company or getting a letter of intent from a client/customer or getting mail from advisors on future potential strategy or meeting and trying to convince a new customer about the benefits of our technology or updates on company registration process etc etc. But rather most days are boring. Like one day, when you send a set of mails and 9 out of 10 don't even acknowledge the mail. The one or two who reply do so after a week and they say they need a week to think over it and will reply by next week. Or when you call somebody and they ask you to call them tomorrow or next week just because they're busy or don't return your calls. Or when you need to meet some important person, they say "how about next week?". I'm through with much of my planning stage and am currently implementing the idea. So I can't use much of my free time.

Then there are some obvious problems of money. Why only money, I'm an entrepreneur who started with no money, no technology, no contacts and no experience. Sounds perfect! Well, in some sense it is. It gives you a clean board to start off with but it has got its fair share of problems. For the tech transfer that I'm looking forward to, I might need to travel to Norway for technology demonstrations and negotiations, which will require money. I will need to hire a decent lawyer which will require money. I will need to pay to my advisors or pay for my trips in India alongwith food and lodging bills, which all will cost money. And frankly, I don't feel comfortable in asking money from family. Its just not me. My sister recently got married, which may also be a reason. But the point is I've got fewer options than I would like to have.

That matter aside, I sometimes feel that am I missing something. I'm not having as much fun as I would want to have. My friends have more fun than me, basically just because they have more dispensible income and more friends from work, which I don't. But then, when I think about the future and my dreams, about setting up an international conglomerate, about creating a name, leaving behind a legacy and generate enormous wealth, i think its a much small price that I have to pay. If I want all that, I NEED to do all this and do it now, not tomorrow,not next year and so far I enjoy it. Well, my father didn't try to break this mould from being a simple middle class man to being an entrepreneur and create wealth for which you need a certain sustained momentum over a period of time to move on to a higher orbital, i will do it. You know, otherwise also I feel taking the decision of entrepreneurship was a good choice. Just yesterday, I was shocked to know the sad demise of the youngest CEO of India due to cardiac arrest due to lack of sleep(as suggested, making no claims). He was heading SAP India and was bright and smart and handled all the load and dirty hard chaotic work for the company while its founders must be sailing somewhere on a tropical island. Well, its true. Even if you're very smart, lucky enough to be recruited in a top organisation like Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Reliance or McKinsey, you'll no doubt work your ass off to get to the top and if you reach there, your life will only get more chaotic and stressful. And while you'll be travelling to meet customers the world over, your wife will be getting humped by a younger man at home, for whom she will leave you later. If you don't become sucessfull at en-ship , okay. Atleast you'll know you gave it a fair shot and be at peace with yourself.

But all these uncertainities is what makes this journey all the more adventourous with a few spells of boredness. I have to learn to deal with uncertainities and make decisions faster and better with limited information. I've started when I'm 22 and I feel it is a pretty good decision. I have a lot of time to experiment and learn. One of our advisors has recently showed interest in joining fulltime as CEO. This person, whom I respect very much, has 4 decades of experience in the power business and knows the thing inside out. If I work alongwith him, I'll have the unique opportunity to learn from a person much senior than me and gain that upper management wisdom which my friends at other companies are devoid of. Simultaneously, with this tech transfer deal, two european directors will come on board, which is again good for me. I can learn their best practises and know how to deal in international business which again is a big advantage for a person my age.

People from the "lucky sperm club" like Mukesh/Anil Ambani or Siddharth Mallya or Aditya Birla, who entered such an environment at much the same age, created by their fathers and forefathers to train them to take the baton helped them hone their business skills. Well, if I can pull my deals off, I would've created that environment for myself. Success or failure is a matter of time. You stick long enough, you're innovative and work smart, Success will be at your feet!!!

I don't know what to name this post

2009-10-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes some things are destined to happen! I believe in miracles but sometimes some things happen in such a way that you feel there is a third party planning all this.

