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The "Discovery" problem of Tourists!

"Discovery" is still a very "sensible" problem for a traveller/tourist, in spit of the advent of "almost real time information, available at finger-tips".

The way to solve this problem is to ask, "What are the kinds of customers, who are still worried/tormented about "discovery" in a new place?"

People who want to do something memorable and authentic and not go by the rut, which is already available on www, on their vacation?

There are only 2 kinds of travellers now-a-days; those who travel for the sake of travel, and those who travel for the sake of IG pics.

If we discount the later, we can arrive at the grand solution.

THE TRUE TRAVELLER IS THE ONE, WHO IS NOT A HOSTAGE OF IG OR FOR THAT MATTER SM.

He is still the guy kind of inspired by ancient long way explorers and misfits like Christopher McCandless and trying to find the same kind of "romance" in today's world.

DISCOVERY REALLY MEANS ONLY TO THOSE, WHO ARE SEEKING IT FOR NOT ANY OTHER ULTERIOR PURPOSE (being famous on SM), OTHER THAN THE DIVINE PLEASURE OF THE DISCOVERY AND SOAKING IN THE MOMENT OF IT.

WE NEED TRAVELLERS AND NOT TOURISTS.

So, who are these kinds of travellers?

These are the ones, who travel to explore, they are not boged down by status-quo of a place (like Twice-In-Nature/La-Vien-Rose) apart from curiosity; but they know, it's not what they are looking for.

Now, the question is, how do we identify and attract, such "travellers"? Fuck tourists?

IDENTIFICATION: Very low budget traveller, interested primarily on a safe+hygienic+comfortable roof over head and a decent breakfast to start the day with; so that she/he can explore the rest of the day, which was the prime objective.

HOOK : Very budgeted stays, Bunk & Breakfast. Meet other like-minded people. Form a local community and see, what you can do explore. How you can make your stay worthwhile?

SELL: Novel Experiences. Earn commission on them. These are the kind of guys who would explore a new music show/ fire show/ theatrics/ jungle safari/ camping / helping locals, for "doing something with community"

INDUCTION EFFECT : Where the travellers are, tourists would flock. Because tourists travel aiming with the desire to be a traveller, but they are never able to fulfill their desire.Bank on that, un-fulfilled desire. Sell to them, THE ACTION.

IDEA : bnB on Steroids.

GRAND IDEA : Let's make travel great, once again!

Startup Idea - ‘2Cation’

## Startup Idea ## ‘2Cation’ ## REF: 1 https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FCXCXigp7byv2dM8D/how-to-make-billions-of-dollars-reducing-loneliness 2) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20847752 3) https://www.dropbox.com/sh/a89qnbm9tsr0hf6/AAC-VxKRjH76D_K94We7YQUka?dl=0 ## 1st September 2019, 1900

AIRBNB for patient attendants.

Just about last month, I had to visit two hospitals in Goa; the district hospital at Mapusa and then GMCH at Bambolim.

I was there to do whatever I can, to help, a local friend, whose mother was ill (who later passed away).

Being there, at both the places I observed that while the patient is in deep agony, the attendants(those who come with patients to attend to them, specifically from outstations) are also in pain in similar wavelengths, one for the fact that their loved one is in agony and second, in hospitals just no one cares about the attendants.

Few rare private hospitals might still have a cubical or a bed to spare of at night for the attendant (+n) (+1 is allowed with patient, though she has to sleep most probably on the floor) but at Government hospitals, there is no such facility.

Most of the family members of the patients have to do away by sleeping on the floor at night, at almost all government hospitals (May be AIIMS could be different, but I have a doubt) and most of the private hospitals.

In this hour of agony, what is needed, is at least a comfortable bed to sleep on (though, it is difficult to say, whether the attendants can even asleep in this distress) for the patients attendants.

Connecting backwards, While tending to my father who suffered with cancer and later on passed away, I too spent a few nights on the hospital floor during chemotherapy session at a very good private hospital, when the private rooms were not available and the chemo session was elongated.

An AIRBNB for patient attendants could be started as a NOT FOR PROFIT enterprise to provide succour to millions of people all around the country.

Is there a way to do it? Probably!

If you are interested to explore this project, please write to me at below mentioned email address.

Email: [email protected]

PS:There are startups with market risk, 99% belong to those category. And then there are with execution risk, the remaining 1% belong to that. This is one of those.

Penny wise and Pound Foolish - Saavn v/s Gaana

A couple of days back, one of my fisherman friend at the village allowed me to use his laptop (almost brand new, but with German keyboard), pitying on me that how would I be spending my time now, since rains are on and "season" is over.

For more than 100 days, I survived solely on a smartphone, including writing and tinkering.

Today, I decided to check out the new songs which are in vogue, otherwise I used to listen to my stock playlist only on the device.

Saavn: I first went to Saavn, not because of any fondness but I just wanted to check, how the site has evolved.

I clicked on an album and the first song started playing and once it was over, there was loud silence. I remembered that I clicked on an album and not a song. After a while, I decided to check whats wrong and there it was thrusted in my face a sign-up page or prompt and apparently that prompt comes up every time the first song is over (obviously, when you are not logged in).

Now this was annoying in two aspects, I was forced to go to the tab and remove that prompt. Second, even after clearing the prompt, the next song would not start playing. I had to refresh the page to get the song playing.

Imagine doing this for an album consisting of 7 songs, I quit after two songs.

Gaana: I went, I saw and I conquered! I clicked on the album and it prompted only once to sign-up and I did not and then the songs played just like they should. The entire album played like it should, without any intrusion.

> While greed is good according to some, but what comes down to in Product Management is whether to be penny wise and pound foolish?

For Saavn, while every acquisition is importan,t pestering on every song to sign-up is like being pound foolish; they are trying to maximise the chances of that acquisition to convert. But by being coercive? By pestering? I believe in most of the cases, it would be opposite. I left.

> I am more likely to sign up if I am not forced to do so at gun-point, in Saavn's case, it was "Song-Point".

Allow me to explore the product at my leisure, if you are worth it, I would come back, if not then I would immediately close the tab.

Allow the user the space, the way Saavn was doing like proposing a girl and adamantly wanting her answer the very moment. We all know, what happens in such cases...

> While conversion is very important but there are ways to do it and in today's world, the one thing which could really boost the conversion is empathy with the user, because world as a whole is lacking it. You give the user, what is lacking everywhere else. This is how as a product you succeed, because that is why people would come back to you, time and again.

I might be in a lousy mood, I came to Saavn to uplift my mood and I am thrusted with a sign-up page?

> They need to understand what business they are in?

> they must be thinking that they are in "songs streaming" business? but is it true?

> why people listen to music? they want to feel better and happy.

> > Saavn and Gaana are actually in the "happiness business".

Dont be penny wise and pound foolish!

