The True Art of a Start- is by Instinct: The entrepreneurial spirit, Stretching the funds, A woman’s perspective, Meeting of soul mates

My first steps into the Tech world in a very non-tech way. One afternoon, I got a call from these friends of mine who had started their new company-.

RockeTalk. They wanted me to give them an honest feedback. The Good, the bad, the ugly- all of it. After a bit of convincing - notice it did not take too long- I was game to start playing with this very basic phone application that they showed me which in the Founder’s words was basically ‘SMS on steroids’.

There was something about this concept- maybe it was the Founders’ enthusiasm, yes it was two of them, that made me say yes. In hind sight, I had a suspicion that they had read Guy Kawasaki’s very firm advice and exercise in his ‘The Art of The Start’ to rely on the smartness of women. Well, they hadn’t.

Their reasoning: I came from a background of working, volunteering, with Non-profits/NGOs. I was involved in event and artist management. I had a strong Arts background – Psychology and Sociology. And that I was a people’s person. Loved talking…lol.. OK so most women do.

I was rolling my eyes by now. I read between the lines –all that talk about my background was a crock! It was my ‘volunteering spirit’ that drew them to me. Great entrepreneurs that they were, they were trying to get as much help they could for-FREE or at the cost of a couple tall Mistos at their favorite Starbucks! I saw that appreciated the effort.

I was, at that point, intrigued enough by the application and decided I would devote a much disciplined hour or so everyday to play with it (after all I had my day job too) and by the end of that week, come back with feedback.

I started off, created a username and within minutes had people pinging me! I was taken aback. I was told that the application was a neat way to send voice, text and picture messages painlessly- something that the promise of MMS had miserably failed at, to my friends and my network and here I was getting pinged by random people from- Russia, all over Europe, South Africa! And how did they find me? Well they said they just searched for a female user and there I was!

I was beginning to understand the application better. I was seeing it in a totally different light- very different from what the founding ‘tech-team’ thought they had put together! In the founder’s words, ‘Of course, I had to be able to see if my other friends were online and yes, I need to be able to search for my friends.’ Unknowingly they had introduced two very powerful components to their multi-media messaging platform - presence and search.

Soon I was getting voice messages from all over the world. From places- Turkey, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Canada. I was enjoying myself and was spending every spare minute I had, staying online constantly, talking to this mélange of people round the clock, at times waiting for some of them to get back on.

From my interaction with some of the people online, I knew I had in my hands something with great potential, something that could change the way people interacted. There was a flood of things racing through my mind. You got to remember I came from a non-profit background and had very strong views about the World, global understanding and working with people who did not necessarily know English. This was perfect! OK you’ll say I had a very naïve view of the World but I still believe this is the best tool. (More on this later) but I had run a business of my own and knew that everything needs to make money- even non-profits.

Needless to say, I could not hold back for the week to get done. I called and told them coffee was on me and that they could count me in every way! They knew the minute they saw me that they had indeed found a soul mate.

Factoid:
Man Smart. Woman Smarter (How could I resist)

Men have 6.5 times more gray matter in their brains than women do. Women have 10times more white matter. Gray matter creates processing centers in the brain, and white matter creates the connections between them. In other words, men have lots of areas for processing concrete data -- like mathematical equations -- and women have lots of connections that allow them to see and process patterns [Source: Live Science] :)

Kashmir: Paradise lost? more....

"Ro rahi hai ye zameen,
Ro raha hai aasamaan..."

"The Earth is shedding tears,
The sky is shedding tears"

I understand the sentiment... I hope we all understand the true implications of our actions.

Do we want to go with one side or the other? Is going one way really better than the other? Have we looked at all our options? Is there another invisible party involved? Will any one side much rather keep fueling the unrest in that region? So many questions...



Well- some of my answers- still getting clarity on some came in from a surprising source- NPR. NPR or National Public Radio has been my source of good, unbiased opinion from a mix of interviews and very level headed comments from listeners. I'm talking about this afternoon broadcast that came about the NorthWest province in Pakistan and exactly what was going on.

The Taliban, the law enforcements and the locals. A triangle, right? But no- that's not what it is. There is so much more to it than meets the eye. The locals are tired of innocents getting shot. Don't know if you know this but very much like Kashmir, the NorthWest Province is one of the most picturesque places in the world. Just like Kashmir, their main economy was tourism. Now, all the people who could afford to move out, have moved out of that area. The people who stay on are staying there because they don't have a choice and after all, they are Paththaans! Paththaans are too proud and and loyal to abandon the place their birthplace.