You know for example, a few weeks back early morning I was preparing for an important meeting with one of our advisors. The meeting was scheduled at 11 A.M. and I left home at 9:30 A.M. to give me sometime to work out on some documents at the office. But when I reached there and opened the flap of my laptop, to my horror, the laptop screen had a huge black spot on it and a crack running through the whole screen. Apparently, I forgot my earphones between the flaps and closed the flap, which caused the crack.
For a moment, I was very disappointed at my luck and fearing how huge a bomb it might cost me to get it repaired. I wasn't earning then, I aint earning a single penny now, so it was quite a shock. I quickly recuperated and got the essential documents I needed for the meeting printed out from the e-mail attachments I had sent out. The meeting went well.

Following the meeting, I called up Sony Vaio Service centre to know the potential lost it has caused me. They told me a visiting charge of Rs 1000 and a screen replacement charge of approx Rs 17000(gulp!). I was feeling so very screwed, for paying such a huge penalty for a seemingly small mistake of forgetting my earphones between the flap. I just casually asked the office wardboy, if the computer guy at IIM can repair it(trying to console myself although I knew the answer!). I took his number and called him to know what can be done.
After a day, he quoted me a price of Rs 8,500 for a non-sony screen, which I readily accepted after some hard negotiation bringing the cost to Rs 8000. Subsequently, I had to give away my laptop for repairing.
During these days, I used to sit in the computer centre at IIM. One day, I was sitting alone in the centre, when a gentleman arrived. Surprisingly, computer centres at IIM remain empty as compared to 60-70% occupancy rate back at IIT.
He came here for some computer related troubleshooting and as no-one was there, he asked me where the computer guy was. I said he'll be here in sometime and that you might like to wait. So, he started talking and we introduced ourselves. He told me he was working in the army as a strategist for 8 years, after which he worked in a consultancy firm as a managing partner and now was doing an MBA. The guy was good in strategy as well as quality processes( black-belt in Six Sigma). When I discussed my plans and told I was from IITG, he found them interesting and after some more time, he got his computer repaired and we said our goodbyes. One day, after a week or so, I was returning from office at about 10:30 in the night. I found him on a post-dinner walk enjoying the breeze. I recognised him and told him about the progress I made. He asked me for my business plan to give me better advise to which I said that I was looking for someone who could help me write one! He readily agreed. A few meetings with him have been good so far and his advices certainly add that 360 perspective to my thinking, in addition to the motivation he provides.

None of this would've ever happened, if I hadn't forgotten those earphones that day. Probably Rs 8000 is too low a fee for a great consultancy.

Second incident happened today, when again I came to computer lab to get my laptop formatted as I was fed up of vista. Instead of a simple windows xp installation, my laptop being the super-smart laptop that it is didn't function as normal laptops do. It instead didn't detect the installation CD and on further tweaking with the settings and all, somehow a critical file got deleted which resulted in its logging off as soon as it logs on. This happened at 8:30PM at which time I had to go to office for a conference call happening between three continents( California, Norway and Ahmedabad). Later the computer guy came back asking me to give him my laptop for the night and that I use the computer centre for tonight.
Again, in a twist of destiny, I was alone there and a guy came. he was looking for printout and matter-of-factly didn't have A4 papers. As fate would have it, he asked me for help to which I suggested to look for at the reception or the placement office which remain open till late in the night. He got the papers from the reception and came back to thank me. He then introduced himself, as a gesture of good attiquette. He said he was a Columbia graduate in Economics policy and was working in Clean Energy infrastructure finance projects and was associated with the second-largest bank in Japan for last 8 years. What could be better? Meeting a person with a policy and finance background and that too in clean energy. He heard my plans and agreed to give me a helping hand and asked me to send him a financial model. I would've never met him had my laptop had a successfull installation or if I hadn't come to the computer centre or came at a different time.

Sometimes things just happen. And as long as the results are good, all is well.

What strategy to follow with people!

2009-09-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

Its a really crappy title to a really wonderful set of words coming ahead. I saw this on some website, I swear I couldn't have written this better myself. So I'm copy-pasting it :

Who makes difference in your life

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America Contest.

4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.

6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. They are not second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

Easier?

The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are NOT the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones who care.