Also published at: https://nextbigwhat.com/t/penny-wise-and-pound-foolish-saavn-v-s-gaana/4270

#product management #product marketing

YOPee - OYO for public urinals and toilets.

To able to relieve oneself in a clean and hygienic way is one of the most fundamentals of human need.

And as one steps outside the confines of his/her home or office, it is found how barely this need is served.

Usually, one is forced to have a coffee or a burger to take a leak!

Brave women and men, like me, go straight into CCD’s rest-room, take a leak and come out, without buying anything.

But the problem is CCD has very small footprint for a country like India and hence people are forced to choose alternate, which are actually nothing less than “biological bombs”.

Never this problem is more accurate, than when travelling on road by public transport, like a bus.

It stops where it has to and the urinals or toilets are pathetic usually over there.

What if OYO model is adopted for public toilets and urinals.

One does not have to build anything, but just own it.

Like having contract with the famous road side dhaba, where 100 or so bus stops every day.

Keep a Watchman cum janitor and some simple tech enabled feedback system, like SMS or Toll-free.

Rs.5 is not a fortune to shell out, when one wants to relieve self in a “nice” environment.

Hows that?

Also published at - https://nextbigwhat.com/t/yopee-oyo-for-public-urinals-and-toilet/4136?u=realmccoy

#startup #sanitation

CookBnB: AirBnB for cooking at tourist places

I have been here at Goa for almost 3 months now and have observed a lot of stuff, very closely. Prior to where I have been living, it was just a room and I had to eat outside. Majority of tourists both domestic and foreigner live this way, specially domestic ones. The accommodation where I have shifted has now quite a big kitchen with gas stove, refrigerator and I cook my own food now. Super cheap and healthy. There are so many foreigner travellers, usually couple and singles, who roam around Goa, like living two or three weeks together at a place and then moving to next beach, they stay generally in single room accommodation because it is cheap and also they don't really need a big place. But food is definitely a problem because it's like eating three meals a day outside, every day. Sometimes one just crave to cook a meal all by himself and have a really heartful, ask me , so many days I felt like this. I am sure there are so many tourists and travellers who feel his way on extended stays, even for weekenders, cooking is one extra fun activity. How about AIRBnB for cooking? You bring your own food items and we give you place, stacked up kitchen with all spices and oils and condiments and charge per person/per hour. Whenever one feels like cooking, they can just buy fresh stuff(small store would be there at same premise also), come to CookBnB (Cooking Bowl N Basin), cook their food and just take it away to their place. Hows that? I would be starting this at Goa in the coming season and have done already quite a bit of legwork. Interested people in cooking, eating, founding and funding can write to me at - [email protected] Cheers!

#startup

Reimagining Local Search and Commerce with Videos

This is the age of video and the Q&A sites still seem to be living in the stone ages, where the question is asked and replied via text. For almost all the prominent Q&A sites including the local search engines, there is a difference crops up between what a user actually wants to ask and what she ends up asking eventually, because there is this delta between thought and written language. But a video is simpler and elegant. One can describe her questions with all the natural emotions in which it was conceived with all the extras thrown in to help the viewer understand, where she is coming from and where she actually wants to go. Needless to say, same goes for the lady who answers. She could describe in best possible manner in a much more natural manner for many questions she could actually display products or actions in her video. Above all, texts are bland, questions and answers are all about emotions and it can be rightly done only with videos. Let us take the example of a Local Search Engine. A user's query of a product or her requirements could be best explained via video, for example of a carpenter. She could showcase her house, the place where she wants the cupboard etc. As an answer to her query, the carpenter can show case her various items in the video or design, and may be even draw one out on the piece of paper. Is there any better way to do it, the Q&A. The whole local search and commerce could be disrupted (ah, dear lord, forgive me, for I have sinned by using the word "disruptive") On the revenue side also, so much can be done with videos. Above all, this is the world of Selfies and Narcissism, let's use this. Everyone wants to be in front of camera and then share it. Hows that? Also published on Next Big What : https://nextbigwhat.com/t/reimagining-local-search-and-commerce-with-videos/3790

#startup #local search #local commerce

Smartphone, Food, Clothing and Shelter : Being "Mobile First"!

There is a popular phrase in tech and Startup world, "Mobile First". Most of the readers of this article would qualify of either of the two, hence I am not dwelling too much into it, except the fact that, what they actually mean is "Smartphone First". Everyone knows that there are three primary human needs; food, clothing and shelter. Slowly, people started adding another word to it, which is "Mobile" and now it essentially means, "Smartphone"; not an antagonist of the mobile but just clarifying. But if we have to achieve "Mobile First" and henceforth referred as "Smartphone First", how do we actually achieve it, like in real terms of day to day live, so that it could become phrase of not elite few but of the masses? The only way to be "Smartphone First" is to ensure that with the possession of a Smartphone a decent educated person, like a graduate, here in India, can satisfy her needs of food, clothing and shelter; without any further investment. This would entail that instead of coming last, "Smartphone" comes first, it is the doer or the enabler or fulfillment medium of the rest of the three needs. Instead of being a need, it becomes the conduit. Instead of being passive, it becomes active. A propagator of human essence of survival and spirit in the real sense, and not in the sense of LIKES or RETWEETS. Hundreds of millions of people now own a Smartphone, but the living standards of these people has not rises commensurate to the computing power which they hold in their hands. The only way, it has improved for few people ( mind the scale at which we are deliberating), is where people have been able to transact and sadly these transactions is not based in skill set but the possession of goods, usually procured on cost plus basis from elsewhere and not produced by own skill set. Not all of these transactions are tangible in nature, some are intangible also, like favours of LIKES and RETWEETS, you scratch my back and I would scratch yours. Since ancient times, it has been skills which has been traded and that's how the human race has evolved so far that we are being able to talk of replacing humans by robots for everything else, except producing babies. A farmer would trade his skills of crop-growing with that's of a potter's pottery skills and thus the trade happened between a carpenter and an ironsmith and a butcher. Slowly with the evolution not currency as a medium if exchange, the trade evolved from a barter to an exchange, but still the dominant part was not the currency but the skills which was being traded. Now we have skills being replaced by degrees. Few are educated but all have degrees. And this evolution of degree has lead to a stop almost to an exchange of skills. Why? Because for an exchange of skills or trade of skills and money to happen, one needs to have a job to showcase the possessed skills. It's again, the classic chicken and egg story. We all know the drama and tragedy involve in getting the first job, so let's skip that. Migration has been the biggest curse of our times and then in order to save some money, a huge amount of sacrifice in terms of physical, mental and emotional stress is made on account of living in cities, which have ceased to be civic by all measures. What if a person who owns a Smartphone is able to achieve a decent living with the help of internet in her own town or village? What if educated people don't have to migrate in order to make a living, if they owned a Smartphone? There are hundreds of millions of educated but unemployed people around the world, who own a Smartphone, what if these people could do a remote job just with the help of an internet connection? A job, an earning potential, a gig which requires nothing but already earned education, a smartphone and an internet connection? We are not talking about highly paid jobs here but those which are paid for enough so that people could say that they got an education and a Smartphone and it brought them; food, clothing and shelter. Let's put mobile first! PS: This article was written on paper and edited and typed on a Smartphone. If you have a job or gig which could be completed remotely, solely with the help of a Smartphone and an internet connection, please write to me at "[email protected]" and I shall feature it on smartphone-jobs.tumblr.com Also educated and smart workers available for any remote Smartphone job or gig, starting at Rs.200/ 8 hours. Surge pricing rules apply.

