"Biness Karna Hai India Ko... Bread Pakode Kee Kasam" - Entrepreneurship All Around :)

I believe India's growth story is yet to start... I am not an economist, neither an investor in equity and neither I have any data to support my claim :) My so called prophecy is purely and simply based on my observations and interaction with people around me, especially the next generation - India is just restless right now... it wants to prove something to the world and to itself. There is ideation, there is competition and there is search for the right team - how far it will go, only time will tell but I feel all this is giving splendid rise to 'Entrepreneurship' and it is going to be one interesting thing to note and enjoy being an Indian - India will change.

My simple gut feel is that if you visit any Coffee parlour like CCD / Barista / Costa - there will be a significant number of business ideas being discussed at different tables anytime of the week (though the number of romantic dates will be anytime more :-) )

It is very simple - huge English speaking 'young' population + super growing power of Internet (Facebook / YouTube etc.) + extensive intrusion of traditional media (reality shows / news channels / foreign shows) + growing exposure of wealth (BMWs / Mercedes / iPads / iPhones etc.) + big unorganised sectors + considerable lack of amenities + jugaad attitude is simply helping the desire to 'change one's own life' to be put as a fast rolling ball.

Look at movies like Rocket Singh, Salesman Of The Year / Band Baaja Baarat / Badmaash Company (incidentally, all these movies have come from Yash Raj Films Studio) and then Guru - all talk about business ideas being given birth by characters belonging to middle class households.

And then movies like The Social Network just makes everyone believes in himself / herself... the kind of success being thought through is mind blowing and every idea looks like a Gold Mine to the thinker - the movie poster stares at you or even challenges you . There are now magazines (Entrepreneur) and newspaper articles being dedicated to this side of a human society. The fact that there are now multiple number of business channels in India - CNBC / ET Now / Bloomberg UTV / NDTV Profit speaks loudly about the trend. Even advertising is talking about this explicity - Tata Sky says 'poochnay mein kya jaata hai' while Bank of India clearly talks about starting own business (check it out at http://www.afaqs.com/advertising/creative_showcase/index.html?id=28166&media=TV&type=Indian)

Any idea under the sun can be started as a group on Facebook... you don't need any business plan :) Just an Idea + a little pro-active attitude and there you go - innovate, create, modify, persuade, pull - push just to ensure the idea remains kicking... what else is Entrepreneurship?

CSR initiatives like Mahindra and Mahindra's http://www.sparktherise.com/ clearly challenges the entrepreneur in you. Shows like Kaun Banega Crorepati ensures that the common man is no more common - he/she doesn't have to worry about the diction or looks to become famous (and successful, if the right answer is given).

And this entrepreneurship is not only happening in IT / Internet sector - growing visibility of cultural acts like Theatre, Stand Up Comedy, Photo / Poetry Exhibitions also point towards this rising phenomenon - can anyone believe that the Photo / Painting Exhibition place at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi is booked till 2013 / 2014 while the one at India International Centre is booked till February 2012? One can experience the saliency of the social sector and social entrepreneurs by just talking to people and reading in news.

Every man / woman, in someway or the other wants to do something of their own and it stems from that inherent desire to be in charge of your life / destiny / get acknowledged... Success stories like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Dhirubhai Ambani, SRK, Narayan Murthy, Sabeer Bhatia are stories that actually blur the difference between dreams and reality.

I also believe that Indians have an added advantage - we are born entrepreneurs, even if we don't believe in it or we have never been made to realise it. Most of us have grown up in an environment of pressure & scarcity - social pressure / lack of water / irregular electricity / strong 'foreign' aspirations can bring the best in us or make us the most complacent fellows. Unfortunately, a lot of us have never thought that Entrepreneurship does not equal to Risk Taking ability - it is purely the ability to think of a solution (to an existing problem / need) and then solve it using various means (finance or money is just a veryyy small mean). As a result, I believe majority of Indians are still dhakka start, while a few are self-starters who ensure the 'plunge' is more about the journey than just destination - inshAllah, the 'dhakka' start will change with time :)

With a definite process being talked now... Venture Capital / Private Equity / Globalisation / Team Work, people are realising that it is indeed possible to think big, really big :) And the biggest advantage of this is that India will grow big, really big - by the way, most of the developed economies have become what they are today, because of Entrepreneurship.

And what does it take to be a successful Entrepreneurship? Hmm... remember the punchline of Domino's pizza - 'Hungry Kya?'... need I say more? But yeah, do ensure the warmth stays even if you are the most fiercest of entrepreneurs - be different guys.

Entrepreneurs, indeed, have the unique ability to ignite / reignite the fire just by their presence, thoughts and confidence. And so ladies and gentlemen, the next time you come across an entrepreneur, engage with him/her - support him/her in whatever way you can... I am sure he/she will leave you ignited.

