Perspectives

Thanks to an excellent Article in Today’s DNA Bangalore edition, we have again been busy by the Phone. The printed version is below and the html version on Roopit is here.

Roopit featured on DNA 18th August 2010

I earlier wrote that, as an entrepreneur, nothing frustrated me more than power cuts. A true entrepreneur sees opportunities in difficulties. So, I sat down to think of how best to utilize the time when I had no access to Internet/power. Here is the list:

Unlike desktop computers, laptops are a boon to the Indian Entrepreneur. These days, you get a laptop for cheap. You probably have one already. Make full use of the built in battery time (roughly 2 hours).

Code: If you are a coder, now is the best time to create a dev environment on your laptop. If you are building sofware that needs two Operating systems, there are solutions. If your software needs two machines, there are solutions for that too. And the two hours without power is a gift. No twitter, no email. What more can you ask for as a coder?

Write: This is a great time to write posts for your blog. Having lost have lost the external world, you can go inward on a deep search of meaning and perspectives on the topics that you want to write on. Original content is a natural side effect of no wikipedia. Incidentally, this blog post itself was written when there was no power (Actually, power just came).

Meet: Every business has it’s customers. And every business owner needs to meet them. Over here in Bangalore, there isin’t really a load shedding schedule, but I roughly know when the power goes. And I head out to meet my customers, mentors, interesting people. I learn a ton lot more about my business than I would have, if I were to be sitting in front of my computer.

Think: Thinking is a bizarre activity. For me, the net result of thought on a task ends up un-necessitating the task. It seems to me that the more you think, the less you do. And doing takes more time than thinking. Your hands are much slower than your mind. As you can see, internalized thinking saves time. It may be different experience for you, depending on the person that you are, but all of us agree that it makes sense to put your mind to something before jumping on it.

Play: An instrument, football. Run. Yes, You are pursuing a hobby, it rejuvenates mental and physical health and all those other things. But Importantly, all of these are mind activities. You think analytically, mine patterns and crunch numbers when you play a guitar. Stuff that will help you in your business.

Read: Crossing the Chasm? Innovator’s dilemma? Good to Great?

What else do you think one can do?

Most salaried persons play a role in creation of wealth. A role, but not responsibility. I did something in creating every 1 re I earned as a salary, but I was a part of a larger scheme of things that created, maybe 10 Rupees. And I presumably got my rightful share of 1 Re from it.

In an absolute sense, every 1 rupee that you create as an entrepreneur is worth much more. I have read somewhere that for every IT job created in Bangalore, there are 72 other allied Jobs created (say folks working at coffee shops, Banking, house maid etc.). Drawing inspiration from the same line of thought, It is easy to see how the creation of every rupee seeded by you as an entrepreneur has a ripple effect throughout the society. This 1 rupee never existed before and you carefully seeded it’s creation which in turn will create, for example, 72 Rs for the people who are a part of it.

I am unable to decide if the flip side creates a network effect too. Will a loss of 1 Re that you incur wipe a lot more wealth in the society? I am not sure. What do you think?

Entrepreneurship is a little bit about all the glamor that people have  purported it to have, but it is a lot more about things like this. As an entrepreneur, You are making this world a better place for a lot of people simply by being one. Keep that going. Or if you wondering if entrepreneurship is for you, this should give you an additional point of view to consider.

“With great power comes great responsibility” – Uncle Ben, Spiderman

Related articles:

• You’re Not a Real Entrepreneur (steveblank.com)
• My Thoughts on the State of Entrepreneurship (somewhatfrank.com)

This is a usual story. But something special has come out at the end of it. We are calling it Roopit.

Earlier I quit Yahoo! and then I quit Flipkart and I was sitting at home mulling over a wonderful idea in Travel space. Around that time the refrigerator at my home conked off. My mom pestered me to find a replacement (rightly so, the milk was getting spoilt). I was without a job and I decided to buy a second hand fridge instead, in an effort to save some cash. And the horrifying experiences and the frustration generated along the way has ended up in Roopit. Usual story.