The Pied Pipers of Smartphone Cartel

Let us begin with the very description of what is a smartphone?

According to Merriam-Webster, it is “a mobile telephone that can be used to send and receive e-mail, connect to the internet,take photographs, etc”. It also mentions that the term was first used in 1997.

Though the device is supposed to be smart, but the definition does not mention any tangible benefit it brings on account of being smart.

If one asks the same question to a wide spectrum of people from all age groups, one would receive many vague answers; like it helps me getting information, it entertains me, it helps me remaining in touch with my near and dear ones etc.

But the billion dollar question still remains, what is the tangible benefit it brings to our life’s, which could seem to uplift us?

There are aberrations and exception everywhere and this article is not going to mention it, majority, if not all of us are in the same dark pit here.

Internet is now primarily a cartel of two dozen or so companies, primarily residing in US and China. Every, so called trends or for the lack of a better word, “gimmick”, comes from them. We have been conveniently blind to the so obvious fact that all these companies are “for-profit” companies and any of these gimmicks launched by them is not to make our lives any better but suck more at the cost of their earnings.

All they want and care about is us spending more and more time on our mobile phones, err sorry the smartphone, so that they could collect more and more personal information about us, which could lead to more and more of their ads being seen and clicked.

The hardware manufacturers are hand in glove with these companies completely and bend in to their demands, because well without software the hardware won’t sell. It has to keep pace with the gimmicks being launched, else they are doomed.

And they call all this by a very benign term called “Smartphone Ecosystem”, instead of calling it a “Smartphone Cartel”.

Look at the advertisement of any smartphone manufacturer, all that we would find is vanity facts to hoodwink us, who are already suffering from reality cataract. Some would proclaim a better auto-focus camera, some would talk about a selfie-flash and some about the gigantic battery.

Notice the pattern?

None of them talks about how our lives could be better due to their device, what tangible benefit it brings?

All they talk about ever increasing list of gimmicks, throwing us in one more blind chase of our lives, the quest to own the coolest and a real badass smartphone!

Reminds me of a TVC, when I was a kid, of a detergent manufacturer, in which a woman wonders on seeing the other woman, “How come her Saree is whiter than mine?”

In this age, all we are left to wonder is how come I have a real sorry smartphone than this other guy in front of me?

And all this to do what? So that we can stare more and more on the screens of smartphone. And what benefits does this bring?

Ask anyone among the Smartphone Cartel, they won’t be able to tell you apart from gibberish in order to thinly veil themselves and probably try to absolve from the crime of robbing us of our attention and time. The two most valuable thing of our lives!

Neither they do know, nor they want us to know. The cartel is barraging us every day with shinier software and more feature heavy apps, which requires all the information present on he device, except which is not present like the colour of underwear which I am wearing.

But these guys are super ambitious, one so called tech giant, recently launched a camera, which could just reside in the room and silently observe the colours of the underwear, as we wear them.

And as the apps become heavy, the hardware manufacturers make their phones mightier and obviously more costly, it is a win-win for the Smartphone Cartel, the very basic premise on which a cartel is formed.

These days if one is not having a 4GB RAM smartphone, she would be considered poor, not literally, but in terms of information garbage which otherwise she would have managed to accumulate.

The silent and most amused spectator of this spectacle are the mobile operators, who provide the network services. The guy’s who earlier were crying wolf, suddenly find the wolf to be a Holstein Jersey cow. They could keep on milking the data.

In this world of flying cars, drones delivering condoms, autonomous robots and trip to mars, nine of us are asking why the browsers should hog so much memory or why a stupid app needs access to my call logs? Why the apps of the OS provider get updated automatically? Why some apps cannot be removed or disabled on my smartphone, for which I have paid in full, and which I am supposed to be the owner.

We all are acting like the rats, dancing to the tunes of the Smartphone Cartels, not knowing what we are doing and where we are going, but surely we are going downhill!

Do we really own our Smartphone or does the Smartphone cartels own it?

That leads to one more question do we really own our lives also, in this smartphone world or does the cartel own it, actually?

Is it really smart or we have been hoodwinked by the “Smartphone Cartel”, so that we can stare more on the screen, buy their shinier device and consume gigantic amounts of data?

And if the device is really smart, then what tangible benefits it brings to our lives?

Sadly, Merriam-Webster does not mention who used this term the first time, probably she would have been the most appropriate person to ask this question now!

PS: This article was written on paper and edited and typed on a Smartphone.

If you have a job or gig which could be completed remotely, solely with the help of a Smartphone and an internet connection, please write to me at “[email protected]” and I shall feature it on https://smartphone-jobs.tumblr.com

#smartphone #jobs #employment

Tumsey Zaroor Ho Paayega - Episode 6 - Season 1

Trade-offs, that is what most of our life is.

Sometimes they pay, usually they don't.

Karan started wondering about the ones, he made.

Probably, he would have been still happier, doing the regular 9-to-5, escaping out on weekends, had he been with Tina.

In his heydays of romance, one night from his Nokia 3310 phone, he typed out SMS-by-SMS, the whole lyrics of the song "She's all I ever had" by Ricky Martin to her.

And somewhere near, it reverberated ; "...like the man I want to be, she is all I ever need".

But it was too late probably. Only, if he would have told her this, every single day. Things would have been tad different.

It took just few minutes for Karan to swing from _top-of-the-world_ to _10000-foot-abyss_.

He always thought that Tina would be there, waiting for him, no matter what. And if he did not make this, he can always go back to her arms.

The bound of selfishness in a man is immeasurable. Karan wanted to do this thing and Tina to wait on him, simultaneously.

The thing with people is that, everyone has aspirations, and the only way to survive a relationship, is to respect other person's aspirations.

Most of the times, that would mean, to the peril of one's. But that is certainly better than singing quietly, "here I am with broken wings...".

She was not to vanish, just like that, he thought. Whatever he has done, nothing warrants such a reaction. Or probably it does?

As he was puffing away his thoughts, the mobile phone rang with incoming SMS tone. He was now, no more interested, in what is happening on the field. He desperately wanted this to be from Tina, but he was also sure, that it cant be. So with a very calm action, he reached out in the pocket and fished out his Nokia X2-02.

