To Be Or Not To BE

Although this post takes its title from a famous Shakespeare’s soliloquy, it is not supposed to resemble Hamlet in any way. Pyaar-Ka-Punchnama gave many reasons to celebrate bachelorhood, but a marriageable bachelor’s mind often refuses to understand logic.

Similar to the Hamlet’s dilemma about whether to live or die, a bachelor often finds himself in a dilemma about whether to stay single or get married. Physics and Chemistry play a major role in diverting the attention of an otherwise focussed bachelor. Often, when we believe that ‘Life-Sahi-Hai’, chemistry conspires and, ultimately, screws our happiness.

As an Indian bachelor crosses the age of twenty-five years, his parents start showing signs of varying degrees of worry. Under immense stress, our Indian bachelor resorts to one of the umpteen matrimonial portals. Finally, technology has started playing a role in our life. Oftentimes, I wish if I had started one of the matrimonial portals. Jokes apart, the bachelor in context starts enjoying the pics of the chicks and immensely funny profiles. In the process, he also starts to understand the expectations of a Sundar, Susheel and Hot prospects.

After laughing at them for a couple of months, the bachelor now becomes serious and starts sending proposals to the eligible prospects. Most of the prospects either outrightly refuse to accept the proposal or wait list our bachelor’s request. Happy moments come, when he gets to meet some of the prospects. When such meetings happen, both the parties are not able to identify each other in spite of standing in front of each other because of various reasons. One of these reasons is that matrimony pictures have no resemblance with the actual appearance of the people. Many people, especially women, believe that they still look the same as they used to when they were sixteen. Again, technology comes for rescue. Both the parties call each other and stay agape with wonder when their eyes first get each other. Their mind refuses the erase the image registered earlier. Suddenly the following song starts making sense to both the parties:

‘Oh my god lag gayi, kya se kya hua’

So, both the parties sit together, order expensive drinks and start stealing each other’s glances. They talk all about their expectations, aspirations and ambitions. Personal space, ability to take their own decisions, likes and dislikes are some major topics of discussion. Finally, the time comes to disperse. While the boy pays the cheque, the girl takes a look around. Finally, they bid traditional goodbye and their ways part.

Now, both the parties start to analyze the minutes of meeting. The analysis requires advance knowledge of human behavior, which the male fraternity often lacks. Finally, the girl reaches to a conclusion that this proposal is not worth going ahead with. Boy also analyses everything, concludes that things might work. Finally, the bitwise-and of the boolean decisions of the girl and the boy is taken and both the parties resume searching on the mighty matrimonial sites.

After many unsuccessful attempts, our bachelor creates the following profile.

“The boy is a B.TECH from an IIT, has completed MBA from Harvard and, currently earning about $500,000”

All the girls, who have declined our bachelor’s proposals, promptly send their requests. After the revenge, our bachelor starts thinking

“To marry or not to marry.”

Then parents put more pressure and our Indian bachelor sends a new proposal on a sloshy sunday.

Conclusion: Finding a partner might me more difficult than putting the toothpaste back into the tube.

Interestingly, I found the following comment in the spam queue on my blog

“Men marry because they are tired, women because they are curious; both are disappointed.”

Cheers!!

Mobstac: The Journey – 1

I became a permanent employee of MobStac on this day in 2011. We were working from Sharat’s apartments during the first few months of 2011. In the last fifteen months, I have witnessed our little startup catching the fancy of who’s who of mobile internet world. We have just concluded a quarter on a high. All of us gathered at our old office ,i.e. Sharat’s Apartment, to celebrate the end of a happening quarter and mark the beginning of another one, a more happening one . We remembered the old days at the quarter end party. MobStac has come a long way since it was born on 10^th of June, 2009. Following are some of the incidents that we shared during the party.

MobStac was started in a small apartment in Indiranagar, Bangalore. Garage,the first computer that MobStac bought, our esteemed printer, ‘Bob Marley’ (named so because it can jam like no other printer in the world), the memorable center table and all other office stuff were shinning back then. As we iterated through our product idea, these things lost shine but they became dearer. When we become a billion dollar company, we are gonna build a museum of the firsts (only the things) at MobStac.