A great lesson to follow at work or play! The point is if you want to get the best out of your employees, you need to care for them rather then treating them just another cog in the wheel. When you make a difference to their lives in a positive way, they'll be only happy to return the favour, which will mean higher employee morale, higher productivity, higher talent retention and willingness to make sacrifices like paycuts etc in times of downturn. All of which will make your company earn higher revenues and make a mark subsequently.

Why are we here?

2009-05-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

Some of the fundamental questions that have baffled the human civilizations ever since it appeared on this planet was 'Why are we here?' and 'What is the purpose of life?'.Well, I think I can try and answer it and I'm pretty convinced with my answer. Rest is upto you to decide. Leave your comments if you have any.

The answer is "to propagate and discover".

We are here to move forward in the evolutionary chain. Ever since we came on this planet,we've been trying to beat what all challenges nature has put forth in front of us and moved forward. Solving the problem of food,transportation,energy and communication with the path breaking inventions of farming,wheel,fire and language systems. This helped us collaborate with other humans to solve even bigger problems. As societies evolved,so did these basic inventions helping us collaborate with civilizations first in their vicinity and then on in other parts of the world.

Now the world civilizations are collaborated and they're going forward to accomplish bigger tasks like further exploration of other planets, solving the puzzle of ever lasting energy and giving home to ever increasing population. Soon,we'll be finding answers to warp speed which will help us travel between inter-galactic spaces,which will eventually help us to collaborate with other civilizations from various planets to help accomplish even bigger tasks like knowing the mysteries of life and the end of universe. When lifeforms will find answers to these questions,they will be posed with other challenges which cannot be comprehended now. There might be other universes at the end of our universe and lifeforms from different universes may collaborate to achieve challenges of their time and so on and so forth.

30 before 30

2009-05-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

Well endsems are over! and after a thesis presentation,I'll be done with my bachelors engineering education. Its ,needless to say, a new beginning for all of us. People have planned all sorts of stuff for their life ahead. And I am no exception.

I turned 22 today, and feel its an appropriate day for me to write my 30 before 30 list. It was in my mind from a long time but never got around to writing it,so here it goes( in no particular order):

1)Want to start a company and turn it into a fledgling venture which actually does something useful.
2)Want to learn Saxophone and perform for a huge audience.
3)Want to try various adventure sports(paragliding,sky-diving,snorkelling,scuba-diving,deep-sea diving,wind-surfing,anything crazy will do)
4)Want to go to Antarctica on an expedition and live a day like Bear Grylls.
5)Want to go to Iceland,Egypt,South Africa,Bora Bora and other untouched places.
6)Want to own a designer house.
7)Want to own a designer car.
8)Want to learn Kenjutsu.
9)Want to learn Clay Modelling.
10)Want to be in a very good shape.
11)Want to take up a village and transform it into a place where all people are educated,all have enough to eat and all have jobs.
12)Want to start making canvas art in my free time and showcase at a gallery.
13)Want to own a kickboxing bag and gloves and practice boxing.
14)Want to meet Aung San Suu Kyi.
15)Want to meet a famous hollywood/bollywood star.
16)Want to get listed in world's youngest billionaires list.
17)Want to meet a Korean movie actress.
18)Want to learn swimming.
19)Want to meet creators of South Park and go to their studio.
20)Want to make a movie on a shoe-string budget.
21)Want to learn cooking some exotic dishes.
22)Surprise my family.
23)Surprise my friends.
24)Drop at a really old friend's place after many years without giving him a hint.
25)Meet my old school teachers who taught me when I was very young.
26)Meet Bill gates and Richard Branson.
27)Fall in love.
28)Speak at a commencement of some big university.
29)Travel first class on a private jet.
30)Travel on a private yacht.

So that's about it.Sounds too utopian? Well 30 under 30 lists are utopian!
The list includes many things that many people want,so things like money/fame,no surprises there!
Anyways there are other things that I look forward to more.

Frequently used verbs : Learn,try,meet,to go/travel,own.

Will check back in another 8 years! Ciao for now!

Farewell and stuff

2009-05-09T00:18:00.000-07:00

Ya,well like all the other colleges, we had our farewell too.It was pretty decent.