They are not thrilled about the fact that the only economy that works there is the war economy. And their description of 'War economy' is not the sale of guns but rather a funny equation that the politics in that region has going there, an it is the same equation that has come in to play wherever the USA has tried to play the Big Brother/Bully and tried to make things work a certain way.

Don't get it? It is simple- USA begs Pakistan to help combat terrorism. Pakistan says- it is hard- they would need to take a stand against other Muslim countries. USA pressures them. Pakistan says OK.. but it will cost a lot. USA eagerly agrees to keep paying for supposedly keeping things under control. Does it make sense for anyone to really do anything to control the outbursts? Why should they do anything other than keep a straight face and say they are doing their best. At the end of the day, both law-enforcers and the Taliban take a share of the US pay-off and US feels they are doing their share- they are, after all footing the bill.

And can the US simply bury its head in sand and hope everything will be fine - the storm blow over by the time they look up? Can the US face the generations to come and say they really understood the situation? It is not the US at fault either- with no real understanding of how things work in those parts of the world, they are simply at a loss. Not familiar with the traditions and the culture of the region- they are hoping the ones the have chosen to sleep with, will be faithful.

Am I accusing Pakistan? Heavens no! It is the birthplace of my ancestors I would never wish anything bad to happen to Pakistan or the people there. Ever. But I do not like lazy politics. I am against politicians who put their own interests ahead of other all the time.

Am I happy with the way Indian politicians are making this turn in to a communal fight? No. I am ashamed of the fact that Indian politicians have been actively fueling the fire- not letting the wounds heal. So easily forgetting the fact that it has always been the Kashmiris who made sure all the yatras (pilgrimages) went on smoothly for all these years.

Same story for Kashmir as far as the violence goes. The right to vote for their choice of whether they want to stay with India, or Pakistan or frankly be on their own, should not be mixed with this. That is a fundamental right that the people have and they should be given a choice to do that.

That said, all of Kashmir should be allowed to stay violence free and truly peaceful for say a period of 12 months and then let all of Kashmir vote. Independent or not, it should be the people's choice.

And the people need to understand that their vote should not be an emotional vote.They have to understand that their vote will affect the generations to come.



All I can say is-

"O saare jag ke rakhwaale,
Nirbal ko, Bal dene waale;
Balwaano ko, De de, gyan.

Allah tero naam,
Ishwar tero naam.
Sab ko sammati de Bhagwaan."

Not a perfect translation-

"O caretaker of the whole world,
The One who give strength to the weak;
Please give some wisdom to the strong.

Some call you Allah, While others call you Ishwar.
Please give everyone the ability to think and do good."

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Kashmir: Updates- as it happens

Let me first and foremost declare- I am not a born Kashmiri- Kashmir is a place where I spent some great times.

One of my last happy vacations with my family was in Kashmir.

One of the first crushes I had was on a Kashmiri guy.

Some of fondest childhood memories included some great Kashmiries- as teachers, as 'massi' (mother's sister) - I know this concept of 'massi' being someone other than mom's natural born sister is somewhat hard to understand.

Some of my friend in School were Government of India scholars from Kashmir.

Some of my current friends are from Kashmir.

I will, by-n-by, get in to the good times. Everyone needs to keep the good times in mind- it just helps keep things in perspective.

I lived through some of the nasty times Punjab went through. Had real close encounters - things I was told never to mention ever. I guess I was too young to understand but as I grew, it made me a bit more open to looking at the big picture and look at things from the flip side.

I was double-minded about letting some of these posts go live. Not all depict my point of view. I don't agree with all of them but then I thought- who am I to decide? What right do I have to keep information away from the world? I have my own somewhat strong opinions about Kashmir and the general unrest in that area. And I will get to those slowly but at present the focus is Kashmir.

Kashmir: Paradise lost?

It was around 10:30 in the morning, I had just started work with RockeTalk. I was going out for coffee with a friend. My phone beeped- not something it did often as RockeTalk was in its early stages and we had that occasional person who stumbled upon a blog Andy Abramson had written a few days ago. I casually looked at my phone, expecting to start talking in slow English to someone from Eastern Europe- who would want me to send a picture etc. but instead, there was no voice. I sent a quick ‘Hello, how are you?’ A text message came back. I asked ‘Where are you from?’ and a quick text came back- "From ISK. Do you know where that is?”