MobStac was among the finalists at The Economic Times, The Power of Ideas. As a result, Ravi and Sharat got an opportunity to pitch the idea of MobStac in front of a couple of investors. Those investors didn’t even bother to look at what MobStac had got. They interrupted Ravi and Sharat multiple times during the presentation. Within two minutes after the start of presentation, the investors asked to wind up and come back with more facts and figures. Sharat always says that you have to be thick skinned to become an entrepreneur. I believe, he is right. “It doesn’t matter how hard you hit, it matters how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.” We have been doing exactly that.

Well, such events disheartened Ravi and Sharat. But, they continued to try with a firm belief in their idea. They say that, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” Finally, Ravi and Sharat got a pool of angels interested in investing in MobStac. These people believed in the vision of Sharat and Ravi, put their faith in them and provided the seed funding for MobStac. Later Accel Partners and Mumbai Angels invested in MobStac.

We went to Techcrunch Disrupt in September, 2011. We developed the world’s first of its kind HTML5 product within four months. Most of the hot shot technical bloggers, investors and technocrats were amazed by the demonstration of MobStac’s Touchsite product. We are thankful to publishers and bloggers, who liked our product, wrote about us and believed in us. We have been compared with many global startups yet and again. Fortunately, our product has always been judged better than any other similar product. We believe that all that matters now is how fast we move. The race is on guys. We are gonna win it (Touchwood ).

There is a lot that happens in Mobstac everyday. I would keep posting the exciting news.

Wish us luck!!

Cheers!!

Recruitment at ITBHU

I ushered into the new year working until early mornings. While the coding part of my life keeps me occupied, the new year has given me many pleasant reasons to look beyond the code. I visited ITBHU, my alma mater, for recruitment on 12^th of January 2012. I completed one year at MobStac on 12^th January.

As I moved along the hostels, the nostalgia hit me. The memories flashed as I moved past Raman, Morvi and Viveka hostels. DG corner and Limbdi corner was still abuzz with activity. The tea stalls and Chaube ji’s shop have grown in size, so does the crowd in front of each stall.

I was welcomed with enthusiasm at the Training and Placement Office (TPO). All the arrangements for the pre placement talk(PPT) were done in G14. My eyes were set on the students as I entered the hall. Six years back, I was sitting right there among the students. Now, I was on the other side of the room. As I started the PPT, people got more interested in knowing about our product and the history of Mobstac. Many students actually showed interest in trying out the product when I demonstrated Intomobile’s Touchsite on my iPad. About 80 students applied for open positions in MobStac. We made one offer at ITBHU.

The smoking tea, samosas at DG corner, VT, departments, t-shirts depicting IT lingo, well lit Basket Ball Court, Volleyball matches reminded me of my days at IT. I was too busy to visit hostels and departments. But, I totally relished my time at IT.

Nayan, who interned with us last summer, and the Student Coordinator facilitated all the phases of recruitment. A big thanks to Nayan, student coordinator and the staff at the TPO. I hope to visit ITBHU again for rectuitment.

Cheers!!

Prejudices

A wise person once told me a story about monkey behavior. Considering monkeys as our esteemed ancestors, the wise person later related the story to Homo Sapiens behavior also. Following is the story:

 “Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, you’ll see a banana hanging on a string with a set of stairs placed under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, all of the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt to obtain the banana.  As soon as his foot touches the stairs, all of the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. It’s not long before all of the other monkeys try to prevent any monkey from climbing the stairs.

Now, put away the cold water, remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him as he makes his way toward the stairs.  After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.”

We humans are the same. We are born free. As we grow old, we start behaving in a peculiar way without understanding the reason for doing so. Prejudices affect our decision making ability. Prejudices don’t let us become our real selves. Everybody is living under false pretenses. I just wish that people come out of their shell, start believing in their real selves and become themselves. 

Cheers!!

Anjaana Anjaani…

Note: When I say ‘we’, I mean most of us.