The SMS was from Ashish, one of his salesman. He signed up two retailers, since the morning. Karan clenched his teeth, but returned the SMS with "good job".

Suddenly Karan, felt like being done with the day at least. He just wanted to go somewhere quiet, probably over a hill and ponder for sometime.

But then, small luxuries, are so difficult to come by.

All this while, it never occurred to him that , apart from sending SMS, one more thing can be achieved from mobile phone by mortals. You can actually call people !

Ignorance is bliss.

It is is so easy to be at peace, when you don't know the truth, and Karan did not want to further torment his ripped-apart-emotions.

What happens, if the voice on the other hand tells that the particular number has been out of service? what he would do?

It is easy to pretend that, she is somewhere out, and all is well and she would get the SMS real soon.

But the effort required to convince himself with this line, was increasing in the orders of GP with every second.

It was enough for the moment, he flipped open his _founder-drawer_ with the next puff. Reaching out to his mobile and called up, Ashish.

"Dassi", that's all he spoke to Ashish. After fumbling for a few moments, his man recognised, what he meant and answered, yes boss!.

Karan wanted Ashish to open ten accounts today.

And then he called up everyone, including Ramesh. Except, one of his data-entry guy Sharad, everyone had open their accounts for the day.

When he asked them, why they have not informed him via SMS, when they signed-up a new retailer, all of them made flimsy excuse. But he knew the truth.

They did not want to intimate him too early of their success, and increase his expectations and then probably fall flat on it.

But he was happy to know, to be on the way ,to pass this self-inflicted test today.

He has not asked his men to come back to office in the evening, since that would mean, couple of hours wasted. So this was going to be a long day.

Keeping Tina happy with, what she would have wanted was only the 1/3rd of the battle for Karan Singh. The rest 2/3rd of the battle was far away from him, to even fight. That 2/3rd of the battle lied with the parents of Tina. She belonging to erstwhile ruling family from Kashmir and Karan, to a landlord family from Bihar. Whatever he does with 1/3rd of the battle, he was always going to lose the 2/3rd by majority.

Many a times, he used to wonder, as if her parents have managed to brain-wash her, against him. since she was not the same Tina, who once was ready to leave her cosy home for the uncertainty of a lifetime.

Had he agreed that day, things would have been different. But then things are always different, isn't it. That day, many years hence Karan told Tina, that he would not marry her as a runaway bride. If they are meant to be together, then they would fight it out and do it the right way, taking the blessings of everyone, in the due course. At the hindsight now, he regretted that as the biggest blunder that he committed in his life, apart from victorycomm.com.He did not want to be happy at the cost of making rest others unhappy, it was too worthless a deal.But at hindsight now, he wished if he would have agreed to Tina, that day.

The problem with dots is that, they can be connected only backwards.

But probably there is still some time left, to mend the wrong ways, to get Tina back. To ask her to runaway. To freedom !

Probably there is not, probably she has already run away to her freedom.

There is nothing absolute in this world, not even freedom. What is freedom for one, is slavery for other.

What cannot be undone, could always be started afresh. He knew, what needs to be done.

#startup founders #StartUp Struggle #startups

why I joined as an entrepreneur-in-residence?

I had been a founder of 3 ventures for 52 months.

After that I joined a company and was doing extremely well over there, but there was something amiss.It felt like somewhere deep within a vacuum has been created.At first I ignored the calling and focussed on the job on hand, which was increasing day-by-day.

But finally, one day the calling became deafening and I decided to quit and venture out yet again, in the unknown.

How the great explorers and expedition leaders of yester years would have felt, right from Sindbad to Columbus and to Shackleton,it was the same feeling.

One thing, I knew that I was not ready to start on my own again, both emotionally and skill-set wise. I needed to re-group my energy, work on the weaknesses and slowly become strong and erudite enough to start one more venture.

More so,I did not want to commit the same mistake which I did in earlier stint, wherein I resigned from my well-to-do job on one Wednesday and on Thursday, I was the founder of a company. There was no cooling period. There was no acclimatisation.

It took me hell lot of time to get acclimatised, to get to the new terms of my life, emotionally and psychologically.

Hence, since the day I resigned last job, I was on the lookout for a suitable opportunity, which could allow me to work like an entrepreneur and "Jack Of All" (JOA), work on my weaknesses, get my hands dirty; without being an entrepreneur.

It took me almost 6 months to get to the right opportunity, but I did not lose my patience.

I waited for my kill, like a sniper. I had already re-skilled myself on the "patience" part, in the process.

Writing to the founders of www.wordsmaya.com, talking to them over phone, then meeting both the founders took a while, but the entire process convinced myself, that this is what I really want to do in my life at present. Something about which I could be passionate and would absolutely love to do.

I joined as an intern at www.wordsmaya.com, after 16 years of work-experience, which included leading team of more than 400 people and running my own company. It was like being bonkers, being crazy and losing the bearings.

But I knew that this is one opportunity, which could allow me one more shot at my dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur.

I could un-learn, learn and re-learn everything necessary to start another venture here.

And hence, once I passed my test of internship, I am now "Entrepreneur In Residence" (EIR) at the company.

Being an EIR is an amazing opportunity for everyone, who have entrepreneurial and rookie mindset, but many not be ready at the moment for various reasons, to start on their own.

Being an EIR, they can learn everything which is required to build a successful modern day startup/company. It is like actually having the cake and eat it too. There is no "founder level" pressures, but you get to work on everything which is critical for the company's success; right from opening the doors of the office at SOD (Start Of the Day), to technology, sales, marketing, operations, recruitment, strategy. Basically, everything under the sun.

I believe, everyone who desires to start a company of their own one day, should quit their present jobs and work at a startup as an EIR, acclimatise themselves, learn the tricks of the trade and survival techniques and then take the plunge.

To all the crazy one, the misfits, the rebels, the square peg in the round hole; Godspeed and good luck !

PS: At www.wordsmaya.com we are patiently waiting for another EIR. If you believe, you have got this, please apply at the careers page.

image: pexels - creative commons

#EIR #entrepreneur in residence #startups

Tumsey Zaroor Ho Paayega - Episode 5 - Season 1

Ramesh had perhaps some sort of premonition this was going to happen or he was a warrior on the loose, waiting for his first kill. He had a talk with his local grocer, a couple of times in the past, about the company and its services. Ramesh had told him, victorycomm.com would change the way, he is doing business.

And today, when the shopkeeper asked him, how come, he is at the shop, during the day, he told him, today he has come to sign-up him up, being the largest grocery store in the area and he is not going to leave his store, till he gets the signature.

The shopkeeper was a wise man, he could immediately sense the presence or the lack thereof, of "bluff" in the voice of a person.