My mind was racing as I read the text- ISK…ISK.. yes I knew.. don’t know from where I made the connection- Independent State of Kashmir! And my excitement showed in my voice as I sent this message across. A very excited, OMG came from the other side, how did I know what he was talking about? After all I was from California. The guy had hoped to run in to a pretty blonde and here was talking to me.

Kashmir- wow- the true Paradise on Earth, I could not get over my own excitement to be connecting to this young man and we talked- we talked for 6-7 hours. We talked about everything- the current living conditions to the fact that he was Muslim and I was from a mixed heritage- Sikh and Hindu. And the fact that he was genuinely surprised to find someone sympathetic and willing to see the Kashmir situation from an insider’s point of view. He was surprised to find that I knew a lot about Kashmir. And then, we found ourselves talking every day. About what was actually going on in Kashmir, understanding the people’s point of view from an insider.

As luck would have it, I had spent the summer before talking to a friend from the Indian Army, who had just come home after serving in Kashmir was depressed and time and again told me that he had not joined the Army for this. He never imagined he would have to fight his own countrymen to stay alive. And then came this meeting with a group of officers who wanted us to run a help-line using RockeTalk, where the people who had gone through trauma – families of soldiers who have served in Kashmir.

Along this time, a realization dawned on me. I was using this technology, which was something so cool- something I was just about to understand the power of. As a kid, while reading Hardy Boys books, I was fascinated by this device that you needed to scan and set channels to catch what people were randomly saying or something that was specially directed to you- a HAM radio- that caught signals from throughout the world. This was exactly what I was doing- on a much simpler level.

I was getting the first hand views from people all over the world about what was going on in their neck of the woods without any filters. No media hype, no government filters.

And then yesterday something happened, something that rattled me. A RockeTalker sent out a video taken in Sopore and sent out real time for the world to see- a scene from the street. It was as if someone had smacked me in my face- I knew what the purpose of the video was, I knew I had to do something. But what? I could not see what I could do. ABC News already had a small coverage on it so it was not something I could just give to a station to air. But I knew I had to get it out there for the world to see. RockeTalk, was too small an audience for this. This was the people of Kashmir reaching out to the world.

I had to do something. So here goes- my first interaction with this stranger- an ID I had seen come online several times in two years– but an ID that never responded back whenever I tried to ping.


Kashmir me aag. 18 log mare gaye, 86 zakmi hogaye. Use me se sopore k 6 mare gaye..
(Fire in Kashmir. 18 people dead, 86 injured. 6 of the dead from Sopore...)




Me: Sopore? Him: Sopore kashmir ka ek khas shehar hai
(Sopore is a main town in Kashmir)
Me: maloom hai.
(I know)
Me: Suno. Kisi ka pata lagana ho to kaisai.. SMS to nahi chale ga..
(listen. If I need to inquire about someone, how... SMS will not work..)
Him: Nahi SMS nahi chale ga
( No it will not work)
Me: Mere dost hain waha
(My friends are there)
Him: Aap ke dost ya ha hai? Kon
(Your friends are here? Who)
Me: Kashmiri hain
(They are from Kashmir)

Him... went offline

About 8-9 hrs later......

Kashmir me azadi ki shama jal gaye, abi tak 143 zakmi hogaye aur 58 k lagbag mare gaye. Us me phr se sopore k 2 aur srinagar k 2 aur bandipora k 5 aur palhalen ka 1 mara gaya.
(Freedom's fire lite in Kashmir, as of now, 143 injured and 58 died. Out of these 2 from Sopore, 2 from Srinagar, 5 from Bandipora and 1 from Palhalen)