Fortunately for me, apart from getting frustrated, I took notes about my behavior and thought as I went through the second hand buying experience. The icing on the cake was that I DID NOT find a fridge I liked. And something inside of me knew that of the 80 lakh people in Bangalore, there is someone out there who wants to sell the fridge I want to buy. Alas, I couldn’t find him.

Starting with a budget out 4000 Rs, I ended up buying a pink fridge (with flowers on it!!) for 14000 Rs. And everytime I saw the fridge, I heard my calling.

I read somewhere that there are close to sixty (60!!) online classifieds websites in India. Now, with Roopit around, I wish them all the best .

After close to two years of ignoring my Video ipod, I took it out today to get it back to life. I always had a hunch that it was a hardware issue, but I didnt want to decide so quickly.

The basic problem being, as soon as I power up the ipod, it will show me the “Language” screen and as soon as I try to do anything with it, it will get stuck. And all I got to do now is to reboot/reset it by now famous “holding the Menu and center buttons” for a while.

I tried updating the firmware, formatting, restoring etc. but nothing would work. Then, I decided to install linux on my ipod thinking something might be wrong with the firmware partition of the hard drive.

Atfer spending a few hours, I realised that linux was getting stuck as well. Now, I gave up trying to be nice to the ipod. I ripped open the thing by after reading an article and watching a few videos. Although, I scratched the top case a little bit, it opened up nicely and I pulled out the Toshiba MK3008GAL hard drive out. I am convinced that the hard drive has conked off, but I can’t really prove it.

Then, I started hunting around to see if there are any suppliers of the hard drive in Bangalore. None. Very disappointed. I have sent a mail to a couple of folks from Good-Hardware-old China and found another reseller from Ebay. I have shot them a couple of emails to ask them about taxes and import duties etc. Will post an update once I get a hand to the hard drive.

So, If you have a dead ipod and you are around here in Bangalore, let me know and I will help you with it.

Was just trying to see where Opus Bangalore where, apparently, this gorgeous subject constantly performs. And found out that Google has integrated results from local.google.co.in. They have also managed to crawl reviews from Burrp. The data set itself hasnt improved much though.

If you’re a Web developer, or have an interest in web and online standards, and you also like booze, then Pub Standards is the place for you. If you don’t like booze, but don’t mind hanging out in a pub with a fresh lime soda, that’s good too.

The plan is to meet at a pub somewhere near Brigade Road, talk about web standards, and current trends on the web, have a few drinks, have a lot of fun and meet new people.

Be there.

For full details, including attendance, visit:
http://upcoming.org/event/268075

Heard about it from Siddharth. Was an independence day special I guess, went over all the way to Hebbal. The place is called Lumbini Gardens along the shores of Nagavara lake, close to Hebbal flyover, bangalore. Well, Drum jam was not so bad.

Started off as a passive on-looker, I was slowly in the groove and before I realised I was following Roberto’s beats with a single congo in my lap. At the least, it was a different experience. Nobody invites me to play drums for free. Was fun. Thanks guys.

Here are a few videos I captured. And one of the fat white women in the middle is vasundhara Das.

From Dr.Dobb’s,

New York State’s Department of Transportation has integrated Google Maps with its system for reporting traffic conditions, giving travelers more up-to-date information. The department’s Condition Acquisition Reporting System Web product, known as Cars Web, reports information on roadwork, accidents, and closures

Interestingly, this traffic information tool’s url reads “carsgoogle” Looks like these folks have installed cameras all over the place and give you live (well, almost) pics from them. Quite cool and fairly handy. There are also other layers such as “road work” , “accidents” etc.

So, how long do you think it will be before Bangalore gets it’s own live camera for traffic ? 10 years? Well, You can watch it right now at sify’s bangalorelive. Enjoy Maadi!

Meenakshi, one of the people who write in burrp blog has come out with this neat list of places to be during this world cup. I know we just shamefully lost the match to Bangladesh ( and I shamefully sat and watched the entire match! ), but what the heck, it is still fun. Most of them are high end restaurants, so dont go there if you wallet is not heavy.