Some notable pointers :

*Only two faculty came( one was HOD due to his obligation,and other was a new faculty,so he came just to experience it).I guess all the other faculty is pissed or they don't care to say a final word to the batch they spent 4 years with.Nonetheless,I don't give a damn.Everbody has a right to do what they want.Expectations make this world somewhat less beautiful!

*Many juniors came but left after the food was done.No surprises there! Happens all the time but it hits you when its yours!

*Food was amazing and so were the host(3rd yr guys).My very best wishes to them and many thanks for keeping us company till the end and giving us a great farewell.

*The venue was horrible! No AC.Don't blame the juniors. IIT kind of tries to be very controlling of the use of its premises for apparently no sensible reasons.These guys are just not social or they think that giving a bare minimum of an AC room for a farewell is probably asking for too much!

*Night of confessions,revelations and experiences soon followed. Although many of the incidents discussed had a sexual overtone.Probably some hot topics never change.

The thing was followed by a t-shirt scribbling session. Somehow half the comments written on my t-shirt were related to 'balls' :D After this followed our DP where we got drunk and talked about business(Ravi said he was investing in some web company,goofy and sudhanshu wanted to take over our business),rajkiran,sudar and I talked about taking LSD and getting high and regretting why didn't we meet before,mayur didn't drink much,so we were devoid of his fundae on why our batch is the best batch.

Here are some of the comments I recieved(letter case/punctuations/abbreviations maintained) :

U got balls dude - G.Abhilash

U r irritating and u r fun buddy - Aditya Upadhyay aka Goofy

You wish you had his balls - Mayur

HATS OFF TO UR DREAMS.U SHOULD SUCCEED. - Thauseef

BOND - Anonymous

Never worried of being (called) a fool. - VENU

BECOME THE NEXT(written,then crossed) BEST THING THAT HAPPENED TO OUR COUNTRY - Adithya Sagar

Junkie(wannabe) - Rajkiran

Cartman of Biotech - Mayur

I am an arrogant and selfish bastard - Mayur on behalf of someone else

MOST IRRITATING,U SUCK,IDIOT BT STILL U GOT THE BALLS! - Chandrashekar Singh alias Cool Chandu

JACK of all trades, still I rock :-) MISS YA BRO - Akshay alias Tau

I deeply appreciate your attitude & courage.Good Luck. - Garima

Great boobs dude - Ravi Shankar

THE UNIQUE MIND | HEADSTRONG - Chavan

LIFETIME PARTNER !!! - Mohit aka Commander

Overall,it was cool.Good times.

Love as a weapon

2009-01-27T15:30:00.000-08:00

Love is the most misunderstood thing in this world.Most people believe love is beautiful or love is 'good'.Love however can be just as good as heaven or as bad as hell depending on how you use it.

Let me give you an omnipresent example. A mother and a son* relationship-the most selfless,most giving relationship in this world,nothing comes above it can become bad for the son. A mother finds it hard to see any difficulty/discrepancy in the son's behaviour.According to her,all is fine but the world knows all sons are not the best people.Criminals have moms too. A mother usually never looks at the contents of a dish her son likes.She is too preoccupied by the happiness on her son's face that she completely ignores that the dish might be giving her son's heart or pancreas a hard time.

People go on ranting about how love is the most selfless thing in this world.Although there is nothing more selfish in this world than love itself.Period.

Love intensity ranking :

# 1 : Self-love or your love for yourself. Hence,you are your biggest friend or enemy.

# 2 : A mother and a child love . The person,after you,who has the highest effect on you.

# 3 : All other love.

* 'son' is just an example here and is completely replaceable by 'daughter'.

WITNESS YOUR DEATH

2008-11-21T16:56:00.000-08:00

WITNESS YOUR DEATH

Para 1

i hope you cry and weep through the nights....
you turn all blind
and you cannot see the lights....

better be prepared,you lowlife
your days are numbered,
And you cannot hide...
The fire of revenge
Is burning in my veins
All you can do is
burn in this rain.....

On a black day,you will feel the wrath
your soul will turn hollow
and you shall witness your death...

Para 2

i hope your blood will freeze through the mind...
the master of the grave
will call you out tonight...