And if you do get ignited, don't let that fire die - definitely do something to ensure that India and the World is a better place to live and leave :)

Taming The Mind Of Terror - Part 2

In continuation to my 'Taming The Mind The Terror', allow me to express that I am, in no way, trying to over-simplify the extremely grave issue of Terrorism or make Education look like as one-stop solution to the entire issue.

Terrorism, in my view, is an extremely unpredictable phenomenon and going forward can/will even effect us. And now, it is no more about our neighbour - it is much beyond it as it is both Global & Local.

Even I am aware of a lot of 'educated' people who are supremely radical and also of a lot of 'religious-minded' people who are equally radical & illogical. Trust me 'religion' is not the cause of radicalisation - economic weakness / un-education / non-exposure is and religion then becomes the level. And so my point is more on quality, rather than quantity of Education

Education should be pushed explicitly / talked about, as it is a very strong tool, out of the many available - & I feel this is not happening. And I am sure a lot of us will somewhere agree that we may be educated but not enlightened - purely because we have never been given adequate exposure to other faiths and ideologies, which is getting perceived as a cause of such problems. And we all know that India's education system has a lot of grounds to cover before it becomes efficient :)

Somewhere, we all are victims of ignorance, even if we are educated – there is no concept of comparative religion as a subject / no culture of debating / no action on developing a tolerant attitude. But I firmly believe that education (updated one) can inculcate the mearning of co-existence, which actually may be need of hour :).

Education can be purely demystifying a myth about something in a normal one-to-one conversation to setting a formal syllabus :)

Taming The Mind Of Terror

You can't read the minds of people who have the guts to do such ghastly acts (like the one in Mumbai yesterday - 13/7/2011) - worst is when such acts are carried out in the name of God / religion.

My belief is that the a proven solution to such a phenomenon is actually collective increase in focus and hence spending on 'Education', which somewhere I believe is not given due importance by World Governments - increasing defence budgets & weaponary / voicing condemnation of such acts / improving judiciary / setting up systems may solve the problem but still not be able to touch the root cause which is vulnerability.

And I feel, education, can defnitely make one strong, more rational & hence more balanced - important to make & take sound (even if wrong) decisions. Sorry for coming across passionate but then the more unfortunate part of the vicious circle is the backlash of such acts being borne by a particular community / faith - this further adds to the length of the vicious circle and not fair at all.

I am sure peace will prevail in the long term - it is just that no one can define 'long term', as of now.

Till then... lets continue to be good as we are the change we wish to see in the world :)

Have Faith In Faith - whatever 'faith' you follow :)

Destiny - 2nd View

Destiny, a phenomenon not-often discussed / challenged but one which is strongly felt within each individual, each day. There are two views that I keep on hearing:

1. Things are destined (or pre-destined) and hence one gets what is destined in his/her life - And that is why despite best of efforts, when the results are not favourable, it is because it is not destined - interesting & popular


2. Destiny can be changed, by effort - 'karam say kismat likhee aur badlee jaa saaktee hai' - equally interesting but not a popular opinion :)

In my little experience, I don't know anyone personally, who has ever voiced the 2nd opinion & I fail to understand why :) I am not even talking about believing it but openly discussing in conversations. Among the more famour personalities, I only recall Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam who has voiced the 2nd view (I am sure there are going to be more personalities like Dr. Kalam :))

The important question is - which view should one hold, believe in?

I want to believe in the 2nd view - Destiny Can Be Changed By Effort. And I have my own reasons for doing so.

# Simply put, this view makes sense - it is a positive statement, which if followed, can be a continuous source of both confidence & courage. Even if one believes in the first one, he/she continues to put in effort chasing goals / dreams and hence implicitly following the 2nd one - though he/she will never accept it :)

# Even if real stories that prove the 2nd view are few, they are looked forward with much more zeal & enthusiasm - another indication that how desperately (allow me to use this word) human beings want to believe in the 2nd view. Real stories - an extremely poor boy going on to become India's President, - few individuals (like Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Bose) bringing the king (British) down, - cancer patients recovering from last stage, - richest of people contributing to philanthropy, - a middle class man from a developing country going on to becoming amongst the most richest in the world (Mr. Senior Ambani) and so on, tell the story of those few individuals who always had the highest amount of self-belief and somewhere refused the mediocre view that everything is pre-destined :)

# If you think carefully, you will realise life is all about choices. Your love for your parents, your desire to stay in your own country and not go abroad, the life partner you chose, the car you drive, the career you chose, the level of success / failure you get in your life is all because of decisions & actions you took. Somewhere I believe (and with due respect to everyone) opportunities are more or less same & equal for everyone & hence it all depends how much self-belief & patience you have & I believe both come from an unshakeable level of confidence in one's own potential & nothing more - no destiny, no luck & no superstition will help (by the way, I don't mean to equate destiny with luck or superstition). Of course, you have complete right and duty to believe in God, like I do, apart from believing in yourself - after all, there are famous adages - 'God Help Those, Who Help Themselves' / 'Harkat Mein Hee, Barkat Hai Khuda Kee' :)