Ramesh got his first kill today and before the deadline, because he had been working at it for more than a month now.

Instead of rushing back into the office, Karan asks the shopkeeper for one more cigarette stick.

After the two "anxious smoke", this was the time for "victory smoke".

Every small victory needs to be celebrated, and what a better way, than a smoke.

He wanted to call up couple of his men and ask about the status, but decided against it. He wanted to savour this small victory for some more time. The cigarette never tasted better before.

He wanted to share this moment with someone, but this startup shit is a lonely battle, and God forbid, if you are a lone founder! His favourite way to cope with this loneliness was to get out of the house at night on the pretext of a walk and then to talk to his heart's content, to himself !

He was his own buddy.

Karan thought for a while about sending the SMS to Tina, it has been almost three months now, since they last spoke to each other. He desperately wanted to share this victory ofvictorycomm.com with her, but then a voice in his head told him, this has not changed anything, since their last call.

He was still technically un-employed, almost broke and living on the fence, emotionally.

Tina and Karan have always fought on what was right?

Was it right to chase a maniacal dream, without heeding to the voice of someone whom wants to spend the rest of the life, comfortably with him?

Or was it right to be selfish enough to not allow her soulmate, go for his goals, just because, the chances were that he would lose all his money, his career and render him unworthy of a marriage?

The conversation would start easy, some old talks, some reminiscence, "what's happening" and all, and then suddenly everything would converge, towards the pole.

The pole, for both Tina and Karan was, victorycomm.com

For Tina, since the venture started, Karan seemed aloof, even in the SMS. He always wondered, how she can be so accurate, but probably this was only a woman's thing.

He would not reply to SMS, when at work, because it would mean, replying to one more SMS and so on and so forth. Often there was not much to do at work, apart from worry, but worrying itself is a full time job, and when you are a lone founder, texting back and forth to your girlfriend does not help make it a part-time job.

The questions, for which he himself did not have any answers.

So many people were looking for answers from him, and the answers were never about him, butvictorycomm.com. Instead of asking him, "how are you doing?", all the questions were, "how is the company doing?", he had enough of this for a lifetime!

Tina would not start with "how is the company doing",she would keep it as the second question and slowly, this has started to get on the nerves of Karan.

He always wanted to speak to Tina, in order to forget all this "company shit" for some time, but then again,things would converge to pole.

There was no escape, off late.

At first, Karan would tell her, everything; all the struggles, all the fights and how he was trying to cope up with all this. Sometimes, he thought, he should not be doing so much of explaining, after all, they have known each other for so many years now, words are irrelevant for understanding, what the other person is going through.

Had there would be something consequential, she would be the first person that, Karan would tell. So why was she, "converging on the pole" everytime, like rest of the guys? Perhaps, she did not believe him any more?

It has started to irk him and hence he started avoiding the calls and texts of her. He knew, what would be coming.

It was like, et tu brutus !

Today, he was missing her again.

But years are difficult to kill in months.

The bad times, he was strong enough to handle them alone and not quiver a bit; but the testing times, were the good times, like this one. Being alone, during good times is many times more difficult.

It never mattered to Karan, what the rest of the world believes about him, he never gave a damn, as it is. What only mattered to him, was, what Tina believes about him. Or, what she does not believe about him.

Of late, her beliefs took a strange turns of sobriquets like, "maniac","workaholic" and "inert", among others.

"Hi ! How are you" was in the draft folder of SMS, waiting to be sent to a recipient named "Tina". How long would this take?

He decided to revisit the issue, after "some time", and it lasted exactly 1 minute and 47 seconds.

The SMS was off to the recipient.

Karan never took his eyes of SMS, when it was being sent to Tina. He would wait and ponder, till he would get the delivery confirmation.

It has been now more than five minutes, since the SMS vanished from the outbox and still there was no sign of delivery confirmation.

Karan checked the SMS settings ,notification was still active.

What would have happened?

image (creative commons): pexels

also published on: https://www.nextbigwhat.com/t/tumsey-zaroor-ho-paayega-episode-5-season-1/1935

#startups #StartUp Struggle #startup founders

Tumsey Zaroor Ho Paayega - Episode 4 - Season 1

As Karan Singh's men start shutting down their rented computer terminals, he picks his Nokia X2-02 mobile phone and skips to the music library, typing "lakshya".

The office starts crooning with "haan, ye rasta hai tera; tuney ab jaana hai. haan ye sapna hai tera, tuney pehchana hai..." from the movie "Lakshya".

Probably this is to marshal his men, probably this is to marshal himself !

If his men are not being able to sign-up the retailers today, it will not be failure of his men, but his own.

After all, the men are only as good as the captain !

Shaking hands with everyone, and patting their back with "chak dey phattey", he stands on the door of the office and watches them move out of his sight, one by one.

He decides to have a smoke, to get rid of his anxiety and moves to the tapri outside, and there he find his men, in a sort of huddle. He did not interrupt, but on seeing him, they quieten down and sort of disperse. Two of his men, buy their smoke, along with him. He lights his own, and then of another guy and then throws away the matchstick.He lights another one, and then lights the smoke of the second guy.Even inadvertently, there should not be any bad omen today. Today is a too big day, for that to happen. He did not want to interrupt in their thoughts and steps aside.

Today, he is wishing for one more thing, apart from the fact that his men do not come home empty handed, and it is that, there should not be any more orders coming. Because, any new order means, he would have to take the bus to deliver the order himself, since he did not have a motorcycle. Riding the bus to deliver the order was neither new nor painful, but the premise to fail on his two-hour-delivery promise was.

His men have finished their puff quickly and now out of sight. Its only him and his thoughts.

He has instructed them, to report every hour, of their progress via SMS, 1200 hrs onwards.

Karan Singh's mind raced back in time to that morning of October 2002, when his erstwhile boss came to him in the office of the consumer durable major and handed over him a key sales territory. Dussehra and then Diwali were just few days away and he was less than a week old in the company. First he could not believe, what prompted his boss to do so? A great leap of faith? But he had been selling herbicides and hybrid seeds earlier, and here, in the most crucial phase of the year for sales, he was handed over this crucial territory. He smiled. How he felt that day in Bombay,catching the AS-422 bus, 10 years ago; his men would be feeling the same today. He overcame that day, so shall his men today.

When you have a lot of time to kill on hand, you start wondering about all the turns in the life, which has got you, where you find yourself today.

After Thompson's Folly, it was Bombay.

Karan still remembers the first time he visited, the city of dreams, Bombay. It was for an interview, which he never imagined to qualify, but did. The moment he stepped out of the ST bus at Dadar, the first local ride to Charni Road. It was a Sunday. Whole night he could not sleep, not because of the fact that the interview was there next day, but because of the electricity in the air of the city. Next morning, from Charni Road to Andheri and then after the interview, from Andheri to Dadar, he was all along buzzing. That day, he promised himself, if he ever managed to come back to this city, he would definitely start something of his own. That would be a good way, to test, Mr.Thompson's hypothesis. It took him just two years more, to eventually come to Bombay. Probably, that's when it all started.