Once again you betrayed my trust
This wont get you
Your laughter and your lust...
And we will see
when the sword of the devil goat
will soon be
pushed down your throat.....

on a black day,you will feel the wrath
your soul will turn hollow
and you shall witness your death...

---

Footnote :
Some Death Metal Lyrics by Me , Bodom is including them in their latest album after they struck a $5mn deal with me recently ;)

23andMe!

2008-10-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

No,I haven't turned 23 nor am I fearful that I'm getting old.
23andMe is the newest kid on the block in the biotech arena .A startup funded by our good old Google brothers.( I can see my biotech mates going YAY!!! )
Well,the company was founded by Sergey's wife Anna which made a lot easier for Anna (No surprise there!).The startup sells portable SpitKits for $399 a piece(around INR 20,000),where a person has to spit in the kit provided and has to take his spitted spitkit to a nearby certified lab for detailed genetic profile ( WELL,too much of money and too much of a work for a lazy bum like me just to know what my ancestors were made of and what diseases am I more likely to get in my future life !).

Frankly,how are they making my life easier? Exactly,for what am I paying these people my hard-earned money?What value are they creating in the society?How are they making this world a better place? These are some of the questions every business has to ask itself sooner or later,and these guys certainly haven't done this basic exercise.

Sergey gave all his fundaes on his blog,why he liked the service and how its so great and that he gotta know that he's at a greater risk of getting Parkinson's ( wow,I wudn't like to pay that kind of money to lose my sleep in the night worrying how long is it gonna be before the doctor diagnoses me with Parkinson's....I bet it must've cost him much more than a mere sleep at night in the bed...haha )
Looking at Google's strong contacts,they roped in other investors too like the biotech giant,Genentech and profiled Star Investor Mr. Warren Buffet and Famous Singer Jimmy Buffet among others to play their silly Spitgames ( Spit Parties as they like to call :P :D)
Well,one thing they can look at is helping develop better medicines by studying genetic profiles of a large no. of people,large enough that they can derive some strong analytical analogies among genetic codes and variations in human bodies.But,sadly not much luck there as the human genetic profile has already been hacked under THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT and much of the common genes have been studied.

Nonetheless,its a fun activity for people with extra money to know where your great grandfathers,great great grandfathers belonged to and what you have in common with your famous celebrities etc etc and which diseases are most likely to kill you in your old age.Its one of those things which are "nice-to-have" but certainly not "required".You do something that people really need and they will be only happy to open up their wallet and pay you for it.Simple as that!

The Helping Hand - Uniquely Singapore Experience

2008-09-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

“Welcome! Please take a seat”, said a man in a very humble voice dressed up very simply in a white Helping Hand T-Shirt and a pair of blue jeans as we entered the main convention hall of the organization. “You are late” , he continued as he briefed us the portion of the talk we missed. We were given a magazine of the foundation and a handout of the talk by a boy sitting outside the hall who was in his teenage and probably a former drug-addict as was any other volunteer working in that organization . The man, Mr. Robert, was somewhere in his middle age and as he mentioned, had spent a better part of his life, an astonishing period of 24 years of his life, in prison!

The organization building was originally a school which was donated for this cause. The talk being given to us was on different types of drugs available and its various affects on human body and brain. It was indeed very informative and shocking at the same time how these drugs worked and why are they so addicting to people. He told us about the deadliest of the drugs the heroin, cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, rohypnol, upjohn, ice, inhalants et cetera et cetera. It was indeed very saddening to know that these drugs are freely available in the night party circuit.

People who are not able to get these drugs in Singapore due to legal restrictions easily get these in the neighboring countries like Malaysia and Hong Kong, where the laws are much more relaxed. As Mr. Robert told us the scene in the hallowed lanes where it is very common to find drugs, we were terrified. As mentioned, even the police feared going to those lanes. They feared getting deadly diseases which might spread to them if they go close to the drug abusers.

The people there are all drowned in various moods of euphoria experiencing a high, taking more and more injections unknowingly ruining their own lives. It is a terrifying scene. But then many of these people are not blessed with a loving and caring family like most others. Like Mr. Robert himself told us the prime reason for people taking up drugs is to cope up with their stress . Such people are also prone to committing crimes to fulfill their needs which are always increasing.