Me: Rukko. Suno. Tum abhi kashmir me ho?
(Wait. Listen. Are you right now in Kashmir?
Him:Haan me kashmir se hu. Aur kashmiri he hu. Me sopore se hu. Aur kuch?
(Yes i am in Kashmir. And I am from Kashmir. I am from Sopore. Anything else?)
Him: Aaj indian news kyu khamosh hai? Jo yaha par marte hai wo kya insaan nahi?
(Why is the Indian media quiet today? Are those who are dying here, not human?)
Me: Dekho, jo haalat hai unse to nipatna hi ho ga. Jo munasif samjho karo lekin apna khyaal rakhna. Bahut der se ye sab chal raha hai. Shayad waqt aa gaya hai. Parbar digar tumhe aur wahan sab ko salaamat rakhen. Itni durr se to dua hi kar sakti hoon. (See deal with the situation at hand. Do was is needed but we careful. This has been going on for too long. Maybe the time has come. May the All Mighty keep you and everyone there safe. I can't do much else sitting here other than prayer)
Him: Pehli bar kisi hindu ko aisa bolte huwe dekh raha hu.. Khuda aapko sab kuch dy jis ki kimi ho aapko. Meri duva Allah se hai.. ,
(First time heard a Hindu say such a thing. May Allah give you everything that is lacking in your life. That is my wish from Allah for you...)
Me: how old are you?
Him: 23 me chal raha hu
(23 I am going)
Me: Allah Haffiz. Apna khayal rakhna. Yaad rakhna tumhara pehla farz apne ghar ke taraf ka hai. mein ne dekha hai maa-baap pe kya guzarti hai. Jo bhi karte ho soch samajh kar karna. Haalat me garmi hai lekin jaan aakhir jaan hai. Khairiyat batate rehna
(Allah look over over. Take care of yourself. Remember, your first duty is to your family... I have seen what parents go through. Whatever you do, think it over first. The situation is bad but life is life. Keep me posted on your well being.)
Him:Khuda Hafiz Me: Khuda Hafiz. Khairiyat batatay rehna. Video, pictures meri dusri ID pe bejte rehna. Kuchh khaas to nahi kar sakti but waqt aa gaya hai ki jo bhi ban paye, karoon gi.
(Allah be with you. Keep me posted on your well being. keep sending me the real things that are going on- videos, pictures. I can't do much but I can try)
Him: Theek hai agar zindagi ne saath diya to send karta rahoon ga.
(OK will keep sending if I'm I alive)

On being me: Things I learnt from mom

Mom- a wonderful woman, full of life, a woman who worked hard all her life, who I never saw much of while growing up- a woman who shaped my life in ways I never realized.

Here goes:

1. Always believe the good in other people.
2. Treat others as human beings no matter what their race, color, religion, status or living conditions.
3. There is a Higher Power- call Him what you like. Say a little prayer- not particularly to any one ‘God’ but to the Power there.
4. Be kind to others.
5. Books are great teachers. It is Okay to get lost deep in a book and not look up till you are done.
6. Girls are no less than boys.
7. Keep a good sense of humor.
8. Women need to be strong.
9. It is OK to be affectionate. It is OK to feel hurt.
10. It is OK to fight- as long as you make up.
11. Always standby friends.
12. All kids have great potential.
13. Do not be superstitious.
14. Women can help other women.
15. It is OK not to be ambitious.
16. It is OK to be generous.

Mom never preached, always taught by example.

Good in other people: Well- she always found something that was good in everyone- no matter what. There was always a dish someone cooked well, a dress they looked great in, had a talent that only she could spot and point out. She made people feel at ease and good about themselves.

Treat others as humans- right from the rickshaw puller who got her home on true Indian summer afternoon- all sweaty and exhausted, to the poor man who came begging at the door. She never gave them extra money- but she always offered food and cold water. I do not recall anyone turning away from our door without a glass of water.

Ahh- her best gift- the belief in a Higher Power, a belief that encouraged me to see the good in all religion and respect them all. A belief that makes me feel humble whenever I see a church, mosque, gurudwara, synagogue or a temple.

Books- oh she just got this totally engrossed look on her face. She just laughed when I stayed up through the night as a teen, finishing Gone With the Wind in a less than two days! Later she told me she had done the same. She introduced me to some of the most sensitive writings – from the regular Western classics to the wonderful Indian and Urdu literature to the works of Pearl. S. Buck. She taught me that it was OK to go so deep in to the characters that you cry and laugh with them.

She taught me that it was OK to be so mad and then just catch the humor in the situation and laugh. Something that I thing I forgot to do along the way. I forgot to laugh at myself. I was much happier when I burst out laughing in the middle of an argument [:)]

Yes, women need to be strong- so what if her dad passed away when she was not even out of her teens leaving behind several younger siblings to fend for. Just took things in her hands to start earning and send money back home. So what if she lost her most loved child, her only son, in a freak accident? She did not give in and cry. Did she forget? No.

It is OK to love with all your heart without looking for returns.

For her it was natural to love all children. I mean all children- as her own. Did that make me jealous? You bet!

Be generous- give the best you have to others. Gifts need to be meaningful and not expensive. But don’t look at the cost if it is something that will truly make them smile.

Life in the USA: Unlock a phone?