# If still not convinced, ask yourself - what would you like to tell your family / your kids, your bosses / team at office, your venture partners - that 'Everything is possible, Don't give up' OR 'See if it doesn't work out, you can leave it & move on' (or something similar) :)

# I believe that realising only few things in life deserve that special effort from you as only few have the power to change the course of life, will help see the 2nd view clearly - after all, aspects which can make your day special deserve special confidence & effort :)

# And lastly, have faith in self-fulfilling prophecy - the more you believe in 2nd view, higher the probability of it to come true (show results) & more inspiring your day will end :)

So, are you convinced to believe in the 2nd view? If still not, I hope one day you do :)

Shukriya :)

More & More

More & more people I am coming through around me are giving me an impression that they are unsatisfied (or should I say unhappy) with something in life - most of these men & women are married, have kids (or planning one), have a sound job (or business) and above all security (by any societal yardstick).

I guess, why they are unsatisfied or at least emiting such a vibe (and I hope it is not a pretension) is that on one hand they don't have time, on another they don't want to stop running, on the third one they don't know what they want to do and on fourth hand, they want to do / achieve everything (I know there are only two hands but in today's era of multi tasking, all of us have developed multiple hands without our own knowledge :))

I guess this is more or less a story of everyone and may be this is what is known as a vicious circle of life. My thoughts:

1. Can this vicious circle be handled better?



2. Could this be a function of the inherent insecurity that all humans have that make them accept everything as a trait of herd & hence follow it? Has anybody tried to ever break this vicious circle?



3. Is it even possible to break this vicious circle?

This is an unending topic and in my view, there may be solution to it. I will try covering it some other day, some other moment.

Till then... keep enjoying the run around the circle but yeah, do see if you can take a break once in while - maybe your run will be slightly more worth while :)

Love.

An Old Dream

In the lap of nature
Amidst sun, air and green
I sit for hours with new desires
and an old dream

The dream to continue enjoying the breeze
With the desire to be able to unfreeze
A mind, which is slowly becoming, slave to the unreal
And a heart, which is fast turning away from being surreal

Power of Support

I often come across a lot of people who I find extremely talented. However, I get a feeling that their current vocation is not justifying or say utilising the talent. And the reason for having such a feeling is when they answer my simple question - ‘Whats up, Hows work?’. The usual answer I get is ‘all fine…’; ’going good’; ‘very fine’... There isn't much excitment in the answers, as such, probably because:

• A habit of under-playing


• Lack General Intelligence, required to think of an interesting answer and/or to have an interesting conversation


• Being a part of herd-mentality – every one gives such an answer, so I should also


• Dissatisfied (not happy) with what they are doing, but do not want to show it to the world

This blog is not about the first three points as I think no one can do anything with respect to those points. It is about the last one - ‘Dissatisfied (not happy) ...'.

And here I feel that this answer may be completely justified but still justifiably incomplete. Elaborating

There are 2 kind of people, broadly:
- Those who do what they enjoy doing
- Those who enjoy what they are doing

And as the cliché goes ‘no one knows what one wants to do’ and so people pursue all kind of vocations / professions (time pass :-)). And hence there will be no sermon on this blog about ‘go out, try searching for what you want to do’.

Rather, what I have gathered through innumerable interactions with my dad & other people is that what support (or unconditional support, if someone is blessed) can do for / to a talented individual, is something which has always been undersestimated / inexplicable. It can help realise the potential of talent one has, it can provide an unimaginable happiness and it can make the going smooth, irrespective of the situation.

Imagine if you have a supportive boss at work, a supportive sibling at home or for that matter a supportive acquaintance – your entire day changes and you look forward to every event / day at work / home. Whether you work in the administrative division of a school but want to be a rock-artist, support can make your journey enjoyable, even if it can't assure you of the destination.

No doubt, one need to be pro-active and persistent but even if one is lost or lacks the required pro-activeness, support from an external entity can help change the track of an individual - support can give confidence - the confidence one gets, when his/her decisions get the complete support, can act as a strong boost.

But yeah, supporting is a very tough task - it requires sacrifice & it has to come from within. As a result, stories of support, especially unconditional support, is not common - why else, audiences loved the support that John Nash's wife gave him, as shown in The Beautiful Mind or Anupam Kher's support to SRK's character in DDLJ.

Everyone needs support, everyone deserves support but everyone can't offer support, because expecting support needs honesty while offering support needs listening, empathy and slightly higher level of selflessness.

Hope the above makes sense and support continues to prevail.