All of us come to this world, crying. Our parents pamper us, they make us feel special and they teach us how to smile. As we grow up, we develop our perceptions of emotions such as love, hate, relations etc.

We also develop fears of losing something that we love, we develop fears of facing something that we hate. We develop more fears with each passing day. The fears take control of our lives. We surrender our lives to these fears. We forget to love our life, pamper it and protect it from these fears. Some of us become so scared that we decide to give up this life that we do not own.

So, Anjaana Anjaani starts here. Two of us, Kiara, the heartbroken, and Aakash, the market broken, wanted to die. They attempted to die together. Unable to die, both of them postponed their suicide until 31^st Dec 2009.

So, Aakash and Kiara decided to fulfill their heartfelt desires until 2009 survives. Aakash wanted to be loved. Kiara too had the same wish. She had loved Kunal so much that she decided to kill herself when Kunal cheated her. As Aakash started knowing Kiara, he fell in love with her. But, our beloved Kiara was still in love with her old buddy Kunal. Things got complicated. Kiara came back home to start it all over again with Kunal. Aakash went back to his life, corrected his mistakes.

But, picture abhi baaki hai mere dost. Kiara realized that she loved Aakash. Things got complicated again. They met, they got drenched and they proposed each other. Wow!!

Anjaana Anjaani ends here.

It may take a lifetime or just twenty days or just an eye contact to fall in love. I believe, twenty days is a shorter route to happiness. At some moment the loss may be so big that the desire to live ceases, but we must try to find a reason to live and give up our fears. Indeed, Life is worth a try until divine intervention happens. So, live it up guys!!

Cheers!!

Stanley ka Dabba

Instead of taking a siesta today after the sumptuous homely lunch, I started watching Stanley Ka Dabba. The movie was shot in a school, where Stanley was a student in class fourth. Stanley was a very cheerful kid, who used to entertain his classmates by telling them interesting stories or dancing. When I switched on the television, Stanley was dancing to the tune of the famous Kaminey song, Dhan Te Nan.

Although Stanley was the cynosure of class fourth, he had a nemesis in the form his Hindi teacher, HT. HT was also an interesting character. He would keep an eye on everybody’s tiffin box in the school, and, would not think twice before grabbing a morsel or two from their dabba. HT would vent out his frustration on Stanley often. He would curse Stanley, punish him or do something to hurt him.

Stanley would never get a tiffin box. Sometimes his classmates would share their lunch with him. Oftentimes, Stanley would drink water to quench his hunger. A kid, who studied in class fourth, had so much will power and self respect that he preferred drinking water to sharing lunch with his classmates. When Stanley’s friends forced him to eat with them, HT would not let Stanley eat.

So, HT got increasingly interested in the dabba of one of the Stanley’s friends, Aman. Everyday, he would shamelessly eat from Aman’s tiffin box. Aman and other kids wanted Stanley to eat with them, but HT would not allow Stanley to eat with other kids because Stanley did not bring dabba. So, all the kids would plan and fled away during the lunch. HT was frustrated with the children’s behavior. During the recess, HT would search for the Aman et. al. One day HT found the children. He scolded Stanley and asked him not come to school if he did not get a dabba. So, Stanley was thrown out of his school for not getting a dabba.

It was shown in the movie later that Stanley was working in a hotel. His parents were no more. But, he would never complain about it and not let anybody know what he has got in his life. I am writing this post because I have seen people making fun of somebody because of some trivial reason. We never try to understand that situations make people what they are. We must respect other people irrespective of what they have got. Being compassionate will not cost us anything. Because we would not always know what other people’s journey have been all about.

Cheers!!

Happy Independence Day

18^th August is a very special day for me. An year ago, I quit my job without much idea about what I’m gonna do next. I did not have much idea about what would it take to act on my dreams.

The first two months were excruciating. Everyday, I would wake up and see others going to work. Sometimes I would become desperate for that cozy place in an office. Then, I would start reading, trying to search for a worthwhile idea or doing something to keep myself busy. I was alone, tired and frustrated at the end of each day. Sometimes, I felt like grabbing a job again. I did schedule a couple of interviews. But, when I had to take up the interview, my mind just refused to take it up. My mind refused to retreat under any circumstance. I read read and read during the first two months.