Along with Thompson's Folly, it was now also, Bombay's Folly.

Man has this habit of blaming his misfortunes on someone else, it eases out the pain a bit. Karan had, Mr.Thompson and Bombay !

He could not sit in the office, and moves out again, for smoke. The bell of the landline could ring, there could be an order notification via email. But he is not bothered about them today. They would not test his mettle, the way, he has already planned, those are mere details today. All that matters to him today, is that none of his man should come empty-handed. If he had his way,he would have stayed all day long at the tapri itself, but each smoke costs Rs.6.

He was bemoaning that, even anxiety does not come free nowadays !

Buying a new bike would solve a few problems, he would save a a lot of time commuting to office. There would be a spare bike, for emergency and he could have couple of more smokes, a day. He often wondered, what his men would be thinking, that their pay-master does not even has a bike of his own? How could he afford their salaries for long, if he cannot afford to buy a bike of his own? Was he solvent enough? Was he in this for a log stint?

Couple of smokes and an empty office is a very potent combination for re-birth of bizarre thoughts!

Suddenly, there was this beep and Karan flipped out his Nokia X2-02 from pocket, it was a SMS from one of his men. His heart raced as if, it was from Tina. It was his one of the delivery men, Ramesh.

The kill was confirmed, Ramesh got his first one.

The clinch of the fist and the sense of redemption.

Karan immediately dials the number of Ramesh, taking another puff and asks him, how he pulled it off, after congratulating him profusely. Had Ramesh, was in front of him now,he would have kissed him on cheeks.

Karan was on cloud number seven, it was not even 1200 hrs and the first kill was confirmed !

image (creative commons): pexels

Also published on : https://www.nextbigwhat.com/t/tumsey-zaroor-ho-paayega-episode-4-season-1/1773

#startup founders #startups

Is this the reason for Mr. Nikesh Arora’s exit from Softbank?

The 58 year old emperor is desperately looking for his heir, he thinks that his time is running out. He adopts a boy as prince and announces, him as his heir apparent.

One morning, the King was on his morning walk and he stumbles upon a strange plant, which he had never seen. He does not know that, this is "Shilajeet" and tries to taste it. He finds it palatable and eats a mouthful.

Suddenly he is full of vigour and energy his steps are just bouncing off the ground. He could not believe this sudden transformation in himself and is very happy.

He starts singing this-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LcLKPEODuI

Returning to the palace the first thing he does is to throw out his heir apparent from the palace and announces that he is going to live for another 100 years and would bear his own son. He has a lot of time for it now. All the thanks to "Shilajeet".

Does this story sounds familiar?

Probably...

Not in long distance, Mr.Nikesh Arora was almost as the son of Mr.Masayoshi and suddenly in one day, he was out?

What happened?

Everyone believed the above story and carried on...

But the truth with dots is that, they can be connected only backwards, so they cannot be exactly blamed for that.

Here I present the dots for you:

* A company in $100 billion debt.

* Investors not happy with the way company is being run.

* Company's de-facto second-in-command engulfed in couple of legal suits from investors who did not like him.

* Impending opportunity of a major multi-billion big investment, which could again has the potential of windfall gains, like the stake in Alibaba.

* Very high profile pit-falls in recent past for the company in terms of its investment in India.

* The money for the major multi-billion acquisition to be raised by mix of cash and debt.

Would Mr.Masayoshi would have managed to pull off the ARM acquisition with Mr.Nikesh Arora still on board?

Connect the dots yourself, and you would find the answer yourself. It is an emphatic NO.

Investors were already unhappy with $100 billion debt, the high compensation of Mr.Arora and then couple of lawsuits on Mr.Arora and as well as the company.

Would the investors in the company would have agreed for another $32 billion acquisition?

Would raising money for this $32 billion acqusition would have been possible, with Mr.Arora still on board?

Would ARM agree for this acquisition with lawsuits still hanging on the neck of Softbank? What if they agree for Softbank and then Softbank is not able to raise money?

What if the investors believe that ARM acquisition is another of Mr.Nikesh Arora's investment?

Again, connect the dots and you shall find that, answer to the above questions is , NO.

For Mr.Masayoshi, there was only one option, to move out Mr.Nikesh Arora.

Wipe out the stories of pit-falls and settle the impending legal suits, give the investors something, they have been asking and in bargain push through the ARM acquisition.

And that is why he created this story for all of us to believe, which has been outlined at the start of the post.

I do not think that there was any option left for Mr.Nikesh Arora.He just wanted his name to be cleared and that is why the sudden meeting of board, absolving Mr.Nikesh of any wrongdoings.

For Mr.Masayoshi, it was either ARM or Nikesh.

He chose the former...

ARM is the reason for Mr.Nikesh Arora being moved out of Softbank.

Also published on : http://www.nextbigwhat.com/t/is-this-the-reason-for-mr-nikesh-aroras-exit-from-softbank/1725

#softbank #nikesh arora #startups #image:wikimedia commons

Tumy ZaroorHo Paayega - Episode 3 - Season 1

Trouble within Karan Singh's mind lasts only till he is at the door of his shared office space, the moment he steps inside it, he is in "the zone". Long before, he had read about Napoleon, one his the most favourite character from ancient history. There was a lot which he could relate to him, Napoleon's memoir gave him hope.

He read once, how Napoleon told that his secret of success was to compartmentalise his personal and professional parts of life. Napoleon used to say that his mind has a set of drawers, the moment he wants to focus on any particular one, he opens that and all of the rest remains closed.

Karan tried this habit of his hero for a while, and soon it just soaked in to his skin. It was like someone has built an automatic switch in to his body, which he could flip whenever he is entering his work-place.

The struggle for him was only up to the door of his office, the enemy was only till the gates. Inside the gate, he was the same invincible king, which his hero was for almost, all his life.

The virtue of punctuality has been drilled in his men too, today a couple of them are waiting for him already for few minutes, at the door.

Crisp handshakes and he is at his command station.

Time to direct the troops. what has transpired in his minds in last couple of hours cannot be even imagined by his men, the way he acts, he looks invincible, the Waterloo was threatening, only till the gate.

And there is not a bit of pretense in his voice, as he marshals his troops, as if the soul of Napoleon is speaking and not Karan. His seven men, listen with rapt attention. His voice is calm and soft, without a hint of authority.

It was just like, a very confident "lets do it".

E-Commerce had become the most sought after "to-do" in the startup world, bringing a plethora of competition. Three years back, when he started, there was only one kart. Today, it seemed like India is suffering from a new disease called "Kartocarcoma". It was spreading fast and deep.