First let me declare- I'm a very ordinary gal. I now consider myself enlightened after several years of being given no choice but to learn things I never dreamed about. Yes, I knew and somewhat had an idea about the BUZZ words and considered myself well read, kept up to speed on magazines, followed the tech regular world's tech gurus- Oprah Winfrey and when there was nothing better to do- Martha Stewart- the regular sources for where technology is headed for most folks in the USA. I kept track of what 'hot' gadget made it to Oprah's list. And then a friend requested that I look at this new thing he was working on. And why did he pick me? He had this twinkle in his eyes and a simple explanation- I was the only one in his circle of friends who was a 'regular' gal- had no clue what to do with a phone other other than make a call.

Hmmm... interesting I thought. And what exactly did he want me to do? Oh nothing much- just play around with a phone. Okkkkk.... simple enough I thought. So I agreed. I was asked what phone I had, why Sprint I answered. Yes, I had no clue that I needed to know anything beyond the fact that it was a cool red Sprint phone. Yes it was one of the latest- had browser capability- not that I knew how to or ever felt the need to go to the Internet using my phone. (Hey- I was one of the first customers TimeWarner broadband had when they were testing their broadband- so why would I ever want to do it on a phone?) I considered myself one of the early adopters of the cellphone. Owned one since 1996 (for emergency use only- now it is my primary number)

The two guys looked at me, smiled and said, "Perfect! Now check out this application and tell us how you like it.' The next thing I knew, I was given a shiny phone very unlike my Sprint one. Everything looked different. Hm.. I thought OK so this will take some getting used to. I later found out what I had in my hand was the then latest and greatest Nokia phone a N70!

What a change! The phone was great. Took good pictures, had bluetooth great recording, wonderful battery life. And I was getting these great messages from people all around the world- Canada, Turkey, Egypt, Spain, Russia, India, Pakistan! I made friends quickly and started talking to them, exchanging pictures - yes talking no more just text it was voice and oh so addicting. I gave my feedback on usage and usability but then they needed the phone back. Small company limited budget $300 phone a phone was a lot. I understood all that and very reluctantly gave the phone back.

The application did not work on my sprint phone (by now I knew my Sprint phone model - Sanyo 8300). Bummer I thought, I needed to upgrade my phone and go for the N70. Soon found out this was not as easy as it seemed. This phone was not sold in stores in the USA. I had to order it online. It would take 3 weeks to come in.

I had researched and found that the then Cingular would support the phone so I called them. Well- the guy listened to my excited story about the new phone and then he simply said- he was sorry- he had never come across anyone who needed to make a non-Cingular phone work. He would need to ask someone else to help me. And then I was politely told that they could not do it. And then I was told I would need to get it 'unlocked'.

'Unlocked'? I never thought a phone needed to be unlocked- why would it be locked in the first place? This was already making me a bit nervous but I thought OK, I guess I was feeling adventurous and called the Internet site where I ordered the phone from to check if the phone was unlocked. They said no.

And then the adventure started. The phone came in. What a beauty! Now if only I could get it to work. For that it needed to be unlocked.

So now I had a phone that was useless unless unlocked. I had found that my operator won't help me unlock my phone, but a number of services were available. There were thousands of websites that could provide the code I needed (for a fee or free), plus as with most things in this very connected Web world, there was help from users in dedicated forums, and many Asian phone stores that could help.

To make things worse, I was warned that the 'code' (trick for unlocking) may not work, and the wrong code used 5 times would force my phone to a hard lock. That in mind, I did what a regular American – scared of the cell phone- stuck in my situation would do..... I looked for a place that would provide this service for me with some guarantee. That is how I found UniquePhones http://www.uniquephones.com. For $9.99 they could provide me with the code and have my phone unlocked in about 5 minutes! One catch- I needed to give them a ‘IMEI’ number.

And what on Earth was that? It is a 15 digit number that could be found under the battery or I could simply get the number by punching in *#06# on my phone.

Well, finally I was told to go to a Cingular store and ask for a 'SIM card' for my phone. I could finally get the phone to work- including getting the Internet to work - my Settings (It requires a special configuration message from the carrier- I later found out I could do this easily from the Nokia website http://www.nokiaUSA.com It was really great when they provided this service directly, but now they simply direct people to another site Wireless Data Services http://nokiags.wdsglobal.com/advanced?SiteLanguageId=118

It was a long exercise to get my phone to work- but all so very worth it! Now started my journey into the Internet using my phone.

Things have come a long way since. I use some cool applications to stay in touch and some just for fun.