When I could not think of an idea, it seemed to me a better idea to freelance with web startups. Now, I did not have any experience in web development. I started meeting people, asking them to delegate projects, which I would do for nothing. Gradually, I learned about web development. During the last one year, I worked on front end back end and fixed many other loose ends. I worked with MobStac as freelancer first. Later, Ravi and Sharat, two people who are incredibly smart, ethical and down to earth, asked me to join MobStac as a core team member. So, I joined MobStac in April 2011. Everyday, I learn something new. It has been a great journey so far.

Although I have gained a lot during the last one year, the most important lessons that I learned are following:

• I have learned to face my fears. Nothing rules me now. I feel free.
• I have learned to keep patience.
• I have gained tremendous belief in myself.
• I have learned to keep the faith.
• I am learning to be unreasonable. I don’t want to leave any scope of mediocrity in anything I do.
• Finally, I am discovering myself. I am competing with myself now.

Trust me, you will feel the best when you know how to be yourself.

Cheers!!

Entrepreneurship, Love and Nirvana

Everybody loves to talk about entrepreneurship. Although I am not an entrepreneur at this point of time, some people consider me, a core team member in one of the hottest Indian startups, worthy enough to get some gnan about entrepreneurship. But, most of the people ask questions about how their personal life would be, how well will they get paid, how is the company doing, does company have funds to survive, how would an early stage employee grow in the next few years etc.

Well, to be frank, such people will never start a company. Moreover, most of the startups would not even hire them. Start ups look for people, who are self motivated, who care more about building a product that would change the world in some way than being able to go and freak out every weekend. Changing the world isn’t easy and most people are not cut out to do so.

There are people, who have got ideas as well. They work hard to give a shape to their idea but they don’t quit their job. Well, nobody, repeat n times where n is a very large number, would invest in a company, whose founders are more worried about their day job than going 24X7 building their idea. I would like to shout it loud to all the people, who have proof of concept, to quit their job and start believing that they are building the most incredible thing the world has ever seen. Yeah, unless you breathe your idea consciously and unconsciously, you would probably give up one fine day.

If you have entrepreneurial ambitions, you may find true love. A girl will love an entrepreneur only if she loves you as a person. Hence, entrepreneurship is a way to find true love.

Whenever a company decides to reduce the headcount, we get worried. When appraisal happens, we get worried irrespective of how well we have done. Excellent people want an outstanding appraisal, good people want excellent, average people want to be graded as good and below average, well, they don’t really think. They are the saints, who give average people a reason to feel good about themselves. If your boss is only worried about saving his ars*, you are screwed. Well, a job gives you many worries in return of a paycheck. These worries don’t help you in any way. They just cripple your mind.

If you become an entrepreneur, you have only one critical worry at a time. First, the speed at which the product is being built. We can break this worry into smaller worries (Remember, concepts of Memoization). Once the product takes shape, the worry would be whether the product is getting sufficient traction. Well, if the product doesn’t get traction, you are back to square one. Think of a new idea and start over again. But, when the product gets traction, milking of the bull starts. Once you are able to milk the bulls, you get cash cows, which help you earn enough to survive your next startups or ten generations, may be more. So, entrepreneurship gives worries that make you better with each passing day, and may, possibly, help you in leaving a legacy. Either outstanding people or saints become entrepreneurs. Excellent, good and average people go the top through the usual path, one step at a time. If you believe you can fly, you have 50% chance to fly and reach the top through the shortcut.

If you have cash cows, you would employ many people. Helping so many people would get you a seat in heaven. Hence, entrepreneurship is another way to attain nirvana.

Now listening to: Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin

 Cheers!!