Often he wondered, whether the others were doing the same kind of mistake, in believing that, if they would have a kart, people would just throng to purchase?

But he knew, even if other people were doing the same mistake, most of them had many more times money to splurge than him, and they would easily out-spend and outlast him.

But it was his own survival that mattered to him, and not what others were doing.

Today, Karan decided that he would do a stress test of his two hour delivery promise. It was not as if orders were raining, but with only seven men, even a single order meant, that it took a lot of effort, to deliver the product, specially when operating on a market-place model.

Karan Singh did not stock a single unit of inventory, he had tie up with traditional mom-and-pop stores, all across the city. The moment he would receive the order, his delivery person, would go, buy the ordered item from the nearest store to the customer, with which he had tie-up, pay the retailer cash, and then deliver the product to the customer.

When he envisioned this model, he did not even knew what this model is called. He just opted for it, because, that is what the logical way to do business was,when you did not have money.

Inventory at local stores was a very big problem, that he understood. With his model, the shopkeepers get to sell their surplus inventory,and he need not keep any stock also.

So, today, he was sending all his men, to go and sell his model to shopkeepers across the city and sign them up as partners. This meant that his two salesman, his two data entry men and his three delivery person, would be all out in the market.

Lack of money has also a lot of virtues, not only in personal life but in the professional world too.

Each of the three sets of men, in Karan's troops could do, each others job. He trained every one to work on PhPMyAdmin and Google Docs, how to sell the company's service to retailers and of course delivery to customer.

It took a lot of effort and pain to do that, but that also meant a lot of satisfaction, when he saw a standard eight educated delivery person, working on PhPMyAdmin.

With no one in the office, but him alone, he would have to do all the customer service, and coordinate with his men and customer for the order .

It was the test for the company, as well as him. What if the order comes from a place, where none of his men are there, after all how much of this big city, can seven men cover?

Would that mean, he would have to go and deliver the order himself, doing everything all alone?

His men have been now quite versed with his unusual way of doing things, right since the moment of their interview. At their interview, they were served a pack of fruit juice and when the interview was over, they were given a "Thank You" card and Rs.40 jotter pen as a token of gratitude, for coming to his office for the interview.

Perhaps, that pack of fruit juice and the jotter pen was the clincher in joining a nondescript company and an ecentric kind of boss. Probably they knew, what they are signing for, but still this comes as a complete surprise.

They have target of signing up ten merchants each today. The data entry team and delivery team have a puzzled look on their face, probably a fear has started to run down the spine. The fear is not of being unable to complete the task, but the fear of probably disappointing their captain's expectations. He devoted a lot of energy for training them for this day, and he trained them because he believed, they could do this.

Today is their D Day...

Image: Pexels - Creative Commons

To Be Continued...

Also published on: http://www.nextbigwhat.com/t/tumsey-zaroor-ho-paayega-episode-3-season-1/1628

#founders #ecommerce #startup

Tumsey Zaroor Ho Paayega - Episode 2 - Season 1

Karan Singh was an early adopter, as they call, persons who adopt technologies/trends, at the onset, when most people have not even heard of their name.

So, was the case of him with ` Bajaana.com` and Grooveshark, which later shut down, both were his only place to seek solace and almost constant companionship. When he was not talking, he was listening.

It hurt him, when Grooveshark shut down, but then he had at least one buddy, Bajaana.com and that was enough for him. So many loopers (single song which is played over and over again) have been played by him on Bajaana.com, on lonely nights.

When silence became deafening, Bajaana.com always was there to rescue him.

And probably that's why even on such a dark morning, when instead of playing _"Pehla Nasha, Pehla Khumar..."_, when Bajaana.com played, _"Mera Desh Bhaag raha hai, Mera desh daud raha hai..._", he did not really mind.

For auld lang syne he said, and forgave Bajaana.com!

Apart from that funding article of `TV(Tarneja Ventures) - Kiska-Kart.com`, there were buzzing articles, like almost every day about how Artificial Intelligence was going to change the world and the way human race operates itself, and he wondered that probably the biggest problem that AI could solve, is to able to figure out, when to play the advertisement on Bajaana.com and when to not.

That would be the true revolution for AI, the crowning glory. Till then, whatever comes, is mere details.

He laughed at his epiphany and decided to go on with the day.

Not very fond of breakfast since his evolutionary days, to cure his hangup(s) plaguing him on this cloudy day, he decides to head to Krishna-Sagar outlet to have the famous mini-meal.

If Karan would have a chance, on most of the days, he would avoid going to Krishna-Sagar at any point of the day, but the lure of economical `tasty-khana`, gives him the strength to go there and face his biggest fear.

The fear of people, the normal people. The people with normal life. The people with normal jobs. The people with normal family.Places like Krishna-Sagar always pestered him on how abnormal he was. Finishing the meal was always an extended exercise of controlling his emotions, while eating.

People discussing their normal work-day, their bosses, their weekend plan, the sale on `Mithi.com` and how they just missed the great bargain on a jute door-mat on yesterday's sale. He could not help but just to listen those conversations. Karan might have even been able to escape them,had he some company. But he was always alone.

At night, when he would go to have his dinner there, he could see the _"usuals_" or rather the _"regulars"_, in a flash the eyes would meet and depart, as if there would have been a mega-volt discharge that had happen on the encounter. His eyes and the _"usuals_" eye would never mate. Probably it was him, probably it was the _"usuals"._ Such was the city in which he lived and worked on his company.

There were a couple of school kids having their Idlis in their uniform. The white shirt and navy blue trousers immediately took him back many years. Having Idli at that time, meant going to `"Indian Coffee House"` to celebrate an occasion.

It need not be big, but it had to be an occasion.Actually, in his times as a kid, occasions need not be occasions to be celebrated. Getting 29 marks out of 30 in the mathematics unit-test was good enough to qualify as an occasion for him and shall warrant the delicacy called `"Indian Coffee House"` masala-dosa.Though he had to fight even after that "29er" with his father, but had it been any other subject, his father would not have relented, but then this was "Mathematics", the big-daddy and he would relent.

> The Idlis, come so cheap for today's students in white and navy-blue, he thought.

There are people who are eating and glancing at their handsets, all the time. He was wondering that, whether they are also startup founders who have written to `"Ahuja Capital"`` (AC)`, probably that's why they are so anxious that they could not even resist finishing their meals and then checking on, probably their emails.

Karan has written to AC also, among TV and others. But, TV and AC are the two most coveted ones in the funding domain and Karan has both of them in his cross-hairs since start.Today morning, could be one of those morning, where there would be an email from AC or TV could be waiting in his inbox.