Robert himself told us he was a gangster before joining the Helping Hand foundation and tried drugs just for the kick it gave him of getting a new high. The same old cigarette didn’t seem to work anymore. He needed something more strong,powerful,something that could make him feel good about himself. In short, he needed drugs and it all started with a cigarette.

I think psychedelics play a major part in what we do, but having said that, I feel that if somebody's going to experiment with those things they really need to educate themselves about them. People just taking the chemicals and diving in without having any kind of preparation about what they're about to experience tend to have no frame of reference, so they're missing everything flying by and all these new perspectives. It's just a waste. They reach a little bit of spiritual enlightenment, but they end up going, 'Well, now I need that drug to get back there again.' The trick is to use the drugs once to get there, and maybe spend the next ten years trying to get back there without the drug.

The Helping Hand has been working for about 21 years now. It has been in inception since 1987.

It is primarily a self-help organization where the drug abusers help each other get rid of this habit. They organization the sports themselves, various social activities, celebrate various festivals and do trips for fun. They also help the organization raise funds by doing various chores like making furniture, picture frames and house removal/relocation and moving services. As Robert showed us around the place, we were literally awed by the amazing work that the people there have been doing. This was what is called living with a pride. Though we were not allowed to meet any of the persons/ex-criminals going through rehabilitation, we could well sense the pride in their eyes as we saw them work. People seemed far happier. Residents are taught to earn an honest living with the use of their hands. Their hands once used to harm themselves and others, are now offered as useful instruments of work in various services.

Residents are given spiritual knowledge so that they can identify themselves to their inner being and open eyes to God, get morally oriented which I think is quite useful when a person is under deep stress and has to deal with the pressures of the society, their family and others. Helping Hand being a half-way Christian organization teaches Christianity i.e. the bible mainly and practices prayers in churches.

Inhabitants are also encouraged to have some sort of physical activity while they’re staying there in the form of various sports, each day. They even hold various competitions amongst themselves .This keeps them pumped up throughout the day and helps them deal with the rehabilitation in a better way as by the time they seek rehabilitation help, they have already done a lot of damage to their body and immune system.

The other major problem faced by the organization is the reabsorbance of the residents back into the society. During the tough times that they had faced, many of them tend to become anti-social and find it difficult later on after the program to get absorbed back into the society. Some who are lucky enough to change themselves may even find problems getting absorbed into the society because many a times the society due to its narrow mindedness or fear may abandon such people and isolate them. In either case, the person has an increased tendency to go back to drugs once again. To take care of this aspect, residents are encouraged to take up social activities like volunteering, going to social gatherings, making friends, and taking up jobs and other such activities so that they can easily open up to society and vice versa.

After all the discussion, I really found a change in my attitude towards these needy men. They had nothing in common but ill-fate. There is a need to help these people get out of this trap and become law-abiding citizens of Singapore and become fruitful to the nation as well as themselves and their families. More and more talks should be held with the community leaders to seek additional views to improve the situation among the respective community groups. Such sessions will allow leaders to come together and discuss ways to bring down the level of drug-abuse in their communities. Such meetings have given fruitful results so far.

The Malay community, for example, wants to intensify efforts to reach out to high-risk Malay students. They call for the introduction of religious studies in schools and more active role for mosques in the anti-drug efforts. There is a strong support for tougher punitive measures for drug abusers. They also suggest that inmates on the Day Release Scheme should do community work in mosques. On the other hand, the Indian leaders want anti-drug messages to be included in the religious preaching at Hindu temples. The abuse of "Ecstasy" pills is noted to be predominantly a problem for the Chinese. Here, the strategy is to de-glamorize the drug and highlight the foolishness and futility of taking these pills.

The analysis of the suggestions clearly highlights the wishes of the different communities for greater involvement in the fight against drug abuse.

The Helping Hand is unique in the sense that everyone, from Executive Director right down to the Residents, is an ex-addict. As such, they understand the problems that are involved . They constantly strive to address these issues as effectively as they can. Their foundation is their strong Christian beliefs and the transforming power of their lord and saviour,Jesus Christ . A measure of their success would be to see their residents finish their programme and go out into the world, successful in what they want to do, happy in life and walking closely with God.