A Day in a Hospital

I had been yearning for a break until a couple of weeks ago. Wafting through appointments, disappointments, excitements and dreams, I was suddenly struck by damn throat infection. The infection got me bed ridden for a week. Unable to power on my Mac for a week, I was kind of eager to switch it on to write a few lines of deadly code (Yeah, I do write multilingual deadly code snippets) and check out the notifications on Facebook. Social networking sites have become such an integral part of my life that I don’t hesitate to pick up my aeons old Nokia phone ( According to latest statistics only four people are using this particular model of mobile phone) and try to open Facebook on Opera 4.0, the oldest version of Opera currently alive on a mobile phone. Phew! we engineers don’t stop at anything when it comes to checking FB notifications and ….

My sweet feverish break forced me to visit hospitals, which I found to be an altogether different world. Following are some of the observations about the hospitals:

• When two patients meet, they show concern for each other’s health.

• Doctors are very considerate of the patients. I don’t have words to explain how much do I like doctors.

• Some patients are extremely talkative, while others keep their worries for themselves.

• Some patients eat a lot when they fall ill, especially when they are diabetic.

• Doctors are like gods. People, irrespective of their status, show them gratitude by folding their hands together, standing up, giving a wry grin of hope or acknowledging a doctors presence in some way.

• When doctors make rounds in the wards, it is an incredible march of faith in gods and doctors. Everybody looks up to them with hope and trust.

• Many people become weak when they face pain. They cry; they scream; but, in the end, they have to suffer for themselves. The sooner people understand it the better they are prepared for life.

• Sisters are essential to the working of a hospital. They actually make the patients feel that they are being cared.

I also picked up the most talked about non fiction book The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee. The book talks about the the biography of Cancer, the disease. You may be terrified as you read the book, but, trust me, the book is worth a read. The human spirit never acknowledges defeat. Same goes with the surgeons, who gave up their life in finding a cure for Cancer. Cancer is

 “Omnis cellula e cellula (“every cell originates from another existing cell like it.”) ad infinitum.”

 Now listening to Abhi Na Jao Chor Kar from Hum Dono starring Dev Anand and Nanda.

 Cheers!!

Run, Play and Work (not necessarily in that order)

Running gives you a chance to challenge yourself at every moment when your mind tries to stop you, but your heart says, ‘don’t quit, finish line is close’. Interestingly, heart always wins the fight.

TCS Open 10k was actually more inspiring than Sunfeast Open 10k, 2010. Words of encouragement from the bystanders, occasional music, sound of the shoes drumming the streets, and Bose DK made TCS 10k memorable. A big shout out to all the people, who participated in the wheelchair event. It was truly inspiring to see them driving the wheelchairs to the finish line with great zeal. When it becomes difficult to carry your own weight, it indeed takes extreme courage to carry your friend along with you. I hope to continue participating in running events.

MobStac won Businessworld’s Hottest Young Entrepreneur Award for 2011. MobStac is rated as the hottest young Indian startup. After two years of hard work, MobStac has come into the limelight. While the Captains, Ravi and Sharat, did an incredible job of steering MobStac to the right path, the technical team, Shivansh and Bhashkar, left no stone unturned in making sure that everything works beyond a publisher’s expectations. We have got an awesome team of interns, Nayan, Sameer, Paranjay, Kushagra, Phalgun and Sahana, who are contributing to the completion of several critical projects.

(L to R) Ravish, Shivansh, Paranjay, Sharat, Ravi, Nayan, Bhashkar, Sameer, Kushagra

Although I have worked with very smart people, team MobStac has something that is more than smartness. I call it the sense of belongingness. We hope to grow by leaps and bounds in the next twelve months. Wish us luck, guys. Mobstac turns two tomorrow. I wish MobStac many happy returns of the day.

My day never completes without a couple of badminton matches. The sport is teaching me to keep patience when the plans go awry. I play well sometimes, screw up badly on some other days. But, I am learning to become more patient with each passing day. There are people who are always calm, irrespective of how their partner performs. They give their best effort, which is what truly matters. I want to be like a duck, who stays calm on the surface but paddles like hell underneath. And, sport is teaching me exactly that. I think everybody should take up at least one sport. It will not only help you to feel good about yourself, but also build your character.

Cheers!!