To keep his morning less anxious, he stopped using a smart-phone and now uses a plain vanilla mobile phone of 2000 era. As he gets up, his laptop is shut and by instinct, he does not reach out for it to check email. Every morning, he has two full hours of hope in front of him, after the sleepless dark night, the mythical dawn, dawns but exactly for only two hours ie till he logs in to his email box, and then the night lingers for few moments, back again.

But these two hours have been what propelling him everyday to work these dark days like today. Probably he goes there just to check the email and wait the day long for some good news. And good news is not exactly the term-sheet for Karan, he is far away from that. Good news, is just an acknowledgement of the communication that he sent.

It gives him hope that, if the `TVs and ACs` of the world, bothered to sent him an acknowledgement of the email, they might as well someday send him a term-sheet. There is no logic to it, but then there is no logic to the thing that he is doing either. The world around him has already declared him abnormal, so logic is now, one of his least worries.

The mini-meal was good, like always. He always moves out of Krishna-Sagar with this euphoric feeling that, he could survive.Earlier, he used to leave that place with the feeling that, he could change the world.

Three years is lot of time to make that happen...

Also published on - http://www.nextbigwhat.com/t/tumsey-jaroor-ho-paayega-episode-2-season-1/1499

#startups #funding #fiction

Tumsey Jaroor Ho Paayega - Episode 1 - Season 1

Nevertheless it is 9'o clock in the morning, but dark out of the window.Clouds hover outside. They seem to have an ominous look, as if just waiting to extract the revenge, the moment they would see anyone stepping outside their home.Daring every one, you better not step out...

But Karan Singh stepped out long way back, out of safety into the unknown. And today, it is not the fear of the clouds that is stopping him to venture out in the morning, it is the question, that is troubling him often now-a-days; "Where to go?"

He just read in today's pink newspaper that, "Tarneja Ventures", has funded one more company,the pre-seed amount is huge at $10 million. The venture,"Kiska-Kart.com" has been founded by five class-mates of "Imp0rtant Institute 0f Techn0l0gy", Tilaiya. The news brief mentioned one of the founder Mr.Kumar Anjani, who apparently also studied at the famous "Sainik School Tilayiya",that they are going to launch an e-commerce or e-commerce related venture, but have not yet decided on what they are going to do, being a team of five engineers from "Imp0rtant Institute 0f Techn0l0gy",they would soon arrive at the conclusion,at what they want to do. Till then,they have just settled on the name of "Kiska-kart.com" to start with.

The article further reads, "Mr.Kumar Anjani also adds that, he qualified for National Defence Academy,Khadakwasla,after passing out from Sainik School Tilaiya, and had chance to serve his motherland; but the lure to found a Palang-Tod ( http://www.nextbigwhat.com/t/is-your-startup-breaking-bed-palang-tod/1157 ) startup was irresistible, as this was a chance to change the world, bigger than just serving the motherland."

Everyday, Karan Singh died a little on reading the funding news displayed prominently on the front-page of pink news-paper and vows that he is not going to pick up that newspaper again, but comes another day, and he invariably opens up his door,picks the same newspaper and starts reading it,his first ritual of the morning.

It is not that, he has submitted any PR article to that newspaper about his own company and waiting it to be published, but probably after the heavy sleep-less night, he finds the solace and slight strength to carry on with the task on the hand and keep moving, by reading the articles in that newspaper.If others can pull this off, then surely he can.

Sometimes he thinks that he is not the culprit, for the state that he finds himself in, the culprit is Mr.Silvanus P. Thompson F.R.S .

Karan, first got acquainted with Mr.Thompson in the summer holidays after he completed his Standard XIth.He had gone to his maternal grandfather's house or "Nana" and there scourging through the vast collection of books that one of his engineer uncle has studied, as a Mechanical Engineering student at MIT (Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology), he got the book of Mr.Thompson - "CALCULUS MADE EASY".

His next academic year was full of Calculus, not only for the fact that it was being used in Mathematics, but also in Physics and not to be forgotten,very important that he mastered the subject,for the entrance exam to the prestigious "Imp0rtant Institutes Of Techn0l0gy".

It was "The Book",that would change his life.

The introduction itself, was unlike that of any other book that he had the opportunity to glance through, it read:

"BEING A VERY-SIMPLEST INTRODUCTION TO THOSE BEAUTIFUL METHODS OF RECKONING WHICH ARE GENERALLY CALLED BY THE TERRIFYING NAMES OF THE - Differential Calculus and Integral Calculus".

Karan had read, how difficult the subject was, but the first page of the book sounded so friendly, that he felt an instant connection with the book, and above all, with Mr.Silvanus P. Thompson F.R.S .

That connection,that day of summer,had deep reverence and respect.

The smell of the old book was intoxicating and the author was so inviting, not withstanding the fact that it was printed in the "United States Of America".

Thats where he wanted to be, after he graduates from one of the "Imp0rtant Institutes 0f Technology".

Suddenly, he time-traveled in to another world, holding that book in his hand, he dream of being actually on the shores of America,that summer afternoon.

Dusting off his hands,on white pajamas, unwillingly but excitedly,he flipped the page...

"What one fool can do, another can."

(Ancient Simian Proverb)

Karan could not move for a few moments, he just stared at the magic words,as if someone has cast a spell on him.

The book, printed in the United States of America, the inviting author, telling him, in other words, he can do anything.

But it is easy to blame someone, for one's own mis-doings, perhaps an escape route, and Karan knew it, he was not fooling anyone, but himself.

Off late on some lonely evenings, as he would wait for the bus to ride home, he would often remember about **"Thompson's folly"** with a smile, that is what he used to call his decision to start working on his own company.

As the clouds converged further, out of that dinghy apartment window of Whitefield in Bangalore,as if there was no tomorrow; the same scene was played somewhere else also,it was in the eyes of Karan. It seemed tears are not going to fall only from heaven,that cloudy morning.

He waited, for the rains to start, that should give him some runway, to hold his tears.

Crying is metamorphosis, crying is sublime.

Suddenly, he desperately wanted to be in someone's company, someone who could be the rock to hold him strong, during that metamorphosis. His mind raced along quickly to recollect the names. He need not look through the phone-book of his mobile for that. He could always count only 5 names, the same 5 names, through many years.

But today, was different. He decided to bear the metamorphosis from the strong, virile and valiant Karan Singh to the child, who has just seen his only toy broken,alone.

As it had started, it stopped. The rains.

Karan, picks his phone and opens up the app of music website bajaana.com, searches for the movie "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander", picks the song "Pehla Nasha", puts it on loop and limps to start his day.

He waits for his favorite song to play, but all of a sudden, instead of the song,a jingle starts playing, "Mera desh bhaag raha hai, Mera desh daud raha hai" eulogising the achievements of incumbent central government...

> To Be Continued...

Also featured on http://www.nextbigwhat.com/t/tumsey-jaroor-ho-paayega-episode-1-season-1/1371

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