I would like to end this paper with the following quote which beholds a message for today’s youth :

“Today’s students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains .It’s their choice. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it’s not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude. “

---- Jesse Jackson, American Civil-Rights Leader, Baptist Minister, Politician

How to conquer the world in two easy steps !

2008-08-29T13:56:00.001-07:00

So finally I'm back with my latest blog post after about an year . Couldn't really find much convincing things to write about all this time . Anyways , here it goes.

This blog post will teach you how to conquer the world(yes , you heard that right !) in two easy-to-understand and easy-to-follow steps.

Fact : Everybody has weaknesses .

Step 1 : Identify that weakness .

Step 2 : Exploit it .

Now that you know the divine secret , I expect all to use this methodology with utmost care because as they say " With great power,comes great responsibility ".

Samosas & me!

2007-06-18T05:18:00.000-07:00

17th June 2007
Kharagpur,India
2:00 A.M.

Reader warning: This is a general account of events that happened with me on the date mentioned.Any resemblance with any person living or dead,or any samosa,eaten or uneaten will be considered as mere coincidence.Reader discretion is adviced.

Trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiinnnnnnnnnnngggggggg!
Damn tht alarm clock!
Ahh!nice! It was raining outside.I had just got up from sleep.It was 5 o'clock in the evening.Slept at 5'o clock in the morning after watching two great movies.This week is going great,no work.Moreover,I'll get to go early,a week before.Now,I'll have a full month of enjoyment at Delhi,yess!

I was feeling hungry,feeling hungry for samosas to be precise,after all those images of those mouth-watering samosas I used to have in delhi every few days,were popping up in my brain since past few rainy days,and to top it all,this rainy weather of Kharagpur had further wetted my appetite for them!
Last night,I had reached late at the sweets shop,about 9:30,there the shopwala bhaiya told me that the samosas don't last beyond 8 in the evening!
I had to go home with hungry and desparate eyes , cursing the shopowners."Gosh! Can't they keep it a little longer!"

Today I was determined,no matter what,I have to eat samosas....as many as I could!
A quick gaze at my watch told me it was 5:30 in the evening.It had stopped pouring,but still there was a slight drizzle....but nothing could come my way today.
Oh damn! i remembered,I had an appointment with th hairdresser at six.That stupid fellow didn't do my hair properly,the day before,so we decided for a second session today evening.
"Fine!Its cool!He won't take much time....and afterall,the samosas last till eight",I said consoling myself of the excruciating "wait for the samosas" that was unavoidable and lay ahead!

I got up in a hurry,brushed my teeth,had a nice warm bath ,got ready with my hair shampooed and well-combed and bingo! I was ready for a date with my dearly samosas....

By the time,I reached the hairdresser,it was 6:15.I parked my cycle,entered the salon,took my raincoat off and went in.It was somebody else today at his place.On asking,i came to know that the original guy had caught cold and was down with fever.That was strange.This new man was stout,slumpy with short hair and a small,but well maintained moustache.He seemed to be in his early 40s,with a bidi hanging from his mouth,just trying to balance itself amongst his two big,plumpy lips!
This new guy was very slow,it took him nearly about an hour for what his counterparts could finish off in about an half!
Anyways,all the time,I was hallucinating the smell of hot,oven-fresh samosas kept right in front of me,near the comb and the scissors."Gosh!I don't think I'm that desparate"
I suddenly realised,it is in such circumstances that the "Theory of Relativity" by our great Einstein, starts finding a sudden relevance....a theory which nobody even thinks about otherwise.

Phew!Finally,it was over much before than what I had expected!
A look at my watch,the time was 6:55. I caught hold of my raincoat,unlocked my cycle which was completely wet by now(thanks to the drizzle outside) but,nonetheless,that determination to eat samosas was still there.
The sweets shop,was situated about 10 minutes away at the far end of the Technology Market,IIT Kharagpur.I checked my cycle tyres for any air-leakage which may have been the work of some masked men conspiring to not let me reach the shop on time.To my relief,the tyres were okay.
I raced like anything.I bet had I been participating in some cycle race,I wouldn't have gone without recognition of winning the race with a margin,that could be mind-boggling enough to create tsunamis in the history of cycle races(:),:P)

"Oye! Kahan jaa raha hai bhaga bhaga?"....called a shreiking voice from behind.It was Ravi,my friend from IITKGP and labmates for the common MEMS Laboratory.
"Yaar! Kuchh important kaam tha.Jaldi me hun.Phir ghar bhi call karna hai",came a quick reply from my side,trying to discourage him from anything remotely related to chatting and talking.I was afraid,he might not start to chat again.
"Chal thik hai baad me milte hain,anyways Mukhia sir was askin for you,meet him tomorrow positively".
"Sure,I'll meet him...bye".....and I raced again with a sigh of relief.

However,I reached the shop on time,it was 7:05 by my watch.I was kind of proud of me to make it up on time besides all the conspiracies!
I was at the shop looking for the thing I came here for.
"Bhaiya! samose hain?",I enquired the shopkeeper,with my fingers X-ed.
"Dada! aakhri lot bacha hai" ,informed the shopkeeper.
"Bhaiya! Tumne to kal kaha tha ki 8 baje tak samose milte hain??" asked I in amusement.
"Dada,tumko kal batana bhul gaya tha.Sunday ko sirf7-7:15 tak hi milte hain"
"Ohhhhhh.........",came the biggest ohh from my mouth,"Just on time",and felt assured and happy,that atleast I got here in time.Had i got even a few minutes late,I would've lost the battle.
I thought at first,I'll but the whole basket,who knows "Kal ye shop band ho jaaye!Why take risks!".But being a bit realistic,I asked him to pack 8 samosas.Of those 8,I ate 2 at the shop itself thinking "Yaar,itni der wait karne ka tempo kiske paas hai,ab room jaane tak kaun rukega!"
I paid at the counter and flooded to my room where the other samosas were destined to go inside my belly one by one...huhuhuhahahaha(read as devil grin)

The people,on the road,and on my way to the room,seemed to be like hungry monsters,lurking for my innocent samosas. It seemed as if I was carrying a board with myself,with written on it in big bold letters that " THIS MAN IS CARRYING SIX EXTREMELY MOUTH-WATERING,CRISPY,SPICY,OVENFRESH SAMOSAS.BEWARE.CATCH HIM,SUE HIM AND TAKE ALL HIS SAMOSAS AWAY."
It seemed as if people were jealous-how could this man enjoy the company of six samosas in a no man's land(read IITKGP) where all there is to enjoy,are the forests around and the shrilling voice of the ever passing trains from the kharagpur station nearby,and where people are no less than machines,don't know how to enjoy life and are made sure they have some reason or the other which pisses them off!

I dont know what crap I was thinking all way.But,I was so damn excited that I could hardly remember anything on my way except that it still hadn't stopped drizzling,which further added to my excitement.

Ahh! finally I was in my room after rushing through the hostel corridors and saving my samosas from this cruel world that lay there looking for a moment to relish my samosas.
There was nothing between me and my beloved six samosas,and ,of course,the rain outside,which also made me feel a little cold.
I felt the samosas,they were still hot.I took out the tangy red chutney accompanying it in a bowl.
And ,the time was now,that moment had finally arrived for which I was waiting for about past three hours."Who needs a girl!",I wondered "When you have 6 samosas all at your disposal".Me sitting alone in my room,with six,mouth-watering,oven-fresh,samosas and the accompanying tangy red chutney that accentuated the whole ensemble.The rain outside,in the moonlit night made the moment even more eventful,not to mention,the happiness of a week long holiday and the recent permission by my internship guide to go home early.

Now there was nothing that could stop this divine reunion of man with his samosas,with the blessings of the Gods,and the hole cosmos of heavenly bodies,the angels ,the fairies,spectating this grand event.
I took them one-by-one...It seemed as if each one of'em was crying "Please eat me,o'my wonderful,kind-hearted and benevolent lord!"....
And gulped them....and gulped and gulped......
And went to sleep with music in my ears,my belly full and my soul content. :)